...One minute to say goodbye...

I cannot believe that another year is coming to a close. It feels like just yesterday I was graduating from high school...man I am getting old! This year has been another great one...looking back I have a lot to be thankful for...good health, a wonderful job, Chad found a job....My beautiful niece's adoption was finalized and my nephew joined our family...

And we got Engaged!!!
I am looking forward to the year ahead...it is going to be chock full of big events and changes! Hope you all have a wonderful and safe night...I am headed to bed soon...you'd think I'd just celebrated my 60th birthday and not my 25th!!

Groomsmen Attire

I am sure that you just did a double take because I am actually posting about the wedding!!!! I have managed to accomplish a few things this week. I was a little shocked when I found a tie that I think will be perfect for the groomsmen...below is the "look" we have in mind for the groomsmen, the tuxes we plan to rent and the ties that I bought. I only bought ties for the groomsmen I think that Chad will wear ivory to match me and the ushers will wear plain brown...what do you think that the fathers should wear? should my dad match me? 

Farewell Holidays...I will miss you!

My nephew's first Christmas

The family ready to open

My sister and I with stocking stuffers

Stockings...my favorite

My nieces

Santa came!

Toasting the big 2-5

Ingredients needed for a yummy Madame Butterfly

My Grandma and I baking...she is too cute

My aunts, mom and Grandma baking

I L.O.V.E the holidays!! Every year I look forward to the season...the family traditions and get togethers, shopping for everyone, the decorations, baking, watching christmas movies by the fire. This year was great as usual....and also as usual I am suffering from a slight case of post-holidays depression. I hate that it is over...I felt like it snuck up on me and was gone before I knew it!!! I think I just hate to get back to the day to day routine. I like to have "special" things to look forward to...I am a little worried that I will have a little case of the post-wedding blues when we get back from HI! Anyways...hope you all had a great holiday season. Keep a look out for a wedding related post soon....I am actually getting some things done...Whoot-whoot!

My First Award..

I received this very sweet blog award from Jenny at Practically Perfect...

"This blog invests and believes in proximity- nearness in space, time and relationships. These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

I am suppose to pick 8 other people to bestow the award on...but I hate it to be like an email forward so I am picking a few blogs that I enjoy reading that I feel are deserving.

I am passing it on to:

• Megan at a Tales of the Trees. I love Megan's spunky attitude and can completely relate to some of her stories about becoming a little more domesticated.
• Erika at Nautical Wedding and Nursing School. I love tracking Erika's progress toward the wedding of her dreams.
•  Adrienne at For the Love of Weddings...this girl inspires me to get on the top of my game for my upcoming wedding.

A Birthday to Remember

Today is my 25th birthday....this is the first birthday that I have been a little hesitant about being a year older....25 feels like a BIG deal!! I feel like I should have accomplished more already...or somehow be mature, but I am afraid that my maturity level is as high as it is going to get :) My fiance and I came home for the weekend..(since I am not in school next week, I am hanging at home, and he made the return trip....he will pick me up when he returns for Christmas Eve) But that meant that I wouldn't not actually see him on my birthday....we celebrated with Madame Butterflies (my favorite frozen treat) and a game of Wizard (which I won) and presents on Saturday. Chad gave me a sweet new pair of nikes, my parents gave me Jessica Simpson's Fancy Perfume and my sister gave me a purse.....this was great, unfortunately this is where the birthday fun ended......

Today on my real 25th birthday I woke up with the stomach FLU!!! Uugghh...my day of fun holiday errands and visiting turned into a day of many things that are too gross to mention. I am starting to feel better...luckily I think I caught a 24 hr bug.

'Tis the Season

Now that I have finished up finals and only have 4 days of teaching left, I am finally crossing some things off my holiday to-do list!!! I mailed our Christmas cards, put the tree up...It is a 1-footer, it didn't take much. My fiance promised that I could get a "adult" Christmas tree next year when we are married and have a place together and I have the space to store/display it. I also switched all the pictures in my frames on my shelf to Christmas pictures. My dad made me the shelves for Christmas last year, and I decided to display pictures from previous Christmases. I call it my wall of Christmas past...my favorite is a picture of my dad lighting a fire with the stockings hanging down. We almost finished our Christmas shopping yesterday...and while we were out we picked up a very cute puffer jacket for the family pup!!

This sucks...

Yep...it sucks really good! I broke down and bought a new vacuum the other night. I have been dreading it...Of course I value clean carpet, but I really didn't want to spend my hard earned money on a vacuum!! I had been putting it off for far, far to long...and I couldn't take it anymore. I took my fiance along to help me pick it out...when we got back to my apartment he took it out of the box and proceeded to vacuum the whole place!! I was completely disgusted and ashamed of the amount of s*** that it sucked out of my carpet!! I will never go that long again...after seeing that gunk I don't feel bad about the money spent...even if it could have been a new pair of nikes!!

Tagged!!!

I was tagged by my most faithful commenter over at For the Love of Weddings to share 6 completely random facts about myself...only 6???....here goes:

1. I hate the cold and I run every time I am out in it...from my car to the apartment, from the grocery store to the car...the other day I ran from my car into church. in HEELS! It doesn't matter how much I am carrying or how short the distance is...I'm running!!

2. Everything that I take off ends up inside-out....it adds a lot of time pre-washing to turn them right side out, but I can't seem to train myself to take them off differently.

3. I got my first kiss as Senior in high school when I was crowned homecoming queen...can you say NERD!! Anybody else have their first kiss on video tape?

4. In college I was a student athletic trainer and I once was drilled by a player on the sideline...he couldn't get stopped...I couldn't get out of the way!!

5. I am currently addicted to decaf coffee with peppermint mocha creamer and redi whip...it is my homemade version of the starbucks peppermint mocha...a little cheaper...probably just as many empty calories.

6. I receive at least 30 hugs a day...teaching elementary PE is quite the pick me up!!

So there ya go...6 random facts about me!! This is my first tag ever...I feel like I am officially a blogger now!

The countdown is on...

I officially have 10 work days until christmas break...Yipee!!! I wish that I had a little less to-do. I have managed to complete the majority of my shopping, I just have to find something else for my dad and sister. We are completely stumped on what to get the "in-laws" we have racked our brain for days....we got nothing. I have decided to make hot cocoa mix to give as thank you gifts to my students that bring me gifts. As a PE teacher I never expected to leave for holiday break with a box of goodies....it really made me feel special last year. I like to have something to give them so that I don't spend the break writing Thank yous. I have one final and two classes left for this semester of grad school....I can not wait. Then I can totally focus on getting in the spirit...

Thanksgiving Recap

Thanksgiving Day

2 of my brothers and Chad...what can I say- we are a Mac family

My sister, sister-in-law and I

My beautiful Nieces

My fiance and I

I had a wonderful 5-day weekend- it is hard to believe that I have been back at work for 2 days. I had a great time relaxing with my parents and siblings. I have a lot to be thankful for this year...a wonderful fiance, an amazing family, health and a job a love!!

Ta-Da!!

I have finally done something wedding related...I know it is shocking, it has been months. But in all honestly I didn't do much...I comissioned it to be done, so that counts right?? I had Sarah with Belletristics design on etsy design a monogram for the wedding. I had been trying to do it myself, but I couldn't create anything that looked "professional" enough to me. So here it is...I LOVE it!!! I plan to use it on the invites and the programs, and I am debating on the possibility of using it on the cake. Any other ideas of how I can incorporate it?