sooo i ended up moving last week. once again this apartment fell into my lap at the perfect time in my life. and it was almost too convenient for me to pass up. i was living life in a very small, one bedroom apartment, which i loved for a time. but i was already starting to grow out of it. in less than a year i realized that the 700 square feet were all used up, literally every inch was consumed with STUFF. who knows when i got all this stuff, but i realized soon nick’s stuff would be moving in too, and then the stress would REALLY start. so i knew that my living situation was no good, but i thought i had no other choice, since i cant afford a bigger rent payment, and there was not much time to look at other places. so i was mentally prepared to be unhappy with how small my space was. thats when, once again, i got a nice surprise.

SO my friendly neighbors down the hall have the nice big two bedroom, and they were moving out. i bumped into them in the parking lot and we got to taking about where they were moving, they just had a baby bla bla… so they said i should come look at their place again and see if i like it. not only was their place twice the size of mine, but the rent was only a shocking $75 dollars more then what i was already paying.. which i could still afford by myself. that night i called my landlord and a week later i was moving in. it was a box-less, car-less move. not only was the move easy, but i am 100 times happier with my space!!!! i literally dont understand how i fit everything into my other apartment. so i still live in downtown excelsior, possibly my favorite little town in the world, i now overlook the main street instead of a parking lot. i now have a HUGE bedroom, more closet place, claw foot tub, brand new appliances in the kitchen, brand new furnace… everything is better about it. i now have 5 windows instead of 3. and all of my windows let in a ton of light, where as my old place had one window in the stairwell (zero light) and one in an alley about 5 feet away from a brick wall.

dont get me wrong, i will miss my old apartment, just because it was my first place, on my own, away from my parents, supporting myself. but now in a few months when nick moves in, it will be a place where we can both start our new life together.

in other news (even tho thats really the biggest news ive had in a while): the wedding is coming FAST. the only real stress is money at this point, but we have every single pay check planned out so everything will be fine. this has been a truly wonderful summer so far. ive somehow had time to see family alot, which has been nice since i have a new baby nephew who is possibly the cutest and best baby on the planet. besides nick, i see chelsea the most. i could possibly never get sick of her. we are planning trips to take together, which i wish i had money to do right now. seattle, portland, boston, and europe eventually. i plan to go to portland and find chuck palahniuk and marry him… wait im already getting married?? annnddd hes gay.. so that probly wont happen. haha! speaking of, ive been reading a TON this summer. lately ive been starting books, reading like 6 chapters and starting another one… i hate when i do that but its like reading add… but now i probably have 5 books that ive started and not finished. so every day before work i decide which book i feel like reading that day. but i have made the decision that im done buying books until i get caught up on all the ones ive started and not read yet. ive also decided that my dream job would be to write reviews on books. to get paid to read all day and then share my opinion about them… life could not get much better.

i think im done for a while again. probly until after the wedding since that will be the next time i have news worth sharing. until next time, im still happy. and i still love my life. the end.

1. i dont work at dunn bros anymore! i officialy only have one job which has given me time to relax and live and be happy and just chill out. such a huge blessing! money will be tight but i am SO SO SO SO much more happy so it will be worth it. SOOO this means i have a 3 day weekend all the time!! so great! just in time for summer when my besties are home from school, and just in time to plan like crazy for the wedding.

2. speaking of… things are finaly feeling like they are coming together for wedding stuff! this whole time i have really felt like nothing is planned and that im running out of time and ive just been really stressed. we finaly got registered at target and we will do a few things at macy’s this week. and then we are meeting with the caterer tonight to finalize the menu/cost/deposit… now all me and nick need to worry about is invitations, flowers, other little stuff, our wedding bands and (fingers crossed) a honeymoon! but im feeling like things will get done. the most work still lays ahead in landscaping. but yesterday i finaly got a really good look at the backyard with GREEN grass!! and it does need some work, but it will come together. we had our required pre-marital seminar (8 hours indoors, on a beautiful saturday) which was interesting. we have our first meeting with our pastor on the 19th to start the one on one sessions. we signed the contract for the photographer and the dj. so the wedding is coming together and im not feeling as stressed as a few weeks ago.

3. my lovely fiance has been making me happier than normal lately. im always happy but lately its been right out of a dream. i wont go into the cheesy details but its been great. tomorrow marks our 3 year dating anniversary!!! <3

4. chelsea is home on friday and the rest of my besties are home from school! this will mark the begining of an amazing summer!

5. i have a new nephew on his way any day now!!! i am very impatiently waiting for little Thomas’ arrival to the world!

sooo thats pretty much it. everythings going great. ive had alot of time to see friends and be social, which is what makes me the most happy! im just feeling really lucky to have such great friends, and such great family, and the BEST man ever!

SOOO my BFF chelsea is in new york for school and i went to visit her. i will now document every moment from the 3 days i had in this lovely city. i need to write down everything in detail so i dont forget it, so this will be long.

DAY ONE (friday):

soo my flight was at 6:30AM so i left my apartment at 3:00! (my lovely fiance drove me to the airport even tho he was NOT excited for me to be gone for 3 days…) at the airport i had 2 coffees which made it impossible for me to sleep durring the flight. but even without the coffee, there would be no sleep, since the plane had at least 20 children on it, all under the age of 5. and all from one huge extended jewish family (story of new yorks life). the girl sitting next to me on the plane was born and raised in brooklyn and we talked about new york for a while and how she was visiting a friend in minnesota, and was on her way home, and i was visiting a friend in new york, just leaving my home. kinda funny! then she proceded to give me one of the best compliments of my life. she told me she thought i was from SOHO…. LOVE MY LIFE!!! so after we landed, i got a cab to brooklyn heights. scariest car ride of my life!!!! seriously i thought i was going to die. by the time i got to chelsea’s it was about 11:00 so we went to lunch. (well first we got starbucks…) we ate at cafetasia (best asian fod ever) but i couldnt finish my green curry cause my mouth was on fire. after lunch we walked pretty much all afternoon. walked through SOHO and Chelsea, did some shopping and spent waaayyy to much money at Urban and a few other stores.  side note: the city was absolutly beautiful cause all the trees were in bloom!!! ive heard that they only have flowers on them for about 2 weeks in the spring and then after that its just leaves all summer. sooo the flowers came just in time to see me!!!! loved it!! sooo we walked around from lunch at like 11:30, till our dinner reservations at 6:30! (my feet were DEAD, story of my life while in NYC). while walking we stopped by chelseas job where she interns, Diana Warner Jewelry, and i wanted everything! its in the flower district so there were flowers all over the sidewalk! loved it. then we ate dinner at this super cute trendy place in Chelsea called Cafeteria! such good food! our waiter was too gay to function, he was SOO cute!! and everyone there was young and trendy and RICH! loved it! so then after dinner we walked into chelsea more and went to the chelsea hotel and took some pics and played around. more walking. more walking. then we went back to chelseas room and got into some different clothes to go out. we then took the train to times square where there were people EVERYWHERE!!! seriously SO many people! we went to the huge set of red stairs and sat there for a while. people watching. then i decided i needed a new york hot dog, so chels bought me one cause i had no cash. so then, we were walking near the huge Toys R Us and this drunk woman literaly SCREAMED into chelseas face, “LOOK AT THAT ELMOOO!!!!!!!!!!” and pointed in her face! we both burst out laughing and then made fun of her the rest of the weekend. SO GREAT!! after times square we went back to chelseas to sleep. i was awake from about 3:00am friday-1:00am saturday… SOOO tired!

DAY TWO (saturday):

woke up early to get our day started! we left chelseas at 9:00am. walked on the Promenade and fell in love with the mannhatten skyline and brooklyn bridge! SOO pretty! took some pics. became super jealous of the people that live right next to the promenade! walked to this super cute bagel place and took our bagels to this little park overlooking the water and the bridge and manhatten. best bagel of my life! then we took the train to Coney Island… OH WAIT the trains were all EFFED up SOOO we thought we were taking the train to coney when REALLY we took it all the way into queens. the train SAID coney island and no one changed it even tho it wasnt going there. sooo we basicly wasted like an hour going no where. so then we just decided that we would walk around in Williamsburg. SOO we got off the train and was like, ohh williamsburg should be like right down this road if we just walk a few blocks… not true. we were in like the ghettooo of brooklyn, and we were literaly the only two white people. thankfuly it was like 1:00 in the afternoon. but it was only like that for about 5 bloks maybe. and then all the sudden the apartments got SUPER nice and pretty. and we were walking through ISRAEL!! seriously there were Hasidic (sp?) jews everywhere!!!! then then we were the only two non-jews… but it was literaly jew town for like 2 or 3 miles!! i sware like 15 blocks we walked and it was jews only. kinda akward! hahhaha! so my feet were dead by the time we got to Williamsburg, but it was super cute. full of trendy kids, hippys, young people. loved it!! we couldnt decide where to eat for the longest time and finaly decided on this tiny little place that i dont even know the name of. the owner was our waiter and he didnt know what an arnie palmer was, and when i explained it to him, he said he was going to add it to the menu… haha! he didnt have coke or pepsi products so chels tried this weird pop from new jersey. we were also looking for a place where chels could get a tattoo that day. ao after lunch (it was like 3:00) we went back to chelseas place to search online for a good tattoo place. we found one, changed clothes again, and were on our way. once we got there they said they could take her at 6:15 so we got some coffee at a place down the road. the tattoo place was New York Adorned and it was in the lower east side of manhatten. real nice area. so when we were there i really wanted a tattoo but decided i would just get the piercing ive wanted for a while! so i got my piercing and i LOVE it! it like barely hurt while i was getting it, but now like 2 days later it hurts. but its worth it cause its great! chelsea got her tatt (two super cute birds) and we were on our way! then we went to chelseas boss’ roof party. it was a SUPER nice apartment building (i cant even imagine what the rent is) and it was perfect weather! we got some free dinner and hung out for a while. the winner of americas next top model was there.. Whitney i think… she had no makeup on and had fuzzy hair. i guess shes friends with a girl chels works with. so we left that party kinda late and went back to times sqaure just cause its like entertaining and free. back to chelseas place again and went to bed at like 2ish.

DAY THREE (sunday):

woke up again pretty early was out and about around 9. went to this super cute place for breakfast. and all the people that worked there were italian men with thick italian accents. super cute. there was a walk for MS that morning so there were lots of people on the streets that day. we sat outside for breakfast and people watched. then we got on the RIGHT train to Coney Island. fun train ride cause it was like outside and not underground. so i got to see alot of brooklyn from my window while listening to my ipod. got to Coney Island and walked around on the pier and the beach and amusment park. and then took the train ALLL the way back to manhatten. we got some starbucks cause we were both pretty tired. and then went to the MOMA where we got in free cause chels is in an art program! nice!! so we walked around the MOMA for a couple hours which was really cool. i wish i had more energy at that point so i could have looked at more, but my feet killed. so then we were like right next to central park so we played around in the park for a little while. then we went to chelseas studio and looked at her sweet artwork. then we played on the roof of the building and i thought i was going to die. best view ever tho. the elevator was being retarted so we climbed the stairs from the 7th floor up to the roof on the 17th floor!!! adding to my legs and feet being dead! so worth it tho! got some great pics. theeennnn i wanted to go to canal street to get some cheep scarfs so i got some cash and we were on our way! got 2 scarfs for $9, pretty good deal. and i was too lazy to try and get them for cheeper. so then we went back to chelseas and got ready for “Prom”. the building where she lives is all student housing so theres students from all over in the building. so they threw a fake prom where there was a Dj and food!! so once again we got free dinner and danced around. it was literaly the worst Dj ever!! he would play like 30 seconds of a song and the change it with really bad transitions! what the!! after prom i foiled chelseas hair. hung out for a while and got packing. my flight was at 10:30AM monday morning so i got a car service to pick me up. better than a cab but still a scary car ride. i tried to sleep on the plane and i didnt have coffee at all but it was still really uncomfortable so it didnt really work. window seat both ways tho!! woo! so nick picked me up from the airport and we got lunch and then i slept from 2:00-5:00 and then went to bed at 10. its tuesday and im still tired but it was the best weekend ever! i dont think ive ever packed so much into 3 days!

LOVE MY LIFE! and i already want to go back!

my wedding plans have changed (again!) and i will be getting married on September 19th 2009 now. so THIS SUMMER!!!! we are extremely excited! the reason for this change: money and time. we decided we didnt want to spend 8 THOUSAND dollars on one day (this was just the cost for food and rental, not everything else on top!) plus we didnt want to be engaged for a whole year. we just really wanted to be married sooner, and cheaper. so now here’s the plan: nicks backyard! haha! his parents have about an acre of land in shorewood where we can have a moderately sized party. ceremony and reception. nick will do lots of landscaping this summer to make it look pretty. and there will be lots of other things to plan out. but we will be saving thousands of dollars this way. blessing: my dad might buy a house in florida to winter there when they retire, and if he has one by sept, we could use it for our honeymoon. blessing #2: hes putting us up in a fancy hotel (st. paul hotel!!!!) the night of the wedding! blessing #3: it will be WARM on my wedding day! i have always dreamed of an outside wedding and now it will be happening. there are many more details about wedding stuff that still need to get figured out and it stresses me out alot… but the main thing is, we just really want to be married. and in the end i could really care less how it happens. but im much more excited now!

in other news: its been about 7 months straight of working non stop, 6 days a week. i have sundays off and thats it. its starting to get old. i basically feel like i have zero time to relax or do anything fun. and if i have alot going on during the week, then by the time i get to sunday, im so exhausted that i basically sleep in and sit around wasting the day trying to rest. whats funny is that im still always broke. but while i sit and poor-me-why-me, i should be thankful, i have two jobs, some people have zero. i live on my own, and not with my parents, which is good since they just moved to rochester. and while there have been the occasional car trouble, thus broke for 2 weeks, and so on, i was able to buy a plane ticket to see chelsea in new york, with my own money… so i am greatly looking forward to that. i think i just really hate money, and wish my existence in the world didnt depend on me making some. i just want to be able to live in an apartment and work an adequate amount to not be exhausted but have enough money for bills. but now im just dreaming. yet another reason i am excited to be married… two incomes. which makes me sound like a gold digger, but for real my life will be so much nicer when i can work less.  and in general ive just been really discontent lately about everything. but i could really emotionally barf right now so i will stop. and this is really long so no one will read this far anyways. but in a nutshell: i look at my life and i have  nothing to complain about, im in love, getting married, have wonderful friends and family who are supportive. but for some reason, i still find myself complaining, about stupid things. so that will be what im going to work on for a while. being happy about my life and not complaining when things dont matter.

until my life looks different again, goodbye.

i think what bothers me the most about planning my wedding, is that i dont really care that much about some of it. in the end i just want to be married and i want to live with nick and have a life with him. so sometimes i just want to elope and get it over, but i know i want a “normal” wedding so i would never actualy go through with it.

life update: the most exciting news i have right now is that i paid off my car! it was close this month, and im not saying i have groceries or anything, but i got it done in the time limit i was given. and now i have my own car insurance. i also got renters insurance, cause its just smart. so now i just need some health insurance…! trying to wait on that one cause i REALLY cant afford it. but i am officialy on my own now. as in my parents arent paying for any of my bills and its just me! nick helps me with groceries but mainly cause he eats more of the food in my apartment than i do! i would still love to have a second couch and to paint my bedroom and a new wardrobe (always) and some better furniture. but this time of being broke and budgeting and having crazy bills is forcing me to not be so materialistic (sp?).

so now that i have my car paid off, im going to save my pennies so i can go visit chelsea nicole in new york in april! ive NEVER been there! so chelsea being there for 3 months is the perfect chance for me to get out there. and after my wedding, we are going to plan a trip to seattle so we can go to the first starbucks ever, right chels!!?

well my hansome fiance is pestering me to be done so we can hang out. so im done for a while. <3

so for my first post… i will list the basics. i work two jobs, i rarely have time for anything exciting, i live by myself in a small apartment that i am more in love with every day, i am engaged to a man that i am more in love with every day, i cant wait to be married, i have wonderful girl friends that no one could ever come close to, they mean more to me than they know, i wish i had more time to see them, me and my mom are best friends, i have one nephew who is almost 6, and another one on the way shortly, my family is very special to me, im not in love with either of my jobs, but they pay the bills, and they are not forever, so i deal with it until i can change them, im getting married in march 2010, i am content with life, the things that matter in life are the things that i am the most blessed with.

so there it is. my life in a nutshell. and my first blog post. how exciting. i promise i wont write in this alot.