Ripping what you sew

So last time I posted, I had been married for 6 months to my wonderful husband Zach, and as of today we've been married for over a year now! Things are going great, and God has really blessed our marriage! Also, Crash has settled in pretty well, and Chiquita finally decided to acknowledge her presence.

Here's a picture of Crash as a puppy, she's 3 now!

Since I'm a married lady now, I've been trying to be a good wife and do my wifely duties, which I'm assuming includes doing some cooking, cleaning, and sewing and things.

I'll make you a sandwich... A knuckle sandwich!

Just kidding! Luckily, I'm one of those super blessed women who has a husband that also helps cook and clean. Score! I feel like I have the cooking part down, for the most part. As long as you like Southern comfort food. And honey, if you don't like Southern comfort food, you need to rethink your priorities in life 'cause you ain't living!

Today I took it upon myself as super wife to (attempt) to sew up some holes in my husband jeans. I'm not sure what's wrong with that man, but every pair of pants he ever owns somehow ends up holey-er than the Pope. His pants look like an angry cat jumped in there and had to claw its way out.

I hate pants.

Here's a picture of the one pair that I attempted to fix today.

There were also 2 other smaller holes and belt loops that had been partially torn off.

So I suck at sewing. I can't knit or crochet or any of that jazz. Most of the ladies in my family, my madre especially, are proficient in womanlyness and can do all of the above like bosses. I was never interested although my poor madre tried to show me how to crochet and sew. But I feel like I can mend things well enough that they'll hold together until my freakishly strong husband rips them again somehow. So I took an old pair of my jeans that had, you'll never guess, holes in them, and cut off the legs to make a pair of cutoff shorts for myself, because I feel that paying the same price for shorts as long pants is just ridiculous so why not make your own? Also, if you wanted to have some super rad leg warmers, you could just use the cutoff pant legs of the jeans to make some leg warmers! I'm sure that would look trendy, you may even end up on that website where people post pictures of the super fashionable and trendy people that often shop at Wal-mart!

Stylin'!

 Anyways I used a piece of one of the pant legs to make a patch to sew onto Zach's jeans. I know, I know, I cut them up and ruined my possible leg warmers, maybe next time!  So then I start digging through my little sewing set and find this thing:

Now how is this thing supposed to help fix holes when it looks like a sharp metal hook that would be better suited making holes??

Not really sure what to do with that thing. I then grab the biggest needle I can find, since the eye will be bigger so that I can actually get the thread through the eye. I'm sure that there are probably different needle sizes for a reason, but eh, whatever.

I ended up trimming this piece a couple times, because I don't actually measure things.

Then I laboriously sewed the patch into the jeans. It took probably 3 times longer than it should have, and it may not hold for long, but I think it'll do for now. The end product:

Have fun trying to rip that out, husband!

 So for today I'll call my jean mending a success, and pray that Zach doesn't tear the patch out immediately after putting them on!

As for what else is going on, we are looking forward to celebrating our anniversary in Mexico this summer! We decided to go back to Mexico this summer so that the water is warmer instead of going back in January. I only need to hibernate and tolerate this weather for a little longer! Hopefully spring comes early, and with less tornadoes this time...

Dunn Update!

It's been awhile since I've posted (I'm getting the feeling that all my posts are going to start like this) and we've had a few changes in our now-routine-married-life.  First off, we are happily back in Oklahoma from a summer detour in Texas where Zach was doing his internship. (And I'd just like to add that I'm very proud of him!)

You're doing fine, Oklahoma.

We spent most of our free time checking out the ridiculously giant model 'houses' (more like mansions) in the McKinney area and basically coming up with a house layout that we would like to have one day. 

This is the design we decided on for our starter home, then after a few years we're planning on doubling the size of this house so that we have enough room inside for a petting zoo.

Secondly, we've added another... addition... to the Dunn family.

Meet Crash Dunn. Destroyer of Peace and Quiet.

Don't let the innocently adorable puppy eyes delude you, she's pure orneryness. At first Chiquita was pretty peeved that we had brought Crash into our home from my parent's place, and Chiquita would not even acknowledge Crash's presence for about 2 months. A little back history: Crash is Chiquita's daughter, and she lived with my parents until we were able to have an apartment that allowed pets. Apparently a dog that acts like a Tasmanian Devil is hard to hide from a landlord.

Crash's morning routine.

Also, I recently started my new job as a veterinary assistant, and I absolutely love it! I love working with our patients and my coworkers are very kind and friendly. 

I've also decided I'm going to get my scuba diving license. Do you know how hard it is to find a wetsuit that is suited (hehe) for a short woman? Adult wetsuit sizes assume you are at least 5'3" or 5'4". Well this becomes a problem whenever you are only 5'1". Why don't I just get a child sized suit you say? Well, unfortunately, the young lady suits are not equipped for -ahem- womanly measurements. 

This penguin obviously has a better chance of finding a wetsuit.

And as for what's next for the Dunn's...

::CLASSIFIED:: TOP SECRET::

PROJECT CONVINCE-HUSBAND-WE-NEED-ANOTHER-PUPPY IS NOW ENGAGED

Soon.

Half a year of marriage already!

When Arnie says "I'll be back" he means it.

I know it's been awhile since I last posted, but I had some free time and a few sarcastic thoughts to share so I figured I'd grace the internet with another blog post.

I got married!! Actually, here in a few days, we will have been married for 6 months! Or about 2 years in dog time, so I'm sure our dogter Chiquita is assuming Zach is going to be doing something extra special for me on our anniversary.

Honeybadger's back.

I'm sure everyone in the history of matrimony assumes that they had the best wedding of all time, OF ALL TIME, (with the sad exception of those people who fainted at the alter or whose partner got cold feet) but I have to say that Zach and I had a pretty dang awesome wedding. It was so amazing to see everyone that God had put into our life there on our wedding day and we had a wonderful time. (You can stop gagging now).

Here's a picture of us being happy that we're married and also happy that there was a chocolate fondue fountain at the reception.

We went to Cancun, Mexico for our honeymoon and stayed at the Dreams hotel, it was pretty flippin sweet and we plan on going back there for our year and a half anniversary. (Because 1.5 years is the equivalent of 5 years of marriage in dog years and Chiquita would be upset if we didn't do something elaborate on our half-a-decade of marriage anniversary. Also, it would be summer when we go back and the water will be nicer) Here's a picture of us in Mexico:

Tienes... bigote??

We got to swim with dolphins, snorkel, kayak, explore Isla Mujeres on a golf cart, and eat all the coconut ice cream, steak, fish, and creme brulees that we could.

 Some things that we learned from our wedding:

• Wedding registries are awesome
• No, you do not need a ridiculously priced gown, no matter how pretty it is.
• Stick to your guns
• Make a checklist or have one of those borderline annoyingly organized people make one for you, because you WILL forget things.
• Details shmetails. Ain't nobody got time fo' dat. Do what you want and get outta there.
• Don't spend a ton of money on the detail shmetails. Sadly, I watched as many of the "details" leftover from our wedding sold at a garage sale for almost nothing when we paid a few hundred dollars for them. (That's even considering the fact that we borrowed quite a few things, (Thanks again Lindsey!!))
• Don't be snoody, wal-mart and the dollar store have a few things that you can buy that will save you a ton of money in the scheme of things. Example: we bought our "toasting glasses" or whatever those things are called from the dollar tree, and they were pretty cute. (Also another shmetail that you can choose to overlook, but I thought hey 2 bucks and we get to drink sparkling grape juice?? I'm in!)

BONUS PHOTO: here is a picture of Zach's face when he saw me walking down the aisle at our wedding

Aw he can't contain his emotions, he just looks so happy!

2 days til our wedding!

Wow, I can't believe there are only TWO DAYS til our big day! We have most everything finished, a big thanks to all our friends and family who have helped us out with various parts of our wedding to help it all come together!We truly are blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives who are willing to be there for us. Really the only things we have left to do are to decorate the church and the banquet hall, then finish up packing for Mexico. Then we'll be set!

Wedding planning is really pretty stressful, as those of you who are currently engaged or married know, and although we are really going to enjoy our big day, for the most part I'm sure we'll be kinda glad it's over with. In my own opinion, and according to various comparisons of myself (by myself, mostly) to the ladies on the show Bridezillas, I have so far been a 0.37 on a scale of 0 - 9,374,837 in Bridezilla-ness.

Not me.

In one of my previous blogs I mentioned a few wedding tips, I still think those are probably the main things to remember whenever the stress starts to get to you.

My reaction when someone tried to tell us that what we were doing wasn't the wedding norm.

My internal reaction whenever someone criticized any of our ideas for the wedding.

 I also had a wonderful time at the bachelorette party that my bestie Saxon put together. We went to dinner at Cheddar's and then had a wonderful night out dancing at some clubs. Who said Christian girls can't have some good, clean fun out on the town??

Actual rendition of our dancing.

I guess the next time I leave a blog post, I'll officially be Mrs. Dunn, I can't wait! In the meantime, I will leave you with this profoundly prophetic image:

Saxon and I understand.

A little bit about my other half =)

So with slightly less than 2 months left before the wedding, we have the majority of things done, or in the process of being done. Yaaay! My lovely ladies helped put together some of the decorations here recently, and we have printed the invitations, so those should be getting sent out before too awful long.

I figured I'd take a break from wedding plans to talk about my wonderful fiancé, Zach.

Look at those irresistible toes!

Zach and I have been dating for about 2 years now. And as cheesy as it sounds, these past 2 years have definitely been some of the happiest I've ever had. Zach always keeps me accountable in my walk with God, and has such a strong faith himself. I am truly blessed to be with such a great guy who makes me laugh, smile, feel pretty, and puts up with my Honeybadger of a dog, Chiquita.

My dog when she wakes up in the morning.

We always enjoy each others company, love taking goofy pictures together, and are thrilled to share our "mutual weirdness."

 To show my appreciation and reciprocate Zach's love for me, I vow to be a Proverbs 31 wife, a great cook, and a beast at shooting a 1022 rifle. Now that everyone is rolling their eyes and gagging, I'll just end this post by adding a small tidbit of truth that I always find to be comforting: God knows what He's doing and always knows what's best for you. =)

Chiquita don't care.Chiquita doesn't give a sniff.

Possibly a nugget of useful wedding information

So with about 80ish days left til the wedding, things are starting to get pretty stressful. We have a lot to get done and not a lot of free time to do it all. There's also a ton of things that people do traditionally for weddings that I never thought were that important that most everyone else seems to think are, in fact, life or death decisions. Personally, I hate spending money, especially for things that I don't think are very useful or for things that I deem unnecessary. So, with that in mind, I figured I'd share what little wedding knowledge I have learned so far, rather than posting another incredibly sarcastic and witty post.

1.   It is YOUR wedding! It's supposed to be fun! It's a celebration, NOT a performance! A couple other young couples who recently got married told us "Don't sweat the details!" And I'm beginning to see that they were totally right.

2.   Velociraptors are a no-go at a reception party. Sure, they are great with the kids, but ultimately, somebody's chocolate bar is going to be eaten (along with whatever hand happened to be holding said chocolate bar) and then all heck will break loose.

They are great to watch at bicycle races, however.

3.   Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT need to sell your kidneys and take out a second mortgage on your house to pay for a wedding! Apparently the average wedding cost today is around $26,000 dollars (according to most google articles and those funny pinterest ones) Like #1 said, it's a celebration; you're not trying to impress anyone. You're there to unite with your Love and best friend, and that is the most important part.

4.   If there's something you REALLY just can't do without at your wedding, just do it! (Unless of course it involves velociraptors or kidney selling) You only get married once (well, usually) and you should definitely make it your special day.

5.   Listen to other people's advice!! Even if you don't think you will like other wedding ideas because you already have everything laid out in your head, other people, like family and close friends who know you well, will also have cute ideas and a few of them have had weddings or gone to weddings themselves and will have a lot of great input.

6.   Don't be a bridezilla! Godzilla don't want none of that.

Homie don't play that

T-minus 3 months!

So as of yesterday, we had exactly 3 months until our wedding day! Which means now we have a little less than 3 months, and we still have quite a bit to get done! We mostly have the big things done, and just recently purchased Zach's wedding band.

Zach's actual wedding band. While I tried to convince him to get the red, cherry flavored one, he wanted to be a little more traditional and go for the yellow "gold" approach

We have attended 2 pre-marital counseling sessions so far, with Mike who will be the pastor at our wedding. He's a pretty nice guy, and doesn't mind all of mine and Zach's goofiness. We do a lot of talking about how we would handle issues that may arise in the future, like how to discipline our children. While neither one of us figured selling our children to the circus whenever they don't do the dishes is a good idea, Zach did mention that 'death' may come to any of those young boys who decide to try and date our daughter.

Zach's exact words whenever our daughter is expecting a date.

Also, the honeymoon to Cancun cannot get here fast enough. Apparently summer decided to peace out and "Fall" (or as I'd like to call it "Sadness And The Death Of All Things") has arrived, bringing super cold weather today. Which is why I'm hibernating in the apartment and counting down the days til it's warm again.

How it feels outside currently.

Next up we will be printing out our wedding invitations, and sending them out sometime next month, most likely. Also we will be putting together the centerpieces for the reception tables and getting a couple other things in order. Before we know it, it'll be January! =)

Tip of the day: To avoid the unpleasantness of Fall, I suggest holing up in your houses and apartments with the heater blasting, having plenty of food stocked up, have a few random individual 'dance parties' while jamming out to rad music, and not sticking your tongue on any frozen poles if you do happen to wander outside.

Don't let this be you, kids.

Less than 5 months now!!

So, things get a little hectic and I haven't had time to update everyone in a while on all the wedding planning details, (since I'm so sure there are thousands of you out there sitting on the edge of your seats biting your nails and wondering if I've chosen cream cheese or vanilla frosting for our wedding cake.) so I thought I'd share the few exciting details that have happened recently. We have the tuxes we wanted picked out and an account made for Zach, his groomsmen, and my dad (whom I've never seen in a tux or suit) and I can't wait to see how "prance-some" he looks in one. *((Disclaimer: As a small child I thought "prance-some = "handsome"))* The tuxes are a light grey with a little jazz of navy/yellow going on.

We also have all the flowers for the wedding flower decorations/bouquets, and for waaaay less than I thought they'd cost! Special thanks to Lindsey, Rachel, and Saxon!!! They are my super awesome and helpful wedding planners!! =)

Also, Zach has his new apartment now, which will be our apartment in January, which is pretty exciting. We spent a long time cleaning it, (along with the help of Zach's awesome padres) and we can't wait til we can slide around on the wood floors in our socks.

And we'll look a lot cooler than Tom Cruise in his tidy-whitey's, and a lot less crazy.

Random semi-sad sidenote, one of the prongs on my engagement ring broke for no apparent reason, and is going to take 2 weeks to fix. =( My poor finger feels naked and dejected.

How my finger feels currently.

Next on the list of Important Things To Do: Finalize the wedding guest list, set up marriage counseling sessions, and finalize our invitation blueprints.

Our marriage counseling sessions will only end this way if there isn't any chocolate involved.

Checking things off the wedding list!

So, some exciting news!

1.  We now have a reception place, only a couple miles from the church, and we gonna be shakin' our tail feathers all afternoon!
2. I found my heels I am going to wear for the ceremony, and for only $20! The best thing about them, other than the fact that they're comfy, is that I can wear them afterwards, so definitely a good investment.
3. And the biggest announcement... drum-roll please...  I bought my wedding dress!!!!!!! I should have the first set of alterations done by August 3rd, then any tweaking that needs to be done. It should look super cute, and it was a reeeeally good price. =)

One of the next things that we should probably get done fairly soonish is pick the tuxes out. I've been looking around and came up with one I like, here's a picture of it:

 Although I think the cane is a little too much, the outfit has so much class and just exudes Zach's personality.

Lol jk, it's going to be light grey, not green.

Moving on, in amongst the smaller details of little things that "don't matter a whole lot but usually end up being cute", I have most all the materials for the wedding favors, which I'm keeping classified as top secret information. Another small detail that's randomly come up is the small matter of what to do for our "grand exit" whenever we leave the reception. Most people now throw birdseed, on account of all the poor, innocent birds that choked on rice thrown at weddings for however many years.

 

 Let's all take a moment of silence out of respect for these poor innocent birds.

Another idea I got from the internet was in the form of a chart, which as you all know by now, I am going to share with you. 

I'm still pondering it, but leaning towards the Kraken.

Say "What the heck?!" to the dress

So,
Previously mentioned bestie Saxon, along with both of our madres, went out in search of a perfect wedding dress... After hiking through treacherous mountains of white satin and lace, and fending off hoards of wedding-crazed ladies also seeking the "perfect dress" (which I'm not sure actually exists) and slaying fire breathing dragons, we finally came to the conclusion that we are too picky and the cutest dresses we could find are waaay out of the price range that a seemingly normal, sane, individual would consider paying. A little discouraging, but hey, this was only our first time out looking, so maybe something will catch our eye.
According to traditional "wedding laws" I can't legally release to you the evidence of us trying on dresses, even though said pictures are cute, and show how adorable the dresses were. I can, however, share with you an extremely cropped photo sharing only our equally adorable faces:

We're also holding AK47's, but wedding laws prohibit us from showing those off as well.

In addition, getting to see the padres this weekend was really nice! =)

Also, this happened this weekend, it was pretty intense:

Zach defends his parents backyard with a tennis racket, while staring defiantly into the eyes of the wasp who dared enter his realm.

Plans to finalize honeymoon plans somewhere in Mexico are being planned, so hopefully that will plan out soon. Lots of plans going on, it seems. We're hoping to snorkel, hopefully with cute dolphins, sharks, and manta rays. Also, I know Zach is really hoping Chiquita can go, I think I found her an outfit:

Getting started

Greetings fellow carbon based life forms!

Thanks to an awesome Bestie and a boring episode of MasterChef, I was able to figure out how to start/post a blog. (Btw, why is it called a "blog"? Seriously, it sounds like some sort of creature that would crawl out of a swamp and make hideous moaning noises.) Moving on... Soo I became engaged recently to the love of my life, Zachary 'Danger' Dunn (whom I affectionately refer to as my "Dimples") and we're currently planning our wedding, which will be on January 5th, 2013, or as we like to refer to it, A-Really-Long-Dang-Time-From-Now.

So, wedding ideas.

• Sunflowers
• Navy Blue, Yellow, & Gray
• Super cute Groom (Not that I'm biased or anything ;) )
• Awesome Bestie, Saxon and awesome new sister Rachel (who also doubles as our wedding manager...And bodyguard... Lol jk. But really...)

Aaaand that's about all that's set in stone for now.

Although we are tossing around the idea of heading to Mexico, becoming the best looking Banditos out there (cue dramatic scene flashbacks from Once Upon a Time in Mexico) and riding off into the sunset on dolphins, we would like there to be sunflowers involved, so it looks like Oklahoma will have to do for the actual ceremony.

Also, this weekend, heading to look at dresses with the Bestie, and her madre, along with my madre and soon to be madre-in-law. I'd also take Chiquita, my dog, but she prefers gold plated diamond dresses only, so she'll have to sit this one out. Here's a cute picture of her:

Want to hear a joke about Potassium?
K.

;)