A Sisterly Tradition

I consider myself to be a pretty lucky girl. As much as I have fallen in love with Zac, I have also fallen in love with his family. His sister Sarah and I have become quite the pair. The relationship that Sarah and I have built has become something more than friendship; we're sisters. Sarah happily accepted when I asked her to be my maid of honor back in January. I can't imagine life without her.

Sarah and I singing a duet and rocking out to KC and Jojo!

Sadly, this is the first summer in a few years that Sarah and I are not getting together for a girls weekend. Back in 2008 Sarah and I began the tradition of having bi annual sister's weekends. We would get together at the beginning of the year (usually in January) and again in summer. Sarah had moved to Vegas so I went to visit her at the beginning of the year and our summer trip usually involved a trip to the beach.

Our trip to San Diego in the summer of 2008 was the beginning of the fun. Sarah and I had a blast visiting Seaport Village, enjoying some shows at Seaworld, spending the day on the beach, and as you can see in the picture below...getting sunburned. Well we didn't enjoy the sunburn part too much but the vacation was a lot of fun.

 

My oldest brother Albert lives in San Diego with his girlfriend Deanna. They invited us out one night to celebrate their friend Eva's birthday at a nightclub called Club Sin.

Though I won't reveal the whole story about what happened that evening I will say that we had an amazing time, laughed more than I think I had laughed in my life (up until then), Sarah and Albert bonded, and I was able to get to know Deanna (who will no doubt be my future sister in law) a little better.....oh yeah, and there might have made a post club trip to get the most amazing tacos/burritos ever! :)

In January of 2009, after Sarah had moved to Las Vegas, I decided to take a trip out to visit her for a few days. It was our first experience together in Vegas so Sarah did some digging and found out some great places to go and some fun things to do while I was in town. Here we are with our lovely server, Alexis, at Lucky Chang's drag show and dinner.

Sarah and I were seated at a table right in front of the stage for the big drag show which was definitely a bonus but also came with an interesting twist. Our server Alexis asked us if we were celebrating anything that evening and before I got the chance to say that we were just having a sister's weekend, Sarah reached across the table and lovingly took my hand. "It's our one year anniversary", she told Alexis! Without missing a beat I smiled at Sarah, then back at Alexis who excitedly told us, "Congratulations!" Alexis left the table and I busted up laughing!

When the show began, the main drag queen came out in her glory and made a few announcements. Just when we thought she was done with her intro a spotlight hit out table and she proudly announced, "And last but not least, I hear we have an anniversary in the house! Stand up young ladies!" I think I might have turned an unbelievable shade of red.

Sarah and I stood up in front of the room full of paying viewers as the drag queen congratulated us on our anniversary. She said that she had never seen two such cute lesbians, that usually there is at least one butch girl when it comes to lesbian couples and she wanted to know who the dominating one was. I took credit for that role before the crowd applauded for us and Sarah and I sat back down at our seat to enjoy the show. It's moments like this that make me love Sarah even more!

We had a fantastic time together in those few days. In addition to the drag show we also went to see Thunder from Down Under. Also, upon my arrival, Sarah surprised me with tickets to see one of my idols....The Divine Miss Bette Midler! I can't even begin to tell you how excited I was to see Bette Midler perform!

In the summer of 2009 Sarah and I returned to San Diego to celebrate 4th of July weekend on the beach. This time we brought along Amy (Sarah and Zac's cousin's wife). The three of us have gotten pretty close since Amy and Scott have gotten together so it was nice to take a trip together, just the three of us. We decided that the best place to spend 4th of July was on the beach. Here we are in our hotel room getting our drinks all prepared before heading out to grab a spot on the sand.

We loaded up our beach chairs, ice chest, towels, and purses and my brother Albert picked us up and dropped us off at Mission Beach. We spent the day laying out, having cocktails, catching up on our celebrity gossip via trashy tabloid magazines, and taking dips in the ocean.

At the end of the night when the firework show had ended, we packed up our stuff and headed off the beach to catch a cab back to our hotel. Unfortunately, everyone who was on the beach who didn't have a car with them, had the same idea. Every cab that came by had people in it and we lost the empty cabs to other people who ran faster than we could to catch them. After about twenty minutes of lacking success in catching a cab the girls and I decided to start walking towards our hotel. We figured that the further we walked away from the beach the easier it would be to find an empty cab to take us back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we still had all of our beach items with us so the walk wasn't the easiest of walks. As we passed Sea World we headed over the freeway overpass and continued our walk right on the shoulder of the freeway. We weren't the only people who had this plan; there were many other people walking along the freeway with us.

The girls and I never did find a cab but we did find a nice young gentleman who carried our ice chest for a little while and helped us on our way back to our hotel. Along our walk we found an abandoned shopping cart which we put our ice chest in and took with us on the remainder of our trip. The young man (who was in the military and was stationed in San Diego) made sure that our 3 mile trip from the beach to the hotel was a safe one. Here he is with Sarah and our shopping cart:

Last summer Amy and I spent 4th of July weekend at Sarah's house in Las Vegas. Upon picking us up from the airport, Sarah announced to us that she was pregnant! It was such an exciting trip. We couldn't believe that Sarah and Donnie were going to be parents!

The trip to Vegas last summer was one fantastic trip. We hung out by Sarah's pool all day listening to music and enjoying some delicious frozen cocktails. (Don't worry, Sarah had virgin drinks the whole time.) The first night we went out we decided to keep it a casual night. We got dressed and headed out to a country bar/club that was off the strip called Stoney's.

It was a Friday night which meant free beers and throughout the night there were also $1 tequila shots. Needless to say Amy and I were glad to have Sarah as a sober driver at the end of the night. Since Stoney's is a country bar you can bet that there was a lot of line dancing going on in between hip hop songs. Amy wasn't sure that she wanted to go out on the dance floor during the country songs because she wasn't familiar with line dancing. Here I am showing her the nice dance moves that I knew. (These moves didn't help either of us when we went on the dance floor and realized that eveyone was doing an entirely different dance.)

That weekend we went to a Chippendale's show, spent a little time at a club called Crown, and got our tan on by the pool. Amy and I flew back home on the evening of the 4th and landed before sunset just in time for fireworks. Before Sarah took us to the airport we enjoyed a last little afternoon by the pool....

...and watching DeathProof in the living room. (If you've seen the movie I'm sure you understand why we're making these silly faces!)

This year Sarah came into town for her baby shower in January...

....and again at the end of May for the engagement dinner and graduation.



Although we don't have a trip together planned this year, we will be heading back to San Diego next spring for my bachelorette party. Maybe next summer I will be able to fly out and see her in Vegas again. Since Zac and I will be going on our honeymoon in late May or early June, I guess it will all depend on the amount of time I am able to get off in the summer.

I miss my sister Sarah and can't wait to spend some quality time together again. Hopefully we can work something out soon. :)

Baby Talk

This is me:

Yup, that was me at age 4. I was quite the stubborn child and tired of my mother taking so many photos of me, I decided that I wasn't going to smile. Can't you see the determination? No matter what she said or did I was going to hold strong ....or at least try to. I think this was the closest my mom came to getting me to crack a smile during that photoshoot. My poor mom. All she wanted was a nice photo of me in the cute outfit she so happily picked out. They say that however you were as a child, is how your own children will be. With my luck this will mean that Zac and I will have some very stubborn little ones to deal with.

Back in 2005, the idea of motherhood scared me to death. Looking back, it definitely should have. I was barely 20 years old, I was still living at home with my parents, and Zac and I had just started dating.

Six years later, a lot of things have changed. Zac and I live together in a beautiful home that we love. I graduated from college and am looking to get my masters degree. We are engaged and are just over 10 months away from saying 'I do'. Together, Zac and I have a solid, loving relationship. We've grown over these last six years, both individually and as a couple. It's clear that we've become very mature adults:

In all seriousness though, our priorities have certainly changed over the time that we've been together. The biggest change has been the idea of parenthood. Don't get me wrong, there are still some things about motherhood that concern me (Will I know what to do? Will I be a good mom? Will I really be able to do this?). The difference these days is that the happy, excited feelings of becoming a mother and having children with Zac seriously outweigh any of my fears.

Zac and I have been talking about children for a few years now. We even have a small collection of baby onesies. We bought these onesies a few years ago. Call it stupid, call it weird, say whatever you will, but we like our little collection.

Even with our small collection of baby onesies our baby conversations have only gotten really serious in the last year or so. Back in 2009, we said that 2012 would be a good year to have children. At the time 2012 seemed long enough away that we would have time to prepare ourselves for this life changing decision, but not too far off that we would regret waiting. Our own ages have been a factor in our discussions. Zac has said that he wanted to have his first child by the time that he was 30 and I would like to be done having children by the time that I reach 30. Zac's 30th birthday is just a few months away. Obviously, as we are not already expecting, Zac won't be a daddy on his 30th but we've made the decision that he won't have to wait too long after this milestone birthday to get that title.

Another factor to consider in our decision regarding when to have children has been the topic of marriage. I am not a traditional girl (I moved in with Zac right after our 1 year anniversary...clearly long before we were ever engaged) but I have always said that I want to be married before I have children. I have no judgements on other peole who have children before getting married (my own mother had babies before she got married to my dad) but it just isn't the way I saw my adult life playing out. So, although Zac and I have had conversations over the years about having children, we both knew that it wouldn't happen until after we walked down the aisle and officially became a Mr. and Mrs.

Now that Zac and I are engaged, I get asked (frequently) when we plan on starting a family. Zac is more than ready to be a daddy. He has jokingly said that we have plenty of time now for me to get pregnant and have a baby before we get married. As wonderful as it would be to have a baby right now, that won't be happening. Breastfeeding at the altar is not really what I have been envisioning for our wedding. Now is just not the right time. Planning a wedding can get a little stressful and I've heard secondhand how stressful having a baby can be. Putting the two together and experiencing both at the same time does not seem like something we would like to or should do. One step at a time is the best way to go, so that's our plan.

This doesn't mean that we're going to wait a long time after the wedding to start expanding our family. If all goes well (I had a weird dream last week in which I couldn't have babies) we'll be planning to add to our family shortly after our spring wedding. Zac and I are calling it "reception conception". Funny, right? Well, we thought that it was funny. While no shenanigans will be going down at our wedding (at least not between us...I can't speak for a few of our guests), a honeymoon baby isn't out of the question. We may not be having a 2012 baby but a 2013 baby will be just as wonderful (plus it isn't too far off our originally discussed plan).

We're already excited for the wedding, but having this post wedding baby plan really amplifies the excitement for next year. There's just so much to look forward to. As much as we're excited to be parents I'm sure our little nephew Grayson will be happy to have a cousin. Zac and I just love little Grayson. Seriously, just look at his little face. How could you not be in love with him?!

Having little Grayson around really proved for Zac and I that having a baby sooner rather than waiting a year or two after the wedding is the right decision. It was so great having Grayson (and Sarah and the rest of the family) in our house. The house seemed a little too quiet when everyone left....there was definitely something missing.

It was only a week or so after everyone left that we got our pup Jim. People have been joking that Jim is our practice child. While having Jim is an added responsibility, we know that it in no way prepares us to be parents. (Could you imagine if we left our baby alone with a stash of food and water and a few toys while we went off to work? Ha ha ha, I'd call CPS on myself!) Extending our family with a furry friend is not the same as building our family with a baby but it is still a great experience. Getting a dog was not something I ever expected that we would do and I certainly didn't think that the first time I purchased a baby gate that it would be for a four legged little pup. Though we won't have to worry about having any baby clothes in the laundry any time soon, it's kind of fun to see Jim's little shirts ready to be washed.  

Zac and I haven't added to our collection of onesies and don't plan on buying any more until we have a bun in the oven but every once in a while I find something super cute that catches my eyes. Just a few days ago I came across this baby bikini in a size 18 months.

How adorable is that? Who even makes these things?! (It was Old Navy in case you were wondering.) I resisted the urge to buy it and put it away for later. (With our luck I'd buy this baby bikini and we'd have three little boys running around.) Soon enough we'll be able to go shopping for a little one so we'll save the excitement of picking out clothes until then.

There is no doubt that Zac and I want to start a family. Who knows? Maybe this time next year we'll be able to happily announce that we're expecting. But for now I'll enjoy the time we have together, just the two of us...

...well the three of us.

Graduation!!!!

Finally I can say that I am a college graduate!

I am a Fresno State Alumi; a Bulldog, Class of 2011!

It is such an unbelievable feeling to know that I did this. As I mentioned here, it was a quite a journey to get here. It took a lot of hard work, but it has certainly paid off and I am so proud of this accomplishment!

On Wednesday May 18th, I took my two last finals. The weather that day started out pretty gloomy but by the time I walked out of my art final, the sun (very fittingly) came out and shined brightly. When I pulled up to my house I heard a car horn honking; Amanda was in her car waiting for me to arrive. I had to hold in my screams. It finally hit me that I had just taken my last test before graduation. Amanda greeted me with this little wonderful treat :

A bouquet of flowers and the goods to make some strawberry margaritas!

*This is the fun balloon and bubbly treat the Zac's parents

brought for me when they arrived at our house on Tuesday night.*

Nobody was home when we went into the house. Mark, Tammie, Sarah and Baby Grayson were spending the day visiting family in Chowchilla, and Zac was at work. While we waited for everyone to get home, we put on some music and started making some drinks to celebrate.

Amanda blending up some yummy drinks.

Since no one was home, we had to rely on my camera's self timer and the kitchen counter to get a picture of us and our very large margaritas...hence the ducking down pose in this picture.

 

When Mark, Tammie, Sarah, and Grayson returned they brought with them all the goodies to make tacos. The night turned into a very fun margarita/taco night. It was definitely a preview of the weekend celebrations to come! 

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Graduation day was Saturday May 21st. I woke up before my alarm clock, excited like a little kid at Christmas. I was glad that, while I woke up tired, I didn't wake up TOO tired. The night before, after the engagement party everyone headed back to our place and we had a little bit of an "after party". We pulled out Yahtzee, popped open a few more champagne bottles, and stayed up playing games and prepping a few things for the post graduation bbq. Though I probably should have gone to sleep earlier than I did, I had so much fun that night. Zac and I are so glad that our house is becoming the house that everyone goes to. We're looking forward to the day when the backyard sitting area is complete and our indoor living spaces are fully furnished so that everyone has a place to relax and enjoy their visit.

Graduation didn't start until 9:30am but the information sheet I received when I bought my cap and gown said that doors opened at 8:00am and graduates should arrive early. There was also an incentive to arrive early. This year has been Fresno State's Centennial Celebration year. The school opened it's doors on September 11, 1911. To celebrate the centennial graduation, the school was going to hand out celebratory golden stoles to the first 1600 graduates. There were over 5000 graduates this year and although not all of them would be attending the main graduation on Saturday (many people decided to only go to their department graduations) the vibe on campus the week of finals was to get to graduation early. So I arrived at the Save Mart Center loading dock at 7:00am. Thus began a very long but very satisfying day!

Graduation started at 9:30am and ended just after noon. Walking out onto the floor with the other graduates in my department was something pretty spectacular. There were so many people in the building that it was a little overwhelming. Even though there were thousands of people in the stands, I saw Mark and Tammie the second I walked out. They were at the end of their row and I caught sight of Mark's light blue shirt and beaming smile. Further down the row I could see my parents. My mom was looking around, almost frantically. She didn't spot me until after I had already sat down and texted her. Everyone else in the row had waved hello and sat back down but my poor mom stayed standing looking from section to section to find me. The moment she finally saw me was pretty priceless and I'll always remember it.

Shortly before the ceremony officially started, I spotted Mark walking down one of the side aisles, getting closer to get a better shot with his camera. He was able to snap this photo before one of the ushers came over and told him that he had to go back to his seat.

 

After he returned to his seat my parents tried their chances of sneaking a few photos in the same spot before they were caught. I felt like I was having a little personal photoshoot even among all of the other graduates I was surrounded by.

 

It was pretty cool to be a part of the Centennial Graduation Ceremony. Watching the video slideshows with pictures of the school throughout the years made me not only excited to be graduating, but to be graduating from this school with this group of people.

It felt so great to see my name listed in the graduation program.

After the ceremony ended, I headed outside to meet those that

were able to make it to the ceremony. The weather outside was beautiful!

 

Once I was able to locate my crew on the lawn outside of the Save Mart Center, I was greeted with smiles, hugs, kisses, and flowers. It was such an outpouring of love and pride and it all meant so much to me.

I know that my parents were very excited for this moment. It's been a long time in the making and they have both told me how proud they are of me for reaching this accomplishment.

My dad knows firsthand the work that goes in to finishing school. He worked hard to get his Master's Degree in Human Resources when I was a little girl. I remember watching him type up papers on our type writer (yes you read that correctly, it says typewriter). He spent many nights up late reading and putting together projects. My father is a quiet man, so hearing him say that he was proud of me after graduation was something special.

My mom has always been the biggest cheerleader for her children. Everything that we've worked for, involved ourselves in, and achieved, she has been there for. She has been so supportive of me and my educational goals. When I had difficulty going back to school, she was right there by my side. I am very thankful to her for this support.

One of the great things about having Zac in my life (aside from being unbelievably happy with this man) is that I get another set of parents in my life. Zac has a wonderful, welcoming family and Mark and Tammie are amazing people. They've always treated me like one of their own. Over the last six years I have gotten so close to them, they have become my family, and I was so happy that they were able to make it to graduation.

Their smiles in this picture make me want to cry every time I look at it.

That afternoon/evening we had a bbq at our house to celebrate the occasion. My parents brought a cake.....

...which, of course, Zac couldn't resist.

It was the perfect ending to a fantastic day!

Our Engagement Dinner

Back in February, I got an email from Sarah (Zac's sister and my maid of honor) saying that she wanted to put together a little dinner for Zac and I to celebrate our engagement. She wanted to know who we wanted to invite so that she could start getting her plans in order. It was so sweet of her and we were very excited to get together with everyone and enjoy a special night of celebration.

After thanking Sarah for the offer we sent her a list of people that we wanted to include in the event. We decided to keep it small, only inviting our immediate families and their significant others, grandparents, and the bridal party. It wasn't that we wanted to exclude anyone, it was just that the event could so easily snowball into a large party rather than a quaint dinner. We wanted to avoid taking advantage of Sarah's generosity and having a preview of the wedding reception unfold on the patio of the restaurant. Plus, as everyone lives in different cities and have all been busy with their own things, we thought that keeping the dinner small would give us a great opportunity to catch up with close family and friends.

It was decided that the dinner would take place the weekend of my graduation. The families would already be in town for the graduation ceremony and the girls would certainly be in town for the dress shopping adventure. It seemed to be a perfect time to plan the dinner, rather than asking everyone to make a second trip out at another time. (It definitely made for a fun filled weekend.) We chose to have the dinner on the patio at Daily Grill (which will most likely be the site of our rehearsal dinner as well). Zac and I just love the atmosphere of the restuarant, the food is fantastic, and as an added bonus it is right down the street from our house. So Sarah ran with these details and put together a spectacular dinner celebration...all from a state away.

Two months after the first emails were exchanged regarding the dinner, Zac and I received this invitation in the mail. Miss Sarah had created the invitation all on her own. The yellow flowers were hand drawn. Sarah had emailed us about a dozen different designs that she had come up with for the invitation and asked us to pick our favorite. We couldn't believe how much work she was putting into this dinner. I mean seriously, how sweet is it of her to create the stationary for the invitations?!

Sarah's creation! *Excuse the little blurred box by Sarah's name.

It was not part of her design, I just thought that she would appreciate it if

we blocked her phone number from being spread all over the internet.*

So on Friday May 20th, just hours after saying yes to the perfect dress, it was time to head over to Daily Grill for the dinner. Zac's family had been staying at our house the whole week and while we were getting ready Zac and I noticed that the house got more and more quiet as people left to head over to the restaurant early. When Zac and I arrived to the restaurant we saw all the hard work that went into this dinner. The tables were decorated with vases of flowers (yellow and white daisies that looked so beautiful we think we may have to use the idea for our centerpieces at the wedding), candles, and mini yellow and white tissue paper pom poms. The girls had baked and decorated cupcakes (red velvet and lemon) that were on display by the table, and Sarah had bottles of champagne chilling in ice buckets. To go along with the champagne, my mom had added the ribbon and flowers that she used on the wedding bells to the stems of champagne flutes and wine glasses that she put on the table for each guest. It looked beautiful and we were (still are) so amazed by the work that everyone did to make this dinner special.

Amanda putting the final touches on the table.

After hugging everyone and taking a bunch of pictures, we all settled into our seats and Sarah opened the night with a few words. Her speech included words of thank you to everyone who came out that evening to celebrate...

...when she started talking about the relationship that Zac and I have and how she views the two of us together, the waterworks started and they were hard to turn off. It was such a sweet speech and I quickly transformed from a laughing and smiling Teeny to this hot mess:

Sarah is of course Zac's sister, but over the last 6 years she's become a sister to me, too. No one has to remind me how lucky I am. Not only did I land myself an amazing, sweet, charming, wonderful man, but I also got an incredibly special sister in law out of the deal, too.

The night went off without a hitch. Sarah provided the group with a variety of delicious appetizers, the champagne was flowing, and there was never a quiet moment as everyone was happily mingling.

So enough babbling on about the night, I think these photos do a better job and expressing the good time we all had.

Me with my parents after Zac and I arrived at the restaurant.

 

Zac of course always captures the most flattering

pictures of Amanda and I before we are ready.

Being about 6'' (give or take a FOOT) shorter than Amanda,

it is no surprise that my whole body fits in this shot

while Amanda's head grazes the top of it.

The future in laws.

Zac's parents (Mark and Tammie) are on the left.

My parents (Roxanne and Abe) are on the right.

Mark and Tammie with their first grandbaby, Grayson.

Tammie is such a happy grandma.

We were happy that Zac's friend (and groomsman) Ryan was able

to make it. The night ended with the two of them rehashing some

 of their adventures and deciding that it was time to add at least

one more adventure to their list.

We were excited to see that Zac's Chapman grandparents

(his dad's parents) were able to make it to the dinner.

You might remember that we took our engagement photos

at their house just a few weeks ago. *Once we choose our three

favorites from that session I'll happily post those for all to see.*

My girls! I don't know what I would do without them!!

A more accurate representation!

My brother Michael. Easily the most generous,

selfless person I know.

Everyone enjoying the dinner/party.

Later, this will be known as 'Exhibit A'.

One big happy family....minus about 8 people. :P

Zac and I feel so lucky to have these amazing people in our lives. We had so much fun catching up with everyone and enjoying such wonderful company.

Thank you!