This ain't my first rodeo!

Actually, I lied. It is.

And OH MY GOODNESS was it fun! I can now say that I'm officially a Texan because I went to a rodeo. Oh, and I can say "This ain't my first rodeo" and not be lying. It's a win-win situation for me! A friend of mine even let me borrow her cowgirl boots so I definitely looked that part of a native Texan.

Thanks Amie and Mandy!

I was somewhat apprehensive about the rodeo simply because people told me they're really not that great. I guess if you grow up going to them, it's not as fun to go when you're an adult. Marshall gave me some good perspective about it by saying it's like Washington D.C. for me. Growing up, we went to D.C. every year for fields trips and family outings. When we had friends come from out of town that wanted to visit D.C., I usually dragged my feet because I thought it was boring. 

After getting our seats (luckily Marshall knew that you should sit closest to where the actions happens and not directly in the center like I had thought), we waited for the action to happen. They had a little "pre-show" action of something called "Mutton Busters." They had a sheep in the middle attached to a leash. Said sheep was not thrilled about being attached and continuously tossed around and plopped on the ground trying to get out. I was not happy to see that because I thought the sheep was hurting himself. Marshall assured me the sheep was fine. What happened next still makes me giggle. Little children, aged three to five, jumped on the back of these sheep holding on to extra fur while the sheep ran out of the gate frantically to the other sheep. Sometimes, the sheep would just stop once he got to his friends while the child still clung to him.

After that, the real show began. I saw the rodeo clown roll out a barrel towards the middle of the arena. Next thing I know, the clown is standing inside it! Oh yes, I laughed out loud to this. The first bull was let out of the gate and the rider did a great job and lasted his full eight seconds. Apparently, the point of bull riding isn't to see how long you last. You have to last the eight seconds in order to get a score and if you do, they judge you based on your form. Who knew!? The second bull came out with a fury. He knocked his rider off immediately and then came running after the clown in the barrel! The clown ducked down so fast and once he was hit, just rolled around until it was safe! Did I laugh? Oh yes. If I were him I would've peed my pants, though. Here's a video of the third bull who knocked the wind out of his rider after a few seconds.

We saw some barrel racing (the girl sport, apparently), steer tie down, team roping, bareback riding and so forth. Throughout the show, the rodeo clown provided the crowd with comedy acts. He dressed up as a fat rodeo queen and hit on other men, danced and flopped around. He was also dressed up as Nacogdoches Finest, the NPD, sporting a fake buttcrack and all. Oh yes, I was thoroughly entertained. [It doesn't take much, does it?]

I guess I'm officially a rodeo fan. I told Marshall we should just quit our jobs and travel with the rodeo. He didn't seem so keen on that idea...

Aren't we cute?

Beerleague + Softball - Beer = Today

I'm glad I don't get paid to blog. If I did, I'd probably be living in a cardboard box because I slack way too much. Although, if I did get paid, maybe that would be more motivation to write. Does anyone want to pay me? No? That's a shame.

While talking to one of my co-workers, who just so happens to be a blogging enthusiast, she mentioned that my blog shouldn't be focused on one topic [the wedding] if I wanted to continue blogging. Since we haven't done too many things with the wedding planning, it's hard to write on a blog entitled "Wedding Belles." So regardless of my blog being called Wedding Belles, I'm going to start blogging about other things as well. Sound good? Good. And if it doesn't? Well, stop reading.

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Marshall somehow convinced me to join a beer league softball team with our paper and sister paper. [Minus the beer since we gave up alcohol for Lent so it's just a league] I haven't played softball since I was 8 and played for the LUYAA [Linganore Urbana Youth Athletic Association, represent!] teams. Considering it's a mere 15 years later, I've seem to have lost some of my mad skills. While my throwing arm may have been pretty badass when I was 8, it hasn't improved and is therefore not-so-badass-and-actually-pretty-pathetic. Want me to hit a homerun? HA. I had forgotten how painful the vibrations of the bat can be if you don't hit the sweet spot. Needless to say, the only cheer my teammates will be saying is the "We want a single, just a little single, S-I-N-G-L-E single, single, single!" and will not progress through doubles, triples and the homerun.

[And I just know that if my family is reading this post, which they better be, that they just sang the tune to that cheer and it is now probably stuck in their heads. You're welcome]

Our first game is tonight. Our second game is also tonight. Yup, two games, one night. The first one is at 7:15 and the second at 9:15 with each game being an hour long. Did I mention that the fields are 30 minutes away from our house and that I very much like to sleep and that my bedtime is 10? No bueno!

If our games don't get rained out [looks as if the rain has finally stopped but we're just waiting to see if the fields dry out] please pray that I at least hit the ball and don't strike out. And that I don't get smacked in the face with a ball. And that the ball doesn't really come in my direction so I can't mess up while in the outfield. And that I run fast and don't trip.

Maybe I'll miraculously get my 8-year-old-mad-skills back and be the MVP.

Yeah, I laughed at that too.

BFFMOH to the rescue!

BFFMOH is my internet lingo that I just made up because I'm super cool. Obviously (because it's not hard to figure out) my best friend forever maid of honor is what it stands for. Why is she to the rescue you ask? Because she fancied up this little website of mine! I'm sure you couldn't contain your "oohs" and "aahs" when you first visited this website so please direct said "oohs" and "aahs" towards her because I had nothing to do with it! So, thanks BFFMOHBEEFF for my pretty website design!

Exciting news on the wedding front! We have officially booked our church! We also changed the date of our wedding a bit because of the lovely weekend concert of Bonnaroo. Bonnaroo is an outdoor music festival held every year in June right near Marshall's hometown. It is usually held the second week (12, 13, 14 thereabouts) but this year it was moved up to the first weekend. Because we didn't want any conflicts, we decided to move our wedding to the end of June. So, now our wedding date is June 22, 2013! Hooray!

Back to the church. It's a little Catholic church near Marshall's house. Stone exterior. Purple double doors.  Rolling hills. Perfect. Just see for yourself:

[stolen from a Google search]

Apart from that, I've been slacking. I need to make some phone calls and figure out pricing but... obviously that has not been done yet. I know, I know, I'll get on it. I did get an e-mail saying that my veil has already come in and that I need to come pick it up. Exciting! However, the store is two and a half hours away so I'm going to ask if they can hold it until my dress comes in. Cross your fingers they will allow it!

Marshall and I have been working on getting in INSANE shape (ha, see what I did there?) The first day was tough. The second day was tough simply because I was so sore. But overall, I really like it. As sore as I am the next day, it's a rewarding feeling. My favorite part is the stretching (which just so happens to be Marshall's least favorite part because he's not flexible) I wouldn't care about not being flexible! It feels nice to stretch AND you get a bit of a rest! My sister ended up buying it too so now we can all be in perfect wedding shape! (stop laughing.)

Sooner or later, Marshall and I will be getting our engagement pictures done. Can't wait to get that done and show you what we have in mind!

[Here's a picture of my handsome nephew going all Risky Business on us to cheer you up on this slow-moving Tuesday]

He ain't got no pants!

Picture perfect skinny ... ish

The only new thing to report on the wedding front is that we officially booked our wedding photographer! I'm so excited to have our friend, Donna, be able to come out to Tennessee and shoot our wedding for us. She is such an amazing photographer and we are lucky to have her! Check our her website: Donna Quarles Photography

Amazing, right? Yeah. I'm so excited!

Other than that, nothing new to report. Marshall's parents are calling the church that we want to reserve it for our wedding date. The priest at that church is not who we want as our officiant though, so we would have to find another. (The one there is French and although I love accents, I really want to be able to understand what he's saying!)

Marshall and I are trying to get "wedding skinny" as I like to call it and recently ordered the Insanity workout. We are going to start it next Sunday. I'm probably going to die so if you don't see any posts from me after that, please call the police because my body will be on our living room floor. But seriously, I am excited to try this out but very nervous. It apparently kicks your ass but you've gotta work for what you want! Thankfully we have each other to motivate ourselves.

Speaking of being pretty, I just ordered a bunch of makeup. If you know me, you know that I'm so frugal that I don't buy much makeup. Therefore, I only use the basics--foundations, eyeliner and mascara. Well, I decided to get a little crazy and buy lots of different colored eyeliner and lipstick! I'm going to be a real girl! Now all I need is a brand new wardrobe to go with my new makeup. Marshall? Valentine's Day gift? ;)

Hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's Day with their honey or with a bottle of Jack! ;)

Field of Dreams

My mom is referring to our wedding as the "Field of Dreams." I have to say that I'm quite impressed with all of her creativity about this! With that being said, we have decided on the theme of our wedding. Drum roll please.... drrrrrrrrrrr (that's the keyboard drum roll sound in case you didn't know) Baseball! (Marshall love his Red Sox and our cat is even named after it.) Now, I'm not going to give anything away simply because you don't want everyone knowing exactly what's going on at the wedding before it happens! There's got to be some sort of surprise! But, after talking with my parents and Marshall last night, I couldn't sleep because I was so excited.

Fenway Park 

Fenway the cat.

I feel as if we got a lot accomplished this weekend while my parents and best friend (maid of honor) were here. Although nothing is set in stone, we have everything laid out so now it's not as much as a cluster as it was before. We now just need to go through and get all the details ironed out.

The best part of the weekend (apart from my best friend flying out to Texas from Oregon and my parents coming in)? We bought my wedding dress!!! Of course I'm not going to add pictures of the dress as I'm sure I have forbidden eyes as a reader of this blog. Therefore the only thing I can say is that it's beautiful and is definitely a "Shannon" dress... whatever that means. I hope you are picturing a dress with a high slit and a very busty top because that's definitely the dress!

Marshall and I have also decided on our invitations (well, the idea for the invitations) and have an idea for our save the dates. We will meet with our photographer next weekend and discuss what pictures we want and hopefully get that scheduled!

Unfortunately, without spilling all the beans, I feel like this is all I can share at the moment.  I've got to make a few phone calls in regards to pricing of certain things so I'm sure that's when the gray hairs will start poppin' up again. Yuck.

But we shouldn't worry about that. I'm just excited to have a grand slam of a wedding.

Yeah. I know you like that play on words.

No news is good news!

It's been a long time since I last posted. Partly because... I haven't done any wedding planning! Man, I'm a slacker. But I figured I'd fill you in on what's been going on in the life of the future Mrs. Stephens (Surprisingly, it's been quite adventurous).

As you all know (well that's pretty presumptuous but whatever,) Marshall and I moved to Nacogdoches, TX in June. We moved into this 900 sqft apartment that we had only seen online since it was kind of hard to make a trip to find an apartment. It wasn't bad but it definitely wasn't great. The layout made it feel small and cramped. The carpets were stained and gross. The walls were a dull gray color and the worst was that there was no good spot for the cat's litter box except the second bathroom which made it completely unusable and stunk up the house.

"Hello, welcome to our humble abode! Why yes, the air freshner that we use is cat shit! Isn't it lovely?"

Anyways, by the time January came around we were just fed up with it. We looked at the option of getting out of our lease (not an easy task considering there's no section for breaking the lease in our lease.) When I called, the manager was not so friendly. Those of you who know me know that I don't do well calling people to begin with but adding in a bitchy manager who doesn't want to accept the fact that I am not a college student but a working adult with a college degree did not do well with me. So, my knight in shining armour (or button up with a tie) went to the apartment office and worked his magic to get us off the lease. *My hero, he's just sooooo dreamy!*

So, the time came to start looking for a house to rent. The very first house we looked at was great. It was in a small, quiet neighborhood and it had somewhere around 1,500 sqft. It had lovely wood paneling on the walls (sarcasm, my friends) but other than that, it was great. Oh, except for the rent. $1,000/mo. Not really feasible here in Texas and trying to have a social life. So, we declined. The landlord then showed us a house in Garrison which is about 20 minutes outside of the city for $675/mo. We saw it and fell in love. We weighed the pros and cons (mostly being outside of the city) and decided to take it. Unfortunately (but fortunately) the landlord and his family ended up having to move into that house. They wanted to give their son the best education and attend the high school there and had to move into that house to prove residency. The landlord felt so bad that he gave us the first house (with the beautiful wood paneling) for the same price as the Garrison house.

[Look at that wood paneling. It's so purty! ;)]

So, in short, we have moved into a house inside city limits for the same price as a house outside city limits! We moved in last weekend and surprisingly enough, I don't mind the wood paneling! All the positives of the house definitely outweigh the wood paneling (and the fact that once there's furniture in the house it's not as bad!) The kitties LOVE being able to run and slide and we LOVE that the litter box is off to the side so our wonderful air freshner is only kept in a small area. We even have a large backyard with a patio. We immediately bought a grill. Because, I mean, that's obviously an important and valuable investment. I'll be sure to add more pictures of the new place when we get the whole house decorated!

Best investment yet!

On a completely irrevelvent note, I think I mentioned before that I was modeling in two Bridal Shows for a local dress shop. I had so much fun! It's always nice to put on a pretty dress (especially an expensive pretty dress!) Let me say that by no means am I a model, nor am I coordinated enough to not trip over my dress (fortunately, that did not happen but the train of one of the dresses did decide to wrap itself around me so in order to get out I had to take a giant step over... so graceful!) Regardless, I had a ton of fun and met some beautiful and sweet young women! The best perk is that I get 20% off my next purchase ("Shut up and buy it Daddy!")

One of the dresses I modeled. I use the word model very lightly.

My parents will be here in two weeks (along with my best friend who is flying out from Portland, Oregon EEEEE!) to go dress shopping. We are also meeting with our photographer where my dad will inevitably ask her how to cover up Cydnea's tattoos (or as he likes to say "how to FIX it!" Oh Daddy, you never cease to entertain...

Hopefully the next post will be a little more timely. But who knows... I don't own a watch.

Ew, that was a Daddy joke.

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas has come and gone so now the wedding plans can be put into motion!

Marshall and I went to Tennessee for Christmas. We went to the Christmas Eve service at one of the prospective Catholic churches to have the wedding. As soon as we pulled up, I fell in love with it. It had a stone exterior. It was a smaller church, but could hold plenty of people. It was just stunning. We would have to ask another priest to do the wedding though. The one there is French... hard to understand. Luckily, Marshall's family knows some :)

Christmas Day we went out to the field next to Marshall's house and just looked at the land. Perfect for the wedding reception. There's view of mountains from practically any place you stand, there's electricity back there, plenty of land for parking and it's flat. Things are definitely coming together!

{Marshall and I checking out the field}

Mom and Dad are coming to Nacogdoches in late January, early February for wedding stuff (I think I've already mentioned this.) I am so excited for them to come visit and we can start getting down to business!

Just wanted to update you all about what's going on. Nothing too stressful since not much has really happened. Hopefully there's some more stress with the next post because stress makes me a funny Shannon (or so I like to think)

Oh... I'm learning how to knit (yes I've aged tremendously) Maybe I can knit some bridal accessories? Or bows for the kitties?? Marshall would kill me.