30 Days and Counting...

OK. So we are down to t-minus 30 days and counting until the "big day"!

I'm not really sure how to describe the anxiousness, excitement, joy, splendiforiousness, and over all anticipation I feel with the day hurrying upon us. All I know is that in the next 30 days I will be spending the rest of my living eternity with the most wonderful, God-given blessing of a man and this idea thrills me to no end. :)

Depending on how long you've known me, you should probably realize that I am the pickiest person on earth... especially when it comes to the qualities I've been praying for in a future husband. Who knew that God would give me the EXACT person I would need to help pull me back down to earth every time my imagination would start to wander?... OK, so maybe Mom knew ;). But he really is that wonderful. I'm an idealistic person, he's very realistic... we're learning how to work with these two personalities and figure out how to blend them the best we can (without blowing up in each other's faces... OK, so I do most of the blowing up... I mean, I LOVE YOU JOE!!!)

So... 30 days, hmm...

"One Box At A Time"

Packing... yuck!

OK- So I'm trying to get in the "packing mode", but it's been really hard when you've never moved your entire life. And now you are forced to pack 25 years worth of life and, well let's face it... accumulated junk... into tiny little boxes and ship them across the country to a new home front.

In the next few weeks that are left until the wedding, I will keep a running total on here of the days and how many boxes were completed on that day. =D

As it stands in the total of packed boxes ready to ship:

4/8/08 - 2 boxes packed (one of which is stuff for the hubby, its not even really stuff from MY room!) - yep, that's it, only 2 boxes, lol.

5/9/08 - 3 boxes packed! 2 full of random paperwork that I need to go through before mailing out (it was all dumped into boxes bc Daddy needed a filing cabinet for Gma's paperwork). 1 box half full of random ball caps that I wear when I go to the beach or I don't feel like washing my hair that day (i.e. you know I'm having an "off day" when I'm wearing a ball cap... unless I'm at a ball game ;). The rest of the box will prolly have assorted purses or things).

5/19/08 - 1 box. More random paperwork that I took out of a crate and threw into a box. the dang crate was in my walking space (what little I have atm) and I kept jamming my toes in the crate holes (OW)... I made the exec. decision to trash the crate and throw all the contents into a waiting and empty box. Must remember to sort through crap, I mean "contents" of box later this week. :P

5/24/08 - With Joe in town we got 8 boxes mailed!

5/26/08 - Happy Memorial day! Joe hand carried a box of important docs on the plane for me (I LOVE YOU SWEETHEART!) Plus I got 2 more boxes packed after he left and I'm planning on finishing up another few more this week ;).

5/30 - 6/1/08 - With LOTS of help from various family membrs, 7 more boxes have been completed and ready to ship! Thanks everyone!!! :)

6/7/08 - Thanks to my wonderful family, I finally dragged those 7 boxes out to the post office and got them mailed! Yay! - I think overall now there should be 15 boxes in transit to my Joe, but for some reason my list says there are 19 boxes! So... I have concluded that I probably put down one too many tick marks on the list (I tend to over count things anyway). I think there may be a total of 4-5 boxes left to go and then everything should be on the way! ;).

Going Crazy...

... Over weddings, and houses, and moving... Oh My!

(Erica) OK, so maybe Joe's not going as crazy as I am, but then again, I worry and get emotional over the little things. Bad, I know. I'm working on it. Just keep praying for me.

Weddings- As everyone should know by now, we'll be getting married the end of June. Thanks to my beloved Joe and our parents, siblings, best friends, etc... things seem to be running smoothly, all the deposits are in and the bridey dress/ groom tux are purchased and fully paid for. So everything is good right? Sure... as long as you're an attending guest and not a bride who's wondering if everything is going to play out at planned. I know, you're thinking "gosh Erica, lighten up would ya? It'll be fine, enjoy the ride", and you'd be right. I'm so excited about everything that's happening, and things are going SO well with the wedding plans, that it seems my mind is making up things to worry about. It's as if a wedding must be harder to plan than ours (which really has been a piece of cake, pun intended) lol. Our invites finally got out in the mail today, so that's been done and covered. If you're on our list (or think you are), and you don't get an invite in a week or two, that's probably because you never sent us a mailing address. So get us an address, and we'll get you a wedding invite. For those from BCC, JCL, Phys Fac, CV, WD, and close friends (you know who you are)... if your invite doesn't show up, let us know ASAP and make sure we have a correct addy ;).

Wedding issues aside, now for houses- OK, not really houses, but condos/ apartments... As most know, I am moving to SoCal to join my beloved after the wedding. During the planning stages (right now), my beloved Joe has taken the task of "home hunting" upon himself and prays we will be homeowners before the big day arrives (granted the home will probably be a condo until the family grows a bit, but it will be lovely because it will be ours). During this "hunting process" I have felt a bit left out since I am not in SoCal getting to help look at properties :(. Last week when I did have my chance to visit my Beloved Joe, his realtor gave us an unexpected call and we had the chance to go look at two properties together! YAY! I feel more included now, and I have a better idea of what we're getting into. Any prayers you feel may be necessary to throw our way would be happily accepted during this process. It's fun, time consuming, tiring, but in the end it will be all worth it. =D

Moving- Depending on how well you know me (Erica), you would know I'm a little terrified of moving. Even the furniture in my room have had the same places for the last several years. I have lived in the same home and had the same bedroom my ENTIRE LIFE! Yeah, time to break out of the old habitat and claim a new space I can call my own, right? For me, even the thought of moving my furniture around is a big deal. Don't judge, I'm a little OCD when it comes to stuff like this, ask my mother. So what's possessed me to move from the East Coast to the West Coast without a second thought? That would have to be the intense love I hold in my heart for my beloved Joe (yes Baby, I love you THAT MUCH!). Call me crazy, but I'm a person of habit and I don't like my world to get tipped out of balance. But ever since Joe and I have been together, my world's been tipped, rocked, completely dumped upside down, and re pieced together into a new and beautiful journey (like a puzzle who's pieces make more than one picture, but you need another point of view to find the next picture in your life). Since meeting Joe, I have found the courage and will to break out of my day-to-day habits and do crazy things like drive from the Beaches to OP to visit Joe and his family, or pick up/ drop him off at the airport every time he's come home to visit. Or drive across town for who-knows-what for things we want to do. Thanks to Joe's love and encouragement, I have found a new sense of adventure within myself and I want to go do crazy things like go camping for a weekend, jump off a bridge, ride an air rail at the San Diego Zoo, and numerous other things that I once thought I'd never risk life or limb to do. But what is a life worth living, of you don't give everything you have to enjoy the life God's blessed you with? So I want to take this opportunity to Thank God for the many blessings He's poured into my life, and the numero uno blessing... being a one and only Joe =D!