Jen & Jesse Sittin' in a Tree

In case anyone still reads this mess of a blog...

2008-03-04T07:27:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to make sure that if anyone was still checking back here every now and then, that you know I'm going to close it down. I just don't have the stories to tell like I used to. And the ones I WOULD like to tell might get me into trouble! ;) So I'm sorry, but the blog is going to go 'way.

Thanks for reading! I'll delete it at the end of the month...(March, that is.)

Got away from me...

2008-01-02T07:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, so I'm sorry! The on and off of being at work through the holidays kind of threw off my game, and now I have all this catching up to do! Woops...

Christmas was great. The travel was a little exhausting, to say the least, but the time spent at home with the family was well worth it in the end. Jesse relaxed, I had fights with my older sister, Laura gave us the flu, we all ate and drank to our liking...it was perfect. (Except for the flu part, of course. At least my 24 hours with it didn't happen until I was home on Friday, so I was able to work from the couch. Jesse never caught it, thank goodness!)

On Monday, we went down to Carlsbad to visit with our friend Lyn and to have some breakfast and possibly do a little shopping at the outlet mall that the restaurant was at. It was great to be able to show Jesse where I had lived for a short while back in 1998, and we also found him two great sweaters on sale at Calvin Klein for only $25 each! That was nice.

After we were finished there, we headed back up the coast to Laguna so I could show him dad's condo on the beach there. Here's Laura and Jesse right after I tried to catch her pushing him over the railing! He turned around, though, and she wasn't able to go through with it after all...

On Christmas day, my older sister Wendy, brother-in-law Sean, Jesse and myself went for a hike on the horse trail near dad's house. There are several trails around him, actually, but this one led up to a water tower on the hill across from his place, where we'd heard we could see some pretty amazing views. The initial climb up almost killed me...I thought I was in pretty good shape, but apparently I was wrong! My sister and brother-in-law went on from the top of the hill over around the golf course below and then back to the street that leads to dad's after we were done catching our breath (or trying to catch our breath, as was the case for me at least!) and looking at the pretty view from the top. Here's a picture of dad's house from the top of the hill. It's hard to see...but it's right in the center of the photo, behind all the trees. That big house that's prominent in the photo is the newest neighbor who built right across the street from dad.
And here I am on the way back down the hill. Off in the distance is the main part of San Juan Capistrano which lies across the 5 Freeway and the railroad tracks from dad's house. I think I was pointing at Capo Beach, but I can't remember.
I'd been taunting Jesse with a "surprise" I wouldn't tell him about until it arrived on Monday night. Every year for the past 6 or 7 years or so, I think, we've gotten a bouncy house for the kids to play on for the day at some point around Christmas. This year I was able to convince my sister to order it for Christmas day so Jesse could benefit from it as well. I saw a pirate ship one on the website and I was all, "Ooh! Get that one!" It was a success! Somehow, it manages to keep the nieces and nephews busy from just about sun-up to sunset when we have it. Even though there isn't much to it, they play and play and play. (Where do they get the energy? Bleh!) Here we are on the starboard side of the ship. Or is that the other side? Oh, I don't know...
Once I'd gotten myself up and into the bouncy part of the ship, I realized what a huge mistake it was for me to be in there. Jesse bounced around, and I think he even slid down the slide once, and I tried to avoid being careened into by my nephew who had taken to jumping from the top of the slide directly onto the bouncy portion of the contraption, and I seriously thought that if he didn't break himself in half, he would quickly work his way to snapping one of my appendages with his reckless abandon. So while the look on my face in this photo isn't exactly a flattering one for me, it gives a good idea to you of my feelings about being any part of the bouncy ship at that point in time...
It was a great time. I wish we could have stayed longer, and relaxed some more, and spent more time with dad and Yvette and everyone. With the Twin being sick a good portion of the time we were there, we didn't have a chance to play half the games we'd wanted to, so that made me sad. But we did get to spend time together, since she drove us around while we were there, and everything. That was great.

More to come later this week! I've got bunches more pictures to share...hope everyone had a great and safe New Year!

Just a quick note...

2007-12-21T06:42:00.000-08:00

I don't have much going on right now, outside of trying to get through this last day of work before a little holiday we're going to get to have (Jesse and I will be going to my dad's house for Christmas, thank goodness! I can't wait to spend a bit more time with dad and everyone for a couple of days...), and that sort of thing.

I did want to point out that I have added a "blogroll" that links to other sites that I love, love, LOVE, and will be adding to over time. They are wedding related and/or party related, and have GREAT tips and ideas for how to decorate for a party, or what to give a hostess/host at a party you attend, or just sharing pretty dresses that they've found in online searching. A couple of them run contests now and again that are fun to compete for, but for the most part, I visit them just to look at pretty things and get ideas for decorating and entertaining.

Hope everyone has a happy holiday, and I'll be back next week to share some stories of our trip home. Yay!

Okeydokey smokey...

2007-12-14T12:41:00.000-08:00

Alright, all ye (hopefully) happy people. Not much to update on today, except to let you know that the photos of the wedding are up at the photog's website.

I'm in a terrible mood today, so I won't go into the way I feel about the photos much. I will say that I was expecting more of a professional photojournalistic style out of them, and I don't think that's what we got. I also asked specifically that they avoid taking pictures with the angle thing going on in them, and that didn't happen.

Oh, and don't even ask what the deal is with the pictures of the food at the cocktail reception is about. It was very hard to stifle my laughter when those popped up in the slide show when we saw it at the photographer's studio on Wednesday night, and when I looked at Jesse's face, he had a serious "WTF?" look that I hope Lori didn't see! They're weird...I think we can all agree on that point.

Otherwise, there are some fabulous shots in there, and I'm mostly happy with the way they turned out. If we can all just ignore the way my eyelashes looked throughout the "Bride" section of the photos, I'd appreciate it. The one on my right eye wasn't put on correctly when my makeup was done, I think. It came off of the corner of my eyelid during the photo session, and Miranda had to put it back on when we got back to my room to eat some lunch after we were done with those photos. Thank goodness my stepmom had some false eyelash glue with her! (Although I really wish I could have just taken them off. I feel like such an idiot looking at the photos now...)

Anyway, go to Van Deusen's website, and enter to the main page of the site. From there, you go to "Viewing Online", and then choose "View Wedding Images." Click on the drop down list and choose our wedding (not posting the names here because they work through last names on the site, and I don't generally release that info via the internet), and then the password is our wedding date: 10/27/07.

Have fun! Talk to you all next week...

Y'all are peachy, you really are...

2007-12-07T14:37:00.000-08:00

Ok, I know there are still some of you out there reading this thing now and then, and I have to thank you for bearing with me when I have the downtime between posts. I know how sucky that can be, being an avid blog reader myself, so I plan on updating the blog soon to include some regular wedding/decor/party-throwing blogs in what we call a "blogroll" that I also love to read, and which will give you some material to look at between my posting here. Hopefully. Look for that update sometime next week.

But now, what you've been waiting for! (Ok, maybe not...but still what I promised to post earlier this week!) Here are the photos that document the big change to the little room in the house that we did on Sunday and Monday/Tuesday.

Here's Jesse as he does his fabulous cutting job around the doorway. See what I mean about reaching high places without the stepladder? The only thing he used it for was when he was cutting along the tops of the doors and the window in the room, so he was sure he wasn't totally missing spots or painting all over the top of the molding.

And here's the one wall when I was done painting it. You can't see in this picture really, but I did a terrible, terrible job. I'm just not meant to paint. I'm pretty good at scrubbing dishes, though! So I'll stick to that...(Jesse also wound up painting that door white. It needs another coat, but even in it's uneven whiteness, it looks worlds better than it did when it was cream!)
Here is the room after we finished painting and were able to move furniture into it on Tuesday night. Yay! (I've ordered curtains for the window that should match better than the older ones that have been in that room for the past 4 years. They should arrive today at the house, I hope I hope I hope...)
Love the new carpet, though! We ordered it before the wedding, so we could use it in the kids' section at the reception. It worked out perfectly with our color scheme for the evening, and it also worked out perfectly for the paint Jesse picked for the small room! Yay!

Here's Jesse over by the desk after we put everything together. He wanted to be in all the pictures, for some reason. He's so funny!
And here is what the old office used to look like. It's not usually THAT messy, but it's close. We had piled everything in there from the little room, so it was more messy than usual. I can't wait to finish the project by painting this room and getting it set up as (a) our additional "media" room for now, and then (b) our additional bedroom in a couple of months when it's time to put the house on the market. Woohoo!
I'll take more pictures of the bigger room once we've completed that transition as well. And now, as it's closing in on 5 p.m. my time on a lovely somewhat snow-covered Friday afternoon, I'll bid you all goodnight and good weekend. Later!

Taking breaks!

2007-12-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the delay on posting around here. I've been thinking that I don't have much to post, but I've also been working. And then trying to fill out thank you notes here and there. And that takes up a surprising amount of my time, I've found! Tomorrow or Thursday, I'm hoping to have some photos to show the home improvement project that we're (hopefully!) finishing up tonight. We finally cleaned out the little bedroom and got it painted (I helped a little, but Jesse did most of it. It's so much handier being able to paint a whole wall without having to use the step ladder half the time!), and tonight I'm hoping we can finish it off by moving the furniture in there that we intend to put in. We're trying to envision different layouts with the desk and the little couch, or the desk and just a chair and a lamp. Or the desk and me lying on the floor in a puddle of frustration because I wish that room just had an extra foot and a half added onto it! (Seriously, the yard is huge...why didn't they just make the house a teensy bit wider when they built it? Makes no sense...) Anyway, I've taken before and during-the-painting pictures, so I just want to get some after photos, and then I'll be ready to post some stuff about it. It'll be fun.

In the meantime, how 'bout some more honeymoon photos? Here is a (very, very dark) photo of the "activities room" we tended to hang out in at the resort at night. It's also where we took the Yahtzee game from for the week, since that was our main source of entertainment in our room, and all. Hopefully no one else wanted to play it! Not that I care, because if we didn't have that? I would've been a wreck by the end of the week! Anyway, that's me on the big couch in front of the t.v. If you can squint a bit, you can see that I was busy watching the end of the game that was on before the KU game came on that night. I can't remember what it was...Ohio State, maybe?

And here's a picture from the path that we were on when we were at The Baths on Friday. Very pretty! But there were very few places where it wasn't single-file. We were alone on the path at that particular moment, but there was a lot of waiting in certain spots when we ran into groups that were coming from the opposite direction...
Oh, this picture is out of place, but it was the picture I took of myself as we left the resort FOREVAH!!! I was very excited to be headed home.
And this is me in one of the grottos at The Baths on Friday. Yes, that's me in a bathing suit, and I don't care what anyone thinks about it. My sister-in-law said I was brave to send out photos of me in a suit. She's skinny, and she doesn't seem like she'd do such a thing. I don't give a flying fig. That's mah belly. Love it or leave it! (My personal trainer does NOT love it. He's currently working on eradicating the belly, and I don't like him much for it.) You can't really tell all that well due to the shadows, but my ass looks fabulous...:D
And here's Jesse at the foot of one of the little path-helper thingies that are sprinkled throughout the path at The Baths. We had to climb the stairs, crawl through that hole in the rocks, and then climb down the stairs on the other side to continue on the path. There was a way around this path-helper that was a bit more treacherous, but we did it one of the times in order to avoid the massive amount of people waiting in line to get through the hole. Believe it or not, this was one of the easier path-helpers! My favorite was the slab of rock we had to climb up with the help of a rope...it was fun.
And that's it for now! More pictures this week, I promise. Hope everyone is having a good one!

Virgin Gorda, and other things...

2007-11-21T12:17:00.000-08:00

Ok, so the home project isn't going too well. Nothing has changed, which is sort of disappointing to me, but I'll deal. I need to call the cable company to come out and switch the lines under the house for us, as Jesse isn't able to switch them himself. (He didn't want to crawl over to where the line is for the cable modem, and we're not sure if the other cable line for the t.v. will be able to reach as far as we need it to, anyway. He didn't want to crawl under there and try it all without being able to complete the process, seeing as that would leave us without a computer for several days...)

So! In the meantime, I will post pictures from the honeymoon in order to make things right in the world again. This is the beach that belonged to the resort we stayed at:

The beach was a 15 foot walk from our room's back door. Weird fact about Little Dix Bay Resort and Spa: We didn't get a key to our room...no one does, apparently. When you leave during the day, or whenever, you leave the room unlocked. Strange, no? (There was a safe in our room that we kept all our "valuables" in, so that helped a bit with the oddness of it all.) Here's a picture of our "king sized" bed:
It was really 2 full beds pushed together, which we thought was very klassay. Also, it rained super-hard on Wednesday night while we were there. As we played Yahtzee in our room and drank rum and Coke/Diet Coke, we noticed that there was a sizeable puddle on Jesse's side of the bed. By the time we went to bed, it was all the way over on my side as well. We called the front desk twice about the issue, and they seemed not too worried about it. The next day, and the following two days after that, they worked on finding the problem. Fortunately, we didn't get another rain like we had on Wednesday while we were there, because I really didn't want to find out if they'd managed to actually fix the problem.

Wednesday night before the rain moved in, we went out on the sunset cruise the resort offered to guests for a "small" (read: not small, but sorta worth it) fee. It was hot, but the views were lovely. And once the breeze was able to get to us inside the boat (the back end that was open to the ocean was full of guests, so Jesse and I stayed inside the boat and enjoyed the breeze coming through the windows, as well as the easily-accessible appetizers that were part of the cruises offering to us), it felt really nice in there...

On Friday, we went out to The Baths for a visit, taking advantage of one of the free things that the resort offered us in their boat-taxi to the area. We also took along a picnic lunch to eat while we were there. Oddly enough, chickens and roosters roam free about the island, and one in particular has made his home there on the beach we were dropped off at and on which we ate our lunch. Jesse was really bothered by this rooster. I decided to snap a picture of them together, since I wanted to remember my husband behaving in the way I usually do when people annoy me on the road or in the supermarket. It was awesome!
Sorry for the finger in the picture. We'd bought a disposable camera for that trip so we didn't have a chance to ruin our digital one, and it was hard to tell when you had your finger in the shot!

Here's a picture I managed to take that didn't get my finger in it...

Those rocks are the end of a trail through The Baths called The Devil's Bay trail. I have pictures from inside of it, but they'll have to be put up in another post! (Bandwidth, etc...) It was a gorgeous day for a visit there, as you can see, and I enjoyed it tremendously. I think Jesse would have enjoyed it more if he hadn't gotten a sunburn a couple days before from snorkeling without putting on sunscreen first. His back was really red, poor thing!

Anyway, more to come in the future. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving, and thanks for bearing with us when it comes to our lack of ability to fill out thank you notes! (I don't think we're the worst offenders when it comes to this tradition, but man, we aren't the best on the list either! Sorry for the delay on them!)

I know it's been a while...

2007-11-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are, 3 weeks past the wedding, and me being all loser-ish about updating the blog. So here we go!

Jesse and I are doing well. Settling into our jobs around the holidays, since it's new for the both of us in our respective positions, as well as settling into the house now that we don't have any entertaining or anything going on in the near future.

It's kind of weird!

We have all kinds of new things we'd like to use for entertaining, but here we are on the verge of winter without the use of the space on the deck, and so we can only have small parties if any at all. So those new glasses and dishes will all have to wait to be used! (As does the leftover alcohol from the wedding, bless its heart.) I keep saying to people that I'm looking forward to having them over in the spring, but then I remember that we want to put the house on the market in the spring...and hopefully be in a new one in the spring. So, yeah. Housewarming party, anyone? :D

The honeymoon went well. It was relaxing as a honeymoon can be, the peoplewatching was fantastico, and the travel was long and arduous making the eventual destination that much more appreciated and happy to arrive at both in the case of the lovely hotel and our lovely home. I'll post pictures from the vacation over the course of the next couple of days. Warning: they are often jealousy-inducing! (But I can assure everyone that as beautiful as it was at our honeymoon location, it was also very, very expensive. VERY. That didn't help much. At all.)

Right now, I'm gearing up to head home and see what kind of progress has been made on the "switching rooms" project we currently are undertaking. Jesse had the "fun" task of climbing under the house to switch out the cable lines that run into the small bedroom and the front bedroom today. See, we're converting the small bedroom into the official "office" of the house in our attempt to properly stage things for when we put the house on the market in March. As far off as that may seem, I might just need the next 3 months in order to make sure everything is as keen as it can be for future possible buyers, and having the rooms the way they are now? Well, they don't show the house at its full potential, I don't think. The larger front bedroom will become an official "bedroom" instead of the extra room/extra closet/office space that it is right now. And the cable lines need to be switched because the t.v. cable and the computer cable don't work on anything but their assigned output. So Jesse offered (i.e. I begged) to get under the house and make the switch today if he could. I told him that if he honestly wasn't able to get it done, then that was fine and I'll call the cable company to come out. But we had to give it a try ourselves first, right? That's what I thought, too. :)

Anyway, we'll be sure to post lots of fun pics from the finished process. We want to paint the front room as well, and possibly even the small room, but I'm not sure what we'll paint them yet. Maybe the small room should be the same color as the bathroom (called "Country Club") and the front room will be the same as the living room. We'll see. In the meantime, we're switching things up! I can't wait!

NOT my choice, actually...

2007-10-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

Some of you might recall Father Terry mentioning the readings we chose for mass and noting specifically that he could tell that I had chosen the first one, due to certain substance the message conveyed.

Well, I wish I could have corrected him at the time, but that might've ruined the moment I'm afraid. The first reading we chose was NOT the one from the Book of Sirach, as he had chosen to do instead. We chose the following reading from the Book of Proverbs:

When one finds a worthy wife,
her value is far beyond pearls.
Her husband, entrusting his heart to her,
has an unfailing prize.
She brings him good, and not evil,
all the days of her life.
She obtains wool and flax
and makes cloth with skillful hands.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her fingers ply the spindle.
She reaches out her hands to the poor,
and extends her arms to the needy.
Charm is deceptive and beauty fleeting;
the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her a reward of her labors,
and let her works praise her at the city gates.

The funny thing was that when my sister Wendy saw the reading that she was told she was supposed to read, she said, "This isn't right. Jennifer would never pick this." My coordinator came to the limo where I was waiting to walk down the aisle and told me what was up. I told her that I didn't know if anything could be done about it at that point...it was a couple of minutes before the wedding was set to begin. I don't know if anyone ever communicated the mistake to Father, and since he'd already set his homily around it, it's not like anything could have been changed anyway.

But I wanted to set the record straight. While I can appreciate the undercurrent of sentiment behind the Book of Sirach reading, I never would have chosen something that stated so specifically that a woman is some sort of present that's being GIVEN to the man she's chosen to marry. And then when it goes on to say that, "A gracious wife delights her husband..." etc, etc...without ever saying anything about how a husband returns the favor of "delighting" his wife? Well, call me a feminist, but doesn't that seem a bit archaic of an idea? Especially one for ME to conform to? I know it's the Old Testament we're talking about here, but that's why I didn't like that reading.

Anyway, that's the story behind that. Shoulda been a different reading, but everything went beautifully anyway. Yay!

Holy cow...

2007-10-29T07:53:00.000-07:00

Ok, why didn't people tell me that I looked like a clown on my wedding day? Didn't want to upset me? Wanted me to have my face look like that of a hooker immortalized for the rest of my life in the photos taken during the day?

Fantastico...
Hell, at least the dress looked good, though, right?
And my flowers...
And my sisters and everyone else that were in town for the event looked FABULOUS...
More pictures to come as I get them. Thanks again to EVERYONE that helped make the day as special as it was. And the weekend as FUN as it was! I hope you all had as great a time as Jesse and I did. It was truly a blessing to have such a wonderful crowd of family and friends around us at such a special time in our lives! Hope everyone got home safe and sound...

Just stating the obvious...

2007-10-24T12:44:00.001-07:00

Ok, so I've been busy. And sick. But mostly busy. (Although being sick hasn't made that very fun...)

The wedding is this weekend, and I cannot WAIT to see everyone that will be able to come! The only down side is that I'm already sad when I think about everyone leaving on Sunday. *sigh!* The fact that I'll be heading back to work on Monday doesn't help much, but I'm hoping that the honeymoon in the not-so-distant future will help to cheer me up again.

Not that I won't be happy already once this has all passed, and Jesse and I are finally man and wife...I'll be ecstatic! But still...there's a bit of a melancholy aspect to it all that we have to acknowledge.

The blog won't go away after the wedding, by the way. I'm sure I'll have lots of updates after the fact, and there will be pictures to post, and all that good stuff. So if I don't update again before the wedding, look for posts after!

Gettin' there...

2007-10-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

Well, it's closing in on us now, so there isn't much else to say. And unfortunately, there hasn't been much time to say anything much, anyway! Work has been more than a bear. This week is the week of our move for our department, and between the meeting shuffling, the party planning, and the packing, it's been brutal around here.

And then my boss's dad had a heart attack.

So he had to leave quite suddenly yesterday to go to where his dad is (not within driving distance, unfortunately), because he was going to have a quadruple bypass surgery. And I still haven't heard from him this morning, which scares me, and I hope I hope I hope everything is ok!

But as far as planning for the wedding goes, we're pretty much up to speed on it. We're meeting with the photog tonight to go over our last minute bits and pieces, and to make sure we all have the same schedule in mind. And then Jesse and I will be putting together a checklist for ourselves for next Wednesday and Thursday, so as to make sure we don't forget anything. I'll be giving everything we have for the reception to the coordinator on Monday, so that'll be out of our hands at that point. And other than that, I just have some goodies to pull together for the out of town guests this weekend, and I'll be DONE!

In fact, I need to go write a little something to accompany those treats right now, so I'm off. Maybe more later...maybe not. I only started packing my desk up yesterday, so I've got to get that finished up! We cannot WAIT to see everyone, and even though the leaves won't be in full swing next week (we haven't had our first frost yet, so the leaves are all still green...which is better than nothing I guess!), it should be a beautifully fun time for all of us. So excited...so, sooo excited...

On and on and on and on and....

2007-10-12T13:33:00.000-07:00

I am still playing with table arrangements. For the record, that's 3 days in a row that I've been thinking about it. Uh-huh...

I went to a local jewelry store today to have my wedding band sized, have both the wedding and engagement ring cleaned and to have their stones secured, as well as to request an apparaisal for the value so I can have them both insured. Which I've been remiss in doing thus far. (Bad bride-to-be! Bad, bad! I know, I know...at least they've survived this long without any problems, though! Good sign, since I don't usually wear much jewelry at all.)

I'm going to be without my engagement ring for almost 2 weeks while they get everything done, and I'm going to miss it more than I realized! I have a temporary one on right now, but it's bothering me because it feels so different and weird. *sniff!* Can't wait till I can get my real one back again!

At work, things are finally calming down. We had a large charity drive going on over the past couple of weeks that I volunteered to help with (the boss asked me, and I couldn't say no!) which comes to an end today. We're also moving our building around next week...no, not the ENTIRE building itself! Just the people in it. My boss and I, along with everyone else from our team, will be moving to a central location as of next Friday. Should be interesting.

I was a bit worried because a couple of managers on the team had brought up the idea of having a "Team Builder" on the day of the move, since we aren't supposed to be in the building after 12 p.m. that day. They thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do something like this! I didn't. It's the week before my wedding. The LAST THING I wanted to do was plan another party and deal with hosting and making sure everything went smoothly the day of. Not to mention I'm the move coordinator for our team in this location, so if someone needs help/something goes wrong during it, I would be the go-to person for that. And did I mention that I didn't want to plan and deal with another party?

So I looked into some things, and then we discussed it again and everyone expressed their interest in still doing it. But I noticed my boss's interest wasn't as strong as it had been. He was coming over to the dark side, and all it took was a little time. (Mwahahahahahaha!)

Finally, I sent a note out to the team last night, letting them know that I'd heard from some people that were aware it was a possibility that we were planning a Team Builder, and they weren't really interested in doing a Team Builder, and then alerting them to the fact that one of the managers wouldn't even be here that day...

So. It's been decided that we should NOT have a Team Builder. Our team doesn't need building. (They do, however need windows. Lots and lots of windows. Which is something I learned during this coordination of the move process. Kind of annoying quality on their part, I found...)

This helped my stress levels a great deal.

Happy weekend, all! 2 weeks to go, and I can't WAIT to see everyone!

A new day, a new burn...

2007-10-11T08:43:00.000-07:00

Ok, I believe I've worked out the table issues. Thanks to a coworker who happened upon my desk yesterday afternoon when I was looking particularly frazzled over it, she made a suggestion within about 30 seconds of me showing her what I was dealing with (I made a little PowerPoint version of the room so I could see it better...I think I mentioned that yesterday, but I'm not sure), and that little suggestion solved EVERYTHING! Then she and I went for a quick walk around a bit of the campus outside our building...the fresh air did me good.

I can't believe how burned out my brain is over all this stuff, though! GAH!

Jesse and I went and got our marriage license yesterday, so now we're legal! Well, once we get married, we are, anyway. :) Last night he welcomed me legally into his life by socking me in the arm while we were sleeping. We clearly need a bigger bed. (There was a comforter-being-stolen-issue...it was 3 a.m....when I reacted to the comforter being pulled off of me by grabbing it and pulling it back, he hit me. I yelled, "OW!" and he apologized and rubbed my arm where he hit me, and I whimpered for a bit more, and then we fell back asleep. I told my trainer about it today. He then told me about the time his fiance punched him in the face while he slept. So I guess I have it pretty good...)

Jesse has also taken to counting down the days 'til the wedding. I'm still looking at it as a couple of weeks away, so it throws me off when he does it. I guess his mom mentioned it the other day when they were talking, and he's been keeping track that way ever since. It doesn't bother me...don't get me wrong. I just think its funny. I don't know why. Stupid story, eh? Ok then...

I'm heading out to lunch with some coworkers, so I'd best get moving. More fun from the wedding-brained bride tomorrow, I'm sure. It's crazy how much stuff there is to talk about, even at this point in the game!

Heartburn...painful.

2007-10-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

I'm working on the table assignments right now. I should be doing other things, but I promised to have this info to the print vendor yesterday afternoon, so I'm already slacking as it is. The problem isn't where we're going to seat people, or what table to put them at. The problem is how to arrange the tables we've now managed to assign.

[Cue pulling out hair and running around in a circle screaming at the top of lungs.]

Why is this so hard? So stressful? So hair-pulling-out-inducing?

I don't know.

I mean, it's for dinner, right? People are sitting at their respective tables, eating yummy food, talking to their family or friends or what have you, and then they'll get up and mill around and dance, maybe go outside for a bit, get another drink, etc, etc...and everything should be peachy, right? So what's my problem?

The heartburn sucks...burning away at my soul, it is.

Last minute purchases

2007-10-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Being down to the wire like we are, at this point I'm pretty well ready to just throw up my hands and say, "Do we have the space? Check! Do we have food ordered? Check! Do we have alcohol to serve? Check! Alright then...we're done!"

But there is that small part of me that wants the details all tidied up and looking nice, so we continue to push on to collect them together and make sure all is well in the land of menus, kids' sections, and coordinators on the ball.

With that in mind, it was finally time to put our nose to the gridstone and pick out a cake-cutting set and some toasting flutes, already! I've liked the following cake-cutting set for a while, and finally purchased it today at BB&B...

I, however, feel that the matching flutes are a bit too girly with their "Love Knots" theme, since they had little bows on them at the top of the stem. For some reason, I couldn't see my fabulous husband-to-be holding a glass with a bow on it in his hand to toast our marriage together. So we finally took some time to visit the extensive fine china section at the local Bed, Bath & Beyond together last week, and we found some options that might work well.

He honed in on a particular glass that I didn't have a problem with, and so we finally found our flutes!

It's about 30 inches tall* and they look really elegant and will definitely be a special addition to our glassware collection after the wedding. So I'm pleased we were able to come to a conclusion on that issue. I had wanted to go with a champagne saucer myself, but Jesse was kind of anti-saucer for some reason. It was getting tough to find a cool one that was going to be available to us in such a short period of time anyway (I could have ordered the ones I wanted had I started thinking about this sort of thing 3 months ago...they hand-make them in Italy, or somewhere), and I wanted something that made us both happy. Eh voila! C'est finit!

Now if we could just get our first dance down, we'll be golden.

*Ok, not really. But they are pretty tall comparatively! It's going to be fun to have them...

Table Fun!

2007-10-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

Jesse and I sat down last night after a fabulous trip to Bed, Bath & Beyond to find shelving solutions for the kitchen to help me stop losing my mind with our pantry area, and we worked on our seating arrangements for the dinner portion of the wedding reception.

I have to admit, I honestly thought this task would be much more difficult than it wound up being. I started with our own table, worked my way through my side of the family, then through our friends, and then Jesse's family, and then more of our friends (it was the way the invite list was laid out, which kind of explains the meandering back and forth...at least in my head it does), and then we were done! We're pretty sure we've done a good job of it, and hopefully we've accounted for everyone that will be attending. We do have a couple of RSVP cards that we never were able to account for who they came from, but I think we might've worked them out. Hopefully.

If not, let my first wedding day nightmare ensue! But I'd imagine it would be something the coordinator could handle in a snap, so we'll just be prepared in case we get any "extra" people we didn't place specifically. There's still room at a couple of the tables to place 1 - 2 additional people, as some of the tables have 10 at them, some have 9, and some have as few as 8. So it should work out.

I'm so glad to have that task done, though! Now comes the fun of naming the tables and getting ALL the info over to the printer. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

And the winner is...

2007-09-27T06:54:00.001-07:00

So, as I mentioned previously, during my search for the comfortable-all-day-long-yet-still-fabulous-and-pretty shoes I would be wearing on the wedding day, I found some truly...interesting prospects. Like the ones above - they light up! Or like these...

And these...is that a butterfly at the top? Gah! Ghetto-fabulous, anyone?
And to be fair, I found some very cute shoes as well. I would love to work these in somehow, but I'm afraid that heel is a bit too spikey to have any comfort factor going for it. But the polka-dots! CUTE!
Which brings us to...(drumroll please!).........

My Shoes!

I wore them the other night at our almost last dance class. (We thought it was going to be the last one, but because they gave us a rather mediocre teacher when we initially started there, the owner - who we are working with now - decided to add on an extra lesson for us for free! And boy-howdie, do we need it.) They aren't absolutely as comfy as can be...but they're VERY pretty on my feet. And yes, they're black. I gave up looking for a champagne/fancy-beige/off-white/light gold shoe a few weeks back. Seriously. Look at the pictures I've given you as a sample of what some of my options were. Do you blame me? Thank you...

I'll be using a black wrap that day as well, to keep my shoulders from getting too cold in the last-week-of-October breezes, so that will hopefully tie things together. And I know that none of it really matters, as no one will even see my shoes except for maybe a couple of times during the day, but it matters to me. I'll know what they look like, and I want them to look pretty. Because that helps make me feel pretty.

Thank goodness the search is over, though. I've never been a big shoe shopper anyway, so it's been kinda like torture to me to have to go through this. Being a woman is hard...

Shoes, anyone?

2007-09-25T08:51:00.000-07:00

I think I absent-mindedly mentioned the search for shoes in my last post, and there wasn't any previous reference for you all to, well...refer to in regards to that reference, so I'm sorry about that. It consumed so much of my life for the past 3 months, or so, I guess I just thought I'd been mentioning it randomly in previous posts. But I don't think I actually have. (Although my bridesmaids and FMIL have been privy to some of the emails I've sent out regarding my shoe search. Poor things...hope they don't mind my sadistic sense of humor!)

Anyway, it's been a tough search for me, because it's hard to find something you actually look forward to wearing for 11 -12.5 hours in one day, and have them be cute, comfy, and match with your outfit.

I considered these...

But of course they didn't have them in my size for me to try on when I went to look for them. (Photo and shoe courtesy of David's Bridal. It's their style called "Jessica.")

I also saw these while I was there looking for the Jessica shoe...
Of course, not in my size in the store! (Dammit.)

So I tried these on... Cute, but not sure I'd be able to handle the material rubbing on my heel all day long. They were relatively comfy, though. But I also didn't like that there'd be so little of my toes peeking out, and I wanted more strappy over all.

Of course, my visit to the store came long after I'd found my first pair of shoes I thought I was going to wear at DSW. After I'd had them for a couple of weeks, I realized I needed an ankle strap to help keep my feet in the shoe all day/night (they were really cute slide sandals), and decided not to wear the ones I'd bought after all. Then I bought another pair...they were too shiny and the wrong color, we discovered when I was trying on my dress for the second time. So then I bought ANOTHER pair from Nordstrom. But it appears as though no amount of attempts at breaking them in will work...they are bound and determined to be a miserable pair of shoes on my feet. So they might be going back, if I can figure out how to get the foot petal-thingy I put in them to make them a bit more cushy (didn't work) back OUT again. Sticky nasty thing...

Throughout the entire process, I found some very special shoes, and I want to share a couple of those with you here now.

This shoe, for example, couldn't be created without the help of the feathers of some white, very beautiful I'm sure, birds from somewhere on this planet. God bless those beautiful birds for their contribution...

And THIS one? Well, who knew one could be a bride AND a stripper all at the same time?
There are more, but they'll have to wait for another post, as I've exceeded the alotted bandwidth I'm allowed to use per post with these pictures already. To be continued...

Obsession

2007-09-21T09:49:00.000-07:00

I'm currently dealing with the obsession of trying to find appropriate cocktail napkins to have available at the wedding, and am running into a wall. We seem to have loads of options, this is true. But they range from what I consider run o' the mill...

To what is called "regal"...
To the relatively cheesy (but still sorta cute)...

And I don't know what to do! (And what does that first name say on that last napkin? Seems a bit off-color to me, maybe. But I might be reading it wrong.) Hopefully, we won't wind up with some craptastic version of whatever, since I'm being such a lame-o about getting them ordered already! But if you just see plain ol' Boulevard napkins lying about (if they even have them...), you know I just lost it and was unable to decide.

I thought the shoe obsession was bad...but this? This isn't right. They're napkins for heaven's sake! AUGH!

Weirdest Invite Issue

2007-09-19T08:18:00.000-07:00

Ok, so the other day, I came home to find that we had received an invite back in the mail from a cousin of mine that I haven't seen in a long time.

The weird thing? We received their decline to the wedding back at the end of August.

*blink blink*

I'm beyond confused, have no idea what could have happened, and wish I knew what was up!

It rung a bell with me because we accidentally referred to the husband of this cousin as "Steve" when his first name is actually "Dennis." That was pretty embarrassing. But the name was noted on the RSVP card, I sent a follow-up note apologizing for the gaff - "it's been so long...relying on other people to help...so sorry for the mistake and that we won't be seeing you in October!" - and hoped they would forgive the mistake.

But the invitation we sent to them was returned to us due to an improper address. And how the HELL did they get an RSVP card to RSVP with if they never received the invite in the first place?

It's Twilight Zoneish...

Could we have accidentally sent them two different invitations? In which case it's somewhat of a blessing that the USPS somehow delivered the first one but not the second one, because, OMG, do we really need to look like complete idiots to this cousin? "Hi, I know you already RSVPd that you wouldn't be able to make it, and I know we called your husband by the wrong first name and all, but really, COME TO OUR WEDDING!!!"

I don't get it. How did this happen?

Odds and ends

2007-09-17T07:15:00.001-07:00

It was tough to come up with a "theme" for the wedding, back when we started planning all the major aspects of the party. At first, we had planned on getting married October 20th, since it seemed like a good weekend to look at weather-wise, and still hit at a good point in the year holiday-wise and all that. But we had to change our plans pretty quickly after it was pointed out by a groomsman and good friend that October 20th wouldn't work out well if we planned on inviting a good amount of people from South Bend. Jason told Jesse it was the weekend of the USC vs Notre Dame game. And, well, I hadn't any idea when we came up with the date! Obviously, it had to change. Thank goodness the realization came early on in the process, and we were able to push things out a week without any issues.

That folly started a ball rolling with the thought that we could have a USC/Notre Dame themed wedding, since I'm a huge 'SC fan, and Jesse is, of course, a Notre Dame fan. (He's even watching the games I TiVo for him every week. Even though he knows how they turn out and everything. He's such a good sport!) But that wound up seeming like too much work after thinking it over a bit more, and also made me feel a bit like a poser, since neither of us actually went to/graduated from those schools. So we passed on that idea eventually.

We eventually started working from the direction of what colors we wanted the wedding to be decorated in. Obviously, the fall angle was going to come in at some point, seeing as that weekend is right before Halloween, a quintessential fall event, and also happens to be a good weekend historically for changed foliage here in the KC area. But we didn't want things to get all kitschy, or anything...no decorating with little pumpkins, or leaves absolutely all over the place. The fact that it IS fall should be enough, we think.

And then I found my dress. And the venue was already booked, so we had that to help. And then there was the fact that Jesse is a chef, and I have become a much better one than ever before thanks to the help of osmossis as well as a lesson or two now and then. We both really like to cook, basically.

And the "theme" started to take shape. We decided on our colors pretty quickly once the dress was discovered. Naming the tables was a tough part of it all...we tried to come up with clever ideas, but nothing really worked for what our focus was. A lot of people do things like name tables for locations they've traveled to together, or base it on a theme of where their honeymoon will take place. Some people just number tables, and while that's an old standby method for sure, we wanted to do something a bit more special was all. And then we finally came up with it: we would name the tables after famous chefs! We're working with names that are both classic and contemporary, so if people don't watch Food Network, they might not get a handful of them, but that's ok. Hopefully most everyone will be able to figure it out and then help those who don't know what our direction is.

The favors were harder to nail down. I was interested in getting some measuring spoons that were possibly engraved with something like "There's no measure to our love" or what have you. Cheesy, yes. But there should always be a leetle bit of cheese at a wedding, right? Well...it didn't work out, anyway. I couldn't manage to find any measuring spoons that could be engraved (or already came engraved, for that matter...) that weren't in the shape of a heart. And, oh how I hate heart-shaped things! Since neither of us are 14, and we're more contemporary-furnishing minded vs. country-furnishing minded, the heart thing didn't really resonate. So I had to pass on that idea.

I can't remember where we got the final idea from...maybe just my endless tooling around on the web, perhaps. But we found some perfect-sized little containers, and we're going to fill them with an absolutely fabulous spice that goes good with chicken, beef, fish, veggies...hell, you can sprinkle some on your arm and gnaw on it a bit while watching t.v., if you want. It's just that good! I managed to find some labels we could get printed up that tell folks what the spice is, and we're all set to go! It's compact and safe enough to pack in luggage...it's useful to everyone, regardless of their diet...and there are no hearts in sight! Yay!

So basically, the "theme" to the wedding, if there must be one, anyway, is cooking, chefs, food, etc, etc...I actually wanted to put a quote onto the label for the spice instead of anything else, but it wouldn't fit. It's a good quote though, so I'll share it with y'all now...

My favorite animal is steak.
- Fran Lebowitz

I'm sure everyone who reads this has already responded, but still...

2007-09-14T07:31:00.000-07:00

I'm having a rough week. I almost cried at work yesterday (which is a BIG no-no on my list), and am feeling beat up and worn out by my workouts.

We are still having issues with RSVPs not coming in, and so I thought I'd post this link as a little helper on my behalf. Again, I don't think the people who actually read this blog are a problem. Especially after all the posts I've had about RSVP issues! But I just need to say it again. That's all. Because the lack of RSVPs is keeping us from being able to complete the final details on the reception.

And that? IS MAKING ME CRAZY!

Just bear with me. I'll post something pretty and nice soon to make up for all this bitching, I swear. :)

These days

2007-09-07T19:04:00.001-07:00

This has been a trying week. Even though it was a "short" one, somehow, it found a way to be more difficult than normal weeks are!

See, we're going through a possible move at work. As I am the admin to the "Director" of our branch of the division, I was placed as point of contact (and the main arranger, apparently) of the new configuration our team would be set up in. "No problem!", I thought. "I can do this!"

Yeah, turns out I'm not too good at that sort of thing. My boss was interested in getting all of the various teams under him sitting in a more grouped configuration (we have 6 managers located in our office, so that would be 6 different team groupings), but one of the managers thinks more like me...he wanted his team all spread out. And when I tried to spread his team out, it really mucked up all the rest of the teams and their ability to be grouped together.

In my effort to make everyone happy, I did a pretty good job - even though I failed miserably at putting people where they should be. As far as my boss is concerned? Well, he's about the nicest guy on the planet...so he "felt bad" about rearranging everybody the way he did. But I say more power to him! He's the BOSS, after all. He's also got the mind of an engineer, whereas I have the mind of an English major. Maybe after a bit more practice with this stuff, I can help further down the line. In the mean time, I'll stick to correcting bad grammar and setting up meetings for him.

Also, you'll note that I mentioned that this is all just a possibility. From what I heard, we went through something like this last August before I joined the company. They made their recommendations about where teams should be, they packed boxes, they prepared to uproot...and then nothing ever happened. The move was cancelled after weeks of planning.

So I keep reminding the people that are coming to me with the disappointed puppy dog looks on their faces to bemoan the fact that "I'm not going to be by the window anymore?!" that this is all in the preliminary stage right now, things could always change! Oh, and by the way? I lose my window too. Thank God I have some at my house that I can look out whenever I want to, right? (Sheesh!)

Anyway, it's been stressful. And that was just 50% of my job this week! (Even though it took up 75% of my time, thanks to the whiners who suddenly want to be better friends with me than usual for some reason.)

Jesse's job is challenging right now as well...I think he feels a bit unfulfilled and frustrated with the position he's in at this point, but that makes sense. Early days in a new job can be trying, even to the most experienced job-hoppers. For someone that was committed to a routine and knew his position pretty well inside-out since he'd been at his last job for 5 years, this has got to be tough.

And then he gets to come home and deal with me! Bless his heart.

This week has been a disappointing one in terms of wedding issues as well. Specifically concerning the RSVPs. We've received about half of them from my side of the invite list, and while we've received a good amount of them from Jesse's side, we haven't gotten them all, which is surprising in some cases...maybe people think that we'll hear about it via word of mouth? I don't know. We need the actual RSVP cards, though. *sigh!* If you're reading this, and you haven't sent yours yet, please...please send it! For our sanity's sake! The flights aren't gettin' any cheaper! The sooner you decide, the better for everyone. (It's gonna be a blast though! Hope everyone can make it!)

I had a very old (and previous to days-of-Jesse, a very good) friend send me an email letting me know that he'd received his invitation, but he's back in school again (which is great! I hope he's working toward his teaching degree) and will be very busy this semester, so he's not sure if he'll be able to come. So "if [I] don't see [him] there", he's sorry.

Um, huh? No, no, no, noooo...I wrote him back and reminded him that this is a formal party, and not a BBQ at his friend's house. He needed to decide by September 1st if he would be able to spare 3 hours of a Saturday evening in October to help an old friend celebrate a new stage in her life. (I know he doesn't like weddings much...I told him he could forgo the attendance at the actual ceremony if he wanted.) I told him I was SURE he'd do great with his classes (he always does...so smart!), and that I would love to see him again and really hoped he'd be able to make it!

3 weeks have come and gone, and no RSVP from him yet. (No reply to the email, either.) This frustrates me.

Another old friend that I felt was surely going to attend with her lovely husband RSVP'd that they would not be attending, which sent shock waves through me that haven't quite dissipated yet. I have to accept that they have their reasons, but it leaves me concerned about what the motivation was for the decline of the invite. I want to follow up and make sure my friend is ok, but I'm not sure if I should do it via phone or in a note I send to her house in a card. I'm really having a hard time with the issue.

Outside of all of that, things are rolling along well. The wedding coordinator and I will meet this next week at the reception venue to look over the space together, and let her know what we've come up with up to this point, and see what her ideas are that she can throw in the mix. The DJ wrote me a note last night looking for a time to meet, and we've decided on the week after next, so I really need to step up my coordination there soon. I'm looking forward to both meetings, though. Should be fun.

Right now, I'm heading out to find the proper accompaniment for our favors we're giving to everyone at the wedding. I've put it off too long! So here I go!

Happy weekend everyone...

It's getting to be that time...

2007-08-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

I feel badly right now, since most of our phone calls and emails to friends are consisting of tying loose ends up regarding the wedding. And I hate being one of those people that only seem to talk about their wedding all the time. Because we DO have other stuff going on! Really! It's just not as fun to talk about, is the thing. I'm sure most would agree if I brought any of it up for your review. But I don't think I'll do that to anyone, really.

I mean, who wants to hear about how things are disintegrating at my old office, and my coworker/friend who still works there is dealing with hellish work conditions, along with everyone else in the office, on a day to day basis? Yeah, not so interesting if it doesn't involve you, right?

Or, how about the way that the dog threw up yesterday after she ate half of a click pen the night before? See? I should keep that sort of thing to myself.

Um...I have something itchy on my back that is bothering me in a relentless fashion today. Fascinating, eh?

See what I mean? The wedding stuff is the FUN stuff! The what-to-buy-the-parents talks, and the last minute additions to the decor ideas, and the meetings with the vendors, and the questions of who's staying where when they're in town, and the putting together of the gift bags for the OOT ("out of town") guests, and all that sort of thing...MUCH more fun than discussing the turmoil that is our back lawn, or other daily drudgery and bitter issues.

I'm supposed to meet with the wedding coordinator tonight to go over more details, discuss vendors, and in order to get her copies of all the contracts we have associated with our wedding. But I haven't heard from her yet as to whether she's able to make our appointment, and so I'm not sure if we're going to actually be meeting. But that's fine with me...I still haven't had a chance to make copies of things and print out the decor ideas she was interested in seeing, and I'm totally flexible with my schedule anyway, so I could put it off another week or two if she needs.

This week, I've been trying to find ideas for the contents of the aforementioned OOT gift boxes, and then trying to get the last piece of the favor puzzle put into place, and also trying to find the time to pull together the items I need for my meeting with the coordinator. Not super exciting, really. Except I did have fun looking into chocolates to put into the OOT boxes...I think I found the perfect option, too! It's still a toss-up right now as to whether I put chocolates into the boxes, or a small assortment of tea cookies. We'll see. Both are made by a company that is local to KC, and that's all that matters. In fact, all the items in the OOT box will be local to Kansas City. It's been so much fun looking things up to put in there! I can't wait until I can start ordering and assembling...

Because I'm a loon like that. :)

Anyway, thanks to all who have to deal with our semi-constant wedding discussions as of late. It's only 2 more short months that you have to put up with this sort of thing from us, and then we're all free from the monotony! (And what a way to go out, too...yay!)

Head spinning...tummy rumbling...AUGH!

2007-08-23T14:25:00.000-07:00

I just was entering an appointment onto my calendar for next Tuesday, and noticed that the second half of the payment we owe to the Brewery for rental of the space for our reception is due on Monday.

[breathing in, breathing out...breathing in......]

AUGH!

My heart is suddenly beating very quickly, and I feel dizzy. I wish I was kidding.

What the hell is happening to me? Is this a normal reaction? Is it even considered a reaction of some sort?

It's not about the wedding. It's not about marrying Jesse. I think it's about the worry about getting everything done. In time. And right.

I wish I could climb into bed until October 27th right about now...

The first one came in...

2007-08-20T06:26:00.000-07:00

Since last week, we've had a steady stream of RSVPs coming in for the wedding, and it's been so much fun to get them every day!

However, the unfortunate incident where I forgot to number the RSVP cards came back to bite us for the first time this weekend...we got an RSVP from someone who replied that they WILL BE attending, and there will be 2 of them. So that's nice! But I haven't any idea who they are. No return address on the envelope, no name written in in the designated spot on the RSVP...nothing. Even the hopefully helpful clue of the postmark won't do anything for us...it was just a set of wavy lines. Unlike all the other cards we received back, which had the names of the invited included in some way or another, and said clearly if it had been sent from South Bend, or Long Beach, or Santa Ana...this one in particular had an issue with that postmark being printed properly, so all it showed were lines and no city stamp.

So we'll just have to wait until we get them all back, and hope that we won't get any more like it. *sigh!*

I blame myself, really. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Ok, I'm off to look up some info on the hotels, and then to get to work on my thank you notes for shower gifts. Seriously...I am TERRIBLE with these things. I try, though! What more can one do, really?

Fun with the kids' section...

2007-08-17T12:16:00.000-07:00

For the past few months, I've been trying to figure out how we can make the seating area in the Kids' Section as comfy and inviting as we can. It's tough to find furniture that's both functional and comfy, and is more temporary like a lawn chair, but is still something that would be classy enough to have associated with the somewhat formal reception we're attempting to throw.

So I've been keeping an eye out, ever since the idea of renting furniture was tossed out the window (it was going to cost a minimum of $5,000, and that wasn't in my budget...not by a long shot!), trying to find options that wouldn't break the bank, but would also not be second-hand random pieces found out on the curb of people's homes that didn't want them any more. (I saw a couch not too long ago on my way home from the Plaza...it was yellow, and it was free! But it was missing a seat cushion. Which kinda defeats the purpose, IMO. Who gets to sit on that side of the couch if you take it home? It was also missing a back leg, and was sitting, instead, on a modified plastic carton of some sort to support it. Sometimes, people just need to realize they aren't doing anyone a favor handing on trash like that...just throw it out!)

Each week, I would visit Bed, Bath, & Beyond looking for something...and last week I finally found it:

They're called "planet puff chairs" and after getting some advice about whether I should get them or not from my nieces, I went ahead and ordered 3 of the brown ones for the Kid's Section. They arrived at the house this week, and I finally took them out of their packaging last night to give them a try. They are, indeed, very comfy and a good size for all ages that might want to sit in them.

I had also been watching for some reasonably priced floor cushions. Bed, Bath, & Beyond only has one type, and they aren't reasonable. I needed more options. My visit to Crate & Barrel this week proved fruitful! I found these on sale:

Gold and pretty, and perfect for a kid-sized bum to sit on...and they have a handy-dandy handle on the side, so carrying them about will be that much easier! Score! I ordered 4.

Jesse thinks we should also have a rug of some sort in that area, and while I agree, I don't know how doable it will be. We have a rug we could donate to the cause, and I suppose that we could just transport it at the same time in the same way that we do the chairs and the floor cushions, but I dunno. We'll have to see.

Anyway, things are coming together ever so slowly at this point. But I'm glad to have this little task completed...the kiddos will have a comfy place to sit and watch a movie, if they'd like. That makes me happy...

Please forgive me...for the next 2 months!

2007-08-16T06:45:00.000-07:00

I am under a tremendous amount of stress right now. Between personal and professional obligations, my brain is on overload, and I'm sincerely hoping that everyone that I know and love and communicate with on a daily/weekly basis can try to understand how tough it has been to balance everything going on in our lives for these last couple of months, and the next few to come.

Jesse has a new job.
My job is incredibly busy.
My body isn't being very friendly with me lately, which makes things oh so much less tolerable on a day to day basis.
The heat...is just unbearable. I hate this part of summer, and cannot WAIT to see it go!
Our house is becoming more and more crowded full of items for the wedding that we'll need, and the clutter is driving me up the wall.
The dog has been coughing for about 2 weeks now, and we think its from her licking the carpet we have on the deck which has started "shedding" due to the exposure to the extreme heat and dryness we've had lately. I feel so bad for her, but I haven't the first clue how to get her to stop licking that carpet!
Work has one charity event after another, and I went ahead and volunteered to be the coordinator for our team for the next one coming up, even though I didn't really want to. I don't know that my brain will be able to withstand the additional strain of trying to raise funds from people that have already given so much over the past several months. But my coworker assured me that its more fun than it is work, and my boss was so pleased that I was able to help, I thought it would be a fine idea. Now I'm feeling overwhelmed by it already, and we haven't even had our first meeting about it yet!
I'm trying to tie up loose ends of the wedding planning, including working on fixing hotel blocks that weren't long enough for some members of the family and other friends that will be coming into town for longer than just 2 days for the wedding, finalizing menus, making appointments to see vendors to finalize other plans like the music, the babysitting issues and timelines for the day before and the day of the wedding, managing the deliveries of the rented items for the reception, finalizing the alcohol order (and hoping it'll be a good amount!), going to dance lessons and trying to find time to practice when Jesse and I aren't totally exhausted or just not in the mood, picking up things like the insoles I need to make my pretty, pretty wedding shoes actually not painful to wear, and trying to keep my brain from leaking out of my ears when I run into unexpected stress from issues that are beyond my control.
I need to finish all of my thank you notes for my wedding shower that my sister threw for me in California about, oh, a month ago now! (GOD, I am awesome...)
I haveto figure out how we can register the new car. And just how much is it going to cost us.
I need to make the next appointment for Jesse's dentist visit, and hope that his work will allow for him to have two days off in a row again so he'll have ample recovery time, since this next visit won't be as easy as the last.

And those are just the things I can think of right now. I'm a leeetle bit stressed, is my point. And my head hurts. And I'm sorry if I snap or don't respond as expected or don't respond at all to certain things in the coming months. I want to have fun with this...I really do. But I don't know how to do that when there are just so many other things to worry about at the same time. I'm very envious of the girls that don't have to work, and can actually spend all their time planning and preparing for their weddings. Even though I kind of am disgusted by them at the same time, really. Because it's just a party. The getting married part is the important part of the day, and the rest is just a freaking party. It'll be a really lovely party, of course, but that's all it is. Trying to keep focussed on the important things over here...

It's not easy. :)

Hotel Info continued...

2007-08-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the Sheraton post not working before. I think I've fixed it...you can click here to see our wedding webpage they created for us, and also make reservations within our room block.

Thanks for pointing that out, Alisha! :)

Sorry...so sorry...

2007-08-08T14:32:00.000-07:00

I haven't had a chance to update for a while, and I apologize for that! For the whole 5 of you that read this blog, anyway. :)

So today was a milestone: I sent out the invitations. Yay! I finished the stuffing of the envelopes last night after a yummy dinner we made with our new crockpot (which we've used twice this week already, and holy LORD, how did we live without one for this long? Thanks to Aunt Karen, my step mom's sister-in-law, we can now live in general ease for a couple of days of the week on a regular basis...), and then popped them into one of the lovely baskets I got for my shower here in Kansas (thanks to FMIL's faboolous taste in gifts...) and took them to the post office today to have them sent out on their way.

On the way to the post office, I had an alarming realization, though. I totally forgot to number the back of the RSVP cards. I called my Twin to mope about that realization, and she asked me why that was necessary? I explained that it's done so if someone doesn't fill out their name on the RSVP card, I can match it up with a list I have of all the invitees and I can figure out who was responding even without the info written in for me.

Now, if someone sends their response without filling in their name, I'm pretty well screwed. I guess the process of elimination will have to be applied, and I'm seriously hoping that it doesn't happen with too many of the RSVP's, but I have heard of it being a problem amongst the brides on the different bridal-prep websites I had been frequenting for the past few months.

So, if you few readers could do me a favor and spread the word to the people you know who are invited, and make sure they realize that writing in their names on the RSVP card would be ever so helpful to us, I sure would appreciate it!

Something dopey like this was bound to happen sometime...it is ME after all. Sheesh!

Whew!

2007-08-01T14:01:00.000-07:00

Well, a visit to my local post office (local to work, anyway!) cleared up any questions I might have about sending the invitations. Our personalized stamp should cover everything just fine! So as soon as those come, we'll be good to go...

I'm going to be spending a good part of tomorrow night (Jesse's working a double, poor thing...yay for overtime, though!) placing the stamps on the RSVP return envelopes, though, and then completing the compilation of the invites, so all I'll need to do is stick the personalized stamp on them when they get here, and then pop them in the mail! Eeeeee!!

Invitations!

2007-07-31T08:44:00.000-07:00

The invitations arrived last night! They look soooooooooo pretty. They turned out perfectly!

Except for one teensy thing. Our invitation vendor had checked with the post office on postage for the entire invite package, so I could check into ordering specialty stamps that I was interested in getting. We went over the price a couple of times, and she was sure that the entire invite should cost about $1.17 to send. I looked into stamp options, and unfortunately, the only stamp I could get that would cover that price was one for $1.31. No matter…I just figured that would surely get every invitation safely to their intended recipients.

So the invitation vendor had bad news for us when she arrived last night. She had returned to the post office one more time (I don’t know why she went this time…could be for another project) and the clerk asked her if she would be sending the items via parcel or flat. Apparently, one option sends the invites through a machine that could bend them, and the other doesn’t.

Also? The one option costs $1.17, and the other one costs $1.47. And the way our invitation is, it might not even BE an option to send them with the smaller amount of postage on them.

So. Now we have 120 stamps on their way to us, custom made with a picture of Jesse and me on them, which we will have to likely supplement with a second stamp of some certain value. Fun, huh?

The invitation vendor felt pretty bad, since she was trying to help us plan ahead by checking how much postage would be on our invites. Last night, she kept telling me to let her know how much extra we wind up spending on the postage so she can supplement the cost by lowering her final bill. But I think its fine, really. First off, the cute personalized stamp was just a fun extra bit we wanted to do. The fact that we now need to put another stamp next to it on the envelope won’t be that big of a deal, I’m sure. I’m willing to bet people won’t look at the personalized stamp and think to themselves, “Aw! How clever and cute that is…” and then see the additional postage and find the entire invitation “experience” ruined. I do know that it would ruin the experience to have postage due when the invite got there, so that is the important thing to avoid here!

But the main thing is that the invitations look beautiful, and I cannot WAIT to send them out! Today is a bit busy for post office visits, but tomorrow I’ll definitely get it taken care of, and then I just have to wait for the personalized stamps to arrive, and we can get them sent out.

This is getting scary. :)

Shower re-cap, and other bits...

2007-07-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

It’s been a special level of busy at work these past couple of weeks, so I apologize for the lack of posts as of late. As we all know, work must come first, though…the wedding and the private life and the fun have to be set aside when things get as busy as they have been in the professional world!

Thank goodness it hasn’t been all work work work, though…for example, yesterday we went and bowled for charity in the morning and I got back to my desk at about 1 after bowling 2 games with my other 5 teammates. It was nice to get out and do something fun for charity! (My teammates and I have been practicing over the course of the last month, too. We went for extra-long lunches twice in order to prepare for today. So that hasn’t been all that terrible, either.)

Of course, things were a bit more stepped up over the last couple of weeks at work due to my vacation days I took last week. I went to California for a wedding shower that my sister threw for me, and I took last Friday and this past Monday off for travel. Saturday, the day of the shower, was perfect, and we had such a nice time! I was hoping to be able to see a lot of family and old friends that I don’t get to see very often, and the party did not disappoint in that respect. In fact, it didn’t disappoint in any respect! The food was great, the aforementioned weather was lovely, and everyone seemed to have as good a time as I had, which always makes things even nicer than one could hope.

We did have an odd occurrence during one point of the shower, though. See, we were on a lower level of patio seating at a restaurant on this little lake in Mission Viejo. We were at the one end of the patio, and were pretty well backed into a corner. The buffet was set up in that corner, and then the tables were along the railing looking over the water. Very pretty, well-situated, comfortable for everyone, etc…

Well, after we had all gotten our food and even been back for seconds, we settled in to take some pictures and chit-chat and that sort of thing before I opened presents. While we hung out, a few of us (if not all of us) noticed that one of the waiters from the restaurant was at our buffet, getting a plate of food…presumably for himself, but who knows. He finished filling up, we all kind of laughed, and then went back to chit chat.

After a few minutes, the chocolate covered strawberries my sister had ordered for dessert arrived, and we went to town on them. Yum! Then a waiter came to get orders for coffee, and we continued on with our chatting. (We did a LOT of chatting!)

Pretty soon after the strawberries had arrived, another “gentleman” showed up to our buffet. This guy was wearing a normal brown shirt, though, so I wasn’t sure who he was, exactly. Then a waiter arrived with the tray of coffee, he set them down on a table next to the present table, and then he went to the buffet to fill a plate. Note: he did NOT distribute the coffees to the guests who had ordered them…he just left them on the tray on a side table. For some unknown reason. (He must have been really, really hungry, I s’pose.)

This pretty well pissed me off. I was angry, and while my sister was a bit confused by the actions of the waiters as well, she just wanted to let the whole thing go for the time being and follow up with management later. In the meantime, these two guys were filling up plate after plate of our food, and then passing the full plates to the next level of the terrace to other waiting employees of the restaurant who wanted free food from our buffet.

Well, I couldn’t just SIT there like that! I decided to cheer myself up by taking a picture of the two food-stealers.
And then our best friend (and one of my “chicks of honor”) jumped up and got in the picture as well, to help express our feelings about the randomness of the act.
(That's my cousin Denise taking note of the random food-stealing as well, along with my sister-in-law Rebecca.) As you can see, it’s not like the buffet was far from where our tables were at, or anything. So we thought the whole deal was very strange, to say the least.

Eventually, they stopped coming to our buffet to eat our food, and we wound up taking home a lot of leftovers (although I think we all wished there had been more leftover tamales/sweet corn cakes, which I’m pretty sure the absconders had taken a good deal of. Jerks.), which we ate for the rest of the weekend. It was great!

It was sooo, so nice to see old friends of my mom and dad’s (who are now friends with my step mom and still my dad, of course!) whom I haven’t seen since dad’s wedding. And my aunts that I never get to see, and my step aunts, and my cousins, and step sister once removed. One of Jesse’s aunts was there as well, and it was awesome to be able to spend some time with her like that before the wedding. She’s a hoot! Unfortunately, other local family and friends of his family were unable to make it, but maybe we’ll be able to see some of them at the wedding! You never know…(There are more photos of the shower at the end of this post, by the way...)

So for now, the pre-wedding parties are over. At this point, I’m finalizing plans with the caterers, the florist, and the invitations. I need to put together a vendor list for my coordinator (and also just to help me keep my sanity, if possible…), and after we know who and how many will be coming to the wedding, I’ll order table names and have the table “assignments” printed out. I hate that I have to wait until the last minute to get those things done, but it is what it is!

Tomorrow I’ll be going to the salon for a second hair trial, since the first one didn’t turn out as I’d have liked it to. I’ve got more pictures of examples, and a more defined idea of what I’d like my hair to look like, though, so hopefully that’ll help. If not, I’m afraid I’ll have to have a 3rd trial at a totally different salon. Which would be fine, I’m sure. It’s not like there are hard feelings in the world of hair-do’s, and I’m sure the girl I’m attempting to have it done by wouldn’t care much if I went someplace else. She’s a cool chick.

Alrighty, off to get some end of the week work done! (13 weeks to go! I have to try to keep my mind off of it, seriously…)

Here are some more pictures from the shower, though. This is of my twin, our best friend, and me. We like to laugh...

And these are two of my aunts on Dad's side, Yvonne and Ginny. Ginny is my godmother, and Yvonne is my twin's. (I think. We have a few aunts and uncles, so I might be off on that...) They are a couple of the sweetest people you could ever know, and I miss hanging out and seeing them on holidays at this point in my life. *sigh!* That kind of comes with the territory of choosing to live 1500 miles from your family, though, I guess!
Aunt Yvonne was married to my dad's brother, Bob. They were what we call (and I suppose lots of people call, really) "Irish twins" so it was beyond sad when Bob died 4 years ago from complications of a bout of pneumonia. He had something called Pulmonary Fibrosis, though, and was unable to recover like most healthy people might be able to do. I miss him. Yvonne won't be able to make it to the wedding, I learned, since she is going to be on a cruise at that point. It sounded like it will be a LOT of fun though, and I was just so grateful to have some time to chat and catch up at the shower like we did!

And here I am with my step aunt Yvonne (yep, another one!), and my step mom Yvette. Aren't they just the prettiest?

Maybe some more photos next week...we took a TON of them!

Hotel Info

2007-07-25T18:52:00.000-07:00

For those that are interested, here are the links to the hotel info for the Marriott and the Sheraton Suites, where we have reserved room blocks for our out of town visitors coming for the wedding in October.

The Sheraton created a little website for us, which was nice. The page includes a link you can use for booking rooms in our block, as well as a good amount of information about the wedding itself, the area the hotel is located in, and what kinds of ammenities they have to offer. But keep in mind, that page also states that "you are cordially invited to the wedding of..." and that does NOT represent any kind of formal invitation to the wedding by any means. The readers of this blog should only be folks that are, indeed, invited to the wedding, but please be mindful of that info if you should choose to forward the link out to anyone. I'd hate to have any misunderstandings due to that bit of info on that page, but I think the webpage is too helpful to not pass along as well. Double-edged sword, really...

The Marriott didn't create a webpage, but if you utilize this link, it will take you to their reservation page for the Plaza location, and our group code is already entered for you when you go to make reservations there. (Group code is ldwldwa in case it doesn't populate, for some reason.) It also gives info about the hotel, has photos of their rooms, etc...to help you choose the right hotel for you for the weekend.

There are loads of other hotels in the area as well. Marriott has a couple of others, and there's a Hampton Inn right across the street from the Sheraton Suites we'll be staying at. There's also an Embassy Suites not too far from the Plaza (between the Plaza and Westport, respectively), and several other hotel chains represented such as Holiday Inn and Best Western. If you look into any of those hotels, just be sure to look for Plaza/Westport locations, and not downtown. While there are, indeed, several very nice hotels downtown that I would be happy to recommend, they are also a bit further from where we will all be located, so I hesitate to mention them as a #1 option. Let me know if you want more info, though, and I'll be happy to pass it along!

More posts to come. We had a wedding shower this past weekend in California that I want to talk about, but the time is running thin this week due to work catch-up and home issues. I'll try to post some pictures and stories soon!

Breaking in, schmeaking in...

2007-07-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

I finally found a pair of shoes that I think will work for the day of the wedding, and I tried wearing them last night as Jess and I practiced dancing in our living room.

Ok, first of all, OUCH!

And second? OOUUUCH!

These shoes are NOT going to be fun to "break in". I've been buying a brand of Aerosoles called What's What for my work shoes lately, and they've spoiled my feet, it seems.

So the plan is to wear the shoes around the house a little bit each night, and I'm gonna buy some Foot Petals for them as well, and hope that helps. The biggest problem area is under the ball of my foot, which makes sense, so the Foot Petals should do the trick. Just have to get them, is the thing...

Wish me and my feet luck!

The sample centerpiece...

2007-07-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

Eeeeee!!!

LOVE THIS. Love.

Here is the centerpiece sample that our fabulous and wonderful (and pretty!) florist made for us and brought over to the house last night for us to check out. (The whole house smelled like roses this morning! It's a small house, though, so that makes sense.) We were working with the image below as our "inspiration" for the centerpieces, and I think she hit it pretty darned spot on.The inspiration is a bit smaller, but since we have 72" round tables we'll be setting, we needed more diameter on ours. There are 40 roses in there!
The container she used is just a temporary one...she thought she had one that would work, but it was only 13" round, and we need 15". So she's going to be looking for that at this point, and I hope she finds it! The ribbon wrapped around the base is lumpy and wobbly looking because of the material she used to create the "vase". It was just a thin plastic thing...I don't even know for sure what it all is, actually!

Jess didn't like the arrangement as much as I did. He feels that there should be more separation between the flowers and the base. Drue (our florist) had cut the roses really short, so it was hard to play with the arrangement much, but we pulled some up and took the picture below to get an idea of what might make him a bit more happy.
I still think it looks pretty, so I'm fine with whatever. As long as it's flat, I'm good to go. Eeee!!!

2007-07-12T08:12:00.000-07:00

I feel a need to post an update here today, but I don’t know what to chat about. Hmm.

Let’s see…the florist is coming over to our house tonight to show us a sample centerpiece she’s creating for us, so we’re sure of the design, and we’ll know if we need to add or remove anything for the final product. I can’t wait to see it! I’ll take pictures of it for sure, and will share them when I can.

Next week is when I get to go to California for the shower my twin is throwing for me there. We’ve had a few interesting replies regarding the party from people that don’t really know me, though. One person called my twin and asked her who I was, since the invitation to the shower just mentioned my name and not Jesse’s of course, I guess there was some confusion. (I would have hoped that the Save the Dates we sent would have helped with that, but apparently they didn’t in some cases!) Another person sent a reply via mail and told my twin that she wouldn’t be able to make it to her daughter's shower, which is probably a good thing since my sister has two daughters that are under the age of 12 at this point. I’d worry about her if she was trying to marry them off already…:D

It’s been fun, though. Although the whole process has left us wondering about how it is people don’t know how to deal with the RSVP requirement to a formal party. This is something I’ve been hearing about for a while, due to my message board contact with other brides on wedding websites, and the like, and I’ve been getting prepared accordingly, but it’s still amazing to me that people don’t know they should RSVP to a party more than a week or two weeks in advance of it! Headcount is important to certain parties, particularly when being held at a location like a restaurant, and I guess I just don’t understand why people assume that we know they won’t be attending if they simply don’t reply at all. It’s not something to feel bad about, by any means…not everyone’s schedule allows for attendance at every event they’re invited to, of course. No excuses are necessary…no explanations are needed. Just a simple email or phone call stating that they won’t be able to make it is all that need happen.

And the people that just show up without warning that they’re coming (via a proper RSVP, I mean…), well, that’s just plain rude. I’m sorry…I don’t know if people are gonna think bad things about me saying this, but you simply should not show up at a party without giving some notice to the host/hostess. A barbecue, or a relaxed gathering at someone’s home…ok then. That’s understandable. But a formal get together like a shower of any kind, or a wedding, or something like that? It’s just not fair to the host/hostess who planned the party!

I’ve also heard, via those wedding message board thingies, that people have experienced a fair amount of no-shows at their weddings as well. I can’t believe people would do something like that. I think most any host/hostess can understand when something pops up for one or two of their guests, like when someone gets sick and can’t attend, and they wish the best for them. But I heard of a girl who said she had an entire table not show at her wedding. And I cannot imagine what I would do in a case like that. The tasteless and tacky side of me (everyone has one, right? Heh…) would love to send people a bill after the wedding, charging them for the cost they incurred due to their impropriety.

I think people fail to realize that it’s not just a dinner they’re missing out on, or some drinks and dancing and cake. It’s also the cost of the rental of linens, china, and flatware in some cases. And the cost of the centerpiece for the table that was prepared to accommodate them, the menu that was printed, the favor that was ordered, and even the place card that was created for them. In our case, we will have a certain number of servers per guest, so it might be the cost of their hourly pay for a server that might not be necessary if 10 people who say they’re coming wind up not making it. It could mean a difference of literally hundreds of dollars in some cases, so it can be more important that some realize, I think.

I’m prepared to deal with this tactfully, although I honestly hope it doesn’t happen. A simple phone call as late as 2 or 3 days prior to the event is all that’s needed. But people should know that those that don’t show up after replying that they will be attending? They tend to be remembered after the fact. It’s glaringly apparent on those bridal message boards I frequent that it’s not an easy faux pas to forgive and forget about!

Again, I hope this hasn’t ruffled any feathers, as I know that the folks that read this blog have faboolous manners, and really genuinely care about Jesse and I and know how much we’re putting into getting our wedding together so the celebration of our union will truly be a fun and joyous one to attend. We’re getting more and more excited as the months come and go, and we get closer to the actual day of the wedding! (It helps that football season is around the corner, though…that should keep us effectively preoccupied for those last couple of months, I think. I cannot wait to see what happens with that USC vs. Notre Dame game the week before the wedding. Should be interesting…)

16 weeks and counting...

2007-07-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

That's it. Only 16 more weeks until the wedding.

Wow. When I think of it that way, it's really rather intimidating. So I think I'll stop doing that, dammit. (Except now that I've done it, I probably won't be able to stop doing it...shoot, shoot, SHOOT!)

Jesse and I have started taking dance lessons in order to better prepare ourselves for our first dance together as husband and wife. While I'm ok at dancing as long as I'm being led by someone who knows a thing or two about swing, or cha-cha, or waltzes, or what have you, Jesse is an expert at one dance step, it seems: the rock-back-and-forth-slowly-turning-in-a-circle-a-la-junior-high/high-school-dances type of step. Our first dance song is a bit more...complex...than most songs usually are, and so we needed to get another couple of moves under our belt before whipping this baby out at the reception.

And, no...we aren't telling anyone what the song is that we're dancing to. No hints other than the fact that it changes pace during the song. To be exact, it changes pace and tempo. It's foooon.

Anyway, the dance lessons are going exceedingly well, and I hope I didn't just jinx it by saying so. *knocks on wood, just in case!* The dance teacher is a sweet guy who is starting to get just how quirky (and sort of obnoxious) I can be, and I think he feels sorry for Jesse because of it. It's very helpful when it comes to his teaching style, though. He's being somewhat hands-off (lovely) and is doing a great job of understanding how different Jesse and I are when we are absorbing the lessons. Jesse is more pragmatic when it comes to figuring out certain moves. He's got the box step of the waltz down. And he's getting better and better at the fox trot. But when we learned the pretty under-arm turn I get to do, if we want, he needed more to go on than just to lift his arm in the air so I can go under it during the step. He needed to know exactly when to lift the arm...what step is he on when he starts to raise it? One, two, - up arm! - three, one, two, three, one, two, - down arm! - three. It's not too fluid of a movement at this point...so right now, it looks a bit more like we're playing a one-armed version of London Bridges, I'm sure, but over time, we should get smoother with the move.

I'm less heady when it comes to learning this stuff. First of all, it's for fun. This is not a contest, or a performance, or anything like that, so it's just something else we're doing for the wedding, IMO. Not that Jesse isn't having fun with it, though...I think he is. It's just he does a lot more thinking about the dancing as we do it than I do. Which, let's be honest, is the boy's job in the dancing thing. So I guess it makes sense that he's being like that! Anyway, I've danced for a LOOOONG time. Started out with the ballet and tap and stuff when I was a kid, and then I did the Irish dancing as an adult for 2 years, so I've got it in me. Waltzes are my thang. The fox trot? Not so much, but I'm getting there. And let's not really talk about the turn step for the waltz...visually beautiful, but technically, it makes me dizzier than all get out, so I think we might avoid doing it much during our dance. Maybe for one stanza...we'll see.

The dance teacher even asked us in the middle of our lesson the other day if we both play an instrument of some sort. I think he was impressed by our ability to pick up on tempo and timing. I told him I'm a singer, but Jesse doesn't have any musical background, really. But he IS really, really good at the rock-back-and-forth-slowly-turning-in-a-circle-a-la-junior-high/high-school-dances type of step, so maybe that's helped him for all these years without him even knowing it. Hmmm...

Anyway, it's been a fun addition to our wedding preparations over all. Much more fun than the getting up at 4:30 to go to the gym during the week, although I cannot express how awesome it is that he does that with me when he doesn't really need to! I found it interesting that we were both sore in totally different ways from our workout on Wednesday...we both did the same exercises. Sometimes he lifts/pushes more weight than me (sometimes I lift/push more than him! I have been doing the training for a lot longer than he has, though, so it makes sense. You don't wanna screw with my thighs, is the thing. Just a friendly warning...), and maybe I'm doing it in a slightly different manner, since our form during the exercise might vary. I dunno.

We have 4 more lessons to go, and I can't wait to see what we learn next! We need to practice first, though, so tonight, I think we'll be hitting the back yard. (It's the largest space we have for practicing in, so we thought it'd be fun to do it out there...) I certainly hope everyone enjoys it when we are able to do it on our wedding day! So excited...

As it is Friday, I will leave you all be now. Happy weekend, and I'll be back with more info next week!

You Must Be THIS TALL To Enter This Wedding Blog

2007-07-03T09:24:00.001-07:00

Today, I thought I might talk a bit about the wedding. Why? Because it’s my wedding blog, and I feel like it! Makes sense, no? :P

Seems there might be a little confusion about certain details of the day (and the weekend in general) that I really hope I can clear up a bit with this post. So here we go…

I’m an auntie to 9 lovely nieces and nephews who happen to reside in California and Texas respectively. (7 of them are in California, and 2 of them are in Texas.) The oldest is, what, about 15 now? 14 at least, anyway. The youngest will be about 6 months at the time of the wedding. We have 2’s, 6’s, 12’s…we have ‘em all, dammit. Babies to toddlers to pre-teens, basically. (I don’t count the oldest among the “children” anymore, since she’s actually a young adult, IMO.)

Besides those kiddos, I have a Maid of Honor who has a 1 year old little guy named Aiden (who will be about 1 and a half at the time of the wedding), and the Best Man has a daughter named Ava of almost exactly the same age, as she was born either the week before or the week after Aiden…I can’t remember which way it goes. Anyway, I’m hoping I can make a little baby hookup at the wedding for those two.

Ok, not really, but whatev.

One of my bridesmaids and Jesse’s groomsmen (Layla and Robb) will be having their first child here in the next few months. So we’ll even have an infant hanging out at the wedding.

I also have cousins that have children who will be invited, since they live in California as well. Not sure if they’ll be able to make it out to the wedding, but I sure hope they can!

It’s going to be a regular kiddo hoopla all up in this thing, and while it’s not exactly how I always dreamed it would be, it is what it is, and I am damn happy and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Most of these folks (my sisters, my brother, my Maid of Honor and Jesse’s Best Man, and my cousins) will be traveling into KC for the wedding from their respective locals in Texas, California, and Oregon in order to help us celebrate the nuptials, and we are so very, very happy and excited about this fact, we’re ready to burst! As such, we are making plans to have baby sitters available on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in order to help take care of kiddos and babies so that parents can have a great time while not having to completely tend to their children the entire time they are visiting in town.

Thursday night is the Parents’ Dinner night. Our parents haven’t met each other yet, so Jesse and I will be taking them all to dinner someplace (I think we’ve decided on a spot, but we aren’t totally sure yet…) so we can introduce them and chat a bit prior to the wedding. After that, the girls will be going our way (including FMIL and any of her friends that want to join the fray, and bridal party spouses – that means you, Amanda!), and the boys will be going theirs (again, including the FFIL and his buddies as well as bridal party spouses that want to go along) as a sort of bachelor/bachelorette party-type thing. This is when the baby sitters might come in handy, and I have yet to figure out how we’re going to do it, but I think we’ll just have them in one room at one of the hotels (perhaps my suite at the Sheraton…I’ll just have to lock up the dress and some of the other essentials in someone else’s room while we’re out and about) where they can order pizza and play games and watch videos and sleep and do other kiddo-type stuff.

Friday night is the rehearsal dinner night. After the rehearsal, the family and bridal parties (again, spouses are also included in this, in case anyone was wondering) will be off to our dinner to get to know each other a bit better, to hang out and pre-celebrate, and eat, drink, and be merry and all that. Baby sitters will, again, be available to help at the hotel during this time. My one exception would be for Layla and Robb, since I wouldn’t blame them one bit if they didn’t even want to be detatched for a teeny tiny second from their sweet new daughter at that point. It’s not a plan for the other kids to be invited, though. Hopefully that’ll be ok with everyone!

Saturday, kids are invited. Since I have such a large number of children-aged folks in my immediate family, we’ve planned a Kid Area at the reception (all you parents are on your own at the ceremony, though!) where we will have Halloween-type crafts, kid food to munch on, videos to watch, and comfy bean bag chairs (I hope, I hope, I hope…) to lounge on. I know that my Maid of Honor told me her mother is planning on attending the wedding (I wish the whole family could, gosh darnit!) in order to help her with Aiden, and that’s lovely of her. But I hope he’s able to hang out and have some fun with the crafty stuff, and enjoy the food we’re bringing in for them and all, too. (That way, MOH’s mom can come out on the dance floor and boogie down with us when she feels the desire!) The kids will be down the hall from the reception area, monitored by at least 3 baby sitters, and will be able to come and go as they please to that area.

The hope at this point is that the baby sitters from Thursday, Friday, and Saturday will all be the same people each time. That way, the kids will be used to them, and they will feel more comfortable hanging out with them after their first meeting. My wedding coordinator and I will be working closely to make this happen if we can.

So. There it is. Some of the basics that we’re planning for the weekend, in hopes of making things not only more fun for the parents, but also for the kids that will be making the trip to town for the wedding. I’ve asked my friends here in town if they would want to bring their children to the wedding, since there will be some there and all, and they’ve all assured me that they would prefer a kid-free night if they can have it, so I’m sending invites accordingly. I can certainly appreciate the fact that some parents might prefer a night out on the town without having to worry about their kids at all…heck, I don’t blame them one bit for that! So hopefully the availability of the baby sitters will make things a bit easier in that respect.

Really, though, I can’t express enough to everyone that reads this blog how excited Jesse and I are to share our new home town with you, celebrate our union with you, and to introduce our respective family and friends to one another. We are so deeply filled with gratitude to everyone who is planning on coming here for the event, and we want to make it as fun as we can for you while you’re here. For all of the folks that will be checking into the hotel blocks we’ve reserved, we will have information (and other goodies) waiting in your room for you when you arrive, making suggestions on restaurants, shopping, and other favorite hang outs for you to check out while you’re in town if you can. I hope that everyone’s visit here can help them see why it is that Jesse and I choose to live here as we do. Some photos below show images of some of my favorite things about the city…enjoy!

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Country Club Plaza (this is the corner of Pennsylvania and Nichols Rd.)

Plaza Lights

Downtown Skyline

J.C. Nichols Fountain

Weird.

2007-07-02T14:07:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a weekend wherein Jesse and I had absolutely no obligations. Nothing to do but laze about, workout on our own schedule (sort of), eat when we wanted to, and catch up on some serious resting time. (Ok, most of that was for me, but still...after an 8 hour day with me, Jesse needs the rest too, I assure you!)

I did have my hair trial on Saturday morning, which was a little bit o' fun. I'm afraid that after some careful thinking, though, I'm gonna have another one. I didn't like the way it turned out so much, and I want to make sure we have the right idea of what we're doing as we go into it, so I'll just make another appointment for one sometime in August and see how that goes. I liked the makeup, though, so we're good to go on that! Just the hair...not happy. Well, not as happy as I should be, I suppose I should say. I've got some other ideas of what we can do instead, though, especially now that I've seen what I don't want. I dunno...my hair is a pain in my bum, so I'll just leave it at that for now, mkay?

I promised more pictures from the shower weekend, though, and so here they are! Hope you likey...

Late on Saturday after we'd spent some time on Martini Corner with Valerie, Sharon, and Veronica, the bunch of us silly kids went out to play some pool and air hockey. We happen to know of a lovely place downtown called Balanca's (which doubles as a swinger bar in their downstairs section...don't ask me how we know that. It's an ugly story that involves very large women wearing far too little clothing doing gross things we didn't want to see them doing with scrawny biker-type losers wearing leather chaps over their jeans. God that was a weird night...) where they have an air hockey table that is fitted with a blacklight. We had to take the picture without a flash to give the full effect, but here ya have it. Blacklit teeth on myself, my twin, and Alisha:

As we were sitting eating bruschetta and drinking REALLY expensive beers and martinis at The Drop, we saw an...interesting car pull into the lot across the street from the bar. The picture below doesn't do the paint job on it justice. It was what I think Alisha refered to as being an "oil slick" look, where the colors kind of changed as the lighting changed on it. I don't know how else to describe it! I'm not sure just how the guy was disabled that was driving it, except that maybe he might be slightly retarded for spending what was probably a ridiculous amount of money on making the vehicle the way he wanted it, but at least he's able to get in and out of the car relatively easily, whatever his disfunction may be...the doors swung up instead of out! (They stayed that way even after he and his little group had walked away from the car and come into the bar we were in. I guess it needed airing out, or something...) Miranda and Alisha took a chance and got into a shot of the car for me. I hope they didn't catch anything too disgusting from being that close to the thing...
To be fair, it did look pretty cool. I just don't understand why someone would spend money on adjustments to a car like that, is all. And the guys seemed nice. Just not too smart, really.

Ok, the picture below was one Miranda took of me and the Twin when we were on our way to Balanca's. I made it black and white at home because it suits the color of my face better when it's like this. (I have an unsightly vein under my right nostril that likes to come out and play when I least expect it. Yeah...fun.)

And here is the one and only picture I got with my camera at the shower! Still waiting for the Twin to send me the shots she got...
Somehow, this is also the only picture I got of Stacey and Jason with my camera, too. I wish I had more!

And now I must go and prepare for the end of the work day, as it is almost over and I am quite tired. Uploading photos is tough work!

The Midwest Shower Weekend

2007-06-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-21T13:11:00.000-07:00

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.

2007-06-19T13:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-06-15T14:44:00.002-07:00

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...

2007-06-07T07:45:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-01T07:46:00.000-07:00

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

I always wanted to see what it was like to be a morning news anchor...

2007-05-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy girl

2007-05-29T07:27:00.000-07:00

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...)

Days off, schmays off...

2007-05-23T09:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Apologies!

2007-05-18T12:52:00.000-07:00

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!

The Engagement Photo Session Happiness and Joy Story

2007-05-16T08:28:00.000-07:00

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!)

How fun would THIS be?

2007-05-11T13:41:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-05-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

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!

Well, that's out of the blue...

2007-05-08T14:50:00.000-07:00

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.

Weight Loss Challenge - 2007

2007-05-03T07:49:00.000-07:00

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.

I'm cursed!

2007-05-02T14:52:00.000-07:00

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!

Quick question...

2007-05-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

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.

Quicky...

2007-04-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Not much going on. The dress doesn't fit (surprise, surprise...), so I must lose 10 pounds. My trainer and I met today and we are all over it, so I should be good to go there. I'll keep you updated.

Otherwise, the only thing I'm dealing with are unreturned emails from my caterer and my planner. We're having an issue with chair covers at the reception. I hate the chairs they have at the location, and would like to cover them or rent a bunch of other chairs and cover them. For some reason, I get the feeling I'm being looked at as being unreasonable for this request. I don't care, though. The chairs they have at the Brewery are big, black, boxy chairs that look comfy, but don't fit at all with the decor scheme we have going for the wedding. Black chairs. Everything else will be in chocolate or champagne colors. Not gonna work with the big black chairs!

I also wanted to look into renting furniture for the deck for people to lounge on while they're hanging out outside, should the weather allow them to do so comfortably. This is proving to be a very difficult task in the Kansas City area, and I think that if nothing else, I've discovered a business niche that I might want to attempt to explore in the near future. It's ridiculous that we can't find a place that rents furniture for special occassions like a wedding, such as the ones they have in New York or California. But, if it's going to be this difficult, then I suppose it's not worth the hassle, really. Frustrating as it is...

That's it for now. Possibly some invitation inquiries coming up soon...I really need to get on that, actually. So that's probably the next step. (And according to the timeline on The Knot, I'm behind on that task, too. Oh well...a girl can only do so much in her down time!)

Does this even need a title?

2007-04-12T13:01:00.000-07:00

My dress came in!

I get to try it on on the 21st, and have invited a trusted friend (who happens to be one of my bridesmaids as well) to come with to give me moral support as I try on my wedding gown for the very first time!

I mean, it was pretty neat when I found the one I wanted, and all. But this one is mine.

The one I will take home with me eventually.

The one I will wear as I walk down to aisle to marry my lovely Jesse.

The one that will make it oh so difficult to pee all day on my wedding day. (Seriously...how will I do it? Above all things, I worry about this the most. How sad is that?)

I really cannot wait. I'll be looking for shoes this weekend to take along with me to my first fitting (my FIRST FITTING!), and just got notice today that the Spanx slip I ordered is on it's way (those things are AWESOME...they smooth everything out, and suck everything in, and this will all be very important to me in the near future as I want to look as lumpless as possible at all events leading up to and including the wedding itself...), so that's set. My veil and headpiece should be ready for me to try on with the dress sometime in June (I hope I hope I hope...), so that will be my NEXT exciting fitting, I think.

This is all so surreal at times, it just boggles my mind.

On other fronts, I have hired a day-of coordinator. I'm working with a highly praised local company called "You're Invited" and after meeting with the coordinator that will be helping us out in particular (Leslie) this past weekend, I can honestly say that I don't think we'll have anything to worry about the day of (or the week leading up to the day of, either!) the wedding. I'm so happy she was available to help on our day! All of the vendors that I've met with recently (the caterer, the flower vendor, and now Leslie from You're Invited) have seemed genuinely excited about our wedding, and all the decor and style decisions we've already made for it.

Well, that's not entirely true, actually. The caterer was a little less than happy when I explained to her that we wouldn't just have 2 different types of cake at our reception. (She thought the groom's cake was one type and the main cake was another type...) Once I figured out that she had that idea in her head, I stopped and showed her the specifics on the cake order sheet. We have three different flavors in our main cake, and then the one flavor in the groom's cake. So that's 4 different types of cake we'll be serving at the reception as dessert for our dinner. Oops! (She then said that I was the kind of bride that caterers have nightmares about. She should talk to Jesse a bit more...I bet those nightmares could be MUCH worse if she only knew the whole truth about what a pain in the ass I am!) But oh well...sounds like I'm not the first to be such trouble like that.

But, anyway, the flower lady loves my ideas unequivocally. (Probably because she doesn't have anything to do with the cake...) She's giving us a discount on our centerpieces because she wants to use the pictures of them for her portfolio she's working on building back up again. (Horrible computer crashing incident occurred prior to us meeting...she lost everything, including most of her portfolio from the last 10 years. Backing up files and hard drives is a very important thing to do, sometimes...) She's been lovely to deal with so far.

I'm just hoping I'm not too demanding of a bride when it comes to what I'm requesting from my vendors. I've been checking every so often to make sure about that when I meet with them, and aside from the cake issue (not much I can do about that, really), seems like I've been relatively easy for folks to deal with. Maybe a bit more chatty than they'd like, but it could be worse, I'm sure.

At least they don't have to live with me. (Say prayers for Jesse. It's not pretty for him right now...)

Good to know...

2007-04-05T14:44:00.000-07:00

The ring doesn't fit. We'll be having it sized down a 1/4 when we get the chance...probably when we decide what to have it engraved with. (Right now, we're volleying the options "Love you forever...along with tacos" & "Always yours...dammit.")

On a totally unrelated and unneccessary note, I'm exhausted, and can't wait for the week to end. And there's still one more day to goooooo! I don't know how I'm going to do it. But I'll try.

Meeting with a coordinator on Saturday this weekend, so we can discuss the "day of coordinating" package that they offer at her company. Unfortunately, the location we're meeting at doesn't appear to exist, so I'm gonna have to call her tomorrow to figure out what she's thinking of. I would call her today, but I left my wedding binder (a.k.a. the Wedding Bible) at home, for some crazy, messed up, random reason. *sigh* I'll blame the exhaustion, though. Because it just makes good sense.

If I have a sallow complexion and sunken eyes by the time this wedding arrives, it will be no big shock to me. (But hell if my arms won't look toned, and my hair just perfect! Hair is easy. Skin...not so much.)

Ok, I get to leave in about 6 minutes. I'm going to get things straightened up around my desk before hitting the road. Not that anyone needed any of that extraneous info, but again, did I mention how tired I am? Just gimme a break when it comes to my rambling...

It's almost a done deal, at this point!

2007-04-03T12:31:00.000-07:00

We went last night and bought Jesse's wedding band at Tiffany's. Now, the salesperson was one of those hard-to-read types, and while she seemed to "get" my sense of humor at certain points, she definitely failed to "get" it at others. When I asked her about engraving the rings, and showed her mine, asking her if something as thin as it could be engraved, she said they don't engrave items unless they're purchased at Tiffany's. First of all, that's not true according to a salesperson I spoke to about 8 months ago at that same store, so they should get their stories straight. Secondly, what about the movie? Which I asked her about in particular..."So the rule has changed since the movie, huh?" She looked at me with a dead look on her face and didn't answer right away. Then she said, "I'm sorry, what movie?"

Bitch says what? (I'm sorry...sometimes, I use vulgar language, and this woman deserved it if anyone did.)

I kind of laughed and said, "Breakfast as Tiffany's...you know, when they go in and have the ring they found in the Cracker Jack box engraved?" She didn't have a clue. "It's been so long since I've seen that film..." Yeah. I don't think she's ever seen it, seriously. It should be a prerequisite to working at ANY Tiffany's location, dammit! I told my twin today on the phone that I should have said, "The Quick and the Dead," when she asked me what movie I was referring to. She wouldn't have known the difference, I'm sure.

Aaaanyway, I bought him his ring! Picture of the one we got for him is floating below. He's wearing it today for a bit, as we're trying to decide whether it needs to be sized down a 1/4 size (it only came in whole or half sizes, and the 10 was too small, and so we got the 10 1/2), and how it feels to wear it and all. At one point, he asked me to put it on his finger for him, and I was all, "Nuh-uh!! That's gotta be bad luck!" So we're probably gonna be having fun with that game for the next 7 months now. *sigh!*

It looks better in person, obviously. It's platinum (only the best material in the world, right?), and has some really nice detailing around the edge. We love it! And now he's just that much closer to becoming attached to me forevah....mwahahahahahahaha!!!

Wanna see?

2007-04-02T11:07:00.000-07:00

I sent some pics of the newest furniture over to Valerie (my FMIL) last week, and thought that it might be about time for me to post them here as well, so here we go!

Ok, this was a very messy day in the house, but I wanted to take a photo of the new couch, and also happened to catch a view of the new lamp in the background as well, so there's that. It's a super-comfy couch, and I'm so glad we were able to get it! Even though Jesse, being a boy as he is, is seeming to already find ways to break it down and make it look as though we've owned it for years and years...and we've only had it since January, I think. I'm trying to stay on top of that, though, and am rotating the back cushions as often as they seem to need it. I don't know if it's how he sits on it, or if it's because the dog looks out the window while sitting on that side of the couch, but it's obnoxious. And it must stop...

And so then we were finally able to decide on a new shelf for the living room as well. Took another month after we had gotten the couch, but we ordered this one, and we've had it for about 2 weeks now, I think:

We love it! We actually fell in love with it as a 3-tiered shelf (that's only 2 tiers in the picture), but after measuring, and sitting in the room staring at the wall where I wanted to put it (which is how I "sketch" when I decorate...I use my imagination, mostly because I can't draw), I realized that 3 tiers would be WAY too huge for the room. It would dwarf everything else, and make the room look smaller. We looked for other shelf options, but really, really loved this one most of all, and then...THEN we discovered that we could buy it in 1-tier or 2-tier form, and did NOT have to buy it in it's full 3-tier mode. Not only was it cheaper this way, but it fits the room perfectly! I spend a little time each weekend updating it's contents and sifting through all the books and things I have to put in it. It is awesome and makes me very happy, indeed.

See, I've been using fake shelves for the past several years as I move from place to place. They've gotten considerably nicer over the years, that's for sure, but they were still all "fake" in that they aren't real wood, and I had to put them together myself after getting them inside of the place I lived. I gave myself a lifelong injury when I tripped over one of the fake shelves after leaving it in a partially-put together mode soon after I moved into my current house, as I was simply too exhausted to finish it, and the following morning I wandered out into the dark living room where I'd left it smack in the middle of my regular path to the light switch on the wall. I managed to fall over it and plant my left shin on the one shelf I had installed on it before I gave up putting it together the night before. I was lucky that I didn't hurt myself more, really, and I also felt pretty damned lucky that I no longer shared walls with any neighbors, because I don't think I've EVER screamed that loud before in my life. It hurt. It hurt bad. (And it's left a small dent and discoloration on my left shin after all this time. Somehow, I managed not to break anything, but yeah...dent in the shin. Awesome.)

So, the plan is to have a garage sale, at which I will sell two of our old "fake" shelves, our current kitchen table, our big ol' t.v., and several other small items not important enough to note here. We are looking to replace the current t.v. we have with an LCD HD-ready version, and we'd also like to purchase this:Yet another Crate & Barrel obsession for us! We don't like how our current table seems to take up a bunch of room in the kitchen. We want something that acts more "island-like" that also provides storage AND a place to eat, should we have company over. This table has the whole drop-down top going on, so it can become even smaller than it already is if necessary. It has wine storage, and little shelves, and oh yeah...I put a picture in, so you can see all of that already! Anyway, it's a taller table as well, at what they call "gathering height" which is not only better for me and my prep of food (sooo, so tired of bending over the sink!), but also just a good place to gather, should we have a gathering of any sort. It's the perfect size for our kitchen, is the important thing. When we put the house on the market next year, we want to show it at it's maximum capacity, if we can. The kitchen is really rather large...there's no reason a table can't sit right in the middle of it. But it just has to be the right sized table, is the thing...

Anyway, that's how things are lookin' right now. Not sure if we're going to be having the garage sale this week or next...depends on how much I'm able to do this week with regards to the shelves I want to sell. (Lots of moving of stuff is required, and I don't know if I'll have time to move stuff this week. We'll see...) But I'll be sure to update on it when we do have it! I've never had one, personally (I'm not much of a pack rat, really, so it was hard to think of what needed to be sold in the first place!), and I'm kinda nervous about it. But it's going to be a one-day sale, so hopefully, it'll go well! Did I mention the whole LCD HD-ready t.v. thing? Yeah, why do boys need toys like that anyway? We don't even HAVE HD in our house, for heaven's sake! Something tells me that we're going to need to get it, though. *sigh!*

By the way...

2007-03-28T12:41:00.000-07:00

Anybody else pissed about this whole change in the postal rate thing? Thank GOD they are finally creating a stamp that supercedes it for future changes. I have about 30 $.39 stamps at home left over from the "save the dates" that I sent out, and I can no longer use them on the return envelopes as I had planned to do when I send out invitations. No biggy, really...I'll get some $.02 stamps to use them up on other stuff in the future, and then I'll be picking up some of the "first class FOREVER" stamps when they start selling them, so the invites won't have an issue. (Not that I'd expect them to raise the price again within a 6 month period, but it's the USPS...I wouldn't put it past 'em, really.)

The night got away from me...

2007-03-28T08:22:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I didn't send out the hotel website link last night from home, as I had planned to do. I'll try to get to it tonight.

Last night, I got busy with some other things I needed to get done before we slammed down a yummy lasagna dinner that Jesse had made so we could run out the door to get our registering at Bed, Bath & Beyond taken care of. Which we did. So now we're done with it all! (Except for some updating online now and then, of course...)

So, here is the link to the registry at BB&B. Please pass it along to those who need it, and thank you for your help with that! We will not be noting our registry information in any of the invitations (as it has been clearly indicated by any and all columns regarding proper etiquette that it is really not ok to do that...), so we're relying on word of mouth to spread the info to those who want to look over our registry in case they want to buy us a gift for our wedding.

Last week was my week off...

2007-03-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

Let's see...last week was the week I planned to take "off" from planning. And I was rather successful. (Except for the registering on Monday night thing. And then following up with the florist via e-mail on Tuesday and Wednesday. Oh, and starting to try to search for ceremony musicians in spare time on Thursday. I wrote a note to the cake lady, too, and I never heard back from her...I'd better give her a call.)

Anywho, seems there's no rest for the semi-weary when it comes to this stuff, so I'd best forget about trying to take any time off from planning from now on, I suppose! I like it, really. I just keep wondering if I'm forgetting anything. Crummy feeling, not knowing if I'm hitting all the marks I need to hit. Again, checklists help, but there's just that lingering feeling that I'm not doing everything I should be doing, you know?

And I'm dizzy on and off again these past two weeks. Stupid vertigo. I thought I'd kicked whatever was causing it, and I had for about a month, I think. But it's back. Even while I'm sitting typing this, it's making me spin. (Usually it saves itself for less dangerous places, like staircases.) I will attempt to eradicate this bout by taking the dose of Advil Cold & Sinus I have in my purse for emergencies. I feel a bit stuffy in my ears suddenly, so it would make sense that it's a sinus issue.

And apparently it causes me to share totally unrelated material when it comes to posts. Sorry!

Ok, the REAL point to this post is to say that I finally got the website link from the Sheraton, which is where we've reserved a block of rooms for the wedding weekend for those coming in from out of town. I've asked Jesse to please take care of setting up the block of rooms at the Embassy Suites (and I'm not sure he's taken care of that yet, actually...), and I'm not sure if we'll do a 3rd hotel. (Maybe the Marriott...I don't see a huge point in doing that, though. Unless people have certain rewards plans they're a part of and all...) I'll update if necessary.

I'll send the link to the website out later tonight from my e-mail at home. Must get back to dealing with the head spinning thing now. Bleh...

Happy now? :P

2007-03-20T07:37:00.000-07:00

For those who were worried about whether we would ever get around to this task, Jesse and I were finally able to get out to one of the stores we plan on registering at to take care of business yesterday.

We are officially registered at Crate & Barrel now.

Please, don't mock any of the choices we have on the list, if you can avoid it. Between the employees that randomly handed out unsolicited suggestions (like matching up our stemware properly, so our table doesn't look silly or strange when we throw dinner parties...you know, one of the many things Jesse and I have all the time in the WORLD to do every week! I don't think this particular salesperson realized that it wasn't 1962 anymore, and people like Jesse and I could give a flying fig if our stemware matches...especially since we're both partial to the stemLESS glassware, thankyouverymuch.), and the feet and legs hurting from all the standing and staring at things as we attempted to make decisions, and the fact that it took a little over 2 hours in the middle of a rather exahusting day to get it all done? We're lucky we didn't wind up picking out full sets of furniture, including patio and/or dining tables we don't even have the space for, just to get those salespeople to lay off already!

Don't get me wrong...they're all very nice at the Crate & Barrel store. Really helpful. Very friendly. But once we've told someone that, no, we don't need to see the catalog for spring in order to make more registry choices (she was the 4th person to suggest that we "go ahead" and put the big furniture items on there, because "people like to go in on gifts sometimes..." Yeah, like we hadn't heard that already from 3 people on the first floor of the store, dammit!), and we already have a catalog at home, and dear LORD we're almost done here, woman, so back off a bit, please!! You would think she might stop chasing us around the furniture section with said catalog in hand, pointing out that we "can look at the actual pictures of items to see if we want them." (Becaaauuuse seeing them in person right there in the store isn't better than looking at pictures of them? I really didn't understand her logic. Not at all.)

But it's done. We've registered. I was very excited to go and register before we did it, and I was very happy to go and have a beer with Jesse after we registered and before we had some dinner with friends to celebrate a birthday.

Next week, we will visit Bed, Bath & Beyond to register for more everyday items, as well as some of the things that Crate & Barrel doesn't have, or of which they don't have a big enough selection for us to choose from. It should be a much shorter registery, though, I'm thinking. We'll see...but our plan is to hit that store on Tuesday night, I think, so we should have a registry to view there by Wednesday morning.

Anyway, please pass the word along to those that have been asking and wondering where we were going to register. It's done! YAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

Ooh! THIS is where the stress comes from!

2007-03-16T13:34:00.000-07:00

AAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!

I need a beer.

And a good cry. TGIF.

2007-03-14T08:29:00.000-07:00

So, as previously mentioned, Jesse and I have decided to honeymoon in a lovely place that looks tranquil, beautiful, and luxurious, called Virgin Gordo in the British Virgin Islands. We will be staying at Little Dix Bay Resort for 7 days, and are looking very forward to the trip, even now with 7 months to go before we leave! Since Jesse’s work is kind of stinky about how time off is taken, we will be having our wedding, and then heading back to work the Monday after, not taking off for our honeymoon until the Monday after that (i.e. Nov. 5th). This actually works out pretty well, I think. This way, we can celebrate Halloween here in town (which is always fun for me and him…we like passing out candy to kids, and I like dressing up for work and everything. Ooh! He gets to dress up for work this year, too, if he wants! Last year, Halloween fell on a day off for him, so there wasn’t any point. Um, don’t ask me where this Halloween tangent came from. My mind is still trying to adjust to that damned daylight savings crap we had happen this past weekend…), and rest a bit after the wedding, and the dog doesn’t have to be in boarding for such a long amount of time successively. She really misses us when she gets boarded. (And we really miss her too, we’ve found!)

As you can see in the post prior to this, I’ve shared the news that the bridesmaid dresses have been found, and all bridesmaids are making their efforts to get measurements and sizes to the matron of honor (who is currently searching for a new title, since she hates the way “matron” sounds…I told her it’s her own darned fault for getting married before me, but whatever! Any suggestions on new title for the “matron of honor” are being accepted in the comments section of this post…), so we can get them all ordered and on their way to us ASAP! All girls seem very happy with the choice, which makes me happy as well! It’s a very pretty dress…

Since we’ve found the dress, we have a very solid idea of what we will be doing for tuxes. They’ll be black, and then the groomsmen and the ushers will wear a “truffle” colored vest and tie, while Jesse will wear a “champagne” colored vest and tie. We’re planning on checking out tuxes in April or so, which is pretty well on track with the checklist from The Knot. Is it bad that I use that thing as a wedding bible these days? Thank goodness for little helps like that checklist!

Last night, Jesse and I met with a florist to discuss the ideas we have for decoration, bouquets, boutonnieres, and all that good stuff. After an initial issue with time management (we had agreed to meet at 6 p.m., and she thought we had said 6:30), we sat down and got to work, and I really wound up liking her a lot! She was very happy with the design I’m drawn to for our centerpieces, and said that since she’d like to have something like that in her own portfolio to show to future clients, she’d be willing to give us a discount on them, even…which will be nice, but since I don’t have any frame of reference, she could just SAY she’s giving us a discount when really she’s charging a normal price for them, so whatever. I don’t care. We’ve chosen roses for our flower, and will not be varying from that except in my bouquet and the bridesmaids’ bouquets, so that should keep costs down to a certain point. Since my Twin has given me a certain spectrum of costs for things, we’ll have to see if this chick we met with can stick anywhere near the idea I have. I didn’t mention any numbers last night, but I’m expecting the proposal to come in a day or two, and then we’ll have something to work from.

I’m not going to mention any of the design ideas out here, though, so I’m sorry! I want some things to remain a surprise for most of the guests, so it won’t take away from their experience of seeing it all for the first time when they see me walking down the aisle/when they walk into the reception/etc…

As on track as things may seem, I’m feeling more and more like it might be time to call a coordinator for some help on things. I certainly want to make sure we get the best help we can for that day, so setting that in stone right now wouldn’t hurt at all, I’d think. And then if I need help with stuff like finding the right kid-sitter for the reception (and possibly for the Thursday and Friday night before the wedding, too), and getting that section of the party set up perfectly, I can rely on someone who has more expertise than I do with finding that sort of “vendor” here in town. But I want to wait until after we meet with the caterers to discuss options they have for bringing in rental furniture, and seeing about having a buffet of kid-type food for the kids available in their little area, and all. Hopefully, we’ll be meeting with them in a couple of weeks. I need to take next week OFF from wedding meetings!

More to come in updates this week…Jesse and I went to our Catholic Engaged Encounter weekend this past week, and I would love to chat about the experience out here. Probably tomorrow or Friday…we’ll see what the work schedule does.

Happy Wednesday!

YAY!!

2007-03-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

We've found the bridesmaid dresses!

It shouldn't be as much of a relief as it is, but maybe it feels so good because we all agreed on it on the same day that I confirmed booking for our honeymoon in Virgin Gordo. I dunno.

Very exciting!!

Conundrum. Sort of...

2007-03-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

I’m having a problem processing something, so I thought I might sound it out here on the ol’ wedding blogaroo…

Jesse and I went downtown on Friday night to see a friend’s art show that had opened that day, and then to grab a bite of dinner and some drinks at the bar/restaurant in the Hotel Phillips called “12 Baltimore.” I’d been looking forward to checking things out there for a while, and it seemed like the perfect night for it. (Since our wedding reception will be ending at what I consider to be the kinda early hour of 11 p.m., we’ve been planning on gathering those troops that are still raring to drink, dance, and be merry and head on in to 12 Baltimore before retiring to the suite we will be staying in that night, which is one of the 2 suites they have at the Hotel Phillips.) So we had some yummy dinner and some very good beer, and split the tab at the end of it all, and then headed home for some well-deserved rest.

Last night, Jesse had planned on making us some chicken gyros for dinner. Before hitting the grocery store, he checked his account online to make sure everything was in order, and thank goodness he did! He called me and told me that his checking account was in the negative because he had several charges from the Chophouse, one charge from the Hotel Phillips, and then one charge from a Days Inn that were being deducted from his account as the bank processed the info from the merchants. All totaled, they had deducted over $170 more than the $32.55 they should have from his account. I checked my account, and they had done the same thing to me, however since I used my credit card to pay for my half of the bill, it wasn’t as detrimental to my account info. I told him I would call the hotel, and then let him know what was going on.

After about an hour had passed, the hotel controller called me to discuss what had occurred. Apparently when 12 Baltimore went to close out their tabs on Friday night, they thought that the charges weren’t being processed due to some error they were seeing on their credit card machine. So the hotel closed out the tabs as though we were guests, which made everything seem right in their books. On Monday, when they realized what had happened, they cancelled the charges to our accounts for all the transactions that reflected the Chophouse as the merchant, and charged us instead through the Hotel Phillips. For some reason, the hotel charge that occurred on Friday night shows as being processed through Days Inn Kansas City as the merchant. However, the controller for the hotel said that he can’t help us with that issue, as they are in no way affiliated or related to the Days Inn.

Wow. Ok, so both Jesse and I have several charges in the same amount over and over again to our separate accounts, and this Days Inn charge just HAPPENS to be in the same exact amount as the ones from the Chophouse and the Hotel Phillips, and on the same date as all the ones that came across from the Chophouse, but this guy is telling me that he can’t help me with that one?

Can we say “pissed?”

As this gentleman explained to me, we have to take care of it through our bank. (And I know what the bank will say when I try to tell them what he said, which is that we need to clear it up with the merchant! AUGH!) For now, the charges show as “pending” in my account, and I would assume they are reflecting the same way in Jesse’s account as well. 3 of the Chophouse charges have been refunded to me in my account, but one still remains as “pending” as well as the one from the Hotel Phillips, and of course the one from the Days Inn.

The problem is that I had just sent in the paperwork to reserve a block of rooms at the hotel for the wedding weekend. I was all excited to stay there the Thursday and Friday before the wedding, and then the night of the wedding after we were through hanging out in their bar at 12 Baltimore. And now? Now I don’t want to deal with them ever again.

I’m so very disappointed.

But then again, I’m sure glad I found out about this before something happened to 10 or more guests at our wedding!

For a 4 star hotel (which they were recently appointed by AAA’s travel department), they aren’t acting too 4 starish, in my opinion…

Only in my dreams...

2007-02-27T14:01:00.000-08:00

I had my first wedding nightmare this morning. And as mundane as it may sound to be, it wasn’t. It was truly terrifying.

Which says what about me? I dunno. How about if I describe the dream for y’all and we’ll see what you think…

I can’t remember much of it, of course. But I do remember that I was getting ready for the ceremony. It was about noon (ceremony is at 1:30), and I suddenly realized that I didn’t have my hair or makeup done, and I got very confused about how that had happened. I started to freak out a bit (i.e. whine and bitch and moan), and my bridesmaids wanted me to stop it, I’m sure, so they all told me that it would be fine, and one or two of them offered to help with my hair while another one helped with makeup. (Don’t ask me why I couldn’t just do it myself in a situation like that…apparently in my dream, I was the retarded bride from hell.)

So the one friend, my best friend from forever ago named Mandi, asks me what I was planning on doing with my hair. I told her about what I had thought we could do, and showed her sort of what I meant, and then she went to work. Her little sister Liz was there to help, too, for some reason. I think that had to do with the fact that she did Mandi’s hair for her wedding a couple of years back, but I can’t be sure.

All of a sudden, everyone was done, and someone handed me a mirror. I was still feeling beyond anxious without having seen a reflection of myself, but afterward, I REALLY freaked out! My makeup was HORRIBLE. I looked like I’d been aged about 20 years, like they can do in movies sometimes, except my skin seriously looked wrinkled and dried out and nasty. My eyes stood out the most makeup-wise though. Whoever had done the makeup had decided that purple metallic eye shadow was most appropriate for the day, and it caked my eyelids to the point that it wouldn’t rub off at all. (Of course, she had wanted my makeup to be tear-proof! AUGH!) My cheeks had a freaky amount of rouge on them, and my lips were…well, that was the one thing she did right, whoever she was. My lips didn’t stand out at all, now that I think about it. So she had stuck to the golden rule of makeup and had only emphasized my eyes, and not both my eyes AND my lips. Good for her.

But my hair - holy crap! My friend hadn’t done ANYTHING that I’d suggested, and instead had straightened out the curliness of it, and then put a bunch of product in it that made it greasy and dirty looking. And it was blond, for some reason. It looked gross.

It was about then that my alarm went off, and I woke up feeling truly horrified. Jesse came in the room a few minutes later, which surprised me because I didn’t know he wasn’t in bed with me all that time. I asked him if he was ok, and he said he hadn’t been able to sleep, but he was fine. I asked him if I had been making any noise that woke him up…I was worried that I was screaming in my sleep! He said no. So that’s nice…at least I’m able to keep my insane dreams inside my head while I’m having them.

How crappy of a human being am I that I consider a dream about my hair and makeup not being done and then being done improperly to be a frightening nightmare? I told my physical trainer about it this morning when we were working out…I said, “I had my first wedding nightmare this morning.” He said, “Oh yeah? What was it about?” I replied, “Hair and makeup…it was TERRIBLE!” He couldn’t stop laughing for about a minute and a half.

Anyway, I hear that this is how it happens. Brides have nightmares about the actual day of the wedding, and grooms tend to have nightmares about the bride leaving them sometime before the wedding happens.

I don’t want any more dreams like this though. No thank you.

Good news...

2007-02-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

I know now what is going on with the dress and the dress shop, and am much happier over all because of it, which is sort of sad, but that's ok. I'm surprised at what stresses me out these days, is the thing. Anyway...

The store is currently being run out of a conference room of some sort at the Marriott on the Plaza, and it sounds like they're looking for a permanent place to reside while they're there. When the dress comes in (hopefully in the first week of May, since it's being shipped from the designer on April 24th), they'll call me to set up a fitting, and all that good stuff. Maybe by then, they will have found their new shop location. I hope it's as cool as the last one was!

So, all is well on the dress front again. I'm sincerely hoping that we don't have any other drama like this (or any other sort, really) throughout the rest of the planning. I suppose I'll just have to keep taking it one day at a time...

Just a boring ol' update...

2007-02-19T07:50:00.000-08:00

Still unsure about what’s going to be happening with the dress, I’m attempting to shift my focus elsewhere until later this week when it might be a good time to try to contact the Gown Gallery again to see what’s going on.

So many other details require my attention right now that it’s easy to change gears, I think. Tonight, we have a meeting with our priest to go over the compatibility test that we did together (sort of…) around 2 weeks ago. We’re both interested in seeing the results, and know for sure that even if the test says we’re not compatible, we’re still sure we are. (We’re kidding around when we discuss that, though. We don’t think the test showed any great differences between us that we need to attend to before we should even consider getting married. I think that the questions about children and money are going to be the ones that will call for the most discussion. But, to be fair, the questions about children don’t really allow for the idea that some of the couples that are taking the “test” might have decided against having children, or are considering the possibility of adopting in the future. So that made it harder to answer those questions, really. The money questions? Well, money is a hard thing to deal with. Some deal with it better than others, some never learn how to deal with it at all, etc, etc…Jesse and I have discussions about money when required, which isn’t often. We’re pretty confident in our ability to communicate well throughout our marriage about money and whatever issues regarding it may arise. So that’s that.) This should be the last thing we have to do in terms of prepping for the ceremony, besides the Engaged Encounter weekend thingy we’ll need to attend a few months before the wedding itself. There are other things I’m doing to prepare for it, of course, but they involve musicians, and not so much anything having to do with preparation as a couple.

I’ve contacted a musician about singing at our wedding, actually, and was looking forward to heading down to her parish where she’s the music director on Friday night, as she was going to be singing for a wedding there. Unfortunately, we had a freak snow storm thing move through the area at rush hour that evening, so I had to cancel those plans. Not such a huge deal, as I will have a chance to hear her again on March 3rd at the church where Jesse and I are getting married. However, this past wedding would have given me the opportunity to hear her along with a string quartet, as that was the accompaniment at this particular wedding, and which I’m interested in having for our wedding. After the wedding on the 3rd, there won’t be any until Lent is over, so I’ll have to wait until mid-April to have the chance to see her sing with a quartet. Not a big deal, I guess. Just a little disappointing that I couldn’t get it taken care of like I’d planned.

This weekend, we’ll be having our first meeting with a baker about the possibility of her handling our cakes. I hope to set up meetings with at least two more bakers, but the other one I was particularly interested in meeting with is unavailable for our wedding date. Thankfully, plenty of bakers have info on The Knot for me to review, so I can look at pictures of their work online, and all that good stuff. It’s really helping me in figuring out what style of cake we might want to do. It’s a detail that seems silly to pay too much attention to, though. Maybe after visiting the baker, I’ll feel differently about it. (I don’t get it, is the thing. Why pay thousands of dollars for an ornately designed cake, when all you’re gonna do is chop it up and eat it? I mean, make it look pretty, yeah. But don’t go overboard. It’s the inside that counts to me, dammit…)

It appears that this is just a boring ol’ update for today. No funny stories to tell…no interesting facts to share. Just plain info about what’s being done. But I suppose that’s what some visit this blog for, anyway. So yeah…there’s that. (I’m kinda grateful I don’t have more scary/interesting stories to tell, to be quite honest! That means that things are going smoothly, and not much is happening to cause us any true worry. Even the dress thing will work itself out, I’m sure. I’ve got a few months before I really need to worry about it, anyway!)

Hope everyone has a great Monday!

The first battle has begun...

2007-02-16T11:18:00.000-08:00

The store where I ordered* my dress and veil from burned to the ground this morning.

After a lunch of homemade chili and a small caesar salad, I'm feeling a bit better than I did when I first heard the news. I need to get to work now, and forget about it for a while. I won't be able to find out details of what to do next until a little while has passed, and the store has gotten its bearings. I'm going to try calling them next week. (They have a prom dress store across the street from the bridal salon location. I'm hoping their computer systems were connected to each other, and that all records of bridal orders weren't lost in the fire...)

My prayers are with the firefighters that got hurt while trying to battle the blaze. And also with the girls who have weddings in the immediate future, and who's dresses were being stored at the shop, possibly still being altered, and/or having just arrived without even being tried on for the first time at all. Jesse's general manager at the Moose has a sister who falls into my prayers...her dress had already arrived, and was waiting for her to use it in her June wedding. Now it's gone, and the poor girl is going to have to try to find a new dress very quickly. Thankfully, she's a petite girl, so hopefully that will aid her in her abbreviated search for a new perfect gown.

UPDATE: Just read this story in the KC Star. All is not as lost as I thought. But some is...apparently, they lost all records in the fire, as they had recently consolidated their two stores into one, and they no longer have the second location across the street I was hoping they would be able to rely on for back-up record keeping. They're currently trying to remember all bride names that they were dealing with. Holy crap. Holy, holy, holy...go and read the story for more info.

*My dress wasn't there...it's not due to arrive until late April, thank goodness. But I do wonder what will happen to all the records of our transactions, as well as the design notes for the veil and tiara I ordered last week. I'm sincerely hoping that the designer took the design info home with him, since he doesn't actually work on his designs there in the store, but rather just uses it as a place to meet with brides and to partner with the company in order to sell his designs.

When my dress is due to come in, I don't know what we'll do. They were supposed to store it for me (part of the purchase price of the dress is a $75 "storage fee"), and they would alter it if it needed any altering, and all that good stuff.

Lots of questions and no place to get answers from. Very frustrating. And very, very sad...

When does 9 months not feel like 9 months?

2007-02-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Wow. Things are really starting to wind up over here. I feel like 9 months is a good amount of time to plan for something like our wedding, but at the same time, I feel like I'm forgetting things. Even though I'm not. So what gives?

I feel bad for people who had to plan their weddings without the help of a handy-dandy online tool like The Knot.com. If it weren't for their checklist of things to do that I can constantly refer to, I might not remember to call and find a musician for the ceremony, or to get the registering done within the next couple of months. The only thing it isn't helping on is the planning of my shower here in Kansas, which is going less than smoothly, but that's because I seem to have "planner's block" for some reason. I can't think of a place to have it. I wanted to have it at a hotel downtown, but after checking out their prices, and seeing how many people I'll likely have at the shower, it simply isn't worth it. I'm sure it'd be lovely if we had it there, but not for that kind of money! I'm going to be checking with a few other hotels today, and hopefully I'll find an option that works for me soon.

For those of you who are wondering, yes, I am throwing my own shower here in Kansas. My sister and best friend are throwing the one in California, but with the fact of needing two showers to be thrown due to the living situation I'm in, I have to plan the one for myself here. I'm not going to ask my other bridesmaids to take care of it, as they have college to pay for and a baby on the way, respectively, and none of us really have a great big space that can pretty well accomodate 20 - 25 people, unfortunately. I don't know anyone here that has a large living room that we can "borrow." And I'd throw it at our house, really I would. But as it's in June, and weather can be spotty that time of year, I'd be in trouble if the back deck wasn't available for people to escape to when the crowd inside got too close! Plus, the idea of having it at a hotel, where set-up and clean-up are done for me, just seems so awesome. So cross your fingers for me that I find (and can even think of!) a place to have it at pretty soon here. I gotta get cracking on this thing, really.

Ok, work has beckoned, so I must run now. More later this week, I'm sure!

Weddings, weddings everywhere!

2007-02-08T08:25:00.000-08:00

I've got two coworkers who are going through the wedding excitement along with me here at work, although one of them will be over it by Monday next week since her son's wedding is this weekend. The other one has a daughter getting married in April, and she's been fun to talk to about plans and dresses and how many are invited, etc, etc...as well. Since they're both in the position of being mothers involved in the wedding, it's been great to have their perspective on everything for these past few weeks. The one who's son is getting married this weekend has been very involved in the planning of the wedding, it seems, helping with everything from arranging for music at the reception to finding a cake at almost the last minute. (Apparently, her son and daughter-in-law-to-be had originally been planning a May wedding, but they pushed it up for some reason...she doesn't know why.) She only just found the outfit she'll be wearing to the wedding last week, and I'm glad because she'd been a little stressed over it. (She would prefer to wear pants, but she didn't think it would be appropriate, and neither did her husband, so she had to find a skirt, but she didn't want a long skirt, even though it's what she wound up getting anyway...I don't understand what all the hoopla was about. If she wanted to wear pants, she should have worn pants. I can't see why anyone would have cared, as long as she doesn't wear jeans, or something!) I didn't really understand why she was doing so much regarding the planning, but then she told me that her son is my age, and his fiance is only 25, and that sort of made it all come together for me. Perhaps his fiance doesn't have family near by...I dunno. I really can't figure out why it was left to my coworker to help find the cake. I'm sure she offered, but I just didn't understand how that worked out, is all.

Anyway, most days can go by without any one of us having a chance to talk about wedding stuff. But then around twice a week, we're at it like hens in a hen house, chit chatting about everything that's going on. Just now, I had a conversation with the mother of the bride coworker about how her daughter just got the engagement pictures back from the photographer, and she thinks they suck and she'd like new ones taken, but she doesn't want to be mean about it. This coworker and I agree that there's nothing mean about asking for quality work to be done. Apparently, several of the pictures that she got back were distance shots of her and her fiance sitting on a bench in a park (taken on a very cold day in January, mind you!), and the shot was taken from so far away that they aren't even identifyable in the photo! I don't understand how a photographer can be so stupid about something like that. I mean, there's art, and then there's the fact that you're helping to capture memories for a couple and their family, dammit. A little perspective should be in order there.

But it just helps solidify the need I have to collect photos of things that I do like, and things I don't like. Even our photographer told me to get some together, so she can review them before we do anything. It's so very important to illustrate these things, since it can be awfully hard to communicate it through words sometimes, I think. Kind of like my hair do that I think I'd like to do for the wedding day...I probably wouldn't be able to describe it very well to the hairdresser, so I'll be printing off photos (one of the hair I'd like to do, and another of an up do that can be done with the original style already in place...I'm still not sure if I want to wear it up or down!) to take with me, so I can show him what it is that I'm thinking would be fun to do. The last time I tried to describe how I wanted an up do done, I wound up paying $100 for something that made me look like an alien ghost from the year 3045. It was really scary. And it was HUUUUGE! So, yeah...not doing that again!

Anyway, it seems like weddings are all around me lately. The girls at the gym that are all getting married, the coworkers here at work that have kids getting married, my trainer at the gym that's getting married a week before I do, the friend at the Moose that felt lucky to be able to attend both our wedding as well as one for one of her oldest friends who is also getting married in October...lots and lots of weddings. And I'm making things more fun by having not one, not two, but three parties in celebration of me being a bride as well as Jesse and I finally becoming husband and wife! It'll all be fun, though. Parties are parties...I've thrown many before in honor of work occassions, and had a good time putting them together, so putting together a shower for myself should be a relative snap, especially since I've decided upon doing it at a hotel somewhere here in town now. Hotels are so easy like that...plus, they set up, and clean up, and provide yummy food (usually). It's a win/win! Now I just need to decide which hotel to set it up at...

Ok, I'm just rambling now. I need to get some more training done here at work before I go to lunch. Hope everyone is having a faboolous week!

Don't get used to this...

2007-02-01T07:40:00.000-08:00

I have time to post, and I also have stuff to post about, so I just figured it’d make sense to go ahead and do it. Next week will probably be a totally dead week compared to this one…

Last night, Jesse and I went and met for the 2nd time with the priest that will be performing our ceremony. We talked about football a bit, and how things are going for us right now, and then got down to business. We needed to complete a little “compatibility test” for Father, so he could review it and see how close we are to being on the same page regarding issues that have to do with money, child rearing, communication, past family issues and how they have effected us, etc, etc…It was kinda fun, since Father left us alone to complete the questions (of which there were about 150 that we were required to answer…), and we were able to discuss the ones that didn’t immediately make sense to one or both of us, and on some of the ones that stumped us for answers (which usually had to do with the child rearing issues…) we were able to quickly discuss our same-pageness. We didn’t “cheat” really…there were a couple where he or I said, “Well, I agree/disagree with this…don’t know about you.” But we tried to answer honestly from our own viewpoints, mostly so that we would know what we need to discuss before we actually get married. The questions about our sex life were the ones that made us giggle the most, of course, since we’re apparently both only 12. But ones such as the questions about whether our future spouse had moodiness that was difficult to deal with made me cringe. What can I say, though? I’m a girl, after all. We weren’t built without moodiness issues, so Jesse can take that up with evolution or God or whomever he wants to blame for that problem.

Regardless, it was a fun activity that I appreciated over all. On the way home, we discussed some of the things that we could remember from the test that we had marked the “uncertain” circle for. I don’t know that he opens up to me as much as I do to him, sometimes, and it worries me. He thinks that we solve problems we have with each other well, and while he still has concerns about my perceptions on how he handles money, he thinks it’s getting better all the time. It was a productive evening, to say the least, and I hope that we can always communicate like this. I have some things I want to improve on in myself, but it still works pretty well over all.

Jesse hasn’t seen the church we’re getting married at yet, and I need to figure out how we can find a time to visit it when it’s open so he can check it out and see how beautiful it really is. I don’t know that he cares much, but it’s important to me that he sees how amazing the architecture is, and how beautiful our ceremony is going to be. Hopefully, I’ll have a holiday coming up relatively soon (does Memorial Day come between now and the 4th of July, maybe?) where we can take some time in the middle of the day and go check it out. (Ooh…I just checked the calendar and saw that St. Patty’s Day is on a Saturday this year. That’s gonna be one messed up day, I think. Not that this is relevant at all to what I’m talking about, but it was just something I happened to notice…)

So that’s what’s going on this week. I think we’ve pretty well decided on the DJ we’re going to use, so I need to get on that. I’m going today to look at a bridesmaid dress that I like, so I can check out the material and see if it will work on all the girls that are in the party. I wish I could try it on, but they only have it in a size 10 or 12, and that doesn’t work with my body unfortunately! We’ll see, though. Hopefully, it’s available in the stores that my maid/matron of honors are checking out pretty soon, so they can try it on. I hope. I love it, so I really want it to work!

I can’t believe that February is already here…this is going to be a crazy year, me thinks.

Walkin' arm in arm...

2007-01-31T07:06:00.000-08:00

Jesse has really gotten into this whole interior decorating thing with a ferver I didn't realize he would have for the subject. We got our new couch yesterday, and with that new couch, more space arrived as well. (Our old couch was a bit huge for the living room, which was one of the reasons we decided to go ahead and move on...) I'm interested in getting some "grown-up" bookcases for the living room which will hopefully hold most all of the books and things that we store on 3 different old-school Target put-together-yourself shelves that we have in several rooms of the house right now. One of them is in the bedroom. One of them is in the guest room/office/Jesse's closet room. And the third one is in the living room. I hate them, and always told myself that once I could afford real wood shelves, I'd go ahead and get rid of them.

So we went searching for a few items the other night at Nebraska Furniture Mart, which was fun. It was Jesse's first trip out there, and I had a great time with him as we ogled all the different stove/oven items they have on display, and wandered about talking about what we want to have in our next house for us to use. Of course our favorite model was the $6,000 jobbie that had one small oven next to the main oven, as well as 4 regular burners, a small simmering burner, and a built-in flat-top grill that was covered by a lift-off panel that kept it protected from any and all matter of splattering that might come from the other side of the stove. I was fine with this oven, though. I think it's my favorite...since we can't really justify spending $6,000 on an oven/stove, dammit.

Unfortunately, we didn't find any shelves that have a contemporary enough look for the direction our living room is headed. I'd love to get a set from Crate & Barrel that are actually well-suited to match our new couch, but they only come in a very dark finish that I'm afraid wouldn't match the wood we already have in the space. SO. I was planning on heading to Crate & Barrel this week during a lunch hour, since it's right down the street from the campus here, and seeing if they have the shelves we're interested in at the store so I can judge them in person. It's become a main discussion for us though, this simple interior remodel that we've been working on since we painted the living room back in June (or was it July? I don't remember exactly...), and when I told him my plan last night, he said he wanted to go, too. So now our Friday night date will consist of dinner and a trip to Crate & Barrel to look at the shelves they have in the store.

We also changed out a light in the kitchen that hangs over the sink area. We looked at several options at Home Depot the other night, and settled on a little sort of track-light thingy that has worked out really well. I don't think people realize (a) how easy it is to switch out things like light fixtures or (b) how very affordable a change it can be. The light we grabbed was less than $35. And instead of an old, crappy, institutional-looking flourescent light, we now have an up-to-date brushed nickle fixture with 3 very lovely (and wonderfully bright!) spot lights on it that we can aim all over the kitchen from it's spot near the window on the east wall. Jesse installed it yesterday, which I thought was fair since I had to change out the fixture in the bathroom when I moved into the house as a single girl some 3 years ago. We have three more lights we'd like to change...the bare bulb in the garage, the current hallway sconce, and then we'll be adding one over the stove, since all I have there now is a desk lamp that sets somewhat precariously on a shadow box shelf. It serves it's purpose, but Jesse doesn't like it, so he'd like to install a better light that runs on a switch installed in the wall. We'll be calling in the electrician for that project, I think. We just need to find the light, and I can move forward accordingly.

Anyway, we're all over making improvements and updating and getting the house in proper order for our plans to sell it in the year following the wedding. Jesse asked me why we don't just fix everything and then stay in the house for another 3 years or so, and I explained that I didn't plan on living in this house for longer than 5 years when I bought it, and I got a loan that fell in line with that plan. If we stay, I'll need to refinance, and if I'm going to just be getting a whole new loan, then I might as well get one for a whole new house.

Plus, we need another bathroom.

It's all good, though. Jesse needs a spot in the garage for his car, and I want a washer/dryer hookup that's inside the house instead of in the garage. He also thinks he'd prefer an oven that's in the wall instead of down low where we have to bend over (not as big a deal for me as it is for him, of course...), so there's that. And a basement...one we can convert into an entertainment room, if we can't find a house with one that's already been converted.

Lofty plans? Eh...if you take 'em all one step at a time, they aren't so bad. The next big project will be replacing the windows on the front of the house (I did the back of the house about a year and a half ago), so we can get the outside of the house painted. Thank goodness we have metal siding, so we don't have to paint the whole house...but the eaves and the trim and the windows all need to be scraped and re-painted before they rot clean away. That would suck.

Being a home-owner isn't much fun sometimes. But when it comes to updating and making things look pretty (again), PLUS having someone to help with it all that's as excited as I am about it, it certainly makes it more fun than it normally is.

I'll post some pictures this weekend of the living room, now that we have the new couch and the new lamp that I bought to go with it. It looks so awesome, it makes me tear up...

DJ's in this day and age

2007-01-29T09:35:00.000-08:00

I know it's weird for me to post more than once a month, but I thought I'd go ahead with it, just for kicks.

We're currently considering two different DJ companies for the wedding. While they're both local companies, one is part of a national company that handles DJ and videography services. It's hard to decide which one is the "winner" of our wedding, though, so I thought I'd go ahead and work it out here on proverbial paper...

First off, the locally owned company called me back first. The gentleman that left me a message had an awesome voice, and that was an instant plus for him. When I called him back, he was able to answer all my questions easily and he and his partner have the added plus of having already DJ'd an event at the location where we're having our reception, so that's nice. He understands what I'm talking about when I discuss the odd room shape, and where we think it'd be better for the DJ to set up for the evening, etc...

The other thing I like about him is that he has the partner that comes with him. They work together at the party, with one of them focussing mostly on setting up the future songs that will be playing, and the other one dealing with guest requests, announcements, and that sort of thing. Very cool.

The other company called me the following day. The guy talked a bit too fast for my taste (and I know that those who know me that are reading this are going, "Um, girlfriend? Yeah, ever had a conversation with you?" I know I speak really quickly, too, but I don't do it for a living, ok?), and had a packet he wanted to send me which he assured me would answer most of my questions. I still asked him some of the main ones I needed answered, and he did answer them without issue, but I felt like I was being rushed off the phone. Still, it's a national company, and they have phone numbers available to me of recent customers that I can contact for a personal reference on their services, so that's good. Their song list wasn't set up in as user-friendly a format as the other DJ I'd already talked to, but it still seems relatively comprehensive. They sent us a packet of info, as promised, which was pretty, but didn't answer all questions, but was still sort of helpful. It had a DVD in it that they wanted us to watch. It was boring, repetitive, and not too helpful over all.

Both DJ's charge about the same amount.

There was a 3rd DJ company that I contacted asking for info, but I never heard back from them, so they lose.

I'm leaning toward the 1st company that contacted me, not only because they were the quickest to respond, but because the guy was really well-spoken, answered all my questions patiently and completely, and I liked that he could send me info via e-mail, and didn't try to sell me something I wasn't asking for (namely the videography services that the second company apparently tries to upsell to all engaged couples, which I found annoying since we're not interested, but it was discussed anyway...). Jesse likes the idea of going with the first company as well, but I honestly don't know that he even cares. I need to discuss it with him more to get his take on it, I guess. We'll see.

Tonight, we'll be moving our old couch out into the garage where it will wait for it's pick-up tomorrow by the Federation of the Blind. We're receiving our new, more compact, more durable and sturdy couch tomorrow sometime between 9 and 11, and I can't wait! Now I'm obsessed with finding new bookshelves for the living room, which is proving a more difficult task than I had initially thought it would be. Had I thought about it when we ordered the couch, I have a feeling it would have been included in the one shipping charge that we were charged for the couch and the ottoman. Damn. So I'm trying to find something reasonable that won't cost another gazillion dollars to be delivered. (i.e. Pottery Barn has a lovely unit that costs another $150 on top of the purchase price for it's delivery. That's crazy...) I was hoping it wouldn't be this hard to find something, but I might have to actually go shopping in a store to find what we need. Depressing.

I'd best get back to work. I just found another thing that I might not be able to do, for some reason, and so my work continues to be in the form of having to find someone else who can do the job I need to do for me. It shouldn't be like this for much longer, thank goodness...

Happy Monday!

Here I am!

2007-01-23T07:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, I wish that Jesse would want to post something out here now and then, so as to keep things going, and also because he's a pretty entertaining guy. Oh well...

Last night, I spoke to one of the DJ's we're considering for the reception. Since we'll be having our cocktail reception on a different floor from the actual reception itself, we're going to make it easy on ourselves, and plug in an iPod to play music at that point in the evening. I still need to start making the list of the songs I'd like to play. I don't know if Jesse is planning on adding his input to that, but I hope so. Anyway, the DJ I spoke to last night seemed really nice, professional, and had a good voice. It sounded all DJ-ish, and stuff. :) But their price was kinda low which sent up a red flag for me. I'm going to talk to a couple more DJ's, and it's not like I'm looking for the most expensive option, by any means. I was pretty impressed by the guy I spoke to last night, actually...he answered all my questions the way I'd hoped he would, he didn't mind when I interrupted his little schpeal to ask questions that popped into my head, and he sounds like he and his partner would be really honed in on what Jesse and I want to have played at the reception, which is the most important part. It's a fun vendor to work with, I think...I'm glad that so far, my experience in talking with them is good. We'll see how things go with the other two...

My twin and our oldest best friend (a.k.a. the co-matron of honor) have been busily helping me consider dresses for the bridesmaids over the past few weeks, and we're hoping that they'll be able to get out and try some on sometime in the next couple of weeks, so we have a better idea of what's going to be our final choice. I'm hoping we can start the ordering process on them no later than March...which is only about a month and a half away, which is crazy, and I don't even like to think of how quickly the year is already flying by, so don't get me started! I know it seems strange to even think of things that way, seeing as it's still only January, but here's what happens: I sit and consider the possible dates for my two showers that need to happen (one in Cali and one here in Kansas), and I think to myself, "Oh, we have plenty of time...I'll wait for the twin to get back to me on that when she can." But then I start working things out and I realize that one of the months we're considering (i.e. June) is not 6 months away any more. It's only about 4 months away. And holy crap, it's almost February, and where did the time go, and when can we have the shower here in Kansas because people need to take time from work and make plans ahead of time, and then I need to make my plans for going home to Cali for the shower in July, and I still don't have my veil designed and ordered and when do we have to order the cake again? And it suddenly just starts flying all about...my brain goes on overdrive, and I have to stop and watch something on Food Network to calm myself down again, for chrissakes.

So actually, I try not to think about it all very much. According to the vendors I talk to (as well as my nifty little timeline of tasks provided by The Knot.com), I'm running perfectly on schedule for getting things done. So I can go ahead and focus on the tasks that need attention around the house, like finding someplace to donate our old couch to in order to make room for the new couch we've ordered. And contacting the yard guys to let them know that I do want to upgrade our service this year in order to include the aerating process they suggested we do in spring. And then finding someone to paint the outside of the house, since it's going to start rotting away if we don't get it done this year. And how can we find the best deal on a new heating/cooling system that we must replace in the spring as well?

I must say, it's a damned good thing I found a new job like I did. Because otherwise, we might be in a lo-hoooot of trouble this spring. Unfortunately, these are things that must be done, or we'd put them off some more. But we can't go without A/C this summer. Or heat next winter. And it'd be bad to let the house start rotting away, I think. Those are the most pressing issues, anyway. I won't even start on the fact that we want to replace our kitchen table with something smaller.

These things would be so much harder to deal with, even on just an emotional level, if I was still single and having to take care of it all on my own. Thank God for Jesse. Thank God for someone that can deal with my strange moods, my sudden needs and desires to kick things into high gear (and, consequently, my sharp downslides into exhaustion on a weekly basis), and my somewhat constant picking on everything from clothing being left on a chair in the living room to the issue of why I really like the doors to be locked, even when we're home. It couldn't have been better timed for him to come into my life. For him to become the most important thing to me above everything else. I was watching a Grey's Anatomy episode over the weekend...one from season 2, which I have been watching via DVD rental from Netflix this year since Jesse isn't a fan of drama series on t.v., so I kind of "gave it up" for him when we started seeing each other. The main character (Meredith) was having a bit of an issue with the fact that she couldn't remember the last time she'd kissed the man (Dr. McDreamy) she's in love with (who happens to be married, but she fell in love with him without knowing that, and then had to break up with him when she found out and he chose to work things out with his semi-estranged wife instead of choosing her, and this is one of the reasons Jesse doesn't like these sorts of shows...). And I don't know why, but it started me thinking about my first kiss with Jesse. And do I remember it? Yes...yes I do. It was a surprise kiss...one of those ones you don't see coming. We were next to my car in the parking lot outside the restaurant. It was at the end of our first date, I think (one of the only areas I'm fuzzy on, I'm afraid...), and we were talking a little bit as things wound down for the night. All of a sudden, he bent down and kissed me. It wasn't as though we were sitting there with the anticipation of the dreaded First Kiss That Usually Happens At The End Of The Date, or anything. We were just...talking. And he caught me off guard. And it was perfect, and fun...and I hope I'll always remember it.

There's your dose of sap for the month, my friends. Next time, I should have more info about the DJ's, possibly some exciting updates about shower plans and whether I need to look into renting chairs for the reception, and maybe even some more house stuff. Ta for now!

Pardon the interruption...

2006-12-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

I know it's been a while since I've posted on here. I have several excuses, ranging from holiday angst issues to deal with, to finding a new job, to dealing with the lack of routine, all of which really breaks down my blogging stride when it comes right down to it. Usually, I get to work in the morning, get all work-things in order and happy, and enter a blog post within about an hour of sitting down if I have something worth posting. Since I haven't had a regular job for the past month, I haven't had the regularity of a work schedule to work with in my daily activities, and when I'm not working, sitting down at the computer for any length of time isn't usually in the cards. Working out, playing with the dog, watching t.v., and hanging out with Jesse is what I generally focus on. I run errands, I visit with friends...the last thing I think about is blogging, writing e-mails, or surfing the net.

Which is weird, because it's a big part of what I do when I'm working!

But a part of the problem with working on the computer at home is the dog nipping at my feet and legs while I'm in the computer room trying to catch up on stuff. The only reason I've been able to type for this long is because she's found something outside that is exciting to her, and she's been leaving me be.

Anyway, I'm very sorry for the interruption in any kind of regularity we had with posting out here over the last few months.

In wedding news, I found a dress, we've booked the photographer, and my maid of honor (Twin) and co-maid of honor (best friend of myself and the Twin) are now blessed with the task of helping me find reasonable, pretty, and fun bridesmaid dresses. The next step is to start looking for a DJ, which should be fun. I'm waiting until after the new year, though...for obvious reasons.

So stay tuned, if you're still reading at all, and I promise that in the new year, I'll be posting more often and with more interesting info. (I hope!) Happy New Year everyone!!

Ummm...

2006-11-29T13:23:00.000-08:00

Are the photographers supposed to cost this much? Yikes.

Not much to update. As usual. :) I will be trying on the dresses this weekend, calling Dad to discuss the photographer thing tonight, and hoping that what they're charging is normal, and then the next step will be to buy the dress that I find to be the most perfect, book the DJ and order a cake. I'm hoping those last two things can wait a few months, though. I'm pretty sure they can.

Thank goodness I have a year to deal with all this stuff. Seriously, if I was dealing with looking for a new job, finding a dress, and having to talk to my dad about photographers/caterers/everyone else that wants money from us all at the same time, I don't know that I'd be able to pull it off. This way, at least I have something to look forward to every now and then, to fit between the nerve-wracking appointments for interviews.

I really, really need to find a cool job AND dress though, ok? So everyone put their ju-ju together out there for me and send me those cool vibes, will ya? Thanks!

Update to nothing...

2006-11-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I made appointments to go try on dresses, have two trusty girlfriends that will be accompanying me to help me figure out what looks good and what looks bad, and I'm so excited I could burst!!

I had lunch with one of the bridesmaids yesterday who happened to get married about 2 years ago, I think it was. It was before I knew Jesse, so I'm not sure, actually. Anyway, she advised me not to wait too long to pick out a dress. I've heard this from more people than I expected, actually. And it's not that I was waiting for any particular reason to go and look, I was just not ready.

And now that I am, it's like I've released every butterfly that could possibly exist in my belly when it comes to wedding-day jitters. I'm kinda worried that I won't look good in any dress, which is probably just a bit of my own self-consciousness creeping forward. I'm not usually a super self-conscious girl. But I've never tried on a wedding dress. Yeah, it's a bit intimidating it turns out. Just the thought of it is intimidating. What's wrong with me???

On other fronts, I've signed and sent the contract for the reception location, and now the caterer is asking me questions that I'm unsure of how to answer. We're working it out, though. I just don't feel like trying to decipher certain aspects of an event, such as how long the clean up should/will take, that isn't going to happen for almost a year! (The reception site has a very stringent policy on clean-up, and apparently the caterer warned that he will need to staff accordingly to make sure that the clean-up can happen in the time allotted, so we don't wind up running into surprise fees for OT on the space rental.) I asked the caterer to prepare his proposal with what he thought would work best, as he's been doing this sort of thing for MUCH longer than I have, and I trust him not to screw with us on it.

And the only thing I feel I'm behind on is contacting a photographer. That's kinda giving me a bit of heartburn, but I'll put it on the list for next week and get it done. December is going to be a busy month, I think. Between finding a new job, football madness, trying on the dresses, and decorating for the holidays, I don't know when I'll find time to eat and sleep!

Somehow, I think I'll figure it out, though...

This is new...

2006-11-03T08:45:00.000-08:00

I'm kinda in the mood to shop for dresses, suddenly. I don't know why. But I think I might need to call and make some appointments at places for early December.

We have the church set, as I've mentioned previously. We have the reception site set, although the contract hasn't been sent to us yet, but I followed up on that today so hopefully we'll be done with that by end of next week. The event planner at the Brewery suggested that I get a wedding planner for at least the day of our wedding, so I have someone specific to deal with all the vendors/issues/little things that pop up along the way. I thought about it and feel it's a good idea, so I might start meeting with someone about a month before the wedding, so we can make sure we're all on the same page, and then they can help with directing the DJ where to go on the day of the wedding, and make sure the cake is set up properly, and help my twin with the centerpiece set-up and all that good stuff. I also noticed that the chairs at the Brewery are unacceptable, so we'll have to rent some. Which sucks. But hey, we get free beer! Woo!

Next on the list of to-do's is to meet with the caterers. We have found that the caterers we want are available on our wedding date, which made us very happy, so now they're working up a proposal and should be getting back to us within the next 2 days here, I hope. I can't wait to see what they come up with!

But I'm definitely in the mood to start trying on dresses. Time to round up my super-honest girlfriends for a tip to a couple different salons, I think! As long as they can give me appointment times that don't interfere with football on Saturdays, of course. If not, then the search might have to be put off until January...we'll see!

Quick update for the week...

2006-10-29T19:40:00.000-08:00

Just an fyi, I might not be posting much here for a bit. Things are in an ugly place for me right now, and besides the bit o' depression and problems with needing to put on a happy face regardless of them all, I've lost my job, sprained my ankle, and USC fell to #9 on the BCS due to their absolutely fabulous loss to Oregon State last night.

I'm sure I'll be in the mood to update again sometime next week. I hope. Maybe after I figure out the job thing, anyway.

Thanks to those of you whove been reading lately!! I'll try to be more upbeat in my next post, I promise.

It's already happening...

2006-10-23T09:26:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was having a hard time at work, running on very little sleep (for me, anyway) and feeling the stress of my constant attempts to lose weight (which consistently go no where, and can be very frustrating/troublesome/tedious/etc, etc, etc...). So when Jesse didn't come home at his usual time on Thursday, and I wanted to go to bed since I needed to wake up at 5 on Friday to go workout, I sent him a text message to find out if he'd be home soon.

No response.

I waited 10 minutes, and called him at about 10:40. He was having a beer, he said. He was on his way out and would be home soon.

I have this thing about schedules...while I know that Jesse's isn't "normal" in any sense of the word, if he's going to be home later than usual, I'd expect him to let me know. Just call me quickly, or send a text if he has time. Not a big deal. It's what I do if I'm even running just 15 minutes late leaving the office, even though I know he probably couldn't care less if I get home at 5:35 instead of 5:20, like usual. I see it as a common courtesy kinda thing.

So as we laid in bed that night, we "discussed" the issue for a bit. I can tell when he feels like I'm being a harpy, nasty old thing, and I didn't like that my request for a bit of courtesy on his part was bringing out that kind of tone. After a while, we just agreed to continue the discussion the following night, since it was getting late, and we both had early mornings the next day. We squeezed each other's hands, wished each other a good sleep, and drifted off.

After work the next day, I stopped off at the Moose to meet him for a drink and sat with some friends while I waited for him to finish his day and join us. One of the friends said, "So, I hear you're getting a jump-start on your wifely duties, eh?" Obviously, Jesse had shared with the group prior to my arrival, and now I needed to deal with the fall-out. I know this friend was just giving me friendly jabs...he's been married before and it didn't turn out all that well, I suppose. I replied, "Oh, wait a minute...so one of the things I need to learn once I get married is to just forget about my expectations of any kind of common courtesy on my husband's part?" "Well, YEAH!" my friend said.

He's funny.

After further discussion at dinner, Jesse and I came to an amicable point on the issue, I think. I told him that, as always, I think it's fine for him to hang out when he's done with his shift, have drinks, talk with friends, and enjoy himself as much as he wants to. But just let me know when he's planning on doing that, so I don't sit up well past my bedtime waiting for him to relieve me of the puppy-watching duties and hoping to see him before I hit the sheets. Because, had I known that he was planning on sticking around for an hour after he finished on Thursday night, I would have popped the puppy in her kennel, and shut things down at about 10:00. But I didn't know. And so I sat up and wondered. (It also can be kind of a pain to put the puppy down at 10 if Jesse is planning on coming in at 11 or so, since it generally wakes her up, and gets her scratching at her crate door looking for attention from the other parent in her life...) And I hate it when that happens.

So it begins...the fun of people mocking us for being newlyweds, dealing with these little quirky things we still have yet to figure out about each other, and all that good stuff that's bound to happen over the next 3 or 4 or 20 years.

I'm up for it, though. Thank goodness I think Jesse is, too!

Still not much going on...

2006-10-06T13:38:00.000-07:00

This must be what it's like for a woman to be in the early stages of pregnancy. Nothing much happening for her except possibly some additional trips to the bathroom and the question of what to plan for this early, but still knowing that in about 9 (or in my case, 12) months, something BIG and life-altering will be happening. Unfortunately, when it's still such a far-off event, it's kind of a yawn-fest for everyone else to even think about!

This week, I had a review at work that included some complaints about my initial wedding-planning activities. It really pissed me off, to be frank, because (a) when else am I supposed to call vendors/churches/reception locations except during the week? They happen to have the same hours as me - 8 - 5 Monday through Friday. And from what I understand, they're usually kinda busy on Saturdays. And (b) the initial planning that I did do was very slight, involved calling 2 churches to see about their availability, sending out several e-mails to arrange to see certain reception locations, and didn't interfere with my work whatsoever. Now that I've found the church and the reception location, and possibly the caterer, I'm DONE with planning for now. And the whole comment that I got in my review about the office being "happy for [me]" and all, but that I needed to do wedding planning on my own time? Puh-lease. I asked my coworker if I needed to make up for the extra time I took during TWO LUNCHES when I went to see locations, and she told me not to worry about it. Apparently, our boss told her that if she's going to make decisions like that in the future, she needs to "check with [him] first." Mind you, this is a man that I'm not sure can even do laundry, he's always had someone else completing his tasks for him. I honestly don't understand where these uppity-ups come off telling their administrative staff that they can't take care of personal tasks - if they have the time to do so!! - while they're at work. Does he know how long I put off calling churches because my work schedule didn't allow me to? No. He's just heard that I was calling them, and that makes him angry. It really chaps my hide. I guess I should have had my personal assistant - a.k.a. our DOG - doing it all for me, right? Jeezy chreezy...

Aaaannnyway...:)

Work should be fine from now on, as the only tasks I need to complete in the next several months involves picking out my dress (will be doing that on weekends), picking out invitations (will also be doing that on weekends), registering (will eventually be doing that on a weekend...not soon, though), and all that good stuff. Jerks.

Jesse and I have a special wedding savings account that is slowly building up steam at this point in time. It's an account that can't be touched for anything other than using it for purchasing gifts for groomsmen and bridesmaids, for purchasing honeymoon tickets/paying for hotels, and that sort of thing. I'm hoping we'll have a decent amount of cash in there by the time another 6 months rolls by, but we'll have to see. He and I earn bonuses at such sporadic levels thanks to the funky businesses we're in, so while this next quarter promises to be really rather good to me, it's not so much to him. And Lord only knows what's gonna happen next year! We might have to cut out some of the date-nights we have...or at least change them up a bit so they're more stay-at-home dates, I guess. Those can be fun, too, right? But the point is that we're really making a very conscious effort to set aside a good amount of money each month, if possible, so that we can have a truly wonderful honeymoon. Because did you all know that the groom is supposed to pay for the honeymoon? Yeah, I didn't know that. And I would never ask him to bear the brunt of such an expense all on his own! That doesn't seem very friendly-fiance to me. we still don't know where we're gonna go, though. Someplace tropical...preferably that doesn't require the use of passports. That's what we're running on at this point. Suggestions are welcome. :)

Ok, I'd better get moving to finish up my work for the day. Just wanted to update a bit and get some stuff off my chest. Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Painted Living Room

2006-09-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Not much of anything going on on the wedding planning front. So I thought I'd post some info regarding the domesticity of mine and Jesse's lives together.

This past month has been focused on updating some areas of the house. One of those areas is the back porch, which unfortunately turned a random purple/rose color from the stain we chose. We're still working on fixing that, but the main thing is that the wood is protected out there, and that's all that matters. The other area that needed updating was the living room. The paint treatment on the walls started to look a bit tired and kinda dirty to me over the last 6 months or so, and it became clear that a change would be necessary. I've been planning for a couple of months, actually, and have been working on deciding on a new color for as long. With Jesse's help, we came up with a Behr color called "Classic."

Here is the living room before:
And here is the living room after:
Yes, I'm aware that it looks a bit pink. And to be honest, the color "Classic" does have some rose undertones to it that give it that appearance in some lights. But it looks really nice with the furniture, and the walls don't look dirty anymore, which is a really nice change in my opinion.

This weekend, I'll be rearranging the furniture and resetting all the knick-knacks and art so that they're in a new configuration, which should be fun. The room had been the same for the past 3 years, so it's nice to shift things about a bit finally. Change is good, right? Right!

Off to work I go. Check back next week for more updates on the exciting domestic antics of myself and Jesse! WOO!

Slow month, it seems...

2006-09-21T08:10:00.000-07:00

Still not much going on in the planning area. I've done everything I need to do at this point, and most other things need to wait a few months before they kick into gear. Right now, the main goal is to set up a specific spreadsheet of immediate expenses/deposits that are required to reserve spaces/caterers/send out "save the date" cards, and then I don't need to deal with anything until the day I find a dress to put a deposit down on. And that won't be happening for at least 3 months, I think.

The important thing is that we've found the church and reserved our wedding time with them, and we've also found a perfect reception spot, and we've been penciled in there as well. (Still working out the little details for the contract right now, and I hope to have it all in writing, in pen, by the end of October. Maybe earlier...we'll see.) The reception will be at The Boulevard Brewing Company. Unfortunately, they don't have the new space listed on their website just yet, since they only just opened the space officially last week, but I'm hoping to have a link to it up in the next couple of months. Or maybe y'all would like to be surprised when you first see it? Hmm...

My main struggle when it comes to the wedding planning these days is the distance between my father and I, as well as the issue of time. I feel like giving ourselves a whole year to plan is the most frugal and proper thing to do, considering that both Jesse and I work full time jobs (Jesse is even more than full time most weeks!), and are planning the wedding ourselves. Also, according to most planners, wedding websites, and venue managers, it's not abnormal to book spaces 9 months - 1 year in advance of the date of the event these days. Jesse has a coworker who is planning a wedding in a very short period of time...she got engaged mid-summer, I think, and she's planning her wedding for November of this year. She had a very hard time finding a proper venue that was (a) available and (b) affordable. When you limit yourself with time restrictions, you limit yourself otherwise as well. And I'm really glad that Jesse and I could both agree on having the wedding on a date that's as far out as it is, so as to give ourselves plenty of time to make sure we have the best celebration of our wedding we could ever imagine.

My father (and I hope he doesn't mind me talking about this...) and my stepmom planned their wedding in a relatively short amount of time, and due to certain circumstances, had to change the date at least once during the planning stages. With that experience behind him, he is extremely cautious about setting a date and putting down deposits on locations over a year in advance of the event. And I don't blame him! It's this sort of behaviour that I was exposed to when growing up that made me the no-nonsense, somewhat detail oriented kinda girl that I am today. (I hope to become even more detail oriented as I grow older and wiser...I can't really get any more no-nonsense about things, though. People might not like me much if I get worse on that end!) But the frustration remains when it comes to having to discuss these matters over the phone, with a man who can be sillier than I am when he wants to be, and without the ability to be face-to-face to discuss the details as quickly and efficiently as possible. It's my own fault for moving my ass to Kansas all those years ago, I know. But hey...if I hadn't moved to Kansas, I wouldn't have met Jesse! So there's the end to that argument. :)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find some reasonably priced "save the date" cards to order, so I can plan accordingly for the expense. Hope everyone is having a great week!

Oh joy.

2006-09-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I've discovered the truly fun part of being a bride in the 21st century...e-mail spam and phone calls from vendors soliciting my business. It's my own fault, I know...

I signed up about 2 weeks ago for a free wedding packet from KC Weddings, hoping that I could save a couple of bucks on having to purchase a magazine (which I received a free one of about 2 days later from one of the locations I visited, but I'm hoping that I'll receive a fall/winter magazine when they finally send one to me), and looking forward to receiving information about local vendors via e-mail and mail. The e-mail spam doesn't bother me, really. If I'm not interested, the "delete" key is only 2 inches from my main keyboard.

But on Tuesday, I received a call from an unknown number. I wasn't sure if it was my trainer at the gym finally getting in touch with me to set up our next appointment, or if it was someone calling to confirm my hair appointment a few days early, or what. I answered. It was some girl from a local bridal shop inquiring about my dress purchasing activities. First of all, they want to congratulate me. Nice. Secondly, they would like to know if I'd like to come in to look at dresses, or have I already purchased one? I had some questions of my own, too...how did they get my number? And did they realize my wedding wasn't for over a year? HELL no I don't have a dress yet!

I suppose that some girls will wear their mother's dress still these days. And perhaps there are those out there that would pick out a dress as soon as a whole year before they get married. Personally, I'm taking my time. I'd not only like to lose another dress size before I start shopping (I'm already down one size over the past 6 weeks...so I'm hoping that by the end of December I'll be in a size 14 - that should make it easier to try on more styles in more shops), but I've got other stuff on my mind right now. Finding the venue was one of them, and I think we've got that under control, but I'll know better at the end of next week. Still, it was just sort of shocking (and a bit annoying) to have someone call me out of the blue, in the middle of my work day, asking me about my dress-search activities. I managed to end the phone call without being too bitchy, explaining to the girl that their shop is actually on my list of ones to check out eventually, but that I wasn't going to start shopping until December. She thanked me for my time, and probably hung up hoping I'd lose their shop name and not come in to look for dresses there.

I don't like the feeling that I'm being rushed, and having these folks contact me before I'm ready for them is putting me right in that place, unfortunately. It's uncomfortable, and I don't like it. I can't WAIT to go look at dresses...but just not yet. It's not time. I hope the other stores will respect that concept, and hold off on calling me for a while.

In other news, the church is booked, and the deposit has been paid. The lady that helped me is really nice, and she's apparently the one that deals with most of the wedding planning stuff for the church outside of the priest that we'll be dealing with and who will be marrying us. When I went in to drop off the deposit, she gave me a little packet of information to take with me (basic rules about who they can allow to get married there, and what to expect, and how much it costs, etc...), and she offered me a second packet "to give to [my] mom..." I told her that it wouldn't be necessary. Actually, I think I said, "Oh, my mother is deceased." (I've been saying that a lot lately. To the priest, to certain location coordinators, now to this woman...seems that everyone expects a bride to be doing all this stuff with their mother!! I guess that would make sense, really, if my mother were alive of course. But even in that case, she would be in California...not very convenient for the wedding planning stuff, in my opinion.) The woman said, "Oh, I'm sorry!! My mom's deceased, too, so I understand how you must feel to have people saying that to you." I told her it wasn't a big deal, and she gave me the packet anyway, so I can pass it on to whomever else I have helping me out with certain stuff like dealing with church details (probably going to send it to my twin, so I can have a second brain helping me remember things like when we have to be done with pictures within the church, and what we can use as decorations inside the church itself). It's just funny to me, I guess. I know that a lot of people perceive my age as being much younger than it actually is, and while that's a nice thing, it still causes little hiccups like this now and then, and makes other people feel uncomfortable and excuses need to be made, and it's just a big mess sort of.

But that's ok. Because I have a wonderful stepmom who's willing and ready to help me in any way she can, and a new mother-in-law-to-be that is exactly the same way, and while it's inconvenient to be as far away as I am from the both of them (one in California and one in Indiana), I surely will be taking them up on their offers if I need to!! And I'm sure that mom's here with me too. I know she is, in fact. And for that, I'm always grateful...

Happy weekend everyone! (Go Trojans! Go Irish!)

Clearer and clearer...

2006-09-12T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it's starting to pay off, all these fabulous fun visits to different venues meeting different salespeople/coordinators, seeing the spaces they have to offer and hearing how much they can do for us and all that good stuff. I think that both Jesse and I have a much better idea of just what will make us happy, and what will make our celebration a special one...outside of the whole getting married thing, I mean. :)

Meeting with the priest at Redemptorist went well last night. He told us that we need to come in and fill out a little "compatibility questionaire" that he will then "score" on his computer, so as to give us something interesting to talk about at our next meeting, I'm sure. In the mean time, we need to put the deposit down on the church (no credit cards, dammit! Not fair...) to reserve the date, and then we'll be meeting with him again a couple of times over the next few months, and planning to go to an engaged encounter weekend sometime as the wedding date approaches. Jesse will likely have to take some time off for that, but hopefully he'll have some to spare at that point anyway, as we'll both be building up some off-time over the next year for our honeymoon, I think.

Now if I could just figure out who the heck I'm supposed to invite from my office, I'd be in a better spot. Thankfully, the location that is #1 on our list right now isn't as tight as the others we've looked at with regards to space for guests, so I'm thinking that the original total of guests isn't completely out of the question. Budget-wise, it might throw things off, though. Shoot...hadn't thought of that! Back to the drawing board!

Tonight...

2006-09-11T11:32:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we meet with a priest at Redemptorist. Jesse has agreed to go through whatever he needs to go through in order to let me have the Catholic wedding I've always hoped to have. Now I just need to call and see if they take credit cards when it comes to the deposit I need to make to save the date and time they have available...

A little over a year to go

2006-09-07T18:58:00.000-07:00

This week has been considerably better than last in some ways, and not so much in others. I feel like I'm in a hurry, hurry, HURRY to get certain things done, but then I sit back and think about the amount of time I have and I wonder if I'm overreacting and being silly about it all. Then I read little blurbs in magazines or online about how I'm right on track with what I should be doing, and I feel a bit better.

Today, I finally nailed down base budgets for 3 different places, and feel like I can call and have a real conversation with my dad now. The budget is based mostly on what I've learned from 3 different venues, what they have to offer, and then the additional costs that I can figure out on my own for now. I have an idea of what the dress will cost, but as for alterations and the veil and stuff? Dunno. My twin really wants to do the flowers, and has assured me it won't be a pain (I want her to come into town and have a good time without having to worry too much about details like decor, you know?), but I haven't the first clue what they might cost, so I'm not even adding that into my budget. Basically, I've looked up a couple of DJ's, photographers, cake creators, and seen a wide variety of dresses, and I've based my numbers on those sorts of things, putting in an average number for most items.

It hasn't been easy. But then again, not a lot of big purchases I've made over the past 4 years have been, so why should this be any different, I wonder?

Jesse has been really kind and supportive over the past couple of weeks, helping me in the kitchen even after he gets home from a grueling 11 hour day in his work kitchen, and trying to keep me on track with my new eating plan. (I started the eDiets.com Glycemic Impact "diet" about 5 weeks ago, and have really loved it so far. The only problem is the amount of preparation it requires for meals the next day, but I've found that making large amounts of certain meals ahead of time, like I did this last Sunday, saves me money, time, and from spending nights bent over the stove instead of doing what I really love - like doing laundry and watching t.v.)

As up and down as my mood swings have been, we've really been doing well when it comes to talking about our plans, both for the wedding as well as our life beyond that. (I'm quite tired of his jokes about children and stuff, though. Ok, not really...the way he kids with me about children really shows me how well he knows me. It's funny and endearing at the same time!) Last night, while discussing the issues he has (yet again) with the amount the food costs at the Hotel Phillips, I turned to him and told him, "PLEASE! Stop thinking about money...leave that up to me and my dad." After I paused for a moment, stirring my ground turkey and salsa concoction in the saute pan on the stove, I turned to him again and said, "You don't understand, do you? I thought I would have to wait until I was like, 65 to meet you! I have been waiting for this for a LONG TIME, and we're going to throw a party to celebrate it that will make us happy as hell!" He just stopped and said, "Can I get a hug then? I think we both need a hug." And he was right. :)

So. Budget is coming along, my mood swings are right on track, it seems, finding time to plan and work my regular job is proving to be a bit of a challenge (it's been hard to focus at work, and this week really proved to me how crappy I've been at keeping up with everything since the proposal, unfortunately...I'm hoping to remedy that over the next week or so), but it's all working out. For now, anyway. Makes for a boring blog, I'm afraid, but hey, I'm sure that'll change with time...

Catching up...

2006-09-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a couple of days, and I'm sorry...work is busy this week, so I've been pretty tied up.

Not much is going on anyway. Jesse and I went and saw another location on Tuesday, and it's one that I love, but it poses some problems. Jesse is focussing on food costs, and is having a hard time listening to me when I ask him to stop it. (Since he's a chef, he simply can't stand seeing how much places are charging for items like prime rib or filets...) At a more expensive location, such as The Hotel Phillips, food is gonna cost more than it would at, say, the golf club we looked at over the weekend. Yeah, different quality product, I would imagine...so we need to accept that, and see if we can find a menu option that will give us the most "bang for the buck" so to speak. It's a really beautiful location, but we're still keeping an open mind, and trying to check out at least 3 or 4 more before we settle into one place as being the target location to go to my dad with.

I also spoke to the DJ company that most everyone recommends, and have an idea of how much that'll cost, so that's nice. Now I just need to see about a photographer, and I'll be right on track with giving a base budget to my dad to look over.

We're also meeting next Monday evening with a priest at a church I'm highly interested in having the ceremony at. They have the date and time available, but now we just need to see if we fit the other requirements they migt have for us. Cross your fingers for me! It's a really beautiful church...apparently, it has the longest center aisle in all of Missouri! Which is good, because I really like keeping people in suspense, and having a long walk down towards the altar will definitely help with that...

I'll be able to post more later, I think, but right now, work is calling yet again! Sorry for the short and crummy posts I've been putting up...it'll get better, I'm sure. Especially after I start looking at dresses in a couple of months! Yikes!!! :)

Change of plans...

2006-09-05T08:22:00.000-07:00

We've changed our projected wedding date to October 27, 2007. Jason (a.k.a. the friend of Jesse's that allowed him to propose to me at his wedding a couple of weeks ago...) called on Friday night to let us know that October 20, 2007 is the date that USC and Notre Dame will be playing each other in South Bend.

First of all, I really wish that those teams would get it together. Last year they played in October, this year they play in November, next year they play in October again...c'mon guys! Let's be consistent, shall we?

Second of all, this is not that big of a deal. Apparently, the leaves look prettier later in the month anyway, and that's part of the reason I wanted the wedding to be in October in the first place, so we're still good.

Sorry for all the confusion!

Jesse and I went to see the golf club venue option on Saturday this past weekend, and it seems that Jesse didn't like it much. While it isn't ideal, it is still an option. It's really pretty, and has a great deck off the main room where people can go to smoke, hang out, etc..., while still remaining in plain sight which is helpful and important. But the separate space for kids to descend to after a certain point in the reception would be behind a curtain, and that's not really what he and I want, so much. So we're still looking, and I've contacted several new places for info already. We'll see what happens.

Ok, back to work I go! Hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend...

Short Day

2006-09-01T06:58:00.000-07:00

Today looks like it's going to turn into a short day for work, so I think this afternoon I'll be calling churches and finding out the info I need to know. Finally!

Jesse and I will be going to the golf club tomorrow morning to see what it has to offer, and I'm honestly thinking it might work out better than the other choices I've been looking at so far. We're both interested in finding a venue that has an attached terrace or patio that people can go out on to get air, have a smoke, just look at the night sky, etc...And the venues downtown that I've looked at don't have that option, unfortunately. Yesterday, I went to visit The Clubhouse on Baltimore, and it is lovely. Very pretty rooms, very pretty building, and right smack in the middle of a very good area of downtown. Tons of hotels around it, plenty of parking available (especially after the construction clears for the H&R Block headquarters that is about a block away from the location), and in general a really top notch choice. Except it doesn't have any place for people who smoke to go and do their thing. They'd have to go outside the front doors, and that doesn't work for me. I want people to be able to relax and have a nice place to hang out, and not to have to leave their drinks inside to go stand by the street and have a cigar or cigarette. Especially since the groom is such an avid smoker, I'd hate to keep losing him throughout the night and have to go downstairs to find him for the cake cutting or the first dance or to do whatever. So I'm afraid that one might be off my list. Lovely place though...

This is helping, though. Going to see places and checking them out, seeing what they have to offer...it's opening my mind to other possibilities. And, it's fun. I can't wait to see how it all turns out!

Happy Friday everyone!

Ookaaayyy...

2006-08-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Last night, Jesse and I sat down to look over the menus for the Hotel Phillips, and after doing the math, we figured out that having the reception there would cost us a minimum of $20,000 - $25,000. That's just for room rental, food, and drinks.

Yeah, I'm thinking that might not work out. Unless I decide to wear jeans instead of a dress, pick some widlflowers for my bouquet, and have people take pictures with their digital cameras and send them to me later via e-mail. Oh, and we can all hum songs as we dance instead of having a DJ. And we'll be eating my famous brownies (from a box mix!) instead of an actual wedding cake, but I'm sure I can figure out how to make that work between now and the actual wedding date.

No. Maybe not. I'm kinda looking forward to wearing a really pretty dress...

HOWEVER, I do intend on reserving a block of rooms there for the wedding, depending on where we wind up for the ceremony and venue of course. In October this year, their basic room prices are at $129, which is totally reasonable when compared to other hotels in the area, and it's such a lovely little place.

I'm going to keep tweaking it to see how I can/if I can get it to work out, but it really might not come together. It'd take a LOT of extra planning to get it there (and a LOT of cutting of the guest list, too), so I really don't think it'd be worth it in the end. We'll see...

Blow number 1 to my wedding planning ego...

2006-08-30T09:28:00.000-07:00

The Hotel Phillips in downtown KC. I haven't looked at it yet, but I still think that it would be my number 1 choice for venue (their menus look AMAZING!), and it's not big enough to handle the sit-down dinner Jesse and I want to have.

Shoot, shoot, shoot...

Actually, it can accomodate the number we'll probably end up with, but it'd be all funky, with the dance floor in one room, the game room in another spot, and the dinner on a totally different level of the hotel. Which would mean a need for 2 DJs. I don't know...maybe it'd work. I don't know, I don't know...It could be neat, I suppose. I'm just gonna have to go look at it, I think, so I can have a better picture in my head of how it'd all break down.

I start visiting venues tomorrow! Jesse would rather skip the visit to the golf club on Saturday morning so he can try to work earlier so he can finish up earlier and sit down to watch the Notre Dame game with me after he's done in the kitchen. That's fine with me. (Even though we have TiVo and can record the game and watch it on Sunday night, which I probably would want to do anyway as the USC game is on at the exact same time as the Notre Dame game on Saturday night and it's gonna be hard to focus on both games at the same time, but whatever. Boys are silly sometimes...)

I'm feeling better today than I did yesterday. I got a lot of sleep last night (a whole 7 hours!), had a fun morning dropping the puppy off for her snip-snip appointment - and no, I don't mean a haircut, and a coworker is buying lunch today because I hauled a bunch of cases of beer (with the help of my co-admin here at the office) to a 4th floor open house they were throwing at one of their properties last night. So yeah...so far, so good. Hopefully I'll have time to contact all the churches on my list sometime this afternoon! I'll keep y'all posted on what I find out...

Week 2 - Only 52 more weeks to go!

2006-08-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

Today's challenge is to find the time to contact a church regarding performance of the ceremony. Right now, I do not attend any particular church on a weekly basis, as I have been "saving myself" (in a way) for the proper community. I love our neighborhood...I really do. My neighbors are awesome, we look out for each other, we're in a fabulous location in the city, and our street just got re-paved. Gotta love it. However, when I moved in 3 years ago (pre-Jesse, of course), I had only planned on staying in the house for a maximum of 5 years, and got a home loan accordingly. The biggest question looming over my little life prior to the proposal was should I sell the house first, or should we get married first? I knew that I wanted to marry Jesse, and I knew that I wanted to sell the house. Preferably, I would be able to do both in 2007 sometime.

And I can almost hear the shaking of the heads out there as people think exactly what I thought immediately after asking myself that question every few days or so. I would say, "Self? Can I sell the house in the summer if Jesse and I plan on getting married in October?" And Self would answer back with a resounding, "HELL no!" It would be insane. There is no way that I would escape institutionalization after attempting to do both things in the same year, so plans sort of made themselves after I resolved that battle within myself.

Annnnyway....so we'll be living in the house for a bit longer than I anticipated when I originally bought it. But I also love the neighborhood a bit more than I anticipated, and I also hate the house a little more than I anticipated. It's a big mess, really, so let me scoot along to my original point.

I never started going to the Catholic church down the street because I didn't want to start in as a member of the community without knowing that I was going to be there for a long while...like, at least 10 years kind of long while. Some of you may not know this about me, but I've moved around a bit. Ok, actually, I've moved around A LOT since I originally started college and moved out of my parents' home back in 1992. I've lived in Malibu, West L.A., Kansas City, Overland Park, San Diego, Chicago (when I was traveling for work), Northern California, Boston, and back in Overland Park again. Since I've been back in this area, I've only moved 3 times, but each time has taken me to a new church community boundary, meaning that I would have had to change churches 3 times since 2000, and that just gets soooo old after a bit. If I could have picked up my church in Boston and brought it with me for my last 3 moves, I would have. I loved it there.

Hey. Can I have the ceremony in Boston, and then have the reception in Kansas City? Wouldn't that be fun?! No? Whatever...party poopers.

So that's that. I've moved a lot, and I was tired of switching from church to church, and basically stopped attending regular mass back in 2000. I'm still big into my faith and love being a Catholic, and completing my next sacrament (i.e. marriage...since Jesse saved me from becoming a nun at some distant point down the road) is important to me. Unfortunately, the church that we live "within the boundaries of" isn't my style. (Family members, it reminds me of St. Bruno's. Yeah...it's that cool...) Jesse doesn't like the looks of it from the outside (I tend to agree for the most part), and I've never been inside it, so I don't know what to expect. They have an enormous mural of something...not sure if it's Mary or Jesus, to be quite honest...above the main entrance, and it just looks gaudy to me. I'm sure it's a lovely little community of people, but I can't bring myself to be that interested in wanting to get married there is the thing. It's last on my list.

I'm feeling a little bit uncomfortable contacting churches that I don't belong to, asking them if they will let me marry my currently-agnostic fiance at their altar, and trying to figure out all the fun details that go along with that question.

What it's looking like is going to happen is I'm going to have to accept the fact that I will likely have to have a ceremony someplace other than in a Catholic church, and that adds another fun dimension on to the scouting of the reception venue! AND does that mean we can have a pretty huppah over us and Jesse gets to step on and break a glass at the end of the ceremony? That always looks like so much fun. It's like, "Yeah! We're done! Now let's break things and get this party started, yo!!" (Although I'm sure it has a different meaning from that interpretation all together...it's kinda what I hear in my head when I see it on t.v.)

So. That's what's happening today. I have two appointments this week to look at locations, one of which Jesse will be able to attend with me I hope, and then I'm working on a third for hopefully another day this week or early next. One is a specific location just for events like meetings and weddings, another is a golf club that I've always admired and thought of as a possible location for my eventual wedding, and the third is this really cool looking, very elegant and yet relaxed "boutique" hotel downtown. Which happens to be across the street from the first location.

This is fun an exciting, I swear. But these first couple of weeks of the whole thing have been a little overwhelming, to say the least. Stay tuned for more fun updates...