I'm So Official.

We interrupt these Labrador recaps to bring you some breaking news.

This gal is officially OFFICIAL.

Yes ladies (and gentlemen who may have gotten lost on their way to the sports boards), nearly 9 months after my wedding, I finally changed my name.

I am now a "Golden Girl". Betty White, you're no longer alone!

So what took so long?

See, what had happened was...all the same things that are keeping me from being on top of my recaps. You know, finishing school, getting a job, moving, buying a house...that sort of thing.

Oh yeah, that reminds me! We bought a house!!! And we've been busy "working" on the house.

Teasers:

Before:

After:

I have a lot more to share about our new dwelling, but for now here's a little taste of our 4th of July housewarming party:

The Labrador "children" getting their patriotic on in the front yard!

Anyhoo, the actual process of changing my name wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. I used MissNowMrs to fill out all my forms (using a coupon I found for half off). Then I spent an hour and 15 minutes waiting in the social security office just to spend 5 minutes at the actual counter changing my name. Apparently I was the most prepared person of the day? Why the heck would anyone visit any government office and NOT be prepared?!?

Then I headed over to the DDS to update my driver's license along with Mr. Lab (who was updating his with our new address). Same story: waiting...waiting...waiting...done in 5 minutes. I even updated my voter registration while I was at it.

All that's left is mailing off my notification letters to various companies (like my bank) to let them know about the name/address change (really the only reason to use MissNowMrs because they automate those forms for you).

So yeah, I'm officially official now. Some people grow humans in the amount of time it took me to change my name, but hey, it's finally done! I'm proud and Mr. Lab is even prouder. :)

Anyone else take forever to change their name? Longer than me?

Licensed To Wed

Finally! And the third time was the charm...

Attempt #1: Mr. Lab and I get all the way to the courthouse with our paperwork filled out and money ready to go. But then we realize we forgot our certificate proving we completed marriage counseling. Said certificate saves us $30. We decide that's plenty enough to wait until our officiant can mail us the required notarized form and try again.

Source

Attempt #2: We had the day off from classes because it was fall break. We waste away the day because it's fall break. We finally decide that we should get something done and go get our license. It is 4:26 pm. Courthouse doesn't process licenses after 4 pm.

Attempt #3: We're proud of ourselves because we have all our forms ready to go and we know this is our LAST CHANCE to get the license before the wedding (we live life on the edge). Despite Mr. Lab delivering some seriously bad news about our ceremony site right before we walk into the courthouse (much more on that later), I'm still looking forward to finally having the license in hand. But we forget the payment! So Mr. Lab had to take a quick trip to the ATM to get cash. Now here's the fun part...

I get hit on while waiting to get my marriage license!!!

An officer sees me waiting on a bench and shoots me a smile. I smile back politely and turn my attention away. But the officer walks right up to me and the following conversation ensues:

Officer: "Hi. I'm from out of town and was wondering where would be a good place to eat lunch?"
Me: "Well, there's a lot of options. If you want to stay downtown, you could hit Transmet. They have some great pizza."
Officer: "Hmmm, have you eaten lunch yet?"
(Seeing where this is going, I lie.) Me: "Yeah, just finished up."
Officer: "Would it have been a bad thing for me to have asked you to have lunch with me?"
Me: "Um....I'm actually getting my marriage license right now......"

AWWWK. WARD.


Officer: "Oh, well, he's a lucky guy. Congratulations." (turns and practically runs off)
Exactly one second later, Mr. Lab rounds the corner and walks right past the officer. He must have seen the tail-end of the conversation because he gave me a weird look. I explained what happened and he just gave a chuckle.

But yeah, we got our license and here's the proof:

We both hate this pic, but we're posting for the hive! ;)

ONE DAY!!! :D