NJ Here I Come!!!!

On the eve of GFC supposedly disappearing... I say supposedly because as much as I have heard rumors that it is disappearing I have heard an equal amount of rumors saying that this isn't true... I am headed Home Sweet Home to New Jersey for one of my bff's bridal showers.  Can't wait to get home and I promise I will update after the weekend.

Until then, make sure to follow me on bloglovin' in case GFC does actually disappear!!

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Happy Friday!!!!!!

While this week has been fairly stressful for me and has not been the best week ever, it is Friday and there is a lot to be happy and thankful for this week despite the stress and downsides.  So I decided to share with you, my blogger friends, what I am particularly happy and thankful for this week...

I am super happy because... MY WEDDING DRESS ARRIVED FROM BARCELONA!!!!!  In case you can't tell I'm just a bit excited about this piece of information.  I am however quite sad that I have like zero time in the upcoming weeks to go try it on again... but never fear friends, I will find a way to try it on soon!!

This is me in one of the dresses I tried on... not THE dress because I don't want MD to see it til the wedding day, but this just gives you an idea of me as a bride

I am happy/thankful because... I was able to find a day of wedding coordinator to make sure that our wedding runs smoothly.

I am happy because... I am heading home to NJ on Sunday for one of my bff's bridal showers and for a little quality time with my parents.

Me & my bff AP, the lovely bride to be

Parents celebrating our engagement... can't wait to see them and spend some time with them

I am super happy because... the fiance has booked our honeymoon and although I still don't know where we are going I do have travel dates! Yes I know I am CRAZY for letting him surprise me with a honeymoon... but I feel like after being together for almost 7 years he knows me well enough now that he can plan an awesome trip for us.

I am happy because.... I stumbled upon something in the blogger world called "Carabox" and I am SUPER EXCITED to have signed up and to participate in this!

I am super thankful because... I seriously have some of the best friends in the world.  Despite this being a stressful week so many of my girlfriends where here for me to try and make it better.

I am super thankful because... I have an AMAZING fiance who when I had some sort of stomach bug (or stress induced stomach problem day) he went to the store to get bendy straws for my ginger ale because bendy straws make everything better.

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I am happy because... Spain beat Italy in a penalty shootout during their Confederations Cup game yesterday. Viva Espana!

Spain's National Soccer team from when I was in Spain

There are definitely more things that I am happy/thankful for this week, but those are just a few of the big ones.  I am realizing more and more that despite the downs in life, whether it seems like it at the time or not, there are plenty of bright spots to any bad day/week... we just have to remember to see them and be thankful for these good time.

Happy Friday Everyone!! Have an AWESOME weekend!!

A Weekend of Firsts

The first weekend in June was a busy weekend for the fiance and I as it was a weekend full of firsts for us!  Saturday was MD's 1st Phillies game and actually his 1st MLB game EVER. Sunday was both our 1st international soccer game as we headed to DC to watch the US Men's National Team take on Germany. (and oh yeah, MD's 1st time ever taking public transportation)!

Saturday and MD's 1st Phillies game was amazing.  Of course it was really hot out, but it wouldn't be a baseball game unless it were hot, sunny and there was plenty of time for tailgating.  We got to Citizen's Bank early so that we could tailgate.  Since it was just the two of us we decided to just get subs from Primo's instead of bringing out the big guns with our tailgate grill and all that other stuff.  We had a great time tailgating... tried some new beers (they were actually delicious)... and headed into the stadium for what promised to be an awesome time.

Delicious beer for our tailgate

Enjoying his sub

We sat in our seats for the first few innings, but then MD was getting hungry so we had to take a trip for food and then decided to explore the stadium a bit since he had never been there before. We stopped to watch the game from all different points of the stadium so that MD could get the full experience.  

View from our seats 

View of Philly from our Seats... it's no NYC, but it will do

Enjoying his 1st Phillies experience

The Phillies lost (what else is new), but all in all it was a great experience for the both of us and it was wonderful getting to spend an entire Saturday together doing something just for us.  After the game we went to dinner before heading home to head to bed since we were going to have a very early day on Sunday.

Sunday morning was a very early morning... we were going to catch a 6amish bus so that meant I had to get up at about 4:30 in order to get ready for what promised to be a long but exciting day. We got to the bus stop at around 6:10am to begin our journey into Philly to Brauhaus Schmitz.  We made it there on time and MD survived his 1st round of SEPTA (a.k.a. public transportation).  We loaded onto the buses around 9am and the drinking began!

1st Beer of the Day at 9am

The bus ride down was fairly uneventful... there was an annoying woman sitting across from us who talked the ENTIRE bus ride down.  It wouldn't have been such a big deal except for the fact that she was definitely a "one-upper".  Someone would say that they had been to X country and she would be like "Well I lived there for a while while my husband was working for X Major Corporation, but she didn't really like it because of x, y, & z." And if I had to hear about all the fabulous countries that she had been to for much longer I might have punched her in the face politely asked her to please keep her voice down.  Once we got to DC we went to lunch at a German beer house.  There was supposed to be a buffet lunch for everyone and things had been preordered for us, but with so many drunk and hungry men, by the time we got to the food there was barely anything left to eat.  I ended up eating lots of kraut because that was about all that was left.  Spent most of my time there drinking water instead of beer because it was so hot and humid I knew that I needed to hydrate if I was going to survive the game.  

We hit so much traffic on the way to the stadium that I was convinced that we were going to miss kickoff.  Thankfully the bus drivers let us off and we made it to our seats well before kickoff.  Other than being a hot and sweaty mess, we had a TON of fun at the game.  USA won 4-3 which made it even better.  It was so amazing to get to see the US Men's National Team play... and WIN... even if it was against Germany's "B" team.  

Getting ready for the game to start

Hot, Sweaty messes... but still having fun

Celebrating 100 Years of US Soccer!!

USA! USA! USA!

Way to go USA!!!!

Getting out of the stadium and back to Philly ended up being quite an adventure.  1st off the buses weren't where they said they would be to pick us up because they had decided that they didn't want to pay for parking.  We ended up waiting forever for them to get to a place where they could pick us up and then it was a hike to get to them.  It ended up working well because since they couldn't get into the parking lot we didn't sit in as much traffic.  Once on the bus, like the mature drunken adults people are, some grown men got into a fight over seating on the bus.  There were no assigned seats on the bus and someone sat in someone else's seat and next thing you knew punches were being thrown.  After the men finally calmed down we settled in for some more beer drinking and our 3 hour drive back to Philly.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I loved every minute of being able to spend time with my man.  Since then we have barely seen each other as our work schedules are opposite and I have been working on Saturdays which means we have no weekend day together.  Looking forward to a day off on Saturday when we will be heading up to NJ to visit my parents and to hopefully order our wedding invitations!!! Yay wedding invites!!

April Showers...

.... Bring May Flowers!!!!

Life has been super crazy around here recently... lots of working for both MD & I... plus weddings back to back weekends.  BUT that doesn't mean that in what little free time I have had these past few weeks that I haven't been able to get stuff done.  I FINALLY got around to planting most of my flowers!!! Still need to get a few more pots and a few more flowers, but hey at least it is a start.

Check out my gardening "expertise"...

Everyone I Know is Going to Disney

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Disney World.  I haven't been there since I was a teenager.  Yet I still remember my last trip there like it was yesterday.  We were there when Cinderella's Castle looked like this...

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We stayed in a cabin in Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort and I remember being so excited because my brother and I had bunk beds and I got the top bunk because I was older and my parents were afraid that he would roll out of bed if he slept on top.  I remember going on one ride and one of the characters jumped out in front of my mom and she screamed and I remember laughing hysterically.  I remember going to the character dinner at Chef Mickey's and being really excited about seeing Chip and Dale.  But most of all I just remember having a fantastic time with my family there.  

I have been thinking about Disney World a lot these past few weeks because it really seems like EVERYONE I KNOW IS GOING/HAS GONE TO DISNEY WORLD.  My Facebook newsfeed is FILLED with pictures of people in Disney... my blog feed is filled with people posting about their trips to Disney.  And if people aren't posting about how amazing their trip was, they are counting down to when they are going.  Quite frankly people, it is making me jealous!

The fiance has never been to Disney world... I know, crazy, right?! So I am thinking that it is time for us to plan a trip.  Only problem is, Disney is expensive and we are getting married in a little over 5 months (ahhhhhh.... sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!), so I am thinking that maybe we should put off a Disney trip until 2014? I only worry that if we put it off to 2014 we'll just keep putting it off and seriously, we NEED a Disney trip before we have kids so that MD can experience the magic of it all down there!

What is a girl to do?! 

Going through Disney World Withdrawal....

Wordless Wednesday... Engagement Pictures

I know this is supposed to be a Wordless Wednesday post, but I feel like I need to have some sort of Preface to it... so here goes.  Sorry I have been sort of M.I.A. these past couple of weeks, but life has been crazy.  We have had so much wedding stuff going on, plus me working both jobs, it feels as though we just haven't had a break.  A couple of weeks ago we headed out to Lewisburg, PA to have our engagement pictures taken, so here are some of my favorites from the session!

Start of our Engagement Session in Lewisburg, PA

Hanging out at the train station

Still shorter than Mark even standing on the tracks

True love <3 nbsp="" td="">

Favorite Picture from the Session

Covered bridges are my favorites

A little sassy

A Stressed out Bride = Emotional Mess

Emotional mess.  Those two words describe how I am feeling perfectly right now.  Up until this point in the wedding planning process things have been going AMAZINGLY WELL, so I knew it was only a matter of time before I had some sort of bridezilla moment.  That bridezilla moment hasn't happened just quite yet, but I feel like it is coming... I don't want it to, but I know it is coming.

Things have been going so smoothly and I had actually really been enjoying planning our wedding.  I have a dress, we have a ceremony location, we have a reception location, we have someone to marry us, we have a bakery, we have our wedding party picked out (mostly), we have our menu set, etc.  We still have a long ways to go... need to pick out flowers, a DJ and invitations being the main things yet... but I know we will get it all done in time and will have an amazing day!

Save the Dates went out yesterday and I have thoroughly been enjoying getting text messages from friends who have received theirs to let me know that they love them and that they are super excited to be a part of our special day.  It makes me feel so awesome that our friends are so excited about our special day.

That all being said... I am completely stressed out and actually spent some time in tears yesterday because of bridesmaid drama.  I am so glad that my bridesmaids are all keeping me in the loop about what is going on, but I am also embarrassed that there is drama going on between them.  I put a lot of thought into who I picked for bridesmaids because well I didn't want there to be drama.  I was in a wedding party where there was a lot of stress between the bridesmaids and it was a TERRIBLE experience for me.  I didn't want to put my own bridesmaids through that.  Yet somehow, they are all going through the exact thing I didn't want them to and that STRESSES ME OUT.  I know it shouldn't stress me out.  I know I should just let it go, but that isn't me.  At this point I even want to say screw the bridal shower & bachelorette party because I feel like it is such an inconvenience and expense for some of them that I don't even really want them to do this for me.

This is how I am feeling right about now...
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I actually thought about e-mailing them all yesterday to tell them to forget the bachelorette and that I would just plan my own.  All I want to do for that is go to the beach with some of my friends.  I am thinking of just saying to people that I am going to plan a beach trip for myself for X weekend in July and anyone who wants to come with me, let me know so I can reserve a hotel room or whatever for the weekend.  This way no one has to shell out money if they don't have to and this way I can also get what I want.  Because I really don't want all the frills of a bachelorette party... I don't want all the typical penis paraphernalia, tiaras, sashes, etc.  I just want to spend a relaxing day on the beach with some of my girlfriends.  I don't even need to go out and party... all I need is a day in the sun.  Hence why I almost feel like just planning my own so that I know that it is a weekend that works for me and that it would be a fun weekend away with any of my girlfriends who want to join us!

We'll see what happens though.   I am going to try to take a step back from everything for a few days and to calm down before I make any rash decisions that I might regret later.  I really am hoping that things all work themselves out and that one day I will look back on all of this and laugh!

Have any of you had to deal with a crazy, stressful bridal party? If so, how did you handle it?