3.5 Weeks!

I am getting married in 24 days!! I still can't believe it. We will probably be 5 days in to our honeymoon before I finally will believe that I am Ken's wife! I am also looking forward to seeing all my friends that I haven't seen in ages! My best friend, Melissa English, will be here (she is a bridesmaid and her little girl Ava is our flower girl) and I haven't seen her since June 2007. Ava was only 6 months old!
We are in the process of paying everyone off. I am hesitant to put checks with such large amounts in the mail, but I am sure it will be fine.
I am working on Ken's gift that he will get the morning of the wedding. It is nothing big but from the heart :) I love him!!
This weekend we will be heading to LPC for my bridal shower. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone. My mom is planning most of it, since Nate is my man of honor. While we are home my lovely cousin Jayme will practice on my hair. She will be doing it the morning of the wedding. She is amazing! Nate will be racing on Saturday. I can't wait to see him ride his new bike. He is now in the 'B' class and is really improving on his riding.
The following weekend, Michele (Ken's mom), is having her shower. I am really looking forward to that one too. At first I was nervous because it is a lingerie shower but now I think it will be pretty funny.
May 9th is my bachelorette party. My wonderful friends in Omaha have taken it upon themselves to throw this for me. It should be awesome! Ken will be out for the bachelor party so we will both be pretty tired the next day. I am so excited!
And, of course, the following weekend is our WEDDING! We will be having the rehearsal at the church at 5:30. The dinner will immediately follow at Ken's mom's friend Sally's house. We are just going to barbeque and have a relaxing evening. I will then head to our hotel (Hilton Garden) that we are staying in on our wedding night because all my stuff will (hopefully) be moved in to Ken's house. I can relax in the Jacuzzi tub and hopefully get some rest.
Thursday (tomorrow!) is my last day at work. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will get everything at my apartment packed up, get Ken's house cleaned since all the roommates will be out and paint some of the rooms. I am so blessed to have 3 full weeks off before the wedding! I can't wait to be Mrs. Kenneth Ross, Jr!

Love, Mrs. Ross to be

Wow... the wedding is getting so close! We are now 5 weeks away and I cannot wait for it to finally be here! We are heading downtown this afternoon to get our marriage license!! Soon I will be Elicia Ross!! YES!
We have been tying ribbon on bubbles, packaging favors and all the invitation are out! We have gotten quite a few RSVP postcards back. We are expecting between 225 and 275 guests. WOWZERS! :) This weekend we will be doing a little more printing and starting our order of service programs.
Last week we talked to our caterer. His name is Tom Cote and he is such a great friend! We will be having prime rib, grilled shrimp (with mango and coconut dipping sauces!), lemon rice, herb potatoes, green beans, salad and bread. The best part is he is only charging us $5.50/plate!!!! A meal like this anywhere else ranges from $25-$32/plate. I can't believe it! :) We will not be providing any alcohol at the reception. Ken and I don't drink and I don't want to pay for our guests to get drunk. We will, however, be providing two types of punch. It is going to be fabulous :)
I am meeting with the reception site manager on Monday. Just to get my last minute questions answered and let our caterer see their facilities. It will be nice to get everyone paid off. Ken and I are so blessed to be able to pay for everything in cash. We saved over $20,000 in one year. Amazing!
We will be heading to LPC April 24th for our couple's shower. Saturday Nate has a race and Sunday is the bridal shower. It will be wonderful to see all my friends and family. I am looking forward to it. Ken's family is also have a shower May 2nd. It will also be nice to see his family.

Well that is all for now. I need to get ready to meet Ken to get our marriage license! I am soo excited!!! :) :) :)

Good news! I am officially heading back to school in June! I will be taking classes at UNO and working at Bellevue West starting in the fall. I am so happy I don't have to worry about that anymore! I also found out that while in school I will get paid by Bellevue for my time there. My work at BW will basically be like student teaching. Hopefully after graduation in May '10 I will continue work at BW or find a job with Omaha Public Schools. Phew!

More good news. My company gave out bonuses this year! We received 10% of our salary, which is niiiice! I will finally be getting a new laptop. Right now I use Ken's older Mac (He got a new one last fall) but I want a new Macbook. Go to Apple's website and check them out. They are sweet. I will also be getting some new clothes for summer (and our honeymoon!).

Ken and I will be going to a Family Life conference this weekend. It is for all types of couples. Engaged, newlyweds, people that have been married 40 years... It just helps keep in perspective that even in the daily grind of life how important it is to nurture your relationship. I am very excited for it. Our pre-marital counselors are sending us which is so nice!

Anyways, I should do my weekly cleaning. Woo.

YESSSS!

For those of you who do not know, I am applying for the TAP program at UNO. Basically the TAP program allows you to get your teacher's certificate in 12 months and also half the credits towards your masters. I took the PRAXIS PPST today and got great scores! I needed a 170/190 and got 183 and 188 on reading and math, respectively. The only score I am waiting for is the written portion. They have to grade that by hand so I will receive those scores in two weeks. I am sure I passed that portion, too. But we shall see. I am one step closer to gaining acceptance and finally becoming a high school biology teacher! :)

More later... the girls are coming over for dinner so I better start cooking!

Love, Mrs. Ross... to be!

Registering!

Hello All!

Just to let everyone know, Ken and I will be going to register today. We have chosen to register at Sears and Target. Sears, so Ken can get some tools, and Target because, well, everyone loves Target. I have heard it is so much fun to register so I am super excited! Ken should be coming to pick me up shortly.

Oh, and we went downtown yesterday to our florist and ordered all the flowers. We are using Garden Flowers in the Old Market. I thought they would be so expensive because of their location but they were actually very affordable. I will be carrying a hand-tied bouquet of all red roses and the bridesmaids will be carrying hand-tied bouquets of white roses. Beautiful! :)

Mrs. Ross...

Holy Crap!

We only have 4 months until our wedding!!! Wowzers! I am getting very excited and I get butterflies when I think about it. It is to the point where I just want it to be over.

I am going to start the fitting process for my dress soon. I want them to take the zipper out and make it a corset back. The only other alterations I need is the bustle. It is a pretty elaborate bustle so I can't wait to see what it looks like. I don't need the dress hemmed because I am wearing pretty decent size heels.

I will be starting to print the invitations next week. We just want to get everything squared away with the church, so we have the correct time on them. How horrible would it be if all the invitations had the wrong time!

Other than wedding stuff, I am counting down my days at my job. My last day working day will be April 24th. I have 9 vacation days so I will get paid through the beginning of May. That way I have a few weeks to get packed and do last minute wedding stuff.

I have sent in my application for the master's program I will hopefully be entering in May. I will be taking the entrance exam on the 27th. I talked to the program director and he seems optimistic about my chances. Female high school science teachers are in high demand so I will easily find a job after I graduate.

Besides that, Ken is doing well. He had from Christmas to January 12th off so he is trying to get back into the swing of things. He is looking forward to the wedding and, of course, the honeymoon :) We both love going to pre-marital counseling. Regina and Dennis are just awesome.

I hope everyone is staying warm. This frigid weather has got to go :)

Love, Mrs. Ross... to be