The Midwest Shower Weekend

Ah, the first shower I’ve ever had ever, ever. The very first present I’ve opened from someone in conjunction with the wedding activities. The first time I’ve had all my bridesmaids in one place together. The first real party to celebrate our upcoming marriage.

This past weekend was a blast and a half! Seeing my friends and my sister and my future family all in one place like that was beyond words. On Saturday night, probably due in part to exhaustion and maybe a bit of the heat, I cried. A LOT. No real reason for it…the tears just needed to come out. It started when I was on my way home from dropping my sister and our best friend off at their hotel, and then continued when I got inside and was grabbing a bite to eat after a long day of probably not having enough to eat up until that point. Jesse held me and let me cry on his shoulder, and then it was over almost as quickly as it began, and I finished my sandwich and went to bed.

Having everyone in town like that, and having people come to the shower to help celebrate my ability to finally snag a man after all these years…well, it meant a lot to me. I don’t think anyone I know thought I might be so lucky as to find someone like Jesse after all this time had passed (making me into the bitter, often non-complacent, almost-middle-aged woman that I am today!), least of all me. But I did. And I’m soooo, so lucky! (Not so sure about him, though…I mean, he is, after all, stuck with a bitter, non-complacent, almost-middle-aged woman now! Poor thing…)

Anyway, mucho fun was had. We had a barbecue at the house on Friday night, welcoming all that had traveled in from out of town to come to the shower, as well as some old friends that hadn’t even had the chance to meet Jesse yet, so that was great. Then we cooled down in the pool at the White Haven, only to return to our house so the girls could catch up on some creepy ghosty shows I had in the TiVo, while the boys went out and had some beers nearby.

Saturday morning was an utter meltdown of a morning for me. I’d rather just put that behind me and forget about it, if I can…

The shower was a BLAST! Drinks were flowing, the food was mighty tasty, the waiter (Raphael) was on top of his game, and everyone seemed to be having such a good time, I worried about whether we were bothering anyone else in the restaurant! Raphael assured us we were fine, and to make as much noise as we wanted. So we did. And it was good.

Later that night, we spent some time on Martini Corner (at about 31st and Main here in Kansas City, we have 4 or 5 restaurant/bars that make up a little section of town where people like to drink martinis…among other things, of course!) grabbing some food and drinks, and then headed out to play some pool and air hockey (I still can’t believe I didn’t win my air hockey games! Clearly, this marriage stuff doesn’t agree with me… :P) before we all went our separate ways for the night.

Stacey and Jason, I don’t remember getting to say a proper goodbye to the both of you, and I’m sorry about that! I cannot express how much FUN it was to have you in town for a visit, and how pleased both Jesse and I were to be able to spend some time with you. Thank you, thank you, thank you for taking the time to drive down here and be with us for the weekend. I hope you had fun, and that we didn’t drive you too crazy in the process! It will be wonderful to see you both again in just a few short months!

And to prove that good times were had, here are some of the photos documenting the damage done at the pool on Friday night. I haven't uploaded the photos from Saturday yet, so I'll get those up later this week. (Twin, please send me the photos you have, too. Because I think you got some good ones at the showah...)

Aw! A big, wet hug for mom...who hadn't gotten in the pool yet herself, of course. All the boys had turned into 12 year olds when they hit the water that night, apparently.

Twin/Laura looks like she has an idea! Alas...it was nothing. She's such a poser sometimes. (Heh.)

Lloyd can cannonball like NO ONE has ever cannonballed before! He won that contest, hands down...
Miranda is sexay...she says, "Look at my sexayness and be jealous, yo!" Believe me, we are, sista. Go and get prego again so you can be fat like me for a while, will ya? Buggar...

Thanks again to everyone for making the weekend as fun as it was. You guys are the greatest!

It scaaarres meh...

I have a confession: I’m a teensy bit afraid of being a wife.

I don’t know why this bothers me in the least, except that I worry about Jesse getting fed up with the ‘tude at some point, throwing up his hands in disgust and saying, “That’s it! I’m outta here!” But really, it’s just that there’s a certain way I like things done. Loading the dishwasher isn’t an art, per se, but it can be done in an efficient manner that allows lots of things to be loaded into it, and still get clean. I love it when he helps out with loading it…I really do.

Except I really don’t, because I’ll just have to rearrange everything once I get my hands on it.

But the effort he makes is what matters. :)

Now we have agreements when it comes to chores, so things don’t get all discombobulated. He takes out the trash, cleans the bathroom, and washes himself off now and then.

I do the dishes, wash the laundry that both of us use, clean random surfaces here and there, vacuum, make sure the alarm is set in the morning, wash myself pretty much daily, pay the bills, and fluff the cushions on the couch.

If it weren’t for me doing half of those things (ok, ok…MOST of those things), I’m pretty sure they would never, EVER get done. Particularly the fluffing of the cushions. What does he have against normal-shaped cushions? I dunno.

Basically, I’m a pretty picky bitch. Takes a lot to put up with me, as the usual thing for me to do as soon as I get home from work is see something to immediately complain about, and then mention it as soon as I see Jesse when I walk in the door.

I honestly don’t know how he does it. Nor do I know how he’ll continue to do it for the rest of our lives!

And so, I’m afraid to be a wife.

*sigh!* After the first 5 years, he will definitely have earned a cookie, that’s for sure.

This week scares me a little bit.

Ok, Friday I have to go up against the dress monster again. For the second time.

Wait, have I already explained the problem I'm having with my dress on this blog? Shoot, I might not've...let me check.

Yes, I have brought it up before. Here. So, ok then...

Basically, I've only managed to lose 6 pounds since I was advised to lose 10. So I'm hoping this fitting will give me a good guage to use for future weight loss needs, if any. I really, really, really can't wait until I can eat without worrying about it again!

I have to say that 5 workouts a week pretty well keeps me in a place that lets me eat just about anything without having to worry about it, though. The problem is that when I eat whatever I want, I don't lose any weight. And that's part of the essential equation right now. And really, I'm eating what I like, but I'm trying to eat less of it, of course. That's the key, as they say.

This week is a short week for me, as I'll be taking Friday off to hang out with my sister who's coming to town for my shower this weekend, as well as to try on the dress and have a party on Friday night with everyone who's coming into town for the shower as well as some other friends I haven't seen in a while. We're really looking forward to the weekend. Thanks again to everyone who is planning on coming in from out of town to join us! (And for those of you in California, I can't wait until July when I get to see all of you, too!)

Not really much else to update on, I'm afraid. I think we found the labels we plan on using for the favors we'll be offering to our guests at the wedding. That's a nice development.

Uuuummm...yeah, not much else going on. Things really slow down in the planning department once we hit this mark, it seems like. Maybe I'll think of a better topic to post about tomorrow...

Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry for the lack of posts this week! Work has been a bear, and by the time I get home each night, I just want to hang out, eat some dinner, and then crash into bed. (I'm getting old, dammit.)

There will definitely be new posts up next week! In the mean time, happy weekend...:)

Tonight should be fun...

Jesse and I get to go see our engagement photos tonight at Van Deusen. I can't wait to see how they turned out! I hope there are at least 10 that we can agree on to put into the guest book for the wedding. It'll be nice to have that task taken care of.

Yesterday, I got an email from the caterer regarding the plans for the rentals of the linens and the menu and all of that good stuff. I really need to get back to her, but she was wondering if we're on the right track with the menu, and I want to take a minute to look over the appetizer selections we made again. I should probably be doing that instead of writing this post, but whatever...I'm more in the mood to write right now, I guess. :)

Updates on everything that's going on:
Jesse had a dentist appointment a couple of weeks ago, which I think I mentioned, didn't I? Anyway, he's recovered really well from that, and we have the outline from the dentist's office about the next steps they would recommend, so we're looking into that now as well. I'm hoping that he might get to the point where sedation isn't necessary to do. At least we know for sure now that I can drop him off and pick him up, and then he is ok at home by himself after he's had some work done, so I don't have to take full days off from work to help him with those appointments any more. I totally would if I could! But each day that I earn is so precious with all we need to do this year, and the time off I'll be taking for the honeymoon in November and all. Regardless, he's working on getting healthy, I am so, sooo very happy about his dedication to it, and I really hope it makes him feel worlds better ASAP since I can only imagine how he was just putting up with the discomfort of it all for all this time.

I am still losing weight..kind of at a plateau right now, but the shirts I own that are button down are my guage for my upper body changes, and they are all definitely looser than they were a few weeks ago. When I try my dress on again in a couple of weeks, I'm hoping it will really work out ok! I talked to my trainer about how I look very top-heavy in all the pictures I'm taking, and we agreed that instead of piling on more and more weight as I get stronger and stronger, it's time for me to work with a weight that I can lift/press/crunch for 15 reps without too much difficulty, and then do another set relatively quickly, and that should even things out a bit more. My muscles need to be long and lean, not big and bulky! I think doing things this way should help.

By the way, I'm taking this month off from the trainer. Since he moved to another gym, and the main one isn't open yet (he's working in a temp space right now), I'm just working out on my own until mid-July when he and I can get back to our regular 2-days per week meeting schedule. It should be fine. I'm much less likely to "cheat" on my workout schedule these days...the incentive is just too high a price to pay otherwise! I mean, if I don't fit in my dress in October, what will I wear down the aisle? A dress from Target? Um, no thank you.

I also visited the dermatologist last week to see if there's anything we can do about the melasma on my face. She prescribed me a cream that I could start using, and if that doesn't show results within 2 months, we can head down the laser flashy-thingy route. (I don't know the official name of the laser flashy-thingy. But I've seen it on all those extreme makeover shows when they need to even out people's skin tone and stuff.) I don't know that it will come to that, though...this cream seems really effective, and it's only been a week! They warned me that I might not start seeing any results for the first month, so keep using it and wait for it to happen...but it's already doing it's thing. I can't wait to see what it does in another 3 weeks! Keep your fingers crossed...the cream wasn't cheap, and the laser flashy-thingy is definitely not cheaper than the cream. Why doesn't my insurance company want me to be beautiful for my wedding day, huh? jerks.

Just about 2 weeks away from the shower here in Kansas, and I'm so excited to see everyone! Looks like the party will be a really manageable size of about 16 guests, but that's only if the people who haven't RSVPd yet RSVP as I expect them to. Since it IS happening in the middle of summer, I can imagine some might be heading on vacations and stuff, so we'll see. I can't wait!

Also, Jesse finished up his job at the Blue Moose last weekend, and is currently working his little butt off around the house doing a TON of yard work and general clean up. (He's doing it because he wants to, too. I don't understand it...I HATE yard work, so I'm really happy he enjoys it as much as he does!) Between the work he's doing and the work we're having done professionally by the landscaper, the yard is looking more and more lovely over time. This weekend is the big Yard Sale that I've been planning to do for, oh, about 3 months now! Our friends Alisha and Lloyd will be coming over to hang out and sell some of their stuff, too, so that should be a lot more fun than I had expected it to be. We'll be getting a new table (that one from Crate & Barrel that I talked about a long time ago) on Tuesday, and then hopefully, we'll need to pick up a new t.v. after the sale is over on Saturday. (We want to sell the one we have now and upgrade to an HD ready plasma thingamabobber.)

We thought that Jesse had hit the jackpot with the job situation, as he found a listing for an available daytime sous chef position at a restaurant we hold in high regard here in town, but unfortunately, the job had been filled last week and the ad hadn't been taken down yet. Regardless, the owner/chef of the restaurant wanted to talk to Jesse if he was available to do so, so he's meeting with him next week to chat about his experience, and hopefully maybe get an inside tip as to who else might need a good sous chef or chef in a similar restaurant here in town. It's just great that this particular chef wants to meet with him, anyway. He wants to hang onto his resume as well, "...in case anything happens." Since, in the restaurant world, people can come and go in a matter of days, and sometimes hours! You never know. Maybe he'll have an opening again sooner than we think...

But he's getting his resume out there, considering the possibilities that are available to him, and also getting a lot done that he hadn't been able to for the last few months, now that he has some actual time to himself without someone calling him to ask what the soup of the day is, or how to make a chocolate mousse on his day off. I can't wait to see what his next step will be! I'm very excited for him.

And now I must get back to the caterer. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Another checkmark on the "to do" list...

I'm giving the official request for the invitations to be ordered today. Holy cow...