Will You Be My Bridesmaid?

About 3 weeks ago, I officially asked my sister and 2 best friends to be my bridesmaids. They all knew that they were the chosen ones but I wanted to make it special for them and formally ask. I want to do a lot of DIY (do it yourself) projects for the wedding because A. it's cheaper and B. I feel like it becomes more special when you do it yourself. I'm also a graphic designer so I think it's silly if I pay someone to design something for me. I found this cute idea when I was bored one day at work: DIY Bridesmaid Cards

I went to a local scrapbook store, Oh Scrap! to find all of the paper I needed for the cards. It was super easy and only took me about 2 hours to complete. Total Cost: $8

I surprised my girls by hand delivering their cards with flowers. They were all freaked out when I showed up with flowers but then when they realized what it was and they squealed with giddiness. This is everyones first wedding they'll be in. Wahooooo!

Next up, bridesmaid dresses! Should I go yellow dress with a hint of black or black dress with a hint of yellow? And if you know of any local Charlotte places, let me know!

Here are the bridesmaid cards. Aren't they cute?!

Check out our wedding site:

www.ashaandjeremy.projectwedding.com

What's that smell? Oh, it's doodoo-feces.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan… so… Asha is pet-sitting the grandma dog, Bailey. She's a really old dog and very sweet. Every now and then I help Asha out by checking up on the dogs she pet-sits during the day. Bailey's pretty easy too. After about... 5-10 minutes of trying to help her stand up, I just let her outside for a bit, then let her back in. Pretty simple. So today, I’m at Bailey’s. As usual, it took forever to get her up and outside. Had to whip out the peanut butter, no surprise there. I’m sitting in the house and I start to sniff and say to myself, “man… kinda stinks in here.” But I didn’t think much of it because the smell wasn’t that strong. So I’m just chillin’, Bailey’s outside doing her thing and I decide to go sit at the piano. Weeeeell, I get over there, I sit down, then I freeze because I all of a sudden REALLY smelled the stink. I glance over to my right and… there’s about a 5 ft. trail of nasty poop. This dog was apparently just walkin’ around poopin’. And it had been there a while cuz it was crusty. It USED to be runny poop, I could tell by the trail. So then I was like, “should I clean this up… or act like I never saw it and let Asha deal with it? I mean… this IS her gig…” I couldn’t do that to her though, so I cleaned it up. The initial wiping was nasty cuz everything was half soft, half crusted to the floor. So I got some liquid detergent and poured a lil’ on all the crust. Added some hot water and let that soak for a minute or two. Then I went through and wiped it all up. Then I got some wood floor cleaning stuff and mopped the area to try and kill the smell. So that was done. I gave Bailey the stink eye AND I was mean-muggin’ her once I finished. So I’m cleaning everything up and I’m like, “man… it still kinda stinks in here. Bailey got that strong stench doodie.” (exact words) As I’m standing at the door getting ready to walk out, somehow, I really don’t know how either, I look over and say, ”is that?... I know that’s not what I think it is…”  Yup, I find more poop hidden in the corner. I honestly don’t know how I saw it from the door either because I walked back to the door and I couldn’t see it. So again, I stood there and said to myself, “should I clean this up… or act like I never saw it and let Asha deal with it?” Well this time I replied to myself, “H-no I ain't cleaning up anymore. Sorry, Asha.”

I left.

My lungs are burnin'!

Rock and Run 5K took place at the NC Music Factory today. Who had to run it today? This guy. It sucked. Well, it actually didn't suck at all. It was a great turn-out, good music, pretty good spread of food, nice course, plus C.J. and Sairy also ran, and it was nice to see them. However, Asha and I didn't train at ALL for this race. This was the most unprepared I've ever been for anything. I hadn't really ran since the Warrior Dash 5K back in May. So basically, I got up off of the couch and ran 3 miles. That's the part that sucked. The goal was to not walk. I failed. I didn't walk that much, but I still walked. I have to say, I'm really glad Asha ran with me throughout the race. She was a good coach and I didn't feel as bad when she walked with me. The best/funniest part of the race was the end. Asha and I, of course, had to sprint the last stretch. I took off, then Asha stopped me because I went too fast. So I slowed down, then we started the sprint again... and again I went too fast. We eventually finished at 31:53. As soon as we finished, we both puked at the same time (we're made for each other). It was a bit weird because neither of us felt like we needed to throw up until that moment at the finish line. We blamed the delicious bacon cheeseburgers and fried pickles we ate less than 12 hours before the race. I thought it was pretty funny. C.J. and Sairy just kind of watched us throw up gatorade... I also thought that was pretty funny.

This leads me to my next point. I really don't think I'm built/made for this long distance running stuff. I don't have the mentality for it. Sprinting, running for a touchdown, getting to the other end of the basketball court, I'm all for that. In those situations, there's an obvious goal for me to achieve. This is by no means any disrespect to runners either. Running a 5K is hard. Pretty much running anything longer than a mile is hard. So yeah, lots of props to the long-distance runners. I just don't have "it" in me. With that said, I'll take you in a real sport (kidding... only about the real sport line, I will take you though).

P.S. - Sairy and C.J. killed that 5K. Wish I could be like them! They're my 5K heroes.

Just Dance

Jeremy came over for a few hours last night.  We usually hang out and watch tv but with it being summer and nothing coming on on Tuesday nights, it left us to just be with each other...and Apollo.  It was quite nice.  We talked, laughed, and danced.  I love how I can just be myself around him.  I'm not a great dancer so it's fun to just let go.  It was nice to get away from the normal routine of watching tv and to just be with each other.  I can't say that will happen tonight because Modern Family comes on and that show is hilarious.  We just picked up on it this summer so we can't wait for the new season in the fall!

Football 101

Jeremy has complained that I haven't blogged yet so I hope this makes him happy.

This past Friday I was able to go up to Boone for the day!  It was great to visit Appalachian since I haven't been there in quite some time.  The whole reason for the trip was to go learn about football.  My friend from work, who also went to App and graduated with the same degree but 2 years before me, found this event called Football 101.  So all these women gather together and tour the new press box, eat dinner, get a lesson on football, do some drills, and get a pep talk from Head Coach Jerry Moore. FUN!

When we got there we ate at good ol' Macado's.  I forgot how nice everyone is in Boone.  We had a hippy waiter who would talk about anything and everything.  We then ventured downtown and the bookstore looking for some new App stuff.  I found something for Jeremy that I couldn't pass up; an App State YMCA mug!  Neither one of us drink coffee but I had to get it for him.  The guy on the mug was even black with longish hair.  It could technically be a girl but I'm going to say it's a guy.  It didn't have boobs.  So yeah, PERFECT for Jeremy!

We then decided to visit the tech building where we had all of our classes for our major.  Turns out both of our artwork was still up on the bulletin board!  It's been 4 years since she graduated and 2 for me.  Our work was posted one on top of the other too.  Now we work together.  Craaaaazy.


We FINALLY arrived to Football 101.  Touring the new press box was awesome!  I ended up taking lots of pictures and running into a friend.  We got dinner catered from Outback (yum) and then we split up to get our lesson on football.  I learend absolutely nothing.  The coaches just started writing plays and using all the terms that I didn't understand.  I did, however, learn how to protect the football.  High and tight!  The drunk old ladies were pretty entertaining.  They ended up having a chugging contest and everything.  You should have seen it.  Crazy old ladies.

To top off the night I was able to complete a pass from Trey Elder (former quarterback/backup quarterback and now coach) and get a picture with the one and only Coach Moore!  My life is now complete.

Too much estrogen?

In case you didn't know, I work for the YMCA of Greater Charlotte. If you've ever worked for the YMCA, then you're probably aware that the staff within a branch is usually about 90% female. In fact, excluding camp staff, there are 12 men that work in my branch. And that's including some of the part-time workers that I rarely see. I started in childcare/Afterschool/Camp (predominately by females) and now I'm in the Marketing department (also predominately by females). I don't have a problem working with females. The number of burps, farts, cussing, dirty jokes and sexual innuendos is much, MUCH lower and I'm more than OK with that.

However... being the only male member in my previous and current offices, I often find myself in conversations about "women stuff". Now, when I say "women stuff", here's a short list of what I mean:

          - Pregnancy
          - Periods
          - Female anatomy
          - Bedroom time with the hubby (not nearly as cool as some would assume)

These conversations happen all the time. Usually when these conversations happen, I just sit there with a half blank stare, half terrified expression on face and pray that they don't ask for my opinion... on anything.

So today's pregnancy talk was a doozy! Woman "A" comes into the office to speak to women "B" and "C". I wasn't even listening to anything they were saying until I heard the magic phrase, "When I was pregnant..." From that point on, it was hard to NOT listen. I tried so hard not to listen because I knew I would hear things that I wasn't prepared for but it was no use.(Insert blank stare/terrified expression here) I heard things about the uterus, and bladders, and medications, and anxiety, and water breaking and leaking onto someone's foot and... a lot was said during this conversation. Looking back, it was all pretty funny, but during the conversation, in my head, I screamed like a little school girl.

The flip side to this is that I have no excuse to be a terrible husband or father. During my 5 years with the YMCA, I've made a long mental list of what NOT to do in marriage and working with kids I've got a long list of what I DON'T want my kids to do. So I should be good. After today's talk, when the time comes,I'm now expecting to talk about Asha's uterus, bladder, medication, anxieties, and even have her water break and just leak all over my bare feet. Who knows, I may even deliver the baby myself! (doubt it)

And away we go...

Welcome to our blog! We decided to start this to chronicle our journey of marriage. We want to share our experiences with anyone who's interested. Hopefully we'll do a good job updating this. You'll find entries written by us together, and some done individually.

A little background: When we got engaged, it hit us that we're poor. We knew we would have to pay for the wedding ourselves, so we're living with our parents until we tie the knot (side note: if you want to donate to the Asha and Jeremy Wedding fund, feel free!). It's kind of annoying. They're old. We're more than ready to be on our own, but we just can't afford to at the moment.

(From Jeremy: maaaaan, Asha's pet sitting right now and this dog is now officially annoying. He won't just STOP. He's constantly moving and... I don't like it. OUR dog, Apollo, is MUCH better.)

Ok, well we hope you're excited and ready to join us on our adventure to the alter!