Got Tuxes?

We do! Michael had his tux preview today. We were able to see what the vests/colors look like for the dads, the groomsmen and for Michael. Here are the photos, sorry for the quality, the lighting in a store in the mall sucks! But the tuxes look great.

 

 These are the ones for the dads

 

These are the groomsmen tuxes

This is Michaels tux

want to know more about me?

I stole this from a fellow blogger who stole it from another blogger. 


Ambition: Currently to be a great one day wife and eventually mother. 
Bad Habit: Picking at my cuticles and biting my nails. Horrible i know!
City: Suburb of Atlanta, GA
Drink: Diet Dr. Pepper or Diet Coke
Education: Bachelor's in Communications from Kennesaw State University
Food: yes please? Lately because of the heat I have not had much of an appetite, except for popsicles. 
Guilty Pleasure: celebrity trash (magazines, reality shows, etc.)
Hometown: dont really have one...moved around a lot as a kid.
Ice Cream: yes please! I love ice cream, any sort of chocolate concoction
Jonesing for: the wedding and wedding stuff! especially the trips this summer to Pa and Il
Kryptonite: tv 
Look-a-like: Jamie Lynn Siegler (got that once and I am gonna run with it)
Movie: i LOVE movies. especially dramas
Nickname: not many, Michael calls me babe. My mom calls me I
Obsession: tv, celebrity magazines and blogs
Perfume: I like to wear one of the secret body sprays
Quirk: I HATE the sound of chewing. Not by me, but people around me, especially loud things. 
Regret: Luckily I have no big regrets... just little ones like going to bed too last last night.
Starbucks: They are yummy but pricey!
Thrift Find of the Year: i love getting free things while shopping
University: Kennesaw State University
Vacation: our next big vacation will be the honeymoon
Whine: money...
X: X... what? 
Years: 24
Zen: zoning out to a good movie with Michael

So What Wednesday...

Join In!

This week I am saying so what to...

• If I keep checking our registry to see what people have bought us. Our first bridal shower is this weekend!
• If I really hope we can take a detour to Philly when we leave Pa on Monday. I REALLY want a cheesesteak and cannolis, I dont care it will be like 6 am.
• I accidentally set the Facebook URL for our company page wrong. I am now in the process of hunting down someone/anyone who can fix it for me. (Thankfully I didnt get in trouble at work, just gotta figure out how to fix it) HELP!
• I had basically a wedding panic attack all last week. My mom said I was being completely normal.
• I just now figured out how to get a cool template/header for my blog. I can be a little slow. 
• If Michael is turning 30 on Sunday. He is the only one freaking out about it. I am jealous.  
• If I am borrowing my veil from a friend for my wedding. I am going to be wearing it for a total of one hour. 

Wedding Invitations

Our wedding invitations are completed! We actually finished them a couple weeks ago. We bought them from Michaels and put them together ourselves. It wasnt bad at all to do. Took a little bit to figure out the printing, but Michael was able to do so. We are sending ours out pretty early since most people will be traveling from either Pa or Illinois.

Some of our invitations will include a video of our video invitation. We are going to use the Love statue from Philly as our cake topper :) 

You can view our video invitation:

 

yummy chili on a hot day

Yes, I made chili and cornbread for dinner yesterday. Sure, its only like 102 degrees here in Georgia, but my cooking skill are still kind of lacking and there is only so much you can do with ground beef.

My materials for chili

brown the beef - about a pound

I then added chopped onions (i HATE raw onions, but LOVE cooked onions - dont ask) I had 1/2 a small onion left over from the night before

Michael told me to add beer as liquid - this was all I had in the fridge

I added beans, tomatoes, seasons (taco seasoning, paprika, some salt, pepper, but i never add enough). I use 2 cans of diced tomatoes (undrained) and 2 cans of red beans (drained)

I made corn bread to go along. I only made one box (but at like 60 cents a box, I always pick up a couple)

Michael likes to add noodles, so right before he got home I cooked some shells and added them in (dont add noodles early on in the simmering process, they get REALLY mushy)

yumm I like corn bread!

And that was our dinner last night. I needed to add more spices, but Michael ate it (after adding some hot sauce).

beginning extreme couponing

I have begun to dabble in extreme couponing. I have always couponed, but never knew how to really use them to get great deals. Yes, the show Extreme Couponing on TLC did help open my eyes, but it also brought me to search the world of blogs and websites for couponing. Plus, another lady in my office does it as well so we share coupons :) I also ran into a lady at Cracker Barrel this weekend who gave me some pointers. She has been doing it for years!

I know what you are thinking - those people are crazy hoarders! But I am not a hoarder and well Michael would kill me if I did. But there is no reason not to stock up on stuff while they are cheap (like toilet paper, deodorant, soap, etc). Why not...you are going to use it eventually! 

I only buy stuff we need and/or will eat. Here is how I coupon - I buy about 4 papers every Saturday. If you wait till Sunday afternoon around me all papers are gone! I check a few websites periodically during the week - Southernsavers.com is my favorite. Really easy to read and navigate. I look at the local ads, add my Kroger coupons and see where the best deals are. Yesterday I did most of my shopping at Ingles. Spent overall about $40, saved almost $30. My goal is to save about half of my bill. I usually take Michael with me to do the math and keep track of where I am. He is really into it and encourages me (hell anything to save us money!) 

I will start posting about great deals I find. In yesterdays trip I was able to get free Nesquik (needed it for a cake) it was on sale for $1 and I had a dollar off coupon so it was free! and cheap laundry detergent. Michael is picky and prefers Purex (which is never cheap), but was on sale yesterday (2 for $5) and I had a coupon, $1 off one. So I was able to get them at $1.50 each (I only picked up 4). I went to Kroger and became subject to someone who cleaned the shelf of the free pasta! Jerk! Luckily there was still some pasta left, only fetticini, so I got 3 boxes of free fettinci. The pasta was on sale for $1 a piece and I had a $1 off coupon. And apparently so did everyone else. I still have some .50 off one coupons for that type of pasta so I will go back this week, cause hey .50 pasta is still good. You can never have enough pasta. 

A couple weeks ago I was able to get .19 deodorant for Michael (a mix of a coupon and bogo at Kroger) and like.40 cent dish soap. I got paid for razors at Walgreens :) 

What are your tips and/or secrets to couponing?

Engagement Story

I realized I have never written about our engagement! Here is the story:

Michael graduated from college with his undergrad on July 31, 2010. His parents and sister came down from Pa for his graduation. Apparently EVERYONE knew that he was going to propose but me. After the graduation we were taking photos (we were on campus and there were TONS of people around) and when it was our turn, we took a photo then he got down on one knee and proposed! I started crying and saying what are you doing! He put the ring on the wrong finger and I don't even know if he said anything. HAHA

Right before - I had no idea!

Down on one knee

Right afterwards

Hugging my mom - surprised she kept the secret! My stepdad said it was hard for her.

My ring! I love it. The wedding bad has the same design on the sides and has small diamonds just like the ones that surround the main diamond.