Almost forgot

My wonderful future cousins called me this weekend from David's Bridal. They were just stopping in to see the flower girl dresses and ended up ordering them. How ahead of the ballgame are they? I didn't have to do any worrying over the dresses. Thanks girls!

Nick's ring

Yesterday, after school, I drove to IW Marks in Bellaire to pick-up Nick's ring. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! We couldn't have picked a more perfect match. Nick is very anal about things, believe it or not. I've probably already said that a time or two on this blog. We looked at several places for a band for him. He knew exactly what he wanted. Sort of beveled...white gold, not platinum...not too fat or too thin. I was easier than he was...all I wanted was a round stone and NOT gold. Anyways, my engagement ring and wedding ring have millgrain on the edges. His band is the exact style that he wanted and it had millgrain on the edges too. Our rings look like they should have been sold together. The hardest thing was to decide on what to engrave on the inside. I was set on Cherished and 3-29-08, but at the last minute I decided on All My Love and 3-29-08. That's my little saying I use in cards and emails for him so it was perfect. (He'll also never forget our anniversary!) He was so surprised and ecstatic when I showed it to him last night. He was worse than a girl...he wouldn't take it off! Then he let me see my band one last time before the wedding, it was also the first time I saw it since we got engaged....6 months ago TODAY! I definitely didn't want to take it off! It's sooooo gorgeous!

Exactly 4 months til the wedding!

We found our calling...

Saturday we made strudels for the wedding. We started our strudel baking extravaganza at about 10:30am, we all look rough in these pictures due to the long shopping day on Black Friday. After we rolled about the 20th strudel out of 40 I found our way to make millions. Being a school teacher, I'm always trying to think of something that will make me millions so I can get out of this job. We want to open up a strudel/kolache shop like Freebirds. You pick your fix 'ins and we roll it and bake it. How awesome would that be??? It would work, especially since most people don't know what "real" strudels and kolaches are. Once they'd eat ours, the word would spread like a wildfire. Here's a few pics our fun day!

First we (Robert and I) peeled the apples...I had to take a break to take photos.



Dad got in on the action and cored the apples.


Jamie diced them. The Nicer Dicer ROCKS!


Mom got all the fix 'ins ready. In the picture she's crushing up cornflakes. I had no idea that cornflakes, vanilla wafers, and saltine crackers are part of strudel filling.


Mamo got the dough ready for us.


We filled them with apples, raisins, coconut, lots of sugar, the crunchy mixture, and butter.


The final product before rolling it up...


And here's the rolling process...


I've got more pics to upload and then I'll post them.

Ralphie

I've been a good blogger, but haven't been a good picture poster. I love reading blogs, but I love seeing pictures with the posts. I'm going to try to be better about it. Thank goodness for the long Thanksgiving holiday because I can catch up. Anyways, Ralphie is our first baby! This post doesn't have anything to do with the wedding, but he's my baby! He was an orphan calf that Nick and I had to bottle feed. The momma cow died a few weeks after he was born. She was really old...you could tell she was going to die soon. I guess Ralphie was the cause of her death, he wore her out. Nick should have sold her a while ago, but he knew he was going to keep her until she died because it was the last cow of his Gramps'. I would have done the same thing. So, now I'm trying to talk Nick into not selling him. He's just so sweet. When I walk he comes to the fence and moo's when I call his name. It reminds me of when I was a little kid. Dad always let us bottle feed calves. Sometimes it's more of a hassle, but they are just so darned cute. Everyone has told Nick that he will have to give me a few hundred dollars to go shopping so he can hall him to the sale barn when I'm gone so that I won't notice. I know we won't be able to keep him forever and I know we'll have plenty more to feed. So, heres a few pictures of him. He's currently getting weened off the bottle. He's down to 1/2 of one instead of 2 a day.

Night before the shower on 6th Street

All of our goodies before we hit 6th Street.


First attempt at a timed group picture.


Second attempt...a little bit better.


Sisters! Not all of us, but we claim the blonde as one of us.


We had such a good time. Sure wish Nick wouldn't have had Ag stuff to do, again!

More shower pics

(L to R) Brooke Sellers, Abbey Niemann, Evy Grant, and Jamie Prado

Stock the Bar Shower

Finally uploading a few pictures from my first bridal shower. It was a Stock the Bar shower hosted by Beth Hagan in Buda on November 3rd, 2007. A list of who came and the gifts I got from them is attached. I figured it would be a good way for me to keep record of it.

Abbey and Matt Niemann-bottle of Bacardi Rum. I taught Kindergarten with Abbey for 3 years.

Beth Hagan-Tito's Vodka. I taught Kinder with Bethy for 2 years. She taught Pre-K the first year I was there and then moved to kinder after Pre-K was moved from our school to another.

Barbara Woods-set of crystal tumblers by Mikasa. Barbara is a Math Intervention teacher at Fuentes. We got to be pretty close my last year at Fuentes...it was her first year to help the kinder team. She was awesome!

Paige and Dana McFadden-Jenny and Nick engraved beer mugs. Paige was the same as Beth. She moved to kinder after pre-k. We got to be very close my last two years at Fuentes. Here's a funny story...our team was sitting around and talking about dating and how long people were together and what kind of trouble we got into when we were younger. Paige said that here and Dana started dating in 1982 and I blurted out that was the year I was born. I guess I should have thought about it before I said it. We all just laughed and she always gave me heck about it. Paigey and Bethy were like my motherly figures at Fuentes.

Brooke Sellers-2 bottles Texas wines. Sellers taught multiple grades at Fuentes. She finally is sticking with 2nd grade. We both went to TX State together...I remember sitting in front of her in our block classes. Somehow we ended up at Fuentes together and became great friends. She's an awesome gal.

Mom, Jamie, and Jill-Calphalon ice bucket, lots and lots of cute bar accessories. The most awesome mother and sisters a girl could ask for! They are putting up with a heck of a lot for me, but I can't wait to do it all for them one day too. Love you all so much!

Mrs. Popp-Basket full of wine, whiskey, bar accessories. She couldn't make it to the shower, but gave me a cool gift when I got home.

Evy Grant and Debbie Keitz-bottle of Chandon champagne. We're using it to toast with at the wedding! Debbie...where do I begin with Debbie?!?! She is one crazy lady. I taught kinder with her for the 3 years I was there. If you ever needed a laugh, Debbie would be the one to go to. She was the true blonde. For instance, at the shower she ran to Jill to give her a hug, thinking it was me. Fortunately, Evy joined our team my last year at Fuentes. She is a super girl! She was definitely the go-to girl to make you feel good and tell you something positive even those sometimes we just wanted her to be negative with the rest of us! :)

Jamie Burda Prado-bottle of Absolut vodka and "P" guest towels. Jamie and I taught together for 2 years. She left my last year to be a mommy and wife! Jamie is a wonderful, wonderful lady! We've got lots of hilarious stories between the two of us...we instantly became close buds since she was from Yorktown. Country girls can relate!

Julie Castillo-cash. Julie aka "Office" is another crazy woman. She has to be the most hilarious secretary that exists. We'd always get a funny call or email from her. She was the one that would call to warn us when the "Big Boss" was in the building, or the one to yell at me to take my attendance. She'd surely be someone to make you laugh if you were having a bad day.

Janice Mangrum and Nancy Villanueva-2 recipe glassses, Milagro tequila, and Margarita napkins. Janice and Nancy were the coaches at Fuentes. I must add that they were the best! You always had to watch these two because they were the pranksters. They sure know how to have a good time and put together an awesome field day.

Kathleen Hymes-Calphalon cake pan and bottle of Benzinger wine. Kathleen was the secretary to the "big dogs." This lady had her stuff together! She is a super secretary and should be making big bucks for all that she does. I love this lady! She was the one that we could tell secrets to and she'd tell us some too! :)

I miss my Fuentes Stars! Thank you all for a great shower. I love you guys! Hope to see you all at the wedding.

House on wheels

I'm going to try to tackle our living arrangements in one post unless it gets too long. Currently I am living with Nick, his parents, and his grandmother in his grandmother's house. Here's the story behind all of it....Nick's grandparents, Grams and Gramps, lived in Boling/Pledger for quite some time. As they got older, they wanted to move to Wharton since Nick's family was there. It takes about 20 minutes to get to their old homestead, but it was easier on everyone if they lived in town. They bought a house and completely rennovated it. I'm not sure how long they lived in town when Gramps got sick, but he died on August 30th, 2005, his 90th birthday. Nick's parents had sold their house a few weeks or maybe even days prior to his death. I'm not real sure. Anyways, they were planning on renting a place til their house was built. Since his death, they moved in with Grams to take care of her. Two years passed by, Nick and I are engaged, and they were kind enough to let me stay with them until I found something to rent. Well, nice apartments and nice rent houses are hard to come by in Wharton. I've stayed with them longer than I anticipated. I don't mind staying with them at all, I just don't want to be living with Nick. Even though we sleep seperately, we still are lucky enough to be the first and last thing we wake up and fall asleep to. I really love it, but want the excitement to be there when we get married. Lots of people probably think it's stupid, but I'm sure most people understand.

Here's where the house on wheels comes in...

Nick and I are going to purchase Gram's house from her when Nick's parent's house is built. Since they are just starting their house, it will be a while until it is finished. Nick and I have tossed around the idea of buying a travel trailer so I can live away from him and so that we have a place to stay when we get married if the house is not finished. Yes, I'm already looking for some denim overalls and white wife-beaters to complete my new wardrobe. Personally, I think it's a great idea. It's a win-win situation. We'll have a "real" house sooner or later plus a house on wheels! We've already talked about bringing it to Shiner for the wedding so people can crash there and a few other adventures we'd like to go on.

Nick has been looking for a trailer everyday for the past few weeks. We've found several that we like. Today we are going to Houston to check a few of them out. If we come home with one tonight, be looking for pictures soon! :)

Boot Camp

Friday I went to stay with Jamie in Houston because Nick was at Brenham for Area LDE's. (Ag stuff) Jamie, Robert, his boys, and I met up with Dulle, James (Dulle's husband), Emma (Dulle's new baby), Karena, and a few other girls at Lupe Tortilla. Saturday morning we woke up at 7:30am to go to "Boot Camp." It's a fitness program Jamie has been doing for a while. For some reason I agreed to go with her and do it. What in the heck was I thinking? First of all, we had to run 2 miles holding some weighted PVC pipe. When we made it back we had to do all kinds of other things....squat jumps, wall sits, regular squats, bicycle crunches, toe lifts, a race pulling a tire, and etc. It reminded me so much of Athletics in high school. It was HORRIBLE! Yesterday I was terribly sore...it hurt to sit on the toilet! Today I'm a little better, but still sore. I can't believe she pays good money to be tortured like that. I know that I would never have made it in "real" boot camp.

Bought it

Last night Nick and I went to Sugar Land to spend a little time together since we hardly ever get to anymore. Our first stop was IW Marks to check out rings for him. The first time we went there was last December. It was the first time that we had looked at engagement rings. The lady there was completely rude. Nick had lots of questions...simply because that's how he is. If he is going to spend a buttload of money on something, he's going to make sure he knows every detail. Let me just tell you, since all of the shopping he did, the boy knows diamonds better than me! We left the store and I figured Nick would probably never go ring shopping again. Somehow he managed to overcome that first experience and we went to Americus Diamond in Austin. I showed him several that I liked and one that I LOVED. After we got engaged, he told me that he went there several times and spent several hours there the day he bought the ring. He absolutely loved the customer service. Back to the story...I went to IW Marks on Monday to check out their rings. They had a great selection, but again the customer service stunk. That night I went home and sent the owner an email telling them that I was unsatisfied with their customer service, but would give them one more chance on Thursday, only because they were having a great sale. We went back on Thursday and the man was very helpful and nice. It was the same guy that helped me on Monday. Maybe he got the email. Nick found one that he liked, but we left so we could think about it for a while. Meanwhile, we went to Dillard's to pick out bedding and then we ate at The Cheesecake Factory. After we ate, I decided to go get the ring. I should be able to pick it up in two weeks! I was so excited about finding one and actually buying it, but also felt kinda weird. I just can't believe this is all happening!

Favors

At Shiner weddings, everything is different than the norm. We make pin on favors and people donate money for them. The bridesmaids and groomsman who are in the wedding together go and pin them on and take the donations. It usually turns into a big competition. Anyways, people usually do those ugly gold or silver cheap, crappy wedding rings tied with ribbon. (I'm sorry if any of you are reading this and have had those as favors or are having them in the future.) I just don't like them. It was hard to come up with something different and cute so I was going to X it off the list. We would just pass the boot or do "The Dollar Dance." Plus, that was going to be one less thing for us to do. We kinda tossed around a few ideas, but still couldn't find anything reasonable enough to make 1000 of them. Well, Mom came up with something that is very different and actually cute! Yesterday we decided to get on the ball and make them. Dad did the cutting. Nick did the bending. Mom did the squeezing and hammering. I did the tying. Jaace did a little bit of hammering and Jill did a little bit of tying. I did a lot of tying and hammering. So, now my back hurts from being bent over all day. We have 500 of them completely finished. I ran out of ribbon so I'm making a run to Hobby Lobby so we can finish them this week. We have a little more hammering to do and 500 more to tie. It really wasn't as bad as I expected...especially when everyone pitched in. A big thanks for all of ya'lls help!

P.S. The bridesmaid and groomsman that brings in the most money from the favor sales will get a prize! :)

My Hairstylist Rocks!

This is one CrAzY girl! Dawn and Jamie were good friends back in high school. I remember them hanging out a lot when they were younger, but I never got to be with them....probably because I was the pesky little sister. They were always busy riding around and chasing those Machacek boys. Jamie was actually maid of honor in Dawn's wedding 9 years ago. They have remained very close friends and have started to let me hang around them. :) Our family just adores Dawn and Scotty and their kiddos. We never go without a laugh when she is around. She has a contagious laugh...you can't help but laugh when she does. Two years ago, Jamie, Dawn, Alicea, Debbie, Shelley, and I all went to New York together. Let me just say that New York will never be the same since we've been there! The picture above is of us at the Today Show. She was actually the one that got me to notice Nick and the Bocktoberfest. She made a comment that if she was 10 years younger, she would have gone after him! I've always thought that Dawn and Scotty have a great marriage, so she must know how to pick 'em. I decided to introduce myself to him, and now we're getting married!!! What a matchmaker! Anyways, Dawn is doing my hair for the wedding. She and Scotty took the day off last Friday so that she could do my hair for my bridal portraits and of course, to party with us that evening. I must say that I have the BEST hairstylist around! I don't know if anyone else would be so willing as Dawn!

Oh yeah, Dawn and Scotty are our grand march leaders, too! I'm sure t will be a "grand" one!

A Story for Our Grandkids...

Last night I went to a Premier Jewelry show at my friend, Lindsey's house. Nick had his LDE contest yesterday and his teams didn't do as well as he hoped. We decided that we would meet up at Los Cucos after the jewelry show. Nick went with the other two Ag teachers, Jason and GW, to have a couple of drinks. We met, ate, and started to head home. Down the middle of Wharton is a four lane highway. Somehow Nick took another road and ended up in front of me. He calls and says that he's going to beat me home. Like I'm not going to take on a challenge! I ended up in front of him because he got stuck behind some slow cars. He starts speeding up to me, so naturally, I sped up too. We're on the phone with each other at the same time. We're not going REAL fast, just about 55 and gaining speed. I kept saying, "Please no cops, please no cops!" Nick says, "OH S#&%!" I hung up. The cop proceeds to pull out behind Nick. Then I tried calling him back to tell him to eat a peppermint in case you could smell beer. Nick pulls over and the cop passes him and comes to get me! I really could only laugh because who does this with their fiance? Come on, I'm 25 and you'd think that I'd know better. We were only about a mile from the house too. So the cop comes and says he clocked me going 66 in a 45! WHOA! He asked if I had a medical emergency or if I had something in the oven I needed to get out. No sir. Then he asked if I knew the person behind me. No sir. You see, the lanes merge to one lane where we were. I told him that the person behind me started to scare me because he was gaining speed and I knew the lanes turned into one and I didn't know what to do so I sped up. "Well, ma'am, do you know that your inspection sticker is out?" Oh crap! This is going to be a hellacious ticket! I told him no, but I really did know it was. It's only out by a couple of days. While he goes to his car, I'm texting Nick about the sticker, etc. He comes back and says, "I should give you a ticket, but I'm just going to give you a warning." Whew! Thank you, Jesus.

Anyways, I was glad that I got stopped and not Nick especially since he had a few beers. I'm sure the cop wouldn't have thought Nick was as cute as me either!

We learned our lesson. Unfortunately, we really do have to grow up sometimes. I still think it's kinda funny. :)

Oh sweet Alice and Eric!

Email from Alice:

Hey Jenny!

So I knew you'd see the blog pictures before sending you this email :)haha, you're so fast! Thanks for leaving such sweeeeeet comments! Yes,like Jamie said, you are such a beautiful bride so you made it easy for us!! I really LOVE LOVE LOVE the bridal pictures as well! They are just fabulous. You were shining that day. The place was gorgeous, timing was perfect, PLUS we got a beautiful bride. Can't beat that! :D Your proof pictures will be up soon.

Alice


Eric's blog entry:

We are so glad that our lovely bride, Jenny, decided to go to Buda for her bridal session because her secret getaway place is just absolutely gorgeous! Jenny was so sweet and so much fun to work with; we just can't wait to be at her wedding! The weather was perfect on Friday and the timing was perfect (thanks to Austin's horrible traffic :P), which helped us capture some truly amazing shots. Alice and I REALLY had a hard time narrowing down our favorites to post on the blog...

LOOK AT ME!!

Here's the link to a few of my bridal portraits.

http://blog.serendipity-photography.com/

Pics coming soon!

This is an email from Alice, our photographer.

Hey Jenny!
We had sooo much fun shooting your bridal! You looked absolutely beautiful that day. The session was very different; Eric and I just couldn't stop talking about it afterwards! The pictures came out awesome and we really can't wait to show everyone! I am working on the blog pictures "as we speak." We are going to post them either tonight or tomorrow morning so please check back!
Talk to you soon!
Alice

She and her husband, Eric, took my bridal portraits Friday at 5:30pm. I was so excited to finally meet Alice and Eric. I've been emailing and on the phone with Alice a lot! She was probably sick of hearing from me! :) They have great ideas and are an awesome team. I'd love it if Nick and I could be photographers together! Yeah, that won't happen in this lifetime! Anyways, I absolutely HATE being in the picture, I love taking the pictures, so I was a little nervous about doing bridals. It was SOOOO MUCH FUN! I felt like a movie star. People were driving by and honking. Girls would wave and smile. Then there was Alice and Eric with huge cameras in hand, snapping away! I think that they probably got tons of great photos. It's going to be so hard to pick! So, some of the pics should be posted on their blog shortly.

Here's the address so you can see me!

http://blog.serendipity-photography.com/

Lots of FuN!

This past weekend was a blast! Friday I took the day off so I headed to Shiner on Thursday. Thursday I went to Jaace's football game and then to a rosary for Dawn's grandpa (worst part of the weekend, obviously.) For those of you who do not know Dawn Raab, she is one of my bridesmaids and best friends. We went to Shiner Elementary and High School together...all 13 years! We have lots of GREAT memories together and some not so great ones. (Don't we all!) We've sat on rooftops together, made prank calls, got pulled over by cops for parking at the red lot, roomed together at UCA camp 4 years in a row, and the list goes on. Unfortunately, we had to go our seperate ways and don't get to be around each other as much as we'd like. Ok, back to the weekend...Friday I chilled at my parents house before I had to leave to get my bridals done (another post). Got to Buda/Austin for the pics, got ready, started getting pics taken at 5:30-7:15ish. Jamie, Robert, Jill, Dawn Machacek, Scotty, and I headed to our hotel in Austin. We got ready and then went out on 6th street. Saturday we laid around til noon and then went shopping. My shower was from 4-6pm. It seemed like the day drug by. Finally it was time to go to the shower! It was great to see all of my old teaching buddies. I got lots of great gifts for our future bar in our future house! I'll post pictures from the shower tomorrow.