Hello House!

As if planning a wedding weren't enough, FH and I decided to buy a house. THIS HOUSE. Cute right? OK, I'm a little partial to it.

Well, I've learned a few things about buying a house, our first house...together.

1. Buying a house is like on line dating. Looks good in the pictures, but then you actually get there, and the view all around your yard is of a huge parking lot, or Bob's auto store. Kind of like your first blind date - looks good in the pictures...but then you meet and you realize the picture posted of said date is from 1996. (Good thing I met FH through a friend!)

2. Buying a house is like shopping for a wedding gown, just a lot more expensive. Like they say, you try on a lot of dresses, but when you find the one of your dreams, you just know it. When FH and I walked into this house, we just knew it was for us.

3. The house, like the wedding gown, needs a few alterations. And that costs money. What I find funny is, I need to have my wedding gown altered, and I can get an estimate on how much that might cost, but I won't know until they pull it apart and put it back together. Well, that's kind of like the repairs we need to do to the house. We know we can get an estimate from the contractor, but we won't know the true cost until the job is done.

4. What I do know is this, I still love my wedding gown, and I still love this house. Alterations and repairs included!

5. Trust - I've learned to not have to control everything and trust my FH to help me make the decisions, and to make decisions for our future on our own. We have survived with hardly a fight...we should get married!


6. We imagine entertaining in this house (great back yard and kitchen) with friends and family. But the funny thing we can't wait for is to see how our two kitties will be running around with all this space!! We imagine they will get lost in the house and we'll be calling them for days. I'm sure they will be off exploring something somewhere!

As the process goes along, I'm sure I'll learn a lot of new house terms, like joints, and lally's (yeah, look that one up). Kind of like I learned what ruching was for a wedding dress....

Weather Porn

Yup, you read that right, weather porn. I obsess over the weather to the point where my FH started announcing when the weather was on the news and pausing it on the DVR by saying "WEATHER PORN IS ON".

We all look at the weather for various reasons. Headed to NYC for the day, do I need an umbrella? What shoes should I wear? NFL Football game, 70* the by day, 50* by days end...hmmm, wear lots of layers.

Vacation - shorts, long pants, sweatshirts, tanktops, which shoes, what coat?
Once I know where I'm going when, the 10 day forecast is up. Will there be thunderstorms? Train or Fly?

When we get into these transition months, Aug to Sept, Summer to Fall, you have to be prepared for all sorts of weather.

These past 3 days have been rainy rainy rainy. I said goodbye to Oregon over 8 years ago, and feel like where I am now I've been transported back to Oregon. Grey and Rainy. Just like Oregon. When I first moved here, I would go out with a gortex, no umbrella, and laugh at people who complained because it was grey and raining for only one day. Now, 8 years later, I am one of these people. I guess a zebra can grow spots.

Now I'm obsessing about Saturday's weather. My very good friend is getting married, and I want nothing but sunshine and perfect weather. According to the 10 day forecast, she will have 80* as a high, sunny, and 55* (or there about) for a low. PERFECT.

So, I'll keep watching weather porn and hope that my wedding day next year will be just as perfect. Too bad I can't pull up the 280 day + forecast!

Musical Chairs

My commute into work takes me anywhere from 25-45 minutes depending on traffic. My 2008 Honda Accord has XM Radio (12 stations), 6 CD Changer, FM -1, FM-2, AM, and an AUX plug for my ipod.

And, there is nothing on. Nothing. Station 1 - 6 on XM, keep clicking. What's in CD 6? Oh yea, haven't changed that CD out in awhile. I calculated that there are over 224 options/stations/cd's I can listen to at any one given time. How can there be SO MANY options, and yet nothing is on. There is always the ipod, but can't plug that in while driving...I'm driving!

Music, like books, movies or TV is subjective. It all depends on your mood. Need to wake up in the morning? Lady Gaga or U2. You might say AC/DC. Need to relax and get rid of the headache? Sade, Enya. You might say John Mayer....the list goes on and on.

I learned an interesting fact this weekend. At a wedding, you might have anywhere from 1.5 hours to 3 hours of music. That translates to approximately 21-45 or 50 songs. THAT's it! Hard to believe right? I guess I just think it's funny that I grew up with FM radio, 8 tracks and records, cassettes and finally CD's. Now, the magic of the ipod gives me too many options. I have 4200 songs in my itunes library. Guaranteed if I hit "random" I wouldn't know even half of them.

I'm not sure how to end this blog, so I'll leave it at wondering if you have experienced the same thing.

My Signature, My Name

What's in a name? It identifies you from the day you are born. As soon as you learn how to write your letters, the first thing you learn is how to write your name. It's a part of you from almost the second you enter this world.

Today my FH and I decided on the DJ and the Florist. Busy wedding day. While we were enjoying our lunch, my FH says to me "I've been practicing signing your last name, just in case". For the last 2 months, I've been struggling with signing my new last name. Don't forget, I'm older than most brides and have been signing my name for a good 10+ years longer than most people did since they got married. It's not easy to break a 30+ year old habit in 11 months. So he signed, I signed. I signed again. He tried to give me lessons on how to sign his last name..."You just leave out all those letters, and finish with the e".  Yeah, right, you go back to signing MY last name...you try leaving it behind and saying goodbye to your name.

A lot of newly engaged brides go through this question and answer. There are articles in every magazine and website. Do you hyphenate, do you drop your middle name, do you even take your FH's last name? It becomes the topic of conversation in the office, dinner with friends.

So, I decided about 6 weeks ago, drop my middle name. I don't really like it anyway. Keep my last name and add his. So, JAH, will become JHM - wow I had to think about that. Maybe in the next 30+ years I'll finally feel comfortable with my new name. So, goodbye comfortable signature, hello new signature. I might start signing my WHOLE name, yup all 3, and then maybe in a few years it will trim down to first and last. Decisions decisions. Guess I'll keep on practicing!

The Wedding Gown

No, that picture is not of my wedding dress. Can't have FH seeing it online, but I had to get your attention somehow!

Yesterday, I said HELLO to my new wedding dress. Fresh from the dry cleaners. I bought it at a place called VOWS (www.bridepower.com). I call it the TJ Maxx for wedding dresses. Beautiful designer, and I mean designer gowns for over 50% off! People from all over the country come here to find their perfect dress. My friend and I went here about 3 weeks after I got engaged. She said to me: "Are you ready to buy a dress tonight?!" I was skeptical of course - only my 2nd shop, was I really going to find one? We started pulling dresses like it was nobody's business!! And there it was, my dress.
Some people say they cried, some people said they didn't. Some people say they go in with one idea, and end up buying a totally different dress. I cried. I bought 80% of what I thought I would get, and I love it. 2 months later, I still love it. I still look at bridal magazines and I can't find one dress I like better than mine. No buyer's remorse here!

So, when I picked it up yesterday, and held it in my arms, I cried again. It is probably the most tangible thing about a wedding other than your FH and your ring. It's what makes getting married real and beautiful.

One day next year I'll have to take it off for good and say goodbye to it...or will I? Remember that Friends episode where all the girls are sitting in front of the tv with popcorn? The one where they are all in their wedding dresses? My girlfriends and I are planning that day together - sometime after my wedding. We'll get to say hello to our dresses one more time. And maybe we'll cry again...probably with laughter!