Registering

Who would have known that registering was such a pain in the behind? I never would have guessed it would be so hard! Nick and I went to Dillard's in Sugar Land a few weeks ago just to pick out our china. We sat there for at least two hours with this hideous, annoying lady. She was smelly, gross, and thought she was a high class entertainer. She pressured us into registering for really expensive stemware and other things that were out of normal peoples price range. We left there pretty stressed out about everything and went back this past Saturday. To our surprise none of our stuff was in the system. Basically, we wasted two hours of our lives. We had to wait for the main lady to get back from lunch until we could re-register for our china. We hoped in wouldn't be the annoying lady, luckily it wasn't. This lady was very nice and helpful and let us do what we wanted. She didn't pressure us into anything! After we were done registering for everything but china, stemware, and flatware we went back to her to register for those things. She finally found us in the system under my name. She had Nick's last name spelled Pope instead of Popp. Thank goodness we didn't have to go back through and register for the china again. All we did was delete all of the stemware and register for a cheaper version...Mikasa rather than Waterford. Don't get me wrong, Waterford is beautiful, but OUTRAGEOUS! Nick and I decided on getting really nice champagne glasses for the wedding rather than 12 glasses to go with our china.


Our china is Pearl Innocence by Lennox. This picture doesn't do it much justice. It's very pretty in person.




This is the metalware by Wilton Armetale we picked for more casual entertaining. I think I will use this ALOT!!!

So registering turned out to be lots of fun. It wouldn't be right if there weren't any complications. That's just how our luck is. Nick is still adament about registering for tools so we will have to find a place for him to register. We are tossing around the idea of Sears or Home Depot. Sears story is a whole other blog.

And they lived happily ever after

Here are a couple of halfway decent pics that we like. They are not the best, but they were just for fun. We'll have to pay someone the big bucks to make us look good!





I figured that this would be a good time to tell people the story of US!

The annual Bocktoberfest was held on October 15th, 2005. Little did Nick or I know that we would meet each other and one day be husband and wife. If we would have known we probably would have gone about things a little differently, but we still think it was pretty perfect.

Nick was a friend of Ross and Ryan Spann at Texas State. They had several Ag classes together over the semesters. By some miracle they had convinced Nick to come to the Bocktoberfest. We (my sisters, parents, Spann's, Jamie's Aggie friends, etc) were at our typical hangout before the fest. It was at Pat Caka's pasture which is within walking distance from the concerts. It's always a great place for us because we can sit out there and listen to the small bands until we want to go in and see the big performers. Nick walked up and talked to Robert Pavelka and my dad as they were making stew. I saw Nick and asked him who he was and who he was with and if he wanted a beer. That was it until that evening. After the concert we ended up in the pasture again. All of my girlfriends left because of some drama at the fest so I decided to go and crash in the Spann's travel trailer. I would always crash in that bed whenever we had something going on and the trailer was there. Evidently, that night it was supposed to be Nick's bed. Too bad, so sad, I was there first. I laid down and Nick and Ryan walked in. Nick came and laid in bed with me as Ryan went to the restroom. We hit it off! I thought it was a little weird for this complete stranger to jump in bed with me so I got up and asked Ross, Ryan, Brad, and Gina/Leslie about this guy. Everyone of them told me that he was a VERY GOOD guy. Ross and Ryan, my very own cousins, said that he was probably to good for me! Dang, that wasn't nice, but if they all said he was great, I would just have to find out myself as well. That night we stayed up the ENTIRE night talking. I was a little nervous to hear what my dad would say when he drove up. Of course he knew we were shacked up in there. It was really very innocent. We ended up getting out of the trailer as they hooked it up to the truck. We all sat around for a little while. They passed around a bottle of Boone's Farm and drank more beer. When we all decided to leave I wanted to ride with Nick. He wanted me to as well, but Robert P jumped in the front seat. I was a little ticked with this, but got over it as Nick passed me his cell phone so that I could store my number in it. We ended up getting rid of Robert at our house. Nick and I went riding around town...it took 3 minutes flat! Nah, it took a lot longer then that. Neither of us wanted to leave the other, but it worked out well since I was just down the road from him. We did a little text messaging throughout the day when he left. Talked on the phone that evening and saw each other almost everyday since!

Photo Shoot #1

Poor Nick...he didn't know what he was getting himself into when he asked me to marry him. Everyone knows how anal I am about pictures, so I've decided that we will be having MULTIPLE photo shoots! So far he's been a good sport about it. This past weekend was our first shoot. It didn't go quite as well as I had planned. First of all, it was HOT! The weather was rainy, go figure, but we wanted to get a few shots in. We started taking a few and I realized how much I really HATE being in front of the camera....I definitely belong behind it. The biggest task was getting Nick to keep his eyes open. Mind you, it wasn't all that sunny. His eyes are light blue-ish so the little bit of sun that was out, wore him out! I tried to get him to keep his eyes closed while Jill counted...It was supposed to go like this...one, two, open eyes, three. Nope! Instead it went like this one, two, Jill snaps picture and Nick has closed eyes. It was really quite comical as I sit here and think about it. Anyways, we did get a few good pics. Nothing that I am just super thrilled about to put in a paper or anything, but definitely some that will be up at the wedding. Thanks Jill...you really did do a good job! One day you can work for me! :)

My Little Man and his Daddy

I got this wise idea and figured I might as well "TRY" to do it. I want to blog a little blurb about each of my bridal party people. This picture is a pretty perfect description of both guys in it. Well, almost perfect...I just realized there is not a tractor in this picture. Ross, my first cousin, and I have always been very close. He is a year younger than me so we did all of our growing up together. There are soooo many funny memories that I have with him, but I'm only going to share a few due to time constraints and I'd probably get carputunal from typing.

Here's a pretty good story....I think I was about 17 years old so Ross must have just turned 16. He, Sarah Winkenwerder Arriaga (another bridesmaid), myself, and some other people went riding on the back roads in Shiner and then wound up at Ross's house. We decided to sneak some booze from my house. I found some vodka and poured it into a big hospital mug. I thought I was really smart and stole a bunch of lemons as well. We went to his house and sat under a tree and took shots of the vodka. We were too stupid to know that it was tequila that you take shots with. The next morning Uncle Rodney went outside and saw lemon rinds all under this tree as he was mowing. Perplexed, he asked Ross when that tree turned into a lemon tree. We were busted and I constantly get teased about it to this day.

Ross and I always used to give each other gag gifts for Christmas. Each year one tried to top the other. I can't remember why this started, but I must say, I won every time! One gift was a Crown Royal bottle full of tea....boy, he was so excited. He thought I was the best person in the world. He took a swig of it and had a strange look on his face....need I say anymore. The best gag was when he had a crush on one of my great friends, Tiffany Turek. About a week before Valentine's day I was sending him secret admirer stuff at school. On Valentine's Day I sent him a bunch of balloons and candy, etc. I told him if he wanted to find out who I was that he had to meet me at Coach Morgan's room at a certain time. Coach Morgan was a prankster and he was in on it as well. He came to the room and saw me! It was really great!

3 years ago the best thing happened to him...he had a son, Jacob Ross Spann. Jacob, my ring bearer, is a spitting image of Ross. He absolutely LOVES his Daddy and Uncle Nokie and let's not forget about TRACTORS! This child has to be exactly like Nick was when he was kid. Nick and Jacob get along great...all they do is talk about tractors, imagine that. He especially loves Nokie's "Big Case." Uncle Rod, Ross, and Ryan are big fisherman in Port O'Connor as well so Jacob loves fishing. I'm so excited to have both of them in our wedding. They are two of several very important guys in my life!

More info about why Ross is in our wedding later...

Cake

This is it! I think it's absolutely GORGEOUS! I had a harder time picking a cake than I thought. When I saw this one, I knew that it was the one. Of course, we will have a P monogram either like the picture or as a cake topper. Haven't really decided on that yet. I'm just glad I found something. I think that I'm going to have white with strawberry filling and buttercream icing...NO FONDANT! Nick hasn't decided on his yet....something to do with farm life and the flavor will be something like spice cake or something else gross like that! :)

Bridal Extravaganza 7-14-07

We had a great time at the Bridal Extravaganza in Houston. On our way to the George R. Brown Center we saw this...





Yes...the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile! It was funny to see it traveling down the road....VERY SLOWLY! We blew past it and I didn't have time to get the camera. Jamie slowed down to 40mph and he still didn't catch up to us. This was the best shot that I could get.

We got so many good ideas for the wedding. Lots of them we probably won't use because of our hall. We do have a big challenge since our hall is so ugly in Shiner, but everything is coming together and I know it will be gorgeous.

Right when we got in the door Al's Formal Wear greeted us. The guy that came up to us was actually wearing the tux that Nick and I want.




I think we are going to use this one for the groomsmen if the orange is the same shade as the girl's dresses. If not they are going to have brown vests. Nick's will have an ivory vest.

Stroke of Good Luck

Just when you think things can't get any better, they do! For the past (almost) 2 years I have been VERY blessed. First of all, I met Nick. Two years of a PERFECT relationship went by. Got engaged. Got a new job teaching kindergarten. Everything seemed picture perfect except for the job part. If you're a teacher, you know that finding a kinder job anywhere is difficult. I was lucky and one opened up in Eagle Lake and I got it. I signed the contract and was happy that I had some sort of income. The only thing that I wasn't so pleased about was the 25 minute drive there. With the price of gas we figured that it would cost about $2000-$2500 a year, plus wear and tear on my car. On top of that I was already going to take a pay cut of about $3500, maybe even more. Basically, I would make LESS than what I did as a first year teacher. UGH! I never found out exactly, partially because I didn't want to know. So figure, $6000 pay cut for a couple starting out...that's a lot of money! I pretty much wrote it off and would suck it up for a year. WELL....Tuesday I get a call from Mrs. Popp saying that a lady resigned! No way! The job has to be posted for 10 days before they can hire anyone. I was kinda bummed because I didn't think I would get it. The principal there already knew I had a job at Rice CISD, where her kids go to school and she really wanted me there...partially to see if I could help coach. She set up an interview for Thursday. I really had a bad feeling about it. I was hesitant to even go to the interview. I had an interview with Wharton ISD before for a job that wasn't even opened, so I was bummed. I went to the interview, thought it was horrible, and wrote the job off. I was told that they would hire someone that day because people had to be out of contracts the next day, which is TODAY! The principal then came into Mrs. Popp's room and said they were going to wait and hire after the 10 day period, so I was pretty much out of the running because I had to get my resignation in the next day. STRESS!!! I wanted this job more than anyone! This morning I went on my 3 mile walk, I wanted to get it over with because Nick was coming home tonight. He has been gone all week for State Ag Convention in Corpus Christi. {I miss him terribly!} Anyways, Mrs. Popp drove up to me as I was walking. I was on the phone with TSTA, my teacher organization, just to find out the laws on the 10 day job posting, etc. She mouthed to me that Sally (the principal) called her. She didn't look to happy. Just great, I was not happy! So I stayed on the phone waiting to get some answers when she said I got the job! WoooooHooooo! $5000-$6000 pay raise and best of all NOOO driving! I'm so super pumped about the job. Sally is awesome, I know lots of people there, get to work at least a year with my Mother-In-Law. I can't wait to tell Nick. I'm trying to wait til he gets home tonight so I can tell him in person. It's really hard!!! It's kinda like getting engaged all over again....waiting to tell everyone. This goes to show....NEVER GIVE UP HOPE!

Oh yeah, well today is the final day for resignations to be granted...basically without having to do any begging. So I've been busy faxing, emailing, and sending my resignation to Rice CISD today. Keep your fingers crossed that this all works out like it is supposed to!

Flower Girl Dress

Here's the flower girl dress. We're not 100% sure that we are going to use this one...we'll have to get the flower girl's mother's opinion. We like the one on the right, but in ivory with a brown or persimmon sash. It kinda matches the bridesmaid dresses too.

Just for you, Tracey

My future cousin, Tracey Perkins (yes, she's white!), asked about my bridesmaid dresses and flower girl dresses since her daughter, Cayla is in the wedding. I know that my bridesmaids want to see the dresses also so I'm going to try to post a picture from David's Bridal on here. If not, I'm going to the Bridal Extravaganza this weekend and then to David's so I can take some pictures there.

Bridesmaids Card

Bridal Party

Here is a run down of our current bridal party. We have not finished asking everyone yet. It's hard getting in touch with everyone when we are all in different places.

Maids of Honor: Jamie and Jill (my sisters)

Best Men: Luke and Jake (Nick's brothers)

Bridesmaids: Alicea Pohler, Debbie Patek, Shelley Winkenwerder, Dawn Raab, Leslie Beach, Sarah Beth Groover, Jenna Popp, and one that has not been asked yet. (will post your name later :)

Flower girls: Emery Goerig, Kyleigh Schafer, and Micayla Perkins (all are Nick's cousins)

Ring Bearer: Jacob Spann (my 2nd cousin)

Groomsmen: Ross Spann, Ryan Spann, Jason Ward, Joe Mask and four that have not been asked yet. (will post names later)

Junior Groomsmen: Jaace Chumchal (my brother)

Junior Bridesmaid: Courtney Schafer

Yes, we have a big bridal party, but each and every person is special to us in some way or another and it was so hard to make the final decision. The list still could have gone on, but I had to stop somewhere!!

So, Saturday at Desi's wedding I asked Alicea, Debbie, and Shelley...three of my closest running buddies to be in the wedding. I brought them outside and gave them there baggies. It was AWESOME! They were in tears as they read their cards and of course we had a huge group hug. I love these crazy girls and I CANNOT WAIT TIL THE BACHELORETTE PARTY!!!

(below is a horrible picture some random guy took for us!)

Half Moon Holidays Weekend

This past Saturday, 7-7-07, was our annual Half Moon Holidays celebration. We've had SO much rain lately that they had to move it to town. Friday night Nick and I got into Shiner at about 6:45. We had to pick Sophie up from Jamie in Hallettsville because she had rehearsal for Desi's wedding. Sophie was sick so we took her straight home. Then we went to Dad's office where they were going to hold the cookoff. It was a great opportunity for us to ask my cousin, Ryan, to be in the wedding. Ryan was actually Nick's friend before I knew Nick. Ryan and Ross invited Nick to Bocktoberfest so I owe it all to them that I found the man of my dreams! We asked Ryan and he seemed pretty excited about being in the wedding.

Saturday morning we watched the parade and hung out at the cookoff for a while and then headed home to get ready for Desi's wedding. The wedding was GREAT! I finally got to hang out with three of my greatest friends since our engagement. I knew Alicea, Debbie, and Shelly would be at the wedding so I had to try to convince the girls to come outside with me so that I could ask them to be in the wedding.

I made these super cute cards for my bridesmaids. I put them in a brown bag with a bottle of wine. I didn't want to just call up my friends and ask them to be in the wedding and I thought that this was a very cute and a much more personal, special way of asking.

THE dress

Just like every other bride, the first dress I tried on was THE dress. After Nick and I settled on March 29th as the date rather than December 29th I needed figure out what colors to go with. I am not big into the springy colors so I was a little worried. I had an idea of what I wanted the bridesmaid dresses to look like, but no color. Well, Sarah Beth (Jake's girlfriend and bridesmaid) and I were going to go shopping in Sugar Land. There's a David's Bridal right down the road so I just wanted to pop in to see what kind of dresses they had. She encouraged me to just try a dress on. I was hesitant because Mom, Nick's Mom, Jamie and Jill weren't there, but I figured that I would not find a dress anyway. No harm in trying a few on, right? WRONG! The first one I tried on was the one! I called Jamie to come to Sugar Land right away to see it. She left work early and came over. The lady proceeded to tell me that the sale they were having was ending that evening! Ugh! Of course it was ending. I called Mom and told her she needed to come over ASAP. I called Mrs. Popp to see if she could come see as well. Jamie, Sarah Beth, and I drove back to Wharton, picked up Mrs. Popp and drove to East Bernard to pick up Mom. We all rode to Sugar Land from East Bernard together. I tried on several dresses that were not the one. Then tried on THE dress...they all agreed that it was FABULOUS! Jamie (sister and Maid of Honor) tried on several bridesmaid dresses. There was one that looked GREAT! It's a dress that all of my bridesmaids will be so comfortable in. And I'm sure they will all LOVE me for it! :) The colors we finally decided on are persimmon (deep orangish), brown, and ivory.

The next day

The next day (Wednesday) I had a hair appointment at 7:00am and a job interview in Eagle Lake at 1:00pm. I interviewed for the job and scheduled a second interview. Everyone seemed super nice and down to earth there. We postponed our moving out of apartments until that Friday. That evening Nick had another tractor to deliver to Brenham. The ride was nice because we were by ourselves and we got to talk about all that is to come and the prior evening.

The rest of the engagement evening

Nick and I wanted to call everyone to tell them we were engaged, but we wanted to tell our family first. How could we pull this off in a matter of a few hours? Well....we did it! We called Nick's parents and told them to meet us in East Bernard at our favorite Mexican restaurant, Los Amigos. We told them my parents were in Victoria and wanted to come eat with us. We called my parents and told them that I got a job and we wanted them to come celebrate with us. Everyone was to meet us there around 7:30pm. Nick and I had a few hours to burn in the meantime. We couldn't go home because his family would know and we wanted everyone to find out at the same time. I was DYING to tell someone. Nick wouldn't let me call anyone because our parents had to be the first to know. Ok, I understood that. Try to keep a girl from telling SOMEONE that she just got engaged. We ran into Wal-Mart because I got an itch to get a t-shirt and some iron-on letters and make a shirt that said "Future Mrs. Popp." We bought all of the goods, even an iron, to run to their farm to make the shirt. While we were checking out I had to tell the checkout girl that I just got engaged! So, some stranger was the first one to know, but I couldn't keep it in. I walked through the aisles gazing at my gorgeous rock....I flashed my ring in every mirror or silver plated shelf I passed by so I could see what it looked like on my finger. We went to the barn, sooo hot, to make the shirt. It was NOT working! We decided to quit trying and go to the restaurant.

We walked, very casually, into the restaurant. Gave my parents a hug and kiss and sat down next to my mom and kinda caddie cornered to Mrs. Popp. Mom noticed the ring right away. She looked at me, smiled, and said "What's THAT?" I just smiled and Nick's mom didn't know what was going on. Mrs. Popp asked several time, "What's what?" Then she figured it out and flew out of her chair. Of course, everyone was ecstatic on our WONDERFUL news! I tried calling Jamie but she was at a play. Luke and Jenna were on their honeymoon, but Nick still called them and filled them in. I went through my phone and called anyone and everyone that evening. Well, not really....it was late by the time I could start calling everyone so I called those that I knew were up. I continued calling the next day....