Nala

Yesterday John and I celebrated our third anniversary together. It's hard to believe that three years have gone by since we started dating. Life seemed so carefree three years ago - he had just returned from his deployment to Afghanistan and was not working, I was still working for Disney and in school, we both lived at home and had virtually no bills.

One year later he was working as an independent contractor for Fed Ex and I was just starting my new job with a construction company and we had a nice little routine of spending our weekends together. Our first year also brought us Milo who quickly stole our hearts and became our gentle giant.


Our second year started off with an engagement ring and our first apartment. I was finishing up school and John was working as hard as ever with his route. It was an adjustment to live together but it was an exciting time to be thinking about our future together and booking our wedding. This year also brought us our spunky little Marley who continues to melt our hearts everyday.


This year did not bring any major milestones. Not much has changed in our lives; we still work at the same jobs and we still have too many bills to pay each month. John likes to spend his free time with his new X Box while I like to experiment in my new (and bigger!) kitchen. We don't have a lot of extra money since we are planning our wedding that is less than ten months away (!!!) so John decided we should spend our anniversary wisely. Instead of fancy gifts and an expensive dinner, we paid a little donation to the Connecticut Humane Society and brought home this beautiful little girl:


I swear it wasn't even my idea to get another cat - John was slow at work one day and stopped into a humane society and saw how many little kitties were without homes and being the softie that he is, he came home and told me that we should get another one for our anniversary. We were both a little hesitant at first. We didn't want to disrupt Milo and Marley who got along so well - Milo was John's baby and Marley was mine. What would a third cat bring to the table? We went to one shelter and no one really stood out to us. (Of course, in a perfect world I would just love to give all of the homless kitties homes). We didn't want just anyone, we wanted someone who would complement our boys (and I secretly wanted someone who would cuddle with me). We left the first shelter convinced that getting another cat just wasn't for us. As we continued on with our day I remembered that there is another shelter near the curtain store where we were headed. We stopped in there not expecting to find anything as it is much smaller than the other shelter. We got to the last row of kitties and John spotted her. She was in a separate room because she had a cold and she was also recovering from hernia surgery. We instantly fell in love and asked one of the workers how we would go about adopting her. Less than an hour later and we were in the car heading home. Needless to say, we did not get curtains that day!

She is such a love. She sleeps in between us every night and she loves to curl up on my chest if I'm laying on the couch. She has a ferocious appetite - we think her previous owner failed to feed her enough everyday because she is VERY small. She wants her brothers to play with her but they are taking their sweet time getting used to her. I think with time they are coming around - Marley already plays with her once in a while and today I even caught him sleeping near her on our bed. Milo is his laid back self as always, observing from a distance and keeping an eye on things.

I can't think of a better anniversary gift.

home, sweet home

Nothing compares to walking up the sidewalk and onto our front porch, opening the front door, and walking into the house. It sure beats parking in a parking lot, walking into the lobby, up the stairs, into the wide, dark hallway, and opening the heavy industrial door into our old apartment. It's one of many reasons why I am so much happier here.

When you walk up the stairs, you are greeted by a fabulous whiteboard that calls to you - what silly phrase can you write today?



At the top of the stairs, you'll see our proud little shelf that displays the pride we feel for our country.



Our adorable dining room can fit more than two people like the last one, so we were able to put the leaf into the table to make it bigger. I can also fit some of my nicer things into the built in hutch that I LOVE.



Past the dining room is the kitchen, complete with it's old cabinets and porcelain sink. I love all the character that it has, even if the cabinets are so old that the doors don't always shut.





Next comes the Man Cave, decorated with all of John's Army memorabilia and awards. We bought a futon so people have a place to sleep if they stay overnight, and John covered it with a blanket that he got while he was deployed in Afghanistan.



Finally, we have the living room. The bay window is what sold me on this apartment - not to mention how spacious and bright it is compared to our last living room. Two big closets add a lot of much needed storage.



I know of a couple boys who really love the windows...




There are no pictures of the bedroom because it's so boring. I have nothing on the walls yet (there is a LOT of wall space) except for this:



I think that is going to hold very true here.

busy, busy, busy

We've been living in our new place for a little over a week now and I think it's safe to say WE LOVE IT. I haven't gotten around to taking photos of it yet but I'm going to try to do that this week. We've been really busy since the move because John's best friend is home from Afghanistan on his two week leave so of course we have been spending all of our free time entertaining him and a couple other friends. Oh, and watching Milo and Marley learn how to navigate those big, scary things called stairs.

We had a great 4th of July filled with bonfires, pool volleyball games, s'mores, jello shots, and of course, fireworks. The weather was perfect - in the 80's and sunny all weekend long. Today is another story - it's going to be 102 degrees with humidity. In Connecticut. We haven't had temps this high in four years. So of course, I am all worried about John being out working in this heat - mostly because he got SO sunburned during our volleyball game yesterday.

I have also been assigned my wedding planner - yay! I'm excited to finally start planning out some details of our day, but it will probably have to wait at least a couple weeks so we can get settled here. Oh, and we scored AWESOME prices on our flights to Florida and back - we got both of our round trip, non stop tickets for a total of $378.00! How amazing is that?! We were shocked and so excited to get that out of the way.

365 days

My little man, Marley, turns one year old today!

We actually know Marley's real birthday since we bought him from a pet store, unlike Milo who was rescued at 4 weeks old from mean people who were going to throw him out on the street - we just picked a random day during the week he was born to call his 'birthday.'

I cannot believe he is a year old already. It seems like it was yesterday that we stopped by the pet store on our way to Radioshack to buy John a new cell phone charger. It was impossible to resist his adorable face looking at us through the window. It took a little convincing to get John to let me take him into one of those cubicles to play with him - and even MORE convincing to let me take him home. (Actually, it was more like begging and pleading, but hey, whatever works!)



Here we are, ten months later, and Marley has become one of the family. He and Milo love each other to pieces - we find them snuggled up together on our bed or on the couch, and Milo loves to give his brother kisses. Marley is definitely a bit friskier than Milo was and he LOVES to scratch up anything he can get his little paws on. I cannot imagine life without him and even though I get made fun of A LOT for being a cat lady, I think he is one of the best decisions we have ever made. DEFINITELY worth the $200.00 that he cost us :-) Happy 1st Birthday my little man, your Momma loves you SO much!

changes

We are moving. In 5 days. My apartment is in a state of disaster - boxes everywhere! I went to pour a bowl of cereal today and realized I have no bowls left. Milo and Marley are loving it - boxes to climb on or climb in.

I can't wait to post pictures of our new place, it is adorable. It's the second floor of an old house built in 1889. It's got bay windows, built in bookshelves, a corner hutch in the dining room, and a giant whiteboard wall in the stairway (John is particularly excited about that).

Let me just say - I do not want to move again until we buy a house. Hopefully we won't have to...I hate the process of moving.

it's real

On Thursday, my wedding consulant faxed me our Letter of Agreement (aka, our contract with Disney). I have been waiting for this for months - this means we are officially getting married in Disney! (Not that there was any question before...it's just all official now and our guests can start planning their trips).

On Monday May 23, 2011, at 12:00 in the afternoon, I will walk down the aisle of Disney's beautiful Wedding Pavilion to become Mrs. F---, to marry my best friend in the entire world. It is crazy that it is set in stone now - deposit will be sent tomorrow, wedding planner will be assigned in the next couple weeks, and OH MY GOSH I'M GETTING MARRIED! When we got engaged almost a year ago, May/June of 2011 seemed so far away. Now we are 351 days away from the start of our happily ever after and I could not be more excited!

I feel like there are so many things I should be thinking about. We now have all of the major things checked off our list: venue, photographer, videographer, hair & makeup artist, the wedding dress!, and bridesmaid dresses. Oh, and my awesome newsletter went out to all of our guests on Saturday! (If you'd like to see the PDF version let me know - I can email it to you!). In the next few weeks I am hoping to get John to go to Men's Warehouse with me to look at different suits and get prices for renting/buying them. I'd also like to go to a craft store that is about 30 minutes away to look at some silk flowers so I can decide if we'll be making bridesmaid bouquets or if we will use live flowers through Disney Floral.

I am so excited for this coming year. It is a bit surreal that we are getting married in less than a year - holy cow! This time next year I will be a Mrs.

graduated

Yesterday marked the END of my undergrad career! Technically it really ended in December, but my school doesn't have December graduations anymore so I had to wait until May to actually graduate. I had an award ceremony to go to on May 13th because I graduated Cum Laude (like 0.05 points away from Magna Cum Laude, I was so mad!), and then the ceremony for the 1400 graduates was yesterday at the XL Center in Hartford. It was LONG. I was disappointed with the commencement speaker (one of CCSU's History professor) - she didn't really say anything that stuck with me. The Class of 2010 President spoke and it was kind of corny. I almost wasn't going to go because I didn't know anyone since I commuted for 4 years, but now I am glad I went. It took FOREVER to call everyone's name, but it was worth it to actually feel like I graduated. I'm glad that 1,000 students chose not to walk because that would have made it even longer.





Afterward, I tried to find John and my parents but there were SO many people that it took 30 minutes to find them! It was insane. The XL center was packed - there were more people at graduation than there are at the hockey games we go to! It was crazy. We went back to my parent's house after because Erin's senior prom was held last night also! In typical fashion, we took 648 photos to commemorate the day. ; )










Didn't Erin look STUNNING??