25 day countdown

At 25 days left (25!), here's how our evenings normally look:

He + computer ( + beer) = last minute wedding design.

She + computer ( + extra large coke) = math, math, and more math studying.


25 days!

"Napoleon goes over plans for world domination"

Alternate title: Chris pours over plans for wedding domination, 2010.

Photo Booth

Chris and I spent a lot of time in the garage yesterday, going through all our accumulated wedding stuff. The month countdown has come, and we're making our lists and checking them twice. Guess what? We're almost there. Pretty close anyway. And the weekend was very productive getting some forgotten or last minute items. We sorted things into categories (i.e., cake table, guest book table, candy bar, photo booth...), and played with some of the new items...

28 days to go!!!

Bridal Shower Memories

Things I want to remember from my bridal shower:

The decorations and food: it was exactly how I would have done it for any of my friends. Beautiful cupcakes on the cupcake tier, fresh fruit, a pretty blue cake holder (holding more cupcakes!), Chinese lanterns hung in the tree outside, and tissue paper pom-poms! It was a dream how perfect it was.

My beautiful bridesmaids who put so much time and effort into making the day so special. Here's Jenna with the 'who knows Jordan best?' trivia game.

Being met at the door with a veil that my sister fixed into my hair. I wore it for the entire party and felt like a real bride!

Did I mention the Chinese lanterns?

The fact that the girls planned ahead to have two people assigned to take pictures. This, above all, might have meant the most to me, because you all know I loooooovve pictures, and I take my camera everywhere, and I love documenting life through a Canon lens. Thank you Brittany and Brittany for your beautiful works of art!

The first of many, many yellow things that will go in our house. 

Getting to see Sarah and Adam's house for the first time. It's a pretty incredible place out in Jamul. Very country and cute and fanciful. Loved it.

Um, what is it with baby eyelashes these days? All the kids have amazing eyes!

I want to remember cute and innovative packaging, especially ones that were color coordinated. :)

When I put this "Queen of Everything" apron on our registry, I knew someone would get it for my shower. Thanks, Becky! I will wear this often when I cook for my handsome husband.

My very special friend Jenafer, who has been such a blessing to me over the years. She's got mad skillz when it comes to making wrapping paper bouquets to use at the rehearsal. 

My three current roommates, beautiful girls who are always around to watch late night Friends episodes, talk about getting married, or be sad with about leaving each other in our last week together.

Don't want to forget Sarah, who gave an amazing little devotional to the girls about being the wife you want to be. Really spoke to my heart about the kind of wife and person I want to be in the years to come.

Did I mention the tissue pom-pons that they stayed up late the night before making?

My baby sister, whose grown up all of the sudden, and attending bridal showers and being in weddings. She did a great job coming out of her shell (I'm sure with a little push from Jenna and a giant push from Sonia) and stepping up to help out the maids of honor.... even to the point of being the underwear model girl!

My new family, and how amazing they've been to me during this time. Chris' parents and Sarah have embraced me into their family in a way that seriously makes me want to cry when I think about it. I always wanted a great big family!

Don't want to forget meeting baby Hannah for the first time. Still can't believe I hadn't seen one of my closest friend's first child until she was able to hold her head up on her own and everything. Another baby with beautiful eyes.

Oh! And gerber daisies in vases and yellow pails!

My two beautiful maids of honor. LOVE these girls. Never want to forget the fun we've had together, the amazing memories over the years, and how great they've been during the whole engagement thing. Thanks, beautiful friends!

It was such a special day. I love all my friends and family who came out to celebrate with me. Thank you for all the wonderful life things you gave to start Chris and me out on our journey together, but mostly the support you've all shown is what really means the world to us. :) Between my bridal shower and later on Chris' man bath (that's a story for a later time), we feel so loved by you all.

Packing it up.

Due to the late arrival of summer this year, and the atrociously hot temperature in our townhouse these days, the only time I can pack without wanting to to die is times like this. Three a.m. Three a.m. has found me on the last few nights boxing up scrapbooks, clothes, and old memories. Seriously, I have lots of old memories. Like, bins of old memories. They range from photo albums to old camp staff notebooks to boxes of pictures to stuffed happy birthday bears. I am amazed at how much of my "stuff" is in the form of memories.

(I'm also amazed at how much underwear I have- certainly more than one person needs, and this is not helped by last week's bridal shower.)


(Can I talk about underwear on here? Will you guys stop reading if I do?)


(Please don't stop reading. I'll go back to talking about normal things here.)

So I've been sifting through my memories. And boxing up my present. And the future? It's kind of up in the air right now. Besides the obvious changes, that is. I'm marrying an amazing man. I get to spend the rest of my life with him. But where we'll spend our first year? What our house will look like? When we get to settle into our own space? That's all TBD. For now, we just know we'll make do at the condo, most of our things packed away in the garage for the real move. Whenever and wherever that will be.

We are at exactly 30 days now, and it's still so hard to believe that in just 30 days, everything will change. As I sit here on my bed, looking around at my half naked room, it's hard to imagine that in 30 days I won't be roommates with Jenna, Brittany, and Jen. I won't be waiting for Jenna to finish up in the bathroom at night so I can go in and brush my teeth. I won't stay up late watching Friends episodes with Jen. And I've seen so much of Brittany these past few years, what with living and working together, but 30 days from now I'll be gone and she'll have started her new job.

It's all so weird.

Also, weird? I get to live with a boy.... weird.

I now dream in numbers.

You know how bilingual people are often asked, "What language do you dream in? English or Spanish? French or Italian? Tagalog or ASL?"

Well, I have a new language to dream in: Numbers.

Apparently I have done so much studying for the math CSET recently, that the numbers have seeped into my head and begun setting up camp to come out in my subconscious. While my brain should be resting.

The night before last I had a dream that I was calculating direct and inverse variations. There was nothing else in my dream but me + math. And I was super intent on these problems. It was imperative I finish these problems, fast, or someone was going to die or something. To my surprise, I suddenly found myself awake, sitting up in bed, still fervently trying to divide out 7 for the constant of variation, k. After a couple disorienting moments I realized 1) I was in bed, and 2) I did not have to finish the math problem. Everything would be okay, even if I didn't solve for k at this particular moment.

It was highly amusing.

The moral of the story is this: The CSET is taking over my life.

(In fact, I've got my headphones on right now while Jeeves whispers sweet nothings of matrices in my ear.)

My first ever bridal shower

Sunday was my birthday! And as is tradition at the Woodman classroom, we had a celebration!

But not just any ol' birthday celebration, mind you. I was surprised with a birthday/bridal shower luncheon on Monday!

My co-workers seriously rock. No wonder Woodman is the most coveted classroom.

So I headed into the kitchen around 12:15, prepared for my birthday lunch, as as I rounded the corner I saw... (da, da, da!)... a Victoria's Secret bag. And I was all, "wha?" and Brittany was all, "welcome to your birthday bridal shower!" And I was all, "the guys are leaving, right? Right?"

Nope. The guys stayed.

We had a big ol' potluck with lumpia, fried chicken, couscous, a fruit bowl, and two cakes... one of which was my favorite Hans & Harry cake.

Brittany even facilitated bridal shower games to play! She passed out clothespins to play the "you may not say the words bride, groom, wedding, dress, or Chris" game. I lost real fast on that one, using Chris' name of course. But Dave ended up winning his very first bridal shower game from it.

We also did the "how much do all these things cost?" with a bag of cleaning supplies... I was exactly $1 off that game, P.S., with a guess of $16.76. Darn that Rachel girl for taking that prize from me.

(But it's okay: I got to keep all the stuff in the bag. Chris and I will have a clean house!)

Co-workers Lora Lae and Baby Rachel (Woodman inside joke):

Our resident math wiz, Domingo, hanging loose at the shower, and sporting his clothespin:

Michelle, who is my specific teacher, and who is amazing!

Me opening up various presents and cards. I got a birthday card signed by the students and a special card delivered by two of my favorites, plus the Woodman staff card. I was a little, ahem, wary of opening my Victoria's Secret bag in front of the guys, but Michelle assured me it was fine. In it was a gift card... thank goodness. ;)

I also got something from our registry: our two glass mixing cups. Our kitchen is well on its way. And, my fellow scrapbooking co-worker Lora Lae also gave me an adorable scrapbook for wedding pictures, in our specific wedding colors! Loved it!

But by far, the best picture of the day goes to Baby Rach:

Thank you, Woodman friends! I love working with you all and couldn't ask for a better place to spend the majority of my day!