Kaboom! Crash! Splat!

(source)

Hear that? It's the sound of my head exploding while I have a mini nervous breakdown and throw myself off a cliff. Why the dramatics?

I just set a date for Josh's parents to meet my dad.

Dun dun DUUNNNNN

"Hold on a sec, Em," you may be asking. "Haven't you and Josh been together for almost 4 years?" Yes, yes we have. Josh has met my dad and his parents have met my mom, but I've been putting off this particular meeting for a long, long time. And I'm seriously, ridiculously really really nervous. For real.

My dad and I get along fine. We're actually pretty similar and I know I get my outgoing personality (along with my long limbs) from him. But our relationship has always been less-than-ideal. You see, my dad has a lot of children. I have 2 half sisters and 4 half brothers. The custody agreement between him and my mom stated that I had to see him two times a week, Wednesdays and Sundays. With so little time to see him and so many other children (and activities of said children) to manage, our relationship never really took off the ground. I struggle with who is to blame for this, but is it really a 10-year-old's responsibility to try to foster a relationship with her father? Therapy someday might give me an answer.

Anyway, I could write much much MUCH more on my relationship with my dad, and maybe I will in a future post, but that is our relationship in a (very small) nutshell. The point of this rambling is that I'm really nervous and I can't figure out exactly why. Part of it stems from the fact that I haven't exactly painted my father in the most positive light when describing him to Josh's parents. My dad has made some very poor life choices and hurt me more times than I'd like to count. I'm not one to hold in my emotions and I consider myself an open book, so yes, I've called him every name in the book while retelling certain stories about him. That's bad, I know. Hopefully they go into this with open minds and open hearts. I'll just be happy to get this over with.

I'll give you a full report next week. That is, if my head doesn't actually explode, first.

How did things go when your parents met the future in-laws? Also, any words of encouragement? I really need them...

Ps, I'm starting this new thing where I bold certain sentences in my posts. Some of my favorite bloggers do it so I figured I'd give it a shot!

Calling all Brides...

...with cute blogs!! I want to give my little corner of the interwebs a face lift. The customization that Blogger offers just isn't cutting it anymore. So I'm turning to you, my beautifully creative readers, for help. Comment with any sites you used for templates or any other tips/tricks/advice you might have that will help me "Pimp My Blog." Thanks, you girls are the best!

Bragging

I must take a quick second to give a HUGE shout out to my man. This morning I started freaking out a bit because, well, there are less than 200 days til the wedding and there is still A LOT to get done.

The next few things on our to-do list are transportation, hotel room blocking, and the rehearsal dinner. Sounds easy enough, but with both of us working full-time, and many vendors unavailable on the weekends, I was sort of having a mini-breakdown. Enter in: Josh's day off!

I fired off an email to him this morning with names, websites, and email addresses of a few limo companies and asked him to email them. I gave him all of the info he needed and within 10 minutes the emails had been sent. What a good boy he is!!! (Not to make him sound like a dog or anything of course). He asked if there was anything else and I thought to myself "Why yes, lovey, there is!" I sent him RD info and he contacted them as well! This all made me the happiest 'lil bride in all the land. A weight has seriously been lifted off my shoulders and I'm so lucky to have a man who will help me with wedding planning. I know not all women have that luxury, so I'm milking it for SURE.

How hands-on is your fiance with wedding planning? And go ahead, brag in the comments about something great he's done lately!

Getting to know you!

Fellow blogger Katie over at Random Reflections of a Perfectionist just posted this survey about herself and her FI, Justin. I've never met a survey (or a chance to talk about myself) that I didn't like, so here are my answers:

1. What are your middle names? Mine is Alexandra, his is Matthew.

2. How long have you been together? Just about 4 years! I can't believe he's stuck with me for that long.

3. How long did you know each other before you started dating? We "knew each other" over the internet for about 3 months before our first official date.

4. Who asked who out? He pursued me for soo long and asked me to hang out countless times before I eventually said yes. For our first date it was the same, he asked me to dinner for an official "date."

5. How old are each of you? I am 23 and he is 27

6. Did you go to the same school? We went to the same college but didn't know each other.

7. Are you from the same home town? Nope! Our hometowns are about an hour apart.

8. Who is the smartest? I think we're equally smart but in different ways. He's incredibly computer/technology smart. I am a little more "street" smart I guess, but I really hate using that term. I'm making an executive decision that this is a dumb question.

9. Who majored in what? I majored in Communication and Josh majored in Computer/Electrical Engineering.

10. Who is the most sensitive? Hmm that's tough. I am probably sensitive more frequently, but he gets sensitive about certain things.

11. Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? Oh we've been all over! Probably the furthest is the Caribbean.

12. Who has the worst temper? Haha ohhhh that would be me. But like the sensitivity thing from above, I think I have a temper and show my emotion more often. Josh can definitely get upset about things, though. Luckily, he doesn't ever take his stresses out on me.

13. How many children do you want? Probably 2, definitely no more than 3.

14. Who does the cooking? We share that load equally!

15. Who is more social? I'd say we're pretty much the same. We both enjoy being the center of attention, but we don't crave it. (Ok, maybe I do a little bit.) We both know how to work a room and feel comfortable meeting and talking to new people. If we're at a party or a bar we're comfortable going off on our own and talking to people. I'm so thankful we don't have to be stuck to each other all the time. I don't know if I could be with some one who couldn't keep up with me on that level.

16. Who is the neat freak? Ugh...I don't wanna talk about it.

17. Who is the most stubborn? That would probably be me. But he has a stubborn side to him, just not as much as me.

18. Who wakes up earlier? I do because I shower, put on make up, and do my hair every morning. I wish I could be a brush my teeth and go type girl, but I just can't. Josh wakes up 15 min before he leaves, but I turn the light on when I leave the room so he can start the "waking up process."

19. Where was your first date? Our first date was at this cute restaurant in our college town, Athens, OH called Stephens. Or Stevens. I can't remember. Doesn't matter. But it has great food and you can BYOB!! We went on many more dates there and drank many bottles of wine. I'd love to go back next time we're in Athens.

20. Who has the bigger family? We're actually pretty close in size when you add up extended family.

21. Do you get flowers often? The last time I got flowers was on our 1 year til the wedding anniversary back in May. So unexpected and so pretty. I'm glad I don't get them often because that makes it all the more special when I do get them.

22. How do you spend the holidays? Please see this post.

23. Who is more jealous? Oh definitely me. It was a big problem early on. I just chalk it up to immaturity. I'm much better now.

24. How long did it take to get serious? We said "I love you" about 2 months after our first date, 3 months after we met face-to-face, and 6 months after our first correspondence. Not sure if the math is right...exactly why I was a Coms major.

25. Who eats more? Josh. Hands down.

26. What do you do for a living? Currently I'm a temp at a large corporation. When I grow up (whenever that may be) I want to get into event planning.

27. Who does the laundry? We do our own.

28. Who's better with the computer? Josh definitely. But I'm fairly computer literate.

29. Who drives when you are together? Usually Josh. Although most of our fights stem from his driving, so maybe I should start sharing the load.

30. What is your song? You know, we don't really have one. We have lots of songs that we love to sing together, though.

Copy, paste, and add your answers on your blog!

Happy Holidays?

Weddingbee posed another fabulous question today for their Relationship Series.

How are you deciding where you spend the holidays? Was it a big issue between you and your FI? How did you come to a decision?

(source)

Oy. That's all I have to say about THAT. Actually, that's not true at all because I always have an opinion on things or a story to contribute.

My parent's were never married so I've always split holidays. Ever since I was little I've eaten 2 meals on the Big Three: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. A few things happened that ended this: Josh and I started getting serious and my dad split with his wife. Now if I see my dad on the holidays that's great, but if not I don't worry about it too much.

Before we got engaged, Josh and I spent the holidays (day-of) with our respective families. We would figure out a day either before or after the actual holiday to see each other's families. However, once we got engaged I really wanted us to spend the days together. Luckily, our parents only live an hour apart. His parents do dinner early and my mom does dinner late, so it all works out. The only issue is the driving. It's not so bad on Thanksgiving, but for Christmas it's a bit of a nightmare. I won't even get into specifics because it might make your head explode. Let's just say I'm looking forward to the day when we can host everyone at our place.

Have the holiday gods made life easy or hard for you?

Feelin' the love

Stacy from You Can't Take It With You awarded me this fabulous blogger award!

I must say, she is one of my favorite blogging brides right now. She manages to post nearly every day! Something I wish I could accomplish.

I'm supposed to tell you 10 interesting things about me, so here goes:

1. I'm totally not that interesting, but I'm pretty good at faking it.
2. Sometimes I make Josh play video games so I don't feel guilty about blogging or wedding planning. Win-win!
3. I'm addicted to carbs, which is REALLY not good for my waistline, especially since my freaking dress is a wee bit tight.
4. My current temp assignment is up at the end of this month. I complain about it a lot, but I am really going to miss some of the people there.
5. I take sooo many pictures of my cats but never post them for fear that people will find out that I am a crazy cat lady.
6. I survived all of college without a single cup of coffee. Now that I'm working I have to have at least a cup in the morning before I can fully function.
7. I'm a news and current event junkie. In the mornings you can find me watching Morning Joe on MSNBC and after work I'm all about Hardball with Chris Matthews.
8. I can't paint my own nails to save my freaking life. That girl gene didn't make it to me, apparently. I've also never had a pedicure and plan to keep it that way. Ick.
9. I'm terrified of getting sick and constantly trick myself into believing I am actually getting sick. I forsee it getting worse as we near W-Day.
10. I'm in love with classic names. If I hear of another Aiden, Caden, Jayden, or Brayden being born, I might puke. Also, stop adding random letters to normal names. (Of course, if anyone reading this is named one of those names or has named their child one of them, please don't take offense. It's just not my thing.)

Now here are a few of my favorite fellow bloggers that I would like to recognize (in no particular order):

I love you much
Random Relfections of a Perfectionist
Run, Knit, Get Hitched
Little Miss Wedding Planner
bride-on-purpose
The Roddy Bride Recipes <---Brand New!! Cross Country Wed
Life, Love & Mawwaige!
Wifetacular <---pretty sure she just got married

Thanks to all of you ladies for being so freakin' fabulous!

Edited to add: LauraLou over at Lucky in Love awarded me this as well. Thanks, gal!

It's the final countdown!

Duh nuh nuh nuh, buh nuh nuh nuh nuh

Europe, anyone?

Right. Well then.

When I opened up my iGoogle this morning, this was staring me in the face:

Well, that's not entirely true. When I saw it this morning there were more hours left. But that's not the point. The point is that we're at the 200-day mark, people!! This journey to the altar started way back in July 2008. Now we're nearing the end of 2009. Time truly does fly when you're having fun/planning a wedding. I hope you all will join me in these last 200 (!) days before I say "I do."