Introduction!
I thought I would follow @AuroraRose41's lead since I've been pretty active for a few months now but don't think I've ever actually introduced myself. I am new to this board, though (came over to read the teen bride thread). You guys seem fun! So, here is the survey, and feel free to ask me any questions. Nice to meet you all!
Screen Name: carliealissa
Age: 29
Significant Other's Age: 29
What You Do: Legal/administration at a nonprofit
What SO Does: Attorney
State of Relationship: Engaged this past November. It was a total surprise!
How Long You've Been Together: almost 6 years
How You Met: At my "going away party" two days before I moved out of state. (He was a friend of a friend). We hit it off but I did not expect to see him again 
Wedding Date (if you're engaged/married): 12/26/14!
Real Babies: None
Fur Babies: None, I'm very allergic 
But I have a feather baby, an amazing quaker parrot. He just turned 8. I'm taking allergy shots so maybe someday I can have some more pets. And I reeealllly want a pig!
Loves: Travel, babies, animals, music, artsy and DIY stuff, languages
Hates: working (in general- it just takes up too much time!!), having to deal with making/figuring out what to do for dinner every. single. night. (Didn't we JUST get through this yesterday?), right now, dealing with some of these wedding vendors!
Pet Peeves: hmm. Stupidity? Oooh, I've got one. Loud chewing.
Hobbies/Activities: Traveling (everywhere and the more exotic the better), drawing/art, DIY projects (almost all house or wedding related), playing piano and guitar (not so much anymore), a growing interest in gardening, scary movies, most thrill seeking activities (skydiving, roller coasters, jumping off things, climbing on things, I LOVE heights), animal related activities (basically any opportunity to hold/touch/ride any animal lol. My allergies don't like me. Also, we are going great white shark cage diving on our HM.. I'm so excited!!)
Favorite Thing About Your SO: He is extremely intelligent and funny. Also a truly kind and GOOD person, the level is always impressing and amazing me. Oops was it supposed to be just one
Least Favorite Thing About Your SO: He's just like me as far as being sensitive, a little hot-headed, argumentative and used to being right/winning. So we argue a lot (usually over very little things) and often it's the same stuff over and over, which can be tiresome. It might be lawyer syndrome?
Describe Your Personality: I'm friendly and adventurous. I am EXTREMELY emotional (in the sense that I cry about literally everything. It kind of sucks.) I care a lot about others and enjoy doing things for people. I'm also judgmental and opinionated and usually think I'm right about everything. I'm trying very hard to work on that. I'm not sure if there's been any progress
Snark Level (1 [low snark] - 10 [high snark]): hmm probably 8. This goes along with my negative traits above.
I've Been On TK Since: gosh, I think many years. I joined a looong time ago when I was serious with my ex boyfriend. I became active in November though after getting engaged.
How You Came to Be On TK: Whoops, answered above
How I like my potatoes: I found this recipe on Pinterest around the holidays for twice-baked potatoes that you can make a shit ton of at once, freeze them, then just pop them in the oven as you want them. They are so delicious, and CONVENIENT, we eat them all the time and I don't know how I lived before. I am on the hunt for more make-ahead-and-freeze meals. (The other successful one is a burrito recipe- they are sooooo good). It's probably clear that I'm just learning to cook
Re: Introduction!
Hi and welcome. Favorite dessert?
Your travel experience sounds amazing.
Ohh, ice cream hands down! I could eat only ice cream for the rest of my life. I asked FI if we could have ice cream instead of wedding cake, but he wants cake. Oh well
Hi welcome! I'm a December bride as well!!!!
Do you like guacamole?
By the way @audgiepodge, I read your intro post, do you still have your Goffins and CAG?? I think that's seriously so cool, those are literally my two favorite birds and I would have them if I could be a crazy bird lady. Maybe someday
When I'm retired so I have the time lol
@carliealissa you can hang out with us if you like guacamole.
The planning is going along really well! We have our venue, officiant, DJ, photographer, florist and baker booked. We just ordered STDs and are still kicking around what invites to order. I have all the stuff to assemble centerpieces and decor for our sweetheart table as well. Um, let's see, dress is picked out, shoes and jewelry. I'm currently working on my veil (hopefully the crysals I ordered are coming in today and I can finish that!). I still need to order a sash and a hair comb. I still haven't decided on BM dresses, FI hasn't figured out what he and the guys are wearing.
I'm sure I'm missing stuff from this list, but all the important must-have stuff is done.
@carliealissa I always wanted to go to space camp! I don't think it's dorky at all (then again, I am quite a nerd myself.....engineer here
). I would still love to go to space at some point in my life.
I also love climbing/heights. Have you ever done a high ropes obstacle course?
@keptinstitches- ice cream
@buddysmom80, are you making your veil?! Impressive. It sounds like you're a bit further along- we still need DJ and baker. I have my dress but that's it as far as wedding attire for anyone! I'm starting to wonder what my BM's might end up wearing- I told them we can just pick dresses they like that don't match, but one is now pregnant (FSIL- due end of Oct!), one doesn't want to shop (sister) because she wants to lose weight, and two that I don't currently see/talk to often. We'll see what happens, at this rate it seems everyone might be grabbing something from the mall the week before!
@carliealissa I should be more clear. I didn't technically sew the veil or whatever is involved to have a piece of tulle look like a veil lol. I wanted an elbow length raw cut veil with Swarovski crystals scattered throughout but the bridal salons were charging $150 + so I found a website that sells already made veils for cheap (I paid $6.99), I ordered some Swarovski crystals, bought some heavy duty glue and jeweler's wax tips and went to town. It was EASY. I just need a few more crystals to make everything look even.
I have a general idea on what I want my BMs to wear. I know I want black and long, but I don't know what fabric. My MOH might be pregnant by then as well as a BM so I'm worried about them more than my one BM who has a perfect body and looks good in a potato sack! We'll see what happens next month...
Our baker came with our package for the venue. I just found out that we get a real baker. I thought the venue made a generic wedding cake, my venue coordinator e-mailed me and told me to call the venue's baker to make an appointment for cake tasting. I was like "YES CAKE I LOVE CAKE!"
The DJ we wanted to book early because he is pretty popular in the area. He gave us a HUGE discount for booking early.
Also our month board is DEAD so you're stuck talking wedding stuff with me!
Oooh, I would love to go to space too. Although I can't really think of anything more scary.. I like things that are scary
My biggest fear for as long as I can remember has been the idea of somehow being in space, becoming untethered, and floating off forever (like this is somehow a distinct possibility, lol, and no I haven't seen the movie Gravity!)
I have done a high ropes course, once my freshman year of college as some kind of icebreaker activity, and I did a ziplining course. Apparently they actually just opened a high ropes course in a park about a mile from my house?!?!! It looks incredible, but it's $50 a person so I'm trying to make myself wait until after the wedding to go. (I know that's not toooo much but we tend to be kind of frivolous and everything adds up!)
Yes it makes you a fan!! I've only gone once as well, my 18th birthday (sooo long ago, yikes). I'd go every week if it were free
I try to do similar things though. Last summer we went to Vegas for the first time and FI said he was making all the hotel arrangements and it would be a surprise. I was thinking the surprise hotel would be somewhere new, expensive, fancy, etc- nope, it was the Stratosphere! The real surprise was he had gotten us tickets to jump off the top. He knows me well. I was the most impressed that he did it too! 
I'm not sure if I know that commercial, but there's a Subaru commercial where a dad's remembering his daughter being little, and an older commercial that involves a polar bear traveling all the way from the Arctic to hug a guy for buying a Nissan Leaf (lmao)- those both make me cry!
ETA: Forgot to answer the question! I think Egypt.
Welcome! Yay for ice cream; one of my favorite things is eating Ben & Jerry's right out of the container. Do you eat your ice cream with a spoon or with a fork?
I'm glad I'm not the only one who cries at commercials...some of them just get me and I can't take it! I'm also big on cooking and freezing; I live alone right now and cooking for 1 person can be a total pain. Some of what's in my freezer right now: filling for stuffed peppers, homemade calzones, 2 kinds of soup. What's one thing you love to cook?
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How old is your bird, what color? Does he talk? I heard that budgies can talk, but I had many over the years growing up and none ever talked, or lived very long. I got my quaker after some research for small birds that have good talking ability- always thought for some reason that it would just be the coolest to have a bird that could say a word or two. Welll, my bird ended up becoming basically fluent in English
He's unbelievably smart. He also requires a ridiculous amount of attention. Obviously this is silly, but not having any children, we like to compare him to having a 3 year old. Just constant need for attention. He will scream, then say "why are you screaming?" He will bite you, then say "Ouch, don't bite your mama. No biting." Sigh....
I might eat ice cream with my hands if there's nothing else available
My repertoire is limited, but here's my favorite thing to cook for a dinner party- it's really easy yet it tastes so fancy and delicious. I'm a big fan of recipes without too many ingredients. Bonus, there's wine involved!
http://www.keepitsimplefoods.com/vegetarian/summer-risotto/
Have you been to Vegas? I actually loved the rides at the top even more. The jump is fun- it's actually a zipline, so it's not a freefall but you're actually going down in a kind of slow controlled manner. The scariest/best part for sure is standing at the top before you actually jump.
There's a Power Tower type ride but you're already 100 stories high so the height is just unbelievable, plus I think that ride is faster than Power Tower (sorry I'm just assuming you're familiar with Cedar Point); the "stomach turn" is harder. We rode it 3 times in a row and I was ready to skip going out that night but FI said he was going to get sick if we did it again
There's also a spinny ride that rotates out so the whole thing is actually out over the edge of the building, you are just dangling underneath it, then it spins outward so you're facing straight down. That one was actually borderline too much for me, I could hardly stand it. I thought we might die. It was amazing.
We have the same favorite book. Also, if you want to share that Pinterest recipe, you'll earn 6 million brownie points.
Do you happen to know your Briggs-Meyers personality type?
@loves2shop4shoes- no, I don't! What is it, and is there a quiz I can take online? Friday is passing along quite nicely...
Potato- http://onceamonthmeals.com/broccoli-cheese-twice-baked-potatoes/
Burrito- http://onceamonthmeals.com/grilled-veggie-and-bean-burritos/ (these are soo good- the sweet potato/black bean/melted cheese combo mmmm)
ETA: did you read World Without End? Equally awesome. Actually it's basically the exact same book.
Ring porn please!
@phira, that's amazing! Very impressive for a budgie. I know that it's much harder for other people to understand our bird than it is for us, but it's hilarious that he basically has this tiny bird version of my exact voice, laugh, inflection, etc. I LOVE bird laughing! So contagious!
The sound is not great, but here's an old video of us having a chat http://youtu.be/hS4MLxaMpDY
YUM, that risotto sounds fantastic, I may have to try that out!
This is what I'm making tonight: http://www.cookwithcampbells.ca/en-ca/Recipes/chickenandspinachtortellinisoup.aspx it's delish (I add extra veggies) and freezes well
Love your ring, it's gorgeous!
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Welcome! Love your ring and the bird video! I'm dying with laughter over his phrases and noises. They are so cute! I don't have a bird but I do have a puppy named Cinders. Sorry to hear you are allergic! I AW pics of her pretty frequently so at least you can have internet puppy snuggles.
Do you read any other Ken Follett novels? I've been reading his Century Trilogy (Fall of Giants, Winter of the World) and I really love them! Any other favorite books/authors?
It's a personality test. You can take it online for free. I'm curious to see what you are.