Ryan and Miranda’s Blog

So it’s Wednesday and we’ve been home from our cruise for 3 days- I’m still in a constant state of hunger. I’m not eatting nearly the amount I was.   Which makes me feel kind of crabby! It’s cold outside and I miss the sun! But overall, I’m glad to be home! I missed Denali and Jelly too much!! It seems like Denali did really well at Scott’s. He said her and Kramer are buddies She was exhausted when she came home and is still being very well behaved. She started her first night of Rally last night. Seems like it’s going to be fun! If you don’t know what Rally is- just google it or find a video on youtube. She starts Tracking classes later this month- now THAT is going to be TONS of fun!!  We were going to get her a brother or a sister… but it turns out pitbulls are banned in Macedonia. So my next mission is getting the ban overturned- it’s really stupid that it’s in place.  Irresponsible people and ignorance ruin things for all of us. Maybe we’ll get a different breed, but I don’t know if I want anything but a pit or pit mix- maybe another Shepherd- but we’ll see. I’m starting to stress more about wedding stuff- we’re under 4 months now. We have our next meeting with our Pastor next week, so hopefully we can get more things squared away. I’ll be working on invitations soon… which will be a BIG job. There just isn’t enough time in the day or days in the weekend! Welp, I’m off to write to the mayor haha!

It’s been awhile since my last post, so I figured I’d kill some time at work and update with the latest… We (and I DONT mean Ryan & I) have been out dress shopping 3 times so far with more to come– I have 2, maybe 3, in the top running right now. No hints will be given- it’ll be a surprise to everyone. I have to say, I was NOT excited about dress shopping- of course, I wasn’t dreading it- but now it is SO much fun! Exhausting, but fun! Carla, my mom, and I also found where we’ll be getting bridesmaid dresses from. Image’s carries designers that have the EXACT pink and orange we’ve been looking for- although we really were not looking for long (see our website for the colors). Things seem to be coming together nicely, so far. I emailed a possible cake lady (she makes wedding cakes on the side), just waiting for a response to find out if she is available. Ryan has been trying to get a hold of Stan Hywet to figure out what the deal is with going there for pics between the ceremony and reception–”Steven” hasn’t called back.  I think that’s all that is new about the wedding right now…

We took Denali to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens on Sunday. They have “Dog Days of Summer” there every Sunday where they let you bring your dog in. Since we are members at Stan Hywet, we got in free. Every week some dog group sponsors it. This week it was sponsored by a group that does agility training- I think we’re going to start Nali off in classes pretty soon!! She can’t compete or train exclusively until she’s a year old, but they have puppy classes that will get her used to the equipment and the obsticles. We have some pics from around in the gardens… maybe my future hubby will post some pics tonight . We also have some from Stan Hywet that haven’t been posted yet either **hint hint** 

Should be a pretty busy week, as always. This weekend we’re going to my cousin’s wedding (shout out to Michelle and Teddy)!!! Their colors are orange and green, so I’m excited to see the decor!!! Hopefully I don’t trip– I’m in the wedding….teeehheee

Woohoo!! It’s about time and a HUGE weight off our shoulders!! We’ll be getting hitched at The Church in Aurora — sorry, it’s an awful site (maybe my future hubby can redo it for a discount on the wedding!). It fits all the criteria we were looking for and is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC!! We talked to the Associate Pastor Rev. Kev. (ok, so it’s really Rev. Kevin Horak…but I like Rev. Kev. better) yesterday and he seemed really nice. He made sure to write us in the calendar and we gave him our deposit- so we really are all set! We just have to have a meeting to figure out what pastor we want to marry us. A real nice thing about The Church of Aurora is it appears that they’re not all about money. In the wedding packet it gives the cost to have the wedding there and then it says it’s negotiable because cost shouldn’t prevent people from getting married. For some reason, that means a lot to me. We have no reason to negotiate the price- that’s not the point- but I think that really says something about a place. Especially compared to Hudson Community Church, who gave our date to someone because they already had a deposit in reguardless that our deposit was on it’s way. Anyways, we’re SUPER EXCITED and I feel like less of a Bridezilla(I’m sure Dryan –no, that’s not a typo– is very thankful for that!)…

According to the checklist on theknot.com, we have 167 more things to do! Good thing we have over a year!! We’re waiting on the paperwork from the DJ and we have a meeting with an event lighting company on Wednesday. I’m going to David’s Bridal tonight to order my bridesmaid dress for my cousin Michelle’s wedding in August- so maybe my mom and I will check out a few dresses for me That’s the FUN part she’s been waiting for! Besides that, all the wedding stuff will be put on the back burner for awhile… it would be hard to do wedding stuff while touring Alaska!

Speaking of Alaska– in one week we’ll be on our way (for 16 hours!!)!! It’s going to be amazing!! **be jealous!! hahaha**

I would love to tell ya about our day at Stan Hywet yesterday- but it’s about time to close up shop at work…. maybe Dry will post the video of Denali going down the slide!! (hint hint hunny!)

My beautiful wife-to-be called me out in her last blog post (see below). She said that I never write about anything other than website updates… so I figured I’d write a post just to prove that it is possible. 

We’re very excited about our Alaska trip – less than 2 weeks from today! The fact that we’re leaving in 2 weeks for a place that we’ve never been to, and have no idea how to pack/dress for, is also pretty stressful. We’ve got a ton of stuff to get done in that timeframe. Finding a church to get married in is towards the top of that list.

It is quite a relief to have a lot of other wedding stuff hammered down though. As of right now we have a reception hall, a photographer… and maybe a DJ.

The kids are doing really well. We had a “dog whisperer” out to the house on Friday. He stayed for a little over 2 hours and gave us a lot of good info. He was definitely worth the money, and we would recommend him to anyone. Denali is going to be the best behaved dog ever. She’s already doing better with walks, not trying to bite/play rough with her brother and her sit and stay commands.

Jelly is… Jelly. He has so much personality. Before he came into our house I have to admit that I wasn’t really a cat person. But now I can’t imagine our home without him. He’s getting really big. I can’t believe that he ever looked like this:

Little Jelly

These next few weeks are going to be really busy for us. Don’t know how often we’re going to be able to update this… but definitely keep your eyes peeled for new photos on our picture page. If nothing else we’ll be posting roughly a million pictures after we return from our Alaska trip. We bought an 8 gig memory card before our cruise in February (yes… we’re snobs) and we intend on filling it up this time.

Lots going on this week! Although nothing TOO exciting… 

We’ll be on our way to Alaska in 19 days!! That is CRAZY!!! Who would have thought “I wonder how much it costs to cruise in Alaska…” would turn into a trip this soon! We are SO EXCITED and looking forward to planning our excursions! My dad wants to go fishing and do the bike and brew!! Ryan and I want to go rafting… and I think my mom just WANTS TO GO!! I can’t even guess how many pictures we’re going to have!

Denali got to meet Dr. Siclair and Chrissy yesterday at Crossroads Animal Hospital. We took her in for a check up and everything looks good except she has a yeast infection in her left ear– GROSS! She was a good girl though and got LOTS of treats! About a week of  ear drops should make her ear all better! Jelly and Nali have been taking turns chasing each other around the house– and no one has gotten killed yet . Nali has been doing really well on our walks and she is SO calm in the car- that Dog Whisperer stuff really works! Although, we’re definitely looking forward to Scott coming by on Friday to give us some pointers on how to do things better (given he actually puts our appointment in his blackberry this time!).

Wedding planning has been coming along– we mailed in our contract and deposit to Silver Lake Country Club this morning and we are meeting with our photographer tonight! I am SOOOO excited about our photographer! Matt and Jesse really are awesome- http://www.finestmoments.net/– check out the photo galleries and the photo blog…. you’ll see my sis and bro-in-law in there!!  We are still in search of a church and might be going to hell after what happened Sunday. We went to a church Sunday morning, just to try it out… for the church’s sake I wont mention it’s name…and it was THE MOST AWKWARD CHURCH EVER!! There were about 10 people there- weird people- recorded music and one lady trying to sing. Not upbeat at all and pretty depressing. Less than 15 minutes into the service (during the second song) we pulled the “you leave, then I leave”… it was THAT BAD! We managed to make it to another church that morning. It wasn’t nearly as bad- but we wont be calling it our church home. We eliminated 2 churches in one Sunday morning– that’s what I call productive!!

Well that’s all for now– except….if you haven’t signed the guest book on our page, you better (specifically, **cough cough** MY FAMILY!! )…. and why does my future hubby only blog about website stuff??