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.

The last of my thoughts today leaking from my brain

I know it's been awhile since my last post, but this really is my first opportinity. Since Spring Break, I have been hitting the books extra hard. In addition to my regular homework, I have been studying hard for the MA Exam. Well, this morning I took the exam. Hopefully I rocked it, but we will know in 10 days if I passed.

Also of some excitement this week: I started my invisalign! Woo hoo! This is the first of ten trays which I trade out every 2 weeks. So in 20 weeks I should have beautiful straight teeth. I am not sure I timed it very well... although technically, my invisalign was supposed to start last week, but my case wasn't ready. Anyway, the first couple of days on invisalign are not pleasant, although way easier than real braces I am sure. Respect to all those that wore the real deal. Invisalign is for wimps like me. I can pop the suckers out for a couple of minutes if I start to go mad with discomfort. I am supposed to wear them for 23 hours a day, but I had to take them out for most of the MA today. It was just too hard to concentrate with these suckers hugging my teeth. Anyway, I am too freaking tired to take a pix now and upload it and all that jazz, but I will try to make a running photo blog of my progress.

As for the wedding planning; it is coming along well. The invitations are (mostly) out. The prep for the Charlotte Bachelor/Bachelorette parties is beginning. The bridemaid dresses are selected and I have finally gotten around to working on our registry. Bed Bath and Beyond if you are feeling generous! :-)

Spring Break

Ahhh... spring break. Here I am on a beautiful day in NC enjoying a nice cup of coffee and playing on my computer... and yes I am procrastinating doing some school work as well-but I am feeling less guilty about it than usual. So far, my spring break has been wonderful. I gave my freshman a "library day" on Friday, so I was able to sneak out of town on Wednesday to start my break a few days early. I used that time to visit NH where I got to see all the friends and family that I missed over winter break following my "United made me pay to sleep on the floor of Washington-Dulles Airport only to return to NC the next day and lose my luggage for 5 days" fiasco. BTW- United still sucks. Yes, I made it there and back, but my connecting flight back was 2 hours late because after they boarded, the genius's realized that they did not have a co-pilot. Apparently, this is not unusual for United. Sigh. Anyway, my flight there was excellent. I flew direct to Manchester to make sure I actually got there, and to my glee (yes I said glee) it was operated by US Air and I made it in with no problem. My trip itself was lots of fun. Steph and Mom threw me a great bachelorette party on Friday! We went to a bar where my cousin worked, so she could enjoy in the fun. And my friend Kyle, who moved from NC to Boston came to the festivities. As any successful bachelorette party goes, a random group of guys, who I do not know, joined our crew and started buying shots. Woo hoo! They were actually friends of my other cousin. Meanwhile, everyone was capturing the magic on my digi cam and Bachelorette Book. And by magic, I mean drunken antics of course. But I will add that my tiara stayed on the whole time!
More Pictures will be posted on my wedding website www.mywedding.com/toddandtiffany

Tornados and Smooth hands

I just love my dentist. I went for my second cleaning yesterday to make my teeth super clean and pretty. They look so much better and my gums are looking pretty snazzy too... although they are feeling the effects of the scraping today. The best part about the cleaning is the parrafin dip that you get while they attack that pesky plaque. So when I leave, my teeth feel nice and clean and my hands are nice and soft. So nice...

Yesterday, they also took the impressions for my teeth so they can order my Invisalign trays. It went pretty well, and after the X-Rays last week, the impressions were a breeze! My trays will be in a a few weeks, and I have an appointment in March to pick them up and get started. I am so excited to get started. I will finally have straight teeth!

My whitening is in April, and originally I was supposed to have come contouring then, but now with the Invisalign, I am not sure how that is going to work.

I am just so excited to get started. I can not wait to get my first set of trays! Of course, now that my tooth neurosis is being dealt with, my body has substituted a new anxiety dream. And it looks like the tornados have it! The other night I had a dream that I was in a meeting in a tall building when a tornado came through. Everyone got under the table... not sure how much that was going to do considering it was coming right in. I woke up before it finished, but it was no fun. Only a dream though and I certainly don't miss the tooth one. Now if I could just do something about the horror movie ones...

Bye Bye Bad Dreams!

Yes, yes, I should be reading, but I am taking this opportunity to procrastinate some more and blog about my latest exciting news.

So I have this crazy tooth thing. I have recurring dreams about my teeth cracking up and falling out. It's gotten so common, that when it starts to happen, I imediately know that I am dreaming and try to turn the subject matter to more cheerful things. Of course I usually just end up waking myself up.

Anyway, aside from being an anxiety dream, I think it also stems from my neurosis. I am super self conscious about my teeth. I always smile the exact same way so you can't see my crooked bottom teeth.

Well, flash forward to this week. I made an appointment with Bob and Sheri sponsors "The Charlotte Center for Cosmetic Dentistry." I went to my consulataion hoping to spruce up my smile before the wedding. Maybe some whitening and maybe even a little bonding. They kept talking about Invisalign, but I knew I couldn't afford it, but I let them do their thing. Well, since my teeth only need to be fixed in the front, and everything else is otherwise fine, they gave me an awesome price! So this week I go for my first session. By the wedding, I will have a brand new beautiful smile! I am beyond excited. I've been going to bed every night dreaming about my new smile. Hopefully my old anxiety dreams are a thing of the past!

Wedding Blog

So, my blogging on this site will likely be slowing down a bit for the next few months. This is not because I have stopped blogging, but because I have begun keeping a wedding blog on our wedding website. Since most of my life is immersed in School and Wedding (and I do enough writing for school), most of my blogs have become wedding oriented. I decided this would be more appropriately done on our wedding website. So if you want to be updated on what's going on and miss my regular blogs, or would like to see my wedding website, you can view it at:

www.mywedding.com/toddandtiffany

Please check it out and don't forget to sign the guestbook!

I Present Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit

So winter break is now officially over. Last week started on Wednesday, so I only had to teach one class on Wednesday and Friday. But this week my classes begin. I met with my professor earlier today to begin my directed reading and I am about to head to my American Lit tonight. Mondays are my long days. I teach at 11:00 and then I have a class at 6:30. Of course there is no reason to drive allllll the way back to Indian Trail, so I hang around for 6 hours and try to get work done. Of course today, I just successfully surfed. That's ok though. I kind of needed it. My winter break was not very relaxing, although it did get much better after my last post. We had a wonderful Christmas with my Mom and Herm here. Greyson and Ryely hit the jackpot with Santa and the family, and I cooked a very tasty meal and even got to use my fancy new flatware. There were lots of parties and dinners and adventures. Fun and enjoyable, but relaxing? Not so much.

Since the semster was about to start, I tried to make use of the free time I had before I got caught up in the whirlwind of schoolwork. The last two weeks have been spent almost exclusively and obsessively on planning my wedding. I am very excited about it and I am really enjoying the planning. But I am a crazy, neurotic, self-conscious, second-guessing kinda gal. I bought my wedding dress on Friday and have not slept decently since. It's a beautiful dress, and I can rock it pretty well (I think), but it's not as traditional as I was planning. THis is good or bad depending on my crazy second guessing neurotic mood swing at the time. I love me wedding website (www.mywedding.com/toddandtiffany) but I am also wondering if I should have gone with theknot.com like everyone else. I can't stop fighting with this idea of traditional. It stands behind me whispering in my ear about regrets I will have not spending my wedding as Cinderella. Well, maybe I don't want to be Cinderella! But when will I have the opportunity to wear a huge ass gown that I could hide a small country under??? They look at you funny in the grocery store. I really do drive myself crazy- it's a wonder Todd wants to marry such a wackjob, but then perhaps he finds it endearing. I find it exhausting trying to please me- I don't know how he does it? DO I want my wedding to safely blend in with everyone else's or do I rock it like my Jessica Rabbit Wedding Dress? Well, all sales are final and the the beach is booked, so I am gonna meet my Roger Rabbit by the sea and rock my wedding.