6!

Six more days! Well, it's closing in on five now, but whatever. It's surreal. But things are coming together, I guess. We still have to finish the favors, and apparently there's a lot to do regarding the centerpieces. I have to burn all the CDs for the ceremony, for before the ceremony, for the reception, etc. And of course I'm still taking stuff over to the apartment, but I don't think there's really that much left. I have the clothes I need this week here, and I have some random bags and boxes, a corner of my room with some junk in it, and whatever's under my bed. Then of course, things need to be put away, but that's another story. Brandon is already ready to take down the Christmas stuff at the apartment, which is kind of a bummer, but at the same time there's not much point in keeping it up. It's not as though we're there all the time to enjoy it. I doubt we have the time to do anything about it right now, anyway.

So tomorrow is errands day. I really need to get to the eye doctor because I don't have any more contacts. And we've got some other running around to do. Brandon's family's going to get their tuxes tomorrow, and I think we will pick up my brother's, too. We might bring my dress home, too! I am excited.

Odobenus Rosmarus.

Howdy, and Merry Christmas. May I just say that I am already hungry again. I am trying to resist eating my leftover creampuff from lunch, though, because we will be having chik-fil-a chicken nuggets at my aunt's house in about an hour.

Christmas has been interesting so far. I kind of assumed that I would be moody, since this is my last Christmas at home, but everything's been pretty fine. Dad has a stomach bug so for the first time in the history of forever, he did not go out to Mammaw and Pappaw's for lunch.

So last night, I got off work at 5 and we went to church, which was interesting. It wasn't as touching as the last two years' sermons, to be honest. It was pretty weird. But it was still ok. Then we went home, ate dinner, and Brandon came over and we opened presents as a family. After Brandon went home, I got ready for bed and straightened up my room a bit. Miraculously, I actually slept through most of the night. Granted, I didn't fall asleep until almost midnight, and I woke up around five the first time, but that is actually way better than I've been sleeping lately. This morning we discovered dad wasn't feeling well, and then Mimi and Pappaw (my mom's parents) came over and we opened gifts and ate breakfast. Breakfast was really good this year. Mom always make sausage balls, and dad always makes a pumpkin roll, but we also had mini Cinnabons this year, and they were fab. Mini cinnabons are about the size as regular cinnamon rolls. In case you aren't aware, a normal-sized Cinnabon has more than 900 calories. Disturbing, isn't it?
After messing with our presents for a while, Mimi and Pappaw went home, and the mom, Jonathan and I headed out to Mammaw's for lunch. It is a Meredith family tradition to have fried oysters for Christmas lunch. So I had about four of those, and lots of Mammaw's potato salad (which is AMAZING) and there was cole slaw and rolls and oyster crackers and homemade hush puppies. Oh, mylanta. I was so full I did not eat my creampuff for dessert. And that like, never happens. Then we had present time, which was fun. I am an opponent of people listing everything they got for Christmas on blogs and facebook, because I think it's really tacky. It implies that you want everyone to know what you got, and you want to compare with other people. That's not what Christmas is all about. I usually just say that my family got me some wonderful things and for that I'm very grateful, but I will say one thing I got for Christmas this year, because it was so different and awesome. As many people are aware, I love walruses. So does Kelli. We collect them. This is kind of hard to do, since there isn't a big market for walrus things out there. My aunt gave myself and Brandon a box of animal themed presents, and in there was a bag from the World Wildlife Fund, containing a stuffed walrus and a piece of paper saying that a "walrus" had been adopted in my name. The money from that goes specifically to the conservation of walruses (populations have shrunk quite a bit in the last few years), and I got a nice picture of a walrus, to boot. I made the comment that it would be fun to write letters to my walrus, much in the same way that one would write to a sponsor child, and of course, when I sent Kelli a text message telling her about this gift, she pretty much said the same thing. Great minds think alike!

After presents and everything, my aunt, cousin, and her husband followed me over to the apartment so they could see it, which was fun. And now we are waiting to go to her house (my aunt's, that is) for dinner over there. Chicken nuggets, chips and dip, rolls, her version of potato salad (very good) and lots of goodies for dessert. Brandon will pick me up from there and we'll go to his house to visit for a while, and then he'll bring me back home. And then tomorrow, it's back to cleaning and packing and planning and preparing and such. The wedding is one week and one day away! It's bananas. I really don't know what I'm going to do with myself.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas, and continues to do so the rest of the day!

bother bother bother...

Yeah, it has been a while since I updated. We have moved a lot of stuff into the apartment, and it looks really nice. We're both excited to have it even though neither of us is technically staying there right now. My room looks weird without a lot of stuff in it- the desk is moved out, along with all three bookshelves, the rocking chair and my cedar chest. Basically all that's left is my dresser, tv, bed and nightstand, some random piles of stuff and a little card table with my computer. I think somehow the furniture made it warmer in here...it sure is cold. Maybe that's because my closet door is off its hinges, though.
We are now about two weeks away from the wedding, and it's a really weird sensation. I'm not really freaking out, but I do know deep down that I still have stuff to do. I really should make a list and work on knocking things out one at a time, but right now I am too tired. And cold. I work all day tomorrow for some reason (both weekend days! Weird, huh?) and then I should try to stop by the apartment and do some things there. Sunday my best pal Kelli is throwing me a bachelorette party. I don't know how often I will see her over the next two weeks. I mean, I doubt I'll see her before Christmas, and even though I'm off work the whole week after that, I have a feeling I'll be keeping myself busy. I also need to pack for the honeymoon sometime, call Disney with our flight information, finish packing up my stuff....and pause for a few moments to enjoy Christmas.
This is my last Christmas at home and its sad because it doesn't really feel like Christmas at my house. Everyone is too distracted by wedding stuff. And moving stuff. And just...stuff. We didn't get the tree up until a few days ago, and normally we have it up way early. I don't know that it's even decorated. We have done minimal Christmas baking. I'm surprised some of us even remembered to shop for presents. And we'll take next Friday off and spend all day with each other, visiting family and stuff, but the next day it will be back to freaking out about wedding stuff for the next eight days.
Part of me regrets choosing a date eight days after Christmas to get married. Oh well.

Accidental Omission

Oopsie.
Well, we found out about the apartment a week or so ago. I think. I forgot to post. It's all very exciting. Our move-in day is in about two weeks. I will be excited to get my stuff in that apartment- it's slightly less fun when it's just hanging out in my basement.

The wedding is five weeks from today, and that is just bananas. It's incredibly surreal. I've got more stuff done, but we are having some, shall we say, issues, with RSVPs. We sent out about 180 invitations. And we've got maybe 40 response cards. Some people have just let me know that they're coming or not coming, which is fine, because at least I know. And a few relatives (and bridesmaids...) haven't sent theirs but I know they're going to be there. But those groups only account for like, ten response cards. There's still over 300 people we have no idea if they're coming or not. Which is a little frustrating, because people keep asking me what the count is, and I simply don't know. I sent facebook messages to a few people, asking if they got their invitations and if they will be able to come, but I haven't heard from anyone....hopefully they were just busy with Thanksgiving and will get back to me soon. Because the "reply by" date is like, December 2nd. Which is what, three days away? Or something like that. Three days that the post office delivers mail.
And I feel bad that I'm frustrated, like I'm being, I don't know, demanding, wanting to know if people are coming. But I need to know. If I only hear back from a few more people and just assume like, 250 people aren't coming, and then half of them show up, that is a heck of a lot of food and drink that we do not have. Among other things.

In the meantime, I am boxing up some random stuff around my room. I'm pretty much clearing off my bookshelves (I have two tall ones and one short one) and boxing up the contents so we can go ahead and move them to the apartment. I'm keeping my DVDs out, and my Harry Potter books, because sometimes I just need to read them. They make me happy. And I boxed up a lot of my stuffed animals (I don't know what I'm going to do with them...) and some breakables and I'm starting a box of random stuff. Contents so far: two figurines from LOST, a doggie lobster costume, part of a doggie bumblebee costume, a planner that I barely used, and some walruses. Like I said. Random.

In terms of wedding accomplishments, I got the rest of my favor boxes put together, paid the balance on the flowers, and made appointments for my hair trial run, my nail appointment (two days before the wedding) and my hair and makeup appointment the day of the wedding. That part was pretty exciting. I am looking forward to it! And we took my dress back to Rebecca's to be pressed. I just need to remember to go back and get my veil for my hair trial. I thought about taking it home but I just knew it would get messed up.

So..that's all that's going on right now. Completely scintillating. I'm sure the world was dying to know.

Who knows where the time goes?

Wow. What a weekend.
Friday Jonathan came down with the flu, randomly and all of a sudden. Saturday morning at work there was an overly zealous man beating on the door, and he tried to bribe us to let him in and get on the computer. Um, no. Then that afternoon a patron had a seizure and we had to call an ambulance. And then the events of this morning were argumentative, to put it mildly. And now the day is over. The weekend is over. And I have no time.
The wedding is six weeks away, and that's exciting. We're supposed to pick up my dress tomorrow and take it back to the dress place to store it. And run a million other errands. I have a paper due Tuesday that I must tackle. And I have to work tomorrow, so...yeah. Tuesday is school. Wednesday is work again, but I'm off in the evening. And then Thursday is Thanksgiving and then the week is over again! We need to meet with our photographer about how much time she has, where she needs to be, what shots we want, etc. But we can't do that until we meet with the wedding coordinator and map out the ceremony. And then we need to get in touch with the minister and fill him in. And pay off the flowers. And who knows what else. Plus finish school work for the semester (in like, two weeks. *_*) Then finals. And...somehow squeeze two doctor's appointments and physical therapy in there. No time, no time, no time. There is not enough time.

Oh, and we haven't heard back about the apartment yet. I told Brandon that if he doesn't hear from them by noon tomorrow, he needs to call his employer and ask them about it. So hopefully then we will get some answers. Hopefully. I am getting tired of waiting. But I want a positive answer.

I'm getting tired of waiting.

Brandon got off work early so we met over at the rental office to drop off a copy of his other paycheck stub. The lady who was working took it to her office and crunched some numbers, and when she came back she didn't say "it's still not enough", which is promising. They have to send it to the company to confirm that he didn't like, quit last week or whatever. That he's still an employee. Here's the thing, though. He is, and he isn't. It was a temporary job, which he got through a placement company. The placement company still has his info, and I think that's who cut him the check, so if they get asked, he should be fine. But today was his last day on this particular job. If we get turned down, we're going to add me as a co-applicant and start the whole process over again, but they would then consider both our incomes instead of just Brandon's.

This is a very stressful time. I am trying to work to make sure I get all my schoolwork done for the semester, plus tie things up at school since I'm taking next semester off. I still have my job to focus on. And then there's making sure everything is finalized for the wedding, and trying to find a place to live, and I want to start packing and/or organizing because it's exciting and fun, but on the other hand, when do I have time to do that? "I don't", would be the responsible answer. I should be doing schoolwork, because that comes first. But it's hard to focus and hard to get motivated.

I would be extraordinarily happy if we find out early tomorrow that the apartment is a go. I don't think that will happen. I don't even know that the apartment people will hear back from Brandon's employer this week. I hope so. I seem to recall it was really difficult and time-consuming getting a hold of them to apply for the job, do the testing he needed to do, etc. Let's hope that those memories are just exaggerated in my mind and that everything was a lot smoother than I remember. Smoother and faster.

I think I need a nap. I don't think I'm going to get one. It's getting closer to 10 p.m. and I still have lots to do. And I have physical therapy super early tomorrow morning. I need to go, and in some ways I don't mind going, because it will make me feel better in the long run and I've had back problems for a while and this is a super way to get some stuff worked out and my insurance is paying for it. You know, because of getting rear ended by a bus. On the other hand, the only time I can go is the precious few hours I have before work days (exception: tomorrow), early in the morning. And it's 25 minutes away and a hastle. If it was just down the street, and I could show up whenever I wanted, I'd be happier. But whatevs. I'd rather not think about it right now.

Hopefully I will be back with good news tomorrow.

The flaw in the plan.

Well, hmm.
I called Brandon yesterday on my dinner break to ask if we had by chance heard anything from the apartment people, even though they weren't supposed to call until Thursday (today). He said we did, and that they said we didn't have enough money. They only asked for one of his paycheck stubs, and the most recent one wasn't as big as his others lately because he's been working that temp job for the past few weeks. He indicated on the application that he had two employers (which was true, when we filled out the app) and so they told him to bring his paycheck stub from his other employer by, because we only needed a "little more" money. Those are Brandon's words, not mine. This is better than just rejecting us outright, but because the temp job is only for three weeks, he gets two paychecks from them. And the one he already has is not very big. So...I'm stressed. He is going to take his stub over there after work and I will go meet him and take my paycheck stub, too, because in a few weeks we will be sharing a bank account and so my money is his money, and vice versa. The problem with that is I may have to be listed as co-applicant for them to consider it, which would mean another credit check, more waiting, and an extra $50 fee. So the best case scenario is, we go over there, they glance at his other paycheck stub and say "ok, we just needed to confirm that you have a little bit extra money. This is awesome, and the apartment is yours. You can get your keys on the 11th." The next best case scenario would be for them to accept my paycheck, too, without having to go on as a co-applicant. And it goes downhill from there.
Brandon seems pretty confident that his other check will do it, but I don't know. I let myself get so excited about this apartment that I think I had tricked myself into thinking that there was no way we wouldn't get it, and that was stupid of me. So now I'm terrified and extremely pessimistic about the whole thing. There aren't that may apartments out there that we can afford, let alone that are in safe neighborhoods. This one is perfect. I see it as many answered prayers wrapped into one. But now that we have hit this little snag, my confidence is waning. Please continue to keep us in your prayers as now that we have found a place to live, we are trying to get into that place without too much hassle! Maybe I will know something by tonight. I may be back to post again.