Ultimate Blog Party Post

I want to say HELLO to all my new friends stopping by from the Ultimate Blog Party. I'm a new comer to the Ultimate Blog Party and blogging in general but I love the idea of it. It's a great way for bloggers from all walks of life to come together. I'm excited about meeting new people and learning new things.

If you don't know what I'm talking about check it out {here}

So my party post is supposed to talk a little about me so here goes my name is Kari (when my (soon-to-be) husband posts he uses KB that stand for Karebear and it means me!) and I'm in love with Morgan (a.k.a Mojo). We're getting married in 6 weeks and are so excited about being newlyweds and starting our lives together. We get to spend our first year in a tiny 700 sq ft apartment in married student housing. It's small but we're excited to have a home and I'm excited to decorate it and make it ours. 

Our blog is about life in general. We talk about work, wedding plans, our upcoming marriage, and anything else that comes to our minds. Our blog is different because Mojo and I post together. We love to share things and while I'm the more serious blogger, Mojo is great at writing posts as well. I think it's a great way to get a man and a women's perspectives on things. We always put our names at the end of each of our posts so you can tell who's posting.

A little more about us-Mojo and I both have one year of our undergrads left. I'm majoring in History and Mojo is working towards a Bachelor's in Computer Science. We hope to be graduating in the Spring of 2012 and we're not really sure where we're going to go from there. We're hoping Mojo will get a job outside of Utah. We love the idea of living outside the state and growing together as a couple.

We don't have any kids and we're not planning on having any 5-6 years. We believe it's extremely important to have our time together. We want to have the opportunity to establish a great relationship between us.

Thanks so much for stopping by Ultimate Bloggers. Be sure to take a moment and look around. We'll be hosting our FIRST giveaway when we reach 25 followers so if you like what you see be sure to follow our blog and we'll enter you into our drawing. I'm also participating in UBP's giveaway I recently found a love for Victoria Secret's new bra....it's amazing! Because of that I donated a $25 gift certificate to UBP's giveaway be sure to add it to your wishlist!


My UBP giveaway wishlist
-3 night stay in a two bedroom two bath condominium on the beach
-$100 american express gift card
-Amazon gift cards
-Blog designs
There are SO many fabulous prizes that it's hard to pick ones out. Thanks again for stopping by!

Our FIRST giveaway!

First off I want to welcome all the bloggers that might stop by in the next couple days from the Ultimate Blog Party. Our Ultimate Party Post can be found {here}. It's also one of our pages at the top of our blog. Thanks so much for taking the time to check out our blog. A few days ago I mentioned that Mojo and I would be doing our FIRST blog giveaway. We (meaning I) are really excited about it. We love the idea of giving back to our readers.

So the requirements are-
The giveaway will happen when we reach 25 followers (at the moment we're at 17)
The only real requirement is that you be a follower. Mojo is making a randomized program for me so I'll just plug everyone's google account into it and I'll announce on the blog who the lucky winner is. Just be sure to email me within 48 hours and the prize will be one it's way to your house.

So for the prize....

I'm still pretty new to the blogging world so I don't really know the rules for giveaways. But this one is coming from my sister's craft store. She owns a craft store named Rosewood Creations. All of the stuff she makes is absolutely adorable. I have quite a few things from her store around my house. But for the purpose of this giveaway I'll be giving away one of her magnet boards. They're adorable! Perfect for a little girl/teenagers room or for your kitchen. The one I'll be giving away looks like this...

Isn't this adorable? She makes all different colors and lots of other things such as headbands, picture frames, wooden sayings. She's working on a website for her crafts right now and as soon as she gets it up and running I'll be sure to let you all know. So just remember as soon as we hit 25 followers we'll enter every member of the blog into the drawing and the lucky winner will have 48 hours to respond. 

Bridal Showers and Eyebrows

Wow-I need to do a better job of coming up with blog post names. This one is pretty pathetic. But it does have to do with what I’m going to talk about today.

So I had my first (of many) bridal shower last night. This was the family one with my family and Mojo’s family. I missed SITS girls #commenthour because of it which I was pretty sad about. But the shower actually went really well. I was nervous all yesterday about it because I’m not a fan of having all the attention on me. My family is BIG and LOUD and I’m the quiet one. I’ll say things when I feel like saying something but when you grow up being the 6^th of 7 kids your learn really fast that the only way your going to be heard is by yelling, and I’m not a big fan of yelling. So I was nervous about how things were going to go when everybody was focused on me.

As usual my fears were for nothing-it went great and was a total success. My sister is a pampered chef consultant and I’m registered through pampered chef* so this was a pampered chef party/shower. It was fun because she showed all the cool things I registered for and it was fun to be able to use them and know weather I liked them or not before I bought them. I grew up with my mom using pampered chef so I’m pretty familiar with it but there are some new things in their spring line that are amazing! Check out http://www.pamperedchef.com/ for more details about pampered chef and their products.

One part of the night was really fun-we played the usual bridal game where the groom is asked a bunch of questions beforehand and then the bride has to answer what she thinks the groom said, for every wrong answer the bride has to put a piece of gum in her mouth. Luckily I knew most of the answers but I still got a pretty big wad. The best part was when one of the questions was what Mojo’s favorite body part of mine was. I immediately said butt (because it’s true) but little did I know they had told him to keep it G rated. I don’t think butt is that bad but I’m sure my 91 yr old Grandma (who was there) would disagree.

Another fun thing my sister’s did for me was to make us a calendar for our first year. We make one at every shower we have for the girls of our family. I love it because each person at the shower made a scrapbook page for one month of the year and then their stapled into a calendar. So throughout the year I get to write fun things that happened in our first year and put pictures of us up from that month. I got to do the scrapbook page for May because that’s our wedding day month. It’s really adorable and I love that our family members were able to do that-they even signed the page they did so we will forever know who did that page. To give you a better idea I took a bunch of pictures on of the calendar on the coffee table and make a very cheesy little collage an picasa.

These are just a few of the months but they all turned out so adorable. I highly recommend this to anyone to any kind of celebration bridal showers, baby showers, graduation, birthday, etc. It's a great and easy way for the person you give it to to keep track of everything they do. I am so excited to use mine and to look back on our first year of marriage in 10 years.

So the shower went great and I was really happy with it and with getting lots of pampered chef gifts! Mojo’s family also went in on my 75 piece flatware set from Bed Bath & Beyond-yay!

So I recently found this AMAZING waxing lady right here in Salt Lake. She seriously is fabulous. I love my eyebrows-their really dark and really think and that’s what I love about them the problem is when I’ve got to other waxing places they did not agree with my thick eyebrows. I’m not sure why-they’re my eyebrows-I should be able to do whatever I want with them. But for whatever reason they didn’t agree with me and despite multiple attempts at explaining exactly what I wanted I just gave up and started hunting for someone that would actually listen to me. In walks McKelle my roommate recommended her-she had never actually seen her but had had multiple people on different occasions recommend her.

I walked in and right away said I want my thick eyebrows back and thank the heavens she agree with me! She said when you look at models and stars their eyebrows are actually really thick and so she waxed and trimmed a bit but because of crappy waxing people in the past I have to grow out my eyebrows a little more. It’s painful-not in the actual pain kind of way but in the embarrassing kind of way. I feel like I’m in middle school again and I don’t understand the concept of tweezers. I promised I wouldn’t do any plucking till I see her again-which isn’t for another two weeks!

But as hard as it is to resist the urge I’m actually grateful because my eyebrows are looking better then ever! But what about you, do you have any eyebrow horror stories? How do you like your eyebrows think or thin?


*I realize that as this blog gets bigger it might seem strange that Mojo and I have our wedding info up and our registeries on here. Trust me we are not asking for you to buy us a wedding present we just direct a lot of our wedding guests here for information and to keep up-to-date on wedding details. I thought that should be said so no one things we're asking for a hand-out :)

5 Truths...

For some reason when I woke up this morning I got the urge to blog about 5 things that I normally wouldn’t talk about. The best part about this blog is that I don’t feel as self conscious about what I’m writing. And I like the fact that I know I’m not being judged and if I am I don’t really care because I don’t see it. So judge (or don’t judge) away. These are 5 truths about a silly girl who sometimes wishes she was someone more fabulous.

5. I am NOT a girly girl. I wear minimal amounts of make-up and I generally wear a t-shirt/sweatshirt and jeans. That being said I compare myself to girly girls. When I opt for a ponytail because I’m having a bad hair day and something more casual because I don’t feel like wearing something cute-I will compare myself to the co-worker, sister, friend, random person on the street, etc that actually took the time to get dressed. And it generally makes me feel inadequate. I’ve often wish I WAS a girly girl. I wish that I did take the time to do my hair and my make-up and wear cute clothes but the truth is-I don’t know how. And I don’t like getting up 2 hours before work to get ready. I wish that someone would sweep in and go through my closet and pick out outfits that worked-and show me how to do my make-up and my hair. Unfortunately I don’t dress bad enough to make it on TLC’s What Not to Wear. Although, maybe I do and I just don’t know it.

4. Somewhat related to #10 is that I hate my hair. I hate it. I have curly hair-but not the cute really tight ringlets curly hair, nor do I have the cute wavy hair. Nope, I have the ugly in between curly hair. Parts of my hair are wavy and parts turn into ringlets but not cute tights ones their fat limpy ringlets. Now those of you that have my type of curly hair can sympathize with me when I say curly hair is not as great as people with straight hair make it out to be. My curly hair only looks good 10% of the time the other 90% of the time (like this morning) it decides not to curl but instead to look flat and limpy all over and I end up getting really frustrated and pulling into a (very short) ponytail. I envy people like my sister who blow dry their hair run a straightener through it a couple times and are good to go in 10 minutes. When I do decided to undertake straightening my hair it generally takes 10-15 minutes to blow dry ( I have REALLY thick hair) and another 20-25 minutes to straighten it. If anyone has advice to help me with my unruly hair I would greatly appreciate it.

3. I’m addicted to pasta and Cinnamon Life Cereal. I’m pretty sure the 10-15 lbs I’m trying to lose can be directly related to these two addictions. Oh and to my Starbucks Carmel Apple Spice addiction. I don’t drink coffee but I love Starbucks simply because of their Carmel Apple Spice. If you have not had one before please try one you won’t regret it. Unless you don’t like apple cider or you have something against delicious things.

2. I stress about everything! And I mean everything. I stress about things I have absolutely no control over but still it stresses me out. I stress about my own lives, other peoples lives, and the lives of people I’ve never met (such as the people in Japan). My face takes the blunt of this obsessive stressing and I have the acne scars to prove it. I have yet to find a face wash that works for me (I’ve tried proactive and exposed and they both didn’t do a whole lot)

1. Getting married scares the crap out of me. I love Mojo more then anything in this world but it scares me to get married. I don’t doubt my decision-I know this is the right thing for me but I’m really afraid that I’m going to be a bad wife, and when the time comes a bad mother. I have this fear (and I realize that it’s probably irrational) that my I’m going to be such a bad wife (and mother) that Mojo and our kids are going to need serious therapy.

 Well there you go there are my five truths.

700 Sq. Feet

We've found a place to live.  But it's going to be tiny.  I mean, I've lived in much smaller places in my life, but it feels like 700 sq feet is going to be cramped.  But the thing I can't wait for isn't the place we are going to live, but rather the person that I get to live there with.

I've been thinking recently about the first time that I told KB that I loved her.  Honestly, she wasn't ready to hear it and even tried to stop me from saying it.  I laugh about it now, but from early on, I have loved her.  

I spent the evening with KB and her sister and brother-in-law.  It was a fun evening filled with beefy, delicious tacos, and funny movies found across the Interweb (With a capital "I").  It was so much fun just sitting, talking and laughing.  I love spending time with her and I truly am marrying my best friend.  

And although we may be living in a place that may feel smaller than a shoe box, and our enormous TV (20 inches in screen size and depth) may be our only form of media entertainment, I can't wait to do it with her.

6 weeks!

I’m getting married in 6 weeks! Holy cow that’s so soon! 44 days to be exact. I can’t believe it’s coming so soon. I know that I have so much already done but I’m starting to stress about the little things. I need to learn to just relax and know that things will get done. My mom (and countless others) keeps telling me that if something doesn’t get done it’ll be just fine because all the major things (food, place, dress) are all done. But I’m a perfectionist and so I stress about things-a lot!

But wedding plans are coming along really well. The reception is pretty much planned. Mojo and I are headed to the Tux shop tonight to smooth out the details on that and my sister is working on the bubble skirts for the bridesmaids. My dress is done (but it has been for a few weeks) and I found two adorable skirts for Mojo’s nieces as well as ties for my 3 nephews and his 1 nephew that will be coming to the wedding. I still need to find two dresses for my nieces aged 7 and 5, any suggestions?

My workout plan has been going great. I’ve started a walk to run program where I run 5 minutes walk 1 minute for 30 minutes and each day you build on that. Seeing as I’m not in very good shape this has been kicking my butt which is awesome! And even though the weight loss is slow (being a women and all) it is coming off and I’m starting to feel better which is what I wanted most.

Today I don’t have any doctor’s in my office which means we get to wear jeans to work which is awesome! I define my wardrobe as a t-shirt (or sweatshirt) and jeans type wardrobe. I’m not super girly although I do love my shoes-their generally the best part of my outfit. Today I’m wearing one of the pairs I bought on my last shopping spree (when I was feeling down on myself) their air walks and not only are they adorable their super comfy, my favorite things in a shoe.

So this last weekend I went to the mall to find some dresses for the little girls and I stopped into Victoria Secret because I wanted a really good bra. I’ve only ever bought bra’s at places like Shopko and Target and I think everyone deserves one good bra. So while I was there I decided to have a bra fitting and boy was I surprised! My whole life I’ve been compared to my sisters and always told I was small so I naturally assumed I was an A. I was so wrong I’m a C! Ha ha I had no idea isn’t that weird? Like I said earlier I’m not very girly so I don’t know about these things. But I got their new wonder bra and it’s fantastic! If you don’t have one go buy one right now!

So #commenthour for SITSgirls is coming up this Wednesday and I’m super excited about it! And in honor of it and the fact that I love followers I’m going to have my FIRST giveaway when I reach 25 followers. That’s 10 more then I have right now so invite your friends, family, and anyone you can think of to check out my blog and join if they like what they see. Once I reach 25 followers I’ll enter all my followers into the giveaway so be sure to look for that in the near future.

Once again thanks for stopping by and have a Marvelous Monday!

One question

Today my post will be short. I have one question I'd like you to really think about before you answer. Your answers will mean a lot to mean.

What does love mean to you?

Funny Stories

It’s snowing. It’s March 25^th (meaning almost April) and it’s snowing. Boo. To counteract the depressing snow I’ve decided to share a few funny work stories with you. Just a little background I work at a Doctor’s office and although we deal mostly with folks of the older generation (aka 60 and older) we do get a few people in their younger years.

Very rarely do we get children. This first story comes from a child and helped ever so slightly in the decision to wait to have kids. (You can read about that decision here)

I’ll set the scene. I’m typing away at my desk working hard and this little boy walks up. I’d say about 3; he’s a cute little thing. He puts his hand up to my desk and opens it. In his hand is a GIANT wad of chewed up gum. Gross. I’m pretty sure the kid snuck into his mom’s purse and chewed up every piece of gum she had. So there he is holding out this giant wad of gum with this expectant look on his face. There was no way I was going to touch that (I’m pretty sure I saw some stringy things that looked like hair coming out of the gum-what did this kid have in his mouth?) so I pointed to the garbage next to him and told him to throw it away there. He looks at the garbage, looks at me, looks back at the garbage, and drops his gum. About a foot away from the garbage! You missed? How could you miss?! It was right in front of you! (Words have been changed a bit but if you can guess what movie that quote is from I will always and forever regard you as AWESOME!)

So I told him to pick it up and put it in the garbage. He just looks at me turns around and walks away. Um, excuse me? At this point I was a little lost as to what I should do. I mean I can’t really go after a 3 year old and demand he pick up his gum-and his mom wasn’t around that I could see. So I got some gloves (that’s right-gloves because I couldn’t stand to pick it up without them) and threw the gum away. I relayed the story to my co-workers. We all laughed. Then about an hour later the little boy came back-stuck his hand in the garbage, pulled out the wade of gum (which now had little pieces of tissue and crap on it) and stuck it back in his mouth! EWWWW! I tried to get him to spit it out but he just looked at me and went back downstairs. Little kids can be gross sometimes. Now you see why I’m not ready to be a parent.

Today we had a regular come in-he’s hilarious and we always have good conversations. So he walks up to my desk and (pointing to my engagement ring) says, “So you’ve still got that thing on eh?” I responded that yes I did indeed. To which he says, “That’s too bad-my wife’s been dead 6 months now and I was just waiting to ask you out. I would have been a great sugar daddy.” A little shocked I laugh and tell him he should look for someone closer to his age. He gives me this impish grin and say, “Why would I want to do that? I’ve seen woman my age and there’s only one word to describe them, Saggy! Why would I want that?” Shocked once again I laughed and told him to go sit down. He smiled a big smile and then proceeded to flirt with the little old lady he sat next to. Old men are hilarious and a bit creepy.

Well I’m going to go eat. Thanks for stopping by hope you have a fabulous Friday!

Feelings of Insecurity

I'll warn you before hand this is going to be kind of a pouring it all out post. So if your willing to stick around I'd appreciate your tips and advice but I won't hold it against you if you've got better things to do....

So I'll put it in 3 words.....I.......FEEL.......FAT! I know that I'm not in fact fat I'm only about 10-15 lbs more than my usual weight which isn't really a big deal but I feel fat. I feel disgusting. Mojo and I went to Shopko today because he needed new flip flops, the weather is getting warmer and he has a strange addiction to flip flops. So, while Mojo was perusing the shoe selection I was looking at the clothes. I wanted some new work clothes just to spice things up a bit and because it's getting warmer. So I got things a size up from what I would normally do (knowing that I had gained those extra pounds) and I went into the dressing room not happy about the fact that I was a few sizes up but still expecting the clothes to look good you can imagine my surprise and depression when the clothes I tried on looked horrible! I mean really really really bad.

It's not that special time so I can't blame it on bloating, nope it's just plain and simple fatness. I was so depressed by the fact that I bought 3 new pairs of shoes. If you don't know I'm a shoeaholic. I love shoes, I adore them, I've even been known to worship a few pairs. My shoe purchases have usually been on the more high end-meaning expensive. But because Morgan and I are working towards living on a budget I've been given a small shoe budget. Granted with my 3 new shoes I went over that shoe budget but I did manage to buy 3 pairs of shoes for 1/2 the price I usually pay for 1 pair of shoes.

Anyway, so I'm really not feeling great about myself at the moment. Mojo of course, being the awesome man that he is, keeps telling me how great I look and how he loves me just the way I am. Ah, sweet. But at the moment it's not really helping. We stopped at Harmon's because I needed to buy a few groceries and (please don't laugh) but as I was walking down the aisle I swear I could feel my butt jiggling-like really feel it. And as I glance down at myself-I realized (when I stopped sucking in) that I have the DREADED donut! Ya you heard right the donut. Ew. Gross.

So I'm sure at this point many of you are saying-stop complaining-you look great-your super skinny-what are you worrying about? And your all right. I'm not fat  but I don't FEEL great. I FEEL disgusting and I FEEL like I want to throw up a little bit when I see myself. And I'll admit I considered (for half a sec) how much weight I would lose if I just started throwing up all my food. But then I realized-I really hate throwing up-actually I try everything I can not to throw up when I'm sick. So that weight loss plan is out. Then I thought-hey in high school I used to get really stressed and I would stop eating and I looked fantastic. That sounds like a great plan right? Well, as Mojo so lovingly pointed out, if I were to stop eating and then start again I would gain all the weight back. Crap. I guess that means that weight loss plan is out.

And we all know how well my last dieting stint went, if you don't know what I'm talking about you can find that post here. It was pretty pathetic. Not going to lie. So, I guess it's back to exercising. I haven't exercised since Mojo's sister S was here. Bad bad Kari. The last time I worked out on a regular basis was when I broke up with my last boyfriend-I was so mad about the break up that I ran out my frustration.

So, I figure I just need to find something to run for again. Not sure what that's going to be but I need to find something. So this is where you come in....any ideas for me? I need help and I'm turning to all of your for it. What's worked for you? What's your favorite workout? What helps keep you motivated?

Where To Find a Tux?

I've been put on tux duty.  Herein lies the problem for finding a great rental place.  No one posts prices online. I mean, NO ONE.

So I've been looking at some stores and trying to call them and lo and behold, I get that little annoying beep tone saying that the line is busy.  Busy?  Doesn't everyone have call waiting nowadays?  I thought that came standard.  Hmm...  Well, the quest continues so that Kari's knight in shining tuxedo can come riding up and sweep her off her feet.  Surrounded by two fathers and some groomsmen who although look similar, won't be as dashing as I.

So if anyone has some great ideas on where to go, we're trying to beat the price that Men's Warehouse already gave us.  Any input would be grossly appreciated.

At least now I have a laptop again, fixed and ready to do some research.  For those of you how don't know, don't watch Hulu on your laptop while on the couch while sitting next to a folded baby stroller.  Just FYI.  LED screens and (to-be-falling-)strollers don't play well together.

Why our decision to wait to have kids has nothing to do with my religion

There are A LOT of Mormon mommy blogs out there (by the way, in case you didn’t know I am a Mormon) and I think their great. However, I don’t plan on joining their ranks anytime soon. I think being a mom is a great think and I’m excited to be a mom but I can honestly say at 22 I’m not ready for that yet. Mojo and I have decided to wait 5-6 years before we go down that road for a lot of different reasons. First, we can’t afford a baby right now. Babies are EXPENSIVE and we just don’t have the money. Secondly, we want to experience marriage before we put a baby into the mix. We’re madly in love and we want to spend time together and enjoy each other and our lives together because we know once a baby comes it’s hard to do that. Third, I’M not ready. I am not mature enough to handle having a child right now. In fact in the very small (and I mean very very very small) off chance that we were to have a honeymoon baby I think I would have an emotional break down.

That being said, I applaud those who made the decision to have a child right off the bat (and those who didn’t and got a honeymoon baby like my sister). You guys are great. But keep in mind-that was your decision and this is mine. Not getting pregnant right away shouldn’t and doesn’t effect my beliefs or make me a “bad” Mormon.

You may be asking yourself where this blog post came from. I had a conversation that went a little like this early this morning…

Person #1: So how are the wedding plans coming?

Me: Oh, it’s coming along slowly but surely.

Person #2: So where are you going to live?

Me: Oh we got into a 2 bedroom apartment in married student housing. We’re really excited about it.

Person #1: That’s going to be really small how are you going to fit three people there?

Me: Three people? No, it’ll just be Mojo and I

Person #1: But what about the baby?

Me: Baby?! What baby? I’m not pregnant.

Person #1: Yes, but you're Mormon so your going to have get pregnant in the first couple months right?

Me: Um, no. Mojo and I aren’t planning on starting our family for 5-6 YEARS.

Person #1: Oh. I feel stupid (ok they really didn’t say that but I bet they were thinking it) So, aren’t you commanded to start having kids right away?

Me: If we are no one told me about it. We believe kids are a blessing but your not required to have them to be a member of the church.

Person #1: Oh, ok then.

The whole thing makes me laugh and boy am I glad I’m not required to have kids right away because I can honestly testify that they would probably be some messed up kids especially when their mom is still a kid herself! Mojo and I are excited to have kids-when the time is right and I’m so grateful to people who understand and appreciate the fact that “when the time is right” is our decision.

Oh and holy followers! I started yesterday out with 5 followers and this morning I had 14! To you veteran bloggers that’s not a lot but to me it HUGE! Thanks guys for making my day!

Oh and one more thing-if you haven’t watched the video I posted from youtube yesterday please go watch it right now. I dare you not to laugh.

Thought you would enjoy this.

Ok so a friend of mine just posted this on Facebook and Mojo and I couldn't stop laughing we thought you would enjoy it.

Thanks again for all the visitors from #commenthour and enjoy!

My intro into serious blogging

It's only been the last 2 weeks or so since I really started my blogging "career". Mojo and I started this blog mainly for the wedding as I'm sure you've notice it has our reception information on here, but the more I've started planning this wedding and our lives together the more I've realized how nice it would be to have a community of friends who have/or are going through the situation I've found myself in now-about to be newly married, stressing over wedding plans, working a full time job, etc.

I had another blog before this one (that can be found here) that was geared more towards close family and friends-I wasn't really trying to reach out to anyone that I didn't already know. But as I've started reading other blogs I've realized how powerful posts can be and how many people they can reach. One of my favorite blogger's Single Dad Laughing is one of these blogs. Most of his posts are funny and a lot of them included his son but he also has some really powerful posts. Such as the How Much did Your Kid Cost? post which talks about the adoption process he went through and how people have handled it. If your not familiar with Single Dad Laughing you can check it out here. I love the idea that something I say has the possibility of reaching to other people-people I've never met before was and is inspiring to me.

My last motivating factor was the fact the my (soon-to-be) sister-in-law has this killer blog that she just won her first blog award for. She is officially an award winning blogger! And I want that-sorry S for stealing your thunder but I want someone to love my blog so much that I get a blog award too! That's not bad right? If you have time be sure to jump over to her blog The Highly Educated Housewife which can be found here. Seriously, go check it out-it's fabulous and so is she.

I want to shout out to the girls from the Cocktail Comment Hour. Tonight will be my first Comment Hour and I'm SO excited about it. I love finding new blogs and I'm excited for all the new ones I'll find tonight!

At what age does my opinion start to matter?

I'll be the first to admit I'm young-at 22 I have yet to experience marriage, (although that's coming soon) having my first child, owning my own home, etc. I do not know all the in's and out's of life. I don't understand everything it takes to be a mom or how draining it can be to work everyday for 30 years.
But even though I'm only 22 I do know a few things. I know what it feels like to live month to month hoping I can stretch my paycheck just one more day or one more week. I also know what it feels like to be rejected and to feel completely alone and unwanted. I also know what it feels like to be loved so completely and to love someone so much that the though of not having them in your life is physically painful.
I had an experience this morning where my opinions and thoughts on a certain matter where shut down because I was "too young to know what I was talking about." The funny thing is that the conversation where this was said was about The quickest way to get from one place to another. You would think something this trivial wouldn't be a big deal but its one of many instances where my thoughts or opinions on any given topic have been shut down.
At what age do you reach all wisdom? At what age do you reach a point where people will start to consider you their equal? How long do I have to wait until members of our society will view me as being "wise" enough to have something to say?
I'll be the first to admit I'm young-but at 22 I have something to say. I have a voice and I have experiences and events that have molded my views and opinions. I know I still have a lot to learn but I've learned a lot already-please don't hold my views to a certain standard because of my age. Instead, take my views, opinions, and thoughts in stride with your own. Who knows, even someone as young as I may be able to teach you something.

Bullies aren't just on playgrounds

Growing up I never had much experience with bullies. I was a  quite girl more interested in my books then any boys or social scenes. Studying for my AP tests was far more important to me then prom ever was. Because of that, although I missed most of the high school experience I graduated high school with a diploma and an associates degree.

So I started college as a junior ready to have all the experiences I never had in high school. I joined a soriety and went to every sports game I could. I had a blast. But I had my first dose of bullying then. It wasn't anything extreme just the occasional snide comment from girls in other sorities as well as my own. I just brushed it off as petty girls with low self esteem. I expected some bullying in college. I knew there would be the queen bees who had ruled their high school and were expecting to be on top in college as well.

My most shocking forms of bullying have come in the places I work. Most places I've worked I have been one of the youngest workers so I expected a more mature environment. One where petty high school issues and queen bees had been left behind and a mature work environment existed. In each of these cases I was an idealist. In each of these cases I was a victim of or a witness to adult bullying.

Why do we as women let this happen? Why do we as women feel the need to put others down? One of my favorite bloggers Single Dad Laughing did a 3 post look at the effect men and their comments and habits have on women. But I believe that women have as much as a negative impact on other women as men do. Sometimes even more so because women know what to say to make you feel horrible no matter who you are or how good your self esteem is.

So as we were taught on the play ground and in the classrooms lets fight the queen bee syndrome. Lets start changing the world by changing ourselves. Its the only way adult bullying can be stopped.

A first attempt at dieting

This week was my first attempt at a diet. Many of you may be mad when I admit this but I've never had to diet before-my metabolism has always picked up when my eating habits (which mostly consists of Samoa girl scout cookies, sprite, pasta, and pizza) but with a wedding coming up in 52 days I felt like a little extra work was needed to get me to my goal weight. So, I stepped on the scale last week to get an idea of what I was weighing these days and the number on the scale shocked me. I'm pretty sure I gained 15 lbs over night because there's no way I could have missed gaining those pounds.

So this is how my week went...

Monday-Weighed myself, almost fainted because of it. Got motivated to workout and downloaded an calorie counting app to my phone.

Tuesday-Started my 1200 calorie diet-went hungry most of the day

Wednesday-Went hungry most of the day

Thursday-Went hungry most of the day

Friday-Said screw the diet and went to eat at Sawadee with Mojo

That's right-my first (and last) dietary experience last one WHOLE week. Despite many attempts by Mojo's sister S to keep me on the straight and narrow of dieting it wasn't meant to be.

The official definition of dieting is food and drink considered in terms of its qualities, composition, and it's effect on health.

My definition of dieting is a constant feeling of hungry which leads to lack of sleep and a tendency towards  irritability.

My goal plan at the moment is to exercise and eat whatever the heck I want-we'll see how it works.

It helps that Mojo loves me just the way I am-that fact also makes it extremely difficult to find the motivation to lose the weight. 

Is it May 11th yet?

I'll be the first to admit I can't wait for May 11th to role around. I'm not a girl who is all about planning the wedding I'm all about the wedding day. I just want it here! I don't want to plan anymore I just want to be married to Mojo. I want our lives to begin.

But...unfortunately weddings must be planned in order to happen. So, the plans are coming along famously. Mojo's mother and sister S as well as my sisters have all been fantastic. The flower poms are looking great. I'm so excited because I can start to see the vision I have in my head coming to pass. We've had a few hiccups along the way but I'm amazed at how perfectly things are falling into place.

We're especially excited about married student housing, at least I am. I love that I can now say the Mojo and I have a home and it's fun for me to imagine how it will look. I'm amazed at how much time and thought I've put into this wedding and our future I never thought I was the home-makey type but I guess I've found a new side to myself. I'm also loving the idea of being with other married students. I can't wait to make new friends and enjoy being married.

The major things for the wedding are coming into place and despite certain misgivings I have at times I do believe this wedding is going to turn out the way I've been imagining and I'm so excited about it. The countdown continues. I'll be sure to be you all updated.

P.S. I'm watching The Young Victoria with Mojo, his mother, and his sister S. I love this movie and how welcome and loved I feel by this family. I have the greatest (soon-to-be) in laws a girls could ask for!

Last Call for Addresses!

We want to say thank you to everything everyone has done for us so far. This wedding is coming together very slowly but surely. And it's less then 58 days away wahoo! We're really excited.

Some fun stuff...Mojo and I found out today that we got into married student housing at the U. We're really excited about it. We even got a 2 bedroom on the top floor-which was what I wanted. Also, Mojo's parents are awesome and have donated a couch and two chairs to our new house and Mojo found a great bookshelf for $20 at the University Surplus store today. So with those editions are house is pretty much furnished. Yay! We're still looking for a desk for Mojo but once we have that everything should be ready to go. I move in May 2nd...hopefully I won't be to stressful being so close to the wedding but I think it'll turn out ok.

Mojo's sister is here for the week with cute Clairbare. We love when S and Clairbare come to visit. Claire is so big! I just got to see her for a bit last night before she went to bed but she looks more like a Toddler now then a baby. She's growing up so fast!

And to end this post I'll make one final call for addresses. We are getting ready to print, stuff, and mail the invitations in the next couple weeks and are finalizing our address list. So one last chance-if your want an invite please give us your address. You can even do it right here on the blog. Either at the top of the blog or on the right hand side.

Thanks for stopping by sorry we're not better about updating this. 

Where in the world is my blue?!

You know-I don't feel like I'm asking for a lot I just want some dark blue (navy blue to be exact) paper so that I can make these....

Why is that so hard? But hopefully my in depth internet search will result in dark navy blue paper

On a brighter note-I've picked my 4 favorite engagement pictures. We're thinking that we'll do a big picture at the top of the engagement, the text, and then two smaller pictures at the bottom of the announcement.

Also, those of you that don't live in Utah-we're enjoying a nice late winter storm here and it's been snowing since about 4 this afternoon. So grateful Morgan and I are getting married in May not March!

Dress!

So....I have my dress :) and it's perfect! I went to my dress fitting on Thursday for the original dress fully planning on pulling out Sallee's dress certain that my dress would be in ruins but it wasn't. I saw it on the hanger and I couldn't believe it it looked great and then when I put it on....it was magical! It's so pretty and so me and my seamstress is a miracle worker. So I get to have the dress that I had in my mind which I am so excited for!

I also went to Hobby Lobby Thursday night and got most of the stuff needed for my DIY projects I just need a few more things and then the real work begins.

On a sadder note-weather it's from stress or something else I've been sick all day. This morning I woke up with a killer sore throat and a bad cough. After lots of peppermint tea (thanks to Mojo) and lots and lots of rest as well as what feels like hundreds of cough drops I'm starting to feel better which I'm extremely grateful for. 

Doing the real stuff

While Mojo has been "hard" at work doing the really "important stuff" I've been focus on the unimportant things like a dress and food. Nothing really important. So my dress experience has been....fun...or something like that.

My sister graciously gave me her dress to use for my wedding and gave me full privileges meaning I could do whatever I wanted to it. How sweet is that? I was super pumped about it. We decided to take the 3/4 sleeves and make them cap sleeves and then she was going to take the extra material from the sleeves and make a Victorian collar and turn the lace up back into a zip back. It would have been beautiful, Notice the would have been. Turns out because my sister ordered the dress online (for super cheap) it was made in China. Turns out people making dresses in China don't know how to sew! My seamstress (who is amazing and can pretty much do anything) wasn't able to do what I wanted. The construction of the dress was so bad that when she was bringing it in a few sized it started to bunch up and it looked just terrible. And with the way the collar had been done there was no way she could make the Victorian collar with the left over sleeve material. Our next option was to us some of the overlay on the bottom part of the dress to make the collar but I was super excited about that-I just couldn't imagine it in my head. So-I was stressing about this dress. I was so grateful to my sister for giving me the dress but I could not for the life of me figure out a way to make it work.

So tonight I went over to Mojo's house and was discussing wedding details with J (Mojo's mom) and she suggested I use S's (Morgan's sister) dress for the wedding. S and I are about the same size and J showed me some pictures of the dress on Facebook-it is beautiful. So we pulled it out from the downstairs storage room and I was able to try it on. It's perfect! A little big in the shoulders-only because I was born with unnaturally small shoulders-but perfect! It's fitted down through my hips which I love and has a beautiful petal like bottom (not sure how to describe it). So the dress situation has been fixed! Thank goodness! That took a huge stress off my shoulders because it made me sick to think I may be wearing a dress that I didn't feel beautiful in on my wedding day. So HUGE thanks to Sallee her new title (besides super mom) is Life Saver.

Now that that stress is taken care of on to the fun do it yourself projects for the wedding. I'm not a big crafty person and yet I can't seem to get enough of these wedding DIY projects. I've already completed a card box for people to put their cards in at the reception which I'm pretty proud of. And I've painted wooden letters which will go on our sign in table. And big thanks to my sister's and bridesmaids we're starting on some more fun DIY projects. Here are a few I'll be starting in the next couple of weeks.

I'll be doing some cute paper rosettes that I found from a friend from High School's blog. They instructions on how to make them can be found here. They are adorable!

I'm also planning on doing some of these hanging from fishing wire.

The link on how to make these can be found here.

I have a lot more DIY projects that I'm planning on doing but those are the two big ones I'm going to take in the next couple weeks. 

I'll be meeting with our photographer soon to design our invitations which will go out in about 3-4 weeks! So be sure to send us your addresses so we can send you an invite!

Much love,

KB

Preparations Continue

While the girls are working on the wedding stuff, I've been hard at work on the REAL important stuff.  That is to say, creating a form on the blog so that people can easily send us their addresses which I should have done a long time ago.  It's just so much easier than Facebook.

The blog now has the form so there is no excuse for anyone to not send us their addresses.  I didn't know that weddings would be so much work!  I mean, I've spent MULTIPLE minutes on this project.  Probably so many, that I might be able to start using hours as my unit of measurement... almost.

So here it is.  Please send your address so we can get it out of the way.  Thank you to all of you who have already sent it.  We really do appreciate it and want to share this day with everyone whom we love.

Name *

Address *

City, State ZIP *