Almost 2 months!

We are almost 2 months from the wedding! I can't believe how close it is, it's so exciting. I need to start a couple of projects in the meantime. I'm not making a lot of things myself like some people do, but there are a few things that I need to put together for the big day!

I did get all our invitation envelopes addressed. I'm just waiting for a day that Mike can help me assemble the invitations and stuff the envelopes. I'm so anxious and part of me wants to just do it myself! I'd rather Mike and I do it together , so that's what we are going to be doing on Labor Day Monday...actual labor!

Speaking of Labor Day, we have some friends from the KC area coming out to visit for the weekend. Brant and Bridget are coming in Friday! They want to go to Coronado island. I've been here for over a year and a half and have yet to go over to Coronado. Sometimes having visitors is a good thing (ha ha! Just kidding, we love having visitors!), then we can go see things that tourists always come here to see that we haven't seen yet.

Well, we are off to our dance lesson. Mike and I are getting really good at the Foxtrot. Everyone at the wedding will be in for a real treat!

A Day at the Beach

Since we've moved into our condo, we haven't been to the beach very much. We usually run on the beach a couple times a week, but it's been a while since we've gone to hang out.
We decided to hike out a little ways from everyone to be a little more secluded.

This little guy tried stealing our potato chips. We were away from our stuff checking out a little cave in the bluff and this bird took our chips out of my beach bag. I ran over to chase him off, but he hung around for a while waiting for us to leave so he could try again. We made sure we closed our bags when we got up.

It was a very nice day at the beach. We saw a seal and a dolphin swimming and a naked guy. Not too far from where we were is a nude beach. Usually the nudists don't come down this far, but this guy was just out strolling around.

Our Sponsor Children

UGANDA

2 years ago, I was trying to come up with a good idea for a Valentine's Day gift for Mike. Instead of getting each other something, we decided to sponsor a child through the Christian Children’s Fund. Our first child was Lolita. She was a 12 year old from Uganda. Her father died of AIDS so it was just her, her sister and her mother. The family's annual income was less than $200. We exchanged a few letters with her.

The first letter we received from her is posted above. She loved to draw pictures for us. We sent her $25 for her birthday (through the program) and she wrote us a letter telling us that she bought some new clothes, luggage and a slew of other items with her money! It was so nice communicating with her and thinking of how she would enjoy the things she bought. We also had sent a gift to her for Christmas, but we never found out if she received it. That was about the time we stopped hearing from her. I had heard that gifts sent in a package like that don't always get to the intended person, because they are stolen in transit. She has since moved on with her family to a new location for better job opportunities for her mother.


After being notified that Lolita had moved on, we received information about our new sponsor child, Immaculate. She is 4 1/2 and also from Uganda. Her family's income is less than $100 annually. Since she is very young, we aren't sure if she's able to write, but we are looking forward to hearing from her in whatever way possible.

We are having fun with this program and will continue sponsoring. It's definitely a rewarding experience even though we know our small contribution can only do so much.

Extended Honeymoon

Guess what all you Jayhawkers...
We are going to the Las Vegas Invitational in November to see KU play! Mike just got the tickets today and booked our room at Excalibur. Looks like a good reason to go to Vegas to me.
See, I can still support my second alma mater as long as they aren't playing each other.

Update

Let's see what have we been doing since I last posted...

I spend several hours a day on the internet shopping for ideas and things for the wedding. I've been trying to decide on jewelry this week. I'm constantly sending my mom emails asking her opinion on my finds (this picture happens to be one of the MANY necklaces I like). Ebay has become my close friend lately. I still seek advice on The Knot every once in a while, but that website seems to just suck me in and before I know it 3 hours have passed and I've done nothing productive. I do, however, know that "so and so" is having trouble with her maid of honor not returning her calls and not wanting to be at her beck and call and she should be fired as a maid of honor. Honest, this is a very common complaint on that website. Drama!

We did find our wedding bands last Sunday. I thought it would take more time than it did to find something we liked. We had our bands purchased within 3 hours, part of that time included lunch to think over my choices, of course.

Mike has been working away from home more lately. His site in Orange County has been needing his assistance. This means we haven't had a dance lesson since our first one at the end of July. The instructor keeps calling us asking when we are going to be coming back, because our wedding is going to be here before we know it. That's nice that he's concerned.

I got Mike to go see the Wizard of Oz at Starlight Theatre. It's an outdoor stage, like the one in KC. It was pretty fun. The theatre is in the flight path to the San Diego airport, so a plane was going by every 20 minutes or so. Everytime a plane flew by, the actors on stage froze in action until the plane passed.

I can't wait until after the wedding to ban my computer for a while. We'll see how long that lasts.

Awww Football

I know I'm going to get flamed (bad comments) for this post, but I can't help my excitement for football. I just got my Kstate season football tickets in the mail and the Hall of Fame NFL game is on TV. I love football.

Yes, I still have season tickets. This year I split them with a friend that lives back in Manhattan since I can't make it back to all the games as much as I wish I could. But, I'm going to try and make a few of the games. I can't wait to see the Cats under the new coach. I'm sure we won't look that great right away, but hopefully Prince can bring these guys up to the next level.

I love the Chiefs just as much as Kstate. I always tune in on the internet to 101 The Fox to listen to Mitch Holthus announce the game. I love hearing him say "TOUCHDOWN, Kan-sas-City!"

Ok, now back to watching the game.

Mike Chose the Tuxes

Here I've been excited to show everyone my bridesmaids' dresses, that I forgot to post Mike's choice of tuxes. I try to get him to blog, but he tells me to do it.

We thought we were just going to go with Men's Wearhouse for suit rentals, Mike didn't really want tuxes. We found out they didn't offer suits and Mike didn't really see anything else he liked.

We were referred to a shop by a friend in Oak Park mall, so we went to check it out. They only offered one style for a suit rental. Mike checked out all they had and decided on the pinstrip tux shown for everyone. Except for me offering a couple of suggestions, Mike chose everything on his own. He chose a white vest and tie, like in the picture, for himself and a black vest and cinnamon tie for all the others.

The plan this month is to get our wedding bands, address our invitations (I'll be doing that since I have the better handwriting), and I'll take my dress in for alterations.

The 3rd Bridesmaid Dress

...And the 3rd dress has been decided, my friend and Maid of Honor, Nicki, has decided on her dress. Check...that's done now! Here are all the bridesmaid dresses together...Nicki's, Brittney's, and Kate's...