Is there such thing as the 4-month itch?

It's been four months since we got married and my how the time flies. Work has been crazy busy and my new husband talks about us as newlyweds, which I find both amusing and strange, since we have been living together for much longer than marriage. I think he really enjoys the idea and fact that we are married. I guess I need to take a moment to appreciate that about him, instead of finding that confusing.

With all that's going on right now, I'm starting to get that itch I feel when I'm in one place for too long. Even though I'm crazy busy with work, I just want to do something different, which is why I ventured off on my own to begin with. We have a few things coming up but I've just today decided, "we" are planning a trip to Italy. (Shhhh...don't tell hubs, he doesn't know this yet, but he'll be thrilled) This will be our international trip of 2012, although we did go to the Dominican Republic for our Honeymoon, I'm convinced that it doesn't really count.

My genius idea: In October (low season), fly from LA to Rome and drive up to Florence to Venice. Fly out of Venice and come home eight days later. Easy right? Flights and hotel rates are much lower in that season and I used TripAdvisor to find a handful of really reasonable B+B's (my reasonable means between 50-110 euros/day) in each city we stay at and we'll rent a teeny tiny European car to drive in, woo!

So our travel itinerary for 2012:

January - Dominican Republic (The honeymoon)

April - New Orleans for Jazz Fest

August - Hawaii for the birth of our dear friend's baby and some relax time

October - Italy, from Rome ->Florence -> Venice

NYE - spend our anniversary at home (in LA) with Chaka and plan for 2013

That's a successful year if I ever saw one! Let's go! This itch is gettin' crazy.

The end of an era!

As you may know, the last year of my life pretty much revolved around planning a wedding day, one single day that would be imprinted in my mind forever. I LOVE thinking about this day and finally realize why people say that it is the most important day in a girl's life...probably a man's too, depending on if he's a jerk or not.

My wedding day was the most strangely tranquil, magical and happy day of my entire life. It is just an indescribable experience to have everyone you love and that loves you, to share a ceremony that is magnifically (<--new word) important with the most important person in your life.

To make a long story short, it was a great ceremony and crazy fun party. I feel like everyone really had a great time, which was my main goal. It wouldn't have been as great without someone handling all the day-of details. (NOTE TO BRIDES: you MUST have a day-of coordinator if nothing else.) I am so excited to begin my life with my new husband. We are taking the month of January to organize and situate ourselves and plan for the rest of the year and set timelines and goals. I love January for that reason, I end up feeling so organized.

Oh yes, we got great wedding gifts and I have enlisted the help of my new CrockPot to make this Chili recipe, as my very first slow-cooker recipe. Wish me luck, 4.5 hours to go.

Married life, here we go.

5 months and counting...

The wedding is getting closer and my anxiety and stress levels are rising. For some reason, I don't think that Beno really has these same issues. I am excited about everything and most everything is planned, but there are still details to tighten up. We are getting married on Decemeber 31, 2011 at Recreation Park Golf Course in Long Beach, really cute lil' place.

Our wedding is small, just how I like it, with closest friends and family. Since it's on NYE, only really close people would probably show up anyway. Here's a list of things we still need to do:

- Meet with the florist
- Get a band/DJ
- Meet with the jeweler
- Confirm a 'priest'
- Get our clothes (we are getting these in October)
- Figure out decorations
- Plan the pre-wedding family events
- Plan the parental meet and greet on Beno's bday
- Send out the invitations

WOW that seems like a lot. Well the venue, food, cake, photographer is taken care of. Technically so is the florist. We just have to tidy up some of the other details. Oh yea and the HONEYMOON, can't forget that. We are still wavering, but feel like we'll probably head down to the Dominican Republic for our getaway. Although there's a lot going on with Thesilvertelegram.com, I am still totally stoked about this whole event and getting more glad that it's on NYE.

The band isn't really panning out, it's almost as much as the total wedding venue. I am contemplating an iTunes playlist instead, between the two of us, we definitely have enough family/wedding friendly music and we can create the mood ourselves. I dunno. Decisions, decisions...