It's coming together!

The final "big" piece of the puzzle has been found - we have an officiant!

It was a worry that we were coming on 3 months (today, actually) until the big day and we didn't have someone official do ask us "Do you take this... to be you lawfully wedded..." but thanks to my mom's memory, we now can get married legally!

Now it's just time for the "crafty craft" stuff, which thankfully coincides with my 2-week holiday vacay. You know -- favors, programs, thank you cards and the like!

We get our marriage license on December 30th.

Congratulations Kristin and Ben!

Congratulations to Brent's sister, Kristin, on her engagement to Ben! They met online too a few months before Brent and I did.

(Kristin is standing next to me on the right in the picture)

You should see her ring -- it's gorg!

Welcome Ben -- we can now be the "outlaw" club of the Hoffman fam!

NEW KIDS have "The Right Stuff"

Good things come to those who wait.

I waited 20 years for Friday night. Last Spring, Jaymey and I heard rumors that New Kids on the Block were getting back together. Once we knew it was fact, and they started announcing concerts and the East Coast concerts started selling out in under an hour, we made a deal: The minute you heard of a concert within flying distance of a Southwest plane on the west coast, you have permission to buy tickets. We found out about the San Jose concert, which weren't on sale yet, but we could buy pre-sale tickets if we had an American Express card. We had done something similiar with Kathy Griffin a few months back (with Citicard, which I had) and had got 4th row seats, so we started calling everyone we knew to find someone who'd let us use their American Express. Thankfully, my dad and stepmom had one, so within about an hour, we had our tickets pruchased.

Kym + Joey = 20 years of love! You may know that Joey McIntyre is on my "List of Five." I have loved him since I was 13. Yes, I know he is married. Brent knows I love him and I made sure I reminded him that Joey was on my list before I left for San Jose. You never know - I could get lucky. As if! (I watched Clueless this morning)

Jordan and Donnie are pretty much the same. Jordan has lost weight since his "The Surreal Life" stint. Donnie looks older but both guys still have crazy energy and chemistry with the crowd.

Danny, who I thought looked like a monkey 20 years ago, has definitely grown into his face. He's hot now! And he has 4 kids. For some reason, that makes me feel old.

And then there's Jon. Apparently one of the reasons why NKOTB broke up was that Jon was getting panic attacks when going on stage. I guess he is now over them, which is a good thing for us. Anyway, Jon had this interesting smirk on his face every time he wasn't singing. It really looked like he was thinking, "I can't believe we sold out this arena. Look at all of these chicks who paid like $100 to see us. For God sake's, I'm over 40. But who cares, I'm getting pa-aid!" It was pretty funny.

At one point, in between songs, Joey yells out, "Ladies and gentlemen, Jon Knight!" The camera went to him and he looked really surprised. The guys were cracking up. Jaymey thinks they were calling him out because he had stayed out of the limelight the whole time. The crowd got pretty quiet and we started wondering if he was going to sing a solo, which would be rare. But he just stood there. Eventually, they moved on but I felt bad for him. Regardless, anytime the camera panned to him, the crowd went wild.

A co-worker asked what I was doing this weekend as I left town on Friday. When I told her, she asked, "What kinds of people will be there?" I said, "A whole bunch of chicks in their early thirties trying to re-live their junior high days." When Jaymey and I got to our seats, we asked how old our neighbors were -- yep, early thirties and a 29-year-old.

In fact, the gals next to us were from Sacramento and had gone to that concert the night before, so they gave us the guided tour through it, which was very helpful. They brought signs with them. They had one for almost every song. Jaymey and I kept staring at each other saying, "Why didn't we think of that?" That is just totally something we would do and just proves how overworked we are that it wasn't even a thought to bring signs with us. Duh!

Between each song, Jaymey and I would face each other, hold hands and jump up and down screaming with excitement. Yep, like 13-year-olds.

All in all, it was in the Top 3 concerts, I've been to. All you haters can just keep hate'n. Better seats at their next concert for me!

7.6 pounds have melted away so far!

After only losing .2 last week, it was great to see that I'd lost 2.8 this week, for a total of 7.6 pounds overall! I am already at 30% of my wedding weight goal. See that red star on the graph? That's my "5 pound award." Yep, I earned an award this week. Yay me! My alterations costs are rising every moment and I'm thrilled.

In other news, my dress is in. I have to drive about 40 minuites away to go get it and I'm leaving today for a whirlwind trip until Sunday the 6th so I won't be able to try it on until after that.

If you like ice cream (and really, who doesn't?) try the Weight Watchers single serving ice creams. They are sold in the dessert/ice cream section in the creezer. OMG! My fave is the mint chocolate chip but they also have cookie dough. Yum!

I don't feel like I am depriving myself on this diet (way of living). I started off wanting to lose 1 pound a week, realistically, and while I know my weight loss can't continue to be this big each week, I am very proud of the 4 week progress I have made.

In other news, after going to LA for a conference rehersal Friday and Saturday, I am headed to Bakersfield for Saturday night thru early early Tuesday morning. I am sure Basque food will be on the schedule so I am writing it here so it's out in the open: I will NOT eat the french fries. Everything else is fair game though. :)

The next two weeks is actually going to be difficult because I am traveling all over - LA, Bakersfield, Modesto, Spokane Washington, and then San Jose. Wish me luck on making good choices and sticking with the program!

2.4 More Pounds Down!

Can't believe my weight loss this week! Pounds just seem like they are melting off. Thinking about adding Ally to my regimen. I know that my weight loss will slow and that I shouldn't expect to loose this much each week. Again, still trying for the goal of 25 in 25. So far it's 4.6 total in 2, so there's a ways to go.

I need to get back in the gym more regularly. I know my dress should be coming in soon and I'd like to have my arms a bit more toned before stepping into that thing.

Have to wear a bridesmaid dress in January. I was able to use one from the last wedding I was in, and that had been altered to fit when after I'd lost a bunch of weight when I was waiting to have my gall bladder surgery so I definitely have a goal of getting back into that dress.

I know I can do it!

I heart this diet!

So far, I've lost officially 2.2 pounds, but I weigh in tomorrow and it's looking like another 1 -1 .5 will be gone. WOO-HOO!

Why do I love this diet so much? It fits within my lifestyle. I can have Subway sandwiches AND I can have Taco Bell, which most of you know is one of my weaknesses. Surprisingly, Taco Bell is pretty healthy if you order the right stuff: chicken and steak tacos fresco style, bean burritos (i like mine with extra red sauce and no onions) and even double decker tacos fresco style.

Another friend to me - Puffins, the high fiber cereal. I've been a fan for a long time but it's great to dump 3/4 cup in a plastic baggie and bring with me as a snack during the day.

And, best of all, I can still drink my beloved Diet Pepsi in the morning.

I'm doing Weight Watchers online, which really works for me.

I'm glad that I am posting this publicly. That way, when times get hard in a few weeks, or I hit a plateau, I can come back to this entry and remember how excited I was at one point.

The 25 x 25 Campaign has begun!

Wouldn't it be great to look like the picture above on my wedding day? My quest is to lose 25 lbs in 25 weeks. I think it's pretty doable. It's a healthy goal and I have Weight Watchers and my gym to help me out. So, why in the world am I posting a diet on my blog? Well, because if I do, I am more apt to commit to it. I put this picture on our refridgerator too! :)

Fine print: I know that I could never look/get this thin. Seriously, I would have to starve myself for a year to get a flat stomach like that. But it is fun seeing what I might look like with arms I am not ashamed of.

Our 15 minutes of fame!

My mom put our engagement announcement in the Bakersfield Californian.

Click here to see:
http://www.bakersfield.com/1329/story/518564.html

...and the registering begins

I wasn't completely braindead when I finished up my weekend event this morning so Brent and I headed to Macy's this afternoon to do some homework on registering. All of the wedding timelines we've read say that we should register between 6 and 9 months before the wedding, and we are at about 7 1/2. We figured we would need to research a bunch of stuff before we could officially sign up for the "scanner gun" and start pointing.

What we found out is we can basically register for all of our gifts - Macy's and all of the others - in our pjs at home in front of the computer. You don't even have to go to the store to pick out the gifts anymore (although in my opinion, that is part of the whole experience). The only experience that I've ever had with registering is when my dad and Janice got married and they probably spent upwards of 20 hours in Gottchalk's in as many trips.

After we deadlocked on our dishes and bedding at Macy's, we decided to "table" those selections and that we needed another piece of scenery. So - we headed over to the new Lowe's in West Sacramento.

I heart Lowe's. I could easily walk out of there thousands of dollars in debt if I actually had the time to do the home improvement projects that I imagine myself doing while I'm shopping there. I think Lowe's is so much better than Home Depot and the prices always seem lower too. At Lowe's we found out the *only* way we could register was online so we started a list (and as you'll see on the web site, it took about 20 minutes to input what we registered for there).

So, we'll "un-table" the decisions about dishes and bedding in a few weeks and head back to Macy's. I gotta say, the whole registry thing is pretty overwhelming to think that you are picking out a lot of items that are intended for you to use for your lifetime. Lots of choices and decisions to come...

Bakersfield - Watch the newspaper!

Bakersfield peeps -

My mom put Brent and I's engagement announcement in the "Celebrations" section and it will be coming out on Saturday, August 9th. Watch for it and let me know how it turns out.

Flowers and flowers and flowers... oh my!

Picking out flowers for the floral part of the wedding (bouquets, corsages, etc.) is hard! First and foremost, anything beyond roses, calla lillies, gerbera daisies and carnations I know little about. We got our initial proposal last night for our flowers and I has so much fun looking on the internet for all of the different types of flowers being proposed: hydrangea, peony, lilac, cymbidium orchids and phalaenopsis orchids -- wow! I'm just so excited there won't be an ounce of baby's breath involved. :)

A nice quiet weekend!

Finally, a weekend off! It's been ages and it was nice! Brent and I had a wonderful Friday night starting with dinner at Logan's Roadhouse (mmmm.... yummy rolls!) and then went home for a round of Scrabble (our favorite!). Before we knew it, it was midnight. It's been a long time since we've stayed up that late.

On Saturday night, we went out with our friends - Devin and Sarah - to Cache Creek Casino. After dinner at the Buffet, we enjoyed video poker and the slots. Kym struck out but towards the end of the evening, Brent was on a roll and walked away up almost $150!

Sunday was filled with chores and checking off stuff from the to-do list. Sounds pretty plain, I know, but it was nice to have a weekend with the love of my life, nonetheless.

Save the Dates are coming soon!

My dear friend Harmony Hasbrook designed a spectacular Save the Date magnet, so watch your mailbox!

Fun with blogging!

We've received a lot of great feedback from our website so we thought we would add a blog!

With less than 8 months left, I think we're doing OK with the planning. We only have a few things left to secure contracts for -- bouquets/boutonnieres, wedding rings (which will be Xmas presents this year) and an officiant.

We really want someone we know to marry us. Interested? It's pretty easy to become ordained to perform wedding ceremonies, and they're even legal! Seriously, if you are up for it -- let's chat.

I found a dress! We went up to a bridal shop in Yuba City, about 40 minutes north of Sac, to check out a few more dresses and possibly order the one I originally picked out for $130 less. When I started trying dresses on, I started feeling much more comfortable in the ones there and then "the dress" appeared. Obviously, I can't post pictures of it or describe it since Brent reads this site and I way too superstitious! But, you'll see it soon enough!