1. Where are you from? Have you lived there your whole life?

The answer to this question depends on where it’s being asked, I guess. If I’m home in Reno, the answer would be Vegas, though it’s not one I like to admit. If I’m anywhere outside of Nevada, the very proud answer is that I’m from Reno. I like to be the reason people can associate Reno with more than just Reno 911 (ugh). I was born in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. though, and lived there until age eight. I think of my upbringing though as being in Henderson, Nev., a suburb of Las Vegas, not unlike anyone else’s upbringing. The only major difference is slot machines in the grocery story and the fact that nothing closes. Ever. But I’ve now lived in Reno almost as long as I lived in Vegas. And Reno is definitely home now, if not where I’m from.

2. How would you classify your clothing style?

Oh man. My clothing style lives somewhere between hippie, preppy, scrubtastic and indie. It’s oxymoronic, but I have different style depending on my mood and the occasion. I’m totally a schizo when it comes to clothing style, actually. Mostly I am drawn to colors, silhouettes and comfort, rather than style.

3. What kind of car do you drive?

2008 Toyota Corolla S. EJ is my first big girl car. Actually, he was my first big girl purchase, period. I bought him almost immediately after graduating college in December of 2007 and I still love him as much as I did when I first bought him (although sometimes I feel bad when I choose my bike over him). I’m hoping to pay him off completely in the next year or two and be free of a car payment!

4. What would your dream home look like if you could have it (or already do!)?

I could say I just bought my dream home, but I’m pretty sure that’d be a lie. It’s most definitely my dream-right-now-home though. However, my dream home has a lot of the same old-world charm and characteristics. My dream home has a professional kitchen with great big stainless steel appliances, clever cabinetry and an island, custom built by my future husband. It has a library, with a luscious armchair that has too many throw pillows and blankets. It has a peaceful room for yoga and journaling (and maybe even napping). It also has hardwood floors, sound, solid structure and adorable oldness (all of which are things my current home has – lucky me )

5. Do you have kids, and if so, how many and how old were you when you had them?

Haha, I don’t. I am happy with nieces and nephews. For now.

6. What is your favorite hobby?

Adulthood is weird, isn’t it? It’s like there is really never time for things like hobbies. Never time for “I’ll pick that back up when …” I like going for bike rides and I’d consider that a real hobby. I try to make blogging – and writing regularly – a hobby. I love to cook and experiment with recipes that are both healthy and delicious. My newest hobbies include unpacking, spending money I shouldn’t and reading Brides magazine.

7. Are you going to have any New Year’s resolutions for 2011?

In 2010, I boycotted New Year’s resolutions and tried to do new month resolutions. May was the last time I did that. I mean, wow, where has the year gone?! I think I would like to do resolutions this year, but there are just some things that rub me the wrong way about them. Like the word resolution. And setting myself up for failure. But is it worse to never try at all? (yes) I hope to have more clarity on this when I start responding to the #reverb10 prompts on 2010 reflections and 2011 intentions. (Cue nervous excitement!!)

8. What is something, if anything, that you’d want to change about yourself?

I could make a list. BELIEVE ME, I could make a list of all the things I’d like to change. But mostly I would like to change the self-hate. I let it get the best of me so often. It’s the self hate that makes me fail to take care of myself – it sort of all goes back to that.

9. What is something that you love about yourself?

I think it’s got to be my ability to truly connect with people. It’s something I’ve made a priority in my life – because I don’t like the fakeness. Real connections make me feel alive, feel passionate about what I’m doing.

10. Pick one of the following: Someone to cook for you, someone to do your laundry, or someone to do your dishes.

Oh laundry, DEFINITELY. I don’t care for doing the dishes either, but for sure doing laundry is the worst. Actually it’s the laundry-putting-away that’s the worst. Will someone really do that for me? Please?

what’s all this?

Ten on Tuesday is a fun little prompt for answering some random questions from roots & rings. Read my first post.

I seem to find myself with a surplus of adorable photos from our recent trip to Vegas, and feel the need to share it with you!

kisses from my ridiculously cute nephew, gavin

jasmine (emma) and abu (gavin) on halloween. *dies*

my cousin's daughter, jovie, looking pensive in uncle brad's spectacles

come on now. no one can resist that smile.

Last one, I swear.

seriously. come on. i mean, stoppit.

Ok, that’s it! I’m off to a kickoff dinner for our GoodStanding retreat. Looking forward to a day of brainstorming and togetherness tomorrow!!

I mean, let’s not kid ourselves. I’m so excited that we [hopefully - please, let's not jinx it here] get keys to our new home tomorrow. But I feel like today, maybe I can put into real full words, sentences and paragraphs what this all means. If not, and this post turns south – I’m sorry, and please just refer to this.

it’s weird that it doesn’t feel weird

I keep going back to something my wise big brother said to me when we got engaged. Big transitions in your life, starting a new job, getting engaged, getting married, buying a house - those things should  feel natural. I mean, tomorrow, I will be a homeowner. And it’s total insanity. But it’s also exactly and completely perfectly the right thing.

This house actually sat on the market almost the entire duration that we house-hunted. When it finally creeped down to something we could afford, we decided to have a look – just in case – but it wasn’t what we wanted. We knew that.

but then there was the feeling.

EVERYONE told us. Everyone said, “when you walk into your house, you’ll just know it.”

I was sure they were lying.

In our six-month house hunt, there were a lot of almosts, and a few actual offers. But never once was there the feeling. Boy am I glad those ones didn’t work out.

playing house

“I’m excited to play house with you,” Brad keeps saying. But this is not playing house. This is real-life, actual living-in, mortgage-having, I-want-to-paint-that-wall-so-I-will HOUSE. And that is more than ok.

So, keys tomorrow and the building of a laundry room begins on Saturday.

Here. We. Go.

Everyone has their -isms. I love -isms, in general. They are cute, quirky things about ourselves and our loved ones that remind us of when they were wee. They’re sentimental and unique to every person and family.

I will never ever forget how laugh-til-you-cry funny it was when my niece Emma referred to apples as “mucka.” We still don’t know why. Or when she’d pretend call her Uncle Jon and ask him “a-doonin, man? Cookin? Cookin yummies?” My heart used to melt when she called me “teetee becca.” (Although let’s face it, my heart still melts whenever she says pretty much anything to me.)

My little sister has some of the cutest -isms, too – many of them are still common in our everyday conversations. Every time someone said “thank you,” Leah noticed, someone also said “you’re welcome.” She just figured she’d say them both and get it out of the way. “Janjouwelcome” has never really left my dictionary.

Leah also championed “blocari” and “chlockate,” which despite the fact that those are both more difficult to pronounce than broccoli and chocolate respectively, are still a part of my vocabulary.

I’ve also been able to introduce some of Brad’s -isms into my life, like avacadado, cramea, long-sleeve pants, Johnny Squadgit’s house (a.k.a John Ascuaga’s Nugget) and “you’re choking me” in reference to tied shoes.

My favorite -ism of all, however is my own. I am of course referring to “a little bit of a lot.” As a kid, it made SO much sense to me. Nowadays, I have a hard time articulating what exactly “a little bit of a lot” means, but sometimes it’s just the right amount. It’s inexplicable.

How hungry are you? A little bit of a lot. How much paper do you need? A little bit of a lot. How bad does it hurt? A little bit of a lot.

what -isms do you have in your family?

This little ditty is courtesy of miss Sarah Von over at Yes and Yes (and if you’re not already reading her I highly recommend you change that like, yesterday).

Over at her blog, she’s started a Sunday tradition of self indulgence and list-making, just because list-making is fun (it is). Today was about the places she’s lived. Since I am about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of my life and will soon be a homeowner (!!!), I felt like this would be a good exercise in remembering where I came from and how it brought me here.

• Northwest Fourth Street in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
  We actually had two houses on this street. When I was too young to remember, we moved across the street. I do remember the second house, though. We lived there until we moved out west. I was 8.
• Golfview Drive, Henderson, Nev.
  Our tiny little rental house when we first moved to Henderson. The first time I had to share a room with my little sister, and worse, a closet! (I was a tiny little diva – devastation ensued).
• Alpine Meadows, Henderson, Nev.
  This was home for a long time. My dad still lives in that house, though it’s very different than it used to be. Now that home has officially been Reno for a while, this house feels like something else altogether. But I still don’t know what.
• New Hall, University of Nevada, Reno
  They call it Argenta Hall now, but when I lived there, it was just a year or two old and hadn’t been named. So it was New Hall. This was where Annie and I became best friends.
• Canada Hall, University of Nevada, Reno
  Don’t live with five other girls. Just don’t do it.
• Sapphire Ridge, Reno, Nev.
  I met Brad when I lived in this house. This was where we fell in love. We’ve come so far, and this house feels like 20 million years ago.
  If you can help it, try not to live with three other girls.
• Silver Ridge Apartments, Reno, Nev.
  This is where an old, superficial friendship got ruined for good.
  This is also where I found my cat.
• Pueblo Street, Reno, Nev.
  The house we live in now. It’s where I learned to cook. It’s where I re-learned how to ride a bike.This is where Brad and I have started to build a life.

Next up is the new house. My house. We had our inspection on Saturday, and it went well. A few repairs we’ll want to do, I don’t think there’s any dealbreakers in there. So on October 15, we’ll get our keys and it will be ours. I am certainly sad to say goodbye to the Pueblo house. It’s the one place I’ve lived the longest, other than my parents’ houses. It would have been four years in February.

but holy cow, i am so excited to make this new place home and create all kinds of awesome (and probably less awesome) new memories there.

It’s 3:08 a.m. and I’ve been up since midnight. My mind is just racing. Did that really just happen? Did I tell everyone that needs to know? When will we get married? Who should get invited? Oh wait, what about work, and all the stuff I have to do tomorrow before we leave town? I couldn’t shut it up. I don’t even really feel tired.

What time of year will we get married? I wonder if I’ll find a house before then?

And on, and on, and on …

It feels wonderful. I was completely surprised. Seriously, 100 percent did not even see it coming. He is such a romantic and a sneakster. I knew that whenever this day came, it would be a complete surprise to me. But apparently, this has been in the works for more than a year. A YEAR, PEOPLE.

so, how did he do it?

Well, the pedibus* picked me up from work and we rode down to Wingfield Park for a picnic dinner, which we like to do from time to time. Before we left, he gave me a very sweet kiss and said “I love you so much, I wish I could tell you.” I didn’t think much of it because let’s face it, I’m the luckiest and he says romantic things like that all the time.

So we were trying to find a nice picnic spot and when we did, he started futzing with the chain on his bike. First he took out some tools and then he took out this little box and said something along the lines of “maybe you can help” when he handed it to me. I later found out he was trying to say “maybe I can show you how much I love you” but it didn’t matter. I was completely shocked and overwhelmed and happy. I started crying, which surprised me, and all I can remember saying was “WHAT?!” several times over. Apparently, I also said “Is this a joke?” Yeah, I’m an ass. So eventually I [duh] answered with a “Yeah” and we kissed and hearts were beating way faster than they ever should and I proceeded to call everyone I know. And then tell twitter. Then we finished our picnic and were on our merry way.

the ring - poor photo quality, but it's so pretty and simple and sparkly and perfect and classic and I'm almost as in love with it as I am with him. and I need a manicure, badly.

our perfect little picnic spot

the happy couple

what else?

1. No, we don’t have a date yet. We need to look at calendars and figure some stuff out. Brad is starting a two-year graduate program this month, so it’ll likely be shortly after he’s finished with that. Until then, he’ll be focused on school and I’ll continue to be focused on my career and Ad2.
2. If anyone around wants a workout buddy, I’m about to get REAL serious about getting in better shape. Just putting that out there
3. To everyone – thank you so much for all your congrats tonight on twitter and facebook! We really couldn’t be happier!

It’s now 3:35 and I’m planning to be up in two hours. What do I do?!

* AKA our bicycle caravan