Engagement Pictures

Finally, finally, finally, our pictures are back and I've been allowed to show off some of them. Only some, because the really great ones have to be saved for showing off on the wedding day.

Wedding Updates

With everything gone on (work, school, and wedding planning) it's hard to find time to note all the little things going on right now, which makes me sad, because this time is such a whirlwind, and I want to be able to look back and remember it all. Luckily, even if I'm not writing it all down, I've at least got my camera handy almost all the time. And while Chris generally rolls his eyes any time I dash for the camera when either of us is doing anything wedding related, he'll appreciate it too someday. So here's what's been going on with us the last few weeks.

Chris bought all the fixin's for mixed drinks, in an attempt to find the perfect signature drink for the big day. I won't reveal it here, but it's yummy! We tried four or five different drinks (over different nights, btw) before settling on our signature drink.

We got all snazzy dressed up for our engagement pictures session with Rico and Rachel Castillero. We had a GREAT time with them, at our rustic barn location in Encinitas, but these are pictures we snapped of each other before we headed out.

Chris borrowed some lenses from work for us to use on our Jen/Justin/Zoey photoshoot. This is the first day we had the fish eye lens to pla

More playing with the new lenses: I think this time was with the 24mm, the lens I used for almost all my shots of Jen/Justin/Zoey.

Chris has been spray painting it up lately. His garage looks like a yellow and gray painted wedding shop. This is our pretty bird cage for cards!

We've been househunting too, obviously. On our way out to a place in Dehesa, Chris pulled off the side of the road to check out these for sale signs... for a neighborhood of gigantic houses, no less. (And of course I was ready with my camera!)

This was a good night. For our one year anniversary, we decided to wait until our 100 day countdown to go out and celebrate. We chose to go back to Forever Fondue, where we'd gone for our sixth month anniversary. We really loved it the first time around, that quiet atmosphere, the drawn out dinner, the fun of the whole experience. So we went back again to relax, discuss some more wedding ideas, and celebrate one and one hundred. And drink beer (him) and Tokyo Teas (me).

We've hit up the dollar store a few times for wedding deco: frames, thank you cards, table decorations, and, this time, bubbles. Chris had to make sure the bubbles worked before he was willing to plunk down $20 for them, though.

Disclaimer: This is not our child. (That would sure make for an interesting story though, wouldn't it?) This is me, Chris, and Chris' little cousin Bella at the family reunion. That girl is crazy. She goes around telling people that, I think because she's heard so many people say it about her.

Hot. Not much else to say.

Cute picture of us at the beach, during Jenna's "We're-finally-burning-that-awful-not-a-couch-bonfire." Au revoir, not-a-couch.

Here's a fun story: I went to the post office to get stamps for our Save the Dates (no abbreviations!). The lady asked me if I wanted any special stamps. I said, sure, if you have any cute flowers or something, if it's not too much trouble. Twenty minutes later, after searching through everyone else's work spaces and the back room for the perfect ring stamps, despite my insistence that it really wasn't that big of a deal, and after the manager said, "No trouble! I'll just open the vault for some more rings!" I finally walked away with these.

They are cute.

Sarah's new kitten! We baby-sat Nala for a couple hours while she drove down to pick her up. Just talked to Sarah tonight; apparently they're getting along well, though Sarah fears that Nala's easygoing attitude is keeping Sarah's negative reinforcement (aka a spray bottle squirt in the face for jumping on the table) from taking full effect.

And that's what's up! Hopefully this next week, since I'm off both work and school for a bit, I'll be able to keep up with what's going on around here. :)

Babies love the OSF...

I'm lucky and here's why:

I've got two and a half willing subjects to photograph every couple of months, when my need to photograph takes over my life and I find myself photographing my own shoes just to get pictures taken.

They are very cute willing subjects.

I'm also lucky because I've got this guy to tag team with now:

(He's so hot with a camera bag strung over his shoulder.)

Unfortunately, not all of my two and a half subjects were so willing on this particular day:

You may have noticed that in almost every picture, Zo is looking slightly off camera.

For instance, here:

And here:

And here's why:

I love that guy.

And Jen, Justin, and Zoey too! (Even if Zo loves Chris more than me!)


See Chris' pictures at his Flickr site. See the rest of mine at Shutterfly.

Waiting...

Chris and I went and looked at a place this evening.

It's awesome. I really like it.

It's even got those really nice, smooth, clean looking maple cabinets in the kitchen and all throughout the house.

I really like those really nice, smooth, clean looking maple cabinets.

I'm smitten.

Afterward, we drove around the neighborhood to see what was nearby. Found a Mexican food place. Figured we should make sure the place has good nearby rolled tacos.

It does.

We're putting in an offer tomorrow... please pray, or cross your fingers, or whatever you need to do for us!

Happy Wednesday!

Hello, blogger people who've managed to find their way back to the ol' blog, despite my serious lack of updating skillz lately! I just had the sudden urge to update. Anything. Just to update this thing. How's everyone doing? I'm feeling fabulous, mostly because I just made a wonderfully warm and cozy dinner of tuna melts and Campbells' Vegetable Beef soup (which really doesn't require making, I suppose, more than just heating), and the OSF has supplied me with a delicious margarita to complement.

Anyway, tonight is a very special night. Tonight... we address our Save the Dates.

(PS: Don't abbreviate Save the Dates. It comes out so wrong. Chris abbreviated it when emailing our wonderful production manager (aka save the date and invitation designer) Cody, and Cody emailed back, "You're giving me what?!?!")

(PPS: Yes, I just used parenthesis inside parenthesis. When you're an English major, you're allowed to manipulate the rules of grammar.)

So we're chilling here, eating dinner, sipping our margaritas (or White Russians, if you're the OSFs, and watching the previews before The Blind Side starts. Which I hear is a fabulous movie. We saw it on a preview for our last week Netflix rental and bumped it to the top of our list immediately. Along with The Time Traveler's Wife and the Book of Eli. Well, I don't care so much about the latter but Chris does, and the preview was there, so I guess that's what we'll be watching next weekend, probably as we go through the mass amounts of wedding stuff we realize we have yet to do.

So that's my quick update for Wednesday. And now I must go, because the bartender bonus effect is setting in, and if you're not Ryan you won't know what that means, but if you are Ryan you'll be sitting at your laptop smirking right about now.

(PPS: Hi, Ryan.)