Thursday, October 27, 2011

Well It's Official...

For a Thoughtless Thursday post I thought I'd share two things to get back into the swing of blogging...

#1 I am officially (according to the Social Security Administration) Melissa Marie Chesnut now. It is kind of maddening all the stuff you have to wait for before you change your name or how you should change it, etc. I'll get there hopefully before the start of 2012.

#2 We received our sneek peek yesterday of our wedding photos. Ah-ma-zing! I cannot really form words as to how happy I am about them. They cover every emotion from that day and will help us remember it just like it was yesterday, and that is what great photography is supposed to do. Please check out Laura's blog, Tender Portraits, and make a comment if you like them. I'm sure she'd appreciate it!

Until next time...

Thursday, October 6, 2011

You picked "Mr. Rogers"?!...

On October 1st, Todd's aunt Susan threw me a wedding shower in Platte City with his side of the family. It was the first time I had met a lot of the distant relatives, and I am so blessed to have such a large, loving family with my new family. We had lots of laughs with the games Susan had me play, and she truly outdid herself with the decor, tasty cake (which was pumpkin!), cupcakes and cider. It was a lot of fun, and we received so many thoughtful gifts that we will cherish forever like a handmade afghan, our first "Christmas" ornament, tea towels. etc.

You may be wondering about this title I posted for this post. Susan had me play a game of guessing which Todd would choose out of a series of questions. I did pretty well. I only missed four out of 20 questions. He also lied on two so I don't think that counts. He said on the question, "Which would you rather be, Superman or Mr. Rogers?" I mean come on, Todd would never want to be Mr. Rogers!!! So I had to chew bubble gum for his lie on that one. It was fun anyway though!

Here are just a few photos....

The beautiful decor Susan had for my shower in Platte City.

A gorgeous Santa wreath Aunt Floreen made us for our house.

The yummy pumpkin cake!

Showing off the CUTE Boston Terrier card complete with a tux and veil on the dogs his grandma Betty found!

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

This last month...

It has been a busy month, but it has been lots of fun seeing friends and family and planning the last minute details of a wedding.

On September 17th, my running partner in crime Hannah and I ran a 5K in Gower, Mo., (her hometown), for a lady who died last year and taught with Hannah's mom. Hannah did such a great job in the race, and her brother, Lance, and I ran pretty well and I got an even better time than I have before. I have one more race before the wedding on October 9th, and am excited to share some results from the last 6 months of running.
Hannah and I at the Donna Ruoff Memorial 5K Race
Possible bathroom vanity and sink
The next weekend was Todd's bacehlor trip to Bennett Springs, Mo., so I stayed behind and worked on some house projects and went to a wedding of one of my college roommates. I painted one wall purple in our bathroom and am debating on painting the rest as I don't want it to be too dark in the room. It doesn't have any windows, so I thought I'd keep the painted wall as an "accent" wall and paint the others a soft beige color. Todd thinks this is so silly, but when I tell my girl friends they think it's perfectly acceptable. Hmmmm....I also want to take on the whole bathroom reno this winter with a new tile floor, updates to all the lighting and fixtures and add this new beauty with an oval mirror/medicine cabinet above it. The one I'm looking at is a bit larger than this, but same color and everything.

I had a wonderful time at Danielle's wedding seeing lot of Theta sisters I had not seen since college plus spending time with Danielle and her new husband, Tyler. I got lots of ideas for my wedding, too. On Sunday, my good friend, Robin and I, used my Groupon to venture out on a beautiful day to the Jowler Creek Winery located about 10 minutes from my home. It was a fun outing before our Junior League social and great to sample their delicious wines. If you ever get the chance to come to our neck of the woods, first let me know, and then I'll take you on some wine tours at our fabulous wineries around Dearborn/Weston.



Robin and I at Jowler Creek Winery north of Platte City, Mo.
Robin and I then went to the new Charming Charlie's store in St. Joe for a Junior League fundraiser. I had a blast picking out gifts for our wedding helpers and it helped our League. I hope we do it again in the future.

Finally, this catches us up to speed of the last week of September. I am trying to wrap up large work projects before the wedding, plus finish a wedding, get ready for school to start again, and continue my projects for Junior League. Oh, and I am so so so busy with Mary Kay right now, which I absolutely love and am very thankful for!

This is Hwy. 59 leading into Atchison. The area is still so full of water and it is devastating to see the houses and farms that this flood took.

I went to Atchison (THANK YOU FOR OPENING THE BRIDGE!) on Friday and got our paperwork started for our marriage license. I then stopped in one of the best places to grab lunch, remember Willie's? I grabbed lunch there and it was so good as always. I did some shopping at Nell Hill's which you've all heard me talk about too and got some great gifts/wedding decor. This will be another winter project I am going to tackle...isn't it awesome?! It will go great with what I hope we can find for a new sectional.


This is a burlap/antique license plate ottoman
Todd was gone again this past weekend as he was in Wyoming with Jared hunting antelope. I stayed behind and worked on crafty stuff Friday night, had to work at the Josephine Expo Saturday morning and had my bridal shower on Saturday with Todd's family (That's another post later this week!). It was such a beautiful, fall weekend and am so excited it is now October and the countdown is really on...now I just hope the leaves stay and are even more pretty in 10 days!

Finally, here is Todd's trophy from his hunt. It is the largest antelope he has shot thus far, and he was pretty proud of it.
Todd's Wyoming Antelope
Can't wait to catch you up on all other things soon!