Even though, when I look back on it, 2010 was definitely a challenge to me and now I can finally say that I can take a deep breath and just relax.

It was a year of good and bad.  The bad being a lot of family drama and the good of me growing up and living life.  I can honestly say that 2010 is a year that has changed me forever.  I have developed and grown into a stronger and more bolder woman than ever before.  I am very proud of myself.

WEDDING – October 24th, 2010

I was very happy yet disappointed with my wedding.  We had very limited money, so the outcome of the guests were very small (we had a limit).  It had to be family only as well (which disappointed me too).   There were strict rules made that I had no control over whatsoever.

Overall, It was a gorgeous wedding.  We had one amazing Officiant (who did such an outstanding job!!), and one amazing wedding venue (Which was featured on “The Knot!”).   We had an amazing Harpist play for the guests and for the wedding ceremony! It was definitely a dream come true.

Chet and I were married on October 24th 2010 at 5:00 p.m.

THE HONEYMOON – October 25th – Nov 1st, 2010

Our honeymoon was in Tokyo, Japan.

It was very fun and exciting.  It was everything I expected and more.  It was definitely a learning experience.  I have been in love with Japanese culture for a very long time and it was a dream come true visiting Tokyo.  We are hoping to go back in the near future.

I did speak a little bit of Japanese and I’ll admit it, the experience was amazing.  We went all over Tokyo:  Harajuku, Shibuya, Yoyogi Park, The Ghibli Museum and Akihabara.

The only thing that I was disappointed in was the food.  We couldn’t find many places that offered english menus/english speaking waitresses.  I guess I didn’t do enough of my homework on available food choices in Tokyo.

I’ll tell you what, Japan puts America to shame.  The Japanese society is so sophisticated and friendly.  I loved it so much there that I didn’t want to go back home.  I never realized how much of a foreign place would feel so much like home to me.

I felt like I belonged there.   I do miss Japan a lot and I can’t wait to go back!  The 14 hour flight is not that great, but in the end, it was all worth it.

2011 and whats to come

I graduate from school in the fall with my degree in Graphic Design.

I hope to create more income with my businesses (they are progressing).

I finally updated my online portfolio:  http://www.melanieweaver.com and I hope to build my portfolio more.  I do have a lot of missing artwork I need to find and showcase.

I am working on my mental state, trying to stay focused and positive on life and on the people around me.  I’m appreciating each day more and I feel like I am able to achieve and express amazing amounts of happiness and gratuity. I am definitely a new person now and I am continuing on bettering myself more as each day passes.

2011 will be a challenge for me, being a full-time student, spending time on learning how to be a great wife (I am already awesome, still, it’s all new to me).    My husband is the most incredible man I have ever met.  He is definitely one in a million and I am so glad that we met and progressed into a beautiful and healthy relationship that brought us into an amazing marriage.  I love my husband so much,  more and more each day.  This man has brought out the best in me.

I hope to blog more this year too.  I haven’t blogged much because of all the exciting (and stressful) events that I’ve been going through in my life.  I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings me!

Its our first house together!

Its a cute house that we instantly fell in love with when we first laid our eyes on it.  We actually have the house, but we are just waiting for a few things to go through and then the deal is done.  Closing is in less than a month and will probably be here in only a matter of time.

We have a lot planned for the house.  We are getting all of are house accessories from Bed Bath & Beyond and we are re-doing the whole kitchen!  We plan on buying the kitchen from Ikea.  :)

I’ve packed a lot of my stuff already.  The only thing that I need to pack is the crap under my bed, but besides all that, Im almost set to gooo!  I’m really excited and happy about this!

We go out to eat a lot and I can’t wait to finally cook food and be a wifey.  Its going to be one amazing life!!!

I wouldn’t want it any other way !!

The wedding planning is going fantastic!! Things are finally coming to a close on vendor choices.  I’m so glad to have the hardest parts done and over with.  Next month, Chet and I will apply for a marriage license!!

These next few months are going to be amazing.  Getting the house, getting married and celebrating by going to Japan for our honeymoon.  He already bought our tickets and I could not sleep that night because I was sooo thrilled!!

I know during the week of the wedding, I won’t be able to sleep AT ALL!!! Its going to be crazy, especially going to Japan with the time difference too.

Its going to be lots of fun and it will all be worth it in the end.  I am soo happy, this is the happiest I have been in many years.  My soon to by husband is amazing and I love him sooo much.  We make the perfect team and I’m soo glad hes in my life.

Words can’t even begin to express how happy and in pure bliss I am absolutely in.  This life is going to be beautiful!!

For the past 3 years, its been amazing and things just get better and better as time moves on.

This summer Chet and I have been doing things differently. We are getting out, doing new things, trying new things. Going to places we have never been, seeing things we have never seen. Everyday is a new adventure and soo much is happening! I am having tooo much fun. All of my worries (the little worries I have) seems to disappear when I’m having fun. I just love being in the moment of a good time.

This summer has been great so far. We picked up on glow stringing this month. At first, it was really difficult for me. I kept trying to do a few moves and I just couldn’t get them down. I began to doubt myself and I kept thinking that maybe glow-stringing just isn’t for me. Deep down I had this desire to master the moves, but in reality, I thought that it would never happen. So this week, I woke up early and practiced all day, for many hours, trying to master some of the hardest moves for beginners. In the end, I eventually mastered and perfected these difficult moves. I’m glad I didn’t stop learning because I was really close to just giving up, but something told me to keep going. This taught me something very valuable, if you tell yourself that you CAN’T do something, then you won’t do it. You need to push yourself, work hard, because in the end, the result is very rewarding. Now I can glow-string many moves:

The Butterfly
The 2 Beat Weave
The Windmill
The Corkscrew
Simple leg/arm Wraps

Today is friday. I practiced these moves on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. By Wednesday, I had most of them down. I find it hilarious because in the end, I bruised myself really bad. I have bruises all over my arms and legs. The ones on my legs are disgusting lol. I even have bumps on my head from hitting myself sooo much from trying to learn the windmill. In the end, it was worth it. I have learned how to swing my sticks without hitting myself now haha. Here are some pics and videos of our glow-stringing moments! **You may want to “right-click and open in new window” when viewing the videos and pictures.

Gallery

Also, check out the videos too.

Videos

Conclusion

Its been a lot of fun learning how to glow-string. Learning something new gives me a good feeling. Its nice to do things outside of the box from time to time. The summer has just started and so much has happened already. I’m having a lot of fun and I’m liking it waay too much! Hehe.

A lot have been going! So far, this summer is probably one of the best summers of my life. Probably because I’m never bored and we are always doing something fun and interesting.

Chet and I are still “house shopping”. We did fall in love with a house that was a short sale, but we really don’t want to wait 8 months before we can move in. We want something that won’t be a pain in the butt when it comes to closing on the sale. Its still pretty exciting and fun.
I’m planning my wedding still. We’ve made a lot of changes to it and the progress is still coming along nicely. I wan’t to have all of my vendors by the end of August at the latest!!

Anyways, Chet and I have been experiencing a lot of fun events lately. We wen’t to a rave a couple of weekends ago at a camping site and it wasn’t all that great. The music was horrible and the weather basically ruined the event. It was my first time experiencing a rave, so I was a little disappointed in how it all came out to be. In my eyes, it gave me a bad impression that raves were all horrible, but I decided to go to another one this weekend and it was awesome!!! This rave was on the beach and the music was more my taste and speed. I was thoroughly entertained! This rave was actually free and it was trying to advertise their upcoming event in Sarasota called “Vinyl Music Festival”, which is in July and it will be on the beach!! This music festival looks promising and fun!! I’m looking forward to it a lot since I was able to get a little taste of it.

This past weekend was a blast. I loved it and I had a grin from ear to ear because I was having soo much fun!! I’m looking forward to more weekends like these.

Today Chelle, Chet and I went to Coldstone Creamery for some sweet treats and it was soooo good. Chet and I shared a vanilla with caramel topping ice cream dessert in a waffle cone and it was simply wonderful! Today we had a blast. It really wrapped up the weekend well.

Tomorrow Chet and I will be meeting up with the realtor again to scope out more houses on our list. I’m really looking forward to that. House shopping is fun and serious business at the same time.

Also, since T-Mobile or (T-Fail) isn’t doing any good for me anymore, Chet is looking into adding me onto a Verizon plan! I’m really liking “The Incredible” phone. Its a very nice phone and I can’t wait to get my hands on it soon! !

I’m loving this summer so far and I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!!

First off, I’m doing very well in school.  My grades are excellent and I’m very proud of myself.  I’ve been doing homework everyday, making sure I keep up with all the large amounts of work.  On my tests, I’ve been getting a lot of good feedback from them.  I do have great study habits.

I move out in two months.  Chet and I are planning to get a house soon.  I need to start getting boxes so I can start packing a little bit.  I don’t have a lot of stuff but then again, you never know till you start packing.  We are planning to move out to “New Tampa.” Its a very nice area which is being built up nicely too.  So there is a lot of room for development.

Then Chet and I are getting married too.  Its very exciting, first getting a house (practicing on how to be a wife) lol, getting married and then going to Japan for our honeymoon!!  I don’t think that all these great things have sunk in yet.  Life is good and I could go on why, but its mainly because of the most wonderful guy in my life who I appreciate more than anything!!  <3

Even though some people might think that my life is moving a little fast, I would disagree, because I’m happy and I wouldn’t stop anything right now because of that fact.  I’m growing up.  I’m 22 years old and I’m glad that I have established a lot of respect for myself.  I know what I want in life.  People can think whatever they want, but nothing will ever take my happiness away from me.

Anyways, this Sunday marks one year for Chet and I being engaged~! Thats really exciting, and we are possibly planning to go to Kobe for dinner !

All in all, its been a good year so far. Lots of things have changed for the better, and a few things still need improvement, but overall, I cant complain. I hope things keep progressively getting better because I’m getting used to it being that way.

I love it! I couldn’t be any happier!  Every time I look down at my left hand, I think, “wow I’m his forever.” Its a great feeling and every time I see Chet, I feel all warm and fuzzy inside because its him who I am spending the rest of my life with.  Its amazing.

Well, I guess I will spill all the juicy details about the engagement/proposal.

Friday night, Chet spent the evening with me and then Saturday morning, we woke up around 8:00 a.m. and left about 9:00. He first went over to his house so he could grab a couple of spare tires just incase one pops. Hes been having bad luck with his racing tires lately, so we didn’t want to take another chance. His parents were supposed to go, but he said his mom was sick and his dad went to go grab medicine for her.  I was bummed out because his mom really wanted to go and she is a plant lover, and I knew she would love it! Once we left his house, we began our loong road trip to Delray Beach, FL, which is about a few hours north of Miami. On our way there, we listened to some dance music, talked about projects and etc. We stopped and got lunch at Wendy’s in West Palm Beach. The food was excellent and we were in a VERY upscale area, so everything looked amazing. We were about 30 minutes away from The Morikami.

Once we arrived at The Morikami, we went in, payed for our admission and then began our walk around the Gardens.  This place is BIG. You can spend a good 45 minutes to an hour till you finish your first time walking around the gardens. We walked around a couple of times before he proposed. Our favorite spot in the gardens is this little shaded area that is made by curved plants supported by bamboo.  Its beautiful and its very nice. It was nice to walk around the gardens, holding hands and smiling at each other every 10 minutes or so.  I had no clue what was going on or what was bound to happen.

Where he proposed.

Once we walked under that shaded area on our 3rd time around. He stopped and pulled me close to him.  He was smiling and he spoke to me and said, “Melly.. I really can’t wait to start our lives together.”  In shock and in awe, I hugged him tightly and said, “Wow, me too! I am very excited about starting our lives together.” After I hugged him, he pulled me back. He began to spoke again and said, “I really want to begin our lives together as one. I love you a lot, and I am very happy with you.” His eyes looked watery red and it all happened to quick and so fast, I wish I remembered more of the wonderful things he had said to me. He then said, “Melly.. I have one question to ask you…” my eyes grew big and I placed my hands over my mouth.  He pulled out a black box, got on one knee and said.. “Melly, Will You Marry Me?” In so much shock and awe, I felt nauseous instantly because I couldn’t control my wonderful feelings at the moment. My heart was pounding so hard, and so fast, I felt like I was going to pass out. I glanced at the beautiful ring, which said “Kay Jewelers” on the white part behind the ring. I instantly said “Yes”, we were both shaking and crying all at once. He placed the ring on my finger and we embraced each other for a few minutes, speaking softly saying “I love you, Im soo happy, yes I can’t wait to spend forever with you.”

I will never forget this moment for the rest of my life. It was a dream come true, the most beautiful event/moment and proposal in my whole entire life. I stood there, experiencing feelings I have never felt before. I was in heaven for those slight few minutes and it was mind blowing. Words will never ever be able to describe that moment, it was too breathtaking. It was everything I had ever imagined and more.

Once the proposal was over, we sat down at a near by bench to let it all sink in. I asked him, “How.. how did you do it all?” At the time, I was still not able to make out words haha. He then said, “Well first off, everyone knew. My mom was never sick and my dad is still on his business trip.” I laughed, feeling so lost and confused. He said “You should never propose in front of your family/friends.” and I agreed. He then went into detail about picking up the ring and when he bought it. We had tried the rings on back in february 28th 2009. That same day, he asked for my parents approval… and then that same night I was thrown into the hospital because of a Kidney Stone. He was there by my whole side and he never left me. I was in sooo much pain and in agony haha. He though it was funny how he asked for my parents approval and they said “Promise us to take care of our daughter.” and that same night, he was beside me in the hospital, caring for me. Isn’t it funny how God throws random “tests” at you like that? Haha its a miracle, a sign from god that we are truly meant to be!

Chet told me that on the day before we were engaged, on that Friday. Chet, Chase, Chelle and I were playing around with each other, bantering I guess and Chet was gonna say “Melanie Weaver!” and he stopped himself before saying it. He said it was very weird how it came to his mind without him thinking about it, like it came naturally and he told me, “I knew that we are really meant to be because your name just instantly came into my mind like that. Melanie Weaver.” I thought that was really funny, cute and just awesome all at once!

Before we left The Morkami, he texted friends and family about the good news. I couldn’t get in touch with my parents because they were in Las Vegas at the time. That evening,  we had dinner at Kobe Japanese Steakhouse in Orlando to make the event even more memorable. This marked the end of a new beginning. <3

I love being engaged to Chet Emerson Weaver <3. Our engagement should be in the paper either by the end of this month or the beginning of next month

Here are some pics of the day we were engaged:

Texting friends/family after the proposal

My beautiful 2 1/2 carat ring from Kay Jewelers