Friday, October 31, 2008

Wedding Ideas

Dane and I have been going through websites and blogs and found a few things I think we're going to try to do for our wedding. We're thinking next fall, so we'll be visiting places in NY when we are home for Thanksgiving and see if anything feels right to us.

I'm not huge on flowers for centerpieces. I think it's kind of a waste to get these beautiful arrangements that will just die in a few days. Not to mention how much they can cost. We really like this idea that I found. It's just a nice glass pedastal with fall things in it. Maybe mini pumpkins, leaves, berries, some apples?


Our good friend Scott also is helping us out with invitations and the rest of our printed materials. He is amazing. He "threw this together" with some of his initial ideas. I love how he can just put something together like this. It's beautiful! I'm sure this won't be the final draft, but it won't need much tweeking. The font our names are in won't be the one he uses. He hasn't gotten the font he wants yet. So picky :)


Today my roommate, Emily, will be doing an engagement photo shoot for us in the park where we got engaged. I love how talented our friends are. Graphic designers, photographers, scrapbookers, it doesn't get much better. It means so much to us that people want to be involved in our wedding!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Dane's Favorite Joke

Once again, this post is attributed to Sam and her amazing ability to find things I love online. Honey, this is for you :)

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Oh, hello!



Yes, I do realize that Sam and I both seem crazy. But, hey, at least we're having fun at work.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Edison, meet Mark

I was reading my friend Sam's blog today, and she made this cute little guy. So of course I couldn't resist making one myself. Sam named hers Mark, I named mine Edison. Get directions for your own little guy here!


Monday, October 27, 2008

Thank you everyone!

Just want to say thank you to everyone for all the congratulations and warm wishes we have gotten over the past three days. It's still all sinking in and we are so happy to have all the love and support we have gotten from our friends and family!

We went out to dinner tonight with Becca and Scott. They're both very happy and Scott is so excited that he wants to design our engagement announcement, save the dates and invitations! He's amazing and definitely has the same taste as we do, so I sent him some of the things I like and told him to go to town. I would absolutely love to have personal touches like that throughout this process. It means so much to us that everyone is so happy and excited to help!

I have a really busy week ahead of me. Tomorrow I'm going to the Dance Team practice (I'm their advisor and they want help drilling the routine). Wednesday is the Coldplay concert (Chris Martin, yaaaaaaaaaay!). Thursday is work until 11:30pm with the Halloween Dance at work. And Friday is Halloween! One of Dane's most favorite days of the year.

Maybe we'll start thinking about some preliminary stuff this weekend. If there's any time!

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Kristen and Dane are engaged!

That's right everyone! This weekend Dane proposed and we are officially engaged. My mom and sister were both here for the weekend, so they got to be here with us for the proposal and to celebrate.

It wasn't easy for Dane to actually get me where he wanted to propose. We were all getting ready to go to Salem for the day. Dane wanted to propose in the park near our house and wanted everyone to be there. Emily's role was to try to get me to walk to the park with her, Ben, Dane, Leslie, my mom, my sister and Mia. I didn't understand why we needed 7 people to walk the dog (my first hint that something was up). I told Emily not to worry about waiting for us, that she should just go walk Mia. But she really insisted that we all come. Even though my car was the opposite direction from the park, and in my mind we were headed to Salem. Anyway, we got to the park and I picked up some sticks for Mia to chase. When I turned around Dane was down on one knee. At this point I just rolled my eyes and told him to get up because he had been joking around with me all week and trying to keep me guessing. I thought he was just messing around again. But no, this was for real! It exactly what I would have wanted, if I had gotten to pick. Just some of my friends and my family around.

Here's right before he took the ring out.

Wait for it....

There it is!

So happy!

Love him!


Here are some close ups of the ring. I'm sure some of you want to see it! I don't even think these do it justice. It's absolutely perfect!



Can't wait to celebrate with everyone! And no we haven't set a date yet, even though we've gotten that question a bunch already. It's only been 24 hours! We're enjoying ourselves and are happy to be together :)

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

An Ode to Step Brothers

I really loved this movie, and since my partner in crime Nino just saw the movie recently since he is in Australia I figured I should share some of my favorite moments.

Brennan: Did we just become best friends?
Dale: YUP!
Brennan: Do you want to go do karate in the garage?
Dale: YUP!

Dale: Can we make our beds into bunk beds?
Brennan: It'll give us so much extra space in our room to do activities.
Robert: You're adults, you can do what you want.
Dale: This is the funnest night ever!

Brennan: How is that even a skill?

Dale: What are you doing?
Brennan: I'm burying you.
Dale: But I'm alive!
Brennan: Shut up! You're waking the neighbors!

Dale: Your voice is like Fergie meets Jesus.

Dale: Did you touch my drumset?
Brennan: Nope.
Dale: Why are you so sweaty?
Brennan: I was watching Cops.

Dale: [whispers] Hey, are you awake?
Brennan: [whispers] Yeah.
Dale: [whispers] I hate your guts.

I feel like I could go on forever. This movie was, in my opinion, Will Ferrell's best movie since Anchorman. I also heard that a sequel to Anchorman is in the making. I don't know if they could ever match the hilariousness from the first one, but we'll see.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Pumpkin Festival

This weekend was CRAZY for me! Family, Friends, and Alumni Weekend at work meant working Friday night, all day Saturday and the morning/afternoon on Sunday. Luckily I have Dane and my roommates to keep me sane, and they made sure I got to sneak some fun into the weekend too.

On Saturday we went to the Life is Good Pumpkin Festival in City Hall Plaza which benefits Campus Sunshine. It was really awesome to see all the pumpkins lit up at night!


Here's a gigantic tower of lit up pumpkins.
Some of the many designs.
One of my favorite pumpkins <3
More pumpkins...
I tried to be like the pumpkins. I'm the wrong color though.

We went to dinner at The Alchemist in JP on Sunday after I napped. Sunday was River Day at work. I raced in a giant old war canoe down the Charles River with some students and my boss. It was a blast, but I ended up getting soaking wet and had to stand out in the cold for a few hours. We won our first race, but lost in the second round. My boss and I are extremely competitive so that was not an easy loss for us. The team that won was amazing! They were a family from NH. Congrats to them! They definitely deserved the win.

I'm looking forward to this weekend! My mom and sister Melissa are coming up on Thursday. Just have to get through the next two days at work then I get some time with them :)

Friday, October 17, 2008

Sarah Palin is NOT my favorite but....

I went to a really interesting lecture yesterday about sexism and racism in the 2008 election. Now, I do not like Sarah Palin. I complete disagree with her politics and her positions on almost every issue. However, this really got me thinking about how she is portrayed in the media. Jennifer Pozner, the lecturer, made some great points and showed this clip.



So, here's my issue. How does any of what he is talking about make her a good candidate? He want her to raise the "cubs" and to be "in bed with him". This is somehow supposed to make us all more likely to vote for her. Maybe it's just me, but I can very honestly say that I don't take those sorts of things into consideration when picking my candidate. I especially enjoy when he says "Before you sell a candidate, whether it's a man or a woman, you have to sell her as a woman". Why? When a male candidate is running, do you have to "sell" that he's a man? That's quite the double standard.

I want to hear the issues! I want to know what these candidates will do for all of us! And I definitely do NOT want someone as VP because they "put on a skirt". Make sure you all vote!

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Thursday means it's Grey's Night!

I'm exhausted today. I barely slept last night and when I woke up at6:45am it was still dark outside. That does not help me wake up at all. Here's what my day has been so far:

6:45am - Get up, hit the snooze button
6:51am - Get up turn off the alarm before it goes off again
7:51am - Head out the door for work after discovering Mia had removed the bandage on her leg (again)
8:33am - Pull into the parking garage at work and park
8:37am - See I have 26 emails in my inbox. Decide to make a cup of tea because I know I'm going to need it.
8:48am - Sit down at my desk again after talking with my co-worker for a bit. Work my tail off on the presentation I'm giving at 4pm.
10:32am - Jenny (my co-worker) calls me. The guest lecturer we have on campus today would like two bottles of water. Can I pick them up on my way over to the event. Sure.
10:37am - Jenny calls me. She also wants tea. What kind? English Breakfast or Earl Grey. What size? Large. Does she want milk? Only if you get Earl Grey.
10:46am - About to walk downstairs to get water and tea when the rep from the yearbook company I work with stops in to chat and bring me some tea of my own (for which I am extremely grateful).
10:58am - Uh-oh I have to go get the tea and water and be at the event in two minutes. Run downstairs. Get water. Get tea. Forgot our account code. Will go back later.
11:03am - Trip on my walk over to the event, spilled some tea, oops.
11:05am - Arrive and give tea to the lecturer. Now taking some time to sit. Count people as they come into the event until 1pm.
1:08pm - Arrive back in the office. I should really eat some food, I'm so hungry. 13 more emails in my inbox after the 26 I answered this morning.
1:35pm - I'm REALLY hungry. I'm going to go make the Mac and Cheese I got from Trader Joe's.
1:36pm - Student drop in with questions.
1:47pm - I'm seriously going to eat now.
1:48pm - Student drop in.
2:05pm - Frantic email about flyers for Alcohol Awareness week. I have to answer it. Messed up a flyer and have to fix it.
2:35pm - SERIOUSLY. I'm stopping everything and eating.
2:43pm - Wow that was really good, I ate it fast.
3:02pm - I messed up the flyer again. Wrong place. Fix it. Send it back. Print out new ones to post.
3:17pm - I messed it up still. Didn't put the date. Where is my head at today?
3:28pm - Fix it for the last time. Throw out the wrong posters. Print the new ones.
3:53pm - Leave the office for presentation I'm giving on Budgeting and Funding for student organizations.
4:44pm - Finish up early. Student talks with me. And talks. And talks.
5:12pm - Finally get back to the office.
5:34pm - Finishing this post and going to meet with the new Ski and Snowboard Club.

After I leave I'm going to a reception for the Children's Art Center where Emily works. It's their 35th anniversary and I'm fond of them after working with Arts in the Park this summer.

Then I can go home and watch Grey's Anatomy. Happy land.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Mmm.... dinner

I absolutely love to cook. So does Dane (a huge perk of having him as my boyfriend). Last night Dane made rice and beans with chicken and chorizo. I think I could eat that forever and be happy. Well, maybe with the occasional Italian dish thrown in. I love my carbs. Anyway, I also like to try new things. So I'm hoping someone out there has a delicious recipe they might want to share with me. I'm hoping for dinner type things here, but would happy to get some dessert/appetizers or whatever else there is out there.

Our meals in the past week or so have included:
Grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and vegetables
Rice and Beans
Fettuccine with olive oil and garlic (Pasta Aioli)
Orange chicken with vegetable fried rice
Homemade chicken soup

We also made 5 dozen pumpkin chocolate chip cookies last week. Then we made apple crisp this week with the apples we picked at the orchard. So the challenge is on, anyone have a good recipe I could try?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Random things I feel everyone should know about

There's some things I think that just need to be shared with everyone. Here it goes.

1. This blog. It always makes me laugh. If you are having a bad day, just take five minutes and look at it.
2. This artist's work. Adorable. Pon and Zi give me the warm fuzzies.
3. My favorite comedian, Jim Gaffigan. Hot pooooockets.
4. The Twilight series. If you haven't read them, please do.
5. The things Google does for us all.

That's all for now.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Pumpkins!


We carved pumpkins! We all sat on the kitchen floor, while Mia walked around us confused and eating any pieces of pumpkin that fell, scooped out the seeds and got to work. They came out great!
And here they are all done! Dane made a little family of the pumpkins outside on our deck. Aren't they just one big happy family? (From left to right: Ben's pumpkin (he was going for a Sarah Palin inspired pumpkin with the wink), Emily's pumpkin, fake pumpkins, my pumpkin, and Dane's pumpkin)

And now for some light up action and close ups.

Ben's pumpkin
Emily's pumpkin
My pumpkin

Dane's pumpkin
The Halloween fun will continue... At least if Dane has anything to do with it!

Stone Zoo

Yesterday we got to go to the Stone Zoo with Jason and Sam. It feels like we hardly ever get to see them, we all get so busy! We were so happy to finally make some time to spend with them for the day. Same and Jason had never been to this zoo, unlike Dane and I, who have now been there three times in less than a year. We saw fun animals, and meerkats!

This guy was all backwards looking while he kind of slept on one foot. He woke up to look at us as we walked by.
We found these other animals too. Well, Sam and I actually brought them into the zoo ourselves. Here they are with totem pole of some sort.

Now this duck wasn't actually part of any zoo exhibit, but he was so cute! We watched him as he was swimming upstream and dunking his head into the water.

We watched the cougars for a long time trying to get the perfect picture. This was about the best I could do with the flash from my camera on the glass. Not too bad though.

Here are the boys again. In all their beast-like glory. Dane looks particularly fierce in this picture.

When we got home from the zoo, Dane and I made a delicious dinner and we decorated the apartment for Halloween. Dane loves all the scary stuff for Halloween. And the best part was that Sam and I decided on an arts and craft project to do together. I can't wait to pick a date and hang out again!

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Scary Weekend Fun

Dane and I went up to NH on Friday night to Haunted Acres. He really has a thing for Halloween related fun and spookiness. There was a 1/4 mile Nightmare Walk, two haunted houses and a maze. Needless to say, by the second thing we did, the Walk, I was scared to death. Dane was just laughing and having fun. Mostly trying to keep me from being horribly scared. Here's some pictures from the "Haunted Town".

So there was this crazy looking deranged bunny walking around, along with other weird costumed people, but the bunny really caught my attention. It's just so weird. So after seeing him take a picture with a family, I decided I needed one too. Dane tapped on his shoulder and asked 'Can my girlfriend take a picture with you?' and the bunny said 'Sure, come on over!'. Good times.



We had a ton of fun, but I was a little too scared to finish and do the maze. We listened to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the whole way there and back. I've read it, but Dane hasn't. So we're up to Chapter 7 now! We watched The Ring 2 and made food.

Today we went to the Stone Zoo with our favorites, Jason and Sam. So fun! More to come :)

Thursday, October 9, 2008

My Little Ponies?

Look at what this artist has done with My Little Ponies! That takes some creativity and dedication. I love the characters! I'm such a nerd. Found these on deviantart.com, by artist Spippo.













Abby in Boston

Look at my niece! Jenna and Rich brought Abby up for her first vacation and her first time out of NY. She liked Boston.








This is her flying around town.








And her many adorable faces. The first is from the car ride to the orchard, the middle is her eating her first apple (though she didn't really eat it, she really just sucked out the juice), and the bottom is her on my bed after she finished crying.














Here's my sister picking some apples and feeding Abby her apple. I couldn't believe how much she liked it!



Wednesday, October 8, 2008

First Post!

I have to thank Sam for getting me into blogging. My inspiration :) Bear with me as I get used to this!

So, Sam and I were talking today on Google chat about going to the zoo and the subject of meerkats came up. I remembered this video of Dane at the Stone Zoo with some meerkats. They really hit it off. He even named one Shakespeare in honor of his favorite meerkat on Meerkat Manor. Here he is interacting with some of them.



Random, I know. But you'll get used to it. Next post will have pictures of my niece and apple picking!

 
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