5 years

While 9/11 for most across the world brings memories of New York and the acts of terrorism that occurred, it also brings a small celebration to the Hansmeyer/Carpenter household. Yesterday was Mike and my five year anniversary, not to mention 7 more days until we get a new date to celebrate our anniversary. Five years down, many many many more exciting years and adventures to come.

Our hearts and prayers go out to the families who lost their loved one's in 9/11!

and the countdown continues...

Only 9 days until the wedding!! The projected temperature on the 18th is 80 degrees and partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain. I would really like that weather on our wedding day ~ let's hope it doesn't change too much.

Happy Wednesday!

fish tank anyone?

I stole this picture from one of my girlfriends but it is too unbelievable not to show others. This is a picture of someone driving down the beltway at 60-65 mph with one of their back doors open and a fish tank hanging out. Each time I look at this picture, I cannot believe...who in their right mind would do this? Not to mention, certainly you would pass some sort of law enforcement on your drive...seriously someone you know has a truck or SUV that you could have borrowed.

In other news, Mike and about 50 guys(ok, that's an exageration...probably 15 guys) went to Atlantic City, NJ for his DC/MD Bachelor party. I'm sure he'll have many stories to tell tomorrow when he gets home.
But, the party starts for me on Saturday morning. I get a second bachelorette party with my DC/MD peeps in Baltimore. I don't have 15 but I have 3 exceptional ladies that I'll be spending the weekend with and I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm getting picked up at 11am on Saturday and brought home by 3pm on Sunday.
Wedding plans are come together nicely. As of tonight, I think everything is ready except some of the perishable items we will have to pick up closer to the wedding date. I'm darn ready to be married to Mike!! I'm also darn ready to not have to think about wedding stuff anymore. And I'm darn ready to see my family and friends!!! Not to mention the week long honeymoon we get to enjoy. I'm so excited for the all the events that will occur in a week and 8 days!! (doesn't that sound better than 2 weeks and 1 day?)

this week in pictures

First of all...2 weeks and 5 days 'til the big day! YAY!

Mike came home from running his errands on Friday with these lovely flowers for ME! Aren't they so pretty?? I love pink and I love my fiance!!

I got off work Thursday and came downstairs to see the Mike had updated our dry-erase calendar with part of the month of September. However, I noticed some interesting tasks(written in black) for the six days leading up to September 18(our wedding day).

10th - New Cell Phone

11th - Cancel Lease

14th - Sell Truck

15th - Close Bank Account

16th - Pack for Boulevard

17th - Leave Country

I told Mike that it was a little bit funny...but not really...and I'll be hiding his passport!! :)

This next picture isn't from this week but a few weeks ago after Brooke and I ran 13.1 miles for one of our long runs...I took my shoe off to reveal this--> kinda gross but too cool not to share. It drained nicely and I got some new running shoes!

I've been complaining about our living room decor(or lack there of) so we hung some pictures. Here is the before-->

Here is the after ~ It's not much but it helps to pull the room together a little bit and it makes me feel better, which is all that matters really.

Hope you are all having a great weekend!

oh how I love you dishwasher!

After about 3 weeks of back and forth between us and the office, our dishwasher is finally fixed and in working order!!
Can I also add how much I hate doing the dishes by hand?? Don't get me wrong, I didn't have a dishwasher in my house that I lived in for over a year in NE...however the difference is that I had the counter space to let them(I hate to say it but will) stack up. But in our itsy bitsy townhome now, we have NO counter-space and no room to allow the dirty dishes to stack up. Not to mention, it really irks Mike when there are lots of dirty dishes sitting out. (Me too but him more so)
So we've each been taking our turn to wash the dishes BY HAND!
No longer though...we now have our dishwasher back. I think one of the best things about a dishwasher is that you get to hide all the dirty dishes! Oh how I love thee!

Alrighty, I'm off work but gotta "go back" to get a few more things done. Just thought I'd share my Tuesday joy with all of you!

3 weeks and 3 days away

Well, it sure has been awhile. I wish I could tell you that I've been SO busy that I haven't been able to blog but, though I have been keeping myself busy, I think lazy may better describe my lack of blogging. So here is a run-down of the Hansmeyer/Carpenter household(soon to be ONLY Carpenter household): :)
3 weeks and 3 days away? ~~Yep, wedding is coming fast and we are getting quite excited. My mother will be thrilled to hear that I'm getting all the "little stuff" done that I've been putting off for quite some time now. It's all coming together nicely but my mom is coming the Sunday before our wedding so I'm sure I'll have plenty of tasks to keep her busy.

Since I last blogged, we got our engagement pictures taken and they turned out great. It helped put my mind at ease for our wedding photos...I have full confidence that our wedding photographs will be great and he'll capture all the excitement of the day! If you want to see our engagement pics, then you better join Facebook :) ...I've posted a good sampling out there. Hopefully it'll be in the Lincoln paper soon too.

In early August, we visited New York(a first for both Mike and I) and it was great. We were able to stay just at the south end of Central Park at the Helmsley Park Lane hotel so we had great access to everything. We walked our butts off and also invested in a 48-hour pass for the double decker bus, which is really the way to go if it's your first time in NY. Get to hop on/hop off anywhere and we were able to see Brooklyn, Harlem, lots of Mahattan. It was a great trip...I'd definitely like to go back.

You'd think since June there has certainly been more excitement than that, right? I think just everyday life is excitement right now. I got involved in a Women's indoor vball team which has been great. The girls don't take it too seriously and it's a nice way to keep connected to vball, not to mention it's only a 15 minute drive.

I am still happily involved in the Book and Cook Club. This month's read was "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" and I just finished it...I recommend it. I have met some great ladies through the book club and am so thankful that I came across the group and took a chance and joined. Have you joined goodreads.com? Well go join and add me as a friend, I'd love to see what you are reading these days. With book club, I have also found a lost love for the library.(I think Mike has too.) I go there at least once a week for books, CD's, or DVD's. Don't really know what we used to do without the library.

Mike is working quite a bit...he's been picking up some overtime opportunities on his days off which is good because he's not one to be "lazy" very often so it keeps him busy.

Besides wedding planning, I've been in full marathon training form. Brooke(Mike's co-workers and my friend :)) and I have been running our long runs together on Sunday mornings...not really sure I'd survive without her.

The pups are great! Stuart is naughty as ever and Boulevard is perfect as ever...(I only put that in because Mike says Blvd is perfect. I would label them Stu=Perfect, Blvd=naughty)

Ok, I said I'd keep this short and I've proven that I'm unable to do that. I'm dedicated to keeping up the blog...now I'm off to read all of the updates that I've missed from all my blogging friends.
Hi to everyone in DC/MD and miss everyone in NE, WY, TX, and everywhere else!!

have you given up on me?

It's been since May 25th since I blogged?!!? How can that be?

I'm back and life is sort of settling down and will soon get busy with all the wedding hooplah.
We visited NE the first two weeks in June and it was AMAZING to see everyone. I think we basically were on the go every night of the entire two weeks and I was also able to work in the Lincoln office so it was great to work in the same state as my co-workers. The two big events of the trip was my 10-year class reunion the first weekend and then the bridal shower and bachelorette/bachelor parties the next weekend. It was very busy but so nice to see everyone! My college roomy and one of my bridesmaids, Mara SURPRISED me by showing up at my bachelorette party.(she lives in Chicago) It was a complete surprise and it was so fantastic to see her.
We made it back to Maryland on a Monday and Emilie was visiting later that week. She first went to NY for her work and then took the train down to Maryland/D.C. It was fun to have her on the east coast and hang out with her.
Marathon training "officially" starts next week so hopefully I'll be spending a good portion of my evenings or early mornings running. I tend to fall off the running wagon periodically but hopefully I'll stay on track. I just need to keep reminding myself that I need to be in shape to run 26 miles in October.
Hope all is well in your neck of the woods!