Haller Family Video

So this is what I worked on this weekend! Todd wanted to make a video of our favorite pictures to "Pictures of You" by Last Goodnight. I had a little extra time, so I threw myself into it. We are planning on giving dvds to family members for Christmas.



I am very excited about it, so I had to share. Enjoy!

Stop

All I want to do is sit on my couch with my coffee, kitty, and the latest episode of Trueblood. Alas, this is not to be. Is it Thanksgiving week yet??

Making sense of the mess

Well, we finally made it into our new house. The whole thing has been a comedy of errors. I haven't blogged about it because the move has basically felt jinxed from the beginning, and I didn't want to further it along until I was sure we had closed. Yesterday (for the second time) we finally closed on our beloved house making this whole experience worth it. This week alone has been one thing after another- from the first closing not going through, to my car battery completely dying, to my knock-you-on-your-ass head cold. But we are here and we love it. The house is absolutely perfect. So far, I have completed the kitchen. And that's about it. There are boxes everywhere and the rooms just begging for us to make them our own. Of course, that was frightening to do as we moved things in hoping everything would go well at the final closing. Todd has almost finished installing the blinds, and I am about to go unpack some more. We are a bit behind because I was in bed all day yesterday with this wretched cold- until I had to drag my butt to the closing of course. I basically just smiled and nodded and signed my life away while my head swirled in a haze of NyQuil and expectorant. Today I am feeling better and Todd is running to the store to pick up our new couches! Yay! I am so excited to make this house our home- such a cliche I know. But first I have to make some sense of this mess!

Feng Shui

So I have a book on feng shui that my friend Mary recomended to me. Also, she knows a lot about feng shui, as does her mother and sister. We also have the help of Ellen Whitehurst and her superior feng shui skills. So now I am reading through my book and scuring decorating and furniture websites. I have been to every furniture store in town, and now want to hit outside of town. Yes, we must be moving. And I must be going nuts. Everything is feng shui. EVERYTHING. Remember how when you would play Tetris on your oldschool gameboy, and everything you looked at could be fit into a convenient tetris-like puzzle? Well, everything can be appropriately feng shuied. And if it's not, disaster could ensue. So, cue my blog, do you like it? Newly decorated. Don't ask me to explain or I will talk myself out of it.

Married!

Well, after all of the craziness we are finally married. The ceremony was amazing! We were in the Bahamas on the beach. The weather was beautiful and the water was perfect! Steph, Meagan, and Dana helped to make it a fun trip and special day. Steph was the Maid of Honor, Meagan stepped up to act as Best Woman, and Dana got some super cute pictures while celebrating with us!



Overall the trip was lots of fun. We hit Senor Frogs a couple of times much to Todd's delight, and I even did some Karaoke for the first time ever. We ate lots and lots, and spent a ton of time just relaxing on the beach with yummy drinks and good books. Perfect!



When we returned home, we prepared for the big party at Beantown with our friends and family. We are so happy that so many of our loved ones from New England could make it to NC. In addition to our Carolina friends and Todd's Dad, my parents flew in to spend the weekend with us and attend the party. And Steph flew down for the night to celebrate with us. Also my Uncle Gerry hopped a ride with my Uncle Eddy and his dog Baxter in his RV and headed down for the event. It was so wonderful to see them! And The party was a great success! We showed the video and everyone got to hang out and enjoy themselves. The cheesecakes were delicious and Ryely rocked out with the band for a bit. She plays a mean "submarine." The last of our party left after 1:00 am, so I would say that our guests had as much fun as we did! Now it's all over and we look back happily noting that we would do it all over again.

I'd like to thank my sponsors!

So I know it's been awhile since my last post. Since I finished up the semester (and my masters- woo hoo!) I haven't felt much like writing. In fact, this is the first that I have written in a couple of weeks other than some e-mails and the cards to my bride's maids' gifts- which I slaved over for a good two hours. Not that it has been all relaxation since graduating... in fact it hasn't been really relaxing at all. Other than getting to sleep in a bit, I have been staying rather busy. It seems like every moment of my being right now is in preparation for the wedding (or at a baseball game). This is because just after the semester ended, I had no sooner begun exhaling that heavy sigh of relief, when I realized "The wedding is in less than a month!" So far I have:

Decided on the wedding cake- Cheesecakes! Meeting with Katie (of KatiCakes) to finalize plans
Had my dress fitted- Mary's mom tells me I can't lose any more weight- thank you LA Weightloss!
Continuing with the process of fixing my teeth- I started my fifth tray of Invisalign and had my teeth Zoom! Whitened this morning at The Charlotte Center for Cosmetic Dentistry
Met with Donny today at Beantown to discuss menu options.

Hmmm... my wedding does seem to be resembling a Nascar race (or what I saw in Talledega Nights- everythng I know about Nascar I learned from Will Ferrell) But at least I don't have endorsements plastered all over my dress. Anyway, I am grateful for all of the help we have gotten. Everything is really coming together.

My bridal Shower was on Sunday and it was a wonderful day. We had a great time and Dawnette set up a yummy spread of food. Here's a pic of me stealing a bite before anyone arrived!

Delicious!

Virginia Woolf and Me

Well, of course there are a thousand things I should be doing, since my greeting as of late seems to be "there are a thousand things I should be doing." Specifically I should be putting the final touches on my Virginia Woolf paper. I should also be doing research on Louise Glucke for my Harryette Mullen paper. And I should be determining how slave women sought control through cooking for my Uncle Tom's Cabin paper. But instead I am sitting here in stunned silence waiting for Todd to return home from softball. The stunned is not a result of any particular shock. It is just the feeling that I am left with after so many days of working on papers and knowing that the next 5 days of them will be eqully jam packed. I have more books checked out from the library than I care to admit and I am pretty sure I know the Literary contents to JSTOR, MLA, and EPSCOHOST by heart. In short, I feel like I have been hit by a bookmobile. And I am fairly certain that I am one of the voices in Virginia Woolf's head. At the very least, I know that we have had a conversation lately- a lovely woman and very misunderstood. We sat for lunch although she mostly just played with the bowl of fruit.

I keep reminding myself that a week from now my papers will be turned in and I can take a deep breath. At least I can rest easy knowing that the MA is behind me- and yes I passed! Now I am just relaxing this evening, recovering from my day, and getting ready to do it all over again tomorrow. I am hoping to have my Virginia Woolf paper completed tomorrow. Of course that will have to wait until after my dentist appt. I go in for my third set of trays in the morning! The Invisalign is working beautifully, and I can already see the difference. Virginia thinks they look quite lovely.