Silly Californians!

I really wish I'd started blogging about our move to Indiana a year ago, back when some of these funny things happened in real time. It's never as funny a year later, but whatever.

In San Diego, only the rich people have grass. The soil isn't really right for it (lots of clay and salt) and since it's hot and they import all their water from the Colorado River, it's really expensive to water the stuff.

Landscaping in San Diego is a nice mixture of cactus and rocks, for the most part.

In Indy - everyone has grass. There's tons of water. It grows like crazy! Lush and green and wonderful.

Last spring, we seeded the backyard at our rental house and watched as the pretty grass grew. And grew. And grew. We realized that we needed to mow. And to do that... you need a mower.

I figured we could probably get a used lawnmower on craiglist for cheap, and we found a guy who refurbishes them. I'd just recently read an article about lawnmower engines and how inefficent and polluting they are. When the guy said he had an electric mower, I was stoked! We bought it and headed home to mow the lawn.

Yeah.

First off, it didn't charge. You had to plug in an extension cord, which meant when you mowed you had to constantly worry about running over the cord.

As if that wasn't annoying enough, the mower only had an 18" deck. With 1/3 acre (and only 1700 sq ft of that house and deck), Aaron spent a few HOURS mowing the lawn.

He mowed twice. Then we paid a lawncare service for the rest of the summer.

Honeymoon Plans

Aaron and I will be honeymooning in Charleston, South Carolina for 4 nights after we get back from Las Vegas.

The hotel is AMAZING! We're booked at the Renaissance in the historic district. Thank you Accenture for letting me keep my Marriott points from all this stupid traveling.

Our flights aren't the greatest, but hey, they were cheap! The flight out is decent, leave at 10am arrive at 2pm, but the flight home leaves Charleston at 6:45am. YUCK.

The best part - this will be going on. One of our all time favorite things to do in any city!

Man, I am excited. I am glad we decided to do this.

Shoveling Snow

Aaron and I will have lived in Indianapolis one year on January 29th.

I'm reminded of our first two weeks in Indianapolis.

We arrived on a Tuesday night, and it had rained non-stop all the way from St. Louis to Indianapolis. I think we pulled up to the house around 7pm. Our landlord took us out to dinner (see, Midwest people are just different) and it started snowing while we were at the restaurant.

It snowed off and on for the next week or so, and after a few days Aaron decided we needed to shovel our driveway.

Aaron and I were like excited little kids. SNOW! We got bundled up, and dashed out to the garage to get the shovel. It doesn't snow much, or EVER, in San Diego. I think we've had flurries twice in 20 years - but it melted before it even hit the ground.

Aaron starts shoveling like any good Californian would - like you shovel dirt out of a hole. Grab a scoop, throw it sideways over onto the grass. About 1/4 of the way down the driveway, he stops and says "Wow, this is really hard!". He takes off his coat because he's working up a sweat.

Of course, he started shoveling on the side NOT behind the car in the garage, so he had to shovel the whole darned driveway. An hour and EXHAUSTION later, it's done.

Well, we've learned two important lessons about shoveling snow.

First, the proper way to shovel snow is to push the shovel all the way down the driveway and then push the snow off to the side, like a snow plow. Way less expended energy.

Second, most people don't bother to shovel their driveways since winter weather in Indy alternates between 20/snowing and 60/sunny.

If you just wait two days, most of the snow will be melted.

Busy Bee

I've been a busy girl the past few days.

Abby (Aaron's sister) and my friend Trisha inspired me this week and I got a bunch of stuff done for the wedding.

I figured out what I am doing with my hair.
I bought a cake stand.
I decided on some wedding favors.
I ordered a "guest book".
I created a playlist of music for the reception.

Aaron and I will be going next week to get the attendant's gifts.

I feel like I've wrapped up all the little details and we're ready for this! 7 weeks baby!

Meet Clarabell

We couldn't abide by Rockette, so Aaron renamed her Clarabell yesterday. She reminds us of a cow, since her nipples are distended from being bred repeatedly. So far, she's doing pretty well. She's a bit of a spaz but she's already learning the rules of our house.

I think she's housebroken. No accidents inside. She's also great in the crate, although she whines a bit if she's crated and you leave the room.

She's currently snoozing in the papasan chair in my office.

Tomorrow, we'll introduce her to our dogs. So far, they seem like they'll be fine.

SQUEE!

from: Rachael
to: Nichole

9:45 AM (6 hours ago)

Nichole, got your dress pattern altered and ready to go yesterday. Starting on the dress tonight. :)

-R

I also have been talking to the gal who made my necklace, and she's creating a pair of earrings to match (and holding the matching bracelet for me).

Aaron also decided on the attendants gifts. I think he nailed it.

We're also contemplating a wedding favor. Would be super fun for pictures, but it may be more money than we're willing to spend. Although, this is the last time I ever get married, so what's a couple hundred extra bucks for NEVERENDING JOY?

Oh man. Rachael's email made my day. You all can meet her and give her mad props at the wedding.

More Proof Aaron Loves Me

Indy Pit Crew has been working with Indianapolis Animal Care and Control for a while on Pit Bull temperament testing, education, fostering and adopting out the pibbles, etc.

Now there's a new head of IACC, and some things are changing a little bit.

ASTRO (American Staffordshire Terrier Rescue Organization) has two adult female dogs that IACC has been housing until foster homes could be found. They were given until Friday to find a home.

Aaron has agreed that we can foster one of the lovely ladies, Rockette. (Who named her, I don't know)

This may not sound like much, but bringing a foster dog into your house is very stressful. There's integrating the dog with your own pack, oftentimes dealing with a lack of manners and possibly attitude problems. It's usually a while before all the dogs can roam around together, and then you still have to know where each dog is at all times. There's a higher cost for food, vet, etc. Plus, there's the energy change with a third dog... it's like double the craziness of two dogs.

And Aaron's gotta deal with this all by himself for 3 nights a week when I'm not home.

Hopefully this sweet girl will find herself a new home right quick. Regardless, Aaron is a champ and a hero for agreeing to this in the first place.

I've got a good man, and don't I know it every day!

Aaron LOVES me

Look what he bought me for a Valentines/Wedding gift!! He was so proud, he couldn't wait to give it to me (isn't that doubly cute?!?) It's a handmade photobox by SugarBoo designs. It's probably 20"x20"x2", so pretty good sized. I can't wait to put it up!



Isn't that the sweetest sentiment ever? I also ADORE Winnie the Pooh. He said "I thought we could put a little wedding picture in it."

Soooooooo sweet. I cried.

Taking The Plunge

The original dress is officially cancelled. I'm not panicking, really!

I bought a necklace yesterday. I think it will look AMAZING with the dress.

I probably should start considering hair and makeup, and I'll definitely need to get some ahem, undergarments.

Oh my.

Rachael is Awesome.

Seriously, I am so lucky to have such a good friend.

Yesterday we went shopping for fabric. Not that Aaron reads this blog, but I won't tell you what we got. Everyone's just going to have to be surprised.

I will say that I'm cancelling the other dress order.

I think the dress Rachael is making me will be fantastic. Plus, it's a little more modest than the original dress. I'm not really interested in showing that much cleavage. A little is okay, but yeah... that other dress was major.

I really really hope it turns out as well as we've envisioned it. I saw some samples of Rachael's work though, and I have complete faith that if anyone can make me look amazing, it's her.

*squee*

Oh and bonus - we'll save about $350 between the two dresses. More gambling money YES!

Wedding Update

Yesterday I spent a little time going over our wedding plans and figuring out what was still left to do.

Mostly just pay everyone. That's cool. We still need to find some attendants gifts, but that's it.

Oh yeah, except for my damned dress.

Rachael and I are going shopping for fabric on Friday afternoon. I'm hoping we can find something similar to the dress I ordered. The pattern we bought is really close (in fact, may actually be a little more adorable), but the fabric of the first dress is what made it really amazing.

Ah well, we get what we get. It doesn't really matter anyway. I was thinking last night that all these plans aren't really that important to me. I'm marrying the man of my dreams in just over 2 months. I don't care if I wear a potato sack.

MMMM CAKE!

I have officially ordered and paid for the wedding cake. I think it will be super cute.

Man, picking out flavors makes me want cake sooooo bad right now.

Must...resist...Must...fit...dress!

ETA: I should shameless plug that we are getting our cake from Retro Bakery.

Success.

We officially have the internets again.

I guess the tech had to come out to the location to set up the DSL, and he saw all the drama we'd been having with AT&T, so he decided to just come to the house and help Aaron install it.

Of course, that was after I spent $27 to overnight the stupid install disk back to Aaron. Oh well. You know that karma (being what it is), would have prevented the DSL from being ready today if I hadn't. I'm considering it a $27 donation to cosmic good will.

Let's just hope the Uverse installation on Feb 2 goes more smoothly than the DSL install did.

Speaking of which - I gotta find us somewhere to watch the Charger game this weekend!

Woe is Aaron.

There will be no DirecTV at the new house. They can't get a clear line of sight for the dish, except to possibly put it in the front right corner of the house.

Um, no. There will be no satellite dish on the FRONT of my house. Yuck.

AT&T Uverse is available at our house, which actually makes ME very happy because we will only have one freaking bill again. So nice. Plus, the total for Uverse (phone/TV/internet) is about what we were paying for the DirecTV alone. Save money too! Yay!

I feel bad though, that Aaron may not always get the games he wants to watch.

Oh well. We all have to sacrifice sometimes.

I hope we don't have any more problems because the customer service at AT&T sucks the big one. Our DSL was supposed to get hooked up a week ago, and still isn't. Every time they say "It will be on by 8pm this date" and it's not, we call, sit on hold for an hour, go through a huge drama, and then are told something different. Sales told us one thing, service another, provisioning another, tech support another. Good lord people. How many different software applications do you have? None of them talk to each other? (on a side note - hope they aren't clients of ours lol)

Aaron finally had to lay the smack down today. Hopefully it works and it will be all set tomorrow, as promised. Of course, I realized about 5pm today that I accidentally took the install disk with me to Roanoke, so I had to run to FedEx and overnight it home. Oops!

Love being a homeowner!

Well, hello 2009!

I've been without Internet for just about 2 weeks now. It's been... uh, liberating? Actually, it was really great. I got a lot of stuff done!

Aaron and I headed to San Diego for Christmas. Everyone knew but his mom. It was really fun showing up on her doorstep on Monday. I just wish I could have seen the look on her face. Oh well, that's what I get standing behind a guy almost a foot taller than me.

We got back to Indy on Dec 27 and moved into the new house on Dec 29. IT IS AWESOME.

We were smart and just paid movers which was worth every penny - if only to avoid what would have been the inevitable frustration and arguing. We only had a couple casualties - a small ding in the wall of the old house by the door, a scratch in my dresser, and two broken drinking glasses. I would bet that's far far less than if we'd done it ourselves.

The first two nights in our house were weird - it was soooooo quiet! The house is masonry, which blocks out a lot more noise than a sided house. Also, our street is much quieter. The only thing we can hear is the occasional fire truck (and the loud drunk people slamming taxi doors on NYE). Plus, with the furnace in the basement, we don't hear any of that noise, unlike our old place where the furnace was basically right outside our bedroom.

The house is mostly unpacked - except for Aaron's office. His desk wouldn't fit out the doorway of the old house (it was assembled inside), so we elected to buy a new one rather than try and salvage the old piece of junk. We figure that once we attempt to disassemble it, it will just fall apart. It was put together with a prayer initially anyway.

We had a bit of a plumbing fiasco on NYE which resulted in us shutting our water off for 24 hours... but Aaron successfully fixed it and now we can use the shower in the master bath. YAY!

By the way, don't start house projects on a holiday. You'll inevitably need to run to Home Depot 354 times before it's fixed, and that's no bueno when HD closes early.

Speaking of New Years - Aaron and I are party animals! We ate some dinner, watched a movie, and were in bed at 9:30. We did wake up at 12:10am (slamming taxi doors and all that) but promptly went back to sleep. Scandalous!

I've got a few New Years Resolutions though.
1. Lose some weight before the wedding so that stupid dress fits
2. Learn how to use my sewing machine
3. Live more in the moment. Plan for the future, but quit worrying about it.

So far, 2009 has been AWESOME (man, am I from California or what?). We are in our new house. The Chargers beat the Colts. I think this is gonna be a great year!