For Sale!

Ross' house is officially for sale! Some people might think we're crazy, putting his house on the market just 53 (WOW!!) days before our wedding but let me explain....

Our plan all along has been for me to move in with him after we're married and then maybe within the year start looking for "our" house. In the meantime we would try to sell or rent my house, basically whichever would bring us the most cash.

A few weeks ago we started talking more about our house and decided to take a look through the paper and online, realizing how this is such a great time to "buy up". We found a house we thought looked perfect - it's spacious, a great location and is in our price range. The kicker: We cannot purchase another house without having sold Ross' house first - we'll need the cash from the sale of Ross' house for the down payment on the new house. We like this new house so much that we decided to go ahead and list Ross', hoping everything will work in our favor! But we are being smart and still looking at other houses, to compare and see if there's something we like better.

Ross said he is ready to move and we both like the idea of moving into "our" house instead of me moving into his house. We've had lots of discussions about that - how it will be hard for me coming in, wanting to make it feel like my home yet at the same time not taking over everything and leaving Ross feeling like it's not his home anymore. We just think a fresh, new start in a new house for both of us will be good.

And there's a tax break factored into our thinking, too. If Ross purchases a house before we are married he will receive the $6500 tax credit the government is offering now for home buyers. One of the stipulations is you have to have owned your current house for 5 out of the last 8 years. Ross has owned his house for 7, I have only owned my house for 4 1/2 years...so in order to take advantage of it we have to close before we're married.

So if you think of it, pray for the successful sale of Ross' house and the successful purchase of our new house - all before April 16!

In The Mail

Our wedding invitations have been mailed! We dropped about half of them in the mail last Saturday and the other half in the mail this past Tuesday, hoping they would arrive to their destination on Wednesday, February 17 - exactly 2 months to the date of our wedding! Ross was so good to take a picture of us dropping them in the mail!

Valentine's Day

My Valentine's Day started on Friday, February 12, when I received one dozen red roses at work from Ross! He is so sweet to give me roses, especially Valentine's roses! He had Friday off from work so stopped by my work to give me the roses.

Later that night he came over to my house and we exchanged presents. I gave him a big bag of notes, cards, letters, etc., from my old boyfriends....maybe a bit of a cheesy gift, but oh well! I told him I had been thinking of this for a while and just decided to do it. I gave them to him to do whatever he wanted with, burn, trash, etc. Ross is the only guy for me and even though some of that stuff is sentimental, it doesn't matter, I only want Ross' notes, cards and letters around!

Ross gave me a gold heart necklace that has our birthstones in it. I found the necklace in a catalog and told him I'd love to have it and he bought it for me! I think it's actually supposed to be a "mother's" necklace but I don't care! I love it!

He took me to dinner at Flame, a very nice steakhouse in downtown Springfield. We had a delicious meal and then headed over to the movie theater to see Valentine's Day. We both liked it, me probably more than Ross, but he did say it was good.

All in all a very nice Valentine's celebration with my Valentine!

My one-dozen red Valentine's roses!


Valentine's Day 2010

Couples Shower

Last Saturday night, February 13, Ross and I had our first wedding shower. It was a Mexican-themed Couples Shower given by Ross' parents friends. Larry and Wanda (Ross' parents) had been friends with them for probably 30+ years - the kind of friends that are no longer friends but family. It was in Kansas City (that's where Ross is from) so Ross and I traveled to KC Saturday morning and relaxed around his parent's house that afternoon and then headed to the shower around 6pm.

All together there were about 30 people at the shower, maybe even a few more, I'm not quite sure on the exact number. I was so happy that my mom and dad, my sister and brother-in-law and my aunt and uncle from Omaha, Neb., came to the shower, too. Everyone there was very nice but I was a bit overwhelmed, not having ever had a shower for me before, and not knowing anyone, so it was nice to have some of my family there, too.

We had dinner together - a very nice spread with pulled pork sandwiches, chicken enchiladas, chips and salsa, fruit and dessert. After dinner Ross and I played a game to determine how well we really knew each other. The hostess asked us questions about each other that we both had to answer. Out of about eight questions we only missed one! That was a very fun game! Some of the questions we were asked:

What is Libby's birthday?
If Ross could be any superhero, what would it be?
What marathon would Libby love to run?
What would we do if I burned dinner?

After the games the presents began! We got some very nice gifts, lots of items from our registry and we were quite pleased with everything. We got a flour/sugar/coffee canister set, cake platter, cloth napkins and placemats, serving platter, serving bowl, Catch Phrase game, a cooler, sugar and creamer set, butter dish, coffee mugs for our dish set, a heart-shaped casserole dish, a picture frame, cake server set (for our wedding cake :) ), and a few other things that I just can't think of right now.

All in all it was such a fun time! My kudos to the hosts - they threw a very nice party! Ross and I were really drained after the shower and our faces were so tired from smiling so much! If we felt that way after only 3 hours from a shower I can only imagine what we'll feel like after about a 12-hour wedding day!

Welcome Libby and Ross :)


The oh-so tasty and pretty fruit!


Playing the game.


Opening presents!!


My sister, my mom, me, Aunt Linda

The Lasts Become Firsts

I've been thinking a lot lately about how my life will change once I'm married. I think about the major stuff, like living with someone, combing finances, etc., but more so have been thinking about little things like...

When Ross and I go on a date we'll leave our house together, he won't come pick me up.

When we're done with our date, we'll go home together, I won't get dropped off at my house.

After almost 8 years of living alone I'll live with someone, and a boy at that!

Getting used to signing my new last name of Wiseman instead of Ward. I was practicing writing Wiseman the other day and realized how long it is compared to Ward!

This is silly, but I had to buy toilet paper last week and bought the 12-pack. I thought to myself, the next time I buy toilet paper I'll be married and might need to buy more as I'll be buying for two people!

Realizing that I'll probably have to run my dishwasher more than once a week - I'm sure two people will fill up a dishwasher faster than just one person.


And I've also thought about how the lasts have and will become firsts.....

The last first kiss Ross and I had turned into the first kiss of the rest of our life together.

The last day I wake up alone will become the first day I go to bed with someone, forever.

The last time I'm called Miss Ward will become the first time I'm called Mrs. Wiseman, forever.

The last day I'm single will become the first day I'm married, forever.


Perhaps my thoughts sound a bit melodramatic but wow, all the changes coming up can be a bit overwhelming, plus the fact that I like to analyze stuff to death!

65 Days To Go

Wow....65 days from today I will marry Ross and change my last name to Wiseman...very exciting times ahead! I have been busy lately. I'm not complaining about the busyness because this is a very good kind of busy but it just seems like there's one thing after another to do. I get one thing checked off and move right on to the other. I like to work ahead so hopefully the week of the wedding will be relaxing and fun!

And if I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times:

"No matter how much you prepare, you will be extremely busy during your wedding week."

"It doesn't really matter what the food at the reception is like, you won't get to eat it, you'll be too busy talking to everyone."

"That day will go by so fast you won't have time to think."

I appreciate everyone's advice but sometimes that type of advice just gets me down! I'm sure all of these statements are true but I'd like to think my wedding will be different!

Anyway, just working on lots of wedding stuff lately. Stephanie and I found the bridesmaid shoes and maybe the jewelry last weekend. We did find my shoes and my jewelry, my veil is on it's way (of which I bought the veil and blusher for $53.50, quite proud of that one!), working on wedding music, invitations are going out next week, starting to work on the programs, party favor bags will be started soon, decorations for the church and reception are pretty much squared away, and lots of other things. I'm having so much fun wedding planning, but as I've said before, the best thing is that at the end of the day on April 17 when everything is over I get to go home with my husband, Ross Wiseman! Love him so much - he has been more than worth the wait!

Running in the Snow

I went running outside this morning and it was so enjoyable!

When I woke up and saw the temperature of 20 I thought I should go to the Y and struggle through 4 miles on the treadmill. I got dressed for the Y and headed out to my car. When I got outside I realized it wasn't that cold and it seemed to be snowing. It actually wasn't snow, but freezing fog that seemed like snow flurries. I've always thought it would be fun to run while it's snowing and have missed the past few chances I've had to do that so decided today was the day.

I went back inside to layer up and then headed out for a 40-minute run. Once I got going the temperature was really just fine. I don't mind running in cold temperatures, especially when there is no wind factor. I usually run on sidewalks around my neighborhood but hit the streets today as some of the sidewalks were still snow covered. I run on side streets and there aren't many people out on those streets at 5:30 in the morning I often run right down the middle of the street, which is kind of fun to me!

Anyway, it was just a nice run. Nice to get outside and breathe the fresh, crisp air.

417 Bride.com

Ross and I are famous!!!! Well, kind of!

Springfield has a magazine titled 417 Magazine that has stories about events, people, businesses, etc., that are in 417 land (417 is the area code for Springfield and surrounding counties). They also have another publication called 417 Bride, a one-stop shopping magazine for everything bridal in 417 land.

A few months ago I was on the 417bride.com website and saw they had a place to submit your engagement story. If your story was chosen it would be listed online. I thought why not so I sent in our engagement story along with a few pictures. I didn't think anything of it and actually forgot about it.

Until last Tuesday night.

I opened up my email to find a message from the editor at 417bride.com saying they were going to publish our story! We emailed back and forth a few times, just making sure all the fact were correct, etc., and it was published online yesterday. How fun! The link is posted below:

http://www.417mag.com/Blogs/417-Blog/February-2010/Congratulations-Ross-amp-Libby/

73 days to go!!!

p.s. I should mention...I think this is just an online posting, I don't think it will be published in the actual magazine.