Thursday, February 16, 2012

A Little Wednesday Romance...


I decided to surprise Aaron with some Wednesday love... we needed to redeem our failed Valentine's dinner, and redeem I did!


I ran around to 3 different stores looked for fresh scallops, and paid a mortgage for them, but they were delicious! I set the mood with candles all over the living room, jazz on the radio, a tablecloth on our coffee table, and a chilled bottle of our favorite Riesling.


I made a creamy lemon risotto, seared sea scallops in a provencal sauce, and roasted asparagus!


















For dessert, I served rich vanilla ice cream topped with fresh strawberries and chocolate sauce.


We talked about our days, stared into each others eyes, and maybe kissed a little! :)


It was certainly the way we should have spent Valentine's Day, but celebrating a Wednesday is good enough for us!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Our Disappointed Valentine's!

This year we agreed to skip gifts for Valentine's Day, but we both lied and bought each other a little something!


Toy Story 2 for Aaron


Lady and the Tramp for ME!


We both surprised each other with these little acts of love because we wanted to, not because we needed to. But we had decided to order some Chinese food to celebrate... which turned into a Big. Giant. FAIL. They gave us inedible noodles, and piled pork on top of my vegetarian beans. I had next to nothing for dinner... and Aaron felt incredibly horrible!


I decided that tonight will be our Valentine's Day. I'm going to make it up to him, in every way I can!



Tuesday, February 14, 2012

What Makes Me Happy...

Today is the day of love, and as much as I didn't want to celebrate it this year in lieu of saving for our wedding and paying our bills, I couldn't help it. I broke down and bought Aaron a sappy card, a movie, and some chocolates. But moreover, I started thinking about what today means.

What makes me happy? What makes me smile? What makes me laugh? What makes me feel like life is going to get better when I'm sad?



  1. Keiko cuddling up to my face in the morning

  2. Aaron singing and dancing and being goofy

  3. A good cup of latte

  4. The smell of baking

  5. Aaron's kisses and hungs

  6. A sweet email from my mom

  7. My friends offering support

  8. A good book when it's raining outside

  9. Aaron's laughter

  10. My favorite blanket, knit for me by my mom's best friend Linda

  11. Stories about my neice and nephew growing up

  12. Any time Aaron touches me

  13. The way Aaron looks at me when I laugh... I melt

  14. Freshly baked cookies, especially peanut butter ones

  15. The sound of my cats purring

What this list teaches me is that I love Aaron more than most things. He keeps me grounded, makes me happy, and teaches me so much about life and what I want from life. This Valentine's Day I feel lucky to be marrying him in less than 9 months. I'll be so proud to call him my husband.

Happy LOVE Day!



Monday, February 13, 2012

A Productive Weekend...

On Saturday, I went to my WW meeting (sigh), went for a quick walk (too sick to do much yet), then we met up with our DJ in Langley. Jared is a friend of a friend, and we are very happy with him and his talents! We know that he's going to get our party started and rocking all night!




After lunch at Brown's, we met up with Bev from Celebrate the Moment. She was the sweetest lady, and worked within our budget to get us our chair covers and sashes.




So 2 more vendors are signed on and done!


Sunday was a day of relaxation, cooking, and Dexter! :)



Aaron's bacon eggs benny



My eggs benny



Chocolate Khalua Cupcakes - best way to enjoy Valentine's Day






Thursday, February 9, 2012

Cough Cough

Sadly, I've been sick all week long! I feel like a flaming bag of you know what!

But the saving grace of being sick has been the time I've had to think... and watch reruns of Say Yes to the Dress and Four Weddings!

One of the things I have spent a lot of time thinking about is the tone that I want to capture in our wedding. I think I've been so focused on the colors and themes that I missed the TONE of our wedding, and really, what's a wedding without tone? Tone-deaf? Out of tone? I don't know, I'm high on cough medications, don't hate!

Anyways, it's on my to-do list to really focus on this over the next month. We have a wedding post-it note hanging on our fridge with 4 notes for me and 2 notes for Aaron. He banged his off in about an hour, so now it's my turn!

By the way, one of the to-do's on Aaron's list was to confirm with his graphic artist friend Amit that he could design our guest book. They have a man date on Sunday to go over ideas! Yay for grooms who know how to get er' done!

Now I'm off to blow my nose, make a new cup of tea, and join my friend for a bowl of soup!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Things I *Heart*...

Or this could alternately be titled... "Things I *Heart*... but can't justify purchasing right before our wedding!"


ModCloth Picnic in the Park Dress


Cuisinart Soft Serve Machine



Soup and Sandwich Plate

Would it be bad to just purchase them and call them "pre-shower" gifts to myself???
















Thursday, February 2, 2012

All the Boys in the House...

I just realized that I haven't formally introduced you to the gents who will be standing next to Aaron on our big day!

They are all wonderful guys, and I'm so happy that each of them have agreed to be part of our wedding party!!!

Now, without further adieu:

Mike - Best Man
Mike & Aaron met when they were teenagers and bonded over their dorky ways, including discussing who would win between Batman and Superman, their love of video games, and their mutually crazy families! :) Mike and his now wife (newlyweds!) just had the most beautiful baby girl named Anna who has her daddy wrapped around her little finger already! Mike is like a cartoon character - full of charm and witty retorts to all of Aaron's jokes!























Cliff - Groomsman


Cliff and Aaron met in a roundabout kinda way... Aaron was dating a girl who was roommates with Cliff's girlfriend. Aaron and this girl eventually broke up, but remained friends with Cliff afterwards. Cliff has since married said girlfriend and had 2 adorable little boys with her, once of which is lucky enough to have Aaron as a godfather! :) Stacey and Cliff are the couple that Aaron looks up to because they fully support each other and have been great friends to Aaron through thick and thin!
























Matt - Groomsman


Matt is Aaron's younger brother! They are only 16 months apart, but couldn't be more different! Matt was the cool kid with the mohawk or dreadlocks who played drums and got all the girls. Aaron was "Matt's brother" in high school, and he was okay with that. Matt is a funny, charasmatic guy with a lot of character and a lot of love to give, and is always very happy for Aaron and I no matter what we're doing! I can't wait to have him as a brother-in-law!

























Tory - Groomsman


And then there's Tory... MY brother! I could go on and on and on about how much I love this guy! When we were kids, I was very protective of him, and never grew out of that. He's a wonderful human being. He loves people with all of his being... his family, his friends, his girlfriend Cindy (pictured below). He has a passion for cooking and hockey and adventures! He's much more like my mom than I am as well - laid-back, go-with-the-flow, and spontaneous! He makes me proud every day, and I tear up thinking about him sometimes (like right now) because we almost lost him in 2006 due to a terrible motorcycle accident he had while traveling through Thailand. He has plenty of scars from it, but at least he pulled through. In 2008 he went to Alberta to find work as an electrician, and we all worried about him being away again. But the evening of my 29th birthday party, he showed up at my doorstep as a surprise. I've never been so excited to see someone before! I love him with every ounce of my heart... I only have one brother, and I'm glad it's him. As a bonus, though, he and Aaron have acted like brothers almost from day one, and they even go to the movies without me! :)




































Anyways, that's them, the guys that make up Aaron's wedding party. They are all very different, unique, caring guys that love Aaron and we're so excited to not only have them for the day, but to have them all in our lives!

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Tying It Together...

I knew that I wanted to get the dads ties as part of their gifts, so when I saw a deal from Wagjag.com come through my inbox for half off a purchase at ties.com, I bought it without hesitation! This morning I placed my order for 2 Kelly Green Ties (although it's not quite our color, it's the closest I'll probably be able to find) for the dads, a matching little one for our ring bearer Rylan, and the Silver and Green plaid one for our MC, Dimitri.






















I haven't introduced you to Dimitri yet, but I will in a later post! I promise... cross my heart! He's one of the best guys I know, so single ladies, keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming post!