And I said, what about, breakfast at Tiffany's?

A bridal shower for Miss Allison Larsen, soon to be Mrs. Allison Cuoco!

Look at all of us married women of the cohort...we're all grown up!

And wedding dress cookies!

Home Sweet Home

Well, we're back from Fiji! The trip was amazing...more than we could have dreamed of it being. We relaxed, watched the sunrise, went snorkelling, drank fruity, mixed drinks with pineapple or coconut in them, read good books, sat by the ocean, watched some rugby, ate great food, talked to people from all over the world, enjoyed each other, and watched the sunset. Oh, and Paul took some bugs out for me...big ones! :) It was a great vacation!

Then, we came home to our new home. It's amazing how we had just moved in the week before our honeymoon, but coming home it really did feel like home. I love it here. We've got the place basically set up. Now it's just putting away the little things. I feel like we're playing house! And it still makes me giggle when Paul or somebody else refers to me as a wife! :P I'm too young to be a wife! Hehe. I love being one though. It's fun. :)

Last night Paul and I cooked our first real meal together! I know...we dated for how long? It's true. We didn't cook very much up to this point in our life. We had a blast last night though! We used our new pots and pans that my brother got us and made an excellent meal: Eggplant rigatoni with grape tomatoes, garlic, parmesan, and mint leaves! It was amazing, and we were quite pleased with ourselves. We already got the fixings to make tomorrow night's dinner: A chicken dish with corn, edamame, and some bacon too! We don't quite know how the bacon fits in, but the picture in the recipe looked good!

Well, that's the update for now. I worked on my dissertation since we got back into town trying to get my data entered into SPSS and tomorrow it's off to ASU to meet with my stats prof to run the statistics! Hopefully I find some interesting results! Big day!

They're done!

Well, after one night of printing and cutting with Paul until 2:30am, and one night of putting together, tying, and addressing with Mom, Sherry (Paul's step-mom), and Kristin until 2:00am, we officially have invitations that are ready to be mailed out Monday morning! I think they turned out really cute. I hope everybody else likes them! We couldn't have pulled it off without our amazing friends and family!

Paul and I were talking the other day about how you really could make a wedding pretty easy to plan if you didn't want to personalize anything, and if you weren't a perfectionist. Unfortunately, we both fail both of those criteria! We have really had fun doing, and are proud of the things that we did to personalize our wedding. And of course, these are the things that took us the longest, held us up on other things! Our website, invitations, guest book, bathroom buckets, and hotel room treats fall into these categories, and I think they were all well worth it!

I'm sooo ready to get married!!!

And, I can't wait for the next two weeks! Starting on Thursday night the fun officially begins!!!

A couple of my favorites!

Paul and I got our proofs back from our engagement photo session, and I thought I would share a couple of my favorites! We had an absolute blast acting like we knew how to be models, and running around Scottsdale Civic Center with the paparazzi following us everywhere as well as the old grannies watching the photoshoot. It was a funny morning, and we got some cute photos out of the deal!

General update.

I finished my 3-day restraint training course tonight. I learned how to get out of hair pulls and bites, how to best dodge kicks and punches, how to take a child's punch and turn it into you holding them in a basket hold, and how to do prone restraints! The prone restraints weren't part of the "published" course as it is not a "suggested" hold; however, our instructors swear by it when the basket hold doesn't work. I'm a little nervous about all of this! Part of me wants to try it out to see if it works. The larger part of me, however, never wants to have to attempt any of these moves in my lifetime! I think I will try them out on Paul, instead!

I'm getting pretty stoked about the wedding. Paul and I have been going to our marriage preparation classes at ASU's Newman Center. The classes are awesome. There are 10 couples in them, all our age, and all very nice. The classes are taught in an up to date, and current, yet still ethical, moral, and spiritual way. They are really fun, and wonderful ways to spend time together for the two of us. We are both enjoying them greatly. Other details for the ceremony and reception are all falling into place, and I'm really starting to get excited! (Starting probably isn't the best word! I've been excited since March 24th!) But it's starting to feel like it's coming now. It's not REALLY far away. The school year is flying by, and it'll be here before we know it. I'm glad about that! I am not stressed either. I mean, I want to get things done, but we're checking things off our list slowly. I don't think there will be any crunches of needing to get things done last minute...hopefully! Jenn is starting to talk about bachelorette fun, and my Mom, and Kim, and Darcy and Jenn are starting to talk about showers! This is going to be such a fun Spring!!!

Internship is going well. I'm working hard, and learning tons. I learn something new every day. I am confident in my testing and report writing skills, pretty confident in behavior management strategies (having lots of practice in this..learning every day!), gaining confidence slowly in leading meetings and talking to parents and teachers, and need some experience in counseling! My supervisor doesn't really do counseling at my school, but the social worker does, so I will hopefully be able to have a couple of her cases to get experience with this. I need it! I feel unprepared still in counseling. On the otherhand, this is most likely because this appears to be the area that most school psychologists (at least in elementary schools) do not engage in. I want the skills though.

Dissertation: What a long time this IRB process has taken. However, I am happy to say that I GOT IRB APPROVAL FROM PHOENIX CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL TODAY!!! I am sooo happy! I got approval from ASU over the summer, but PCH was dragging on and on, making it go from one department to the next, just taking up time. Now, I have to go back to ASU to submit a modification form, telling them what PCH changed and hoping that they ok it. They better! Or they're going to be hearing from me!

I guess I'd say life in general is good right now! We need to get the family healed up a bit from all of the surgeries that have been occurring, but other than that, we're tight. I love my family. They're the best!

The guy behind it all!

Yup, this is him! It's becoming a little bit more of a reality lately that in 10 months I am going to be Paul's wife! Mrs. Parent! Crazy! And awesome! That's the amazing part of it. You get wrapped up in wedding planning for a bit, and all of a sudden you become clear that all of this wedding planning is for the day that begins the rest of your married life! And when I think about that, I get a huge smile on my face. It's like, wedding planning goes from super fun, to a little expensive, to the best bonding time Mom and I could wish for, to kind of stressful, to fun tastings with Paul, etc. But marriage, that's something that's all positive and all exciting! Yes, of course there are always bumps in the road, and difficult times, and quirks, and bad habits, and nagging, and all that that I hear and know comes along with marriage. But...bring them on! I want to experience them with Paul! I can't wait to marry this man and spend the rest of my life with him!

I love his constant mexican food cravings, I love the way he treats me like a princess, I love his ambition and drive, I love his sense of humor, I love his compassion and honesty, I love his spontaneity, and I love the fun we have together! He is definitely my other half, and I can't imagine living the rest of my life without him!