Sorry for the delay...

I keep on meaning to put the pictures up for part three of the bachelorette party from Saturday, but I've been busy with painting my kitchen and writing thank you notes for the gifts I received at the bridal shower two weeks ago. Hopefully I'll get the pictures up by Sunday...

Bachelorette Party Part 2: Tic Tock Room

After Taki we went to the Tic Tock Room. We all had a Buttery Nipple shot along with our Martinis. I had a Dirty Martini-I mostly just wanted the olives with blue cheese in them. We all mostly sat and drank our martinis and talk.

Next it was off to the Dirty Iguana...

Bachelorette Party Part 1: Taki

Yesterday I went out with some awesome friends and had my Bachelorette Party. A great time was had by all! We went to three places, therefore my blogging about the Bachelorette Party will be given in three parts.

My sister Karen, my cousin Christina and I met Beth, Renee, Sarah, Stephanie, Mary and Josie at Taki in Macon for some Japanese food. This is where I got all decked out in my Bachelorette gear. Sarah and Renee brought these cool "tickets" were I could find some guys in violation of things and write them tickets (more on this in part 3). They also brought some straws that were in the shape of a certain part of the male anatomy. I also had this cool light up button that said "Bride to Be". Karen got me a big diamond ring and a veil. I don't think that anyone could miss that I was the bride to be. We all had some delicious Japanese food. I had some sushi and some vegetables and drank two Mojitos. I love me some Mojitos!

Here are some pictures from Taki:

Sarah, Renee and Beth

Stephanie and Mary

Christina and I

Karen and Josie

The ladies on one side of the table

The ladies on the other side of the table

Wedding Shower

On Saturday my wonderful sister Karen and my awesome cousin Christina threw me a Wedding Shower. It was a lot of fun and I had a great time hanging out with family and friends. Here are some pictures:

The food which was totally delicious!

Renee, Debbie, Stephanie and Beth

Noel and Mary

Loidy and Maria

Opening many presents (which took me about an hour)

Christine, Kayla and Christina

Erika

My lollipop ring

There were many presents. I think that I took about an hour opening them up. It took me so long because I open presents slowly-I don't like to tear the paper. I think that by the end I started tearing the paper. This week I will start writing thank you notes to everybody.

Next Saturday I will be having my bachelorette party. I'll post pictures from that too.

School's Out!!!

Well, most of my stress is finally gone! Last Friday was the last day of school for students and yesterday was the last day of school for teachers. Thus is the end of an era-the Ludwig era. Next school year the Gallagher era begins. I felt a little weird yesterday taking down the letters on my classroom door that spell out Ludwig. I've used them for the past 5 years of the 8 years that I have been teaching. When I turned in my key to my room, I had to write my last name on them and I didn't know what to do. I just wrote Ludwig on them since I'm not quite Gallagher yet.

Some of the students were nice the last few days of school. Some of them drove me crazy, which was expected. Out of all my classes, I'd have to say that I am really going to miss my 4th period. I actually got all teary-eyed before the bell rang. The class that I am least going to miss is my 2nd period. I'm not going to miss the whiny kids that sat close to my bulletin board and the rude ones that sat in the back of the room. I had a few good nice students in that class-I'll miss them.

Now that school is out, I'll be concentrating on the wedding. Last Sunday we bought out rings. We got a great deal on them since Friedman's jeweler's have gone out of business and they had a huge sale. Let's just say we spent under $130 for both rings. Today we are going to get the marriage license. Saturday is my wedding shower. It will be nice to be with family and friends that day.

This month I hope to stay a little relaxed and keep the stress away.

Planning, Planning and More Planning

It has been awhile since I last posted. I'll be honest-I've been too lazy to write. I get home and I sit down at the computer to write something and then I decide that I really don't want to. I have so much going on right now.

Wedding plans are going well. Nathan and I registered at Target on Saturday. We spent quite a bit of time walking around the store and trying to figure out what we needed. Since we each have our own places, it's hard to pick things out at the store. We mostly looked at the list that Target gives you and we decided on things that we don't have or things that we have but would like to replace (mostly because they were hand me downs). Nathan had a fun time scanning the things that we wanted. We still have to add a few more things to the registry. Our scanner was running out of battery power and we still needed to go to my parent's house and it was getting late.

While at my parent's house, Karen helped me with the wedding invitations. We ended up translating my parent's old wedding invitation (since it is in Spanish). The wording is not the whole traditional "so and so would like to invite you to yadda yadda" type of thing. We liked the one that my parents had because it sounded more personal. Karen picked out the perfect font to go with the invitations. She also printed them out for us and made some in Spanish for my family in Spain. I started putting the invitations together, but it got late, so I had to stop.

On Sunday I went to church and then went home to work on more wedding things. I mostly put more invitations together. I still have a few more to do, so that's what I'll be doing when I get home from school. I should be finished with them today. The next invitation-related thing that needs to be done is printing out the reception cards. Karen is also going to make a little flier with the directions to the church and hotel information (for out of town guests) that will go in with the invitations.

Last week I also bought half of the favor boxes. Michael's was offering a 50% discount for teachers last week. The 100 count favor boxes are $19.99, but I was able to buy them for $10.00. I have to go back and buy another 100 count box. Michael's had two coupons in the newspaper on Sunday, so I'll be using those. Some of my wonderful friends have also been saving theirs and giving them to me.

I still have quite a bit of wedding planning to go. Among the things that I have to do are:

• Pay the caterer the deposit (I'm waiting on my Economic Stimulus Check for that).
• Decide what flowers I want for the bridesmaids and myself. I looked around Michael's and I have a few ideas. Micheal's also have some nice bouquets that are already made. I decided not to go with the Pomander.
• On the 17th my bridesmaids and myself have our alteration appointments. I have still have to buy some shoes before I go to that appointment.
• I still have to find a photographer. I would love to find one that is affordable since most of the money seems to be going to the caterer.
• Start making room in my house for Nathan. I have already gotten rid of some of my Bath and Body works stuff that I really wasn't using (my sister Erika was happy). Next to go will be some purses and shoes.
• Speaking of getting rid of things, I also have to go through my clothes. I have now lost a total of 27 pounds and some of my clothes are big on me.
• On the subject of losing weight, I have to continue going to the gym. I found that's it's easier for me to go after school. I've been walking for about 30 minutes and then I've been lifting weights-mostly concentrating on my arms. I was thinking about starting to ride my bike again, but I'm afraid that I'll fall and get hurt. I don't need any scars or injuries right now.
• Find decorations for the reception. I got some great ideas on how to add some color to the Parish Activity Center when the church had Casino Night there.
• Before I can send out the invitations, I have to finalize the guest list. I need to get Nathan to get some addresses from his side of the list.
• I also still have to get the cake topper, the cake cutter and server, and the champagne glasses (and get them engraved).
• Buy the rings!

That's about all that I can think of. Nathan has put himself in charge of the Honeymoon. He has already informed me that I do not have to worry about it. I wonder what he is planning.

I can't believe that the wedding is almost two months away. It looks like these next few months I'm going to be quite busy. Thank God I have June off!

I Found "The One"

Today was one of the days that I have been waiting for since I was little. When I lived in Spain and would go walking around Madrid with my grandmother I would always look at the wedding dress displays of the store windows and wish that I could try one on. Today I did that.

I went to David's Bridal with Karen, Christina and my mom. Erika met us there since she was driving from Atlanta. First I let them try on the bridesmaid dresses. The dresses looked great on all of them. They didn't have Erika's size, so she had to try on one that was big on her. She ended up being measured, so they were able to order her one.

After the girls tried on their dresses, it was my turn to try on mine. The ladies at David's Bridal had me look through their catalog and fold the pages where there was a dress I liked. There was one that I liked, but it cost more than I wanted, but Karen and Christina told me to try it on anyways because it may be the dress that looks the best. After I made my choices, the lady who helped us (her name was Vanessa and she was great) brought some of the dresses that I had chosen. I got teary-eyed when I saw them. I couldn't believe that I was about to try on wedding dresses. I really didn't like the first dress that I tried on. It was uncomfortable and I felt like I was about to flash someone. It was also too big because after I tried it on I realized that I have gone down a dress size (did I mention that I have lost a total of 22 pounds so far).

The next dress was the one that Karen and Christina told me to try on when I was looking through the catalog. I tried it on and went out and stood on the "little stage" (I don't know what it is called) and looked at myself in the mirror and I knew that it was the one. The lady who was helping us put a tiara and a veil on me to get the full effect and I definitely knew that it was the one. I was told that I it looked like I was glowing with happiness. It took me a little while to take the dress off-mostly because I didn't want to. I tried on several other dresses, but I really wasn't into them because I knew that I had already found the one.

I ordered the dress, the slip and the veil and it should all be in on May 15. Karen, Christina and Erika also ordered theirs. Mary will be ordering hers tomorrow. The bridesmaid dresses should also be in on the same date. We all made appointments for May 17 for alterations. I can't wait to put the dress back on!

I would put a picture of it, but the one on the website doesn't really show much of it. Here is a description of it though:

Organza A-line with cap sleeves, side draping, and beaded embroidery. Chapel train. Available in White/Blue, Ivory/Blue, Solid White & Solid Ivory.

My dress is White/Blue. The embroidery is little flowers in light blue, which you can barely tell-we all thought that they were white at first.

If you really want to see it, go to the David's Bridal website and search for Style 9V9302.

(Hopefully a certain person will not find this blog and look at the dress.) :)

Not only did I buy my wedding dress today, but I also bought invitations. Before we went to David's Bridal, we all went to Michael's. I wanted to go ahead and buy the invitations so that I can start working on them (that's one of the main things I have to do this month). Here is what they look like:




We also had some flower and favor ideas. We also saw some things that would be great for decorations for the reception.

Today was very productive. When I finally came home I logged onto the Knot and checked quite a bit of stuff off of my wedding checklist. I can't wait to check off more!

Behold...

this is what the bridesmaids will be wearing-depending on if it looks good on the two that still need to try it on.

Last Thursday Karen and I met Mary at David's Bridal to look at bridesmaid dresses since Mary can't come with us this Thursday. They tried on a few dresses and this one is the one that looked great. It was very flattering on both of them.

Since this is the dress that I would like the bridesmaids to wear, my colors to the wedding have changed. The color is now "marine". It's the same color that is in the picture. The brown and blue combination that I wanted was just too hard to pull off.

This Thursday Karen and I are going with the other two bridesmaids to see if this dress will look good on them. My mom will also be coming because I will also be trying on dresses. I am extremely excited. I've been looking at the David's Bridal website and I have an idea of what I would like.

Things are slowly moving along.

I'm a lean green...

cooking machine!!! I have been cooking all morning. Not by choice-I'm not expecting company. I had a nice little surprise when I go home from school yesterday. I went to my kitchen and noticed a puddle in front of the fridge. At first I thought that the dogs had done something there, but when I got close I noticed it was water and it was coming from the freezer. I opened the freezer and lo and behold-the food was all thawed. All the chicken, all the fish and all the turkey. Even the veggies. There was no ice left too-poor Emma (one of my dogs). She has been on ice withdrawal. She still does not understand why when she goes by the freezer and looks at me why I haven't been giving her ice.

Anyways, Nathan came over and looked at the fridge and found that the refrigerator coils had to be vacuumed. I didn't know that had to be done regularly (go ahead and laugh). I never had to worry about it when I lived with my parents and then I don't think Kathryn and Christy knew about it when they lived with me. Nathan and I ended up vacuuming the coils. It seemed like the refrigerator was cooling after that, but I think that it was just my imagination because when I woke up this morning there was no change.

So I have been cooking since about 8:45 a.m. It is now 10:37. I'm taking a break right now. So far I've cooked three packs of chicken breast and I'm currently baking some turkey drumsticks and wings. I still have ground turkey and about 4 bags of fish to go. Then I'm going to take it to my parent's house and put it in their freezer. I also have to take whatever is in the fridge. Then I'm going to call a repairman-hopefully the refrigerator can be repaired. I can't really afford a new one at the moment and I really don't want to open another Lowe's or Sears account (I closed mine a fews years ago after I paid them off).

Well, back to cooking...

Progress

Last week I was "pinging". You know-stressing out. I realized that there were about four and a half months until the wedding and that I had done not one thing. I'd log onto www.theknot.com and look at my little planning tool to see if there was anything that I could cross off and there was nothing. So this past week I did a few wedding related things.

First off, I met with a caterer. One of my mom's friend's daughters is getting married this year also and they were meeting with a caterer this past Friday. My mom asked if we could meet with the caterer at the same time, which was no problem. So on Friday my mom, Karen, Nathan and I went to Perry to meet with her at my mom's friend's house. The meeting went well-I really liked her. She brought pictures of what she's done and I was really impressed. I was especially impressed with her fruit display. It was so nice-because of the way that she has her fruit, I wouldn't have to decorated the area where it would be. The caterer also does the wedding cake and the groom's cake. I also want to have a small Spanish theme at the Reception, so I asked the caterer if it would be alright if my mom made some Spanish tortillas and if we could put out some tapas, such as chorizo and Serrano Ham, and she said that it would not be a problem-in fact, she was excited about it, especially when we told her about the Sangria that Karen is going to make. She's supposed to call my mom to let her know how much everything is going to cost. My friend Debbie also told me the name of a good caterer, so if things do not work out with the one I met, I'll be calling her.

Reception place wise, I had a little problem. I wanted to have the reception on base at the Officer's Club, but unfortunately it was already reserved. The only other place that I could think of having the reception was at my church's Parish Activity Center (PAC). So on Monday my mom went to see if it was available and luckily it was. She went ahead and paid the deposit for it and brought the paperwork that I had to fill out home for me to do. I stopped at her house on the way home and got it done. So now I have a reception site! We will be using the large area of the PAC and the kitchen will also be available. The church sets up all the tables and chairs and they gave me a list of things that they can provide if I need them. There is also a stage in the large area, where I hope to have a DJ or band so that everyone can dance and have a great time. My mom threw out the idea of having a Latin band play at the reception, which Nathan and I thought would be cool.

I went to Target and bought the ring bearer pillow, the flower girl basket, the garter, and the guest book this week also. Target had it all as a set and it was on sale for about $34.00. I thought that it was a good deal. Here is a picture of it:


I also got crafty. I was thinking about having my bridesmaids hold a Pomander instead of a bouquet. I want to make the Pomanders for the girls but first I wanted to test make one. Michael's has their flowers on sale for half off this week, so I thought that this would be the best time to try and make one. So today I took a trip to Michael's after school and bought flowers, ribbon, wire, and a Styrofoam ball. Here is the end result:


It turned out nice, but too big. I'll have to go back to Michael's some time soon and buy a smaller Styrofoam ball. I may go ahead and buy three more of them and some more flowers and go ahead make them within the next few months.

So the next thing on the agenda that I have to do is go buy my dress and pick out what I want my bridesmaids to wear. I want to find something for them that they can wear again. I would hate for them to get a dress that they can only wear once. I have an idea of what I would like them to get and I already know in what colors. If you look around the blog you can see the colors. Can you guess what they are? What do you think?

Still sick, lost some weight, and wedding stuff

I am on Winter Break this week. Let me tell you, I needed this. I have still been recovering from whatever funk it was that I caught last week. I'm still coughing, but I don't have the headache and the congestion that I had. Nathan is sick now. Poor thing. I talked to him today and he sounded like I did. He was also complaining that he was cold, which he never is because he's extremely hot natured.

This past weekend went well. We went to our Marriage PREP course and the the church. It was very informative. There were 5 couple total at the course. On Saturday we went to the 5:00 mass and we were all introduced to the church. I was so embarrassed because I had a coughing fit while we are being introduced and standing in front of everyone in the church. That was just lovely.

I did a little wedding planning also. Yesterday I met with the Director of Liturgy and Music at the church. She gave me a workbook so that Nathan and I can start picking out what reading we want to have read and she also gave me a song book so that we can also pick the songs that we want to be sung at the wedding. We have to meet with her again in June so that we can start discussing the ceremony. After the meeting, my mom and I went on base so that we could check out the Officer's Club and the old NCO Club, but they were closed. I should have known that was going to happen since it was President's Day. We did end up getting some names of caterers though.

Today I went to Appearances to get weighed and to get my shot and my pills. I have now lost a total of 13 pounds! I am so totally happy!!! This coming up month I have to work out more that I did this past month. I have not done anything in the last two weeks. Nathan wanted me to go waling or to the gym today, but I am coughing too much to go. Hopefully tomorrow or Thursday I'll feel up to going.

After Appearance I went to Target. I am so excited about what I found there. They have packs of 50 wedding invitation with nice designs for about $20. They come with the whole shebang-envelopes, rsvp cards, etc. All that I would have to do is print the information on them. I am so excited about this because we have about 200+ people on our guest list so far and getting the invitation done somewhere would be expensive. My sister's friend that is getting married this year paid about $300 for 70 invitations.

Before I go, I have to post a picture of the beautiful flowers that Nathan gave me for Valentine's Day. He also cooked dinner for me at his apartment. He is a great cook! Last year we went out to eat and this year we thought we'd try something different. I really enjoyed this year's Valentine's Day. I think that each year it's only going to get better!

Getting sick and other things

Illness is trying to take over me. That is one of the crappy things about teaching-you catch what your students have. What the students have at the moment is the flu. I have been taking medicine and drinking plenty of water. I would really love to drink some orange juice, but unfortunately I cannot have it because of my diet.

That's right-a diet. I have been on it for almost a month now. I go to a doctor once a month and get a vitamin B12 shot and I am on phentermine. I also have a diet that I have to follow. I cannot eat pasta, bread, potatoes, fried foods, oranges, tangerines, grapes, plums, raisins, watermelon, bananas, corn, butter beans, lima beans, and red meat. I can eat whatever is not on the previous list. The only carb that I can have is rice. I can only have egg whites or egg beaters. Then I have to have breakfast, a morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner, and a pm snack. I also have to walk for 30 minutes at least 3 times a week. So far the diet has been going well for me-I've lost 10 pounds! Because of the weight loss, I am holding off on buying my wedding dress. I'm going to get it around April or May. I'm getting really excited about it.

This weekend Nathan and I have to go to a marriage prep course at our church. It is one of the requirements that we have to complete in order to get married. I'm looking forward to it. It should be quite informative.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful Valentine's Day today!

Super Tuesday...

I hope that everyone voted. I did! :)

Washington D.C. Pictures

I know it's taken a while to post them, but here they are!

In front of the Washington Monument

Us in front of the White House
In front of the Lincoln Memorial

I can touch the tip of the Washington Monument!!!

Amy goes to Washington D.C.

Over the weekend Nathan and I went to Alexandria, VA for his brother and law's (Big John) promotion to colonel. The weekend started with us driving to Alexandria. We were hoping to leave around 3:15 pm or so, but we did not get on the road until about 5:30pm. We had planned to drive to Richmond and stay at a hotel and get up the next morning and drive to Alexandria. If we had left on time, we would have made it to the hotel at about 1:15 am or so, but we actually got there at about 3:30 am. We checked in, slept until about 6:30, got ready and then we were on the road by 7:00. We just made it to his sister's (Teresa) house-they were starting to get in the cars. We all drove to the metro and went to the Pentagon, which is were the promotion ceremony took place. The ceremony was nice and afterwards we went to the reception. After the reception we got to tour the Pentagon. I would have liked to take pictures, but we were not allowed-which is understandable. I would just like to say that the Pentagon is really cool and I am so glad that I stayed with my group because that place is easy to get lost in. It's huge!

Later that night we went to a party in celebration of Big John's promotion. We kind of got lost going there, but eventually we made it. We had a great time meeting new people and hanging out.

On Saturday I went to the National Gallery of Art in the afternoon with Nathan's brother Sean and his family. I was really excited because I absolutely LOVE art museums. I can tell you I was not disappointed with this one! It had a wonderful collection and best of all-it was free! Apparently all of the Smithsonian Museums are free. Tax dollars at work (that's at least the reason people gave me). The highlight of the museum was that they had a wonderful collection of Monets. Monet is my favorite artist (you would have thought that it was a Spanish one, huh?). Three of the paintings there stood out to me because I have the prints at home. I thought that it was awesome that I got to see them up close and in person.

After the museum we went to mass. After mass we went back to Big John and Teresa's house and hung out and ate dinner. Later that night Big John gave some of us a tour of Washington D.C. I had seen some of it earlier in the day, but seeing it at night was so nice. Washington D.C. looks absolutely beautiful at night. We got to see the Capitol, the White House (which was smaller that what I thought it was going to be), the Washington Monument (from far away), the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial Wall, the Lincoln Memorial (HUGE!), the Korean War Memorial and the Marine Memorial. We also drove by Arlington Cemetery, but since it was late at night we weren't able to go in. I saw the eternal flame from JFK's burial site from far away.

Sunday was basically a travel day. We left around 10:30 am or so and arrived back in Warner Robins around 11:00 pm. Overall the whole trip was wonderful. I got to meet some more of Nathan's family and I got to see some awesome sights. I can't wait to go back and see things that I did not get to see this time.

I took lots of pictures, but at the moment I only have one with me. So for now, I leave you with this picture of Nathan and I in front of the Capitol at night.

I'll post more pictures when I get home from school later.

I'm engaged!

Nathan asked me to marry him. Looks like the wedding will be in the summer. I'm so excited!!!

Here is the ring: