Hurricane Beryl :\

Needs to move on outta here.

There is a tropical storm/hurricane on our projected path to Bermuda.  Beryl, please don't stink up our honeymoon or else you'll be sorry!! 

Honestly I am not too worried about it, we don't set sail for another 4 days so hopefully it will have dissipated by then. 

I am a little bummed though, because my friend Amanda got married on Sunday (congrats!), and her photographer already has her pics up on facebook :\  Lucky.  I was prepared to wait some, but I am getting tired of being so patient...  After we get back from vacation I will attempt to get a firm date of when things will be finished.  I feel like I need to tread lightly or I wont get my wedding pictures at all.  Sigh.

What a month!

I cannot apologize enough for leaving this blog high and dry for so long!  It has been non-stop crazy at the Hinkley residence lately...
This school semester is totally crazy, I have an Ethics class which is the amount of work for 3 classes with all the papers and projects we are constantly doing; a law class which is pretty easy, and another accounting course which I have to study like mad for in order to even pass.  It has been rough!  And since we are squeezed into Aaron's one bedroom apartment, I don't have good studying space set up (or blogging space for that matter!).  But enough with explaining myself, let me catch you up to the happenings of us these days.

So here is the deal with our living situation.  I was living with my Mom and brother before the wedding, then I moved into Aaron's one-bedroom apartment.  I was dead set on moving shortly after the wedding or even before if we could swing it because I figured if we were living in such close quarters crammed amongst 2 households of stuff we would surely get divorced in a month.  That would be like 1/3 of a Kardashian marriage, how humiliating!  lol.  But yeah, I need my living space to be at very least not a claustrophobic stress inducing environment.  The plus side is that two people in a one bedroom apartment is very cheap, which the accountant in me LOVES.  And maybe it is because we are in newlywed lovey dovey mode, but we are not having any problems living in the cramped space.  We investing in some clever space saving and organizing gadgets, and sort of cleaned and got the whole place out of bachelor mode - it was just fine.  I thought that if we wanted to move it should at least wait until the semester is over - there will be more choices available on places to rent, we will be in a better financial boat at that time, and we will have time to pack and move without incident. 
Well not sooner had I come to terms with this decision did we get a lovely little note from the property management jerks. 
"The Landlord has decided to not renew your month to month contract after March."

Yeah.  Apparently, they can do that.

So this happened on February 28th, giving us exactly a month and 2 days to find a new place to live.  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I met up with the realtor lady who helped us look for a place pre-wedding to show us around a few places.  Well Aaron was gone to Notre Dame for a conference for half the week so I was flying solo on this apartment search.  Nothing available for rent really spoke to me except this super cute duplex which was right about at the max we wanted to pay for a place (so much for paying down those credit card bills quickly!).  So I got our application in, and someone leased it out from under us!  Jerks!!!  The thing about our neighborhood (which we love so dearly and don't want to leave) is that it is a pretty highly sought after locale, so stuff stays on the market for like 2 days then it is gone.  It makes it pretty impossible to even get in to see a place let alone mull it over before you decide.  And every place that is good is pricey.  Every place that is affordable is trashy.  It is hard.  I imagine this is sort of similar to what NYC residents go through when trying to move.  And then that clock just keeps ticking down, we now have 25 days to find a place...

Since all the places weren't that hot, we just decided to go with a mega-apartment complex.  They so aren't really our style, but time was of the essence and we got everything we wanted (yes, we are upgrading to a place with a dishwasher AND washer-dryer!) for a pretty decent price.  I am sooo glad also that it is relatively new.  Our current place was built in the 1930's.  And it smells like it was built in the 1930's and had the amenities needed in 1930.  Like only 3 plugs.  In the entire apartment.  Not even exaggerating. 
AND our neighbors (well, mystery neighbor) are being such jerks lately!  We got a note on our door that someone went and printed off their computer (possibly to remain anonymous) that can we please not leave trash outside our front door.  Ok so we were making an effort, but it isn't like it sits out there for days, it is like, hours at most.  So Saturday it was monsooning outside and we were packing and such and we stuck a bag outside of the door.  It was not out there even an hour and there was another note.  It said - 2nd notice, can you please stop putting your trash in the hall, it smells and it blocks the hall for all your neighbors.  2nd notice?!  Who in the heck do you think you are??!  Do you not see/hear it pouring down rain right now??  So Aaron wrote back a sassy remark on this note and it disappeared from the door soon after.  I suggested that he put that the next time we smell probably you and pretty much everyone else in the building smoking weed in your apartment, or being super loud at all hours of the morning we will call the cops on all of you a- holes!  I was super mad.  We don't complain about a billion things that these ghetto people do. He did not take my suggestions for the response, but that is probably for the best.
So in short, I think being kicked out for no good reason was a blessing in disguise. 

Our future home!

And as if that weren't enough to deal with, remember on Saturday when it was monsooning?  Aaron was in a car accident :\.  It was the other person's fault, and no one was injured, but it is a pain to have to deal with that now too.  Just by comparison, I think April is going to be pretty fantastic :)

I promise I will get back to wedding recaps as soon as I can! 

Natalie vs. Irene

Does anyone still read this?? lol

Things have been CRAZY busy in the past weeks so I have had zero blogging time.  I am alive and well though, in case anyone was wondering ;)

I have about a billion posts of wedding recaps and such to come, but I feel inspired to address an issue I am having in my new married home.  My step-daughter Irene.

This picture does not do justice to how fat she actually is.

Sure, she looks innocent and cute enough.  Now I wont be over dramatic and call her the devil or anything.  But there is something very mean and unholy about her.  No lie.

And Aaron loves this creature as if he birthed her himself.  He is so openly affectionate to her that it sometimes makes me oddly jealous.  I once asked if he were hanging onto both me and Irene over the edge of a cliff and could only save one of us, who would he save: and he hesitated!  And I think I was chosen by default because cats usually land on their feet when dropped.  Thank you professor science.  Not only does he love Irene, but he has a pretty weird affinity for all cat things. But yeah, Irene always gets the benefit of the doubt.  When she scratches you and makes you bleed everywhere - she is just playing.  When she hisses at me incessantly - it is because I am making her feel backed into a corner (somehow?).  I mean, who is in charge here?!  Sometimes I feel badly that I may have robbed some lonely cat lady out of her soul mate...

Never in my life have I been a cat owner.  My Mom is allegedly allergic, but if she had been faking it all this time I would totally understand.  But nonetheless we are dog people.  Small, non-drooling, non-shedding, cute sweater wearing dog people.  Being the introvert that I am, I thought being a cat person would be right up my alley.  Plus some of my friends have cats, and they are sweet or non bothersome or do funny stuff like crawl inside of the couch.  Low maintenance pets are pets I enjoy.  They don't wake you up at the crack of dawn to be let out, and they don't bark when you are trying to talk on the phone, or want you to play with them while you are trying to focus on your tv show.  Dogs could learn to chill out every now and then.

Irene drives me nuts in so many ways.  I can be somewhat forgiving of things she cannot control.  I know it is not her fault that there is cat fur flippin' everywhere.  I have my clothing hanging up in the closet, and they still get fur on them somehow?!  It is circulating in the air or something!  I do take into account that there has not been a proper fur management plan in effect in this space.  

Then there is the fact that she is mean.  She is more mean to me than Aaron, but Aaron makes excuses for her meanness.  Everywhere I try to walk she jumps in front of me, then turns around and hisses at me.  If my hand or arm gets within 3 feet of her,  she will try to swat me with her razor blade claws.  She escaped out of the apartment when I was leaving for work this morning and i got all scratched up trying to corral her back inside.  Vicious.

Please excuse my sausage fingers and two week old manicure.

And when you sleep, she jumps on you.  She jumps on all sorts of things.  She knocked my vase of Valentine's flowers off the bookshelf.  She also claws things.  So any dreams of having nice furniture are out the window.  I don't understand why people think cats are worthwhile pets?

And I hit a new low when I tried to internet research how to get her to like me.  I mean, wtf.

How to gain a cat's trust.

See all these special things you have to do to or for this animal only so you won't be harmed when getting near it??  You know what I had to do to get my dog to like me?  Absolutely nothing!  Dogs understand the pecking order in the house, and that they are the animal.  

So dealing with the cat has been a challenge.  Anyone have any pointers of how to stop hating your spouse's pet, lol?  

Seriously. :\

First the weather, now this...


Hi Natalie~
I have some bad news.  There are NO light pink peonies anywhere in the world  for next week.  Sometimes this happens due to weather.  I don't know if you might like garden roses in light pink instead of the peonies.  I think that the garden rose would give you the closest look to the peony.  Or another option is to group carnations into bunches.  I'm so sorry about this.   I wish I could control everything, but I have to remind myself I can't.   Just let me know how you want me to proceed.  If you do want the garden roses then we need to know as soon as possible. 
Thank you and again I'm sorry!


I know it is no one's fault, but it is still disappointing. 

The poor man's peony.

Weather Update.

Oye, I have been waiting for today for over a week now.  Today the wedding date will be included in the 10 day forecast on www.weather.com.


It doesn't look good.

Although the forecast is hardly super accurate at this point...

I thought we were supposed to be in a drought?!

Aaron makes a good point - they are often wrong about tomorrow's weather, so I shouldn't put too much stock in this.  Everyone do some anti-rain dances for me!

I feel like this lately.

Source

I am regretting having a wedding immediately following the the stressful holiday season...

It is really bumming me out that I have been so overwhelmed with a wedding to do list that I am totally not even enjoying the holiday season, which is the highlight of my whole year.  I feel like I am being cheated by my own self.  Little things that don't go according to how I want them to make me want to scream and break things.  It is pretty horrible.  I think I need to start doing some yoga or something.

We are 38 days away.  OMG!

And if you work full time, that is only 5 weekends, one of which is Christmas.  And only about 3 weeks of school break left. 

My to-do list:

Meet with cake baker/design cake

Get dress altered

Get Aaron's tux altered

Find a hair person

Have a hair trial

Take engagement pics with Erica

Get veil fixed to work with my hair-do

Buy a garter

Find a jacket thing or sleeves for my dress

Find the last 2 vases we need for centerpieces

Break in my wedding shoes

Buy more supplies for our favors

Finish making the favors

Order Church flowers

Decorate Church candles

Make a program design

Make programs

Book the Church Choir

Order clips for the pews

Make pew decorations

Make a sample centerpiece

Pick a bouquet that I want

Figure out flower order

Finalize attendant gifts

Make table numbers

Make place cards

Help Aaron de-clutter his apartment

Address and send out rehearsal invites

Make rehearsal dessert

Make rehearsal centerpieces

Make mani/pedi appointment

Order Jeff's tux shirt

Figure out how we are decorating the entry

Figure out my guest book vision

Assemble send off rose petals for throwing

Finish the marriage test our Priest gave us

Meet with Fr. James about marriage test

Meet with band

Meet with linens people

Make weekend itinerary

Coordinate with our 'day of' helpers

Call the non-RSVPers

That is all, no big deal.  And I probably left about 10 things off the list too...

As far as Christmas goes, I still need to get gifts for my step brother and sister, but other than that I am done.

You know, a month ago I had a much better attitude and was like, we are doing whatever, and I don't care, everything is wonderful and good.  Now I just look at that list and want to cry. 

This is supposed to be fun, right....?

Barbie and Ken Get Married

Taken from this article on Glamour's website.  You really should go to the article and see all the photos, too funny!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Photo Booth Update

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Sorry for the lack of posts, I was not in jail for blowing up Think Studios (which would have been a completely valid assumption) lol.  On Friday before we went to our last 2 cake tastings, I sent one last email.

"I am unsure why I am getting no response from emailing you and leaving you voicemails multiple times this week, but I need to know if my date is reserved or if a photo booth will be at my wedding reception on January 28th.  If you are trying to work it out, please let me know, otherwise I will contact groupon for a refund and go with another company.  I am thus far disappointed with the service I have received from your company.  Love, Natalie"

Not 3 minutes later did I get an email back.

Which is good news for them because while I was going to be out eating cake, I was going to drop into their office and unleash the wrath.  Well probably without the wrath part, but I was going to bring my frowny face up in their workplace to see if I could get some answers.

But yeah, the dude apologized for not getting back with me and said my date has been saved since February, and sent me a link to a form I needed to fill out, and that was that.  I guess the original guy I spoke with didn't know what he was talking about. (?)

They dodged a bullet this time.

But after I cooled down from my anger from the other day, I did have an epiphany of how ridiculous it was for me to be so mad about a photo booth.  I have since been making efforts to keep the big picture in mind and not flip out about stuff that doesn't matter so much.

I did want to give a shout out to my old pal Ryan/Iggy who in my moment of panic (which was being taken out on my facebook wall) totally offered to try to set up a photo booth at the reception.  I thought that was really cool of him to offer!

So yeah, all is well in wedding land :)

A Bridezilla is Born.

Someone Alert Traffic Control

I suppose it was only a matter of time until a wedding vendor tried to ruin my life.

If you've been reading for a while you might remember this post about how I scored a super sweet groupon for a photobooth for the wedding reception.  And of course, I did my homework and made sure the company is legit and reputable, and contacted them to make sure they had my date available.  They passed inspection and I got an email confirmation that my date was on hold.  Sold!

Well last week I was much like a 8 month pregnant nesting mom-to-be, and school was my baby.  So I was trying to get any and all wedding loose ends tied up before the semester starts, including getting this photobooth set in stone and finalized. 

So I called up the place on Thursday and an automated voice answers and there was a specific option for groupon people, so I left a message about how I have a groupon and I wanted to get my booth set up, etc.

Now it is Monday and I haven't gotten a call back, so I email Ryan, whom I emailed back in February when I bought this groupon to secure my date, and tell him how I called and no one has gotten back to me but I wanted to get this booth set up.

Now it is Tuesday and no phone call or email, and my annoyance level is at about a 7.  I cannot stand it when I have to wait on people for things.  It is a character flaw I need to work on, I know, but I just want to get things done and handled and it not have to take a week to get one simple answer or whatever. 

I call again Tuesday afternoon and the menu options have changed, and there is no option for groupon people, so I hit the rent a photobooth option, and FINALLY I get someone on the phone.  I tell them about my groupon and how I want to set up my booth.  Here is a transcript of our conversation:

Employee: Um...who did you get this confirmed with?

Me: I confirmed with Ryan over email before I bought the groupon

E: Did you sign a contract yet?

M: No, this is why I am calling...  I have the email he sent me saying my date was held

E: Well I got hired on after the groupon promotion, and I show this date as booked, did you have another day you wanted to book

M: No, I bought it specifically for that day for my wedding reception, which is why I checked with you guys first.

E: Well people have been calling in and we only have 2 booths, what time is your event, we can maybe try to squeeze you in?

M: um, ok, I need it from 6-11pm

E: Well we can do this brand new thing we are doing, it's like a white screen with an actual photographer, and they project the pictures onto the wall of your reception

M: Well...  That isn't going to work because the photobooth is going to be in a seperate room from the main room, and I wanted the people to have the printouts, and then make a scrapbook with the second copy...

E: Well did you have a scrap book, because people usually walk off with the second copies, and noone really keeps those printouts, and this projection thing is much more expensive...

M: Eh...I think I need to call you back

E: I think you should call back and talk to Ryan.

Right now I am a cross between wanting to burst into tears and wanting to rip this dude's head off of his body. 

I was mad, you guys.  I won't go into details, but it was not the sweet Natalie we all know and love...there were far too many cuss words for that.  And I got to that level of mad because for once I feel like this is not even a little bit my fault.  I mean, the only thing I wanted to hear is that they acknowledge that they messed up and they are going to handle it, and a photobooth will be at my reception.  I'm not entirely ridiculous, I don't need things to be perfect or even expect that they can be.  But I do expect someone I am paying money to, to deliver and not jerk me around. 

So I called and left a voicemail for Ryan and read him the email he sent me back in February and asked what he is going to do to fix this.

I am still waiting for a reply back.

Now I know that a photobooth doesn't make or break a wedding, but I was so looking forward to having one, and I feel like at this point I am probably just going to get a refund from groupon and that be that.  I could get a photobooth from a different company, but it'll cost double.  There is a popular example in all the UNT Economics classes that they use to illustrate sunk costs - If you go to the ATM and take out $20 to buy a Hootie and the Blowfish CD and the $20 gets blown away by a gust of wind and is gone forever, is it more rational to get another $20 out of the ATM and buy your CD, or just go home?  Answer:  they are exactly equal.  The $20 is a sunk cost, it is gone, so forget about it.  And having a Hootie CD and $20 gives you the exact same amount of 'utility'/happiness.  Nerd Alert.  But this is like a real life living example of what is happening. 

So I know I can 100% get my money back right now, but it isn't going to make a photobooth appear at my wedding, which totally stinks. 

And I get more and more livid with every hour that passes that I don't get some sort of response. 

But I am patiently waiting to hear back from these fools to see how they intend to make it right...and resisting the urge to throw a molotov cocktail into their office.  (jk, I would never really do such a thing, it is just the mad talking)

Knit Your Own Royal Wedding?!

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Aaron finds the funniest things on the internet, lol <3

The Good Spouse of 1930's

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The past few weeks I have been thinking and analyzing what it means to be a good spouse.  I try to be good at everything I do (with a few exceptions) so why not make an effort at being a good wife?  I am sure Aaron would be happy even if I didn't try very hard because he thinks I am cute, that almost all of my jokes are funny and that I talk about interesting things - but why not take it to the next level?  I am not certain how to go about this currently, as we are not married at this point, but I found these funny charts which may or may not be a good starting off point for both of us, lol.  

For those interested in how Aaron scores, he gets a demerit for #9 and merits for all but #1, but I am working on that one... ;)  

Side note

I think I fixed the issue with the comments not working, for those of you with comments :)

lol.

....really?  American flag themed wedding gown?