6 days to go!

For anyone that's looked at our wedding website today (or if you've looked at a calendar!), you'll know it's six days until Chris and I get married!  We're working on last minute stuff, like getting the wine (very important!), gathering supplies, etc.  I'm feeling pretty good about everything now, which is great. 

I'm also still working on my wedding shawl.  It's getting much closer to being done, so I'm holding out hope that it will be done by next Saturday.  And I bet you anything if I do get it done, it will be ridiculously hot outside and I won't be able to wear it!  It will be something wonderful I made for myself though and I'll be able to wear it plenty this fall.  It's been a great project for me because I find knitting so relaxing and it's a good excuse to relax a bit during the last-minute planning. 

I have been itching to do some more yard work though.  I have two rain barrels that are ready to be installed, but I have to modify the downspouts, level and clear out an area for the barrel, etc.  I'll be doing that soon after the wedding I hope, like maybe during the week we have off!  I am so excited to have some time off work!  It will almost be two full weeks including the July 4th holiday (which we get to take on July 5).  I only have two more days of work, and everyone will be lucky if I don't mentally check out earlier than that!

Time to run some more errands!

13 days to go

It's less than two weeks from our wedding, and I have resigned myself to the fact that I will likely not get my shawl done.  For those who didn't know, I am in the process of knitting myself a shawl for the wedding in case we have weather like we did today.  I am working on the second side and it's highly unlikely that it will get finished.  Mom suggested I take a day off work to work on it (granted she was saying it jokingly). 

I'm super excited that I only have seven more work days to go!  After that, I will be completely removed from work for almost two weeks including the July 4th holiday.  I can't wait!

Both Chris and I are getting excited.  We finally planned the ceremony and I can picture in my mind how everything will happen and it's wonderful.  I was working on music this weekend (with the help of Mary's excellent playlist - thank you!). 

See you all soon!

I rocked my presentation

For those who don't know, I presented at the national conference for GFOA in Atlanta (that's the Government Finance Officers Association - the club for government finance nerds).  I was extremely nervous given that this was my first time presenting at a national conference of anything and because I was presenting in front of a few hundred people.  Yikes!

It has been an incredible experience to come to Atlanta, and I've temporarily forgotten how crappy my job can be.  I am incredibly honored that my boss and the higher-ups asked me to give the presentation (granted it's because the Controller of the City was originally asked, but when he told his wife about it, she reminded him he had a family vacation planned that weekend, so to ensure they wouldn't need a divorce lawyer, he asked if I could do it). 

I've gotten a lot of really positive comments from people and someone stopped me at the even tonight and asked if I presented and told me what a great job I did.  Man it feels good!  I feel so happy!

Toastmasters certainly helped and I was surprised at how much less nervous I was for this presentation.  My mouth still got a bit dry and I stumbled on some words, but overall, I felt pretty calm.  I guess that's what happens when you know the subject inside and out! 

I've met some really great people at the conference, and hope that I'll see them again sometime.  For now, I'll focus on getting some sleep before my flight tomorrow morning.

Thank you to everyone for your support!  The good vibes reached me!

24 days to go

Whenever I go to our wedding website, it likes to remind me how many days are left until my wedding.  As if I needed a reminder!!!  I'm feeling pretty stressed with all of the details there are yet to plan or finalize.  I'm trying to get as much done as possible now (like making the card box, working on name cards, figuring out cupcake flavors, etc).  There are a lot of details! 

I'm really looking forward to a month from now when Chris and I are relaxing, enjoying not having to plan anything for a while, and remembering how much fun we had on our wedding day. 

Getting dirty

This weekend was full of gardening and other yard work.  I dug up the shrubs in the bed against the garage and set out to prep the bed for some of the native plants I bought last weekend.  I'm determined to get rid of that red pumice, so what did I do?  I dug out all of the pumice from the bed against the garage and added it to the bed against the back of the house!  I will get rid of it eventually...

I got the plants in the ground and officially started my adventure in outdoor gardening!  I've had houseplants forever and never enjoyed gardening - ask my mom.  But there is a great satisfaction when it's your own.  I felt great satisfaction when I got the first plants in the ground. 

Chris got the bird feeder post in the ground - it's replacing the shepard's hook we were using.  This way, we can have feeders on all sides if we want to.  When we went out to more hooks, we also stopped by the bird store to get an oriole feeder.  We're hoping to attract some - Chris has gotten some amazing photos of the orioles at my parents' and he'd love to get some here too.  We're going to put out the hummingbird feeder soon too.  All sorts of activity here!

While I had my camera out, I took some pictures around the house to document what everything looks like this time of year:

It feels so good to lay in the sun!

Latest addition

While I was browsing through Craigslist recently, I found a sideboard for the dining room.  I had been thinking about getting something to replace the speakers and chairs, and I finally found it:

Today I'm going with Gina to a plant sale at the fairgrounds.  I'm hoping to get some more succulents and some native plants to place the stuff in the bed against the garage.  I decided to only shop for plants to go in that bed, because otherwise I would be buying way too much stuff and I decided I'll tackle that bed first, and when life quiets down a bit, I'll start redoing the bed against the house.  Exciting!

Work has been horrible and I unfortunately don't see it easing up anytime soon.  I was close to having a breakdown yesterday, but I managed to keep myself somewhat together. We are scrambling to get the 2011 budget up for users and it's a major production.  That means I've been putting in a lot of overtime which means I'm cranky.  This is why I've decided to take today completely off, and I'll do work stuff tomorrow.  I have to remind myself often to take deep breaths - it actually helps for about 10 seconds :)

Lilacs in full bloom

I love our backyard:

I finished doing the spring cleanup this weekend and I got inspired to start planning out what future gardening I want to do.  I am determined to dig up all the pumice from the beds and to start bringing some more color into the plant selection.  Right now it's the lilac in back, and the bleeding hearts and potentially edible rhubarb in front.  By the way, does anyone know how to determine if my rhubarb plant is edible?  I'm going to bring it into a nursery soon, but I was wondering if any of you knew off the top of your head.

I'm thinking about trying to stick with native plants for the most part and stealing a whole bunch of flowers when we go up to my parents over Memorial Day weekend.

My centerpieces are doing well - for those who don't know, I'm going to spoil the surprise because I'm excited that they're still alive: I'm going to have succulents.  They are growing which is a great sign :)

Spring is exciting!