Little life moments and other CRAZY happenings.

Where's Waldo...err i mean Brittany?

2009-04-15T17:41:00.000-07:00

For the longest time coming I knew 2009 was going to be a CRAZY, hectic, eventful, joyous, jam pack, family packed year but so far this year has been all that and much much and I mean MUCH more.

You see I always knew I would see so much extended family in July but our family reunion came about 6 months earlier than expected. This wasn’t the joyous happy event of my wedding but the death of my lovely, loving, caring grandma. January 24 I got a phone call that sticks a knife right in your heart and twists. It HURT and well you know what it STILL hurts today. Knowing that I will be honoring her at my wedding as opposed to having her sitting there celebrating along side of us HURTs. I guess I should give a little background at how excited my grandma was by the fact that I was marrying Barry. She adored Barry. She loved his smile, his warm and caring nature but more than anything she loved how happy he made me. It wasn’t uncommon for my grandma to call me up and ask how Barry was doing before she asked how I was. She was so excited for him to be joining our family in fact she was already packing for the few days she was going to spend down at the beach for our wedding. A few days before my grandma died the dress she was going to wear to the wedding came in the mail and it is bitter sweet to know that although not for my wedding my grandma did get to wear her party dress.

10 short days after my grandma died my sudo grandma also died. This grandma isn’t my grandma via my mom or dad but via my uncle. We are a very close knit family and always celebrate holidays and birthdays among many families. This death was sad but wasn’t nearly as hurtful as my other grandma. It wasn’t the fact that she was a sudo grandma it was the fact that she was 94 years old and had lived a long, healthy and fabulous life. It was her time but none the less having two lovely women taken from a family in such a short period of time is never easy.

I did turn 25 in March which was OK. Barry was so great but I was just sad. My brother said I was having a quarter life crises but I think I was just not in celebration mood.

A couple weeks after my lovely 25th birthday my brother was laid off (we worked at the same company) and I was moved to part time and took a LARGE pay cut. And about 2 weeks after that I gave my two weeks notice and got another part time job. My new part time job is not glamorous but I am HAPPY. Most people know I am a very ethical and just person and when I feel things aren’t “kosher” I am usually the first to speak up and let my feelings be known. I am also in a great place where I have a loving fiancée, family and friends who support & love me. I know my new part time job isn’t something for the future but it is survival. I needed to leave where I was for my heath and sanity and am pleased to admit that today (TAX DAY) is my freedom day.

So enough with the doom and gloom lets talk about some happy stuff. Well we had Jen’s Bachelorette party, I promise to post pictures soon but I am confident to say that a good time was had by all. This weekend Jen is traveling home to SD for a bridal shower, our lovely BM dresses came in and look way AWESOME, and in 45 day Jen and Matt will be tying the knot and will officially be Mr. and Mrs. Matthew Elias.

Barry and I are just 88 days away until we are hitched which is kinda crazy. I have put off some of the important things like invites until the last minute but you know what as we near the 2 year mark of our engagement I just want to be married. Everything will come together and everyone who is invited knows about it so worse comes to worse we just call/email/text everyone a “formal invitation.” Just kidding but you get my point. I am excited to have all our family and friends in one place to share in our love together. It is going to be a BLAST.

I think that’s all. You are officially caught up on my life. Hopefully there wont be such a long intermission until I post again.

Xoxo
britt

Double Digits...

2009-02-19T11:58:00.001-08:00

99 days...until Matt and Jen say I do!!! WE all can't wait.

xoxo
britt

Hope over Fear

2009-01-20T13:10:00.000-08:00

This is #100 post for us and I could not think of a better way to celebrate #100.

Today is a magnificent day.

Today we have President Obama. He has told us to be hopeful, rather than fearful. This is what we have been craving; we are tired of living life in fear.

President Obama highlighted many important issues in his speech today: it is not about big government vs. small government, it is about what works and then improving what works, to help one's neighbor, to have confidence in the American dream.

President Obama has given us a lot to be proud of - I am incredibly proud that he had a dinner last night honoring Senator John McCain. What a truly magnificent gesture.

President Obama has also given millions of us something else to be proud of, he has shown us what a loving, respectful marriage can look like.

I am excited that we have a first-couple who deeply love and respect each other, they are truly equals.

I admire Laura Bush for her grace and compassion, but she was never a strong force, not that there was anything wrong with that. Hillary Clinton is President's Clinton intellectual equal, but they (obviously) displayed contrasting messages about their love. Barbara Bush was not an intellectual force, perhaps behind the scenes, but not openly. And Nancy Reagan... We have had strong first ladies, but this is the first time we have had an openly strong and successful, as well as loving first lady.

I sincerely admire Abigail Adams and Eleanor Roosevelt; they accomplished great things, but only as much as society would let them. They were not considered their husband's equals, even though they were probably just as intellectual.

First Lady Michelle and President Obama convey their deep love and respect for each other. The way they smile at each other, hold hands, and even talk to each other, we can see their admiration for each other. Whenever I see Michelle grab Barack's hand, I find myself wanting to seek out Matt.

First Lady Michelle is a great role model - she is smart, attended Harvard Law, had a successful career and yet has balanced family life. It is hard for women to balance careers as well as having a family and Mrs. Obama has shown us that it can be accomplished.

Marriage is often disrespected as divorce is easily obtainable. Republican or Democrat, we can all agree, the Obama's have shown us a marriage we can all hope for.

And their daughters are the cutest things. I enjoy how spunky they are.

As my wedding day approaches, I hope that my marriage will resemble theirs after 16 years. "All you need is love," which is perhaps true, but to maintain a strong, successful marriage, I believe you also need more qualities like respect, admiration, humility, and many more.

I look forward to learning from the Obamas as I have with my own parents about marriage.

- Jen

My Two Least Favorite Words

2009-01-16T10:36:00.000-08:00

Hiring Freeze.

I hate that phrase. I do not like to use the word hate, but I genuinely do not like to hear “hiring freeze.”

There are good days and bad days. Most bad days are when we hear “hiring freeze” from a law firm or county. We should not be surprised anymore, but when we have hope that someone is hiring, and then hear those words, it is frustrating.

We were hoping for something to work out in Pima County, but no dice. Pima County is also in a “hiring freeze.” Thus, we have resorted to applying to places like Yuma, Parker, Globe, etc. These are not places we want to live; we just want a job.

When we do have a job, I can not wait to move on with wedding plans. We have put on hold many things we did not expect: wedding bands, honeymoon, dance lessons, personal trainer, etc. Some are easier to give up on than others, the obvious ones. I have hope though; hope that things will turn around soon.

We are optimistic about our situation. My mom teases me that Matt and I are "practicing" for retired life. If we can make it through studying for the bar together, taking the bar together, waiting for results together, facing unemployment together - and not to mention all the other stuff like 3 years living 200 miles apart, going to two different law schools, so forth - I think we are ready for marriage and have no doubts.

Another thing I despise, the neighbor’s barking dogs. I swear the two houses behind us, their dogs have barking competitions to see who can be the most annoying. I love dogs with the best of them, and I understand their barking is “talking,” but enough already! I can not stand barking, yelping dogs. Three words I do like: barking dog ordinances.

Sorry for the doom and gloom post. I had to vent. I promise the next post will be fun and light-hearted.

Tomorrow I plan to start working on wreath number two so I can have it finished before my dad gets here. I think I have had enough of a break from the first one. :-)

- Jen

P.S. This is post number 99 for us. I feel pressure that we have to make #100 a good one!

Hello Again.

2009-01-14T14:11:00.001-08:00

I have not blogged for awhile. I guess I have not felt inspired to blog about anything. I feel like I do not have anything exciting to say about my wedding or current job search. And I feel worthless if all I do is wedding stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited about all the upcoming weddings, but as the quote goes, “everything in moderation.” And it does not help that I have poisoned my computer by uninstalling something integral. Ops.

Why I am blogging… I have never liked the idea of New Year’s Resolutions. The excitement of a new year always dissipates quickly, as it already has for this new year. I am not making resolutions, but rather I feel inspired to be a better person, especially since 2009 is the year of big changes and big weddings!

My challenge to myself is to be healthier: mind, body and spirit.

1. Mind

I am going to challenge myself to read more, to fall in love with reading again. Law school and the bar effectively ruined my drive to read, but I did enjoy the Twilight series this Christmas break! I am also going to be more professional - I am going to respond to all e-mails, text messages, and phone calls promptly. Ignoring messages until later or procrastinating phone calls is a bad habit I am going to break.

2. Body

For me, this means trying new things and eating better. I am going to try new things at the gym, new classes and machines. But I am also going to bike more (I love my new bike I got for Christmas), play tennis with Matt, hike the other side of Camelback Mountain, and golf more. As for eating, I will eat more fruits and veggies. I am also setting a goal of not eating after 7:00 P.M., the recommended time by nutritionists. Of course there will be exceptions for special occasions.

Also with the weddings coming up, time to buff up. I want to be healthy just to be healthy, but with all the weddings in 2009, it gives me extra motivation. Matt and I started the 100 pushup challenge last week so we are on week 2. It is interesting thus far. I have been able to do all the pushups and it is getting easier, kind of. I will let you know if I can do a 100 at the end of week 6…

3. Spirit

I am going to keep a healthy spirit by continuing to go to church every weekend. Going to church can be difficult at times and mass is often the most rewarding when it is the hardest to get to. If we are going to go out on Saturday night, we will just prioritize and go to Saturday Mass at 4:00.

I am also going to be nicer; being nice is never overrated and I find myself quickly to criticize or get down on people. I am going to aim to see the bright side of things and to be more compassionate. I just feel better when I am happier.

Happy 2009! I know I am excited for this year!

- Jen

Playing Dress Up

2009-01-09T07:12:00.000-08:00

OMG!!!!! Guess what came in today? Yes that’s right my DRESS. I got all kind of panicky; what if I didn’t like it? What if it didn’t fit? What if? What if? What if? Telling myself to breathe was easier said than done. This was my largest wedding purchase to date and the most expensive piece of clothing I have ever purchased and owned so it had to be perfect. Within seconds of seeing her in the bag I knew she was still the one, and that I loved her more today than I did the first day we met. Come to think about it these are the emotions I hope Barry has when he sees me wearing her for the first time in 185 days – not that I am counting. Now a recap on the attire front: Dress: Check, Shoes (yes TWO pairs): Check, Veil: Check. That means I still need undergarments, jewelry, and maybe another hair accessory for when the veil comes off. Overall I am super excited, getting the dress in makes it all more real (as if it wasn’t real before) and it has renewed my sense of wanting to get more things done and finalized.

xoxo
britt

Dress Registry? Who knew.

2009-01-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

I came across THIS site earlier today and thought it was so funny. I spent a few minutes checking out some of the events and criticizing (oh wait I mean looking at) some of the dresses that have been “registered” for these events. Some dresses are beautiful like this one and appropriate for the event. Other dresses made me LAUGH. I couldn’t believe someone will be wearing some of the dresses. I also began to look at the level of formality each woman would be wearing (this is something I stress out about – being under or over dressed). Take these for example:

(Classic and Elegant)

(Short and Sassy)

both are lovely and beautiful but should they really be at the same event? For me if I registered my dress I would be constantly comparing it to everyone else’s dress before I even got to the party and had no other option but to rock it.

Maybe I could start a “party” for my wedding guests and we can all sit at home gawking at what each other would be wearing long before the big day. We could also get reacquainted with each other ‘cuz lord knows we all have a Dear Aunt whom we haven’t seen in years, at least than we could spot her based on the lovely retired Floridian beach wear she will be sporting, which she so kindly took the time to register, and be sure to thank her for the lovely Mickey keep sake she sent.

Hopefully the registering your dress site wont become an over night hit, giving us ladies one more reason to stress about what to wear to an important event, because we all know guys could care less if some other dude has on the same black tux.

xoxo
britt

10, 9, 8, 7....

2008-12-30T18:24:00.000-08:00

What a crazy end to the month and year. Christmas in my house is always CrAzY but also always a great time. It was so nice to see my family and just get some R & R, haha yeah right there is no R & R allowed. Our California vacay was jammed packed with holiday parties, wedding tasks, and spending a little time with family. Overall the trip was successful. Not only did we get so many great gifts (a Wii, a set of our china, and tons of other great things) but we made tons of wedding decisions. The cake was decided – future post to come, I got my veil ordered – also more to come, and my mom got so many possible dresses to wear to the wedding. We are excited to be back home and usher in 2009 in Arizona but are already looking forward to our next trip to California (cuz the next scheduled one isn’t until the wedding). Hope everyone had a great Holiday season and has a safe New Years. Get ready for wedding over load in 2009.

xoxo
britt

I Went & Did it!

2008-12-19T14:11:00.001-08:00

We have all read/heard about the post wedding chop (well most brides and brides to be have) well I went and chopped mine off last night. Was I thinking about the wedding when I did it? Yeah but not really or I would not have done it. You see I feel so much better about myself when I have a kickass hair cut and well its just hair just like a wedding is just one day so why torture myself growing out my hair when all I care about at the end of the wedding day is being married to Barry. I promise he won’t remember in 25 years if my hair was nearing the top of my booty or if it was at my collar bone. Stay tuned I will post a picture later once the camera is done charging.

xoxo
britt

Why Blog?

2008-12-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

Why not? Would be the simple answer but I recently started thinking about why I wanted to start blogging.

For me I like to talk and I figure a blog would be a way for me to talk about things and pretend like others are paying attention to me and what I have to say. I think I also started to blog because I realized that my life was moving past me so quickly and I love to look back and go remember September 19, 2003? You see I have kept all my college day planners that were my life line for 4 years. I wrote down everything in those things – first kisses, first date dashes, first time meeting his mom & sister, a lot of firsts went into those. Now that I am working I don’t really have a need for a paper day planner since all important deadline go into my work calendar and I have pop up reminders to keep me on track so no new first go into it (unless you count the first time I did something at work). So for me blogging is a way to keep track of all the fun things, firsts or not. I am also only planning one wedding (maybe a vow renewal in a few decades or a future kids wedding) but only one wedding of my own. I want to be able to look back at this time and laugh at myself but also remember how awesome this experience has been.

I also started this blog to keep everyone up to date about things I am thinking about, doing, and just giving them a glimpse into my life at the present moment. Last but not least I love public forums – I wish more of our readers would comment – and I love how Jen and I can share such a small space but have such differing views on a variety of topics yet still respect each other at the end of the day. So yeah I think for me blogging has been a good option for me. (Oh yeah and if you do read our blog – and we know you do – leave us a comment, or two.)

xoxo
britt

Another reason why i love him...

2008-12-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

I just got a text from my loving future hubbs that says "you are my hero and a genius i love you" What a great little message to get in the middle of a long work day!! I love him too.

xoxox
britt

Parental Control

2008-12-17T20:01:00.001-08:00

Let me preface everything I am about to say with I love my future in-laws and am extremely lucky that all four are sane, loving, and caring. Today I got an email in my inbox and the title was Getting Along with Your Future In-Laws. Now this email didn’t look like spam so I opened it up and I guess it isn’t spam but it is from some weird photographers who bought my email address along with all my other personal info from the bridal show I attended, but that is for another day another post.

This article talks all about how in-laws today are different than in-laws of the past. In the past most Americans married the girl or boy next door, who had a similar upbringing, religious beliefs, etc. That made it easier for the bride and groom to understand how each others' parents behaved, and how they are expected to behave with them (e.g., calling them Mr. or Mrs. Whatever versus calling them by their first names). This never occurred to me that I might be viewed as disrespectful because I have always called my future in-laws by their first names. I was just doing what I knew was right and seeing that my parents, grandparents, aunts and uncle have no issues being called by their first names I just made the assumption that it was ok for me to call all of Barry’s relatives (except his grandparents) by their first name as well.

The article also goes on and states you’re not just marrying a person, but their family as well! Plus, since his/her parents are the ones who raised your spouse to be, you can learn a lot about what to expect from your spouse in your marriage, in terms of behavior, personality, etc. This can not be truer. I am lucky that I am getting another KICK ASS family. Barry’s cousins are awesome, his aunts and uncles are great, his parents have been so loving and welcoming, and I can only wish that Barry and I have a successful marriage like his grandparents. I am also confident that his parents have raised a man who is caring, compassionate, driven, meticulous, fun, hard working, and spontaneous, the list can go on and on and for that I will be forever grateful.

So this article opened my eyes just a little more that I need to realize that my norms are not always Barry’s norms and more than likely that means they aren’t his parents or family’s norms as well. And at the end of the day we (Barry and I) are truly lucky to be gaining families that love and care for both of us and will be there to help foster our relationship.

xoxo
britt

No Bride Wars Here

2008-12-15T07:56:00.000-08:00

I can’t wait until January 9, 2009. I know it might seem to be a random date but not only is it officially wedding year but Kate Hudson’s and Anne Hathaway’s new movie Bride Wars comes out. I hadn’t heard about this movie until late last week when one of my coworkers told me about it. She said this movie is so Jen and me (well minus the planning of a couple of weddings on the same day part – so I guess in all reality it isn’t us at all). But nonetheless I so want to see this movie. So far Jen and I haven’t had any issues having our weddings so close together (just about 45 days apart) but I think we are both so excited for the other one and planning such different celebrations that we haven’t had to say “but I am doing that.”

I do remember getting advice from someone that I should not go wedding dress shopping with Jen because “what if we fell in love with the same dress?” Well we went shopping together on multiple occasions and I don’t think we even once tried on the same dress so there was not even the chance that we would want the same dress. So I think this movie will be a good laugh and be a look into what our planning process could have been. But at the end of the day I am so grateful that Jen has been a wonderful, calming, voice of reason during this entire wedding planning process. Oh and a friendly reminder: Jen and Matt only have 166 days until I Do!!!

xoxox
britt

My something Pink...

2008-12-11T14:52:00.000-08:00

Well I have told you all about my fabulous Jimmy’s for the wedding but who am I kidding there is no way I will be able to wear those all night and party as hard as I plan on doing. Let’s get real. So my next idea was some flip flops. Being that I live in my flip flops almost year round (yes it is a great perk of living in sunny Arizona) I figured this was a great choice. So I looked around for some cute little flip flops. I found some great options. I could do white and be all bridal or I could have my something pink. *Quick side note: Barry’s only two requests for the wedding was that there be an open bar – Check; and that there be no pink – umm no check here.* I was set on having something pink even if no one else would really notice. I would be fine with either these white rainbow’s

or I could go with my something pink.

But when I was out the day after Thanksgiving (yes I know you are supposed to be buying gifts for others but I couldn’t help but look for myself) I found the most perfect pink shoe from Old Navy and they were only $10. How cute is this little ballet flat.

Love it but more importantly I love this pink way more than the rainbow pink. So these will be my reception shoes or shoes for after Jimmy starts to wreak havoc on my feet.

xoxo
britt

What’s in a Name?

2008-12-10T16:57:00.001-08:00

We won’t be numbering our tables. Yes I know, I know it would be so much easier to just number the tables and hope that no one feels shafted for being sat at table 15 when they thought they should be at table 3. So once we were set on not numbering our tables we started to think about fun alternatives. We could do famous couples or better yet couples that we admire (starting with our family of course). After writing down all the couples we wanted to include we realized we would need far more tables or we would be leaving someone out. So we scratched that idea and moved on. We could do cities we have been to or even just cities we would like to go to. But this idea wasn’t all that fun in my book. I could easily name 50+ cities we have been to together or places we want to go so this one was scratched for being a little too impersonal. My next idea was our favorite anything (TV, food, candy, etc.) but sitting my grandparents at a table named WWF (world wrestling federation) or my anti baby friends at Jon & Kate plus 8 just didn’t feel right on so many levels. So I know we have so many University of Arizona tributes going on in our wedding we wondered if naming our tables places in the Old Pueblo would be a little over the top. But after realizing that our little tributes to a place where we met and fell in love would not be taking away from our classic elegant wedding we were set. Our tables will be named after places in and around the University. Things like Old Main (where Barry snapped many pictures of Brittany and Jen swimming in the fountain), University House on 8^th St. (Brittany and Jen’s college apartment complex and where Brittany and Barry first officially met) and Wilber & Wilma (the Husband and Wife mascot team for the University – who by the way were married at half time of a football game, how cool is that?). This is just a little start on the names and fun facts we plan to add at the tables. We hope it will encourage our guest to talk, laugh and maybe even walk around looking at the other table names met a new friend or just learn something new about us. Now I just need to start designing them, and I am stuck on if I want to include pictures that match the name.

xoxo
britt

Pillow Me This, Pillow Me That

2008-12-08T17:10:00.000-08:00

We have the rings, we have the ring bearer but do we want a ring pillow? So I turned to the internet in search of a ring pillow that called my name. After thinking about ring pillows I have decided against it. No offense to anyone who uses one but I just don't see our jersey clad ring bearer walking down the aisle with a little pillows in his hands.

Would a lovely pillow with a large orange flower suit us? (think orange flower)

What about a pillow with a gray ribbon? (gray ribbon, although the orange could work)

Oh what about the ever popular Palmoas Nest?

Or what about a pillow with the Arizona A on it? (imagine it with out that other schools logo)

For us none these hit it out of the park. Not to mention the little voice in my head asking, “what would I do with it after the wedding?” So I started to think about toys, yes toys. Something our ring bearer would like to keep and maybe even use long after the wedding. What about an actual bear? Or better yet one dressed in Arizona gear.

(maybe a bear dressed in a letterman's jacket)

But that too didn’t seem right but than it hit me like a ton of bricks. A miniature basketball. Yes I said miniature basketball. How perfect? A jersey clad ring bearer carrying a basketball with our rings securely tied by a ribbon (a ribbon that is easily removed right after the ceremony).

(Remove all Standford images and Replace with Arizona goodness)

So now all that is left in order to officially check “Buy ring pillow (or in our case – ring basketball)” off the to do list is to make a trip to the University bookstore during one of our visit and make the purchase.

xoxo
britt

Viva Las Vegas!!

2008-12-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to my Cats who beat up on the ScumDevils this past Saturday. Can't wait for December 20 when we head to Vegas.

Bear Down!!!

xoox
britt

Can I Have Your Cake & Eat it Too?

2008-12-05T21:14:00.000-08:00

So far during our engagement there are only a few things that have remained constant. One being my want and desire to marry Barry, one being our want for a summer wedding and the last my want for our cake design. When we first got engaged I found the most perfect cake and immediately copied the picture to my desk top, and didn’t think I would need to look for another cake. Considering I don’t even like cake, and in all the weddings I have been too have NEVER, I repeat NEVER had a piece of wedding cake I knew it was and still isn’t at the top of my priority list. So since it isn’t at the top of my priority list I was surprised to hear that cake is one of the things that my mom is really excited about. Based on talking with her I know she wants a big beautiful cake. Maybe not as big has the Donald’s cake (picture to the right) but I think she wants the cake to be a focal point. So since we get a cake with whatever package we go with at our location I started looking for different cake options. Round cakes, square cakes, hexagon cake, cake with flowers, cake with ribbon, cake with crystal bling who would have thought choosing cake could be so hard. After looking at so many beautiful cakes on various websites I keep going back to the original cake that I found over a year and a half ago. I think with a little tweaking this cake can be the elegant beautiful focal point that will make all involved very happy. So now that we have a design concept in mind finding the perfect baker should be a breeze, a breeze considering our location only have 3 preferred bakers and our package cake has to come from one of them. I guess considering all the bakers in the Southern California area our venue is doing us a service by narrowing our choices to three. Next up the search for the perfect cake topper and baker.

My Perfect Cake!!

xoxo
britt

Crazy Orange or Classic Black?

2008-12-04T17:43:00.000-08:00

The easiest group to outfit was my groom, his groomsmen, the bridesmen, and my father. Considering they are spread across the country I thought we were going to have to go through a big chain store to get them suited up but within 5 minutes of talking with Clint we knew exactly what they would be wearing and how to get him all their measurements.

I guess Clint deserves a little back story. Clint’s Formal Wear has been in business for a LONG LONG time and when you walk into his store in Buena Park you see all the celebs he has outfitted from former presidents to TV personalities pictured on the walls. Among all these famous people whom have turned to Clint in their formal wear times of need a few special people in my life have also looked to Clint to get their Tux and Suits just right. You see when my parent’s got married in 1981 they too went to visit Clint to outfit their wedding party. I knew we would be in great hands if our wedding party was in Clint’s hands.

After a quick look around the store we had a couple of options for the guys. Barry knew he wanted suits and that he would be buying his. So our options were the classic black, tan, or gray. I loved the gray. It reminded me of the movie The Wedding Date, don’t ask me why but I would have bet $50 that they wore gray suits. But since these are Barry’s guys and he didn’t get a say in my outfit or the bridesmaids for the big day we went with the classic black. Yes I know it could be worse and while we were in the store it almost was. Orange is one of our colors and at the start of the planning process it was THE color, and as planning has gone one it has become more of an accent color. So imagine my horror when in walked an orange tux and Barry looked GREAT in it. So after humoring me for a few pictures we were out of there. Classic black suit, white shirt, and gray tie, perfect. Done and done.

Yes ladies he is taken!!

xoxo
britt

Huppa, a Whata?

2008-12-02T17:57:00.000-08:00

For us the ceremony is important. Although we are letting our officiants (a rabbi and a reverend) have full control over our ceremony I have given great thought into what I wanted the ceremony site to look like and lately I have been obsessed with the huppa. We are getting married at the country club over looking a beautiful lake and golf course so I wanted our huppa and other decorations to enhance the already beautiful terrace and view. In the Jewish religion the couple is married under a huppa. Usually the huppa is held up by the parents of the bride and groom but for us (and our mixed ceremony) our huppa will be a free standing structure. I knew we needed a huppa large enough for Barry and I to stand under along with our rabbi and reverend, I knew we wanted it to be light and airy, and with a little bling to go along with it. So I looked around the internet for inspiration and found a couple huppas that provided inspiration.

White cover, hanging down flowers, bamboo poles, and large enough for us is what we wanted.

When I was home a few months ago I got some fake orchids to hang down, some crystal prisms and my parents even got the bamboo poles so I was just looking for the white shear cloth to drape over the top. Enter Cost Plus World Market for the beautiful cloth that will drape over our huppa. It is white with a little gray detailed border that I have decided to sparkle up by added rhinestones to the edges.

Yes, It is a bed cover but will be our huppa cover!

It is beautiful and perfect, what more could I ask for. I can’t wait because in less than 8 months it will be put to great use.

xoxo
britt

The Newest Member of my shoe family, Jimmy!!

2008-11-27T11:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!! Oh my goodness this year has flow by and before you know it we will be ushering in the New Year and be months away from finally tying the knot. But this thanksgiving I am grateful for so much. I have a wonderful fiancée, a loving family (who all think I am a good cook), great friends, and even a new friend name Jimmy. You see I met Jimmy yesterday while shopping. I know, I know most people don’t shop until the Friday after Thanksgiving but I love how dead malls and shopping places are on Wednesday.

Yesterday my parents and I met my brother at Arizona Mills for lunch and mainly to go check out the Kenneth Cole Outlet (my brother needed/wanted a pair of shoes that had been discontinued). Well I dragged my mom into the Off Sak 5^th Avenue store just to look, maybe even find a Bridal Shower dress, Rehearsal dinner dress, who knows anything. Well little did I know in the shoe area I would find my new best friend, Jimmy, Jimmy Choo. My mom has been great during the whole wedding planning process and one thing she asked for was that I wear orange shoes. Well orange shoes are way harder to find than I thought when I agreed to this great idea. I have spent countless hours searching the internet for orange shoes that are sexy, not that high, just the right orange, and don’t look like striper shoes. I had high expectations for my wedding day shoes as these would be the shoes that would carry me through the ceremony and the ones that would see me through as I walked hand in hand with my husband down the aisle as our family and friends looked on.

Well wouldn’t you know sitting on the discounted rack was Jimmy. Now this story is kind of like the story of the Goldilocks and the three bears. First my mom found one pair that was way to small, than one pair that was way to big. Getting a little disappointed I walked away sad that those damn near perfect shoes would not fit my too big or too small foot (depending on which sample I had on). Well I gave it one last go around to see if I had just missed seeing another pair. And there Jimmy sat beautiful as ever. I grabbed the box sat down and pulled them out and wouldn’t you have known they were BROKEN. My perfect sized shoe BROKEN. Good thing my mom is handy and without missing a beat goes “I can fix these.” So up to the register we went box in hand to see what the store could do in terms of letting us buy a pair of broken shoes. So we politely explained the situation to the woman ringing us up and than the manager and she said 30% off, hot damn, SOLD!!! So I got my perfect $1100 Jimmy Choo shoes for $185, I feel like I damn near robbed the store.

You may be wondering “wait 30% off $1100 is not $185” well let me explain. You see since Jimmy had already been on the discounted rack he was marked down to $345 than since all shoes on the discounted rack were 30% off I got that too thus making my Jimmy’s about 85% off. WOW I love me a great deal. Without future ado here’s Jimmy (please excuse my chubby little toes & my unpainted toe nails).

One Picture of Jimmy is never enough!!

xoxox
britt

Out Fitting the Kids

2008-11-25T09:32:00.001-08:00

No I am not saying we have kids yet but Barry and I are really lucky to have some seasoned vets walking down the aisle with us. You see our flower girl and ring bearer have been in numerous weddings and have walked down many more aisle than I or Barry, even though they are many years our juniors. So we have put much thought into what they should wear.

Would I want the flower girl to be a spitting image of myself? NO way. I totally think that is creepy to put a little girl in a replica wedding dress. Would she wear a little UA cheerleader outfit? Nope, my mother vetoed that (and looking back I am glad she did). But than one day it came to me – TULLE. I want our beautiful flower girl, who even walks on her tip toes all the time, to look like a little ballerina dressed in tulle. Well describing this image to a few people invoked this lovely image in most of their heads (above), which isn’t exactly the look I was going for. Now fast forward a few weeks when Jen and I were at a bridal store looking for bridesmaid dresses and we stumbled upon the most perfect little dress (to your right) that I know would look awesome on our lovely flower girl. Upon falling in love with the dress I proceeded to look at the price tag. And who would have guessed that it was so ridiculously priced that for a while I was content on not having it. So turning to the internet I researched online bridal shops and requested many quotes to see if I would be able to actually justify the buying of this dress. Well as luck would have it I did receive a quote that has put this dress within my reach and thus ending the search for the perfect flower girl dress.

Now the ring bearer was a lot easier to decide on what he would be wearing once I convinced one person that it is in fact cute and not all my lovely formal photos would have him sporting such an awesome accessory. For the most part our ring bearer with wear the same suit and tie as all the groomsmen, but has he walks down the aisle he will be sporting a lovely UA basketball jersey (don’t worry it matches the wedding color scheme) over his monkey suit. I do think that all our groomsmen will be a little envious of his AWESOME attire, I know the groom is.

So with that almost everyone’s outfit has been set in stone 100%. The only few people I still need to worry about getting outfitted are my 3 lovely ladies who are standing up at the front with me and also my wonderful and supportive mother who has helped keep me sane and grounded during this entire process.

xoxox
britt

Overdue? Really?

2008-11-21T11:12:00.000-08:00

With less than 8 months until the BIG day when we finally become husband and wife planning is finally in full swing. As every current and pass bride will tell you online wedding check lists are a great source of information and often a great tool to help keep you on track and ensure you don’t miss something “important.” (I say “important” because in all reality the only important thing is that you have two people who want to make a comment to each other, an officiant, and a witness. Everything else I consider icing on the cake or in this case butter cream icing on a wedding cake). So no matter how much help these tools provide, lately they have been a source of stress for me. You see when we started the planning process in June 2007 (wow that was long ago & to think of all the people who date and marry in a shorter time than our engagement blows my mind) we had plenty of time to hash everything out and the only thing on our “To-do List” was announce engagement, plan a budget, and decide what type of wedding you want. Well as of today I would say only 1 of those has been definitely done. Yep I am 100% positive most people know we are engaged and I also think that might be the only task on the list that was easy to accomplish and hasn’t changed a million and one times. In fact I think all our guest who got our STDs thought “well it is about time, haven’t they been engaged for over a year already?” But the other two plan a budget (we have a general idea of who is paying for what and what we would like to keep it under) & decide what type of wedding you want (this is constantly being altered a tweaked but for the most part is solid) are still fluid concepts in our wedding planning process & by fluid I mean they have the ability to change and be reevaluated as we learn and travel down this fun wedding planning path.

Well I am content with these being checked off the list as they have been hashed out enough and everyone who is important in the decision making process are all on the same page about them so they no longer show up on my list of things to do. But when I signed in a few days ago I noticed SIX count them SIX things that were OVERDUE. Wow who would have ever thought with all the time we have been engaged that we would procrastinate and have things that are overdue. Well I clicked to see what was overdue and they were some “important” tasks. These overdue tasks range from simple (start to think abut how you will wear your hair) to the “important” (Book a DJ & Florist). Good thing I still perspective still – if worst comes to worse I can do my own hair, I can play my Ipod, & I can go to the grocery store for flowers but no wonder women turn into BRIDEZILLAs. Without the help of my family, friends and my future hubbs I am sure I would not have perspective and would fall into the “wedding industry” trap and be all BRIDEZILLA up in here but so far I am cool and collected and after making my own to-do list without things being overdue I have learned I need to use the help of those who offer more and lucky for me I have many talented people who have offered to help. So my goal and on the top of my to-do list for the next 7+ months is to stay level headed and not become BRIDEZILLA.

xoxo

britt

Reasons why

2008-11-17T18:14:00.000-08:00

I stumbled upon this while reading other people's blogs today and it was too good to pass up. Hope you all enjoy it as much as I did.

10 reasonns Why Gay Marriage is Wrong According to those who votes Yes on 8 and 102...

1) Being gay is not natural.
*And real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, air conditioning, tattoos, piercing and silicon breasts.

2) Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay.
*In the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

3) Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior.
*People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legalstanding and can sign a marriage contract. Lamps are next.

4) Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn’t changed at all.
*Hence why women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

5) Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed;
*And we can't let the sanctity of Britney Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage be destroyed or J Lo’s...

6) Straight marriages are valid because they produce children.
*So therefore, gay couple,infertile couples, and old people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because our population isn’t out of control, our orphanages aren’t full yet, and the world needs more children.

7) Obviously gay parents will raise gay children.
*Since, of course, straight parents only raise straight children.

8) Gay marriage is not supported by religion.
*In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That’s why we have only one religion in America.

9) Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home.
*Which is exactly why we as a society expressly forbid single parents to raise children?

10) Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms.
*Just like we haven’t adapted to cars,the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

xoxo
britt

Just Sad

2008-11-14T09:21:00.001-08:00

Oh Catholic Church, how I love thee, but I do not always have to love what you do. This is very frustrating and sad. Religion is supposed to be about love and it is amazing how far away religions can get from that simple principle.

A priest in Greenville, S.C., says that Catholics who voted for Barack Obama should not receive Holy Communion because the president-elect supports abortion rights. "Voting for a pro-abortion politician when a plausible pro-life alternative exists constitutes material cooperation with intrinsic evil," the Rev. Jay Scott Newman writes in a letter to parishioners at St. Mary's Catholic Church.

http://news.aol.com/?feature=247897

Religion is supposed to be perfect, but the people in the religion are not always perfect. I am not defending this priest. What he did is terrible. He probably alienated a good portion, perhaps 50% of the members.

I will continue to go to Mass at a Catholic Church weekly. I view the organized religion as a family member - you may not always agree with that individual, but you continue to love them and forgive.

All churches should remain out of elections. The same goes for the Mormon Church (primarily) and other churches funding against gay marriage. The funding from churches could be better spent helping the homeless, poor, needy, sick - like Jesus did.

I am just tired of hearing about this every election. I think it is time to remove the non-profit status...

- Jen

A True Love Story

2008-11-12T09:41:00.000-08:00

We are constantly viewing and reading bad news that it is great to find a heartwarming story. I just had to share this video:

Love always prevails. :-)

- Jen

Crazies

2008-11-11T16:38:00.000-08:00

CNN article: Gun sales surge after Obama wins election

http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/11/11/obama.gun.sales/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

People are off their rockers. I am glad to know that we are in terrible economic times and people are running off to buy guns. Nice.

Scary!

According to FBI figures for the week of November 3 to 9, the bureau received more than 374,000 requests for background checks on gun purchasers -- a nearly 49 percent increase over the same period in 2007. Conatser said his store, Virginia Arms Company, has run out of some models -- such as the AR-15 rifle, the civilian version of the military's M-16 -- and is running low on others.

That is indeed what we need - more civilian versions of the military's M-16. I feel safer already.

Crazies.

- Jen

What to watch at the gym

2008-11-11T16:29:00.000-08:00

Election Day ended gloriously after an Election Day party full of friends and good food. I am excited and incredibly optimistic about America’s future – excited to close Guantanamo Bay, excited to end the archaic practice of water boarding, excited to end the arrogant practice extraordinary rendition, excited to see funding for stem cell research….

But the news is driving me crazy. At the gym, it was watching E about Hugh Hefner’s ex-girlfriends (no thanks), TNT’s Charmed, or CNN talk about Michelle Obama.

I would be thrilled if they talked about Michelle’s own accomplishments, but I am tired of hearing what type of First Lady Michelle is going to be. We all know she is going to be great, but I am sick of hearing that she is going to “strike a balance between Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush.”

What was wrong with Hillary Clinton? Hillary was just as accomplished at Bill Clinton. People were offended by their professional partnership, something I am very happy I share with Matt. As Hillary said (paraphrased) about being First Lady – I’m not going to just make cookies. I personally do not want a First Lady who “just makes cookies.” And Hillary is not given credit for how well she raised Chelsea in the White House, only now people praise the Clinton’s ability to raise an intelligent and driven daughter.

Michelle Obama is just as impressive as Barack Obama and she is accomplished in her own right. She should not give up her impressive qualities, as Hillary Clinton chose not to do. Hillary is the Eleanor Roosevelt of this decade and I am extremely proud of her work as First Lady. It is just a shame she could not continue that work as the first female President. Someday…

Not that I am not a fan of Laura Bush. I actually admire the First Lady. (I also think she is a closet Democrat as she was a Democrat before she married Bush.) I think she is a very elegant and intelligent First Lady; I just wished she would have done more. Her favorability rating actually increased when she spoke out against Burma and for putting opposition leader on house arrest. I enjoy this side of Laura Bush.

I am also tired of hearing Michelle Obama being compared to Jackie Kennedy. There is much more to Michelle than her clothes and sense of fashion (although I love her “style” and there is a website dedicated to it - http://www.mrs-o.org/). I believe Michelle does a great job balancing the frivolous stuff with the important stuff.

I read the advice that Jackie Kennedy gave to Hillary Clinton when she became First Lady was to not let stylists create a fashion for Hillary, but rather she develop her own fashion. Was this all that Jackie was concerned with? I know she probably espoused advice on how to raise children in the White House and other miscellaneous things, but I believe the First Lady should be more concerned with other things than what she looks like.

I am excited to have a couple (lawyers) who are intelligent, driven, and compassionate in the White House.

How sweet are they?

- Jen

Quote of the Day

2008-11-08T18:01:00.000-08:00

Jen shows Eric a picture of her wedding dress and this is Eric's comment "oh that's nice it doesn't have a huge tail you have to drag around all day." HAHA a tail I am 100% sure he was talking about a train on a wedding dress. Gotta love boys.

A dress tail...so LOVELY!

xoxo
britt

NEEDED: Bridesmaid Dresses

2008-11-08T16:46:00.000-08:00

Finding the perfect wedding dress was an experience. It was an experience that when I plunked down my 50% deposit on mine I vowed to never look at another wedding dress website again (no 2 dress bride here). But as wedding planning has progressed entering bridal salons and looking at bridal designers’ websites also enters the mix again. You see it is time to find the perfect bridesmaid dresses for the lovely women of our bridal party. So while we were in California over Halloween weekend I drug my two cousins to a bridal salon to checkout their bridesmaid dress selection. They tore through the racks and found about 10 dresses that they wanted to try on. As they came out and model each dress we were able to eliminate most of the dresses and than based on their favorites we left the bridal salon having found 1 dress that would be a great possibility.

Fast forward a week and this morning Jen and I went into one of the local bridal stores and we also pulled about 10 dresses from the racks (some for her wedding and some for my wedding). As we tried them on and tried to ward off the sale woman from coming in while we were still dressing we were able to find another for my wedding and 3 great possibilities for Jen’s wedding. Overall bridesmaid dress shopping has been a delight and I think within the next few weeks we will be making a major decision on which dresses we will wear for Jen’s wedding and by January we will have finalized the dresses for my wedding. Getting things done is really exciting especially when they are HUGE checks like bridesmaid dresses.

Winner Winner? No way!

xoxo
brit

Two Steps Forward, One step Back?

2008-11-05T12:26:00.000-08:00

I am sick to my stomach today. I am disappointed in all those Californians, Floridians, Arkansans, and Arizonans who voted in favor of further marginalizing a specific group of people. This appears to be the only LEGAL form of discrimination that is still allowed in a country that has come so far and has even elected our first minority president.

It is my understanding that the United States Constitution and State Constitutions are put in place to protect and give rights to individuals not to contract the rights of certain groups. It makes me sad to see so much hatred toward one group of people who are being targeted by many conservative religious groups whom believe their views and their teachings are good for all.

One of the main reasons the original settlers came here from Britain was the desire for religious freedom. They wanted a separation of church and state. Over the past few years we have seen a major blurring of that line. This needs to stop. We need to protect the rights of all people who want to live in a country without religious pressures being forced upon their government and rights as a citizen.

Proposition 102 passed in Arizona. This defined marriage between one man and one woman. From what I understand this was already the case here in Arizona so why spend so much energy and money spewing so much hate and change the constitution for something that was already law?

Proposition 8 in California also passed. Why? Seriously, it isn’t like the divorce rate has spiked in your state since same sex marriages started and your heterosexual marriage has been 100% unaffected by the unions of the 18,000+ marriages that loving couples have entered into since they have been allowed.

All the voters who voted for such discriminatory propositions’ (in the 4 states mentioned above) disappointment me greatly. I am also greatly disappointed in the Mormon Church and their parishioners. The made up at least 47% or 14.5 million dollars in support of these props. (Source) SICK absolutely SICK. Don’t talk about being a kind, caring, inclusive, and all welcoming religion and than support such hate.

I do hope one day I will be able to live in a country that does not treat one group differently based on race, sex, sexual orientation, or physical ability. Last night with the overwhelming election of OUR (even those who voted for someone else) new President we took two steps forward, but with the passing of such discriminatory propositions in four states me took one step back.

So today I am excited about what the next 4 years have in store for our country and I am also hoping that one day all couples will know what it feels like to be planning for a marriage to the one they love and intend to spend the rest of their life with.

xoxox
britt

Just a little funny

2008-11-05T07:55:00.001-08:00

For all those who are "Fiscal Conservatives"

xoxo
britt

We have an environment!

2008-11-03T16:43:00.000-08:00

We now have a livable outside area. It is complete with BBQ area, seating area, and plants. I don't know if Lilly likes the new backyard or if she is just adjusting to seeing other living things out there. So without making you wait any longer I give you photos...

Welcome (Ok it's just the gate but you get the idea)...

First glimpse...

Get a closer look...

A look from the back door...

A view of the area for the table (notice how well the ugly AC units are hidden)...

BBQ area right off the back door...

Lilly gave her stamp of approval only after barking at the plants...

So consider this an open invite to come and hang out in our new and improved living space.

xoxo
britt

Ballot Initiatives...

2008-11-03T12:28:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is a big day. I am excited to see what happens tomorrow, especially with ballot initiatives.

Abortion – South Dakota (once again) is trying to pass an abortion ban. I am so sick and tired of hearing about abortion. I firmly believe BOTH political parties are wrong about the issue. It is not about being pro-life or pro-choice. I asked fellow classmates in law school if they really think abortion will ever go away. If Roe v. Wade was overturned, it would go to the states, and some states would still allow it. Do “pro-lifers” (who also support the death penalty completely drive me crazy) really think they can completely eliminate it? NO.

Abortion has always and will always exist. Get over it.

How about we reduce the number of unintended pregnancies by providing easier access to birth control? Do you know how hard it is to get birth control pills and how expensive it is without insurance?? With taxes and bigger government (better health care), we can provide better access to birth control and thus reduce unintended pregnancies.

How about we reduce the number of sexual assaults in this country? Do you know there are statistics as high as 1 out of 4 females face an attempted or actual sexual assault? That is embarrassing. I am read that a state politician in New Hampshire focused on reducing the number of rapes in her state and it worked! Fancy that. Instead of arguing about whether abortions should be legal or not, why don’t we talk about why there are so many rapes in our country? It is time to move on.

What about reducing the infant mortality rate? Or what about the government providing for the children once they are born? As the saying goes for “pro-lifers,” life ends at birth for these babies… How about better education system, better access to child day care for low-income mothers who are scared?

Point being – so many other issues to talk about than just whether abortion should be legal. President Bush has had 8 years and nothing. What a waste of a vote that was based solely on the issue of abortion. South Dakota and the rest of the country needs to get over it.

And another “controversial issue”…

Gay Marriage – Arizona (once again) has a measure on the ballot to make gay marriage illegal. Who cares if Tom marries Joe? "Straight people" have done enough to screw up marriage. Why do people go out of their way to be so hateful? It is not our job to be judgmental, that is up to our Maker. Arizona voted this initiative down two years ago. What a waste of money to bring it up again. When we pulled out of the church parking lot yesterday, we were acousted with pro-life signs and gay marriage signs. I just want to go to church and be left alone with that stuff.

There are many bigger issues to worry about this election than gay marriage or abortion. Our economy is terrible, we are facing two to three wars (sometimes President Bush brings up the “war on terror”), health care is terrible in this country, people are losing jobs, gang-related crime is on the increase since 9/11 because the FBI has been focused on terrorism…

I am tired of people focusing on distracting issues. Lets talk about the real issues.

- Jen

Equality for ALL

2008-11-02T18:23:00.000-08:00

Copy this sentence into your blog if you're in a heterosexual marriage (soon enough), and you don't want it "protected" by people who think GLBT marriage hurts it somehow.

VoteNOon102

xoxo
britt

Toto!

2008-10-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

I was annoyed with my rat-looking Toto in a basket, but I just learned it is a purse!!! It has made Toto that much cooler. I am officially excited for Halloween now.

How cool is he?!

I'm off to see the Wizard...

2008-10-30T13:42:00.000-07:00

The wonderful Wizard of Oz...

I've never been thrilled about Halloween. I would prefer to take the kiddies (my nieces) trick-or-treating or hand out candy. Matt and I made a decision to go out this Halloween. We went to the costume shop to see if anything was reasonable. I've never done hoochy Halloween before, but there is a first for everything.

I've always wanted to be Rainbow Bright, but she was MIA at the costume store. But I found something that I am pretty happy about - Dorothy! I am taking a chance this year. How many years left in me that I can do this? When the kiddies come (my own kiddies) I can't be hoochy Dorothy anymore.

And Matt got an Uncle Sam costume that is pretty fun. He swears he is going to be Homer next year. I think it would be funny to be Marge (even though I am NOT a Simpsons fan).

Additionally, my niece Bailey is going to be Dorothy this Halloween. I wish we could get a picture taken together, but I do not want to expose sweet Bailey to my version of Dorothy.

Funny side-note. Her twin sister Britney (fellow blogger is Brittany and my niece is Britney - I always have to stop and think) is going to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Too funny. Who wants to be my Wicked Witch or Tin Man or Lion or Scarecrow? Anyone?

And here are the costumes:

Bailey will look sweet and innocent.

And her aunt will wear this costume... It actually doesn't look that hoochy on. I love my Toto in a basket, but he kind of looks like a rat. Only if Lilly was here this weekend. I am just kidding. But I do think she would make a great Toto. :-)

With that - I wish everyone a Happy (safe) Halloween!

(Yay for our wedding colors!)

- Jen

Smooth Sailing, Kinda

2008-10-30T11:00:00.000-07:00

This wedding process has been pretty smooth thus far, but for one minor bump (the stupid limo). But even that has worked out.

We have most of the wedding planned: the church, the priest, wedding website, the reception/cocktail, DJ, cake, flowers, wedding dress, limo, STDS sent, and now I am working on hair/makeup appointment. It is a Catholic ceremony so most of it is planned – we even have family friends who are going to play the organ and sing.

Left to do: bridesmaid dresses, minor details like hair, candy/desert bar, picture slideshow, and DIY (do-it-yourself) projects…

Oh goodness DIY… I like being creative. I like scrapbooking, but I do not think I am a DIY bride.

That is the reason for this post. I tried working on my wreaths yesterday. The plan is to have two pink wreaths on the church doors; one with a blue J and the other with a blue M.

I can say I REALLY love my blue letters that I painted yesterday – that part of the project went well. They are the correct blue and right size. Perfect for the pink wreaths.

I started hot gluing the tissue paper flowers on to the wreath and disaster happened. I burned my finger, flowers fell off, and it looks terrible thus far. And the hours worth of tissue flowers I made, only covers ¼ of the wreath. And the little guys (little tissue flowers) do not look correct on it, so those were ditched. Disaster. I wanted to throw it across the room. It is a good thing I have 7 months until the wedding… I just need a break from them.

When the suckers are done, how am I going to get them home? Probably ship it and tissue flowers will fall off again. In the end, probably cost the same to pay the florist to make something. Oh well. At least a lot of TLC will go into them. I am more excited to make the floating balls with flowers for the fountain. I will have to wait until my finger stops hurting.

I am just hoping for a job. Funny story.

I applied for a serving job yesterday. I was rejected, even though I had four years of experience serving, and I must say that I was a pretty darn good server. I was rejected because the manager said I was “too qualified” and that I should lie next time about graduating from law school because they want a 6 to 12 month commitment out of their employees, which I totally get, but the serving industry is notorious for people coming and going. She then told me that it takes about 4 months to make money off of a new server. Totally does not make sense. And I am not going to lie to people about my background. I did not go to school 7 years to lie about it. And I just passed the Character and Fitness portion of the bar.

Oh well. Still unemployed. Lame. And I am not going home for Halloween. Sad.

- Jen

We interrupt our regular scheduled blogging...

2008-10-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

...but Jen & Britt will be heading to t-town for homecoming. It is sure to be a blast as we make up for missed homecomings of years past. Hopefully we will have good new to report Sunday morning but if anything will we have tons of great memories to share (if we can remember them after a day & night of drinking.)

Go Cats!!!

xoxo
britt

I'm Voting for who?

2008-10-21T14:17:00.000-07:00

I will not be voting for Mrs. Palin. There I said it. But you see I have many reasons for not voting for her but i think the biggest one is that one of her speech writers is an ASU grad. You have to be kidding me. So to me a vote for Palin is like voting for ASU and in my books that is a no go. I also would love to add another ASU grad to the list of unemployed. Read the article here if you must.

xoxo
britt

Oh and get a grip people this blog entry was a joke (well at least the reason why I will not be voting for the McCain/Palin ticket aspect).

Shhhhh listen...

2008-10-18T12:09:00.001-07:00

That noise you hear is our backyard being transformed. We are so excited and within 10 days (October 28) we will have a backyard oasis. Oh and we are keeping the final design a secret from everyone…including all you out in blog land. I did want to share pictures of the ugly area that is getting an extreme backyard make over.

xoxo
britt

Who doesn't love a good tailgate?

2008-10-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

So I know I haven’t blogged to much about the wedding and the fun events we have planned around the wedding but I have started many projects that will be used throughout the weekend. So I am gonna let you all in on one of my favorite projects so far.

The Saturday night before the wedding we are having a welcome tailgate theme party. This party will let us showcase our love of the place we met and fell in love, University of Arizona. And it will also be a way for us to welcome our family and friends who are coming from all over the country to see us enter into a life long commitment to each other. So once we were set on the tailgate theme I started thinking about fun decorations that are easy to set up, easier to take down, and will liven up the backyard area where the party will take place.

I love team pennants and knew that I would be able to make mini team pennants that I could hang on ribbon and string all over the place. So with that idea in my head I headed out to my all time favorite scrapbook store and went in search for the best cardinal, navy, and white I could find. Within 10 minutes I had what I needed and headed home to start my project. Many cutting hours later (I actually did it over a couple weeks) I had cut 75 12x12 sheets of cardstock into 500+ mini pennants

All my supplies (cardstock already cut) & close up of the pennants.

Than it was time to start stringing all them. So I turned to my trusty permanent sticky tape and lined the top of each pennant with it. Pealing and sticking I finished 2 rolls of ribbon when I realized I would need tons more sticky tape and a few more rolls of ribbon. So for now I am at a stand still until I get to the store for more supplies but I wanted to share this fun project because I cannot wait to see them in action – in less than 9 months!!!

Finished pennants -- still a few more pennants to hang!

xoxo
britt

LOVE NKOTB

2008-10-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

I am not a music snob. I do not really like music. Never bought lots of CDs. I pretty much like everything. I like popular stuff, old stuff, 80’s music, and Michael Buble (do not care if he is cheesy). As I said, do not really care for music too much. I would rather listen to NPR in the morning or some news channel.

That being said – I reverted back to being an 8 year old screaming girl on Monday night. The New Kids on the Block concert was the best most fantastic music experience. Brittany, Barbie, and I went to the concert.

Our initial seats were pretty good – on the floor, 40 rows back. But there were a lot of screaming girls keeping me from Donnie. About halfway through the concert, a mini-stage popped up right next to our row. I shoved Barbie out towards it and YES! They ran out and performed on this stage right next to us!!!

That moment I knew that I officially luved NKOTB. Seeing them up close and personal was amazing. Barbie made eye contact with Joey, for real! And I touched Jon! I almost got close enough to clobber Donnie (a dream come true). It was amazing.

They played like 3 songs on the mini-stage and sang to us. I luv them. I do not care if we are big dorks. It was glorious.

Luv Donnie!

Joey totally made eye contact with Barbie!

Jordan has aged well!

Touched Jon!

Jon for Obama!!

- Jen

The Best Weekend Ever

2008-10-17T10:49:00.000-07:00

I have basically been hung-over from too much excitement and fun from last weekend.

To start off the weekend, last Friday Matt and I found out that we both passed the Arizona bar exam! Yes, both of us! The waiting process was very stressful and I could not be happier the way things are finally working out. All the hard work as well as thoughts and prayers from friends and family definitely paid off. And we even both passed with a pretty good margin.

Then Barbie and Troy fly in later that night, which we picked them up and came back to our house and had some celebratory drinks. I am so thankful for great friends: for driving us to the airport, sharing and buying some drinks at Merc, and even bringing over some champagne for us. It was a great night; thank you to all who helped celebrated!!

On Saturday night we ventured into the devil’s territory and went to the Big Bang, which is, as usually a great time. Barbie and Troy both enjoyed it so the night was definitely a success.

Saturday night was such a success, that it made Sunday morning very, very painful. We wanted to go hiking so we invited friends to come along. Neither Matt nor I had hiked Camelback Mountain so we had no clue what we were getting ourselves involved in.

Ryan, Chris, and Chris’ girlfriend Carrie met up with us. Oh my goodness. I wanted a nice walking trail full of glorious desert beauty. I got that, and then some. We did not go on the trail that Ryan had been on and liked, but a different one that Chris picked. I expected leisure walk in the mountains while taking fun pictures with friends. I did not get that. It started off bad, I fell behind from the beginning, and well, I finished last. I am not a cussing person, but I definitely uttered lots of cuss words. There was not much hiking Camelback Mountain, but rather we scaled it.

But we all made it to the top and the view is amazing. It was worth the hike (once I got over from Saturday night, which was still totally worth it). I just would do it again at a leisurely pace, taking more pictures, enjoying the views. I do not hike to time myself; I hike to enjoy the beauty. If I want a workout, I go to the gym.

Then Monday was the most glorious day of my life (besides getting engaged, our future wedding day, and perhaps the birth of my nephew and nieces).

- Jen

With this ring...CLINK

2008-10-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah this is a fun story that came out of having to go to the bank and the safe deposit box. You might remember we already got our wedding bands way back in April. Well today was the first time I tried it on (since we were there and they were there I figured why not) and well it is HUGE. My ring falls right off my finger. I guess all the working out and watching what I am eating is paying off but I really didn’t need to lose any weight in my fingers, there are a few other trouble areas I would have picked well before my ring finger to loose some inches. But nonetheless it is nice to see that my hard work is really paying off even if I have to pay for an entirely new wedding band because my eternity band CANNOT be resized. All I can do is laugh and roll with the wedding punches.

xoxo
britt

To the DMV with Love!

2008-10-16T15:53:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have so much to blog about (mainly wedding stuff) but all I really wanna write about it LAME stuff that is going on with everyday life. So once again I give you a look into my life.

Today I figured was a good day to go and get my Arizona registration figured out. I needed my mom (yeah she owns my car) to make me power of attorney so I could handle all the necessary paper work for her. Well when I first walk into the DMV they ask me if I have the power of attorney paper work and I hand it to the woman (mind you the DMV has 2 women sitting behind one desk giving out numbers – seems like they only needed one but I guess the job is keeping the other off welfare). So the first woman says I need it notarized and I said it is. She asks me to point to where it was notarized and I explained to her since the lovely DMV did not have a specific place for the notary to actually notarize the form she stapled her own notary form to the DMV’s form. So this woman hands it to the other woman sitting at the desk (I guess she is useful) and asks if this was ok and the second woman say “I don’t see why not.” So than they go have you gotten your car wellness check? My car’s what check? I say no and they point me in the direction of outside. Before leaving I ask do I need anything else and the woman asks if the car is paid off. Wondering what this has to do with anything I say “yes” and she says well than you will need the title as well. So add bank to the list of places to go so I can get the title out of the safe box. So I take my car to the “wellness check’ area pull up shut my car off like instructed and get out (it gets warm in a car when the AC isn’t going). So another lovely DMV employee comes outside and yells at me to get back in my car. Umm ok because I look so intimidating in my pink Ralph Lauren sweater and work pants. So she is writing down all info and gets to the VIN number area of my car and goes “there is something blocking it” so of course I shoot off a smart ass comment that goes to the effect that I don’t know what she is talking about because I can’t get out of my car to see it. Yeah I know not the nicest thing but come on had she not yelled at me I would have not given so much attitude. Anyways she goes “Ok your done” and I ask “Is that all, I don’t need a SMOG test or anything like that?” And with all her attitude in the world she proceeds to tell me yep I do need a SMOG check and would need to go to another place to get it. I ask for directions and ask her to clarify what street it was on for a second time and of course she gave me wrong directions – can you see why I am really loving the DMV at this point.

So to the SMOG place I went. Waited in line for a half hour and out the door I went $40 poorer but with my certificate that my car passed her test. I felt like a proud parent waiting in line to pay because some cars didn’t pass and I am sure the bill for those parents will be much higher.

Back to work for a few hours, waiting to met Barry at the bank so I can get into the safe box to get the title out. Lunch time arrived and the bank went flawlessly and back to the DMV to get my new Arizona title and my registration taken care of.

Get inline, get my number, get called, sit down, explain what I want to do, hand him all documents. He takes a look at them and goes I need to speak with my supervisor about this. Really? Come on. So he leaves for 10 minutes, comes back and all is well. Sign some papers as my mother’s power of attorney, pay my money, and I was out of there with a new shinny license plate and a new Arizona Car Title for my paid off car. Gotta love government agencies. Today I came to the conclusion they (the DMV) need checklists for customers and their employees for two reasons. The first being that their employees are really incompetent to fully explain the process that a customer needs to follow to perform a certain task for example register an out of state vehicle. And second they need a check list so it seems on the surface that their employees are not incompetent after all.

xoxo
britt

Oh baby, baby...

2008-10-15T13:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah I know we need to get married first but with all the prego women in my office and than all the baby talk in blog land I couldn’t help myself. Many bloggers have stumbled upon makemebabies.com and well I couldn’t resist any longer. So after giving in to temptation I logged in and uploaded a couple photos of Barry and me and clicked submit. I let the computer pick the sex and the ethnicity (it claims to be 90% accurate which is good enough for me) and just named them Baby 1 through 4. I choose 4 for no specific reason but figured it was a good even number. So with that I give you our future children.

Baby 1 & Baby 2

Baby 3 & Baby 4

What scares me most is not that our first child looks nothing like the last three (don't worry no milk man for me). What I am a little scared about it the fact that the last three look almost identical like we might have some triplets in our future (I guess I could have labeled the last three A, B & C.) Now that scares me. Going from 1 to 4 in less than 9 months. WOW. It was fun to find out what our kids would look like if all we had to do was put a face photo into the computer and out popped some kids.

The site is fun. They even let you make babies with celebs. Now that is for a whole other day.

xoxo
britt

Wonderful Weekend

2008-10-14T19:58:00.001-07:00

This weekend was so awesome. Having a four day weekend just because it is Columbus Day is one of the perks of my job. So Friday I took the free time to get to the gym early and get the work out done for the day. Speaking of working out it is getting easier and I don’t hate it as much as I did a month ago. Than I decided it was time to clean the house. It was so dirty that half way through I had to make a Target run to get more supplies (believe me I wanted to stop the cleaning right there but I push through). Than that afternoon we found out Jen and Matt passed the bar and the drinking started. We ended up at Merk Bar in Phoenix. The martini at Merk was beyond amazing and I can’t recommend it enough if you are looking for a yummy drink. Than off to the airport we all went. Topped the night off with some Los Betos (a better idea in my drunken state than it is now) and hanging out at Jen and Matt. Saturday we went to one of my favorite places – The Big Bang! I really love Michael and Julie. The other piano players just don’t compare. Sunday was a lazy day of BBQ time and dinner with family. Monday was truly and great ending to a wonderful weekend. We finally broke down and purchased a new digital camera. We are so excited to finally get back to documenting all the fun stuff we have been up too. Than Monday night was the NKOTB concert. It was beyond amazing. I was excited for the concert but compared to Jen and Barbie it was like I had no idea who they even were. I am sure Jen will be posting a full recap and photos but know it was an amazing concert and I would go again in a heart beat. With that my weekend was over but I couldn’t ask for more, I was surrounded all weekend by those who I love and who love me to.

xoxo
britt

Our New Camera -- Can't wait for it to come!

PS. once we get the camera I can start showcasing all the fun projects I have been working on.

I hope to NEVER need your services!!!

2008-10-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

An open later to the best two lawyers in Arizona:

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I know I have said this before but I wanted to put it in writing. (Note for those who don't know yet: Yesterday Jen and Matt officially became full fledge lawyers in the state of Arizona.) There was never any doubt in my mind and I could not be happier for two people who will actually go out and do some good in this world with their status. The law profession should be honored to have you two among their ranks. Now the fun beings and I am glad to be here to enjoy the ride with you. Love you both. Oh yeah and I call dibs on the office manager position when you open up Elias & Elias, PLC.

xoxo
britt

One More Thing...

2008-10-10T13:06:00.001-07:00

Not to undermine the other post, but if things do not work out, I have many reasons to be happy. To name a couple...

Barbie and Troy fly in tonight and I am really excited they came out to Phoenix.

Also, we are going to the New Kids on the Block concert on Monday night!! I seriously can not wait.

And Barbie is bring that famous NKOTB VHS tape we used to dance to (and eat mac and cheese). Thank goodness Matt and I still have a VCR player. :-)

Still LUV them. :-)

- Jen

Black Friday

2008-10-10T12:44:00.000-07:00

Today is the day. It is not an ordinary day; today both of our lives will change. We will either become unemployed lawyers or we will be unemployed adults.

I have never been so nervous about anything in my life.

Point being, we will no longer be students. We have both been students since kindergarten. In the last couple of months, we have been trying to string out being a student as much as possible, but that life has ended.

Passing the bar is a huge accomplishment and I do not want the accomplishment played down. Getting into law school and graduating does not really bring a huge feeling of pride, but passing the bar would be the biggest accomplishment.

Matt and I will both feel blessed to pass the bar and I approach today with much humility. And it is stressful praying that we both will pass. Matt and I worked hard to get through law school - having a relationship of over 200 miles apart and engaging with new people and activities which we had never done before. Tonight it could all pay off. A long distance relationship, in law school in winter, was not fun at all, but it made our relationship stronger.

I have dreamed about being a lawyer my entire life, even my mom will vouch for that. I used to layout in the pool and talk to my mom about becoming a lawyer. I have memories as young as in the fourth grade, even though I was not exactly sure what a lawyer did, I knew they had power to do great things and that is what I wanted – to help people. Even though my actions did not always reflect that I wanted to be in the path of wanting to become a lawyer, I worked hard to overcome those set backs and went to law school. If I became a lawyer today, my lifelong dream will come true today and that is a really big deal to me.

In the end, I know we are blessed with each other and great family and friends, but if we fail, we take it in November and have to wait until May to get results (May being our wedding month). That is a full year after law school graduation. I had hoped to have a legal job before our wedding.

And with the title, I do not mean to make light of the real “Black Tuesday” as well as the days leading up to that terrible day when the stock market crashed in 1929. The economic downturn in this country is incredible and not to be joked about. It is historic. It is affecting every single American.

Time and time we learn, deregulation of the economy is not the way to go. Complete regulation is not the way to go. Nothing in the extremes is advantageous; we need to balance regulations with deregulating certain parts of the economy, although I am, as Democrats are, for more overall regulations.

The individual business person becomes selfish and starts making individualistic decisions with the business, which is why it is so important to have the federal government oversee the economy, often with regulations. The federal government is the most competent organ to regulate the economy, not the individualistic business person. Selfishness prevails and business people get caught up with the "leaky jar syndrome." Once they give in to needs and wants, one just wants more and more; can never "fill" the jar with a leak.

We need to elect Senator Obama (a lawyer). :-)

Lady Justice holding the scales of justice.

So here is to hoping for a better economy and good results tonight. I will be praying for both.

- Jen

Favorite Aspects

2008-10-09T18:21:00.000-07:00

I came across a new blog which asked brides (or any groom or happened to stumble upon their site) what is the most unique or favorite aspect of your wedding. This got me thinking and I could not just give one but I did narrow it down to my top two. I know I just posted about Barry planning the honeymoon but it made my top two so this is was my two cents to this blog’s question enjoy…

I think I have a few great wedding ideas up my sleeve but the two that have saved my sanity in this whole wedding planning process are to A. Have a Monday wedding and B. Let the future hubby plan the honeymoon.

Having a Monday wedding is accomplishing a few things. First it is allowing us to SAVE tons of money. I feel like it is a Geico commercial ("I saved tons of money by switching to a MONDAY"). And since the economy is so bad we need to save as much as possible. Second it has allowed me to really think about each vendor. Since I have my pick I can take my time and really look around and most importantly negotiate for what I need and want (goes back to saving money). This has also helped us weed out some bad ones who have told me they have a few people already who want my date. Third it has allowed us to plan a weekend celebration with our family and friends. Yes having a Monday wedding might alienate some potential guest and every couple needs to look at their guest list to see if Monday is feasible but we are now having a welcome tailgate themed BBQ on Saturday night, a everyone is invited to the Rehearsal dinner Sunday night, a wedding on Monday, and a Adios brunch on Tuesday morning. So I am all for a Monday wedding if you think your guest list wouldn't be put off by the untraditional date.

Finally allowing my future hubs to plan the honeymoon is not only a huge stress reliever for me (as I don't need to worry about when payments are due or even need to research where we will be going or what we will do once we get there) but it has brought so much anticipation and excitement to this whole planning process. We have spent many of nights laying in bed me asking him where we are going, how are we getting there, do I need a visa, do I need some shots, what will I pack. And the whole time he just giggles and says you will love it. It also has allowed me to give up something and know that like the wedding it might not be perfect but it will be perfect for us because he planned it.

It was kind of fun to reflect at this point in the planning process and I am sure once the day has come and gone I will reevaluate what my favorite part of the day was – well besides being married!

xoxo

britt

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

2008-10-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

Guess what? Nope not that. No not that either. Ok give up? The BIG secret is that Barry booked our hotel room for the honeymoon. I could not be more excited. I have never been more excited for a week long vacation before in my life and I don’t even know where I am headed to. That’s right our honeymoon will be a SURPRISE for me until the time we take off -- at least that is the plan. Many of you might know or heck you might not know but Barry is planning the entire honeymoon and keeping it one BIG Ol’ secret. So for the next nine months or so I can only dream of our first destination together as a married couple (also our second vacation alone without friends or family around – we know lame on our part but we love traveling with or to see everyone we love).

I thought I would share some of the things Barry has let slipped. I know we are leaving the Wednesday after the wedding and getting back the following Wednesday. This is so nice because it will give us sometime to unpack before we have to jump back into work. I also know that we are leaving from LAX and more than likely will be flying back into LAX, but he hasn’t made those arrangements yet so who knows maybe we will fly back into PHX. Other than that I know nothing. Don’t know what to pack. Don’t know if I will need my passport, a visa or some shots to ward off foreign disease. Since I don’t know anything I guess I will have to plan for everything (I sense some shopping in my future J) But I thought I would leave you with a couple of places I wouldn’t mind being swept off to.

Can you catch the common beach theme I am hoping for? I can see it now me, my husband lounging on a a beach doing nothing but relaxing and enjoying some quality time together.

xoxo

britt

Scary

2008-10-03T12:15:00.000-07:00

It does not matter how well Governor Palin did in the Vice Presidential debate. She can not erase the harm that she created in her Katie Couric interview.

I am distraught because she could not name another Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade. What about Griswold v. Connecticut? That case sets the foundation for Roe. What about flag burning? What about prayer in schools? What about gay sodomy? There were so many cases the conservatives despise. Just name a case. I think every American knows about Bush v. Gore.

As CNN reports, this “election could decide the future of the federal courts.” CNN states that the next president could nominate two to four justices. On the Supreme Court, John Paul Stevens is 88, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is 75 and has had health problems, and David Souter recently turned 69. I am not sure about four justices, but definitely has a chance to nominate a couple.

There is a lot at stake in the federal court system: fair pay for women, employment discrimination, the role of religion in government, and so forth.

And Palin could not come up with a single intelligent statement about the Supreme Court? Absolutely astonishing.

Then she said she believes there is a Constitutional right to privacy. The conservatives do not believe this! Justices Scalia and Thomas absolutely do not believe in a Constitutional right to privacy because it is not written in the Constitution.

They are originalists and textualists; anything the (old, white, rich, MEN) Framers did not intend over 200 years ago or not written explicitly is not included in the Constitution in their minds. I, for one, like a living Constitution that Justice Breyer believes, not a dead one like Justices Scalia and Thomas subscribe to.

Privacy is the argument supporting Roe v. Wade. Palin has no idea what she is talking about. Absurd.

Originalism is the most obnoxious thoery, but this is a blog for another day, at least a couple of blogs how terrible the theory is.

As a graduate of law school waiting bar results, this offends me deeply and it should offend every American. She is trying to make “Joe Six-pack” look cool. Being ignorant is not a quality I want in a Vice President, especially one who wants to expand the role of the Vice President.

Absolutely scary.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/supreme.court.politics/index.html

- Jen

What I Love, Really Love

2008-10-03T08:29:00.000-07:00

There are good days and bad days.

Waiting for the bar results is more miserable than studying for the stupid test. Being asked if I am employed yet is frustrating. I do not like being “retired.” I cannot wait to use my doctorate diploma and join the workforce. We are just waiting for the stupid results.

Apparently the results will either come out this Friday (today) or the next. Either way, we bought two bottles: champagne for good results and vodka for despair and grief.

To keep my spirits high, I think of things I love:

1. Macaroni and Cheese – It does not take much to make me happy and this childhood, comfort food makes me really happy. I ate it frequently as a child and as I joke with my great friend Barbie, we would be 20 pounds lighter if we did not eat it as much as we did. I still love it. It is embarrassing confession, but whenever I see the dish at a restaurant, I just have to try it. It doesn't matter that I have ordered my wedding dress; I will just work out longer at the gym. :-) I could live off of mac and cheese, grilled cheese, and go figure, quesadillas.

2. Friends Coming to Visit – Barbie and her husband Troy are coming to visit. They are flying in on Friday, October 10 and I can’t wait to show them around Phoenix. Friends coming to visit is a blessing and I am thrilled for their visit. Who knows, maybe they will want to relocate to the valley of the sun? :-) We will just have to show them a great time.

3. NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK !!! – Yes, I will be one of those old screaming women at the concert on October 13 in Phoenix. There is no holding back for this concert. Barbie and I spent many childhood days eating macaroni and cheese and then dancing to the VHS of New Kids on the Block. We know all the dances, we are that good. No matter what the bar results are, I can look forward to the concert!!!

Can't wait!!

4. Easy Wedding Planning – The wedding planning thus far has been incredibly smooth and easy, that is also because we have only been told no once. Lame. I can see how this business can get incredibly stressful when you are told that the date is booked, especially planning a wedding in a small city (Sioux City) where options are limited.

5. Planning Weddings with Friends – It is great to share this journey with Britney. It is great because we can share details and help each other, while having two unique weddings that fit the couples. I am absolutely thrilled for next summer. And it was great that Barbie was on the same journey this summer.

6. The Sun – It is October and fall has yet to rear it’s ugly head here. I am looking forward to it cooling down a bit, but no South Dakota fall here!

7. Matt - Of course. As we approach being engaged for one year on Sunday, I couldn't be happier or more in love.

-Jen

Laughable

2008-09-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

Wow I must say things are truckin' right along in wedding planning land. We (Jen & Matt and Barry & I) all got our Save the Dates (STDs) out to our family and friends. I laugh every time I think about sending STDs to all those people. Anyway it might just be me but I need a good laugh in the mist of all this wedding planning. After sending STDs it is fun to watch the counter on our wedding website climb up as I know people are checking it out but they are still not ready to sign our fun guest book. Anyway that is a HUGE check in my book.

Some other HUGE checks involve the ever dreaded wedding dress. Last night Jen stepped up to the plate and ordered her most beautiful dress. I cannot wait until it comes in and I am sure she is pretty excited as well. As for me I have found my dress and this Saturday (as in tomorrow) will be going to the bridal salon with my mom and grandma to bite the bullet and make one of the biggest purchases thus far in the wedding planning process. It is kind of crazy how far in advance one needs to order something wedding related to have it in enough time to not add any additional stress as the big day approaches.

Speaking of the big day Jen & Matt only have 246 days left until they are officially Mr. & Mrs. Elias. Another thing that I think is fun and makes me laugh is that my wedding invitation might be the last piece of fun mail Jen gets with her maiden name on it. Once again anything in wedding land that makes you laugh I say run with it.

Another thing that made me laugh (unfortunately it did not make Jen laugh) was a story Jen told me about their wedding day transportation. “Sorry were booked.” Only for a wedding do you need more than 246 days to book a limo. Jen was not happy about those three little words because so far in the planning process neither of us had heard it before. But I did have a good laugh because there is some CRAZY bride out there who thought about booking a limo more than 250 days out from her wedding and unfortunately or fortunately (how ever you want to look at it) Jen was not that CRAZY bride.

Next up for me is trying to find a DJ for our lovely event. One who will keep the dance floor full, not be too cheesy, be easy to work with, show up on time, and most importantly not break the bank. I think it is easier said than done.

My something PINK?

xoxo
britt

5 years and starting over...

2008-09-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Anniversary Barry!!! 5 years ago today we made a commitment to each other and haven’t looked back. I am not going to sit here and say we are a perfect couple with a perfect relationship because that would be a big FAT lie. But I can sit here today and say with 100% confidence that I am more in love with you today than ever. We have had our ups and downs but at the end of the day I would rather fight with you than love anyone else.

Today also marks an end to celebrating this “dating” anniversary. Next September 24 will be just like any other day but I promise to remember how much we have grown as individuals and as a couple in these last 5 years. I look forward to what the next year has in store for us and with you by my side I know we can conquer the largest of obstacles and celebrate the smallest successes. I love.

Award of Excellence - Las Vegas

xoxo
britt

Love Chub

2008-09-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

If you pay any attention to fashion, the media, or even just the general American public you are well aware of the growing waist lines. You see I fell victim to this as well. Since I started dating Barry I have packed on what I like to call “love chub.” It is the extra weight you put on when you fall in love and you go out to eat more than you should and don’t watch what you eat or in my case stop exercising all together as well. Barry tells me I am beautiful every day multiple time s a day so there has never been push to get my butt in gear.

Once we got engaged I thought the pending wedding & honeymoon (hopefully on a beach) would give me a swift kick in the ass but it didn’t because on our wedding day & on the honeymoon the only person who matters already thinks I am beautiful and makes sure I know it. My

encouragement wasn’t a white dress or a bathing suit but it was a man in a white coat. Yep the man who got me to realize that I needed to take off this “love chub” was my doctor. In March he looked at me and said you are obese. What obese, are you sure I’m just not overweight (because in my mind that is much better)? Well he then went on and explained about issues I and we might face as we got older in life and wanted to start a family. So with that visit we (yes Barry too) started a diet.

By just watching what we ate and how much of it we ate we both dropped about 30 pounds (he dropped his a lot faster) but 30 pounds is a lot. Barry has met his goal weight and is currently just hoping to maintain this weight from here on out but me I have hit a plateau. So since I can’t make portion sizes any smaller it was time to get my booty to the gym and start working out. Lucky for me I have a brother who knows his way around a gym and loves to run me through a lot of exercises that kick my ass. I have been going to the gym for about 3 weeks now and although the scale is not dropping like I want it to I feel better. I have more strength and energy and I just have an overall better attitude about myself. I don’t know if I will ever love going to the gym but I must say it is a lot easier to walk in there now than it was 3 weeks ago.

The reason I am able to write about my struggle with weight is because I am secure with myself and my body. I do not find myself looking at models photos wanting to be like them and when I was younger I found away to deal with the teasing that I endured on a small level. But I recently read a news article (click here to read it) about models at fashion week up from a size 0 to now being a size 2-4. This is great but in reality they are still really skinny and do not represent the general size of an adult American woman. This article was trying to pat the fashion industry on the back for coming more inline with the average woman (which study show is somewhere between and 12 and a 14) but in reality all they did was showcase the issue again and give young women a size 2 to aspire to become. For me I will never be a size 2 or heck even a 4 for that matter but I can get myself healthy and active not because I have fallen victim to wanting to look like the women I see in magazines but for myself and for my future husband and our future family together.

xoxo
britt

PS: the girl on the top is a "normal" model while the girl on the bottom is a "plus size" model.

Productivity at it's finest!

2008-09-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend was full of fun and productivity. Saturday was a great day for any and hopefully all U of A fans. Not only did our beloved wildcats beat the UCLA bruins but the scumdevils of that second rate Arizona University lost to the Georgia Bulldogs. Overall Saturday was a good day to be a wildcat fan. While watching all this football I was also very productive while Barry slaved away at the bank. You see I finished up our Save the Dates and as I type this they (all 51 of them) are sitting in my car waiting to go to the post office to be sent off to their respective final homes. I put a lot of love into them and I hope everyone enjoys them and more importantly they get to you safely and unharmed.

On Sunday we woke up and the only thing planned was to meet Barry’s dad, step mom and little brothers at the movie theaters to watch The Dark Knight. Since we were going to have to go to the mall anyways we decided to go a couple hours early and register and get my ring cleaned. I wasn’t looking forward to the whole registering aspect of the planning process because we are not the type to need/want fancy cookware or fine china so it was an interesting experience. There are a couple things we are excited about but there are also a lot of things that we have taken off already because it just isn’t us. So I am happy to say we can check registering off the list of things we have to do. After the mall and the movie we worked on the wedding website which hopefully will provide tons of useful information for all our guests if they are traveling or not. The website is not 100% done but I think we do have all the really important things up there like where people can stay and what airports to fly into along with dates and contact information if they have any questions.

Overall this weekend was nice, relaxing and productive. I am really looking forward to this week mainly Wednesday, who would have ever guessed I am looking forward to hump day.

xoxox

britt

The Day John McCain Lost My Vote

2008-09-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

The day when John McCain lost my vote is when he did not vote for a bill that would have made waterboarding an illegal tactic for the CIA to utilize.

Mr. McCain, a former prisoner of war, has consistently voiced opposition to waterboarding and other methods that critics say is a form torture. But the Republicans, confident of a White House veto, did not mount the challenge. Mr. McCain voted “no” on Wednesday afternoon.

I have seen various videos of individuals being waterboarded and it is most definitely torture. A State Department official once stated that he wanted to go through it before he supported it or opposed it. After he went through it, he said it was the most terrifying experience of his life and it is indeed torture.

How can Senator McCain abandon one of his strongest beliefs that the United States should not torture? Has he forgotten the days when he was tortured? I do not think that is possible, but I think he wants to win votes in his party rather than stand for a human rights issue. He has said he would rather win the war than win an election. Apparently, he would rather win the election than outlaw torture.

After World War II, the United States prosecuted Japanese soldiers who water-boarded others. We ended WWII with such a high moral authority and now it has been eroded.

Additionally, as started by President Clinton and used by the Bush Administration, the CIA uses extreme tactics such as extraordinary rendition.

The Wikipedia definition: the apprehension and extrajudicial transfers of a person from one state to another, particularly with regard to the alleged transfer of suspected terrorists to countries known to torture prisoners or to employ hard interrogation techniques that may rise to the level of torture.

The CIA “renders” a person to a different country (often a country that uses torture such as Egypt and Syria) in order to interrogate an individual. The is one story where an Islamic guy was “rendered” because the CIA interpreted one of his phone calls wrong. The CIA believed that the guy was talking about airplanes to a friend. He then was rendered for 18 months or so. This guy was not talking about airplanes, but rather tires. The words for airplanes and tires are similar in Arabic, which tirat means tires and tairat means airplanes. This sounds more like an “erroneous rendition.”

This practice violates the spirit of the United States and numerous international treaties, which when signed and ratified by the United States, the treaties are just as significant as the United States Constitution.

Now would John McCain continue this process to win this war that he cares so much about?

- Jen

Sarah Palin Hates Polar Bears

2008-09-10T17:37:00.000-07:00

Sarah Palin sued the Bush Administration for adding the polar bear to the endangered species list because it would interfere with the oil industry. And she is the one who fought the big lobbyists?

We have had 8 years of defending and helping the oil industry. We do not need another individual who is too friendly for the oil industry.

The polar bears have existed a lot long than cars have and she thinks that oil is more important than this beautiful creature.

And Alaska is right in the middle of this battle: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080825210415.htm

An aerial survey by government scientists in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea has recently found at least nine polar bears swimming in open water – with one at least 60 miles from shore – raising concern among wildlife experts about their survival.

Not only that - she does not believe that climate change is person-made. I did not know she was also a scientist. Even President Bush has admitted to this. We do not need another administration that is stubborn about the science and international communities. We can not fix the problem if one can not find the source.

This does not sound like change. Seems like more of the same with the Bush Administration. At least President Bush wanted the polar bears on the endangered species list. This is more change than what Sarah Palin would bring.

How could you hate this guy?

- Jen

Why University of Arizona is Great

2008-09-09T12:41:00.000-07:00

Because we have David Hasselhoff and his daughter.

Find more videos like this on David Hasselhoff Social Network

With this ring...

2008-09-04T17:45:00.000-07:00

Planning a wedding is a lot of work. I think if I could take 6 months off from work to plan the wedding it would be well worth it. Sense that isn’t going to happen we are planning when we can and working full time. Unfortunately or fortunately however you look at it there are many, many websites to help plan a wedding. These sites give you time frames on when certain things should be done and some even send you reminder emails (as if I forgot that I have TONS of shit still to do). With that being said we are NOT sticking to their timelines. In fact we already have our CUSTOM made wedding bands in our possession and they have been in our safe box since about April, which is about 15 months before the wedding for those who are counting. So since we LOVE our rings I thought I would share with you what they look like (these aren’t the actual rings but you get the picture). Since my engagement ring is a single solitaire I knew I could get a diamond eternity band and it would not take away from the lovely ring Barry picked out for me. Also my wedding band will look just as nice with my engagement ring as it would all alone. Barry didn’t really know what he wanted when we started looking. But he quickly realized he wanted something plain and simple and not too thick. Lucky for us we have a great jeweler who was able to custom make exactly what Barry and I wanted. I cannot wait for the day that I can slip that ring on Barry’s finger and say our vows in front of our friends and families.

xoxo
britt

How Sweet It Is

2008-09-03T20:25:00.000-07:00

I had a great teacher in high school. His name was Father Stapp. Yes, he was my religion teacher. Others in my high school would probably roll their eyes at this, but I really did take a lot away from his class.

He was unique. He taught us about religion through a different lens. He taught that God lives in the smallest acts and things. He showed us pictures he took every day.

He showed me how beautiful dandelions could be or how beautiful a dairy cow could be (his favorite at the time was named Sue). He could take an average rock and talk about it like it was a diamond. He had something special, to see beauty in such average looking things.

One lesson that I carry in my life from Fr. Stapp is to buy lemonade at every lemonade stand ran by little kids. He told us it does not take much time or money to make a big impact.

Matt and I did this the other day. We were in a hurry to drive to our house and then down to Tucson for the University of Arizona football game. We drove by the lemonade stand at first and I knew we should stop to buy some. On the way out of town, we drove through again and bought two cups of lemonade and tipped them. The two boys were so proud of their effort and of their profits.

It was a simple act, but it was a great act, even though we dumped the lemonade out of sight of the boys. I am so glad we took the time to go back to their lemonade stand and pay them 2 dollars. They proudly told us with our money they made 11 dollars that day.

I am happy I can still live out some of Fr. Stapp’s simple, yet great life lessons. Just imagine if everyone could do one small act of kindness everyday...

- Jen

How Dare You

2008-08-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

And how dare you Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. She asked a Senator Obama spokesperson if Senator McCain’s Pick will change Senator Biden’s strategy because she is a female and he must be softer? Didn’t Senator Clinton make strides in this area? Women are to be treated equally as men. Women should not get a pass because of her gender. Women are just as strong as men on that debate stage.

Senator Biden should not go easier on Governor Sarah Palin. Senator Biden with his incredible credentials against a young Alaskan Governor, I have no doubt that Senator Biden’s experience will shine through. Senator Biden will not let us down. He will be charming and just as hard on Governor Palin as he would anyone.

Senator McCain is pandering to Senator Clinton supporters with the selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and it will not work. She is 44 years old. Talk about experience and Senator Obama? Senator McCain is 72 years old. He is not young.

Being a strong Senator Clinton supporter, this has pushed me closer to Senator Obama. I was always going to vote for him, but this made me want to get out on the streets and volunteer.

From Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, “I know Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton.”

Is it because…

2008-08-28T21:17:00.000-07:00

I kicked all your ASSES last year? You see football season is upon us and people everywhere are signing up for fantasy football leagues including the men in our lives. Last year Jen and I were “allowed” to participate in the “boys” league and well I think my dominance and ASS beating that I gave each and every one of them has caused them to make the decision to not include us again this year. I’m sure the boys say it was just beginners luck but I have won every fantasy football league I have ever been apart of (2 for those who care) so it is more than beginners luck. I am sad that I was not asked to partake this year but I guess it means I am that good that the “boys” don’t want the embarrassment of getting their asses handed to them again. So with that I am done with all Fantasy sports and I will go out as a CHAMPION something that many of the “boys” will never be able to claim.

self explanatory

Buying the Dress

2008-08-28T17:56:00.001-07:00

It is intimidating. I do not know why I am nervous about it. This has been the most stressful part of wedding planning for me thus far.

I think I found the dress I want to wear, want to take pictures in, and want to dance in.

It is almost like buying a car or a house. One does no go out and haphazardly buy a brand new house; it takes time to mull over the decision. This is how I am feeling about the dress.

The one thing I am not nervous or intimidated about it marrying Matthew on May 30, 2009. Hopefully I will have a dress by then!

- Jen

Today's Blog is Brought to you by the Letter...

2008-08-26T16:17:00.000-07:00

Who would have ever thought that finding “the one” would be so hard? No I am not talking about “the one” as in Barry or “the one” that many boys claim to find when they date a girl for a few months in college but “the one” as in “the one” wedding dress. I will only be finding “the one” because once “the one” is purchased I never plan on putting on another. I guess wedding dress shopping is kind of like finding “the one” who I will be marrying. Once I found him I didn’t need to look any further. And finding “the one” caused me to look at a lot of not so nice (down right hideous) ones.

Jen has blogged a lot about our journey to finding “the one” but let me tell you it is taking its toll on me and I now know why Pam got married in a white bikini. Don’t bridal shops understand that MOST brides work and we can’t make it to that 1:30 appointment because we are WORKING? And closing at 5 doesn’t help either when your last appointment time is at 4pm. You see Jen and I went into this nice bridal shop in Chandler and I kind of looked at the racks and found one dress that I want to try on, yes only ONE. So essentially this will take all of 10 minutes maybe 15 if I like it, so why do I need an hour appointment? I don’t want to waste your time or mine but when you are the only store in ALL of Arizona to carry this designer and thus this dress can you please cut me some slack and let me come in to try this dress on when I have sometime?

Another thing I would like is if wedding dress shops would tell me how much it will cost before I decide to buy. I understand you have rules and policies but in this economy people need to watch what they are spending and if I have to I will order my dress from a bridal shop near my hometown and I’m sure they wouldn’t mind telling me how much it will cost after taxes and any other hidden fees. Enough of ranting but I am trying to schedule some appointments while my mom is in town to see some dresses but I am having no luck except for the place who doesn’t tell you what you are buying or how much it costs before you sign the dotted line – and to be honest that scares the SHIT out of me. Here’s to hoping everything works out and it usually does.

Oh yeah in other news, wish me luck today as today starts the workouts with my brother as my drill Sargent ummm I mean personal trainer. Maybe when he is done with me Pam's idea might work.

Barry would approve but not grandma...

xoxo

britt

Wedding Dress Extravaganza

2008-08-24T13:17:00.000-07:00

Since my return to Phoenix, it has been wedding-eventful. I picked up the save the dates and they look great. Now it is just time to put addresses on.

Brittany and I had an eventful bridal shop experience. Brittany got off early on Friday and we went dress shopping. We first went to Azteca Bridal Shop, which is in downtown Phoenix. It is an interesting shop. I signed the requisite forms, as I am now probably signed up for about a hundred bridal shops... We sifted through dresses and I tried on a few. Each dress got better as I tried them on. The last dress was beautiful and I loved it. But the problem is I have no idea what the dress name is because Azteca has removed the designer and dress name from the dresses! I can not find it online. Azteca was good for the experience, but I will not buy my dress there because it seems very busy and it is in downtown Phoenix, which is a jaunt from my house.

Next we went to I Do, I Do, which is also located in Phoenix. Brittany and I both tried on dresses and found some winners. Brittany found two great dresses; one she has already tried on and a new dress. But there is a problem; we do not know the name of the dress! I Do, I Do has also removed the designer and dress name! This is frustrating.

I understand the policy, the store wants you to buy the dress there, but it seems like consumer entrapment or something (yes, I did make that up). But it really does not pass the “smell test.” If a bridal shop wants to win over customers, they should do it with their service or clean shop, not be entrapping a bride.

Finding a wedding dress is stressful enough. And it causes problems for us because neither of our mothers lives in the area. Why would we buy a dress that we can not find online to show our mothers?

I did find a dress I really love there too, but there is a bridal shop in Gilbert that has it, so I probably will not be buying at I Do, I Do as well. Not to mention that they will not tell you the total amount for the dress until you make the final purchase. This is shady. There is no telling what charges they will include.

But it was a fantastic day. We are making wedding process. And Friday night we went to a University of Arizona Alumni banquet here in Phoenix for free, due to a friend. We met Coach Stoops, Wilbur, among other Arizona Alumni, such as the swimming coach who had just returned from Beijing for the Olympics. It was a great night with friends and great company. I can not wait for the football game this Saturday. Until then, I will be signing Bear Down Arizona!

Just hanging out with Wilbur.

Brittany and I giving Coach Stoops some advice.

-Jen

Love and Politics

2008-08-24T12:08:00.000-07:00

My fiancé Matt created a new political blog for us. It is appropriate for us because discussing politics is how we became friends and eventually found love. Our claim that our first date was attending a Democratic rally after a 2003 primary debate in Phoenix. We have been discussing politics since.

I will continue to blog about current event topics here, but I will also on the new blog. I feel bad imputing some of my opinions on Brittany. :-) Matt is fully aware of what I think and although we do not always agree, he knows what he is getting.

Since we are done taking the bar and awaiting results, we have time to blog. We share a lot of the same opinions, but yet vastly differ in certain areas, as I am sure it will come out in time.

The new blog: foraloveofpolitics.blogspot.com/

-Jen

Still a Hillary Girl

2008-08-23T14:47:00.000-07:00

I know this is yesterday news, but I am going to blog once about my disappointment with the primary race.

There are both gracious Senator Clinton supporters and Senator Obama supporters and there are also some not-so-gracious Senator Clinton supporters and Senator Obama supporters. Obama supporters need to stop telling Clinton supporters to get over it and Clinton supporters need to stop threatening to vote for Senator McCain.

And I am TIRED of hearing that Senator Obama has a "Hillary Problem." It is disturbing to called a problem and we're not going to go run to Senator McCain. I am sorry, but Senator McCain is not the champion of women's rights. His Supreme Court nominees would make progress harder, and I am NOT talking about abortion rights; there is more to modern day feminism than abortion noise.

Both candidates received over 18 million votes across the country; it was a close race. But if the Democratic Primary was like the Republican Primary, Senator Clinton would have won. Republicans use the “winner-take-all” strategy, that if an individual wins the popular vote of the state, he receives all the pledged votes. Alternatively, Democrats split up the pledged delegates by percentage of the popular vote.

My point is that Senator Clinton could have won and she came close. I understand that life is full of rules that must be followed. But that dimension of her momentous run made it much harder to move pass the loss.

I like Senator Obama and there are no great differences between the two candidates besides age, race, and gender. But I have been slow to “fall in love” with him like I did for Senator Clinton.

During the primary, Senator Clinton stood by her Iraq war vote and Senator Obama ran to the left. Now Senator Obama is running back to the center, like ALL politicians do during primary and general elections on their respective sides. But it makes me angry because Senator Clinton lost votes for her centrist position. She stood firm for various reasons, but an obvious reason was to stay closer to the middle, as to not alienate people during the general, not do what Senator Obama did. Besides, Senator Obama was lucky to have not been in the Senate when it authorized invasion; he even admitted to the great Tim Russert in 2004 that he did not know how he would have voted if he had to make that Senate vote. He did not have all the intelligence and reports that Senator Clinton did. I thought it was a cheap line during the primary election, but it worked for him, he is the nominee. From the LA Times:

Many women who support Obama say they were torn, but are unapologetic about their choice. For many, the decision turns on one vote cast by Clinton in 2002:
for the bill authorizing President Bush to invade Iraq.

Earlier this year, a group calling itself “New York Feminists for Peace and Barack Obama,” circulated an online petition that was a nuanced endorsement of the Illinois senator. It was so popular that the words “New York” were dropped from the name, and the effort went national.

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/mar/02/nation/na-feminists2

When a race is close, it is easy to look back and see where votes were lost and ask what if. But she lost. It is time to move one with Senators Obama and Biden.

-Jen

A Welcome Home Present

2008-08-20T14:34:00.000-07:00

Matt and I arrived back in Phoenix yesterday. We are excited to be back, as there is a lot to do such as getting a job, finish unpacking, cleaning (meaning major dusting and I can’t wait!), and some serious wedding planning.

We had a present when we got back. I always like presents, but I did not like the one that I got yesterday.

I got into the shower yesterday and halfway through my shower I glanced down at the floor to see a teeny tiny lizard!! AHHHH. The poor guy was quickly evicted. At least I should be happy it was not a scorpion. I just hope the lizard does not have any friends around…

He was just a little guy.

-Jen

Proof of Night Fishing

2008-08-19T16:03:00.001-07:00

I just uploaded my pictures from my trip back home. I have to post a couple pictures of night fishing for all to enjoy. :-)

We fished below the dam in Pierre, South Dakota,

which is called fast-water fishing.

Matt's first walleye of the trip. Just a little guy, but he did catch

bigger ones. Walleye are very yummy too.

Matt and I night fishing.

-Jen

President Bush a Bully?

2008-08-15T08:07:00.000-07:00

The conflict between Russia and Georgia is terrible. I do think Russia is acting like a bully and needs to stop. I just think it is funny and interesting how President Bush is responding.

A quote from President Bush,"bullying and intimidation are not acceptable ways to conduct foreign policy in the 21st Century." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7563452.stm

REALLY?? I think it is universally agreed that bullying is not a form of foreign policy, but isn't that what President Bush did in Iraq?? President Bush can call other leaders bullies and condemn them for it, but it does not apply to him? Why can he be a bully and not others? Ditto to Senator McCain and his speeches.

From the BBC.

Just updated from Human Rights Watch as reported on CNN - Russia is using cluster bombs in civilian areas. Nice. Good job Russia.

What is a cluster bomb? I had to look it up - cluster bombs are air-dropped or ground-launched munitions that eject a number of smaller submunitions: a cluster of bomblets.

The source? Wikipedia. I am being lazy, but if Senator John McCain can use Wikipedia for a foreign affairs speech? I know that the speech was not exact and a speech writer wrote it, but foreign affairs is supposed to be his strong point. If this was Senator Obama, he would have been laughed out of the room. Just interesting how much slack Senator McCain receives.

http://www.blog.newsweek.com/blogs/stumper/archive/2008/08/12/mccain-gets-wiki.aspx

-Jen

LOVE doesn't know RELIGION

2008-08-14T19:27:00.000-07:00

following in Jen's blogging footstep...

We all have been there and by there I mean when a friend gets a new significant other. Now there are a couple of camps of thought on how much friends should interject and give their opinions of a friend’s significant other. Now most of you know that I shoot straight from the hip and if I don’t like/agree with something I’m not going to sugar coat it but I will tell you my honest opinion as your friend. So when I see friend’s get into relationships that don’t make them a better person or make them happy your damn right I’m going to make my opinion known. But on the other hand when I see a healthy relationship where the couple makes each other happy, better people and overall a positive experience I’m going to voice that opinion too. You see I am an equal opinion voicer – in other words with me your going to get the good with the bad. I should also note that at anytime my opinion can and does change. For example if you want a fast pass (think Disneyland) to get on my bad side ask how much something cost or if I am paying for something…that is none of your damn business whether it be someone’s home, car, dinner, or OUR WEDDING. I repeat my money is none of your DAMN business.

So I got a little side tracked but I will get back on track and why I wanted to write this entry. Many of our single friends have recently entered into committed relationships and currently I could not be happier for them. They all seem so excited and happy and it is refreshing to be around new LUST and this just reminds me that I have a man who I LOVE so much and I remember lusting after him at one time (almost 5 years ago). So when trying to get to know these new girlfriends of my friends I ask questions like: do they make you happy? What do they do? Where are they from? What do they enjoy? Basic questions in order to get some basic information so when we met in person they know that I am generally interested in getting to know them as a person outside of the couple they have just formed. So it angers me when I hear “educated” people asking inappropriate questions. And when getting to know someone’s new significant other religion is an inappropriate question Why does someone’s religion have any indication on how much they might LOVE or any indication on the out come of the relationship? You see I am in a relationship with a man who loves me and I love him and at no point in time did our differing religions determine how much we would love or not love each other. Do only “Christians” love the right way? Is that why it matters?

For me being of a certain religion is not a deal breaker with regards to being in a healthy monogamous committed relationship. It is all about being a good, honest, ethical, moral, respectable person (I could go on and on). There are horrible people of all religions. Is Warren Jeffs a “Christian”? If so than that isn’t what I consider a good person let alone someone I would want to date/marry just because they are “Christian.” Who is “Christian”? Is it someone who believes in Jesus? So are Catholics, Methodists, Baptist “Christians”? Or is it only people who consider themselves “Christians” true “Christians”? And what about the “born again Christians”? I do hope one day those who believe/act like their religion is superior to others will take sometime to think about the message they are sending out and if that is the message that their religion would want other to judge it by. Why can’t people be happy for someone when they find love, regardless of religion, and realize that what you think you need in a significant other (i.e. your prerequisites) are different than your friend who has just entered into a new budding relationship?

Ultimately these are your friends. You have chosen them for reasons, let’s hope other than a specific religion, but to respect them for their differing religion (or their significant others religion) from yours is a true sign of someone secure with oneself and personal religion. I am pleased to say that in my group of friends and family I have many types of relationships to learned from and respect even if they are different from mine because we have one common bond and that is LOVE.

LOVE (xoxo)

britt

Equal Protection of the Laws Really…

2008-08-14T17:50:00.000-07:00

Since this blog covers topics of news, marriage, and opinions, it was time for me to do a gay marriage blog.

The Sioux City Journal did a front page story about gay marriage, which the Iowa Supreme Court is facing a challenge to the state’s constitution’s equal protection clause. I was horrified to read what the republican state legislators said regarding the issue. They had the audacity to quote THE BIBLE. There are plenty of legal arguments on both sides; there is no need to use and abuse the Bible. One republican quoted Sodom and Gomorrah. Really?? I thought that story was against sodomy, but I guess that is my interpretation of the story.

I think gay marriage will be viewed like interracial marriage someday. Not so long ago interracial marriage (miscegenation) was considered an evil. It was not until 1967 in Loving v. Virginia when the United States Supreme Court ruled that bans on interracial marriage were unconstitutional. Also, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger proclaimed on Meet the Press that California led the way with interracial marriage in the California Supreme Court similar to gay marriage.

Justice Kennedy was thrown under the bus by conservatives when he authored the opinion in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a Texas statute that criminalized gay sodomy. I know that the Court struck down the law under Substantive Due Process because consensual sexual conduct is a protected liberty. But I also think the argument can be made using the text, and I am not even a textualist, but I am just doing it to prove a point.

The Fourteenth Amendment of our great United States Constitution advances that all citizens shall be treated equally. It states, “nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

Therefore, statutes that criminalize or single out individuals because of their sexual orientation is NOT the equal protection of the laws. I know there are other dimensions to the argument and that sexual orientation is not a suspect class but I am trying to avoid becoming too “law student” about this.

In the end, we all have a right to privacy and who cares who is kissing who. “Heterosexual couples” do enough to screw up marriage with the divorce rate as high as it is. If we are in the business of regulating marriage, then why don’t we put a time limit on how long one should know someone from online dating before getting married or require marriage counseling or even arranged marriages??

If a person finds love in their life, which can be hard enough, then who are we to deny them of that love?

P.S. An interesting website - http://www.filibustercartoons.com/marriage.htm

-Jen

Shut up!!!

2008-08-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

"Shut up!!" Those are the words my mother said when I told her that our wedding is in 11 months. She can't believe how fast time has gone either.

xoxo
britt

Doping 16 year olds

2008-08-13T13:08:00.000-07:00

This Olympics has been weird for me as I have never planned my nights around watching Olympic events. But this year with Michael doing his thing and the women’s gymnastic team doing theirs I cannot help but be drawn into all the competition. The swimming events and women’s gymnastic events both have HUGE gray clouds hovering over head. With swimming it is the NEW swimsuit and doping allegations. With women’s gymnastics it is the under age girls. So I can’t ignore these two any longer because let’s face it people are going to start saying, “well what if…”

Let’s start with swimming. Doping has been around for years and can affect almost every sport. I was surprised to hear that at the Olympics they test the top 5 swimmers of every heat once they get out of the water. Yes this won’t catch everyone or every drug because drugs usually advance before the science to catch them but they are going to keep that sample on file for some amount of years and who knows maybe they might take away your gold medals in 10+ years. At least the Olympics has recognized that doping might be an issue and is trying to deter it from happening or catch it if it is, maybe MLB should take some notes. But if you are doping STOP it really is LAME and you will bring shame to yourself and most likely the county and you sport. The other issue is the new NASA designed swimming suits. World records are being broken with even new gold medal handed out and many people think that the suits are giving swimmers an unfair advantage. How is there an unfair advantage when everyone swimming the race is wearing one or had the option to wear one? Sport equipment has changed over time thus making the competition in sports heightened and making the games better (Kobe is not playing with the same ball or shoes as they did 50 years ago). People cannot stop science and science will always affect sports. So my suggestion to watching swimming for the remainder of the events is to celebrate these athletes for their hard work, dedication, and endurance because I know even with all the doping enhancements in the WORLD and a new state of the art swim suit, ALL of the swimmers in the Olympics could kick my butt in any race with their eyes closed and feet tied together.

Now to women’s gymnastics. Why is it that women, well girls, have to be at least 16 years old to compete in the Olympics? I thought the Olympics were about putting the best of each country against each other to see who was the best in the World? But those are the rules and everyone is playing by them, RIGHT? No way. Don’t get me wrong the American girls fell apart, they lost but they didn’t lose to a team who was following the rules that have been laid out. No they lost to a Chinese team who has many little tweens under the age of 16. One announcer said they were much shorter and thinner than their American counterparts – come on now most Chinese people are thinner and shorter than their American counterparts so throw that defense out the window. My defense has everything to do with those girls teeth. They had little kid messed up teeth and it looked as if a couple of them didn’t even have all their teeth in yet. I don’t know about you but I had all my adult teeth in and they fit the size of my mouth by the time I was 16 but not at the age of 12. And come on China we know you are a communist country so to doctor up some passports to “prove” these girls are 16 or will be turning 16 by years end is a JOKE. Of course they altered passports, I am sure if I tried hard enough I too could get an American passport made up with all my contact information that said I was 16, you think people would believe me? And if these girls are really the ages you claim them to be why aren’t they on the Official Website of the Chinese Olympic Committee? These are your golden girls be proud of their accomplishments. And why is it that the only official picture of anyone on the team is Fei Cheng? Maybe because she is the oldest and you don’t want people comparing the others to her? We get it you WON your girls did an outstanding job but why the need to cheat? This article is great (read me) and I suggest people read it because it isn’t about how to try to make countries conform to rules but to change them because they have been broken by many and only adhered to by few. After all the Olympics is about being the BEST and you can’t claim you are the BEST if a 12 year in China, the United States or any where can beat you.

With all the gray cloud that have hung over the Chinese Olympics I can truthfully say I have enjoyed them very much and I hope you have too. Until next time.

Are they all 16? You be the Judge.

xoxo

britt

Home Sweet Home

2008-08-11T20:33:00.000-07:00

I got a call today that proves just how quick time goes and just how much Barry and I have done in the last year or so. About 10 months ago we moved into our first home. We always knew that the Valley of the Sun is where we would call home, put down roots, and start a family. With that goal in mind and the CRAZY desire to get out of “ghetto court” (our old apartment complex) we saved and scrimped for about a year and a half so save enough for a down payment on a home that we can see ourselves starting a family and living in for at least seven years.

Being in the real estate industry I had a good idea of what to pay for a home in a given area, what to expect from a given price point, what builders had good floor plans, and other general real estate knowledge. Barry and I knew we wanted a lot of indoor entertaining space – we like people to come over and have a goodtime – but we didn’t know if we NEEDED a backyard and a pool. We didn’t look at any resale as the market in our area has tons of new build homes and nothing is like being the first to live in a home with fresh carpet, toilets, showers, bedrooms, etc. We also knew that we would not have the knowledge, time, or money to be doing repairs or upkeep on an older home. After looking at a few communities that I did research on that were within our price range, in cities we would want to live in, and not to far out we ended up buying the FIRST home Barry saw as we drove through the FIRST subdivision and it was also the FIRST model we toured together. It is only fitting that this is our FIRST home.

Many first time home buyers might look to their parents for guidance on making such a large decision but we played on each other strengths. Barry followed my lead for choosing a good location and agreed that it would be a good time to buy while I followed his lead with the mortgage and all financial decisions. When all was said and done we had a “casa azul grande.” We love our home, we have never had any buyers remorse and I think today I love the flow and space our home provides more than when we wrote the purchase contract. In the last 10 months we have made many memories and I am 100% certain that even if we live in this home for the next 10+ years we will love it the same if not more than the day we moved in.

Our Home -- Check out the SOLD sign!

xoxo
britt

A little bit of this & a little bit of that...

2008-08-10T14:57:00.000-07:00

So I wouldn’t call myself the type of person who waits around for the Olympics to start every 2 years but this year after so much hype I was excited to watch the opening ceremony on Friday. Boy was I glad I watched the 4 hours of it. From the opening drums to the lighting of the torch there was so much to see. Don’t get me wrong, the parade of nations got a little LONG but the fact that the Chinese even tried to make that interesting (the paint with the canvass and all the athletes’ footprints) proved that this opening ceremony will be hard to top. Good Luck London. I am excited to watch a couple of event but I don’t think I will be staying up late or waking up early to watch table tennis.

In other news we officially have a flower girl and ring bearer. I could not be more excited to have these two special little ones be apart of our day. They will be so cute walking down the aisle and they are season veterans in the wedding business as our wedding isn’t their first rodeo (march down the aisle) together. Now we just need to officially ask the rest of the bridal party (which I’m guessing most already assume they are a member) but we wanted to do something nice and within the next couple of weeks the bridal party will be in place.

We also found out that the US Open of Surfing, which is a large surf competition, is starting the same day of our wedding. Now you might be thinking, why does this matter. Well I will tell you that Surf City USA (location of said competition and said wedding) is very congested already. This presents many negatives and positives. The negatives include more people, higher prices for everything and everyone, plus grandstands on the beach. The positives include tons of stuff to do and see, an awesome vibe and a true taste of what Surf City USA has to offer, and a unique experience. Now don’t get me wrong if we knew the Open would start the same day as the wedding we might have chosen another date but one thing I have learned in this whole wedding planning process is to control what you can and roll with the punches or in this case roll with the ocean and make the best of what you have. At the end of the day the only thing that matters is that we will finally be married and be surrounded by our families and friends.

Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend and is ready for the work week ahead.

Surf City USA, US Open of Surfing

xoxo

britt

Night Fishing

2008-08-07T17:35:00.000-07:00

Really. We went night fishing in Pierre, South Dakota and did well. Matt, my family, and I went “camping” in my parent’s new recreational vehicle, which I refuse to call a fifth wheel. We spent a couple nights in the “wilderness” and it was a great time, but it is nice to be home.

Matt caught several walleyes (good fish – part of the perch family) and some catfish, which were quickly returned to the water. Not to tell many fish stories, but at one point, while in the fast water below the dam, Matt caught a huge walleye, but the current was pulling the boat up to the face of the dam. So Matt had to reel like never before and my dad had to reverse the boat, in order to avoid hitting the dam. While this was happening, there was suddenly a walleye surfing on top of the water, Matt's fish. We netted him before he got away, but I am surprised we did not lose him. He was definitely a keeper.

We are home and survived, barely. The mosquitoes were outrageous and I can not wait to see how many bites I received. I am thankful Arizona does not have those critters! But camping was great, if you call having a microwave, refrigerator, stove, television, surround sound, DVD player and so forth camping. We did cook outside one night.

While camping, I received a call from Brittany about a girl’s weekend to LA which I am excited to plan. I also got a call from Mike, the stationary guy, stating that our save the dates are in. This is official wedding business! This means time to get addresses. Next week Matt and I plan to finalize the cake lady, a DJ, tuxes, and register.

On an uplifting note – Brittany and I tutored a Lost Boy while at the University of Arizona through a community service organization. His name was Eric and it was a great experience. Since then, I have had a special place in my heart for the Lost Boys. They are such fantastic individuals to be able to go through what they did and to emerge as well as they did. It is too bad after 9/11 Lost Boys were no longer allowed in the United States. So I was pleased to read on CNN that a Lost Boy was going to lead the US Olympians in to Beijing. I was going to boycott the Olympics for various reasons, but I may tune in tonight to watch the opening ceremonies.

See the story at: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/07/flag.bearer/index.html

A picture is worth a thousand words

2008-08-06T12:37:00.000-07:00

I know I know who cares who we pick to be our wedding photographer. Well I care a lot. I think I have actually paid more attention to my photographer than my dress, flowers, cake, hotel, and honeymoon combined. You see finding a GREAT photographer within the budget that Barry and I have set for it has been a struggle. Many of the great photographers in the LA/OC area have an experience fee. An experience fee? I just want someone to come to my wedding and take amazing photos of us, our family and friends and give me them all to me on a high res DVD so I can print them out to my hearts content. So after contacting 100+ photographers in the LA/OC area I started to get depressed that I would not find one that I loved and was within our budget. But I did find a photographer that I really liked her work and she was kinda within our budget (what is an extra $500 at this point). So I contacted her to set up an appointment to meet with her because that’s what all the planning books tell you to do. So we met with her and as we left I would say I was 99.999% sure we would book her to photograph our wedding. But now I am 100% sure that she will NOT be the photographer at our wedding. So you are probably thinking what the heck has happened since that meeting. Well I will tell you what has happened and that is nothing. She was supposed to email me with some references, a link to a full wedding, and some other things and to this day I have nothing. So a week after our meeting I was still holding out hope so I sent her a follow up email reminding her that I still didn’t have any of the info she was supposed to send and now over a month since our meeting I still have NOTHING. I have taken her off the list because I want a photographer who is easy to get in touch with (no I’m not going to be BRIDEZILLA but when I am paying that much for your services I accept some half way decent customer service.) So I am/was back a square one.

So being back at square one SUCKS but I was gung ho about finding a photographer. Lucky for me I read message boards on tons of wedding sites and look for recommendation from women who have been married and have had good enough results that they would put it on the internet for all to see. That’s how I found Julia. So after looking at her photos and blog I sent an email asking for her package pricing and when I got an email back within 2 hours we were already off on the right foot. I called her and we talked for about an hour about all things wedding related and about ourselves. She not only showed interest in photographing my wedding but also in us as a couple. Julia is not your standard wedding photographer. Julia is a lawyer. Now many of you might know this but 3 people in our bridal party are wannabe lawyers but I found Julia’s blog/website/recommendation on the last day of the bar for 2 out of the 3 people in our bridal party. Is this a sign? I think so. Julia has responded to my emails quickly, let me give my two cents about her blog entries, and has even sent me more ideas that might work for my wedding. So now you are probably asking why we haven’t booked her yet. Well you see I want to book Julia but I am nervous we haven’t met in person and lets face it her photos will hang in our home and the homes of our families (if they so choose) for generations to come. So I’m at a cross road do I take the leap of faith and book the photographer without meeting her or do I wait and try to find sometime to meet with her but there is no guarantee that I or she will have the time when we are home for the holidays?

Oh the joys of planning a wedding from a far.

One of my must take photos. I wanna see the BLING!!

some kind of wonderful…

2008-08-05T10:11:00.000-07:00

I think I am in a bit of a funk. A lot of little things that wouldn’t piss me off are, I don’t have the motivation to do a whole bunch and I have caught myself slipping into old ways lately. I really have no idea what my issue is but I have one guess and it has to do with the quality of sleep I have been getting. You see we have been sleeping in the guest room as it has been way to HOT to sleep in our master bedroom. Many might think this is not a problem and easily fixed but when it is still 100 degrees outside all night and your bedroom doesn’t cool down enough you have to make due with the other options you have. So for about a month now we (Barry, me and LILLY) have all been sharing a full size bed. This worked in college – in fact twin beds worked in college but now that we are a little older with wake up times before noon this no longer works. We have our comfy queen bed just sitting there waiting to be used until it A. getting cooler (maybe by October) B. we go and buy another fan for the master bedroom or C. crank up the A/C to freeze out the other rooms of the house so our master bedroom can be cooled down. The way we see there are two legitimate options and those are A & B as if we did C our electric bill would easily jump above the 300 dollar mark (not cool, not cool at all APS). And after sharing the full size bed for about a month I really think option B is the only option that will work for us. So this weekend I plan on going out and buying another fan (hopefully one that will do the job) and move back into my master bedroom and my LARGER than a full Queen bed. Hopefully this will change the funk I am in.

On a brighter note this weekend was “some kind of wonderful…” We got a lot done but also did a lot of nothing. Barry had his first Saturday off in about a month and we spent the day cleaning. In the morning we took off and went to Walmart (yeah I have no moral dilemma with shopping there – lets face it, it isn’t going away anytime soon and if I can save a few bucks I will). We needed cleaning supplies. As I filled the cart with TONS of cleaning supplies Barry so politely asks if he should call the City of (town we live in) and let them know that we will be cleaning the whole city today. HAHA I am going to marry a funny one. After that we went home and cleaned the whole house top to bottom – well maybe middle to bottom as the top floor didn’t need any cleaning. We finished with plenty of time to shower and rest up before we headed to the Scottsdale to meet up with Rachel for dinner at PF Changs.

On our way to dinner the 101 was closed at the 60 so we ended up taking side roads all the way there. It was so nice to see Rachel and to catch up on all the gossip and news of women and men who I/we have spent many a nights with drinking and having a good time. Rachel also offered to let 5+ college alum sleep on her floor for the home football games. She has even invited Lilly to come and stay to so looks like this fall our trips to Tucson on Saturday’s will not end once the game does but in fact continue at the bars after the football teams victory. Rachel has also offered to help with the wedding as she is a way better planner than I and she has some way better ideas than I do too. I love Rachel and we wish we could see her more and this Fall it looks like we will see each other so much that she might get sick of seeing me.

After dinner we thought it would be a good idea to stop by the grocery store and pick up some drinks and invite some friend over for a little late night gathering. We were all hanging out upstairs and with a blink of an eye the boys (Barry, Ryan, Sam, Chris, and Alan) were all down stairs drinking, and I mean DRINKING. After about an hour we heard a loud laugh and Pearl looks up and goes “yep Sam’s drunk.” I love it how when couples have been together for 5+ years we can tell that our love is drunk based on a laugh. Also that night Pearl and I got a talking about how we need to go to downtown LA. I don’t know if you all know this but I LOVE downtown LA and all the good deals that can be found there. So we are determined to have a GIRLS weekend trip to LA. So who is with us (if you don’t want to talk about weddings and wedding planning for at least 48 this isn’t the trip for you)? At about 1am everyone left, Barry and I crawled into our little bed for some sleep.

Sunday was LAZY. The only thing we had to do was go to the grocery store. The rest of the day was spent napping, watching TV, playing video games or blankly staring into space pretending to watch someone play video games. Weekends like this are good the only thing that makes them not GREAT is the fact that they end and a new work week starts.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and has a good (well as good as it can be) work week.

xoxox

britt

It is over!

2008-08-01T07:23:00.000-07:00

It is over, so over. I feel as though I have emerged from a deep, dark hole, hung-over. The two days, 12 hour test was not fun at the slightest. The MBE (200 multiple choice questions) was terrible; I almost had a breakdown after the first 30 questions because I think I got the first 29 wrong, really. The test is not fun. My favorite question is: “which argument is the strongest?” So all four choices are correct, you just need to find the most correct one. That is fun. Now we have to wait until October to find out the results. There will be lots of prayers until then.

The test ended on Wednesday. Matt and I returned to Phoenix to hang out with friends. We are thankful for such great friends: Brittany and Barry surprised us with a bottle of champagne, Eric drove us (keep in mind everyone had to work the next day), and Ryan, Jeff, and Chris came to celebrate with us. We also met up with April and her friends at Dos Gringos. It was great to hang out with friends again stress-free. Thank you to all who celebrated with us!

We had to wake up at 5:00 on Thursday to make our 7:30 flight out of Phoenix to Omaha. We were picked up by Eric, who drove the night before – we are very thankful for great friends. We arrived in Omaha and it is HUMID. But it is great to be back. I am excited to go boating, water skiing, and Barbie’s wedding!! I woke up at 7:00 this morning and went to the gym with her. She is going to have a great wedding.

As I said, it is great to be back as I am typing in my area of the house, the basement. A toad is trapped in our window well, poor guy. I will free him soon. There have been lots of critters trapped through the years: rabbits, toads, neighbor’s dog, and such. I free most, and once negligently ended the life of a toad. So I am hoping to successfully free this guy.

I love being home and look forward to seeing friends and family. I am excited to return to Phoenix bar-free. Brittany and I will have some major wedding planning to do. And hopefully Mike, the stationary guy, will send me the proof for the save-the-dates. For now, I am enjoying life guilt-free.
-Jen

Pumpkins or Bridesmaids?

2008-07-30T10:47:00.000-07:00

What color grey (or is it gray)? Long? Short? Bow? Bubble hem? Beading? Lace? OMG (please read not like a valley girl but a woman who never thought BM (bridesmaid not to be confused with the bridesmen that will be at our wedding) dresses was so complex.

When I first started this whole wedding planning process I thought I would have all my BM in a nice summery orange color dress. I was convinced finding the right shade of orange would be easy because in my little mind their were two shades of orange: burnt orange, the kind you see in fall and orange orange, the kind you see the rest of the year. So for about a year I was set on finding orange orange, but than I read an article about hideous BM dresses that Brides make the women they love wear. A quote in the article said that a group of women all wearing pink “looked like the row of Pepto Bismol bottles at the grocery store.” WOW can you imagine if that is what your guests thought of your BM? So I had a vision of my guest saying that my BM looked like a row of little PUMPKINS all lined up standing next to me. So with the pumpkin imagine still firm in my head I convinced my cousin, Amanda, to go BM dress shopping with me one day while she was out in Arizona visiting. We went to a local bridal shop and pulled a few dresses that we liked (none of which were orange) and we found a couple that might work but I still wanted to see what she would look like in an orange dress. So Amanda being the nice cousin that she is, usually looking great in anything, put on the orange dress that matched my vision the best. Amanda came out of the dressing room and there in front of me stood a PUMPKIN a very HOT pumpkin but a pumpkin none the less. So we looked at each other and I said “We need another color, this orange is not working.” With that we brain stormed and came up with grey and little did we know at the time that we were choosing the HOTTEST new color of the season.

Surely finding a gray dress will be easier than finding an orange one. Hopefully we can find a designer who all the girls (only 3) like and a dress they like and than we all like/agree on his/her gray. And a bigger hope of mine is that my ladies can also wear their gray dresses again because lets face it gray is a little more elegant than the orange color I was originally going with. So now we need to find BM dresses (as my mom has instructed)– but I guess I/we should formerly ask our Bridal party first.

xoxox

britt

Oh and if you want to know about Grey vs. gray here is a good link... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey

Weekend Celebrations

2008-07-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

This weekend was so fun. I want to first start out by saying Happy Birthday to Sam. Sam is getting old but so are all of us and I am still pleased to be one of, if not the youngest in our core group of friends. So Happy Birthday Sam.

Friday afternoon was a good time for a little Happy Hour. Our only reader from Leesville has come back home to the G-town and wanted a little Mexican food and some good drinks. So with that in mind our resident food guru (Mr. Bach) suggested Mucho Gusto. Now I love Mucho Gusto and their yummy margaritas and Mexican pizza so I was more than game to tag along. So we spent a couple hours hanging out drinking and chatting. Friday night was nice. Barry and I just hung out at home just the two of us. Most of you who read this know that Barry has been working some crazy long hours and for us to just hang out and watch some TV it is nice. We went to bed early for a Friday but it was nice to catch up on some sleep and plus Barry had to wake up early Saturday for another fun field day at the bank.

I feel like I got so much accomplished for a Saturday. Barry was up early so I too was up early. I hung out on the couch with Lilly for a while than decided it was my time to get up and out of the house. So I decided I would go to Michaels and this place called Kelly Paper. I guess I should back track a little. With the wedding less than a year away and considering our wedding location we feel we need to get our Save the Dates out as early as possible so I have been working with Mike (the paper guy) to get the design done so they can get in the mail. So off to Michaels and Kelly Paper, I went in search of various items needed to “test” out my (well really Martha’s) design. I got all the stuff I needed and I even got myself a sticker/magnet/laminator to save myself some time in this whole wedding planning process. So since I had all the time in the world I went back to see Mike (second time in two days – yeah he thinks I’m crazy) to get a post card to test it out. Went home got it all assembled and sent out the “test” to my mom. Now it is a wait and see game to determine if that design is a go.

On Saturday night we were all going out for Sam’s Birthday. Once again our resident food guru suggested a place to eat. Now I am fine with trying new places but this place was in SCARY Phoenix with crack heads and homeless people walking around and it was getting dark. So after determining our wait was going to be about an hour and forty five minutes we decided to go to Radio Milano. Radio Milano was a safe bet: we knew the food would be good, the drinks would be fun, and the atmosphere would be nice. Just like we had thought all those things were GREAT but the service SUCKED. Our waiter was bad, really bad. I had ordered a second drink and never got it, bread was asked for that took forever to come, water was slowing coming and not one plate ever got taken off the table, among other things. So when we got the check we started figuring out who owed what (said waiter said he could split it but turns out he couldn’t) than between 5 and 10 minutes later he comes back and said he gave us the wrong check. Yeah the only thing different on check #2 was his 20% gratuity. At this point we needed to talk with a manager and ask her to take the gratuity off the bill. So in a rookie move she took care of the whole thing and we all walked out of the restaurant feeling a little weird about her paying for the whole bill. But we all got over it quickly and moved on to Drift to end our night celebration with a few drinks and laughs.

Sunday was a lazy day. We didn’t wake up until noon when one of our cell phones rang. So seeing what time it was we got up and got ready and made our way to Chandler Mall for some lunch, to get my ring cleaned and to watch a movie with Barry’s brothers. We saw X files which is not a good movie in my opinion but I have never seen an X Files episode in my life so I am not the best judge of how this movie is. Sunday night was just TV watching and getting ready for the work week ahead.

So I hope everyone in reader land had a good weekend and has a good week. I would like to send out a little love to Jen and Matt who will be taking the Arizona Bar Exam on Tuesday and Wednesday. Good Luck we know you both will do great and Barry and I can’t wait to celebrate Wednesday night when you get back from T-town.

Matt, Jen, Britt, & Barry at the Sun's game for Matt's Birthday.

xoxo

britt

What the World Needs

2008-07-27T12:20:00.000-07:00

What the world needs now (besides love) is a bit more tolerance, specifically religious tolerance. I do not like to wear my religion on my sleeve, but I feel the need to get this out before I criticize. I was born and raised Catholic and I now attend church weekly. Not that this is what qualifies me to have an opinion, but I am a proud and happy Catholic.

I am very tolerant about other religions, in fact, I love that the world is rich with so many varieties of religion. Not one religion works for everyone and if someone finds a religion or spirituality that makes them a happy and good person, I think that is fantastic. I am happy I found that in Catholicism and I hope everyone finds something that works for them.

What brought this blog on: I do not like it when I am told in my Catholic Church to “evangelize.” Catholics are Christians (anyone who believes in Christ is a Christian) and have been doing this since the time of Jesus. I think we know how to worship. I am willing to talk about my religion to others who ask and I will show it through my every day actions, but I am not going to say grace before dinner in a restaurant to show people that I am Catholic. That is superficial. I know what is in the Bible. I know in Matthew it is stated to go and make disciples of all nations. It comes down to interpretation. The Catholic Church for years has used actions and love to spread the Word, not “evangelizing.” This is the state of religion in the United States, whoever can shout and yell the loudest about their religion wins. I do not think so.

And I also resent the fact that religion is used in politics. How dare politicians use a person's religious fervor to advance their own political cause. I agree that religions and political beliefs can overlap at times, but how dare they use religion to get a vote. That is cheap. There are religious, spiritual people of all brands of political parties.

Religion is not something to brag about or to shove in other people’s faces. It is easy to speak about religion, but harder to show it in actions. This is why some nuns no longer wear their habits, because they choose to show love through actions and some do still wear it because they are comfortable in it and that is great too. One person’s religion is not better than another’s choice. No individual is going to “hell” because their choice of religion – and I have heard individuals state this and I wish those individual realize this is what the Islamic fundamentalists believe. I went to a private Catholic school and loved it. One of the required classes I had to take was World Religions and it was a great class. I grew to appreciate Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and so forth. Each religion has great things about it and we could learn from each. If we could all appreciate one another’s choice of religion, things would run much smoother. Religion is about love, not judging others. I think that is God’s job.

P.S. – Great homily today at Mass about King Solomon and it is pertinent to taking the bar on Tuesday and Wednesday. King Solomon asked God for wisdom, that he may be able to rule wisely. The Priest noted that many people ask him to pray for football games, safe vacations, all sorts of things, but rarely does one ask for wisdom. Wisdom is not only about intelligence, but showing humility and making good choices as well as decisions. With that, I hope God graces all of us taking the Bar with wisdom this upcoming week.

-Jen

Candy "Bombs"

2008-07-25T19:38:00.000-07:00

It is nice to hear a heart-warming story about the US, especially since there are so many negative news stories. Here is an uplifting story that aired tonight on ABC World News about the Berlin Airlift:

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5453206

Author Andrei Cherny is featured in the news clip as well.

-Jen

Blog Band Wagon...

2008-07-25T11:11:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong we love to read about what our friends and family are doing but since Jen and I have started our Blog we have noticed many of our readers who happen to be friends have also started their own blogs. We think it is GREAT that you too would like an outlet for your thoughts and daily banter but just remember who started this trend. Yes that is CORRECT the two smartest, independent, beautiful, etc. women in the world.

So with that we would love to link your blog (if we determine it is worthy) to our own. So leave a comment with your blog address if you think we would enjoy reading your daily happenings.

xoxox
britt

Soon...

2008-07-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

While Matt and I were studying last night (I was doing PMBR Constitutional Law questions, very depressing), the electricity went out. We knew it was not going to come back on when we heard the sirens outside. I was also perplexed because back in the Midwest, the electricity only seems to go out when there is a big thunderstorm and that was definitely not the case last night.

Matt called Barry, we packed up our books, drove over to Brittany and Barry’s house, and stayed the night. You forget how vital electricity is, especially since it took us a few minutes to figure out how to manually open the garage door… And we definitely did not get electicity back for awhile - someone hit the electricity box with his car, which when I saw that, all I could think about was private necessity, trespass to land, etc. It was like a multiple choice question had come to life. Then I thought there was definitely an issue of negligent infliction of emotional distress. Ahh! At their house, we watched the the Diamondbacks lose to the Cubs, which was annoying too, but at least the Diamondbacks won the series.

I did not have a hard time falling asleep last night, but I did not have pleasant thoughts. Elements of crimes and torts, community property definitions, and then hearing “dooooooooooing” business for civil procedure kept running through my head. It was not in an organized manner either; my thoughts would jump from subject to subject randomly. I can not wait until next week, in which I will probably forget everything all over again.

Looking forward to: movies, dinner with friends without outlines, golf, unpacking, scrap booking, playing my guitar hero…

Days until day one of the Bar: 5

-Jen

Off to a GREAT start.

2008-07-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

So today has been a fun day already. Well I guess I should back track a little bit. So on Tuesday a dummy light in my car came in and after a little investigating on my part I found out this dummy light was saying to me “Hey dummy you need to get yourself some new breaks.” So I call the car dealer and schedule my appointment for Wednesday afternoon. After running a little late I get my car in and Scott (my service specialist) tells me an estimate of $200 but I politely remind Scott that he told me this would need to be fixed and quoted me $500 last time so whatever it is just a quote. So I am sitting there waiting for Barry to come get me (the car will have to spend the night at the Chandler dealership as opposed to in her Gilbert abode) Scott comes over and says to me “well it looks like it is going to be about $700.” Ouch is what I thought but I politely smiled and said to Scott “well it has to get done; these are my breaks we are talking about.” So with that I sealed my fate at having a $700 repair bill to deal with but lucky for me I didn’t have to deal with it tonight and I got a “free” car wash out of the deal. So at about 5:00 Scott calls to tell me the GOOD news. My care repair bill will only be $599 and some change and that he was happy he could save me a little over a hundred dollars. WOW what a deal I thought but than I remembered the original estimate of about $200 oh wait no $500 and realized I hate having to spend my money on LAME things like tires (which I had to do about a week ago), breaks, and any other car related expense. So that is how my day ended yesterday.

Today I go to pick up my clean car with new breaks and go to the cashier lady hand her my new debit/credit card and she tells me it is declined. WHAT? I don’t understand but I hand her my other card and am completely embarrassed by what happened but also know that there is plenty of money in that account to cover the $599 and some change charge I was trying to run, that is unless someone had gotten a hold of our account and drained it (highly unlikely considering Barry check the balance every morning and gives me an update on how much interest we earned the pervious day). So I get in my car still embarrassed and call Barry – he will have some answers for sure – and tell him my whole saga, of course I was being really dramatic and trying to stay calm. So I ask Barry to call the bank (not Bank of America) and find out what the deal is and they inform him that the account has a max amount that can come out in any given day and that it is X number of dollars (I don’t know what X is but WTF). So Barry tells the lady that when we signed up for the account we had asked it to be at Y amount (Y is much larger than X and would have covered my repair bill and not have caused me the embarrassment of this morning) so she changed it to Y so hopefully those situations are behind us and we will never have a card declined again. I just don’t get how people with no money in their accounts and always get declined get over the embarrassment.

So hopefully the rest of today will be better and my red cabbage salad is ready to have with tonight’s dinner because I am really excited to see how this recipe turns out.

xoxo
britt

Defeating the Communists with Candy

2008-07-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

Kind of.

Author Andrei Cherny wrote about the Berlin airlift in his new book The Candy Bombers. Mr. Cherny works in the Arizona Attorney General's Office, in the division I interned last summer. It is interesting how themes repeat throughout history and only if we could learn from them. After WWII, the United States was the moral authority and leader in the world with its impeccable performance with difficult situations. It is too bad the United States, in recent years, has given the world a reason to question its moral authority, with Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, water boarding (note that some Japanese soldiers during WWII were prosecuted for water boarding US troops, it is most definitely torture, thank you Senator McCain for voting for the torture bill), extraordinary rendition, the "CIA torture flights" and other things. The US did not do this kind of low-level stuff during WWII, which that War was perhaps the biggest threat to modern democracy. Remember the Nuremberg Trials to prosecute the Nazis? Seems like amuch better idea than locking "terrorists" up in some random prison.

Story about Mr. Cherny's book in The Washington Post today:

From Berlin to Baghdad

By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, July 23, 2008; Page A15

The city is in dire straits -- its economy shattered, its citizens desperately hungry. Random violence is rising, electricity is sporadic. Three years after the invasion, hope for a brief occupation has faded. The mission is to build democracy from the ruins of dictatorship, but sober analysts question whether a flaw in the national character makes freedom unattainable.

This is not Baghdad 2008 but Berlin 1948, which makes the reunified German capital a particularly fitting venue for Barack Obama's speech tomorrow. The lush Tiergarten where Obama will speak was then a wasteland where Berliners struggled to grow vegetables in the shadow of the bombed-out Reichstag.

Sixty years ago this month, Berlin stood on the pivot point of history. The Soviet Union choked off food and fuel for the western sector of the divided city. The United States launched an improbable mission to supply it by air.

And a Utah farm boy named Hal Halvorsen, flying C-54 Skymasters in the relentless shuttle, made an impulsive promise to the scrawny children gathered behind the barbed wire fence at Berlin's Tempelhof airport: He would drop some candy for them. Operation "Little Vittles" eventually delivered tons of chocolate, attached to tiny parachutes fashioned from handkerchiefs.

The story of the Berlin Airlift and Halvorsen's mission is told in "The Candy Bombers," a new book by Democratic strategist Andrei Cherny. If the plural of anecdotes is not data, the stacking of historical analogies is not sound policy. Yet, as Cherny writes, "Their story has powerful resonance for our own time. In confronting the Berlin blockade, America went to battle against a destructive ideology that threatened free people around the world. In a country we invaded and occupied that had never had a stable democracy, we brought freedom and turned their people's hatred of America into love for this country, its people, and its ideals."

The lessons of the Berlin Airlift are anything but simple, which is what makes it such a useful historical moment. Cherny's book is something of a Rorschach test on Iraq: The message readers receive may depend on the mindset with which they arrived.

Thus, Obama can rightly point to the airlift as evidence that maintaining America's moral voice is an essential component of its foreign policy. The United States stands to gain as much from a modern-day Candy Bomber as it risks losing from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Those who doubt the capacity of government, in the aftermath of Katrina, to mobilize quickly and implement deftly can take heart from the example of organizational whiz Bill Tunner, who turned a slapdash operation incapable of supplying Berlin into a precision drill that kept the beleaguered city going through a long winter.

The rest of the article can be read at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/22/AR2008072202113.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

-Jen

Finding "the One"

2008-07-22T19:06:00.001-07:00

I picked up my bridesmaid dress for Barbie’s wedding yesterday and then I shipped it this morning. I am good at stressing myself out and I have definitely done that with this dress. I can not carry it on the plane when we fly back unless I pack it in a carry-on and I did not want to put it in a checked bag. Thus, I shipped it with super insurance. Barbie gets married the Saturday after the bar, three days after the nasty test. (Barbie is my best childhood friend and I have known her since we were babies; we were also neighbors. I do not know what my life would have been like without her!)

I had my first nightmare of the summer the other night. It was not about the bar, which I am perplexed why I have not had a dream about that disaster yet. My dream was about the bridesmaid dress. I dreamt that the day of Barbie’s wedding the dress was missing – it never arrived. I did not have the heart to tell Barbie until right before we had to walk down the aisle. Oh what a catastrophe!

The bridal shop that did the alterations for the bridesmaid dress, Suzanne’s Bridal in Gilbert, is great. Both Brittany and I like the store and will probably get our wedding dresses there. But they freaked me out. When I took Barbie’s bridesmaid dress in for alterations, I told the lady when my wedding is and she told me I should order my dress soon. Yikes! There is no way I am going to find a wedding dress during bar season. But the pressure is on.

What if I never “find the one?” I have tried on various dresses, which I definitely like some a lot more than others. And there are a couple of dresses I really like. One I think could possibly be the winner. It is a lot of pressure to find a wedding dress. I do not want to buy one just because time is running out. Do you immediately know when it is the one or does it take time to let it sink in? Do all girls find “the one?” Or am I just expecting too much?

I think Brittany’s theory is correct. Some girls, when they try on “the one,” those present with her (mothers) cry. I think this is interesting; after all, it is just a dress. Her theory is that for some mothers, the most important thing in life is for their daughter to get married and have the perfect wedding dress. I know my mother will not cry when I find “the one” and for that, I am thankful to save me from the embarrassment and that she had bigger dreams for me. I know she will be excited and happy for me, but there is more to life than getting a wedding dress, although it is very exciting.

Also, to those spectator women in bridal shops, stop making elaborate comments about a stranger and the dress she is trying on. I do not care about your sundry opinions about the dress I currently have one and which one you like the most, especially if it is a negative opinion! If you make comments, only share friendly opinions.

Do not get me wrong – I am very excited to find a wedding dress, and I think I have already found "the one," the most important one, Matt. That is all that matters in the end, right?

And there may be tears if I pass the Bar.

-Jen

Life after the BAR

2008-07-21T13:28:00.000-07:00

I did not introduce myself properly earlier, which I easily become passionate about current events and have a lot of opinions (as many others do as well). One of my law school professors told me, “I am very thoughtful” – hopefully she meant that as a compliment! The first websites I visit in the morning are all the major news sites, so there will be various other current event postings… I am just interested in current events and politics, always have.

Just a little about me: I finished law school at the University of South Dakota in May of 2008 and have been studying or thinking about studying ever since. My fiancé, Matt, graduated from law school from Drake University School of Law in May of 2008. After spending three years over two hundred miles apart, it is great to be living in the same city again. The long distant relationship was not fun.

We met each other at the University of Arizona. We were initially friends, but soon that friendship grew into something more. In October of 2003, we began dating. After four plus years of dating, we are still very happy with each other and I can not imagine being with anyone else.

I also met Brittany at University of Arizona when we were roomies. The times we had in #405 are still some of the best! We are now older (getting too old!) and are planning our weddings together. We will continue to show are U of A love as being crazy, old, ugly-earring-wearing, Alumni. I can not wait for football season!

Currently, Matt and I, yes both of us, are studying for the bar exam. I suppose that if we can make it through this summer, both studying, without any major disasters, then marriage will be easy, right? Well, after over four and half years dating, three of which were long-distant during law school, and while during the bar, I think we will be just fine with whatever marriage brings us.

I can not wait for life after the Arizona Bar Exam. It has been a long summer. I hope not to do this again.

What I am looking forward post-Bar:

1. Barbie’s wedding!
2. Guilt-free wedding planning – finding a wedding dress!
3. Guilt-free pool time
4. Finding a JOB
5. Being nice and patient again
6. Seeing friends guilt-free

I am sure there are many more pleasure to look forward to, but I do not want to tempt myself right now.

Days until the Bar: 7
Days until freedom: 9
Days until Barbie’s wedding: 12

P.S. Matt and I also booked the hotel room for Brittany and Barry's wedding. I am very excited and can not wait!!

-Jennifer

Sunday Funday

2008-07-20T19:22:00.001-07:00

Today was a GREAT day, it was far better than yesterday. This weekend was a productive one too. Last night (I think one of the only highlights of Saturday) was that we booked the hotel room for the wedding night. It was fun to know we had a place to stay the night we get married and the night after and also a place for Barry to hang out with his groomsmen before the wedding.

Sunday was awesome. We woke up Sunday morning and Barry got us some ice coffees (yeah we are addicted to them), we hung out watched some TV, Barry played me a couple potential wedding songs and than we decided to donate some of our clothes to get them out of our house and clear someway for more shopping. After that we got to hang out in the pool at Jen and Matt’s house and BBQ some burgers and hot dogs. It is always nice to hang out with friends on Sunday Funday. Barry and Matt were so envious of OUR blog that they too wanted one so I set them up with their own. Check it out at tuiheisman.blogspot.com. Tonight Barry is at the movies with Ryan and Chris and I am just hanging out enjoying the time will Lilly. The weekends are always nice but never long enough and I think this might have been the last time we hang out with Jen and Matt until after they PASS the bar on Wednesday, but we know there will be plenty more Sunday Funday by the pool.

In honor of our boys getting their own blog I will leave you with this photo of their and some of their blog readers’ backs at a local Gilbert bar.

xoxo

Brittany

Becoming a Lawyer...

2008-07-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Let me start with my favorite lawyer joke: While doctors were using leeches on their patients, lawyers were writing the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

While studying for the bar, it is hard to keep myself motivated. I have a statute of “Lady Justice” sitting by my computer, and yet, sometimes I just want to throw it. I try to motivate myself by using encouragement and admiration for the law. We are a country of laws, where the Rule of Law prevails. We are blessed to have a nation with a strong tradition of following the laws, as many young democracies fail with this requirement, due to the fact that they do not hold their own leaders accountable for violating their country’s laws. But for all those previous lawyers creating our laws, we would not be where we are today. The great Framers of our country, most of them lawyers, had incredible foresight and left us a living Constitution so we could deal with any problems that arise in our great Nation.

I understand why people have animosity towards lawyers, but it is also frustrating. The “ambulance chasing” lawyers do not perform any service to the profession or the community. I, too, get very frustrated with the terrible and misleading lawyer television commercials; I am a firm believer in free speech, but I think one ought to be responsible with it too.

Many individuals dislike their lawyer, but love their family doctor. Why do only lawyers get such a bad reputation? What about those doctors advertising Botox to the college-age community or those doctors promoting unnecessary plastic surgery? Hello Dr. 90210!! There are doctors telling young individuals that if she starts “botoxing now,” she will have fewer wrinkles in the future. I think that is just as bad as those “ambulance chasing” lawyers. There are both good lawyers and doctors as well as bad lawyers and doctors. But why do lawyers get the worst reputation?

I think that lawyers do not get enough credit. Lawyers are highly encouraged through the American Bar Association and their local state Bar to do a certain amount of Pro Bono hours, meaning provide free legal service, and if they can not do that, then to donate money to something like a free legal clinic. The profession strives to help the community by providing free service among other requirements and yet has a very poor reputation.

Hospitals, on the other hand, are not required to give any free service; they happen to give free service when patients cannot pay the bills. Non-profit status is given to charitable organizations because the organizations give back to the community and for that service, receive federal tax exemptions. Most of the hospitals in the country are non-profit. I wrote a paper about non-profit hospitals, which non-profit hospitals are not required to provide any charitable service! The tax code has long since removed any such obligation for the hospitals. Granted, hospitals do write off a lot of losses, but this write-off is after the fact. But maybe, just maybe, if the medical industry was not ran like a business, maybe the prices would come down. Just a thought.

I know. There is a federal law, EMTALA, where hospital emergency rooms can not turn away a patient in the ER and also cannot “patient dump” to a different hospital – obviously for good policy reasons. But this still does not require direct charity.

I have a high level of respect for doctors and the medical profession, but I just wish people had the same level of admiration for lawyers. After all, lawyers and doctors receive equivalent degrees, each a doctorate degree and both are professionals in the community.

-Jennifer

How did the Wedding come about?

2008-07-18T09:24:00.000-07:00

So you all know that we are planning a wedding so I thought I would share a little about the propsal and the groom with you all. Barry (the groom) and I “met” dead day eve of Spring 2003. I was completely wasted and hanging out with a large group of friends at Barry’s apartment. I didn’t know Barry but his first words to me were “Shut the F@#$ up.” Yeah that was my first interaction with my future husband. But fast forward a summer to August 2003 and we ran into each other again at a party in my apartment complex and well the rest is history (although it had a slow start at the beginning).

We got engaged on June 8, 2007 and it was perfect Barry. We were in Vegas with Jen (co-author of the lovely blog) and Matt (co-author’s envious fiancé of our blog) and after a long day in the pool drinking pina coladas we went up to take showers and rest up for the night. Well Barry had other plans for us. He told me to get out of bed that he wanted to go down stairs and gamble. So after some coaxing me out of bed I put on some clothes, threw my wet hair into a pony tail and walked out the door with no makeup on. We walked right out of the Monte Carlo down the street to the Bellagio up the elevator to the 33rd floor where Barry assumed would be some GIANT windows over looking the fountains and the Vegas Strip. Wrong. We get all the way up there by way of the VIP elevator and Barry figures why not and starts talking right there in the sitting area off the elevators and drops to his knee and asks me to marry him. Yes I cried – Barry says I’m a crier and I cried because it was official he finally proposed.

We celebrated with some of the “finest” Monte Carlo champagne and went to dinner at the highest quality dining option in Vegas --- ESPN ZONE. Like I said before the proposal was PERFECT Barry, but I wouldn’t change a thing. So that is the story and now we are less than a year from the wedding and over a year since he proposed. But I think that is all for now I should get some work done so I can get outta here.

So I will leave you with a photo of Barry and Me on the flight back to Phoenix the Sunday after we got engaged!

Xoxox

Brittany

Where to Start?

2008-07-14T15:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, we have a blog. I knew Jen had told me she had a couple entries but I didn’t think she actually made it live for all those in cyber space to see. It is kinda cool how this whole blog thing has started for us.

A little back ground if you may. Jen and I met in August of 2002 in Tucson at the University of Arizona. I was an incoming freshman from Southern California who waited to long and was denied on campus housing and Jen was a returning sophomore from South Dakota who already had another roommate. We were “matched” and by that I think they saw female on the leasing application and put us together. We lived together for 3 years until Jen graduated college and went on to law school and in that time period we went through 2 other roommates and the occasional over night guest.

This blog might and will be all over the place as we (Jen and Britt) are a lot alike but a lot different. We are both currently planning weddings to our college sweethearts that are about a month and a half apart (yeah I think Jen’s honeymoon might be my bachelorette party – what do you think Matt?) all while dealing with the stress of day to day life. So sit back and enjoy as this will hopefully be as fun for you as it is for us.

xoxo

Brittany

The BAR

2008-07-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

And I don't mean the fun one.

July 29 and 30 will be the worst two days of my life I’ve determined. Studying for the bar exam is the most utterly depressing experience. I go through a range of emotions from confidence to utter despair, sometimes within a matter of minutes; there are times where I feel incredibly nauseous. The bar is like taking 12 law school classes and having all 12 finals in 1 day (6 hours) and then a multiple choice question test the day after about different laws, the common law. One must study state specific laws and then the common law for the multiple choice exam.

I can deal with most topics – Torts, Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, even Property and Evidence I don’t mind. What really makes me angry and homicidal is CONTRACTS. I love how instructors tell you “don’t try to improve your contracts score on the MBE (multiple choice) because the questions are too tricky.” What??? Lame.

During this process, I have noticed that I have become an increasingly impatient, irrational, and mean person. This “bar studying Jennifer” is not the normal Jennifer. Little things irritate me beyond belief – I am surprised Matt and I have made it this far without a major fight. Thus, I apologize to anyone who may encounter “mean Jennifer.” Studying two months for a two day test will do that to a person, and I am not sure if I will be nice until the results are in, which is sometime in October. .

Countdown: 22 days until doom.

My advice – NEVER go to law school. :-(

-Jennifer

Support the Troops

2008-07-02T13:23:00.000-07:00

Throughout history, patriotism ebbs and flows. In recent years, if one spoke out about the country, the individual was “not patriotic” and this angers me. This term is thrown around as an insult to undermine what an individual is advocating. The Founding Fathers (though those wives who stayed home on the farm should be given more credit too, but that is a blog for another day), would believe that dissent is the ultimate form of being patriotic. We should be thankful for their dissent, because, but for them standing up for what they thought was right, the United Kingdom would still be our “Mother Country.” (I am currently watching the HBO series on John Adams…)

This brings me to “support the troops.” This is an insult that is also thrown around. If you speak out against the war, then you don’t support the troops. If you don’t agree with the war, you do not support the troops. This is disrespectful and detracts from the troops. I believe there are different ways to “support the troops.” Putting a magnet on a car is not the only way to show support. Supporting the troops is not wearing a flag pin or putting your hand over your heart. Those simple actions are a great way to show support, but the actions can be superficial if that is it. Senator Obama should not have to give a speech about being patriotic; he has shown his love of our country through his public service as a politician and he has done nothing to permit such questions of his dedication.

Senator Clinton, a few years ago, helped sponsor a bill that would have given permanent health care to any individual who was served our country in this capacity, but it was laughed at. And there have been others. Additionally, the new GI Bill has been greeted with resistance from various republicans and Senator John McCain. Any soldier who serves our country should be welcomed home with the same opportunities our WWII troops were given.

What brings me to this topic, as being my first real blog topic, is an article on CNN, “Homeless veterans face new battle for survival.” It is noted that veterans make up almost a quarter of the homeless population and this number is expected to rise. Individuals dismiss the homeless population as being lazy and not deserving of any help. But the homeless population is made up of primarily veterans, former foster care children, individuals who are mentally ill, and others. It is embarrassing that the richest country in the world cannot take better care of its veterans, (the state of some VA hospitals is terrible, we can do better). The federal government is the most competent organ to address this issue; the individual donative person cannot fix these types of problems. They served their country, their country should serve them.

With that, Happy Fourth of July!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/02/homeless.veterans/index.html

-Jennifer