Couple of Things

First off, I got my first lecture from my husband about money and how it does not grow on trees last night. That was real fun! And quite a shocker since I really did think that it grew on trees!

Secondly, I heard on the radio yesterday that Hanson will be in Wichita on Nov. 7!! Jenna, pack you and Josh a bag and come up that night. You and I will celebrate your birthday with a Hanson concert, while Josh and Matt can sit at home and drink and discuss how they are sad they couldn't go to the concert!

Lastly, why is it that Tulsa becomes cool AFTER I leave? I was just reading the Tulsa World newspaper online and saw that Janet Jackson will be performing at the new BOK center in October ... can you believe it?!

Promise to post part 2 of our honeymoon soon. This weekend we are off to Manhattan on Saturday for the football game and first tailgate of the year - I can't wait!

The Honeymoon: Part 1

Foggy London Town - Days 1-3
(Written during the trip!)

It is Saturday afternoon in London and Matt and I are in the hotel - Matt is asleep (he takes LOTS of naps!) and I am typing up some blogs and writing in my journal. I would love to actually post this on my blog, but internet for a day in our hotel is $30 so Matt said no! This means I have been without internet for a week!

I do realize that you are suppose to relax on your honeymoon, but I would be able to relax alot more if I could look at pictures from the wedding and check my email! :) And since we have done anything but relax (yesterday was our first day of any kind of relaxation), I feel that internet access is not too much to ask for!

Don't get me wrong... this trip has been amazing! The top three moments in my life have all occurred in a week's time - 1) I got married! 2) I stood on the second level of the Eiffel Tower and 3) I actually got around Paris without knowing ANY of the language (at first when we got there, I was pretty sure we would be sitting in the train station all day long because we were clueless!!!).

We got to London around 10:30 pm Monday night (its a 6-hour time difference from here to home), went through customs and got to our hotel at midnight. We checked into our room and just laughed -- everything in London is small. The rooms, the bathrooms, the trash cans, the toilet paper... it was just entertaining! We decided if we could make it through eight days in a tiny room together, we could make it through anything!

Since we didn't go to bed until 2 am (and took some sleeping pills to actually get some sleep!), we didn't wake up until 10:30 am, which was not how we wanted to start our first day! We got up and around and out the door by noon and found a double-decker tour bus and hopped on. It took us all around London and was great because you could hop on and off as you pleased to visit the different sites. It was also great because it gave us a good idea of places we wanted to visit. We saw Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, the garden where they filmed parts of Notting Hill and the exact spot where a part of Mary Poppins was filmed (those are the things I enjoyed hearing about!), St. Paul's Cathedral where Princess Di and Prince Charles were married, and hopped off at the London Tower and took a boat cruise down the Thames River. From there, we could see the Globe Theatre, the Millenium Bridge (which you can see in Love Actually), and the school where Harry Potter (not Hogwarts) went to school! :)

Day two found us at St. Paul's Cathedral where we toured the inside - it was pretty incredible! This is the same place that Princess Di and Prince Charles got married so I felt pretty regal that day .... ha! There are three tiers to the church and you can take stairs up to one of the tiers of the dome and/or you can take the stairs ALL the way to the top (some 500+ steps), which Matt did. I did not... I sat on the second level and waited for him! It actually took him outside of the dome, way up high and he got some great pictures!

After our tour, we walked back out and grabbed lunch (more Italian food for moi!) and then walked across the Millenium Bridge to a museum - we lasted about 5 minutes before we were bored and left! :) Even though we were in London, a very historical and old city, I still could not get into the museum thing... sue me! We hopped on the tube, after yet another hike, to Westminster Abbey, where we were going to try to go to mass. Unfortunately, the only service that was left on the docket that day was not a real service... and had no music, which was the reason I wanted to go in! So... more hiking came and eventually we ended back up at the hotel. Abby had gotten us tickets to Spamelot as our wedding gift, so we changed and went down to Leicester (pronounced Lester, which really annoyed me) Square to eat and go to the show. It was hysterical! It was such a good choice, Abs! :)

Part two of 'The Honeymoon' will include our trip to Paris, our only days of relaxation and Matt's new found love for the word' Cheers!' - he said it to EVERYONE! :)

Pic 1: On the plane at 5:30 a.m. to embark on our honeymoon!
Pic 2: Our small room in London!
Pic 3: The ads promoting the London Olympics in 2012
Pic 4: Harry Potter's school
Pic 5: Us on Millenium Bridge
Pic 6: Big Ben!
Pic 7: Matt and I getting our drinks in before Spamelot
Pic 8: Our seats at Spamelot - I was almost scared to look down! :)

Wedding Day Adventure

Two weeks! Two weeks since I last posted... I must point out that this was not because I didn't WANT to blog, but there was no time during week one and during week two, I had no internet in London (which was my version of hell - no lie!).

So first off... I am a married woman! Just call me Allyson Clark! Woohoo! The wedding weekend was more than amazing... it went off without a hitch (only a few small pauses along the way, but nothing that couldn't be fixed).

I only wish I could relive the entire day again and go back to talk to people I missed at the reception - that is my biggest regret! The night went by SO fast that I missed talking to family that came from far away, friends that came from far away, etc.

I send a huge shout out to my wonderful, wonderful, wonderful bridesmaids who kept me calm all day long (I shed NO tears the entire day, can you believe it?!! I still can't!), but looked awesome in their cute brown dresses! Thanks to my wonderful family for traveling from various places across the country to spend the weekend in Kansas - I am so lucky to have you all in my life! And also major thanks to all of our wonderful friends that came from all over (or basically Kansas City!) for the wedding - I keep saying that we needed like two separate receptions - one for family, one for friends. That way, we could see and talk to everyone!

But the day was wonderful. I have so many pictures to go through from facebook, from my cousin aka Photographer for the weekend Megan Little ( I just love you so much!). Our videographer also posted about our wedding on their blog (www.fatcatrocks.com - click on 'Blog'!). They will have a four-minute prequel up in a few weeks about the wedding. They were also wonderful, as was our photographer, and our DJ who kicked ass - I just can't say enough great things about everyone!

And last but not least... thank you to my groom! He was so calm and at ease that day, I wasn't sure if it was really Matt! But what a hunk in his tux, right?! :)

So for now, I will stop and just say that I love you all.... thank you for helping make August 16 the best day of our lives!

More pics to come... as well as a post about the trip to Foggy London Town!

The Week Of...

I am again at Panera... probably for the third or fourth time this week, but this time, I am accompanied by my handsome fiance, who is sitting across from me actually doing work work, unaware that I am typing on my blog about him (I don't really think he knows my blog really exists!).

Some good news came yesterday when Matt got us signed up for TV and internet --- Alleluiah and Amen! And we're getting all for only $11 a month - Matt is a finagler so I'm glad that he was the one to go and get it set up. I am officially out of the stone age on Wednesday and I can't wait! I will be coming to you from the comforts of my home again after the honeymoon ...

Speaking of honeymoon, that begins in a week and a day, but first comes my wedding which is in six days, which is preceded by my rehearsal dinner and bridesmaids luncheon in five days and a BBQ/Ice cream social in four days. Wow. It's all really here! I think now is the time to explain my giddyness for the upcoming weekend:

I am very giddy! :) I've been dreaming of this time in my life since I fell in love with my favorite movie 'Father of the Bride' -- which is the reason I am having a string quartet at the ceremony! (If only I could get them to play the quiet background music during the vows like they do in the movie... ) I think I just got very lucky that my 'Brian McKenzie' just happens to be my best friend.

Matt and I have been through alot in our seven years and seven months (to the date on our wedding day!)... many people get big eyes and drop the jaw when we say how long we have been together. Most days, it doesn't seem like it has been that long (but obviously, there are those days when it seems like 35 years!).

Sometimes I love to sit and daydream about our past (I have alot of time on my hands!) -- there was the time when we were forced to become friends in high school when we were placed in the same reading period, which later wasn't so forced... There was the semester that we were in Spanish class together and I despised him because he was such a smart ass and quite the charmer (just had to shine his pearly whites at anyone and most would drop!)... There was the day that he graduated high school and I wasn't sure how to exist without him (and a few special other people!) in my life... Then came the day when my pal Dusty and I visited him and Beckley in Wichita my senior year, which is when I realized that he could be more than a friend... Then there was the night that he was a home and a group of us went to see a movie in Bartlesville -- we talked the entire night, had the 'butterfly touches' (you know, those touches that are not suppose to mean much, but leave butterflies in your stomach!), and realized on the car ride home that something was happening ... and wondered what we were to tell Michael (Matt's brother -- who was also my good pal!).

Since then, we have stumbled and gotten back up. We have laughed until our stomachs hurt and cried until there were no more tears. Somedays, I just want to hug him and never let him go, other days he drives me crazy (he is a man!)... but the way that I know that we were meant for each other is this look that I get from him -- today at church, we were stuck in the VERY, VERY, VERY back of the church in seats that had to be brought in for us (we weren't even late, but seriously there were about 500 people at church!). I was just sitting there, going over everything that is happening this week and slightly stressing, when he taps me. I can feel him staring at me and I look up at him -- he is grinning (damn those blue eyes and that perfect smile!) and says, "We'll be married in six days!" Though I usually remind him daily about how many days until the 'Big Day', I hadn't reminded him today that in less than a week, we'll be a family.

All it took was the look and the smile... I guess that is all it has ever really took!

Nine Days..

Weird.

I cannot believe that our wedding is so close -- people keep reminding me of how close it is and I just am in shock! I keep thinking about next weekend and how I will be feeling... right now, it just seems as though it's all a bit unreal. I've been planning for nine months now and everything will finally come together in one day.

Though our lives haven't changed yet...

Matt is having major work stress (its lovely that the man is doing about three different jobs when he should be doing only one!) and will be traveling the week of our wedding. How brutal is that? I feel bad for him because I know how much he just wants to enjoy all of next week, but he will barely have time to! Boo to Coleman!

Anywho... a week from today the fun begins with all of my family getting into town and a few of my buddies. But before all of that can happen, we get to move Lauren into Kappa on Monday - not gonna lie, I'm super excited! I haven't been back to the house since I left my senior year... I'm excited for the smell. You know, the Kappa smell! :)

So, here's to hoping that everything goes smoothly from here on out.... I'm crossing fingers and toes!

Not a Fan...

When I first moved into the house, I was able to steal internet from someone in the neighborhood - it was glorious because I can live without TV, but I can't live without the internet or my e-mail.

So after I returned from my weekend in Austin, I found that I could no longer steal the internet!!! I kept trying (and keep trying), but nothing... This means that I either have to try and get to the east side to Matt's mom's to get on the internet (15 minute drive) or go to Panera, buy a drink and sit for a few hours and try to get caught up on everything, which is what I am doing now.

I am not a fan of this... I don't enjoy having to leave the comforts of my own home for my obsession. I don't like that I have to pay $1.99 just for the internet! And now is the time the internet is super important - emails from vendors about the wedding, facebook status game, etc.

I digress...

I made it to Lincoln this past weekend for Melissa Kletchka's (Kappa sister) wedding reception. I would love to post pictures... but since I let Matthew take the camera with him to Lincoln, I have not yet been able to take it back from him yet! She looked beautiful and as always, it was great to hang out with my friends!

Now, we are less than two weeks away from my own wedding. Most things are done, I just have a small list of small tasks left (most include the purchasing of gifts). I'm very ready and at this point, don't even care about the things that haven't been done. If they aren't here on my wedding day, oh well!

So one week and five days... maybe I'll get internet in between now and then and be able to post up to the day (which I would so do!). I'm just crossing my fingers that Matt keeps his promise and gets my internet and basic cable set up before I lose my mind!!!!