11/21/09

We're hitched now!!! Leaving for our honeymoon in the morning. We will be enjoying the (hopefully) warm weather and beaches in Florida. We are hoping to get some fishing, sightseeing, and relaxing alone time... tall order, but we aim to fill it!

Thank you to all who supported us over the past 3 1/2 years, who celebrated with us in body or spirit, and who assisted in every single last crazy whim that accompanied our wedding day. We love you all!!! :)

2 weeks to go

Well, as I'm sure you can see by my title, there are less than 2 weeks to the wedding. Please excuse me while I take a moment...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, now that my moment is over... here's what we've been up to: most of my clients have realized I am going to be gone soon and have piled the work on me (such I have noticed is the same for any vacation I have ever taken from work). I have been doing wedding stuff in between appointments (running errands and picking things up) and working until pretty late in the evenings. Jeff typically has saved me some dinner to warm up and I fall into bed, exhausted, soon after. Also, I havce been sick for the past month and finally took the time to go to the dr... After a stern lecture and much head shaking, she sent me and my severe sinus infection and bronchitis out the door with some fairly strong antibiotics. Today is the first day that I've really felt like being up and around, so I hope that continues.

Jeff is now starting to get sick... I know, I know, we both need a dr on our staff to see about everyday up until the wedding. He's got mostly headaches and scratchy throat stuff going on, so I don't think it's the same thing I had. Hopefully, our first wedded kiss will not contaminate the other!! :)

We are also hard at work getting out those early bird thank you notes... the notes we ordered are pretty stinking cool, if I do say so myself and I have really enjoyed getting to use them. :)

Also, as I'm writing this, Duncan is trying to steal the Halloween candy Jeff has stockpiled so all MUST be well here are home with him. He is quickly growing into a fine young man. As of his last vet check, he's 26 lbs, which is double the weight of last month... he is a healthy, growing boy.

Well, I hope you can make sense of my random, rambling thoughts. Now time to focus a bit more on getting some wedding stuff done. :) Hope all is well with you and yours.

Birthday weekend

Happy Birthday to me! Getting older was never so much fun! My friends and family all drove into town from Spearville, Topeka, Ottawa, and yes, even Olathe. :) In addition to all of the birthday festivities, Jeff and I had our bachelor and bachelorette parties.

Now, I happen to think that Jeff and I operate a little differently than the rest of the free world. For instance, while many take the "bachelor/ette" parties as an opportunity to "have one last night out on the town," Jeff and I marveled at how each of us informed our attendants (independently of each other and without previous conversation with each other regarding this viewpoint) that our parties were more of a "celebration of the exciting ways our lives were about to get better." Like I said, we operate a bit differently.

Here is a picture of my attendees standing in front of our sober ride in full bachelorette get-up:



Also, as of yesterday we were at the 3 week mark for the wedding... AAAAAAAHHHH!!!!! You know that feeling when you are going somewhere, and the faster you try to go, the slower you end up going? Like spinning your wheels in mud... yes, that's how I feel wedding planning is going. I'm working on the checklists, but it just never seems to end. I know it will be fine int he end. I just keep telling myself that all we need is Jeff and I, 2 witnesses, and a priest, and at this point no matter what all of that is covered. We've even got the marriage license to make it all nice and legal. So repeating this should bring about less stress on the whole ordeal, right...??? Um, I'll repeat it A LOT more times this week and let you know next weekend... :)

Also, we spent our Friday evening having a "Housewarming Halloween" party for a few friends. It was, if I do say so myself, a FANTASTIC time. Jeff and I dressed up like Superman and Superwoman (originally planned for Jeff to go as Tinkerbell and me as Peter Pan, but we couldn't find a Tink costume big enough for him), and Duncan went as Spiderdog. We were truly an awesome crime fighting family this weekend. Saturday was Jeff's Uncle John's birthday, and we had a wonderful steak dinner at our place. Sunday brought all kinds of wedding errands, and I honestly feel a lot more calm about our upcoming nuptials. Now all we need is for things to keep happening as quickly as luck has had it today, and we are all set!!

Hope all is well with you and yours! :)

Dad

Hey all, just a quick update on Dad. Found out late last week that he would be needing to have a heart cath early this morning... they suspected some blockage in the veins surrounding and/or valves in the actual heart. They had planned on doing the heart cath followed by placing a stent(s) where appropriate.

Dad pulled through this morning fine and did not even need a single stent! Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts! :)

Mystery of the Missing Music

Is it so hard to order music online and get it? Apparently it is.

I originally found all the music for our wedding the first weekend of September. During the period of time surrounding the move, Jeff and I were labeling the music to mail to our musicians and *ahem* ONE of us decided it was a bit too drab. AHEM. :)

So we went in search of happier mass music (that we felt would encompass and represent the joyful theme of the day). Enter Mass of a Joyful Heart. Excited, I ordered the music immediately online. We went about our busy lives, and it occurred to me a week ago that the music never arrived. You know, the music that I ordered and paid for? Yeah, that music.

I called the lovely people, who told me that the ordered had been stopped in their computers... nobody could tell me why, but that the music had never been shipped because someone had STOPPED the order. Oh, it was still paid for and sitting there ready for me. Just never shipped. Promised to be shipped by the end of the day, and that it would be in my hands by Friday.

Well, Friday came and went. I thought maybe the time difference could account for the missing music (after all, it WAS being shipped from Oregon). I even considered that they would be sending it via the Oregon Trail... ok, that was a lame joke. But still, I was willing to give them every reason for it to not be here by Friday. Monday came and went... Today I called again and stressed the importance of receiving this sheet music BY TODAY.

I have now been promised that it would arrive within 30 minutes. A very understanding woman in the customer service department shared with me that she had just gotten married as well (have I ever talked about this "gift" that I have????) and detailed some of the stressors she dealt with before her nuptials.

30 minutes later, nothing. 45 minutes later... still holding my breath. Finally, almost an hour later, it arrived. Wedding music is here! HOORAY!!!

Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

Updates

Here are a few quick updates on what Jeff and I have been doing:

Wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding, wedding... well, you get the idea. We were able to get the invitations finished last weekend and mailed (well, except for the few that we are now finding out were never on an original list but need invitations as well... if you are in this category, please remember that we love you very much and this was not an intended oversight).

Also, we have been working on the house in between working, trying to sleep, and wedding planning! I think I now have a bookshelf unpacked and set up. Yay me! Moving sucks! :)

Duncan is getting better at sleeping at night. By this, I mean instead of waking us every 2-3 hours, he now waits until 4:30 am before waking us on the hour every following hour. He's better than an alarm clock and much more persistent.

My Dad is having a relatively normal procedure Wednesday morning, but please keep him in your prayers. Everybody else seems to be doing relatively well. It sure is hard being this far from my folks, but at least I will get to see them this weekend. Missing everyone. Hope all is well with you and yours. :)

Life as we know it

... busy. Blurring. Insanely busy.

Friends, we have hit the 6 week mark until the wedding. Invitations out? Not yet, but close. Bridesmaids dresses in? Some. Prettier than I imagined. I cried when I saw them... and then the saleslady did too. Pulled out all the hair on my head? Not ALL of it. Not yet, anyway. :)

Duncan is doing well, too. He's growing! Even after dropping him off at Doggy Daycare this morning and picking him up this afternoon I feel like he's grown at least a few tenths of an inch. We are crate training him, and so far it is going well... anytime Jeff and I can't come home in over a 3 hour span, we take him to Doggy daycare (typically 1 or 2 days per week). Best part? They have schedules for play, train, and even asked for, grooming. Can I go????? :)

Things with the house are also going well. It is pretty frustrating to me that a majority of our stuff is still in boxes, I can't find all of my shoes, and who knows where the blankets and towels ended up, but I also recognize that moving is a process and radically accept that it will be like this for awhile but will eventually get better (I know it's a super long sentence and I'm feeling sassy today so I am not going to go back and re-write it :).

I have been scheduling my clients later in the evening now that school has started for them and typically get home later... this means more time to play and take pictures. Here are some of my favorites!










Hope all is well with you and yours! :)