Well folks, by now, most of you know that Alfredo, for the longest time, was talking about how he was going to make me his wife (practically from the beginning of our relationship) :) and planning to pop the question to me. So it is no real surprise to anyone that he proposed to me in February and that I gladly accepted! And I must say that every time that I look at my left hand, I get all warm and fuzzy over the concept of being Mrs. Alfredo. And well, it is certainly hard to miss this beautiful new bling that he has bestowed upon me. 
I just love my ring! So I could not wait until our ladies night last night to show it to you and to fill you in on the details of what is to come. And thank you so much again for the beautiful cards and for being so very happy and excited in celebration of my and Alfredo’s engagement. We will be starting the actual planning in April because we just wanted to enjoy the engagement for a bit before we start the frenzied process of all of the planning – and believe me, with a large wedding, we will need all of the time that we can get! So I will keep you all posted as things develop!
A big huge thank you to you – Andy and MC – for hosting this wonderful evening and for the fantastic food. And also thank yous go out to you – Oneuma and Anne – for your very yummy dishes. Our potluck meal brought together a really nice fusion of ethnic and traditional cuisine. And even though this was sanctioned as ladies night, thank you for extending the invite to Alfredo as well – he obviously really enjoyed himself as well. I don’t know about you guys, but I really liked the shift from doing the restaurant thing to having a night in chez one of us with fabulous food that each of us prepared. The setting allowed us to be in a nice and cozy environment, free from the buzz of a busy restaurant. It allowed us to engage in our conversation, uninterrupted, and everyone got to hear what was going on. It was so good to find out how everyone is doing and what was new. And, of course, Angel was ever the gracious hostess as usual too, bestowing her cuteness and attention to everyone. :).
What’s new on the home front? Little by little, after opening my account with the Home Depot, I am starting to buy all of the things that we need to make renovations to my home. We started with painting rooms last year and now it has moved to the purchase of new doors and knobs. Last year, I bought new light fixtures for all of the bathrooms so Alfredo will be replacing them this Spring – he has already started with putting in the new dining room light fixture. We are now pricing out crown molding and baseboards and are also looking at patio stones as the back yard will be completely redone this Spring / Summer. I have a list of other things that we are going to do so it will take some time to get everything done, but we are really excited about these changes as we want to personalize our home – as a couple. And we are also preparing for that time when we will be ready to buy our next home together, so all in all, we are very excited about this process.
When things calm down a bit, we will be having you all chez nous again to meet our little Calvin man as I know, from last night’s conversation, you are all anxious to meet our sweet fella. And we could also plan to finally go for our doggie date once all of this mud and snow is a memory of yesterday. Anne – we really hope that Ralphie makes some good progress in his health and that he finally gets some relief from all of his symptoms. Keep us posted. We are keeping him in our thoughts and prayers.
Thank you all again for sharing your experiences regarding the planning of your weddings and for giving us some helpful suggestions. We are really excited about getting the ball rolling and look forward to embracing the whole experience ourselves. I am also very lucky that I have a fiance who is as excited, engaged and interested in the process as I am. We both waited a long time to meet “the one” to make this commitment to and after 3 years of being together (this June), we are very happy about and committed to taking our relationship to the next level. Alfredo is actually looking forward to taking the pre-marriage course (as we are both Catholics) and I’m sure it will provide some interesting insight for us and from what my friends say (who have taken the course), they enjoyed this part of the pre-marriage preparation as well.
Anyhow, I guess that’s it from the Tina-Alfredo camp for now. More to follow in the coming weeks, months…..
In the meantime, keep safe, stay healthy and we look forward to your updates as well!
Love Tina :)
