Year In Review

Wow...another year is over. Hard to believe, isn't it? 2006 was a huge year at my house. Here's a quick recap:

January: Doug got a new job.

February: Doug turned 25.

March: We celebrated our 2 year anniversary! And nephew Kaden was born.

April: I finally heard from you after several months of non-communication and Doug & I started seriously thinking about buying a house.

May: Was pretty boring, nothing exciting happend.

June: Doug was the best man in Aaron & Lindsey's wedding. Such a beautiful wedding and Doug gave a great best man speech!

July: We bought our house! We closed 4 days before my birthday.

August: I turned 26 and realized I was officially closer to 30 than I was 20...what a depressing thought.

September: We went on vacation! I flew to Wisconsin to visit you & Josh and Doug flew to Dallas to stay with Ronnie & Corey.

October: More vacation. This time I rode the Amtrak to Hermann, MO with my mom, my aunt, & my grandma. We had a great time tasting wine and shopping.

November: Let's see, Thanksgiving, we cut down our Christmas tree for the first time, nothing much else.

December: Was just crazy! Not only did we have the holidays, we also bought a new (to us) truck for Doug and we got engaged! What a way to end the year. One more to add, just for Doug. The Chiefs made it to the playoffs!

HAVE A SAFE & HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

*and stay away from the pickle surprise!*

Rainy Saturday at Work

Why didn't you tell me that I would change my mind 50 million times before I could decide on a theme/color for my wedding? Not to mention that I keep waffling between having the big wedding and trying to keep things as small as possible? It's making me crazy and I know I'll spend the better part of my downtime today looking up more things wedding related. Doug told me this morning that the idea of going to Vegas is sounding better to him all the time. I told him that he's got to convince his mom it would be a good idea first. I think next weekend we're going to try to have a sit-down with the future in-laws and see if we can't hammer anything out.

Sunflowers

Did you know that sunflowers mean adoration? Me either! Why I care what they mean, I don't know. I'm sure I'd be the only one (and now you) who would know. So I think you were on to something with the sunflower thing, I do really love them. I just don't want it to get too hoedown-ish, if you know what I mean.

Beverage Alert!!!

Do not, I repeat, do not drink anything while reading the post below. If you don't heed this warning, you'll likely need a new keyboard.

Smart Bitches, Trashy Books

MERRY
CHRISTMAS!!!!

My Ring Came In!

Doug's aunt swears she didn't have it overnighted, but I'm pretty sure she did. :) She's concerned about the diamond not being very secure though. I think I could take it somewhere and have extra prongs put on it or something. We're going to go pick it up tonight, so we'll see. We only have a week to return it so that's not much time to decide.

Five Reasons

Five Reasons to Have the Wedding Here

1. Most of our friends and family are already here.
2. We'll get more wedding presents. :)
3. No worries about missed flights, forgetting things, etc.
4. We'll have a real wedding.
5. It doesn't really matter where we get married.

So, now I think Vegas has been shot down. Doug told his mom tonight that we were thinking about a wedding next year and when he mentioned Vegas she vetoed that idea. She made the point that there would be too many people who would want to see it, that wouldn't be able to travel with us (like grandparents). I know she's right. I also know that if we have a wedding here, it's going to snowball and get so out-of-control that we aren't going to be able to see straight. Anyway, we'll see what happens next.

P.S. I ordered my ring today and it should be in by Thursday or Friday, so you'll actually get to see it! :)

Carmen's Christmas Top 5

I've been listening to alot of Christmas music lately and have decided I have very distinct favorites. Here are my top 5 favorite Christmas songs!

5. I'll Be Home for Christmas (Bing Crosby)

4. O' Holy Night (Josh Groban)

3. Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24 (Trans-Siberian Orchestra)

2. All I Want for Christmas is You (Mariah Carey)

and finally...

1. White Christmas (Bing Crosby)

Can't wait till Friday!

I'm so excited that I get to see you on Friday. Friday!!! Yay!! We got your Christmas card today. So cute! I think it is my favorite card. I always love tiny cards. :) Tomorrow I'm going to talk to Doug's aunt about a certain piece of jewelry that I will wear on my left hand. *squeal!*
I'm in way too good of a mood tonight. :)

Going to the chapel...

Well, Doug & I talked about it a little more today and everything still seems to be a go. *crossing my fingers* I was looking around at some jewelry websites trying to compare the ring I picked out to things comprable and I'm thinking this must be the wholesale price, because most things comprable were way more expensive. My only other concern with the price was that maybe the diamonds aren't very good quality, but I don't think that his aunt would even suggest that we buy something that wasn't decent. I was just looking at the David's Bridal website and I have found another dress that I really like. What do you think?

Anyhow, I should get back to cleaning my house now. Talk to you soon!

Happy Anniversary!

Just wanted to wish you & Josh a Happy Anniversary today! I hope you have many more wonderful years of marriage ahead of you. :)

Also, I can take a half day off from work on Friday the 22nd. We could at least have lunch and do a little shopping or something. We'll have to figure out sometime we can all get together because when I mentioned to Doug that you guys were going to be in town, he really wanted to see you too. Do you want to see Desire & Angela? I could maybe plan a little something, or if you'd rather I'll just not mention it to them. I already am trying to cram too much into your short little visit, and I know you have other obligations. :) See you soon!

SOLD!

Doug sold his car this morning in what has to be the fastest turn around ever! He went to the News-Press yesterday and put the ad in, it came out in today's paper and we had people calling at 7:15 a.m. NO Kidding! He put in $900, but the people that bought it brought cash and he sold it for $700. That pretty much covers the taxes and fixing the heater thing, so we're in pretty good shape right now. :)

Money, money, money!

My dad is getting a new truck today. He finally found one that likes as well as his truck and decided to go through with it. We're reaping the benefits, because he is selling his truck to us for what he would have gotten for trade in value. :) He could have sold to anyone on the street for probably $3000 more. Yay for us! And we got a loan through the credit union, that Doug actually gets to be on. More yays! Our interest rate sucks, but we've got to start somewhere, right? Anyhow, we're going to the credit union today to sign the loan papers and will probably have the truck tomorrow unless my dad decides to be nice and go ahead and give it to us today. But all of this comes with a price, right? Doug is now freaking out about the money. And I don't blame him. Of course, I'm getting a little irritated that he's blaming it all on me. He says I spend too much money. And while I don't go out and spend a huge amount all the time, I know I'm very guilty of buying a little something here and little something there, and by the time it is all said and done I've probably spent just as much doing that as I would going on shopping sprees every paycheck. So I'm going to work on that. I'm also going to work on paring down our grocery bill. We're spending way more than necessary at the store every 2 weeks. The one time I did really well was the time I planned our meals, made a very extensive list and then only bought what was on the list. I think I spent $103 that time. Not bad for 2 weeks of groceries for 2 people. Anyhow, back to the truck thing. I'm really excited and I know Doug is too. It'll be so nice to have a truck too. No more trying to find someone to haul stuff for us or borrowing someone else's vehicle. We'll be self-sufficient now! :) I'll try to remember to take pictures of Doug with his truck and post them later!

Hey Santa!

So since Doug picked out all of his Christmas presents over the weekend it has been decided that I will also be picking out my own Christmas gift(s) this year. After some careful thought, I have decided that I'd like some jewelry. Nothing fancy. Just something simple that I can wear often. I think a necklace would be my best bet or some diamond stud earrings. I mentioned the idea of jewelry to Doug and you should have seen the look of horror on his face. Apparently he is petrified of buying jewelry. He's afraid he'll pick the wrong thing. Now I tried to tell him that most of what I would love about anything he gives me is just the fact that he picked it out for me, but he didn't believe it. So I've been showing him a few things and I have given him a few criteria for what I am looking for. "White gold, diamond pendant, NO HEARTS!" Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! I've showed him this, which I really like, but it's a little more then we were planning to spend on Christmas. I've found several cheaper alternatives and we are also going to check out his aunt's store and see if she can't order something for us (mostly she just sells costume jewelry). Maybe if we get a good enough deal, I'll get matching earrings! *sigh* How did he miss out on the jewelry buying gene that his brother seems to have?? Becky has tons of great jewelry from Eric. Maybe Doug should just go shopping with him...

Score!

Thanks to my aunt, Doug & I spent yesterday in the basement of the woman who used to own the Sports Nutz store here in town. She had to close over the summer and now she's trying to get rid of her inventory and is selling everything 60% off. It's crazy, isn't it? We got a ton of stuff, well Doug mostly did, and for practically nothing. For $120 we bought:

*Patrick Surtain Jersey for Doug

*Chiefs Bathrobe for Doug

*MU Sweeatshirt for Doug

*Fitted Ball Cap for Doug

*Beanie/Stocking Cap for Doug

*Chiefs zip up sweatshirt for Me

*Chiefs Baby Outfit for Nate

*Chiefs Baby Outfit for Kaden

That may not sound like alot of stuff, but if you have ever bought sports apparel, then you know how much that stuff can cost full price. Jerseys are usually around $70 and the bathrobe was originally marked $80. So just for those two things alone, we got a great deal.

You'll notice that most of the things we picked up were for Doug. No, that's not a typo. He's crazy for Chiefs and even crazier for anything with Chiefs on it. So we decided to make this his Christmas from me. I was actually planning to buy him a jersey and a bathrobe, so he kind of spoiled all of that for me. Oh well, he had fun. And now I'm going to get to pick out my own Christmas presents, which I'm sure is what Doug would prefer anyway, either that or a super specific list with a map drawn of the stores and exactly where to find each item. This boy is a seriously bad shopper, when it comes to occasions for me. I learned a long time ago that if I'm not very specific, I may not get a gift at all. So that was our day yesterday. Oh, and we picked up outfits for his nephews Nate & Kaden for Christmas, so we just have his niece Sammy, and his other two nephews, Tyler & Chase to get now. We're just about done with shopping now. It feels pretty good.

Now I'm doing laundry and we have a graduation open house to go to this afternoon. It should be a good time. Then back home to maybe get something done around the house tonight. Doug doesn't go in until 11, so he should be able to help me out a little bit. We'll see how that goes.

Trimming the Tree