Smile...it's for the slideshow

As the wedding gets closer, I keep forgetting that I have, or rather want to make a slide show. I might need some assistance with this, but have to get it done. Well, then I remember that we should be taking more pictures. Which is difficult when I forget to take them. I used to make fun of my friends as they were getting close to their weddings and kept saying, "it's for the slide show."
Well we finally remembered to take pictures this past weekend and my boyfriend's concert. No, Tony doesn't sing - my boyfriend Michael. Michael Buble.

We had a fabulous date night with my sis and bro-in-law, who if Tony had a long lost Mexican twin, it would be John. Ask Court, down to the shoes, it's creepy.

Any-who - as we were waiting to go, I thought this would be a perfect picture time! However I got a picture of my sis and I and then her and John. Whoops, no picture of me and Tony. Picture taking not going so well. But then I did some classic photoging to get the job done.I'd say not too bad - Tony's comment: "I finally have a real neck." Or something like that - which yes, he does. The man is like the incredible shrinking woman, I mean man, whatever. So he was excited about having a full chin and things. I have a feeling he'll be more excited when the camera makes an appearance.

You see, we're both a little picky about how we look in pictures - good luck to our photographer - just kidding, but not really. If it's not a skinny arm pose, then it's probably the flock of seagulls hair do on myself. See - a little picky.

But we're getting better - and maybe when we get in more shape we'll have lots more pictures to chose from. So don't be surprised if you see us wearing the same outfit in our slide show, I probably made Tony do a photo shoot like we do lots of things.

Dumb Butterfly Kisses

When my sister Courtney was getting married, my dad had two things that he was adamant about: 1. That there be ice cream served with the cake and 2. He was not going to just be a "stand-there" slow dancer for his Father/Daughter dance.

And boy did he ever make those things happen. He was sure that we had mini Blue Bell cups that were served - and boy were they delicious and he made sure to twirl Courtney once or twice around that dance floor. There is even a picture to prove it!

After attending our one and only wedding this year- I know, shocker- I was sitting by my dad and wondering if he was already thinking about our F/D dance. I'm sure he was, that or the fact that I had just asked him for a dollar to tip the bartender and he was wondering when I would stop asking him for money.

But my thoughts went back to my thought bubble on Friday because I heard the DJ's talking about the F/D Dance that one of their DJ's fiance was going to be having soon - confusing? I know, try to follow. Well apparently a few years ago, maybe like 10, I'm not sure. There was this song that came out called, "Butterfly Kisses." It's about a dad letting her daughter grow up and such - I hated that song. And I'm sorry for those who liked it, I'm sure it has very special meaning, but I found it annoying.

Even this morning I was making fun of it, and then it came to a part when it talks about the Dad giving the daughter away at her wedding. And what happened??? Tears. Yes, for the most part I held them back since I was driving, eating and trying not to get in a wreck.

Stupid butterfly kisses.

As the wedding gets closer, I find myself getting more emotional about it - which is not good for Tony or I since the engagement was full of tears (totally on his part) - which means there will be tears on the big day. Crap.

And even though my dad and I will probably not be dancing to Butterfly Kisses, I wonder if thoughts like these go through his head. Or if he's just thinking he can't wait to be done with giving me money. I'm going for the first part, but you never know.

But he did get a chance to see my dress - yes, he saw it before the big day and to all my bridesmaids- HA! You still don't get to see it.

However there were no tears, maybe because he couldn't see it that well, no fault on Kath's fault, but the pics were a little blurry. I think she was nervous.

But this post is for my dad - hopefully he won't be the one to make me cry on my wedding day - although he may present me with a bill of all the money I've cost him.

Getting Encountered Part Two

So I know I left you with a little teaser and I had to re-read my post so I would not talk about the same thing. I also noticed some of my spelling mistakes - not that I spell the word incorrectly, but its actually the wrong word. Awesome.

Anywho....off to part two of our weekend. I hope I can remember everything, not going to lie, I think I tried to forget most of it.

But on to the Saturday of EE. It started with a rather good breakfast, of course we sat with the friends we knew. But so far, the food was better than we expected. However we also missed the memo about bringing snacks to share. So we were "that couple" who didn't bring anything to share. Oh well, there was plenty - and I like to think we shared our humor on this trip, for all to enjoy.

Maybe not, but no one noticed we didn't bring anything. Okay on to the story. So this whole thing started with a reading, answering questions and then discussion time between the couple. Yep, every hour we would do the same thing. Listen, write, discuss, repeat. Good news, Tony's writing is legible and we agree about a lot of the things we had to discuss. Points for us.

But toward the afternoon, they gave us this little box that looked like a bad hat box. We were asked to put questions into the box for our question and answer session. Ugh....Q&A's, with who knows what question will be in there. But they threatened us with another story and discussion, and the questions went flying in.

So after dinner, we had our Q&A and apparently I missed the memo to bring something comfortable to sit on - so we sat on the floor. Yuck. But that wasn't the worst part. It was the questions about NFP. What's NFP you ask? Well let me tell you. Natural Family Planning. Yes boys and girls, it's when you don't have anything in your body and you do, what I like to call, educated guessing.

You see, earlier in the day we were told about this couple who did use NFP. And I'm not bashing the actual act of using NFP. It works for some people and I think that's great. However hearing about it once is fine. Asking 72 questions about it and the difference between the "Rhythm Method." To which Tony asked me what that was, and I literally have no knowledge of, nor care to learn about.

So after almost every other question came out of the box about NFP, finally one came out that was somewhat normal. "Are you going to change your name when you get married?" Easy - heck even I can answer that!

So I did. Yep, I was the girl who raised her hand. Tony supported it - and it worked in my favor for the rest of the weekend. I replied, yes, but I'm changing my middle name to my maiden name. And although I'm proud of my last name, it might be nice not to hear "Hey Faddis," in public, although I know it's still going to happen. Really, it's when it's yelled quite loud that is seems to be the issue. Yep, when it sounds like FatA$# (sorry, my mom reads this, but you get the picture).

Which got quite the response. Fast forward to the rest of the weekend, our last task was to attend church so we get our certificate. Our books that we wrote in over the weekend were blessed by Father (who told a funny joke about a priest and a nun, ask me later and I might tell you), and then he called out our names and we were free to go. After wishing that our name wouldn't be called last, it worked. We were about in the middle, and yes, Father pronounced my name wrong - and everyone laughed. At least they understood why I said yes to changing my name.

After spending our weekend with a bunch of couples, we were ready to get home, see our dog and have a chance to do other things. But don't think we are in the clear just yet - nope, we have one all day seminar that we will have to attend. And after we ran into another couple who are also getting married at St. Elizabeth's, they told us it's not fun. Hopefully I'll get some good blog info from that whole day.

We're engaged, we're encountered and we're not that crazy. Bring on the wedding!

Encountering Engagements

We can cross two of our tasks to get married off the checklist. On Thursday, we met with the therapist to go over our PREPARE test. Good news, we passed - of course if you look at the percentage, we go a C average, but hey, we'll take it. The therapist told us we would be getting a good report to give to the priest.

Score. And knowing that we were on the same page and well, not crazy, was a relief. I'm pretty sure we were even one of her favorite couples, since she gave us stories about other couple - example: when asked what was the favorite thing about your significant other, one man answered, her chocolate chip cookies. It's a good thing I don't cook, or bake.

But we had one more task to take on this weekend. Engaged Encounters. Dun du duh!!!! Yes, an entire weekend talking about our feelings, how we will manage our finances and how many kids will we have. After already taking about this in pretty good depth, it was not a weekend we were really looking forward to. But in order to be married in the Catholic church, we have to get this certificate - I'm sure if it was made of chocolate, I would be thrilled to do this weekend. It's not - but it gets us in.

So Friday until Sunday, we spent with about 40 other couples talking about religion, love, and natural family planning. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, let me start at the very beginning so you can get the full effect.

Friday Night: Running late (of course) -however not all of our fault, this lovely weekend gave us two different pieces of information with two different times. However we weren't the last ones - bonus - and they didn't start right on time. Luckily, as we pulled into the parking lot, I saw an old high school classmate and his fiance. Phew - we won't be in this thing alone with um, interesting people.

So we walked in, not knowing what to expect, but we knew that we had roommates, however all the time hoping not to have a roommate. But alas, we cannot go anywhere without the Mayor knowing someone. Yes, even Tony knew a friend. Better yet - they were completely normal! So we have at least two friends at this weekend, and have someone to talk or complain with. Off to our rooms, each helping each other to our own, not wanting to leave each others side. And it's not just because we are so in love, we didn't want to get lost in this place and be stuck in an awkward conversation.

Our second relief came when we met our roommates. After guessing that with our luck we would get some, um, interesting roomies, we met Jessica & Anthony...yep Anthony - a name Tony could not forget. They were great - normal and nice and easy to talk to. So we were off to a pretty good start. Then it was on to the conference room - where we were told we would not have to share unless we wanted to and we would be having quiet time to write and then we would discuss. Um, both of us knew it was going to be a long weekend.

After the first night ended at 11 - and for this girl who goes to sleep by 10, it was late - we called it a night and I prayed that I wouldn't snore or talk in my sleep. Ok, not snore, rather purrr. Yes, I purrr, don't snore. But alas, no such luck. After our 6:45 - yes SIX FOURTY FIVE walk up bell, my roommate asked if I knew if I talked in my sleep. Dang it, apparently I didn't pray hard enough.

Sheepishly asking what I said, I apologized and she just laughed telling me my conversation went like this: "pull the big tooth and put some tuna in it"

Hello crazy.

Ugh - oh well. Not much I can do, but hope that she didn't think I was crazy. Off to the long day of writing, talking, and discussing, but I will have to save that for another post. Otherwise, it would take you an hour to read this one and I like to keep you busy people at work interested.

But I'll give you a little highlight: more writing, NFP, Fat-Ass, and Teacher's pets. Intrigued? I thought so.

I'll Take My Problems to Oprah

Tonight is going to be, well, let's call it informative. You see, in preparation of our marriage at Saint Elizabeth's, Tony and I were required to take a test. Yes, the 174 question test of a little bit of everything in our lives. If we strongly agree, agree, are neutral, disagree or strongly disagree to the question of how you like your eggs. Okay, so the questions were a little more important than that, but you get the idea.

And as many of my friends have been married in the Catholic Church, you know the questions I'm getting at. We were asked to take this test separately, which we did and didn't even cheat - well maybe one on question. But we answered honestly and tonight is the night we find out about how we did. If we are destined to get married anyway- and let's be honest, there is no turning back, my dress is in, deposits have been paid and I'm really getting excited for wedding cake.

However, the way we find out about our results is not typical, at least for anyone else. You see, we are required to meet with a therapist. Yep - a bonified therapist. We even have to pay her money. So this could be interesting. The Deacon we keep meeting with (and who yells as us because apparently we should have done this a year ago) says that no one can do worse than he and his wife. Apparently they didn't score very well.

But I have faith in Tony & I. I think for the most part we are pretty much in sync. Or rather, hopefully he answered in the way that he thinks I answered. We'd be golden then - I am the genius of the relationship.

I'm not sure what to expect from our therapist, maybe she'll tell us we both have issues that is way beyond help. Or that we are normal - either way, I'm blaming my problems on my brothers. And maybe my sister - she did leave me at home with them when she went away to college. Just kidding - I thank my brothers for teaching me certain things. Like how to stick up for myself in a fight, burping with the best of them and that farts can clear out any room. Okay, well the fart thing isn't that great, but at least I know a little about sports and don't mind listening to ESPN constantly.

Tonight just doesn't top our weekend off with the therapist. Oh no, we also get to go to Engaged Encounters. Just when you think two meetings with the Deacon are not enough (with an awkward conversation about natural family planning) - we also get to learn about our future marriage for a whole weekend. But don't worry, we'll be staying in dorm like rooms with a same gender roommate. Side note: My future M-I-L thought it was odd that the church doesn't agree with cohabitation but would allow us to stay in the same room. I think she was pleased when I told her that wasn't the case!

Please don't be jealous of our weekend - but maybe say a little prayer that we'll survive. Hopefully funny stories and an idea for a new blog post will come out of this weekend. Until then, I need to pack some shower shoes. Ugh.

Three colandars, two bath rugs, and a partridge in a pair tree

Although it took a bit to get there, we are registered! Woo! I kept telling Tony that he was going to love it, and it was going to be great because we get to pickout whatever we want. Okay, well whatever I want.

He did get excited about somethings, however he said it was mostly up to me to pick and choose. But don't be all surprised there- he did voice his opinion once or twice. So it was I who went crazy with the gun, I may or may not have registered for multiple wine glasses. A girl needs a lot of glasses for parties right?

So we are two for three- only one more stop to go. However Tony is leaving it up to my mom, my sister and I for that one. Which only means one thing....Trouble. And lots of extras on the registry.

The Countdown is On

I recieved a very exciting call the other day...my wedding dress is IN! Yes, although they said it probably wouldn't be in until the end of June - so you can sense my shock when they told me I had to come and try it on within the month. Um, flashback to what I ate this past weekend - let's just say there was quite a bit of cake and beer. Stupid diet.

So three days ago, it was back on the super plan to get my rocking Jillian Michael's arms. Meaning - it's going to be P90x time all the time.

Which also means that I'm going to need some major willpower at times - along with some persuasive encouragement from the people around me. Like, Caitlin, let's eat some of the fruit instead of stuffing your face with your third, no make that fourth chocolate chip cookie.

Things like that will help. So it's up to my readers, and my friends to remind me that I need to be watching what goes in my lips - because its like that little saying, it will end up on my hips. And rear, and jiggly Oprah-esque arms.

Ok - enough of the pity party encouragement bit - I am thrilled to have my dress in and can't wait to reveal it to my friends. Especially because I know that they are anxious to figure out what it looks like - and it's driving a few of them insane that they don't know!

And tonight - the registry continues. We're off to the big world of Bed, Bath & Beyond. Let's see if we are able to get through the store alive.