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We Didn't Go to the Chapel...but....We Did Get Married...

Just some things we [z+m] learned/realized this weekend... . 

1. The Apocalypse didn't happen.

2. Sunburns happen even with SPF 30.

3. I have a new last name.

4. Zach is wearing a ring.

5. Shaved Ice is a phenomenal treat.

6. I have not gone running in 6 days.

7. Zach does NOT want to go to school tomorrow.

8. We have AMAZING families.

We Might Be Busy....Maybe

It seems as if our immune systems have decided to embark on an inconvenient-for-us, impromptu vacation-- leaving Zach and I defenseless, full of mucous, relentlessly coughing and detrimentally exhausted.

However--- seeing as how this is my last week as a Dounis (legally), we're not allowing our snotty noses to break our spirits. That's right-- we've initiated the final countdown. And with T-6days until McClure-Dounis-Wedding-A-Palooza we've nothing but smiles upon our sick little faces. 

I've taken the entire week off from work so that I can get my hands dirty in the pre-wedding-madness. For instance, I spent all of yesterday making these: 

Pom-Poms! This is a semi-action shot as I couldn't get the lil' buggar to stop swinging! I did some research and I fell under the impression that Martha Stewart's Pom Kit was the best way to go-- however, being the stubborn penny-pincher that I am....I went rogue and did them myself. Tissue paper from target (white and blue), yellow ribbon from Hobby Lobby, floral wire from Hobby Lobby and my beloved glue gun made this project possible. We wanted something* to spruce up the aisle (as if the marshmallow-white-fluffy sand wasn't enough... .we are SO spoiled) and further than that....DESIGNATE an aisle rather than just having a boring ol' break in the chairs. We're thinking of hanging these puppies over the chairs that line the aisle for some pop. Initially we wanted pinwheels but since we've invested in some adorable paper-hand-held-fans to keep folks cool, we thought the addition of pinwheels might be a little over board. 

I have a wealth of things to gush about but I think my patience (AKA my attention span) has been exhausted on pom-poms and coughing-- I have no choice but to succumb to these things and once more procrastinate on divulging the juicy stuff. I will soon. Promise.

Love to you all!

Z+M

30-Something Bliss

3 cheers for productivity!!! I feel like Zach and I deserve a pat on the back or 5 for how much we've gotten done this week and recently in general-- even if it's just us patting ourselves. I mean, a pat is still a pat no matter who is on the giving end.....right?


1) Zach took the proverbial plunge into the wedding-band-having club. That's right-- we bought his wedding band! 


2) We've finalized our casual buffet-ish menu with Castaway's: can you say pizza, wings, sandwiches, salad, fish tacos, beer and all of the soft drinks you could ask for??? No...really... say it. 10 times fast.


3) Jordan Almonds for the koufeta has been received, along with the tulle in which it will be wrapped. If you've ever wondered what 5lbs of almonds looks like....come see me.


4) Cute and quirky ceremony decor has been ordered-- I'll be hosting a 'craft night' for some excess home-made goods.


5) Wedding Programs are in the works-- I've found it incredibly difficult to fit all of what I have to say to our guests in such a small space. Good thing I'm not long winded or anything..... We've AKA I've picked out the wedding programs I want and we've started conjuring up the verbiage.


6) We've secured our "officiant." Bishop Gregg Mackay (who is the coolest guy ever) will be marrying us.


I could go on but my eyelids feel like anvils! It's bed time. 
37 days away. 

The Awkwardness of Registering

Zach and I embarked on the incredible and somewhat overwhelming journey of registering earlier this week. We walked into the Crate&Barrel at Lenox Mall-- unaware of the power trip that would soon be at our finger tips. First of all-- this was an incredibly disorganized venture. We had been toying with the idea of registering in an on-again off-again fashion...well, we were feeling "on" and a little spontaneous so we took the plunge. After a tutorial on how to work the beepy-scanny-device we were set out on our own to aimlessly wander the store. Initially, we were reluctant to click on anything..."do we really NEED one of these thingies? I really WANT* one of those other thinigies....what kind of a color scheme are we going with?.....OMG we should probably decide what we want our house to look like before we go clicking on stuff blindly!?.....do you think people will actually buy us stuff?...this feels weird.." After a lot of intimidation we finally caved and started viciously clicking. We figured that we'd cover the basic necessities [mainly kitchen stuff] and then go back and add to/take away from our registry on-line at a later date once we decided how we wanted things. It's fun planning things out-- and my dear brown eyed boy has been excitedly involved every step of the way. While walking around C&B he often paused when he realized I was lusting after some outrageously priced decor that I would never buy in a million years and explained how we could make the same object ourselves-- I feel as if we are going to have a lot of Family-Home-Evening Craft Nights!


....and in the mean time-- in the midst of the countdown, I get to receive wonderful little picture messages from my fiancée.

Who is Beaux? And what are Art Balls?

We might like each other. Maybe.

I remember when Zach and I got engaged back in August-- we both immediately downloaded "Apps" on our phones that has the sole purposed of counting down to our wedding date. Our excitement and overly [well, appropriately] enthused attitudes were quickly shattered when we realized that we had 200-and-something days until our wedding. A lot of days, a lot of complaining, a little bit of changing plans, and bumping up our date 2 weeks has landed us at 48 days from today until show time! We have obtained permission from the Carillon Beach, Florida's HOA to hold our ceremony on their gorgeous private beach-- we've booked the killer pier/patio of a walking-distance-from-the-beach kind of "bar & grill" [Castaway's] where we'll be stuffing our faces with chicken wings, fish tacos and other beach-throw-down-esque foods that have yet to be confirmed. On-line invitations have been sent. We've found a house within the community to stay in for most of the week leading up to May 21 through Sunday May 22. Jordan Almonds for the Koufeta have been ordered, along with the tulle circles in which they will be wrapped. The to-do list for our casual destination beach wedding has been virtually cut in half. This means that the bridezilla in me has long-since gone into hibernation and that Zach and I are actually able to ENJOY the planning process. 

Okay, enough with the wedding stuff. You know we're stoked and you know I've been refreshing my e-mail just about every 5 minutes to see if anyone new has RSVP'ed 'yes'!

This past Friday night we attended the Beaux Art Ball at Georgia Tech-- marking the opening of a new architecture building which will mainly be utilized by graduate students. Each "studio class" was required to design a high fashion costume inspired by an architectural structure-- Zach's group went the more science-y route and used the atom [which I applauded]. My education was spent sharing lab rooms 

and lecture halls with peers who lacked complete artistic and creative abilities-- not to squeeze all science nerds into such a hopeless category but let's face it, we like our facts. My horizons were definitely broadened because of my experience at Beaux Art Ball-- Georgia Tech kids, specifically architecture kids seem to be super artsy. Not in a bad way-- I can imagine that when half of your major revolves around creative design, artsy-fartsy-ness comes in handy. There were some incredibly impressive designs featured in the run-way show. My most favorite part of the evening was seeing my gorgeous red head friend, Carly Hansen who unknowingly planted the seed that became the plant that is now Zach+Maxine. I owe her our first born child. Okay, now that I've paid homage to the event that totally consumed the past week of Zach's life-- can we start talking about wedding stuff again?! I swear, I'm not selfish. Okay-- maybe only a little. In all seriousness-- it's fun to accompany my darling fiancee to events such as these, I thoroughly enjoy supporting his endeavors and seeing his work come to life.


In health news: I've officially given up Chick-Fil-A from now until post-wedding-reality settles in. In turn, Zach has given up Dr.Pepper. I'd like to say that I've entered into hyper-work-out-mode but really, I've just been running 5 miles on my lunch break [daily/on weekends]-- which I have done since highschool-- and partaking in the every-now-and-then p90x routine. In fact, I've taken about 3 breaks from yapping to join Zach in p90x Ab-Ripper-X...which I will now dedicate myself to in entirety.

Z+M

The Down-Low

So.. I'm going to share with our [small but very significant] blog community an e-mail that was strategically drafted and submitted to a good amount of my big fat Greek family and close friends-- unfortunately I don't posses EVERYONES e-mail address but for now, this is just to spread the word. And when I say "strategically drafted" I mean to imply that I was profusely sweating the entire time, viciously deleting and re-typing, and deleting, and re-typing and sweating some more. But: this is us announcing to the general public what's going on AND HOW FREAKIN' EXCITED WE ARE! Ready... Set...

Hi Family and Friends!!

            As I’m sure most of you have heard, if not from our blabbering blog than from hear-say, that Zach and I called off the shin-dig on June 4^th. We just weren’t happy with the way things were going. It just didn’t feel like “us.”

            Initially, after we decided to nix our plans, we were just going to elope and call it a day. But then we started thinking. And talking. And we realized that even though we weren’t doing the big sha-bang, we still want the people we love to have the opportunity to be with us. Isn’t that what being a family is all about?

            So, we’ve reverted back to our first idea for a wedding, the idea that we felt the closest to but opted out of—this is what we’ve secretly wanted to do all along. We’re getting married on the beach in Carillon Beach, Flordia [gulf side]—it’s a private beach community near Seaside and Panama City Beach. We’ll be doing a very casual/relaxed, short and sweet ceremony ON the beach [we’re talkin’ no tuxes, no shoes, no problem] after which we’ll feed everyone and then spend the rest of the day/weekend on the beach/hanging out with those who are able to come out and be with us. We really just wanted a day—a weekend to be able to enjoy each other and spend quality time with those who are able to attend. This allows us to do that—and also allows our friends/family a bit of their own vacation and also to enjoy each other.

            We’ll get something more formal [aka an e-vite] out to everyone this week with more details and the ability to RSVP. We’ve updated our wedding website to reflect our plans. I just wanted to inform as many of you as I could ASAP:

theknot.com/ourwedding/MaxineDounis&ZachMcClure

            In short:

·         Our super casual fun-in-the-sun wedding will take place around 11:30AM [before it gets hot-hot] on Saturday, May 21. You’ll be fed and drinks (both non-alcoholic and alcoholic) will be provided, after which Zach and I will change into our swim suits and enjoy the beach with any/everyone who feels like playing! If the beach isn’t your thing, there is some great* shopping not too far out and we’re close to both Destin and Panama City Beach [home of the airbrushed t-shirts; where “spring break” never ends]

·         I’ll be down there probably on Wednesday the 18^th to do some prep-work and some relaxing, so if you plan on coming feel free to come earlier than Friday [you can crash with me until Friday!] if that is more convenient—we’ll make sure you have a ride from the airport—also, and EVERYONE will be provided with a map and list of things-to-do in the area as well as driving directions to/from Atlanta.

·         We bumped up the date because:

·         A) the rental rates for hotels/condos/houses are much cheaper in May than in June and we know that traveling is expensive enough as is so we wanted to be an economical as possible for the sake of our guests and ourselves.

·         B) it’s just generally A LOT less crowded in May, so we won’t be competing for the use/enjoyment of amenities and finding places to stay seemed easier.

If you are thinking about coming check out www.Carillon-Rentals.com for information about renting a house/condo/room at the Inn; all of which are located IN the community/subdivision of Carillon. Some of the houses can sleep up to 14 people so it might be worth it to look into splitting room/board with some friends/family. There are of course many cheaper options outside of Carillon that are only a few miles away—for those who would rather stay outside of Carillon, we will of course acquire guest passes to the community so that you may have access to all of the amenities at Carillon. Also, for those of you who will be flying in—check out flights into Destin or Panama City. If you want to get a look at the actual community, www.Carillon-Beach.com would be the place to go.

Side Note(s): I don’t have all of the family e-mail address so in lieu of e-mailing I'll be resorting to the oh-so-classy act of facebook messaging, so feel free to openly gossip about how crazy my husband-to-be and I are.

We’re sorry for the inconvenience of changing our plans—really & truly, we feel a little silly about it all—but we want to LOVE our wedding day but more importantly, we want to love the way that we start our marriage and to do so on the beach, in the company of our loved ones… well, that sounds like perfection to me and now that we’ve found a way to make that happen, we’re thrilled and would LOVEfor you to be there. PLEASE let us know if you have any questions. 

...and now I can [kind of] breathe. Surprisingly enough, we've received a massive amount of support for "doing what YOU [we] want to do." We're just overwhelmed with gratitude and excited/hopeful to have an awesome beach-y weekend with friends and family!

Okay, I have to go and shower off all of the anxious sweat now..

Z+M

The [Temporary] Great Escape

James Zachery and I are most certainly not known for our ability to sit still and/or reverently. Nor are we known for our normalcy. Being as we hadn't gone on an adventure since Snowboard-A-Palooza, we felt like we were way overdue for a date of running from reality. Where did we flee to, you ask? Only one of the most beautiful places on the East Coast-- Carillon Beach in the Gulf of Florida.

Zach's spring break conveniently aligned with our restlessness, allowing us to take a not-long-enough-but-better-than-nothin' weekend trip to the Gulf. Zach rode down on Thursday with Mrs. Christine McClure (Mommy McClure) while I suffered through Thursday and Friday at work-- and boy do I mean suffered. In hind-sight, I'm not sure if day-dreaming about romping around on the beach with my fiancee kept me sane and gave me the motivation to push through or if it was completely counter productive. I'm 90% sure that I spent both days gazing longingly into space envisioning somewhere I'd rather be. In short-- the last 2 days of my work week were a complete wash.

2 long and lonely days-- a half a bag of Blazin' Buffalo Doritos-- an hour long hunt for an iPhone car charger-- 6hrs-- 3 states-- getting pulled over but never ticketed twice--and a whole lot of newly pioneered curse words later... I had arrived! Needless to say, I was slightly less-sane than I was upon my departure, but who's counting!?

Despite our grogginess, we decided to start Saturday morning out with a relaxing walk on the beach where I managed to acquire my very first tan-lines of the season. Walking on the beach is an activity of therapeutic nature that both my mother and I partake in on our annual 4 week trip to the Atlantic side of Florida. We all know that I go a lil' nuts with excessive running-- the same neurotic tendencies carry over to my beach-walking. I could go for miles and hours at a time. [On one of our previous beach trips Zach actually came looking for me-- I think they were worried that the crazy lady with wind blown hair might have gotten lost.] It was on this leisurely stroll that we were reminded how unappreciative the bottoms of our feet were of unstable surfaces; furthermore, it was were we began formulating an answer to the million dollar question...

"How are you guys getting married!?" 

We've without a doubt driven our parents to the point of lunacy with our laid-back indecisiveness about our "wedding." As if us calling the big event off wasn't disruptive enough-- we had yet to solidify a Plan B... . you know, we like to keep people on the roller coaster that is "Zach and Maxine" for as long as possible. Needless to say-- it was a very productive walk. But that doesn't mean we're opening our big fat mouths quite yet. We need to let this chicken stew in its respective egg before it hatches.

We enjoyed some modest shopping and dinner at the delicious Pompano Joe's-- coconut shrimp and mango chutney=yes please. And then of course we had to have desert-- it is the McClure mission to sample and critique frozen yogurt boutiques. Zach devoured his vanilla, pina colada and chocolate blend topped with fudgie brownies while I dabbled in a more adult formula-- raspberry with assorted gummy bears. These weren't just any gummy bears, people. They were soft, flavorful, tiny and had more flavors than I have fingers! 

We spend Sunday morning at church and reading by the pool. I started the most fascinating book-- "Labor of Love: One Man's Journey Through Pregnancy," or something of that nature. Zach protected himself from the sun and I showed off my new bathing suit-- a gift from my brown eyed boy.

6hrs-- 3 states-- 2 candy bars-- a pack of gummy worms-- and a 30 degree difference in temperature later we had arrived back in Atlanta sun-kissed and longing for more time in the sand. Zach and I had a lot of time to talk and reflect on the events of our engagement-- I even convinced him to try to wedding bands while we were there! Reluctantly he obliged in following me into Kay Jewlers-- since most men [mine in particular] are not willingly ring-wear-ers, I wanted Zach to try a few on and figure out what kind of material he was most comfortable with. After figuring his correct ring size I watched as he tried on ring after ring.. as he slipped the last ring onto his left hand, I locked my eyes on that fuzzy knuckled little finger and shamelessly and excitedly blurted out to the entire store... 

"We're getting MARRIED!!!!!!" 

It was as if I was suffering form a relentless case of verbal diarrhea. The sales woman commented on how adorable we were and the store manager attempted to soothe my excitement by cleaning my ring for me.

We're home. Safe. Sound. Grateful. Exhausted. In love.

Z+M

Paint or Be Painted

This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a killer service project and Camp Twin Lakes. Camp Twin Lakes is a wonderful non-profit organization that provides kids who suffer from a vast array of illnesses/disabilities with the opportunity to "be normal." We're talking about children with real, scary, sometimes terminal illnesses who would otherwise never have the opportunity to conquer a high-ropes course, rock climb, zip-line, canoe or even swim. A group of around 100 of us rambunctious 20-somethings designated our weekend to partaking in contributing our blood, sweat and tears into adding to Camp Twin Lakes. My job was of the less bloody, sweaty and teary....I was deemed as the Official-Documenter-of-Events for Saturday.....

So...ladies and germs [as my father would say].... .let's take an abbreviated walk through my weekend as the all-seeing-not-really-all-knowing eyes/shutter....

There were multiple "artistic" assignments-- we beautified the pool area with cartoon-istic paintings and adorned the dining area with sponge painted fruits and vegetables while adding a non-sequential comic strip which bordered the floor board...

We jack-hammered some crumbling structures which lay in the center of these GIANT tee-pees and built  new fire pits, constructed of brick to ensure their ability to survive even the bluest of fires. Considering that I had never seen a jack-hammer at work "in real life," this was a special treat-- furthermore, his [the jack-hammer, I like to personify most everything] name was loving displayed across his forehead-- "Wacker." I will keep this in mind when Zach and I are naming our first child.

We built. A lot. We made an assortment of benches of varying sizes, we lay sod-- which loosely translates to "played in the mud," we built a barn for a potential petting zoo from the ground-up, we created a puppet theater, mapped out and installed an RC track to ensure that campers can be transported quickly and safely to their destinations, and played in the mud some more.

I am incredibly jealous of whoever got to operate this destructive piece of machinery...This our track in the making!

Puppet Theatre To Be..and of course, there's always time to break from labor to enjoy muddy hands, sun kissed cheeks and hair glued stiff with sweat..

We chiseled and painted signs so that campers [and us scatter brained servicers alike] could navigate the campus...feast your eyes on the finished product and and precise process...

We built some "shade structures" to ensure that campers would have multiple places to seek refuge from the unforgiving rays of the sun and also took some time to beautify the property with some greenery and yellowery [yes, that IS a word..

Mind you, there are over 500 photos so these are just some sneak-peeks to get the point across somewhat. After a total of 23 hours of drilling, hammering, measuring, walking, sweating, digging, planting, pressure washing, painting, taping, painting, painting, building, mumbling obscenities and let's not forget JACK-HAMMERING, we had completed each and every one of the tasks we set out to do. That's right, we had successfully completed our assignments [and then some] and felt incredibly proud of how much the appearance and functionality of the campus had changed. After reveling in our good-deeds rewarded with even better feeling by hugging, hustling and high-five-ing we decided that there was in fact ONE daunting task left un-done. Let's see if you can guess...

• 80 degree weather. 
• a coudless sky.
• relentless sweating
• a well-earned sense of accomplishment and compassion
• more sweating
• dehydration
• delirium
• exhaustion
• utter excitement

What in the world COULD all of these factors equate to!?!?!?!?! Let's also calculate in that we were a group of respectable, well-educated, 20-somethings/30-somethings who probably will never grow up. Friends, I will tell you what the solution is to this complex problem.....

We jumped in the pool...FULLY CLOTHED

...not to brag but Angella Copeland and I totally get props for being the first two girls to willingly cannon-ball into icy oblivion. Okay, I'm totally bragging. What else is new. Look at the rest of the group behind us, cowering in fear that we might hug them or sit in their lap thus drenching them. Which we did.

I must admit that I missed my fiance terribly as he had to remain in ol' Atlanta so that he could work on Saturday. 

However, I returned humbled and satisfied by my experience at Camp Twin Lakes. Being the biochemist nerd that I am-- I am incredibly fascinated by disease and the havoc it wreaks on ones body, I've spent my education studying anatomical and pure scientific complexities...having such knowledge causes me to posses unyielding gratitude for my health. I get to get up every day and go for a 5 mile jog whereas some of the kids that we served this weekend won't ever have the opportunity to stand on his or her own two functioning feet. There are so many things that I take for granted, that we as healthy individuals take for granted-- our ability to walk, ride a bike, brush our own teeth, sit in traffic, practice indecisiveness over what to eat for dinner, do cartwheels and know that we have a potential lifetime ahead of us. I feel genuinely fulfilled that our group might have helped to encourage a smile in at least one of the future campers hearts. I think that service is important-- we all need it at one time or another.

Let's not take things for granted anymore. 

Especially the little things.

Always and Until Next Time

M[+Z]

Sometimes We Get A Lil' Crazy.. .

So, we have some wedding-esque news that has the potential to knock your socks off. Be prepared to experience the following: laughter, tears, surprise (!!!), confusion, annoyance, the irresistible urge to roll your eyes, hug us and spit on your computer screen.. .at us.

Let’s reminisce a bit, shall we? Some odd weeks (okay, okay, MONTHS, multiple months) ago—my dear fiancée and I set a wedding date, booked a venue, a caterer, a photographer, picked colors.. .okay, so we merely narrowed down color possibilities, I went through the grueling process of trying on wedding dresses, we ordered fancy-shimmery-paper for our invitations, we sent “Save the Dates”, and we started a countdown to remind us of the daunting number of days between us and our “I Do’s.”

Here’s  an interesting thought--- Scratch all of the above mentioned tasks and obligations. Throw the mind-numbing hours of unconvincing decisiveness out of the proverbial window and take a breath so that you process this next thought with an open mind..  .maybe even count to 10? 1….2….3.. .4…okay, we’re not doing that.

We’ve changed our plans, people. 

We are forgoing the big wedding 

to indulge our inner-romantics 

by “running away together” 

to exchange I Do’s.

Which means 

that our guests can “unsave the date,” 

as we no longer own June 4, 2011.

Are you rolling your eyes yet? Screaming at your computer? Working on an impressive spit ball which has the ability to travel through cyber space?

There are about 1,000,000… . . more realistically, a handful of reasons why we on-not-so-much-of-a-whim decided to obliterate our wedding plans for the sake of simplicity. I will cover the basic(s) while being incredibly elusive and non-specific. The Jist: The Nitty-Gritty: That brown eyed-boy and I love each other, A Lot. And what we want most out of “our” day is to walk away from it as Husband and Wife—that is our only purpose and priority. That’s about as good of an explanation as I can provide, or am willing to provide. And believe me, that’s a lot more invasive than Zach’s idea of an explanation: He wanted to say....

“Dear Friends and Family. We are Eloping. <3”

Boys. They are so too-the-point. Girls, we are so over-explanatory-to-the-point-of-confusing.

So, “What Now?,” you ask.

We elope. We start making our house a home and we wake up every day as Mr. and Mrs. McClure. As a side note: I hope you’re not still holding your breath and/or counting… because if you are, you might suffocate and/or suffer no real consequences from counting. We would love to spend time visiting with any/all of you despite the fact that we’ve nixed our wedding plans. And considering that we have 2 extra bedrooms and also that I make a mean breakfast casserole--- we’d love some guests.

Let’s  Re-Cap, shall we?

1.    We have given June 4^th back to the people—so, don’t buy a plane ticket, stress about what to wear and/or show up to Summerour Studio on the evening of June 4th expecting a Big Fat Greek wedding…’cause we won’t be there! BUT—if you WANT to come visit with us… PLEASE do.

2.    We are eloping. And will of course, keep you updated on all developments and/or activities pertaining to our romantically satisfying elopement. I'm sure we will throw together an open house at our new digs and/or some kind of casual get together.

3.    Please dispose of your spit ball(s) and/or paper wads in a civilized fashion. I.E…not all over our cyber-faces.

If you have questions, comments, or just bad gas—we’d love to talk with you concerning most of the previously mentioned matters. We love all of you.

In other news.. . .I have A LOT of updating to do. Perhaps I'll go nuts regurgitating the past 2 months of our lives whilst Zach pretends to study tonight? Although, don't hold your breath.. . .seriously.

Until next time,

Z+M

Johnny Depp makes an odd Willy Wonka

Ladies and Gentleman...

[or, as my father would proclaim:]

"Ladies and Germs"

[Some] of our engagement pictures have arrived!

The cold noses, frozen finger tips and excessive amount of time spent on blow-drying my hair [okay, so maybe it was just a normal amount of time but we all know how much I detest showering...who's counting!?] paid off! Our photographer has delivered us a perfectly bundled package of classic/not-so-classic, just-artsy-enough, at sunset, killer back drops combined with an even more killer eye for the usually unusual and picture-esuqe-- this concoction of adjectives thus describes our engagement photos. Now, we've been provided with 25 edits and will receive a second disk that holds the full array of un-edits to do with as we wish. Since our initial for-fun photos illuminate brightness and summer-time I think it's pretty awesome and time-line-ish that our actual engagements depict an appropriate at-dusk, fall time theme. We thought we would share a few for kicks and giggles.. . .

.. . ..we can't exactly tie ACTUAL knots with our fingers..so this is the most accurate portrayal of "tangled" that we could get.

.. . .just standing under a weeping willow..staring [adoringly]

.. .Pondering @ Grant Park

. .I kind of threw out the whole "to be or not to be" train of thought..it's all relative...and not as much fun as clumsily destroying a perfectly good bow-tie for the sake of a kiss...

<--ENGAGED. Like, Duh!

.. .please note that my dress was a size too big and caused a bulge in the belly. Also, this is Zach's favorite

And, of course...you remember [or maybe you don't] our previous introductory blog-photo that looked like something out of a J Crew add..minus that my eyes were still debating on whether or not they wanted to open...

. .okay, so that concludes YOUR sneak preview. I left my absolute favorites out of the mix as to not prematurely expose them. Oh, and, the new-new blog title photo is also an example of engagement madness...I love that the Krogg Street bridge backdrop adorns an "EVERYTHING LASTS FOREVER" banner. Kind of fitting, eh?

In an abbreviated update: 

• we survived "Snowpocalypse 2011," unscathed. We occupied ourselves with working out, and sledding at all hours of the night [thought: why is it that all of the havoc we wreak happens AFTER the sun sets. Are we fang-less vampires? Or hairless Werewolves? Food for thought.] and lots of movies. I've got some photos and blurbs to post concerning such topics-- in due time. 
• Some butt hole bought our discounted Crate and Barrel couch a mere 12 hours after we'd decided that it was THE couch. We should have been less concerned about the road conditions and more concerned about someone snatching up our goods. Ya snooze Ya lose. That being said: after A LOT of pouting and a decent amount of disappointment--we're on the hunt again! 
• I've lost over 10 pounds since this time last year [seriously] and only have 8 more to lose before I'm at my wedding goal weight. I'm going to continue gorging myself on Chick Fil A for about another month or so-- I figure, I'll start getting obsessively serious once the New Years Resolution-ers realize that they're out of steam. Of course, I'm still running like a mad-woman. Speaking of, my room mate and I are running a half marathon in Tennessee at the end of April. 

Stay tuned.. .we've got a potential snow boarding trip in the works, invitations just waiting to be designed and ordered [our goal is to get that done this week...procrastinate much?] and a wedding to attend.. .after I work a sickening amount of over-time in order to bring my case load up to date after 3 snow days. Thanks Mother Nature! 

Until next time...

Z+M