Ebay Bargains

I'm not sure I trust some of you guys throwing stuff at me, so we're going for the bubbles;)! I'm going to order some ribbon with our names on it to tie on these, instead of the stickers on them.

These will be on the tables at the reception.

Andrew liked this and thought they were cool at Bev and Bill's wedding, so we need them too=)!

Andrew has been here this weekend and we've had a great time! He got here on Friday night in time to go to dinner with my family. Saturday we ran errands and then headed to Clovis for him to be introduced to the Clovis/Hobbs rivalry. Clovis won, however I think Andrew is addicted already! Today we got up and headed to church. Andrew got to meet our preacher that will marry us! We will begin our premarital counseling next month!

Tonight Mom, Dad, Kristi, Jeff, Kamden, & Kason came over for dinner. We had Andrew's favorites, lasagna and cheesecake! Mom had been on ebay and told me about some deals she found on some items I wanted for the wedding. We sat down and purchased them! I can't believe how drastically cheaper they were off ebay than on some of the other websites I've looked it.

We have cakes!

We'll be using a combination of the 3 cakes below for ours!

Mom and I met with the cake decorator today! It went VERY well and we both really liked her. She has a gorgeous house and one large room all dedicated to her cake decorating! I was in awe of this room! She seems very easy to work with. We decided on the pattern on the top cake with the hearts on a square 4 layer cake. The bottom picture shows a square cake with our caketopper. We'll also be adding pink roses. I can't wait to see it! (Her name is Geneva Acosta and number is 392-4909 if you need any cakes!)

We also ordered Andrew's cake! His will be a round 2 layer cake, but we're still working on the exact decorating. We'll come up with a picture soon!

Also, we had another big development today! I've been a little concerned about getting a videographer and haven't had any leads. I had just emailed someone today to ask for leads and he didn't know of anyone. When we sat down with the cake lady today I noticed business cards on the table for videographers! Her nephew does it! I called him a little earlier and we have an appointment on Monday!

Bridezilla?

This will be the look the grooms men will be working.

This is the look Andrew will be working. They'll all have pink rose boutonnieres.

This is a bridezilla!!!

Last week we set up our account at Master Cleaners where we will be renting the tuxes. We're going to need 12 of them! The men that live in town will just run up there and get fitted sometime. This weekend Andrew will be here and we're going to send the order form to the men out of town for them to use when they go get sized.

So I recently discovered the channel, WeTV. It's a wedding channel with tons of wedding shows.
I've been watching Say Yes to the Dress, Platinum Weddings, and Rich Bride Poor Bride for the last couple of weeks. This past weekend I watched my first episode of Bridezilla. OH MY GOODNESS!! That's not one I'm going to be able to continue to watch because the brides are so awful!

Tomorrow after school I have an appointment with the cake decorator I'm probably going to use. Her name is Geneva Acosta and she delivers! I already ordered one from another place, but I'm going to call and cancel it. I didn't like it! The other lady was into stacking the layers with the plastic things and I'm not a fan of that. More to come on the cake soon...

Weddings all around!

The school building!

Um...where's the computer? lol

And my students complain about their chairs being uncomfortable;)!

We thought this was really cool!

More pictures from the Botanical Gardens! We loved this place!

Andrew canoeing!

How gorgeous is that!?!

I can't look at this picture without laughing! This coupled ran smack into the side of the bridge. I didn't see it happening and all I heard was the REALLY loud sound it made. I looked around for a second wondering if it was a gunshot and how I'm going to take cover in the canoe! (The idea of jumping in the lake wasn't too appealing!)

We had such a fantastic weekend. Saturday we went to eat at The Cheesecake Factory, walk around the Botanical Gardens, see Valentine's Day, purchase our wedding bands, and watch the Olympics. Believe it or not...Sunday was even better! We had Trudy's for lunch and got to sit out on the patio. We hadn't been out there before and it was such a nice a day! Lunch was delicious and then we headed back to Zilker Park, but this time to the canoes!

We find the place to rent canoes and he tells us it's $10 an hour and he needs an ID. Andrew gives him the money and his id and he tells us to grab a boat. That was it! I needed more instructions! I'm thinking we're going to sit back and observe others and then give it a shot. WRONG! Andrew drags a canoe down and shoves it in the water and tells me to get in! LOL If only we had a video of me getting in the canoe...oh my goodness! Almost all of the canoe was in the water so I had to duck walk the distance to the other side and step over the poles that go across the canoe. I can only imagine how hard people were laughing at me! Andrew got it and we started paddling together and went straight into the other side of the bank! He figures out we're in the canoe backwards because I can't sit on the seat because there wouldn't be room for my legs, so I'm sitting in the bottom of the canoe. He wants to head back to the bank to switch around. I had visions of my duck walk in my head and let him know I could do it without going back to the bank. He keeps tell me...No, no, no...while i'm getting up on the seat and getting turned around! I made it! Then he gets turned around and we're on our way again, but now he's in the front and I'm in the back. Personally, I think I did an excellent job at steering us, but he would disagree. (I had it timed out how many strokes it took to get us turned, but he kept getting nervous.) We've got a plan for next time, though. We'll be old pros by then! It was really fun and SO beautiful! Next, we went on a train ride around Zilker Park. That was pretty cool and Andrew really enjoyed the scenery...of the volleyball courts. (Ha ha!) That night we got to go have dinner at The Iron Cactus. He had a steak that he said was one of the best he's ever had and I had some of the best fajitas I had. It was delicious!

The night Andrew and I got engaged we went to a wedding where his cousin, Courtney, sang. Her voice is so gorgeous! We immediately decided we really wanted her to sing for our wedding. Courtney has agreed to sing I'll Be by Edwin McCain. She plays the guitar and sings. I can't wait to hear it!

AND in other wedding news....my bridesmaid and best friend, Kari, got engaged! I am so thrilled for her and so excited we will be planning our weddings at the same time! How fun is that!?!? We've been through so much together and now it's perfect we get engaged 2 months a part! I'm so honored that I will get to be in her wedding now too!

Sensational Saturday!

Zilker Botanical Gardens in Austin, TX - We had such a good time! It was a very pretty walk...and good exercise too!

It was so pretty!

So many pretty places to take pictures! We've decided to go back and do more pictures and have those with the engagement pictures we're doing in Hobbs.

I had to take this quickly. The sales lady was letting me take it before anyone looked! This is my engagement ring with the wedding band.

My new necklace! Andrew did great!

This is Andrew's engagement ring! The fun sales lady recommended to get a wedding band for him that is large enough to be easily seen. I was sold at that point! Andrew wanted his wedding band to have NO diamonds and to be plain and simple. This definitely fits all of these stipulations-simple, no diamonds, easily seen!


We had such a great day today! Andrew and I both love the Olympics, so he recorded the opening ceremonies last night while I was driving here. We watched that this morning and then got ready to go for lunch at The Cheesecake Factory! YUM! After this we headed to The Zilker Botanical Gardens. It was just gorgeous. Andrew also got us tickets earlier this week to see Valentine's Day. It was a great movie and I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I do HAVE to say...I can't believe he did that! (That's pertaining to the movie!)

Andrew also had planned ahead because he got tickets for our movie at the Barton Springs mall where Kay Jewelers is. We headed over there after the movie to pick out our wedding bands. They have now been sent off to be sized! We also got to use our Santa Bucks we got from when he purchased my engagement ring. I did well for Valentine's Day. I got a gorgeous necklace and bracelet. We were only planning to get the necklace, but it wound up being CHEAPER to add on the bracelet...go figure! I'm a sucker for a bargain though! We ended the night with 5 Guys burgers and Amy's Ice Cream. What more can you ask for in a day!?!?

Andrew's Glory and Kala's Mishap

This was waiting for me when I arrived in Austin!

And here's Andrew's heart cupcakes!

I arrived in Austin tonight. As soon as I got to Austin Andrew was outside my car door to meet me. I got out of the car door and was gathering my things and immediately dumped the heart cupcakes I made on the ground. Now don't they just look delicious!?!? HA!!

I made and delivered them successfully for my family and students, but messed up Andrew's. I'll do better next time! When I arrived in Andrew's apartment he had my flowers sitting out waiting for me! Pink roses! My favorite! Now I'm looking forward to the next few days!

Staci & Andrew? Should I be concerned?

The other night I called Andrew at about 10:15 pm (11:15 pm in Texas!) to tell him goodnight. I was a little surprised when a female voiced answered the phone. I paused and thought for a second and then asked, "Destiny?" I was thinking maybe his sister had dropped by. She immediately answered with a, "HUH?" This let me know it was NOT Destiny! I asked who it was (perhaps a tiny bit on the grouchy side LOL) and she informed me in a cheerful voice, "This is Staci!" I paused again for a second and then realized it was my friend, Staci, I had called her earlier and accidentally redialed the same number! It was a bit of a weird feeling to hear the female voice when I was expecting to hear Andrew! Staci informed me she was headed to bed...and my fiance was NOT there=)! I couldn't quit laughing at myself about this! I'm not sure if I got a bigger kick out of this or Andrew!

Texas Graphics Anyone??

I added a graphic for Texas and Tech on the side of the blog. I had to laugh when I looked at the page and saw the sizes of the two pictures. (Sorry, honey!) I seriously didn't do it on purpose! So...Texas fans, send me a larger Texas picture and I'll replace the small one. The picture needs to be of equal size to the Texas Tech one! My eyes burn when I look online for Texas stuff=).

Engagement Pics Booked!

We have booked our photographer and date for our engagement pictures! Andrew will be coming here March 19th and we will do our pictures on Saturday, the 20th. We decided on Miguel Flores for our pictures. My friend, Marcia, recommended him. He is friends with her family and has taken a lot of their pictures and done one of their weddings. I've checked out his website and it's great! He is actually getting married the same day Andrew and I are, so won't be able to do our wedding. The picture above is of him and his fiance. I LOVE this picture! We've talked and we're putting his ideas together with mine and Andrews. We have some good ideas of locations to go to around Hobbs for pictures. Let me know if you happen to have a brilliant idea! We're open to suggestions!

Bouquet Bling Bling!

These are the flowers Andrew's sister-in-law, Karen, made for a wedding last weekend. Very nice!

This is the look Andrew will be working for the wedding! Nice!

This is what I have in mind for my bouquet.

Bling! Bling! Heart bouquet jewelry!

I've been starting to work on getting an idea of the flowers I want for the wedding. My friend and bridesmaid, Jennifer, has volunteered to take care of the bridesmaid bouquets! I think they'll look great! I want something fairly simple with ribbons. I'm still working on finding a picture of what I want. Last weekend Karen posted pictures of flowers she did for a wedding. She's VERY creative! They look great and she's willing to do my bouquet, the boutonnieres, and the corsages for the wedding. I want pink and white roses, so we'll just order the roses and let Karen and Jennifer go to town! You guys are awesome!

I'm STILL waiting on the arrival of my purchases from the last couple of weeks. I can't wait to see everything!