Our Adventures As Newlyweds: February 2008

I used to have an Xanga way back when Matt and I first started dating and it has been fun to go back and read so I figured it's time to start blogging again since Matt and I are in such a fun and different time in our lives. There is so much going on and changing! Some of our family and friends are on here so we decided this would be a good way to go. We love reading about what is going on in your lives and maybe if you are bored one day, our blog will provide you with something to do :P

Life has been busy but enjoyable for the most part. As I am typing this, I am listening to Pictures of You by The Last Goodnight who we got to see in concert thanks to our good friend Sara! It was a great show. They came to town a couple of weeks ago to play at the Fox Theater for a KLLY Lounge which are shows put on by our local radio station that you can only win tickets to. They are smaller shows and they host a meet and greet after the show where you get to meet the band, take pictures with them, and get autographed posters. We also got to see Sara Bareilles who is one of my favorite artists right now, Emerson Hart of Tonic, Vanessa Carlton, and Missy Higgens all within the last 2 months. We average a show every two weeks or so. It's nice to spend time with Sara and Jordan and take in a free show! We have also seen Collective Soul, Ben Folds Five, Jacob Young, and some others. We'll get to see Matt Nathanson on March 10th. With our money being so tight because of the wedding, this is one of our only forms of entertainment and getting out of the house! :]

Speaking of the wedding, wedding planning has been going well. As of tonight when we send off two more contracts we'll have all of our vendors booked which is a load off. We are really ahead of the game and that feels great! Can you believe it is only 6 months away!? It's been 6 years in the making but worth every moment. I am so lucky! We're anxious for May to get here so we can send out our invitations and start getting RSVPs back. We're really hoping that a good portion of our guests can make it. It's really important to Matt and I for everyone to be there..if it wasn't, we would have eloped! ;] Plus, we have to have 131 guests show up in order to meet our food minimum. I'm keeping my fingers crossed! See our wedding website that is linked to the right.

Matt and I will be graduating at the end of this semester with our double major in Business Administration and Economics! We're almost done! It's scary, exciting, and nerve racking all at the same time. I have to enter into the "real" world whatever that is! I have no clue what I want to do...there are probably 10 or more things that I would like to do, I just don't know what is practical and what would be the right choice. Matt's set at Best Buy. Even though things haven't been completely great there this last year, it's a good job with good benefits and he is great at what he does. They are opening a new store and I believe that he'll be able to get whatever position he'd like...it's time for his hard work to pay off. As for me, well see where life takes me!

Matt and I have been really sick for the last couple of weeks. I look forward to feeling human again so we can get back to our work outs. We want to be healthier and look good for the wedding! Nobody likes a fat bride! Haha..seriously though, I need to get back to it!

A couple of weeks ago we got to spend some time in Santa Barbara. The hotel we are getting married at had a bridal show. The show was a complete let down but it was fun since Sara, Kellie, and Brandon were able to make it! We missed you Ren! We hit up State Street in the pouring rain and splashed in puddles, went to the beach and took tons of pictures, had a BBQ, and stayed up way to late playing crazy games of Uno. We also came up with nicknames for each other..mine is Naener, Matt is Bunions, Sara is Tri-tip, Kellie is Pooter, and Brandon is Marlin. These nick-names perfectly describe the love we have for one another! Nobod will ever be able to guess how they came about. ;] It was so cool to see snow on the Grapevine on the way over there and on the way back we got to spend about an hour at the top of the Grapevine waiting to be escorted off of the mountain because of black ice. We had two days of rain and two days of some of the most beautiful weather that I have ever had while at the beach! I hope we are lucky enough to have that same great weather on the wedding day. That would be icing on the cake.

Matt and I have decided to live with my mom for a couple of months to a year after the wedding. We think it's the best decision for us in the long run. We really want to build a new house! With the housing market the way it is, now is the time to buy. We have a house picked out at a development already and just need to get a big enough down payment so that our monthly payments would be low enough. We have to do this before the lots are all sold...that's the rush. Good thing they just opened the development and said it should take about a year to fill all of them. This house fits us perfectly. We want a house that we can stay in forever so we can actually pay our house off. Living rent free for a year would allow us to build our dream house and to have low monthly payments so we wouldn't have to worry about losing it. Too many people are losing their homes and it is so sad to see. We have been close as well. We want to be cautious and as educated as we can be about the home buying process so we can at least try to avoid this ever happening to us. A lot of times it's out of people's control though. It's that uncertainty that makes it scary.

That has been our life for the last couple of months! - Jenae & Matt