Engagement Pictures

We had our engagement pictures taken this weekend. You can see them in my Picasa web album, or the slideshow below.

inspired by Kris

Kris blogged a couple of months ago about missing the sea. She included a poem by Walt Whitman in that blog. I also missed the sea, so I loved the poem.

The decoration theme in my bathroom is "the sea," thus I thought it fitting to post this poem in my bathroom sometime. Last night, I got inspired, pulled out my oil pastels, and created this to put in the bathroom:

 

I'm not really much of a draw-er, so I just tried to create the sea by layering blues and greens (which happen to be my bathroom colors). The first try, I filled the page with color, then tried to write on top of it, but that didn't work out so well. I really liked the way the colors all smudged into each other. But on the second try, I wrote first, then colored around it. Trying to preserve the writing, I didn't smudge the colors as much. Generally, I prefer my first try on artwork. Even on layout designs that I've done, usually my first try is more creative and good. When I try to create other options, it loses the randomness that the first try had, and never turns out well. But I'm ok with this second try.

Originally, I had all sailboat art in my bathroom. This one is a monoprint I made while in college:

 

Here is the hallway-type entrance to my bathroom, as it is now, with my new artwork, the old artwork, and one sailboat painting by Boudin:

 

You turn the corner there to get to the bathroom. When I take a shower and the bathroom gets steamy, that part doesn't get steamy, which is why I feel confident that my artwork won't get ruined by the humidity of the bathroom. I will frame them oneday. But for now, just don't touch them!

By the tub (you can see the shower curtain in the picture), I have my more favored sailboat painting, by Monet:

 

And above the medicine cabinet is a weird piece that I found at a surf shop on South Padre (I think) many years ago. It's about 3"x5" and layered. There are tiny wood blocks under the seagulls and the beach to give it a 3D look. Said wood blocks are constantly falling off and being glued back on:

engrish engagement

One of my favorite websites which is updated daily (thus all the more reason to love it) is Engrish. I've talked about it on this blog before, so you should already know this.

I only recently discovered that, in addition to the daily Engrish sign/photo/whatever, there is also a blog, or rather, a brog. It has brought me copious amounts of joy. Today's brog was an engagement story sent in by a reader. She was proposed to at her favorite sushi place. They knew there was to be a proposal and prepared the following spread:

How cool is that?

In related news...Rod took me out for Chinese after a very successful visit to a church Sunday morning (successful because they didn't make us go in the college Sunday School class and the class they did put us in was great). I thought my fortune was fun: Don't give into cynicism. (The "in" and the "to" should have been separate words.) Then I read Rod's fortune: Do onto others as you would have them do onto you. Still makes me giggle.

Pearls of Love

We decided to go with the second cake I posted (the one that I don't remember seeing at the store). Rodgers likes it as well. Plus, it has pearls on it and I'll be wearing pearls. So I'll be all coordinated. Only the 2 larger tiers, 10" and 14", not the top 6" tier. And we'll use the cake stand I have, not those pedastals. And my crystal topper, surrounded by berries and bits of chocolate on top. This is beginning to get exciting!

a real update

I am actually moved in to my apartment in Temple now! It's great. Now I really really need to get a job so that I can continue paying for it. I have some pictures of it on my picasa web album. 

I had a great interview at Fort Hood last week. I think they will probably offer me a job, but they are very slow. They called to ask me to come interview 4 weeks after I applied. So I am trying to wait and see if they will actually call me again to offer me the job. In the meantime, I put in an application at the temp agency down the street from my apartment, so that I might be able to have some kind of income while waiting on Fort Hood. I just don't know what else to do. I did have some Wycliffe support from the month of October, which was enough to cover my first month's rent, but soon I'll need to pay for other things, and there's just no money for that. I'm trying to trust that God will provide. Rodgers tells me this is what it means to live by faith and not by sight. Most of the time, I don't really even care that I don't have any money. Maybe that's good.

Also, on Sunday night, Rodgers asked me to marry him! Of course I said "yes." And now, I will share with you that I have been keeping a wedding planning blog in addition to this one. You will find it here: http://rodgersrachel.blogspot.com. I know that I've shared it with some individuals and others have found it, but now I'm announcing it publicly. 

I just don't believe in global warming

A few months ago, I read a Michal Crichton book called "State of Fear." What I like about Crichton is that he does a lot of real world research, then builds a fictional story around his research. The idea in "State of Fear" is that the powers that be have created the myth of global warming in order to keep the masses in a state of fear (thus the title), which makes them easier to manipulate.

Not long after reading that, I heard a vegan on the radio screaming about the act of eating meat being the "number one cause" of global warming. I never really believed in global warming, so I scoffed at him immediately. Then I started thinking, I've heard "____ is the number one cause of global warming" many, many times, about many different things. So I decided that one day, I would google "number one cause of global warming" and see what turns up. And today is that day.

Mostly what turns up are blogs, I saw few actual news articles or science journals. I didn't look through every single result, though, I am not that dedicated a researcher.

There were many results which agreed with that vegan that eating meat is the number one cause. Most of these were either vegans or animal rights activists. They all cited the UN as their source for this information, but the links they provided did not work. There is even a petition started which asks for "all meat packages to be labeled with a clear warning that meat is the number one cause of global warming."

Another number one cause is greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.

Some people who seem a bit more logical to me say the number one cause is the sun, and the number two cause is geothermal activity. They put greenhouse gases at the 98th - 100th cause of global warming. The did not share causes three through 97, though. This was on Yahoo! Answers.

One girl says that "we" are the number one cause. By "we" I assume she means humans, but she doesn't specify. Her list goes like this:

-Cars/any type of engine

-Cows, pigs, sheep- fart out methane

-Cutting down trees- lets out Co2

-COAL STATIONS

Doesn't sound very scientific to me, but it was also on Yahoo! Answers, so you can't take it too seriously.

One which did turn out to be a news article said, "the number one cause of global warming isn't cars, but buildings." [from CBS news]  

I searched for "UN meat global warming" to find the real article that people were trying to cite. What it actually says is, "Rearing cattle produces more greenhouse gases than driving cars," and "Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems." I can find no mention in their article, on UN.org, that claims that meat is the number one cause of global warming.

Googling "global warming myth" turned up a lot more news articles and scientific looking results. Again, I'm not a truly dedicated researcher, so I didn't actually read most of them. The one I did read was on ABC's 20/20 website. I found it quite interesting. Even though it was written more than 18 months ago, it was the first hit I got on that search.

aw, dang

I don't remember seeing this one, but it's great, too!

shopping for cakes

Rodgers took me to look at cake catalogs at the Walmart and H-E-B bakeries yesterday. Pam says that those are the best bakeries in Brenham, and since we have them here in Temple, too, we can pick something out here and have it made there. The thing is, I want a very simple cake. The majority of the cakes are completely covered with various decorations, which I don't want. I just want a smooth white cake that I can put fresh berries on, and maybe shaved dark chocolate too. I've decided to go with a white cake, raspberry filling, and cream cheese icing. Actually maybe I'll make the bigger one cream cheese icing and the smaller one white buttercream. Some people don't like cream cheese icing. Hmmm...Then, top with fresh berries and shave a block of dark chocolate. That sounds delicious.

This is the best cake I've found. It's at H-E-B. But apparently, someone found a cake they liked at H-E-B, took the picture to WalMart, and had it made there. I guess WalMart is cheaper. I do like the little scallops or whatever around the edge. But I do not want the roses on top. They do allow you to order this one in only 2 tiers instead of 4. Those would be 10" and 14", which is exactly the size of cake that my stand allows. And since we're not having a small cake on the top tier, that would be perfect. 

So I think we'll probably use this one. I'll need to take them my plates to put the cakes on. It will make things easier if they just put them on the plates that fit in my stand, rather than putting them on their own plates which I would eventually have to return and which may or may not be stable on my stand. 

H-E-B's website says to order the cake 4 months in advance. That would be this Friday. So, we may send Pam to Brenham H-E-B this week to order it and find out when I should deliver my plates to them and how much it will cost for the 2 tiers with no decorations.

H-E-B will deliver the cake for $25, but it's so close to the house, it would really not be much trouble for someone to just go pick it up. Especially since we're going to put the toppings on ourselves. 

myregistry.com

This week, I discovered myresgistry.com. It's great! I've registered for some housewares at different stores (see "registries" in the side bar). But there were some things I wanted at stores that don't have online registries. GAH! What's a girl to do?

Myregistry.com will create a registry from all stores that sell things online. You create a bookmark on your bookmark toolbar to a specific address for adding to the registry. Then, when you're on the product page of something you want to register for, you simply click the bookmark, and it loads a popup. It tries to gather product information from the store's website, but doesn't always get it right or complete. So then, you enter the information manually. You can choose any image on the page to be the product image that shows on your registry. THEN, people can look up your "myregistry" and buy you anything you want! It's the coolest!

I have already created mine, with the things from the other stores I've registered for as well as some no-online-registry things. Check it out! The password is "kenya."

myregistry.com

the proposal

(I'm not going to jump right in to the proposal story; I have to set the stage first.)

This weekend, I moved to Temple. I have been planning to move here so that Rod and I can be closer geographically and so that we can get married eventually. And so a long distance relationship ended after 2 years, 7 months, and 25 days (aka 959 days). We've not yet had time to enjoy our proximity because the entire weekend was spent moving, but we are very excited to be close together.

Saturday, I got into my apartment for the first time. Rodgers lent me a sleeping bag and towels, since mine were in the storage unit in Arlington, so that I could stay the night in my apartment for the first time. I had a car load of stuff with me, that I had carried around while I was being a gypsy, living with different people for the past 2 and a half months. We got all that moved in.

Sunday morning, we left around 7:30 am, went to Arlington, got the Uhaul, loaded up from my storage unit (with the help of Trey and the entertainment of Angela), had lunch with Trey and Angela, saw Melanie Stephens and family at Quizno's, drove to Temple, unloaded and carried stuff up 2 flights of stairs (with the help of Melanie, Ian, and Cal Lemley), waited for Dad to arrive, unloaded my dinette from his truck and carried it upstairs, returned the Uhaul, went to Ihop for dinner, came home, put my bed together, unpacked my kitchen, got a few things in order, then it was about 11:45 pm, and I was ready for bed. But Rodgers would not leave.

He started pestering me, saying that he wanted to annoy me. He wandered around talking about how he wanted to leave but couldn't find his keys. I was too tired to help him look, but I knew he left them on the bar and told him that. He tried annoying me again. Finally I went to the bathroom. When I came back, he was in the same place. He promised not to annoy me anymore and said that I could go to bed now and he would leave. I said, "Great," and sat down where I had been before. As I was taking a drink of water he asked me if I trusted that he wouldn't try to annoy me anymore. I said, "Yes, why wouldn't I?" As I was speaking, he swiftly got down on one knee and pulled out a ring box, in one fluid motion. He said, "Would you marry me someday?" I said, "ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" I had just realized why he had been acting like such a punk and trying to annoy me so that I would leave. And why he pretended to lose his keys. He had to get the ring out of his backpack, and didn't want me to suspect that he was going to do something nice. Once I recovered from this sudden realization that made the past few minutes make sense, I said, "Of course I'll marry you." And he put the ring on my finger.

THE cake stand

I went to Michael's with Mom and Dad last week. Mom had to buy some wooden doll heads for a craft project. We looked at their silk flowers, as I will probably opt for silk bouquets and corsages rather than fresh flowers. It will be about 4.50 per bouquet. That's nice. Then we looked at their wedding stuff. The cake stand which I previously posted (the last one) was there, for $50. So I told Mom that's the one that I wanted, and she said that maybe, when she had money, she could go back and buy it. Then, when we checked out, they gave us a 40% off one item coupon with our receipt! It expires tomorrow, so we sent it with Dad when he went to Austin yesterday, and he returned with a different cake stand than what I had picked. But of course, I picked one of the lower priced ones. The one he bought me was a bit more expensive, but much more "me."

Here it is, semi-assembled, with my cake topper and toasting flutes. There are screws to put in that stabilize the tiers, so that they don't lean like they are in this picture. The bottom 2 tiers will have cakes on them. I'm thinking strawberry cake with cream cheese icing, as it's one of my favorite combos of all time. It will be garnished with fresh berries on top, and possibly around the sides as well. I think that berries are perfect for a March wedding. The top tier will have the topper, surrounded by berries. Trey asked me, "If you don't have a top tier of cake, what are you going to eat on your first anniversary?" I said, "Frozen berries!" We all thought that frozen berries would probably be better than frozen cake after a year in the freezer.

Here is a picture on the box. If you turn it, as I have in the other picture, so that the post is in the back, the cakes seem to be magically floating above each other. The swirly icing in this picture is pretty, but I don't know if I'll have swirls like that or not. And I'll definitely have more kinds of berries than strawberries.

struck it rich

As you may well know, I am quite small. I have the hardest time finding clothes that fit me. Since I have an interview tomorrow, I wanted a nice top to wear, but I don't like the ones I have anymore. I've had them for so long, they just don't look that great anymore. 

The only clothes store in Bastrop is Bealls. Bealls is one of those places that doesn't carry misses sizes smaller than 6. They do have juniors down to a 3, but most of their tops are S-M-L, small being a size 5. I wear a 2. I went just to see if they had realized that they are discriminating against small people in their clothing sizes. However, they have not yet seen the light. I found one top I liked that was too big, but could have worked anyway, but it was missing a button, which is ridiculous for a department store to have on their racks.

So, I went to the resale shop down the street from my parents' house. Usually the clothes they have are not very good quality. Occasionally they have one or two things that are good. It seems that I went on the perfect day. I would guess that a person near my size just went through their closet and took a bunch of stuff to the resale shop. I found not one, not two, but EIGHT tops that fit me! This is unheard of. You have no idea how incredibly happy I am! I bought them all because there's no telling when I will find tops to fit me again.

Oh, if I were rich and could shop in designer shops, rather than department stores and resale shops, then I could find tons of things to fit me. Actually all of the tops I got today were originally from those kind of places. So the problem is not only my size but my budget. Stores in my budget cater to large people. I don't understand that at all. I mean, they could make a better profit off of small people clothes: half the material to make the clothes, and they would sell for the same price as the big clothes. The only exception to this generalization, that I have found, is Target. But I have yet to find a dress at Target that fits me. So even they, who carry affordable size 2s, aren't perfect. I think the dresses are in S-M-L sizes. A small is a 6, extra small is 4, so 2 is nowhere in that sizing scheme.

But seriously, I feel as though I struck it rich today. Eight tops in one store that look great and fit me. AND since it was a resale shop, the eight tops together cost about the same as the one top I found at Bealls.

:)

Pam's yard

This weekend, we went to Brenham to check out Pam's yard and start thinking about how the ceremony is going to work. We had been trying to keep the list short. Not only do we want a somewhat private and intimate ceremony, we also don't want to overwhelm the backyard with too many people. The guest list grew faster than we anticipated, and we weren't sure if it was too many people for the yard.

The door on the left is Pam's bedroom. That will be my dressing room, and where I will emerge for the ceremony. I will walk around to the back of the yard, and then walk up to the place where we will say our vows. I think I will want to have some sort of carpet or something to walk on so that my dress doesn't drag across the dirt and grass. The wedding will be in the spring, so there will be no leaves on the ground. Also, the elephant ears will be very tiny, since they die in the winter and will just be starting to grow back. Pam is also thinking of planting some flowers.

The deck has 3 levels. This is the highest one, and that's where we'll stand for the ceremony. The table and chairs will be moved to the lower level, for serving cake, etc. The potted plants will be arranged to work with our set up, whatever that will be.

This is the side yard. The lighter part on the fence (behind the small tree) is a gate. I think that the guests will enter through there.

From the upper part of the deck, looking right. There will be seating over there.

Panning left. A chair in the yard, for perspective. Since we have to rent chairs, we are hoping that everyone who's coming sends an RSVP. But if they don't, they can stand behind that island. :)

More chairs will be lined up on that side.

This is directly left of the deck. If we need the space there for more chairs, we will use it, too. 

This is taken from the back door.