Giving Thanks

So we've been married now for almost 7 weeks. We're spending the holiday with my mom and brother. There is certainly an adjustment period for two people coming together sharing their lives. We are now on our third mattress, which hasn't helped our sleeping patterns. But I think this is the one we stick with for a good long time. We've felt a little bit like Goldilocks. "This one is too hard... this one is too soft..." We're thinking this one is 'just right' though. So we are grateful to my Aunt Kathy for donating it to us! We are grateful to have family around to spend the holidays with! We are grateful for Amber's job. We are grateful I can continue with school. We are grateful for each other! We are grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ, one for bringing us together, two, for allowing us to be joined together, and three for allowing us to be together forever.

So thanks for reading, and don't forget to have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Bill & Amber

We're now Mr. and Mrs. Andrus!

Just wanted to let all of our followers know that we are happily married and loving being together!

I Love Sales!

So I just learned that Marie Callendar's has their pies on sale for $6.99 in the month of October! This is quite fortunate because we're planning on buying 15 pies for our reception. Amazing! Just wanted to share the good news!

14 Days, 23 Hours, 39 Minutes, and Counting...

Well, Bill and I are down to about 2 weeks. We both are way excited, but I'm seeing the tons of details and big things that still need to be done. We have finally gotten out all of the announcements, thanks to tons of help from Bill. Last Saturday, I went to a wholesale flower place with Debbi, my Aunt Kathy, and her friend, Sheila. We've decided that I'll have white and deep purple calla lilies with some greenery for my bouquet. The bridesmaids will have white with a purplish blush and the deep purple calla lilies along with lavendar roses, baby's breath, etc. for their bouquets. For the boutineers and corsages, we will use the lavendar roses. It's going to be gorgeous!

And, we've decided that we will be having wedding pies instead of a large wedding cake. We'll have a groom's cake, which will be carrot cake. But everything else on the wedding cake table will be pies! Fruit pies of all kinds: pumpkin, razzleberry, coconut cream pie, peach, berries of various sorts, and more! Yum!

So the countdown continues, and we'll see if everything that I want gets done by the day of the wedding....

Things Are Coming Together

With everything considered, Bill and I are doing very well staying on top of our wedding plans. I've been teaching getting back into teaching 5th graders, and Bill has recently begun classes at Utah Valley University. In spite of other distractions, we have many things ready for the big day. The last main part of the wedding to be planned is the reception. We (Bill and I) are going to Pow-Wow about the reception this coming Saturday, with both our moms and my two great aunts. Bill's mom has come up with some fun theme ideas, and we will need to figure out how we want to put those ideas into action. I'm excited because everything seems to be coming together!

Here Comes... the Mother of the Bride?!?

Well, my (the bride's) parents are in the process of moving up to Logan area. And, as of last night, my mom and brother finally made it to Utah for good. (My dad also came, but flew back down to Texas to finish up work, etc.) I was excited to show them my wedding dress and get to talk wedding plans with them, face to face. It's amazing what a difference it makes to talk in person with someone, as opposed to over the phone!

So... We haven't written in a while....

Just as an update for those who are interested:

We have done several things since we last updated this thing.

--I have picked up my dress, after they custom-made a jacket with quarter sleeves to go over the sleeveless dress I bought.

--We've had my Uncle Doug take our engagement pictures, which turned out marvelously.

--Bill has created our wonderful announcements, and he did an amazing job!

--We've gotten an appointment made at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and reservations (if that's what you'd call them) at the Saratoga Springs Stake Center, where we will be having our reception.

As you can tell, we have been able to check many things off of our list, but we still have many more to do: plan the reception, etc.

Being engaged is terrific!

I think one of the best things about being engaged is that there is so much to look forward to--and I know that I have found my "one." He's a pretty wonderful guy, if I do say so myself!

Wow!

It's amazing what a long list of things there are to do! Fortunately, we have four months to fit it all in. I love being engaged, but it's already been somewhat emotional for me. Four months of emotionalness and crazy planning does not sound extremely exciting at the moment....

The Perfect Dress Found on Day 1

So, I did find the perfect dress on my first shopping excursion. I started at Alysse's and tried on at least ten-twelve dresses, taking pictures of the ones that I liked. Then, my cousin and I went to David's Bridal. Jeny (the cousin) told them that I was a "minimalist." And, the first dress I tried on was perfect--there is just no other word to describe it. It is quite simple, but it will knock Bill's socks off come the wedding day....

Progress

On the laundry list of all the things we need to do, we need to sit down and make a laundry list of all the things we need to do.  But we have been making headway as it is.  We have a date, October 10th.  We've decided we want to get married at the Oquirrh Mountain Temple.  We just went to the open house yesterday, and it is beautiful.  It was a toss up between there and the new Draper Temple.  But now that we've seen it, we really like it.

We are in address collection mode now.  I've made up a spreadsheet so we can keep track of who we have addresses for and who we still need to hear from, and then when the time comes, who we've sent announcements to and who to send Thank You cards to.

But the big thing today is that Amber is going dress shopping with her bridesmaids.  It probably will be something that takes a couple of trips to decide, but you never know, she could find the perfect one today.  This is where I take a step aside and let the girls do their thing.

WaterQuest

So last night a guy came over to Amber's to do a sales pitch for a water softening system.  He was a nice guy and not a natural born salesman.  But we were sold on the benefits of the system.  The pitch involved a cool chemistry set and we could see the side-by-side difference between the hard and softened water.  He tried his darnedest to close the deal, and his boss was willing to bend over backwards for us.  They even cut the total price in half for us.  But even then, the monthly price was too much for us to justify given an upcoming wedding and uncertain income.

We felt bad that we sent the guy away without anything to show for it, he really seemed genuine. But after he left, we went and checked where the thing would have gone, and I couldn't figure where they would have squeezed it in.  Maybe in our next place. . .

It was just interesting that we hadn't even been engaged 24 hours and we were already having our first sales pitch together.

I'm the luckiest girl alive!

Just wanted to let all of you know that I have found the best man alive! Sorry to disappoint all of you who are still looking for that perfect someone. I already caught him!

Step 1: Check - Step 2: In Progress

First comes love, THEN comes marriage.

I proposed to Amber on his birthday, and her acceptance made for one of the best birthdays in my life! Of course she thought it was her birthday, too!

We love each other very much, and we've decided to spend the rest of our lives together.

This Blog is for you though, to keep you updated on us as we prepare to tie the knot! As details become available we will post them here and at our Facebook group.

We want addresses! Please send your address to us at billandambersittinginatree@gmail.com!