My personal trainer informed me this morning that the powers that be at 24 Hour Fitness have transferred him to a new gym that will be opening in Olathe tomorrow. They told him yesterday about this. He now has to inform all his clients about the change, and give them the option of working with another trainer at the gym they've been going to to see him, or moving along with him to Olathe.
Olathe is an additional 10 - 15 minutes from the house. As it is, I already get up at 4:40 a.m. to get to the gym by 5:30 in order to meet with my trainer all warmed up and ready to go at 6, and then I finish up with him at 6:30, get showered and cleaned up and head out to work by 7:30.
The new gym isn't finished yet. Won't be until mid-July, apparently. So showering and getting ready for work there isn't an option. I'd have to get up even earlier than I do now to drive down to meet him, only have about 5 minutes to warm up before doing the strength training stuff with him until 6, and then high-tail it home to shower and get ready for work there. For the next 6 weeks, anyway. After that, I can get ready there.
Ok, it is only 2 days a week we're talking about here, so that helps the situation a great deal. And I'm still trying to figure out if he and I can work out an evening schedule instead, so I can go work out as usual on Tuesdays and Thursdays at a decent hour, and then go see him for weight training stuff after work, perhaps. Because as it is, I'd have to find another way to get my cardio in on those days when he and I get together, even if we're meeting at 5:30 a.m., or 5:25 a.m., or whatever the hell it winds up being.
Jesse and I will head down there to check it out on Saturday. He's Jesse's trainer too now, so he will have to figure this all out as well. Since his schedule is a wee bit more open than mine for at least the next couple of weeks, though, he doesn't have as much to worry about, IMO.
Just when things were going so well, too. Damn.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Happy girl
I love my vendors. LOVE. The caterer, the florist, the photographer, the event site coordinator...all of them are awesome. AWESOME I tell you!
There is nothing like talking to someone about your plans, and having them be as excited as you are about how things are going to look. It's as if I'm the only bride they're dealing with right now, which obviously isn't the case, and which really makes me feel like we've made good choices in the long run.
Now if I could just figure out the invitation issues, I'll be happy! (Doing the final wording on all the directions to locations that we'll be including is just a bit scary. I'd hate for my directions to not be enough to help out of towners find their way to their hotel or the church or the Brewery! Hopefully, the little map we'll be including will help, but I don't know how to be sure, and it's driving me a little crazy...)
There is nothing like talking to someone about your plans, and having them be as excited as you are about how things are going to look. It's as if I'm the only bride they're dealing with right now, which obviously isn't the case, and which really makes me feel like we've made good choices in the long run.
Now if I could just figure out the invitation issues, I'll be happy! (Doing the final wording on all the directions to locations that we'll be including is just a bit scary. I'd hate for my directions to not be enough to help out of towners find their way to their hotel or the church or the Brewery! Hopefully, the little map we'll be including will help, but I don't know how to be sure, and it's driving me a little crazy...)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Days off, schmays off...
Yesterday was a fun day. Jesse was having some work done on his teeth, so I had to take the day off from work in order to drive him to and from the dentist, and to make sure he was recovering ok after the appointment. (He has to be sedated to have his teeth worked on.) As the dentist office is relatively close to my work, I did have a chance to slip in the office for a couple of hours while he was being worked on and had the chance to set up a meeting for my boss and our team, as well as activate a new phone/palm device for my boss while he was in another meeting. (Although I learned today that the chick who walked me through the “very simple” activation process told me to do something wrong, so it didn’t work properly for my boss when he got back from his meeting, like I’d hoped it would, and he wound up having to go through the whole waiting on hold and then having someone help him activate the phone thing himself later in the day. Which makes me feel terrible, dammit.) It was nice to have something else to think about while he was being worked on.
Everything went VERY well, though, and they were able to sedate him without any major issue, they were able to accomplish much of what they had planned to do in the first place, and they have a much better idea of what the next step is now that they’ve been able to look into his mouth a bit more extensively. Woohoo! On the road to a healthy mouth for Jesse! :D
When I take days off from work, they are, to say the least, far from being actual “days off.” For example, I took last Tuesday off so we could get our engagement photos done and in order to also take care of a few other things that Jesse and I needed to do together. I woke up at my normal 4:30 a.m. to get to the gym by 5:20, so I could complete my cardio workout before meeting with the trainer at 6. I finish up there at about 6:40, and then head home for a teensy nap before I get up and shower. Then I had a hair appointment at 9, since my hairdresser knows how to make my hair do the perfect little things that make me look as pretty as I can, and then I ran home to get Jesse and head to the photo studio for our 10:30 appointment. Once there, we learned his shirt was too stripy to work well in the photos, and so we agreed on a new time to meet to take the photos instead. We then went to Macy’s to see if we could find a shirt that would work better for the photos and which would also match relatively well with my dress (which was a deep navy color), and then grabbed a couple of sammiches at Mr. Goodcents before heading home to change. We had reset the photo appointment for noon, so we had to eat lunch pretty quickly, and Jesse had an ultra-fast ironing session with the new shirt that wasn’t all-together successful. We went back to the photo studio, Jesse ironed his shirt a bit more once there, and we were done by 1:30. After that, we went to the gym to sign Jesse up with a new membership. We realized Jesse had left his wallet at the photo studio, so we headed back there to get it, and then made a pit-stop at a little vacuum store on Wornall Rd. to look into a new vacuum for the house. (We did have one on our registery, but I’d heard really good things about the vacuums they sell at this little vacuum store, so we went to check them out just in case. Also, waiting another 6 months for someone to possibly buy us a ridiculously priced vacuum from our registry wasn’t going to work. We need the new vacuum NOW.) We left with a brand new Riccar vacuum in tow after having had a delightful conversation with an apparently very bored vacuum salesman, and headed over to the bookstore. We’ve been wanting to get a book on the Virgin Islands for a while, so we can look into some of the attractions of the island we’re staying on for our honeymoon, and also check out what other island might be worth the price of a ferry ride for a day visit while we’re there. We got done with that at about 4, and I was STARVING at that point. So we went to the Whole Foods to figure out dinner, which I left up to Jesse to decide what we were going to make. I was far too hungry to be able to make any good decisions, so it worked out better that way. We went home, he made dinner, and I made my guacasalsa that I have come to love so very much over the past few weeks. (It’s a couple of avocados thrown in the food processor with some tomatillos and some onion. There’s other stuff, too, of course, but that’s the jist of it. Soooo yummy! And WAY less fat and calories than regular guacamole! YAY!) By the time I was done with dinner, I was exhausted, and willed myself into staying awake for another 2 hours so I wouldn’t reset my internal clock with an insanely early bedtime by going to bed at 8.
So THAT is what it’s like when I take a “day off.” Yesterday wasn’t very different. After making sure Jesse was comfy once we got home from the dentist (the fact that he passed out almost immediately gave me some idea that he was fine…), I had an appointment at the Brewery to meet with my caterer (Denise) and the Brewery event coordinator to go over linens for the reception. We needed, more than anything, to look into the possibility of covering the chairs they have there. They have some black and silver chairs that they use at standard functions, and apparently, no one has ever inquired about covering them before. Call me fussy, but black and silver doesn’t fit in with our color scheme at all, and I felt like the chairs would be sticking out like a sore thumb if we don’t cover them. (The mosaic bar they have in the room doesn’t fit in either since its blues and greens, but it’s prettier than the chairs. Plus, covering the bar would be a bad idea, IMO. So we’re gonna ignore that all together.)
Finding a chair cover to cover these specific types of chairs wasn’t easy. But the caterer found a company that carries “extra-wide” covers, and she ordered a sample. One of the materials she got was more of a silky material that didn’t have any give to it at all. It didn’t work. BUT. The other material is a lovely polyester that kind of stretches over the chair. AND IT FIT! Success! We found the perfect chair tie for it, and then set about deciding on a table cloth.
Ok, lemme tell you that these days looking for the proper table coverings for a party table is not a cut-and-dry process. We had to choose from ivories and slightly peachies and dark browns and light browns and prints and lacy things and shiny fabrics. And then we had the different fabrics to consider, which ranged from damasks to thin sheers to heavy brocades that seemed more curtain-in-grandma’s-house than a linen for the reception to me.
But we found the perfect linen early on, thank goodness, and it was tough to find anything that was going to change our minds about it. It’s a copper metallic color, actually, and it has this criss-cross pattern on it that gives it a lot of depth, and a bit more pizzazz. The chair tie wound up not matching it so well, so we changed it out for another color, and fell in love. Once we decided on those, we put out the china options, and found that the ivory plates with the gold band around them went perfectly with the chairs and the linens, and kind of tied everything together for us. I almost forgot about napkins, but Denise and I wound up agreeing that the same color fabric we’re using as the chair ties will look perfect, so that was an easy decision.
All in all, it took an hour and a half to work all that stuff out. Since there was an amazing quantity of fabrics to choose from, it just wasn’t as simple as I thought it might be. But I’m soooo glad we have it taken care of now! We’ll have a different fabric on some of the accent tables, too, so things won’t look so matchy-matchy and blocky all over, and that way we got to use some of the other linens that were sent to sample, but which didn’t work out for the actual main table linens over all. They should look beautiful in the areas we’ve decided to use them, though!
After I was done meeting with Denise, I went home to check on Jesse. He was fine…he’d been sleeping the whole time I was gone. I had to leave again for a hair appointment at 5, and then I stopped on my way home and picked up a variety of smoothly pureed soups for Jesse to choose from for dinner (along with some mashed potatoes from the deli at the market, as I didn’t have time to make some for him myself), and got home in time to make him the soup, eat some dinner myself, relax on the couch for a bit and let my dinner settle, and then headed to bed at about 10.
I really, really can’t wait to have some official “days off” in November. I think the shower in California will count as official “days off” as well, since all I need to do is go home and have a good time, but we’ll see.
And now I must head out and get some lunch stuff. I’ve lost 6 and a half pounds so far, but have another few to go before I hit my goal. Definitely seems I’ll hit the 15 before my next dress fitting on the 22nd, but we’ll see. I’m hungry much of the time, and I miss my favorite foods (and drinks!), but I keep figuring that I just have to keep hating food for another 5 months…that’s it. After that, I can love it again, and all will be right in the world. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Everything went VERY well, though, and they were able to sedate him without any major issue, they were able to accomplish much of what they had planned to do in the first place, and they have a much better idea of what the next step is now that they’ve been able to look into his mouth a bit more extensively. Woohoo! On the road to a healthy mouth for Jesse! :D
When I take days off from work, they are, to say the least, far from being actual “days off.” For example, I took last Tuesday off so we could get our engagement photos done and in order to also take care of a few other things that Jesse and I needed to do together. I woke up at my normal 4:30 a.m. to get to the gym by 5:20, so I could complete my cardio workout before meeting with the trainer at 6. I finish up there at about 6:40, and then head home for a teensy nap before I get up and shower. Then I had a hair appointment at 9, since my hairdresser knows how to make my hair do the perfect little things that make me look as pretty as I can, and then I ran home to get Jesse and head to the photo studio for our 10:30 appointment. Once there, we learned his shirt was too stripy to work well in the photos, and so we agreed on a new time to meet to take the photos instead. We then went to Macy’s to see if we could find a shirt that would work better for the photos and which would also match relatively well with my dress (which was a deep navy color), and then grabbed a couple of sammiches at Mr. Goodcents before heading home to change. We had reset the photo appointment for noon, so we had to eat lunch pretty quickly, and Jesse had an ultra-fast ironing session with the new shirt that wasn’t all-together successful. We went back to the photo studio, Jesse ironed his shirt a bit more once there, and we were done by 1:30. After that, we went to the gym to sign Jesse up with a new membership. We realized Jesse had left his wallet at the photo studio, so we headed back there to get it, and then made a pit-stop at a little vacuum store on Wornall Rd. to look into a new vacuum for the house. (We did have one on our registery, but I’d heard really good things about the vacuums they sell at this little vacuum store, so we went to check them out just in case. Also, waiting another 6 months for someone to possibly buy us a ridiculously priced vacuum from our registry wasn’t going to work. We need the new vacuum NOW.) We left with a brand new Riccar vacuum in tow after having had a delightful conversation with an apparently very bored vacuum salesman, and headed over to the bookstore. We’ve been wanting to get a book on the Virgin Islands for a while, so we can look into some of the attractions of the island we’re staying on for our honeymoon, and also check out what other island might be worth the price of a ferry ride for a day visit while we’re there. We got done with that at about 4, and I was STARVING at that point. So we went to the Whole Foods to figure out dinner, which I left up to Jesse to decide what we were going to make. I was far too hungry to be able to make any good decisions, so it worked out better that way. We went home, he made dinner, and I made my guacasalsa that I have come to love so very much over the past few weeks. (It’s a couple of avocados thrown in the food processor with some tomatillos and some onion. There’s other stuff, too, of course, but that’s the jist of it. Soooo yummy! And WAY less fat and calories than regular guacamole! YAY!) By the time I was done with dinner, I was exhausted, and willed myself into staying awake for another 2 hours so I wouldn’t reset my internal clock with an insanely early bedtime by going to bed at 8.
So THAT is what it’s like when I take a “day off.” Yesterday wasn’t very different. After making sure Jesse was comfy once we got home from the dentist (the fact that he passed out almost immediately gave me some idea that he was fine…), I had an appointment at the Brewery to meet with my caterer (Denise) and the Brewery event coordinator to go over linens for the reception. We needed, more than anything, to look into the possibility of covering the chairs they have there. They have some black and silver chairs that they use at standard functions, and apparently, no one has ever inquired about covering them before. Call me fussy, but black and silver doesn’t fit in with our color scheme at all, and I felt like the chairs would be sticking out like a sore thumb if we don’t cover them. (The mosaic bar they have in the room doesn’t fit in either since its blues and greens, but it’s prettier than the chairs. Plus, covering the bar would be a bad idea, IMO. So we’re gonna ignore that all together.)
Finding a chair cover to cover these specific types of chairs wasn’t easy. But the caterer found a company that carries “extra-wide” covers, and she ordered a sample. One of the materials she got was more of a silky material that didn’t have any give to it at all. It didn’t work. BUT. The other material is a lovely polyester that kind of stretches over the chair. AND IT FIT! Success! We found the perfect chair tie for it, and then set about deciding on a table cloth.
Ok, lemme tell you that these days looking for the proper table coverings for a party table is not a cut-and-dry process. We had to choose from ivories and slightly peachies and dark browns and light browns and prints and lacy things and shiny fabrics. And then we had the different fabrics to consider, which ranged from damasks to thin sheers to heavy brocades that seemed more curtain-in-grandma’s-house than a linen for the reception to me.
But we found the perfect linen early on, thank goodness, and it was tough to find anything that was going to change our minds about it. It’s a copper metallic color, actually, and it has this criss-cross pattern on it that gives it a lot of depth, and a bit more pizzazz. The chair tie wound up not matching it so well, so we changed it out for another color, and fell in love. Once we decided on those, we put out the china options, and found that the ivory plates with the gold band around them went perfectly with the chairs and the linens, and kind of tied everything together for us. I almost forgot about napkins, but Denise and I wound up agreeing that the same color fabric we’re using as the chair ties will look perfect, so that was an easy decision.
All in all, it took an hour and a half to work all that stuff out. Since there was an amazing quantity of fabrics to choose from, it just wasn’t as simple as I thought it might be. But I’m soooo glad we have it taken care of now! We’ll have a different fabric on some of the accent tables, too, so things won’t look so matchy-matchy and blocky all over, and that way we got to use some of the other linens that were sent to sample, but which didn’t work out for the actual main table linens over all. They should look beautiful in the areas we’ve decided to use them, though!
After I was done meeting with Denise, I went home to check on Jesse. He was fine…he’d been sleeping the whole time I was gone. I had to leave again for a hair appointment at 5, and then I stopped on my way home and picked up a variety of smoothly pureed soups for Jesse to choose from for dinner (along with some mashed potatoes from the deli at the market, as I didn’t have time to make some for him myself), and got home in time to make him the soup, eat some dinner myself, relax on the couch for a bit and let my dinner settle, and then headed to bed at about 10.
I really, really can’t wait to have some official “days off” in November. I think the shower in California will count as official “days off” as well, since all I need to do is go home and have a good time, but we’ll see.
And now I must head out and get some lunch stuff. I’ve lost 6 and a half pounds so far, but have another few to go before I hit my goal. Definitely seems I’ll hit the 15 before my next dress fitting on the 22nd, but we’ll see. I’m hungry much of the time, and I miss my favorite foods (and drinks!), but I keep figuring that I just have to keep hating food for another 5 months…that’s it. After that, I can love it again, and all will be right in the world. I’ll keep you posted on that.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Apologies!
I just wanted to take a sec to apologize to everyone who has asked if they might be able to stay at our house for the weekend when you come to town for the wedding shower.
First of all, it is so, SO generous of you to want to even travel here to spend that time with us, and we are very much looking forward to seeing everyone that will be able to make it! It's going to be fun to see you all a few months prior to the wedding (and I'm secretly hoping that whatever the secret is that Jesse is keeping from me will somehow slip out during the time we all get to hang out together. It's eating me alive to know there's a secret, but not have any clue what it might be about!), and to catch up and hang out in a relaxed, non-stressed environment for a couple of days.
But here's the caveat to all the pleasant fun visiting time: The house that Jesse and I live in is a temporary one. Don't get me wrong...it's cute! But it's a little tiny. And I had A LOT of crap in it even before he moved in with me, and then we decided to get the dog. So now, there's even more crap than ever before! The whole house is 912 square feet (that's including the garage), which is standard for the houses in my neighborhood and amazingly housed a family of 7 before I moved in (don't ask me how...when I think about it at all, my head starts spinning a little bit), but which is now overflowing with clothing and dog crates and paperwork that I haven't taken the time to file in over 5 months, and holy crap don't make me think about it at all because I might turn and run the other way screaming and waving my arms in the air!
I was a single girl for 31 years before Jesse moved in last February. In that time, I had one older sister visit and stay with me one night in 2002 (I think), and then the Twin has ventured a visit or two as well over the last few years, but that is it. A whole of 2 visitors in aallll that time. (Well, I actually had two friends come and visit when I was living in Oceanside, CA in 1997, but I prefer not to remember that night if at all possible. It involved some Jaegermeister and then some throwing up off the balcony that was none too pleasant, and I also had a total of 3 couches at the time...all in a one bedroom apartment! So the guests were not only passed out at the time, but they were passed out on comfy couches. Which smelled of cat pee. But I digress...) I haven't had much need of a guest room, I guess is my point. When I was single, I would either let my twin share my bed with me when she came to visit, or she'd sleep on the couch, or whatever. The last time she came, she brought her 2 girls and they all stayed at the motor lodge (that I love and stay in myself when I have the need) which is down the street from where we live. Since Jesse and I don't even have the space for a blow-up mattress to be laid down anywhere, it was the only way we could do the visit, unfortunately.
We do plan, in the near future, to have a yard sale in order to get rid of a good amount of the clutter, and also in order to help us redecorate a bit more in the coming months. This is to help us prepare to sell the house next year, and hopefully be able to move into not only a bigger house, but a better one to entertain in. One which will have a proper guest bedroom and bath, so that we don't have to turn away guests in the future, and instead direct them to the local motor lodge. (Which really is very cute, and I've always loved it! Plus, they gots a pool down there, yo! WOO!)
Thank you again to those of you who are considering traveling here to KC to attend the shower, as well as the wedding in October. We really value the time spent with everyone this year, since we will be using vacation time to go on our honeymoon instead of being able to visit our respective homes at all.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
First of all, it is so, SO generous of you to want to even travel here to spend that time with us, and we are very much looking forward to seeing everyone that will be able to make it! It's going to be fun to see you all a few months prior to the wedding (and I'm secretly hoping that whatever the secret is that Jesse is keeping from me will somehow slip out during the time we all get to hang out together. It's eating me alive to know there's a secret, but not have any clue what it might be about!), and to catch up and hang out in a relaxed, non-stressed environment for a couple of days.
But here's the caveat to all the pleasant fun visiting time: The house that Jesse and I live in is a temporary one. Don't get me wrong...it's cute! But it's a little tiny. And I had A LOT of crap in it even before he moved in with me, and then we decided to get the dog. So now, there's even more crap than ever before! The whole house is 912 square feet (that's including the garage), which is standard for the houses in my neighborhood and amazingly housed a family of 7 before I moved in (don't ask me how...when I think about it at all, my head starts spinning a little bit), but which is now overflowing with clothing and dog crates and paperwork that I haven't taken the time to file in over 5 months, and holy crap don't make me think about it at all because I might turn and run the other way screaming and waving my arms in the air!
I was a single girl for 31 years before Jesse moved in last February. In that time, I had one older sister visit and stay with me one night in 2002 (I think), and then the Twin has ventured a visit or two as well over the last few years, but that is it. A whole of 2 visitors in aallll that time. (Well, I actually had two friends come and visit when I was living in Oceanside, CA in 1997, but I prefer not to remember that night if at all possible. It involved some Jaegermeister and then some throwing up off the balcony that was none too pleasant, and I also had a total of 3 couches at the time...all in a one bedroom apartment! So the guests were not only passed out at the time, but they were passed out on comfy couches. Which smelled of cat pee. But I digress...) I haven't had much need of a guest room, I guess is my point. When I was single, I would either let my twin share my bed with me when she came to visit, or she'd sleep on the couch, or whatever. The last time she came, she brought her 2 girls and they all stayed at the motor lodge (that I love and stay in myself when I have the need) which is down the street from where we live. Since Jesse and I don't even have the space for a blow-up mattress to be laid down anywhere, it was the only way we could do the visit, unfortunately.
We do plan, in the near future, to have a yard sale in order to get rid of a good amount of the clutter, and also in order to help us redecorate a bit more in the coming months. This is to help us prepare to sell the house next year, and hopefully be able to move into not only a bigger house, but a better one to entertain in. One which will have a proper guest bedroom and bath, so that we don't have to turn away guests in the future, and instead direct them to the local motor lodge. (Which really is very cute, and I've always loved it! Plus, they gots a pool down there, yo! WOO!)
Thank you again to those of you who are considering traveling here to KC to attend the shower, as well as the wedding in October. We really value the time spent with everyone this year, since we will be using vacation time to go on our honeymoon instead of being able to visit our respective homes at all.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
The Engagement Photo Session Happiness and Joy Story
Yesterday was a day filled with frustration with the weather, sometimes with my lovely and faboolous fiance, and then with the level of exhaustion involved with the errands we needed to do/had time to do. It all started with our engagement photos we had planned to take. (Well, it started with my work out and then my hair appointment after that, but the point of the day was to get the engagement photos done.)
I took the day off from work in order to match schedules with Jesse, and so we could have more time with the photographer if necessary, since Tuesdays are infinitely less busy for her than Saturdays. We don't really need the engagement photos for any significant purpose...they were really just a fun extra part of the package that we chose for our wedding, and we plan on using them for nothing else besides our Guest Book, which the photographer can create for us using 6 - 10 of the best shots we got out of the shoot. I wanted outdoor, somewhat candid, more photojournalistic shots, kind of what we plan on doing on our wedding day as well. When I saw the weather reports starting on Saturday saying that rain would likely hit the area on Tuesday morning, I really hoped it would clear out by the time we planned on heading out to take photos.
Our appointment was at 10:30. I went and got my hair done early, and then Jesse and I headed over to the studio. Unfortunately, the shirt he chose was not a good one for digital photos, so we needed him to change. We rescheduled the shoot to start at noon instead, and went home to eat some lunch and to iron the new shirt we bought for Jesse on our way there.
The shirt was better, and although we had hoped that the extra time we had before the shoot started would give the skies more time to clear up, it was steadily raining again as we pulled back up in front of the studio at noon. Dammit.
So we had an indoor shoot. We wore more dressy clothes at first, and then changed into more casual items after about 45 minutes. But by then, Jesse's attention level was dropping, and quick. Had they had a pool table or something in the studio, we probably would have been fine. But they didn't. (Although the little toy Big Bird that said "peek-a-boo!" every time a flash went off was relatively entertaining once it had been pointed out to me. We wound up putting it in a closet after a while because the way it was making me laugh wasn't as helpful to the photographer as I think she thought it might be at first.) So it got to the point where he just looked unhappy and forced and I was looking like I wanted to beat him up in all the photos, so we called it a day after about 20 minutes in our casual outfits. I was worried we wouldn't have given her anything to work with. She showed us the shots, though (which she said she doesn't usually do, but I think she was reading my frustration and worry really well, and I definitely like that about her), and there were plenty in there to work with, I think. Thank GOD.
We get to see them in about 2 weeks or so, she said. And then we can decide which ones to make a book out of. Should be fun! I wish we could have taken some outside, and of course, the weather was beautiful and happy after 4 p.m. Gotta love the midwest for its casual use of stormy weather in the springtime to ruin certain outdoor plans now and then, though! (Grrrr...)
The photographer did tell us that if we absolutely hate the pictures after seeing them, we can do a quick little second shoot when it's convenient for all of us in the future. I thought that was very nice of her, and she did call and offer to cancel yesterday morning before we even went to the studio, since she knew we wanted outdoor stuff. But I'd taken the day off, and I'd just had my hair done...it just wasn't feasible to cancel on the day-of like that. I can barely afford the days off I'm already taking, much less plan even MORE of them in the near future! Plus, it seems really petty and bridezillaish to me to complain about the photos we do have, especially with as many cute ones as I saw from yesterday. We'll get outdoor photos on our wedding day, and that'll be just fine.
After we were done there, we had lots of other things to do, like hit the post office to buy 10 two-cent stamps, and go to the gym to sign Jesse up with a membership, and go to the book store to find a book that can give us more info about the island we're honeymooning on in November, and shop for dinner, and buy a new vacuum. We did a LOT yesterday, and I was officially exhausted by it all at about 7 p.m. last night. I pushed through that though, and stayed up to watch an episode of The Riches we had recorded for me from Monday (when I was also too exhausted to stay up past 9:30 p.m.), and then an episode of The F Word that had been recorded by TiVo earlier in the day, since it knows how much we love Gordon Ramsay and his wacky kitchen antics. I couldn't wake up to go to the gym this morning, I was still so tired. And even getting out of bed at 6:20 to shower (after 8 and a half hours of sleep, mind you!) was still a bit tough, so I'm not sure what the problem is here. I'll walk the dog tonight to get in some extra exercise, but I'm not going to push it. When I'm this tired, something is afoot. If it's a slumbering virus of some sort inside of me, I definitely don't want to piss it off and wake it up. I have stuff I gotta do this weekend, dammit! (And you KNOW that's when the slumbering viruses like to wake up and pounce on ya. Just when you don't need them the most. I hate it when they do that sort of thing!)
And now I'm off to figure out why I am having such a hard time logging in to my work stuff remotely when I need to. That's not going to work for me over the next few months when I need to be able to work now and then on days off. Nuh-uh. Happy Wednesday! (It's Wednesday, right? Yes. Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, for sure...)
(And for those of you who read both this AND my other blog, yes I pirated the story from there this morning. THAT is how tired I am. I don't have the energy to write two different accounts of the same issue today. Sorry!)
I took the day off from work in order to match schedules with Jesse, and so we could have more time with the photographer if necessary, since Tuesdays are infinitely less busy for her than Saturdays. We don't really need the engagement photos for any significant purpose...they were really just a fun extra part of the package that we chose for our wedding, and we plan on using them for nothing else besides our Guest Book, which the photographer can create for us using 6 - 10 of the best shots we got out of the shoot. I wanted outdoor, somewhat candid, more photojournalistic shots, kind of what we plan on doing on our wedding day as well. When I saw the weather reports starting on Saturday saying that rain would likely hit the area on Tuesday morning, I really hoped it would clear out by the time we planned on heading out to take photos.
Our appointment was at 10:30. I went and got my hair done early, and then Jesse and I headed over to the studio. Unfortunately, the shirt he chose was not a good one for digital photos, so we needed him to change. We rescheduled the shoot to start at noon instead, and went home to eat some lunch and to iron the new shirt we bought for Jesse on our way there.
The shirt was better, and although we had hoped that the extra time we had before the shoot started would give the skies more time to clear up, it was steadily raining again as we pulled back up in front of the studio at noon. Dammit.
So we had an indoor shoot. We wore more dressy clothes at first, and then changed into more casual items after about 45 minutes. But by then, Jesse's attention level was dropping, and quick. Had they had a pool table or something in the studio, we probably would have been fine. But they didn't. (Although the little toy Big Bird that said "peek-a-boo!" every time a flash went off was relatively entertaining once it had been pointed out to me. We wound up putting it in a closet after a while because the way it was making me laugh wasn't as helpful to the photographer as I think she thought it might be at first.) So it got to the point where he just looked unhappy and forced and I was looking like I wanted to beat him up in all the photos, so we called it a day after about 20 minutes in our casual outfits. I was worried we wouldn't have given her anything to work with. She showed us the shots, though (which she said she doesn't usually do, but I think she was reading my frustration and worry really well, and I definitely like that about her), and there were plenty in there to work with, I think. Thank GOD.
We get to see them in about 2 weeks or so, she said. And then we can decide which ones to make a book out of. Should be fun! I wish we could have taken some outside, and of course, the weather was beautiful and happy after 4 p.m. Gotta love the midwest for its casual use of stormy weather in the springtime to ruin certain outdoor plans now and then, though! (Grrrr...)
The photographer did tell us that if we absolutely hate the pictures after seeing them, we can do a quick little second shoot when it's convenient for all of us in the future. I thought that was very nice of her, and she did call and offer to cancel yesterday morning before we even went to the studio, since she knew we wanted outdoor stuff. But I'd taken the day off, and I'd just had my hair done...it just wasn't feasible to cancel on the day-of like that. I can barely afford the days off I'm already taking, much less plan even MORE of them in the near future! Plus, it seems really petty and bridezillaish to me to complain about the photos we do have, especially with as many cute ones as I saw from yesterday. We'll get outdoor photos on our wedding day, and that'll be just fine.
After we were done there, we had lots of other things to do, like hit the post office to buy 10 two-cent stamps, and go to the gym to sign Jesse up with a membership, and go to the book store to find a book that can give us more info about the island we're honeymooning on in November, and shop for dinner, and buy a new vacuum. We did a LOT yesterday, and I was officially exhausted by it all at about 7 p.m. last night. I pushed through that though, and stayed up to watch an episode of The Riches we had recorded for me from Monday (when I was also too exhausted to stay up past 9:30 p.m.), and then an episode of The F Word that had been recorded by TiVo earlier in the day, since it knows how much we love Gordon Ramsay and his wacky kitchen antics. I couldn't wake up to go to the gym this morning, I was still so tired. And even getting out of bed at 6:20 to shower (after 8 and a half hours of sleep, mind you!) was still a bit tough, so I'm not sure what the problem is here. I'll walk the dog tonight to get in some extra exercise, but I'm not going to push it. When I'm this tired, something is afoot. If it's a slumbering virus of some sort inside of me, I definitely don't want to piss it off and wake it up. I have stuff I gotta do this weekend, dammit! (And you KNOW that's when the slumbering viruses like to wake up and pounce on ya. Just when you don't need them the most. I hate it when they do that sort of thing!)
And now I'm off to figure out why I am having such a hard time logging in to my work stuff remotely when I need to. That's not going to work for me over the next few months when I need to be able to work now and then on days off. Nuh-uh. Happy Wednesday! (It's Wednesday, right? Yes. Wednesday. Happy Wednesday, for sure...)
(And for those of you who read both this AND my other blog, yes I pirated the story from there this morning. THAT is how tired I am. I don't have the energy to write two different accounts of the same issue today. Sorry!)
Friday, May 11, 2007
How fun would THIS be?
I found this today while tooling about on random wedding sites. Go see one of the most creative father/daughter dances I've ever seen someone come up with. Awesome. (Mine is going to be so boring!)
Easy is boring...
This week has been a relatively quiet one with regards to all the planning. More “back of the house” stuff, I suppose. I purchased the topper for our cake this week, as well as all the favor containers for our wedding favors to give to guests. (They should get here sometime next week or the week after. I’m so proud of myself for being ahead of the game on that front! I think people usually wait until the last minute to handle favors, for some reason, and they wind up rushing to complete the assembly of them for the most part. Not us! We’ll have ours done at least a week before the wedding. We don’t want to let it sit around for longer than that, or it won’t be as fresh I don’t think. So I’ll probably dedicate some specific evenings starting 3 weeks out to get them put together. That way, if we run out of stuff to put in them, we’ll have time to get more ordered, etc…) I’m planning on heading to an invitation shop this Saturday to look at invitations, per dad’s request, so we can compare the pricing to the ones that I’ve already picked out and want to order, and then I’ll head over to a party rental supply store to see what kinds of chairs they have in stock for me to order, if necessary.
I’m trying to set up a time this next week to meet with the caterer and the event coordinator at the Brewery again, so we can go over linen choices. The caterer found a supplier than can rent us extra-wide chair covers, since the chairs they have at the Brewery are pretty wide ones when compared to other chairs. If the covers don’t work, then I’ll probably rent a totally different type of chair, hence my visit to the rental supply this weekend. I really don’t like the way the Brewery chairs look, although they appear to be very comfortable. We have some friends that are having a reception there next week that we’ve been invited to (our roommates at the Catholic Engaged Encounter invited us to their wedding! They’re so awesome…), and they aren’t covering the chairs at all, so it will give me a good jumping off point to reference when it comes to what we might do for our reception. I’ve only seen the chairs set up for corporate events so far, and they’re GREAT chairs for that sort of thing. But they’re black. And our color scheme is champagne, chocolate, and light gold. No black at all. So I just don’t see how they’d work in the long run. It will be great to have something more formal to reference, though. So I’ll post back on that issue after that wedding, I think.
I’ve also started the process of whitening my teeth this week, since we have our engagement photos this coming Tuesday. It’s not a pretty process overall, I must say, but I’m hoping the effects will out-weight the issues I’ve encountered with the icky gel stuff on the teeth, and the problem I’m having with my teeth feeling a bit too sensitive for my taste today. (I didn’t use the stuff this morning like I was supposed to. I might use it tonight if my teeth are feeling better. We’ll see, because it’s a pretty obnoxious feeling, but my teeth already look better, so it’s a conundrum if ever there was one! Being vain is such a task sometimes.) I’m really looking forward to spending the day with Jesse, and having a little bit of fun with the photographer. This will give us a chance to get to know Lori (our photographer from Van Deusen) a bit better before the wedding day itself, and I think that’ll really help! What we’re planning on doing is making a book out of some of the engagement photos, and then using that as our guest book/message-leaving book at the reception itself. (We won’t have a guest book at the church. I think those lines become a bit confusing and sort of cumbersome. We’ll have a table at the cocktail reception that people can visit and sign the book at, and then we’ll move it upstairs once dinner starts to the “remembrance table” that we’re planning on having in order to display some photos of our loved ones that have passed on and aren’t able to be at the wedding except, of course, in spirit. That way, people can stop and view the photos, and also take some time to sign the guest book/leave a little message for us if they care to do so. I’m really looking forward to that.
This blog isn’t nearly as fun as some of the other wedding blogs I’ve seen in the past, but I don’t know what to tell you! The planning process has gone relatively smoothly thus far, thank goodness, and I don’t have much to complain about over all. (Drama is ALWAYS more fun to read about than just chair cover and teeth whitening conundrums! At least in my world it is…) So I apologize for the boring ol’ updates, but it is nice to know that Jesse and I are having fun with this process, right? I hope? Good.
Have a great Mother’s Day weekend, everyone. Hope it’s a beautiful couple of days for you like it’s supposed to be for us!
I’m trying to set up a time this next week to meet with the caterer and the event coordinator at the Brewery again, so we can go over linen choices. The caterer found a supplier than can rent us extra-wide chair covers, since the chairs they have at the Brewery are pretty wide ones when compared to other chairs. If the covers don’t work, then I’ll probably rent a totally different type of chair, hence my visit to the rental supply this weekend. I really don’t like the way the Brewery chairs look, although they appear to be very comfortable. We have some friends that are having a reception there next week that we’ve been invited to (our roommates at the Catholic Engaged Encounter invited us to their wedding! They’re so awesome…), and they aren’t covering the chairs at all, so it will give me a good jumping off point to reference when it comes to what we might do for our reception. I’ve only seen the chairs set up for corporate events so far, and they’re GREAT chairs for that sort of thing. But they’re black. And our color scheme is champagne, chocolate, and light gold. No black at all. So I just don’t see how they’d work in the long run. It will be great to have something more formal to reference, though. So I’ll post back on that issue after that wedding, I think.
I’ve also started the process of whitening my teeth this week, since we have our engagement photos this coming Tuesday. It’s not a pretty process overall, I must say, but I’m hoping the effects will out-weight the issues I’ve encountered with the icky gel stuff on the teeth, and the problem I’m having with my teeth feeling a bit too sensitive for my taste today. (I didn’t use the stuff this morning like I was supposed to. I might use it tonight if my teeth are feeling better. We’ll see, because it’s a pretty obnoxious feeling, but my teeth already look better, so it’s a conundrum if ever there was one! Being vain is such a task sometimes.) I’m really looking forward to spending the day with Jesse, and having a little bit of fun with the photographer. This will give us a chance to get to know Lori (our photographer from Van Deusen) a bit better before the wedding day itself, and I think that’ll really help! What we’re planning on doing is making a book out of some of the engagement photos, and then using that as our guest book/message-leaving book at the reception itself. (We won’t have a guest book at the church. I think those lines become a bit confusing and sort of cumbersome. We’ll have a table at the cocktail reception that people can visit and sign the book at, and then we’ll move it upstairs once dinner starts to the “remembrance table” that we’re planning on having in order to display some photos of our loved ones that have passed on and aren’t able to be at the wedding except, of course, in spirit. That way, people can stop and view the photos, and also take some time to sign the guest book/leave a little message for us if they care to do so. I’m really looking forward to that.
This blog isn’t nearly as fun as some of the other wedding blogs I’ve seen in the past, but I don’t know what to tell you! The planning process has gone relatively smoothly thus far, thank goodness, and I don’t have much to complain about over all. (Drama is ALWAYS more fun to read about than just chair cover and teeth whitening conundrums! At least in my world it is…) So I apologize for the boring ol’ updates, but it is nice to know that Jesse and I are having fun with this process, right? I hope? Good.
Have a great Mother’s Day weekend, everyone. Hope it’s a beautiful couple of days for you like it’s supposed to be for us!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Well, that's out of the blue...
I don't know if I like the dress I picked out any more. My friends have suggested that I stop looking at it, and just remember how it made me feel on the day I found it, and also have been mentioning that the veil changes a lot of perspectives when it comes to the dress for most brides. Other brides on The Knot have explained that they also went through a dress-doubting anxiety attackish type thing a few months before their wedding, so I'm not alone in this it seems. I'm not the ONLY crazy one, basically.
My doubt has gotten better since last week (my one friend was very right on with her suggestion that I quit looking at the photos we took of me in the dress at my first fitting...), and I feel less angsty about it now. But still...it freaks me out a little bit.
I also think I found the invitations I want, and of course I gave the invitations lady the wrong count on the number we'll need when she was working up the estimate for me. I keep thinking about how we're inviting roughly 200 people to the wedding. So I gave her that number, and it took me 5 days - five!! - to remember that that number is the total number of guests we are inviting. However, many of them live together, in a very handy fashion, like our parents, and our parents' friends, and lots of our friends, etc, etc...so, we don't NEED 200 invitations! We need about 90. I'm thinking of rounding up to 110, just to be safe. I've asked for the invitation-lady's advice on that front, though. She knows better than I how many "extra" we might need when it's all said and done.
The nice thing is that this helps cut the invite costs in half, so that's always fun. Dad wants me to look into other invitation options before settling on this one. I'm pretty sure that the kind that I want would either be roughly the same amount as these ones, or possibly more. But I'll check into it this weekend, and find out for sure. 'Cause I'm a good daughter like that. Dammit.
My doubt has gotten better since last week (my one friend was very right on with her suggestion that I quit looking at the photos we took of me in the dress at my first fitting...), and I feel less angsty about it now. But still...it freaks me out a little bit.
I also think I found the invitations I want, and of course I gave the invitations lady the wrong count on the number we'll need when she was working up the estimate for me. I keep thinking about how we're inviting roughly 200 people to the wedding. So I gave her that number, and it took me 5 days - five!! - to remember that that number is the total number of guests we are inviting. However, many of them live together, in a very handy fashion, like our parents, and our parents' friends, and lots of our friends, etc, etc...so, we don't NEED 200 invitations! We need about 90. I'm thinking of rounding up to 110, just to be safe. I've asked for the invitation-lady's advice on that front, though. She knows better than I how many "extra" we might need when it's all said and done.
The nice thing is that this helps cut the invite costs in half, so that's always fun. Dad wants me to look into other invitation options before settling on this one. I'm pretty sure that the kind that I want would either be roughly the same amount as these ones, or possibly more. But I'll check into it this weekend, and find out for sure. 'Cause I'm a good daughter like that. Dammit.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Weight Loss Challenge - 2007
Well, I'm down 1 pound. Only 9 more to go! Auurggghhhh...
In other news, my arms hurt! My trainer seems quite proud of himself for that.
See, this past weekend, some nutjob decided it was time to go and take out a few people via the use of a handgun before he handily got himself killed by some police officers, and this all happened at the mall that my gym where I see my trainer is located. The gym isn't really close to the area of the mall where the shootings happened, but the whole mall was shut down for 2 days after the shooting, so I couldn't see my trainer as usual on Tuesday morning, and instead went to the gym by our house to get in a standard cardio workout that day.
Wednesday is usually my one day off during the week, so heading in to work out with the trainer on Wednesday was a tough move for me. I didn't get a full cardio set in before we got together, but I didn't really care...I slept in until 5 a.m., gosh darnit! (And it STILL didn't help with the tiredness later on! But I digress.) But going in and meeting with my trainer (Alan) on Wednesday meant that we'd be working out together for 2 days in a row.
Ugh.
Tuesdays are chest and back days. Thursdays are arm and leg days. Unfortunately, a good amount of the things done for the chest and back require a lot of helpful involvement from the arms in both the bicept and tricept area. So when Alan was telling me that my arms shouldn't hurt today as we were finishing up yesterday, I tried to believe him, I did! But he was wrong. Not only had he piled on more weight than ever on the chest and back exercises we did yesterday morning, but we did several different and kinda new (or hadn't been done in a while) exercises, and we did two sets of each of them.
And so today, even though he took it sort of easy on my arms, they hurt. They hurt bad. I warned my boss that if he hears me whimpering at all outside his office, not to worry about it as it should pass. But DAMN! This is not comfortable.
1 pound. Alan wants 1.5 by next week, and 2 the week after that. Less food and more exercise than ever! Being a supermodel would suck, I think.
In other news, my arms hurt! My trainer seems quite proud of himself for that.
See, this past weekend, some nutjob decided it was time to go and take out a few people via the use of a handgun before he handily got himself killed by some police officers, and this all happened at the mall that my gym where I see my trainer is located. The gym isn't really close to the area of the mall where the shootings happened, but the whole mall was shut down for 2 days after the shooting, so I couldn't see my trainer as usual on Tuesday morning, and instead went to the gym by our house to get in a standard cardio workout that day.
Wednesday is usually my one day off during the week, so heading in to work out with the trainer on Wednesday was a tough move for me. I didn't get a full cardio set in before we got together, but I didn't really care...I slept in until 5 a.m., gosh darnit! (And it STILL didn't help with the tiredness later on! But I digress.) But going in and meeting with my trainer (Alan) on Wednesday meant that we'd be working out together for 2 days in a row.
Ugh.
Tuesdays are chest and back days. Thursdays are arm and leg days. Unfortunately, a good amount of the things done for the chest and back require a lot of helpful involvement from the arms in both the bicept and tricept area. So when Alan was telling me that my arms shouldn't hurt today as we were finishing up yesterday, I tried to believe him, I did! But he was wrong. Not only had he piled on more weight than ever on the chest and back exercises we did yesterday morning, but we did several different and kinda new (or hadn't been done in a while) exercises, and we did two sets of each of them.
And so today, even though he took it sort of easy on my arms, they hurt. They hurt bad. I warned my boss that if he hears me whimpering at all outside his office, not to worry about it as it should pass. But DAMN! This is not comfortable.
1 pound. Alan wants 1.5 by next week, and 2 the week after that. Less food and more exercise than ever! Being a supermodel would suck, I think.
Wednesday, May 02, 2007
I'm cursed!
Well, it happened again. I set a 6 p.m. appointment with a vendor, and they didn't show. I called their cell twice to see what was up, and got no answer. The second time I called, I let them know I'd be sticking around until 6:20, but I really needed to get going after that, as I was expecting our meeting to take no longer than a half hour as it was. I didn't have time to hang out last night and wait to see if a boo-boo had been made with regards to their scheduling.
Which it had. As I drove home, my phone rang (at 6:25, mind you), and it was the vendor calling to say, "I'm sorry, I thought we were set to meet at 6:30!" You know, if it wasn't in email form this time, I might've wondered if it was me. As it was, I wondered all the way home, where I was able to pull up the email that said, "Let's meet at Redemptorist on May 1st at 6 p.m." Vindication! It's not me. These vendors need better note-taking abilities, or something.
So we reset the appointment for Thursday at 6 p.m. instead, and I really hope this chick shows. Because I don't have any other leads on her position in the wedding at this point. And I don't really have the energy to try to look, either.
*sigh* Working out makes me tired!
Which it had. As I drove home, my phone rang (at 6:25, mind you), and it was the vendor calling to say, "I'm sorry, I thought we were set to meet at 6:30!" You know, if it wasn't in email form this time, I might've wondered if it was me. As it was, I wondered all the way home, where I was able to pull up the email that said, "Let's meet at Redemptorist on May 1st at 6 p.m." Vindication! It's not me. These vendors need better note-taking abilities, or something.
So we reset the appointment for Thursday at 6 p.m. instead, and I really hope this chick shows. Because I don't have any other leads on her position in the wedding at this point. And I don't really have the energy to try to look, either.
*sigh* Working out makes me tired!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Quick question...
Does anyone even read this? Or am I just writing for my own satisfaction now and then? Either way, it's cool. Just checking.
I'm hungry, dammit. That is all.
I'm hungry, dammit. That is all.
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