HAPPY! HAPPY! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!

Whereever you and yours spend new year's eve, i hope it is safe and with family and friends.

This time last year, Mr. Pancakes and i were in a great relationship enjoying each other's company! This time this year, we are engaged and about to get married in less than 4 MONTHS! It's insanely wonderful and exciting.  I feel so blessed in so many ways not only this year but especially for this year because God has blessed Mr. Pancakes and i to come together to share our lives together forever and ever!

• We are both healthy and strong.
• We are blessed to have our families who are healthy and doing well. 
• We have friends that are close to us and continue to share in our celebrations.
• We both are gainfully employed and have been able to safe enough money for our wedding.
• We continue to enjoy each other's company and laugh all the time through the good, bad and ugly.
• We have grown individually and collectively personally and professionally.
• There are so many other things have occurred to us that only God knows how he has blessed us!

And i cannot wait to see what the new year has to offer to us!

The other day at church, Pastor's wife was like: This is your year and i could not agree with her any more!
2011 (two-thousand eleven) is definitely going to our year for so many ways!

Goals for 2011 for Mr. Pancakes and i collectively is:

1) Get Married

2) Go on Nice Honeymoon

3) Become Debt-Free

4) Visit Tennessee (our potential new home)

5) Begin Saving Our Emergency Fund

Goals for 2011 for Myself:

1) Continue Healthy Living--eating and exercising

2) Plan an Amazing Party

3) Listen MORE and talk LESS

4) Prep and Pass Clinical Licensure

5) Read MORE including the bible (go on gossip websites less)

and other things that i can come up as life goes on!

Here is to  hoping that this year will be an awesome year for me, myself and min!

(From Mr. Pancakes and myself, i wish all my fellow bloggers a safe and happy new year!
May the blessings continue to pour down as the prayers go up!)

Week OFF!!!!!!!!!!

I'm so excited because the next few days i have off and i am beyond pumped to get an opportunity to sleep in and just chill.  I feel blessed to have a week off during this holiday.  Monday was spent with Mr. Pancakes which was real nice.  We had a relaxing time together, worked out, watched Forgetting Sarah Marshall, funny movie!

I am going to take the next couple of days to do some wedding planning stuff including the invitations.  Perhaps visit Michaels and see what i can find to make to decorate the ceremony location!  Go to Ikea and see if i can find anything to use for the centre tables like little easels.  Also get fitted for my undergarments for the wedding gown.  As i write this entry, i have my wedding gown inside the house, it beyond exciting.  I am in love with that dress! 

There is a lot to get done because i have less than four months until the wedding.  But i am going to take it one day at a time and considering i am off for the week, it is the perfect time to some items taken care of.

Aside from wedding planning stuff, i will run some errands that i have been neglecting because i have been so busy!  Do a little cooking and maybe baking if i am up to it!

I hope all my bloggin' buddies have a good time and relaxing time as the new year is fast approaching!

LongLazySunday: Day After Christmas

Mr. Pancakes and I definitely had a wonderful Christmas together. This was our third christmas together, second with his family and my friends and it was truly fantastic! We are completely blesses that we were able to spend amazing and fun times with Mr. Pancakes and his family. They are truly a fun group of people and I am loving them. Generally we had a safe, fun and food-filled holiday! I did really well with the eating, attempted to make wise choices until Cousin Pancakes brought out her amazing cakes, she is the resident cake-maker and they taste amazing (she is making the groom's cake!). But I have been doing really well with my workouts and eating so I believe a few pieces of cake won't hurt me too much. Longlazysunday was spent attending church and I really experienced the reason for the season when I heard my fab song: silent night--it definitely reminds me of why we celebrate this wonderful day! We then went grocery shopping and then returned home. Mr. Pancakes was cooking, watching football, drinking beer and napping; how he did all that, I don't how know but he did! And I started chilling on the computer! Anyway I am thankful for so many things as the new year approaches! Including the fact that my future hubby to be is making me a romantic steak dinner! Totally blessed!

Happy Safe Holidays

Hopefully everyone has a safe and happy holidays with traveling to visit with friends and family!

Unfortunately i am not going to Canada to visit my family and or visiting anywhere else to visit wth the rest of my family elsewhere in the world. 

However i am excited about spending time with Mr. Pancakes who has an extended weekend. We are visiting with Mr. Pancakes and his family (his parents are separated so we visit with two sets of family).  It's a litte different for me because i am used to spending time in one home during the holidays and people visiting our family home.

However that's what happens when you marry into a family.  Their traditions and customs become yours! And so we travel to various family homes.  However it's all good!

I am getting used to the travelling to different homes during holidays...i think! 

Well at least i am getting used to it!

What are your new and or old traditions with your fiance, husbands, partners?

BABY!!!!

Initially when i was doing my research about guestbooks i came across several options including blurb.com and adromapics.com and both of them were fantastic! I was definitely in love with how their books were and i probably still am.  However since i have been a frequent visitor to David's Bridal, they sent me a complimentary guestbook by Shutterfly.  I have seen their ads here and there online however i have never really been on their websites! (i am probably late with that because i believe it has been around for awhile!)  Anyway i went on there and started playing around with some of our E-pics and since i didn't know what the quality would look like, i selected a few pictures and hoped that it would all come out well. 

I hoped that the quality of paper would be excellent and that the colour would be bright and brilliant! I was hoping for the best results.  And so i ordered and paid the shipping and handling and waited!

And a few days later (literally it was like within two days) the book arrived in a shutterfly orange box.  I proceeded to open it and out i pulled the book out and it was BEAUTIFUL!  It took me a few moments to actually open the book because i was in awe at how beautiful the front page came out!  Mr. Pancakes and i looked so good, like a couple of SUPERSTARS!  And the pictures were untouched!  I finally proceeded to open the pictures and as i went through the book, i was amazed at the quality of the paper, the colour and just overall how the book turned out! 

I am sure the other sites produced good quality books however i believe i will stick with shutterfly, baby!  Mr. Pancakes, who has been skeptical about the engagement pictures and a guestbook, was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the book and how beautiful (my word but i am sure he thought they were beautiful too) they turned out! 

I believe it would be an amazing gift for christmas, birthdays, wedding gift and graduation present.  I was completely surprised with what shutterfly did.  Also they guarantee the customer's satisfaction.  During the making of the book, i messed up on one picture (i positioned the picture so that Mr. Pancakes' head was cut off in the frame) and they were more than happy to allow me to re-order the book!  Without a hassle...not a one!

I would highly recommend shutterfly for others that are looking for a fun idea for a guestbook and or a nice gift for some special occassions and  or just because for that special someone!

I am so excited about the guestbook because it will allow us to do several things:
1) keep amazing memories using our engagement pictures
2) allow our guests to enjoy special moments Mr. Pancakes and i shared
3) For our guests to and also for them to share some fun and special messages with us!

Has anyone used and or tried shutterfly?
Did you have a great experience?

AfterMath: LongLazySunday

My sunday was spent running around.  Saw my godson who is growing up by leaps and bounds.  Amazing how much a baby will develop and grow! Life is amazing! He is developing his own personality and testing out limits and what he can get away with.  The good thing about him is that he is such a good listener (as much as a one year old can listen!).  And his mom who has never been the mommy-type has stepped up to the plate in such amazing ways.  Not that she is not a nurturing person but you know those women (we all know them) that have always wanted to be a mother? Well my friend is not one of those however her motherly-instinct has defintely stepped in and she is amazing to watch her and little man!  Whenever i am with them, i think of In Lovely Heels--Chic Mama because of how adorbs she is with her son!

Anyway, that was the most enjoyable part of my day.  And also i have a mini-secret crush on a Michael Vick (please don't judge, i believe people can change with new found understanding) and him and the Philadelphia Eagles were amazing...they came back and won an amazing game down 21 points with less than 8 minutes to go! A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! And i am not even a big football fan!

Hope your weekend went well and the week goes even better!

Charity in the Pancakes Wedding: TOMS

Since we are spending all of this money on ourselves and families, I have decided to do something charitable at the same time.  Nothing big but something small and meaningful.

One of my co-workers and i were talking the other day about shoes and she made the suggestion of me wearing canvas shoes.  Not only canvas shoes but TOMS! Funny thing is that i saw a documentary one time about the founder of the shoe company,  Blake Mycoskie and i loved the concept of his shoes.  You see (this is directly from the TOMS.com website---does this make me a priate?) Blake was traveling and

 ...befriended children in Argentina and found they had no shoes to protect their feet. Wanting to help, he created TOMS Shoes, a company that would match every pair of shoes purchased with a pair of new shoes given to a child in need. One for One. Blake returned to Argentina with a group of family, friends and staff later that year with 10,000 pairs of shoes made possible by TOMS customers.

Since 2006 obviously he has expanded his charity all over the world and children are receiving shoes. An idea so simple but yet brilliant!

I have been looking at shoes to wear during the wedding reception, long after i take off my heels, which i plan to.  I love high beautiful heels but i cannot wear them the whole day! Therefore i have been looking at flat shoes and i believe TOMS are it!  What a great way for me to GIVE BACK and at the same time have comfortable shoes on my feet for the wedding reception!

I tried the shoes on and they are sooooooooooooo comfortable, light and just fun! I am currently deciding between the two shoes below.  The glitter ones are more party and fun but then being reasonable, i can wear the plain ones after the wedding on a regular basis!

And the heart warming part of this is that while i wear my shoes during and after the wedding, a child somewhere in the world will also be wearing their very own TOMS!  It definitely makes my heart smile!

                                     

       Check out toms.com for your own inspiration. 
 It is a wonderful idea!



M is for Marriage: D is for Divorce!

Disclaimer:  I know celebrities in hollywood are not like regular people like you and i. 

This entry is merely an opinion piece...aka: Miss Pancakes! Feel free to share yours!

Hollywood has always made a mockery out of marriage but more and more it's becoming available for public consumption due to the media.  Marriage is supposed to be a scared thing and i am sure that most celebrities get into marriage with good intentions, as Scarlett Johansson recently put it "We entered our relationship with love and it's with love and kindness we leave it"  Are you serious? How come the same love and kindness did not allow Ms. Johansson and Mr. Ryan were unable to work on the marriage and make it work?  Now i know i don't know ANYTHING about their relatiionship and or marriage but it really is irritating to see how easily people get divorced!

I believe that sometimes our society is too accepting of divorce and therefore alright for most individuals to give up on their marriage and walk away.

I am confessing that i watch Brideszilla most Sundays (when Mr. Pancakes is not hogging the TV watching football) and most of the brides as they are prepping to get married will say stuff like "i guess if it doesn't work out, there is always divorce!"  It may come across jokingly but why would anyone say that right before the marriage.  And or you watch couples that shouldn't be getting married due to their interactions with one another and during the "Where are they Now?" episodes, they have separated and yes DIVORCED!

Mr. Pancakes and i are definitely on the same page that we allow God to be the First person in our relationship and marriage before each other!  Furthermore, we have agreed that there will be no get-out clause in our marriage contract! There will be no divorce in our marriage and so we are committed to working on our relationship and marriage each and every single second, minute, hour, day, months, year!

This blog entry is more in hope that Mr. Pancakes and i and all the brides continue to work on our relationhips before and after marriage in order to prevent the D word from entering the marriage circle. 

Am i the only that is too focused on hollywood and what is going on in their marriages? 

Has divorce become too socially acceptable?



Team Pancakes: Proposal Story

We decided to go to Kinston, North Carolina for Mr. Pancakes' birthday. We were both excited for the opportunity to get away to the south to relax and enjoy some much needed rest.  

The second day was Mr. Pancakes' birthday and we spent the morning and afternoon hanging out with his family, going to the Piggly Wiggly (supermarket), working out and relaxing on the porch. 

In the evening we decided to go out to dinner.  Choosing my dinner dress, i had an option of a teal/white dress or a yellow dress, he picked the yellow dress, i didn't think much of it, because that's the one i wanted to wear anyway.  We decided to go out to dinner and Kinson being a small town,w e did not have much options.  If we did not find Ruby Tuesday's, we would have gone to the Bogangles (chicken and biscuits). 

Before we went into the resturant, Mr. Pancakes headed to the trunk of the car and i went along, thinking he was going to get his jacket.  Since i got my sweater, i thought he was going to do the same.  Mr. Pancakes waited and made a motion to close the trunk, i started walking to the restaurant.  Now thinking about it, he went back to the trunk as i started walking towards the restaurant.  I remember waiting for him before we walked to the restaurant together. 

Now that i think about it, he did not have a jacket but i didn't think much about it. 

We went inside the restaurant and Mr. Pancakes asked for us to sit in one of the back booths and unfortunately we couldn't because those sections were closed off.  I didn't think much of it, i just thought he wanted privacy and that he wanted to be romantic.  We ordered dinner, ate and enjoyed our meal. 

Throughout dinner, we talked about the three birthdays we spent together and how great and wonderful life has been since we met.   He said in there too that he likes how "i know him so well."  Since we feel very blessed to have found each other, i didn't think much about it. 

When he was in the bathroom, i ordered him a cake for his birthday.  When the waitress finally brought out the cake, she told him, "your girlfriend wanted to surprise you with a birthday cake, you should keep her around," Mr. Pancakes and i smiled.  He knew it was true and so did i:-) 

By the time, the cake was finished, we were the only individuals in the restaurant.  Since it was almost closing time and the waitress was cleaning up, i started being my usually loving annoying self and started to pressure Mr. Pancakes for us to leave the restaurant. 

He smiled, sighed and told me to relax so that he can finish his beer, i didn't think much about it. 

I decided to go to the ladies room.  When i returned, Mr. Pancakes told me i got a text message. while i was in the ladies room.  

Not thinking much of it, i looked at the phone and on there was: "will you mary me?" I looked at him and told him to "stop playing babe!", he looked at me as if he is waiting for an answer, "Are you serious?" Somewhere in there, i told him he spelled 'marry' wrong.  I told him, "of course i will marry you" or something cheeky to that effect. 

He looked at his phone and said, "i didn't get a response."  Wanting to go along with his plan (i thought he was joking/playing around), i sent him a text saying, "of course i will marry you, now and forever."  He told me to turn my face away from him and sent me another text which said, "close your eyes."

i closed my eyes.  At this time, my heart was beating a little bit but i still wan't sure what was going on. 
I heard the phone beeping.  (he told me to open my eyes!)
i opened my eyes (he told me to turn around)
I turned around toward the table
and infront of me WAS an opened box
with the most GORGEOUS RING!

I looked from the ring to him and was completely shocked and overwhelmed. 
I clasped my hands to my mouth and i remember saying, "babe, oh my god, oh my god, are you serious?" it was really all a blur!  Mr. Pancakes came and sat beside me, i hugged him, he hugged me back, we kissed, cried (not completely ugly cry but just surreal kind of tears) and was just overwhelmed with what the moment!   

After a while, he proceeded to put the ring on my finger and i was completely LOST in the significance of the moment. 

Mr. Pancakes was asking me, Miss. Pancakes to be his wife forever and ever? And i had just said YES i would love to be his wife, his companion, the mother of his children, his best friend, the one that he would live, love and laugh with for the rest of our lives.

6/22/2010 was an amazing day because it was his birthday but he had made it even more amazing by asking me to share my life with him! 

For the next couple of days before we returned home, we kept our engagement to ourselvevs and just smiled and were overly lovey dovey! It was such a magical time in our lives in the smalll town of Kinston, NC! The whole proposal was nothing like how i imagined it but everything it was supposed to be. 

Mr. Pancakes and i started our relationship with a text message that changed our lives forever...a simple: "wat are you doin?" turned into "will you mary me?" almost 2.5 years later.  And that is pricelss...

What was your engagement story like? 

Was it like anything you thought or wanted?

LongLazySunday: Rainy Days

I know a lot of you out there (in the mid-east i think; my geography is terrible, i am a Canadian in America) are under terrible weather! 
On our end, it is rainy and i feel like singing: Rain Rain Go Away, Come Back Another Day!
But it is not going anywhere and it is better rain than snow and or something terrible!

Went to church early today because i was ushering. I am making progress with being on-time for charge.
That's definitely going to be on my new year's resolution.

My eyes are still burning from getting up early. I am not a morning person at all!

I have Mr. Pancakes' hoodie on all cozy and warm, trying to get comfortable in this weather.

I am supposed to be dropping off my brother at the airport but he is nowhere to be seen and i am ready to get comfortable on the couch.  Catch some episodes of Brideszilla and Football!

Mr. Pancakes is visiting with his dad for Sunday Football so i will watching mostly the wedding shows!

I will also try and workout sometime tonight!

Wherever you are...here's to a longlazysunday...whether rainy, snowy and or sunny!

LongLazySunday: Tired!

I wanted so badly for my sunday to be long and lazy however it was anything but. I am tried from packing, unpacking and overall moving and also from running around the last few days. I am glad that we have moved in and we will take our time to settle in during the next few weeks. Mr. Pancakes and i do have a wedding to plan so we really need to get organized and get on with the wedding program. But for now, i go to settle...

I want to sleep so bad but i cannot close my eyes to go to sleep..

Hope your Sunday was spent relaxing and do something fun, lazy and not as tiring as mine.
Here is the a much better week!

It's Brrrrr!

In the process of moving this weekend, I also realized how cold it was outside! I mean it has been freezing in my part of the country! At least it has not started to snow! The move went well and now trying to settle in. I'm off tomorrow and Monday so I can do more putting away stuff. The purpose of this email though is to share the new word that Niece Pancakes (Mr. P's niece) used the word "brrr!" to describe how cold the weather is. And thinking that the word "brrr" was the cutest phrase ever, Mr. Pancakes and I have also started using the phrase. At first in a joking manner but now we really do use the phrase to describe how cold "brrr" it is! We still smile when we tell each other "it's brrr!" but I think it's become one of our daily phrases! Do any of you have any phrases you and your family uses on a regular basis unique to you?!

Moving Yet Again!

Happy December. I cannot believe that the year is almost about to end...well in 27 days! But more reflection on what a fantastic year this has been and continues to be! Mr. Pancakes and i moved this weekend! And the reason this mini post is entitled with yet again is because since I met Mr. Pancakes, I have moved several times. Maybe over six times in the last three years. Too many addresses, the IRS is probably wondering what i'm running from. Since moving in together and becoming engaged, Mr. Pancakes and i have already moved twice in less than six months. And although I have informed Mr. Pancakes that this will be our last move until we move to our home which will be where we grow old and raise children! I hate moving but somehow I am always moving. For me being stable and having some stability has never been related to a certain home and or apartment. Stability has always been knowing that my family loves me an are around and that my friends will always be there! Since meeting Mr. Pancakes I have wanted to set some permanent roots somewhere and I am hoping that this move will begin our setting of permanent roots together as the future Pancakes! Mr. Pancakes did fantastic job moving all our items: big and small because I was working most of the last few weeks. Cable is coming tomorrow just in time for football and brideszilla! Moving now will also help me focus on wedding prep which is in less than 140 days! Wow! Soon I marry Mr. Pancakes and officially become his Mrs. Pancakes. Here is to Team Pancakes moving ahead not only in apartments but also in our lives and growing old together!