The Seven Year Sitch

So, seven years ago, on August 24, Eric and I met at a BBQ thrown by his supervisor/my 'little sister''s foster mother. We like to say that "a 16-year-old with ADHD" introduced us, because his supervisor's adopted daughter (who was 16 at the time) knew him, knew me, and made the following observations:
He says "right on!"
I say "right on!"
He has a weird sense of humor.
I have a weird sense of humor.
They would make a great couple!

::then we met at the BBQ, stayed in Teri's backyard til 1am with three teenage girls *hanging* out of their bedroom window demanding to know if we were going to kiss, or if we were in love "yet"::
::so we moved out onto the curb in front of the house, and talked until the sun came up::
((I called in sick to work that day - it was a Monday morning))

::EJ called me that afternoon and arranged our first "date" (I guess - we went out for coffee) - we spent Every Single evening together for the next three weeks::

Aaand, now it's seven years later. And we're getting married.

Us at Stubricks, where we met for coffee seven years ago.

All thanks to a 16-year-old girl with ADHD! (Thanks, Theresa!)

::Massive Update::

Hello there! I know there have not been a lot of updates on what we have been doing - lack of time to upload photos from the past 30 days onto our flickr account (http://www.flickr.com/monstergirl00 ) ... and who wants to read a long blog post without pictures? No one! Ha!

Soooo, what have we been up to lately?

First of all, me & the womenfolk went up to Santa Barbara for some wine tasting/buying for the wedding. We got two great wines (in great quantities!) - a merlot from Gainey and a reisling from Kalyra.

It was a turn-around trip, but we did stop in Solvang for some goodies, and I got our cake topper (it's a salt&pepper set from Pea Soup Andersons - I'd seen it when FMIL and I were there in May, EJ didn't get to see it when we were there in June [sold out], but I managed to nab the only set on this trip!)

It is totally cute, and totally us! (Also, it's magnetic, so I am faintly terrified that I will separate them and they will ::stick:: back together then shatter upon impact)

Moving right along, EJ and I also went up to Idyllwild *TWICE*, and finally found a place. It is beautiful, and it is all ours! (I'm not posting specific because the entire internetz is NOT invited to the wedding. Sorry, folks)

That's us at The Fort (where the shops are), with Lily Rock in the background.

We have registered at three places: Crate & Barrel, Williams Sonoma, and Target. I will tell you, it was exhausting! After the first go-round (two-plus hours running around a store scanning things and trying to 'think') we realized we would have to break our trips up - and we're adding some online, just because I honestly can't face going back into a store with a scanner *yet *again. I also feel like a slight tool for expecting people to buy us stuff, but that's just me. FYI, Williams Sonoma treated us the best, with coffee and treats (scones and fresh fruit!), and also seemed pretty excited for us (of course!)

We have done some crafting, but I don't have any pictures of that to put up right now. Stuff is slowly but surely getting done. I will emphasize slowly.

Oh! And something realtively exciting:

We got our marriage license two weeks ago! If I had planned it better I would have waited for Friday (the Thirteenth), but I did not. Of course, waaay back in 2006 I was pushing for a 06/06/06 date "just because", but that was waaaay back when I was still in grad school and any type of martial-discussion was TOTALLY not on the table. And I'm much more happy with 10/2/10 anyway!

Total cell phone pic, which does not really hide the nervousness I felt while we were in the Clerk Recorder's office. I almost couldn't sign my name because I was shaking so much. Why? I do not know; like buying the fabric for my dress, this part just seemed so **final**.

That's pretty much the update to this point. Today's our 7 year anniversary, I'm planning to take some pics and give a brief post later on about "How We Met". Real exciting stuff, that - it involves lots of teenage girls, BBQ, a wingman, and an Irish Pub!

Quick Sidebar Update

Well! There will be a more full accounting of the past four weeks shortly (once I am away from work and can upload ALL the photos!), but two minor things:
1) LOCATION has been updated! Because we finally found a place!
2) Karen's title has finally changed on the blog. She came up with it a while ago. And yes, she has the longest title of anyone, any time, ever.

Oh those days...

Yesterday: exactly 8 weeks to the Wedding Day.

Two days ago: exactly 51 weeks since EJ proposed.