Sunday, May 31, 2009

Movie Night

As if I didn't have enough things to worry about, now I have to fear abduction and sale into prostitution by Albanian thugs the next time I'm having a jolly holiday with girlfriends in Paris.

Hiding under the bed with a cell phone used to be my fail-proof plan to avoid the kidnappers, but clearly, I'll need to rethink that one.

Thank you Liam Neeson and the producers of Taken... thankyouverymuch.

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Saturday, May 30, 2009

Worst. Honeymoon. Ever.

Just sending out an e-vite to my pity party. This time last Saturday, NavyGuy and I were dancing the night away at our wedding reception, having the time of our lives.

Oh what a difference a week makes.

Obviously, because the Navy aims to rule his (and my) life, we couldn't take a honeymoon after the wedding. And as punishment for his absurd request to have two days off for his wedding, his squadron has had him pulling 12 hour days all week long, capped off with a watch duty this weekend. So, our first week as newlyweds has featured the following gems:

- Arriving home to find a trashed house courtesy of our idiot roommates.

- Barely getting to see my new husband at all.

- Having stomach issues all week, probably as payback for actually getting through wedding weekend without any major intestinal drama.

- Finding dead moths, and one live spider, in our bathtub.

- Going the entire week without my engagement ring or wedding band because the twits who fixing the rings are taking their sweet time getting it finished.

- Spending two hours putting together a storage cabinet, only to discover that I nailed the back panel on inside out, so when you open the cabinet doors, you get a beautiful view of tacky grey cardboard.

- Discovering that NavyGuy was awoken at midnight last night for a duty call, and then was treated to an impromptu RockBand concert by our roommates and their drunk compadres at 1am. (God bless it, I slept through all the drama, or there would have been a drum set and guitar thrown through the livingroom window.)

And to top it all off, there's something wonky with my right pinky toe. It doesn't quite feel broken, but something is wrong with it.

Here's hoping Week 2 of married life is slightly more enjoyable!!!

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Thursday, May 28, 2009

Book Review: Standing By (Part 1)

Standing By: The Making of an American Military Family in a Time of War
Alison Buckholtz
c2009; 286 pages.

I found this book in a local bookstore right before I left to go back to Wisconsin for the wedding. It caught my eye because the author is the wife of a Navy aviator, living here in Anacortes! Her husband, Scott, is a CO (commanding officer) of a Prowler EA-6B jet squadron at the Whidbey base where NavyGuy does all of his training. Quite the small world, and I became really excited to read her story of her life here in Anacortes, with two young children, while her husband was deployed. Having a few other things to do during the month of May though, I didn't start reading it until the flight home this week.

And let's just say, that aside from unpacking and sleeping, I pretty much have done nothing else but read this book since we've arrived home. I think it was fitting that my first book as a Navy wife, was one written by a Navy wife that could literally be living down the street for me (no, I haven't Googled her or stalked her... yet). The book was fantastic, and I'd highly recommend it to other Navy wives. Even more so, I'd encourage people who know someone connected to the military to read it, as it gives a new perspective on what it means to be a military wife. As Buckholtz illustrates, there is no one "cookie-cutter" mold of a Navy wife.

Instead of giving an overview of her story, or doing a typical book review, I've simply decided to cull the quotations, paragraphs, or ideas Buckholtz wrote that struck a chord with me. Many of my friends and family struggle to understand how or why I've chosen to take this path - the rewarding and excruciating role of a Navy wife - and many of these sentiments will hopefully provide a bit of insight... (Where I felt so inclined, I've included comments afterwards in blue.)

But if it had been up to me - the person I used to be, that is - Scott never would have volunteered for military service.
We both recalled an admonition from a senior officer at a precommand tour training: "What you're about to go through can make you stronger if you have a good marriage, and if you don't... well, it just might break you." [As a newlywed of five days, this sent a chill through my spine, despite my confidence in our relationship.]
Since I married into the military, every soldier and sailor is my husband.
The Prowler community is small enough that aviators and their families are posted together many times during their careers. I finally understood why Scott never liked to say goodbye to his friends... "I'd spend all my time having goodbye lunches and goodbye dinners and promising to keep in touch, which would just be a lie," he explained once. "No one keeps in touch, but you always see each other again. You know you will, and you just pick up where you left off. It's great. You never get a chance to get tired of each other."... Staying connected to people from every phase of my life is important to me because it helps me feel like I accomplished something meaningful during those periods. So Scott's theory on friendship didn't resonante with any of the truths I held near and dear.

I understood then that I couldn't do what I admire and respect most about the Navy wives I know: I couldn't pretend I didn't mind that my husband was rarely around or that my kids weren't suffering. [I will probably suck at this too. Hence why we're still debating whether to wait until he's done with his Navy career to start adding to our family.]
The Navy intruded on our most personal decisions at every turn.

The complexity of being a military wife - following a spouse who rarely stays put, and parenting alone - sometimes forces the choice to stay home... Before I married into the military, I would have viewed these unemployed spouses far less sympathetically, as women who required someone else to take care of them. Little did I realize that military wives know better than most how to take care of themselves, their families, and anyone in need.

I draw the line at compulsory cheerfulness, though. "In a letter to your fiance or husband be careful not to unburden your soul or to write needlessly of unhappiness or misfortune," urge the authors of The Navy Wife; What She Ought to Know About the Customs of the Service and the Management of a Navy Household (1942). Many of my friends still practice this epistolary evasion so that their deployed husbands won't worry about the homefront... But I asked Scott before he left for each detachment and deployment how much he wanted to hear of our domestic dramas. "Tell me everything," he said each time. "I want to come home and pick up where we left off. Besides, if it would make you feel better to write to me about it, then I want you to feel better. It's the least I can do." [I feel this way, but I'm not sure where NavyGuy stands.]

It was my life because he was my life. [I haven't decided on this statement yet. Should he constitute "my life"? I don't know yet if that's the way I view a marriage...]

More to come tomorrow...

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WeddingBee Love!!!

Yea!!! I uploaded a photo to the WeddingBee gallery, where readers can share their wedding photos, and they picked mine as a Gallery Photo of the Day!!!!

Check it out here - I'm so excited! And even better, it's a photo showing off my super fly bridesmaids :)

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Sneak Peeks!

I'm still working on unpacking and organizing life around here. Marines #1 and 2 trashed the place while we were gone, so along with unpacking, doing laundry, and sorting wedding gifts, I got to clean the kitchen and livingroom. The boys also used push pins to secure blankets as makeshift window treatments in the livingroom, and moved a scary piece of exercise equipment (which seems to resemble some sort of back stretcher?), into the office, blocking the doorway and access to my craft table. They'll be dealt with appropriately tomorrow...

In the mean time, our fabulous photographer Dave posted a few photos from the wedding on his facebook page. Here are a couple of my favorites so far!



All photos from Dave Watkins at Narella Studio.

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Monday, May 25, 2009

NavyGirl becomes...

NavyWife!

We're back from the wedding - it was unbelievable. I never imagined it would be as wonderful as it was... there'll be full updates (and tons of photos) as soon as I finish unpacking and get life back in order around here!

Back to our regularly scheduled programming soon!

Love,

Mrs. NavyGuy

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Signing Off

This will be the last post pre-wedding.  The last single girl post :)  At the moment, I'm frantically trying to pack a bazillion things into two suitcases, finish thank you notes to people, and deal with the fact that there's a 60% chance of thunderstorms on wedding day (yes, I know I should put on my big girl pants and get over it cuz I'm marrying the love of my life that day, rain or shine, but dammit, I want pretty outside photos and no worries about getting wet - or struck by lightning).


So, the next time you hear from me, I'll be a married old lady.  We've been planning this event for over a year and a half, and I'm still in denial that it's really finally here.  It's comforting to know that regardless of what goes haywire in the next few days - NavyGuy and I will be Mr. and Mrs. NavyGuy by 3:30 on Saturday afternoon.  Wish me luck, love, and serenity for the next 72 hours... 

... and pray the weather folks are smokin' crack. :)

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

3 Days!!!

Off to Madison to pick up NavyGuy!!!!  We're spending the day running errands and finishing up the last minute wedding details, and I'm psyched to see him - I've almost forgotten what my groom looks like!  Hopefully he won't be too tired from his red-eye flight...


And thanks to my friend Miss Kewi (meteorologist to the stars), I have a new site to check for the weather updates!  According to NOAA...  

Saturday: Partly sunny, with a high near 72. Calm wind becoming east between 5 and 10 mph. 

HOORAY!!!  Thanks Kewi :)

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Tuesday, May 19, 2009

A Small Wedding Break

Before I came back to Wisconsin at the end of April, I made several cards that I knew I would need throughout the month of May. One cousin needed a congrats card for his performance in a play, another cousin needed a First Communion card, and moms would need Mother's Day cards. Because I made them early, I had to wait to post the photos, and of course with all the wedding madness, it slipped my mind. Well, during one of the eighteen times I woke up last night with a random thought (make sure you have safety pins to attach the bridesmaids' sashes to their dresses, where did you put that piece of paper with the name of so-and-so's guest, don't forget to bring a zip up shirt to wear while you're getting your hair done on Saturday!), I remembered the cards, and figured some of you may appreciate a small break from the constant wedding posts...

Here's the one for the budding actor. Cousin K was in his school's performance of "School House Rock," so I thought the sentiment was fitting ;) The letters are foam stickers from the Target dollar spot, and I made the stars using a basic shapes Cricut cartridge. I really like the black background, cuz it makes the neon-y colors pop!


Cousin SL had her First Communion, and looked like a doll in her little white eyelet dress. She even managed to down a chocolate covered donut after church without getting a bit of it on her dress! (I'm not sure her mom was thrilled that MOH and I got her the doughnut, but what are older cousins for if not to get you into trouble...) The butterfly is Martha Stewart punch, and the orange cross is just a free-hand drawing I did. It turned out simple and clean.

I LOOOOOOVE this blue-ish paper. It's from a SEI company pack that I found on sale at Michaels. Again, butterflies from Martha, and a (cheater) sentiment printed on the computer. The colors and font seemed kind of retro to me (like 1950s ish maybe?), but it seemed to work, and seemed to please the moms. The design layout came from Clean and Simple blog.

Sorry - one wedding related item: weather for Saturday - partly cloudy, and 73 degrees! We're slowly but surely creeping upwards temp wise! (I'm choosing to ignore the weather.gov report that indicates a slightly higher chance of rain Saturday night.) (Yes, I'm checking two weather sites, and soliciting forecast information from every person I know, or see at a store, or run into on the street.)

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Monday, May 18, 2009

Frenzy

Weather Update

Saturday's Forecast - we're up to 72 degrees, partly cloudy, 10% chance of rain.

I stayed up until midnight stamping programs because around nine last night I had a burst of energy; I woke up at 6:15 this morning with a burst of energy.  I'm not stressed or nervous or worried - just frenetic.  Bursting with energy to accomplish all of the remaining tasks so that by 5:30 Thursday night, I can start enjoying myself at my bachelorette party, and sail smoothly into the festivities on Friday, and the big event Saturday.  I have absolutely no clue where this sudden energy and drive is coming from, but I'll take it, cuz there's still lots to do, and my brain keeps jumping from item to item.  Is this what it feels like to be on drugs?  

Oh!  Grandpa has all his front teeth again.  Huzzah!

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Sunday, May 17, 2009

Nothing left to do but...

check the weather.


Every couple of hours.

Cuz, you know - the forecast might have changed.

As of 9am Sunday morning, the prediction for wedding day: partly cloudy, 69 degrees, 10% chance of precipitation.

Weather.com and I are gonna get real friendly this week...

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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Wedding Karma

While I was shopping on Thursday, I ended up going to Hobby Lobby twice.  The first time, I bought 50 sheets of cardstock for the wedding programs.  A young girl rang up my purchases, and with the paper being 29 cents each, I was expecting to fork over around $20 (I had a few other items in the mix as well).  Lo and behold, she asked me for $9 and some change.

I thought it seemed odd, but I went with it.  Maybe I hadn't noticed sale signs by the paper or something.  So I took my bags and headed for the car.  I went on to the next errand, but kept thinking back to the Hobby Lobby purchase.

Finally, I checked the receipt.  Dang.  The girl had charged me for 5 sheets of paper instead of 50.  

And then, the moral conundrum began...

Angel on one Shoulder: You know you need to go back to Hobby Lobby and fix this.

Devil on the other Shoulder: But it's not your fault that the sales girl goofed!

Angel: The right thing to do is correct the mistake and pay for the 45 sheets of paper that you basically stole from the Hob Lob.

Devil: But that's at least $10 you've saved, and every penny counts now that we're getting this close to the wedding.

Angel: If you don't take that paper back and fix this mistake, it WILL rain on your wedding day.

And so, of course, I took the paper back, coughed up the correct amount of money, and convinced myself that my moral act will spare me from any precipitation come wedding day. I'd feel foolish admitting this, except when I told my mother the story, she said the "it will rain on your wedding day line" before I even finished the story... so clearly I come by my superstitions honestly.  Anyone else feel a little superstitious about the big day?

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Progress!

1. Finish shopping for ring bearers and flower girl.  Check.  This one was easy-peasy.

2. Locate super hot heels for rehearsal dinner, that are not only comfortable, but make my calves look thinner than my thighs.  Eh, sort of.  Found some nice blush colored heels at Kohls, which fit my criteria of comfortable and cheap.  They're more along the lines of sophisticated rather than hot, but such is life.
3. Locate appropriate bachelorette party outfit.  Score!  We're doing a girls' dinner and then a sleepover party at my MOH's house, so I just needed a schnazzy top to go with jeans and cute shoes.  Macy's came through with a gauzy, floaty sleeveless top (I can't for the life of me find a photo online) - on sale!
4. Stock up on tape runner refills which (of course) are mysteriously out at the Wal-Mart in town.  Check.  Five more refills ready to finish up all of the last wedding DIY projects.
5. Return the three pairs of shoes that Mom isn't going to wear at the wedding.  Check.  
6. Round up the remaining gifts for the groomsmen.  Um, 1 for 5?  No worries though, because the remaining four can be purchased in town.
7. Stop in at Barnes and Noble for one specific item, and leave without having convinced myself that any other items are necessary.  Fail.  I left with the specific item, plus a scrapbooking magazine.  The justification was that I needed something to read while I ate my wonderful lunch of...
8. Decide between a sandwich at Atlanta Bread,  or a burrito from Pancheros for lunch.  Sandwich.  Deeeeeelish.
9. Buy what seems like the four thousandth roll of ribbon involved in this wedding.  Three more rolls of pink ribbon for the programs, plus brown paper, a bone folder to make nice creases, and a few more guest book stickers on sale at Archiver's.
10. Visit with HistoryGirlie, Kitty, and my old peeps at the high school!!!!  Heck yeah!  HistoryGirlie made me a fabulous dinner of her famous fettuchini and garlic bread, then we helped Kitty drive around the yard in her new Cozy Coupe, and ended the night with some gossip and Grey's.

I could keep going, but the to-do list for today is just as long if not longer, and sadly, involves significantly fewer fun shopping tasks.  Have a great weekend all!

I'll update on my progress tonight...

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Thursday, May 14, 2009

Goals for Today

1. Finish shopping for ring bearers and flower girl.

2. Locate super hot heels for rehearsal dinner, that are not only comfortable, but make my calves look thinner than my thighs.
3. Locate appropriate bachelorette party outfit.
4. Stock up on tape runner refills which (of course) are mysteriously out at the Wal-Mart in town.
5. Return the three pairs of shoes that Mom isn't going to wear at the wedding.
6. Round up the remaining gifts for the groomsmen.
7. Stop in at Barnes and Noble for one specific item, and leave without having convinced myself that any other items are necessary.
8. Decide between a sandwich at Atlanta Bread,  or a burrito from Pancheros for lunch.
9. Buy what seems like the four thousandth roll of ribbon involved in this wedding.
10. Visit with HistoryGirlie, Kitty, and my old peeps at the high school!!!!

I'll update on my progress tonight...

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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Who'd a thunk?


You expect problems during the wedding planning process. Of course, things are going to come up, people are going to argue, and the day won't go completely according to plan. However, when I used to imagine planning my wedding, I never envisioned any of the following...

- getting grief, not from either mom, but from NavyGuy, over the seating chart.

- having to worry about whether my matron of honor will go into labor during our vows.

- being told one month before that there would be a runway show going on adjacent to our ceremony and that large trade show booths would be set up in view of all of our ceremony photographs, forcing us to relocate the ceremony to a new space in the building.

- that a flu virus would threaten guest attendance for an event in May

- seeing my grandfather, who is walking me down the aisle, gleefully show off his missing front tooth, which popped out less than two weeks beforehand, after he bit into a particularly tough dessert bar

- announcing to NavyGuy at the T-minus 10 day mark, "Is this DAMN THING OVER YET?!?!?"

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Monday, May 11, 2009

Program Woes

Argh.

The programs are officially kicking my ass.*

I've been trying to decide on a design for weeks. I like none of the ones that are possible with my now limited time constraints, supplies, and budget. I don't even like any of the ones that would break my budget or require crafting from now until twenty minutes before I head down the aisle.

Having not admitted defeat yet, I refuse to quit and either a) throw together a haphazard piece o' crap that will forever haunt my wedding memories**, or b) forgo programs all together***.

Thus, tomorrow, between a haircut and a trip to Madison for several wedding errands and a dress fitting, I need to come up with a master program plan that
a) solves the font-sizing-readability conundrum
b) involves a booklet
c) does not involve a booklet needing 45 pages
d) does not involve a booklet wherein I fold a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 white paper in half and scrawl our names and the date across the front in a fit of bridal fury

And so I charge ahead!


*meaning, my anal-retentive, type A, OCD, perfectionist self will not settle for something that's "fine" but instead keeps redoing and retyping in varying fonts, layouts, sizes, etc convinced there is a magic design that will satisfy me.

** becoming more of a possibility as the clock ticks down to wedding day.

***something I will threaten to do at least eight more times before the damn things are finally done.

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Sunday, May 10, 2009

DIY Table Numbers

Wedding Madness!!!! I don't know how much time I'm going to have to show off the wedding details before the big day (we're down to less than two weeks - AGHHHH), but I promise anything that doesn't get posted before May 23rd, will simply be fodder for more extensive (and better written) posts after the shindig is over.


I just cannot wait on this project however, so I've put all the wedding tasks aside for the moment to showcase one of my favorite details so far - the table numbers. I know, I know - really minor in the larger scheme of things, but I saw a cool idea on theknot.com almost two years ago, and I was hooked immediately.

The table numbers are basic numbers - 1, 2, 3, 15, and so on. But on each number, there is a photo of myself and one of NavyGuy at the corresponding numerical age. In other words, the peeps who are seated at Table 3, get to view cutey pictures of us at that age! I'm psyched - it was a chance to show off more photos (which everyone loves at a wedding), without going through the technical headache of trying to put together a slide show, etc.

I wanted the table numbers to still compliment our color scheme and the general classy-ness of the tables, so I started with dark brown tents.

The paper is 6"x6". In order to attach the two pieces at the top, I simply made one sheet a smidge longer, so I could fold it underneath and attach it to the other side. (TWP and I worked on this during our "Flip That Room" extravaganza.) We also added a piece of dark brown ribbon on the inside of the tent, so that they wouldn't slide open too far or fall over.


(Don't you love my professionally edited photo to show you where the ribbon goes?)

I printed all of the photos I wanted to use in black and white (it took days to go through the boxes of photos that both my and NavyGuy's mom have saved since our childhood... and even longer to estimate our ages in many of the photos!). Color photos would also work fine, but I wanted them to look a little more subdued. The photos were cropped to 5"x3.5". I printed the actual table numeral on cream paper, and opted to make all of the layouts the same, regardless of whether the photo was horizontal or vertical. The cream paper was trimmed to 5.5" square, and the photo was layered on top.
Here you can see a variety of the first step before we attached everything to the brown table tent. (Yes, that's obviously me in the photos - and yes, I really was that cute. God only knows what's happened since then.)
And here's toddler NavyGuy!

We attached all of the cream papers to the brown tents, and boom! Table numbers that will hopefully help our guests find their seats, and entertain them while they're there. I do pity the poor folks that have to sit at tables 9 through 14...

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Saturday, May 9, 2009

Big Girl Room

One of the main reasons for my visit to TWP's home was to re-do their office/guest room. Their daughter Macy is almost a year and a half. Discussions and negotiations for a second little one have begun, so it's getting to be time for Macy to upgrade to her toddler room. Both TWP and her husband are definitely not ready to have Macy vacate her nursery and move into her "big girl room" quite yet, but TWP wanted my help in the decorating. So we figured we'd get it done while I'm home, and maybe they'll be willing to let Macy grow up and move into her new room sometime before kindergarten ;)

Sadly, I have no before shots. Imagine a basic room with office stuff, and plain green walls. Now, check out the after shots...
Tell me you would not DIE if that was your room as a two year old?!?!?! Seriously! It looks like it came out of a magazine, and I would have killed for that bed netting and princess decal on my wall. The toddler bed and netting are from IKEA. I love how the bed matches all the trim in the room (and the bulk of the other furniture). The princess and star decals on the walls are from a company called Hip in a Hurry - TWP found the vinyl decals on clearance at Michaels and snatched them up.  They stick to the wall very well, but are also easily removed.  All we did was peel the paper off of them, and smack them onto the wall, smoothing out any bubbles - shockingly quick and easy, yet they make a huge impact.

The bed netting is attached to the ceiling, and has convenient ties so you can secure it to the bed (thus preventing your child from a) pulling it down, and more importantly, b) suffocating).
This is the view opposite the bed.  TWP has two of those bookcase/toy storage units, so another one will be moved into the room once the remaining office furniture moves to its new home.  The curtains were a garage sale find for only $2!  I love how they look sort of Renaissance-princess-castley, to compliment the theme.  They're just another nice pop of color and whimsy for the space.  

We put in a good deal of time arranging the furniture and decorating, but it was totally worth it.  I know Macy is going to have so many happy memories of playing in that room.  What did your dream bedroom look like or have as a kid?

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Friday, May 8, 2009

Happy Birthday Lucy!


Sister's dog is celebrating her second birthday today (oh yes, they celebrate big time), and after Sister's big blog shout-out in April, Brother-in-Law wanted to make sure Lucy got the same attention.


(Here she is in her bumblebee Halloween costume that Auntie Mugs made her wear...)

Two years old and still a crazy puppy! Hope you have a wonderful day playing with the other puppies at Happy Hound puppy day care today - (click here to go to the webcam and watch Lucy play in realtime... yes, completely ridiculous, but totally irresistible).

And tonight's birthday dinner is a burrito bowl with rice and chicken... yum! Enjoy your day Lucy!

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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Catching Up...

Whew!  I got back to Fondy this afternoon, after spending three days in St. Paul with TWP.  We had a two page list of things to accomplish... and we actually got everything done!  A few highlights:


~ We celebrated Cinco de Mayo at the Mall of America with burritos for lunch.  Very authentic :)  My little goddaughter/flower girl was a real trooper that day and put up with our marathon shopping trip shockingly well - once we let her out of the stroller to run through Archiver's like a banshee.

~ We put a final coat of paint on flower girl's new bedroom, hung curtains, assembled an IKEA toddler bed (which we started working on at 10:30 at night... sober), arranged furniture, hung a photo and a princess bed net, and decorated with numerous vinyl wall decals.  Martha (Stewart) and Bob (Villa) would be highly impressed.

~ Tags for the favor boxes?  Check.  Strips of decorative paper to denote menu choice for the escort cards?  Check.  Table numbers?  Check.  One and a half bottles of wine, half a bag of M&Ms, and a vat of guacamole consumed?  Check.  

There's lots more to report on the wedding project front, but I'm waiting until this weekend when I can take a breath and find time to write a few posts with actual photos.  NavyGuy and I get married two weeks from Saturday (TWO WEEKS), and I'm doing my best to stay organized and optimistic.  Organized so things go as well as possible, and optimistic so I don't care as much when the inevitable disasters strike.  Hope everyone else has as much fun as I did these past few days!  Thanks TWP, FG, and TWP's Hubby for having me - seriously, can we live in the same zip code soon? :)

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Sunday, May 3, 2009

Weekend Update

Time for a super fast action-packed weekend update!  I'm off to Minnesota today to hang out with TWP for a couple days - we're going to redo the flower girl's bedroom, and sneak in some shopping and wedding crafting as well... lots to do and the days are flying by too quickly!


This past weekend was chock full of fun:

~ Friday night I saw my cousin's play, School House Rock, which is yes, based on the Saturday morning cartoons that used to be on TV.  We heard everything from "I'm Just a Bill" to "Conjunction Junction" and tons of other great songs.  The kids did a fantastic job with the show, and really worked their butts off to entertain us :)

~ Saturday was an Appleton shop-a-thon with Mom.  We started at Archivers at the crack of dawn, and somehow managed to end the day there as well!  In between we hit just about every craft store in that zip code, found three different pairs of possible wedding earrings for me, four possible pairs of shoes for mom, and managed to squeeze in some Panda Express and Cold Stone!  (And we'll be literally squeezing in our dresses in a few weeks as a result!  So worth it though...)

~ We also watched Bride Wars (can you tell I've hit one-track-mind-obsession-territory now?).  Great movie!  Such fun.  Obviously, not an Oscar winner, but it's definitely going to be one of those flicks that you constantly watch when it eventually airs incessantly on the weekends on a cable channel.

~ Today's celebration was my other younger cousin's First Communion mass and party.  She looked so grown-up in her little white dress (and veil... which we all took to trying on throughout the day), and she managed to eat a chocolate donut without getting a bit of frosting on herself :)  One of the other party guests is getting married the weekend after me, so we had fun comparing notes and commiserating about the last stretch before the big day.

Less than three weeks!  I know I'll be sad once it's all over, but at the moment it can't come fast enough.  All of the fun dreaming and planning is past, and we're to the "get this shiznit done NOW" stage.  So - I'm off to get some more stuff done before we're down to only 19 days!

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Friday, May 1, 2009

Dream Analysis Anyone?

Here's the wedding nightmares I've had so far...

A few weeks ago: randomly, throughout my wedding day, my teeth were falling out.  Just one at a time, falling straight out of my mouth, landing on the floor, and bouncing away.  Miraculously, I seemed very calm about the whole thing, and was only worried that someone pick up the fallen tooth and stash it somewhere, so I could put it under my pillow for the tooth fairy that night.  A realistic fear for my wedding day?  Well... it wasn't before.

Three days ago: my MOH and I get trapped in the top floor of the parking structure across from the venue.  Somehow we cannot exit out the bottom floor and are instead debating possible zipline maneuvers off the roof.  As we wander the parking structure, she goes from being not pregnant, to a full nine month belly in the course of maybe an hour.  I suppose Freud would say I'm concerned about her going into labor during the wedding (MOH will be a solid eight months preggo by then), but I can't figure out the parking garage angle...

Last night: NavyGuy forgets to bring his bass, because apparently, along with being the groom, he was going to provide the cocktail music.

I swear, I am going to be so thrilled when this dang wedding is over just so I can go back to having dreams about showing up to the first day of middle school without any clothes.  

Oh!  And in non-dream news, I have a small bump on my left eyelid.  It's been there for a while, but I honestly didn't notice it... until NavyGuy, my mom, and HistoryGirlie brought it to my attention.  It's been there for a few weeks now, but since it didn't hurt, itch, or seem to be growing, I chose to add it to the list of things I wasn't going to worry about (not a very long list).  Well, after a little WedMD-ing yesterday, I'm now worried.

Looks like I have a chalazion (kind of sounds like "ca-lazy-eye"), and the google image search produced these gems:

What mine looks like now
See full size image





Tonight's likely nightmare topic

I raided the Target pharmacy yesterday and am putting a warm compress on it every twenty minutes - if it's not gone by Monday, I suppose I'll have to see a real doctor and probably have some horrific procedure done.  Is this wedding over yet?

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