Revamp

Well, to call this, a countdown to the wedding is no longer needed.  It's funny, it seemed like it was going to take forever to get to the wedding, and then as soon as it was over, BAM!!!  The rest of the year flew by.  It's been crazy since the wedding.  I went back to work only to find out that our office was closing at the end of October.  So, now, I'm back to looking for a job.  Can I just say that this sucks!  I was happy, and as we decided, we settled.  We never knew if we were going to stay open or not, but we loved what we were doing and loved working with each other.  We were like a happy disfunctional family.  The best thing I can say is that I learned a lot while working there.  I gained a lot of confidence and knowledge.  I have to thank my Boss Man for all the help.  He knows he is, and yes, if he reads this, you were my boss, but most importantly, you've become a friend and mentor.  Thank you!!

So as the year winds down, I've got a lot to be thankful for.  I've got a husband who I adore.  I don't know what I would do without him.  I've got a cat, who for the first time, has decided that my Christmas tree and nativity scene are new toys.  I've got a roof over my head and the best family and friends in the world.  They are my support and inspiration. 

The most important part of the revamp, is the future Norm and I want to carve for our family!  We've decided that we want to leave Florida.  We love it down here, but we're both starting to miss being close to family.  Not that we want to move too far north, but we want to be closer.  We've decided that we want to move to North Carolina.  We've scouted the Charlotte area and fell in love with the area.  It didn't hurt that a friend of his, who lives in the area, showed us around.  So as soon as we find jobs up there, we're moving.  If you feel like volunteering to help us move, let us know! ;-)  With wanting to move to North Carolina, it's also got me thinking about teaching again.  For those of you who don't know the whole story, my last teaching position was horrible and pretty much turned me off from wanting to teach.  However, I miss working with kids and am thinking I want to go back.  I am thinking about changing subjects.  As much as I love reading and writing, teaching English/Language Arts, no longer appeals to me.  I'm thinking about doing Social Studies.  I loved the subject and still have a passion for it.

And as I close, I want to thank everyone.  And for those of you who watch Top Chef, Heather just went home, which is AWESOME!!!!  Well good night all!

27 Days

It is now, 27 days until the wedding.  And I'm feeling it.  I'm jittery.  I'm not nervous, but I think that's the best way to describe it.  Every little thing that happens non-wedding related, is setting me off.  I either get mad or start crying.  I cry at some of the littlest things too, which is really annoying and reminds me that I need to get more tissues for my purse.  And if it is anything wedding related, you might as well have a whole box by me.  Yesterday at church, a couple renewed their vows for thier 40th anniversary.  I was fighting the tears so hard that I had a headache!  As it's getting closer, I find myself taking a lot more deep, calming breaths.  I don't know why I'm feeling this way but I am.  I keeping going over the lists of things, checking and rechecking items that have been completed.  All I know is I'm ready for next weekend.
But things are coming along great!  Mom has gotten a lot done and basically all I need to do down here is pack for next weekend and wrap gifts!  I bought the wrapping paper today and am looking for something to put the flower girls' gift in.  I realy wanted to do something besides a gift bag, but have a feeling, that's what it's going to have to be.

Next weekend is the Indiana bridal shower and bachelorette party!  My aunt is making her veggie pizza for me and is promising to have all sorts of entertaining fun for the shower.  God love her, I can only imagine what games and stories are going to be told.  And did I mention her veggie pizza!!!  Any my MOH #1 is planning one heck of a bachelorette party.  I have a feeling, Sunday there is not going to be a whole lot of stuff getting done.  Especially when she told all that our DD, her husband, bought a boat load of alcohol and will be serving not only as the DD, but the bartender as well. 

So my advice to all who are in the home stretch, just keep breathing!  Because the light at the end of the tunnel is near, everything is basically done that can be done, and in less that a month, you'll be marrying the man of your dreams and you'll be starting a new chapter in you life!

Getting screwed by the cream and crimson... AGAIN!!!!

40 days!  Yes, 40 days until the wedding! 

So everyone knows that I went to Purdue, and if you didn't, now you know.  And by going to Purdue, we all know that our biggest rival is IU (Indiana University).  If I didn't hate IU by now, I sure do now!  You see, the hospital my mom works for is merging with IU Med, which in the long run will be a good thing, because, and as much as I hate to admit it, IU has a pretty good med school.  Any who, with the merger comes a lot of extra work that the employees at the hospital have to deal with.  One of those people who has to deal with the extra work is my mom. 

My mom, has been super woman, okay, even more of a super woman, with wedding planning.  She has basically been doing EVERYTHING for the wedding, while I have been just basically been saying, okay, sounds good.  She's organized on her end and making sure I'm organized on my end.  So let's just say, with it only being 40 days until the wedding, we've got enough craziness, and now IU is messing with me.  So all of this merger is happening, yes, at the same time we need to finalize all of the details.  So tonight, I think was the first time that we snapped at each other! I said something, as an example, and she snapped!  Needless to say, we had a minor argument about food for the rehearsal dinner.  Yeah, I'm proud to say, that was the first thing we argued about.  But, cooler heads prevailed, mainly hers because, because after all, I'm the "Mule" (if you need to know, watch A League of Their Own, we both agree, that name fits me perfectly, oh, and the other part fits her) after about 5 minutes of  "debating" and we think we figured out what we need to do.  She also told me that with this merger going on, she would be a little crazy.  So yes, I get to blame IU!  If it weren't for them, messing with my mom, we wouldn't have "debated" about food... for the rehearsal dinner.

So, in honor of all Purdue fans, students, and grads, I "sing" to you, and sing along with if you want... (Oh, and it's the PG version, sorry, I don't want to offend any delicate souls out there...)

 Indiana, Indiana, Indiana the heck with you!

 We'll pee on the cream and crimson,

For the glory of old Purdue!



Okay, that feels much better!  On to more important things, working on the music for the wedding and even got the limo reserved for the wedding today.  It was a pretty productive day on that part.  I was able to reorder some stuff for me, and even got word that yes, my SHOES will be delivered by Friday!!!  So Tarter, I will be using the clips that you gave me!  And I now have three, yes, three, pairs of shoes to choose from.  That issue is now resolved!!!  Well that's it for tonight.  Guess I should say Go Bruins for Norm!  And as always...

Boiler Up!!!!

It's getting so close...

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted anything.  I'm going to blame it on work, because that's the only excuse I can think of at this moment.

So there are only 46 days left until the wedding!  46 DAYS!!!  Everything is basically done now.  Response cards are coming back and bridesmaids and mother of the bride are getting their dresses altered.  I'm taking my dress in the next couple of weeks to get it altered.  Fortunately, all I have to do is fix the straps and the bustle!  And, I now have 3 pairs of shoes to choose from!  Thanks to Tarter for reading and getting me the shoe clips for a pair of flats.  So now, it's just deciding which I like better.  (But the flip flops will still be worn at the reception.  And yes, they will probably get kicked off within an hour.) 

It's really sinking in now that I'm getting married.  I've had a bridal shower and bachelorette party.  We've started receiving gifts and mailing out thank you cards.  Okay, they are addressed, but I need to get stamps.  I promise ladies, I'll get them out!  I'm still not nervous, I'm anxious, ready for the day to get here.  It feels like we have been planning forever!

Now the next step is find a gift for the groom.  Let me just say, this part is now my stress.  Every idea I've come up with, he either doesn't use, want, or is just too expensive.  However, last night, he finally gave me an idea.  So now, it's time for me to use the investigative skills I have to find it.  (I'm very good at research and investigating.  So anyone who has a job in this field, please give me a call, I'd love to talk to you!)

I'm planning on going up to Indiana in June for the bridal shower and bachelorette party up there.  Norm can't make it, he said it's either go with you and have a shorter honeymoon or not go and have the whole week.  Yeah, I opted for the whole week.  However, I've been informed by my uncle, cousins, and brother, that they will just throw a party when we come up before the wedding.  Poor Norm, he doesn't know what he's getting himself into!  And my cousin has specifically stated that he has to be "baptised" into the family.  Which means, poor Norm is going to have to go on a tubing trip and stop at the Holy River Island Baptist Catholic Lutheran Methodist Presbyterian Apostolic Church and get dunked!  What happens is, we go on a tube trip down the Tippecanoe River and at a half way point, there is a little island where we stop just to stretch, or jump of a tree into the river.  In the process of stretching, Patrick has taken it upon himself to baptise the whole family and all those who come with.  Basically, it's an excuse to dunk someone.  Hehe, I hope I get to go on that trip because, we haven't done that for awhile!

I'm looking forward to the trip up north.  My aunts throw one heck of a bridal shower!  And my Aunt Becky has promised to make me her famous Veggie Pizza!  I'm looking forward to the games and gifts and most importantly, just being with my family and friends up there.  I'm also looking forward to the embarrassment that my grandmother and aunts will put me through.  After that shower, I promise, I'll share the "Life of Socks".  I promise you, it's a story that when you hear your grandmother read to you, you turn a couple shades of red.  They haven't had a chance to read that for awhile, and I'm expecting a performance worth a standing ovation!

And then, my MOH#1 is throwing a bachelorette party that night.  She's working with my mom on this, and I'm just the tiniest bit nervous. Who knows what the two of them can come up with.   

Pre-Cana and the Rays

So we survived!!  And it wasn't nearly as bad as we thought it would be!  It was still boring as could be, but it wasn't that bad.  My biggest complaint is that if you're going to prepare people for marriage, shouldn't there be people there who are maybe married and can share how they have handled issues.  I get that communication and making budgets are important.  And that is something we have been doing and working on.  But just standing up by a podium and telling us that we need to do this and fill out a bunch of worksheets ain't going to do it.  We both agreed that the best part was when a couple who had been married for 45 years told us about their lives.  However, there was no interaction, and they were gone by the time we go back from lunch.  I really think that if the church wants to "prepare" people for marriage, then their marriage prep class should involve, oh I don't know, MARRIED PEOPLE WHO CAN SHARE AND WORK WITH US!!!!

Now on to more fun, Mom and Brad are joining us for a Rays game tomorrow!  Very excited to get to see them and hopefully get to see the Rays win!!!  Well I'm off, dinner and laundry await!

Pre Cana Here We Come

So this is the date Norm and I have been dread... I mean looking forward to.  It's time for our marriage prep class through the Catholic church.  I've been trying to do some research on what exactly happens at this event.  I haven't found much.  But the most I have found is that it is a waste of time and nothing positive.  From what I've read, it's a bunch of information that could be given to us in just a couple of hours.  But no, we will be there from 8:45am to no later than 5pm.  At least that's what the brochure said.  I was talking to my aunt about this last night and told her that I haven't found anything online positive about this experience. (And yes, I know, online isn't the best resource, but that's all I had at the time.)  And shockingly, she agreed with me.  She said when she went through it, they gained a lot of knowledge, but felt that it could have been A LOT shorter!

I hope that this is better than what I've read.  I hope that we can actually come out with something that will help us with whatever comes our way during married life.  So until tomorrow! Good night all!

TheKnot

TheKnot

100 Days and A Pair of Shoes

Tomorrow is the big day!  It's the last day of triple digits!  That means that Friday will be the first day where the days will dwindle down even faster than they were!  I always remember in school where we celebrated the 100 day mark.  That meant 80 (or more days if you count the snow days) left until we were free for the summer.  We would do counting games and other activities that had to deal with 100.  So I guess this means for me, 100 days until I'm free from all the anxiousness!  I'm not nervous for the wedding.  I know that I'm with the man I will love for the rest of my life, and from spending a few days here and there apart from each other, I know life without him would be boring and blah!  I'm anxious though!  I'm ready for it to actually be July 16, 2011.  I'm ready to committ myself to a lifetime of love and adventure.  It's funny how that can just suddenly happen.  If you had asked me two years ago, "Are you ready to get married and start a family?" I would have said, "no."  Yes, I know that my younger brother got married before me, and no, it doesn't bother me.  He was ready.  I wasn't then, but I am now.  So to my grandmother's friends who told me "You're not getting any younger," guess what, neither are you!  So there!  That feels much better!

So the shoes thing.... when I bought my dress, I bought a pair of flip flops.  At the time, I didn't know if we were going to have the ceremony in Florida or Indiana.  But, I had wearing shoes and felt that the closest thing to not wearing shoes, is flip flops.  However, I'm now getting married in Indiana, my mom feels that flip flops will make too much noise in the church.  I really didn't care until about a month ago, when I tried the dress on with the flip-flops.  You see, I'm at a weird height, I'm at the tall end of average and the short end of tall.  So I bought the dress that was average to save on alterations.  But you see, the flip flops have just enough of a heel that they make me too tall for the dress.  So I need a pair of flats to wear for the wedding because I don't like how the dress looks with the flip flops.  So here's my problem, do you know how hard it is to find a pair of dressy looking flats!  I've searched website after website and have gone to a few stores... they all have 2 -3 inch heels (which no thank you, I don't want to fall flat on my face) but all of the flats they have are boring or not dressy enough.  I've been talking to the girls at work about this.  One took me to a few stores at the mall and another gave me a wonderful idea.  She showed me a pair of flats from David's Bridal and then said I could go and buy some shoe clips to dazzle them up!  My question for her was, "what are shoe clips?"  Thank God for the internet!  So now I've got an idea, no I just have to put it into motion.  I love the people I work with.  Someone even said to go to Goodwill and look through the clip on earings because they might be just as cute!

Starting Out!

So, I'm doing this as a countdown to the wedding!  I'm not sure if I'll be writing everyday, but I just wanted to share with any other bride to be out there, what I'm going through.  It may be a place where I come to vent as well.  

So far, a lot of stuff is done.  I'm starting to realize, as my Type A personality is kicking in, that a lot of the stuff that needs to be completed really cant be done until a few weeks before the wedding.  I'm almost to the point where there's that scary "dead air" time where nothing can really be done.  I could be looking at what to do on the honeymoon, which is a road trip!  We're getting married in Indiana, where I'm from, but we live in Florida.  So we're stopping in Nashville and Atlanta on our way home.  I also need to call the church and schedule an appointment with the priest for another one of our meetings.  Which by the way, aren't as bad as I thought they were going to be.  I'm really enjoying them, and I feel like I want to go back to church again.  Yes, but don't tell my grandma, I haven't exactly been the best at going to church.  There was awhile there where I wasn't happy.  But now, a new church and a priest with a great sense of humor, and I'm back to going again.  However, we have the oh so fun Pre-Cana to go to yet.  I'll post more on that later.  But now, I'm off to taking Norm to the car dealership to get his car fixed, and then possibly meeting for lunch with the girls!