Our Anniversary...

Today is a VERY special day. To me, at least. And probably to Mr. CC. I think that I’ve finally got him brainwashed, I mean, convinced that April 30th is our actual anniversary. Or, he’s just learning that it’s easier NOT to argue with me…LOL!

Yes, folks, today is our TWO YEAR ANNIVERSARY of dating. So my post today is directed at one very special man…Mr. CC. Any man who is willing to be called Mr. Cotton Candy just HAS to be special! Or maybe that just goes to show how much he loves me? That's what I think.

There are so many things that I would like to say…I hope that I can do your love letters justice here, because you are SO good at writing me love emails…

First of all, I want to thank you for loving me. You honor me each and every day, in big ways and small ways. You shower me in love, the likes of which I never thought that I would personally experience. I met you at a time in my life when I had decided that I didn’t care if I stayed single forever, and I didn’t believe that true love actually happened in places other than books and movies. But you came into my life, first as a friend, someone to make me smile or laugh during a really difficult and emotional time after I had dissolved my previous marriage. You offered me nothing more, just a shoulder to cry on, someone to vent to, someone to help me laugh, someone that I could just be myself around, and you became so much more to me. But you became so much more. You became my best friend. I can’t imagine a day going by where you’re not the first person that I want to talk to (even when you hit snooze three times instead of getting out of bed!) or the first person that I want to share news with – good or bad.

From our very first date two years ago today, to the very first kiss, to our engagement and so many special moments along the way we’ve built our relationship to the point where we are now. You treasure me, you make me feel special, and you help me be the best person that I can be each and every day.

You allow me the freedom to just be myself. I think that I love that the most about us. Each of us are our own individuals, and we respect the similarities and differences between each of us, and love each other because of them or despite them, however you want to look at things. I’ve never just been ME when I’ve been in a relationship, and for the first time in my life, I’m able to do that. I can be a dork - I often crack myself up at my own jokes, stop in the middle of the store and start lip-synching the song playing over the loudspeakers and I know that instead of making fun of me for being that way that you’ll laugh along with me or you’ll be my back-up air guitarist without a word spoken to tell you to do that. That’s just how well we fit together.

I love that we laugh so much. We laugh ALL THE TIME. Everyday. In the past two years, I’ve never had so much fun in a relationship or laughed as much. Yes, there are fun days when you do things that are cool to do as a couple. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about rolling on the floor, clutching your sides because you have a stitch in them from laughing, or racing to the bathroom because you laughed so hard you’re afraid that you might pee your pants kind of laughing. That’s what we do. I like to think that we do that every single day; and it sounds untrue, but there are very few days that we don’t laugh like that. I love that we laugh in the car, we laugh while watching tv, we laugh while we’re being goofy at the store or when we hang out with the kids, and that we lay in bed and laugh with each other on a daily basis. I honestly can’t think of anyone that I have ever had this much fun with in my whole life. If laughter’s the best medicine, then we’re gonna live for a long time…that’s for sure.

I love that you want to be part of my life. You honor me with your ring and the promise of marriage. And I mean that - I am truly honored to accept your marriage proposal. I want to be a part of your life with your family and I know that you feel the same way about my life and my family. You want to be a step-father to my child, and you want to have more children, and the thought warms me from the inside out that we will build a family together. You put forth an honest effort to be involved in my life, getting to know my family and as many of my friends as you can (since they’re scattered over everywhere!) and you don’t realize how much this means to me. I feel so lucky.

You make it easy for me to love you. I just want good things for you. You just want good things for me. In that way, we balance out each other and compliment each other perfectly, never leaving one person doing all of the work or getting all of the rewards. I’ve always been the giver in my relationships in the past; never really knowing what it was like to be on the receiving end of that equation. Maybe that’s the secret to a good, healthy relationship, because I can honestly say that there have been very few, if any, days when I’ve felt like our relationship is hard work. It seems like such a simple solution to a complicated situation, but it works for us. You look after me, and I look after you, and neither of us is lacking for anything. That’s the way that it is, and I hope that it will always be between the two of us.

I can’t wait to start my life with you. I can’t wait to say the words “I do” in October. I can’t wait to have another child with you, if that’s in the cards. I can’t wait to grow old with you. With you by my side, I know that my life will be good. There will be love. There will be laughter. There will be good times, and probably some bad ones too, but you’ll be there for me during those times doing what you do to be my rock and support. You’re a good man. And I consider myself a lucky woman.

So here’s to another two years. And two more. And two more after those two. Two more years for the rest of my life…I love you.

The Results Are In...

I left the poll open for as long as I could, and although it didn’t receive many votes, a definite opinion was given.

3 out of 4 votes said that I should keep on looking for the eggplant tablecloths.

I didn’t cast my own vote, just to keep it clean and legal and all…but I have to say that I agree with the “voters!”

Especially when I saw these words…FREE SHIPPING…


I found what I think will be the right shade of eggplant in a 120” round tablecloth that I can purchase, but one of the drawbacks to buying them (other than the price!) was that the shipping charges would probably eat my lunch to get them to me. But those two little words start to make me rub my hands together gleefully!

Seriously. I mean, FREE SHIPPING?!?!? Tablecloths, especially tablecloths in the size that I’m looking to order would be HEAVY…and add to the total cost of my decision to purchase these bad boys…but FREE SHIPPING? Makes it a little more doable in my mind. Let’s see if I can make you follow my logic.

The cost of these beautiful babies is now only $28.20/piece. With FREE SHIPPING there would be no extra cost, and since the vendor isn’t located in TX which means that I wouldn’t pay sales tax on the items. So my total out the door price for 16 of these bad boys would be $451.20. I know, I know. It’s a lot.

But bear with me and my thinking for a moment…

The cost of renting the eggplant tablecloths (which maybe NOW is a good time to remind you that I can’t FIND these to rent anywhere?) is running anywhere from $15/cloth on up to $26.25/cloth. Finding an average between these is $20.63. So, to RENT 16 of these would cost me $330.00.

Hmmm…so that makes the difference between renting and buying only $121.20. That’s really not so much to pay for peace of mind, right?

Then again, owning these makes for a few more headaches such as where do I put 16 120” round tablecloths? Or will I need to rent a steamer to get these picture perfect ready for the wedding after being shipped and stored over 6 months? How much would that cost? And then, the most important question – what do I do with 16 120” round eggplant polyester tablecloths after the wedding?

Well, I would sell them. On ebay. To the highest bidder. Or put them on weddingbee.com for sale. And the most gorgeous part about this whole line of thinking? As long as I sold them for more than the difference between buying and renting, then I made money on the whole process. That’s right. As long as I could sell the tablecloths for more than $121.20, then I would cover the cost of buying them versus renting them. So even if I could find them (which I’m having problems doing at the moment…) for $15/cloth to rent, I would only have to see them for $211.20 to cover my expenses. Hmmm…the little wheels in my mind are spinning like mad! And I know one person (yes you, MOH) who is SO happy to hear me say that I'm not giving up on eggplant yet...

Anyone else think that I might be on to something here???

Prinvate Rentals are a Winner!

Ok, so by unanimous vote…we LOVED the condo that we rented for our NOLA trip!

It was all that we could have asked for, dreamt of and received…fabulous, fabulous.

I cannot say enough good things about this condo…check out the pics that I remembered to take:

Stainless steel appliances...and granite countertops…

Yep, those are 14’ ceilings….

A VERY open floorplan…

Perfect for what we were needing! I wish that we could go ahead and book it for next year when we’ll go back for Jazz Fest – that’s how much I liked it. And Mr. CC agrees whole-heartedly with me.

The owner of the condo met us when we got there and walked us through the maze of hallways between the parking garage, condo unit, and rooftop pool/hot tub (Yes, you’re reading that correctly), fitness center and main entrance in and out of the buildings. He was very friendly and nice, giving us some local tips and advice on close stores/restaurants. I was a little disappointed to find out when we got there that the condos backed up to the projects on one side, but the owner was quick to assure us that he’d not run into any problems. Although that didn’t really mean much to us since he admitted to only staying there a time or two so far, as the unit was brand new. We were anxious to get started on our vacation, which I’m SURE that he noticed, and he didn’t keep us tied up too long going through all the procedures and such, and it was very helpful to have him show us around and all.

Mr. CC’s sister is a semi-local (she lives just up the road in Baton Rouge) and she had warned us about how the city was getting busier now and crime was on the rise. And since when we got to the condo, we found out that it was on the northern-most edge of the Quarter, we were kind of worried with the projects behind us. But Mr. CC is a guy with lots of muscles and a mean glare, so I wasn’t too worried. We are smart – we know not to take shortcuts down alleys, to stay on the main paths and to not carry too much money or act like drunken tourists…so playing it safe was fine for that night. And we didn’t have any problems.

It ended up that once we got used to the area, the condo location was GREAT! It was one block off of the northern-most street of the quarter, which only put us 3 blocks from Bourbon street. Being off a little way was nice, due to the noise that can be generated in the Quarter, but everything was easily still within walking distance. And it ended up that we were about the same distance as we were last year when we stayed in a hotel just off of the Quarter. But for a cheaper price, and nicer more private surroundings, the condo was MUCH better than the hotel last year.

Our friends were also staying somewhere in the Quarter, but we didn’t know where until they got checked in and settled the next day. It turned out that they were on the opposite end of the Quarter, staying just off of the southern-most street in the Quarter. We would have maybe liked to be located a little closer to them, but really it wasn’t that far in the end. And it was nice to have our own little retreat to go back to.

We never heard any of the neighbors, but as the units were brand new, the owner had warned us that we probably wouldn’t see that many people. The security at the condo was good – passkeys were required to get in all doors from the outside, and there was a desk clerk/security guy at the main lobby front desk at all times. The parking area was secured and gated, and we had no problems with car security the entire time we were there, although to be honest, we only moved the car one time in the four days that we were there!

All in all, we loved it. Mr. CC would like to buy a unit in the building…but that’s probably not something that we’ll do anytime in the near future. But that’s how much we liked it. If I could, I would try to go ahead and book the unit for next year, but the owner actually has a long-term tenant moving in next month for the next year…oh well.

And the price was definitely right. We paid $150/night to stay here, along with a cleaning fee, totaling to about $500. I checked it out online, and any hotel close to the Quarter was running $179/night, plus 18% hotel tax and anywhere from $25-$35/day to park your car...which would have totaled to over $700!!!! I couldn't believe the money that we saved.

Have you ever stayed private over a hotel chain and loved it as much as we did? I can’t wait to decide where we’re going on our honeymoon and try to find a house or something like we did this time!

I'm Back!

Hello to you all again! I've missed YOU!

We went, we saw, and we conquered. Well, maybe not really, but you get the drift.

Yep, I'm back from our short little vacation (they're never really long enough are they?) and we had SO much fun! I took some pictures (precious few) so I promise that I'll post them to the site tomorrow.

We enjoyed our stay and had a great time with old friends and even managed to make some new friends, which we are really excited about...I will have a play-by-play tomorrow, along with the pictures that I did take and how we felt about renting through Craigslist.com and that whole experience....I PROMISE!

More to come...and I hate to tease you like that and then leave you hanging, but I'm BEAT tired, and I have a lot to catch up at work with...

Talk to you all tomorrow!

The Day Has FINALLY Come!

Well, don’t hate on me…but by the time that you all will be reading this post, I’ll be on VACATION! We’ll already be on the road, and hopefully halfway to Houston…on our way to NOLA.

Woohoo! I’m SO excited!

It’s finally here, we’ve done so much planning for it, and I’ve just been SO excited to be taking this much needed break that I don’t know what to do with myself. The lady that handled the details of the condo rental for us emailed all the check-in/out procedures to me yesterday and it just lit a little fire underneath me that the time was finally here.

Further hit home when little CC and I got home last night from our date to find Mr. CC starting to wash all of our laundry so that we all have clothes to wear this weekend.

What’s that?

No, we’re not taking the kids along with us, but it IS our weekend with the kids (don’t ask – I’m really NOT sure how we planned a trip without checking our weekend kid schedule) so the grandparents are stepping in and taking them for the two days of the weekend that we’ll be gone. Mr. CC’s dad and step-mom are SO wonderful to help us out in our last-minute realization that we have our kids on the same weekend that we made out-of-town travel plans! We can’t thank them enough! And we know that the kiddos will have tons of fun with them too.

So we can escape for our weekend of fun in NOLA with no worried about the home front. We’re meeting up with our friends from CA on Friday for the actual day that we’ll spend at Jazz Fest, which will be SO fun. Then that night, their parents want to take us out to an authentic NOLA restaurant, some little place that’s not on the hot tourist spots for eating, so it’s SURE to be yummy! And then I’m sure us “kids” will hit up Bourbon Street for some good music and delicious daiquiris…I can already taste them…3/4 pina colada and ¼ strawberry daiquiri – the PERFECT mix.

Except the Mr. CC will argue and say that the PERFECT mix is ½ watermelon and ½ strawberry daiquiri…whatever. It’ll be yummy.

And then on Saturday we’ll do beignets for breakfast at the famous Café du Monde, and spend a day touring the Quarter, browsing the shops…listening to good music…visitng the casino…doing whatever we want. I can’t wait! Can you tell I’m just a LITTLE excited?

So I won’t post tomorrow…don’t be sad. I’ll be back on Monday with some vacation pictures of our fun, and a recap on how we liked renting the private condo for our vacation. Remember, this is a trial run for possibly renting a private residence for our honeymoon instead of going with a major hotel chain…so there will be LOTS to share!

Have a great weekend! I KNOW I will…

Asking the Looming Question...

So, I’m going to post about a subject that I know at least ONE person will probably hate me for, but here it is.

The question of the day is this: IF I did change my tablecloth color (Gasp!) what could I do to bring the color of eggplant back into my reception venue?

Yeah, I know MOH, I know. It’s almost sacrilegious typing the question…but it’s out there anyway.

I’ve come up with a few options, but maybe you will be able to help me think up something else…since I SO do NOT want to choose this option, that might have the teensiest little bitsiest part of why I’m having decorator’s block when I think about this option…

The first thing that I thought of was to incorporate eggplant napkins, elegantly draped or folded to take up a good portion of the table top. Not my favorite option, but an option that would bring eggplant back to life at the venue. The main concern? If I’m having this much trouble finding eggplant tablecloths, will I run into the same dilemma with napkins? Possibly. But it’s also possible to me that I could make 200 napkins out of that elegant eggplant satin that I found in Dallas on my last trip up there…and with my serging machine and the right shade of thread, it would be a simple matter for the most part. Of course, they might be simple to find and buy, I haven’t looked into the cost of doing that yet…but it’s an option. Also along those lines is maybe finding or making eggplant table runners…or those draping cloths that cover the tops of the tables, but don’t go all the way to the floor. Something like the picture above. My problem with this option? Once again, finding the right color in a full tablecloth is hard enough…yada yada yada, you get the point. And I’m not sure that I like the look of table runners. It seems to me that the table might get a little busy with runners, napkins, plates and glasses. Not to mention the centerpieces and anything additional that I put on the tables to jazz them up…so I’m not sold on this option.

The only other thing that I’ve thought of is incorporating my beloved eggplant color into the flowers. One of my Maids got married just last September and had some LOVELY centerpiece vase/candle holder combo thingys that Mr. CC and I liked and she has graciously offered us use of them before she sells them. So, when I first started planning this shindig I wasn’t sure about using flowers on the centerpieces, but now it looks like I will have vases for free…a good reason to now use flowers in the décor. So can I incorporate enough eggplant in the flowers to appease my whims and desires?

I don’t know. I honestly don’t.

And the whole reason for trying to bring in more color is because my photographer mentioned that her only complaint about shooting out at Texas Old Town, our fabulous venue, was that everything in sight was wood, which tends to cast a yellowish hue on everything. She photoshops it out, so that it’s not something that I have to actually deal with in my pictures, but I was hoping to bring in enough color to combat some of that for her. Plus, I think that it will look nice…

Other than those ideas, I’ve drawn a blank. Can you come up with anything else that I could do to bring in more color than just the black and cream theme that I’ve got going? Or maybe I should just leave it black and cream and go with that? I don’t know right now….I need HELP!!!

Workout Woes...

I know that you’re probably all wondering exactly what happened to Miss Cotton Candy’s weekly workout updates?

Hmmm…

Me too!

Just kidding. I know exactly what happened…I haven’t been working out! I know that’s horrible, but at least I’m honest. But I have a reason for being such a slacker, and of course those that know me well know that there’s always a good story! Here’s what happened…

I posted here about our camping trip. So if you read that post, you know that we took a very LONG hike on that Saturday. In addition to that long hike, there were countless trips up and down the slope just to get to our campsite from the parking lot and the restrooms. And Miss Cotton Candy being Miss CC, I wore my flip flops. No, not for the long 5 mile long hike, I wore sensible tennis shoes for THAT, but I wore my flip flops a good percentage of the rest of the time that we were at McKinney Falls SP.

Now, Mama CC can attest to the fact that getting me to wear shoes at all is a feat unto itself, so we’re not surprised to hear that I always have a pair of handy flip flops near, are we? No, we’re really not. And normally it’s not a big deal to wear flip flops…except on rocky, “gently” sloping paths that lead to and from your campsite. A place where the slope is tricky and you might step the wrong way on a big, rough rock and bruise a foot bone…maybe that’s not a good location to wear flip flops.

So, here’s the story. It’s Saturday evening, and Miss CC has to run to HEB for a quick supply run, I think it was for the Easter bunny baskets. I noticed while pushing my buggy around HEB that it was kind of hurting me when I stepped with my left foot, but I really didn’t think anything about it. So later on at the campsite, when it’s STILL hurting, and starting to hurt so much to make me not want to walk up the hill to go to the restroom I realize that the inevitable has happened.

Miss CC has gotten hurt on our camping trip. (I know for some of you this is a shocker…and for the rest of you, you’re not so surprised!)

Anyway, long story short, Mr. CC (dutiful fiancé that he is) checks my foot over very carefully, but it’s getting dark and who knows what I’ve managed to do to it. He questions me thoroughly about my steps that day and when I might have hurt it. Honestly, nothing comes to mind. Another shocker, I know. Seriously, I get injured on such a regular basis that I don’t even notice it most of the time…I don’t really see the problem here. Apparently though, that’s not normal to not remember when you might have hurt yourself.

The next day, I can barely walk on that foot without a pretty good limp. I notice that it feels better when I have my tennis shoes on and it’s laced up rather than my flip flops, so I wear my tennis shoes all day. That night, we look my foot over again since we’re back at home and can see things more clearly. Mr. CC is certain that the top of my foot is all bruised leading him to believe that I’ve broken or bruised a bone, and I assure him that it always looks that particular color, mainly because I just can’t bear the thought of my having broken something, even if it’s just a little foot bone. The thought sickens me…literally sickens me. I feel faint…

Lucky for me, my boss was out at a manager’s meeting all last week, which meant that we could all get away with wearing jeans everyday. And that was a good thing because I needed to wear my tennis shoes for the first few days and not high heels like normal. By the weekend, I’m SURE that I’ll feel better.

The good news is that I do, in fact, feel better by the weekend. The bad news? It still hurts me at times. So working out was out of the question. Did I hear a little “YEA!” sneak out of my mind…yep, I might have. The good thing, I guess, was that Mr. CC was also suffering an injury of cellulitis on his wrist and when we tried to do the workouts that didn’t involve feet, legs or jumping all over the place, he found that he couldn’t do the pull ups without hurting his wrist.

So we took the week off. And that really makes a week and a half, since over the holiday weekend we didn’t do our normal workouts. Sure, we did the 5 mile hike that one day, but hearing about my foot, now you know that we didn’t do anything else that weekend.

We’re going to attempt a workout tonight. Mr. CC’s wrist is looking better and my foot has felt better the last few days. I don’t know that either of us is really ready for it, but we HAVE to start up again before we lose all the ground that we’ve gained so far…

Hopefully next week I’ll start posting about our workouts again. Then again, we have our trip to NOLA this week/weekend…Jazz Fest…Bourbon Street…visiting with our out-of-town friends over drinks…beignets…yeah, I’m wiping the drool off as I type….

What roadblocks did you come across in your work out plans? Was it easy to “get back on the horse” or a little harder than you had thought?