engagement photos part two

one of the advantages of jen being a professional photographer is that she has photographer friends. several have offered to take our engagement photos.

here is a link to the first batch... montage photographers.

the photo shoot was so much fun as we just drove around the city go to spots that had meaning to us... like the sculpture works warehouse and downtown. we laughed and generally acted ourselves while trung took photos.

although we think trung did an amazing, amazing job... i feel like i should apologize for the photos of me sitting on a toilet in one set and of my trying to pose sexy like in another! i am kind of goofy that way.

next week we are possibly taking some more with jen's friend paul, who is also going to do bridal photos and our wedding in california. yea!

wedding in california... not ours

we are heading off to california tomorrow morning to go to the wedding of jen's brother, kyle. in burst of logistical genius... we are flying on different flights and i arrive at the ontario, california airport five hours before jenny. five hours.

those five hours of doldrum aside, it is going to be a wonderful trip. we are excited to be there to celebrate kyle and marie's special day. it will be great to see family and friends. AND our five days in redlands will give us a chance to do some much needed planning for our own wedding (just 24 days away)!

we still need to finalize the church, meet with the bishop, figure out flowers and other decorations (ie. table cloths that match my tie... lol), stop by the farm (location of our rehearsal dinner), and work out accommodations for folks coming from out of town.

good exciting stuff!

house and dog sitting

one of the biggest "prices to pay" for moving to bishkek is leaving our dogs behind. as mentioned previously, we have two of the world's greatest dogs (seriously... they were voted the world's greatest dogs on an online poll!). molly is 15 and is at the stage of her life where she only wants peace and quiet and the occasional rub behind the ear. she was an outside dog most of her life and only made the transition inside the past year when we adopted her from jen's dad. as a result of having been outside most of her life... she now HATES being outside. bathroom breaks consist of only going outside to the edge of the sidewalk. no more grass or nature for her! boone is going on eight and is an amazing dog who is still in puppy mode. he needs to play and run and cuddle all day every day. he climbs trees, rides in a trailer behind our bikes, and helps old women cross streets. they are both really, really good stuff. they are our kids.

the only saving grace to our leaving is having someone who is going to love them and take care of them while we are gone. our friend richard, one of my staff at the university of houston, is going to house and dog sit while we are on our "honeymoon". he has watched the kids before and is very much a dog person. we also have a good group of friends (april and nick, mark and emily) who will be able to help and and love on them while we are gone.

so i guess this is a little blog prayer that boone and molly are happy and healthy while we are gone. here is hoping that molly never has to go outside unless she wants to. here is hoping that boone gets lots of time running at the park. here is hoping that molly always gets the last bite of dinner off of the table. here is hoping that boone gets to crawl into bed around 400am every morning and cuddle. here is hoping that molly stays in good health and that her hips don't bother her too much. here is hoping that boone stops being scared of toaster oven dings and the elevator dings he hears on television shows. and here is a thanks to our friends who will take care of them!

richard


april and nick


jenny with emily


mark

wedding mix music

thought it would be fun to start posting music that we are going to use at our texas wedding reception.

* the song will open in a new window and depending on your connection speed the music might be a bit slow.

nine in the afternoon by panic at the disco
be my yoko ono by the barenaked ladies
all i want is you by barry louis polisar
sweet pea by amos lee
out loud by dispatch
stick by you by andrew lipke
one voice by the wailin' jennys
orange sky by alexi murdoch
realize by colbie cailat
gracie by ben folds
hold you in my arms by ray lamontagne
the one who loves you the most by brett dennen
only want to be with you by hootie and the blowfish
chasing cars by snow patrol
see the world by gomez
bring it on home by little big town
want to by sugarland


* more music coming soon!

The Golden Tickets

Not only are all of our things in boxes, but we just received our airline tickets to Bishkek today. We mailed out our invitations at the post office where we had a good laugh that the postage was more expense than the little square invitation that gives the information for our Texas reception.

We had ordered books from Borders that came in today...both are travel books. One for navigating Central Asia, and the other specific to Kyrgyzstan. We stopped by a street side shop and read them at a picnic table.

Davey has the day off today, and I am sitting at the kitchen table with the air conditioner blowing on me and David is sprawled out on the bed (the only time he gets his side and then some) and has the air conditioner blowing on him. Without doubt, they are set at 68F or 70F...a luxury we are at grips with losing when we make the trek to Central Asia.

We both have stated that this is, by far, the smallest amount of time in which major life changing changes are being made. We feel incredibly blessed, humbled, sobered, and thoughtful about the future journey. Marriage being the big journey, Kyrgyzstan being the imminent (temporary) setting.

We Kill Water Cooler Chat.

When asked, "Whatcha up to?", Dave and I look at each other, smile, and reply, "Nothin' much...getting married and moving to Kyrgyzstan...in 30 days." You?

(Silence)

Things are going well though. We're managing to get everything done. Worst case is that things are a little crazy and mismatched on the wedding day. Dave has done so much organizing the Texas reception. The tables, chairs, tents, and dj were all volunteered. Thank you, UH and Chris! Invites are out and RSVP's are coming. Shopping will happen the day before.

For California though, we will have a better idea of what we have to do to prepare the reception and chapel for the wedding ceremony once we visit when we go for Kyle's wedding next weekend.

My poor mom, both of her children are getting married in a month and she's corralling church ladies for me to ask them who can make salads in a jiffy and I am getting picky saying I don't want Chinese Chicken Salad and that I prefer Greek. I'm not a jerk, I keep telling myself. Rushed, opinionated, and anxious? Yes, I am those things. And, I have taste buds that are representing the masses, but my mom drives a tough campaign for the Chinese Chicken Salad, so it's staying, and I'm sold on it. All I can think about is that stupid overplayed song, that says something about a drumstick. Do you know which song I'm talking about?

However, I got the dress. THE DRESS! Yay! It's beautiful! Ask Carrie, the new proud owner of our sea foam green scooter...we went together to go dress shopping and have cupcakes at Sugarbaby's afterward. It was a lovely, estrogen-filled day! And to top off the night, Dave, Carrie, and I went and ate free Chick-Fil-A!

texas wedding reception

jennifer and david invite you to celebrate their upcoming marriage and move to bishkek, kyrgyzstan during a picnic reception at the menil collection park

saturday, august 2
700pm to 1100pm

the park is dog friendly so feel free to bring your pets as we enjoy an evening of bbq, drinks, music, dancing and games.

directions
menil collection park
115 sul ross
houston, texas 77006

located off of west alabama
between montrose and dunlavy
next to st. thomas university

bride and groom are registered at:

recreational equipment, inc.
registry number GR1771329

gift cards to rei, barnes and nobles, border's books and itunes are welcomed

please rsvp to conoverwedding@gmail.com

engangement photos part one

today jen and i went to the menil collection park, the river oaks plant store, and to an alleyway near our house and took engagement photos for our texas wedding reception.

jen made the signs herself! lots of fun...

scooter!

jenny and i purchased a new kymco people 150 scooter just over a month ago from apollo scooter in houston.

after month of living the wonderful life of scooter ownership (people waving and smiling as we ride by... small children cheering... old women crying with joy... all the cool kids inviting us to their parties) - we have decided to up and move to central asia. as hard as it is for us to leave our friends and family behind, we are having an even harder time letting go of our scooter.

$3500 - price includes the scooter - a kymco people 150
A givi rear cargo box
1 large silver helmet
1 xxl black helmet

the tank holds about 1.5 gallons of gas and it typically costs us about $5.00 to fill up. we are averaging around 70mpg! the scooter has some get up and go and we are able to cruise easily at 50mph - plenty of speed to keep up with the cars zipping down richmond. we have used the scooter to get around inside the loop, downtown and to commute to work at the university of houston. you are always guaranteed front row parking!

we paid close to $4000 for the scooter, helmets, cargo box, tax, title and license.

if interested... drop us a line.

wedding license

wednesday was an exciting day for us. we got up in the morning, got all fancied up, jumped on the scooter and headed off to get our marriage license.

our first stop was at houston's flower district where we visited our favorite shoppe and put together a marriage license bouquet for jennifer. then we scooted downtown to the courthouse to get the license. we finished the morning with a celebration breakfast at our favorite taco place - taco's a go go.

we are feeling pretty excited to being one step closer to the rehearsal in texas and the wedding in california.