the final count down

Even though I'm semi-over wedding planning, I couldn't help myself when I saw this super easy to use countdown tool. See? I've added it to the right hand side of the screen. ------------------>

I may take it down if it begins to stress me out. But, right now I'm trying to remind myself that it is also the countdown to our AWESOME HONEYMOON. 10 days of sun and a perpetually stocked mini-fridge. How could I not be psyched about that?

toast with butter

The closer and closer our wedding gets, the less and less I have any interest in reading wedding blogs. So you got engaged? Been there, done that. Writing about your bridesmaid dress search? We've already got ours picked out. How to find a photographer? Wrote a post just like it six months ago. All the planning details just seem much less relevant to what is going on in my life.

Lately, I've found myself more attracted to blogs written by smart, witty women who write about life after the wedding. I'm not quite ready to stop following all of my wedding blogs just quite yet, but I need to find replacements stat!

Right now, I'm digging:
www.thatwifeblog.com
www.omgmom.blogspot.com
www.teaandlaundry.com/

Suggestions?


(I also had toast with butter for dinner. hence the title)

(also. these blogs could either be a be a product or a cause of my baby dreams. i realize that. no need to point it out.) 

Feelings Better

Sorry for the super depressing post earlier today. Sometimes my life feels like this:

Thankfully, tonight I had a chance to destress. I went to workout and then met up with some of my classmates for a couple of hours. It was nice to take a night off and just shoot the shit. Plus, the ice cream cone from McDonalds didn't hurt :) Now I'm wrapped in a blanket and vegging in front of the boob tube. It is glorious!  While tomorrow I've got to wake up bright and early and writereadwritewriteanalyzedata for now I am just reeeelllllaaaaxxxxxiiiiiiinnnnggggg and catching up on episodes of 16 and Pregnant.

finals week hell

you know those weeks where you are just filled to capacity? Not one more tiny little thing can possibly fit on your agenda because you don't have the time nor the mental energy to accommodate it? Yeah, that's where I am.

It has gotten to the point that after classes or lab meeting I find myself looking for a private corner to cry in. I'm just that mentally exhausted. I have no resources left. 

I'm trying to pep myself up so that I can put the effort into this final sprint, but lord knows its rough. One week from today my life will be about a hundred times better. So for now, I'm just trying to make it till then.

Bridal Shower Beauty

One of the fun things about my bridal shower this past Sunday is I got to get beautified before hand! Heather Massa came to my house at 9 am on the dot on Sunday morning and worked her magic! Because I've never even met Heather before this, I really wanted a chance to do a pre-trial before the actual bridal trial to make sure we meshed well. This was the perfect excuse! I am so glad I decided to go this route. Of course no one needs to get their hair and makeup professionally done for their bridal shower, but if I had to worry about whether or not I was going to like my hair and makeup on my wedding day this whole month I probably would have gone crazy. (and yes - i would have worried about it all month) So it was totally worth it to me! On the plus side, my FMIL got to meet her too and decided she wants to get her hair and makeup done for the wedding now! That's just how awesome Heather is :)

Because I love all of you and I have very little shame, I will post a before and after picture for y'all to marvel at.

This is tough to look at! I'm starting to doubt my decision to never wear makeup! I was *in love* with the way I looked after Heather was done. I probably would have stared at myself in the mirror for at least 30 minutes if we weren't in somewhat of a rush to leave.

So how did I get so done up? Well, first she curled and set my hair. Then, she did my make up. I think she used mostly MAC products. Then, finally, I twirled for the camera!

I'm usually not a girly-girl, but I could get used to this! I don't think I was the only one in love with my look either - Neill took quite a liking to it :) I think he told me I looked beautiful every minute. It's funny because I always thought Neill didn't like when I wore makeup, but now I realize he just doesn't like how it looks when I do my own makeup!!!

Anyhoo, after getting dolled up we loaded into the car and zipped over to the shower! I'll recap that part next!


(p.s. - not that you are wondering, but I wore this dress and loved it.)

finals

so remember how i said that graduate school takes up about 80% of my time? well, during these next two weeks I'm expecting that number to jump up to about 98%. I'll pop in and update when I need to destress, but I'll probably mainly just be working away on papers and the like. check back though, because i have a wonderful bridal shower to fill you in on and lots of pictures to share!

Come July

Come July, I will have had this blog for two years. Two whole wonderful years. Time flies! For someone who has never been able keep a diary longer than a few weeks, this is quite an accomplishment. To celebrate - I'm thinking of getting my own domain. Neil and I have our wedding website at www.neillandalisha.com and I could do something similar like www.whateverIwant.com.

The hard part?

Figuring out what should go in the "whateverIwant" space. I'd like it to be aesthetically pleasing and easy to say, type, and remember. And, it has to have at least some vague relationship to me and who I am! But, I don't want it to have any identifying information (i.e. alisha'sblog) or be too specific to anything going on in my life (i.e. "graduate school" is out*). I wouldn't mind if there was a reference to Chicago in it, because let's be honest - chi town raised me crazy. But, nothing too specific like "chicagoblog".

I've used "illpullout" as a vanity url since highschool for a few different sites now. (Gosh, I can't believe me and my friends used to actually use myspace. I doubly can't believe that I haven't deleted mine yet, since I probably go on about twice a year, if that.) But, I think I'm ready to try something new. I've used "aliiisha" also, but this would break my no-name rule.

So, what do you think? www.thisishowitgoes.com, just doesn't flow well. Any ideas?







*I tried to think of more words that were specific to my life. Then, I realized that graduate school probably takes up 80% of my life right now, with the other 20% devoted to wedding planning. le sigh.

wedding gift?

It is official! We received our first wedding related gift in the mail yesterday - a heavy, medium sized box from Crate & Barrel. Yippeeeee! But now, what do we do? Should we open it? Do we wait until after the wedding?

I vote for open. If I sent someone a gift and then didn't get a thank you until a couple of months later, I might wonder whether or not the gift arrived at all. Plus, my wonderful bestie, Gracie, is hosting a bridal shower for me this weekend. I assume the gift was sent for that, but of course I can't be sure. Should I bring the box with me and open it at the shower?

I usually am a stickler for not preopening presents and would never dream of opening a birthday card/present before my actual birthday, so opening this early seems so . . . naughty. Don't even get me started on the idea of *using* whatever the item might before before we are officially married.

What are your thoughts? Should we rip into it right away or stuff it away until after the wedding?

Our Invitations

If you've been paying attention, you know that we had a very difficult time deciding on invitations. I must have ordered fifteen different samples - all beautiful in their own way. I was in love with letterpress and sure that it was a must have splurge.

then I woke up and did the math.

once we decided that digital printing was the right route for us, i felt like i had to start the whole search over again! the search was taking so long, that before we realized it we had to order the invites ASAP. so, on somewhat of a whim I (we) made the final decision. Meet our lovelies:

Hello! Lucky was wonderful to work with and we couldn't be happier with how they turned out. I LOVE them!

Now, the RSVPs are starting to roll in and I get giddy every time I open our mailbox. It is like getting a present in the mail every single day!

Thankfully, we ordered matching thank you cards along with our invites so I won't ever have to worry about picking out the right paper products for our wedding ever again!

Oh life

isn't it funny?


things have been awful and wonderful all at the same time.

you know how sometimes when someone asks you how things are going, you respond "i've been better"? Well, last night as I was trying to fall asleep, I started trying to figure out whether or not that response fit with my life right now.


have i really been better?


think about it.
it is easy to get caught up in the day to day annoyances of midterms and statistics quizzes and wedding planning and delayed buses and jimmy johns being out of white bread so you are forced to eat your sandwich on their not as delicious wheat bread and all the other little (and medium sized!) pains of the day. and by noticing all of that stuff, it is easy to start feeling like each day is just more annoying than the last*. But, I am happy to report that I have not in fact ever been better. 


have you been better? if so, when (and how)? 


*at least, it is easy to do this stuff if you are neurotic and prone to negative affect, like myself. if you are one of those happy go lucky people that isn't annoyed when you have to wait more than five minutes for the bus, good for you. go be happy somewhere else.

i'm an aunt!

Yesterday, I became a first-time aunt! My sister in law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl at 6:43 last night (6lb 3oz 18inches long). Neill and I both wish we could have been there to be part of the wonderfullness of it all, but unfortunately this sort of stuff is the downside to living far away from family. I love Chicago, but sometimes it blows :(

We got two pictures sent to us via text and I can't wait till I get more! She is all small and baby like with wrinkly big eyes. I just want to nuzzle my face to her and give her kisses.



[note: I'm not going to be posting pictures of her yet, because I think posting pictures of children on-line is a little weird without the expression permission of her parents. But, if they are okay with it than I'll share!] 

wish me luck!

I have two midterms due today. Wish me luck!

(and yes - to anyone who noticed - it is very late in the semester for midterms. finals are just around the corner!) 

23: A year in review

I love when I find old random posts on my blog that I had completely forgotten about! Like this gem right here! That is a post I wrote when I turned 23 in 2009. I set out some goals for myself and they were (and I quote):

Goals for 23?
Go back to school in some manner (please)
find happiness in the small moments (always)
treasure the people in my life (its only right)
grow more plants
and stop dressing like its 1995!

How did I do?

I am back in school. Check!

I think I do find more happiness in the small things and look for happiness wherever I can. Check!

Again, this one is hard to measure, but I think I am doing better at appreciating my VIPs. Check!

Definitely accomplished number four - our living room is like a forest! Check!

This last one makes me laugh - I think I'm still working on this. Case in point: the other day I wore a pair of jeans I bought from American Eagle at the end of my senior year in high school (2004). Thankfully I'm not wearing jeans from 1995, but now that I'm 24 it seems even more unacceptable to still wear clothing from high school. So . . . . no check.

please remind me

Please remind me that i go through EVERY SINGLE DAY of my life without professionally done hair or makeup (or any makeup at all). every day i walk around just looking all normal and like me. Please remind me that I don't have to look like a movie star on my wedding day. i'm not walking the red carpet. i'm just getting married. yes, of course, i want to look extra beautiful that day - but finding a someone to do hair and makeup is not *that* important.

sigh.

can you tell i'm trying to convince myself here?

I'm getting married in 70 days and I have no one to do my hair or makeup. I thought at least I had hair, but I don't.

I will find someone. And it will be fine.

Even if it is not fine, it will be fine.

tips for success

just do some ho shit.

[jezebel.com always has the best material]