Ice Cream and STDs

This weekend was a relief from the recent struggle to complete our Save the Dates (STDs for those of you following along at home).

Haley and Brodie (MOH and CL, respectively) made the trip into town to take Jeff and I out for lunch to get our minds off the wedding stress. We began the day at Noodles & Company before touring Oak Park Mall in a slow, relaxing manner. After seeing all that OP had to offer, we ended our excursion at Sheridan's, where we were able to eat a deliciously healthy dinner of ice cream (who knew I could get a "pothole" in my ice cream filled with nothing but caramel and pretzels?! Haley did!)

It was truly great to be able to catch up with them. I remember living in Ottawa just around the corner from their house, spending summer evenings grilling out, having pajama movie parties, and talking philosophy until the sun came up. Life intervened, and soon the warm winters at their house turned into me moving up here and I slowly stopped being able to "pop around the corner." They moved as well, and now I don't get to see the beautiful ladies I have adopted as my family away from home nearly enough. It was great just to be around them, cracking up at old jokes, putting new spins on the meaning of life, and seeing the man that I am going to spend the rest of my life with fitting in perfectly with the people who are my chosen family.

After relieving much of this stress, Jeff and I got back to the process of completing our STD cards. This time, our battle was not labels printing in the printer, but with EVERYTHING on the addresses printing. For instance, about half of our labels were printed with no zip code or combined zip codes. Therefore, instead of all of our labels being printer printed, some of our guests will be delighted to find that our STD cards are handwritten (and a few even a combination of both the printer label with the zip code written in). Overall, most of them are completed and were mailed at this morning (WOOHOO!!!). Our living room is now our living room again, not an amateur post office look alike with stamps and envelopes strewn about.

I also got to attend a fascinating DBT training for three days last week. I am very excited about incorporating these skills into my practice. I already used a few on Jeff, and he did not even know I'd DEARMAN'ed him (number 8).

Overall, it was a very productive weekend for us. We were able to begin the end of our STDs (we still have a few more to go) and relieve a lot of the stress (thanks H&B!). On top of that, Mom is still at home doing well. Hope your weekend was just as good, and that all is well with you and yours. :)