A Pampered Princess

After working four full days with my kids (who are beyond excited about Christmas!) at Boys and Girls Club, I am exhausted! I love those kids to death and wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, but I was more than ready to go home when I got off work at 3:00. However, the most exciting part of my day (besides getting to dance with the kids and play with them all day) would have to wait until later that evening after some last minute shopping (for my future mother in law) and dinner with Tyler and the future in laws. My big plans for the evening were... (Drum Roll Please)... a massage and facial courtesy of my wonderful hubby to be!

Now, I'll have to say that this evening has been my fuel to get through this week of Christmas-crazy five to twelve year olds! My coworkers and I were even having a countdown during work today :) It all started a few days ago when Tyler asked me what else I wanted for Christmas (besides my new HOT pink kayak life jacket!) and I quickly said a day at the spa. After some research and advice from my wedding planner (who is the receptionist at Tangles Day Spa), Tyler had the evening planned and the appointment all set up for his Princess (which his nickname for me). He really knew how much I needed some ME time, and this my ideal ME time :)

I've never had a massage or facial before, so this was a totally new and exciting experience for me. My massage therapist, Melissa, from Tangles Day Spa, was amazing! She was so sweet and did wonders for my back and shoulders with her Swedish Massage! I have so much tension build up in my shoulders, but she was able to get all the kinks out :) The facial was also incredible! I am a sucker for hot towels, and she did 5 rounds of hot towels on my face and even more on my back. My face is so smooth and refreshed now!

 But wait, my night got even better! After an evening of TOTAL relaxation, I scheduled two more afternoons of pampering; a much needed haircut and spa pedicure :) I can't wait!!! I could definitely get used to getting pampered regularly!

A Night of Serious Wedding Planning!

With less than 9 months to go until the big day, my wedding planner, Jessica McClean and I were in dire need of a night devoted to wedding planning. From 7:00 to 11:00 we were cranking out ideas and finalizing plans for this incredible day. We went from 2 pages of information to over 13 pages! Wow! Along the way we hit a few speed bumps, but got through them with a lot of patience and some trail and error. Let me share a few things we finalized tonight :)

Our Wedding Planner Jessica McClean
Let me just say, that this girl is such a blessing to Tyler and I! Jessica has done so much for this wedding and has been able to help me organize my ideas for this wedding. She is so creative, organized, and detail oriented! I love it! I've had so much fun working with Jessica and planning this incredible day.

1. The Rehearsal Dinner is completely planned!

To start off with, I hadn't even thought of this portion of our wedding until Jessica told me we needed to finalize it tonight! We then began setting up the date, attendees, food, etc. However, we ran into a huge speed bump. The groom has to work (a 24 hour shift) on the date of the rehearsal dinner! We could not possibly have a rehearsal dinner without the groom! He needs to know where/what he's doing on the big day ;) This put a kink in our plans, but we eventually moved the date around and have from Wednesday until Saturday pretty much planned out :) Whew, thank goodness!

2. Magnolias don't bloom in the Fall...

Since the day we got engaged, I knew that I wanted my bouquet to be REAL magnolias. Magnolias are my favorite flower and are a reminder of my grandfather, who passed when I was nine. However, I was informed a few months ago by my FCS professor (who is getting married in June and has a magnolia tree outside her office) that Magnolias only bloom in the Spring and only last 7 hours in water after they are picked! This was disappointing, but we have a back up plan, silk magnolia flowers. After thinking about it, silk flowers will be much better because I'll be able to keep my bouquet :)

3. There are so many wedding songs!

Before our meeting tonight, I had already picked out a few songs that I definitely had to have on our wedding day. I've known for quite a while now that I will walk down the aisle to "I Could Not Ask for More (Edwin McCain) and our first dance would be "Amazed" (Lonestar). However, all of the other prelude, interlude, and processional music was a complete mystery. After some serious thinking and brainstorming we have decided on most of the ceremony songs. Throughout the evening Jessica and I were playing Itunes and YouTube trying to find the perfect song. We also found ourselves tearing up during these songs! If I'm crying with nine months left, I know I'm going to be a mess when these songs are actually played at the ceremony and reception, but in a good sense :) The songs that really got me were "My Little Girl", which will be the song played during my father daughter dance, and "Mama's song" which will be played when our family is seated. I think these songs portray the feelings and mood that we're trying to set for the day.

4. Our guest list is in the process of being finalized

This was the hardest and most stressful part of the night! Tyler and I have so many people that we wanted to invite and are limited in the number we can invite because of limited space at our church. Jessica had to put a limit on the list (130) which means we had to cut our original list by 30. However, Jessica knows what's best and I trust her judgement. I also don't want people to have to stand at our wedding because of limited seating. Our next step is to order invitations (which are most likely going to be firefighter themed) and mail those babies out!

5. We have our colors :)

For the first few months of our engagement, I kept going back and forth on the wedding color scheme. Our original colors were navy and yellow, then navy and light pink, and finally we've decided on watermelon (dark/hot pink), white, with a hint of navy. Whew, is your head spinning? Because mine sure was! I've always wanted a pink wedding, but stuck to navy originally because my ring has sapphires and the Singers Glen fire engine is blue. However, after our trip to David's Bridal, I fell in love with the color watermelon and have never looked back. I can't wait to see my girls in their beautiful watermelon dresses :)

There's so much more that I could share about our night of serious planning, but those are the major events that we finalized tonight. It is beyond exciting to finally see these items come together and I can finally visualize what my weddings is going to actually look like! I'm sure there will be many more wedding planning evenings like tonight, and I'll be sure to share them with you :)

Until then, check out our wedding website!

http://www.mywedding.com/tylerandkelseyswedding/

Our Furry Weekend Guest

This past weekend was quite an adventure and full of new experiences for Tyler and I. On Saturday night, we went to the annual Singers Glen Volunteer Fire Company Christmas dinner (the food, especially the desserts were amazing!). As we walked out the door, we saw that snow was beginning to stick to the vehicles, but not the roads thankfully. We headed back to the house to find foot and paw prints in the snow on the porch. We assumed Wes, Tyler's brother, had come back to the house during his shift and let Homer (the beagle) out.

However, as we walked in the door, two dogs greeted us! After calming the dogs down and calling Wes we soon figured out where this little furry Homer look alike came from. Apparently, someone had found the dog wandering along the road, took him in, and called 911. That's how Wes ended up with the dog. The plan was to take him straight to the SPCA, but it was closed and the dog wouldn't have survived in the outdoor kennels all weekend. So, here we are, just the two of us, trying to figure out what to do with this dog! Now, I must let you know that Tyler is anything but a dog person! But, for some reason, this dog was different. He was the exact opposite of Homer (who is six months old). This dog, who ended up having four names within a period of three days (Elmer, George, Stewie, and Riley), was very calm and completely loveable. We later found out that he was close to 7 years old, which would explain his calm and mellow nature. The dog also had a crooked front foot but could run and walk as much as he wanted. This concerned us, but realized that it wasn't hurting him. We were also worried that if we took him to the SPCA that no one would want to adopt him because of his crooked foot.



That night, the dog (who's name was really Bo) was completely pampered! He got a nice long bath and even got to sleep in the bed with Tyler! He even let Tyler know when he had to go outside by licking his face :)Thankfully, Bo was house trained and never had an accident in the house! Could this dog get anymore perfect?!?

On Sunday afternoon, we made a quick stop to my parent's house to show them the possible newest edition to our little family. My family absolutly fell in love him (including my boxer, Buster). Later that afternoon, Bo recieved bath #2 and spent the rest of the day napping with Tyler and I.

After spending less than 24 hours with this dog, I fell head over heals for him and wanted to keep him. Tyler surprisingly took the dog very well and was considering keeping him. However, we knew that there was still the possibility that his owner would show up. As soon as Wes called the SPCA on Monday morning, they informed him that the owner had already called and was looking for him. That phone call broke my heart :( I was anything but ready to give up this little guy! The whole rest of the day I moped around and cried when Bo met me at the door that afternoon. I never thought I could get attached to a dog this quick, but I fell for that little guy hard!

Later that afternoon the owner came to get Bo and told us about how their family was missing him like crazy and would be so happy to see him again. Bo was also very excited about seeing his family again and wouldn't stop wagging his massive tail. It was sad to see him go, but I'm so glad that Bo was reuinited with his family.

 Overall, this weekend was such a fun and exciting experience for Tyler and I. Besides getting to play "parents" for the weekend, this experience really opened Tyler's eyes up to the idea of us getting a dog in the future :) We figured out that it is possible for us to manage taking care of a dog and that Tyler likes dogs more than he thought he did! However, after our little furry guest, I've been given specific details about our future dog, which has to be over a year old and adopted from the SPCA :) That's fine with me!

Meet the Future Mr. & Mrs. Burgoyne :)

I'm sure as our blog continues to grow, you'll get to know Tyler and I better, but for the time being, I'll let you in on a little bit our history and paint you a picture of how our life looks right now. Our story began over five years ago when we started dating (as freshman in high school), and each day keeps getting better and better. A little over a year ago, Tyler popped the question with a beautiful sapphire and diamond ring in his living room, and I began planning this wedding soon after :) And now, we only have nine months to go until the big day!

Tyler: 19 years old. Professional and volunteer firefighter. Kayak Enthusiast. Amway IBO. Born and raised in Singers Glen. Future Hubby :)

Let me first start off by saying how much Tyler has accomplished at 19. Not many 19 year olds have earned a position and career like Tyler has! He has worked so hard to get where he is and is such an amazing firefighter! Tyler is such a natural born leader with just the right amount of Melancholy and Phlegmatic Personality. He is a bit of a perfectionist (as am I) yet is very calm and collective. He knows how to calm me down when I am stressed beyond belief and always puts a smile on my face when it's hard to smile. What I love about him the most is his big heart! I have never met anyone who is as selfless and humble as he is. And did I mention how good he looks in his Class A's! Ah, I love a man in uniform :) I am truly blessed to be able to spend the rest of my life with this man!

Kelsey: 19 years old. Junior at Bridgewater College. Future Teacher. YDPL (Youth Development Program Leader) at Boys and Girls Club. Salesperson at The Jewelry Vault. Amway IBO. Born and raised in Broadway. Bride to be :)

That's me! Let me just say that I am beyond excited about having a new last name in nine months! (Mostly because I get to move up to the top of the alphabet!) I am a total and complete perfectionist and share the same personality types as Tyler. I take on way to much but wouldn't have it any other way! I love what I do, at all three of my jobs, and can't wait to start my career as a teacher and continue building our business. One thing that still blows my mind is the fact that I'll have graduated from college and got married before I'm 21! Let's just say I'm a woman on a mission :)

Engaged life has been amazing! We both compliment one another and are quite the dynamic duo :) We're having a blast planning the wedding (well mostly me) and planning our future. There's so much to do and so little time to get it done! In the next nine months we have to plan a wedding and get our living situation figured out (hopefully buying land and building a house!), all while going on with our current crazy and busy lives. How are we going to do it? You'll just have to wait and see :)



The Name: Fire Engines & Pink Ribbons

The title of our blog is the perfect way to describe our passions and our lives. Tyler is both a professional firefighter for Harrisonburg City and a volunteer firefighter at Singers Glen Volunteer Fire Company. Our lives, especially his, revolve around firefighting. When his pager goes off, he has to drop everything he is doing to answer the call. We've had so many meals, church services, and events that have been interrupted by his pager going off. But, in the end, it's more than worth it. He has a passion for helping others in need and is always willing to answer the call regardless of what he's doing at the time. If working 24 hour shifts for Harrisonburg Fire and running volunteer calls isn't enough, Tyler is also the Secretary for SGVFC and is always working on paper work or going to meetings. Let's just say that this being a firefighters fiance has been quite an adjustment, but I wouldn't want our lives to be any other way. :) We live such an amazing life and have so much to look forward to!



The other portion of the title, Pink Ribbons, represents my passion and what my life revolves around. I am a huge cancer advocate, specifically for breast cancer. For the last five years, I have been a Relay for Life Captain and am a Fundraising Coach for the Rockingham County/Harrisonburg City Relay this year. My journey with cancer has been ten years in the making, beginning with the passing of my grandfather. On April 11, 2001, I lost my grandfather to colon and liver cancer. Besides my Dad and Tyler, he was one of the most important men in my life. I attended my first Relay a month after his passing and made a promise to myself then that I would do everything I could to help find a cure for cancer one day. Since then, cancer has affected me in many more ways. I have had several friends and family members who have battled cancer, specifically breast cancer. Tyler's grandma, who I claim as my own, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and won her battle! I refuse to sit around and not do anything about it! I truly believe that I will see the day when the word cancer doesn't exist! That's why I Relay and am so passionate about Pink Ribbons.