Day off Friday = Productive Wedding Planning Day

I took Friday off to handle some errands and meetings for the upcoming wedding. At times it still seems not real. Chris and I have been together for so long and we always talked about getting married "someday", but it was always something in the future that we didn't really know about. We talked about wedding plans little by little, but now it is official and we have our date set. I am so excited!!!

The first thing on the agenda was a meeting with the church. Although Chris and I met with the minister previously, we hadn't been on the full tour of the church and there was a lot of paperwork to turn in. Chris didn't take off work to go. Honestly, he isn't big on the details like this. He would much rather be at work. My mother was off Friday too so she went with me. We spent about 2 hours at the chuch. We learned what rooms we had access to, what furniture we could use and move, and about all the special features that the chuch offers. I am so excited. When we walked from the bridal room into the sanctuary, I cried. The First Baptist Church is beautiful and will make a fantasic backdrop to our special day. We then completed all of the paperwork that we could and turned it in. There is still more to do, but some of the forms aren't ready to be completed since I don't have all the details planned yet. We are getting there though.

Second, we headed over to the WP Daily Quill to look at invitation and program designs. I picked a design that I loved for the invites. I was really picky about them. I didn't want just plan invites. Lucky for me, the quill can make something like I wanted. We will work more with Kelly later. It is a little too soon to be ordering invites. Kelly also showed us a few options for programs. I picked some of those that I liked. Progress is being made and I like it!!!

My mother and I had a fantasic lunch at Prima's. It was nice to just talk to my mother. We then took a few of our leftover yardsale stuff to be donated. I took my leftover work clothes to Ozark Action and all of the other junk went to the Samaritan Outreach. I feel blessed that we can help those less fortunate than us.

After lunch, for our final meeting of the day, we went to WP Floral and Ballonery. I actually picked out most of the flowers for the entire day. The only things left are reception flowers. We can't decide those until we actually decide what design we are doing on the tables. My bouquet makes me very happy. I wanted an all white bouquet and I'm getting it. It will have 20 white roses (the smaller ones) and 12 stephanotis. It will look somewhat like this:

The other flowers being used for things like bridesmaid bouquets, bouts and other decorations are lilies, asters, gerber daisies, wax flowers and babys breath. They are all beautiful flowers and I am so excited.

Currently we are working on decor for the tables at the reception. I think that we are going to do a mix of flowers and candles.

As of now, two bridal shop appointments have been set up for July 17th in Springfield and I cannot wait!!!

I really enjoy getting to mark things of the to-do list and love working on details for our special day!!

Trucking Woes

There has been trouble in the trucking business lately.

As you may know, Christopher works with my parents and is the foreman of the dump trucking company. My dad brought Chris home from over the road and bought 2 dump trucks to keep him going. We bought the trucks about a year and a half ago. This one is Chris's baby. It's a 1991 International. It came to us as a beat up white cab. We had the bed put on it and painted and other repairs.

It is a beauty and sounds even better!!!

Well, Thursday afternoon on Chris's last load, his truck lost power while he was driving down the road and started blowing out white smoke. A couple of the guys from work headed out to try to fix it. Nothing they did seemed to work so they brought it back to the quarry. Friday a mechanic from Cliff's Truck Repair came out to investigate.

Just about the worse thing that it could have been was the problem. Apparently the turbo shelled out into the motor. I don't understand all of the details about what this does, but based on Chris and my father's reactions, it wasn't good. We got the final report on Saturday. Basically the head is now bad as well as the pistons and injectors. So we now have to rebuild the motor that is in it.

Now, I know what you are thinking, the truck is old and things happen. That would be true had the motor been the original motor. See truck motors last about 800,000 miles before needing a rebuild. But the problem is that this motor only has 30,000 miles on it. The original motor in the truck blew last summer and we put in a new $13,000 motor.

The main reasons that a turbo goes out (so I have been told) are dirty air and dirty oil. We had neither. The air filter looked brand new and was a few months old and Chris services his truck regularily. In my dad's business, maintenance is a big deal especially when you are talking about expensive machinery. Plus when the machines are down, you aren't making any money, so it pays to have them ready to go at all times.

So what was the cause of the problem? Poor workmanship in assembling the motor. When you buy a motor for something like this, certain parts of our truck had to be sent to the manufacturer to place on the motor to get the warranties valid. And apparently this wasn't done correctly.

Now, I will say that we had major problems with the company that we bought the motor from a year ago. The man took our money and parts to the motor and then stopped returning our phone calls. For something that we were promised would take 10 days to get the motor, took over a month. Then we only got the motor back when we had the police involved. Needless to say, it was a nightmare.

So this company not only caused us problems back then, but have again. I couldn't even begin to describe what they did so that it would make sense to anyone but a mechanic, so I will not even try, but just know that this company assembled it incorrectly. I guess we are lucky that it ran as long as it did.

Needless to say, I have two men in my life that are just sick/heartbroken/pissed about this whole deal. There will most likely be some sort of action taken against the company who sold us the motor. That guy should have done more investigating about us before he tried to screw us over. My dad is a stubborn hardass who will eliminate your business if you mess with him and then there is me, attorney-to-be. Watch out.

Chris's truck should be back and working in about a week, but for the time being, he will be driving the Kenworth.

Hopefully things will get better.

Get to Know You Sunday

This has been an enjoyable 3-day weekend for me. I got so much accomplished s far and there is still the rest of today. But it's Sunday, so its time for you to get to know me.

1. If you could have one of Superman's, powers which one would you want? Superhuman strength..Flight..Superhuman speed..X-Ray vision..etc.  Super human speed woul be great. I get so busy with school and now wedding planning. Plus trips from CoMo to WPMO would be a lot better with superhuman speed

2. The best thing I ever won is....? 2 honeymoon trips, which we never used, in fact we sold them

3. Have you ever skyped with a bloggy friend? I have never skyped period.

4. What is your favorite Summer month? July. I love all of the events around the 4th of July. Both Chris's family and my own have huge famly events. Then Chris's birthday is the 5th. And in July the rivers and lakes are warm enough that I want to get it

5. Pool, Lake, or Ocean? I love the lake, but it is a little far away so if I had a pool in the backyard, I would be very happy

6. One of my favorite Summer memories is.....? Right now, all things summer make me really happy. For me its the simple things that are my favorite things. I love sitting out on our deck talking to Chris with Dozer running around in the yard. I love BBQs with the family. I love trips to the lake and rivers. I love it all and nothing big stands out to me at the current moment

7. What's your favorite secret bargain? Everyday workoutside shirts for Chris that I can get at Country Mart (the grocery store for  $1)

8. Do you plan on or have you been watching the World Cup? I haven't been watching. I've got too much going on and I doubt that I do watch it
 
Hope the weekend has been great for everyone else. Don't forget to play along at Mann Land 5.

5 Question Friday

I am always so excited for Friday to be here. Today, I am more excited. I have the day off and will be going to a few wedding appointments. I thought I might try to sleep in a little this morning, but Dozer had different thoughts and woke me up at 5:15. So, I'm starting my blogging earlier today. Now, on to Five Question Friday sponsored by Five Crooked Halos.

1. What do you think makes a good friend, or friendship? Trust, loyalty, common interests, ability to have fun no matter what, ability to talk about anything


2. What is the last thing you bought & later regretted? I can't even remember. I am so tight with my money, I hardly ever buy anything that isn't necessary. Like today I have to go buy a t-post puller and barbed wire (what a life huh?)

3. Have you ever had a prank played on you? Yes, just the other day Chris did. Now, I will preface this story by reminding you that Chris works for my parents. It was Tuesday and I knew that Chris had several loads to be delivered at work (like 25 to be exact and that is more than one could do in a day). Well, he calls me about 11:30 a.m. to tell me that he was off work. I was shocked and asked why. He told me that he and my dad got into a fight and my dad sent him home. (although this has never happened, I wouldn't be totally surprised, the two of them both have terrible tempers). I started freaking out trying to figure out what the fight was over and stuff. Then he starts laughing and tells me that he was joking and his loads were cancelled and he went to go work at the farm

4. What is your favorite theme park? I have only been 3 (Silver Dollar City, Celebration City and Six Flags). But desire to want to go depends on what I am in the mood for. If I am feeling like shopping and walking around to enjoy the day, I go to Silver Dollar City. If I am looking for better rollar costers I head to Six Flags. Celebration City wasn't overly exciting the last time that I was there.

5. Have you ever seen someone else give birth? Nope and I doubt that I ever will. I don't want anyone video taping me giving birth (when Chris and I decide to have kiddos) so I won't even watch myself.

Don't forget to play along and link up!!!

Top 2 Tuesday

I feel terrible that I have not updated about my weekend, but things are crazy at the Gabel and Upton households. There has just been a lot going on. Most of the time I feel like I don't have time to sit down and eat dinner.

Well, it's Tuesday so that means Top 2 Tuesday featured by The Undomestic Momma. This week's topic is Favorite Books. I always take the time to read in an evening (except during finals time). I love crime books and things to do with the law. I also love suspensful books.

1. A Time to Kill by John Grisham

This is my all-time favortie book. The movie is fantastic too. Actually it is the movie that made me first decide that I wanted to become an attorney. The story line is wonderful. It's a little sad but in the end justice is served and to me that is what matters. For the longest time I thought that this was a true story only to find out just a few years ago that it wasn't. That alone should show you how great of a writer John Grisham is. I also love all of his other books. That are great stuff.

2. Blind Alley by Iris Johansen

One of my sister-in-laws brought me a whole stack of books by Iris Johansen. This was the first that I read and it was a great book. It is full of suspense. One of the great things about Johansen's books is that the characters will reappear in other books too. You follow the same people. This book is definately a page turner.

I occassionally will true crime books. I'm such a nerd though. Even the real life books that I read are about crimes too.

Head over to Taylor's blog at The Undomestic Momma and link up.

5 Question Friday

Even though it was a short work week, I am still glad to see that it is Friday. With that it means it is time once again for 5 Question Friday

1. If you could go back to college would you change your major? Or, if you were to go to college right now...what major would you choose? I've always thought that my second calling in life was to be an event planner. I'd probably do that

2. What do you love most about your home? That it is our peaceful little piece of heaven

3. What types of books do you like to read (if you like to read at all)? I like crime and mystery books (imagine that)

4. What is the grossest thing you've ever eaten? Grossest sounding is squid, but it is delicious

5. If you HAD to be a character on a TV show, whom would you be? I always admired Lucy Camden on the 7th Heaven. We were very similar in a lot of ways. Went to school to follow our dreams. Marry a great guy. Live in a house next to my parents. And we are both a little high strung and can be crazy.

Take a break out of your Friday and play along with Five Crooked Halos.

Hope you all have a great weekend.

Weekend Recap

First day back to work after a long weekend are always harder than Mondays. At least we can look on the bright side of having a short work week.

Friday I got off a little early. The boss man is pretty generous on long weekends. I had to head to the house to help my mother pick up things for our company. One of my best friends Maggie came to town this weekend for a visit. She appears to really enjoy her visits to Howell County. Maybe she is a country girl at heart.

Friday night was pretty low-key. We made homemade tacos. We took Maggie to feed to cows. She finally got to pet one.

She was also introduced to the cow that my dad named after her.

The rest of the evening we talked about my wedding planning and looked at a few things online. We planned out what we were going to do Saturday. We were all exhausted and hit the sack pretty early.

Saturday was a jammed packed day. We got up and had breakfast and spent a little time on the back porch in the beautiful weather. We then headed to town. We had several errands to tend to. We went to Hirsch, two banks, Radio Shack and Wal-Mart. We also tended to a little wedding business. Maggie has been helping me with designing/shopping for bridal party dresses. She has been a lot of help so far. I'm grateful to have such a fantastic maid of honor. We also went to a floral shop to get some ideas. We looked through some books. Luckily, Maggie and I agree on bouquet styles. We couldn't make any firm decisions though. We are still over a year out and won't be able to know what is available and at what price quite yet. But at least we have ideas.

We had a great lunch at Colton's. Another friend of mine was in town from Wyoming. I hadn't seen her since my junior year in high school (almost 7 years ago). It was so good to see her. We had a great visit and it was nice to walk down memory lane with her too. We are planning getting together again before she goes back to Wyoming. Hopefully next time we meet up won't be another 7 years.

After lunch we headed back to the house. We went 4-wheeling. I had to teach Maggie how to drive, but by the end of the weekend, she was doing pretty good.

Saturday night we had a barbeque. It was nothing fancy just hamburgers. We were all saving room for homemade chocolate cake and homemade ice cream. This is one of Maggie's favorite parts. We spent most of the evening outside just talking.

Sunday was a day of painting for us. Maggie loves to paint and I was glad to take advantage of that while she was here. We got the second coat of paint on the front living room. That room and hallway are about done. The only thing left is baseboards and crown molding. We had a dinner of left overs and then rented Dear John. That was a great movie. Of course I cried and of course Chris and his cousin made fun of me.

Saturday before Maggie left was pretty low key. Kit Kat was over at Chris's for a visit so we decided that it was time Dozer and Kit-Kat met, after all, they are siblings and will soon be living together. Dozer was a little scared at first, but after a little growling and sniffing, Dozer decided that she was okay. They even played together. Aren't the kiddos precious?

After Maggie left, Chris and I worked on the driveway. We are lining the driveway with landscape timbers before we put more rock on it. It is starting to look really nice. We didn't get it fully done. We had lots to do. We used dad's loaded around the house too. That sure makes the farm work a lot easier. Plus it was nice to work together outside. Things are moving along faster at the house now that we are both working. We had dinner with my parents then headed back to the house to do more work.

We might be getting another dog. There has been a little beagle hanging around for the past few days. Neither Chris nor I have been able to get close to him, but we are trying. He has been staying in the shed at the house. He's a smart puppy. He made camp in something with a roof and close to a good, clean water supply (the cattle waterer). We have put out food for the pup so we will just wait and see how that turns out.

That's about it for the weekend in Pomona. I hope that you all had a great weekend too!