Oldies but goodies

So I might be obsessed with SYTYCD but that's ok with me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjlDfd7iMj8 < AMAZING DISCO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUuHK3csqEs < one of my all time favorites

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt650DW6YqA < so amazing!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0kImsIcfYY < so sorry this one isn't better quality. . .
Ok, I think I'm done for now. . . there are soooo many good ones though!

Forgot to post this one! Amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNbEQwKdxjc

Perhaps my favorite dance ever on this show. . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RPYt5s2opY

They are so stunning!  She is totally my favorite dancer!  Voted like 30 times last night.  I'm going to post all of her dances from last night, but this by FAR was my favorite.  Thank you for putting up with all of my Dance obsession.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2YY0AEmLTQ <
If nothing else watch at about 1:30 seconds for the ending of this dance.  It's RIDICULOUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4IwqJZ8Z9E < remember she is a CONTEMPORARY dancer. . . which is the first link I posted.
I totally want to learn how to do hip hop btw.  It looks like so much fun! At least to me!

Amazing Dances

Just watch these few dances . . .

^ they are married assassins in that one


The next is a beautiful Viennese waltz did NOT like the female dancer in this number at all this season until this dance. She did AMAZING!







ChaCha that was steamy. She is my favorite Contestant.

Wedding updates

Wow, I haven't posted in a long time . . . sorry about that.

Ok, so here is the line up in terms of bridesmaids/groomsmen for the wedding.
Sally McKenney - Matron of Honor  escorted by Best Man Brandon Campbell
Elizabeth Ellis escorted by Andrew Chernauskas
Robin McConkey escorted by James Price
Colleen Wallace escorted by Andrew Law
Kristin Placek escorted by Justin McKenney
Sarah Wood escorted by Dan Kubacki
Courtney Wood escorted by Brian Baldwin
Flower PRINCESS (she told me that today) the little girl I nanny escorted by Ringbearer Colton (My nephew)

(We were supposed to have 8 bridesmaids and groomsmen, but 1 bridesmaid we found out is going to be due with TWINS around the time of the wedding so she decided to withdraw from the wedding.  I'm so excited for her but will miss having her there with me.)

The girls all were allowed to pick their own dresses from Milanoo.com.  The bridesmaids will be in sage and Sally (MOH) will be in grape.  They also can pick their own shoes as long as they are white. 

I'm planning on having calla lillies for the main flowers, but not sure what to use for the complimentary flowers, if you have any suggestions please let me know.  I was thinking sweet peas at first, but I can't really find many artificial sweet peas (I'm going with artificial because of finances.)

We also know what our favors and centerpieces will be.  We will be having the wedding and reception at Grace Church in McKean!!! Praise God.  The wedding will be at 1:00 pm on May 1, 2010 and then the reception will be at 3:30 most likely.  We have our photographer, my former neighbor is altering my dress for me, her daughter is going to do my hair, and we have a dj.

I'm panicking a little though, not sure why.  We have the containers for our favors, just need to fill them and come up with tags. We know Andrew C. will be doing our wedding website for us.  Hopefully we'll be getting that done over Christmas break. 

We are registered at Target and will be registering at JCPenney.  We're just having a hard time getting to the stores with Aaron's schedule. 

Hopefully mom and I can work on getting shoes, my veil, and some flowers done over the Christmas break.  We'll see though, not sure what will happen. 

I'm getting very excited. My sister sent me pictures of me in my dress, and I'm even more excited now.  I really love my dress.  It's gorgeous!  I'm so excited.  I have 4 possible invitations lined up (once we get our wedding website, I'll probably start printing them.)


Please be praying for us as we continue to prepare for the wedding.

SYTYCD

I love this show!!! I have 8 favorites out of the 10 that are left, It's crazy!  But seriously check out this dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4sXgFnw6lQ.

Hairstyles

More help with wedding planning.  I want an updo for my wedding, (I sweat too much not to).  I don't know what to do.  I want to be able to wear a veil, possibly a tiara, and hopefully a blusher (the part that goes over your face).  I don't find a lot of hairstyles that I like though.  I don't want just a french twist, it's my wedding, I've wearing french twists FOREVER.  Don't want a bun, I danced for 10 years.  I want something that will still look pretty after (if) I take the veil off.  I don't know.  Any ideas?  Please email them to me if you have any ideas as I don't want Aaron to see them obviously. Thanks.

PS. I hope I'm not turning into Bridezilla.

Need some help with ideas

I'm trying to figure out what to do for the centerpieces for our wedding.  We both would really like to incorporate photos into our centerpieces and DO NOT want flowers in the centerpieces.  We were thinking of doing the photo cubes with pictures of us through the years, but they are only 2" by 3" and I'm not convinced now that they will be big enough.  To be honest we will probably have about 30 tables but we don't want to pay an arm and a leg on centerpieces.

If you have any ideas PLEASE let me know. 

Oh and by the way I have been busy planning for the wedding lately, and got terribly sick this past weekend (fever of 103 Saturday, 102 Sunday and finally back to normal today).  I also have a terribly annoying cough that seems to think it is important to stick around.  I disagree but we are fighting. 

Anyway on a happier note, on Friday we heard that there is a 90% chance we will be having our wedding at Grace Church in McKean.  We meet with our photographer this Sunday and we get to meet with the wedding coordinator from Grace Dec. 5th.  Things are starting to come along.  We are nearly certain we have our guest list finalized also (although my mom hasn't had input yet, so that may change but I'm hoping not as we are very near 350 people.)  We picked out our colors of Sage and Grape (that's what the bridesmaid dresses are called).  And I got photoshop for my birthday HOORAY! So I get to work on designing our invitations! HOORAY!  I've always enjoyed trying to design things and I feel like it will be very special if I do get to design our invites.  Thanks again everyone!

Slacking

I have been so busy lately with wedding planning/cleaning my apartment that I haven't had a lot of time to blog.  But I bought a wedding dress! YAY YAY YAY!  It's gorgeous and was in my price range and makes me super happy! :)

Day 6 of the challenge. . .

had a hard time today getting the pictures in, just didn't have a lot of time, the last 5 or 6 were done about 10 minutes ago.

Holly's Challenge Day 5 (Tuesday)

Amidst watching SYTYCD, cleaning a bit, making dinner, and putting away groceries, here is what I came up with.  Sorry it's not super great today.  I have my laptop, Disney cup, fall leaves, our pumpkin we created today, Go Fish Guys (sometimes my sanity), a congratulatory card, Wegman's shopper card, and fall leaf decoration.

Day 4 of Holly's challenge

Again I used Picasa 3 to create the collage.  Today's is just a bunch of random things. The potatoes I made for dinner, the seasonings I used.  R playing with her toy and the toy and it's shadow. My "Tastefully Simple" shelf.  A veggie puff, the sunrise, cook books and a figurine.

Thanks for checking them out.

Holly's Challenge Day 3

Sorry I didn't get to post these yesterday but here are the photos for day 3 of the challenge. 

Included are MY Hat (don't listen to Aaron it's totally mine), the puppies, and the boys talking outside of church. 

I used Picasa 3 to create the collage.  It makes it really easy for me. Also the picture I used for the background is my car's inspection sticker.

Holly's Challenge Day #2 (Saturday)

This morning Holly and I went out scouting places for the engagement photos tonight and stumbled upon some pictures for today's challenge.  Here are my 9.

Memory Lane in Mead Park

Good for photos, not good for eating!

I just like this memorial for some reason.

she took me backdrop hunting!

cool moss covered log

Also cool for photo taking, bad for eating.

that's where we were.  I love that place.  A gem in Corry!

No idea what this is but thought it looked cool.  I love the wispy leaves.

The decline of fall. 

*Please remember all of these are uneditted.  I'm borrowing Aaron's computer while he sleeps.*

Challenge: Day #1 (Friday)

All of these photos are unedited as I'm on Aaron's computer without any editing software. Here are my 9 photos.  Some I really like, some are just ok! 

M holding her toes!

R looking at my ring.

We had pizza for dinner.

And wet corgis for dessert. . .j/k, I love them though and they thought they should have gotten pizza.

Duncan looks so different wet!

Court had to play with her mom's hair.

We bought soda

3 kinds of soda

Pictures of the day

 

Used picasa to increase the shadows. These were just some mums outside of my apartment that I've been meaning to do this with.

Forgot

to post the original ring on the mum photo.  I like the editted so much better.  Here they are again for a comparison.

Just ordinary to me

Photo of the day . ..

for the past few days.

 

 

sorry for showcasing my ring so much, but I love it! :) 

Wedding thoughts

So we are hoping to get married May 1, 2010.  Right now we are hoping to reserve Grace Church for that day since it is very REASONABLE to have both the ceremony and reception there.  AND we could have OUR pastor marry us.  Which is EXTREMELY important to us.  We love our pastor very much. But I'm not sure what we will do if that falls through.  Finding a place within our budget for 250-350 people will be a challenge I'm sure. 

Also I'm trying to find bridesmaid dresses for under $50, that are not too short and not revealing.  Talk about another challenge. Modesty is very important to me. I know that in the end everything will work out but man I get stressed out so easily.  I'm like already freaking out about a lot when I shouldn't be. 

Now it is time for me to go though so that I can get together some clothing to wear for our engagement pictures this weekend.  Provided I can do some laundry at some point tomorrow *wink wink* Holly??  I just don't feel like doing it at work tomorrow for some reason.  Any suggestions of what to wear?  I'm thinking an orange sweater with either jeans or a skirt, but it's not necessarily super flattering so I was thinking of bringing another outfit too but I don't know what.  Probably another sweater, haha cuz I'm a dork like that :)

Details

of the underside of a lady bug. . .

cleaning himself. . . both of these are uneditted.

Aaron and I are ENGAGED!!!!!

Praise God, Aaron asked me to marry him this past Sunday and I said "Yes yes yes, please put the ring on!" Well there is more to it than that but that seems to be everyone's favorite part of the story. :)

I kinda knew something was up because he always gives me details about everything so when he said he did "errands online," I thought "ring???" Then he also asked about 5 times if this past weekend was open for Panama Rocks.  But then he tried to trick me by saying he'd email InterVarsity to see if they wanted to go.  And then he said why don't we ask Brandon.  But anyway so he had me going both ways for a while.  But regardless of whether or  not it was a total surprise isn't important.  IT WAS PERFECT!!!. . . and even better than that I get to marry the love of my life in about 6 months! AMAZINGNESS!!!

Anyway, we went to Panama Rocks in Panama, NY after church this past Sunday and we got there and I was taking pictures (it's what I do) and walking and talking to each other during the walk through the scenery.  I was thoroughly enjoying just walking and holding his hand and having him lead me as I was a little bit unsure about it because the wet leaves made things a bit slippery.  (Oh, side note: Praise God we got to go because the day before they closed due to 5 inches of snow!!!) But we had fun climbing on the rocks and taking photos and Aaron decided to ask me to climb down one rock that scared me and I was like no no no no no and so on.  So I went around the other way and met him.  Then we walked on a little farther and he asked to sit down since he was out of breath. (He had been sick and later told me he wouldn't have come if he hadn't been proposing.) Then, he said something to the affect (I don't exactly remember because I heard "lots of loving things, *don't cry don't cry, crap I'm crying*, saw him get on one knee, and open the ring box, with a gorgeous ring inside and asked me to marry him") But he said: Amanda, I love you very much and I always enjoy all of the adventures that we have together, and I know there will be many obstacles but that if we keep loving and serving God He will help us to conquer them.  And I know we've been looking at all of these pretty rocks, but I'd like to show you the prettiest one I've found (as he gets on one knee). Will you marry me?" To which I reply "Yes yes yes, please put the ring on.  I love you so much." And almost pulled him up off the ground to hug him as we both hugged and laughed and cried and greatness! The people behind us probably thought we were crazy and guess what, they wouldn't be wrong to think that. 

We finished walking through the area and had fun taking pictures and hugging and holding hands.  Then on the way back we got lost (see that whole adventure thing already kicking in.)  But we figured it out and then we went and called our family and friends for about 2 hours to let them know before someone else did. 

We are so thrilled and not really very far into planning yet, but it will come.  I'm just so happy that I will be able to spend the rest of my life with Aaron, he is my best friend, my comforter, the one God has provided for me, my partner in ministry, my comedic relief (often), personal heater, confidant, and everything else good and great and wonderful.  I love him so much.  I'm so happy that I will be able to join in his family as well as I love them very much also.  And I pray that my family will take him in as a son and love him too.

I would have posted more pictures of us together but when I took them off my camera I did it at Holly's so here are a few pictures of the ring instead.  BTW, it's TOTALLY me!

All taken with my point and shoot also! :) 

 

Macro Monday

WARNING: Not all of these are great photos but I included them for some perspective reasons.  The first two aren't very good quality. 1. It is a picture of BEE and yes, my hands were shaking a bit because I was literally 3 inches from the bee.  2. I got more confident as I realized the bee was dying because he had flown himself into the window too many times.

Honest his body isn't disassembled it just looks like it in this picture.

 See, I told you it was still together.

 Love the lighting behind his wings on this one. At this point I realized he hasn't tried flying at all since I've been sitting here and snapping photos, he's probably near dead :(. Even though I don't like bees, I still felt bad that he died from slamming into the window so much. :( Not that being outside would have been good for him.  It snowed on Thursday (when I took this picture).

Last one of the bunch. Thanks for looking at my photos to see other submissions, go here

Sunday Stills: C is for . . .

Country decor:

Do flies have hair?

Why yes, yes they do.  I found this out today when I took a picture of a fly that kept hanging around on the window.  R kept trying to kill him :(.  I felt kinda bad.  She broke one of his legs off.  Anyway here he is before the torture ensued.  I'm just thrilled I got it to focus on him and not everything else outside the window. 

So I'm posting the original and the edited version.  There are only slight changes but I thought I'd make a note of them anyway.

I rotated the original, increased the highlights a lot, the shadows a little, saturated it a bit, and sharpened it a bit and got this.

Please click on the photo to make it larger to be able to see the differences.

Today was Train day

Today R and I spent the morning building a train track.  It was a bit hard because it wouldn't stay together.  I had a hard tme getting good photos because R kept breaking it apart by stepping and sitting on it. haha

 

 

It was also a little hard because it made me think about my Grandpa who loved trains and Aaron's godfather "Pops" who also loves trains.  It was neat and sad at the same time.

Birdhouse

Here is today's submission for picture of the day.

Color

and sepia

Lunch and Gifts

for Liz

Liz

Sally

Gift #1 Mug with assorted teas

 
Gift number 2 beautiful red sweater and tank to go under it!

Mrs. Ellis could open her own store.

Look at how cute these few scenes are from Liz's family's house.  The first picture is of Mrs. Ellis' baby shoes.  So cute!

I made them sepia because I liked them better that way. 

And then there is the WillowCreek collection.  So beautiful.  Can't tell if I like the one with flash or without flash better.