When I look back on my childhood birthdays, the most common memory is having my "family party" at Dino's. And pretty much . . . I envision most of Erica's there as well. When I hear "Dino's", I think of it as the place where I discovered my love for fried calamari (at the very young age of 6). When playing with Barbie's, it's the place that Erica and I would have Barbie and Ken enjoy their first date at. It's the restaurant where my mom and Alex hosted their rehearsal dinner. Without any clue about this history, during our first week of dating, Michael declared that he was going to take me to "one of his favorite little, Italian restaurants". On our first "date night", Michael pulled into the Dino's parking lot. He was a bit surprised to find out that Dino's was hardly "new" to me; but, I looked at it as a sign . . .
Needless to say, Dino's has not only become a special restaurant to me and my family; but, it is now one that Michael and I have created our own memories in. So, as the story goes . . . it was only fitting that as we shared some fried calamari and a bottle of wine, Michael asked me to marry him. Yes, we are ENGAGED!!
I was completely caught off guard though. I had just graduated, and just started my new and first job. We had just acclimated to the routine of having Cooper. I have to give Michael credit though. To surprise me like that was a feat. Almost five months later and I can't say for sure that the shock has settled. Of course I knew we were headed in that direction. After all, we will be celebrating six years of dating THIS coming Saturday! It's just hard to believe that it's happened . . . IS happening. We are planning a wedding.
And what a wedding it will be! (At least WE think it will be a good one) The whole process, although overwhelming at times, is quite exciting! We dove into it right away; choosing and booking our venue, date, and church 2 weeks after getting engaged. The DJ, photographer, and videographer came shortly after that. And, most importantly (I think), I found the perfect dress. I want to share details about the wedding, but I don't want to blog about it too much - for fear of ruining surprises/making things less special. I will share our wedding website: http://jaclyn-michael.ourwedding.com which has the "major" need-to-know-details on it. And since our Save The Dates have been mailed out and received (although, I seem to doubt that everyone received them due one of the several snowstorms last month), I have posted some pictures of those as well.
It's dissappointing how lax Michael and I became in our blog updates. There's been a lot to share over the past months that we have failed to post about. I'll try my best to share the highlights.- I love my job. I wasn't supposed to fall in love with this job. If you'll remember, finding a job wasn't as easy as I thought it would be and I "settled" for working in a school. I told myself that it was my fellowship year and if it didn't work out NBD. I told myself that commuting to NH would be okay temporarily, but I would continue to look for something in MA. And then I started the job. It's a lot of stress, paperwork, meetings, etc. etc. but what job isn't? Despite that, I enjoy going to work every day. And have met some really great people ;) That said, I may loose my job in the spring due to a lack of funding.
- Cooper will be 9 months tomorrow! He survived his neutering, first Christmas, and first snowstorm. Better make that snowstormS. Despite resisting to walk through leaves in the fall, he has quickly grown accustomed (and prefers) to walking in the snow. He has successfull
y destroyed a dozen stuffed toys since we brought him home. Clearly stuffed toys is not the way to go. He "passed" four weeks of training classes and now knows how to "wait" and "lay down".- We celebrated our "first" Christmas living together, engaged, and decorating our own place and tree
- Jill and Paul got engaged! (Lauren and Charlie did too - but that was back in July, I'm just not sure I formally announced it)
- We visited NYC with Michael's sister, Laura, and brother-in-law, David, as our xmas presents to each other
- Our families spent Christmas Day together
- We said goodbye to an incredible 2010, and rang in 2011 with delicious gourmet meal hosted by Josh and Sarah
- We reunited with friends for Halloween in Salem, MA, and again at Lauren and Charlie's to ski Cannon Mt. (and battle below 0 temps). Note: We were very spoiled by a superb spread of meals at L&C's - complete with meats. Note on note: L&C were strict vegetarians up until recent.
- Michael received a VERY good performance review this year (but, he doesn't like me to brag, so I'll leave it at that)
I think that pretty much sums things up for now. I hope to me more diligent about updating as the wedding plans and 2011 progress!
