Juno you love our costumes.

For HSM's Pumpkinfest, Jared and I dressed up as Juno and Bleeker from Juno. And I must say, we looked pretty good.

On the way to pumpkinfest we stopped at 7-11 to get a slurpee (obviously) and the girl behind Jared said to him, "Your shorts look extra gold today." He was so caught off-guard that he forgot to say, "My mom uses color safe bleach." But still so funny.

There was also a kid at 7-11 who was FREAKING out over our costumes...it must have been his first halloween or something.

Anyway, check out our sweet get-ups. Not bad for a totally home-made costume right?





I also think that 2nd to ours, Katie and Brandon had the best costumes!
ROB & BIG - except brandon is so dark you can't see his face.

Trabuco Homecoming Pics

I was very pleased with the pictures I took of the kids going to Homecoming on Saturday. They looked very cute and were fun to photograph. Here are a few of my favorites. I'm going to TRY to narrow it down. You can find them all on
MY FLICKR SITE

My Cupcakes

I know what you are going to say...so save it. And just enjoy this post.

My latest obsession/ venture/ life goal... is making cupcakes. I've always enjoyed making cupcakes...and I make a mean funfetti cupcake...but Taffy and Sue gave me a cupcake decorating book for my birthday and it's so much fun. It was a little frustrating at first. Ask Jared, I was almost in tears over those sunflower cupcakes...but I'm practicing and getting better. What do you think? Here are some of the ones I've made recently.

Sunflower Cupcakes



Twilight Cupcakes (Vampires and Warewolves)



Owl Cupcakes (mama and baby)

Mamma Mia!

I saw Mamma Mia! (the movie) with my mamma last week... 1st of all, I loved it. It was so much fun and ABBA music is just great. I mean the movie doesn't compare to seeing the play live, as I got to do in London with the Hibbard family.

Anyway, watching Mamma Mia! made me think...they should make more musicals based on one bands music. I know they've done a Queen musical (We Will Rock You...saw that one in London too), a Beatles musical (Across the Universe), and a Billy Joel musical (Movin' Out...haven't seen it).

Here are some of my suggestions for bands that should have their own musical.

#1. The Cars ...how much fun would that be? I love The Cars
#2. 'N SYNC (I don't REALLY think that this would be that good, but I felt like if I didn't put it, I would be letting go of a piece of me)
#3. Spice Girls (oh wait...there was Spiceworld...my bad)
#4. Michael Jackson (I'm actually surprised there hasn't been one of these...maybe there is and I don't know about it)
#5. Bob Marley (for my husband)

Can you think of some other ones that would be fun?

My favorite thing...

I just realized that I never blogged about this little gem. (or much of anything...i know). Anyway...I've watched this video at least 20 times...and you need to watch it. She's my favorite. I mean I'm a little embarrassed for her... All I've got to say is that I'm so glad I didn't have access to a digital video recorder that was easy to operate. When I was a kid...this is what our family camcorder looked like.

I'm just glad that youtube didn't exist when I was a kid...cuz I would be JUST like this little girl. I mean...me and my friends had a choreographed ROLLER SKATE dance to Diamonds and Pearls by Prince. Now that would be embarrassing because I totally would have broadcast it on youtube. In fact I know my mom has videos of me dancing to Paula Abdul... So...doglover199709....I feel you. Please watch her...over and over. She'll warm your heart. Be sure to note her use of flickering lights, props, awesome beanbag jumps, kicks, and her belly.

Dragons totally belong in your living room

I painted this today. Maybe it's a good thing we don't have TV. I actually do something on my day off.

fortnight

On Sunday Jared and I went to Ikea and bought a dining table. (and a coffee table).

On Monday, we had Alyssa over for dinner...and I wanted to have it set up before dinner...but that didn't really happen...but I'm pretty sure Alyssa had a great time regardless. She decided to use the boxes from the table to make a fort. Here's how it turned out:

Our family picture in front of the fort.


And complete with a green roof. We have to do our part to protect the environment.

After dinner I finally got the table assembled. Here it is:

I should mention that we didn't have enough money to actually purchase chairs...they're expensive...so we have some dumb plastic chairs stolen from the boys house...which I'm sure are stolen from somewhere else... We've decided that we're going to make a bench...and then buy one chair a month until we have a full set. But this works for now. So we can finally have people over for dinner. Kaleigh, Ali, and Chase came over on Wednesday for dinner and were the first people to eat at our table. Very fun!

So let me know if you want to come over for dinner!

yup.

3 times.

Kitchen Decor

Today, I spent my time making this: a lovely robot painting that will hang in our kitchen.


I also watched the majority of season 3 of Grey's Anatomy...and cried twice. But I just started the last episode...so it very well might become three times.

Queen of Baby Showers

Courtney had her baby shower on Monday night...at that baby shower, I defended my title of "Queen of Baby Showers"...meaning I won the "activity" for the second time in a row.

At Sue's baby shower, I blew everyone out of the water by forming more words out of the letters in Giovanni's name than anyone else. (all those crossword puzzles and scrabble games paid off)

On Monday, Annie and I used our superior creativity to design a onesie for baby Rutenbar. I wish I had taken a picture of our winning design. But it said "Birth Control is a FRAUD". Which, of course is funny. So we won.

With all the pregnant people around here, I will probably have another opportunity to defend my title.

Don't get any ideas. There is no superstition about winning the game at a baby shower and being the next to get pregnant. Believe me, I checked. But, apparently there is a superstition that whoever gives the 3rd gift that's opened is the next to have a baby. Unless you live in Oregon...then it's the 7th gift.

So therefore, I'm not pregnant.

Wedding Photos

Our photographer emailed us with an online proofing website to see all of our pictures from our wedding. They're so great! I can't wait to pick which ones will make it to our album.

If you were a part of our wedding...you should probably look through them because they are really cute...and you might be in some of them. Or if you just like sweet wedding pictures, or photography...you'll probably enjoy them too.

Here's how you view them:

Go to her website then click on "client proofing" then enter the password: moine (all lower case). You can look at her favorites that have all been touched up already...or ALL of the pictures from the day...which you're more likely to see yourself. You can also order prints if you like. They are a little pricey...but it's a professional photographer...what do you expect?

And if you're getting married...or want family pictures or anything like that...I recommend her. She's great!

So little time...

I have a day off on Friday...and it is much needed. If you didn't know, we opened the Refinery this weekend...which meant long hours of preparation and hard labor and creativity. Thus, I'm exhausted this week for the worship conference. I haven't had time to blog all the craziness of the past couple weeks...but I did capture it in pictures. Check out my flickr site to see all the mayhem of Refinery opening, graduations, worship conference, etc.

Anyway, I have a much needed day off on Friday. Here's all the things I'd like to/need to do on this day.

1. Write and send thank you cards for wedding gifts.
2. Blog about all the stuff that's gone on the last month
3. Spend some time in the Bible
4. Lay by the pool
5. Get a pedicure
6. Sleep in
7. Spend time with friends and students and family that I haven't seen in a while.
8. Return all the duplicate wedding gifts
9. Spend our gift certificates
10. Order prints from photos from the last 6 months...
11. Choose the pictures that will be in our wedding album
12. Decorate our apartment
13. Work on graduation presents for my girls.
14. Play some Mario Kart
15. Watch the last 3 episodes of LOST that I missed in wedding/honeymoon craziness


Now, that's OBVIOUSLY too much to do in one day off. What should I be sure to do?

Life is complete...

Not because I got married...or...you know...

But because I have now seen all of the Indiana Jones movies.

When Jared and I were in New York, we saw the new one in a theater in Times Square. When we sat down I told Jared that he might need to fill me in, because I'd never seen any of the other movies. He couldn't believe it. So when we got back from our honeymoon we rented all three of them.

We finished The Last Crusade last night. I must say, I really enjoyed them. The second one I enjoyed the least...I hated that girl in it and was mad at Indie for actually liking her...I didn't believe it. BUT...Data from the Goonies is in it...so it made up for the dumb lady.

So there you have it. I'm now an actual human.

Strong Desire to Blog

Now that I don't have to plan a wedding anymore...I really want to blog and tell you all about how perfect our wedding was and how fun our honeymoon was...but ALAS...we leave again tomorrow for staff retreat...so I'll have to put it off till we get back.

I put some of my favorite pics on my myspace. Check it out

But this pretty much says it all...

Today was a big day.

Today was a crazy day with lots of exciting steps.

First of all Jared and I signed a lease on our first apartment! That's so crazy. As much as I'm NOT excited about paying ridiculous rent...I'm really excited about our apartment. It's a one bedroom on the 3rd floor...so no one is above us, and so I'll have a killer butt walking up all those stairs. It has a cute little fireplace and an incredible view. I'm so excited to start decorating it. AND...it's acutally ours in 2 weeks. Things are just happening so fast.

Then I drove straight from signing the lease to my first bridal shower. It was really fun. Lots of good food and friends and some great gifts! It was even more exciting opening the presents knowing where were were going to actually live.

We had a lot of fun taking pictures and dancing and all I can say is that our wedding is going to be so much fun! Here are a few of the pictures we took. You can see many more on www.flickr.com/alannamarie.

Oh...and I'm not sure if I've mentioned this in all of my extensive blogs recently...but Jared and I have a website. www.jaredandalanna.com check it out!



All the girls in my bridal party below...(minus the small group girls)
This is my "check out my awesome triceps" picture
Can't go a photo shoot without a Spice Girls reference!

I like Presents

Our first wedding presents have started arriving in the mail...it's so exciting!

That's all I got for now.

Wedding Progress

Well...I've been asked to blog more...and give an update on my wedding planning. I didn't want to be that girl that has nothing better to talk about than her wedding...but I did want to let you know what's been going on. So here's what we've gotten done so far.

1. Set a date and place:
Friday, May 16th at Rancho Capistrano.

2. Booked a photographer.
Her name is Melissa Slater and she is so good. I'm so excited about her. She also shot Amber and Jordan Slaybaugh's wedding. You can see her work on her website

3. Designed our "Save the Date" postcards.
I'm sending most of them out today. By far the hardest part of wedding planning so far, is trimming down the guest list. When you work in ministry you just know too many people. So let me just say...if we couldn't invite you...we love you dearly...and we are SO sorry!

4. Booked the Honeymoon!
2 nights at the Montage (Thanks to Julie! Still trying to figure out how to pay for that though :)
5 nights in Jamaica
5 nights in New York city...including a Yankee Game, Mets Game, Broadway show, and The Daily Show.

5. Bought and ordered a dress.
We bought a dress last Friday at Mon Amie and I love it. It's so pretty. AND it was the second cheapest dress in the WHOLE store...which has thousands of dresses. I was really proud of that fact...although it's still way too expensive...but what can you do?

I think that's the process so far...still need the florist and DJ and bridesmaids dresses and a million other details too. But we'll get there. I'm meeting with the florist on Monday.

So I'll do my best to keep you updated. All 2 of you who check my blog :) And I'll also try and be better about blogging in general...so I can find other things to talk about besides the wedding.

Something worth blogging about...

After over a month hiatus from blogging I do have something blogworthy to tell you. What you ask? Oh...the best day of my life perhaps. So here's how it went because I've repeated it a million times...I think from now on I might just refer people here when they ask.

Jared and I went to Laguna Beach yesterday. We had a gift certificate to one of my favorite restaurants, Cest la Vie, that some of my small group girls gave me for my birthday. So we ate there on the patio that overlooks the beach and ate some delicious food. After lunch we walked around Laguna Beach, went to Tippecanoe's, shopped around, got some Starbucks, walked on the beach etc...then in the afternoon we walked up the hill and got to a little grassy area that overlooked the ocean. In the middle of the grassy area was a picnic basket. There were a few other people around so I didn't think much of it. Then when Jared went and stood right by it, I thought we were being rude, standing next some one else's picnic basket. But then I remembered a conversation that Jared and I had over a year ago...on the night of our first kiss. We were talking about dates and picnics and Jared said that a picnic date is serious business and shouldn't be taken lightly...he said, "If I ever take you on a picnic, you'll know I'm proposing to you." So cute right? She here we are sitting on a cliff overlooking the ocean on a day that should have been rainy hours ago. We set out the blanket and then he tells me that I have grass on my back. So I stand up for him to wipe it off...and he hands me a piece of paper and tells me to read it. Now, girls...let me just say, it was the best piece of paper I've ever read! I'm not gonna be too mushy, but honestly it was everything you've ever hoped your future husband to say to you...ok now I'm pushing the cheese border. So after I finish reading it (the last line was, "Will you marry me?") Jared is down on one knee and asks me to marry him. WOW! I'm not 100% sure...but I think I said yes. Then we kissed and hugged and then I hear someone yelling at us. It's Doug Elliot of course...then Taylor, Greg, Brian, and Brian also come out of hiding, all with cameras. So fun...and SOOOO embarrassing.

Then Jared took me to another one of my favorite restaurants, Tuna Town, for some delicious Sushi...which is where we went on our first actual date (cuz we don't really want to count Albertaco's as our first date...we're classy like that). After dinner...more surprises...we went to his parents house where I was greeted by seriously every person I've ever met in my entire life. You couldn't even walk through the house at all!

So much fun...and so overwhelming...which is why I've been in PJs all day watching Veronica Mars, and letting my cheeks relax from smiling so much yesterday.

So there you go. Thanks so much to everyone who was there last night! It meant so much to me to have everyone there. It's nice to know that so many people care about us and support us and are praying for us! And also...thanks for keeping your mouths shut! I love being surprised...so thanks for letting me be. Oh and thank you for not making fun of my chubby fingers. :)