Cookwear, Towels and Gadgets-Oh My!

Well, we registered for the wedding this weekend. We hit Bed, Bath & Beyond on Sat. night. We only had about 2 hours to shop and we didn't get out of the kitchen section (that's the stuff we need the most)! So we went back on Sunday. We also registered at Target on Sunday. Our list is a lot bigger at Bed, Bath & Beyond-probably because we went there first. We have a lot of stuff already since we already own a home but a lot of our stuff if crappy. For example, we have the worst cookware so we registered for a new stainless steel set that we really like and need. We also didn't register for as much stuff as the lady at BB&B told us too. We just don't need as much stuff as a young couple. But we may also register at Macy's. The whole experience was fun but long and tiring. I had heard some horror stories about registering such as the wedding was almost called off because of the disagreement on what to scan. And Nathan saw another couple at BB&B that were arguing. But I'm happy to report that we came through it unscathed and the wedding is still on! I really can't wait for the showers now. :)

We also went to Graham's first baseball game of the season. They won. Other than that, it was a pretty tame weekend.

My brother and sister-in-law got a new puppy this weekend. It's a pug named Argyle. If you want to check out the cute pics, go to http://www.joshwaller.com/. I can't wait to see her in person.

Blogging-A New Career

I was reading a story I saw on Yahoo today called "10 Great Careers You've Probably Never Heard Of" by Jessica Santina. I thought #4 on the list was pretty interesting. I've copied the information below:

Bloggers:
Just 10 years ago, blogging would have sounded to most like a verb relegated to video games. But now, freelance writers, marketers, Web designers, finance professionals--even tea-drinkers--can draw people from around the world to read what they're thinking. Businesses are catching on, which is why they'll often hire people to blog about their products, and some bloggers can actually sell ads on their personal blogs. Are your personal thoughts worth paying for? They are, especially if you have education and a unique voice. Top bloggers can make six figures, and a handful are said to make millions.
http://education.yahoo.net/degrees/articles/featured_10_great_careers_you_never_heard.html

Now of course I know there are a few people that make a living off of blogging like Perez Hilton. I check his site almost every day. I also have a favorite author who blogs. (I think her blogging led to her first book actually.) And I know some people sell ads on their blog. But I guess I thought those people are few and far between. And maybe they still are. But it's interesting to me that blogging made the list. And it's even more interesting that "top bloggers can make six figures"! I have to admit, if I could make that kind of money by doing this all day, I'd do it in a heartbeat! Not only do I enjoy it but I would love to get paid for it. I guess a girl can dream. . . but if any one wants to advertise on my blog or have me blog about their products, let me know! I'm sure we can agree on a fair price! :) :) :)

This and That

There hasn't been much going on in the Waller-Meyer household the past couple of days but it was a nice weekend. Nathan, Graham, Michael and I went bowling on Sat. night. I finally beat Nathan on one of the games. It had been a while. We went to a new bowling alley and he was having a hard time "figuring out the lanes". He finally figured it out in the 27th frame and bowled a turkey for the last three (3 strikes in a row!) but it wasn't enough to beat my 130-something! :) I think Michael won the first two games.

On Sunday, the boys went to Nathan's nephew's bday party. Happy 5th Birthday Clayton! I went to a baby shower for one of my sorority sisters. I really enjoyed it because I got to see some girls I haven't seen in a long time. It made me realize how much I miss them. I have lots of good memories from my time in Alpha Xi Delta and I hope I get to see everyone again soon.

I keep forgetting to mention my brother's website. He updates it fairly often and it's a good way to keep up with what's going on his life. If you're interested (and why wouldn't you be??), here is the link: www.joshwaller.com (Pretty easy to remember!)

I also want to wish my matron of honor, Kelly Doria, a very Happy Birthday today! She's going to the zoo with her mom and her two kids. I'm so jealous since it's such a nice day and I have to work!

That's all for now!

Love,
Dawn

More Wedding Tidbits

Last night we ordered our invitations. We should get them back in about 3 weeks or so. I plan on mailing them out by mid July and having people respond by August 13th. I really like the design we picked out and they go with our wedding colors. We will have to assemble them sometime in May or June so I'm taking volunteers! :)

I don't think I've previously mentioned that Nathan also picked out the tuxedos. I am not going to go into detail (I can't give away too much information so nothing is a surprise on the big day!) but they are very "pimp"! They are not your typical tuxedo and there will be a bit of variety with the various guys. Nathan will let everyone know the exact date but the guys will need to go get fitted by a certain date in order to receive the $30 off. They are from Savvi Formalwear and you can go to any location (I know there is one at Mid Rivers Mall and West County Mall).

I also found some very cute shoes to go with my wedding dress! I am very excited about them.

I guess Nathan and I will be registering soon since there is already talk of showers and my wedding timeline says we should have already done so by now. The family shower date is July 13th. I believe a friend shower is set for July 27th - as far as I know! I know we've mentioned registering at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond. And last weekend we talked about Macy's. And Nathan wants to register at Best Buy! :) I'm just looking forward to this part because we don't have to spend money to do it. This wedding stuff is crazy expensive!!! We should all invest in stock that deals with wedding plans.

We've attended 2 out of our 6 sessions for our Remarriage class. They are going well. Our "teachers", Micky and Warren, are a nice couple. They've given me a couple good tidbits of information to take away from this already.

I think that's about it for now. Hope everyone is doing well!

Love,
Dawn

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. It's hard to believe I'm 31! I have to say that the year between 30 and 31 went by super fast. I had a great bday weekend this year. Saturday night I went to Kobe Steak House with some friends. If you're not familiar with it, it's a hibachi place that cooks your food on the table. It was Nathan and I along with Kelly and Seth, Beth and Craig, Ann and Tim, Christa and Chrissy. Then some of us went bowling and met up with a couple more people (Miles, Brian and David). I think I bowled the best game of my life on the second game. I got a 142! However, I can't forget to mention, Nathan, who in his own words, "is on fire" with the bowling! His high score was 166! I'd like to thank everyone who came to dinner and/or bowling. Thank you for the cards, gifts and, and most of all, your attendance. Here is a picture from Kobe and a few pictures from bowling:

BACK ROW (L-R): CHRISTA, CHRISSY, TIM, ANN, SETH, KELLY
FRONT ROW (L-R): NATHAN, DAWN, BETH, CRAIG

ME

NATHAN

CHRISSY

MILES


CHRISTA & DAVID

Today, my mom, Nathan and I went shopping at West County. It was a fun day. Then we met my brother, Josh, sister-in-law, Kelly, Nathan's parents, Gail and Ray and Nathan's sister, Chantel at The Drunken Fish for dinner. I had a really fun time and got some more nice presents. Thanks to our families for making my birthday a great one. I appreciate it.

Thanks also to all of you who called and mailed a card/gift. I'm very lucky to have such great family and friends.

I also want to wish my cousin, Mark, a Happy Birthday. I can still remember when my dad came into my room one year to wish me Happy Birthday and then to tell me that my cousin was born that day! I was so excited to know we shared the same bday.

I also want to wish an early Happy Birthday to Nathan's sister, Chantel. She turns 23 tomorrow!

Now. . . should I do some homework on my birthday or relax the rest of the night. . .

Love,
Dawn

It's Not ALL About Me :)

My friends, Chrissy and Jim Clauser, had triplets in November. Their names are Jimmy, Jenna and Cassie. They already had one daughter, Allison, who is 2 1/2. The North County Journal did a story on the family and I know some of you know the Clausers and/or have heard me talk about them so I thought it'd be nice to post the link to the story. (If you click on photo gallery link at the top right hand of the article, there are even more pictures to view.)

http://northcountyjournal.stltoday.com/articles/2008/04/09/news/sj2tn20080408-0409flo-triplets0.ii1.txt

The Clausers are actually one of the first of my friends to start a blog. You can read about their daily lives with the 4 kiddos at: http://www.theclausers.blogspot.com/

Chrissy's sister, Ann, and her husband, Tim, are expecting twins in August. Here is a link to their blog as well: http://www.timandannmeadows.blogspot.com/

And finally, my friends, Beth and Craig Ball, have a blog too. It started when Beth was pregnant with their first child, Alivia, through the present. You can check theirs out at:
http://www.ourballgame.blogspot.com/

See, I'm not the only blogger dork! :)~

Oh, and BTW, Happy Birthday to Jessica Wilson! Hope it's a great bday for you!

Love,
Dawn

Spring Has Sprung!

It was a nice weekend at the Waller-Meyer household. :) Friday, Graham, Nathan and I went to Red Robin for dinner and then watched Bee Movie at home. It's a cute movie.

I went to my first class on Sat. for my new cluster, Gender Issues. It seems like it will be a pretty good class. It also deals with ethics and diversity. I like the teacher but, as usual, it will be a lot of work. While I was at class, Nathan took Graham to his baseball practice. He has a tournament next weekend. Later that night, we had my mom over for some BBQ hamburgers and brats and then the 4 of us played a board game.

On Sunday, it was a beautiful day so me, Nathan and Graham headed out to Creve Coeur Park. The boys threw the football, we kicked the soccer ball, Nathan flew Graham's kite (while we watched!) and we rode our bikes around the park. The kite was pretty cool. It's the Black Pearl ship from the Pirates of the Carribean movie. My uncle Bill gave it to Graham for Christmas. At times, it was hard keeping it up in the air but when the wind would gust, it would take off. It's one of the coolest kites I've seen.

Maybe Not So Lucky

So, Nathan and I already knew that our wedding day falls on the same day as Hop in the City at The Tap Room this year. The Tap Room is probably Nathan's favorite place in the whole world. And The Hop is this festival they have once a year under big tents in their parking lot where you buy a ticket and get to hang out all day and sample all of their different beers as much as you like. So it sucks that he'll miss that (although I have a feeling we will swing by there to take some pictures in between the ceremony and the reception!). The he found out that the weekend of our wedding is the same weekend as some race he wanted to go see in another state. I think it's a motorcycle race of some sort (I either didn't pay attention as he was telling me or I forget!). :) Then today he calls to excitedly tell me that Journey, Cheap Trick and Heart are coming in concert. I got excited because I'd love to see Journey and Heart. Then he says, "Guess when they're coming?" Of course I knew the answer: Sept. 13, 2008. Boo! Journey seems to come to town every few years but who knows when Heart will come again. Oh well, if Sept. 13th is such a popular date, maybe we will have some fun things to do (and by fun, I'm not counting the motorcycle races!) on our future anniversaries! :) My apologies in advance to all of you that will miss these events this year too because of our nuptials. You will miss these events, right??? :)~

Welcome to the 21st Century & Wedding Planningpalooza!!!

Well, I decided to enter the 21st century and start a blog! I figured this would be a good time since Nathan and I are engaged and we get a lot of questions about wedding plans and such. I have to start off by saying I am so excited for our wedding. It is Sept. 13, 2008. I can't believe it's only a little more than 5 months away! We've done a lot but we have plenty more to do.

Here are some of the details we have so far:

• Ceremony: 12 pm at All Saints Church in St. Peters (right around the corner from our house!) http://www.allsaints-stpeters.org/default.aspx
• Reception: 7 pm at Debonnaire Banquet and Conference Center in St. Ann (this is a newer reception site that has only been open for about 1 1/2 years) http://www.debonairebanquet.com/
• I have my wedding dress and my bridesmaids have ordered their dresses. Nathan has picked out the tuxedos.
• Bridesmaids: Kelly Doria (Matron of Honor), Kim Hayes, Chrissy Clauser, Amanda Sextro
• Groomsmen: Graham Meyer (Best Man), Brian Williams, Michael Alley, Miles Mauck
• Ushers: Josh Waller and Tony Hogan
• The colors of the wedding are Apple Red and Chocolate Brown
• We have the photographer (LightSource Photography) http://www.lightsourcephotography.net/, the videographer (Marino Productions) http://www.marinovideo.com/index.htm and the DJ (Complete Music) http://www.cmusic.com/
• We have a date picked out for the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties (and no, we are not combining them). It is August 16, 2008.
• Our rehearsal is at All Saints on Sept. 12, 2008. I have to check but I think it starts at 6 pm. Aftewards, we will be having a catered rehearsal dinner at the community room where my mom lives.

Next, we are working on finalizing the guest list (we are trying to keep the count at 200 or below) and then picking out invitations.

Nathan and I start our Remarriage Classes on Monday, April 7th. This is the class that the Catholic Church requires us to take to prepare us for marriage. The class is 6 weeks long and we meet with another couple who has gone through a remarriage. It's more work and takes longer than doing a weekend class but I figure anything we can do to help prepare us for the ups and downs of a marriage is worth it. It will be a crazy 6 weeks for me though because I also start my next cluster at Lindenwood University the same week. I have class for that on Wednesdays.

Nathan and I thank everyone for their congratulations, well-wishes, interest in the wedding plans, help and support. This is an exciting time in our lives and we appreciate it all!

More to come. . .