Life

Sometimes I take a step back and just look at what my life has become and what I've been through, and I honestly cannot believe how much has changed, especially within the last 8 years or so, from when I joined the military. I mean, I went from this immature 18 year old who had no idea what was in store for her, who had no confidence in anything at all, to this 25 year old who is where she wants to be. I thought I would move to San Diego after leaving the military one day, go to university there, and become a true California girl.

But then I got my orders to England in 2007 and my whole life changed within those 2 years. I fell in love with this country, and I found the man of my dreams who I will marry. I gained confidence in myself, which helped me to leave the military and do exactly what I want, which is go to school for Psychology.

Never have I been happier...

18 years old in Monterey, CA

 25 years old in Northampton, England

Long Overdue...

Hello everyone! I apologize for not writing in almost a month. A lot has happened and I haven't really had the heart to write lately. My cousin, Frankie, who I wrote about here , passed away on February 17th after battling and overcoming cancer, but not overcoming the additional treatments he had to get. It is truly a tragedy. He meant so much to me, and I miss him terribly. I hate thinking about it, I avoid it at all costs, but when I do, I can't stop crying. What helps is knowing he's no longer suffering, like he was everyday. He once told me he just wants to "party" haha!!! Aw. Please, I don't want to think about it.

Other than that, Steve and I have booked our wedding-both the venue and the date. Woo! It's exciting! I'm thinking of making it a romantic AND vintage wedding, so lots of roses, rose petals, pearls, and diamantes everywhere. I am going for a more minimalistic approach, so not too much decoration everywhere, but just enough to make the tables look pretty. Does anyone have any ideas for the vintage wedding? I'm thinking that the centerpieces will be clear glass vases that I will cover with lace and possibly a brooch, then filled with silk roses with pearls in the middle of the roses. Then maybe some tealights and rose petals will go all over the table.

I don't have much else to say, really! Steve and I are going to make some Spinach Artichoke dip tomorrow for Fancy Schmancy Saturday! Yay!

Have a good weekend everyone :)

This Perfect Day

Ahh love is in the air! Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! My absolute favorite day! It's filled with love, hearts, candy, chocolate, reds, pinks, whites, I Love You's, flowers, and everything! I love it so much. I know, I'm sappy!



Lucky for me, I have a handsome prince who whisked me off to Paris for the weekend! Our rendezvous was so amazing!!! We arrived Friday night, walked over to the Eiffel Tower while passing by the beautiful buildings, and hung out there for hours! Here's a taste of one of the balconies I love! They are everywhere there!

The next day, we walked all around Paris! And took the metro too! We saw Place de la Concorde, which has an obelisk that is from Egypt, Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysees, Notre Dame, The Louvre and finally The Eiffel Tower, in which we went all the way to the top (eek!)! On Sunday, we went to the Sacre Coeur, which was beautiful! And appropriate since it was on a Sunday!  

We ate many crepes filled with nutella and banana for me, lemon and sugar for steve, throughout the days! I forgot how much I missed traveling to a new country with Steve! It's so much fun. And you know what the best part is? Hearing him speak French! I was so full of pride when I heard him speaking fluently to the baker!

It was truly a magical time. I loved every minute of it. Well, not *every* minute of it. We had to endure seeing a lady squat down and urinate in the metro station! Fun times. Haha! I was fortunate enough to find a painting I loved! I can't wait to frame it and hang it up to remind me of the wonderful memories Steve and I created in Paris!

I hope your day was filled with love and happiness! Valentine's Day isn't just about love for your significant other, it's about love for yourself, your family, friends, pets, anyone you love!! Embrace it and buy yourself a little pink cupcake to celebrate! :)

Valentine's Day!

It's coming up....my faaaavorite holiday ever!! I love it more than Christmas and Thanksgiving! Okay I'm going to tell you of some early memories I have of Valentine's Day! The first one is when the love of my life, Brendan, gave me a little snack size bag of M&M's for V-day! I ate them, then I saved the wrapper and taped it into my diary! I must have been like 8 years old!

Another memory is that we had Secret Valentine's, like Secret Santa. This boy, Joe, gave me red heart shaped earrings!!! I don't have them anymore, unfortunately, but it was so cute! I think I was 9!

I love this day because it's all about love. And, well, I'm all about love! It's a day of reds, pinks, whites, all beautiful, happy colors! I may not have had a Valentine for many years, but it hasn't ruined my day at all.

What's even more special is that Steve and I went to Rome for our 1st Valentine's Day together. That trip was when I became really close to him and realized that I really truly love him.

And guess what?! We're going to PARIS for this Valentine's Day!!! YAY!! I am SO excited! We'll be celebrating love in the city of love!!

I hope all of you have the most wonderful Valentine's Day ever!! Even if you don't have a Valentine, it isn't all about that. It's about having a loving nature. :)

Bonne nuit! 

Italiano?

Buona notte!! I am trying to learn Italiano so that when I meet my family in Sicily, I can converse with them! Plus, I love learning new languages!! As I'm going through the Italian Rosetta Stone, I'm just so happy to be speaking a new language!! It hurts my jaw though because different languages use different parts of the mouth and jaw apparently! I'm really excited, though! A phrase I learned today is: Un bambino sotto un aereo. The boy is under the airplane. Haha! I love it! I love Italy so much. I can't wait to return again!

Speaking of trips to foreign countries, I told Steve how I'd like to visit somewhere besides Lincoln, Cheltenham, and Cornwall, and so he's organizing (oh my gosh, I just wrote organising, and had to delete that spelling!!) a trip somewhere as a surprise!! I'm so excited!! I also picked out my Valentine's Day gift, which is the picture below this paragraph! It's the first earring, and it's an X with a diamond underneath, so it's like XO! In case you don't know, Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday ever! I love it way more than Christmas or Thanksgiving! It's all about love! And, well, I absolutely love love. I don't just mean relationship love, I mean the world too. Okay look at my earrings!

So I scored an A+ in my exam that I took before Christmas! I'm so so happy! It was on Social and Biology Psychology! I studied a lot for it, finished the 90 questions in about 25 minutes, and got such an amazing grade. I am so proud of myself!! Now that I've set that standard, I hope to maintain it throughout school!

It's starting to get warmer here, so I'm thinking I'm going to start going on walks since I boycott running!! It will not only clear my mind and put me in a good mood, I will get fit too!! I'll let you know if my plan works...

Steve and I are off to see some wedding venues soon! I think we know where we want anyway, but we'll look at these places anyway so we don't completely write them off!

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well!! Enjoy life and everyone and everything in it!! Love love love!! <3

Ciao!

All You Need Is...Friendship!

I love it when I'm down and being irrational, and a good friend can just lift me back up again and put me back into place. I'm so thankful I have friends like that in my life. Few, but at least I have them!

Hello, 2011!!

I haven't updated in awhile, mostly because there has been so much going on during this Christmas break! Then again, I've been lazy. It's been nice to lounge around and sleep in!

We went to Cornwall to see Steve's family during Christmas and Boxing Day. The difference in the Christmas meal is crazy compared to the US. We're used to the turkey (or tofurkey, in my case), yams, cranberry, green beans, mashed potatoes, and then some pumpkin pie or other types of pie. In England, it's also a turkey, roast potatoes, nice vegetables, then Christmas Pudding, which is a dried fruit dessert made with brandy. Definitely different. The whole experience made me miss my family and spending the holidays with them because I hadn't in so long. Maybe one year I'll make it there. Or I could make something here! I don't know.

We also got to look at some wedding venues! We saw a bunch of them, but we had to book an appointment for all of them except for 1. The 1 we did go see is called the Carbis Bay hotel-and it is AMAZING. We were greeted and offered to be shown around, and it was such a beautiful site! We were even talking to the owner (we think!) of the hotel, and he told us that if we get married there, we can come back a year later and have a free meal on him! Everyone was so friendly, and the prices are really good. The view is absolutely amazing too, and it's their own private beach! Here's a picture!

We're going to be returning to Cornwall soon to look at the other 2 venues we're interested in! I am really looking forward to it! All of them are gorgeous, but it's all about the service, isn't it? For one of them, the event planner guy wasn't very helpful at all, and won't be there to show us around. He said one of the staff can take us around though. For the other hotel, the woman sent me so much information on it and set up an appointment with us. So, we shall see! I'll keep you updated!

Anyway, back to the holiday-we came home and went to our friends' house for a New Years party! It was nice-I didn't really know anyone, though, but they were really nice to me. We also got to release Chinese Sky Lanterns-I had never heard of them, but now I want to do them at our wedding!! Have a look...

Sooo pretty...I've been trying to plan more and more of the wedding. Nothing has been official because we pretty much need to get a venue and set a date, but I'm just thinking of the little things, like the reception! I want the tables to have vintage china teacups with roses as the centerpieces, rose petals all over the table, and possibly votive candles. The favors will be mini wine bottles with a personalized label so they can take them home! I don't want too much, you know? I just want some simple flowers, nothing extravagant. I really think we're going to save so much money, at least I hope! I don't plan on having a lot of flowers. I only plan on having 1 bridesmaid. The favors are cheap. We'll have under 90 people.

Steve wants to have a live band as well as a DJ. We'll have to calculate that and see how much it costs. One thing I absolutely have to have is a string quartet for when I walk down the aisle. So we have to calculate that too! Haha most of our money is going to music!! Good thing it's our favorite, and it's what brought us together!

Oh! And for my hen night/bachelorette party, I'd like to do something fun, like taking a bollywood class, where you get to dress up, learn how to dance, and take pictures and all of that!! I think that'd be fun! I'm not up for getting drunk since I'm not a big drinker.

I've been watching Bridezilla lately-hopefully I won't become those! They seem so unhappy on their actual wedding day cause they are stressing out and yelling about everything. I did get a good tip though! To cut out/save pictures you like from weddings so you can show potential photographers! I think that's an awesome idea! I've been cutting out lots of things I like in magazines and saving them on the computer as well. I think I may be starting a little early? The wedding isn't for another year and a half. Oh well, by the time I'm "supposed" to know, I'll be all prepared!! Oh! I also want to frame pictures from some of our family members weddings, and put them around the guest book. What do you think?

One thing I really want to do is get engagement photos done, as well as place an announcement in my parents' local newspaper. You only (usually) get engaged once, and I'd like to have it documented and do all the things that people do or used to do, you know? It's a nice keepsake to show your children and grandchildren. I know Steve doesn't like pictures, but I don't care. I'm not going pictureless for the rest of my life cause he doesn't like pictures!!! He doesn't have to look at them! :) I mean, what about the wedding, then when we have kids? Pictures must be taken! 

Any suggestions to save money for the wedding? Or even cute, romantic ideas for it?