It's been so long

Probably no one even reads this anymore, but just in case I thought I'd post a link to the new blog I've recently started to talk about the baby that's on her way.  She'll be coming in April, and we are excited.  But worried, as she may have some special needs due to a birth defect on her nose and in her heart.  Anyway please read all about her at Encephalo..what?

And maybe someday I will get back to this blog....

Three Months and Counting!

Since my last post, I have been busy with school, work, and also getting ready to get hitched. It's stressful, but of course I am incredibly happy. I haven't been super fast at getting the news out, but believe it or not I am getting married THREE MONTHS FROM TODAY!! Please see the above save-the-date card if you don't believe me.

I have also started a wedding blog to help keep you all up to date with wedding news: www.teammmadams.blogspot.com (Please note the three m's). So far it has another copy of the save-the-date, registry info, and a map to reception venue.

I will be harvesting addresses soon, so if you are not sure if I have your updated address, please shoot me an email, or comment below so I can email you.

Max and I look forward to sharing our Big Day with you!

One Word

If I could choose one word to describe my relationship with max, I would select "surprise." Because all in all, this whole thing has been a surprise. First of all I was pretty astonished to find a someone worth talking to on that one dating site, and even more astonishing was that he wanted to talk to me too.

The good thing is that I like surprises, especially good ones, and Max is very talented at surprising me. Even from the day we met in person. I may have mentioned that I invited him to my cousin's wedding reception, and thanks to some cell phone difficulties, I didn't know he was coming until I saw him walk through the door. My heart sped up and melted all at the same time.

(picture courtesy of my cousin Monica. How awesome is it that I have a picture of the day we met?)

As our dating progressed Max found other ways to surprise me. He sent me my favorite flowers for my birthday; he had the above picture framed for me on our third-month-anniversary; he has sent quite a few packages; and my favorite: when he visits for the weekend he always leaves hidden notes for me. A practice I have tried to adopt as well.

I know he's wonderful, but all the time I feel so surprised at how kind, generous, and thoughtful he is. And he's so good lookin' to boot!

Four weeks ago during a family campout, Max wanted to take a walk. We always take walks together so it seemed like we were going to fulfill one of our traditions.

While on the walk he started talking all lovey-dovey, and while doing so, he surprised me by going down on one knee and asked if I would marry him. Like all of his surprises, it was completely unexpected. Naturally, there was just one word I could say in response:

"Yes!"

School Is Hard

I've promised to do the Big Catch Up, but today is not that day. I just wanted to explain why I haven't delivered on my promise. The reason is: Midterms. Maybe you remember them and they haunt your dreams to this day. This will happen to me, I just know it. I have had so many big projects due all at once, and not only have they kept me up literally all night long, they have kept me from my blog.

Here's a teaser to keep your interest piqued in what I will write about hopefullythisweekendprovidedIdon'tgetdumpedonbymyinstructorsagain.

Also, I totally chopped my hair all off. Pictures to come.

Overachievers, Please Try Harder

Another quarter has come and gone, and I am officially done with my first year as an Interior Design student. I have already mentioned how much I love it, and I think it loves me too. Yes, I am still getting good grades.

However, I don't really like school's grading policy. Instead of giving A's, B's, and C's we get grades like 4.0, 3.9, 3.8...you get the picture. So my final grades for this quarter were: 4.0 for Textiles, 3.8 for Architectual Graphics, and 3.7 for Rendering. Technically these are all A's, and I can't help but be pleased about that. But when I look at my accumulative GPA for the year, I have a 3.87. It looks like a got a B somewhere, but I didn't. A 3.7 is my lowest grade, which is still an A, but it doesn't look as nice as a 4.0. This is very frustrating. It is no longer enough just to get an "A" but now it has to be a nice, solid, perfect-looking 4.0.

P.S. The image above is a picture I took of my final project for Architectual Graphics where we learned how to draw 2 point and 1 point perspectives. If it wasn't for the stupid models we did earlier in the quarter I would have gotten a 4.0 in that class too.

A Word About Tattoos

Sometimes I see a really cool tattoo and think, "If I could come up with something that cool, I would so get a tattoo." But I really wouldn't because 1. the prophet said no and 2. I'm not a huge fan of needles. Sufficeth to say, I am not ever contemplating getting one. After all, they are kind of permanent.

That being said, sometimes I do enjoy body art. I worked with a girl at the bakery in NYC who had some clever tattoos that could stand the test of time. I am even slightly proud to say that I helped pick out one of them. (She wanted an homage to the home state of Washington, and instead of an apple, I suggested blackberries. It looks cool.) However, not everyone can pick out great tattoo designs. It takes a truly creative and inventive individual. Because if you aren't, it could be disastrous. You know what I'm talking about. You've seen it.

Case in point: (and I soooo wish I had a picture of it) a middle-aged lady came into the store sporting a tattoo on her foot that caused me to stare for a while. It was a very two-dimensionally stylized hopping frog. The kind of frog you would see in children's fabrics or on a rubber stamp (for her sake, maybe it was a stamp?). The following picture can give you an idea of what I'm talking about. Just picture it bright green and with a bow on its head.

I thought to myself, "Really? This is how you've chosen to decorate your body. FOREVER? Did the tattoo artist laugh when you picked this out because honey, I for sure would have. In fact, I'm laughing now."

So consider this a warning to all would-be tatted-up individuals: Choose wisely.

A Bright, Shiny Weekend

Well it was two weeks ago, but since I promised to write about my weekend with Max I thought I'd better get right down to it. Especially before I forget all the fun details. I really looked forward to Max's visit. Even though we had already spent hours getting to know one another by phone, text, and Skype I wanted to solidify this attachment by actually hanging out with him. I was nervous about seeing him again. I worried that I wouldn't feel the same way, or that my parents wouldn't like him. Or worse, that they would like him and then he would immediately repulse me. Thankfully, my parents and the pets all liked him, and I continue to like him still. Additionally, he continues to like me.

Anywhooo here is our fun weekend. In a list format:

1. There may be some truth the the phrase that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Although this hasn't worked for me in the past, I decided to try again. This time I chose the meals and my mom made them. We ate pretty good at home with marinated steaks, cinnamon rolls, pie, tandoori chicken, caramel popcorn. Not all at once, of course. And I think it worked!

2. One of the biggest challenges I faced that weekend was finding a way to entertain Max. I haven't really explored Spokane so I was at a bit of a loss, and I did not want to spend all weekend at the movie theater. Thankfully the super-cute Browne's Addition neighborhood was sponsoring two events: Artfest and Elkfest. (The latter being a music event with really bad rock bands.) Artfest was not exactly filled with art that I would want to purchase, but it provided one thing that I wanted for the weekend: props for aiding in my quest for good get-to-know-you questions and topics. I'm not so good at asking people about themselves; I consider myself more of an observer. Thus, I need props. This is what I learned: he wants his own stuff to do wood working and build furniture, he wants to know more about furniture styles throughout history, he appreciated the photography, and like me he wasn't interested in the rest of the stuff.

3. Even though Artfest and Elkfest as events were a bit of a bust, the two festivals were in a lovely neighborhood with fantastic historic homes. Many were in great shape, and it was fun to spy in the windows...except for that one that had creepy dolls in the window. (More on creepy dolls later.)

4. Max is so secure in his masculinity that he not only wanted to go, but also enjoyed what I already referred to as the estrogen-filled activity that was the Farm Chicks antiques fair. It was a really cool fair with so many antiques and vintage treasures that even though we just casually looked around, we stayed for over five hours. But we did not leave empty-handed: we bought spicy Cowgirl Chocolate; he purchased a vintage Hermes scarf for me; neckties and a belt buckle for himself, and he managed to get my hand into his.

5. The antiques fair was brimming over with gorgeous furniture pieces, bikes, and stuff (for lack of a better word), but there was also a large quantity of creepy dolls. Why are dolls so creepy looking?

6. To replenish ourselves from a day filled with antiques, we ate a late lunch in a milk bottle...or rather a building that looked like a milk bottle. We also looked at vintage cars, and saw grown ladies ride tricycles.

7. We next headed to the downtown portion of Spokane, and looked at the Spokane Falls. It was a rare hot and summery day so I thought standing by the river would cool us off. It did. One rogue wave totally splashed me. For a moment, I thought we were at Niagara Falls.

8. To dry off we walked all over Spokane. We burned off every ounce of good home-cooked delights, and the fries from lunch. I showed Max a few of Spokane's highlights, like the gigantic Red Flyer wagon in the park. After the shock of seeing something so cool/odd we found a secluded bench for some restful getting to know you stuff. That's all the details I'm going to give on that. Wink wink.

9. We ate Indian Food for dinner because we both like Indian food. Max encouraged me to have an appetizer and I finally tasted a samosa. Why did I wait so long to eat one? Yumyum.

10. The sly ladies at church came up to me and asked if that handsome gentleman with me was my brother. They just wanted to know if he was my boyfriend. Which he is.

11. My favorite part of the weekend was the 3+ mile walk we took Sunday afternoon. For a few short hours it felt as though the planet slowed its rotation, and stretched out my final afternoon with Max (for the weekend. There will be other weekends and more afternoons.)

12. We also hung out with some neighborhood goats.

13. Max didn't seem to mind that I totally kicked his trash playing card games with the family. He is new to the game Hand and Foot, so I bet he's practicing to have his revenge.

14. Monday morning before he left, and before I went back to school, he came over to have breakfast with me one more time. It was hard to concentrate at school and work all day, and all week long.

15. I can't wait for 4th of July weekend.