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.