Finally Floors!!!

First of all, I am apparently awful at blogging...because it has been forever. But things have been a bit crazy. This post won't be long...mostly pictures because I am exhausted. Nick and I love our new floors. So please enjoy! ( I will try to do some Before and Afters)

Sort of Dark, but the entry way

Still need to get a new front door...maybe my Christmas present.

Dining Room Before

After

Breakfast Area Before

Breakfast Area After

Kitchen Before (BLOOD RED Cabinets) - Mom had started removing some of the paint in this picture.

Kitchen After - Thanks Mom! (Still want to change the counter top...another Christmas Present?)

Guest Room Before

Guest Room After...A little less Wild.

That's all for now. I'm sleepy. Check back later or come on by and see us!

Goodbye Sweet First House

Today I said good-bye to a dear friend, my first home. Not my first ever home (that will be an even sadder day in the life of Jessica), but the first home I owned all by myself...with a little help from the folks. As the purpose of this blog I am moving on to bigger and better things...getting married and moving back to the area I grew up. So with that comes the selling of my home in College Station.

In the two short years I have owned you little house we have shared many a memory. We've had some really great times: Getting Bear and Rosie, Nicholas graduating, Getting Engaged!, Engagement Party, Nicholas getting a job and many more.

And we have had some really bad times: Little Ruby passing away, Getting a new roof, Nick losing his Aggie Ring in the back yard, Getting a new hot water heater, and the "Jedi Rat" experience. You were my first real experience of being an adult and independent. Sure I lived in apartments, had my own car, but you taught me that home ownership is not only fun and rewarding but hard and stressful.

I had so much fun decorating you (with the help of my Mom, of course - And I think she is even more heart-broken then I am). I loved trying to squeeze multiple people into your tiny space for parties, showers, and dinners (parking was always a concern).


I will remember you fondly and I can only hope my next house with my future husband leaves me with the same wonderful memories you have. I hope the new owner loves you just as much as I have!

Bachelorette Weekend!!!

I am exhausted! I just had one of the best weekends with some of my best friends. We rented a river house in New Braunfels. We went to the Dry Comal Creek Winery on Friday and had a Wine tasting. I'm not really a big wine drinker but the Sangria they had was Delicious! And they had the cutest dog named Charlie.

After a little grocery shopping we went home to get ready to go to the Gristmill and to Gruene Hall. We were hit on by some crazy group of young boys who thought we were high school...yea right. Thankfully my girls weren't having it and sent them on their way.

During the day Saturday we floated the River. I have never done this before. It was cold and semi-rainy but still really fun. Not as relaxing as I thought it was because the of all the rain they have recently it was pretty fast. Finally Saturday night Callan and Amy planned this very nice steak dinner at the house. They had everything decorated so cute and everyone made it so special. The house we were staying in has two more next to it that share the outdoor space. Well we were right next door to a bachelor party...funny huh? And they were sweet enough to move out of our space for a nice girls night.

Finally they had a lingerie shower set-up upstairs. I will spare you the pictures...mainly because I would turn bright red. Thanks Ladies for making my bachelorette weekend so much fun!


Just because I love this picture and perfectly describes our relationship! I love you Amy!

$11 Beer

I know that sounds like a weird Blog Post title but you will understand soon enough...Around my senior year at Texas A&M my Aunt Sally told me she would take me to a Brad Paisley concert. She is his biggest fan because my Uncle (her husband) looks a wee bit like him. Mom and I think he should take a few pictures in a cowboy hat and give it to her for a birthday present. We have been unsuccessful at convincing him of this. Anyways I graduated from College three years ago and we had not gone to a Brad Paisley concert.

At the beginning of this year Aunt Sally said there was a concert in The Woodlands and we should go. So of course I was on board. We even convinced my Mom to come and make it a girls weekend. Well about a week out from the concert Mom and I realized we were going to an Outdoor concert. Mind you it is August in Texas...no one is hanging out outside...especially when we had a Heat Advisory for the area. But we were still determined to have fun.

So we are off to the concert. We get to the ticket counter and Aunt Sally says "Hi, I got tickets through the Fan Club we should have three tickets." The girl looks at her like "Yea Yea Lady I got your tickets." Then slience........................Aunt Sally is starting to sweat. Not just from the heat but knowing that there are two Crazy Ettinger ladies waiting next to her ready to strike at any moment. Then we hear "Ummmm excuse me, I paid for three tickets....from the fan club.....they need to be together....and they need to be GREAT seats." Panic strikes all the Pavillion workers because they see the crazed look in Ginge's eyes. I'm now trying to keep all other patrons out of our line as they might be hit by flying appendages when my Mom is told to calm down. Long story short - they find three tickets magically together and a row better then where we were previously seated.

Now to the gate. I easily get past the high security gate even though our tickets are blank tickets with the seat and concert information written on them. Kinda sketchy but hey we were going to roll with it. Until I hear "Hey lady this isn't even a real ticket!"

Oh Lord, Please don't let my mother strike this woman.

My mother shouts - "Well YOUR workers gave me this ticket!"

I interrupt - "I have the same type of ticket and I got through."

The gate lady begrudgingly lets Mom through. My mother then says under her breath "I'm a 58 year old woman dang it! I have better things to do then sneak into a Brad Paisely concert."

Ok time to cool the ole gal down. I see a beer stand. "Mom let's get you a cold beer!" She agrees - "Give me two beers and make them cold. I am NOT impressed with your establishment so far." The two guys look real concerned...they pop the tops and then say "That will be $22." My Mom has a five dollar bill out. Oh god. "How much did you say?"

"$22. They are $11 a piece." Mom pays the young men. Thank goodness this was my Mom and not my Dad because he would've been embarrassingly loud..."$11 a piece you've got to be crazy!"

Needless to say Mom has crossed Brad Paisley concert off her Bucket List and I don't think she will ever go back with us. But I had a great time. I've never been so close to the stage and Justin Moore, Darius Rucker (aka Hootie), and Brad all put on a great show. Thanks Aunt Sally!

Ain't I Cute? (Semi-Wordless Wednesday)

I've been scanning picture after picture for a wedding slide show so I thought I would share a few here. Enjoy!

Our Save The Dates

So I've been thinking - I am not doing a very good job of writing about what is going on in the life of an engaged lady. There are many reasons for that. For one - my life isn't super interesting. I love my life and everyone in it but there are just days that I get up, go to work, come home, watch tv, and go to bed. Not a glamorous life I know but it's mine and I like it. But some other reasons I haven't found time to update my blog:

1. Getting married in a little over 4 months means last minute things to do...YAY!

2. Selling my house in College Station...Post to come.

3. House in Marshall still needs a TON of work and

4. My office has agreed to let me work from Home when I move so I'm not only doing my normal job but figuring out all the details of how to seamlessly transition to working from home...very exciting!!!

So that's just a little snap shot of what's going on in my brain/world these days. Oh and not to mention that I hardly get to see my Fiance since we are living in different cities, he works CRAZY exhausting hours (I LOVE YOU BABE!), and I'm here trying to get my house ready to put on the market so we have money to pay for fixing the new house. So instead of getting to come home after work and visit with him or eat dinner with him, I get to paint a bathroom....Ok I'll stop whining now.

But to some exciting news - We finally got our SAVE THE DATES and I think they turned out super cute. I've gotten many texts/phone calls telling us how adorable we are...I know it's true. So here they are!

In case you're wondering, they are magnets. I made them online. We wanted them to look like a photostrip because we are having a photo booth at the reception. Anyways, I guess that's about it for now. I'm putting my For Sale sign out this afternoon so I hope to post about that in the next few days!

25 Years...

I am 25 years old today. Sometimes I don't feel like a 25 year old. My parents can always make me feel like a kid again. My Dad always calls me on my birthday (well ever since I've been away from home on my birthday) and sings Happy Birthday to me. My Mom always sends me a birthday card and calls me her baby girl. Another thing that makes me feel younger than 25 is when people tell me "I was pregnant at 25 or I already had a child by that time." I still feel like a child myself and definitely not ready for that responsibility. And sometimes I HATE being an adult and wish for the days where my biggest worry was what I was going to wear to school tomorrow. I mean who wants to go to work everyday and only get bills in the mail. You have no idea how much "fun mail" (ie - Cards, Hand-Written letters, Magazines, etc) brightens my day. Send me a card for no reason and I will love you forever. Don't believe me? Send me a one and you will see.

But then sometimes I look at some people my age who seem so immature which makes me feel like an 80 year old woman thinking nasty thoughts about those darn whippersnappers. Side note: Did you know according to Merriam-Webster online "Whippersnapper was first spotted in print during the last quarter of the 17th century. The term may have its origin in whip snapper, a term used for young layabouts who once stood around on street corners and snapped whips to idle away the time." But I digress...Nick calls me an old man sometimes because I constantly talk about the weather and how it needs to rain. This only started when I started paying my own utilities and had a yard I needed to water. I also love to check my rain gauge to see how much rain we got!

Anyways I'm ok with 25. Because the first 25 years have been pretty awesome if I must say so myself. And I cannot wait to see what the next 25 years have to offer.

PS - Hurricane Alex is not my friend. Working until 11 pm was not really what I was hoping to do on my 25th birthday...

My New Obsession

So the other day I wrote about Nick's obsession. Well my newest obsession...because if you know me you know I have a lot of these...is the Vibram Five Fingers - "Discover the Barefooting Adventure." My youngest cousin introduced me to these magical shoes. He had a pair when we went to Beaver's Bend a couple weeks ago. They look AWESOME. On their website they talk all about all the barefooting sports you can do and how we are meant to be barefoot! I agree Vibram Five Fingers!

Nick and I saw a lady at Spoons, a local yogurt shop, and yes she looked a little "granola" (I hope I don't offend anyone with that term) but I loved her. She looked so happy! I could tell Nick was thinking "Oh goodness...my crazy fiance is going to get these shoes and embarrass me." He knows he loves me.




For someone who would go barefoot all the time if it was socially acceptable these have made it to the top of my wish list. My birthday is next week...just saying.

Still Snappin' Necks...

Did you know that there is an underground world (not so underground as I have found out) of people who collect and talk about tennis shoes?

Well my Fiance is totally a part of this world. I mean as a woman I know how important a cute pair of shoes are. Well a couple of years ago Nick started listening to this radio show and started his collection. I even bought him two "engagement" shoes to add to the collection. There is this whole community of people who share a love for these shoes. They talk about them, discuss future releases, even discusses the materials used in the shoes.

He has a story for every shoe he had growing up and can remember them like their still sitting in his closet. My favorite story is about a pair of shoes that came out that only came in Men's sizes. So he begged his Mom to get them for him even though the smallest size was too big and he wore two pairs of socks so they would fit. Super cute! Well this weekend this group of people I thought only existed via twitter, radio shows, and blogs treated him like he was a celebrity because of these shoes:

I know what you're thinking. They look like black Nike's right? WRONG! Ok I'm going to attemp to get this right. They are Nike's designed by a company in Germany and they are made from Denim and other materials not usually used by Nike and they only made a handful of them making them pretty rare. So these guys in a mall in Austin stopped Nick and were like "Man are those the __________________? Those are crazy! Where did you get them?" Of course they used much cooler language then I am capable of doing but you get the picture. So yes I'm marrying a super cool dude and you should be jealous.

PS - Are you wondering what the title of this post means? Well my cutie cute has a t-shirt with this phrase on it. Here is the mental picture: When you have super fly shoes on people will break (or snap) their necks trying to get a second look at them. Did I get it right Nicholas?

My Best Friend is the BEST!

I have known my best friend since the two-year old class at First Methodist Day School. We were pretty inseparable from then on. I wouldn't say we are complete opposites but it was not a shock when I wanted to go to Texas A&M and she wanted to go to the University of Texas. You know you have THE BEST best friend when you can not see each other for months and pick up right where you left off. We are both pumped for this fall because she is finishing law school and I will be finishing up plans for the wedding and we get to hang in East Texas together for at least a little while until she is on to the next adventure.

She just texted me and said to go to http://www.outblush.com/ and look at the Personal Shopper for today and this is what I saw:

Is she not the best! Which one looks like Nick and I? I think I'm voting 4 or 5. But someone did comment that she should give us Ninja Salt and Pepper Shakers...which is also pretty cool.

Working Man!

I knew he would get into remodeling. Isn't he the cutest?

Progress at the future Scott home!

So we finally closed on our home on May 14th and that's the day I realized just how much work needed to be done. But I'm super excited to make this house our home and do whatever it takes! And this weekend we are able to see some progress. Here are some before and after photos.

Don't you love the 80s blue carpet and the weird faux finishing? There is also this weird fake rose detail around the light fixture.

Weird mulberry cabinets? Not my fave...

Thankfully this was only on one wall. This has been removed.

No your eyes are not fooling you, that is wallpaper on the closet door. This has been removed. Door still needs to be painted

I'm super pumped about our sun porch.

Embossed wallpaper is removed from Kitchen. Now to tackle the other wallpaper. I swear these people wallpapered every surface in this house.

Embossed wallpaper removed from living room. Popcorn has been scraped. Now all that's left is the floors and painting.

You can't really tell but this is the dining room and a portion of the ceiling has been scraped. Also there are the dreadful roses around the light fixture.

This is what you look like after scraping the living room. It's probably best to wear goggles when doing this...

So it's not a lot of progress but we have 6 months to get it done and I cannot wait!

NOTICE - Rats and other Vermin

Attention all Rats, rat babies, mice, opossums and other vermin. You are NOT welcome at my house. I am a clean and most of the time tidy person...I don't leave trash out and I seal all my food so there is nothing you would want at my house. I have two VICIOUS attack dogs who will stalk you and then pounce on you without notice. Well maybe the big furry one will think you are a new friend but he plays rough and you will die. As seen this afternoon. Also my fence is not to be used as RAT Roadway or Opossum Passway. It is closed to thru traffic. So please, you are welcome to go to any of my neighbor's homes, I'm sure they will make you very comfortable. But if you choose to come to my house or yard anymore I will have to unleash the wrath of a giant Pomeranian and an angry Pekingese on your hind-ends and it will not be pretty!

Coming Home and Date Night

I went home this weekend for a couple of reasons: Mother's Day, get some wedding stuff done, get paperwork together for closing on our house...(ON FRIDAY - fingers crossed!!!!), and Nick had to work all weekend but we could still have a date night Saturday night.

I had a great weekend. First off I usually HATE the drive home. It's 3 and 1/2 hours of mostly 2 lane roads and I always seem to get behind the slowest drivers. However, at our half-way point after letting the dogs run around I was running through the McDonald's parking lot and what did I see??? A $20 bill!!! I was very excited and it made the drive just a little bit better.

Saturday was a very busy day. I got up and had brunch with my Mom and my Mother-in-law at my favorite bakery that also happens to be the only place that sells Starbucks in town. Then my Mom and I drove by our new house to discuss the landscaping. There are a lot of random plants, shrubs, and trees that need removed or re-arranged. Then she took me over to an Estate Sale shes been working at and I got a sneak peek. Nothing really caught my eye but there was a lot of neat things. Finally after a quick stop at my favorite BBQ place we went home to work on my bouquet. I've decided to use silk flowers for a lot of our flowers mainly because the flower I want (Orange Calla Lilies) are $10 a stem. Not happening. Mom and I made the bridesmaids bouquets and I thought they turned out great. So we made my bouquet and I I think it looks great!

Nick has been working some crazy hours and it seems anytime he is off I have to work or I'll be out of town for some reason. So this weekend he got off work at 6 on Saturday so we planned a date night. We drove to a town nearby to have dinner and hang out. It was really nice because we really got to visit instead of talking on the phone. Neither of us really like talking on the phone so it's hard when you have a long distance relationship.

Finally Mother's Day. For the first time in a LONG time our whole family went to Church together and went out to eat on Mother's Day. My sister and I don't have the best relationship for multiple reasons that I won't get into. However, recently we both have been trying to get along. Don't get me wrong she still drives me nuts a lot of the time but I'm trying and its going to take a long time. So it was a really big deal for us all to be together on Mother's Day. I love my Mom for many reasons and I'm so thankful for the relationship we have. I love you Mom and I hope you had the BEST Mother's day!

Running and Coupon Clipping

I am on week 4 of the 9 week 5K training and let me tell you it is ROUGH! I definitely feel this is helping push me through my weight loss plateau that I've been at since Thanksgiving...dang 2.6 pounds. Anywho, I keep pushing through even though I think I was very close to passing out on the last 5 minute jog. Do you know how long 5 minutes is when you are jogging? VERY LONG. Not sure how I'm going to jog for 45 minutes but I guess that's why it slowly builds you up. Still not one of those "Oh I LOVE running" ladies but hopefully one day!

Now I'm going to tell you about my newest obsession (If you ask my fiance he would probably tell you I have a ton of these) - coupon clipping. I feel I have always been a pretty sensible person...financially that is. I've been taught well by very frugal people...my parents. So at an early age I started a savings account and when it came to getting a credit card my parents taught me to only put a few things on it and make sure and pay it off every month. So that's what I've done and felt I had a pretty good safety net especially after my dog Bear ate himself to a VERY expensive stomach surgery. However I have never been more stressed about money then this year - buying another house, renovating said house, MISC wedding expenses (My parents are paying for the wedding but there are thank you gifts or other items not approved in the budget) and finally our honeymoon...oh and LIFE. Lately, I've been reading a lot of blogs and I came across a couple that talk about the art of coupon clipping. Some of them show examples of their savings. For instance some of them say they can double their grocery dollar and some even have been PAID by the store they go to because of double coupon days and other ways of saving. I find this to be incredibly fascinating. So I have decided to give it a go. It looks like another full time job but there are so many resources out there right now to help - I bought something online the other day and searched for coupons for the specific website and saved 20% that I wouldn't have saved if I hadn't read about this trick on a blog. So I purchased a Sunday Paper and clipped all the coupons and organized them. I will keep you posted on whether or not I see any substantial savings.

Who likes to run?

I have always been in awe of people who love to run. You know the type? Well I've always wanted to be one of those people. I want to put on cute running clothes, lace up my new running shoes (Nick would buy these for me), put on some music and just run run run! Well that is not me...right now at least! Some of you (my many readers...HA) may not know but I've been doing Weight Watchers. My boss told me about it...she had done it in the past and wanted to start going again and hey I knew I would have a wedding soon and who doesn't want to lose a little weight before they walk down the aisle. So we joined and it has been really good for me.

Well a couple meetings ago they announced they were starting their walk-a-thon again. The idea is to get everyone out walking again and hopefully on their way to doing a 5k. I'm all about prizes and they give you a little charm when you complete a 5k. I want this charm! So they give you this little book about how to train for a 5k. It's seems to be for people who are totally inactive. Now I'm a couch potato but I have walked two 5ks in the past so I know I can walk a 5k tomorrow if I want to. However, I know I cannot jog a 5k and that is what I want to do.

So I went home a looked online to see if there was any schedule for training for running a 5k. The first thing I found was "From the Couch to a 5k." This is PERFECT! Sounds just like me. And then I remember my Aunt and Uncle did this before and she just finished running a 5k and was 3rd in her age division. That is awesome! I want to be like that.

So I'm almost done with week 2 of training. During week one you had to do the following 3 times: Start with a 5 minute warm-up of brisk walking, and then jog for 60 seconds, walk for 90 seconds, and do this 8 more times. This wasn't too hard. Then during week two you do the following 3 times: Start with a 5 minute warm-up of brisk walking, and then jog for 90 seconds, walk for 2 minutes, and repeat 6 more times. So far so good. One more day of week two training. Now I'm not saying its easy. I'm definitely checking my stop-watch to see when I can walk again but I wasn't dying like I thought I would be. And the best part is I actually feel pretty good afterwards. So maybe this is why people love to go running. I think the key is your breathing. Does anyone have any tips on how you should breathe when you are jogging? I'll keep you posted on how the rest of my training goes and if I become one of THOSE people.

GPS does NOT work in Downtown Houston!

One thing you should probably know about me: I have a horrible sense of direction. I inherited this trait from my mother. The difference between us is she has a lot more patience then I do and if she gets turned around she figures "I've got all the time in the world - I can figure this out." So I should probably work on this. My Dad knows I inherited my mother's sense of direction so they gave me a GPS for Christmas. I was so excited - I no longer had to worry about getting lost....WRONG! Anyways this brings me to my Saturday night -

My friend had a bachelorette party in Houston on Saturday and I was meeting the girls for the dinner portion of the day. When I first started on the road to the restaurant my friend called and said they changed the reservation time and asked if I could come to her friend's house instead. Everything is OK - I have my GPS. I just put in the new address and I'm on my way. And I made it to the location without a hitch! Her friend lived past the restaurant so I thought "I'll just leave from the restaurant so I don't have to come all the way back to her house." MISTAKE!

So we have a great time at the restaurant, get to the parking lot, and my friend says "Hey are you going to be able to find your way out of downtown and get home?" (She knows about my direction skills) I say, "SURE! I have my trusty GPS. I'll just punch in 'Navigate Home' and it will take me right there. And if that doesn't work I'll just call Nick." I was for sure I wouldn't have to resort to option number two because I'm a big girl and I had done so well on the way to her friend's house.

Well trusty GPS failed me. Apparently downtown Houston had some sort of event and all the streets the GPS was telling me to turn on were blocked off! So I kept going hoping surely it would just redirect me another way. Not the case. It kept circling me around downtown Houston. I had even come back around to the restaurant we ate at. Now I was getting annoyed. Let me also say it was 10:00 at night and there were unsavory people about which kinda freaked me out. AND I have a tiny bladder and I had a LOT of water at dinner so I will let you figure out the rest. So needless to say I was starting to panic.

This is another reason I love my Fiance so much. I can call him in a complete PANIC and he will help calm me down (well try to at least) and direct me out of scary downtown. Plus he had come to town to see me even though he knew I would be gone all Saturday night and even watched my dogs for me while I was on this adventure! So he saved the day and I made it home safely.

Some Engagement Pictures

My second Mom, Mrs. Rebecca, kindly agreed to take some engagement shots for us. She just happens to be a GREAT photographer. She was always the one taking all of our homecoming/prom pictures growing up and sometimes she would just say "Let's go take some pictures by my flower bed!" So that's what we would do and it seems I have learned over the years because she didn't have to tell me to lower my chin nearly as much as she used to! We still want to take some pictures around dusk but if we don't get to we have some really nice ones to choose from. We don't have any cheesy Kissy Kissy pictures because I don't know about you but kissing in front of your second Mom is a little weird! I guess I will have to get over that since all of our families will see us kiss on November 27th - GASP! Anyways here are some of our favorites - enjoy!

This is the one we think is going to go in the newspaper. Doesn't my ring look beautiful?!!? The guy with me is pretty adorable too!