The 20/20 Challenge

The final day of instruction is over and graduation is just 10 short days away! The weekend of graduation will be quite eventful. As I mentioned here my girls Sarah and Amanda will be here on the 17th and they're bringing along little Grayson! Zac's parents will also be coming into town and we have a fun weekend planned:

- My finals end on Wednesday May 18th. (WHOO HOO!)

- Thursday May 19th there is an appreciation dinner for Fresno READS tutors and interns. I had such a great time at my internship and this will be such a nice way to end the experience.

- On Friday May 20th I am going dress shopping with my mom, Zac's mom, and my three bridesmaids, Sarah, Amanda, and Amy. That evening Sarah has planned an engagement dinner for Zac and I. It should be a super fun night with the fam bam and our bridal party.

- The next morning, Saturday May 21 is graduation day! Following the morning ceremony, Zac and I will be inviting our families and a few friends over to our place to enjoy a post graduation bbq.

- On Sunday May 22, some of my girls and I will enjoy an end of the weekend brunch get together before my friend Claire and I head off to a co-worker's baby shower.

So, after the weekend is over, the family visitors have gone, and the thrill of graduation has subsided my datebook will have gone from this :

To this:

It may look a little sad to some people, but an empty week in this datebook is a sigh of relief to me! After having every day filled with work, school, homework assignments, studying, and a little bit of wedding planning, I will gladly take a week off to do.....nothing. Don't get me wrong, the wedding planning part of it has been fun, and I seriously look forward to filling more days in my datebook up with appointments and projects up until the big day, but it will certainly be nice to have a little time off.

So what will I be doing with my time? This is a question I have been getting a lot lately. More specifically it is asked in regards to my future career choices. While I haven't quite figured out my post grad job opportunities, I have at least given thought to what I will be doing to occupy my summer time. For the last little while I have been looking over photos from last year and I will be the first to point out that I look different this summer than I did last summer. The last two semesters have taken a lot of my time and energy to get through them and unfortunately I became neglectful of myself. As a result my clothes have gotten a little tighter and I've felt less energetic. Just take a look at this photo comparison for yourself:

                                                  July 2010                           January 2011

Needless to say, I have set a goal for myself to return to my summer of 2010 weight. This is not only for appearances (although yes I think I looked a lot better back then) but it has more to do with feeling good. At this time last year I felt energized and ready to take on the day. My mornings were spent either running in the park or getting in a good workout at the gym. I ate delicious, fresh foods (prepared mostly by my sweet Zac), and I made time to relax and wind down. With school being over (for the time being) I will now have time to get back to that. I definitely look forward to feeling that good again (and being able to fit into my cute clothes from last year will definitely be a nice bonus!).

In addition to having more time to get back to feeling good, I will also have plenty of time to do my favorite thing....READ! The last two semesters have really taken a lot of work and most of my "free" time has gone to studying, homework, or other school related activities. After graduation I will finally have some time to make a dent in the newest additions to my library. For my birthday, Zac's parents got me a gift certificate for Amazon.com and I happily went on a shopping spree for new books. I was super excited everytime a large envelope appeared in my mailbox.

These eight books are now sitting on the shelf in the library, and I am anxious to start reading!

So now for the reason behind the post....the 20/20 challenge. This summer, starting from Monday May 23rd and ending Monday August 29th, my goal is to lose 20lbs and read 20 books. That's 14 weeks (98 days) to accomplish both goals. In the past I have lost 25lbs in 7 weeks, so I am confident that I will be able to reach my goal before the end of the summer challenge. Last summer I read 15 books before having to go back to school. It was so nice to be able to read for pleasure rather than for homework. I really look forward to spending my mornings working out and my afternoons engrossed in a book!

Zac will be a big help for me in accomplishing the first goal. He has been so supportive in the past, preparing delicious and healthy meals, keeping junk food out of the house, joining me for morning laps around our neighborhood and the park, and reminding me that it's okay to indulge every once in a while. I'm sure he'll be just as happy to get back on track. We've both been feeling a little sluggish lately as we've been indulging a little too much these days.

As for the reading challenge here is a look at the books I have selected:

My Amazon order included:

- Official Book Club Selection - by Kathy Griffin

- Good in Bed - by Jennifer Weiner

- Are You There Vodka? It's Me Chelsea - by Chelsea Handler

- Tip It! - by Maggie Griffin

- Sing You Home - by Jodi Picoult

- Something Borrowed - by Emily Giffin

- Something Blue - by Emily Giffin

- Baby Proff - by Emily Giffin

In addition to these books I am also hoping to read:

- The Murderer's Daughters - by Randy Susan Meyers (Amy let me borrow this book and said that it was really good. I've already started to read it and it's really good so far.)

- Certain Girls - by Jennifer Weiner (the book that follows Good in Bed)

- All 7 Harry Potter books (Sarah let me borrow these books a long time ago and I never got around to reading them. It's time to finally sit down and enjoy them. Maybe a Harry Potter movie marathon will be in order afterwards. Also, it looks like she's missing book #5 so if anyone has it and is willing to let me borrow it for a little while I would appreciate it.)

- Eclipse and Breaking Dawn from the Twilight series (Also on loan from Miss Sarah :D)

- Enchantment: The Life Of Audrey Hepburn - by Donald Spoto

- Alice's Adventure in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass- both by Lewis Carroll

In order to reach my goal by the end of the challenge, I will need to read one book about every 5 days. I definitely think this is doable. Plus it should be fun to finally read all these books that have just been sitting around waiting to be read. :)

In the meantime, if anyone has any helpful, healthy tips to keep me on focus, or any great book suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

Does anyone else have plans for the summer? Fun trips? Events or parties to look forward to? Goals to accomplish? Please feel free to share. :)

My Days Are Numbered

Yesterday I finished the last paper of my college career!!! (Well....at least until I decide to go for my master's degree). It was a 10 page paper on the social construction of gender in the Disney Princess films. It was definitely an interesting topic and I really enjoyed researching it. Who doesn't like watching a bunch of movies for school?! There are so many instances in the films that reveal underlying messages about gender roles and stereotypes. A few examples I used in my paper:

Sending the message that love comes at the cost of personal sacrifice, Ariel is willing to trade not only her voice for a pair of legs but also her family and friends in the ocean to be in an unfamiliar land with a man that she is in love with but does not know. Ursula insists that Ariel has no need for her voice on land. She tell Ariel that making Eric fall in love with her will be easy because "You'll have your looks. Your pretty face. And don't underestimate the importance of body language." She goes on to sing: "The men up there don't like a lot of blabber. They think a girl who gossips is a bore. Yes, on land it's much preferred for ladies not say a word. After all dear what is idle prattle for?" She also says,"It's she who holds her tongue who gets the man!" Well enough talk from me, take a look :

In Snow White the evil queen becomes enraged when she discovers that another is more fair than she. To regain her status as the most fair in the land she sets out to kill Snow White. Meanwhile, Snow White does not fight back from the abuse she endures in her own home at the hands of the queen. Instead she accepts her position has housemaid and sings of waiting for her prince to home.



Competition between women is emphasized in Cinderella. The stepmother is threatened by Cinderella's beauty and is afraid that if the prince sees her, he will not choose one of her daughters to marry. (The goal of course being to gain royalty and riches) To prevent Cinderella from working on her own dress for the ball the stepmother gives Cinderella a long list of chores to complete. Shocked that Cinderella accomplishes not only the tasks but the dress in time for the big event, the stepmother allows her daughters to destroy Cinderella's outfit before leaving her alone in the house.

I find it really interesting that in all of these stories, the evil force set out to destroy the lives of the young maidens are not only women, but are older, less attractive women.

The best part about finishing the paper (besides the fact that it is 10 pages I don't have to worry about anymore) is that it means I'm done! Tomorrow is the last day of instruction. After I turn in my Anthropology paper, a packet of completion for my internship, and the 10 pages on social construction for my Art class, all that stands between me, graduation, and a fun filled summer of catch up dates with friends, morning walks in the park with my love, and some serious wedding planning, are four finals. Just 4 exams between me and my diploma!

Graduation is in 11 days! Whoo hoo!

Theme Party!

The whole idea of theme party might seem silly and not at all "wedding-like" to some, but for Zac and I it is very us! We live for a fun theme party! A few years back when our friend Claire was living with us, she took a trip to Mexico. To celebrate her return we had "Mexican Day"!

Zac and I decorated the apartment, I made tacos, rice, and beans, and Claire brought the tequila straight from Mexico.

We had flags and blankets strewn all around the apartment.

To get in the spirit, we all dressed up a bit. (Yeah, it was a little stereotypical, but two of the three of us are Mexican, so what of it?! :P)

Funny though, that the only one of us who isn't Mexican got the most into it. We used some eyeliner to create his wispy looking mustache.

We made a whole day of it, drank margaritas, and watched movies like Cheech and Chong and Born in East LA. After dinner another friend, Danielle, joined the party and we ended the night playing Apples to Apples.

 When a round was particularly funny we took a shot of the AMAZING chocolate tequila that Claire brought back from Mexico.

It was super fun and we've been talking about having a Mexican Day Round 2!

For our very first theme day, Zac and I got in touch with our inner pirate! We decided to watch all three Pirates of the Carribean movies. We thought that it would only be appropriate to create a seafood menu, get a bottle of rum, and dress up in all the jewelry we could find.

We went to Joann's Fabrics and chose some fun pirate hats in the kid section as well as picked up a few bags of chocolate "gold" coins. When we got home, we closed all the shades and curtains, started a fire and got ready for the marathon.

Our outfits were wonderfully ridiculous!

Zac even channeled his inner Johhny Depp with a little eyeliner....though it resulted in a less masculine pirate look :P

We aren't the only ones who love a good theme party. Back in September, my monthly ladies game night get together had an 80's theme. The girls were asked to come in their best 80's get up and let me tell you there were some great outfits!

My girl Amanda reached true Six Chick status. Check out that off the shoulder shirt, the side ponytail, the big bangs! I can't even look at the socks without smiling from ear to ear!

I wish I had a full body picture of Miss Katie standing in all of her crimped hair, side ponytail, oversized shirt and black leggings, colorful windbreaker glory! It was awesome!

Leslie's Working Girl outfit was out of control! She found this one piece jumper with shoulder pads at a second hand store and let me just say that the picture doesn't do it justice! Isn't the whole matchy-matchy look with the red accessories so perfectly 80's?!

I love that the ladies really embraced the theme that night. :)

Everyone has fun when it comes to a theme party. It turns a regular party or get together into something special. We can't wait to share our theme day tradition with our own little ones someday. We're sure they'll love dressing up and playing a character for a day. (That is until they're big enough to think that it's too ridiculous.)

Happy Cinco de Mayo!!

I hope everyone is enjoying their Cinco de Mayo holiday! :)

Looking at all of the holiday decorations and party supplies this week I've started to get some great ideas for next year. As mentioned here, we are getting married Friday May 4 rather than Saturday May 5, but we still had some ideas for a Cinco de Mayo themed wedding event.

At this time next year, Zac and I will be hosting a Cinco de Mayo themed post wedding day brunch. Since we aren't planning on going on our honeymoon right away, we thought that having brunch at our house the day after the wedding would be a great way to wind down with close family. Zac's family will be staying at our house the night of the wedding, and a few of my out of town family members will be staying at my parents house. Before a few of them set off on their way home at the end of the weekend we thought that it would be a nice treat to share a meal and visit a little longer. We know the wedding day will go by quickly and we'll be moving from one thing to the next, so getting the chance to catch up with out of town guests will not likely be something we'll get the chance to do at the wedding.

The fun part of having the brunch on Cinco de Mayo is that we will have the a chance to use some of the holiday inspired ideas we previously considered using for the wedding. As we are serving brunch and not dinner there will not likely be a taco truck but I'm sure that margarita cupcakes might be in the mix. :) The menu will most likely consist of the usual breakfast spread of french toast, bacon, eggs, potatoes, bagels, fruit, etc. plus some lunch style ideas like finger sandwiches and a few salads. To go along with the Cinco de Mayo theme we'll proabably have items to make breakfast tacos or some flavorful and spicy omelettes. Zac is looking forward to transforming the grill outside into a french toast making machine (thank goodness one of us likes to cook) but aside from that we're looking to put together a simple to assemble menu as we're sure everyone will be worn out from the day before.

Along with food we will of course have an array of beverages. In addition to the usual breakfast beverages (orange juice and coffee) I'm sure we'll have a few alcoholic beverages for those who still want to continue the celebration (or for those who need a little help coming down from the celebration the night before). Mimosas, bloody marys, etc. will be available for our guests.

We know that we will probably be pretty tuckered out from the big day, so organizing another event might seem kind of crazy but we're sure that we can pull it off. Our plan for the day is to keep the brunch very chill, and casual but a few decorations won't be that difficult to put together. Since the brunch will be taking place at our house, we'll be able to set up most of it ourselves the day before the wedding. We've rented chairs and tables before from a company who is very flexible with their delivery and pick up times. This will definitely help us get it together in time without freaking out and feeling rushed.

I've browsed through some photos online and found a few ideas that I think we will be able to use for our brunch.

One of my favorite blogs, The Sweetest Occasion, recently had a tutorial for these wonderful tissue paper banners.

They are super easy to make and would look really cute hanging in our backyard.

I just love how light and airy they are. And wouldn't they be perfect for Cinco de Mayo?

Another one of my favorite blogs, Hostess with the Mostess, has an incredible array of inspiring posts. I love browsing the blogs pages and taking note of fun party ideas that I can use somewhere down the line. Last August, they posted party photos from a 40th birthday bash fiesta. Although the decorations were all for a birthday, they could easily be modified for a brunch. Check out some of these great party photos:

I love these colorful pom poms. I made a bunch of giant yellow and green ones back in January for Sarah's jungle themed baby shower. It would be so easy to make smaller ones and put them on sticks to add some color to the tables.

I also loved the taller versions that added some fun detail to the food table.

Having the event at our home would also allow us to get down with some pinata fun like we had originally hoped to at the wedding. What a way to let go of all the wedding planning stress by beating a pinata!

I love the yellow and white tablecloths. It adds such a bright, pretty color to the set up...plus since yellow, white, and gray are our colors for the big day, it would be nice to incorporate them during brunch as well.

Although our post wedding day brunch will not be on a Sunday, we would love to add a little "Sunday" into the mix. Before Zac and I started dating, our Sunday shifts at work were spent flirting (shamelessly) at the end of the bar. Our managers always had a Sunday paper available, so while we were slow and had no guests to take care of, Zac and I would attempt to solve the Sunday crossword puzzle. Although we never successfully solved a puzzle (or even came anywhere close), it was our Sunday tradition to work on the puzzle. So to make brunch complete we'll be putting together some homemade crossword puzzles for our guests to have fun with during the meal. Sounds fun, right?

We look forward to hosting this event, having some more time to chat with our family and thank them all for their presence, support and assistance during the weekend.  :)

1 year from today....

On this day next year, Zac and I will be saying 'I do'!

I can't wait!!! Love you, Cheaterpants! :)

-Yours,

 Sparkles :D

Pictures and Catch Up

Today, Zac and I are headed to Chowchilla for our engagement photo session with Tess from Van's Studio of Photography! We're excited!....well, anxious and excited to be honest. The thought of someone following us around with a camera, snapping photos of us as we interact with one another seems....well....a little uncomfortable. But we are looking forward to seeing the images Tess captures and excited to have some photos to use for our save the date cards. After trying on both dresses from my Forever 21 shopping experience and standing next to Zac in his outfit of choice we determined that the yellow dress was definitely the dress to go with. Although the blue dress looked nice next to Zac's shirt, it was a little too blue, not matchy - matchy but enough to be that obnoxious couple that coordinates their clothes too closely. The yellow dress adds a nice punch of color next to Zac's blue shirt. It also has a little texture in the fabric that the blue dress lacked and that we think might photograph well (we hope). Also, since yellow is a part of our wedding color scheme any photo we choose should go nicely on a save the date card.  :)

In other news, I am SO happy that in just two short weeks my beautiful girls Sarah and Amanda will be in town.....with little Grayson! It has been killing me that I haven't been able to meet my handsome little nephew yet. Sersiously...look how handsome he is!

Sarah and Donnie were blessed with this beautiful boy on February 19th. Since then, I've been completely obsessed with looking at photos, watching videos of him and hearing his little whimpers and cries over the phone. By the time Zac and I get to meet him, he will already be 3 months old. It's so crazy how quickly time flies by.

Such a fashionable baby!

It's been even longer than that since I've seen my sister Sarah! Man I miss that girl. We've had some amazing adventures together. The kind of adventures you tell your children so that they don't make the same decisions....replacing your names (of course) with "When I was your age, I knew someone who...." as it's too embarrassing to admit that was you! :D

Some of these adventures also included my girls Amanda ...

...and Amy.

It will be so nice to finally have us all in the same place again. The last time that happened was at Sarah's baby shower back at the end of January. We are long overdue for a reunion!

Bells Will Ring

After Zac and I officially set the date, my mom was anxious to start working on a project for our wedding. Two years ago, she put herself in charge of making my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary and vow renewal a beautiful and fun event. She went dress shopping with my grandmother, organized the decorations, and along with the help of the family, put together a spectacular event for my grandparents. For the anniversary celebration my mother put together some beautiful bells for the guests to ring when they wanted the bride and groom to kiss.

Each bell is connected to a small wooden handle and decorated with ribbon that matches the wedding colors. Two kinds of ribbon are used for the project; the top ribbon displaying the names of the bride and groom on one side and the wedding date on the other side. To finish it off, she puts a small flower in the center of the bows and adds a few mini white pearl beads.

My mom has been very excited to put together these bells so that Zac and I can give them to our guests at the wedding. After picking up the ribbon she ordered that has our names and the wedding date on it, she started making the bells this week. But enough talking about it, I'll just show you what she's done.

All of mom's supplies: ribbon, wooden dowels, yellow flowers, and of course the bells.

Attaching the wooden handles to the bells.....oh so many bells.

The finishing touches.....

The final product! I think she did a great job.

On each bell, she is attaching a little piece of paper that says:

Let wedding bells sound a chorus

They ask the bride and groom before us

to share a kiss of harmony

and bring true joy to all who see.

I guess we all know who I get my crafty nature from, right?