One dress to rule them all.....

So, Back in January, I took my butt off to my second attempt at trying on dresses.  I made an appointment at a small boutique in town, and with my mom, and bridesmaid April in tow, we went off on a search for gowns.

My mom and I got there first, ready to meet April there.  The girl who was helping me asked what I wanted and I said "Tulle skirt, after that, I'm game to try anything"  She pulled out a dress from the racks, and as soon as I saw it, I had this warm tingly feeling.  It was a strapless princess cut dress decorated with sworovski crystals.  She said that the sample was a size 10 (which in wedding sizes is Kate Moss), and I almost started crying because I knew I couldn't try that on.  I was shown a similar dress sample (this time in my size) to get an idea of how the silhouette will look, She pinned the tiny dress to the front of me, and, it was decided that this was the one.  And then my friend April got there.  This all happened in under 15 minutes.  I didn't even look at other dresses.  This one came in just barely over budget (and was easily customized for a very small fee, and I really do mean it was a small fee - $75 to change the neckline to sweetheart).  It was in all about $150 more than I had set aside to spend on the dress, but I think it was worth it. 

ENGAGEMENT PICTURES!

So, before I show you my engagement pictures, I'll tell you about my photographers (why yes, i do have several)

First is my friend David.  He is a local food photographer and has taken the photos for several cookbooks.  You should go to his website to see some of his amazing work.  http://www.gumbogood.com/  Go on.  I'll wait.

I went to him and asked if he would do the wedding, but he said that he doesn't like to do weddings and told me he'd do the engagement pics at a substantial price cut for me.  So, I jumped on that.  There will be a different photographer taking pictures for the wedding, and yet a different one for my bridal shots.  What can I say?  I'm a photography junkie, and I happen to have several friends who are fantastic at it.

So, Here are some of my favorites from the engagement shoot:

PS - So, y'all.  Apparently, I wrote this back in NOVEMBER, and never hit post... I just saved it.  I'm awfully bored today (It's 6:30 in the am, and I've given up on catching any zzzzzz's, so I'm going to try and get myself a nice steady backlogs of posts written today, so that on days I don't feel like writing, I can just pull up an old draft, and hopefully, that will keep me regular?  we'll see)

Sorry for the lack of posts.... Life has been crazy latley. I'm uping
my workout time considerably latley because, well, it's important.

I also made a decision to start taking diet pills. I started my
prescription Friday morning and this morning the scale read 7.8 pounds
lighter than it did. I'm thinking it was a good decision.

I have so many good posts planned for y'all about wedding updates, I
just need to find the time! As it is, I'm writing this post on my
iPod while on my lunch break (cause less food to eat = more time to
goof off on my cell phone!).

The weight game.

So, I am considering something fairly drastic.  Diet Pills.  of the "about to be banned by the FDA" varriety.  I am overweight.  and I'm sick of it.  I eat fairly healthy (lots of salad, reduced fat, low cal, cut out junk food), I do cardio 3 times a week, and strength train twice a week.  AND I'M STILL FAT.  I'm sick of having tried everything and failing.  I'm sick of loosing only 5 pounds, then seeing nothing else budge on the scale.  My cousin has lost 50 pounds since labor day.  FIFTY.  Does she work out?  nope.  Does she eat healthy foods?  nope.  BUT, she took diet pills.  So, I'm trying it.

I don't even care if it give me some sort of heart problem.  I'm just willing to do whatever it takes to get skinny at this point.  (even "eat less, excersize more", which I'm already doing.) 

Happy New Year Everybody!

My only resolution is to be happy this year.  There were too many twists and turns for me in 2009, and well, now... it's time for the fresh start.

Bad Bad Rachel!

I know, I've been a horrible blogger, but in my defence.... I got nothin'.

Since we last talked I got  new job.  It's nothing exciting, and it's not even engineering.  I'm working in the file room at a repair shop in a car dealership.  The files come in, I put them in folders, I put the folders back.  Occasionally, I get folders for people who need to see the history of a car.  That's my day.  It's only part time (about 20 hrs/wk) and pays peanuts, but at least it's something.  So I've been doing that.

I've also been trying to keep the "grand scale" of my wedding down.  Everyone around me seems to want cherub encrusted go boxes for a fancy wedding cake with handmade custom cake toppers, and I want strawberry shortcake with cute animals dressed up like brides and grooms and plain-ish boxes decorated by me.  Never mind that I found a way to get gourmet cake for the entire guest list for under $300 from a place that charges over a grand for "wedding" cakes before decorations.  No, we have to have "real" wedding cake.  I'm like anti-bridezilla over here.  My mom is freaking out over people potentially wearing jeans because the invitations are "too casual", and I could care less what they wear, as long as they have fun.  And it seems like every fun thing I want to do for the wedding is being shot down because it's not "traditional" enough.  I just want to yell "I'M NOT TRADITIONAL EITHER, HAVE YOU NOTICED?"  End rant.

Also, I got the results back from the big test I took back in October (which I apparently never blogged about?), and I PASSED.  This was the Fundamental of Engineering exam which is the first step in me becoming a licensed professional engineer.  It was hard.  I studied for months.  PAYOFF BABIES.

Anyhow, That's about it.  Not much to write about.

I promise I'll be back much sooner next time!

Money Money Money

So.  Tomorrow Is my last day at work.  Part of me is looking forward to being able to have a break and sleep in everyday for a few weeks.  The rest of me is scared shitless.  Because, I like money.  And not making any of it, is going to suck.  I'm trying to get my new business up and going, and hopefully that will garner some cash, but, from what I've seen advertizing on Craigslist is not going to help much, the only responces I've gotten so far are from people thinking I'm posting a personals ad (I don't know why).

I've made the decision to turn on ads for the blog.  Hopefully this can help somewhere.  I know it wont help much, but I figured it couldn't hurt to try.

If you're very opposed to the ads, let me know, I care about what my readers think!

I'm trying something new.

Themed posts to keep me more regularly posting!

I think Monday will be Mailbag Monday.  Where I write short open letters.  I stole this from http://www.clevergirlgoesblog.com/ 

I know that it's Tuesady, but I wanted to start this now!

Anyway, here goes:
______________________________________________________
Dear The New Orleans Saints;

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've been waiting my entire life for y'all to be so awesome.  TOTALLY WORTH IT.

Love,
Rachel
_______________________________________________________

Dear The Chicago Cubs,

Why can't you be more like the saints?
-Rachel
_______________________________________________________

Dear ABC,

I officially hate you.  Stop cancelling awesome shows even though they are gaining more and more viewers every week.  First Pushing daisies, now Eastwick?  If you cut Ugly Betty, I will end you. 
_______________________________________________________

ANNNNNNND, done.

In other news, I'm still looking for a new job, and in the meantime, I'm going to work on becoming a "personal organizer" for some extra cash, since I'm 2 months shy of working to be eligible to apply for unemployment.  (Thanks, buttholes in management)  If anyone has any ideas on how to market myself, and what to include in my website I'm building... you know where the comment box is.

I had really hoped to blog about my engagement pictures today, however, our photographer is still working on the processing.

So, instead, I bring you:  MY FURBABY, Charlie:

In May of 2008 I dogsat for a friend of mine who has a 110 pound black lab mix (named Dr. Frankenfurter).  I grew up with a black lab, and love dogs.  Being around Frankie reminded me of how much I missed having a dog in my life.  Around this time, I also discovered long coat Chihuahuas.  A friend of mine got one, and it was the sweetest dog I'd ever met.  Long coats are bred to select for personality traits mostly, and personally, I find them WAY cuter than smooth coats.

One day on a whim, Brett and I decided to stop in a pet store and play with puppies.  We had decided on getting a dog from a shelter after we moved in June, and I wanted to get a feel for what type of dog we would be compatible with.  First we played with a Min-Pin, who aggrivated Brett's allergies so much that he was immediatley out of the question.

Next we looked into a window, and saw two dogs, one was a sleeping 2 pound long coat chihuahua.  I asked the girl to get him for me, and as soon as I held him, I was in love.  He nuzzled up to my neck, cuddled with me, and fell asleep right there.  We asked how much he was.  Over $2,000, but if we paid in cash today, they would knock off 15%.  Brett said no, and I cried the whole way home.  He went back to Cleveland that night (at the time were Long distance), and over the course of 3 days, I went to visit this amazingly sweet pup 2 more times.  Each time it was harder to give him back.  Eventually, I convinced Brett that he would make a wonderful birthday present, while simultaneously convincing the pet store to give us a 50% discount on the pup that I had already named Charlie.

Charlie relaxes after a long walk.

Brett paid by credit card over the phone, and I took him home on Wednesday. 

Since then he has brought something into our lives that we never knew we could have with a dog.  He is pretty darn close to perfect.  He almost never barks (the exception being if he thinks that there might be an intruder coming to get us), he snuggles with us like a champ, he's as sweet as can be, and he's our little slice of awesome.  He is five pounds of pure sugar.

Back to workouts!

Well, I went back to working out with Muscles on Monday night (I hadn't gone in TWO MONTHS!) and I'm still sore all over.  I took time off from the gym and my running while I was sick, and barley had the energy to stand, and now that I'm feeling better, it's time to get back into the swing of things.

In other news, while I normal put an "embargo" on Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving, I'm doing things different this year.  The tree still wont go up until next week, but stonkings have been hung, lights have been strung, and Christmas Candies fill the decorative wooden bowls around my apartment.  I'm listening to Christmas albums, baking cookies, and taking in the spirit of the season.

I want this year to be a great Christmas.

My entire life, the only real tradition my family has had has been that my brother and I wake up early, rouse our parents, and everyone unwraps presents while we watch "A Christmas Story" as a family, and then we spend the rest of the day eating, playing and never changing out of Pajamas (unless we were in Lousiana, in that case, we changed and went to MawMaws house for homemade candy, and an endless feast).  Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, no one faught, no one cried, and no one yelled (unless it was a yell of "YAY I LOVE IT").  Last year was the first year that I didn't wake up at my parents house.  I didn't know that it was going to be the last time I even had the chance.  Instead Boyfriend and I trecked up to Ohio to visit his family and (aside from being there to visit with Amber) it was not an enjoyable trip for me.  His family had tricked us and said the family dinner would be ON Christmas, it wasn't, it was 2 days later (so, in short, we could've done both family celebrations but instead I got cheated out of seeing my brother, spending the last Christmas together as a family, and I spent Christmas morning crying because I was homesick). 

I want this Christmas to start a new tradition.  One for me and Boyfriend.  I just don't know what it will be yet.  This will be the first year that we wake up together in our own place on Christmas morning.  I want it to be fantastic.