3 years ago today

it's 12:37 am. i should have been in bed eons ago.  but let's be honest--does one ever sleep the night before what is to be the biggest day of your life? i mostly doubt it.

3 years ago in August, a cute boy came into my equipment room, never said two words, just grinned stupidly while he picked up his equipment. I came home from working football practice.  it was the first night in the history of the world i had come home and OUT LOUD mentioned that i thought a boy was cute.  he had blonde hair and blue eyes and a big goofy grin.  after mom's shock was over, she told me that it might be best not to date someone in the middle of season just in case things didn't work out.....5 days later i woke up to a text message from a number i didn't recognize, from a boy oh so excited to have found my number.

3 years ago on September 16th, 2009. a black jeep followed me home from football practice at 7pm.  my heart nearly jumped out of my chest when i realized it was actually following me into my driveway.  and in it was that blonde haired blue eyed boy, with a big goofy grin on his face.  and he asked me to kiss him. i was so scared and nervous that i avoided it for what felt like ten years, then i finally gave in and swiped my lips across his in less than .02 seconds and quickly ran away like a fool.  the next week i watched a football game at his house.  he took another girl to homecoming and my heart nearly broke. then a few weeks later i began to wonder if i wasn't just a game to him. but i wasn't. cause...

3 years ago on November 4th, 2008, in the parking lot outside of the rockin r ranch after a varsity football banquet, that same blonde haired, blue eyed boy with that cute goofy grin walked me to my car.  told me i was beautiful. and before he closed the door of his jeep, he said the words, "I love you." and drove away.

3 years ago on November 22nd, at a giant 18th birthday bash in my yard, that sweet blonde haired, blue eyed boy brought me pink roses. with a card that read, "someone like you only happens once in a lifetime"

3 years ago, the day after Thanksgiving, I woke up to a text from that blonde haired boy telling me what he thought of me and how we should grow old together.

and

3 years ago today, on December 1st, that same blonde haired, blue eyed boy, with that silly, irresistible grin, sat me down on the couch in the living room of his mom's house and said, "i know the next 6 months will be uncertain, and we may be far away at colleges next year, but would you be willing to take a journey with me to see where it leads? will you be my girlfriend?"

and

here we are, 3 years later on the same day.  again ready to start a new uncertain journey together. the last few years have brought many changes and challenges, many blessings and opportunities.  and i know this new journey will be the same-but this time it is a little bigger, and i get to be the wife :)

I love you Joshua Zahn.  I love our crazy life, where we have been, and where we are going.  I am so proud to be your wife and share another whirlwind journey with you on a grander scale than before.  I am excited to take on this new challenge with you by my side, and to know that as we discover our journey this time, we will be doing it united as one.

Today I will marry my prince charming and begin a new life with my very best friend.  It may be a crazy life, but it will be a wonderful one, and it will be ours.  A life full of love. A life full of laughter.  Everyday. :)


xoxo,
Aly

insert creative title here....

it is technically wayyyyy past my bedtime..... and i have yet to post pictures of the house....oops. the good news is however that i FINALLY found the camera charger! HOOORAY!  josh's ring is in, my dress is picked up, our cruise documents are printed. i need a bathing suit.... but thats another story. i royally sucked at my diet and keeping up with the new meds i'm supposed to take. super great since i have a follow up in 4 days. ughhh. there has been so much stress and crap and drama that i'm just ready to be done right now. that sounds so awful and depressing, but it is what i feel. hopefully tomorrow will be a much better day and a great start to the week!  i will soon have pictures. really. it will happen.

much loves but i'm going to sleep now......if i ever get sleep between now and december first i will consider it nothing short of a miracle!

Invites, Countdowns and Missing Camera Chargers......

Okay so i totally left everyone hanging on that last post. SUPER apology. please accept it.  let me just give you a quick rundown of how the whole "share the big news thing" really went down.

So I posted that the day before we had a scheduled appointment to sign our closing docs. I probably single-handedly jinxed us, but i like to blame it on josh's brother chris who kindly texted us as we entered the appointment saying something along the lines of "hopefully you have no curveballs!". good job chris.  we got there at 4. waited til 8, finally signed docs sometime after 8 (which consequently meant that we couldn't watch chris's kids for the evening-that'll show him! just kidding jihae- we love your husband and your kids and we still feel super bad for not watching them that day!)  so anyway, docs were signed and we were supposed to get a call the next day for our keys............3 days later on friday at 4 pm we got the call that we officially owned the house.  i will let you guess how those three days full of phone calls went. you can imagine it well i'm sure.  SO ANYWAY..........we are home owners!! josh moved into the house the first weekend of october, despite the fact that we had no appliance and only one working sink. but no biggy.  a boy can survive just fine with his dog and a dorm fridge!  last week we officially got all the appliances, brand new faucets for the sink and finished building the table and the entertainment center.  it is all starting to come together quite nicely!
in the middle of all of this, i somehow found time to send invitations out nearly a week late. successful i know.  at least they are out people!  life is a little hectic right now!  the good news is, that everyone has their assigned jobs now, everything is all in order, invites are out, and life is good!  so now we are officially done, we just have to get to the wedding week and all will be well!
i promised some folks some pictures of the new house..........i fully intended to have them in this post.......i cleaned up the house too, vacuumed, dusted, put all the boxes away neatly, put dishes in cupboards and picked up the dog toys daisy conveniently spread across the living room floor. and i was pleased with the effort despite the fact that the dog brings in massive amounts of dirt on a second by second basis. and then i learned that my camera battery is at 4%. and we cannot find the charger anywhere. and the only other camera we have is a 5 mega pixel and will not provide us decent photos.........so please bear with me.  it is most likely in one of the last few boxes i have left to move
from my parents house to our new house.  i must say, as nice as it is to almost have our house in order, it is becoming increasingly difficult to live out of two houses and try to remember which house contains what.....only 5 more weeks tho! thank goodness!  and i promise some pictures will arrive as soon as i can find the blasted charger!

65 days and counting

We are SO close to the 2 month mark people! I am beyond thrilled right now-but SO ready for the wait to be over lol.  Not that anyone really cares, but I have to tell you anyway because it excites me.
I have checked off a TON of stuff in the wedding to do list this last month!  We are SO close to being 100% done with it that I could throw a party!
Here is my list of accomplishments:

• Bridesmaid dresses ordered (plus one extra)
• Meeting with Michelle from idoparties to finalize plans. (she's amazing check her out please www.idoparties.blogspot.com)
• Ordered boys bright blue socks
• fitted everyone for vans
• after 4 failed attempts for the vans i originally wanted, we came up with a new planand ordered a total of 17 vans, half from the store and half delivered to my door step-FOR FREE. yes.
• ordered unnecessary "mrs. zahn" hanger for photos. i love it, so everyone can stop asking me why. because i said so and i can and it was on sale on etsy and i got 2 dollar shipping and because my photographer will do something super cool with it, kapeesh?
• found super amazing thank you gifts and bridesmaid gifts on etsy
• ordered said amazing gifts
• ordered matching necklaces for my girls (again from etsy, love that place)
• ordered shrugs for dresses
• ordered 2 boxes of wedding sparklers, got FREE shipping, and gave half of one box to Lindsey and Michael Carter for their wedding
• handmade 35 ceremony and 235 reception invites with Tracy, Lynn, Mom, Emily and Nicole while they boys had a "play date" with guns in the desert. it took us 8 hours, but those girls are awesome
• scheduled my dress fitting despite the fact that i majorly failed at working out and will probably be to big for the durned tiny dress in 2 weeks. don't judge me. i went on vacation. then halloween started advertising and there is a stupid candy bucket on my desk. i have no self control. i have since realized i picked a super terrible time to plan a wedding if i wanted to be smaller not bigger. halloween, 4 birthdays, bridal showers, thanksgiving, wedding, christmas. holy food and excess poundage. ugh
• found blue sprinkles for dessert bar
• picked more desserts to finalize menu for dessert bar
• found a projector for the wedding video
• finished a folder of pictures to be dumped in said wedding video
• ALMOST finished the wedding website where all people will rsvp and find registry information. talk about ridiculousness. i still have to input the entire guest list before the invites depart my humble abode, that may take me a week, literally.
• ordered an amazingly hilarious sign for our guest book table (again from etsy. yes i realize it is a terrible habit okay? it's not over yet tho, i have super huge plans for my money and that website....)
• talked to Kalea Taylor about wedding flowers, she is super awesome and designed a bouquet far better than my original idea. AND it includes bling. i'm in heaven. oh and i get a zebra ribbon. take that.
• found a scrapbook for our guest book-and my cousin Lynn is going to help me make it if i can ever get to Tucson! such a sweetie!
• WE FOUND OUR FIRST DANCE SONG. this is a big deal okay? it's been in debate. but we found the most perfectest one ever. now we just need to fill two more hours with music lol thank goodness we meet with Joey tomorrow to discuss dj-ing business.
• MOM found the most perfect necklace and got it for 4 dollars because she used her super kohls cash. i just said one day, i think i want a pendant like "insert my description during convo here" and she nailed it AND saved super big money. solid
• found a picture of a hairdo i would like. sick.
• scouted out jewelry shops for josh's ring-which we will be buying this next month for sure because i feel as if we are already WAY behind in that.. no biggy. can be handled.

as for now, that is all i can come up with off the top of my little noggin.

hate to leave you with a cliff hanger but i'm going to.........tomorrow i have a HUGE story to tell you. and hopefully lots of pictures!  Joshua booger wouldn't let me tell you so you have to settle for this sad little wedding countdown list instead. forgive me. i promise tomorrow will be worth it.
xoxo

DOUBLE DIGITS

We have finally hit the double digit stage of our wedding countdown!  Yes, 99 days does sound long, but not nearly as long as the 234 we started at!  I am ready for it to be here even though everyone tells me its about to be stressful.  I don't feel like it will be, in fact i think it will be fun since we have everything in order and everyone has assignments.  And in all honesty, I'm tired of waiting.  I'm ready to be out-and yes i know its a lot of responsibility and it isn't all a picnic............tell me what i don't know.  We are in the process of buying a house. it is incredibly stressful and nerve wracking.  and i feel like people i don't know are living in my bank accounts-literally. they are money sucking leeches too and i don't even have the dang house yet.  hopefully soon. it is a beautiful 3 bed 2 bath fairly close to gilbert and in a gated community.  it has just enough yard miss puppy can play and we can still do a little teeny tiny bit of landscaping-like really teeny tiny, but it's much better than most of what we have seen!  in all honestly i am uneasy about it at this point- we were looking just over 5 weeks, our agent found it at 1130pm, we saw it next day, completely bank owned, put on offer in, beat 4 other offers, the call came through that they accepted our offer while we were on vacation, all the paperwork was done for the loan before we even got the executed documents, the inspection came back with all things fixable by even me, and it only needs landscaping and a few ceiling fans. seriously, right now its all too surreal, its too good to be true or something. i'm a paranoid psycho right now-i cannot even explain. pray for it all to go well from here please!
puppy is doing good-she weighs in at more than 50 pounds now and has hit the 6 month mark, we had her spayed last month and she seemed to do well-let me tell you it is not easy to keep a cone on a lab puppy, nor is it easy to keep her from running, jumping, hopping, playing, moving......we are glad that those two weeks are over!
last week we got the opportunity to go to spokane, washington to visit josh's uncle rob and his girlfriend rhonda. it was a good time, it was so nice to be away from home for a little while, and spokane is beautiful and green and COOL. we even got to go to a theme park in idaho (which is where i gave the go ahead to purchase a house......yes i bought a house on vacation, i'm awesome)  i super sucked at taking photos this go round, wish i would have tho.  too bad cause it was so pretty, i was just so enjoying relaxing that i didn't even think about it!  but i did learn how to make homemade rolls, bread and cinnamon rolls- it was awesome. i am so using it so i become the ultimate house wife-i am determined to learn to make much from scratch!
today we bought the runner for the yard-and we did flowers with miss kalea taylor-they are going to be so much better than i thought, she can get everything whole sale because she is that awesome and when you get it wholesale you can get anything you want at anytime of year and even though daisies are not in season in december. kalea is my new favorite. we will have beautiful beautiful flowers-and they will have bling- i am so excited! 99 days could come a little faster please!

life update.

WARNING: this post contains a major complain-a-thon in roughly 50% of the post. yes i know thats negative. but its necessary. and i can't even have a full vent cause this is public and i can't monitor who reads it all the time. that being said, sometimes life is just rather sucky. the last few weeks are definitely that way. so please pray for the family since thats who needs it more than me right now.
on the upside, Chase FINALLLLYYYYY came back with our preapproval on a home loan yesterday. after 3 1/2 weeks. yes 3. they said it took 3 days max. but she forgot about us. annoying. BUT we have preapproval so home hunting is about to begin. i am hopeful that we will find something we can stay in a while with the way the market is and will probably stay.  but we will see. only time will tell. maybe we'll get super lucky and be in by september (only downside of that is i gotta pay bills much sooner than i was hoping for, but at least we'd have a roof and be nearly settled by the time december rolls around!).
Josh and I also went to Verizon this last week and created our own phone plan, another expense i didn't want to take on early, but it is boosting his credit score and we caught the last 2 days of the unlimited data plan deal. sweetness. and i have a lovely new android phone that i am currently much in love with since it operates so much better than my blackberry. in fact i think i might even figure out how to blog on that thing cause i could directly upload pictures. that would be glorious since i never seem to have my own computer any more. (and yes i know i have still failed to upload engagements, life is busy. ugh)
last week we also ordered his tux for the wedding. he will look rather dashing and handsome i do believe. he picked it all out himself (i'm not so sure im a fan of the bow tie yet, but maybe he will convince me).  i also had a make up trial with amber and i have a hair appointment with Lindsays hair dresser next week. she sounds awesome, if she is i will give you her number.
our daisy girl is doing well-minus the bladder infection she has had the last week. that was oh so fun, not. at least we only have 6 more days of meds, and hopefully she'll quit waking up to go out at 530 every morning so that i don't die of exhaustion. (i promise to post pictures of her too.)
our save the dates went out last week-well most of them, minus those few that have come back because people failed to give me apartment numbers or to tell me they moved last month lol. but its all good, they come out pretty!  and michelle is coming this week to look at the house. so we will officially be done after that. how lovely! i will post a picture of the save the date since not everyone got one, i only sent them to those out of state (sorry!).
alrighty, i'm at my desk so i should probably get to work since i still have 3 boxes of papers to put in the file drawers and probably about a million other activities. have a lovely wednesday!

busy busy busy

well things are crazy as usual!  between starting classes and moving into a new office, babysitting, premarital counseling, work and a new puppy, we are non-stop around here!  at least it is helping time to go by a little faster since lately with all of our wedding planning done its feeling more like 20 years!  we had cake tasting the other night with mandy (she's amazing check her out- sassycakesaz.blogspot.com). and i cannot WAIT to have her cake for our wedding. seriously, i need an excuse to have her make one before then because it was AMAZING. and i need more. which is totally not a good way to think since i should be working on a wedding diet and bikini ready bod for summer, wedding and cruise.....ugh. anywayyyyys, we have a new puppy, her name is daisy, i should post pictures since she's a freaking giant, but i'm 4 weeks late on this post anyway, so lets just at least get this up and i'll give you an update on that later, promise. we are waiting to hear back on preapproval for a home loan so keep your fingers and toes crossed it comes back decent so we can get a decent loan and house, very soon! we are rolling on the final stages of wedding business, we have a tux appointment, make-up and hair trial all in the next week, i'm ordering the girls dresses this week and i scheduled my alterations. whew. good to have it almost done.  we went to the bridal expo about a week ago. mom and i had a blast, and we were oh so thankful that we did not come intending to plan a wedding then and there, i tell you it was an overwhelming mess for those of us who just came to play, i can't imagine what it would be like if you had NEVER done any planning and intended to pick all your vendors right there that very day. NO THANK YOU. but it was still fun and i found lots of cool stuff to look at!  we also had engagement photos taken nearly a month ago by miss nicole burt.......i suck since i havent posted anything about it or put any pictures up yet, again i apologize.  but totally check out Nicole Ann Photography on Facebook, or her website which is nicoleannphotography.com we are very excited that she will be shooting our wedding since we had so much fun with her for engagements!  and shes an awesome price for her pictures! oh and i am sending out some save the dates this week, for those of you out of towners, you will be getting those sometime this week if i can ever get a chance to drive by a mailbox.......which reminds me i need to get my butt moving on a passport, especially since we have 3 payments left on our cruise and we are done! yay!  okay enough of this jumbled mess cause its all too much word vomit, there's not even chaotic order to it.  blah, i hate that.  guess i really need to get a routine going and add blogging to my daily list of doing better.....like that wedding workout and taking the dog out for a run.....peace out loves!