Valentine's Resolutions

Lately I feel like there is just so much excess crap in my life and mind. From the things I do and worry about even down to the things I eat. I want a new pair of shoes or jeans,  I surf the internet for hours when I only meant to pop on for just a minute. I get engrossed in TV when half the time I'm settling for some crappy re-run just because it's the only thing on, instead of going and picking up one of the many books I've been wanting to read. I just snacked on a bag of Cheez-It's with ingredients like enriched with TBHQ and anatto extract, (What the hell are those things?) when there are some perfectly yummy and healthy carrots in the fridge!

I'm Facebook friends with people I knew in high school or at old jobs that I don't even like, but for some reason have never deleted them? I complain because I never have any time and yet I feel like I never do anything meaningful except for studying. Hardly get to see my fiance and yet I have more than enough time to browse etsy for nothing in particular?

I'm tired of living a life surrounded by BS! And I think just a little bit of self-awareness and prioritization will go a long way. I hadn't made any New Year's Resolutions, so these will be my Valentine's Day resolutions that I hope to feel I have accomplished by the next Feb. 14 lol.

Resolution number one.

banish mindless channel surfing! I have the few shows I actually care about tivo'd. No need to even turn it on without the specific intent to watch my recorded shows.

two.

banish mindless net surfing.

If I feel the drive to do either of these, I should ask myself what I would rather do than watch this episode of Teen Mom for the 8th time.

three.

do something active every day and appreciate it. Whether it be a full-fledged workout, 15 minutes of yoga or a quick walk with the dogs-no excuse not to take care of a body I hope will get me through another 70 years!

four.

and also along the lines of keeping myself healthy. At least try to put a capper on the crap I eat in a day. To start with, my goal is to health-ify ONE meal a day. Of course I'd like to say that I'll never eat a cheeseburger again, but that's just setting myself up for a failure. I can handle adding a salad and trading in a coke for a water once a day. And once I achieve that I can expand from there. One baby step at a time.

five.

study and exercise first. If I start of the day doing those two things, not only will it help me feel accomplished, but it will be less likely that I will revert to net/tv surfing because I think the main reason I do all that is to procrastinate. Also, I bet it would reduce the amount of night-before-a-test all-nighters I'd have to do this semester.

six.

meditate.

seven.

Be patient, understanding and appreciative. Every day take a moment to realize how lucky I am to have the people in my life that I do. 

I'll keep you posted :)

South Texas weather madness!

The other day we had a "snow" day! And it actually kind of snowed-ish. Wasn't loads, but it was more than just ice which is big time shit here. No one can drive in it, here! I know I sure can't lol. So the whole city pretty much shut down. (Here is a pic from our front yard.) Like one whole inch!

 So class was cancelled blah blah blah, but what's amazing is that it might happen again! Supposedly there is possibility of rain/below freezing temps tonight. I'm probably the singular (lol I almost typed "cingular.") student in the world that doesn't want school to be cancelled because I'd get behind in my classes lol. Ohhh well! Either way I'm sure I'll enjoy it. And I really doubt it will come to that.

One thing I was pondering today is how un-honeymoon-stage me and my fiance are lol. I think we are the least exciting couple on the planet aside from my parents. We've lived together for a year now and it's pretty much like we have all of our lives. Which is definitely nice! But kind of comically unromantic. And we're not very romantic in general anyway, but when I started thinking about it it's kind of amazing. Is that normal? Heh :)

In much more wedding-y news we're going ring shopping this weekend! Yes, as amazing as that is we haven't purchased my engagement ring yet! My fiance is glad that we're finally doing it, but at the time we talked about marriage (lol he didn't get on one knee, we just talked about it because like I said most UNROMANTIC couple ever :D) we had a huge move and a new car purchase on the horizon and I just didn't feel comfortable dropping a couple thousand on a piece of jewelry. We had no idea what the move would be like financially/where/when etc etc. But now we know what the hell we're doing and I'm definitely excited to go look at some bling ;)

So much studying to do,

and so little motivation with which to do it :)

Is it unreasonable to ask Chris to vow that he will always bring me coffee in the mornings at our ceremony? If he looks at me like I'm crazy I can just say "If you really loved me..." lol!

Another random thought I've had today is that I think the Superbowl quite possibly is the only reason most people know the roman numerals.

That is all :)

Valentine's Day

With all of this wedding stress (new budget issues have arisen. Lovely!) I have found myself fantasizing that we'd do away with all of the wedding hoopla and elope on V-day and we can just go through with our honeymoon as planned in late July. It's a weak fantasy, but it's a pretty tantalizing one at just this moment...

Never enough time.

It is most definitely one of those days where I feel like I never have enough time, on so many levels.

First of all, with the wedding - July is so close! And yet so far, some days. So much to do! And yet, really not that much lol. A little divided on that one from day to day :)

Secondly with school, it's only the fourth week and I already feel behind. I am taking US government, a psych class, microbiology & pathology, yoga and anatomy & phys 2. Which is actually a pretty decent load-not too heavy, not too light. And yet I'm totally not on the ball! Shame on me. (Though in my defense, my procrastination is only mostly to blame. Just recovered from a virus that completely knocked me on my ass all of last week.)

Thirdly with life in general. Some days I just want to run up to Chris (the future mister) and hug him and never let go. I'm afraid that a lifetime won't be long enough. Also I sometimes worry that with his line of work and with the unpredictable nature of the world that our life together will be cut short. Is that crazy/morbid or does this cross other people's thoughts too? I suppose it's good to have days like this, though. To really appreciate what you have. At the end of the day you can't stop fate, you can only play with the hand you're dealt and appreciate it for what it is.

So today, to embrace my feelings, I'm going to get cracking on my studying (9 tests/quizzes next week! Yipes!) When Chris wakes up (didn't get home from his shift until 4am!) I am going to give him a huge hug and kiss and tell him how much I love him. I'm going to visit my parents and younger siblings. Unfortunately as far as the wedding goes, nothing can be done there! I'm as organized as I can be and I'll just have to chill. :) 

Happy Saturday everyone!

Literally.

My fiance's last name is Queen. So thus I will be becoming a Queen by marriage in no way associated with royalty :)

I wanted to start this blog to not only record the process of engagement to marriage and beyond, but to have a way to network with other people like-minded and otherwise! What's ironic about the whole marriage/wedding thing I have found is that there is a lot of peer pressure! So if you don't do everything according to tradition (and then even if you do!) you end up feeling kind of alone with these issues, whatever they may be. Which is a little ironic considering it's essentially the merging of families in the creation of a new one. So it would be nice to see feedback from other people.

One common thread in my life seems to be that I do everything out of order. I graduated high school early and went to college late. We moved in together before we got married and are getting married before I finish college. Who meets "the one" when they're a sophomore in high school? That would be me. See? All out of order and never traditional. Which is strange because I have no problems with tradition, I just never seem to fit into it!

A little background about me is that I am 21 and live in Texas. I am currently halfway through school to become a registered nurse. I have two dogs who drive me insane and a cat who thinks he's cooler than all of us. We have only been engaged since this past November and plan on getting married this July! My fiance has his bachelor's degree in biochemistry for premed and went totally left field and became a police officer instead. He is 23 and like I mentioned before we dated in high school, which is by definition nothing serious and grew up to become best friends.

The general plan for our wedding is for it to be small, simple and meaningful. I have a HUGE extended family (divorced & remarried parents and my dad's mother is one of six, whom have all had kids and grandkids), but to invite them all would equal a huge price tag and spending loads of money on a wedding isn't our priority. Right now we're at the point in our lives where we have to decide between either/or. Big wedding and wait or smaller and sooner. Big wedding later = buying a house even later, which is something that is very important to us to do early. The budget limitations really make you think about what's truly important to you on your wedding day and for us, it's just that-us! The honeymoon is what we want to spend most of the budget and time on. Though we did want to have a ceremony which involved our parents, grandparents, siblings, immediate aunts, uncles and cousins and our closest friends. Neither of us (nor our families) are much for dancing so we decided to have the wedding at a local restaurant that's set on some vineyards. The ceremony will take place in an outdoor pavilion overlooking the vineyards and the "reception" aka glorified dinner/dessert will take place inside, where we still have the great view. We will only be inviting 40 people. Then we will take off the next day for a wonderfully tropical 10 day vacation. I am really looking forward to the whole experience and to marry (as cheesy as it sounds) my best friend.

The smaller wedding is kind of liberating! There is wayyyy less pressure because the to-do list is practically cut in half! I chose the restaurant at the vineyards because I wanted a venue with lots of natural beauty, I'm not really into tons of decorating and flowers. And then since it's a restaurant, that takes care of the issue of a caterer. Also I am not bothering with bridesmaids because it's about us and it's not really important for our union to involve a wedding party. So basically the entirety of my to-do list is the venue, officiant, dress, photographer (big maybe), bouquet, boutonniere, invitations, cake and honeymoon. If I had all the money in the world, I would probably do a lavish event like all those fairy-tale weddings, but for the cards I have been dealt and the place we are at in our lives right now I am very happy and excited about our small, non-traditional wedding :) I am looking forward to the rest of our lives together and all the different stages and places that will take us.

So now that I'm actually tired of talking about my life I'll shut up (:

Until tomorrow!