Marital Bliss and Possible Change on the Horizon

It has been awhile since I have updated my blog...so here goes:

As of today I have been married for 3 weeks and it has been wonderful! The wedding was absolutely perfect. I wasn't stressed at all nor was anyone else. It was a day full of happiness and fun--just as I wanted it.

The honeymoon in San Antonio was wonderful as well. The weather was nice and cool the entire time we were there. Our hotel was right on the river walk and we had a beautiful balcony view from the 6th floor. We visited the Alamo, ate one night at the Tower of Americas, and just took it easy. It was so nice knowing the wedding was over--it was as if a heavy weight had been lifted off of me.

Now we are in the midst of getting the apartment all put together which is taking a little more time than we thought.

Yesterday Travis received some wonderful news. He has applied for podiatry school at the Dr. Scholl's School of Podiatry in North Chicago, IL. Yesterday he was asked to come up for an interview! He is incredibly excited as am I. I am super proud of him! He is hoping to go for the interview at the end of March or the first week in April. So I will keep everyone posted with the results of that interview.

Wedding Dreams

I started having dreams about the wedding all the way back in October. I had about 3 or 4 dreams all related to the same thing: it was the day of the wedding and we hadn't planned the ceremony at all. It was not a good feeling.

I've had two dreams this week that have been quite different from the previous dreams. In my first dream all the guests are seated, waiting for the wedding to begin and the bridesmaids are lined up at the front of the auditorium. The ceremony hasn't started but I am in there looking over things, I guess. I notice that two of the bridesmaids (who, in my dream are complete strangers but that doesn't seem to bother me) have "restyled" their dresses. The dresses are cut as short as they possibly can be without showing anything and there are many other holes cut out in the upper part of the dress. They are as hoochy as can be.

In my other dream the wedding ceremony has finished and everything went fine. It is time for the reception but apparently part of the food is late. So Travis tells the guests we need to wait just a little bit until the donuts (not really planning on having those at the wedding) arrive. Apparently my parents are the ones bringing the donuts. So I ask someone, "Were my parents at the ceremony?" No. "Was the wedding video tapped so they at least could watch it?" No. My parents missed me getting married?? Yup. And in the dream I started to cry.

I'm hoping soon I will have a happy wedding dream!

It Is Finished

Travis called me at work around noon to tell me that he and 3 others had moved my stuff to the new apartment. It is going to be weird to see my apartment empty. And tomorrow I get to start another "fun" project--cleaning the old place.

As of today we are down to 5 weeks to the wedding. Part of me freaks out a little when I think of that because there is still a lot to do and the other part is ok with it being 6 weeks away. I think both of us are ready to have it done.

January is a very busy month for us and will go by extremely fast. Here's what all we have going on:

1. This weekend: moving
2. Next weekend: Travis' friend's wedding & our shower in Lufkin
3. The next weekend: Shower at our church in College Station
4. The next weekend: Me--Bachelorette Party; Travis--travel to Abilene to take the MCAT

And in between those events I will work on finalizing wedding stuff.

Moving

Christmas went really well. I had one evening of stress when wedding stuff, Christmas shopping and packing to go to Abilene all crashed together. But I got through it with the help of Travis telling me to breathe. I had a wonderful time with my family and my extended family. I got to see my aunt, uncle and all of my cousins. This hasn't happened in a long time. I also got to see my cousin's 1 month old baby!

Tomorrow night (New Year's Eve) Travis and I are celebrating our Christmas. Because Travis had to be back to work the day after Christmas, we spent the holiday apart--he in Dallas and I in Abilene. Since we have the wedding coming up we decide instead of gifts we would have a nice date night where one person would pay for the dinner and the other for the movie.

I am off of work this week and it will be spent packing up the apartment. On Saturday my stuff will be moved into the apartment that Travis and I will live in. My apartment complex offered us a brand new, never been lived in apartment at a very resonable rent. We decided to move my stuff before things got too hectic with the wedding. Have I mentioned that I hate moving? I try my hardest to move as few times as possible. So it should be a very "fun" week!

Christmas...I have other things on my mind!

The momentous Thanksgiving went very, very well! The Crawford clan arrived at Travis' house around 1:30 to meet the Bodeker clan. Between the time of arrival to the time of dinner (around 6:00) we casually cooked the different parts of the meal and conversed with one another. Everyone hit it off! At dinner time we had 11 people seated around the table--Travis' roommate joined us since he had to work that day. Everything tasted wonderful and of course everyone was pleasantly filled.

A big part of my wishes that this year we could skip Christmas. I truly love Christmas--it is one of my favorite times of the year. However, I already have a pretty big event that is taking a lot of my time...and also some stress. I decided to forgo putting up any of my Christmas decorations. I will be moving into a new apartment right after Christmas so I don't feel like having extra items to pack up. I tend to put Christmas shopping off until close to the last minute and then I also want to try and get the perfect gifts for everyone. I would love to not mess with all of that this year.

Momentous Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Personally, it is very hard for me to believe it is Thanksgiving tomorrow. Something just doesn't seem right. I think a big part of it is the weather. I don't think it is suppose to be 80 degrees on the days leading up to turkey day. Also I have been so busy lately that I haven't been keeping track of the days.

This is a very special and important Thanksgiving. We are celebrating in College Station mainly because Travis has to work on thanksgiving day (the hospital doesn't close). But even more importantly this is the first time for our families to meet! My parents, sisters, and grandmother are coming down from Abilene and his parents are coming from Lufkin. We thought it might be good for them to meet before the wedding takes place :)

The meal will take place at Travis' house and we are hoping to borrow a table from church that will seat all 10 of us plus the glorious food!

I am really excited to have everyone together--it should be a very fun and eventful holiday!

Update

Here's what has been going on since my last post (ages ago--sorry):

* Last Monday I picked up my wedding dress--it is now in my closet and I look at it constantly.

* We have gone to 4 weeks of marriage prep class and we love it! We are learning so many wonderful ways to make a marriage last and grow.

* This next Sunday we have our first shower in Abilene--super exciting!

* The project for this month is ordering the invitations--whoo hoo!

Here We Go

And once again I have slacked off on the blog updating. Things are getting a little busier around here so it has been harder to keep up with even posting on a weekly basis. Wedding plans are going well--I'm not getting stressed out...yet. I am however realizing that my time is slowly but steadily becoming less and less. And once the holidays roll around time is going to start whizzing by. Travis and I remain productive by trying to make lists of things to do each week. Since my last post we have: bought our wedding bands (and placed them in a safety deposit box til the wedding), registered at Sear for tools, started Marriage Prep class at our church, begun buying decoration items, scheduled two good friends to play in the ceremony, and made plans for a shower in Abilene.

Also our engagement announcement should be in the Abilene paper this Sunday. So all you Abilenians reading this should be on the lookout for that!

Along with wedding plans work has become extremely busy. This past week my boss and I gave presentations to the Texas History classes at Blinn College. This is the one program I fret most about because the audience is anywhere from 2-6 years younger than me. It's a little more nerve racking than speaking to kids. Of course being out of the office for two days I had massive amounts of work waiting for me. I practically was on the phone all day Thursday booking tours and scheduling families for our Home School Day program. Whew! At least it made the days go by quickly.

So as the months progress I am trying to balance work, wedding planning, and social events. I definately am not bored!

The Abilene Girls

This weekend the Abilene girls (minus Anne) came down to College Station to hang out. We haven't all been together since Christmas so a get together was long over due. I got my boss to switch days with me so that I could hang out all day Saturday. Our time was mainly spent sitting around talking and catching up. Although we did enjoy some yummy food at Bennigins, Abuelos, and La Bodega (a local place I enjoy).

We also spent quality time playing the game Imagine If, watching Connie and Carla, and visiting some enjoyable stores. And at one of these said stores we found a little novelty that made the weekend unforgetable. At World Market Christy and I found this very odd cat figurine that was horrifying, amusing, and lovable all at the same time. We took some great pictues with Scary Cat. And I have decided to go back and buy him today after work and use him as my wedding mascot. I want to take him to showers (even if he is in concealment most of the time) and have someone take random pictures of him at the reception. Everytime I look at the picture of this cat I bust out laughing!

And here he is:

A Swatch...Is That Too Much To Ask?

For the past week and a half I have had the worst time trying to get a swatch from the place I am ordering bridesmaid dresses from. The color of the dresses is Indigo so it's not a normal color that can easily be matched. My main problem was that I kept talking to employees who didn't know all of the stores policies.

The first time I called and asked for a swatch the girl told me they only give out swatches for in-store use. What? Why would I need a swatch when I can look at the color right there in the store? So the next time I called I asked for the manager. She told me once one of my bridesmaids had ordered a dress I could get a swatch. So once I knew a bridesmaid had ordered a dress I called once more. I made sure to say "may I speak to someone about ordering a swatch" so that I wouldn't get the same girl I had before. Well, this girl told me right away "oh we don't do that". Usually I am a very nice, pleasant person on the phone but I decided it was time to get gruff. I told her that I spoke with the manager and they do give out swatches. She then told me to hold. When she came back on she asked me what color I needed. I told her the color and she immediately asked me to repeate it. She put me on hold for a bit and then came back and asked me to spell the color! I was amazed. And then to top it off she said "and you need that little piece of fabric, right?" I don't think she even knew what a swatch was! So after all of that I found out they can't mail it out to me. I will have to go to Houston some day next week.

I had decided if it came down to it I was either going to sneak my camera into the store and take a picture of a dress in the same color or Plan B--sneak in a pair of scissors and nonchalantly snip off an unnoticably piece of the dress.

Horrible Day!

Yesterday started and ended with things going wrong. For the past couple of nights I have had a hard time falling asleep--I toss and turn for at least 30 minutes. Well, I think it caught up with me yesterday morning. I usually snooze for 30 minutes, using my cell phone as my alarm. At one point I woke up and thought to myself, "It looks a little brighter in my room than normal." I looked at my phone and realized I sleeped 30 minutes longer than I should have. So then I went into crazy rush mode. Some how I got ready and was out the door at my normal time--I must have cut something out of my routine.

Everything went fine at work. I scheduled quite a few tours, talked with my co-workers, etc. No problems. Then it was time to go home. I was on the phone with my mom as I left Navasota and merged onto Highway 6. It was then that I felt the sluggishness of my car--I had a flat! So I quickly pulled over and got out to assess the damage. Of course it had to be the tire closest to the busy highway. I probably could have changed it myself but I was in a skirt and high heels and I was really afraid of getting hit by the whizzing cars. So I called Travis to help me--of course it was going to take him about 20 minutes to get out there. About 5 minutes after calling him a wonderful, nice man stopped and put my spare on for me. I was so grateful!

So I made my way back to College Station and planned to go to Wal-Mart to get the tire patched up. When I arrived the mechanic told me that they close at 7:00 but stop taking customers at 6:00--the guy in front of me was their last customer. I was so distrot. And nothing else was open. So I was going to have to wake up early and bring my car in at 7:00 the next morning. Grrr!

After all of that I was ready to get back to my apartment to cool of and relax. I got pretty nasty standing outside in the humid air. As I walk into the apartment I notice it's a little warm. The air conditioner was blowing but the thermometer read 80 degrees. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I just started to cry--and it really made me feel better.

This morning I got the tire fixed and I have a call into my apartment to fix the air conditioner. Let's hope that this day is filled with less surprises.

The Dreams Begin...

I remember back when I lived in RELM, my roommate Lauren began having dreams about her wedding a month or so before the big day. And not the best of dreams--dreams in which something went wrong. Well, Sunday night I had my first wedding dreams. I had two dreams that were very similar in that they both had to do with not being ready for the wedding. In one it was the day before the wedding and I was trying to get everything planned that day. In the other it was the day of the wedding and I was frantically calling to get flowers. I hadn't decided how the ceremony would go either. It was a huge mess!

My hope is that these dreams don't continue...they make me a little nervous.

Point and Shoot

This past Sunday Travis and I started the registration mania! We were so excited. Of course we really didn't think about the day we picked--Tax Free Weekend in College Station with new freshman getting settled in the dorms. Actually it wasn't bad at all--I guess the majority of them did their shopping on Saturday.

We went to Bed, Bath and Beyond to begin. We filled out all of our information and then picked out our dinnerware and flatware. We then were given the gun or I should say Travis was given the gun. He was so excited about it and I let him do all of the shooting. At one point he said "look at this"--He had the gun in his short's pocket and whipped it out in the true old western gun showdown style.

It was so fun to go around deciding what things we would want...and to know people would get them for us! We still have to register at Target and probably make another trip to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to finish and possibly change some choices.

Photos and Dresses

Robin came down this weekend to take our engagement pictures--quite exciting! Sunday after church and lunch we ventured out to 4 different spots for our well-posed pictures. I let Travis pick out the spots since he has been in College Station longer and I had no clue where to go. Of course all of our sights were outside and it was one of the hottest days we have had in awhile. I brought a towel along to dab the sweat inbetween pictures. We started off taking pictures at the Adminstration building on A&M campus. The front of this building has these huge white pillars. We then took some shots at the arches which have to do with the Corps--Travis really wanted to get some pictures there. The next place was the Century Tree which is this very old tree on campus. The branches have become so large that they droop to the ground. I love this tree and was really glad we used it for our pictures. The last place we went was the George Bush Museum. Behind the museum there is a pond--we took pictures on the bridge and under the trelaces. We also got a fun picture of Travis pretending to throw me in the pond. I'm really excited to see how the pictures turned out!

On Monday I traveled to the Houston area to check out some bridesmaid dresses. I have been looking online at all kinds of dresses and the only place I really liked was Alfred Angelo. I picked a really cute tea length dress in the color Indigo (darker blue). Now I have to tell my bridesmaids about it and figure out how to get the dresses ordered.

Sick of Being Sick

Well, I am back at work after being out for a whole week due to illness. Two Saturdays ago (Aug. 4) I felt really funny at work. When I got home I just layed on the couch all evening feeling yucky. I had a horrible cough and drainage and Travis was pretty sure I had a fever. I decided to rest for Sunday and Monday, hoping the sickness would be gone by my Tuesday work day. But it didnt work. I still felt horrible and had a fever. On Sunday night I woke up twice during the night and dry heaved--not a fun experience.

On Tuesday Travis took me to the doctor. The doctor couldn't find any signs of sinus problems. When he listened to my chest he found the problem--I had bronchial pneumonia! So I was given an expensive medication and an expensive cough medicine (that tastes horrible). I was stuck on the couch for the rest of the week.

I think my body was trying to tell me that I have been trying to do too much too quickly for the wedding. For only being engaged 3 weeks I have quite a bit done. I'm just trying my hardest to have it all done so I'm not stressed right before the wedding.

So far I have:

* A date picked
* A place for the wedding/reception/rehersal dinner
* The officiant picked
* Attendents picked
* Colors and theme picked
* My dress purchased
* Photographer lined up
* Wedding cake person picked out
* Honeymoon spots narrowed down
* Engagement pictures taken
* Bridesmaid dresses picked out

I think I'm doing ok--since I have 6 months till the wedding.

The Dress

I know some of you will think this is crazy but I already have my wedding dress!

Once I got engaged I began looking online at all the dresses. I looked all over and saw one at David's Bridal that I really loved over all the other I had seen. My family came into town on Thursday for a little vacation time. So on Saturday we dropped my dad and sisters off at the Woodland's Mall while my mom and I went to David's bridal.

I didn't know how things worked there and that it is better to set up an appointment to try on a dress. But we were fine with waiting because we knew we hadn't followed the correct procedure. I tried the dress on and loved it! I went ahead and had the alterations done and go back to try it on at the end of October!

It's nice to have that major choice taken care of...now to tackle the other 350!

The Proposal

Over the next 7 months I believe my blog will be turned into Stories/Updates from Wedding Central. Most of you who read my blog already know that on July 22nd Travis and I got engaged. This first post will discuss how it happened and my reactions.


From Thursday through Monday Travis and I were on our vacation weekend. We had planned to visit his grandmother in Dallas, his grandparents in San Angelo, and then my parents in Abilene. On Sunday, the day of the proposal, Travis had an upset stomach from the moment he woke up. He thought it was because of his allergies but he came to find out it was from nervousness--it ended right before he proposed.

When we got to Abilene we had dinner with a friend who attends A&M but lives in Lubbock. The story I was told was that she and her mom were in visiting her brother but I found out later that she was only here to help with the engagement. At one point during dinner Travis had to go back to the car to get his wallet. He took quite awhile but said he was putting his camera in a safer place. In actuality he was putting stuff in Kim's car.

After dinner we had planned to go up to ACU to take pictures of the Jacob's Ladder sculpture. After the pictures we went for a little walk around campus. When we were behind the Science building Travis' phone beeped saying he had a text message. He told me it was a telemarketer which I believed and didn't think anything else of it. It actually was Kim telling Travis she had everything ready. He then said he wanted to try to get some other pictures of the statue with the sun setting so he started to walk faster. Before going back to the statue he wanted to stop off at the ampitheater. As we got closer I noticed there were rose petals leading to the ampitheater. I said to Travis "I wonder why those are there." He said I don't know. It never entered my mind that it was for me--I thought the camp kids had done something out there.

When we reached the front of the ampitheater I knew what was coming. I saw a ring of rose petals and little bags filled with sand and tea lights. Travis got down on one knee and proposed. I hardly remember what I was saying during it--but he told me that I kept saying "oh my goodness" over and over...and then I said yes! It was kind of like one of those out of body experiences or that I can't believe this is happening to me moments. While we were hugging the campus police drove by, flipped his siren, and said congrats--not a planned event but a very nice touch. Kim and her mom came out of hiding, hugged and congratulated us and then took some wonderful pictures of us.

The reason I didn't expect this at all was because for the past few weeks Travis has mentioned that once he had the money he would be buying me a ring. So I thought it wouldn't be for awhile. The truth was that he had had a ring for over a month and a half. Also the last time we were in Abilene (about 3 weeks ago) he had asked my parents permission while I was taking a nap!

The wedding will be February 16th at our church in College Station. And I have already begun the crazy planning!

One Year

This past weekend was filled with a whole lot of fun--mainly girl time! On Friday Travis headed to Conroe to spend some time with his brother. So I hung out with some of the girls from our GAP class at church. The plan was to go to a place called Margarita Rocks for some free salsa dance lessons--who would pass that up? Beforehand we decided to watch some dance movies to get us in the mood. We watched some of Fame (a little slow so we stopped it) and Stomp the Yard (mainly just the cool dance segments). The lessons were very enjoyable. Since there were 4 of us girls we paired up--not really wanting the ackward random guy dance (also I promised Travis I wouldn't). After the lessons we sat back and watched the awesome couples and the women dancing on skinny stiletto heels. We did get asked twice to dance, once by a man who didn't speak english. My new plan is to take Travis there some Friday night and cut a rug!

On Sunday Travis and I celebrated our one year of dating! It is the weirdest feeling--it doesn't seem like it has been long enough to be a year and yet it feels like I have known Travis for much longer. This is the longest relationship I have ever been in and the most wonderful! We spent the day at the movie theater--something I have never done before. We first saw Harry Potter then went out and bought tickets for Transformers. Both were very enjoyable. And we finished it off with a nice dinner at Chili's. It was a wonderful day spent with a wonderful man!

Summer Catch Up

I use to be so good at this blog thing--everyday I would have a new post. Well, here is a quick update on things that have happened in the life of EC:

About two weekends ago Travis and I headed to Abilene to hang out with the gang, my family, and Robin! Travis was a real trooper that weekend. On Friday night he endured spending time at a house full of girls, jibber-jabbering about a lot of girl stuff. Saturday was filled with all kinds of wonderful enjoyments. We started off with a huge swim day. The hightlights included fantastic burgers, swimming pool baseball, and Travis, Stev, Mark, and Curtis doing crazy dives in the pool. That evening we had dinner at Los Arcos--a major Abilene favorite. We then played some fun Wii games and of course Catch Phrase at Hannah's. Sunday was more leisurly spent with the family. It included a home cooked lunch (haven't had that in awhile), birthday celebration, and a lovely Sunday nap. On Monday my sisters, Travis, and I ventured into the mini "flood" that hit Abilene to see the movie Ratatouille. And then after a few quick errands we were on our way back home.

Last Wednesday we had the big Fourth of July celebration at work. Everything went well. Thankfully it didn't rain too much that day so we were still able to have the fireworks. Travis came out after he finished work (we both have jobs that don't close on holidays). We had foot long corn dogs for supper and then picked up our free coke and blue bell ice cream! We didn't get back to College Station until 10:30--mainly because we helped pick up the chairs. I was very glad to have the next day off!

After this Saturday I will be off for 2 weeks! Travis and I have a trip planned for next weekend to meet his grandmother/Corp buddies in Dallas; then we will go to San Angelo to meet his other grandparents; then we will make a stop off in Abilene; and then head back to College Station.

VBS Mania

Whew--the past three days have been a bit of a whirlwind what with work and then VBS until 9:00 at night. But I had so much fun! I knew the vast majority of the kids in my group which was very helpful. I'm pretty sure we had one of the largest classes--16 the first night. The first night our group went to see the drama skit that Travis was in--it was hilarious! I got great pictures and 2 video clips: one of Poptiphar's wife chasing Joseph around (the kids thought this was so funny) and the other of Joseph and Pharoah (our preacher) singing a song. I was so proud of him! By Wednesday night word had got around about the skit and quite a few church members came up just to see it.

At the end of the first evening Travis came to my classroom; I was still waiting for a few kids to be picked up. One of the boys starred at Travis and then he whispered to another boy "look it's Joseph." Then he covered his name tag and asked Travis what his name was. I snuck behind Travis and whispered his name. Travis then picked him up, did a little shake, and said his name. The little boy had a look of amazement. He asked Travis "how did you know that?" Travis told him that he dreamed it!