Austin Adventures

Houston to Austin
162 miles

We woke up early on Saturday morning so we could get to Austin around lunch time. I was so beyond excited to get to visit with my family in Austin.

My aunt, uncle and cousins live in Austin. Alex and I stayed with my cousin Stephanie, her husband John and their son Brock, who happens to be one of the cutest little kids ever, as a matter of fact.

John, Steph, Brock, me and Alex

As soon as we got there, Steph and John took us downtown for some delicious pizza (my kryptonite) and we strolled along south Congress street, going into some of the coolest shops I've ever wandered into. We visited a great costume shop- not one of those party stores that has pre-packaged Halloween costumes for $100, but a shop with character costumes, period costumes, wigs and any accessory you could imagine. We browsed antiques, went into a candy store, and of course, tried on some cow boy boots and hats.

I think I could totally be cow girl Jessica

Alex and I loved Austin. It was interesting, artsy and had a ton of green space! After shopping, we hopped back in the car, and Steph and John took us to Zilker park, a really cool park in Austin with a damned up river for swimming, walking trails, and the best part of all, the Zilker Zephyr.

The Zilker Zephyr is a little train that takes you on a ride through the park. It's a fun, relaxing way to see the park, and my cousin Brock loves trains! Win Win!

Alex, Brock and I on the train

A cute note about Brock: He loves all sorts of trains. One of his favorite are the steam-engine trains. He first saw them in the Polar Express (I don't remember if he watched the movie or was being read the book) and has associated them with Santa. As such, he refers to them as the Ho-Ho Train.

I didn't get the back story until later, so the first time Alex and I heard Brock ask to ride the Ho-Ho Train, we were a little confused!

Brock also refers to everyone as either a mommy, a daddy, or a baby. As in, instead of saying, "what's that lady doing" he'll say "what's that mommy doing" because everyone must be someone's mommy or daddy, right? He called Alex and I "the other mommy and daddy." He calls his fingers diddily dees, so when he wanted me to hold his hand, he would say, "I want the other mommy to hold my diddily dees." Cutest. Sentence. EVER.

Steph chauffeured us around for the rest of the day, giving us a tour of downtown Austin and taking us to visit my cousin Jason. Jason was bar tending at this really cool bar in Austin and hooked Alex and I up with a delicious (and strong!) drink. It was awesome.

Alex and I outside of my cousins place. As you can see, I was really impressed by his garden!

That evening, we met up with my aunt and uncle to go out to dinner at this place called the Oasis. This is actually the restaurant where my Stephanie and John had their rehearsal dinner, and it's views are stunning. The restaurant sits high up on a hill and overlooks a gorgeous lake. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset (and a big margarita) and had such a great night catching up. The day was over all too soon and Alex and I had to hit the hay so we could wake up and make the long drive from Austin to Las Cruces, New Mexico the next day.

Next Up: Murder in Las Cruces! Alex, Andy and I dine a haunted room where a double murder had taken place!

We made it! Pt. 1!

We made it to California a little while ago, and it has been a whirlwind of house hunting ever since! I'll recap each of the legs of our trips in order.

Gulfport, Mississippi to Houston, Texas
403 Miles

We left Gulfport after Alex finished work in the afternoon. It was so surreal to pack up the car and start our drive to San Diego.

The six hour drive to Houston went well. It was fun watching the scenery change as we left Mississippi and went through Louisiana and eventually got into Texas. The trees started to disappear and everything started to get flatter and flatter. :)

After checking in to out hotel in Houston we went out to forage for food.

There was no Chipotle in Florida, so it had been quite a while since Alex had partaken in the deliciousness.

The next morning, we woke up early so we could get to Austin by lunch time. Before we left, we enjoyed some breakfast, Texas style.

Next Up: Austin Adventure!

California, here we come.

Today is the day that Alex and I bid adieu to all of his temporary training assignments from the past year and a half, and make the drive to our new home in California!

What?! I know. Crazy cray.

I just flew down to Mississippi so we could make the cross-country trek together. We'll both see our new city together for the first time and even have a few quick days to apartment hunt and find our first place together!

We'll leave this afternoon and get into Houston, Texas this evening. The next day, we drive to Austin and hang with my Aunt, Uncle and cousins for the day/night (YAY!) After Austin, we put in a long days drive to Las Cruces, New Mexico and then a possible stop in Yuma, Arizona.

I think my personal goal for this trip is going to be to listen to all of my favorite Broadway soundtracks in order all the way through, TWICE, interspersed with great covers of those same songs done by Glee. I think this trip will be a great bonding experience for Alex and I. (HA, yeah right, I don't think Alex ever forgave me after I made him listen to Officer Krupke on repeat when we were on our way into DC to see West Side Story at the National Theatre.)

ANYWAY.

Last night, Alex and I kept asking each other, "Can you believe it's actually here?" I keep thinking about the day he left Maryland. On the morning that he left, he surprised me with breakfast from my favorite upscale eatery (the Dunkin Donuts off of Route 3).

A cinnamon raisin bagel with cream cheese, strawberry jelly and a Boston creme doughnut, my perfect breakfast. They always say the way to  a woman's heart is through her stomach. He convinced me that he had them make the doughnut in the shape of the heart just for me. I really believed him for about 5 minutes.

Anyway, when he left, we had no idea where he would be stationed or when we'd be living in the same city again. Shoot, we weren't even engaged! Now we're about to be hitched and we're days away from picking out our new home together.

I know Alex will be thrilled to not be living out of a hotel room anymore!

The Keurig cups Alex has amassed from hotel living.

I plan on updating the blog every day of our trip so I remember everything!

I leave you now with the song California by Phantom Planet, which has been going through my mind all day. I chose the video with clips from the t.v. show the O.C.  because I'm almost sure that our life in California will be just like the rich people from on the show, especially the guy with the big eyebrows.

3 Months!

My original goal was to blog consistently for my entire engagement. After that didn't work, I figured I just start from a year out. A year turned to six months. This really shouldn't be a surprise to me, seeing as I have about 10 half filled journals and a half-completed scrap book from when I lived in Italy 3 years ago.

So anyway...

3 MONTHS! Our wedding is 3 months from yesterday! So technically, we are getting married in LESS that 3 months! While I still have a lot to do, I have to remind myself that we have come a long way!

One of my favorite things I've picked out so far has been the bridesmaids dresses. I struggled for a long time because I wanted to find cute, summer dresses that were still formal enough for my wedding and weren't incredibly expensive (oh, and that came in the perfect shade of purple.)

Eventually, I found the perfect dress online at Dessy!

Dessy doesn't sell the dress, so I had to go to some stores in the area that carried it. I finally found a shop that could order the dresses for my girls- for a price tag of $206 each. I defiantly wasn't going to ask my bridesmaid to shell out that much on a dress they will probably wear once (hopefully more than once, but I want to be realistic!)

I spent hours calling other stores about the dress and searching online for an alternative choice. I finally stumbled upon PSbridal, which orders the dresses from the manufacturer. They offered the dresses for $128, including shipping! Still a pricey dress, but much less expensive than buying from a store around here!

The site got great reviews online and has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau, so we went for it!

All the girls have ordered their dresses, and now we just wait until they come in!

The bridesmaids will wear gold shoes and carry green hydrangeas down the aisle.

I think everyone will look beautiful!

All Downhill From Here

It's kind of weird that people keep telling me my wedding day is going to be the best day of my life.

Don't get me wrong, I'm stupid excited for it (yes, stupid excited...I'm work shopping it) but really? By this time next summer my life will have peaked?

I understand the sentiment, and I know that "the best day of your life" thing is really just an encouraging phrase from well wishers. It's always nice to hear that people are excited and happy for you, because really, all I want for my wedding day is to be surrounded only by the people who love Alex and I dearly, and who sincerely wish us happiness.

And also I want a light up wedding dress like the one I saw on "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding" and I want to get a horse as wedding present.

I'm going to name her Thunder

The truth is, I am sure it is going to be one of the best days of my life, up there with the day I was born and the first time I realized Dunkin Donuts was open 24/7. But I plan on having many, many best days of my life. Wouldn't the perfect life be to have every day as the best day of your life?

Some people might say that if every day is special, then no day is really special. To those people I say hey, nobody is paying you to wax philosophic so zip it and drive me to Dunkin to get a Boston Cream.

Our wedding day is going to be awesome. So awesome, I can't even think of another word except awesome. Maybe stupid awesome.

But buying our first place is awesome. And traveling the world together is awesome. And one day having kids together is awesome (I can't wait to meet you, Professor McGonagall Talson-Burtness and Optimus Prime Talson-Burtness.)

(I've started watermarking my photos because there are a lot of creeps trolling the Internet. Now, if they steal my pictures and mass distribute them as some sort of advertisement for mail order brides, at least my blog will get traffic.)

As I type this, I realize that it's not my family and friends who are telling me it's got to be the best day of my life; it's the people who stand to make a profit.

It's wedding professionals who tell me that to rent a tent and have mediocre food is going to cost me $26,000. It's the woman who told me that if I "chintzed" on my wedding and didn't pay for a full coffee bar and extra hors d'oeuvres my gusts would leave angry with me.

My family and friends really do want the best for Alex and I. The love, support and excitement from our "framily" has been beautiful. The pressure for perfection and the unattainable idea of the "best day of your life" has come from the people who are selling me this dream and trying to manipulate my emotions so I'll sell all of my non-essential organs to pay for extra-deluxe gold thread linens.

My wedding day may very well be the best day of my life, because it's the domino that starts more best days of my life.

But this idea of spending a fortune because this one day is the happiest you'll ever be is just stupid.

Stupid stupid.