After Wedding to-do list

during the final days leading up to the wedding, i started to notice that so much of my "normal", non-wedding planning life was on hold...  that got me thinking about what i wanted to do when i got back to life as usual.

well at that point i thought, piece of cake, life will resume once we get outta town and head to tahiti for our honeymoon... haha looking back now i laugh at how naive i was to think that relaxing in tahiti was "normal life" - give me a break!

here's us at the pinnacle of "non-normal life" at our rehearsal dinner

and here we are once again - recovering from the wedding weekend 

on our honeymoon in Bora Bora

we look pretty stress free right?

yes but i realize now that the wedding and then traveling to paradise to "relax" was really more the calm before the storm.

Life has become so crazy for the two of us - J is just preparing for 3rd year law school finals, and here i am with my crazy jobs and trying to run my jewelry & accessory business!

we recovered, then returned, and life never went back to life as we knew it ...

 so in an attempt to retain some type of normalcy i started a list that grows each week.  since i'm a list maker, it helps to know that i'm accomplishing things, no matter how small or trivial they seem - it's just nice to know we're getting things done!

I give you my after wedding to-do list: 

• go to Disneyland - 
• go on a date with J - check (although this is something i'd love to do weekly)
• spend quality time with friends & family - check
• go to the swap meet - 
• look into a business credit card (maybe not such a great idea given the current financial climate) -
• get our apartment organized - quasi check... with the exception of our study
• close out our wedding registries  - check (except Crate & Barrel)
• get holiday items posted in my etsy shop - check
• get caught up on my business blog - check
• get wedding thank you's written and sent - 1/2 check (still have 1/2 the list to go)
• get my credit card paid off - almost check =)
• spend time playing catch up with close friends - 1/2 check
• christmas shopping - almost check!

and the list goes on... did anyone else feel like much of their normal life had disappeared and long to rein it in once the big day had passed!

I'm back as a MRS

i know it's been quite some time since my last post... let me just say this:

planning a wedding consumes your life, i was barely able to keep up with my family, friends, and fiance... let alone set aside time to blog.  so, let me say i'm sorry for spending so much time away. and to those of you loyal readers - you'll be happy to know that the wedding recaps are about to begin!

i'll leave you with one of my favorite photos from our wedding... it was taken by our photographer - Michael Erdkamp of Memories by Michael.

if you'd like to see more of Michael's work from our wedding, he put together a slideshow of that day check it out here.

Hoop Dreams....

on wednesday i went looking at housing options with my parents (since FI is so busy in the office 12 hours a day).  we looked all around in old town orange, since my FI will be finishing his last year at Chapman Law we thought it might be a good idea to live near campus, plus all the cute little craftsman bungalows are to die for!

first we checked out 2 "places" (i won't call them homes) that the University had to offer us, and to be totally truthful, they just aren't the nest i had envisioned for us to live.  

just after viewing these 2 non-options my parents suggested we pray about this housing situation, and my dad and i continued to look for rental signs in the area.

then while driving the neighborhood.... my dad and i called a sign on an adorable gem which was for sale.... not that we will be in a position to buy when we get married, but since i'm a Realtor, we could go in and check out the house!

here it is:

my car would match the house so well! =)

it has so much charm, and is so suited to our taste, that i asked the owner if they would consider leasing it - and they said it could be a possibility....

here's the adorable kitchen with stainless appliances and a farmhouse kitchen sink!

a little breakfast nook off the kitchen where the current owner (a recent law grad) has his study office all set up!

the bathroom with wainscoting on the walls!

last but not least - the yard which would be great for warm summer night BBQ's

this is where i need to come back down to earth... it's for sale, and there's no way we could afford to buy anything even though the market is so low right now.  the owner did say that they would consider leasing it to us, since they love the home and quasi know my fiance... there might be hope!

but if those of you reading this could pray that the owners would consider the lease option for us, it would be a real blessing to live this close to Chapman and in such an amazing place!

any other soon - to - be - newlyweds out there struggling to find their perfect place to call home?