Wedding Wednesday?

I know it's technically not Wednesday but since this is my blog, I would like to think it's Wednesday so I can give you an update of wedding plans!

The latest:

• I have completely changed the idea of what I would like to do for my centerpieces. Pics to come later...maybe...
• We finally took our professional engagement pictures this past Sunday!! It was rediculously hot and I sweated my butt off but that's nothing the photographer can't take care of. Our photographer said he should have them to me by the end of this week. You can bet your sweet butt I have been checking my email every 30 seconds frantically hoping his name comes through!! Pics to come later...DEFINITELY!
• We meet with florist #3 tomorrow so hopefully I can narrow down my decision as of which florist to go with.
• We also have a meeting to go look at a potential rehearsal dinner site tomorrow as well.
• Beau's Aunt Becky has so graciously offered to host our first shower!! It's a couples shower in early October so we have been busy getting that guest list together for her.

Thoughts & Feelings so far:

• Ants in my pants until I see our engagement pics.
• Anxious for my dress to come in. September can't get here soon enough!
• Teary eyed every time I think of walking down the aisle and seeing my oh-so-handsome groom!
• Excited for the cruise and honeymoon. Who wouldn't be?
• Patience is being put to the test...I'm an instant gratification kind of girl
• Hopeful that my hair will grow 4 inches by next April so I don't have to get extensions.
  

Not too terribly much going on...just loose ends here and there! I guess that's how it goes! Beau and I are having a great time figuring it all out, which is, ultimately, what matters the most! (By "great time", I mean Beau has a "great time" dealing with the budget and I have a "great time" spending it!)

I cannot wait to spend forever with the most kind-hearted, patient, charming man I will ever know. (Love you bug!)

What am I doing wrong?

...apparently I'm in the wrong business.

Nah, not really. As I mentioned before, I love my job, my company and the people I work with. However, after visiting our friend's boss's house this weekend, I can't help but ask Beau, "What are we doing wrong to not be living this kind of life?" Until I tell myself, "Dude, you're only 24 and have been in the working world for not even 2 whole years. Your time will come." (Not to mention the guys house we were at was in his 40's and owns his own commercial real estate biz.)

Beau and I seem to think we are pretty hard-working and we typically don't let anything get in the way of what we want. But until we can get what we want...we will continue to veg out on other people's successes...

Exhibit: A.
The house we swam at on Saturday. aka: The Spanish Mission.

A 10K sq foot house in Memorial.

Overview of the pool.

Me & Sierra

(Props to Gianni Bini for that cute swimsuit of mine...I didn't have one with me so I had the perfect excuse to buy a new one!)

Beau & I

Jared enjoying a trip down the fireman pole which started from the master closet and ended at the front door.

To say the least, this house was HUGE and uh-mazing!

..One day...

Letter to my hair

July 23, 2010

Dear el cabello,
(*Pst...that means 'hair'...I googled it.)

We have some serious talking to do. (Insert me pointing my index finger and shaking it profusely towards my hair here.) You see, I take such good care of you in high hopes you will one day be as long and voluptuous as Carrie Underwood's. If you don't know how to be that way, maybe you should consult with her hair. It's so big-she's got to have secrets in there. You have one job: to GROW! That's it! I wash you with the best of products. I dry you with nothing less than a CHI blow dryer. I flat iron you with the best, Paul Mitchell. I cut you when your ends get shabby. I soak you in coconut oil at night for moisture. What more could you want?! And this is just a small list. I've started a regimen to give you a little motivation. We have exactly 267 days from today to grow long enough for the wedding. I am giving you all the tools you need to be successful. Please see below for details:

The hair care products I have purchased just for you:

The Horsetail Extract liquid vitamins (which taste like the Chili flavored Lucas I used to get from the ice cream man) for you & your well-being:
3,000 mg of the highest quality, pharmaceutical grade fish oil, with you in mind:

5,000 mcg of Biotin taken religiously, for you:

Four of Dr. Hotze's Hair Skin & Nails Formula (which is the max dosage), once again, for you:
No more flat ironing on the weekdays to keep your poor little ends from breaking off.

and finally....

I only wash my hair every other day, rather than every single day, to keep you from drying out. (This is such a stretch for me.)

Together we can accomplish this and I have every expectation to style you like the picture below for my very special day.


(Imagine a threatening voice here)
So you better get your act together or I'll find someone else to do the job (a.k.a. extensions).

Love Always,

It's not a "job" when you love what you do.

So today I celebrate my 1 year work anniversary! Wow, does time fly?! I feel like it was just yesterday that I was starting but as I think back over the past 365 days, I have learned SO incredibly much that it's starting to sink in that I really have been here for a year already!


A little about my job:

Company Name: Physician's Preference

Who are we: Dr. Hotze's Vitamin Store

Location: Inside the Hotze Health & Wellness Center

What's the Hotze Health & Wellness Center: We specialize in treatment of airborne and food allergies, yeast overgrowth, hypothyroidism, bio-identical hormones, adrenal fatigue, vitamin and mineral supplementation and nutritionally balanced eating program. We help people get their lives back. Period.

What is my title: Vitamin Consultant

What exactly do I do: I counsel our guests (that's right, they're "guests" not "patients") on their extensive vitamin regimen that is recommended by our highly intelligent doctors.


What sets us apart from your "typical doctor's office" and why do I love what I do:

Where do I start?

• We are benchmarked after the Ritz Carlton and the Broadmoor...yes, the lxury hotels...and if you ever step foot in our doors you would know exactly what I'm talking about.
• Everyone, including doctors and nurses, accounting, IT, pharmacists, you name it, wear suits and heels. (Ok, well the male doctors don't have to wear heels.)
• As I mentioned earlier, our patients are called "guests" and they are royalty around here.
• We save people's lives. Literally.
• We are rewarded for everything we do that goes above and beyond. ($$!!)
• We don't take insurance because you can't put a price on your health or your life.
• For every birthday, holiday and work anniversary Dr. Hotze gives us beautiful Waterford crystal, our choice! (I now have 5 beautiful wine glasses!)
• I work for some pretty incredible people (if you forgot, resort back to this post) who give me any and every opportunity to be just as successful as they are one day.
• I have learned what each and every one of these supplements are for and the difference they can make in your health and wellbeing. (Yes, there are over 100 and I could name them in my sleep-this picture is about half of what we carry.)
  
• I have read more than twice this many books in the past year that have taught me way more than I ever learned in college.



• I have met awesome women of all ages who inspire me to set and achieve all of my goals, whether it's work or personal.
• I work with ALL women (about 80, give or take a few.)...with the exception of 6 men...(poor guys!) Luckily, everyone is on hormones so they're as happy as bees all the time...even at 7:30 am!
• We get off at noon on Fridays. (This should be a law for everyone. It's absolutely fabulous & hope, hope, hope it NEVER changes!!
  
• Dr. Hotze (CEO of Hotze Enterprises) is by far the nicest, most giving and charming man I have ever met and I am so fortunate to work for him and his company.
  

Honestly-that list could go on for days but to say the least, I am SO extremely happy I have made myself at home here at Physician's Preference and look forward to many, many more years here! Cheers!

Wedding Wednesday!

It's official!
My closest girlfriends and I will be cruisin' to Cozumel for my bachelorette party and I could not be more excited!! The cruise is in mid-February which will give me enough time to recover and enjoy planning the last two months of our special day!Our Boat:

Our Destination:

Our Goals:

A lot of this...

and this...

and a whole lotta this...

And hopefully, none of this...

OR this...

Time to hit the gym hard! Can't wait til "Bon Voyage"!

Quick Weekend Recap

Well, I don't know about you but I had a long, fabulous relaxing 3 day weekend, thanks to my un-used vacation time at work!

Just a few quick highlights:

Friday: Spent the evening with team Scissor Biscuits. We lost both games but had a heck of a time. That's all that matters, right!?

Saturday: We were supposed to have engagement pics but got rained out so I pouted all the way to a new Mexican food place, Ruby Tequilas, to try out their FABULOUS "Dos Ritas". If you've never heard of or had one, I demand you go try one. NOW. (Yup, that's a beer, dumped into a margarita! YUMMM!) To say the least, I was over our rained-out pics after a couple of these! :)

Sunday: Went to the hunting show with the fiance. (Exciting...I know...) But I made the most of it as you can see! I want to say that was a 250 quart ice chest...the size of a bath tub...and of course I couldn't pass it up without jumping in it!

Monday: Wedding planning galore. Edited guest list, made guest lists for showers, emailed florists, met with florist #2, emailed wedding coordinator, helped my fabulous friend Ashley organize the bachelorette party, shopped for centerpiece stuff (and for a new purse of course...)...you get the idea!

The photo above is the story of my life right now. I swear I carry that pink wedding planner with me every.where.I.go. But it's fun, don't get me wrong, and I have quite a few things checked off so far so I can't complain one bit! What girl doesn't like picking out flowers, cakes, and decorations?! *(I don't know why it's turned that way and the "Rotate Clockwise" button isn't working for some reason but you get the picture...)

Anyways...off to bed! Another busy week of work ahead of me. (At least it's only a 3 1/2 day work week for me!)

It's Here!

Ta-Da!We bought a new camera!

Ok so I know buying a new camera is not all that exciting to most people but we are really excited about this one...why?

• It's waterproof!! We can drop it in the river, lake, beach, pool, hot tub, bath tub, sink, toilet, pitcher of beer-you name it...and it won't get ruined!!

• It's shockproof for up to 7 feet! This is FABULOUS because Beau and I can be pretty clumsy...


• It's still small enough to fit in my cute Coach "camera case" (well, it's supposed to be a credit card holder but if the shoe fits...)!

...and finally...

• This was our first time to purchase something for us to share (besides dinner and drinks, of course!) and there were no arguments...zero, zilch, nada!! (We are so grown up these days!) ;)

I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot of pics in my next few posts...I like new things! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Wedding Wednesday!

Well, it's that time again-Wednesday, which gives me every excuse to blog about wedding stuff!!

Over the past few days of planning, I have realized a few things:

• Flowers for a wedding are far too overpriced, especially considering that I designed the centerpieces and all the florist has to do it stick flowers in the pre-put-together vases and drop them off at the reception site. And yes, delivery is an extra charge too. But really...$32 per centerpiece which only has SIX gerber daisies in it???? I don't think so lady...
• I really want a string quartet to play our ceremony music. Sure, all wedding music is beautiful, but it's TEN TIMES MORE BEAUTIFUL when there are real people playing real music on real instruments. I'm going to have to find a way to fit these people in our budget. (I just now realized this while at the Bridal Extravaganza. I thought my mother was going to have to escort me away from their booth...)
• For the next 9 months, I have every excuse to get my nails done...AND pay for it with the "wedding funds"! It's amazing how fake nails can make that little ring look even better!
• ...that aisle I'm supposed to walk down...is really, really freaking long. Just sayin'...
• We have too many friends. Our guest list is creeping up to 400. (Jesus, that's rediculous.) I told Beau he cannot make any more friends between now and April 16, 2011.
• It's really hard for me to delegate things out to people. I've always been the type to just do it myself to make sure it gets done right so this is definitely a challenge for me.

I'm sure these are the first of many realizations I will have before the big day but one thing I do know for sure is that I cannot wait to wake up to Beau's beautiful smile and bright blue eyes every morning for the rest of our lives! ((so exciting!!!)

Where did she park her camel?

So there's this girl I worked with when I first started waitressing at Mo's Place in college. Her name is Lydia. She is by far, without any exaggeration, the funniest, most animated person I have ever met in my life. Period. (Kristen, it's ok-you're still funny too...) Anyways, Lydia graduated college and quit working at Mo's but would stop in every once in a while to say hi and would enjoy a few libations...ok...a lot of them...it's just what you do when you go to Mo's. To say the least, I never got to see her as much as I would have liked to after she got a job "in the real world". Well, Lydia got married recently and her husband was transferred to Kuwait for his job, where they are now living. The best news I've heard all day...LYDIA HAS A BLOG! This girl could write a book. She reminds me a less-vulgar, much prettier, and classier version of Chelsea Handler.

So check her out here and let her know you're thinking about her while she's melting in the 120 degree weather!

P.S.-Lyd, if you are reading this...I miss you and Broom Jr. SO much!

Weekend Recap

So it's now a tradition to give you a play by play of my weekend...so here goes:

Friday afternoon, I went and wondered around the mall, patiently waiting for my hair appointment. I strolled into Target, found some cute things, and thought it would be completely appropriate to register for a few things...by myself...no Beau. He kinda keeps me in line these days so any chance I can get to edit that registry I most definitely do:

Shrek (aka Myrna) fixed my highlights and did a FANTASTIC job-she totally redeemed herself, I must say. (However, I am still trying to decide if I am going to go back to her for the next highlights...) In her head, she had to be thinking,"OK, you want blonde? I'll give you blonde!" because after I blow dried it, it's almost freaking platinum! Well, not really, but there are NO low lights anymore. Oh well...it looks REALLY good so I am definitely not complaining. On a side note, I wasn't sure as to whether or not I should have tipped her again since I tipped her $25 the first time so I didn't. BUT, I did buy products from her which helps her out...as she referred to multiple times during my first appointment. That night, the little brother and his girlfriend came in town from Austin and we took him to get an iPhone. He's in heaven! We also went to show his girlfriend our wedding venue, since it was right around the corner. I made Beau practice "the kiss" since we were in front of the gazebo (not really, I just thought it would make a good picture...as you can tell...his mind was elsewhere...)

Practice makes perfect! <3The rest of the night was spent at good ol' Mo's Place where we suprised my BFF and maid of honor, Julie, for her birthday and had a mini high school reunion! It's always SO good to see old friends plus I got to introduce the fiance to a lot of my high school friends!

Saturday morning Beau was SLOW moving and I went to the Bridal Extravaganza with mom. We had a great time but we weren't there for too terribly long since I already have almost all my vendors. (I'm totally ahead of the game!) They had a wedding dress fashion show which was so fun to watch AND they had a $1.4 million dollar wedding cake! It wasn't all that extravagant but it had REAL diamonds dripping off of it! It's too far away to see the diamonds so you'll just have to take my word for it but here it is...

Me with ALL the bags of wedding crap!

I signed up to win a bunch a cool stuff so I'm waiting for my phone to ring...ha...NOT! (But that honeymoon to Tahiti would be fab...just sayin'...)

Sunday a big group of friends went to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. It still amazes me that ALL our friends that went are the most laid back, calm people ever and here they are skydiving! This is them...the tiny little specs in the sky!!

Beau and I didn't jump. Skydiving is totally a spectator sport for us!

Hope everyone has a great week! I've got a busy one ahead of me...

Quick Update

Myrna (aka "Shrek") was extremely nice when I called her yesterday about my highlights...or lack thereof. She referred to me as "Stephanie, the white girl", which I took as a compliment...I guess? Anywho, I will be seeing her again today at 3pm to give me back my "white girl hair." My only question...do I tip her again?

In other news, team Scissor Biscuits will be playing tonight, which is always a fun time and usually consists of a lot of beer rowdiness. (As if you can't tell that from the pictures in the link...)

Saturday, like I said in an earlier post, is the Bridal Extravaganza!!

And Sunday we are going to watch our crazy group of friends jump out of plane!

One of my BFF's, Ashley, on her last skydiving adventure! I still can't believe she's doing it again!

Anyways, hope y'all have a great weekend!!

Highlights, my ass.

Sorry-that's a little bit of a vulger title but I'm just a LOT little frustrated with the girl that did my highlights recently. You see, my fabulous Megan that has done my highlights for a good 3 years now is on maternity leave. How dare her think she can just leave for three months? Hello, my hair doesn't just stop growing! Megan was my saving grace from the last girl who made my head look like a cheetah. She was referred to me from a girl in college (wow, that makes me feel old) and she will do my highlights until the day I die. I LOVE MY MEGAN.

Anywho, so Megan just had a little boy {Dexter...how cute is that?!} and is on maternity until SEPTEMBER-yes, THAT LONG! She prepared me and referred me to some chick named "Myrna". Ok great-if Megan trusts "Myrna" to take care of me, then I will trust her. So highlighting time rolls around and I make an appointment with "Myrna". Back up a little bit...typically, I plan on being in the chair for at least an hour and a half because Megan and I like to BS a lot.

Ok, so I get to my appointment and "Myrna" comes to the front to let me know she is ready for me. This very tall, large, intimidating woman calls my name so I stand up and walk up to her (it's Myrna). She looks at me and goes "Hi, who are you?" I think to myself "Um, hello? You just called my name." but the bitch stayed inside me and I politely said, "Hi, I'm Stephanie-one of Megan's clients." She replies "Oh, ok" and directed me to her chair. I tried to make small talk with her until I realized she wasn't down with that. She let me know right away that my appointment would not take any longer than 40 minutes and that "she doesn't waste anytime with chit chat." (Apparently this woman needs hormones, or sex, or chocolate...something...she's unhappy.) The only thing she mentioned was how me buying products boosts her sales and commission because she's "commission only". She mentioned it several times which I found seriously annoying. The little devil in my head was thinking: "Poor pitiful Myrna-you should have picked a different profession if you have a problem with your pay" but I shut up and turned to my iPhone for entertainment. "Myrna" quickly threw the foils in my hair, set me under a dryer and quickly sent me off to someone to be rinsed. She ONCE again stated that she was recommending specific products for me and that if I decided to purchase them to let the cashier know because ONCE AGAIN, "it helps boost her sales." DUH-I'm in sales lady. Just to spite her, I didn't get the products. (Actually, I've used them before and they SUCK so take that, Myrna). So my appointment is over, I go to the cashier to pay and realize it's like $20 cheaper than when Megan does my hair. For a split second I liked Myrna for that "hook up"...until the next morning when I did my hair, which has a half-ass job of highlights in it. It doesn't even look like I got my hair done. Usually when Megan does my hair, I'm a fabulous, radiant blonde. This time, not so much. I don't know what she was doing but she sure as hell wasn't doing what Megan does.

So now I'm stuck in a rut. I don't know what to do. I'd like to go back up there and have someone correct it but...

1.) Myrna will be pissed and the fact that she could eat me for dinner scares me...just a little bit.

2.) I don't want Megan to think I'm a bad client. (I'll feel like the kid who acts up when their mom leaves them with a babysitter...)

and

3. ) All the managers at Visible Changes always stand behind their employees rather than their paying customers so they NEVER understand the problem-nor do they correct it.

We have engagement pictures next weekend and my hair is nowhere near the color it should be...Super sad face. I want my Megan back.



I've had to go back to a hair place before and I never went back-I don't want that to happen because I love Megan. And I especially don't want to have bad hair the year of my wedding. Any suggestions?!