Our internet went down Saturday evening while I was at work, thanks to a horrendous thunderstorm. We didn’t get it back until yesterday morning, just before I came to my dad’s, at which time I realized that my business host did a server change that caused both of my scripts to stop working. I’m still trying to get one of them functioning properly again.

I was seriously dying without the internet for more than two days. Coming to my dad’s, it was excruciating to think that it would finally be back, and I would be leaving it. But lo and behold, Judy actually has internet in the house now - and wireless at that! It’s like a dream come true.

Not much has happened lately, other than me working and my sister’s colonoscopy. We’re just hoping she doesn’t have cancer, as the doctor removed a polyp during his sophisticated cavity search, and colon cancer was what killed our grandmother. I’m trying to remain light-hearted until the biopsies are done.

I’ll be going home tomorrow afternoon, and Friday I’m calling in sick to work so I can spend the day with my family and Josh at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. I think I deserve a little fun.

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Thursday evening, Josh and I were going to go to the Hardin County Fair. I mean, we got ready to go and everything. But we were ready too early, so we decided to stop by his parent’s house so I could see the king-size memory foam bed that he’s inherited from them - which will soon be mine. :) But on our way up the drive, they were already on their way out, saying they were going to Kingdom Buffet with a bunch of the family. We went in to look at the mattress anyway (since Josh still has a key), then after much indecision, we decided to just go eat some Chinese with them.

I really do love his family. They’re all so laid back, even his grandparents were putting “in bed” at the end of their fortune cookie fortunes. And they all bombarded me to look at my engagement ring, since Josh hadn’t actually shown it to any of them, he’d just told them about it.

After that we went to the mall to look around. I talked to my friend Meredith, who I rarely every see anymore but who was still thisclose to being asked to be a bridesmaid. I still love that girl, she’s so unique. We went to Zales and Kay’s to look at wedding bands. I can’t find any that perfectly match my engagement ring and, well, we all know how picky I am. So we’re probably just going to get my engagement ring engraved and use it as my wedding band as well - which will also save money. Josh saw the ring he picked out online at Kay’s (for about $160 more than Amazon, cough cough), and he realized he didn’t actually like how big it was because it makes his fingers spread apart. But he did see some other Titanium rings he liked at the store, so I’m sure he’ll pick out something.

After the mall we went to Michael’s so I could look at their wedding supplies. I was thoroughly disappointed. The lighted metal arch is pretty, but everything else looks like it was made really shittily and is priced way too high for the quality. I mean, when I looked in Wal-mart yesterday, they had nicer looking stuff at WAY cheaper prices! Oh well. We then went to Barnes & Noble so I could look at wedding books, but didn’t find anything very helpful. Apparently you’re a total freak if you want to have a formal wedding for less than $3500.

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Josh has been really upset about his money situation lately. He actually cried about it when he got home from work Wednesday night. I asked what was going on, and I finally pieced together through his mumbles that his current bills take up all of his income, so he can’t save any money for the wedding and our future house (the way I’m able to). I asked him if he was slowly eating away at his savings or something, and he said no, that he WAS able to afford his bills, but just barely.

I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean, he’s 22 years old. Most guys his age aren’t able to save money month to month - especially around here, most live paycheck to paycheck. But he’s already ahead of the pack, because he does have a ton of savings from when he lived with his parents and was working. He really shouldn’t get so upset. He keeps saying I’m saving money for “my” house even though I keep correcting him with “our” house. I told him it’s not about who makes the most money, it’s about us being willing to support each other no matter what. That’s what marriage is, and he really needs to get used to it.

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Originally by Mina Azodi for Cosmopolitan.

He starts talking in specifics. If “We should take a trip sometime” has become “Let’s go to Key West for Labor Day,” your guy is sending a strong signal. Making concrete plans indicates not only that he sees you in his future but also that he’s feeling brave enough to say it out loud.

He acts like Dr. Phil. When you’re bummed, listen to how your guy reacts. If he helps you talk through the problem, he’s showing that he is invested in you and concerned about what happens. But beware of remarks like “It will work out” or “Give it time.” They’re pat and cliched, which might mean he doesn’t care enough to discuss it.

He introduces you to his boss. You may not have hung out with his parents (yet), but meeting his mentor is a big step. He values how his higher-up views him, so he won’t bring a girl around until he’s sure she’s more than a casual fling.

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Yesterday, Josh and I went to the Brown-Pusey House in Elizabethtown to see if we liked it for our wedding, since it’s the only thing local that’s not ugly at a decent price. My aunt got married there 15 years ago, but I didn’t remember what anything looked like. When we got there, I thought it looked a bit small - but it was absolutely gorgeous. I knew it would be great. The only downer? We’re going to have to have a dry wedding. The way the law in Hardin County is written, you have to have a caterer with a liquor license to serve alcohol at any event, AND caterers have to serve a certain amount of food to be able to serve alcohol. Well, we want to cater our own wedding to save money, so that was just going to get way too expensive. So, sparkling grape juice it is. The drunkards in our families will have to get over it.

There’s just one thing I haven’t been able to fit into our budget, and that’s a professional photographer. For the really good ones, you’re lucky if they have packages starting at $1500! That’s just obscene to me, especially for digital photos. There are cheap ones out there, but sadly, you get what you pay for, so it seems, as the pictures aren’t great. And some of the expensive guys are REALLY REALLY GOOD - but some of them aren’t! Seriously, if you’re going to charge that much, at least make sure you’re worth it.

I’m also not really into the ones that make you pay EXTRA for a full copyright release to the digital negatives. I mean, it’s your own fucking wedding. That’s just rude.

And see, I’m quite capable of editing and printing my own photos (hello, Photoshop, I think we’ve been friends about 10 years now?), so I don’t really need that service - which is where most of the cost really goes. So I can’t fathom why in the fucking world a woman would give me a custom quote of $1300 for shooting 4 hours and just handing the pictures over on a disc. You have GOT to be kidding. You’re basically just charging me for the actual time spent shooting, which is over $300 an HOUR. Get over yourself, bitch.

Thus far, I’ve found an okay guy that charges $595, including copyright release. The guy I want is Todd Nichols. His photos are absolutely amazing, perfect, everything I want. His prices aren’t listed on his website, so I requested a quote, but at that kind of quality, I’m sure it’s way out of my budget. And that would be totally understandable.

I requested about 10 other quotes last night, letting everyone know I’m working class and don’t need to be charged out the wazoo for their fabulous editing sk1llz or super awesome photo album prints. Crossing my fingers!

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In the neverending line of crazy things I do related to premature wedding planning, I started our registry yesterday. Hey, I mean, The Knot says it’s perfectly acceptable to start your registry from the day you get engaged. And we’ve been engaged over two months. Because according to The Knot, you never know when someone’s going to randomly seek out your hidden registries to send you a congratulatory pre-wedding engagement gift. Or something.

I worked on it ALL DAY yesterday, and I only found 44 things so far. The Knot says we should list at least 2 or 3 times as many gifts as there are guests at the wedding, so we need at least 150. I’m just so picky, it’s taking forever. Josh is not picky whatsoever, or this would take eternity.

I am a total online shopper. I’ll probably go into the store to look at some of the stuff I list to make sure I really like it, but I love online shopping. I don’t know why. I guess because I don’t have to deal with real humans. Fortunately, I found this fabulous website called My Registry where you can group ALL of your online registry items into one master registry - TOTALLY FREE. I mean, that is freaking amazing, right? So I’ve been perusing walmart.com, target.com, bedbathandbeyond.com, kohls.com, and amazon.com simultaneously for items to compare them all, then put my favorite on My Registry. Once I’ve gotten a decent list I’ll probably go to other websites to see if they have stuff I like better, but for the most part, our families are poor and I know they can afford most of the stuff from these sites that I like.

I’m actually having a hard time putting expensive things on the list. The frugal buyer in me keeps telling me to choose the cheapest thing that will do the job, but then the future wife and mother in me tells me that I’m going to be using this stuff for a LONG. TIME. and I should go for the gold. So I’ve been trying to strike compromises - getting only pretty stuff, and actually coordinating the household, but still going for the bargains.

By the way… in case you’re interested… my registry is *cough* here *cough*.

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