Kelly Clarkson and I should be friends, part 2

Oh Kelly, I am so jealous... from People

Despite original plans for an "earthy" outdoor fall wedding at home, the "Catch My Breath" singer, 31, revealed to PEOPLE on Wednesday, "We are so busy that we finally just came to terms the other night and were like, 'So, we change our minds and we want to elope.' We just got so overwhelmed by it – all the decisions."

Explains Clarkson: "We sent out a save-the-date to everyone and then it got crazy and all the details were leaking."

Not that I want to cancel our wedding and elope - we're SUPER excited about it, not to mention we've already spent a penny or two. But I just really like the way this girl thinks. She seems to be very real, with a good head on her shoulders, and she's consistently shown that ever since she won Idol way back. THAT is the kind of role model our girls should be looking up to - someone who will tell the media to F off when they start talking about her weight, and doesn't seem to think that the most important thing is how much media coverage she can get of her life or how much money she'll be able to get for her wedding pictures. More, please.

And I think I'm done talking about Kelly Clarkson, for now at least :)

Kelly Clarkson and I should be friends.

I read an article this morning (OK, maybe not really an article, it was in People) about Kelly Clarkson and how she's enjoying her new role as soon-to-be-stepmom to her fiance's two kids. A little further down, she was talking about her wedding planning, and I had one of those moments where I just say PHEW! I'm not alone!!

The Stronger singer has long made it clear she will be a laid-back bride, and it appears she's becoming increasingly blasé as the wedding draws near.

"I'm so over it. It's so overwhelming," she admitted to Seacrest. "We're just doing a lot: touring and the wedding and the Christmas album [out Oct. 29], so I'm over the wedding part."

Now granted, I don't have a tour coming up or a Christmas album about to drop, but this is EXACTLY how I feel about wedding planning. I'm a pretty laid back bride (in the words of one of my bridesmaids, "Rebecca, you could NEVER be a bridezilla"), and it looks like Kelly's wedding is only a couple weeks after mine. And she's probably also paid someone gobs of money to do most of the planning, whereas I'm doing most of mine myself.

But either way, I pretty much wish with all my heart that I had enough money to pay someone else to do the rest of this for me. There's not THAT much left to do, but I'm over the wedding planning and just ready for the wedding to be here already! I keep thinking I'm forgetting things, and having trouble making some of the final little detail decisions. Half of those final details are honestly things I could care less about, but that other people care about. You know, table decorations, etc.

And one of the biggest things I still have left to finish up is my playlist. I've got a pretty solid start, and my little sister is helping me out, but I would love some suggestions. Just for the party section - I think we've got the special stuff just about covered. Help me out a little here!

52 days to go...

153/365 (6/2)

We did a little ring shopping today (just looking, getting an idea) - its getting real!!

Productivity. It feels so good.

Hooray for me! I'm on it this year!

OK, that's an odd way to start out a blog post. Let me back up.

I've always been a fan of Christmas cards. I love getting them, and I love doing them for friends and family. Most years I'm pretty good with them. But 2 of the last 3 years I was not. At all. Christmas 2009 Matt and I were both unemployed, and I was trying to figure out moving and getting a new job. So not so much in the real Christmas spirit. I don't think we even really decorated our apartment that year - we both went home to our respective parents' houses and had a nice, depressing Christmas. Christmas 2010 we were past all of that - I was fully employed, back on a good track financially, and Matt had joined me up north and we decorated our apartment and all was good. That year, we made our first joint Christmas cards, complete with pictures of us and the cats. Because no matter what anyone says or how many people call me a crazy cat lady (which I'm not, I have 2 cats that are as much Matt's as mine these days), the cats are part of the little family we've built. We sent out a ton of them, and were so proud of ourselves. Last year, we didn't make them, we bought some, and I did a bunch, but not as many as I normally would have - mostly just family and really close friends.

But this year, I'm back on it! We ordered cards, complete with pictures of us and the kitties again :) Not gonna lie, part of it is that we're in the throes of wedding planning, and it saves me on postage to send the Save the Dates with the Christmas cards. Because with a semi-destination wedding, we want to make sure people have plenty of time to plan. Or something.

So last night, I figured I'd get started on the cards. At least addressing envelopes and stuff - I'm budget-conscious enough that I didn't order fancy address labels, or make a fancy stamp with the return address, or anything like that, so I hand addressed everything. Maybe for the actual invitations, I'll go a little fancier, but not at this point.

Anyway, I made it through my entire list, to include a few people that were added along the way. There are a few folks I'm still waiting on addresses from, but I was WAY more productive than I anticipated being. All I've got left to do now is buy stamps. And seal the damn envelopes. That's my least favorite part. I think I can do it with a q-tip or a sponge  and water, because nothing says awesome quite like licking 50-some envelopes...

So yeah, hooray for me! I'm on it this year! :)

And... Done! On to the Next Project...

Well, not COMPLETELY done. I still have to do my final exam. But I am officially done with the curriculum for my master's degree!!

Last class ended this weekend, and I got confirmation that I have an A in the class. I couldn't manage straight As in undergrad, but damn if I didn't do it in grad school - I'm pretty proud of myself!

Of course, now that I don't have schoolwork to do, I need to find something else to do with the down time at work. I guess it will be wedding planning...

Seriously, anyone with any thoughts on how to start planning a wedding, I would LOVE to hear them. Because I have absolutely no idea where to begin.

Oh, and yes, we're fine after the Frankenstorm. Power stayed on, no trees down in the neighborhood or anything. We got VERY lucky. Thinking about all my NY/NJ/CT/RI friends who weren't as much.

An incoherent post about stress.

I haven't even started planning this wedding yet and I'm already stressed out about it.

Not that its necessarily stressful, per se. Yesterday I went to my parents' house to show them and my youngest sister the ring. And I should have known what would follow - mom's questions about things I haven't even thought about yet, and thereby unintentionally stressing me out. And not about anything controversial or out of the ordinary, just about things that I had not yet really started thinking about. And combine that with not having had enough sleep last night... and one of the questions in particular hitting a nerve (not her fault at all)... Basically, while it was great overall to know that my parents are excited for me and are on board with the (VERY basic) initial plan we're looking at, it stressed me out hard core.

My goald really is to finish up this last class of my masters' degree (HOORAY!!) before I start planning, but all of her questions are stuck on my mind, and its distracting me a little bit from that paper. Which is fine on the one hand, because I don't really want to write the paper anyway, and I'm excited to start planning. But on the other hand, I really need to get it done so I can be finished with it!! 

Honestly, I'm a little bit overwhelmed with it all, because I don't really know what I'm doing. So that probably doesn't help. And I still haven't slept well, which just adds to it. And I started looking at wedding dresses online last night, and they're all strapless, which I do not want. See how much of this stress is self-inflicted?? Gah!!

I think I need to take a few deep breaths, get a good night's sleep the next few nights, finish up this paper, and take it a little at a time. Of course, that might well be easier said than done.