Back from the honeymoon!

We got home around 10:30pm last night. What an amazing trip!!!! I will give you a run-down of what we did.

We arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico around 5pm on September 12th. We went to our hotel and checked in. It was such a cute little place, a little Inn with a private pool. The pool was small, but really pretty with a waterfall running into it and it had all these potted plants around it which we frequently saw these really neat lizards hanging out in. I loved the hotel. We stayed there for 4 nights. It was a block and a half from the beach and we could take a 75 cent bus ride into Old San Juan. Really good location. There was a small restaurant at the hotel, but there were also plenty of places to eat within a 10 minute walk.

So, we pretty much relaxed and did some sightseeing for the 4 days prior to our cruise. Once evening, we went to the BioBay in Fajardo. There is only 4 places in the world where these little creatures exist. We had about a half hour kayak ride into the Laguna Granda (and we had to go at night so we could see the Bioluminescence). It was quite an adventure kayaking in the pitch black trying not to run into mangrove trees! We made it though and once we got to the Lagoon, the micro-organisms there light up with movement. So, everytime we paddled, the water lit up. I'd scoop up some water and let it run down my arm and it would sparkle like crazy. VERY COOL! I loved this excursion!

Last Sunday, we got on our cruise. Our room was all decorated with "HAPPY HONEYMOON" decorations. CT's sister had called and let them know we were on our honeymoon, so they made us feel special. Our room was really nice! I didn't know what to expect since we'd never been on a cruise before, but it was actually quite spacious. And we had our own private balcony, which was really nice.

The ship was HUGE! Amazing! I am totally hooked on cruises now and can't wait until our next one. It was so much fun! We were at a different island every day and then on the ship there would be a different show every evening, which were absolutely amazing. They had a magician, juggler, comedian, a vegas type show, newlywed game, family fued, and that's just naming a few. I had an absolutely amazing time!

The first island we stopped at was St. Thomas. We did a little shopping and then went on a private sightseeing tour of the Island. We went to the top of a mountain which had the most breathtaking views! We could see Tortolla and St. John from up there. And we could also see Anderson Cooper's house and the house where Bill Clinton stayed in during the Lewinsky scandal. We also got to see Blackbeard's castle and I had my first ever banana daquiri that was made with 151 proof rum.... WOWSAAZ!

The next island was Dominica, which was absolutely gorgeous. We went on a tour of the Island in this ex-military jeep. What a ride! Riding through the rainforest in Dominica was quite an experience! The roads are really narrow and in the mountains there are crazy turns and steep inclines. So steep in fact, there was once point where I thought the jeep may topple over backwards, but it didn't. We got to go to the Ti Tou Gorge, one of the spots used in Pirates of the Caribbean 2. It's the part where Jack, Will, and the others are swimming down a crevice in the rocks and arrows are being shot at them. Well CT and I got to swim through that very same crevice! Very cool!

Next stop was Barbados where we got to play with Green Monkeys. It was so neat to hold these little guys, especially the babies! I definitely wanted to take one home! SOOOO cute!

We then went to St. Lucia, which was absolutely gorgeous. We saw the twin Pitons, and I got to go see my first ever volcano that was actually doing something! It is the world's only drive-through volcano and it was super cool. At this spot there were sulphur springs that I got to bathe in... very hot! Like a really warm jacuzzi! St. Lucia was beautiful. We got to try some of the local fruits and breads and I had the best banana I have ever had. Fresh from the tree. Yumm! We also got to see "Pirate's Cove", which was used in Pirates of the Caribbean 1.

Our last port was Antigua, where we went on a 65 foot catamaran and I went snorkeling and then we went to a gorgeous beach. It was my first time snorkeling, and I am hooked!

We took TONS of pictures, so I will put some on Facebook when I have a chance.

We had the absolute best honeymoon I could have ever wanted. It was amazing.

And now it's back to reality; I go back to work tomorrow. And it's going to be a long fall since I have no more vacation days for the year. Oh well, I'm sure I'll be busy! I'm sure there is a large stack of work waiting for me!

I was planning to be all organized and get on my name change stuff today, but I still don't have my marriage certificate that I am supposed to receive in the mail. I hope it comes soon!

I should have my wedding pics within a week or so, so I can't wait to share those with you all!!!!

Have a great week everyone!

It was the best day of my life!

The day began with the ladies and I going to the hair salon to get our hair and makeup done. They did an absolute fabulous job! We all looked amazing!

We then went back to my parents house to get ready and the photographer came by around 12:30 for some pictures of me, my family, and nej and lj. We got some really amazing shots I think. Some of them were taken on the landing of my parents stairs, which was really special because we have pictures of my mom standing in the same spot on her wedding day.

The weather was gorgeous. Sunny and probably 25 degrees or so. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

The limo picked us up at 2:00 and we headed to the church. We arrived fashionably late at 2:10 (the ceremony was supposed to start at 2:00, but I wanted to be a little late, when else would 100 people be all sitting and waiting for me? hehe). Once we got there, the ceremony began moments later. As lj and nej left for their walk to the front of the church and it was just daddy and me standing there, I started to lose my composure, so I told him a joke to keep from crying.

The ceremony was amazing. Just what I wanted. There were a few times when I thought I was going to cry and the tears welled up in my eyes, but I was able to hold it together. I can't wait to see the video for the wedding so I can watch the ceremony again because it was so beautiful.

After the ceremony, we had the receiving line which was nice because people got to congratulate us minutes after we were married.

Then it was back in the limo for our trip to the reception. It was about a 30 minute drive to the reception, complete with champagne. It was a lot of fun!

When we got to the reception location, we took a few minutes to check into our rooms and freshen up for the formal pictures. Wow, the honeymoon suite is absolutely gorgeous! Huge kingsize bed covered with rose pedals, large jaccuzi tub and fireplace, and the biggest bathroom I have seen in my life. The building is gorgeous, we love it there, so I think we're going to make it an annual thing to stay there for our anniversary.

Then it was time for our formal photos with family. The area is beautiful with lots of rocks and water. For the photos with the wedding party, we walked across the river and took the photos on large rocks right beside the water. What an amazing spot. It must have been a strange sight to see a bride and groom and wedding party walking down the side of a road, we got lots of honks, that's for sure. I cannot wait to see the photos, they must have been amazing since the scenery was so beautiful and of course the people looked amazing too!

By the time we got back to the lodge, it was almost time for dinner, but we headed up to the room for a little break to sit down and collect our thoughts. Then it was time to make our entrance into the reception around 6:00. The meal was really good, way too much food though! At least nobody could complain about being hungry! Some people made comments about how the food was the best they have ever had at a wedding. It was very yummy! We then had a dessert buffet, which was amazing! Then it was time for speeches, which were perfect. Everyone had some really touching things to say. I can't wait to watch the video to see them again because there were some really funny parts too!

Around 9:00 we had our first dance which was perfect. I really enjoyed it. Then we danced with our parents and then it was the wedding party dance. After that, it was time to party! The DJ did an awesome job. The dance floor was never empty, people had a great time.

Around 10:00 we did the boquet and garter toss. The florist forgot to make a toss boquet, so I tossed Jen's, but it ended up that she caught it anyway, so it worked out well! Then we cut the wedding cake.

We tried to mingle with people as well as have fun on the dance floor, I think it was a good mix. Everyone was having a wonderful time, MANY people said it was the best wedding they'd ever been to. Of course I'm biased, but I truly think it could not have gone any better. Everything was just the way I wanted.

The reception was over around 1:00, so people retired to their rooms at that point. It was really neat that the recpetion venue not only had an absolutely gorgeous dining room, but it had many rooms for people to stay over. And people made use of it! The rooms in the lodge were fully booked and I think most of the motel units were also booked.

I can't wait to see pictures. The day was perfect (I know, I use that word a lot, but it was!).

And now I'm married to the man of my dreams! I could not be any happier. I am so excited to spend the rest of my life with CT, he really is an amazing guy.

Yesterday, we had breakfast with those who also stayed over, and then headed to my parents house to open the gifts. We are completely blown away by everyones generosity. We received mostly cash and gift cards, which is fabulous! We did receive some gifts too, so that was great. But we received an overwhelming total of cash, so we are going to head to the bank to open up a joint account because I don't want that much money sitting around the house. I think we will use half of the money we received to pay for the honeymoon (it will almost cover our entire honeymoon), and the other half we will put in the joint account and then we'll think of what we want to use the money for later. We also received LOTS of gift cards, so we are all set! I am completely blown away by how generous everyone was, WOW! I guess a lot of people love us!!!

We leave at 5:00am on Wednesday morning for our honeymoon, so today will be spent running errands and then we'll pack tomorrow. So, I'll be sure to post when we get back. We get back late on Sunday, Sept 23rd, but I have the 24th off work too.

100 hours...

It's crunch time now! We only have a few small details to work out, and the big day will be here very soon!

I had a wonderful weekend. I think it was one of the best I've ever had at the cottage actually. My whole family was there and it was really relaxing. We even made a campfire one night and roasted marshmallows, which was really fun! That's something we'd never done before. One by one, people disappeared to go to bed, so it ended up being me, CT, my brother Al, and his gf for a long time. We sat around the fire drinking and hanging out. It was a nice way to relax a bit on our last weekend before the wedding.

It was such a nice feeling to wake up this morning and not have to go to work! I think I'm going to really enjoy being off work for 3 weeks. I may not want to go back ;)

Today I have a bunch of errands to do. Tomorrow, nej is coming up and we're going to make the pew decorations. Thursday, we have more stuff to do and then we're going to a company BBQ in the evening. Friday, our day is packed with wedding stuff, and then Saturday is the wedding! Yay!

I think it will be okay.

I just needed some time to calm down, I think. I have been able to find the sheet music online for download and have printed it off and the musician will pick it up when she is in town on Tuesday.

Crisis averted.

I'm off to the cottage until Monday evening.

Have a great long weekend everyone!!!

Just need to vent...

My ceremony musician is driving me nuts!

I gave her my selections for music over a month ago and she still hasn't purchased the music! Then today she sends me an email saying that she can't afford to buy the music. So, I say of course I would reimburse her for the cost (she's going back to school, single mom = very broke). Then she sends me another message saying that she won't in town again until Tuesday (she lives an hour out of town) and that I should do and buy the music. I am leaving for the cottage tomorrow morning! Sheesh! So, I told her that she should buy the music on Tuesday since I'm gone for the weekend and she would have a much better idea of what to get.

Geepers. So I hope she actually does go to the music store on Tuesday. And I am keeping my fingers crossed that they actually have the music we need because there won't be enough time to order anything! The wedding will be only 4 days after that!!!

She has known what music I want since the end of July... why is she just looking for the music now?!?!? Now I have to spend my weekend worrying instead of relaxing!!!!

So not cool!!!

I knew that SOMETHING was bound to go wrong eventually, I just really hope this works out! And it's not like she's some stranger, she has been a friend of the family for years.

9 days!

First off, EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I am super excited! The countdown is into the single digits now!!!! Sometimes I find myself literally jumping for joy or shouting with glee.

Going to the cottage this weekend will be really awesome. The entire family is going. That is the first time this summer that all of us will be there. It will make for a packed cottage! There will be 9 of us (Oma, Dad, Mom, CT, Me, brother Alex, his gf, brother Thom, his gf, and dog Koby). For any of you who have been to the cottage, you know that makes for interesting sleeping arrangements. Luckily, we have a pull out couch now, that will make it a little easier. And, when we go out there for thanksgiving, CT and I can finally share a bed! Yay!

We do have a couple of wedding tasks to do while we’re at the cottage. CT and I are going to write our speech and we need to write the questions for the trivia game (we’ve decided we’re going to do trivia questions about us for the ‘kissing’ game).

I’m getting a hair trim and highlights tonight, so I am looking forward to that. I always love getting my hair done. I still go to the same place that I worked at from 1996-1999. Some of the same people are still there, so it’s always a warm welcome when I walk in there.

For any of you who read the globe and mail

...mummy was quoted in the Life Section. Just thought I'd pass it along!

Only 2.5 days of work left! And Friday won't even be a full day since we're having a BBQ at 2pm and we're done at 3pm. I really hope I'll be able to get all my work done by then! We'll see!

94-97...

...is the number of people we’ll have at the reception. Which is a pretty decent number I think. The reason for the range is we still have 3 ‘maybe’s. One guy’s date backed out so he is not sure if he’ll be bringing someone else or coming alone and the other 2 maybes are the new parents that just had twins at the end of July. So, I need to submit our final number to the reception venue on Friday, so if I still don’t know about these 3 people, then I guess I’ll just count them in. Better to have too many meals than not enough, I guess.

I think we are looking good in terms of the wedding planning, so I think I’ll be going to the cottage for the long weekend. I wasn’t sure if I’d have to stay home to work on wedding stuff, but I think the few small tasks we have left to do can be done the week of the wedding. So, I am really glad we’ll be able to spend our last weekend before the wedding relaxing at the cottage! We’ll be there from Saturday morning until Monday afternoon. Should be a relaxing weekend! Wish it was here already!

Let’s see, what do I have going on this week… well tonight I have to stop by my mom’s house because we’re going to plan the menu for the cottage. She also says she has a wedding present at her place for me (from a family friend). So that’s exciting!

On Thursday evening, I am getting my hair done (highlights and a SMALL trim). Friday evening, CT and I are going to his parents’ house for dinner.

I’m hoping I don’t have to work too many extra hours this week. I have some work I absolutely have to get done before I leave for 3 weeks.

In other news, my aunt broke her nose on the weekend! Ouch! She had to have surgery yesterday to repair it. I hope she’s okay by the wedding. She says she’s still coming no matter what, she’s just not sure how she’ll look for the pictures, poor aunt! Seeing how clumsy I am, I am thinking I should basically be wrapped in bubble wrap between now and the wedding. I already had a tumble about a week ago and managed to scrape my shin and bruise my bum. I am really hoping that will be better by the wedding! Sheesh!

Oh, and for anyone who’s curious, it’s approximately 267 hours until the wedding. Yes, I know, I’m pathetic!!!

Successful wedding planning weekend!

Friday, I had my final dress fitting, and it fits perfectly! So happy with that. All they did was let it out a tad under the arms, so my boobs weren’t all squished like they were with my first fitting. That’s all they had to do to the dress, so I was pretty happy with that. I pick it up on September 6th.

On Saturday, I had my hair and makeup trial. It went amazing. I was so pleased with what they did. I am really glad I went for the trial because that takes a lot of the stress out of it. Now I don’t have to worry about whether I’ll like what they do with my hair and makeup on the day of the wedding. I almost cried when I had my hair all done and they put the tiara and veil on. I looked amazing! Can’t wait until the big day! Oh, and nej and lj, I am supposed to tell you to make sure you wear a button down shirt when we go to get our hair done (so you won’t have to pull a shirt over your head) and also not to wash your hair that morning (dirty hair is easier for them to style).

After that, mom and I did a bunch of wedding related errands. I bought CT’s wedding present, and a couple of other wedding-related items including a lovely cake serving set engraved with our names and wedding date.

CT had a great time at his stag. Such a good time in fact that he said he got a total of 30 minutes of sleep the entire night. My brothers and dad went as well and they said they had a great time. I’m glad the men had a good time. Since our men were gone, I spent the evening with my mom as well. I did her highlights for her. On Saturday, I was out of the house from 9:30am until 10pm! Busy day!

So, here I am at my last week of work before the wedding. I hope it goes quickly! And that I am able to get all the work done that I need to!

So are you totally sick of wedding talk yet?

Well no worries, in 15 days, the wedding planning talk will all be over!

This afternoon, I have my final dress fitting at 4pm (I’m done work at 3pm thanks to summer hours!). I’m sure it will go well. The alterations were VERY minor, so I’m sure this is just a check to make sure it fits perfectly now and that nothing else needs to be done before the big day. Then I think it’s just a matter of them steaming and pressing it, then I can pick it up a couple of days before the wedding. I’ll have to take it to my parents house because I certainly don’t want CT to see it!

Tomorrow, I have my hair and make-up trial run in the morning, then mom and I are going all over the place to do wedding errands. We have to: get some supplies at Michaels, check out possible items to fill favor boxes with at the bulk barn (I’m thinking mints like Mrs. JB did), get stuff for the bathroom baskets, check into getting a cake server and having it engraved for us, talk to the cake baker to confirm last details, etc. Lots to do! And that’s not even everything!

And the hair and make-up trial is on a good day since CT is leaving before I get back. Tomorrow is his stag party and he’ll be gone until sometime on Sunday, so he won’t see me with my hair and make-up done. That was purely coincidental since I had my appointments booked before I knew the date of his stag.

We also want to get the seating plan finalized. We thought we had it all done and then a bunch (at least 4) people backed out yesterday and we still have 4 “maybes” on our list. Very frustrating. Having those 4 people back out and still having maybes totally throws off our whole seating plan. So, I’m hoping by the end of the weekend, we’ll have the maybes confirmed one way or another and then we can finalize the seating plan (again). Because next week, I have to call the wedding co-ordinator with the FINAL number along with how many vegetarian meals we’ll need.

Hope everyone has a great weekend! Happy 1st anniversary to you Burger (on Sunday)!!!

Update on Dad's tumour

I just wanted to provide an update on my Dad’s medical condition since I’m sure some of you know at least some of what has transpired in the last several years. He went to see the specialist again last week.

Back in 2000, my dad was diagnosed with a benign tumour in his pituitary gland and had it removed. His pituitary gland was destroyed, so now he has to take all his hormones by pill. They could not remove all of the tumour since some was pushed right up against the brain and they thought it would be too risky to remove that. Now, 7 years later, the remaining tumour has grown to a size where something needs to be done. This time, instead of operating right away, they are going to try to stop the growth by radiation treatment. It’s going to be low-dose done once a day for 5 weeks. Which means my dad needs to go to Princess Margaret hospital every day for treatment starting October 22nd. Which means, he’ll be off work for 5 weeks. Good thing my mom has a job now! Yikes! He may be eligible for EI, we’ll see. I’m really hoping this radiation works because my dad says there is no way he’s having surgery again. He almost died the first time since he had a pulmonary embolism (i.e. blood clot) that traveled through his heart. If it had lodged in his heart, he would have been dead in seconds. So, he says there’s no way he’s going through that again. Anyways, there’s the update on what’s going on with him.

Back to wedding talk ;)

The meeting with the Pastor went well last night, I think we have our program looking the way we want, so we can finalize it sometime in the next few days and then I can start printing them off. I would like to have them all done and printed by the end of the weekend.

...still sad

So the funeral for my Opa was this morning. And the disappointing part is, my mom got home from the cottage yesterday around 5pm and there was a message for her from some relatives saying the funeral was at 9am (Austrian time) today and that we are welcome to stay with them. Given the short notice, even if we had wanted to go, there would have been not enough time to fly to Austria. Which is too bad. Turns out Opa passed away on Saturday morning, but we didn’t find out until Sunday night since we were at the cottage. I mean, we probably all wouldn’t have been able to go, but we could have all chipped in to send my dad. But, there just wasn’t enough time to sort it out. Which is too bad. I just feel really sad about the whole situation.

The dinner party last night went really well. The food was awesome (a group effort on the cooking) and I think everyone had a good time. That was the first time I’d had that many people over for dinner though, there were 10 of us in total for dinner, and then an additional 2 for dessert. It gave us some motivation to clean the house though, so it looks really good right now!

This evening, the Pastor is coming over so we can finalize the wedding program and any other details. It will be nice to get the programs done so we can print them out, one more thing to check off the list!

Received some sad news

Yesterday when I got home from the cottage, I received the sad news that my grandfather in Austria (my Dad's dad) had passed away. I knew this day was coming because he had not been well for the last few years (he’d been in an old age home and was unable to speak or recognize anyone anymore). After I found out, I went to see my dad (since he was home by himself since my mom was still at the cottage, Dad and I came home yesterday since we both had to work today). My dad seems to be doing okay. It’s hard when family members pass away, even if you knew that it may be coming since they were sick, it doesn’t really make it any easier.

Other than receiving this news, the rest of the weekend was pretty good. CT and I met with the wedding co-ordinator and I think we’re all set. She drew me a floor plan, so we are in the midst of finalizing who will sit at what table. It was a bit of a puzzle to figure out, but I think we have it the best way possible.

We then headed to the cottage and the weather was nice, although it was a little chilly. CT stayed until after supper, and then he had to head back since he went to Toronto for the day on Sunday to hang out with his groomsmen for the day. I stayed at the cottage until Sunday early evening when I went back to town with my dad. I had a really nice time at the cottage, I love it out there.

Tonight, I am having the visiting relatives from Germany over to my place for dinner (they are leaving on Wednesday). My mom’s cousin, her boyfriend, and her daughter have been visiting for the last 2 weeks.

So here we are at 19 days until the wedding! WOW! This weekend, I have my final dress fitting on Friday, and then Saturday will be a total wedding planning day with my mom (CT will be gone all day Saturday and some of Sunday since it’s his stag weekend). I have my hair and make-up trial on Saturday and then mom and I have a bunch of little tasks to complete. Should be a productive weekend! Now, I just have to get through this week at work first. I’ve been finding it hard to concentrate lately since I’m too excited about the wedding and always thinking about the tasks I still have to do. Good thing I only have 9 days of work left after today! My last day is August 31st and then I don’t come back until Tuesday, September 25th! Yay!

Why must you tempt me?

So, I went to the kitchen to fill up on my normal bottle of water from the water cooler and there on the table sits several doughnuts. They are the jelly-filled kind, so I can easily resist those since I’m not fond of them. However, there was also a paper bag that caught my eye. So, I went over to investigate and inside was a chocolate éclair! Oh my! My favorite! The combination of white doughnut with chocolate icing and whipped crème I find impossible to resist. So, I grabbed it without much thought and have been slowly eating it for the last several minutes.

Miranda from Sex and the City said it best “I’m sorry, but this is just worth being fat for. It just is.” Now, I by no means consider myself “fat”, although I am heavier than I wanted to be for my wedding. But I think I am the ideal weight for my body because no matter what I do, I cannot seem to lose an ounce. So, I have come to terms with the fact that maybe I’m just where my body wants to be and I’m “trying” to be happy with that. That doesn’t mean I’m not going to still try to lose that seemingly impossible 10 pounds. I certainly will keep trying, but I am content with where I am.

And I’m also telling myself that I will need the extra tummy fat for when I am housing a baby, which will hopefully be sometime in the next couple of years ;)

Looking forward to the weekend!

This coming weekend, CT and I meet with our reception site wedding co-ordinator on Saturday morning to go over the final details for the big day. That is likely the last time I’ll need to meet with her before the wedding, we’ll see. Since the reception site is sort of close to the cottage, I think I’ll head to the cottage for the rest of the weekend. CT is going to a Jays game on Sunday, so I’ll have the day to myself to hang out at the cottage, which will be a perfect opportunity for me to get my bridal shower thank-you notes written! My other goal for the weekend is to get the pictures of the bridal shower uploaded to Facebook.

Weekend full of wedding stuff

I had a most excellent weekend. On Friday, I was super tired, so I went to bed early and just relaxed. On Saturday, CT, mom, and I bought the rest of the items we needed for making the favours and then got to work. We worked pretty much non-stop and got the favours done in around 6 hours. I didn’t think it would take so long to make 100 favours, but I guess it is quite time consuming! It feels great to have those all done though. And CT also started working on the programs. I’m hoping we will have a draft done by the end of this week so we can send it to the Pastor for his review of the order of service.

Oh, nej and lj, is it okay with you if you are listed as “bride’s attendants”? I thought that sounds better than bridesmaids or co-maids of honour. For comparison, Nuno and Josh are both being listed as “groomsmen” on the programs since there are only the 2 of them. Thought that was better than one being “best man” and then having only 1 “groomsmen”.

My bridal shower yesterday was fabulous. I don’t think it could have possibly been any better. A lot of people showed up and I had a great time. Thanks for all your hard work ladies!!! It was so nice to see all of my family and friends in one place and I think everyone had a wonderful time. The pictures are on my mom’s camera, so I will get them from her as soon as I can and then I’ll post them on Facebook. I was a little overwhelmed with everyone’s generosity, wow! We received a lot of wonderful presents and tons of gift cards, which will definitely come in handy! I will have to set aside some time this coming weekend to write thank-you notes since I want to make sure I do that sooner rather than later, especially with the wedding only 26 days away!

Woohoo! Very short week!

This was a 3 day workweek for me and the supervisor ‘in charge’ today (my boss is on holidays) just send around an email ‘encouraging’ everyone to leave early since it’s such a nice day outside. So, I am flirting with the idea of leaving early today. With the summer hours, I was planning on working until 3pm, but I may leave sometime between 1pm and at 2pm instead. Very exciting!

My mom and I are going to take Koby on a 10km walk this afternoon, so the earlier I leave work, the earlier we can head out on the trail.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! Mine will be filled with wedding stuff and I’m sure it will feel good to get some more tasks completed since I haven’t really done much in the last couple of weeks.

30 days!

I love how my ticker has started counting in days now instead of months! Very exciting!!!! Only 30 days left now! I still have a lot to do, so I have decided to concentrate on a few tasks each weekend until the wedding, and that should be good. I also have the week before the wedding off work, but I don’t want to leave too much to cram into those days since things usually take longer than I think they will and I don’t want to be pressed for time.

Saturday afternoon, I’m going to concentrate on making the favors. Mom is going to help. And depending on what time you get here on Saturday nej, I would love your help to! The favors are going to be decorated favor boxes and we’ll put chocolates or mints in them closer to the wedding. Mints will likely be better incase it’s a warm day, don’t want my favours to melt! They are plain white boxes and we’re going to make stickers to put on them (one sticker will say “Carlos and Christine, September 8, 2007” and the other side will say something along the lines of “Thank you for sharing in our special day”. We are going to print these on vellum paper and then run them through my mom’s sticker maker to make them into stickers to put on the boxes. We’re then going to make a nice ribbon to go around the boxes too. It’s going to be a 1” wide black ribbon with a thinner blue ribbon centered on top of the black ribbon. It looks really nice with the 2 colours. We’re going to attach the ribbon with Velcro so people can open and close their boxes easily.

The following 2 weekends I’m going to concentrate on making the programs, pew decorations, and finalizing the seating plan. So much to do! But I think it’s doable.

Sunday afternoon is my bridal shower which I am really excited about! It’s not a surprise since I guess they had to make sure I kept the day free, but I don’t really know much about it. I think lj has done/is doing most of the planning for it (since nej thought she was going to miss it because of work, but turns out she can come now – yay!), so I’m sure it will be a great time! I’m really looking forward to it!

3 hot ladies in the big city

I had a great time in NYC. It is such a large city, we couldn’t see it all. We only went to Manhattan, none of the other 4 boroughs were explored during this trip since there is just so much to see. We did pack a lot into 3 days though.

Nej and I arrived to Newark, NJ around 11am. By the time we got our bags, found a cab, and got to the hotel, it was noonish (our cab driver had issues, so we ended up taking a route out of our way through a very sketchy area of New Jersey). But, we made it to our hotel and were able to check in early. Then we headed to Manhattan. We walked around and explored and had lunch in a neat little Cuban restaurant. I love how Manhattan is so big, you can just get off the subway and just start walking in one direction and you’re bound to find some neat things. We then went up the Empire State building. What a gorgeous view from up there! (I will post pics on Facebook this weekend). You can see most of Manhattan from up there, it was really amazing.

Then we headed to Macy’s. What a HUGE store! Like 9 floors and it takes up an entire city block. It was quite an experience. After walking around for a few hours, we found a little pub to have dinner in and then went back to the hotel to meet up with lj. Then we found a liquor store to buy some wine, and it was very shady looking. The wine was good though ;)

Saturday was a really fun day because we went on 2 tours: Sex and the City tour and a tour of NBC studios. The Sex and the City tour was around 3 hours long and we got to see many of the locations used on the show and we even got to have our picture taken sitting on the stoop of Carrie’s apartment. We also had cosmos in the bar that Steve and Aiden owned on the show. After the tour, we went to this restaurant called “Mars 2112” where before you get seated for your meal, you have to go in this little space shuttle for your trip to Mars. Then when you get to Mars, the waiters are all dressed up like space Captains and there are aliens walking around (with very tight tights on, I might add… that left nothing to the imagination, yikes). It was a really fun restaurant. Then we went to Central Park for a little walk before our NBC Studios tour. On the NBC tour, we got to see the set for Conan (it is really small!) and SNL. We then went back to the hotel to get showered and changed for dinner and then we had some drinks at a neat little bar in Greenwich Village. It was a lot of fun, and I definably got a little drunk from a cosmo followed by a very strong martini ;)

Sunday, we went down to the World Trade Centre site, which is now just a massive construction site. It was very surreal to actually be there. I got goosebumps. We then went to Battery Park and got to see the Statue of Liberty (we didn’t go to Ellis Island, but we saw it from across the river). We then walked around the financial district for a bit and then went to Chinatown and shopped around for the afternoon. We also scored some half price tickets to see Spamalot that evening. What an amazing show! I was laughing the whole time. I highly recommend it; very entertaining. We then had dinner in a neat place that was a 50’s diner with signing wait staff (they are probably broadway wanna-bes). We then walked around time square and then headed back to the hotel.

Monday we went back to Chinatown and then to Macy’s again and I got the cutest shoes. Leopard print open-toed flats. They are awesome! Just before heading back, we went to Saks Fifth Avenue just to check it out. Outrageous prices, but we were expecting that. Like $520 for a scarf kind of prices.

Then we headed back to the airport only to find out our flight was delayed. I guess there was poor visibility in Newark. They initially delayed us around 2.5 hours, but in the end, we ended up getting to Toronto only an hour after we were originally supposed to land, so that’s not bad at all. Poor lj though, her flight was cancelled altogether, so she had to fly to Montreal and then to Toronto instead of flying direct. What time did you end up getting back, lj????

All in all, I absolutely LOVED NYC. Never once did I feel unsafe. I wouldn’t want to walk around by myself at night, but with the 3 of us, it was totally fine. The subway system is great, quite easy to navigate. I don’t think I have a single complaint about the city. Except for maybe the sweltering heat in the subway tunnels, but I don’t think there’s anything they can do about that. It was a very warm weekend. The only time it really rained was when nej and I were inside the Empire State building waiting to go up. The rain had stopped by the time we got to the top.

I am really glad I had yesterday off work, I needed a day to recover and rest. I did some laundry, went grocery shopping for the week, and went with my mom to her dress fitting (she’s having her dress for the wedding designed). It looks amazing!

Oh, and here’s what I missed while I was gone: Alex quit his job to go back to school fulltime in September (he’s going to get his highschool equivalency first and then do a college program) and Thom bought a car (he bought a Camry). Which means my mom is trading her van in, so she won’t have a vehicle anymore. I guess she’ll have the truck to use. Good thing she walks and rides her bike to work!

So now it’s back to work for me. 3 day work week this week, yay! And it’s exactly 1 month to the wedding! Wow!

Off to the Big Apple!

Tonight after work, I’m having dinner with my mom to hear all about her trip. I’m hoping CT can come too (he’s not sure if he’ll be done work in time). Then after dinner, it’s off to nej’s place for me! Tomorrow morning, we’ll be on a plane to New York! The good thing about flying out in the morning is we’ll be in the Big City by lunchtime. Sweet! Can’t wait! We’re going to have such an amazing time!

Twins!

Friend of ours just gave birth to twin girls yesterday morning! Emma and Abby are their names. I hope I get to see the babies sometime soon! Very exciting!

Edit 12:37pm

Looks like CT and I are going to visit mummy and babies in the hospital tonight after having dinner with my dad. Yay!

40 days and counting…

Only 40 days until the wedding now! Wow!

My weekend was good. I didn’t do much and it was really nice. CT and I watched a couple movies, took Koby for a walk, went swimming in my parents pool, and did some work around the house. CT and Thom went for their tux fitting and it went really well. We then went around town with Thom looking at cars because he wants to buy his first car. It was a lot of fun to go car shopping when it’s not your money you will be spending ;)

I am really busy this week. Tonight, I’m going over to a friends place for dinner and to colour her hair. Tomorrow evening, CT and I are taking my Dad out (my mom is out of town) since tomorrow is his 57th birthday. Wednesday, I am packing for my trip, and then Thursday evening I am heading to nej’s place since we are leaving first thing Friday morning for NYC!

I looked at my NYC tour book on the weekend, and I think it will be very useful! It has maps and points of interest and it also lists the operating hours and cost for all the points of interest. Very cool. So, I think we’ll be able to find our way around just fine ;)

Hope everyone has a great week!

It's Friday, I'm in love!

This week has pretty much been a blur. I have been pretty tired, so I am really looking forward to having this weekend to relax. And then 1 week from right now, I’ll be in New York City for a weekend of shopping and sightseeing with lj and nej! Yay!

Oh, and I thought this was pretty sweet. I have been meaning to weed my flower garden for a couple weeks now (yes, it’s WAY overdue), I just hadn’t had time yet. Well, I got home last night and CT had spent the entire morning cutting the lawn, working the backyard, and he even weeded my flower garden! I was so touched that he would do this for me because he knows how busy I have been lately. CT works less hours than I do (he has 3 hours every morning after I leave before he has to leave for work – and we get home around the same time). So, he usually makes the most of his time in the mornings by cleaning the house or doing some work outside, etc. What a sweetie!

Tomorrow, CT and my brother Thom are going for their tux fittings. My brother Alex can’t go this weekend since he’s gone camping, so he’ll have to go for his fitting on his own. The 2 groomsmen both live in Toronto, so they’ll just go to get fitted there so they can pick up their tux at a store closer to them.

Looking forward to the weekend! To commence in 3 hours, 13 minutes…

C-dub's World

Last night, CT and I went out with his parents for their 36th anniversary. Wow, 36 years, that’s a long time! We went to Red Lobster. It was YUMMY!!!!

Tonight, I am planning on going for a walk after supper with my mom. We’ll see how this after supper walk thing works out. That’s usually when I’m in full couch potato mode, so I am determined to get out and exercising! We were supposed to go yesterday, but I had to cancel because CT’s parents called at 5 asking us to go for dinner to celebrate their anniversary.

In terms of wedding stuff, the men go for their tux fitting on Saturday and then we may go up to the cottage for the rest of the weekend, we’ll see. My mom is leaving on Friday for her trip to Moosonee, and she’s gone until Wednesday.

Oh, and for those of you who have been to my family’s cottage, I have good news! My grandma has bought a new (to us) couch for the cottage! Anybody who has been to my cottage know that the current couches are ancient and INCREDIBLY uncomfortable. So this is very exciting news! Hopefully the new couch will be out there this weekend!

Oh, and I really like Mrs. JB’s idea for the game at the wedding, does anybody else have any ideas?

Things have a strange way of working out…

I was just thinking this morning that I wasn’t sure how I was going to pay for my upcoming trip to New York (which I figure will cost around $1,000) as well as the bill for the photographer that is due in 2 weeks (mom and I are splitting the cost, and my portion is around $750). So, I was wondering this morning how I was going to come up with $1,750 in the next 2 weeks. I do have a line of credit I could use, but I only wanted to use it if I absolutely had to (I want to save as much of it as I can to cover the expenses for the reception dinner as well as other wedding expenses). Anyways, my boss just handed me my first annual dividend cheque for my shares in the company, which I totally wasn’t expecting. I figured they would pay dividends at some point, I had no idea when. Anyways, it is for the exact amount I needed! WOOHOO! I am going to use it to cover the New York Trip and the photographer’s bill. Yay!

Update

The party on the weekend was fun. Not as many people showed up as last year, but it was still a good time. I was a good girl and only had 3 mixed drinks and 2 jello shooters. My costume worked out well, there were lots of good costumes. Now we have to start thinking of a theme for next year… hmm…

Less than 7 weeks until the wedding now, holy smokes! It is getting so close! The things I need to work on next are the rehearsal/rehearsal dinner invitations (we’re not doing anything fancy, just a little reminder of when and where people in the wedding need to be the evening before the wedding). I also want to get started on the programs soon. And I need to decide what we’re doing for pew decorations. Oh, does anyone have any good ideas on an alternative to the clinking glasses for how people get us to kiss? Have you been to any weddings that had a neat idea for this?

One more thing...

Did I mention the party I'm going to on Saturday is an 80's party?!? Should be good times! I bought a bright pink skirt from Value Village and a really bright huge yellow T-shirt that I'm going to bunch up on the one side like I used to do when I was a kid. Oh ya, and side ponytail with a floral scrunchie, can you say YUCK!?! Looking forward to the party though! I will try to get a pic of me in my crazy outfit.

More rain... where is the sunny weather?

Here I am on a gloomy Thursday and I just can’t wait until the weekend! On Saturday, CT and I are going to Orangeville to a party with his friends (it is an annual thing, and last year I drank so much I got sick). I will NOT be having a repeat this year. I am refusing to do shots, I think it was the 4 straight rye shots that did me in last year. I think I’m older and wiser this time ;)

Other than that, Smokey goes to the vet on Saturday morning for his annual check-up as well as a follow-up to his episode of Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. He’s been doing really well lately, I think the special food makes a big difference because it lowers the pH of his urine so that crystals can’t form. So, I am happy to keep him on that food for the rest of his life if it means he won’t get any more blockages.

Also, trying to get ready for the trip to NYC with lj and nej! We leave in 2 weeks! Very exciting! I want to do some research into what I would like to see while we are there since we’ll only be there for a little over 3 days. Want to make the most of our time there.

Oh, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind me posting this since most of us are on WW, but my mom got below 200 today! That is a goal she hasn't reached in almost 20 years, I think. She is very happy! She wanted to reach the 100's by the wedding, and she made it!

Yay Mummy!

My mom just found out last night that she has been excepted into a PhD program! She starts in November and is going to do it part-time, so it will likely take her about 4 years to complete. Go mom! I am so proud of her!

Less than 8 weeks to go!

I know I haven’t posted in a week, I have been crazy busy. I was in the field for Wednesday to Friday of last week working long hours, so I really haven’t had much spare time. Each evening I came home covered in gasoline (from feeding the generator) and leachate, so I headed straight to the shower and I just didn’t have much energy to do much other than plant myself on the couch and watch tv. Luckily, the field portion of that job is finished, so now I am back in the office again.

I had my dress fitting on Saturday and I don’t think it really could have gone any better. My mom and Oma came with me and I was a little worried that the dress would be too small. The last time I tried it on was in February and it was quite snug back then. I am about 4 pounds lighter now though and I think wearing the right undergarment made a big difference. When I put it on at the fitting, it fit perfectly in the waist and the length was perfect as well. It was only a little tight in the shoulders, so they are going to let the side seam out a bit at the top, just down to maybe half way down my rib cage. That’s the only alteration they will need to do to the dress. Which is great because that won’t cost much money at all! I am so happy that the dress is going to fit! Yay! I go back again 2 weeks before the wedding just to make sure that everything is in order.

Mom and I also went into the flower shop again to order some more flowers. I wanted to have a boquet for at the church as well as flowers for on the cake.

We met with the ceremony musician last Wednesday, which went really well. She is totally on the ball and she will do an amazing job.

My brother Thom booked a limo for us for the afternoon of the wedding. He has connections with a limo company, so he was able to get a good price. He and his girlfriend are getting us the limo as a wedding present. Very generous! It’s a white Lincoln Super Stretch and can fit up to 16 people. Party time!

I am proud of myself that I got all my thank-you notes out for the gifts we received at the shower on July 6th. I think the etiquette for thank-you timing is within 2 weeks for shower gifts and within 3 months for wedding presents (but 1 month is better).

I guess that’s about all that’s new with me in terms of wedding related things. Very excited because it’s less than 8 weeks now!!!! WOW!

Busy, Busy weekend!

The shower on Friday was fabulous! Lots of people showed up and it was a blast. They made me wear a tiara that said “bride to be”. We played a bunch of games, the funniest was “the newlywed game” which I guess used to be a TV show in the 60’s. The parents of the brides and grooms, along with CT and I and the other to-be-married couple had to sit in a line and they would ask us questions and we had to guess what the other person said. It was SOOOO funny, my dad had some of the funniest answers. CT and I ended up winning, which I thought was pretty neat because you’d think that one of the already married for almost 30 years couples would have won! Everyone was really generous, we ended up getting several presents and quite a bit of cash. So, we have to decide what to use the cash on, we’ll use it on wedding expenses of course, there’s just so many to chose from! We’ll likely use it towards the photographer since we have to pay off the balance of that cost at the beginning of August.

CT and I went to his friends wedding on Saturday. Wow, was it ever strange. First, we saw that the bride and groom showed up together and we were thinking that’s bad luck for them to see each other before the ceremony! So, we walk in and the place is set up like a reception with tables and salads already on the tables. So, we were very confused. We talked to some other people, and the ceremony had taken place in the afternoon! We somehow had missed it! Our invitation said nothing of the ceremony, so we thought the ceremony and reception were at the same place. I was quite disappointed because I was really looking forward to the ceremony. What makes it even more strange is that we were visiting CT’s parents before the reception and the ceremony was taking place on the next street over while we were at his parents place and we had no idea! I’m thinking it was a problem in the invitation assembly and we were just missing the part with the ceremony info. because a bunch of CT’s friends said they wondered why we weren’t there. Very strange.

The reception was nice, but very rushed. They were clearing things off the tables before we were even finished. So, I think from this wedding, I certainly got a lot of ideas of what NOT to do with my own wedding! Good thing our invitations are very clear about where the ceremony is and what time and where the reception is and what time! No possible confusion there!

Sunday was lj’s half ironman and she did amazing! I’m so proud of you lj! You are an inspiration to us all!

5.5 hours and counting…

Until the weekend! Yay! This has been a crazy week because I was at the hospital a lot visiting my mom, and then helping her at home, so it doesn’t really seem like it should be Friday already. But, I’ll take it!

Today, I am going to the spa with my mom. I offered to cancel the appointment, but mom is getting a facial and she thinks that she can handle that, especially since she gets to lie down. She was already much better yesterday and hasn’t taken any painkillers since Wednesday night, so she is making a speedy recovery. The homecare nurse went to see her yesterday and she said that the wounds are healing really nicely. They were able to do the surgery the laproscopic way, so mom only has 4 small incisions, maybe a centimetre across each. She is able to walk around much better, so I’m sure in a few more days, she will be pretty much back to normal. The nurse is going to check on her again tomorrow, at which point she will likely be discharged from Homecare.

Tonight is my wedding shower at my church. It’s for men and women, so CT will be coming too. And I’m hoping my Dad and brother Thom will show up (Alex is camping in Algonquin, so he won’t be coming). I think we’ll have a really nice time catching up with some old friends.

Saturday, is a busy day. I have a bunch of errands to run in the morning, some of which are for my mom since she has to take it easy. CT and I are planning on leaving town around 2 or 3pm since we are going to visit with his parents for a few hours. Then, tomorrow evening, we are going to a wedding for one of CT’s friends. It’s about a half hour out of town. I imagine we’ll be getting home late, especially since the wedding doesn’t even start until 6:30pm.

Then Sunday morning/afternoon is Laura’s half ironman! I am really looking forward to going to cheer her on!!!

So, busy weekend ahead, but it will be lots of fun! Oh, only 8 more days until my dress fitting – wow! I hope that goes well (i.e. I hope I can fit into my dress)!!!!

Mom's on the mend

I brought mom home from the hospital yesterday at noon and spent the afternoon with her. She seems to be doing pretty well considering she just had surgery. She is absolutely determined to come to my shower tomorrow, and it is looking promising that she will feel up to attending. I have a meeting downtown at lunch today, so I am going to pop in and see her after my meeting. I just talked to her and she was able to have a shower, so that’s good that she’s been up and around a bit. She also said she hasn’t taken any pain killers since last night, so that’s awesome!

My mom just called me

Mom called from the hospital and she is being released today! Yay! She sounds much better this morning, she has even been up a bit to move around and said she only has minimal pain. I am going to pick her up from the hospital at noon and then I'll just work from my parents' house for the afternoon so I can be with her. I imagine she'll want to sleep, but it will be good for me to be there with her incase she needs anything. And I'm glad my job has the flexibility where I can just take my laptop with me and work from anywhere. I am so glad that it looks like she's making a speedy recovery!

Mom’s surgery went well last night

They took her in at around 9:00pm, and the surgery was done by 11:30pm (I have a feeling she was sitting in pre-op for awhile since the surgery was only supposed to take an hour or so). She was in recovery for awhile, so we got to see her at around 12:15am. She looked much better than before, she looked almost back to her old self! I was able to talk to the doctor a bit while mom was in recovery and he said the surgery went well. She had gangrene in her gall bladder, so he said it was a good thing they took it out when they did. The doctor thinks she can likely go home either today or tomorrow. She is absolutely determined to still attend my shower on Friday evening, she’s a tough cookie!

Mom is now in a room (shared with another lady), so she has a phone next to her bed. She’s going to call me at some point this morning to let me know how she’s doing. If it turns out she is discharged today, I am likely going to pick her up (unless it’s after 5pm, which is when my dad will be back in town, he is working out of town right now).

So, of course, I didn’t get to bed until almost 1:00am this morning, and I had to be up at 6:00am to go to my chiropractic appointment, so I am one tired c-dub today. I think I will be going to bed at like 8pm tonight!

The meeting with the pastor went really well. That was our third and final pre-marital counseling session. We gave him our marriage license, so that’s one less thing we have to worry about!

Update on mummy

I just talked to my mom (she called me from the hospital). The surgeon came to talk to her and they are going to remove her gall bladder tonight, sometime after 5:00pm. I am going to leave work a little early so that I can see her before she goes into surgery. As long as everything goes well, she will be able to come home tomorrow. That's all I know for now.

Another crisis

My mom went into the hospital last night with extreme pain in her abdomen. Turns out it is her gall bladder, there are stones in it and it is very inflamed. So, they will need to remove it as soon as possible. Poor mummy. I just went in to see her and see is doing okay (thanks to morphine) although she is incredible tired (she can’t sleep much because she is on a bed in the hallway) and she is also really thirsty (but she can’t drink anything since she’ll be having surgery). She is waiting for the surgeon to come and talk to her about the surgery. She doesn’t know when that will happen, but hopefully today. They said she won’t be able to leave until they remove the gall bladder, so the sooner the better I think. What a scare. I got a phone message when I got out of a meeting here at work just saying mom is in the hospital. So, naturally, I rushed over there. At that point I didn’t know how serious it was. Turns out it’s not life threatening, thank The Lord! I was praying the whole way over there. Man, that was scary! I’m going to stop in again on my way home from work and hopefully we’ll know more then.

Happy 140th Canada!

The meeting with the wedding co-ordinator and DJ went very well. We decided on the meal for the wedding. We will be having prime rib (vegetarian lasagna for those who don’t eat meat) with roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables. Caesar salad as a appetizer. There will also be a desert buffet after dinner and the wedding cake a little later on. There will also be a late night buffet of pizza (their pizza is AMAZING!). Yay! I was so glad to get that sorted out. The DJ was great, he really seemed to know what he was doing and I think he will do an amazing job! I was so glad to meet him and that’s one more thing to cross off the list! I am meeting with the ceremony musician next week, which is the last person I have to meet with, I think.

The weekend at the cottage was good. The weather absolutely sucked! And that was a surprise because we checked the weather report before we left and it was supposed to be sunny and low to mid 20’s all weekend. Instead, we got rain, hail, and really cold temperatures. We even had to make a fire at the cottage which I don’t think we’ve ever done in the summer before. It was nuts! I packed several tank tops and shorts, and only 1 pair of pants. Turns out I wore the 1 pair of pants all weekend because I was so cold. I had to wear a sweatshirt that I found in the closet at the cottage. Only Koby swam, the rest of us chickened out because we didn’t want to get sick. Needless to say, our big hike was cancelled due to poor weather. Which I was disappointed about, but there will be other opportunities.

Tonight, CT and I have our last meeting with the pastor for another pre-marital counseling session. I hope it goes well! I’m sure it will.

Only 2.5 hours to go…

Until I am officially beginning the long weekend! YAY! I decided that I’m going to walk to and from my dentist appointment this afternoon so I can get some exercise in for today, it’s about a half hour each way, so not bad. I’m getting my whitening trays, so I’ll be sure to let you girls know what I think of the whitening system. I think I may wait until next week to start so that I don’t have to take the stuff to the cottage.

Tonight, CT and I meet with the wedding co-ordinator at our reception venue and the DJ. I have my list of questions all ready ;) Then, on our way home, we’ll be stopping at the grocery store to buy the groceries for our weekend at the cottage. Then, as of 9am tomorrow morning, we are headed to the cottage until Monday afternoon. I can’t wait! Looks like the weather will be gorgeous. Sunny everyday and between 22 and 25 degrees. Couldn’t ask for better! I just hope my grandma doesn't annoy me too much. But, she has been much nicer in the last year or so, so it may be okay. Here's hoping!

Is it the weekend yet?

So CT’s friend that’s going to videotape does have his own camcorder and will even include all the editing and putting it onto a DVD for us. I am SO HAPPY that he is willing to do this for us! Yay! And he said he’ll include more than just the ceremony, he’ll try to get some shots of the guests and he’ll also tape the speeches. Woohoo! And that means we don’t have to buy a camcorder right now, which is excellent news!

A lady at my church is planning a bridal shower for me (and another girl that is getting married in August, so it will be a joint shower) for next Friday evening with my church friends. Wow, my first shower! I know that lj, you won’t be able to come since you’ll be at your Dad’s preparing for his wedding the next day. And I know that nej, you can’t come because you’re in Goose Bay. That’s okay though. It’s more important to me that you both come to my shower in August, that’s my ‘main’ shower.

I am SOOOOO looking forward to this weekend! Tomorrow after work, I’m going to the dentist to get my whitening trays! Yay! So next week, let the whitening begin! Tomorrow evening, CT and I are meeting with both the wedding co-ordinator at our reception venue and the DJ. Then first thing Saturday morning, we are heading to the cottage until Monday! Because I’ve been so incredibly busy, this is my first time out there this year, so I am REALLY looking forward to it! We are evening planning on going on a 16km hike at Petroglyphs Provincial Park on Sunday if the weather is nice, that Park is only about 15 minutes from our cottage. Here’s hoping for nice weather this weekend! Hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend!

Joke's on us

Well apparently the guy CT asked to videotape who said he would charge us $500 was joking. He will do it for free. How we were supposed to know he was joking is beyond me. Anyways, he's going to videotape, and he may even have his own camcorder (CT asked him), in which case we wouldn't need to buy our own right now, which is great news since it's an expensive year!

So lj, thanks so much for suggesting Arash, but it looks like we won't need him to videotape after all. That was very sweet of you to offer though!

CT's friend has previous experience and his own equipment, so this will work out well.

So here’s the thing

CT and I decided that we would like to have our wedding videotaped. And we know that hiring a professional would cost over $1,000 probably. So, we had an idea. We would like to purchase a camcorder (you can get good ones for around $600 and would like to have one anyways for when we have a family) and have someone tape the ceremony for us. Nothing fancy, just videotape the ceremony and maybe the speeches at the reception. CT could do all the editing and such.

Anyways, he asked one of his friends if he would be willing to do this since he videotaped one of CT’s friends weddings, and he said he would charge us $500. We were surprised since I guess we were kind of thinking that this guy would do this as a favor/wedding present for us. We, of course, would give him a thank-you gift, but we certainly weren’t expecting to have to pay $500! I guess I’m just crazy. And we can’t really ask any of the guests coming to videotape, since I think it's rude to ask a guest unless they offer. Hmmmm…

Yawn

I am really tired this morning, but that is because I only got 6 hours of sleep last night. And I usually get about 8. So, I am a little sleepy this morning, but oh well. The reason I got to bed so late is CT and I went to the movie theatre last night to watch the WWE pay per view on the big screen with 3 friends. So, I think that was worth being tired for ;)

The invitations are out! Mom and I put them in the mailbox yesterday. My mom was a huge help with the addressing, she did most of the writing and I did the stuffing and envelope decorating. We had originally planned to put real wax seals on the back, but we tried that and it just was not working out. And not to mention it would have taken HOURS. So, we got some nice stickers to put on the back instead. The only ones left to mail are the ones going overseas, and I am going to take those to the post office today at lunch to get the postage and get those mailed today as well. Yay!

Let the countdown to the long weekend begin!

Things that make you go hmmm…

So after I thought about it for days, and decided that I didn’t want my ex on my friends list, my brother has him on his friends list! That’s not cool. I have a feeling my ex just went through everybody he’s ever known in his life and added them. Including my brother who said he would beat up my ex if he ever saw him again after what he did to me. Makes me wonder if I'm just being a baby. Maybe I should add him. I could always delete him if I change my mind (again). Guess I'll give it some more thought.

First day of summer post!

Today at exactly 2:06pm (here anyways), summer begins! YAY!

Mrs. JB asked about where CT and I are registered. We have registered at both The Bay and Home Outfitters.

I was working outside yesterday, and I got totally eaten alive by both mosquitos and blackflies! Now I have lots of bites on the back of my neck, not fun :( I hope the tortuous itching goes away soon!

I am really looking forward to this weekend since I will get one huge wedding-related task complete… invitations are going out! YAY! I think we are doing quite well with the wedding planning, only 79 days to go!

Post # 303

My weekend was very good. Didn’t get as much cleaning done as I would have liked, but we did get 2 rooms of the house cleaned, so that’s a start!

Lunch on Sunday was fabulous! The food was amazing and CT’s parents kept going on and on about how much the loved the place. After lunch, we took a walk around the grounds and they absolutely loved it. It is such a gorgeous place and the fact that everyone I have shown it to has loved it really solidifies that I made the right decision on a reception venue! CT and I are going back on the 29th in the evening to meet with the on-site wedding planner as well as the dj. I have to make sure I have my list of questions all prepared by then.

I spent yesterday outside at two different sites. Sure beats being in the office! Although it was REALLY hot out there and I had a headache all evening (I think I was dehydrated). So, I drank a litre of water and I feel better this morning.

CT is going to get our marriage license this morning. Very exciting! On the application, we have to list the birthplaces of both of us as well as our parents. And of those 6 people, only 2 were born in Canada: my mom and CT. CT’s parents were born in Portugal, my dad was born in Austria, and I was born in Germany. I thought that was pretty neat.

I bought the CUTEST dress on the weekend. It is white with big red flowers on it. Very fresh and summery. But more dressy than a sundress because it has a little crinoline material under it. And a steal for only $40! I’ll be wearing that dress to my bridal shower in August. Yay!

Hey all!

I’m really looking forward to 3pm this afternoon because that’s when I am done work! I think I’m going to love these summer hours ;) I have an appointment at 3:10pm this afternoon to get my impressions done for the teeth whitening system. I decided to go for it. It is a little pricey initially, but now would be the time to do it so I can have nice, white teeth for my wedding! I think the custom trays take about a week to make, so by the beginning of July, I should be ready to whiten! Yay!

I am also going to use my new-found free time this afternoon to take my parent’s doggie Koby for a walk. My mom is away for a few days and she’s the only one who walks him, so I thought I would take him for a walk so he still gets his exercise in (and I do too!).

This weekend, CT and I are going to do a major clean-up around the house. The last month or so, we’ve spent so much time and effort working on the exterior, we’ve kind of neglected in interior of the house! Oops! So, this weekend, we’re going to take a couple of hours and do a full house clean. With 2 cats in the house, it won’t stay clean for long, I bet!

On Sunday, CT and I are going out for lunch with our parents for Father’s Day. We’re going to be going to the place we’ll be having the wedding reception, so we can check it out (I’ve never eaten there). And CT’s parents haven’t seen the place yet, so this will be a good opportunity for us all to see it together. And we get to check out the food! I sure hope it’s good!

I also have to make sure everything is in order for the wedding invitations (i.e. make sure we have all the mailing addresses, make the map to include with the invitations, etc.) because next weekend, mom and I will be addressing the invitations and I will be mailing them out on the 25th (if all goes well)! Very exciting!

Anybody used Crest Whitestrips?

I was at my dentist’s office this morning for my 9-month checkup, and I was asking them about teeth whitening. Since I have my wedding in less than 3 months, I would like my teeth looking their best for the big day. They do 2 types of whitening there, they say the best way is with the trays that they custom make and then you put the gel in yourself and wear them overnight for a couple of weeks. This system has a high initial cost, but then you have the trays for years and just need to buy the gel for $20 each time to touch-up once or twice a year. And of course, health insurance doesn’t cover this since it’s cosmetic work. Bummer.

This system is quite a bit more initially that the Crest White strips, but apparently has better and longer-lasting results. I was wondering if any of you have used Crest White strips and if so, did they work well? How long did the whitening last?

Update to ex-factor

Just wanted to let you know that I did decide to 'reject' my ex when he added me to his Facebook list. I just went with my gut on this one. That chapter of my life is LONG over, so I just don't really have any desire to stay in touch with him. I feel good about my decision.

Summer hours- woohoo!

My boss just announced that we will be using summer hours starting this week! I have been hoping for summer hours ever since I started! We’ll be working 8 to 5 with a half hour lunch Monday to Thursday and then we can leave at 3pm on Fridays! YAY! Initially, he said we had to come in at 7:30am every morning to be able to leave early on Fridays, but then someone suggested taking shortened lunches instead. Which I much prefer anyways since I don’t want to have to get up even earlier than I already do!

My friend Alison’s wedding on Saturday was gorgeous. They had their ceremony outside and it was absolutely beautiful! I am so happy for her. They have been together for 9 years, so it’s about time they tied the knot! It was so nice to see her again and she is really looking forward to coming to my wedding.

Speaking of people coming to the wedding, one of CT’s friends is being a jerk. CT was chatting with him last night on MSN, and his friend was mentioning about how he has started seeing someone new and that he was really excited about going to a Brad Paisley concert with her in September. CT said “I hope not on the 8th!”. Then his friend made some lame excuse about how the concert was supposed to be on the 7th, but they changed the date to the 8th. That’s it. Didn’t apologize for missing the wedding, just said how excited he was for this concert. This guy needs to get a reality check. Isn’t his friend’s wedding more important than a concert with his flavor of the month?!?! I don’t care if they changed the date of the concert, obviously he should give the tickets to someone else and come to the wedding… am I nuts to think this way?!?!? What a selfish jerk! CT is very disappointed, but he says this particular guy is very selfish and is one of those types of guys that only contacts his buddies when he needs a favor. I think he needs to get his priorities straight! This girl might ditch him in a month, and CT has been his friend for YEARS! Geez, some people! Sigh, just had to get that off my chest… I feel much better!

I still haven’t decided about whether to allow my ex to by my friend on Facebook. I asked CT what he thought and he basically left it up to me. He doesn’t have a problem with it. I am leaning towards not adding him. I just don’t want to give him a window back into my life. I just don’t want him to know anything about my life now (other than what his parents tell him, I guess).

Oh, Knocked Up was hilarious! We loved it! I highly recommend it. We laughed the whole way through.

Dilemma...

My ex just added me as a ‘friend’ on facebook. So, I’m not sure whether I should ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ him. We broke up 5.5 years ago, and since then, I have only seen him once (5 years ago), and we have exchanged a handful of emails, the most recent being a few months ago. He has always been the one to initiate communication. He lives in Utah.

He is married (on his 2nd wife actually) and knows I’m getting married (I am still good friends with his parents and see them every month or two, they live about 5 minutes away from me).

What would you do in this situation? I don’t really have a desire to keep up contact with him, but I’m not totally opposed to the idea either. I just think since we’ve both moved on, why keep up with the whole small-talk, pretend to be friends thing? I am no longer bitter about what he did, that was so long ago, all water under the bridge. I am much better off now. But, I really don’t want to be friends with him either. For the main reason that he went completely psycho when we broke up, so I’m really not sure what he’s capable of. I have this vision of him showing up at my wedding trying to stop it or creating a scene. I’m sure he’s over me by now, but you never know with this guy.

I am leaning towards rejecting him. But should I tell him I’m rejecting him or just let him figure it out? How do I politely say “It’s been 5 years, I don’t see the point of keeping up communication”. Any advice?

Wow, 3 months to go!

Hard to believe it, but the wedding is exactly 3 months from today! That’s a little scary given all that I have left to do. I think I’ve got it under control, there are just a few tasks that I really need to get done. My mom has 12 weeks work off starting the week after next, so she’ll have lots of time available, so I can assign her tasks. So I am very grateful for that.

I am very much looking forward to my date tonight! CT and I have been so super busy lately with the wedding and working on the house, it will be nice to get out for an evening together. Then we’re going to the wedding tomorrow, so it will be a great weekend! Two evenings out with my soon-to-be hubby!

Happy Friday everyone!

Is it Friday yet?

I can’t wait for the weekend. Tomorrow evening, CT and I are going on a date. We’re going to see “Knocked Up” at the theatre. I haven’t seen a movie at the theatre in ages… probably almost a year. I think the last one I saw at the theatre was Mission Impossible 3. So, it’s been awhile!

Saturday, is my friend Alison’s wedding, which I am really looking forward to. She’s been engaged for over 2 years, so it’s about time the wedding came along! I have known her for many years, I think practically since we were in diapers! So, I am really happy for her. As an aside, her fiancé went to UW (Computer Science, I believe), but he was off-stream with us. Of course I can’t get too crazy at the wedding since my parents will also be there ;) It definitely is the year of weddings! We have 3 weddings to go to this year (not including our own!). And there are many more people that I know are getting married this year, I just may not be invited to the wedding.

I had a dream about our upcoming trip to New York last night. Nej found a cab driver that would drive us anywhere in Manhattan for 50 cents. Score! Way to go Nej!

Here we are at another Monday...

My weekend was really good. Saturday was spent at the Toronto Zoo. What a hot and humid day! Most of the animals were not very active because of the heat, but we still saw some of the animals.

Yesterday was a very expensive day. We bought the patio set that we had picked out last weekend and set it up. It looks great! Now you all have to come over to hang out on my new deck ;) Perhaps after lj’s half ironman….hint, hint!

We also bought a chest freezer. This is something we had wanted for a long time since our freezer is very small and everytime we come home from the grocery store, we have to somehow arrange everything in there and it was to the point that everytime we opened the freezer, we had to beware of falling objects. So, we had decided that we wanted a chest freezer and had looked around a few weeks ago. We found one that we liked at Home Depot. Well, CT stopped in there yesterday and found out that the one we had picked out was $40 off since it had a small dent at the bottom corner (barely noticeable). But, since it was “flawed”, they had to mark it down. So, we jumped at that and bought it. So, between that and the patio set, it was a very expensive day :S But I am really pleased with our purchases. That’s it for big purchases for awhile, I hope!

So of course, CT and I had to eat dinner outside last night. It was very nice. We BBQd lots of veggies and some chicken last night and it was a very yummy and low points dinner! I think the whole thing was 3 points since it was mostly veggies. I only had 1 kabob with meat, the rest were all veggies. Man, was it yummy! I think we’ll have to do that again sometime soon!

So, this coming week, I’m doing the usual work 8-5 and then exercise after work. Seems to be my life lately. CT and I are going to a wedding on Saturday (my best friend growing up; I’ve known her since 1981), so that should be good times! I finally get to wear the dress I bought last month.

Have a great week everyone!

Can I go home now?

I just saw the most hideous looking spider in my office. It was crawling up the wall, and one my coworkers was in there with me, so he grabbed it by the web and put it on my desk... THANKS BUDDY! Then, I knocked it off my desk with a book so that I could stomp on it, but then it crawled under my desk and I have not been able to find it since. I am totally grossed out. I have never seen a spider like this. It was big and black with yellow markings. I'm scared! I keep thinking it's going to start crawling on he or something. Makes me really want to leave my office. Is it 5:00 yet?

I know, I'm being a baby.

100 days now!

The countdown to the wedding continues, and as of today, it’s exactly 100 days! Getting closer! Tomorrow we’ll be in the double digits!

Things I’m working on currently for the wedding:
1. Compiling mailing addresses and getting the ones I’m missing.
2. Get map and reception card finished and printed out.
3. Address invitations - mom is helping me the weekend of June 23. We want to hand address them, so between the 2 of us, I figure it will take an afternoon.
4. Week of June 25 – invitations go out, provided we get them all addressed the weekend prior!
5. Transportation for the big day. I looked into getting a limo, and it would be $450 for the 2 hours we’d need it. So, I think that’s a little expensive. I’m thinking of renting a mini-van - we can get one for the whole weekend (Friday to Monday) for $150. That way, we’d have a nice, clean vehicle for the wedding party to ride in to the reception. I think that would also be good because I can pack it up with all the centerpiece stuff and other things for the reception venue for when we go to decorate it the night before the wedding. So, that’s what I’m leaning towards.
6. Ceremony music – still need to meet with the musician… I would like to do that before the end of June, if possible.
7. Ceremony readings – I have someone in mind to do the readings, I just need to ask him. I think my mom already mentioned it to him, so he knows it’s coming.

I think that’s it for now; that’s enough to keep me busy for June in terms of wedding stuff. And we still have more we want to do at the house. And we have a wedding to go to on the 9th. So, it looks like it will be a very busy month!

I am looking forward to Saturday; looks like it’s going to be a gorgeous day to go to the zoo! Very excited; I haven’t seen lj since February! And it will be the last time I see nej before Goose Bay! Should be a great day.

My butt muscles hurt…

Saturday, I decided to plant some flowers in my garden, and wow, was I ever sore yesterday! It took me about 3 hours, since I had to weed the garden, rake it all, pick out all the rocks, and then plant my 48 little flowers. I bought myself a kneeling pad, but I guess spending 3 hours bent over really used my butt muscles or something, because I could barely walk yesterday! Who knew gardening would leave me in so much pain? I really enjoyed the gardening though, just not the aftermath. I’m thinking it was just using muscles I don’t normally use, so I’m hoping in the future, I won’t hurt as much! My garden looks really nice now though ;)

On Friday evening, CT and I went all over town looking for patio furniture and we found a set at Home Outfitters that we really like. So, we are likely going to purchase it this weekend. It is exactly what we were looking for: a sturdy table with 4 comfy chairs. We didn’t want a huge set and we didn’t want chairs with cushions either, and we didn’t need an umbrella. Most sets had all 3 of those! But, when we saw this one at Home Outfitters, we knew right away it’s the one we want. The table has tiles in the top, which is neat because you can buy any 12x12 tiles to put in if you get bored with it and want to change the look of the table.

My dad also came by to help build the stairs for the deck, so now those are on too! All we need now is the railing, which isn’t a huge rush. I’m hoping sometime in the next month or two we can get a railing up.

CT and I watched Pirates 3 and I thought it was pretty good. Very long, but I wasn’t bored at all. And Keith Richards was in it as Jack’s father, so that was entertaining.

EDIT 1:13pm

Oh, I forgot to mention that today is my half birthday, I am exactly 26.5 years old today - teehee! And yes, I'm silly!!!

Sooooo glad it’s Friday!

The meeting with the pastor went well last night. It was more of a pre-marital counseling type thing and I’m glad we did it. We discussed a lot of issues that relate to marriage that could cause problems if each person has different expectations (i.e. finances, division of labour, other interests outside the home, child upbringing, etc.). CT and I have very similar views on most things anyways, so that made it easy. We have one more session with the pastor planned for late June, and then that will be it for our pre-marital counseling sessions.

Only 8 more hours until the weekend – yay! I want to continue to get the house fixed up, and I am really looking forward to doing some gardening! And I really hope CT and I find some reasonably priced nice patio furniture for our brand new deck!

Okay, one question for a Friday morning: I am thinking I will wear my iron ring for the wedding since it’s part of who I am and I am proud of my accomplishments in that regard. What would you do – wear it or not?

What a nice, summer day out there!

The sun is shining, it’s a nice 30 degree day, life is good ;)

So glad it’s almost the weekend – yay for short work weeks!

This coming weekend, I am going to do more work around the house. I am going to plant some flowers in my garden in front of the house. CT and I are also going to go look for some patio furniture. Because now that we have this nice, new deck, we need something to sit on! Just trying to decide if we want more lounge-like chairs and a coffee table type thing or if we want a higher table and chairs (more for eating meals on). Hmmm. I guess we’ll go look and see what’s available. Don’t want to spend a lot of money either. I hope we are able to find something nice.

And if I’m feeling really ambitious, I may scrape the loose paint off the roof to the deck as well as the garage so they will be all set for painting! The work never ends!

I am also hoping that my Dad will be able to come by to put the finishing touches on the deck because we still need a railing and stairs. That might not get done this weekend though, but hopefully soon.

Tonight is our second meeting with the pastor, so I’m sure that will go well. I have picked the readings for the ceremony, so that’s one more thing to cross off the list!

Dress fitting

I just scheduled my first dress fitting for Saturday, July 14th at 10:00am. Very exciting!!!

3 trips to Home Depot , 3 trips to the landfill, and 726 nails later…

The weekend started with me leaving work at 3pm on Friday – yay! One of the managers came around and basically told everyone to go home. So, mom and I went for a 10km walk with Koby on Friday afternoon, that was great! I then relaxed for the evening.

Saturday started bright and early with deck work. We tore down the old deck (which took a few hours) and mom and I took 3 trips to the landfill site to get rid of all the old deck material. We then bought the material for the new deck – who knew wood would be so expensive! I consider myself lucky though since all the labour was free ;) By the end of the day on Saturday, we had the old deck taken down and the frame for the new one up.

On Sunday, the new deck was finished by 3pm or so. It doesn’t have a railing or stairs yet, but we can use it now. I love it! It is the same size as the old one (12 ft x 15 ft), but this one is so much better since it is level and safe to be on (unlike the old one that was rotten and unsafe). Of course now that the deck is all nice and new, it is really noticeable that the roof above the deck needs to be re-painted ;) The garage needs to be re-painted too, so I think we’ll tackle those when we have a free weekend this summer.

Needless to say, CT and I were pretty tired and sore yesterday so we just took it easy and watched a couple movies. So nice to have an extra day off!

This week, we have our second meeting with the pastor on Thursday, so I hope that goes well. I guess that means we need to get going on choosing our readings! So many decisions…

Long weekend, here we come!

Very excited about the long weekend. Even though I’ll be working like a dog ;) We are re-building our deck at home this weekend, so that will be a ton of work. But then we’ll have a nice new deck to enjoy for many summers to come. I was originally planning to skip town to be with the girls this weekend, but then a few people have backed out of helping with the deck, so I need to be home to help. Tomorrow, we are going to demolish the existing deck, so mom and I are going to be making trips back and forth from the landfill site all day to get rid of all the old deck material, as well as a huge brush pile in our backyard (it is no longer a jungle!) as well as a bunch of junk the students left when they moved out a year ago. It will feel so good to get rid of all that stuff! Then Sunday and Monday, we’ll be building the new deck. I’ll get to perfect my skills with a hammer, look out ;)

Good news!

I forgot to share some very exciting news: my mom got a full-time job as a professor at the university starting in the fall! She starts 2 days after my wedding, actually. Good timing, or what?!? She will get paid twice as much as she does now and she’ll have medical benefits. This is a real answer to prayer since with all the medications my dad is on (since he doesn’t have a pituitary gland anymore because of the tumour he had removed 7 years ago), they have been spending loads of money every month paying for his medications. Now at least some of that will be covered with the medical benefits, and my mom will also be making a decent wage, more than she has ever made in her whole life! So, we’re really happy with that news!

Technically, she will need to re-apply every year to renew the position, but she has spent the last few years in that department at the university getting to know everyone and proving herself working a bunch of part-time contracts. So, I am pretty confident that they will hire her back. She is talking about starting on her PhD in about a year so that a few years down the road she can have that. Tenure track position, here she comes! ;) I’m so proud of her.

Where is the sun today?

What a gloomy day. It was so dark this morning that I didn’t want to get out of bed. I would have loved to pull the covers over my head and go back to sleep. Too bad it wasn’t Saturday, oh well. I don’t mind that it’s rainy and gross now, I just hope it is nice on the weekend since CT, my dad, his dad, and my brother Alex are going to re-build our deck. It is old and rotten and really needs to be re-built, so it looks like this weekend it will get done. Yay! Then I’ll have a nice new deck to sit on this summer. Then I’ll have to get some nice patio furniture to put out there! Very exciting!

Hopefully I’ll actually have some time to spend on my new deck since the summer is filling up quickly! It’s going to be a busy summer, but it’s going to be loads of fun! Hard to believe it’s only 115 days until the wedding now. I started counting at over 300! We’ve come a long way!

Some wedding tasks complete!

I had a pretty good weekend. Got quite a bit accomplished with respect to the wedding stuff, even though I was not feeling well for a couple of days.

We decided on the rest of the reception music. So, for the “planned” dances, we’re doing “When I see you smile” for the first dance, “Thank you for loving me” for the mother/son and father/daughter dance, “stand by me” as the wedding party dance, “girls just wanna have fun” as the boquet toss, and the mission impossible theme for the garter toss. We listened to a lot of songs, and these are our favorites. So, we sent this off to the dj and will set up a meeting with them in the next few weeks. We also have to provide a list of any songs that we definitely want played during the dance. I have a running list going. Anybody have any songs they would like played during the dance?

We also booked our flights for the honeymoon, so we’re all set! We leave Toronto at 9:30am on Wednesday, September 12, so we would need to be at the airport at around 6:30am or 7:00am. So, if we were driving that morning, we would need to leave our house around 5:00am. The other option is to stay in one of the airport hotels the night before, some of them offer free parking for up to 2 weeks when you stay there. It would be about the same price as if we were to drive up that morning and do the park n fly for 12 days. I guess I’ll have to think about which I would prefer. We get back to Toronto on Sunday, September 23 around 7:30pm, which means we’ll be home around 10pm, so that’s nice, not too late. I have the following day off work too just to get back into the swing of things and have a day at home before I start back at work.

CT and I picked up our wedding bands on Saturday and they are gorgeous! We both love them! I can’t wait until I can wear mine. Of course, I tried it on a couple of times, and I think it looks really good with my engagement ring.

We also booked the back room at Kelsey’s for our rehearsal dinner. It’s a bit of a drive from the church, but not too bad, not more than 15 minutes.

We have our second appointment with the pastor booked for Thursday, May 24th.

Things are coming along well in terms of my May tasks!

On Thursday, I will have been at my job for 3 years. Hard to believe it’s been that long! If I had my act together a few years ago and submitted my pre-grad experience to PEO, I could have applied for my P.Eng. this month. But, since I haven’t submitted any of my pre-grad experience, I don’t really think I can at this point since it was from 2002 and 2003. I can submit my last co-op term though since it was for my current place of employment. And if I have some free time (ya right!) in the next few weeks, I may see about submitting my 5th co-op term as well. They may say it’s been too long, but they may still fill out the form, who knows. If that’s the case, then I could apply for my P.Eng. at the end of the summer.

I really have to decide about whether I am taking CT’s last name for work and social life, or just social life and keep my last name for work. I’m thinking I’ll take his last name for everything, that’s just a hard adjustment because I’ve had my last name my whole life and I really like it. Not that there’s anything wrong with CT’s last name, I just like mine better. It’s shorter and easier to pronounce. But, I think there’s something very bonding about once we’re married, we have the same last name. And then once we have kids, our family will all have the same last name. In terms of work, I guess it’s no big deal to change my name, and I guess in some ways it’s better if I wait until after the wedding to apply for my P.Eng. because then I can get my stamp in my married name. What do you girls think? Will you change your name when you get married? I always thought this would be an easy one for me. I thought my answer would be “yes” without hesitation. It’s just a little difficult since I’ve had my last name my whole life and it’s part of who I am. I guess it just takes a little adjustment.

4 months and counting…

Things are moving along well in terms of the wedding planning. Are you totally sick of hearing about it yet?!? I hope not because that wouldn’t stop me anyways ;)

Things we are currently working on:
1. Trying to finalize the music for the reception. We have our first dance song picked out (When I see you smile by Bad English), and we think we have the mother/son and father/daughter dance picked out (Thank you for loving me by Bon Jovi). We decided to combine the mother/son and father/daughter dance into one. Now we just have to find a song for the wedding party dance. We’re thinking the wedding party would dance with their respective dates instead of the traditional way of doing it (best man with maid of honour, etc). What do you girls think about that? Any suggestions for a song?

2. We need to meet with the ceremony musician. I haven’t worried about this too much yet since she is a family friend. But, I do think it’s time we discuss the ceremony music.

3. Need to book a place for the rehearsal dinner. CT’s mom asked me to look after booking it since she’s out of town and doesn’t really know about booking a place. CT’s parents will pay for it, but she wants me to find a place. I’m thinking the back room at Kelsey’s would be nice. They have a separate room that we could have. And since the wedding meal is going to be formal, I thought the reception dinner could be more casual. I’ll have to look into booking that room.

4. Need to make reception cards to enclose with the invitations.

5. Need to book flights for honeymoon. I just checked today and they dropped in price, so I’m thinking we should jump on them now!

6. We need to meet with the officiant for our second appointment (of three). I’m going to try to set that up for sometime in the next 2 weeks.

7. Going to bottle the white wine for the wedding on Saturday. And we need to make labels for the wine. Turns out we are going to have LOTS of wine at the wedding. CT’s dad is making 3 cases of red! I think we’ll only use 2 for the wedding though. 2 cases of red and 1 of white will be plenty of wine. That’s like 80 bottles of wine for 100 people! And some people don’t drink, so it’s pretty much 1 bottle per person. It’s gonna be a good night ;) Of course, we don’t HAVE to use all the wine, anything we don’t use, we can take home. I would just hate to run out. There is a bar there too if people don’t drink wine.

Okay, here’s a question. I know it’s “bad etiquette” to make people pay for drinks at a wedding, but if we have that much wine available for free, plus non-alcoholic beverages for free, do you think it’s acceptable to make people pay for other alcoholic beverages they may want? My mom is really scared to have an “open bar”, she thinks we’ll be left with thousands of dollars to pay in a bar tab. That’s why I thought if we have all that wine available, if people really need a different type of beverage, they would need to pay for that. That way we won’t be surprised with a crazy bar tab.

If we could get that all done in May, I would be one happy camper! Things are coming along well.

Successful shopping day

I had a great weekend. On Saturday, mom and I went to the Markville mall in Markham. I got 3 pairs of shoes and a great dress for my friend’s wedding which is in a month. The first pair of shoes I got is a white pair of dressy sandals to wear for my wedding. I wanted something dressy and comfortable with not too high of a heel. I also wanted to get some dressy flip-flop type shoes to wear during the reception, and I found some really cool flip flops that look really elegant on. It was funny the sales guy came up to us and said “okay, so you are looking at white shoes, and you have a beautiful ring on your finger, may I suggest these”. Very perceptive. I’m glad he did suggest them because when I tried them on, they were exactly what I was looking for! I could even get away with wearing them for my entire wedding day if I wanted, they are dressy enough. Depends on how well I can walk in the other ones. Always good to have a backup though because I don’t want to get sore feet dancing at my wedding!

I also found the cutest dress for my friends wedding next month. It has a pattern and is different shades of blue, and it has some black and white too. I love it! Makes me feel super skinny and sexy when I put it on. Once I found that dress, I went back to the store that I got the first pair of shoes and got the same ones only in black so I could wear them with my new dress. Very successful shopping trip!

The funniest thing happened to us on Saturday. I got this flyer in the mail from a store in Markham that advertised hundreds of dresses, all for up to 80% off! It said it had wedding dresses, bridesmaid dresses, mother of the bride dresses, evening and formalwear dresses, etc. So, it sounded like a great place to check out. So, mom and I decided to head over there because she still needed a dress for the wedding we’re going to next month.

Turns out this store was in the Pacific Mall which is an Asian mall. Which is fine, it’s just that we were the only blonde people in there. Everything was in the Chinese characters, so it was very difficult to find our way around. After wandering aimlessly around the mall (there was no map of the mall so we couldn’t look up where this store was), we finally asked a security guard. Well, we finally found the store, and it was about the size of a small bedroom. And very crowded with people. So, we couldn’t even get in. And I doubt they would have had anything in my mom’s size anyways. It was a funny adventure though! We both laughed about that.

Yesterday, I met CT’s grandparents. They are very nice. It wasn’t that difficult to communicate since Carlos, his mom, and his dad were there to translate. I think they really like me because they both gave me a huge hug when we left.

So, back to the grind, another work week. I’m going to do my best to exercise after work every evening. I did well last week, so I want to keep it up!

Happy Birthday to Zeke

For those of you who don’t know, Zeke is my 2001 Toyota Rav 4, which I got exactly 6 years ago today. Hard to believe it’s been that long! He’s been good to me in the 6 years I’ve had him, and I’m looking forward to many more years together! I can’t see parting with him anytime soon. Even if CT and I do decide to get a new vehicle at some point, I have a feeling we’d be trading in his 1998 corolla and keeping Zeke a little longer.

Halfway through the workweek…

Which means only another 2.5 days of work until the weekend – yay! On Saturday, I am going shopping with my mom in Markham. We are going to a wedding of a childhood friend of mine in June, so we want to look for dresses to wear to that wedding. I also want to find shoes for my own wedding. I hope I am successful! I’m not really that picky, I just want something nice looking, comfortable, with little or no heel. But still dainty and elegant looking. I hope I find the perfect shoes!

On Sunday, I am going to CT’s parents house for a visit. His grandparents just moved to Canada from Portugal a few months ago and are taking turns staying with each one of their children. Well, they just moved to CT’s parents house last weekend, so now I finally get to meet them! They don’t speak any English though and I don’t speak Portuguese, so this could be interesting. CT’s parents will have to translate for me. CT speaks some Portuguese, but not much. He may pick it up again though once he gets into it, we’ll see.

Hmmm, what else. I have been pretty proud of myself in the last few days. I haven’t used any of my flex points for the week yet and I have worked out every day for the last few days. And I am planning on working out tonight, tomorrow, and Friday, so that will be 6 for 6, I think. Then I’ll take Saturday off, and likely work out on Sunday again. I really need to get serious since the wedding is just a little more than 4 months away now! I am relieved to know that my dress fits though. If it was way too small, I think I would be totally freaking out right now. I just more want to get toned a little so I look good in a bikini on my honeymoon ;)