Ooshy Gooshey Love Fest

Today I am especially appreciative of my ohh-so wonderful fiance, Clinton. He is SO good to me 150% of the time and I am so lucky to have him.
This past Friday he threw me a surprise braces freedom/birthday party. It was EPIC. I was completely surprised and it was wonderful.

But what spurred this post is not just that. So we occasionally will send each other text messages with "I love your  ____" (nose, ears, toes, butt cheeks) Anyway.

Today out of nowhere I get a text that says "I love your teeth".
I could DIE. Made me smile so huge. Then we went on an ooey gooey love fest of text messages back and forth that I will not share.

But I just had to put out there how much I love this boy. He is my favorite.

My all-time favorite picture of him (which he of course hates)

Theeeeeeeeyyy'rrre OFF!

My braces are off.

MY BRACES ARE OFF.


My. Braces. Are. Off.



The first look

 It was the most amazing event of my life thus far. It took 1 year, 6 months and 25 days to give me a movie star smile.

Here's a run down of the day.

We arrive at the orthodontist office.

We sit in the waiting room for 5 minutes 200 years.

Pop, crack, snap.

Here they go!



We have teeth!



On to grinding off the glue, and permasmile is engaged.

It's done!

Off to breakfast. Mmmmmm Coda......

That's all I got for now. I'm giddy. I'll give you more words later :)

Counting Down

Well I’m just about 24 hours out from braces freedom and the excitement level is high! Well yesterday, being the good little planner I am I started reading up on removal and retainers. When you are in excitement mode you forget about the fact that getting braces off is no easy feat. It’s going to hurt. They are removing fixtures that were cemented to my teeth over a year and a half ago. So, my excitement is mixed in with a bit of nervousness. I know it will be more than worth it, but it still is gonna suck in the during. But a vicodin and some ear plugs will help me through the yanking; breaking, grinding and polishing that will lead me to my most beautiful smile.




I can’t wait to post pictures!!

My mother hated me when I was young

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm here to share a traumatic fond memory of my childhood.

My mom is very festive. VERY. So on St. Paddy's when I was in 4th grade, my mom went all out. She sent me to school pretty much dresses as a leprechaun. I had a green sparkly vest covered in light up pins, a green bow tie, giant shamrock earrings and a green plastic top hat. Ohh ya, I thought I was the shit.

I <3 google images. I have no clue who that is. Or why she is eating a kitten.

Now had there been a costume contest or festival of some sort at school that day, I would have ruled. But there was not. There was just a school full of kids is a green T-Shirt or sweater, looking at me like I was insane. Luckily we ran out of time before painting shamrocks on my face and I was able to take most of it off and shove it in my backpack for the day.  But that damage was done.

So here's to St. Paddy's and that memory that is burned in my brain for all time. Thanks mom. It must have left some permanent damage too, because a month after I turned 18 I got a tramp stamp tattoo of a shamrock.

Aww, my first apartment. The pink bathroom and band posters on the wall.

 Ahhhhh, stupidity. I think I'll call my mom today and tell her that was her fault. She'll have a fit and yell at me. Sounds like fun.

Growing Up

At what point in life do you feel like a grown up? I'm about to be 25, have a mortgage, a college degree and am getting married. But every time I walk or drive around my neighborhood I wonder if the people who see me think I live with my parents. I feel like they see me as a kid.

So is there a point in life when you suddenly think "ohh, I'm the grown-up now"? Or are there 40 year old stay at home moms out there who still look around and think their not 'there' yet?

Is it having kids? I know people who have kids who are more immature than my 5 year old niece.

Is it just age? My best friend is 56 years old and still giggles when anyone mentions the last name of her husbands golf buddy's, the Seamen's. (Hi Boe!) She is the most fun person I know and we get together and act like pre-teens some times and I absolutely love that.

So, what are your thoughts world? Do YOU feel like a full fledged 'grown up'?

No cupcake

I bought my wedding dress yesterday.

Yep, just like that. It was fabulously anti-climactic. My mom is going to be FURIOUS when I tell her.

MOH and I were just out for a random shopping trip for nothing in particular besides a french press from World Market. MOH says "hey JC Penney has a huge dress section let's go take a look".

Sure! So we get there are start perusing. There is not as many dresses as usual since a big section is clearance jackets. But I spy a big poofy intricate sparkly prom dress (in navy blue) and a short white lace sundress.

I try on the blue cupcake dress. It was very very pretty. It looked nice. But it was trendy and I knew 10 years from now I would look at those pictures and go "GOD what was I thinking?".

I try on the lace sundress. It's beautiful. It's simple. I can be added to to become perfect and I love it. It's 40% off with my coupon and the sale.

So after carrying it around the store and trying it on a second time after grabbing a whole-body-sucking girdle and some heels (well 1 heel actually, you aren't allowed to take both shoes to the dressing room. Is that too funny?) I said Yes to This Dress.

Not a salesperson in  site, no pedestal and three way mirror, no crying, no pictures. I love it.

As I said, my mother is going to be livid. She of course wants me in some poofy long sparkly heavy cupcake monstrosity. Ohh well. She will just have to get over it because its my wedding.

You ready for the best part? How much did my wedding dress cost you ask?

Sixty Three Dollars.

Hell to the yes. As I said as I was buying it, I'd rather spend $400 on a zipline tour in Hawaii then a dress I'll wear once. BUT WAIT- the dress is 100% cotton so I'm gonna dye that sucker yellow after the wedding and wear it all the time. BOOYAH.

Now I know I will end up spending more of course. I want to add a petticoat for some more fullness (much harder to find then I thought it would be), maybe a sash, I need shoes and undergarments and I'm gonna get it altered to fit perfectly. But I would have had to do that with any dress. So I still saved major moolah.

I'm so stoked.

And just to be sure- after that we went by David's bridal to look for a petticoat. (the idea of a short petticoat was so foreign to them, I don't understand). While there I tried on another fancy poofy long dress that was on the $99 rack. It was nice, but it just reassured me that its just not for me. I can't imagine getting down and jiggy in a 20 pound dress with a train. It will get filthy, stepped on ripped, everything. I just wasn't comfortable or happy.

So my dress, the dress, is perfect for me.


Sorry for the super-long pictureless post, but I just had to share.

I am Completely Insanse, part 45239.

OK. So. I am a crazy person. Let's just get that out there. I know, everyone knows it. At least I admit it. I'm nuts.

So- here is an example.

Backstory- My first love. He was.....something. Anyway, we had a nasty horrible breakup and he got married very shortly after said breakup to the girl he knocked up. That was almost 7 years ago. Ya, I'm not so good at letting things go. (I still hate you Alyssa who stole my sparkle pencils in 4th grade).

So. About 4 years ago, my friend saw the ex and his wife and kid in Trader Joe's and told me about it. Since that day I have been terrified of Trader Joe's. Because of course if she saw him that must mean he is there 24/7.

Anyway, the other day I had to go to Trader Joe's and was thinking about that with every corner I turned. But not to worry- I made it out unsighted. On to Costco.
I'm walking through Costco and (just like a movie) his wife walks out of an aisle and walks right past me.
I immediately realize its her. Because she is not insane like me, she does not know who I am.
I turn on a dime and start to follow her.
Ya, you heard me. I followed her all while slightly hyperventilating and shaking.
He is not there. She's with her mom and kids.
I stare at those kids. STARE. They look like him. I look at that oldest kid and think to myself that I was with her dad while she was baking in her mom's oven.
I want to vomit.


ANYWAY, why was I sharing this? I don't know. It really really shook me and ruined the rest of my night. It made me really sad that I don't have a best girlfriend I could have called to talk to about it.

But as I drove home listening to very very loud music (the best therapy) I had a realization.

It's not him that I miss. I let 'him' go years ago. What I miss is the way my life was when I was with him. Now common sense tells me I can't compare life at 15 and in love for the first time to now. But back then was so easy. We were so sickeningly happy. We had  great friends, did fun things all the time. High school and college, first apartments, first jobs and other firsts.

I mourn for that. Before car payments, mortgages, careers and heartbreak. Being naive and starting fresh.

Anyone else get what I'm saying at all? Anyone else still think of their first love, years and years later?

People don't answer texts at 6:30am. That's just preposterous.

Sometimes I think I think too much. Or at least, more than average. Sometimes I'll ask Clint "What are you thinking about?" and he tells me honestly, nothing. Just the one task at hand, be it watching a show or playing a game.

Not me. At any given point in time I have at least 3 different things running through my brain. I wish I could turn it off sometimes.

So. On that note this morning I have had 2 very different yet concurrent things going through my head (and now thumbs since I got responses to my texts).

1. I woke up from a bad dream. I have alot of those by the way. If I sleep in, I will invariably have a bad dream. Anyway, it was about an old friend of mine getting badly hurt and me visiting him in the hospital. It was very sad, I was worried he wasn't going to make it. The thing that makes it odd is that I haven't talked to him in almost a year. We have a complicated history to say the least.

2. The wedding. I started thinking of ideas and now from the very web page from which I blog there are 6 other tabs open with wedding stuff. MOH is coming over in a few hours to brainstorm. Plus she is bringing her pup over for a playdate with Roxie. Fun! I'll try and take pictures. TRY.

Anyway, I am now having a text conversation with said old friend and it is distracting me from writing. So I'm off. Maybe I'll write a whole post about our story. It's a juicy one. But I think too many of my real-life friends read this to do that. Anyone care?