Wedding 2008

It's over. The wedding of the decade happened and it was a fantastic event. The weather held and the ceremony was outside. It was beautiful. The vows were meaningful and the bride and groom a glow in their love. The reception was wonderful. The food was great, the DJ was great and the servers were the best. I have the most fabulous network of women who step up when needed. I hired Girl Scouts and their leaders to help setup, serve, bus and tear down. This left me, mother of the bride, the opportunity to enjoy this special day. It was the best wedding I have ever been to and it was worth all the money. We will remember that day forever.

Election 2008

Okay, its an election year. We will get a new president. This will be good. Who will it be? Emotions are tense. Everyone has an opinion. I'm feeling pressured to take a stand. Personally I'm not that concerned about it. My life is good. I have a house, kids, husband, a steady income from that husband. I do feel like the current administration let us down. I'm rather un-republican more than I'm pro-democrat. I don't think the republicans did a good job controlling GWB and for that reason I think they need to be booted. But if McCain beats out Obama, well, I don't think I'll loose any sleep over it. It's a very wishy washy attitude and I probably should care more, but I don't. I find the whole process of campaigning to be tedious and a waste of money. If a candidate announced that they were going to forgo the TV spots and spend the money on the homeless or at food banks, then I might take more of an interest.

I'm just a smug American. Safe in my freedoms and comforts brought to me by those who spend the time following the issues and those in office. Safe in my freedom to write what I feel without free of prosecution. Me, Smug and American.

This must be love

My husband had a colonoscopy yesterday. He had to drink this "drano" koolaid the night before to clean him out for the photo shoot. He was a bit nervous about having a camera up his butt...who wouldn't? He was so funny afterwards. He doesn't remember any of the time spent after they told him he would start feeling drowsy until coming home in the car. He doesn't remember the doctor telling him everyone looked good, getting dressed, asking me when we were going to talk to the doctor, getting into the car, and stopping for teriyaki. He said they told him he wouldn't remember much so he wasn't surprized. I was a little weirded out though as I gone with my sister last year for the same thing and she remembered everything.

The doctor said that between the CT scan and the colonoscopy, everything looked good and to come back in 10 years. Just make sure you eat lots of fiber (that's what they tell everyone anyway).

Nothing looked like cancer, so that's good too.

I love Rob so much and would hate to have anything happen to him.

Wedding Count Down

We are now just over 2 weeks to the wedding of the year. I think we finally have a handle on things as I have told my daughter to stop trying so hard and not try to turn it into Cirque du Soleil. She is afraid that people will be bored and want to leave. My future son in law said this is his fault as he doesn't like to hang out at weddings once the cake is cut.

It should be a good party. We have great food, good music and lots of drink. I made sure I have lots of my friends and my family there as my ex in-laws can make my life hell and I need people around me that like me.

We have focused so much on the setting up and taking down of the wedding that we haven't given thought to us actually enjoying it. I'm sure once we start things will be great.

I'm now making lists. I do this for all my activities. I make a list of each stage of the wedding and I make a list for each section of the ceremony and reception. I will break these down into what needs to be done and what do we need to have. Once this is done, I will assign duties to everyone from set up to take down. I'm sure it won't be without mishaps but life is full of them and we all seem to keep functioning.

It's going to be a great party, I really can't wait. I love Brianne and Marcus!

Mean Girls

Why is it so easy to believe the worst about people? I try not to assume that everything I hear is the truth. Most of the time it is just part of the truth, an edited edition of the truth, or an elaborated version. So often someone tells me what someone else said only to find that its more of what the listener thought they meant not necessarily what they said. If someone says they take an antidepressant, it doesn't mean that they are dysfunctional, suicidal or crazy. It seems to me that this person is doing the right thing by taking care of themselves. Whereas how many times have you heard, "they should be on drugs" when some one is not functioning okay.

My daughter takes antidepressants and I am proud of her for taking control of her life. She is herself only better because she wasn't afraid to find a solution to add quality to her life.

I try not to hate people. I dislike a few but mostly I figure that everyone I know has something good going for them. We all have our quirks and I'm sure that mine are subject to discussion on more occasions than I like to think about. My friends have major quirks but that's what makes them unique and why I like being with them.

I'm very fortunate to have friends, good friends. I'm not sure I deserve them as I'm not always the best person I could be. I speak without thinking and can be critical instead of understanding. I also try to pat things down and smooth things over so everyone will get along. I turn the other cheek so often that I get kicked in the ass.

We need to trust others. We need to look for the good and expect it. We need to think before we act or speak and consider what could happen when we do.

Wedding Jitters

It's less than 3 weeks to Brianne's wedding. I think I have found a beverage server. We still need to do a ton of things. I'm sewing up a storm to get the bride's maids outfitted. Brianne still needs to trim out some costs as she needs to know she can't have everything. I'm ending up hosting the bridal shower, there just isn't any other place. The guest list is at 32 and Brianne thinks we should invite more. Not going to happen.

Million things to do.....

Kelly's Cat

Kelly's cat got sick while we were all at Girl Scout Daycamp. Kelly is a Girl Scout leader that I've known for about 6-7 years now. She took him to the vet and found out he had eaten wire from a craft project she did at her home for Girl Scouts. Surgery was needed to save his life. I just got an email, well, all the Girl Scouts in town got this email, that the surgery went find and the vet was astounded on how much stuff was in this cat's gut and how fortunate it blocked things up and he didn't further injest the wire. Kelly listed all the things in his tummy "On top of two pieces of wire she had a hair pony, string from the friendship bracelets, thread from the hiking bags, fleece from the cat toys that Chris had sold at the last leader meeting, 3 pieces of that and a lots and lots of grass. " Now I'm feeling really guilty as she named me and my troop's toy as one of the causes of her cat getting sick. I'm not sure what I'm suppose to do with that information. Does this make me accountable for the vet bills? She goes on to say, "A little to much he said and that was part of the other problem that cats can not digest grass and she was eating a lot of it to make her self throw up and it did not work. But that was also what probably saved her because the wire was not able to pass out of her stomach because of the blockage and it would have caused a lot of other problems." Or maybe she means me to know that my fleece actually saved the cat's life. I just don't know.

My cat Charlie ate thread when he was 5 months old. Rob, the kids and I were in Norway when my older daughter calls to let us know that Charlie is in the hospital and they believe he ate string. We were home the next day, so off we take Charlie to the surgeon. He has injested thread that had looped over his tongue and was cutting into the underside and strangling him. They had to make a total of 6 incisions in his stomach and intestons to get the long long length of thread out and they pulled out some curling ribbon. This was 4 1/2 years and $2000 ago. He is doing fine, a little thin but you would be too if you had had gastric bypass surgery. That was a bad year for us and cats. We had vet bills that totalled over $3000 and we buried one kitty a few days before Christmas.

But back to Kelly's cat. I'm sure that the vet bills will be huge but I can't take responsibility on what her cat eats, right?

Wedding Bells are Coming

Time has slipped away since my b-day. Brianne and I have been working hard at putting together what will be the wedding of the century, or at least that is how long it will take for Rob and me to pay it off.

This event is on August 17th so we have very little time left and are now trying to pull all the loose ends together. I am not going to go into the cost, except to say that a small country could run for a year on what it is costing. It will be wonderful though. Brianne has fantastic taste and has gathered together people who she feels confident will bring her dream together. Many of my friends are there to help. One Girl Scout leader is officiating. Another with her troop is being our setting, serving and cleanup crew. Another is working on finding us a reasonably priced bartender. I'm so blessed with such friends. The responses are pouring in and we are in for a big crowd. It really doesn't matter what the cost is, as it will be so great to share our joy with so many people.

Tomorrow, I will be sewing up a storm, creating beautiful bridesmaid's dresses. So much to do and so little time left!

Happy Birthday, the Big 50!

I decided some time last year that I wanted a big deal made out of my birthday. I wanted a party and I didn't want to plan it myself. I didn't want a surprise party, I just wanted someone to do it for me, like Rob.
I love Rob, but he isn't the most creative sort so I know that throwing a party would be trying for him. I didn't think he could do it. So I hinted to my friends to help him out. Basically I said, don't let Rob screw this up! Take it over and make it good. So Mary and Amy did just that, along with help from a few others. They decided to make it a surprise. Of course I've got to know if anything is happening as I don't trust Rob to do anything or to just have a cake and my sisters over. I had given him specifics that I wanted all my friends to come, to have good food and drinks. So I asked him, if I needed to do anything - like plan it myself, which I would have done if needed. He kind of looked uncomfortable and said I didn't need to do anything.
Soon there was a news blackout. None of my friends are communicating with me. Especially Mary, which is weird as we spend half our day talking or emailing. So this makes be suspicious and relieved. So I start making Mary's life miserable. I keep calling her and emailing and she keeps trying to avoid me. I whine to her that I'm sure I can't count on Rob to do a party so I'm going to plan one for the 12th, knowing that she is going to be gone that weekend.
She finally breaks down and invites me to go out to dinner with her on the 5th, and bring Rob and my sister Caroline who is visiting. Next thing I get is some weird invitation from Amy to come to her house that same night for a couples dinner to celebrate good friends. Mary says that that sounds like more fun than dinner out. I'm like, "but I doubt Caroline will want to go and hang with strangers". So I try and drive everyone nuts knowing now that there will be a party and it will be either at Mary's or Amy's. So come Saturday morning, I send Mary and email that I'm really tired and not feeling great, so we might not be able to get together. And I tell this to Rob too, who starts to look sick himself.
Its now time to go to "pick up Mary" and I get changed and put on makeup - gotta look nice! And we head over to Mary's whose driveway is packed with cars. "Gee", I say, "what could be going on!?!" Surprise!! And it was a great party, the surprise was that they did invite all my friends. I had a wonderful time, the best party I have ever had. I'm so lucky to have such wonderful friends and I will have to do the same for them when the time comes.

Happy New Year

It's been way too long since I last wrote. I got caught up in the holidays and didn't have time for much else. The weekend before Christmas I had a melt down. I was getting stressed out about the holiday as I was the only one doing anything to prepare. I did the decorating, I did the shopping, I did the baking, I did the wrapping, I did the cleaning and I was still doing all the driving as Rob was still in a cast. We were also preparing for my in-laws 5oth anniversary and the Von Trapp singer, er, my husband's family, were going to sing at the party a medley of 40's tunes. I am tone deaf. Nails on a chalk board sound better than me. So I politely declined to sing with these people who understand music, they read it, breathe it, live it. My daughters are both musical so with Rob, we were well represented. We were having to drive to Seattle or further for rehearsals and it was getting tiring for me, as I was just observing and could have been using my time to get other things done.

So on Sunday, before we had to drive to Seattle for rehearsal, I decided to head out early to the grocery store and get my holiday food shopping done. As I go to back out, I realize I have a flat tire. Now I have never changed a flat, I've always been with a man who happy to do it. Now my man was laid up with a broken arm, so I figured I better do it. I managed to get the jack out and get the hub cap off. I figured out where the spare was (under the middle seats row!!). I tried to loosen the lug nuts and I couldn't get them off. I tried and tried and now its raining, hard. I went inside and asked Rob to help, although I was worried on what it would do to his arm. As he was getting dressed, I decided to try again. I thought, hey, what if I jumped on the wrench. So I did and I got them loose. I knew this weight was good for something! I got the car jacked up just as Rob got out. He did help with getting the spare out from under the car. And he helped with the lug nuts, but I did help. I then checked to see if I could get the tire fixed as it was under warranty. Turns out tire stores are not open on Sundays. This was the last straw as I was very tense and stressed out. I sat in the car and cried and cried. Rob watched from the porch as I drove away. I think I worried him, that he was afraid I was really going to lose it.

So I had to drive to Seattle on that donut tire. I didn't care much for that. The next morning I went out at 8am to get the tire repaired, good thing to, as it was Christmas Eve and they closed at 1pm and we were due in Redmond later that morning. It was done in no time and off we went.

Rob got his cast off on Christmas Eve. His arm was all small and weak. He can't move his wrist very well and is in physical therapy but it's getting better. But the best thing was, he can drive again!

Christmas morning was loud at our house, with screaming kids and barking dogs. It was nice to go to Rob's parents for dinner, they are so quiet compared to my family.

My sister Caroline came in the weekend before New Years from Norway. It's so good to see her. We had a quiet NY Eve and didn't drink much at all.