Christmas Decorations (and a peek at our home)

To be honest,my Christmas decorations almost didn't happen this year, and I have given up on trying to actually get everything finished.

I ran around hitting the sales to get some new decorations for our new place. I needed a giant wreath to go above our fireplace, and I needed some ribbon and other little fillers to spice up my greenery; but somehow, I lost the entire bag. I have no idea what happened to it.

In any case - Here's a shot of our place Christmas eve. Hope you enjoy (they're the only pics I got before we took everything down).

4 Years Ago

My little blog started right here 4 years ago. Maybe even this week. In fact, I started it for two reasons 1) So that I could tell my fam exactly what I wanted for Christmas, and 2) so I could document my first holiday with a boy.... today that boy is my husband, and I'm even more thankful for this Thanksgiving and getting to spend it with him again.



Thanksgiving might just be one of my favorite times of the year. It's the time we get to spend with family, the cooking I actually get to do, and it marks the beginning of Christmas Season.

I figure this is an appropriate season to get back on board with my blog. Life is finally settling down around our place, and we're looking forward to sharing it again.

Marriage

In response to my last post, I wanted to write a little about my thoughts on marriage. First off, I have to say that it is wonderful. I've never been able to do so much in my life. The hours during one of my first weeks back from work were brutal. When I say brutal, I mean I would go to work in the morning, and come home about a half hour before I needed to go to bed. I still remember one day I was so stressed because I hadn't had the time to do my laundry. I was actually planning on starting to wear dirty clothes to work (I didn't really have much of an option). Then when I got home from work that day, I was so relieved to see that Branden had taken the time to wash our clothes. It was just such a relief! I was amazed at how something so simple could make such a huge difference.

The first two weeks though were so difficult. I expected to instantly be the perfect homemaker. I took time off of work so I could finish buying our furniture, cook, and clean. Well, I learned that if you spend all day buying furniture (I fit a coffee table, a chair, a laundry basket, and two night stands in my car -- I'm still proud of that), you don't have time to cook dinner for your sweet hubby before he walks in the door (a failure in my head). And, I also learned that my duvet cover is really too big for the dryer, and after 45 minutes or so, I learned that ironing it doesn't really work.

Fortunately for me, my husband has more realistic expectations than I do. He doesn't want a perfect house or dinner waiting on the table when he gets home. He just wants a happy wife. Hopefully soon I'll get used to calling him my husband!

What's in a Name?

So, I'm happy to announce that I have officially changed my name. Great, right? So you would think.

It took me a while to decided what I wanted my new name to be. I've never gone by my first name, but I thought that dropping it, though it would make sense, would be a pain. I can't drop my middle name (it's what I've always gone by), and I LOVE my maiden name. So after much contemplation, I decided just to live out the rest of my life with 4 names. I mean, Branden has two middle names, so why shouldn't I?

 

Well, apparently, the Social Security Administration disagrees. Apparently they can't change my first name without a specific court order. And they had a gall to tell me while I could use my maiden name and my husband's last name for my new last name that they wouldn't be able to fit my middle name and maiden name as a middle name on the card. I actually considered just truncating it as a middle..... and then I realized that having Jeffer as a name on my card doesn't make any sense. My name is not Jeffer. It has never been Jeffer. 

So, in the end I lost my maiden name, and it broke my heart. I seriously considered going back to the social security office to see if I could change my mind and do a two-name last name, but ultimately I want the same last name as my husband and children.

So here's to you SSA. I may never go by my legal name in my life--because I'm not willing to pay $600 for a court order.

Oops

Here I am, less than two weeks away from the wedding, and I definitely did not update my blog like I said I would. Ha.

Another oops. Branden and I have already started moving some of my stuff into our new apartment. I felt like moving most of my clothes yesterday (it was easy) and moving my bed so that the big/more difficult things would be done. Well, I want to leave my house in 20 min and all of my church clothes are at the apartment. Oh well. I'll figure it out.

California and Anniversaries - [58 Days!]

Things have been crazy! Since I last posted, we've had quite a few changes and less time than ever. Branden got a new job doing some html coding, and I'm still working long hours. Things are great between us, and the wedding planning is really starting to ramp up. Last week I put together some sample invitations, and tonight Branden and I sat down with a friend of ours who has some experience with graphic design. After printing out my invites, I couldn't believe I ever thought the design I had come up with was a good idea. In any case... it was good to get a sample out there floating in the universe.




Also, last Wednesday or Thursday I got a voice mail from my dress shop. They called to tell me that my dress was in....only my dress wasn't supposed to be shipped for another few weeks. I called the shop to double check, thinking that they must have been talking about my fabric for my bolero, as that was scheduled to ship last Tuesday. When I explained my concerns to the lady at the store, she told me that they didn't have any record of fabric for me, and she offered to look into the whole situation. Well, to my surprise, not only was the fabric in, but the dress had come in early. I ran to pick it up that afternoon and had my first fitting today (2 lbs lighter than last week I might add). I was on cloud 9 all day waiting for my appointment.

In between all of this craziness....Branden and I decided to take a trip to California for Independence Day. We have a friend out there who graciously let us stay on his boat, which reminded me of when I was a kid. We drove all night on Friday and went to the Sailing Pro Shop and Beach first thing on Saturday. As Branden and I celebrate our anniversary on July 5-6, we decided to get each other sailing bags. Saturday was wonderful, but I ended up being so tired that I slept all day Sunday after church.



Monday by evening we found ourselves in Mesquite, NV, just in time to watch the fireworks show and listen to the Nevada Pops Orchestra. Let me tell you... that was a special day, and we got some good use out of the July 4th quilt that I made Branden for our anniversary a few years ago.


On our actual anniversary (or one of them..... we honestly aren't sure if it's the 5th or 6th), we finally registered for wedding gifts, and let me just say that it can be a challenge to decide on things together.

Well... I'm off to bed. Hopefully I'll get some more posts for you tomorrow!

Preview

Here's just a preview of things to come

Disappeared

So, if you've been wondering what happened to my goal... something slightly more important came up... and here's a hint as to what it is:

Stay tuned for more!

Oops!

Ha ha! It hasn't even been a whole week, and I've already fallen behind my goal. Oh well. I guess that's to be expected. Since ny last post, I've been sailing, agonizing over a trip to Bermuda, hating myself for spending money so irresponsibly, and planning a wedding. Last weekend was the Utah Summer Games Keelboat Regatta, arguably one of the most anticipated races held in Utah. Of course that means I was busy all week prepping for it.

Branden, my cousin, and I raced with a friend and went on to take second place!

The boys chatting on the way back in from the race.

The flooded lake. It's hard on the boats because they aren't as protected from the waves, but it makes for some good sailing.

Climbing the mast to fix the rigging.

Unreal

Sometimes I sit back and can't believe where I'm at now. So many of my friends and family are married with kids or expecting, and I always thought I'd be one of them. Instead I'm (legally) single and pursuing a career. I expected I'd have 1-2 kids by the time I turned 23.

I remember when I was college I felt like graduation without marriage was a little bit of a failure. It's not that anyone told me that, but part of it was the perception of danger and risk knowing that I would be alone once I actually stretched my own wings and flew the coop (my family). What I've found is a strange world of freedom and little responsibility, and I get stressed every now and then with the thought of suddenly taking upon myself the responsibility of my family dreams and goals. Suddenly I will have a real tangible obligation, and I don't want to let my sweetheart down.

Little did I realize in college that I've never been alone, and graduation wouldn't change that. It was 4 years ago this month that I met Branden. We met on the lake. We slowly fell in love--though if you ask him, he ordered me out of a prayer, and would tell you that he went home the night we met and told his roommates that he wanted to marry me--thing is, he never told me that. I waited about a month for us to to drop the L-word, and 6 months after that for him to tell me he wanted to marry me.

Ever since the day we met (May 8, 2007), Branden has been there for me. Though the ups and the downs. Or when one of us was trying to force ourselves to let go. I don't think either of us ever completely let go. We always held onto that hope. The hope that we'd continue to receive the strength we found in one another.

I was living in New York the summer of 2010, but somehow it didn't seem complete without him. I guess it never did seem really whole without him.

And now the time has come for us to live our dreams. To let go of fears, and to enjoy the comfort and strength that is ours.

<3

Walmart

Ok, so I may be on a bit of a rant here, but I ran to Walmart today just to pick up a few things. If you know me, then you know that Walmart is pretty much my favorite store on the planet.... except since I moved here, I've never gotten through the line in less than 30 minutes. Yes, Walmart has great prices, but it's not exactly worth it if I can't get through the line. Every time, there are people stretched right to the edge of the clothes waiting for the cashiers who have no idea of what "fast" means. Unless my Walmart can do something about this, it might just lose me as a customer, which means I'll probably do all of my Walmart shopping online (I've loved everything I got on there), or on the weekends when I go to visit Branden. I'm not saying that there aren't certain times of the day where his Walmart has 30 minute lines, but at least those are at predictable hours and not just every time.

Grills and Blogs

Tonight Branden and I spent a quiet evening at (my) home. After a run to Pier 1 for a picture frame that I've had my eye for a week or two, we came back to my place and B offered to put together my new grill. I'm so lucky. We rounded the evening off with our favorite hot dogs and a round of blogging/reading.



The past few days have really been a challenge for us. So many things are up in the air right now with his job, and we're hoping to hear something back soon. It'll be interesting how it all pans out. I'm at a strange place right now. Although we aren't sure what the future has in store, I'm finally feeling settled down in my life in general. So much more now than I have for about the past year. I'm also back to reading blogs and it's just fantastic. Thanks to everyone who still posts on your blogs. I love getting to catch up on your lives (hopefully I don't seem stalkerish) but it's a great substitute for hanging out with everyone who's moved away, or who hasn't. The fact is that I don't do as good of a job now of spending time with you, but I cherish the 10 minutes I get to spending reading about your life. Good luck and keep on posting. Now, I'm going to hit the hay.

Night! (103 days)

The Challenge

I have finally decided what to do for my blogging challenge. I'm going to *try* to make one post a day for the remainder of my engagement (or at least until the week before the wedding).

I know there is so much to catch up on... and I'll post them, I promise I will, but I'll also save them for later and spend a little time now on updates. So far, we've booked our wedding venue, booked 2 reception sites, booked our caterer, bought the wedding dress, and booked my fitting.

Right now, I'm still freaking out over finding a photographer, printing my invitations, finding flowers, and a cake.

So... today is day 107, and you can expect to hear more about the craziness in the future!

100 Day Challenge

If life wasn't hectic enough already (planning a wedding, trying to find a place to live in 4 months, working full time, tyring to enjoy some summer, etc.), I think I'm going to start my own version of the 100 Day Blogging Challenge. Since I started working, it feels like I don't blog enough, but the more I try to chase down everyone else's blogs, the more I realize that this is rather common. My commitment is to blog once a week. Lets see if I can do it.

At Last!!!

So, as many of you know (if I even have anyone who follows me anymore), Branden and I got engaged the last weekend in January. Everything has been a whirlwind since then. Unfortunately, I'm not going to write about the engagement right now--I want more time so I can go into every detail! But, I will fill you in on what I've been doing since then.

The first weekend after we got engaged, I flew out to New York for some self-directed training at work. It felt so good to be back in the city again, and I can never visit without being so greatful for the friends that I made there. As much as it stunk not being with my fiance that first weekend, I can think of no other group of friends that I would have preferred to tell the story to over and over and over. And friends weren't the only amazing thing about my trip, but as always, I love our HQ building. It feels like a refuge of peace, in a city where the streets breathe energy, the building acts as the pefect siloh. It draws on the energy but provides the perfect working environment to keep going without over stressing. And then, there's the gym. I don't know why I love it so much, though probably b/c the locker room is nicer than my bathroom at home. I've even learned to love the smell of the cleaner that they use (because it always smells like cleaner, and never like sweat). But then again... there's always the added benefit of a few dropped pounds when you are able to go to the gym every day.

The next weekened I went wedding dress shopping with my cousin and my grandma. It was fantastic.... but there will be more on that to come.

Then, Feb 18th, Branden and I went to California for a friend's wedding. It was a fast weekend, but it was great getting to see his family. We stayed on their boat, and it felt so natural to be on the water again... even if it was raining when we got there. I do have two pieces of advice... If you are staying in Vegas, and have the choice of Treasure Island or the Flamingo.... coose Treasure Island. Also, if you want to try the seafood omlette at Margarittaville, just beware that it tastes mroe like shrimp and crab than eggs. Possibly not the best way to start a day. Be on the lookout for a better post about the trip in the future (and I'll do my best to actually follow up with that!!)

The weekend after Vegas, Branden, my coworkers, and I went night skiing at Brighton. It is such a good deal on Friday nights with the X96 Freeloader Card (now called the worker's union card). That only whetted my appetite for more.

This past weekend, Branden and I spent saturday on the slopes at Park City Resort. Compared to Brighton's night skiiing (and snow), I don't know if it would really be worth it. I'm sure if you're one of those people just hitting up the black diamonds, you would love it... but I'm just not there yet. So we stayed mainly on the Home Run.... yes it may be a giant Green, but I wanted to show B what my favorite run was when I was learning to snowboard in high school, and it's 3.2 miles long. We only had 3 hrs on the mountain!

Anyway.... that's all I have time for tonight... but be on the lookout for stories about my new photography class, laser hair removal, our California trip, and of course... last and never least... the ENGAGEMENT!!!

Have a good night everyone!

Sometimes I think I'd pay to have a housewife

Pay bills: check!
Pack for New York
Double check on accommodations in NY
Check up on parking ticket
Work out

Well....as you can see, I haven't made it very far into my weekly to-do list....and my Saturday morning is quickly ticking away, but I figured blogging would be a pretty decent use of my time.

The past two weeks have been insane at work. I've been training to cover a function that is currently run out of New York, and we've all had a few random days off on my team. I think the flu is hitting with a vengeance, and I just hope that I didn't introduce it to the team when I came back from Christmas. In any case, as I'm sure you can imagine.... suddenly life gets very busy when you have 2 people covering the work of 4. Still... it's worth it. I'm learning more and more about investment banking, and I feel so much more involved in the new fast-paced environment.

This past Wednesday, Branden and I went out to Park City for the Sundance Film Festival. We caught a movie about a map maker in Armenia. I enjoyed it, but if I had seen it at a regular theater I think I would have been irritated.... I think Branden even fell asleep. But the coolest thing about it, was that it was like taking a trip to Armenia, and I loved that.