Well That's A Silly Question

I just recieved an email this morning from theknot.com asking me if my wedding was still on October 30th. Which seemed like a silly question, but yes, in fact is is knot.com, and thank you for making me aware that the wedding is only 62 days away.So with that said, I've obviously been behind on my blogging - and was made aware of that as well the other day. So where do I start? Well, let's begin with "the bachelor/bachelorette" weekends. They may have been a little different from each other, but it was a fight for who was more exhausted the following Monday.I'll begin with Tony's Vegas tale. Yes, he and 15 of his closest "buddies" took off for the weekend to head to their version of the hangover. They might have been singing this song for a majority of the weekend:
And for the most part, after I got the question or comment from people, "You're letting Tony go there???" Well I don't get to let him to do anything, but that's where the man who doesn't like to gamble goes. I think he really wanted to go to see Holly from the girls next door or for the pool - since he told people he's not really into the whole club scene.Interesting. So you're headed to Vegas for the pool, but not the gambling or the clubs. Hmm...good thing there aren't places called pools and bars in Kansas City. But hey, I'm not judging, just commenting. But I really was not really worried about Tony getting into trouble. Okay, so maybe I had a slight concern he would disappear and get lost - since he couldn't remember his room number the first night, but other than that, we were good to go.
But as soon as he got there, he was thrilled. And in a lot of trouble. Not only did I get great texts saying that he loved me, (duh), but that he was already tipsy on the plane. Oh goodie, can't wait for what else will happen on this trip.And that's when the picture texts started coming in. And don't take your mind to that "sexting" place - we're not that couple. Unless you count the picture I got of T's friend in the European type swimsuit (although not a speedo, thank goodness). Instead I got these:Oh, and those were all from the two days I was working. Such a nice man - just teasing me with this lovely place. Ugh.
But then it was my turn for my mini-bachelorette party. Yes - Tony got to go to Vegas, so I get two parties. Ha! Bridezilla that!
So I was able to gather my bridesmaids and set off for Lake Viking! Yes - Katie's parents actually let the girls have control of their lakehouse - and even better, trusted Katie to get everything ready. Good thing Molly was there. Especially since we drove thru Hurricane Henry to get there!
The rain that was happening in Kansas City that blew down trees and such - oh yeah, we were in the eye of that storm. Meanwhile, I was getting texts from T about their pool adventure and Al and I were in the back saying prayers that we would survive. Well, Alison may have been singing "We will Survive", but close enough.Is that even a song? Whatever. I'm having writers block lately - apparently my dream for this blog to become a book deal and make me rich is slowly going down the tubes. Dang.
But we made it - and between Molly, Kates and I, we somehow managed to stay up until 2 am. What were we thinking - we're usually in bed at 9 pm! This girls weekend was about to get crazy, as the rest of the girls were showing up in the morning - and some had more rough nights than we did.Everything about Saturday was perfect - the girls and I were able to get a little sun, gently float on the water, take a relaxing boat ride and enjoy each other company.
Or Jen would bring Jell-O shots, Lauren would be slightly hungover, Alison would take a 12 hour nap, Vrbas would try out a part of motherhood, a dragon would lose its life, we successful did not destroy the boat and we will now start our own inner-tube jumping team.
Most of the stories will stay at Lake Viking - but I hope that pictures will make your day. Because they made me have endless giggles.

Thoughts In My Head

So I realized after my post the other day that I am either going slightly nuts-o, or that I have always been a little crazy. Either way - I started thinking about what the thoughts in my head really sound like out loud. So I present to you, Thoughts In My Head.

*This was the big day that invitations finally went to the mailbox and Tony was out of town*

12:10 pm-12:45 pm

I hope this weather stays like this until Oct 30, well maybe a little cooler since tony will be in a tux. But he can totally cover up his sweat, mine is out for the world to see.

I should definitely pick up my pants at the dry cleaners-especially since its right next to the post office.

Finally, invites can go out.

Crap, I hope everyone return has a stamp.

I probably should have triple checked to make sure....oh crap, did they all have a wedding map? Oh well, people have Garmins.

This crate and barrel box is a fabulous invite carter.

Ugh, are these going to get all bent?

I really hope they don't come back.

What happens if someone tells me we spell their name wrong? Oh well, I'll blame it on tony, unless I know them. I should probably check spelling before I send out thank you notes.

Oh dang it, I missed the turn to our street. Who misses the turn in their own neighborhood?

I should probably not tell tony. Or maybe he'll think its funny.

Hmm, jimmy johns is finally open.

Ugh. I really hope that that ginormous wasp is not in the garage. I wonder if they can sneak in cars from underneath? I swear wasps are surrounding me this year.

Yep, don't you want to be in my head for 35 minutes?

Fighting with Mr. Postman

I want to apologize for the craziness of this post, at this point, I'm in a rush and didn't edit. If you think I'm crazy, my mind wandering of this post will just ensure it. I guess me wanting a book deal so I wouldn't have to work again will not come from this post. I'll try harder next time.

It's not short of a miracle that the invitations are stuffed, stamped, sealed and ready to head out to the lovely homes of our guests. It was a long, and tedious process, mainly for my mom, but still.
Let's just say actually getting the stamps was the biggest issue. Let me tell you why.

First I have to say that I had the fabulous opportunity to babysit one of my FIVE nephews on Monday - why? Well because it was a great excuse to not go into work and nephew numero cinco was on his way into the world! So the day for for Dylan and I - and I have to say that we work pretty well together, we even ventured out, and one outing was to the post office.

And I will be the first to tell you, I am impressed with those moms who have it all together - because this auntie doesn't. But off we were to get 190 stamps - 61 cent stamps, and we needed 190 of them.

Dylan did pretty well for the most part, there was staring at the guy who smelled like smoke behind us, eating some dried cereal, and more staring. Then when it was about our turn, he was ready to leave. The guy that smelt like smoke wasn't interesting anymore and well the cereal was almost gone. Thank goodness for the card section that is located in the line - well done Mr. Postman, well done.
We picked, okay, well D pointed and I picked up the card I thought he was pointing at - a skinny dog sitting on a pile of books with glasses on. He loved it. And then gave it to his momma later.
Finally, our turn! We walked up to "Vickie's" space, but not after dropping a chupi (pacifier), some keys, and the card all on the floor - and of course at different times. Thank you to the man who smelt like smoke for offering to pick up the chupi.

Good afternoon Vickie, I need 190 - 61 cent stamps. And while you do that, Dylan will stare at you, and maybe wave goodbye after we leave.
Done. In and out and Dylan even waved, okay, we were out the door when he waved, but still-everyone was happy. Or so I thought.Fast forward to the rest of the day, after Mr. Caden Robert was born, all 9 lbs of him, and Dylan and I were back to Nana & Gampa's house to finish some invitations and take a mimi (That's nap for my Caucasian friends). Somehow I wish I was taking the mimi instead of Dylan, but he was the one who walked up stairs and got into the crip. Such a crip hog.
Stamping is made 10 times easier since the last wedding I had to stamp for - pretty sure it was Courtney's wedding when I had to actually lick the stamps, di-gusting. But the self adhesive type are way better.And after packing up the stamps, invites and insides, I was off to my house to finish the rest - and to make sure my mom didn't do any more since she was back to school. She lies when she says she won't finish anything, then when I come back, it's all done. That stinker.

So the stamping and stuffing part two took place at my house, while I was trying to keep Tyson and his drool, snot and hair away from all the WHITE invitations - I think he got his feelings hurt, but hey, not everyone understands that drool from a dog is love. Most people think it's gross, whatever.
That's when my anger with Mr. Postman began. "Vickie" only gave me 90 stamps. Wait, maybe they are in the car, or in my purse, did Dylan think they were stickers for his 'Big Bro' shirt? My receipt says 190, maybe I'm sitting on them.

Nope. "Vickie" did not count right.
Granted, I should not fault her because everyone knows that I am not going to be a mathematician anytime soon - I mean I can't even figure out how to tip at a restaurant (I generally over tip for all you servers out there), but that's neither here nor there - nope it's all about "Vickie" and her inability to count to 190! Grr.

Just when I thought I was finally going to be done with invitations and all that goes with them, fail. Not done.
Luckily for me, I called and spoke to fabulous Dave who rest assured me I would be able to come in and get stamps and it would not a be a problem.

Dave - you have redeemed the post office and all that is stands for. Congratulations, you will get my business again.And now ladies and gentleman, the finished product....


Okay, it's sideways and I can't figure it out, but that's 186 invitations, stuffed, stamped, sealed and ready to be delivered. So, we still have 4 more to do---ugh the additions are killing me!

But these are ready to go - and I kept Tyson from getting his drool all over them, except for the sealing part. You all don't mind that Tyson's spit helped me seal them right?
And I can't leave this post without adding the final ring bearer's picture!

Who's budgeting who

Counting down the wedding days also means counting the money that we are putting into our wedding. We are very lucky to have our parents help us out, but we knew that we wanted to help as well - especially since we are the bride groom.

So we've been saving money and tracking our spending and making sure we don't go shopping too much. Okay, so Tony is making sure I don't go on shopping sprees. I still don't know how those random boxes of shoes and purses show up at our door....hmmm, must be the shopping fairy.

But for the most part, I've done pretty good, and if I do have the shopping bug hit me, I try to make it reasonable, a little Target, some Old Navy maybe, and perhaps even a little Forever 27. But I also have a watch dog - and someone I have to write actual checks to. Yes, twice a month I write Tony checks for the "Wedding Fund." And this time I really do have to write checks, with my other budget watcher, my dad, and the person whom I wrote my car insurance checks too, I occasionally forgot my checkbook or would make sure I would get it next month. Not Tony - he bugs me until he forces my pen in my hand.

Anyway, I am digressing on this post and I had to remember to write it before I forgot my point.

Right. Okay, so we are on budgets and trying not to buy stuff. Something that doesn't work when someone, ahem, loses almost 30 lbs and has pants that are falling off, shirts that look like dresses and belts that are the last loop. See a previous post about how this annoys me.

And although I'm thrilled for him, he does need new clothes. I don't want to be seen with a saggy pant man walking around.

So tonight, after slaving away on invitations, Tony tells me that he has to tell me something....he just happened to go to TJ Maxx to get polos.

Um, what?

To which he started the conversation as, 'Before you say anything, I needed these for work."
(An excuse to which I also always used with my dad, church and for Chapter meetings.)

So he brought out these two polos, which he already washed and had hung.

If you know Tony, you know that he has two favorite stores: CVS and Express. If you can't find what you are looking for there, then you don't need it.

Well after a few shopping experiences at Expres, and looking at his closet, I do believe he has almost every color of polos they offer. I'm not even exaggerating....we had a conversation with the sales associate about it.

Anyway, he told me he had to get those polos because they look more professional than the Express ones. And that's when this doozy of a line came out:

"You know, when I'm rocking the Express polos casually, I can't wear them with dress pants."

Awesome.

So he bought polos to wear for work, because it's so hot out, that have a large crest on them, rather than the large "Liger" on the Express polos.

So remind me again, aren't we on a budget?

How much is a roll of bubble wrap?

According to my dad, I am a a diagnosed klutz. Yes, he thinks my doctor diagnosed me as klutzy when I went and saw her about the number of bruises on my body. Turns out, I am actually slightly anemic. But he still claims the klutz is the reason.

Which is why when in high school, college, and even today, whenever my brothers try and hit me, I always claim that I am wearing a sleeveless dress. It just makes them hit me in the hip, but whatever, at least I won't be punched in the arm and have dead arm.

So as the wedding day approaches, I make sure that my brothers know that I am wearing a sleeveless dress to not hit me. But I have always joked that I need to wrap myself in bubble wrap just to be careful. Recently, I have come to the realization it really wouldn't be a bad idea.

In the past few days I have managed to scrape my leg on our bench, causing a tear in the skin and a bruise; give myself rug burns on my knees while doing P90X (stupid working out) and the other morning, slammed the fridge into my foot.

Bubble wrap please.

And of course there isn't a day that goes by that I don't hit a doorway, a door, a table, a chair, well the list goes on and on sadly.

As October approaches, do not be surprised if you see me in loads of bubble wrap, or lots of layers. Granted it will be hot under both, but perhaps that will be my little secret to losing weight.

Does anyone know how much a roll of bubble wrap is?

We have how many done?

The pen writing started tonight - we actually began addressing the invites. For my mom, she did fabulous....me, fail on my first one. Then I got nervous on #14, ugh, fail two. I hope I ordered enough envelopes for this.

But after we took a break for dinner - thanks to my dad for grabbing the grub! We started to pack up a little and take notice of our work.

54. We addressed 54 invites in one addressing session.

Excuse me.

How important are invites any way? I mean at this point if your name begins with H or after, you may be getting an evite. Tacky? I say timely, green and carpel tunnel friendly.

You're List is Cut-Off

Okay - so the wedding addressing did not get done - but the stamps look fantastic on the reply cards! And my mom and I also learned that we need to double check our work, a few of the invitations were missing the actual invite. But hey, at least we found out that before we sent them out!

But just as we were going over our addresses and making sure that we had everyone's names are spelled correctly, the address in place and aren't missing people, my lovely fiance decides to throw out this little diddy.

"Hey babe, I think I have a few more names to add."

Excuse me. What do you mean a "few" more names?

Five - he meant five more names - not even people, just names.

I mean, apparently there are people he didn't know that he was even getting married - apparently we didn't send them a save-the-date....doesn't mean they need to get invited. If I don't know them, they don't need to see my in my pretty dress!

Okay, well I say that, but then of course he has to rationalize with me and tries to tell me that some of these people probably won't even show up. Ugh. In the back of my head, my little brain is telling me that since these people are in shock that he's getting married, they are probably going to want to actually SEE him go through with it. Sorry Dad.

But after this week, Tony's list is getting cut off. He even tried to tell me that I had more people than he did - guess what we counted, I had less. He tried again to tell me that I had more invitations to send out: Again, I won 87-93. Ha!

If he doesn't have all the names and people to me by Saturday, sorry Charlie, they aren't coming. Okay, we'll talk about it, but I'm going to put my foot down....or at least try.