So we got engaged in late June - about as late as one could be, 10:00PM on the 30th! hehe! Well as mentioned we had been talking about weddings and a house for about 6 months by then. Erik had asked what order I wanted to do everything in and I had said Engagement, House and then Wedding. So we could have a long engagement but not have to be apart for quite so long. Well, with Erik's knowledge I'd been looking at houses for a good chunk of that time to find out what our options were. I had been having a not so great experience with my job so we decided being closer to his place of employment was a big factor. Well we ended up going to look at houses in person just before mid-July and on our first day out saw 3. Well we really liked the 1st one but there was already a bid. However the people weren't thrilled with the offer so our agent thought that if we were serious and wanted to put in a bid it might get serious consideration. The house had virtually everything we wanted so we couldn't see letting it slip by. Especially because it was priced well. So first day out we basically bought a house. I should probably mention that I'm huge into house design, and architecture so I do know what I'm looking at - making it not as crazy as it sounds. Unfortunately that was the easy part.
In order to put in an enticing bid we had to give a closing date of 1 month! Which was the least DF could do because of his lease. And even then he was overlapping by about 2 weeks. But the other offer was for a closing Asap so it was the only way we could compete. Also while it was close to his job it was 2 hours from mine - a bit too far for a daily commute. However I couldn't leave my job yet because I was about to have surgery on Aug. 15 - which if you're calculating along you'll realize is one day after our closing was scheduled! But I needed to keep my job and my benefits. So he moved in on Labor day and I couldn't until the end of Oct. which was really rough. What was worse was the closing got moved back till the day after my surgery so I had to sign proxy over to DF to buy the house for both of us and I didn't even get to go in my house from our original visit until about 2 weeks after I owned it! Also they almost postponed surgery because my blood pressure was high - can't imagine why! Then I couldn't take painkillers - oh I had my tonsils taken out at the age of 29! I'm allergic to most painkillers so I had to live on liquid Tylenol for 3 weeks. And I had a horrible time dealing with the anesthesia
for the first 3 days. As if it all weren't enough my grandmother passed away about 4 days after surgery I couldn't even go see her till the funeral because of the risk of infection. I tell myself that compared to the stress of all that a DFTW should be a breeze! So these are the things that filled the time between the proposal and my original request with Disney in July. Since we had to wait for a year out before our dates were confirmed I spent a bunch of time on the Wish Book trying to figure it all out.
OK so other non Disney things while we were waiting to hear back. As I mentioned Erik has a dog 11 year old Evan
and I have an 11 year old dog Shadow
I also have 2 kitties that lived with me at my parents house - no pics right now. Anyway they're like 19 and 20 so we knew we wouldn't be taking them to our house too much stress. My parents also have a dog, Ginger,
Well Evan doesn't like other animals. He's a great, sweet doggy but doesn't play well with others. He had nowhere to go but with us. Shadow on the other hand could stay with my folks. Though she's depressed with me not there - her whole behavior changes when I'm gone it happened in college too. But she's got Dad there all day and Ginger to keep her company. Plus last year, 2006 she had seizures on Christmas eve so it was decided that for her best interest she's better off staying in Mom and Dad's house. That's how we blended our family of animals. We also got a baby cat in Oct. a few weeks before I moved in. She's our Halloween cat named Boo here's one of her earliest pics
Evan tolerates her, only attacking her if she eats or plays (what else does a kitten do??????
) But we're working on it and we get peace every now and again. She's a bit crazy though - the vet calls her devil cat she hates him more then me! She doesn't actually hate me just thinks I should be attacked when she's bored or angry. But when she's tired she's a complete love bug who wants to cuddle! Told ya she was a bit loopy! So that's our family!
Tomorrow I'll try to post some wedding pictures now that you're all caught up on the back story! And now that I finally figured out how to post pics
! Though whenever I upload them to photobucket I'm having issues getting them to be the right size on here so any suggestions on that would help. It took like 4 tries to get these small ones and some I cut out because they still kept coming in large. Thanks for reading!
Christine