...and we are in the homestretch! The wedding is 2.5 weeks away, and we just keep getting more and more excited. We have basically all of our RSVP's in, and have had an overwhelming amount of support. We are actually going to price out food tonight! Woowhoo! :)
I also just purchased our guestbook (which I am SUPER happy with), and my jewlery. I'm going to check out food and stuff tonight, which should be cool :). Unfortunatly though, I feel absolutley rotten. :( My throat is raw and my voice has to stay pretty low. I have NO IDEA where I got sick from, but I'm not happy.
Luckily the rest of me feels pretty good, minus the throat and a little bit of nausea. The fatigue isn't too bad, so I can't complain too much. Just hopin to get through this week!
That's all I've got really got for now. I'll update more later!
The last few weeks have been a liiiittle bit crazy, but not too bad. Though, I know it's only going to get worse. I say, bring it on. ;)
My roommates found an apartment this week. That is exciting for many MANY reasons. But mainly because they will be living in the house next door to us. HEHE! :) NOt next door like I'm used to, but next door as in the next complete house over. It was a total God thing. They were getting a little concerned, and then all of the sudden, 2 houses went up for rent on our court! And TADAH! They got approved and are signing the lease tonight. So YIPPEEE for them!
We were planning on going to the Dublin Irish Festival tomorrow, but sadly it costs money...and we don't have any of that. It's aaaaallllll going toward the wedding at the moment.
On the upside, I found a new starbucks drink I would like to try next time I can get one for free. It is basically an Iced Double Shot with 1 pump white mocha, and 1 pump peppermint. Sounds yummy, right?? I found it online today, and I can't wait to try it :).
I have a list of things I have left to do for the wedding. It's mainly buying a few things, and putting them together (which I have tons of help for! :) ), but we have run into 1 snag. A bridesmaid dress I ordered online came to me in the complete wrong color. Everyone else thought it was a total nightmare, and until I asked an opinion I didn't think it was that bad. But, alas, it didn't even fit my bridesmaid correctly. Boo. SO, I talked to her about it and we decided I would send it back and we would just go shopping around here. Hopefully we can find something inexpensive before time runs out. I know wedding dress places are a pain when it comes to ordering so we are going to try and buy off the rack. But that is hopefully soon to be over and done with.
SO. Other than that things are good. I've been taking a lot of pictures, and messing with some old ones, and loving every minute of it. :) You can check them out at www.flickr.com/alishaskeel.
Hey everyone! Things are really good right now. :) Everything is coming together for the wedding, and I can't believe it's in a month and a half! WHOA!. So yes. Brian's been fantastic, and things have been really great between us. It is very encouraging that we have made it through our entire engagement process without stressing eachother out too much, or fighting too much. It's overall been a very enjoyable process, and I'm going to miss it once it's over. But I'm sure I'll be enjoying my new life with him enough to not miss it too much ;).
I recently started a photography account on a website called Flickr. There are tons of photographers on there, and I was really excited to join. I really wanted to get out and go take pictures while just driving around yesterday, but I ran into some phone problems and had to get that taken care of instead. So I ended up staying home and taking some pictures of my cat :). He's a fantastic model. I honestly think he loves my camera, because he literally poses for me. It's helarious to watch. :)
Enjoy!
+++.(if you like those, you can see more here! My Flickr )
I also just wanted to post a little about Derek Webb. He is an INCREDIBLE Christian singer who sings about issues that no Christian really wants to talk about. He has some really interesting views on what's going on in the world of Christianity today, and I would HIGHLY reccommend a listen. If you want any of him music, let me know. :)
Basically, I'm sick. My fatigue is awful, and my head feels like it's imploding. My nose is stuffy, and I'm super achy everywhere. BUT it's been okay because I've been sick with Brian, and now Rebecca. And it's nice having company. :)
So yes, I'm still not sure if work is going happen tomorrow, because I have a fever and don't want to give it to anyone else. The three of us think we got it from the Hospital (how ironic, right?). But we all visited Brian's mom there around the same time, and we all got sick around the same time...so that may be what it's from.
But overall, I'm good. I've been working on wedding stuff like mad, and it's been a blast. I have almost all of my addresses, and I am having a small craft party this weekend to work on invitations. I can't believe how close it's getting! I'm incredibly excited.
Other than that, nothing has really been going on. Things are good in my world!
Everything is pulling together incredible well for the wedding, and I can't believe how quickly it's coming up! Brian and I are both getting incredibly excited. And it's nice to seee such excitement in him. We've started planning the setup of the house, and how/when we are going to move everything which has been fun. Since I'm only moving next door, it won't be too much of a hassle. Plus I'm giving most of my stuff away to Rebecca and Jessica, so I won't have to move much but everything in my room, my storage, and my dvds. :) I'm just getting so excited I can barely contain it.
My fitness plan is finally getting back on track. I think school wore me out so much last quarter that I just lost all motivation to do anything. So I'm back on to eating better and made a goal to do at least 15 minutes of yoga everyday for the next 30 days. I did 45 min. yesterday (which I woke up pretty sore from this morning) and 15 min. this morning. So far so good :).
I'm planning on selling a great deal of my old horse stuff soon. I'm going to gather/clean everything tonight and hopefully get stuff sold ASAP. I could use the money for the wedding, and I really have no use for the things I have laying around. So, if anyone is interested let me know.
SO, other than that nothing too interesting has been going on. I've just been working 3 days a week (8 hours each day) at the church, and then helping Tom out with photography anytime he asks. I've been learning a lot, and I still have a good deal of free time to get thigns done around the house, and take time for myself. It actually feels like a summer vacation, which is incredibly nice. :)
That's pretty much all that's been going on with me right now. Hope everything is good with you!
I've been crazy busy with everything. And nothing interesting has really been going on. Other than our Geneva Hills volunteer work weekend we had last Saturday. We got the camp ready for the kids (by cleaning up and such), and it was a really great time :).
Other than that, I am beat. I'm tired most days and have been on the verge of grumpy by about 4pm. I've felt a little "off" but it's nothing to be too concerned about. Probably just the end of the school year pressing down on me. Speaking of which, I CANNOT WAIT until I am done with this quarter. SHEESH. But man oh man do I have a lot to do until then. *ugh*. I don't even want to think about that until Sunday.
Work has been pretty slow, as has life. It feels like the wedding can't come soon enough. But it's probably good that it doesn't because we don't nearly have everything paid for. And at this point, no honeymoon plans. But I'm sure it will come together, as it always does.
On a lighter note, a few of my friends and I are going to go see the new animated movie "UP" tonight. :) I'm super excited about that. I've been dying to see it. So time's sort of dragging until I get to go have a good time! Only a few more hours left :). But man could I use a nap before then!
I've been trying to get back on track with my eating habits. I got a little out of control, not really sure why. But it's been pretty difficult, and my self-esteem has started dropping. Watching Brian lose so much weight should be motivating me, but it's just not happening. I've been considering becoming vegitarian, just to try something new, but I'm not sure that would be the best option. But who knows, maybe it would be? basically I need to cut out sweets and most products with wheat. I need to start eating more veggies again, which have gotten lost since I ran out of money.
SO. sorry to seem so depressing, I'm not really sure what's going on with me right now. I'm at a bit of a stalemate with myself and am trying to push through it. Just pray for me, I suppose.
Other than that, things with Brian have been great. He's really into music and having a good time with that. So I'm happy for him :). I love seeing him beam over what he's working on. It absolutley makes my day. :-}
umm....I'm not really sure where else to go with this...this post seems kind of pointless, but needed none-the-less.
Man oh man, what a day Friday was. I woke up at 9, took a shower, watched a movie, ate some breakfast, and then headed to work. Work was pretty laid back, and I got off around 3. I then proceeded to go visit Bizzy, who bought me her favorite shot (a "Fun Dip" shot) at her favorite bar. We then hung out for a bit and I headed over to dinner a while later. Dinner was great! My mom and Greg made me Bison Burgers, home-made mashed potatoes, and fresh green beans. It was an amazing dinner, and full of good company! My mom had also gotten me a present, which happened to be almost everything off for my wedding list for Mary Kay! I can't believe that all got taken care of. I think all I have left to buy is blush. *AMAZING!*
After that it was off to the house to round everyone up and head to Martini Park. They put us up in their V.I.P. section, which was HUGE and had these comfy couches. It was an absolute blast. We even kind of had our own personal bouncer ;). So that was awesome. Rebecca bought me a Strawberry Basil Martini (SO GOOD) and Joe bought me some Salmon Poppers topped with caviar. Which I am still raving about. WOW. I had never had caviar, and I was very keen on trying it. It was completly worth it :). So many thanks to Joe for that. After that, we headed over to Gameworks, where Rebecca, Jessica, and I all ended up beating the Jurassic Park game on Expert *FTW!*. We were super pumped about that. It may be becoming a birthday tradition, thanks to Jessica :-}. After that we went and stood in line for Shadowbox and then sat down to a good show. Not their best, but our group made the most of it. We were having a great time even though the show wasn't super spectacular. Everyone then congregated back to the house and all had a good time til everyone got too exhausted (me being one of the first!) to do anything else! I was in bed by 2am. It was a fantastic night, and a fabulous birthday!
As many of you probably know, I am turning 21 tomorrow. I am super excited. :) I'm not a big drinker, but tomorrow is going to be a blast. I'm not planning on getting "drunk" or anything, just going out with my friends, and buying my first legal drink at Martini Park. Then, off to Shadowbox for a fantastic show! Before that, of course, I am going to have dinner at my mom's with Greg and my brother and Brian. It's going to be a lot of fun :). They are making me Bison burgers. Then Saturday with my dad and ako; I have no idea what they have planned for me, but it's going to be great! Class is also pretty much out of the question tomorrow. I want to be able to stay up as long as I want tonight, and sleep in tomorrow. So that's what I'm going to do :).
I'm also looking forward to French Silk Pie homemade by Rebecca. :-D
Also, I watched the movie Seven Pounds last night, and I would deffinatly reccommend it to everyone! It's a fantastic movie. very moving.
Other than that, everything has pretty much stayed the same. Brian and I are better than ever, and are both very happy. He's been working on music a lot, which is awesome. Wedding stuff is coming along pretty well. It seems sort of surreal right now, but I'm hoping it will all come together in the next few months!
It started out with the wedding of one of my absolute closest friends of all time, Bizzy Campbell marrying an absolutley fantastic guy, Mark Shell. That was yesterday morning at 9am, and it was so fun! they looked so happy it was contagious :).
So, on top of working and school I have all of my weekends completly filled until June, which by that time, will be the end of school for the summer (*yippe!*). I will still be working for the church, and may be picking up extra hours elsewhere to make some extra cash and get some extra experience.
today has been good, though. I've been incredibly tired, and a little stressed out, but it's all coming together. I couldn't concentrate in class all morning becuase I was just playfully writting down a wedding budget and got a little overwhelmed with how much we have left to pay for. Fortunatly, it's only about 1/6th of the actual cost of the wedding...so that's good. I also found out my first car payment is due early next week, along with my first wedding ring payment. bleh. I despise money. It makes everything more complicated.
Brian, as always has been making everything better though. He's always so reassuring and positive, and it honestly just makes me smile. I'm very lucky to be marrying such a fun guy, who is also so sensible and smart. i feel very priveledged for that :).
Got a few engagement pictures back, which was great! The entire session was an absolute blast; Brian and I both had fun, and I can only hope Tom and Johnathan did too! We started out shooting at the Columbus Museum of Art sculptue garden, which was a lot of fun! Thenw e just walked around and took pictures a few other places. :) I can't wait to see the rest of them. here are a few of our favorites! (all credit/rights for these photos goes to Tom Feisel at new age foto [www.newagefoto.com])
More to come! So anyway, that's all I've got for now. I'll update more withing the next few days. :)
I have been waiting a good long time to have my engagement pictures taken. And to have them taken by Tom Feisel only makes it that much better. As most of you know, he is an absolutley out of this world photographer, and I can't wait to see/order some of the pictures! :-D We had our engagement photoshoot yesterday, and it was incredibly fun. Brian was a natural, and I just had a blast :). We both had a fantastic time. Though I do have to say, getting stuck in "Race for the Cure" traffic downtown was no picnic. Or maybe we should have brought a picnic, with how slow things were moving! They had Tom's studio literally surrounded by the route, so we couldn't get there. We had to meet at the Columbus Museum of Art. But no complaints here :-D. Getting to do pictures in the sculpture garden was AMAZING! :-D I so can't wait to see them. :-P Here's a peek at how dolled up I got yesterday :-). The gorgeous hair is thanks to my amazing friend Michelle! She got up super early and came over to do my hair before she went to work. *MUAH!*
I've been listening to this song over and over later. I absolutley adore it, and I just wanted to share it with you all.
When I first heard it I was convinced it was about Sampson and Delilah. But after listening to it a few more times, I hoenstly think it's about a man she (Regina Spektor) loved, who was vonerable and truly showed himself to her. But, first and foremost, this song is about love. And i think that's what I love about it :)
Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, school and work keep me busy! As do my fabulous friends. But overall, nothing too exciting or anything going on. The "Great House Community Cookout" was held on Sunday night. Basically, I live in an apartment, which is attached to two other large apratments, to make up one giant looking building. In those two other apartments live 4 of mine and brian's really good guy friends, and brian, his brother, and their roommate mark. So, we often all get together and hang out, and invite people over, and this was our first Spring cookout. It was a blast! :-D
Anyway, right before that I did pictures for my Mom and her fiance, Greg. They turned out so great! I wanted to show them to you all, so here is a slideshow of the images from that day. It was a blast! :)
Brian and I are also getting our engagement pictures done this Saturday by a friend of mine, Tom Feisel. He owns his own photography company called New Age Foto. He's an incredible photographer, and I'm very excited! :-)
Since I'm not sure who all knows this story, here it is. I've been meaning to write it down for a while now :). -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It begins with a bright idea. "Alisha, RENT is coming to Cleveland next month. We have to go!" Brian was very excited, as he should have been.
This specific musical, RENT, had always played a big part in our lives. We went to see it together as a movie when we first started dating. I had already seen it, and knew he would love it. There were certain songs that reminded me of him, and I quietly sang them to him in the theater. He said when we went to see it that night, it was when he first realized he loved me.
Of course when he told me it was coming to Cleveland, (a city I quite despised at the time) I basically came up with every excuse not to go, "But can we really afford that? what if it snows and we can't make it there?" And then he said the magic words..."Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp are touring with them as Roger and Mark". My tone changed completly. Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp were the original broadway "Roger" and "Mark" from the production, and were also in the movie. It was decided, and Brian ordered tickets soon after. He got incredible seats, and all that was left to do was save up the money for the drive to and from.
That's when I came up with a bright idea. "Why don't we make a day of it? I'd hate to just drive to Cleveland for the show, so lets spend the day there. We can go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where Brian had never been) and then the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. How does that sound??" It was agreed, and I anxiously awaited such a fantastic sounding day.
It was the morning of January 10th, and I was packed up and ready to go. Columbus had been expecting a snow storm, and as nervous as we were to go, we decided to blister through it. We had just gotten new tires on my car (thanks to my dad and step-mom :-}) and started on our way. It was pretty icy, and I drove pretty nervously (not for myself, but because of the crazy people around me spinning out everywhere) for about 3 hours. But we listened to some fantastic music, and Brian was incredibly quiet. But, It looked mainly like so:
So, we stopped for lunch at Wendys (which is where that last picture was) and got some food in us before entering downtown cleveland. Once we got there, it was crazy! The streets were empty, because they had like 6-8 inches of snow, and none of the streets were plowed! We slid all over the place, and it was a blast. We finally found a parking garage, but still had to trek to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (which looked like it wouldn't be that far...*caugh caugh*)...Brian was freezing, and our pants were soaking (since none of the sidewalks were plowed either, but not enough to act that miserable.
So we stayed there for a few hours, and had an absolute blast! My favorite thing by far was John Lennon's piano. SO COOL. All the Beatles stuff was amazing. I felt I could truly appreciate the museum now that I appreciate the genre more.
We stayed there until about 10 minutes before close, and then drove to the next parking garage to look for the Hard Rock Cafe. THAT was much easier said than done. We asked around everywhere, walked around for about an hour in the freezing cold at night, through part of the ghetto even, until one restraunt finally told us where it was. When we found it, we were basically overjoyed. And no matter how much being lost in the freezing cold 8 inches of snow at night in the ghetto in a strange city should have been....we had a blast.
So we ate a fantastic dinner. We had been on a diet for the past 9 days (a pretty strict diet) and this was our first day off. We were taking advantage of that! I had a burger, and Brian had a steak. Both were absolutley amazing. We had a great waiter, and even had people sitting next to us who were going to see RENT too. :)
We then treked to the theater, which wasn't that bad. We were some of the first people in line, and got to stand inside and be nice and warm. We made friends with one of the door guys, and joked around with him for a while.
He then showed us to our seats in the theater, and about 5 minutes into sitting there, Brian said he was going to the restroom. I just looked through the program, awaiting his return. Little did I know what he would return with.
When he came back, he had a group of about 7 or 8 girls standing there with him. I didn't know any of them, and was completly baffled by the fact that he found people he know here. It was then that he looked at me, and smiled, then turned back to them and quitely starting conducting them saying, "1,2,3,4". And they started singing this:
It was then, while these girls were singing "I'll Cover You" that he got down on one knee (or lept down, actually) and said, "Alisha, will you marry me??" He was crying and had a giant smile on his face, and I was so shocked. I took the ring out of the box, looked at it, put it on my finger, and after about 30 seconds finally said, "yes! yes of course!" I was in such a state of shock that I had almost forgotten to answer. He ran over to me and kissed me, both of us crying, and everyone started clapping. It was amazing. We got congratulated by everyone around us, and then he came and sat down next to me, and basically didn't let go of me the entire show. It was total bliss. We had a crazy/excited drive home, and got back at 2am. We were both so excited, but didn't have any trouble sleeping that night.
It could easily be named as the best day of my entire life.
I stressed myself super thin yesterday. I went to class from 8-3, non-stop, and then drove straight to work, working a total of 4 hours without being able to look away from the screen let alone do anything else. To say the least it was an incredibly stressful four hours. I then had to rush home to clean, change, and start to cook for our girl's night we were having. Unfortunately, by the time I finished drying my hair I got incredibly dizzy, and felt like I was about to fall over. It was then that I realized I hadn't eaten anything since 10am, and it was a little after 7 by now. My head was spinning and felt incredibly fuzzy. When I asked Shawn what was wrong he said it sounded like I was dehydrated. Everyone told me to lay down and drink some water. I HATE water, but I downed a whole glass almost immediately.
Huh.
After about an hour I felt totally fine, and ate dinner that the wonderful Dianna cooked. That was some delicious pasta! I then set up a mini, home-made photoshoot for all of us, which was incredibly fun. The lighting was horrible, but it got the job done none-the-less. :)
After that we watched monster's inc and I made tie-dyed red velvet cheesecake. It was AWESOME. Deffinatly a grand finally to the night. Plus by midnight we celebrated Bizzy and Mark's 1 year anniversary yay!
I'll post some pictures from the shoot once I get my computer up and running again. It decided to not start anymore yesterday, so I have to get that resolved. I am so ready to be done with this computer non-sense. I really just need to get a new one at some point I think...and I may just get a mac. Who knows.
I stressed myself out so much yesterday that I really need to go home and do about an hour's worth of yoga, take a nap, and just relax with Brian tonight. That's all I really want to do.
So that's the plan. I'll put pictures up later!
Update: I went home and did yoga for 30 minutes which was great! It really helped me re-center. And I release any stress I was having up to that point in time. After the yoga, I decided to go sit our community couch, which sits on the front porch. I ended up taking a light blanket and pillow out with me, and fell asleep. It was wonderful. Then Brian came home, and we spent the entire night hanging out. A Great end to a crazy few days! :)
The past week has been interesting. I ended up having to spend an unexpected $140 on books and painting supplies, which basically broke my bank account for the month *gumble grumble* plus I have to worry about the new car payment next month. But no worries, I've been trying much harder to be optomistic about things and really make the best of each day.
Brian and I have gotten a good amount done on wedding plans. It looks like we will be ordering our cake topper soon, and we aare seriously considering having the espresso/tea bar again. It seems like my dress is coming along nicely (hopefully) and I should have a fitting within the next 2 or 3 weeks. :-D I'm very excited about that. We also figured out our menu, which is basically considered an "Afternoon Tea" reception. So lots of tea sandwiches, tarts, fruit, etc. It's going to be cool :) And the Kocher's offered to help out in more ways than we could have possibly imagined! We are so excited about that. :-D Now I just need to start getting everything together, and put finishing touches on everything in a few months. I'm getting so excited :-) I'm also excited for our engagement pictures to be done within the next month.
Other than wedding plans, work and school have been good. I'm in a World Religion class, which is VERY interesting to me. It would deffinatly have to be to keep me awake, since I have it 3 times a week at 8am! But so far so good :) I've been enjoying my Advanced Visual Communications class, as usual; but what else would you expect with such a fun professor. Painting as been a little emotionally tough on me, only because I'm really reaching out and trying something new. I stepped WAY out of my comfort zone with that one. After my last class though, I really feel like it was a good choice to take it and expand my horizons. My professor is very encouraging, and really pushes me to strive for the best I can possibly do. That's what I love about college. Especially art in college; it's not how good it is compared to everyone else; it's for you---how far you can push yourself to become better. It's so challenging, which I've discovered over the past 3 years is what I really enjoy about life. I get sad when life is too boring, I love being pushed and challenged. Anyway, after the first class I felt like I could get a hang of the painting thing, but then after the third class, I felt like a complete failure. But the end of class on monday, I felt totally re-inspired, mostly thanks to my professor. :) You can see the transformation of my painting below. (It basically had to be an abstract piece which shows 9 different painting techniques.) Yes, this is all the same painting, just transformed over about a week. It goes from left to right (start--->finish).
I've been tired a whole lot for the past weekend too, not too sure what's going on with that. :-\ But other than that things are quite good. I've been spending a whole lot of quality time with my girls. Which has been fantastic. And Brian has been more than wonderful. :-} As much as I'm going to miss living with my lovely girls, I am SO excited to be Brian's wife. Even from as many horror stories as I've seen and heard about marriage, I just feel so lucky that he would want to spend his life with me.
Oh! Of Course! I've been watching a good number of movies over the past few days, and I feel like all of them were worth seeing. My favorites were Haunting in Connecticut, Bolt, and Marley and Me. Bolt was SO funny! I also watched Monsters vs. Aliens, which was decent by not fantastic. It was super predicatable...so I didn't feel it a whole lot. But Bolt was awesome! Loved it. Haunting in Connecticut was one of the best scarry movies I've seen in a while. And Marley and Me made me cry like a baby, because it was so good. Which rarely happens. I'm also in process of watching Yes Man, which started out good. We'll see if it keeps it's current rank. :)
That's all I've got currently, hope everyone is doing well!
I am a young graphic design artist, just starting out in the world. I've got everything I need right here.
Duck babble is a collection of my thoughts on life.
I'm quite in love with Rubber Duckies. :)
