Save Our Date!

Our save the dates came today!!! Now THAT was an exciting package to get! We had a slight ordeal with our save the dates. We had ordered some from Wedding Paper Divas, and we got them last friday...we weren't impressed and didn't like them so we returned them and ordered our new ones from Minted. LOVE them. We are so happy with them and can't wait to get them out to everyone! My goal is to have them out by the end of the month/beginning of February! Our big day is getting closer!

And omg the coolest thing ever happened yesterday. We had the Travel Channel on in the background and I was doing something on the computer and I glance up and right away recognize the place on tv...it was RANCHO LAS LOMAS our wedding venue! WHAT?! I about flipped, that is NOT something you ever expect to see on tv! It was on a show called Last Resorts, showing amazingly beautiful resorts all over the world and OUR wedding venue made the list! Now that just made my life and made me SOOO happy we picked my dream venue and went with our hearts and even more excited FOR our big day! We are just under 7.5 months! Eek! :)

Thought that was an awesome touch :) 

highly recommend Minted for any stationary!

That's it until I get them sent out ;)

Kicking off 2013!

Happy 2013 everyone! I hope you all have had a great start to the new year, I know I have! Not going out really gave me time to reflect and evaluate my life. I am not usually one to do resolutions, because I think "what's the point". Well this year is different. This year I have a long list, and everything on the list goes hand in hand with each other. So, while I achieve one of the resolutions/goals, I will also be achieving the other ones. Bobby and I got to talking while we were going over our resolutions for the New Year and came up with an idea for me. I really need a hobby, like bad. I find myself being so bored all of the time, especially during the winter here when its snowing and cold outside, so he helped me find one. We got to talking about what I really like to do and blogging came up. Nerdy I know, but I really do enjoy it. So we came up with the idea for me to start a blog specifically about my fitness journey. I have made many resolutions and goals that are fitness related, so why not blog about it. Every aspect. It will not only give me something to do (a hobby), but will also hold me accountable which is key to being successful. I decided to make a new blog that is linked to my current account and it will fittingly be called "Fitness is a Journey". It will basically follow every single aspect of me transitioning my life from a not so fit lifestyle, to a fit, healthy, and happy lifestyle. I am only beginning and have a LOT of learning to do, but I am excited to share the journey with everyone. Please bear with me while I am in the beginning stages of this journey, it isn't going to be easy, but it is going to be worth it!

If you're interested in following my new blog please go to:
http://caseysfitjourney.blogspot.com/

I will definitely still be updating my personal/life blog as well, my new one will just be STRAIGHT fitness and my progress with all of that. :)

Thanks for reading!

Reflecting on 2012, Looking Forward to 2013!

2012 has come and gone, I can hardly believe it! I find myself sitting here thinking of things that happened in 2011 and it feels like it JUST happened this year, but nope! I can not complain about 2012  it has been a year like most; with the good things and the bad things. Thankfully, for us the good has outweighed the bad. Even though the year, overall, has been good to us, 2013 is going to be THE biggest year of our lives for more reasons than one. Before delving into what I wish for the New Year, I want to take a look back on some high lights of 2012 :)

Celebrated 2012! :) 

Best friend pregnant with her 2nd baby girl!

GBF Gala

BlackJack Ball..I LOVED that dress ;)

first trip to NYC

Time Square

Harlow Adriana Epperson is born

ALASKA for baby brother's wedding

Booked our wedding venue! (again)

Back home :)

First trip to Chicago

Vaughn Marie Gabel is born

right along with Claudia Anne Gabel <3

Bobby and I also celebrated our 11 year anniversary together :) I am sure I left out some things, but these were the highlights of my year 2012, the GOOD things! 

I have been waiting for 2013 and now it is finally upon us! It really is going to be the biggest year of mine and Bobby's lives; getting MARRIED, Bobby starting a new career, moving for his career (could be international!), closing yet another chapter of our crazy lives here at Simon, and these are just the things that I KNOW are going to happen. We have such amazing things to look forward to and have quite the ride ahead of us, and I am oh so excited to take it! We are young, in love, and have the world in our hands. This year is going to be the most stressful yet I am sure, but also the most exciting! We will grow from every experience that comes our way. We have some major changes coming, and will face many major decisions; but we will do it together, get through it together, and preservere together as we always do. We don't know what the future holds exactly, but are looking forward to embracing it nonetheless, whatever it may be! 

I don't usually do "resolutions", but this year I decided to make some goals and wishes for myself. Some are fitness and health related, as most people's are, but some are also personal growth resolutions for myself and things I want to work on. I won't share them all, but to name a few:

1. Finish P90X

2. No fast food

3. Embrace each day. Look forward to the future, but don't dwell on it/countdown too much. Enjoy the present! BE PRESENT

4. Don't stress the small stuff

I made quite the list, and I know they say to really focus on one or two, but they all pretty much go hand in hand. 

Tonight I will celebrate the new year with the person I will be on the journey of 2013 with, my best friend, future husband, and love of my life. I wouldn't want to celebrate it any other way.

I hope you all have a wonderful and SAFE New Years Eve! HAPPY 2013! xoxo

Bye, Bye Gym Membership!

HELLO (again) P90X!

Tonight Bobby and I decided that we would pay the bucks for the adjustable bowflex weights that we have been eyeing for awhile, and cancel my gym membership (that I seem to never use in the winter). Now that it has gotten snowy and freezing getting to the gym just doesn't happen. period. call it an excuse, whatever we decided that we need to just go back to what worked best for us back in college when we didn't have a gym membership. P90X! You basically only need weights and a pull-up bar (which we have) and your body and that's it. Don't have to go anywhere, don't have to deal with gym traffic, don't have to shovel snow at 5am, none of those distractions that always seem to deter me from the gym. I loved P90X and it works wonders! Not everyone can work out at home, but I love it. We haven't done it because we didn't bring our weights all the way out here, and we finally just bit the bullet and invested in the adjustable weights. Merry Christmas to us :)

It is crunch time for the wedding, we figured out that we can now put in two rounds of p90x before our wedding so we should be in rocking shape by then ;) We basically used our extra "going out" money for fitness equipment so really it should work in our favor double! Won't be going out to eat as much, but rather will be staying in and getting in shape! Win, win! I can also now get up at 5am and get my workout in before work! I loved getting up that week that I tried it and getting cardio in, so getting a full workout in will be even better and I don't even have to leave my house! aaah the beauty of not having to go out into the DARK, SNOWY, FREEZING wee-hours of the morning and scrape off the snow and ice, just to get 4 minutes down the road to the gym. UGH! I am SO excited!

I also ordered a large lunch cooler for my long work days so I can pack and prepare my own meals to take to work with me when I am there for 10.5 hours. Both of these things should arrive by January 2nd, so we will start after the new year! What an amazing kick off to our year 2013! :)

Holy Blizzard, Batman!

We got to experience the REAL Rochester last night/today. Last winter was "mild" according to all of the people who have lived here their whole lives, we of course still thought it was terrible. Well, it was nothing compared to the storm that we got hit with last night! It started snowing at around 5pm, then the storm hit and it REALLY started dumping at 8pm. When we woke up this morning it had snowed a good 12"! My car was basically completely buried in snow! My snow boots barely even helped because the snow went up to my knee! I was tentatively scheduled to work today, depending on the weather and we both decided it was probably better to just not have me come since the roads weren't the best, and therefore she wouldn't be going to run the errands she was going to do anyway. They leave for Vermont tomorrow so I won't see them until after the New Year!

Anyway, I of course had to document this ridiculous snow fall...aka blizzard, the pictures speak for themselves!

our parking lot

walkway to our apartment building

my poor car

much nicer from the inside :) 

White Christmas

Merry Christmas! Today for us is pretty much like any other day, sad but true. Being so far away from all of our family makes it a little harder to get into the holiday spirit as much. This is our second round of holidays (both Thanksgiving and Christmas) here in Rochester and away from our families. Traveling during this time is always a HUGE pain for the short amount of time we would get to be there, and also VERY expensive. This year especially would have been brutal with the abundance of winter storms going on...no thanks. With my luck flying I probably wouldn't have even made it all the way to California! Hopefully next year we will be able to spend Christmas with at least SOME family, but then again who knows what the future holds...we will see!

We started the day off with a big ole' fatty Christmas breakfast that I made. Yum Yum, I have definitely gained some pounds this holiday season lol Once the holidays are over it is DEFINITELY time to get into serious wedding mode and whip my butt into shape! Winter is by far the hardest season to stay in shape, especially here! It is literally 20 degrees in the mornings, snow covered, I barely want to get out of bed just to go to work, let alone the gym! But, I am really just going to have to get into the right mindset...like not wanting to be a fatty at our wedding or on our honeymoon and just GET TO IT! haha I have thoroughly enjoyed the holidays, maybe a little too much, but it is time to get on track.

We didn't really do Christmas gifts on Christmas...we kind of each got some pretty big things slightly before Christmas so we didn't do that whole thing. Which is fine, it's not about that anyway. I was however, beyond excited and thankful that the family I work for got us our beautiful toasting glasses for our wedding! And it was our FIRST wedding gift off of our registry! She sneakily asked me the other day where we were registered, but I thought nothing of it and she surprised me with them. I thought it was SO nice of them it made me so excited thinking that those were the glasses we would be toasting with as the new Mr. and Mrs. Graham in 8 short months! :)

There is still snow all over, and plenty more on the way! There is another storm system coming that is supposed to dump 8-12 inches of snow on us between tomorrow and Thursday! Brr Brr Brr!

No plans for NYE yet...I kind of hope we do SOMETHING...but, guess we will see!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and got to enjoy it with the ones they love the most. I know I wasn't with everyone I love, but I was with my best friend which definitely makes up for it :)

<3

11 years down, Forever to go!

Today is Bobby's and my 11 year anniversary! 11 years! We still can't believe it, but are so happy and feel so blessed to have made it through everything and come out stronger and more in love than ever on the other side. We are the lucky ones who have grown up together, not grown apart. I am thankful everyday for having Bobby. We have been put into situations already where we have to lean on each other to get through it, we are each other's best friends. Everything that we have been through has only brought us closer together, and although it was hell at the time, it has made our relationship what it is today. Unbreakable.

8 months from today I will be Mrs. Graham and it can't get here soon enough! <3

Here's to forever together!