Second Day Gratitude

I love your taste in music.

                            I love that you're vegan.....most of the time.

                                      I love that you face your fears for me.

For Weese's 26th...

It's almost my fiancee's 26th birthday, and it will be the 7th birthday I've shared with her. I'm going to list three things I love about her every day until her birthday on July 22nd. I love you, Weesie!

You've always supported and encouraged my dream of acting. 

I appreciate that more than you know.

You motivate me to stay active and healthy.

And you're not afraid to get dirty, I love that.

Your favorite holiday is the 4th of July and you love a good fireworks show.

I feel lucky every day that you're mine.

Just a few thoughts

We are now down to 32 days, which is absolute insanity! We have accomplished a lot in the last week and hope to do a lot more this week. I have finished a lot of my summer school and have less than half way to go, believe it or not somehow I'm getting really good grades. There are a lot of emotions in the air and a lot of the same conversations keep reoccurring.

We keep talking about how lucky we are that there are so many people from out of town coming to the wedding. There are quite a few coming from Oregon, some from Washington, Texas, California, Virginia, southern Utah and even some from New York! I'm sure there are even more states than the ones I have named, but this gives you an idea. We feel so much support and love because we know it's not cheap or easy to do what they are doing. We cannot wait to see everyone and for them to share this big day with us!!!

We also have quite the support system right here in our own little state. We have had an outpouring of helping hands whether it be with loaning equipment, decorations, vendors discounting, helping on the big day and even money. Seriously, we could never have imagined people would be so wonderful. Thank you to everyone.

Now I must say this has been a very positive experience for us, but there have been tears. The hardest thing for me and probably for Sam too, is not having all of our families there. We understand some just can't, like my cute sister and her family in Kauai since they will have a new baby, (we have made arrangements so they can tune in via Skype!) but some are choosing not to. This isn't to point fingers and tell them how horrible I think they are, I'm just sad. I'm sad not all of our siblings will be there, both immediate and in-laws and that not a single one of our nieces and nephews will be there.They are my life. I would do anything for them. I hope one day they know how much both Sam and I wanted them there. How badly we wish they were our flower girls and ring bearers.

I'm so excited to marry Sam. She is so wonderful. I have no idea how I am going to put into words what I feel for her in my vows. Especially after following the one and only Carol Lynn Pearson. Maybe I'll have to take my best man's advice, he'll recite while I do some sort of interpretive dance.

I Love My Love

Today started off as a bad day for me. I had a super difficult time waking up, moved too slowly - therefore making my friends leave later than desired to the Pride Parade, and Elise and I had a minor tiff on the way home from the parade. That made my mood go further down, on top of the heat. We go to the store and she says a comment to me that I took personally when I shouldn't have and from then on I couldn't get back up. I let myself be miserable, thereby affecting those around me with my sour mood. I avoided talking to Elise, looking at her, and being social at all. I wasted the rest of my day - and now I'm regretting it.
I love my fiancee so much, and I hate wasting the time I have with her. Let me direct this to you, in fact, Weese. Each moment I have with you means the world to me. This lifetime is not even close to enough time with you, I am CRAZY about you. When I do things like I did today, it is a waste, and I am so sorry I let it happen. I'm working on trying to come out of my "moods" quicker each time, but it is a constant challenge for me. I hope you can continue to be patient with me, and tolerate my flaws. I love you more than anything in this life, you are my other half and best friend. Tomorrow will be better.
I love you, love you, love you.

Coffee...

If you know me at all, you probably know one of my biggest downfalls is being a control freak. I like to think I have improved but I still find myself getting anxious or uncomfortable with things that are beyond my control. Three weeks ago tomorrow I decided I wanted to quit drinking coffee when my dentist informed me that it would discolor my teeth. (Duh, one of those things I knew but I guess I needed someone with a Doctorate to tell me.) I decided I wanted to go off coffee until the wedding was over and by then I could decide if I wanted to start drinking it again.
I figured I just loved coffee, but didn't NEED coffee. I quickly discovered I was wrong after a few days with severe headaches and fatigue. I made it 2 weeks and then the thought of sitting through a 3 hour class being lectured seemed like too much to handle without coffee! I got an iced mocha. It was amazing. I made up my mind that I wasn't going to completely give up, it was just a treat and I wanted to continue to go without. Well today I got another coffee, it's almost a week since my last one.
If I have control over anything it's what I put in my body and how I take care of it. I choose to eat healthy or not, I choose to drink coffee or not and I choose to go running or not. There are some things in life that are beyond my control (as much as I hate to admit) and this isn't one of them. If I choose to drink coffee then it's my decision. I guess what I'm getting at is if I want coffee once a week or every two weeks then I can, if that's what I want. Maybe I'm typing in a moment of weakness, but I just love coffee. It makes me happy.
Did I mention I'm back to being vegan? :-)
-Elise

Our first baby!

We want to officially welcome our sweet Betty to the world! Sam and I got a scooter yesterday after a month of working up to it. We were lucky enough to have our second engagement photo shoot on the same day so we have some cute pictures on her. You will notice we don't have helmets on and that won't be happening again, but we stayed on our small block and I was freaking out. Sam is a natural, but it will take me a little more work. Needless to say I'm terrified.

We're pretty hardcore.

Wedding planning is going well but I do wish we had more done. I've had a brief break between semesters but will be back to school full-time on Monday. 87 days and although we are extremely excited we need the time to plan.

I also wanted to mention what an incredible fiancee I have. She will be turning 25 on Saturday and I cannot believe I celebrated her 19th birthday with her! Time really does fly by and I'm thankful for the time we've shared together. Sam is my favorite person and I feel so lucky to be sharing this wonderful time in our life together. I love you babe!

Did I mention she's smokin?

First Shower!

Last week, Elise and I were thrown our very first wedding shower! Her work friends threw it for us and it was super cute and fun, we appreciated it so much. We got lots of very nice gifts, there was amazing food and an adorable and tasty cake. It was weird to have the attention all on us, but so nice to have people supporting us, even if they don't necessarily agree with our relationship, they were showering us with love and helping us celebrate anyway. Such a great feeling, we are lucky to have such awesome friends.

Thank you, thank you, everyone who was involved with throwing the shower, and all who came!