Busy Busy Busy

Ok so it's been awhile. I know I know, I suck as a blogger. If it helps though, I have a really good excuse. I've been busy. Between school and work and combining houses, I am always doing something.

Keith has been recently moving all of his stuff from his house to mine and I've come to a conclusion. We need a farm. Not for animals mind you, but for all the crap we have! Sunday we took a load to Goodwill. We loaded up his trunk area and back seat in the SUV and it's like we didn't even make a dent in the enormous amount of stuff we have. We now have 3, count them 3 crock pots. I tried to explain to him that this was unnecessary, but he won't listen. "Nikki, this is a new crock pot." "I understand Keith but so is mine and I like mine better". So he says "but I really want to keep mine AND the little one I have". "But Keith, why do we need the little one?" "I use it from time to time" Let me just go ahead and say that in the time that I've known Keith, I've never seen him use that little crock pot. But whatever, it can stay.

Keith is renting out his house which helps us out a lot. But sadly we just don't have the room. He still has a lot of big things that he had to take to his uncles because we just don't have the room. Right now my garage is jam packed with the Prowler, the Harley and numerous other things. He wants to bring up some of the bigger things and stick them in, but unless we strap them to the roof of the house, it's not going to happen.

On a sad note I got rid of Loretta this past weekend. I was sad. She was a good car for 3 years but Keith is right, we don't need 4 cars for 2 people and there was no need to take on an extra car payment right now. We are trying like crazy to save so we can afford this farm that apparently we need (ok we aren't getting a farm, but we really need a bigger house). So now my primary car is the Prowler and his SUV when the weather is bad.

We finally cleaned out my green room and transformed it into a "Man Room". We put his 52" tv in there, the xbox and wii and two chairs. He loves his room! I gave him free range on decorating...we'll see how that turns out.

So that's what we've been up to lately. Busy and hectic but so worth it! I love that our lives are combining and we are getting one step closer to getting married!

Funk

I was reminded yesterday that I haven't blogged in a long time. I know I know, sorry about that. I think though that it's because I'm in a funk. I've had some things going on that I've let get to me and it's led to my funk. I won't go into details but I'm pretty sure you all know the big one. The other is that my pain has been acting up on me again. It's always there, just some days are worse than others. Seems like here for the past few weeks it's been more worse than it has better. So I started physical therapy to see if that will do anything for me. So far it's caused LOADS of pain. But I'm truckin' through it.

I'm also very worried that I won't be able to continue going to school. My financial aid got suspended the week before classes started because apparently it's taken me too long to get my degree. I can't afford school without the financial aid so if I don't get my appeal approved, I'm going to have to drop out. I would hate to think that an institution designed to better people would want someone to drop out due to financial restraints. If so then that's a sad testament to this state.

I'm on the upside of my funk and that's why I've decided to write. I read other blogs and realize my problems aren't so bad. I know that things could be so much worse for me right now, but for a small moment, I was in a funk. I'm very thankful for the life and friends I have. Thank you all for being there for me to listen to my ramblings of my small issues even when you've had bigger issues of your own. I love you all. :)

Wall-E

So Sunday my dad, my fiance and I all sat down and watched Wall-E. I am a HUGE fan of movies like this. I have a growing collection of Disney movies. I feel that it's hard to be down when you are watching a Disney movie (ok, except Old Yeller). Now I know this isn't Disney per say. It's Pixar but I'm not sure if it's Disney Pixar. Anyway, my point is I was terribly disappointed. This movie was not a kid's movie at all I don't think. To me, it have a poorly disguised hidden agenda. I mean, I really don't even think they tried to hide it. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for movies having a meaning but this one I think was a bit much for the kids. Maybe it was geared for the adults, who knows.
So first off let me just say, if you haven't seen the movie and want to, these may be spoilers. It starts off showing a robot cleaning up massive piles of garbage. We soon learn it's earth and that everyone on earth has been taken to another planet due to the amounts of garbage on ours. The robots are there to clean it up for us. Then stuff happens and all of the sudden were are on the other planet where they put the people from earth. WOW!!! These people are nothing but fat, unobservant consumerists who do whatever they are told without question. I'll say it again. WOW. I continue to watch and then dad and I were discussing Axiom which is the "government" of the spaceship they are on. We are thinking big brother maybe? Then I had to laugh. They have a computer that tries to overrule the ship's captain. It has a glowing red eye that told the captain "I'm sorry, I can't allow you to do that". That was just a bad rip off if you ask me. Maybe it was meant to be a funny parody of 2001 A Space Odyssey.
In the end earth become habitable again and all is well. It just really bothers me that a movie "made for children" has such a political agenda. Rant off.

Holy Cow, I'm ENGAGED!!

So all of you already know I'm engaged. I'm still in shock about it I think. I'll look down and see this ring and think, "oh wow! Keith really wants to be with me forever!!" It really is an exciting feeling. I've got so many thoughts running through my head. Do I hyphenate my name? Do I become Anikka Michelle LaFontaine-Gillispie? Holy crap is that a long name. Do I become Anikka Michelle Gillispie or Anikka LaFontaine Gillispie? I really want to keep LaFontaine. Dad and I are the last ones. Unless dad knocks someone up, then the name dies with us. Then we have do decide on where to get married. We had decided to do a small wedding in Gatlinburg with just our parents. I LOVED this idea. Well, he talked to his mom and he has a lot of older relatives that really want to see him get married. So now we are talking about doing a wedding here. I did a small list of people that I had to invite. My list alone was about 50 people. His list will be even bigger. He has a big family. Mine is small but I have a lot of you that I consider family so that's why my list is so big. So I told him about having 50 people. He freaked. He said he would get so freaked out in front of that many people. Hmm, so the fun of a wedding begins....

On the bright side, MY RING IS SO WONDERFUL!!!

Ok so back to business. I think if we do get married here it will be at his family friend's house in Georgetown. He's got a big amount of land so we could do the wedding and the reception there. We had agreed to do the reception there anyway, so I guess we could just get married there too.

My fear is that this is going to turn into a big ordeal. I don't want a big ordeal. I just want to say my "I do's" and start spending forever with him!

I am so happy, so excited, and so scared all at the same time. This is so exciting and I'm so happy to have all of you to share it with. :)

Boys and their toys

This weekend dad came into town to pick up his new motorcycle. God was he excited. It was like he was waiting on Santa. He called me Friday night and said he was on his way in and he couldn't wait. I went after work to sign his paper work for him. When he got here he had all of his information waiting on him. Wow was he in heaven.

Sat. I had a hair appointment so I left Keith and dad to go pick up the bike. I called them when I was done and they were still over at Harley. They had forgotten to add his new grips so he had been waiting on those. I drove over there all nervous like a mother almost. When I got there he was signing the rest of his paper work so he could get on the road! He put on his helmet and his leather jacket and sat on the bike. My stomach just sank. All I could think about was well, we are pretty close to a hospital. If he breaks an arm or leg, at least he is here and I can take care of him. So he says " should I drive around the parking lot first?" Keith looks at him and says "it's been over 30 years, I think that's a great idea" He starts the bike and gets comfortable. He slowly takes off and starts to wobble a bit. I had to turn around. He took off around the building and after a minute he returned. I felt better. Keith, his dad Darry, and my dad took off for Georgetown for a nice ride. I stayed home and cleaned for the party I was having later. I can't tell you how nervous I was the whole time they were gone. I was really hoping my phone wouldn't ring. I knew if I didn't get any calls, everything was ok.

When they got home all dad could do was smile. He had so much fun. They went on a ride yesterday too. I haven't seen him this happy in a long time.

Memories

Last night Keith and I went to his parents house in Stamping Ground for dinner. It was a beautiful day so we took the prowler. On the way home it was beautiful. In the 70's and it was a clear night. Driving home made me just have amazing memories of when dad and I would road trip. We use to do it all the time. He has a family friend in WV that we would go visit. I would always get to be DJ and he would always drive. Dad and I have the same taste in music so it was never a problem. When I was little he would give me his cassette tape case and say "pick something" and we would drive to wherever singing and laughing. As I got older things were changing but the one thing that always stayed the same was road trips with dad. He never got tired of driving and we would always sing. When I got older though we started having more and more conversations. Really revealing ones which I think has brought us closer over the years. Funny stories too that would make us both laugh so hard we were crying.
It's been a while since we've road tripped together. I think the last time was probably a couple years ago. I miss that time of my life where the open road was in front of you, knowing a wonderful adventure awaits. I guess now I'm on my own open road, waiting for my adventure to show itsself.

YARRRRRRRR!

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!!!