It seems it’s been almost 3 weeks since I last updated this blog. The past month, it seems have flown by. Part of me feels like I got a ton done – and the other part of me feels like I’ve accomplished nothing. But, here’s what’s been happening…if you’re curious.

• We mailed our wedding save-the-dates and quickly learned that EVERYONE assumes that they’ll be invited to your wedding.
• I went to Dallas for a conference. I met up with the wonderful Slynnro and also did some shopping. I took ONE photo during my trip, and it was of the Fox News Store at DFW. This photo has since gone missing.
• The day after I returned from Dallas, we officially bought ourselves a house.
• Two days after that, I ran a 5K. The plan was to run with Kerri, Kali, a coworker, and a couple other girls. The other girls bailed and I couldn’t find Kerri, Kali or coworker. This had me in tears as I started my race and strongly contemplating not doing it, but I bucked up and ran.
• This past weekend, we both took Friday off and spent a not-long-enough weekend in Southern California to attend the wedding of one of Bill’s coworkers.
• On Friday evening, we ate at the Stonehill Tavern where I had what was perhaps the most amazing meal of my life. I now have a big giant foodie crush on Michael Mina.
• I considered staying in California forever, until I realized that you have to pump your own gas there. I find this extremely uncivilized. (Note to my Ashleigh who is moving away from me: YOU KNOW YOU HAVE TO PUMP YOUR OWN GAS THERE, RIGHT?)
• Today, I came back to work and we launched this. Yet again, I’m so proud to work for an organization that produces such quality work.
• I’ll spend the rest of the week packing in preparation for our big move this weekend. I’m looking forward to saying farewell to shared walls and saying hello! to shacking up with my boy. Also, our new fantastic Tempurpedic mattress and my new FABULOUS washer and dryer. (We’ve talked about my love of laundry before, yes?)
• And, with that, I’m off to wrap more wine glasses.

Most nights that Bill’s not staying the night, I fall asleep to a podcast. It drowns out the noise of the dog upstairs, the sirens outside and the next-door neighbor singing in the shower. A good night’s sleep means that I only hear five or ten minutes of the podcast. A bad night’s sleep means that I listen to two or three whole podcasts. Last week, I downloaded a new podcast because I had heard that Mayim Bialik was going to be on and I’m totally fascinated with her and her crunchy parenting (and because I really like the host, Teresa Strasser). Anyway, after I had already listened to Mayim talk about her potty trained infant (bad night’s sleep), I switched to another episode in which Melissa Rivers was being interviewed. Thank goodness I fell asleep quickly, but one of the things I did hear before drifting off to dreamland was Teresa asking Melissa if getting breast implants was painful. Here’s what stuck with me, Melissa said something to the effect of, “I picked to do that, it was elective. I don’t get to complain.”

And, honestly this week each time I’ve had a complaint about to leave my lips (or my fingertips), I’ve thought to myself, “Is this complaint related to a choice you’ve made?” Sure, planning a wedding is stressful. But, I chose to have a big formal wedding. My commute SUCKS, but I knew my office was in Salem when I accepted the job. I cannot get rid of that little bulge on my hip, but I put that tart in my mouth AND I also opted to stay home to watch RHOC rather than going to the gym.

Now, I’m not saying that just because we pick to do something we can’t complain about it. What I am saying is, nobody likes a complainer. And, I’m certainly not saying that I’m going to quit complaining, because if you know me, you know it’s MY SPECIALTY. But, there are far too many days when I login to Facebook or Twitter to see a big long line of complaints. It’s annoying, and I don’t want to be like that. I’d rather be known as a girl who rolls with the punches and has a positive outlook rather than a girl who complains about every damn thing that happens to her. So…join me, will you?

This is my new mantra, albeit a long one: Stop. Think. Then Complain, But Do So Knowing That You’re At Risk of Being THAT GIRL.

As you probably know, my fiance’ and I do not live together. Now, I don’t want to shock you, but MANY PEOPLE do not live together before their weddings. But, if you’re one of the people who insinuated that my marriage would fail because we didn’t live together you can rest easy, because we’re shacking up. (And, yeah. Someone really did tell me that not living together would ruin our relationship.)

I really, really enjoy living alone. But, the past few months, it’s grown more and more difficult to see each other on a regular basis and we decided it was time to start looking for a house.

We began our house hunt at the end of January, fully expecting that we’d probably not find anything we liked and that we’d most likely be super stressed out and trying to find a place to live right before the wedding. Because honestly, our list of things we knew we didn’t want was longer than the things we knew we did want. But, on our first evening of house hunting, we found a darling purple bungalow* in our very favorite neighborhood in all of Portland. I loved the house, but thought Bill didn’t care for it. And, Bill loved the house, but thought I hated it. But, thank goodness, over dinner we each revealed that we REALLY LOVED that house. So, an offer was made. Our offer was countered. We accepted. And, now, it’s (almost) ours. We close on March 12th and we couldn’t be more excited.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some boxes to pack.

*And, don’t worry, we’re painting it. We’re not purple house people.