Changes They are a Comin'!

It's been a little while!!

Since the last time I wrote we had a great engagement party with family and friends. Everyone brought a dish to share and the recipe that we will now put in a recipe book! I had a blast and I will put a couple pictures up!!
Wedding
I had a revelation yesterday. I am spending an awful lot on this wedding...which I would not mind if we had the money but....we dont. So I am in the process of making some major changes. I am still keeping the same venue, caterer, photographer and a couple other things but I am looking into doing most of the stuff myself! It will cut cost tremendously and make it more personable.

I am sooo excited for things to come! Megan...my maid of honor and bestie has volunteered to help with a lot of it and I am soo happy that she is enthusiastic about it! :)
Life
Soo the semester ends this week. I have numerous take home finals and what not that i intend to get done today and tomorrow! Wish me luck!
Brycen and I are currently in super save mode and are getting our lives on track which is awesome!!!!

Not a whole lot going on right now! Yun and Andy will be here this Wednesday and I have vaca from my crazy ass job so I can't wait to spend a little time with my friends!



20 days till Christmas!
xoxo

Making it Official

Hey! I know its been a while, forgive me but school is super hectic.

So I am registered on the know and it gives me a little checklist of things to do over the next year to prepare for my wedding. One of the things I am behind on is researching an officiant for our wedding.

HELP!

Here's the deal...we need someone who is legally able to do a ceremony BUT will not involve religion. We were both raised in similar yet different denominations and have decided we want to keep it purely secular. It just fits us. We want to focus more on us and our love than the heavens above. I am not a heathen but that's just the way we feel.

So with that being said we are looking for someone. And the knot is NOT a lot of help on this particular subject. If anyone knows ANYONE that would be willing to be flexible like this please let us know. Trying to keep my ducks in a row and this one just keeps wandering off.

Other News....
Im 22. Yup. Celebrated this past week with family and friends the good ol' double deuce. Not as exciting as 21 but I did not expect it to be. Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I am also knees deep in this semester with 5 projects on the board to do before the end of the semester totaling at about 52 pages. Yaaahoooo! As you can see I will be VERY busy but will make room for updates.

XoXo
Danielle

Our Story

Today I thought I would retell our story in Paris leading up to his proposal. Enjoy!

March 16:
We were in our hotel room planning for the next day. We were going to Versailles early in the morning and spending the whole day at the chateau and the town. While eating our gyro/kebab/doener....whatever you may call it, we planned our train ride and our way through the chateau. After dinner we decided to head to bed early...or at least I did. Brycen stayed up writing a journal entry and listening to his Ipod. A time or two I would hear him sing "green eyes" by coldplay and just smile at me. The lights went out after an hour or so, once he got bored watching House in French, we went to sleep.

March 17:
We woke up bright and early, grabbed a bit of breakfast at the bakery and got ready. He told me to wear something nice so I did. He dressed up as well. We set out on the train enjoying our ride to Versailles. It took us a while to find the Chateau because we were on the wrong end of town but once we did it was like a dream. In the process of getting our tickets the fire alarm went off and we were asked to evacuate the building. Finally once they figured out what was going on we were able to leave and enjoy Versailles.

We went through crowded halls and open gardens. This time I was not so interested in the palace itself but more so the gardens and Marie Antoinettes estate. As we headed towards the main fountain I got a little nervous. Brycen had mentioned earlier in the trip that he had something he wanted to give me. I honestly thought it was going to be a nice necklace or bracelette to match the beautiful earrings he got me for christmas so needless to say I wanted to find out.

We stopped for a nice lunch along the lake before the grand canal. He had eggs and french fries while I had an amazing croque monsieur. We had a bit of ice cream and talked for a while. This was hands down the best lunch we had in Paris. It was amazing!

Afterwards we headed to the queens estate. Last time I was there I only got as far as the Triannon so I wanted to make a point to get past that and to the farm. We headed quickly from lunch towards the triannon but something came over me. I HAD to know what he wanted to give me. My stomach was is knots. Could it be? He didnt have enough time to get anything before we left...and he didnt even know what I had looked at.

I stopped him half way downt the grand canal and said I cant do this anymore , what do you have to give me.I sat down on a small bridge and he gave me a note...the same note he had written the night before. i sat down got half way through then realized what it was...and what he was trying to say..I looked up he was on one knee smiling and took out a box.

You can pretty much assume what happened then. I have been thinking about this a lot recently and how much I love Brycen. How much I cannot wait to have our prefect day and spend our lives together. Call me sappy but its just how I feel recently.

Love,Danielle

Future Plans

So we have been talking about what we would like to do after we get married. I will by then have a degree in French and Communications so I will need to seek solid employment and after about a year, grad school. Brycen intends on finding a job and going back for his undergrad. What will we do then? Where will we be? We want to live on a coast...pretty much wherever my job takes me but we prefer to be in Washington state.

Honestly, I cant wait to see where the future takes us. We both have so much yet to do and to look forward to.
Not too many updates on the wedding or health front. We will be having an Engagement Party towards the end of November so look for updates.

Love,Danielle

Kitten Photo Shoot

I have the cutest most photogenic amazing cats in the world...I thought I would share them with you! Enjoy!

King Nero

Princess Nori

Sittin' Pretty

Giving you the look

Oh paparazzi stop!

Nero testing out his Wii Fitness skills

Silly update...mostly for your viewing pleasure and so I can gloat about my wonderful babies!
love!

The Ongoing To-do List

I am writing to you with a kitten on my lap who refuses to leave. Love my Nori-New!!

Alors.
Do you ever feel that as you get older the endless idea of "yeah...ill get to that" just gets out of hand? I definitely have hit the constant business and always having to do something. Sometimes I wish I could take a step back from it all for a bit.

Right now though I feel the to-dos are good things though. So what better than to make a small list of the main things:

• Lose weight
• Finish my degree
• Get all of my doctors appointments taken care of
• Plan and have the engagement party
• Save save save!
• Go thrift store shopping (little fun one)
• Get Nori front declaw done before I have a mangled couch

There we go! Basics. Day by day hopefully I will start checking them off.

No news worthy updates honestly. Just an update to distract me from homework. This weekend I will have one that is read worthy! :)
Love you!

Mind Wandering

DISCLAIMER: I will let you know ahead of time what you are about to read is a result of my mind refusing to shut down and going every which way on every single subject. I just need to get some of it out...enjoy!

Language Learning
so I am not going to lie but i have grown a little bored of the romance and classical languages. I love speaking them but hate the whole literature part. I want to learn something new now...something different and learn it at an accelerated level. Which ones you ask? Japanese, Russian, ANYTHING! I would love to focus on those two though.

Travel
I have been having flashbacks of past travels and visits to friends. I always go to sleep seeing the sun in the backyard of my french families home and see me in boots with Manue in the middle of the field in front of their house.
I also think about walking through the streets of the busiest city in the world..Tokyo. I remember the train rides and dancing on the platform. The amazing hospitality and some amazing conversations.
Its not that I want to travel...I need to! It is who I am. A traveler just wanting to expand my knowledge through experience. I miss it. I just need to take a year and go for it...travel all around!

I just had to get some of this out. I will have a real update probably tomorrow.
Love you!

Rainy Day Update

Hello! It is pouring rain and baseball size hail outside so I figured I would watch it and update. Work has been great! We passed our audit and im just a few point away from meeting my goal...need a checking account? Refi? Mortgage? Credit card? Please let me know! :) School is excellent as well.

I have made a couple decisions this week life, health and wedding:

Life
Postponing grad school. Waiting a year or so to get married and grounded on the coast (west coast we hope.) So after graduation the hunt is on for decent jobs in Washington state. I have a couple goals on companies I want to work for or things I want to do. That will be a blog of its own so stay posted!

Wedding
Well kids...im spending a pretty penny on this wedding event. I have decided to cut a couple corners and go cheaper on floral...it just makes sense. I have also thrown around the idea of renting a wedding dress...thoughts?

Health
This week I am going to start cutting things out of my daily diet such as soda...sweets...etc. On top of that spending a full hour at the gym half cardio and half focusing on my legs and stomach!

That is about all for today....hopefully I will do an update with some recent pictures of the kittens soon. Until then...live laugh love always.

Floral-Decisions Decisions

With my AC not working and a stuffy apartment I am writing from my deck. With Nero and Nori by my side we are trying to enjoying the slight breeze while listening to the Daily Show in the background. Brycen starts his two new jobs this week which is uber exciting but could mean i wont see him as much!

Wedding
As you can tell by my heading today floral is the hardest thing for me to decide on. I have looked at numerous websites and even talked to some florists but I am not sure if I am willing to drop 4k on something that wont last. Call me crazy but picking wild flowers would even make me happy floral-wise. If anyone has any suggestions...please let me know.

Health
Had an awesome dinner tonight...turkey and salad. It was great...wish i could say the same for my workout. Starting a routine when its something you're not to fond of is hard! I did 10 on the bike and 4 reps of 10 sit-ups, played some basketball, and did a little bit of leg exercise. After that I noticed my knee popping continually...need to check that out!
As for weight loss...I weighed myself for the first time in months today. Luckily, the scale is off 10 pounds (added) so it made me feel even worse than I do (or motivated)! Either way let the pounds drop...im done being an unhealthy american!

Anyway...enough for today! See you tomorrow!

Lets Begin!

I revamped my blog and got rid of the old. Now for the new. I intend to blog a few times a week with updates on the wedding, school, life in general. So enough explanation..lets get started!

Wedding Info:
Date: September 10 2011
Ceremony/Reception: Hobbs Building
Caterer: Feasts of Fancy
Photographer: Hawes Photography
DJ: ProDJ KC
Florist: To be decided

As you can see we have it down!! Well so I thought. The other day I realized...oh no! The wedding is only 363 days away and I have so many little things to do! There is a lot more planning than just the big stuff so I need to get on it. I was so nervous yet excited because this is a huge day for Brycen and I and honestly I CANNOT wait! If anyone has any advice it would be appreciated but for today at least we have the basics.

Health
Since I am getting married I would like to look good and get back in shape! I intend to motivate myself making my progress public.
At the moment I have set a goal of 30 pounds lost by the end of the year! So with a better diet and exercise I intend to get there. Every post I will give a -X for the amount of weight lost from original! Wish me luck!

On top of this if blogging goes well I will add more like pictures and other projects i am working on. Until then...let me know your thoughts so far.

See ya next time!