Mr. & Mrs. Page

So the wedding happened... 2.5 weeks ago. I can't believe it's been that long already! I have been in a frenzy trying to get life back together with starting school and all so expect some compound blogging and multiple backdated blogs. I have been so busy that I haven't even been able to think about blogging, so I've started a few blogs and then never finished them. In fact I am starting this blog entry right now and who knows when it will get finished! Anyway, here's the wedding timeline of how Casey Page & Sarah Wood became Mr. & Mrs. Page.

August 6-8th, 2010 - Bachelorette Party in New Orleans = Amazing.

August 10-13th, 2010 - Mom comes down and we rush to get stuff in my classroom set up.

August 14-16th, 2010 - Daddy comes in for his birthday weekend. We go to Galveston for his birthday and then to a BBQ at Marie & Kevin's (Casey's parents). Unfortunately I cannot find pictures from this week!

August 16-20th, 2010 - Work week at school! Probably the most stressful week of my life... I was fine until Thursday when I was sitting at Post Elementary at a workshop and I flipped out. I realized that I was sitting in a room basically accomplishing nothing (except learning about the new curriculum)... It took everything I had not to start crying because I knew that I had SO much to do and literally only 48 hours to do it. I kind of felt like a wimpy Jack Bauer... I knew I had to do it and the clock was ticking..

August 20th - Get off work at 11:30 and Aunt Lorie came up to school so I would have someone to ride with up to Austin. The rehearsal dinner was perfect and I was so glad we got to hang out with everyone that night and try to calm our nerves. After the rehearsal dinner we hung out for a bit with everyone and then the girls and I went up to our suite to get some sleep. This turned into us ordering pizza from Papa John's and then going to sleep - what can I say, I had been a ball of nerves all week and not eating.

August 21st - Wedding Day!
Wake up to a beautiful day and head down for breakfast with everyone. I'm so glad Casey and I didn't do the whole "him not seeing me until the wedding" thing because I feel like that would have been so stressful. After a wonderful breakfast Leigh Anne and I headed to the mall to get our makeup done and then back to the hotel where Megan was waiting to do our hair. I seriously have the best friends ever because I was a total bridezilla that weekend because I don't deal very well with stress and they were so accommodating and helpful. Before I knew it it was time to head over to the bridal suite to put my dress on.

A while back Casey and I had decided to do the "First Sight" thing before the wedding to get rid of some of our nerves and I'm SO glad that we did. It really took the edge off and it was so nice to get to talk to him when he first saw me in my dress.

The ceremony was absolutely perfect. Even though my best friend ended up getting violently ill and quietly had to exit the altar, I could not have asked for a more perfect wedding ceremony. It was amazing.

At this point it is now September 27th, more than a month after the wedding and I still have not finished this post. All I can say is that through the bumps and stresses, it was still the best day of my life and I am so happy that I got to spend it with my wonderful friends and family.

We are about to get all of our photos back from the photographer, so I will definitely post photos ASAP!

Bachelorette Party!

This weekend was so much fun that I can't even come up with a cheesy title for this one...

This weekend we had my final night out as a single girl- my amazing Bachelorette Party in New Orleans! 10 of us met up in New Orleans to stay at this beautiful house:



On Friday we hung out at the house while everyone got into town and then got ready to head down to Frenchman Street for the Satchmo (Louis Armstrong) Festival. It was so much fun, and just the right kind of low key night we needed. Here's a pic of the Pine Tree girls on the trip:

Here's the whole group!On Saturday we woke up and headed over to the New Orleans Cake for breakfast and then over to the downtown area to Polenamics for a pole dancing lesson. I just have to say that Natasha (our instructor) was absolutely amazing and I had a blast! Also, pole dancing is HARD work and I was sore for a week after the class! Here's a picture from the class:

After leaving the class, we went home, changed, and headed out to see New Orleans. Of course our first stop was walking around the French Quarter and then to Deanie's Seafood for a late lunch.

Saturday night we headed out to Bourbon Street. First was a wonderful dinner at Red Fish Grill where we got to use the adorable koozies that my wonderful friends had made for our party:
And for dessert, an adorable cake from the same bakery where we had breakfast.

We had so much fun on Bourbon Street and we really hated going home on Sunday. I have the best friends a girl could ask for and I am so thankful for each and every one of them!

Bridal Shower

This past Saturday was the day of my Bridal Shower and I would have to say that it could not have been more perfect. My cousin and God daughter came down for the week to help prepare for everything and then my mom, best friends Leigh Anne, Sara Baker, and Jennifer Mawer Waddill came down on Friday. I had so much fun this weekend with my family and friends and of course Casey's wonderful family. Casey's Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed (also his God parents) came down for the shower as well and I just adore these people. They are hilarious and just plain nice. Here are some pictures from the shower!

Gift opening

5 of my 7 Bridesmaids

Sara and I with our Ice Cream Suicides

The lovely spread

Me and my best friend/Maid of Honor Leigh Anne!

BPs and BFs

This past weekend I went home to spend a couple of days with my Mom and Dad before heading Mom and I headed out to Lubbock for my bridal portraits. Why Lubbock you ask? THIS is why Lubbock. The most amazing photographer EVER (Lauren Clark) lives there! I have been stalking Lauren since our friends Greta and Benny got married a few years ago. Lauren did their wedding and engagement photos and I was so wowed that I started following her blog and prayed that I would get to have her as my wedding photographer when Casey and I got married. After we got engaged, she was the first call I made to see what availability she had for 2010 and as fate would have it, she was only available on Nanny's birthday- August 21st, the day that I had always wanted to get married on. Perfection! When I went to schedule my bridal portraits, I was unavailable on the weekends that she was going to be in Houston and Austin, so I decided it would be perfect to visit one of my best friends Melissa McKay in Lubbock AND get my portraits done in the same weekend. Side Note: I love "kill two birds with one stone" situations. I had been meaning to visit Melissa and this worked out perfectly!

So on Sunday morning Mom and I loaded up her Volkswagen Beetle Convertible and headed to the Great Red West (haha). It took us about 8 hours, but honestly the drive was not bad at all. We had a great time hanging out as both of us love road trips. Sunday night we hung out with Melissa and her handsome cotton farmer boyfriend Zach and his parents and ate amazing sushi at this little place in Lubbock. I had never heard of sweet potato sushi, but it was AMAZING.

On Monday we got up and headed to the mall to go shopping and then had lunch at this adorable place called Stella's. After that it was go time. I felt like a crazy person running here to get my hair done, then across town to get my makeup done, then across town again to pick up my bouquet and then finally back to Zach's house to put my dress on and head out the door for photos. I'm really glad I got to do that though because I felt like it prepared me a little better for the day of the wedding. We met Lauren at Starbucks and then headed to a ton of different places to take photos. I LOVE how creative she is and how she really knows how to direct people in order to get the best looking photos. We got to see all of the photos on Wednesday and I am truly amazed at how beautiful they are. She is definitely one of the most talented artists that I have ever met. I wish I could post one of the photos on here, but unfortunately Casey reads "our" blog sometimes and I really don't want to ruin his surprise.

After heading back from Lubbock on Tuesday I picked up my cousin Jen (also my matron of honor) and my adorable God daughter Abby. I think I drove a total of 13 hours that day but honestly, I had such great company the whole time that I really didn't notice how much time I was in the car.

On Wednesday we headed to the pool early and hung out for an hour or so. Abby loves the water and it was so much fun getting to play with her. Here are some photos from the day:

Me and my cousin Jen

Me swinging Abby :)

The rest of this week we have just been hanging out and now I'm waiting for my mom and best friend Leigh Anne to get here for my bridal shower weekend YAY!

Singin' in the rain

Here is my first attempt at a fashion centered blog entry. I have been wanting to blog some of my outfits because I am really passionate about fashion and want to be able see some of the things I wore during the "2010s". It's also nice to see how one's style can evolve. I am giving credit to Alyson for inspiring me - she has been blogging about fashion for a while now and I love her blog. Keep up the good work!

First things first - I found my bridal shoes! Here they are in all their glory. After spending a rainy day scouring eBay and the sale racks at the Galleria for a pair of expensive designer shoes (I really wanted this pair of Louboutins), I walked into Baker's on a whim and found these:



Hallelujah! I thought I would never find shoes that I was happy enough with to wear on my wedding day, but alas - here they are. Casey appreciated the price tag of these beauties- they were on sale for $59.99, which is much better than $595+ for a pair of designer shoes.

Now, back to my original post. I got up this morning to more rain. It has been raining or threatening rain non stop this week because of Hurricane Alex and while I usually love rain, the grayness is starting to get to me. When I wake up to rain, it makes me want to lay around in my pajamas all day and watch movies. I have a bajillion things to do so this is not an option. I went into my closet to find an outfit that was practical, but would also cheer me up. I planned my outfit around my trusty pink rainboots and I did my hair in a messy braid with my bangs pulled back which is perfect for a rainy day.




And here's a synopsis of my outfit:

Grey striped shirt: purchased my sophomore year of college from Goody's
Jeans: Simply Vera by Vera Wang (Kohls) - purchased for $15 (I love a good sale!)
Rainboots: Claire's - circa 2002
Pink Sports bra: Fruit of the Loom
Pink belt: Forever 21
Leopard umbrella: Target

Also - you will notice that I belt EVERYTHING. I am a serial belter.

Now off to play (run errands) in the rain!

Dress Drama :(

So I usually don't use this acronym, but O.M.G. I officially became Bridezilla this past weekend, but I think that is completely, 100% appropriate given what happened on Saturday afternoon. Here's the short version of the story:

-Owner of boutique calls me to tell me that my dress is in early - YAY!
-I drive to Longview to try on/get my dress. Along with me are my mom, dad, cousin (Matron of honor), and bridal attendant Sally East.
- I go into the dressing room... dress looks a little different than I remember - I ignore this and put dress on.
-Dress.... is not my dress. It took 5 months to get here and it is not my dress!! I cannot help but immediately start crying because I knew no matter what, my dress would probably not be here in time for me to get alterations done and be ready for my bridal portraits in June.
-Owner lady tells me to "Calm down" repeatedly and that "She'll do what she can" to get things resolved.


Flash forward to Monday - I end up having to do something I don't like doing. Owner lady calls me and says that she can get the dress but it won't be here until the first week of August. This obviously won't work at all because my wedding is the 3rd weekend of August and that would leave me one week to get my alterations done AND my bridal portraits taken before I had to go back to school for work week. I end up having to yell at her (she wouldn't listen to the advice I was giving her) and ultimately when she kept saying "That's all I can do" I had to threaten her with a lawsuit (technically it was breach of contract). This is not fun - I hate conflict. I also hate people not doing their jobs and thinking they can get away with screwing someone over. I emailed the lady several options (if she could find a different size - I would take it and she could get it altered for me, etc) which she apparently FINALLY listened to and miraculously found my wedding dress in a size 4 (I ordered a size 6 originally) and it will be here next week. Yes, she did the "impossible" by just actually listening to her customer and doing her a little extra work
(aka: her job) and got the problem fixed.

I am very glad that things are fixed and my dress will be here next week, but needless to say I am VERY unhappy with the service (or lack thereof) that I received from this particular boutique.

With that being said, I am somehow WAY less stressed about the whole wedding process which I guess is a good thing considering I was having constant nightmares (literally every night) about stuff going wrong with the wedding. Maybe I got all that stuff over with now, or maybe I didn't, either way I am getting married to an amazing man on August 21st and that is the only thing that matters.

Bridal Update!

Okay so I thought that surely I would be blogging non stop about the wedding planning but oddly enough I find myself so overwhelmed by it all that I am barely eeking by just getting things done. By the time things are "done" I don't even want to talk about them, so here is my update!

Venue: Vintage Villas, Austin, Texas

Caterer: Vintage Villas

Accomodations: Vintage Villas (we freaking love this place)

Cake: Michelle's Patisserie

Wedding dress: Purchased. Will arrive in May - hoping that I love it as much as I did in January!

Shoes: Probably the most difficult decision because I really, really, really, really really, love shoes. Like more than anyone should probably love shoes. Still up in the air. I'm thinking about something like this though:
Tuxes: DONE! We found a really great looking slim cut tux and I can't wait to see Casey in it!

Bridesmaid dresses: FINALLY found. I went with a David's bridal dress because it is basically impossible to find a dress that is accessible to all of my friends who are spread out across the country. Here it is!

I decided on "Horizon" blue (which is kind of between a royal and cobalt blue) for the bridesmaids dresses and I'm very excited about them. Hopefully they will be comfortable and rewearable for my girls!

Flowers: I know exactly what I want, I'm just waiting on quotes from florists at this point. NOTE: Florists are not very easy to communicate with. I guess there's always some holiday that keeps them busy.

Centerpieces: Picked out, again just waiting on floral quotes.

Wedding rings: Done! We got a great deal from Zales outlet.

Rehearsal Dinner: Planned and payed for - thank you Daddy! We are having it at (any guesses?) Vintage Villas! They were really great and helped us a plan a very nice dinner for our friends and family.

Now all I have left to do is:

• Choose and purchase invitations
• Purchase my veil
• Purchase my wedding day jewelry
• Purchase Casey's wedding day gift
• Figure out wedding favors
• Purchase our honeymoon tickets and accomodations.
  
• and about a million other tiny things that have to be decided on.

I can't believe we're getting married in 4.5 months!

Why can't anyone make a decent looking bridesmaid dress?

O. M. G. Okay maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but I have literally been looking for bridesmaid's dresses since November and I just simply can't find anything that I'm even 90% happy with. This afternoon Jessica and I went to 3 different places to try on bridesmaid dresses and came out with 3-4 maybes... and these were VERY big maybes.

Does anyone know of any cute bridesmaid dresses that are under $300? I have tried looking at department stores as well but since my bridesmaids are spread out all over, I'm not sure I can go that route. Here are my prerequisites:

*Must be knee length or shorter- I absolutely refuse to put my bridesmaids in anything tea-length.
*Must come in Black, Medium or Dark Grey, or a Dark Indigo Blue color.
*I love pockets
*I also love flower detailing
*I hate anything shiny- so that takes away taffeta, satin, or silk charmeuse as an option.
*I really really want it to be re-wearable. We've all got enough ugly bridesmaids dresses in our closet, my girls don't need any extra one.

Okay so if you could keep an eye out for me - that would be AWESOME!

I just tried to post pictures of them and for some reason my iphone saved them as a weird format and blogger isn't letting me post. Oh well, they weren't that great anyway.

Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?

They've all gone to Willbern Elementary!

Friday was Rodeo/Go Texan Day here in Houston. All week long I taught the kiddos everything I knew about the rodeo and all things cowboy/cowgirl. On Friday the kids had their Square Dancing day and we had sooo much fun dancing with them! I will post pics as soon as I get them back from some of the parents!

On Friday we stayed in because I had a migraine, but on Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to go to Austin with Casey's parents. They hadn't seen the venue yet so we drove up to Austin to have a look and start thinking about some of the details. The weather was absolutely stunning and even with everything dead and brown because of winter, the venue still looked amazing. I am so excited that we are getting married there!

After seeing the venue we headed over to The Oasis (surprised?) where we had a lovely lunch in the perfect weather. It was so nice to get to hang out with Casey's parents in a new setting, plus they had never seen that part of Austin so they were very impressed by the landscape. Here's yet another gorgeous photo from our table at the Oasis.

Cake, Cake and more Cake!

This week was pretty hectic with trying to fit in time to work out and spend time with friends as well as spend as much time with my Daddy (who was in town for work) as possible and also not to forget Casey! Monday, Jennifer and I had the day off and feeling jealous, Casey took the day off as well. Jennifer and I have been going to the YMCA to do fitness classes and well, I'm pretty much obsessed. I really love the Y and I've found that group fitness classes are a perfect fit for my competitive nature.

Now on to why the title of this post is "Cake, Cake, and more Cake!"....

Tuesday was lovely Jennifer's 27th birthday. That day we went out to eat at the new little Mexican place right across from our neighborhood and boy was it yummy! After a few margaritas and embarrassing Jennifer with a birthday song and sombrero at the restaurant, we went home to have cake. If you have never had an ice cream cake from HEB you are MISSING OUT! They have the absolute best ice cream birthday cakes have I have ever had. I think by now I have eaten at least half of it all by myself. You just can't leave me alone with ice cream cake in the house. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of Jennifer and the cake (because again, I was too excited about the cake!) but I did take this at the restaurant:

Ole!!
Now... on to more cake.

Yesterday Casey and I drove up to Austin for a couple of cake tastings. First to Michelle's Patisserie. We tried plain wedding cake, italian cream cake, cookies and cream cake, and finally Tiramisu. O. M. G. As a cake connoisseur this is hard for me to say, but hands down this was the BEST cake I have ever tasted. It was moist, it was crumbly, it was delicious. Perfect texture, flavor, everything.

After Michelle's, we took a detour over to our new favorite Austin restaurant.. the Oasis. The food is delicious, but what we go there for is the amazing view. The Oasis sits on top of a bluff overlooking Lake Travis and is absolutely gorgeous. We are looking into having our rehearsal dinner there if the price isn't too high. Here are a few pictures of Casey and I at the Oasis.





After leaving the Oasis we drove to Pflugerville where we met with Brittany of Cr8tive Confections. Brittany does her tastings a little different than other bakers in that she give you 6" taster cakes as opposed to small slices of each flavor. We chose 4 different flavors and had her incorporate them into 2 cakes. Her chocolate fudge cake with cookies and cream filling was amazing! Here are our two cute little taster cakes.


After talking it over and thinking about the overall flavor of the two cakes, we have decided to go with Michelle's italian cream cake and white cake (alternating) for the wedding cake tiers and a tiramisu grooms cake. Both bakers we tasted with were SO nice and had such great ideas, but it came down to flavor with us and we just couldn't get the Tiramisu cake out of our head. It was very refreshing to meet both of them and see their passion for their artwork. For those of you coming to the wedding - I can't WAIT for you to try the tiramisu cake!!

Nothing to blog about...

I have really been having the urge to blog lately, but when I think about it I feel like I don't really have anything interesting to share with everyone. A lot of my friends and fellow bloggers are doing amazing things right now (Alyson has started an awesome fashion/sewing blog, SB is blogging about her new cooking endeavors, other friends are blogging about pregnancy or kids) and I feel like the things that I am doing really aren't that interesting. Having said that- I will now blog about all of the uninteresting but "important-to-me" things I am doing right now - ha!

1. I found a wedding dress! Actually I found three and it was a super hard decision to make, but I finally made my decision and this past Thursday, my mother ordered my "dream dress" for me. Email or facebook if you want to see pics because I obviously can't put them on here for fear that Case might see.
2. I found bridesmaids dresses! They are from Jcrew and are freaking adorable. I have never shopped at Jcrew, but I found these in the magazine Southern Weddings and fell in love. Here is the picture from the magazine that inspired me to choose them.
They will be grey (like in the picture) and Casey and his groomsmen will be wearing grey suits with black ties also inspired from a photo in Southern Weddings:
I know the grey sounds very dreary and not very summer like, but our accent colors and flowers are so bright and cheery I thought having a basic, elegant color for bridesmaids would be perfect and also something that the girls will WANT to wear again!

3. We secured our photographer! I have been stalking Lauren Clark for about 4 years now and I am obsessed with her style of photography. If you are in need of a wedding/engagement photographer - I definitely recommend her. I know several people who have used her and absolutely love her.

4. My friend from high school, college, ZTA, and also a fellow CFISD teacher Jennifer moved in with us this month and Casey and I are loving having a room mate! Jennifer's fiance got transferred to San Antonio in December, so Jennifer had a tough decision to make- quit her 3rd grade teaching job mid December, or stay with us through January to finish up the 9 weeks. She obviously chose the latter and we are so excited to get to spend some time with her before she officially moves to SA. Yesterday she and I had a girls day where we went to Boot Camp at the Y at 7am, then came home and made breakfast, then got our nails done, then went to David's Bridal, then went to get a spray tan, then went shopping and FINALLY got home around 6. That's almost 12 hours of running errands, but we had a lot of fun hanging out. Unfortunately I wasn't thinking and took ZERO pictures while we were out. Probably a good thing since we had no makeup on and looked like spray tanned thugs in our loose clothes (couldnt mess up the spray tan!). Casey and I will be sad to see her go at the end of the month, but it was definitely fun having a room mate one last time.

5. My wonderfully talented next door neighbor, Krissy Alexander took our first round of engagement photos. You can catch a sneak peek on her website and on my facebook wall! We are so excited to see the whole collection. I will post some as soon as we get them!

6. I am back on Atkins and have already lost 3 lbs. As hard as it is to adhere to eating so few carbs or sugar, I have enjoyed feeling the way this diet makes me feel. I am also working out several times a week now and am SO sore from boot camp today. Seriously, more sore than I have ever been in my entire life. Today Jennifer and I are going to the Y to work out and then a yoga class at 4. I am so glad we are off tomorrow!!

7. I have stuck to most of my New Year's Resolutions, but one that I am really trying to stick to is cooking more and cooking more advanced meals. Lately I have made the following: pizza frittata (amazing), slow cooker mexican chili soup (also amazing), seasoned chicken thighs in the slow cooker (not that amazing, but still good), garlic chicken with sauteed spinach (my new signature dish- no recipe!), and tonight Jennifer and I are going to try to make SB's pesto chicken, asparagus, and sweet potato fries - yum! We can't wait!

Today is lazy Sunday and laundry day. Hopefully I will remember to take more pictures this week! That is my goal - someone please keep me honest!

Baby It's Cold Outside!

Whoa baby is it ever cold in Houston Texas! I would have to say this is the coldest I have been since I was in Minot, North Dakota last March. Today it felt like it was 12 degrees here in balmy Houston and I was not a fan. Not only does my poor husband-to-be work outside all day, but I too had to brave the cold for bus duty- no bueno! Well the week is over and boy has it been a busy one! Here are some updates:

Monday: My dad moved in for the week- he just go a new job and is doing some traning down in Houston. It was really nice to have him around for an extended period of time!

Tuesday: Drove to Dallas with Jessica to try on my "dream dress" and what do ya know - it was AMAZING on!! I am 99.9% sure it is THE dress, but am still going dress shopping this weekend to make sure that there isn't anything out there that is more cost effective. Jess and I had a great time hanging out during the drive and we went to Pluckers (a wing restaurant) for lunch and it was SO good. Wish we had one of those in Houston! As we were sitting down to eat I was talking to my waiter about my friends Sarah DeLong and Andi Pope that work in Pluckers' corporate office in Austin and low and behold - Andi was standing right behind him! She's now the GM of that branch and loves it! She looked great and it was great catching up. The bad thing- she gave us a free fried twinkie sundae for dessert and my diet went out the window for that day. It was totally worth it though - fried twinkies are amazing!!

Tuesday evening my friend Jennifer Mawer moved in with us for the month! Jennifer and I went to high school together, college together, and were in the same sorority. Now we work at the same school district- we just can't get rid of each other! :) Jennifer will be living with Casey and I for the month of January because her fiance Carl got transferred to San Antonio for a job in December and she had to finish up part of her contract at Cy-Fair. I am thankful for the time we are getting to spend together! NOTE: I made Roasted Rosemary Chicken for dinner with roasted red bell peppers, cauliflower, and broccoli as a side. It was super yummy!

Wednesday: Back to school, Back to school! My first day back after being off for two and a half weeks went great and the kids were incredibly good all day long! I don't know what happened but I think someone stole my rowdy, mischievous class and replaced them with little angels!

Thursday: This is when the cold came and Casey and I (mainly Casey) had to do all kinds of the things around the house to get it ready for the freeze. Covering our brand new trees, wrapping the pipes - who knew having a house was so much work! For dinner: Baked Cheesy Pork Chops- amazing and super easy!

Friday: Here we are. It's super cold and Casey and I are about to snuggle up on the couch to wait for Leigh Anne to get here. Tomorrow she and I (along with Casey's mom and some friends) are going for my final dress shopping trip! Yay! Sunday we will be going to the George R. Brown for the BRIDAL EXTRAVAGANZA!!! Can't wait!!!

Hello 2010!

Well, we survived NYE 2009 and on to the New Year! Last night we went to Amanda and Mike Vesely's house for an intimate gathering of close friends. It was really great to ring in the new year with good friends and good food. We had a fire going outside in the fire bowl and we made smores and did fireworks. Good times! Today Casey and I have been putting up Christmas decorations and cleaning the house. It's so nice to have a clean house to start the year off with. So speaking of the New Year... here are some of my resolutions:

1. Be a better house keeper - I am a very organized person but not very tidy. I need to work on this.

2. Cook more. And not just easy recipes either.. I mean really learn how to cook without measuring.

3. Take more pictures and blog more. I used to take pictures CONSTANTLY and I'm not sure what happened, but I miss having those memories recorded. Must take more pictures this year!

4. Be more positive. I am by nature a very cynical, sarcastic person and this can sometimes put people off. I need to have a more positive, literal mindset.

5. And of course... Get into better shape. Not just for the wedding.. for me and for Casey. As long as Casey has known me I have not been as athletic as I used to be in high school and I want that to change. I had a dream last night about doing something that I used to loooooooove doing and that's inline skating. I need to work on getting into better shape and just being more active all around. Instead of having girls nights where we just sit around and watch bad reality television, maybe I will see if we can do fun workout classes or boot camps? Or at least go biking, skating, or walking together. Anything to get my butt off the couch!

I have a good feeling about 2010, and not just because this is the year I will become Mrs. Sarah Page (<--- have never typed/written this before- WEIRD!). I think the Lord has a lot in store for me, my family, and my friends and I can't wait to see what that is. I hope everyone had a great New Year's Eve and has a wonderful, blessed 2010. Here are some pictures from last night:

My NYE outfit:

Thanksgiving, Mom's Birthday, and Wedding Dress shopping Round 1!

Wow - I can't believe it's already Sunday and I've had 5 days off. It feels like this week and weekend flew by! Casey and I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with my mom and dad and we succeeded in cooking an entire meal without burning anything/burning the house down - yay! I was very proud of myself - one Thanksgiving at our place down - 60 more to go! Haha. Here are some pics of us cooking and the table, turkey, and my favorite part -DESSERT!!



Friday was my mom's 51st birthday and I was so excited when she said she wanted to go wedding dress shopping that day! I had never tried on a wedding dress until then and I was very excited to see what was out there. So Mom, Daddy, and I went to Princess Bridal in Old Town Spring for Round 1 of dress shopping. I was so surprised at how not picky I was - I tried on about 8 dresses and loved 4 of them. I really thought I would be sooooo picky and dissect every dress until I found "the one" but I liked most of them and would have been happy with any of them. Kelli met us there to see the final 4 and talked me into trying on a really different dress and I ended up liking it too. I obviously didn't buy one that day because I want to make sure and include all of my bridesmaids and Casey's mom as well, but at least I have an idea of what's out there now. If you're interested in seeing pics of the four I liked, email me (gmail address) and I will send you pics! I don't want Casey to accidentally stumble upon pictures because he really doesn't want to see me in a wedding dress until the day. :)

After dress shopping, Mom, Dad, Kelli, and I met Casey at Wunsche Bros. for some lunch and we had a great time hanging out and chatting. I had never eaten there and it was pretty good. Here are some pictures from lunch:


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That night we celebrated Mom and Casey's birthdays with gifts and cake - Casey and I got mom this handmade western cross and some other smaller things and Casey got his Xbox 360 from Daddy and I and some black Chuck Taylor's from my mom. Needless to say, after this weekend I need to get on the treadmill BIG TIME!

Today we went to Thomas and Carly Hudson's house for Harper Hudson's 2nd birthday party. It was an Elmo Dance Party theme with a live 6 foot Elmo and I cannot express how hilarious Harper's face was when Elmo walked in to the room. I love kid's birthday parties and we were so glad to be a part of Harper's 2nd! I wish I would've gotten pictures but Harper already had about 50 cameras going off so I didn't want to add to the chaos.

More later- Kelli and Andrew just arrived for Taco night!

Houston, we have a wedding date!!

And that wedding date is....

August 21st, 2010!

Last weekend (make that the weekend before last) Casey and I went to the Hill Country in search of the perfect venue. Thank God, we only had to go to 4 different places to find it! Next year on what would have been Nanny's (my grandmother) 89th birthday, we will become husband and wife at Vintage Villas on beautiful Lake Travis. We were so surprised that the place I thought would be the most expensive was actually the most reasonable. They also had the friendliest staff and were the only ones who mentioned that they wanted to work with our budget. If you know Casey and I you know that we basically refuse to pay sticker price for anything and I call myself the "haggling queen" because it seems like everywhere I go I try to get a bargain. We are just so excited that we found exactly what we wanted and that the price was right. So..... find a venue.. CHECK! It feels so good to check one of the biggest things off of my wedding planning list!

After touring three of the four venues we went and had lunch at The Oasis. If you have never been to or heard of the Oasis, you absolutely have to go. It is a huuuuuugge building on the side of a bluff overlooking Lake Travis and they have a restaurant as well as a venue for parties. Casey liked the pictures so we decided to check it out to see if it might be worth having our reception there. Although it was beautiful we kind of already had our hearts set on Vintage Villas so we decided to have a nice lunch there before heading back to Houston. I had seared tuna with black and white sesame seeds and Casey had the fajitas. Let me just tell you that I felt like I was eating a 5 star restaurant because the food was SO good! Casey's fajitas were cooked just right and I have never had a tuna steak that was as good as mine was. And the view... oh man... the view was to die for! You just don't find that many places in Texas like this. Casey and I both agreed that we felt like we were in Los Angeles because the terrain was so similar. Yay for the Hill Country!

Anyway, other than that we've just been trying to figure out little things like invitations, save the dates, etc. and enjoying the planning process. More updates to come!