Thanksgiving

I had a great, but very busy, Thanksgiving this year. Because of my crazy schedule from working 2 jobs we had a limited amount of time to head to Olympia. We left Wednesday at 9pm and left about 7pm Thursday so I could be functioning enough to work BLACK FRIDAY at 6:30am!

Coco (Marcel's mom) hosted Thanksgiving at her house, which never happens. They always party hop from house to house. They had tons of food, most of which I don't eat (just like at Thanksgiving's at home) and company, including Marcel's cousins who adore me!

Next we headed over to Marcel's dad's house for Thanksgiving #2--thankfully we didn't eat again, just had a small dessert on our way out. Also we were coming in as most people were going out. This was the first time we had seen him since getting engaged and he and his new wife (as of August 30th) were helpful in handing out wedding tips!

We spent the drive back to Oregon wedding planning. We know a lot more now than I would have thought we'd already know but it has been a long week or so of getting to that point. We even looked at our location again yesterday to remind our brains that everything will be great! Only 3 more weeks until I go wedding dress shopping :)

Snoh has taken a great interest in photography and this was one of his pieces of art work! It's better than any of the ones we took of ourselves. Good thing he's the 3 year old :)

Me and my soon-to-be little brother!
This trip he even said I could be his sister...How thoughtful!

Engagement Pictures

Last Sunday, we took advantage of a sunny day in Oregon (in November they don't come around too often here) and had one of my friends and roommate and even bridesmaid to take some engagement pictures at the same park where Marcel proposed. Thanks Kelly, you're the best and we'll cherish these always! We even wore clothes in our wedding colors (pink & orange) that we picked based on our flower choice (daisy).

There are tons of good ones, even of us being very much ourselves by being silly kids at heart! Here are some of MY favorites in no particular order, even a little disorganized based on how I uploaded them. I'm too tired to fix them :)

This is where he actually popped the question!

Kisses forever

I told you a better one of my ring would come one day!

Somedays this is all of his hand he'll let me have!

The classic engagement picture!

Us being our fun, silly, kid selves

Love :)

Probably my absolute favorite...
the swing I was in when he proposed!

Hooray for the swings

Wedding Update

Yesterday I turned in an application for reserving a location for our wedding. After what feels like forever of trying to pick a place, we made a very logical decision to get married at:

PACIFIC UNIVERSITY

It has been our home for the last 4 years and without it we wouldn't have ever met. We are both so proud of our university (my alma mater now!) and couldn't think of a better place to take the next step in our relationship. The plus side to being on campus instead of somewhere else is that we are also able to reserve something inside just in case Oregon weather acts up that weekend!

FYI: The date is still Saturday, May 30, 2009! Save the Date cards will be sent out shortly :)

I'm a Working Woman

I have made it through my first full week of work at both jobs. As of now, I'm enjoying both of them very much and can't wait too see how they'll both turn out.

24 Hour Fitness is very low-key. Basically I baby-sit kids for up to 2 hours while their parents are working out, something I need to start doing again, now that I have a free membership there! I will be working the evening shift there (the gym never closes but Kid's Club does at 8:30pm) so I'll be getting a whole new bunch of kids than who I've met this week in the mornings. Also, even though it's only part-time I am eligible for health insurance benefits. It is very nice to have a job with a uniform of a provided top and any black athletic pants I choose and tennis shoes. Talk about comfy :)

Banana Republic is right up my alley. I am what they call a "Non-sell" or "Stock Associate" which means my main responsibility is working shipment days (Thursdays 7am!) to unload the boxes and individually wrapped items. Also, I work behind the scenes organizing the back stock into neat piles of matching items in size order. Everything I do there is about organization which probably one of my strongest personality trait. The uniform is far from the one at 24HF, but I've always (well since about high school) enjoyed dressing up but rarely have an excuse to do so, so it has been nice so far to get that chance. I'm excited to be starting there just a few weeks before Thanksgiving to give me a chance to get my head wrapped around the place before we get super-duper busy.

Halloween

This year is the first time in the three Halloweens that me and Marcel have been together that we have actually decided to celebrate/acknowledge the holiday. We didn't go look for costumes until the 29th and it was STRESSFUL! I didn't find anything I liked and the thought of going out scared me, because it isn't quite my scene. After another trip to the costume shop and two stops to Jo-anne's we had all the materials we needed for some unique homemade costumes (explained below). We didn't end up going out. Instead we took Snoh (Marcel's little brother) trick or treating, went to a party hosted by the pastor who will be marrying us in less than 7 months!, and went back home and watched movies. It might not be the most Halloween thing we could have done but we were together and that was the most important thing to us!

Dorothy and the Jalapeno

Brothers trick or treating--Snoh was Buzz Lightyear

A more complete look at Dorothy--even with red shoes

Saturday we babysat Snoh and some of his cousins
It was like playing mom and dad for the weekend :)

The apartment squirrel that attacked me--
he climbed up to my hip before I could shake him off!

MaryBeth & Coco--mother-in-law to-be!

Brotherly love during game night!