She's Married!

My best friend of 19 years is married. Yes after months of planning and organizing both of my dear friends walked down the aisle yesterday. The bachelorette party was tame but exciting and the bride got a lot of great loot for the honeymoon. There were a few really late nights with program production and assembly and other details to attend to. The wedding was beautiful. There were some surprises... like the one the bride sprung on the groom when she had the girls walk into Love is a Battlefield, which was really amusing for all of us. You'll notice we are not wearing these dresses and I'm not wearing these shoes; that was a hiccup in the planning phase back in July when DB (I refuse to give them googleable free-advertising due to their idiocies) informed us that dresses would arrive on October 13th... 4 days before the wedding. Are you kidding?! So DB was scratched and we all went on the hunt for our own black dress.

My speech went over very well and the video I made for the bride and groom drew tears and applause. I was flattered and honored to be able to put it together for them. Here is an excerpt from my speech I said this with the speed of Micro Machine man lady!

"When I started writing this speech it seemed impossible. How do you cram 19 years into a few minutes? I think I've done it: It started in Girl Scouts, loud vs. bossy, I migrated people in tents, which led us to Sherman where we became friends, we were Mut and Jeff, a country music addiction was formed, ice pops in the couch, an invite to church, we went high school, we dated best friends, we took a bad trip to Arizona, we became Elmo and Grover, a perfect 10!, we went to Texas as delegates, palm springs in the summers, Kobes, Can't Buy Me Love, our wine, family camp, and the beach, we went to separate colleges, we worked camp together 'taste likes dirt and I like it', I went to law school, she went to boot camp, she stood by my side as my MOH, and today I am standing by hers. Whew. "

I played wedding coordinator in addition to my MOH duties and also photographer assistant in getting people in and out of shots. I was to say the least BUSY, but I enjoyed every second of it.

I could not be happier for these two and I am so glad that their day was wonderful and beautiful.

Wordless Wednesday

A Weekend Getaway

My best friend (the bride) and I planned one last 'single gal' hurrah for her. AKA an excuse to go away for a weekend. We went to the hotel out in the desert where we went for 5 years when we were in high school/college. Our tradition was to stay a night in the 5 star resort and spend the afternoon poolside. After sufficiently baking ourselves (cautiously to avoid tan lines and severe burns for the wedding that is in single digits from now) we get dressed up and head to a Japanese Steak House down the road. My mother happily volunteered to watch my little guy so that I could lounge poolside stationary and not running around chasing around Ace. My mom and Ace joined us for dinner and then Ace stayed the night with us.



The view from our balcony.
The pool was wonderful. The drinks ended up being free (I told them to charge them to our room and they failed to do so, yippee!) The weather was perfect on Sunday afternoon, great sun to tan in but not dripping in pools of sweat. The water was refreshing. The dinner was amazing as always. Ace did great and loved the hotel room. He hogged the bed in great fashion. In the morning we headed down and Ace got to swim. He got his first taste of sand. He wasn't a fan. It was a bit chilly by So Cal standards, but for the NW standards it was a-ok. Ace was chilly after swimming for over an hour. After swimming we checked out of the hotel and headed home. It was a great trip.

Survival

Yes, we survived. My shoulder is a tad worse for wear - but otherwise all is well. The airline had their staff out at the curb so I was able to unload my gianormous suitcase straight away to them. Thank goodness because I'm not sure I would have made it. In fact just walking the 50 feet from baggage claim to the pick up curb once in California ended up being nearly impossible resulting with a lot of dramatic drop-all-at-once when I made it to the waiting spot. So to say I was glad for curb-side check in is an understatement - that and the added bonus that they don't check the weight there :-D

The flight itself was booked full. In fact this was our first flight that we've had a full full flight. Every other flight we've managed to have at least the middle seat free. Not this time, but luckily we had a very understanding lady that was happy to be nudged every now and again by my little active boy. And active was he ever. I attempted about 30 minutes into the flight to get him to sleep walking him back in the beverage staging area - and I got him to sleep - then the flight attendants came and banged their cart and awake again he was. But he was happy and just squirmy so we went back to our seat and he occupied himself in all sorts of fashion. He did great. He made two new friends. The guy in front of us and the guy behind us were very great in making faces, giving high-fives, and in general entertaining my little guy.

Take off and landing was the most amusing this time. He got SO excited. As we were landing and taking off he was doing his little bouncy dance on my lap and when we landed he was waving to the ground. It was so cute - he probably waved for a solid 2 minutes as we landed and taxied to the gate. He did great with his ears, he understands that he needs to drink in order to get them to pop and while he doesn't typically drink during the decent (he's too busy bouncing and waving) he will eventually take a moment or two to take a swing and correct the uncomfortable ear issue. As soon as we were in Shell's car he was out like a light.

Once again, Ace has proven he is a born traveler.

Leaving on a jet plane

Today starts my son and my adventure to California. Yes, we're leaving dad behind to work and we're headed down for pre-wedding festivities. Another flight to California happens in another few hours. Hoping for good results again. To date Ace has been on six different flights and has done wonderfully on all of them. He's a good traveler. I'm hoping that it will continue to trend in that direction.

My issue at the moment is the fact that I am carrying luggage about double my weight and mass wise it exceeds me by 3xs. I have the largest suitcase I own full to the gills, but hopefully less than 50lbs otherwise they're going to charge me $50 extra dollars on top of the $15 I already paid! Eek! THEN I have the 'diaper' bag that is an oversized shoulder bag in order to stuff the extra baby-needs in it. Then I have another wheeling bag to carry on that has the laptop and all the other electronic bits. Then I have Ace's backpack of toys. Finally I have Ace in his carseat that will wheel to the gate. It's insane. MADNESS. I've done it before but everything was on just that much smaller of a scale.

We'll see how it goes! :)

Wordless Wednesday

1998

Monopoly and more MOH duties

Monopoly comes to McDonald's tomorrow. It's my favorite form of gambling. I eat there entirely too much for a nearly 30 year old, but I looove the fries. I think they've morphed into my DNA and it's a requirement that I eat them as often as possible and with the chance to win big (or a small fry) I tend to frequent there even more during the month of October. Yes ridiculous advertising gimmicks work GREAT on me. I'm well aware of this fact. So I don't feel duped, I feel I've made the conscious decision to imbibe and it's a-ok that way. hehe

I've been MIA from the blogging world because I've been in MOH task mode making the happy couple's slide show and might I say it's quite awesome - I mean look at my subjects then and now, they're pretty cute small and later in love. :) The bottom picture is one I took on their engagement photo shoot. One day when I get a slightly better camera and more disposable income I'll use this in my portfolio. :) Until then, I'll just enjoy taking some pictures and piecing together their slide show! Back to work! The wedding is in 12 days!