. .. Regurgitating 21 days in less than 1 hour.. .

Fact: I've been a slacker.

I always wanted a time machine. Or a rocket ship. Or both. So, let's put our imagination hats on and rewind to roughly 21 days ago... . I can't promise that my brain won't turn to a forgetful ball of unorganized mush, and let's face it, I've never been terrific at timelines but cheers to doing to my best. Shall we? Oh, and, forgive my typos... or don't.. . .I'm aware that they exist however, I don't have the time or desire to correct them :)

As of three weeks ago we were finally* able to close the chapter on Zach's 26th birthday (He's not a woman therefore I can shamelessly display his age on the internet). I knew that I had to do something incredible considering that for my birthday-- although, lil' Bonky argues that it wasn't FOR or ON my birthday-- I got a sparkly ring, a sweet and very unexpected proposal and a fiancee. I admit to being annoyingly competitive but even my ruthlessness could not conjure a birthday scenario that would top August 20/21. White flag in hand, I flew his best friend and brother from another mother down, well.. . over from Utah. Christian Tyler Smith. Walking into Zach's house that Friday night to greet Christian I realized what I was up against--- two equally indecisive, quiet yet incredibly quick tongued men who were [no joke] wearing almost the exact same outfit. From the Shirt to the jeans to the shoes. Now the sad part about this adorable matching pair of men was that this was not a situation where their mothers dressed them alike so that they could easily identify one another should they be separated at the zoo.. . .this was the presentation of two men in their mid-twenties who coincidentally matched in both attire and mannerisms. That Friday night we ventured to OK Cafe to indulge in the clogging of arteries and the exchanging of romantic stories. Later we found ourselves at Atlantic Station fighting to get into the gangster-esque movie, The Town. After Zach and I realized that we had purchased the last 2 tickets to The Town we opted for Wall Street and all passed out on our own respective couches back at Zach's long before the sun rose. Saturday the boys went and whacked golf balls while I went on a sweaty 6 mile run before heading to Bobby Cox's last weekend at the head of Brave's County. No, I am not wearing a wig. I am temporarily dabbling with the dark side.. .I will be back to my dizzy blond self come June 4, 2011 but as result of very dead, continuously splitting ends and a curious fiancee I am temporarily giving my follicles a rest. With our "standing room only" tickets and overpriced foot long hotdogs in tow we managed to steal some rich people's seats and eventually make it down to the field... .by way of walking on the unstable seats. Someone might have fallen through the chairs whilst attempting this trick. That someone may or may not have been me. Oh, and again.. . .they matched.

Much to our dismay Christian realized on Sunday morning that he had conveniently missed his flight. I do not imply sarcasm when I say "conveniently," I mean to imply that because Christian missed his flight we were able to act as gluttons and devour some sinfully delicious Waffle House. Judge us. I really couldn't care less. A few hours and few hundred dollars later, Christian was on his way back to Utah. Although a county lies between the two, I am convinced that they are probably wearing coordinating outfits without knowing it at this very second. In addition to a meddlesome weekend of out-of-town-best-friend-debauchery, I included a homemade scrapbook which details some of our monumental adventures through photographs, receipts and hand written personal accounts by yours truly after a nice dinner at Rathbun's aaaaaannnnnddddddd a new iPhone 4. Needless to say, we'll be exchanging pocket lint and smiles for Christmas. 

The following weekend I got to experience a little girl time with my long-time buddy Stevie Lynn.. . whose last name I am still unable to correctly pronounce. After she had experienced a rather trying week between work and personal life and I had.. .well, I had just had a regular week but who's counting!? We decided that the most effective way to cheer her up would be to go apple picking in North-ish Georgia. We started out towards Hillcrest Orchards and after a lot of traffic, about 6,000 calls to Zach begging for directions and so much [good] conversation that I'm sure both of our mouths were dry-- we arrived!!! We meandered through most-ly picked through trees and stared in awe of the ground which seemed to be generously decorated with all of the GOOD apples-- which was mildly frustrating as they have this ridiculous rule of NO PICKING APPLES UP OFF OF THE GROUND. I'm sure they also have a rule demanding that no one climb the trees in the orchard, which I took pride in breaking: Okay, so maybe they don't have a rule because they assume it to be common sense-- their mistake. After grazing the orchards, devouring homemade ice cream and spending ample time "sight seeing" [THAT many brands of hill billy all in one place at one time-- how could we not take advantage at such a rare opportunity!?] we pressed onward toward the petting zoo where I decided that I NEED a baby goat. I don't NEED a baby anything and they seem to poop whenever wherever they want, and in unimaginable amounts.. ..which, I admittedly admire. Also, I caught a chicken. I chased that sucker around for a good 5 minutes when finally I was able to corner the little feather ball and defeated, it allowed me to handle it.

Zach was in fact the ONLY one who caught a fish. Figures.
I'm marrying THAT guy.
The one who's good at everything.

[We're almost caught up. Promise.] LAST weekend we took a McClure family trip to Big Canoe, GA to experience some chicken foot, day hikes, canoeing, fishing, MORE Hillcrest Orchards, home made pancakes and "Things." 

In preparation for a hike, Zach thought he would maximize his resting time by opting to travel by piggy back.

Note: Lots of hopeless apples.

Bonky & Baby Chicken.

This is my idea of leisurely canoeing.

That's what we've been up to. And now we've successfully returned to our chaotic, exhaustingly busy respective schedules. In Wedding News:we have booked our caterer! Soiree Catering will be supplying us with delicious-esque food on our special day. We didn't want anything too fancy but we didn't want to be too casual. We actually investigated the idea of BBQ but decided that we'd be more comfortable having a catering company recommended by our venue. Although it's costing us an arm and a leg-- we would rather to it in an organized fashion where we, nor our wedding party or family will have to worry about the flow and decor of things. Soiree is providing us with our linens, dish ware, foods [we're keeping the post-meal coffee per request from my parents.. . "the old people will like it."] and of course they make sure the buffet stays stocked and the food stays warm. Our contact at Soiree [who I absolutely adore] is incredibly willing to work with us and has given us the green light to alter our menu at any time, as many times as we want until we're 100% happy with our presentation. Right now we're featuring cream cheese hummus on pita points and wild mushroom tartlets as hours d'oeuvers. . .I'm not even a huge fan of mushrooms & these babies blew me away. I know, I know, I'm crazy for not loving them. But they have the same texture as snot!!! Entrees: a Greek-y chicken in a creamy lemon-garlic sauce, shaved sirloin marinated in red pepper and feta goodness, a basil mushroom asparagus prosciutto pasta, of course some sort of bread, some fancy green bean spread [I'm not crazy about the green beans but Larry has assured us that this is their most popular side dish and most people request it, even in formal dinners]. Coffee to follow and then of course we'll shove cake in each other's faces. I'm sure I'll collect opinions of a few before setting the menu in stone but we thought it was all delicious and since we're having a more casual meal there's no need to be fancy and exotic [okay really.. .we have a big guest list and don't want to spend the money on feeding everyone fancy and exotic food.. .which kind of kills me because I'm such a foodie]. Needless to say, our budget has evaporated and I'm currently having a staring contest with the figures in my savings account.. . I'm sincerely hoping that it blinks first. I think we're both ready to be married NOW our engagement didn't seem so terribly long when we set our date but it's starting to feel like forever. I think Zach's regretting talking me out of eloping and keeping the cash :) We've come up with a concept we both agree on for our invitations now we just have to actually go and design them.. .oh, and placing the order is kind of important. We might have found our perfect honey moon destination but we're keeping that under wraps as to not jinx it. So... . .check list run down.. .

DONE                             

1)venue

2)caterer + linens

3)photographer

4)Oh, yeah.. .I got a dress [which I didn't take out of our wedding budget]

5)favors

The jury is still out on the bridal party and official colors... . I don't really like matchy-matchy sometimes so we'll see how this works out.

TO DO

1)save the dates [we're still on the fence about this but since we'll have a lot of family traveling we want to give them the most trendy warning we can. . .]

2)invitations [we need to actually place the order and figure out the verbage AND do our pictures]

3)cake [we're thinking a variety of gourmet cupcakes and a cookie cake for the grooms cake]

4)DJ

5)decor..  .which will ALL* be DIY projects.

6)gradually purchase the booze. Summerour doesn't hold a liquor license so we'll be providing beer, wine and possibly a signature cocktail. Believe it or not, this is saving us THOUSANDS 

7) guest book. [I have some ideas.]

Thank you Mommy and Daddy Warbucks [Dounis]. You are incredibly appreciated for making all of this possible.

Zach has been locked up in studio for the past 3 nights [with the exception of a little tummy ache last night] and will not taste freedom until Monday at which point the cycle starts again. My cousins Mandy + Michelle are flying out from Colorado + Los Angeles here in the next few weeks which will give Zach and I some great opportunities to hang out with my parents, aunts and uncles and cousins. We're lucky, loved, in-love and have nothing but gratitude to those who are unconditionally supportive of us [i.e. our families and friends.]

I'm off to long board while Zach slaves at work and in school today. Also, I would like new jeans.

Z&M