CHECK!

I picked up the invitations today and they are beautiful! Now I get to put them together, tie on the pretty brown ribbon, address them, and send them to the people we love. It's really happening. I'm marrying Nick! Yay!

In career news: I stopped by Eatonville High School today and dropped off a reference letter with the principal to be sent to the Puyallup School District as the final component of my application to sub in the district. Nick and I figure that 3-5 days of subbing a month will cover some of our minor expenses so we can continue to save money when we move into the new house. I'm actually really excited to sub, and getting back into the Puyallup district will be a nice and welcome change. So good news all around today.

(We haven't heard back on the house yet, but we sent in all the signed paperwork this morning, so it might be a few days before we get an answer on our offer.)

*Engagement photos are on Monday in Seattle!

**Mom and I did our registry at Target yesterday. Nick and I will finish it up on Sunday at Macy's. It's so much fun walking around with that little gun shooting stuff I want!

Another one . . .

We put in another offer on a new house in Bonney Lake. 2100 square feet and almost a third of an acre with a big country-style front porch. All the paperwork is going in tomorrow. I feel optimistic about this offer, but I'm not getting my hopes up this time. When we found out about losing the last house, I was a little devastated, so with this house I'm more neutral about it all. 

The good news: Nick and I are becoming experts on this home search thing. I helped my parents when they bought this house two years ago and now I'm doing a lot in our home search. Our agent, Mike, has been amazing and so helpful, especially with short sales and bank owned properties. Between him and our financial guy, Brian, we were blessed with a wonderful team who've been there for us every step of the way. And now tomorrow I get to fax a million pages to them and we will hopefully hear back from the listing agent by tomorrow evening. This whole process is just crazy!

One other thing: Our invitations are in! I'm going to pick them up tomorrow and put them together to mail out in a day or two. So invitations are officially soon-to-be on the way!

The House That Wasn't

So the house we put an offer on was in Buckley in a great location and a beautiful neighborhood. There were three other houses in the development that were for sale, one at $330,000 and two at $350,000. This house was being offered at $259,000 because it was a bank-owned, which meant instant equity if our offer was accepted, so we offered $10,000 over the asking price, hoping that would set us apart from the other people. There were 5 other offers on the house, 4 were under ours, but the other was for $259,000 CASH. The bank accepted that offer, of course and we lost a beautiful home. 

So, yesterday was a very bad day. To add to the pain of losing this house, I tried to slice off my finger in the shower when I attempted to readjust the shower head. A piece broke off as I was trying to tighten it, which was very sharp, and it cut open my index finger at the knuckle and that bled quite a bit. Nothing feels better than a cut on your knuckle, let me tell you. Well, this pain, along with hearing the news about losing the house only minutes before caused me to let lose a long stream of tears, which went on for an hour or so and continued periodically throughout the day. Nick was disappointed too, but was distracted by his need to comfort me. We're just telling ourselves that this house wasn't meant to be, for whatever reason. The problem is that the market is heating up while the number of homes in Bonney Lake and Buckley is cooling down. There isn't as much to choose from and there is more competition than there was a few months ago. I guess it's a good thing we aren't in a hurry because this is likely going to take longer than we originally planned. All in all though, losing this house was a huge disappointment and I'm grieving a little bit. But there's something better out there . . . right?

Accomplishments

Well, proof that I have the best fiance: he went with me to a big shoe sale at All About Weddings in Southcenter. I got a very cute and comfortable pair of shoes, which still need to be dyed, for the wedding. I think I'm going to have them dyed burgundy instead of chocolate, but I'm not sure yet. Anyway, Nick sat patiently while I tried on 20+ shoes and didn't act bored unless I wasn't looking. He's amazing, really.

Another accomplishment: the invitations. I ordered them at Costco and they are very pretty, although I didn't go with either of the two that we originally liked. The best part: 35% off the list price, so we didn't spend as much as I thought we would. I just approved the proof, so we should be getting the invitations next week sometime. I really need to start compiling addresses AND Nick and I need to go actually register, so it isn't a lie when I put it in the invitations that we are registered at Target and Macy's.

And two more: the favors and the compatibility test. We got our bookmarks and they are great! I unwrapped all 120 of them and packed them in a box to be transported to Thornewood on November 7th. Yay! And the test. Nick and I scored remarkably well, higher than most couples, in fact. We were actually the first to score 100% on a section (financial) in Monica and Jim's time doing this with couples. We really love the people who administered the test. Monica and Jim are so nice and very warm, so we invited them to the wedding in November. Overall, the test contained nothing surprising. We are different in our feelings about religion (Nick's analytical and I'm emotional) and how many children we want (Nick wants 3, I want 2). The question that raised some eyebrows: A good way to resolve an argument with my future husband/wife is to have sex. I said disagree, Nick said agree, so we had to talk about it with Monica and Jim. He swears he answered agree as a joke and he turned bright red when she read the question; I was laughing to cover the embarrassment, but Monica and Jim thought it was pretty entertaining. Ah, my lovely fiance.

Other stuff: I got my ring back from Nick Kwan who took it to his caster so they could make sure my wedding band would lay flush against it. He had it all week and I really, really missed it. I felt a little naked without it. We also went to lunch with Nick and his girlfriend, Nicole, and thereby found another couple we really enjoy hanging out with. They are really fun and Kwan is hilarious, which we already knew. We decided that we are going to do the fair and the corn maze in Buckley together this year. It was a couple's weekend as we had Austin and his girlfriend Brittany over last night to stay. I made beer roast, mashed potatoes, gravy (with Mom's help), and salad for dinner and we played Wii and watched Stardust before going to bed.  Then this morning we went to the Original Pancake House for breakfast. It was a lot of fun and we laughed most of the night. So Austin and Brittany are joining our party to the fair and the corn maze. All in all, it was a good weekend.

One other thing: we put an offer on a house. I don't want to say too much about it so I don't jinx anything, but we are asking for prayers that God's will be done. We love this house and we're hoping it's meant to be, so we're being very aggressive in our offer, but we are leaving it in God's hands and hoping that the adage God helps those that help themselves will ring true in this case. I will post again when we hear back on our offer, which we expect to sometime next week. In the meantime, I'm praying like crazy!

I want to point something out . . .

I love and support my friends completely. And I believe in karma and being honest in life. And that's all I want to say.

Oh, and I love Nick. He is the solid constant in my life and I'm thankful every day for him and the life we have.

Proud of my accomplishments!

We had our meeting with Nick Kwan (which, humorously enough, ended up being about him and my Nick discussing the state of the economy and how much they hate hippies. Seriously, they hate hippies). Our rings are going to be amazing! Mine are a little over the top maybe, but I'm excited. Nick is getting a Byzantine cross etched on his simple ring AND I am getting a strand of chocolate pearls and matching earrings (Kwan deals primarily in pearls, so we are getting an AMAZING deal). I like to think that I am not materialistic, but I'm not going to lie to anyone, including myself: I love jewelry and it's exciting when I get new pieces!

Other than jewelry, Nick and I are one phone call away from solidifying all our plans for the ceremony. If the priest can't do the ceremony at Thornewood, we are going to keep our church date for September 26th. It isn't the perfect scenario for me, but the important thing is that I am marrying Nick and we are happy. It doesn't matter that we are already married when we have our big ceremony because it's all in how I view it. November 7th is the special and important day. September 26th is for us and only us.

In that vein, we also got our compatibility test results (a requirement of the Catholic church) back. More on that when we meet with the couple from the church to discuss those results. I'm sure I'll have something interesting to say after the 2 (yes, 2) two-hour meetings we'll have to have to discuss whether or not the test shows we are compatible.

I also ordered my favors today. The votes were in, everyone chose the metal cut-out leaf with the burgundy tassel. I also ordered some wedding day makeup from Sephora to try out. Here's what we have on the agenda for the next two weekends:

This weekend:

-Possibly register for gifts

-Look at houses in Bonney Lake

-Get in touch with Mom and Dad's financial guy and finally get that all figured out (Yes, PLEASE!)

-Send the checks to St. John the Baptist's to hold our date

-Get Nick's passport paperwork completed and set up an appointment to get that done

*Oh yeah, pick up Mom and Dad from the airport! Haha, that'd be bad if I forgot that one.

**Mom and I are going to go get my veil and shoes next week too (she just doesn't know it yet . . . )

Next weekend:

-The big antiques yard sale at Meeker Mansion is on Saturday

-Meet with the church couple about the compatibility test (round 1)

-Register for gifts (let's face it, we might not get this done this coming weekend)

-SUNDAY: GO GET KAYAKS 

-On Monday we have our second meeting about the compatibility test

-Passport stuff if we don't do it this weekend

Other stuff to do:

-INVITATIONS (Oh wait, I just remembered that I told my future sister-in-law, Cheryl, that we would be coming up to Duvall to visit and design the invitations next weekend. How am I going to fit that in is the question . . . )

-Honeymoon stuff (Are we buying a house? If so, no Europe. Mexico maybe? Caribbean cruise?)

-Flowers (What kind and where from?)

-Cake (Hmm, yep, still need to do that . . . )

This week has been crazy, what with Mom and Dad being on vacation (a Mexican cruise and they are LOVING it) and me stuck at home with Jacob and the dogs. Beyond that, Nick's working on getting a job with a contract area in King County and has an new MPO, which means he is very busy and I miss him! Tomorrow is his birthday and he didn't even know it. I had to remind him this morning (I think this also has to do with his desire to stay a child forever. And he's doing a good job so far . . . )

We need a vacation. I think we should forget tradition and do the honeymoon now. Then we can come home and get married.

Rings

We finally set up an appointment with our ring guy, Nick Kwan, to get our wedding bands designed. Kwan works for DeBeers and will be able to get our wedding bands done at a wholesale price, which means we can go for a higher quality metal and a better clarity and larger diamonds, as we did in my engagement ring. I also trust Kwan implicitly with the decision as to the design of my rings. I can't decide if I want a simple ring with a band of micro-Pave set diamonds to match my engagement ring or if I want to insert a few larger diamonds into the middle of the band, a la past, present, future rings. He'll be able to give me a good idea as to whether or not that would work. Nick really wants a tungsten ring, so that will be an easy choice.

Another thing we're working on is the actual dates of the wedding . . . yeah, November 7th is the BIG day, but we're working on making that the ONLY day as well. As of right now, we're getting married on September 26th in the Catholic church, but we're hoping that Father Jim will be willing and able to marry us at Thornewood on November 7th instead. I'm not optimistic because priests are usually only able to perform marriages in churches, and we won't know anything for sure until he's back from a vacation on August 5th. A few other things are suspended until we know the answer to our church question, such as the invitations. Yeah, I still haven't ordered those. Starting to stress . . . 

Oh, and I'm not making the favors. Too much going on to add that to my list, so we'll be ordering one of two bookmark favors that look like this (potentially):

We both love the idea of incorporating something we love into the wedding. Besides family and friends, I don't think either one of us could be happy without being able to read frequently. If the bookmarks don't work, maybe we'll do the personalized bags of coffee, which was our other favor idea. Ah, one more decision to make!