We're Gettin' Hitched!

On June 28, 2009 (it was a Sunday,) we had been finishing up putting on the last coat of paint in the spare bedroom. We had ran some errands, ate a dinner of 2-day old leftovers, and headed out for a walk with our two dogs, Jake and Jozie. It was a beautiful evening; no wind and not too hot. I had made a comment how it was a beautiful night, and Alex just smiled and kept on walking. He was being really quiet as we walked, holding hands and trying to keep up with the dogs.

About midway through the walk, Alex had mentioned how walking the dogs together is one of his favorite "mini-dates." Again, we kept right on walking, trying to keep up with the dogs. He had been looking around a lot it seemed like, and in the back my devious little mind, I was thinking "maybe he's looking for a place to propose?" But then the realistic side of my brain kicked in and said, "Nah, get that out of your head!" (Later, I found out that he actually was planning on proposing on our walk, but didn't find a "special" place to do it!)

So we finished up our walk and I headed into the spare bedroom to shut off the lights and close the window as we were getting ready for bed. Alex came in the room and I told him how the walls were looking really good and that it was finally looking like a real room again. He agreed, and came over to give me a hug. At that point he started saying how this was our first project together and how he wanted there to many more. I was completely naive, and replied "yeah, me too." After those words, I really have no idea anything he said. Next thing I knew, he was down on one knee, in the middle of the room with the paint cans and drop cloths, asking me to marry him! After I realized that this was for real and he really wasn't kidding, I finally said "yes!" He put the ring on my finger and I was incessantly crying, hugging and kissing him!! Finally after about 10 minutes of this, I looked down and actually saw this ring on my finger:



Then, I looked at Alex and said, "what do we do now?!" He said "we can call people tomorrow, I'm tired!" I said "absolutely not," and proceded to call/text everyone I knew!

We have set the date for July 10, 2010 at the First United Methodist Church in McPherson, KS. Please stay tuned as more of our wedding plans come together.

About the ring:
We had looked at rings back in March at a couple different "chain" jewelry stores around Kansas City. I found a couple I liked, but Alex said he wanted mine to be one-of-a-kind and have it made. I said whatever. We also decided that we would like to buy from somewhere local, instead of one of the chain stores so that we were getting the best bang for our buck, as well as better quality. So this ring was made by Scott's Diamond Design in Overland Park, KS and is a combination of all the rings that I picked out. It is just gorgeous! And I must say, it looks much better on my hand, but darnit, it is absolutely impossible to take a decent picture of it! So there it is. Lovely, isn't it?

Progress...

After a big fight about primer and one coat of paint later, here we are....

Minus the trim...

And window trim...

One more coat to go, plus trim...plus the closet...and we'll be done. And one wall that will just be trim color. THEN we'll be done. Whew.

Ready to Paint!

We finally got all the wallpaper and such stripped off the walls. Much longer task than we had anticipated. So here are the bare walls, finally ready to paint. Wish me luck.

What Did I Get Myself Into!

Alex and I (well, more just me I guess) have decided to finally start painting. One room at a time, of course. It all started when Alex was going to put up some plywood in the closet, and I was needing to prime and paint it. Well, this ignited my "desire" to paint the whole room. So this, my friends is what I have encountered so far.


After an afternoon at Wal Mart and Home Depot, I was then ready to start my project. After much debate as to what was really lying beneath the paint, I started to scrape. And this my friends, is what I found:It appears that there was a layer of orange paint, then a layer of pink paint, then a layer of textured wallpaper, then this dainty floral design that I think is just a covering for the drywall. Basically, there's lots of layers and what's at the bottom is really old.

This is my closet. Tiny, I know. But after a previous attempt to install a closet organizer, it was time to start over and put in something simple and efficient. To start, Alex installed this plywood in the back of the closet to thicken up the wall a little bit. No sense in installing another gadget and have screws sticking out the other side. So the next step is to prime and paint, then in goes the rods.


This my friends is the bottom layer on the walls. It is a thin paper that has been put over the dry wall. Not really wallpaper, just a thin paper with a design. I bet it was beautiful back in the day.And here's the progress. Half orange, half flowery. This will be pretty when I'm done with it.


So there ya go, my first home-remodeling project. Being done all by myself. We'll see how this turns out!

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin...Keep Those Doggies Rollin...

Today Alex and I got up and somehow had the motivation to clean the garage. Well, sorta. Let's rewind a bit, shall we? Some of you may not know this, (or maybe all of you do) but I moved in with Alex at the beginning of March. I have always been a believer in not living together until you're married. The whole "starting your life together begins when you're married" has always been something that I supported whole-heartedly. But when Alex bought his house back in August of '08 about 7 miles from my apartment complete with a fenced in back yard for the dogs, our commute to see each other turned into me commuting daily to his house. My apartment became chopped liver. There was no need for Alex to come over, especially with the dogs. So I finally made the decision that it was no longer economically correct for me to continue throwing away money on my unused (but cute) apartment.

Alex and I had had many discussions on this matter, as well as what our future was looking like. After deep consideration and in depth talks together, I decided that it might work out ok. So I moved in. Which brings us to the present...

Since I moved in in March, the garage has been stuffed full with boxes and furniture, due to the fact that apparently a two bedroom house is a lot smaller when there are two packrats living in it. Alex and I together have so much stuff. So today, with it being slightly breezy but still decently warm, we made the effort to haul a lot of the boxes up into the attic, which is basically the only storage area we have. I still ask myself why it is necessary to keep all this stuff, but somehow I just can't part ways with "it."

Then Alex's dad, Bags, came up from McPherson. He got here about 12:45 and he and Alex headed out to the racetrack at about 1:30. Alex got tickets from work for the Indy car race and the Truck Series race, so Bags and him are going to the truck series today, and A and I will go to the Indy Car race tomorrow. Jana, Alex's mom, will be here this afternoon helping a friend with a moving situation, then will head this way to spend the evening and night. So all in all it should be a nice weekend to spend with "the folks." Mom, maybe you and Dad could come up for a night sometime?

We have been talking about doing some work on the house for a long time, but have never had the money, time, or energy to do it. Plus, I told A that I don't want to do anything too major until we are officially a married couple. (I gotta draw the line somewhere ya know.) So we thought we might do some smaller projects that would spiff up the house enough so that maybe, you know, we might be able to have some friends over and it would look presentable! Our first project, we thought, that would improve the house's appearance ten-fold, turns out might not be as easy as we thought. The main family room and both bedrooms both are in desperate need of some new paint jobs. But as we found out just a couple days ago, we think the walls are just a dry wall with wall paper, and then painted over. So it's looking like it might be a better (and smarter) idea just to knock the walls out and "re-do" them. New drywall, better insulation, maybe wire in some lights in the ceiling. Fairly cheap to do, just takes the labor. Alex's friend Jon did this to his entire basement all on his own in a matter of about a week, so Jon thought maybe with the two of them together, they could knock this whole room out and be done with it in a 3-4 day timeframe. I say fine, if they hop on it and just get it done. This whole home-repair thing really stresses me out, so whatever they can do in as short of a time frame as possible would be good.

Better get going. Gotta get to the gym and run a few errands before Jana arrives. Thanks everyone for reading, and for being the supportive family (and friends) that you are!

Couple of Ski Pics

Just a few pictures from Colorado. More to come!

I Am Still Alive!

Many of you have been wondering where I've been. Well here I am! Many things have been happening, but none too exciting.

We did, although, go on vacation, so I suppose that is exciting! Alex and I went with his parents and cousins to Colorado for the yearly ski outing. We went March 5-10, stayed at A's grandpa's condominium in Frisco, Co. They have a timeshare out there that they have access to about 4 times a year, usually once around that time. We arrived late Thursday night; Alex, Bags (dad) and I. We took Friday to acclimate to the altitude and did things like grocery shop, relax and snag a few sale deals at the ski shop. (Brand new Columbia ski pants on sale for like $60! What a steal! Oh, and Uggs for $110 instead of $180? Uh, where do I sign?)

Jana (Alex's mom,) Brad and Candra (Alex's cousins) arrived late Friday night with the intention to get up ski with us on Saturday. Well, Saturday turned into Jana, Brad and Candra shopping, and Bags sick in bed. Alex and I skied by ourselves at Copper Mountain and had a blast. Little frustrating to re-orient to skis again, but it was good. Sunday we all skied Copper again (except Bags, poor thing was in bed the WHOLE weekend!) Needless to say Monday rolled around and I was either A) sick or B) completely worn out because I couldn't bring my body to ski...too many aches and pains. They ended up only skiing til about 1 or so, the weather was getting a little nasty and they were tired. We had a great! steak dinner that night and proceeded to head home Tuesday morning after a quaint breakfast at the bakery down the road.

We got back to McPherson I think about 5 or so, and Alex had to work the next day, so we trucked it on back to Kansas City. Very long drive to say the least! My body was screaming for rest and Alex was screaming for another day off. The next day I wore myself out even more getting everything back in living order. I then worked three days in a row, had one day off, then was back on again. As predicted, my poor self was of course sick, again. Sinus infection and bronchitis, I'm sure. This continued on until about last Thursday when Alex finally said to me, "Babe, you sound terrible." And when Alex says that, you know you're really sick! That's when I broke down in tears and finally got an antibiotic, just to get me through.

This bring us up to the present. Still taking antibiotics, still working at the hospital (one more day this week) and still sniffling on occasion. But by-God, my vacation was fun! haha Don't have any pictures, really, to share but Candra is sending me some that she took. So I will post those as soon as I get a hold of them.

No other news, really, to report. Alex and I just live our lives one day at a time and pray that God is leading us in the right direction!

Hope everyone is well. Thanks for reading!