good bye tulsa. hello muskogee?

we made a decision tonight. we are turning in our 30-day notice to vacate, and we are moving to muskogee ... and back in with my parents! i haven't lived at my parents' house since i was 17 years old! in fact they didn't even live in this house when i last lived with them.

by doing this, we will be able to save quite a bit of money and pay off several things. it just means a long commute back and forth every day. luckily, we will be driving together. since travis can get by on a few hours of sleep, he'll be able to drive and i'll be able to rest in the car. i dread to think what it will be like to drive back to muskogee on nights that we have plans with friends after work.

we had just gotten everything situated just so in our apartment. travis is bringing boxes home tomorrow and we will begin packing it all away again. most everything will go in storage as there is not much sense in us taking much more than our clothes. i am sad and a little stressed. i like this idea better than post-poning the wedding, however.

when the idea was first mentioned, i was excited to think of all of the money we will save and the things we could get paid off ... but now that we are actually doing it, i am more than a little sad. and as much as i love my family, i'm not sure that moving in with them will be the greatest idea. oh well; i suppose anyone can do anything for six months.

wedding gown {how many times can i post about this?}.

i picked up my gown today, but i have put on too much weight and it won't zip all the way. thankfully i have 7 months until the wedding. work out buddy, anyone?

introducing cordially invited.

the past two days i stayed home from the office. i have taken a second job with travis's company, sixbyte, and i thought i would knock out a lot of things at once and then just worry about maintenance along the way. they are not putting pressure on me to do this, i really just couldn't stomach the idea of going into addison. claudine has been really sick this week and david was rude to her in saying {in the cheesiest voice i have ever heard} "you know what, i'm sick too, but i'm pushing through it. push. push. push. come on now." ugh.

yesterday i got most of the laundry done and tried to knock out quite a bit of work with sixbyte. unfortunately most of the work i'm to do is online and all of the sites that i needed were down. i contacted tom and christopher about the issues, but have still heard nothing back.

today i had planned to go to work, but then realized that i had a 7:30 meeting, and i didn't want to show up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed {whatever that means} after i was supposed to have been sick. how many people get over the flu in a day? so i decided to spend another day at home with the pup. i've never been one to call in and especially for no reason, but these days i don't know how i can stand any more of addison.

i spent a large portion of the day today working on cordiallyinvitedinvitations.blogspot.com. i've dreamed of having my own paper boutique for some time now, but the funding is not there at this time. travis and i and jen and i have discussed me putting my designs on a website to start with and at least start generating a buzz about my products. sixbyte has offered to host our site for free, we just need to register a domain and design the site. since i'm not ultra technical when it comes to writing web script, i decided to create a blog instead, with the idea that the website will follow close behind. you can check out what i have so far at http://cordiallyinvitedinvitations.blogspot.com/. please spread the word and share with all of your friends. it does not include all of my designs, but i have managed to get a little of everything on there. it was so refreshing to spend the day cuddled up with the pup, drinking hot tea, and really doing something that i love. {did i mentioned that it snowed today?? 70 degrees on monday and tuesday, then snow by thursday. you gotta love oklahoma.}

travis got home a few hours ago, and we've wrapped up a yummy dinner of italian swiss chicken, pasta, and corn. i've been very proud of us. we went and bought groceries and have made a meal at home almost every night this week. no more eating out all of the time.

for now, i am going to go cuddle up with my two boys and finish watching our movie.

my wedding gown has arrived!

i haven't picked it up but will do so tomorrow.

here comes the groom.

on saturday travis and i made our way to al's formal wear. we've been trying to get travis's tuxes picked out for some time now, and it seems that our weekends are always booked. when we got to the store, the lady was highly unhelpful, didn't offer to show us vests, jackets, anything. she didn't even ask our colors. there was one jacket in particular that travis knew he liked and wanted to try, but we had to ask for it. she was very helpful in getting us the prices, but we didn't stay long. we headed to men's wearhouse (after driving across tulsa twice, because travis thought he knew where a new location had opened). the lady there at least pulled out swatches of fabrics and a flip book of the tuxes they offer, but she did not have anything to try on except for suit jackets that they carry in the store. her suggestion? that we try on clothes at al's and then come order them from her. sheesh. we headed to the second location of al's. the lady here was much more helpful, but she was also very busy and was the only one running the store. as i was looking at the vests and swatches of fabric, i realized it would be much more helpful to have swatches of fabric from my gown, and the swatches of the fabric i plan to use for the bridesmaids dresses. we let jennifer at al's know that we would be back in a bit. we picked up the fabric and then grabbed lunch at chick-fil-a. we really couldn't believe the tux shopping was turning into a full day event, but we were having fun together. when we got back to al's, jennifer had a bit more time to spend with us and began asking us about our wedding and helped us find suitable ties and vests. she orders everything in for travis to try on and then we get to make our final decisions. his fitting is this saturday. he'll try on several different things we picked out, and then we'll figure out what he and the groomsmen will wear and get it ordered.

the vacuum monster.

today i was vacuuming the apartment and connor did the cutest thing ever. i wish that i had a picture. while i was vacuuming the bedroom, he ran into the living room. when i came into the living room he ran and hid behind the dining table. as i got closer to the area, he crept further and further from me. at one point i looked up and he was behind one of the chairs. there was a coat hanging on the chair and all i could see was connor's little head leaning over peeking around the chair to see where this horrible noise-making machine was.
i really do wish i had a picture. he didn't have his head bent and turned to look the corner, but instead was sitting on his haunches and only leaning his head over to the side enough to see around the chair. he really is like a little boy sometimes!

rhiannon. andy. barcelona.

the night of our engagement party, andrea stayed with us at our apartment. i came home and went straight to bed and didn't realize that she was in my room until the next morning. we all slept in then got dressed and headed to lunch. our belly's were in desperate need of some food. i think we waited too long to eat, though, because one we got there, i was no longer hungry. we had hoped jen, court, and huds could meet up with us, but our timing was off. after lunch we were all pretty worn out and decided to have a lazy day at the apartment. andy had just gotten vicky christina barcelona from netflicks, so we popped it in. definitely an unusual movie, but pretty good i suppose. it made all of us want to travel to europe. travis and i have wanted to do so for some time now. i think andy is already planning our 30th birthday party there. it was sad to see her leave that evening. it was so good to have her around. i am excited about the extra time i will have with my friends as we're planning and celebrating the wedding.

engagement party.

on february 21 our friends and family joined us for an engagement party at ti amo ristorante in tulsa. andrea wanted to help us celebrate and called amelia, jen, and kasi to action. the girls did an incredible job, and we couldn't have been more touched to have that time to celebrate with family and friends. it made our engagement and wedding planning seem real. up to that point we hadn't done a whole lot to prepare for the wedding and so much has been going on the past few months, i think it has been easy to lose ourselves in that.

jen did an outstanding job on the centerpieces and decorations, and the toasts made by amelia and travis's dad were both very touching.

the bridesmaids from left to right beginning in the back row: sierra, amanda, jen, kasi, andrea, shannon, rhiannon, and amelia

we ended the night at the bru house. one of our favorite local musicians wink burcham was supposed to be playing. he ended up not being there, but we had fun dancing to the dj's music and laughing and joking with friends.

humble words

hello all. i suppose i am slightly over do for a post or two. so here are a few lines of mine if you have the time.

this month has been quite a headache. i am a person who generally never gets sick throughout the year. i've been sick 3 times, totally 5 days of missed work this month. my grandfather passed away a few yesterdays ago( please remain tearless, his death will be welcomed. he was a man, a good man, and he is now in a better place). this has only added to more missed days and also falling behind in school further and further. financial issues seem to be more of a burden lately, and the list goes on... yes, 2009 is proving to be a very shitass year, atleast its beginning is of a hellish nature. and now to overcome.....

i am a man of few opinions, or at least i try to be. life happens. we get shit on, but we are always granted the opportunity to prevail. i have a beautiful fiance that i will marry this fall. she has her dress and i my fit as well. we take the good with the bad. and when we are patient enough good things become great, and the bad shit really just fades. it's still there, but who should give a damn. we only live once. live it humbly i say.

i just want to send out a thanks to all. our engagement party was a success this past saturday, with a few kinks of course but a great time we had. friends and family are what make life great. and the greatness of life makes all the bullshit worth it. thanks again everybody, and be humble. im getting married! :)

mom's birthday. and the loss of a grandparent.

on february 14, my mom turned 45 years old. it seems hard to believe because i can remember when she was my age (weird). in fact ... i'm only 4 years away from being the age she was when my 15 year old sister was born! she had to work the night of her birthday, but two of her close friends brought her a cake and gifts, and we had a mini birthday party of sorts at the pool hall. on our way to muskogee, we picked up the birthday cake that lindsay and justin had ordered from ann's bakery. travis and i hung out with everyone at the pool hall and then made our way back home.

the next day we met everyone in muskogee at a restaurant that my parents both really like. the original plan had been to go to eufala, but mom decided that she didn't want to go. we met for lunch and then went back to mom and dad's to open presents and eat cake.

the cake was actually done up to look like a box of long stemmed roses. it is something that had been given to my mom years and years ago, and she always talks about it.

{in fact, she tried to have one made for my 16th birthday party, but it turned out to only be a regular sheet cake with roses on the top and my name misspelled. i remember how frustrated and disappointed she had been. justin and i discovered that ann's bakery makes the rose box cakes and had planned for some time that we would have to get one for mom}.

we didn't get to stay too late in the day, but we had a lot of fun spending time with everyone and helping my mom celebrate her birthday.

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we had to cut our visit with mom short because we had the trip to edmond ahead of us. travis's grandpa passed away the friday before and the funeral was to be held on monday morning in shawnee. i was excited to see the family, but just felt so bad for the girls because they had just lost their grandmother a year ago and now they had lost their dad. jim was also in the hospital in icu, and sue was staying with him almost every moment of the day. the hospital wouldn't let her sleep in his room, and we were grateful, because it made her come home and sleep. the weekend was touch and go for everyone. tabitha started going into labor sunday night ... two months too early. they were able to get her contractions stopped at the hospital, but it was a bit of a scare because she had already dialated to a two. the next day everyone made their way to the funeral and my heart broke for the family. the girls did well saying goodbye to their daddy, but i can't even begin to imagine how hard it must have been for them.