Emily's Most Recent Thoughts

Hi all - I've started a new blog since I never get around to using livejournal anymore...feel free to check it out at polkadame.blogspot.com if you're interested. Have a nice day =)

Yeah, I've gotten really bad at blogging consistently. I guess sporadically is better than never at all, right?

Recent news: Matt graduated! We got to celebrate with everyone up in Redding last weekend and meet our nephew, Moses, for the first time. He is so cute!! By far my cutest nephew =)

At work today we took a field trip to Psycho Donuts in Campbell. Apparently it's been pretty controversial due to the theme of the establishment, although I didn't find it offensive. They have all sorts of flavors beyond the standard sprinkles (I got one that was like a rice krispie treat on a donut) with cute names that match the theme. I can understand how someone might think they took it too far...but I still thought it was fun overall.

I finally got around to seeing High School Musical and, I'm sure to everyone's surprise, I LOVED it. Okay, so the plot is a bit lame, but the songs and choreography are SO FUN!! I can't wait to see the 2nd one. 

On that note...time to go!

Be one of the first five people to comment here, and I will make you a present and send it to you. The catch (or the fun part!) is that you need to make the same offer in your own LJ.

- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
- What I create will be just for you.
- It'll be done this year. No guarantees when, it will be a total surprise!
- You have no clue what it's going to be. I may draw or paint or knit something. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

A bit has changed since my last lj post...I'm now a happily married woman living in the East Bay. Our apartment is finally all set up. We even put pictures in most of the picture frames. We're waiting to get wedding pictures back before we completely fill up all the frames. We've been working on thank you notes, too. Only 55 left to go...that's not bad, considering the total to write was something like 150ish. My name has officially been changed, too. There was a small snafu at the Social Security office (someone typed my birthday in wrong when I was 3 years old), but thanks to my birth certificate, it has been fixed. From there I was able to visit the DMV and bank, so pretty soon I'll even be able to go places with my very own debit card again (once it arrives).

In other news....Jeanna's getting married soon! I'm really excited about being one of her bridesmaids. I just found some really pretty silver shoes on amazon for a fairly reasonable price. They should look nice with my dress. I can't wait for it to arrive! I think I'll be able to make it down for both showers, too, despite Matt needing to go to school the same weekends. Yay for the train.

My latest organizational project has been creating a spreadsheet of recipes I'd like to try. We were given so many cookbooks for the wedding that it seems like a waste of resources to not go through them and see what's tasty. I just pulled some oatmeal shortbread bars out of the oven, which I'm excited to try once they cool. Mmmmm....they smell delicious.

Hmmm....what else is new? Matt and I are learning how to foxtrot. We're taking a beginning foxtrot class through the local adult education. It's super fun. We're by far the youngest in the class, but I love that type of music (think Rat Pack) and I love dancing, so it's a winning combination. Plus the class is only a few blocks from our apartment - another bonus!

We've also been going through the West Wing. We just finished the 3rd season (I love the 3rd season finale). I haven't really watched it all the way through since it originally aired. It's kind of cool to watch it again. I understand some parts of it better - the difference between a 24 year old and a 17 year old I think (because obviously I'm way smarter now - haha).

Other day-to-day excitement generally is over small things (it helps I'm easily amused) such as getting the mail, doing laundry, going through the carwash with my friend today, watching a movie for free on OnDemand, having friends over, hanging out with Matt's grandparents while he's at school all day...that sort of thing. Ooooh, today I won at solitaire! I was excited about that because I used real cards, and I get annoyed I need to go through the effort of shuffling and all that when I don't win.

On that note...I'm going to try an oatmeal shorbread bar.

Enter the following into urbandictionary.com and post the first answer.

1. Your name:
2. Your age:
The Jack Bauer Power Hour. The most entertainment you can stuff into a single day. Full of twists, turns, violence, and Elisha Cuthbert


3. One of your friends:
a person that is very stubborn and talkative


4. What you should be doing:
to intentionally break your skateboard out of anger, frustration or disgust


5. Your favorite color:
The hue of the portion of the visible spectrum lying between green and indigo, evoked in a human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 420 to 490 nanometers


6. Your birthplace:
A small minor city that isn't so polluted, screwed up, deleted, violent, or gang-crammed, unlike San Jose


7. Last person you talked to:
They are so much fun to be around, But, a downside is that they are too fine for you. Usually have tons of friends and are in middle class families. Has friends that will destroy people that want to harm her


8. The last thing you drank:
The 4th element required to summon Captain Planet.


9. Your nickname:
1. Female of the human species. For counterpart, see also Man.
2. Is neither inherently superior, nor inferior to the male. What she lacks, he possesses and vice versus. Only distinguishable via genitalia.
3. Generally an emotional creature due to inherent hormonal physically traits resultant of genitalia necessary for child bearing.
4. Physically weaker than the male and, due to societal emphasis on physical prowess, tends to be forced/assume the role of an inferior or subservient creature thus the "prettier" of the species.
5. Tends to think with the right brain (creative) and thusly tends to be more creative than male counterpart.
6. Eve: purveryed of sin into the world.
7. Biologically, the muscular system of the female is considerably less developed than that of the male, however the bone structure/density of the female is far superior (as necessary for biological reproduction), thus contributing to the longer life span of the female.


10. Last thing you paid for:
noun; used by a third party person to express when somebody has insulted or humiliated another person

Just a lot of little things left to do. Confirming with vendors, finding out when they want final payment, getting a marriage license, finalizing the ceremony outline, etc. It's pretty much all the small details now. At least we're in the home stretch!

I'm going to dinner with Stef tonight. Woohoo! I miss all my college friends. It's just different when you're not in college anymore and don't just sit around for hours on end procrastinating on homework. Not to say I don't love my life right now...I love how things are right now. It was just different. I love not having homework anymore. It's wonderful going home and not thinking about work at night and weekends.

I should probably start putting things away and get ready to go. I'm working late this week so I can put the chickens away since Erika can't at the moment. They're already in bed, so now it's just doing the dishes and neatening up a bit.

My dress is almost done! It's so pretty =) I got to try it on yesterday, and I LOVE it.

On that note, I'm going to get ready to go home.

The wedding's getting closer. 45 days - woohoo! Good news I'm still having fun, although it wouldn't surprise me if a crazy Bride emerges over the last month or so. I've already had a couple of instances this week where I reacted in ways I didn't quite expect. Oh emotions. Yay.

I got to tell my brown and sticky joke at church on Sunday. That was fun.

One Bridal Shower down, one to go. I got all the thank you notes out really quickly. I know it won't be quite as easy once the wedding gifts start coming in, but hopefully my spreadsheet will help me stay on top of everything. Yay spreadsheets!

I got Peanuts band aids the other day and just put one on. It makes me happy =)

What else is new...? Matt and I get the keys to our apartment on Friday! We also got a dining room table today that my parents are graciously storing in their minivan for a day and a half. It'll be nice to start moving things in slowly and then just need to reorganize it all when we actually start living there.

New show I've been watching (because I need another addiction) - How I Met Your Mother. I find it amusing. I've also found myself describing things as "awesome" a lot more, and getting the urge to go up to people when I'm with someone and say "Haaaave you met [insert name here]?" I haven't done that yet, but I think it'd be fun - especially for me. Hehe.

Okay, I'm getting tired. Time to go to bed.

Hi Everyone,

Vote for Three Girls Media and PR 101 Radio once a day at the following sites:

http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100/contestant/1332/index.php
http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100/contestant/1454/index.php

Thanks!

PS - I know I haven't posted in a while. Things are super-busy. We're down to 68 days as of today!

I'm on twitter now (my name is splashmary - look me up). I'm figuring out how to get the hang of it...trying to learn new social networking tools, etc. 

Anyway, a couple of fun links:

• I now want to fly through Paris, because it means FREE dancing lessons!
  
• Also, this lion is so cute!

Family came is next week. I'm so excited! I love family camp =)

Visit BusinessWeek and check out the "PR Farm" - then vote for Three Girls Media!

So I got a new phone that doesn't have the countdown feature...so I don't know how many days officially, but it's somewhere around 125ish. I do know that it's 3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days...that's pretty snazzy.

Plans are going along well. My mom and I finished picking music for the ceremony last night, and last week we got some much-needed accessory shopping in. More shopping to continue this week...Matt and I have also been making progress. I'm liking this registering thing - it's fun to wander around the store and pick out things we want. We really need to get back to Bed Bath & Beyond for another round, but I think our Target list is fairly rounded out. We've begun the counseling process, too. The preliminary steps are complete, now it's just scheduling times to meet with the pastor and talk.

Non-wedding stuff is going well, too. The Dark Knight was awesome! I thought they did a really good job with it. I had fun hanging out in Redding, too. I got to go to the auto shop, a bridal shower, Barnes & Noble and dinner. Yum! Erika made some angel food cake...it's now sitting in the office, tempting me to eat it...

Official Countdown: 142 days. Now that I've returned from tour, I've recently turned my focus back to the wedding and realized I have a LOT to do that I need other people's help with. Some of them are things I just need to do, but it takes two to set up a meeting to talk about food. At least I'm not frustrated or stressed - I've just realized I need to get back on the planning band wagon.

Tour was really fun! It's quite draining to go from hectically working so you can miss a week of work, missing a week of work (although it was nice to not think about it), and jumping back into everything you missed. Fortunately I didn't have too much to catch up on. Things are just busy as usual. Anyway, to get back to tour, it was really fun. I really liked the show this year, and while being on the bus for 10 days is different as a sponsor than as youth, it is still a major highlight for me. It generally takes me a little while to get to know people beyond the initial "hello!" and I feel like each year I've actually gotten to know the youth little by little, so it's fun to see how some of those relationships have grown. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the other sponsors, too. I don't care what everyone else says, the front of the bus is the place to be.

We got to eat dinner at Crepe Danielle's with my parents tonight. I love that place. Matt came down and hung out with me and my parents. Wow, I just realized I haven't gone up to Hercules for like 3 weeks. That's a long time, considering I usually go up once a week or so. Don't worry - I'll be going up again this weekend.

Chris and I saw Get Smart. It was really good! I want to see it again...and I'll probably end up buying it. I grew up on the TV show, and they incorporated all the jokes, but it wasn't overkill. I think it was done very well.

Okay, I really should go to bed now. It's almost midnight, and I am quite tired. I'm still catching up on lack of sleep from tour. Good night!

Official Countdown: 158 days. Not much else to say about that, except that everything seems to be going well.

I got to see Laura yesterday! I was so excited. She was driving through town so she crashed with me - which meant we got to go out to dinner and visit Lounge. We had fun hanging out for a little while.

Work is SUPER busy today. We had a minor client fire earlier today, and with less people working here that means I get more to do. Yay. I'm on my lunch break, so I'm forcing myself to do something not work related. Hence, updating here. I got Clueless over the weekend. I love that movie. I stopped at Border's on my way up to Hercules and saw it for $5.99 - a price worth paying for a guilty pleasure.

Okay, so I need to get back to work - and I'm going to go grab a cookie. Wow, this update was sparse. Oh well =)

Random interjection: my boss is out buying chickens...they're getting 8 more babies. That brings the total to 10. On that note...

Oh yeah, if you're in the area Friday night or Sunday the 22nd stop by for Common Ground's concerts! 7:30 at Bethel. If you're not in the area, then you're missing out =)

Official Countdown: 164 days. There's still a lot that needs doing, but most of them are things I'm dependent on other people for, and I know everything that needs to be done will get done, so it's all okay. Matt and I did have a chance to pick some things out at Target. We still have to do the same for Bed Bath & Beyond...we just haven't yet. We also really need to find paper for the invitations. We went to Xpedx a while ago and didn't see anything we liked, but Matt found out about a store up near his church that has paper, too. Hopefully we'll have a chance to do that this weekend.

In other news, Common Ground's first concert is coming up! The Bethel show dates are June 13 and 22, so if you're in the area you should come check it out. The tour is June 14-22, and we're going South this year. That means beaches and shopping. I'm not so excited about the beaches (I hate the sand) and I don't really have money for shopping, but I'm sure I'll still have a good time =) The show is coming together rather nicely, too. I'm excited to see the final product over the next week and a half.

Work is a bit crazy as usual, but I'm enjoying it. Yeah, I guess I don't have much to say about that.

Speaking of work, my lunch break is pretty much over now, so I should get back to it...but we're having a game night tonight in Bible Study. I'm excited - I like games!

Official Countdown: 178 days. There's going to be a mention in my company's next enewsletter (going out Friday). Yay =) It helps when you have editorial control of things like that. I've been having fun on Target.com and BedBathandBeyond.com, looking for items to add to our registries. It's kind of hard for me, though. Sometimes I'm just too indecisive...

This past weekend we went and saw Prince Caspian! I loved it. I really want to see it again. They added a fight scene that wasn't in the book, but I think it helps the story move along faster. Plus I grew up on the old one with the mouse that's human-sized, so it's really cool to see the characters depicted like real animals.

While I'm not a fan of heat, it was fun that it was warmer this past weekend because we got to go swimming at Dave and Cindy's house. This gave me a chance to use my inflatable Norwegian cheese wheel my mom gave me for Christmas. I enjoyed it, although it was a bit challenging at first because when we inflated it, it wasn't exactly completely round. Parts of it popped up, making it hard to balance on it. I still had a good time playing with it, though.

I am not a fan of allergies. They weren't so bad when it was just food, but now that it's the allergens in the air (plus cats and wool), it's making my life a little bit more difficult right now.

Time to continue meeting with Erika...have a good one!

Official Countdown: 187 days. I like to wait until after 2pm (the time the ceremony starts) to look at the countdown since that's when the day changes to one less, but my email isn't working at the moment...so I may as well add a post.

My co-worker sent me an article today about how Emily heads up top ten baby names list again, for the 12th year in a row. It's amazing I don't know more Emilys, considering my name is so common. I guess I just don't live in an area with a lot of them...a while ago one of my co-workers sent a link to find out how many other people there are with your name. I don't remember how many Emily Larsens there were, but there aren't any Emily Sidleys. I'll be the only one - ha! Matthew was a common name, too. That's not surprising, either.

This is going to be a very frustrating day with my email not working...I have like 11 emails that I need to respond to quickly, and the fact that I can't even get into them is SO annoying.

Matt and I saw Iron Man this weekend. It was really good! I liked it =) We also saw D3. Not quite the same quality of film, but we did note how much Joshua Jackson's Dawson's Creek acting skills improved between D2 and D3. He had that teary-eyed, touching moment down, in addition to the "no one understands!" moments.

This past weekend Matt had school up in Redding, so while he was in class I got to hang out with his grandparents some more. Not only did his grandma and I check out a garage sale (it wasn't very good) and go for a walk, but his grandpa took me for a ride in the Hawk Mobile - a golf cart themed to fit the mascot of the Simpson Hawkeyes. It was so much fun! He showed me around the campus, chased geese, went off-roading behind some buildings and passed a baby duck (it was so cute!).

On that note, I'm going to try to make my email work...so I'll probably get frustrated and just find something else to do.

Official countdown: 191 days! Photographer: hired. Florist: confirmed and booked as soon as I get her a deposit. Caterer: working out the details, but looking good! My mom and I have a cake tasting tonight. Hopefully the funfetti recipe she developed is comparable to Pillsbury's.

I should be heading over to my parent's house (especially since both of them read my lj regularly), but at the moment I'm chatting with my French friend I met in Norway. He lives in China now, so it's rare that we're both online at the same time. I figured I could get out a quick post while I give him time to reply to me.

I went to the dentist today. I like my dentist. I think this was the nicest dentist visit I've ever had. They actually said they could see improvement! Of course, they told me to floss more, too. But it was encouraging. Then, after that, I got my car a much-needed car wash. So now my car is nice and clean. Woohoo! I just realized I forgot to start my laundry. Shoot. Hopefully I'll be able to find time for that tomorrow...

We have a new roommate. Her name is Jill. She's a turtle. She's really cute! She sleeps in John's room.

On that note, it's time to go.

Oh, and happy birthday to my married cousin! I would say she's my oldest cousin (a whole 5 years older than me) but I think I technically have another cousin or two on my dad's side who are older (Jim's kids). But yeah, happy birthday!!

Official Countdown: 194 Days. I just emailed the florist to let her know we want her to do it. Once we send her a deposit, we're golden. The cake-tasting is scheduled for this week. I'm looking forward to that. I like cake =) Other news on the wedding front...Matt booked our honeymoon (did I mention that in the last post?). I would tell you where, but frankly, I don't want to. I'm really excited about it though. He showed me the website and it looks so fun! I still flip through the occasional Bridal Magazine, but now that I have a better idea of what I want I'm finding much fewer things to rip out.

This weekend was fun for the most part. After work on Friday Matt and I went up to the city to hang out up there. The plan was to wander around, but by the time we ate (with Leya!) and bought the Mighty Ducks trilogy (one of my all-time favorite trilogies) we decided to go home and relax. We ended up watching the first two Might Duck movies, but decided against popping the 3rd one in since it was already around 1am. Chris tried to get us stuck watching Longshot (pretty much the worst movie ever) and successfully had me mesmerized. Fortunately Matt had the presence of mind to turn the TV off before we were stuck watching the entire movie.

On Saturday my mom and I met with a florist who made it very easy to go with the first one we met with (the second one was almost $1,000 more). After that, I met up with Jeanna and Rene and we went down to the Gilroy outlets to go shopping! While I spent a good amount of money, I think I did pretty well. Everything I got will be used and was a reasonable price (plus on sale). It was really fun to shop with other girls again. It's been a while since I've had a chance to go shopping with my friends instead of by myself.

Saturday night I went up to Matt's parent's house and got to play Wii for a while (his parents just got one)! It was so fun. Although my thumb started to hurt during Mario Kart...I think I was pushing on the gas too hard.

Sunday we went to church as usual, and John talked about why bad things happen and how God gives permission for bad things - he doesn't do them. After church we met up with my family at the Blackhawk Automobile Museum in Danville for my grandpa's birthday. It was really cool! I really enjoyed the tour. The cars were so cool and pretty (very shiny). After that Matt went to his meeting and I went to Refuge (the college/young adult service). I liked the message. I don't know who was speaking, but he talked about Worship, and I think he did a really good job of it.

By the time we got back to Matt's parent's house and I was able to leave, I was exposed to Jasper (their cat) a little too long, and it became difficult to breathe. Because I've needed to use my inhaler more frequently, I've been feeling more of the side effects, so that was quite annoying. So that part of the weekend wasn't as good. The rest was fun, though. Oh, and the Sharks lost in the 4th overtime! I was hoping it would be Sharks vs. Penguins, but alas, it is not to be. Oh well. Go Pittsburgh!

I know I haven't posted in a while. I'm too lazy to see when my last post was, but I know it's been like 20 days or something like that. Anyway, the official countdown to the Wedding is 197! Jeanna helped me make a paper chain a while ago, and I must say it looks fabulous on the walls of my room. I am slightly biased, though...

Anyway, planning is happening. We've secured a reception location, hired a photographer and reserved the honeymoon location. We also have a couple of great leads on a caterer and florist, and we finished picking out fabric for my gown. Yay! I'm having tons of fun making To-Do lists and crossing things off.

More happenings...I've developed a greater sensitivity for the outdoors. Along with my food allergies, I have seasonal allergies now, too, so I'm re-learning how to handle another allergies obstacle.

Work is moving along. I feel like I'm starting to get behind a bit, but I'm not too stressed out about it at the moment (obviously). Although I just noticed it's almost 5pm, so I should probably bring this break to an end. I really want a cookie, though. Maybe I'll go get some bread, instead.

Other things going on...Matt finished his first semester at Simpson! He'll be done a year from now, so that's really exciting. Bible Study's been pretty good lately, too. Katlynn and I are now leading, so we started with James. I like that book.

Oh! I have a new favorite Bible Story. In 2 Kings there's a story about children being mauled by 2 bears. How awesome is that??

Common Ground is moving along. This year's theme is "Dare You to Move," and I'm really excited about all of the songs we're learning. So far I like them ALL. I think the dramas are going to be great this year, too. My group in Family Time is awesome, too. I've really enjoyed Family Time the last couple of weeks.

Okay, now I'm off to crank out some emails, pitches, and announcements.