Captin's Toys

Last night Jason and I went to the Dry Creek Kitchen and it was awesome. We had a great table with the whole view of the dining room, a wonderful server and excellent food. The ambiance was so relaxing with the dim lights and candles and we could see the rain through the windows. We tried to spend as much as possible to use up our Gift Certificate but it was hard since the sommelier knew both Jason and I (through our jobs) and bought us desert and the waitress also bought us another desert and my espresso... and they didn't charge us corkage on our Oregon Pinot we brought in. Jason and I think that we've never paid for a desert at a restaurant ever... being in the industry we always seem to know someone and they are always so nice to comp us a cocktail or desert.

So after we came home we went to our separate TVs, mine upstairs in my office and his downstairs. The cats, although they love Jason very much, always follow me wherever I go... I call them my little entourage. So I'm watching TV and Captin is sitting near the basket I keep all their toys in. He's just looking at it sadly, and I realize that he wants the toys at the bottom underneath my 16 bridal magazines. Poor guy... I've been throwing all my magazines in the basket and I didn't even think about how his toys were getting buried underneath. He has a few here and there throughout the house but he really wanted those ones. So I lug out all the magazines and pull out all his toys. Both him and Cajun were in kitty heaven, not knowing what to play with first. Cajun just layed down in the middle of the pile and stayed there while Captin found a few of his "mice" to play with. So here are some pictures of Captin with his toys... and then as the excitement wore off he ended up falling asleep in the pile of toys.

100 Days to go!!

Wheee!!! Okay so I'm back to my normal self again. I lost that imaginary weight I gained and I look pretty again. So... I'm not going to talk about the invitations again until they are in the mail. (But I'm pretty happy with what I've decided)

I keep checking in on my dress and I'm getting anxious to know when it will arrive. I'm having it shipped to my mom's since she works from home and the second it arrives I'm heading over there. I know that it will be too big when I try it on but I can't wait to feel and see it again!! Plus once I have it I'll be able to go get the rest of my accessories.

I'm getting my hair done on Tuesday... Heidi and I were just talking on the phone and we figured that the last time I got my hair cut was in November of 2006... soooo... it's been a while. I'm going to probably get about 5-6 inches chopped off. It's really too long right now. Unfortunately Heidi has a lunch shift that day but my mom and I will just have to go to Stark's afterward to show her and have a drink! Life is so hard. ;)

The guys are really getting it together too! Ed already bought his suit and had it fitted. Jason and I are going to go find his suit the first week of April. Marsha and I were talking last night about how easy it is for the guys to get their suits but so hard for the girls, she can't find anything respectable. Heidi is having the same problem with finding a dress. Ru brought some dresses, just in from the spring line, from her store for Heidi to try and Heidi said that she looked like a "Ho-Bag" and a "Hoochie" so... Heids and I are going to have to make a trip to the city (a serious trip, not like last time, the infamous 4 hour lunch at the Slanted Door)and do some shopping to find her dress. I need to do some shopping for myself too, I have lots of showers and parties to attend!

We are done with having house guests! It's really too much, all the entertaining we have been doing lately. I told Jason no more until after the wedding. We had a friend stay with us all last weekend and then had Mel and Andy stay with us last night. It's fun but exhausting. I pretty much do all the shopping, cooking and cleaning. Jason is great with helping me when he can, but because I get off work almost 2 hours before him it just makes sense for me to do it all. Plus I love to cook!

I can't wait to go home and relax at our home tonight, just the two of us. Tomorrow night we are going to the Dry Creek Kitchen for dinner. We wouldn't normally go to this restaurant because its way overpriced for the food, its a swanky place so you are paying for the ambiance too, but we got a gift certificate from one of Jason's reps at work. It'll be so nice to be waited on for a change.

I'm this close to breaking down

So I decided to check my messages because I'm at work and I don't have cell service here. As it turns out the accent color I finally decided on is on back order and won't be available for another 2 months!
Of course that would have to happen right?!! I'm going to try and leave early so I can get home to my swatch book to choose another color. Seriously can these invitations be anymore difficult for me? :(
Oh, yeah and I'm fat and ugly today too.

I hate the invitation part

I really really really hate this whole invitation thing. It's the stupidest part of the wedding. Etiquette this Etiquette that... I'm so tired of doing my research on what I'm supposed to do. And for the most part I don't care about the etiquette but then I think about the presentation of the whole "package" of the invitation and since I've already gone so far with what I'm doing I don't want to skimp out on anything.

I already changed my mind about the color of some of the paper and the reply envelopes... I had to order different paper stock yesterday, which means I'm out money on the paper stock I originally purchased. And I still don't think I really love what I'm going with now... but it's really too late to turn back now.

I'm so sick of thinking about these stupid invitations! But I can't stop because I'm an obsessed bride.

One good thing is that we finalized the menu and the set up with the caterer. So I don't have to think about that anymore. But I wasn't really worried about it to begin with since our caterer is so professional.

I actually haven't been worried about anything so far EXCEPT for the invitations.

And there's no need to comment on how the invitations will look fine, and everything will turn out beautiful etc... I'm not looking for reassurance I'm just ranting. :)

Elopement for some...

We have some friends that are eloping to Vegas this weekend and again they got engaged after we did. We now have 4 couples who have done this. Doesn't anyone have long engagements? This past 10 months of being engaged have been the best months of my life, I love the anticipation, planning and dreaming about our wedding. I'm excited for this couple though... it's the perfect thing for them.
So I thought it would be such a nice surprise to send them up a bottle of Champagne to their room in Vegas. We found out where they were staying and I called the Concierge this morning and set it all up. They will bring a Chandon Blanc up to their room tomorrow night at 8pm for a mere $56.59 (valued at any store here = $16) but it's all worth it for the sentiment. :) I think it's a pretty cool thing to do.

So last night Jason and I had a very romantic Valentine's dinner at home. Since we always go out to restaurants we always stay in on Valentine's. It's probably like the opposite for some couples. ;)
I was going to cook our meal and had already done all the shopping the night before so I came straight home from work. When I walked in the house Jason had flowers, chocolates and a card on the coffee table. He set it all up when he came home for lunch. The flowers where yellow and orange (our wedding colors!) and he had set them in a vase. I opened the card and I did a double take... it was the EXACT same card he gave me the year before! So funny... of course what he wrote on the inside was different. I called him (he was still at work) to thank him and give him a hard time about the card and he was shocked that he picked the same card. I guess he really likes that one card! I got out the older card and put it on the table for him to see when he got home... so funny. And he only buys me 2 cards a year! You'd think he'd remember... but men are different that way I guess.

By the time he came home I had dressed up in a nice skirt and top (usually I'm in sweats the second I walk in the house), had all the candles in the house lit, cheese and crackers out and a bottle of wine open.


I had just started on the home-made Gnocchi too (which I'll never do again, I'll explain later). He opened his card and we sat and chatted for a bit, and then as a slave to the gnocchi I was called back to the kitchen. He went upstairs to shower and I went on to the umpteenth step in making the gnocchi and opened a bottle of Champagne. We're not the biggest champagne drinkers but someone left a bottle over New Year's so we thought it would be fun to have it.

When he came back downstairs he had dressed up in slacks and a buttoned shirt for me because I was dressed up, so sweet. We toasted with the champagne to our love and he stayed and helped me with the gnocchi. I swear I've never made anything harder than this dish. It's not even hard to make but so many many steps go into it and so many many pots and dishes. It was fun though, we were dancing and drinking and talking. He ended up finishing the gnocchi so I could clean the mess that was forming around the sink. I then made a salad and once the gnocchi was finished we sat down to eat. We had polished off the bottle of champagne and so Jason opened a nice bottle of white to go with our meal. The salad was red leaf lettuce, red onion and chopped up oranges in a olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing and the gnocchi had a meyer lemon sauce so everything was very citrusy! The gnocchi didn't taste like gnocchi, it tasted just like potatoes... but it was good, just not what I was expecting. The salad however, as simple as it was, was fabulous! Both recipes we got from our food and wine magazines we get in the mail. I'll never make gnocchi again! It's too hard. :)

I cleaned the kitchen, we both changed into our sweats, decanted a bottle of Pinot and then I brought out a heart shaped chocolate piece of cake as a surprise. It was delicious!

One of my favorite things to do with Jason is to listen to him play the guitar, so he brought it out and all our favorite music and he played and we sang together for the rest of the night. It was a perfect evening!



Oh, and the only bottle we finished was the Champagne... we opened a few bottles but only had a couple of glasses out of them, I just wanted to say that so no one would think we had all 4 bottles of wine!

Tonight we have a friend coming in from out of town and he'll be staying with us through to Monday. It'll be fun because we'll be entertaining all weekend, going out, BBQ'ing, etc.

Whew! And so our week is practically already over again! Time really flies fast these days! :) Before we know it we'll be married, just like everyone else we know. ;)

Oh, and how cute are our cats? They love each other so much!

Invitations

My goal is to have the wedding invitations done by next week and the assembly done the week after and the invitations in the mail the first week of March! I can't believe it's already here. Once I drop off the invitations at the post office it will be the most exciting part of the wedding. Not only because it's a big step closer to the day but I won't have to stress about them anymore! I bought all the (expensive) materials for the invitations but I think I changed my mind on some colors so... I might have to go buy more. When I told Jason this last night he rolled his eyes... but since I paid for it all with my own money I can do (waste?) what I want. :)

So the wedding site is paid in full as of 5 minutes ago. I signed and sent a deposit to the photographer today. My dress should be here in about 2 weeks. I have my hair appointment on Feb 26th.

Jason and I really need to focus now on the songs for the reception... we've started our lists and got lists from our parents but we need to narrow down some specifics. I'm also looking into live music for the ceremony, which Jason doesn't know yet. I have to ease him into it slowly.

We met with the caterer to finalize the menu on Monday, Jason says now that he's more confused than ever about what we are doing but I think it's all perfect. I think from here on out he should know as little as possible about the details so he won't have to stress out. :)

I just have one more big event coming up here at work and then things will be smooth sailing through to the fall. Barrel Tasting Weekend: Friday through Sunday for the first 2 weekends of March. We will see thousands of people a day here at our little winery. It's very tiring especially on the second weekend. So wish me luck!