Amy Jo On The Go!

Archive for the ‘fiance’ Category

We finally had some “ring” success.  I took mine last week to a local jeweler to get re-sized and I’m having some of my diamonds replaced and Don finally picked out his ring this past weekend (see pic below).  It is a tungsten carbide and silver with 1/4 ct. round diamonds.  It looks so good on his finger

My ring should hopefully be done in the next day or two….I can’t wait to get it back.  Most importantly, I can’t wait to wear it and not worry about it falling off my finger a dozen times a day.

After 17 months we finally got some engagement pictures taken.  The weather was horrible as Michigan got hit with another major snow storm on Friday night, so that put a little kink in our plans, but I still think they turned out totally awesome.  Here is a sneak preview….

As you can tell, the dog was much more cooperative then the cats….It was so much fun.  And I’m so impressed with the Mister.  He hates his picture being taken but he did really well.  He even impressed himself!  I think he feels better about our wedding pictures now.  He has been so stressed about being in front of a camera.

Thanks again Rachel….the pics are awesome and you are awesome!!

Our ties that I ordered from Etsy finally arrived this week.  I love them and so does fiance, which is good since he will be wearing one!

My only worry is that the guys are going to be wearing white shirts w/ black pants and these damask ties, but my dress is ivory.  Do you think it’s going to look funny in pictures with the guys wearing white next to me? 

My fiance is not an easy person to shop for. He is really picky with his clothes/shoes, which is about the one thing that I’m really good at shopping for. I’ve been really thinking hard lately about what to get him for Christmas and the only thing I can come up with so far is a home theatre system. Day after day after day he is consistently taking about how he wants surround sound and how this movie would be so much better with surround sound and the music on this channel would sound so much better with surround sound…….yada, yada, yada!

Well folks……here’s my dilemma: I have no clue where to even begin shopping for this item. Do I have to go to a store like Best Buy or maybe a department store like Sears? Or would someplace like ABC Warehouse have this? I am stumped. And my next question is….how much does surround sound even cost? I might be in way over my head here!

So we took off on Friday to head down to Dayton, OH for my cousin’s wedding. I was beyond excited. This was going to be the first trip that my fiance and I had made together. He doesn’t travel much after the accident but he was excited as well. We booked a nice handicap accessible suite including a sitting room with couch, bedroom with king size bed and kitchen with a fridge, microwave and wet bar. We were going to have it made………that was until we got there and the front desk told us that we did not have a reservation for the handicap suite but instead they had reserved a “regular” room for us. We had just traveled over 6 hours and she was about to mess with the wrong person! Regardless of the fact that I reserved the room by calling the actual hotel and speaking with them about our “special” needs and not using the general 800 number for reservations…..and I had a printed copy of my confirmation stating the exact details of the room I reserved, but she insisted that there was NOT a handicap accessible suite in their hotel. After a few minutes of me trying to rip this ladies face off she finally admitted that there WAS a handicap suite but it had been double booked and the other party was already checked in. She then proceeded to tell me that they didn’t have anymore wheelchair accessible rooms available in the hotel…..If you know me at all, you know that at this exact minute I lost it……I was NOT going to go back to the car to tell my fiance that we had just traveled this far and had no place to lay our head. Traveling is not easy for him and I was not about to make the journey even worse! Needless to say, after a few select words from myself, the front desk was able to miraculously find us an available handicap room for the weekend. It obviously wasn’t the suite we had intended on, but it was good enough! There was a king size bed, but most importantly there was a wheelchair accessible bathroom.

And this was just the start to our lovely weekend…..it only goes downhill from there!!!

FYI ~ Holiday Inn – Dayton (North) is NOT ever going to get a recommendation from me.

I’m not sure what happened in the past 48 hours, but I have become quite the grump!

It doesn’t help that it is 48 degrees outside, dark, rainy and miserable. I am NOT ready for this kind of weather. Fall is a beautiful season here in Michigan, but I’m just not ready. And has anyone realized how early it is getting dark at night and how it is still dark until late in the morning. The time change associated with this time of year just kills me.

In addition to this horrible weather I feel like I haven’t seen my fiance in a coons age! It’s literally been almost 2 weeks since we have spent one night/day together. Granted, we do live together so at some point in the night we are both sleeping in bed and I wake him every morning before work, but that’s been the only “us” time we have had. We are just so busy doing different things during the week and then last weekend I was out of town…..uurrgghhhh! As of right now it looks like Sunday will be the day we can spend some time together. That is until one of us commits to something else……

Weight Watchers is still going great, in leiu of the fact that I gained 1.8 lbs this week after losing almost 4 lbs last week. I’m on this roller coaster for the past 4 weeks and I just wish I could keep losing instead of going up and down, up and down on the scale.

Work is…….well, let’s just say that if I don’t get a vacation soon I’m going to lose it! And I’m pretty sure that none of us want that to happen!!

Money has become another big stress! We have done so well saving money for the wedding and we should have most of that paid off the first of the year and of course we have cut down on our home improvement projects until after the wedding to save money…….but, Christmas is right around the corner! How did we forget to budget for the holidays??? I just can’t even think about it……Where are we going to get the extra money? We are stretched to the max right now with our income and holiday spending IS NOT INCLUDED!!! Will we have to take it out of our savings? Will we have to take it out of our grocery money? Can we skip Christmas this year?

And last but not least……..Here’s a little story (with a little background history) about something that happened to me last weekend. It’s a little reminder that not everyone has class and not everyone understands the true meaning of love……….
As unfortunate as it is, my fiance is in a wheelchair, paralyzed from the waist down, as a result of a car accident a few years ago. But the fact that he is handicapped, does not take away the fact that he is the love of my life. That he treats me better than any person on this earth has ever even attempted to. That he has the most amazing strength and character and I feel blessed to share my life with him. Knowing all of this about him I hope you have the same reaction as I did to what I am about to tell you……….I went back to my hometown this past weekend and had someone come up to me and mention that they heard I was engaged. When I replied that “yes, I’m getting married and I’m so lucky” this person responded with “Lucky, I heard you were marrying a cripple!” Yes, people….you read that right! Someone actually had the audacity to call the man I consider my hero, A CRIPPLE!! I’ve got to believe that most of us know that you JUST DON’T SAY THAT TO PEOPLE but obviously not everyone does.

And on that note………I must say good-bye! I’m still so angry about the previous story that I can’t even think straight or type because my hands are shaking. We will talk again soon….and hopefully I’ve taken off my grumpy pants by then!

As most of you know, my fiance is a paraplegic as a result of a car accident. The accident happened before he and I knew each other so I’ve been lucky enough to only know the man he is today, the man that I am deeply and totally in love with. We have briefly discussed the accident, but more about the details and never really about the emotional aspect of it all. For some reason, lately he has been discussing with me more and more about the emotional aspect of his situation. About the accident itself and how his brother will always live with the fact that he was the one driving, how his family, especially his mom, coped during the months he was in a coma, about the emotional state he was left in when his wife couldn’t deal with the situation and divorced him, how every aspect of his world was turned upside down and inside out.

I know those memories are not easy for him, but the fact that we can finally talk about them after all this time brings a smile to my face. This may sound weird, but I am so thankful for that accident. It has made him stronger and I truly believe that there is nothing in this world he can’t overcome. No matter what life throws at him (or us), we will be able to come out on top.

And as I’m driving to work today I reminded myself how lucky I am. I am so thankful for all the happiness he brings to my life, but most of all I am thankful for him!

I just found this blog today and I couldn’t help but to compare my story with hers. Obviously the characters are different and the exact details aren’t similar, but the way this husband and wife are still so much in love after such a tragic accident leads me to believe that my love for my fiance will withstand the test of time…..and only one word describes my feeling about that…..THANKFUL!

Can you believe we had a 3 day weekend? Why does the time fly by so quickly? Although, it’s nice to know I only have a 4 day work week

I can explain my weekend in 2 words YARD WORK…….I’m pretty sure I’ve put in about 12-15 hours into the corner of our back yard. Finally yesterday we got all the small trees cut down, all the leaves/brush cleaned up and I was able to use the rototill. We have 23 lawn bags sitting at our curb waiting for tomorrow’s pick-up. That number doesn’t include the 40+ lawn bags that we have already put out this season. I guess that’s what you get when you buy a house with over a foot of snow on the ground…….it’s a risk you take of what lies beneath that snow. In my case, it was about 1-2 feet deep of leaves, sticks, tree limbs, garbage, etc.

After all of the work I have done I wish I would have taken “before” pictures so I could remind myself of how far I’ve come in just a short period of time. It makes me feel good though that a couple of our neighbors came over to comment on all the work we have done and to tell me how good everything looks. We just L-O-V-E our neighborhood! I am so lucky.

It was funny….. while I was covered head to toe in nothing but dirt, with bloodied up arms from cutting down some pricker bushes and sweat literally rolling down my face I had the most sentimental moment. I was getting very tired and was ready to give up….i was battling the yard and the yard was winning……and then it occurred to me! “I was doing lawn work in MY OWN YARD!! I own this yard. I own this house!” It was the first time since I bought the house in January that it really struck me…….I am finally a homeowner!! And I live here with my fiance!! It was at that exact moment that I was able to reflect on how far I had come the past few years. Five years ago if you had asked me if I would have either (house/fiance) I, along with many family members and friends, would have laughed in your face. Five years ago I was in debt pass my eyeballs and barely surviving one terrible relationship after another until one particular day when the “light bulb” finally went off and I decided that I needed to change my life. I managed to pay off my debt in just over 2 years and I rid myself of anything that even remotely resembled a relationship. It was during these 3 years that I was single that I think I truly learned who I was and what I wanted out of life. Even though I was teased by family/friends about being “single” for so long I wouldn’t change it for the world. It was that decision that led me to find the man of my dreams. Looking back, the road I have had to travel is worth it’s weight in gold for the outcome it has given me. I cherish my life and know that it was all the bumps in the road that led to where I am today and I will be forever grateful.

Okay, I just realized this post has gotten much longer than what I had intended. My initial post was supposed to be about some gardening questions I have and somehow it got all sentimental and boring………now I’m out of time so I guess my gardening questions will have to wait.