Next on the Agenda...

With the wedding over, Eric and I have turned our attention to the next big thing... our Open House Wedding Reception in Indy.

We actually did a lot of the planning before the wedding. Picked a date, picked a caterer, put a deposit on a big tent for the backyard... so I guess we actually got most of it done... We're trying to do something nice. A slightly upscale summer picnic, if you will... Our caterer uses mostly, if not all, local food, which will give us some unique small plate menu items. He brings some servers to make it nice, and we'll use real plates. I'm not going to wear my wedding gown again, but I'll be wearing a little white dress to represent bridal attire. I'm not sure what Eric will wear yet... But it'll all be kid friendly... yes, there will be alcohol available, but ultimately, it's a family friendly affair.

Now of course, amidst all of this planning, I'm trying to get things moved in. Well, the reception has actually thrown a bit of a wrench into moving everything, as we don't want to fill up the space with stuff with we're going to have lots of people over in a month. So, what do we do? Or rather, what do I do? This is where is pays to have plenty of clothes... for now, I'm 'functionally' living there, meaning I can live there day to day (sleep, eat, get ready for and go to work, come home and chill, etc.), but a lot of the personal stuff will stay at my house, slowing getting packed up for its new permanent residence. I actually kind of like this scenario... I don't have to rush through packing, which means I can go through things and maybe even *gasp* get rid of stuff!!

I really hate packing/moving, though. It's such a pain in the a$$!! Especially when you've been in one place for 8+ years. So much stuff... I'm not looking forward to the process. Can't wait until the ultimate outcome, but really hate the process to get there.

Anyone have a magic wand I can borrow??

Loooong Day...

I just got home. I left my house a 6:30am. And I just got home, close to midnight! Ever have one of those days?? Today was a LONG one... and I'm amped up on the second adrenaline push because I've been going for so long... so I'll blog myself to sleep here...

6:30am - left me house. Had to drive to Zionsville to meet coworkers. We had to drive to Chicago for a 10am meeting with the FAA. Met with the FAA. Went to lunch. Met with the FAA some more on other projects. Finally left. Drove to Michigan City. Had to meet with some City Council member and the some airport board members. This really wasn't my meeting, but I really had little choice but to tag along. Finally wrapped up there about quarter after 7pm... central time.

Bang! Lost an hour already!

Stopped by some Mexican place for some dinner on our way out of town. Ate dinner... and FINALLY started heading home around 9pm (eastern time). Got to my car shortly after 11pm. And now I just got home.

You know you're jealous.

The best part? Tomorrow's going to be a long day, too... 1) Because today was a long day and late night. 2) All of the follow-up that needs to be done because of today. and 3) an afternoon meeting out of the office that's sure to last into the early evening if our predictions are correct.

So now I will go to bed to avoid being loopy tomorrow... if that's at all possible.

Good Beer - Bad Beer Party

Even with everything going on this year, Eric didn't want to skip the new tradition he started last year - his Good Beer - Bad Beer party. Even with the large number of conflicts from friends with prior commitments, we pushed on!

So yesterday, those who could, came, and we had our own little brew-ha-ha at the house. Though the numbers were smaller this year, the 'quality' of bad beer and good beer didn't waver. Granted, I'm sure some of our normal beer connoisseurs who normally show up might have added more of a twist in the mix, it was still some fun sampling. And the kids always make it more entertaining... you never know what they're going to do!!

In the end, the best "good beer" was my Wild Blue... I think it's just a good summer beer and went down easy on this humid summer evening. The worst 'bad beer' was the State Beer of China, Yanjing. Eric Stinson brough this and it was horrible!!! It had an aftertaste of Off (we say that cause we were spraying it on us by the end of the night cause of the bugs). So it was rightfully the winner (loser?).

So until next year, we all have had our share of bad beer for the year and maybe even discoverd a few new good beers to enjoy along the way.

Wedding Pictures!!

I finally had a chance to post pictures from my wedding!!

Well, ones I had, anyway... still waiting of the professional photos and the rest of my photos from my family. For some reason, they forgot to share them with me until I asked about them over the weekend. So more will likely be added later.

In the meantime, check out my Fotki page with LOTS of pictures!!

Enjoy!

Dave Matthews 2010

My annual event of seeing Dave Matthews Band in concert has come and gone. It's bittersweet this year since he's not touring next year. Making it even more bittersweet was the fact that I wasn't able to make both shows this year... I suppose I could've mustered up tickets for the first night, but with us just wrapping up our wedding last week and still organizing from that, it would've been chaotic. So I bit my lip and didn't make it to Friday night's show... which may have been a good thing with the weather they dealt with. They had to clear out the venue right before Dave went on because of a REALLY bad thunderstorm blowing through the area. They let people back in and he still played, but from what I heard, it was a really wet, muddy mess!

So Saturday night comes and the weather was much better. I only had lawn seats this year, again, because I wasn't sure how the wedding would impact my concert going. It was still a bit muddy up there... but we dealt with it. Eric and I went and didn't try to get there too early, knowing it was probably a mess. We couldn't get into the Warehouse section of the lawn (it was right before Dave was getting ready to play) and started walking away when an older guy chased us down. He had a blanket, front and center, that he was willing to share with some 'nice people' that wouldn't take away from the experience for him and his older son. In other words, we weren't obnoxious drunks - he didn't want to deal with being pushed around by obnoxious people. It was almost too good to be true!! Literally, front and center of the lawn, and we got there, like, five minutes before Dave started! So Eric and I accepted and joined them and found ourselves around some other 'nice people' that made it decent. Well, for a few minutes, anyway. It wasn't long before some of those crazier people were pushing their way to be next to their friends who 'saved them spots' right next to us. But we figured it was like that anywhere else, so we just enjoyed the show.

As usual, Dave put on a good show, with quite a few references to the 'muddy mess' the night before. I wouldn't say it was one of my all time top shows, but then, I always love a Dave show, so it doesn't matter. It's so sad to think we won't get to see him live next year. But I can't blame him for taking a year off after touring for so long! I'm sure his family will be thrilled to have him home for awhile.

The Wedding

As much as I’d love to say that the wedding went off without a glitch, I can’t. But I’ll start from the beginning.

We arrived in FL on the Wednesday before the wedding. We had a few things we wanted to make sure we had time to do, like get our license, put together the favors/welcome gift bags for our guests, and just, in general, make sure everything was ready to go. All of this went smoothly. In fact, everything went smoothly right through the rehearsal dinner on Friday. Family all arrived as planned, we spent some time with each side of the family before the chaos ensued, and the rehearsal got everything lined up for the big day. We both wrote our vows and were ready to go for Saturday.

Saturday morning arrives. In an effort to make things go smoother at the reception, I decided to mess with the playlist on my iPhone (my iPhone was our DJ). This was problem #1 for the day, because in my attempt, confussion occurred and I ended up erasing a couple of the songs, but couldn’t tell which ones, and had to try to figure it out. This got me all stressed… our First Dance song was one of the ones erased (“Steady as We Go” by DMB for anyone wondering). I got things back to close to where they needed to be (IOW, made sure all the necessary songs were there), and left it alone. This was all before breakfast, mind you, and delayed breakfast for me. So I had to rush down, eat something quickly, and then meet my sister to go to the spa.

The spa was good. Nothing went wrong here. In fact, it was wonderful! Massage, mani and pedi, and then hair (32 bobby-pins and one rubber band) and make-up to finish it off. So we headed back to the hotel and I was feeling good and looking good. Granted, I had no idea what was going on back at the hotel. I came to find out later that Eric had some issues of his own, mainly with the arbor reservation. But it all ended up okay before the ceremony.

Five o’clock rolls around the photographer was due any time, and I wasn’t ready. This was my fault – I didn’t coordinate well enough with my sister and mom to have them come to my room in time. But they got there, I got dressed, and everything worked fine. Our photographer, Ralph, got there and was taking pictures and was just about to wrap up when the room phone rings. It was Eric, wanted to push up the ceremony to avoid an incoming storm.

Storm? What storm??

I looked outside, and sure enough, there were dark clouds heading in from the east. It’s good luck when it rains on you wedding day, right?? So we wait for the final call from our officiant, Danny, and when he finally did, we headed out and down the elevator. It wasn’t too early from our scheduled start time of 6pm, but I didn’t think anything of it.

We get to the ground floor and step out of the elevator and Danny was just coming in. It was pouring down raining. HEAVY rain! Well… it is FL, and they do get afternoon storms on hot/humid days. But this timing sure was off. It had better be good luck to rain on your wedding! Actually, I tried to think positive… this rain shower was going to make a kick-ass sunset for photos later!

The rain came down pretty hard for at least 15 minutes, then slowed up a bit. They weren’t sure what to do… Danny had another wedding a few miles south of us at 7pm, and it wasn’t raining there. My mom was fighting for my beach wedding as they tried to move it inside. They finally came to a compromise… give the storm until 6:25 to pass, or it would be under a covered area near the hotel’s courtyard – still outside, but not on the beach. Danny was able to get his next wedding to agree to start 15 minutes later, so we were able to wait only that long before something had to happen. This brought my mood down a bit. I wanted my beach wedding!

But would wonders never cease, the rain stopped and they were able to get things dried off and reset back on the beach . But we had to go… NOW! Thankfully, we had a small wedding, or this never could’ve happened! Much over the family we had there, this may not have been able to happen! So we were off and running – literally. I got in place to walk up down the aisle and there were still people getting back to their seats. But I finally made it to the front, and the ceremony began. Short, sweet, and perfect. I could tell Eric had be running around all stressed when I saw him… but he survived. We survived. And I got my beach wedding.

After this point, things smoothed out again. The reception was just perfect… amazing food, perfect small wedding atmosphere, and when we went out for photos during sunset, our guests were content to sit and chat while they finished their meals. And what a sunset it was! Just as I had hoped, the rain that blew through made for a spectacular sunset! Ralph was snapping away the whole time – we should have plenty of wonderful pictures to choose from for both our wall and our families’ walls!

When we were done with photos, we headed back in to cut our cake and have all the traditional dances. The cake was awesome, as to be expected from Publix. And the dances made everyone cry. There were a lot of special family moments throughout the whole celebration and made it even more special and Eric and I were both so excited that everyone who made it did… my grandmother and his grandfather were definitely special guests there as we know it’s hard for both of them to travel. But they did.

After all was said and done, everything was great. Our special day truly was very special and so many memories were made throughout the weekend. I even got some beach time with my favorite niece and nephew on Sunday before they left town. Eric and I spent the rest of our time on Longboat Key relaxing and just enjoying our time together where we could finally just take it all in without anything pending. It was nice. The whole weekend was perfect.

When I get more pictures uploaded to Fotki, I'll let everyone know... it may take awhile, though!

Training is Done... for Now...

Tonight was my last night of training. Should've been a couple of weeks ago, but there were some sessions postponed for some reason or another along the way. So my training was stretched out until today.

So how'd I do?

Well, if you remember, I was training to lose inches, not pounds. And though I did lose weight, I also lost 14.5" over 12 measurements on my body! Not too shabby for just over 2 months of working out with Laura! I was pretty excited! So all my clothes are looser (some pants are even falling off without a belt) and I just feel better, in general. Well worth the expense if you've ever thought about hiring a trainer!! Granted, I had an awesome deal!

But now I'm done. For now. I might pick back up with her late in the summer or fall, especially if I see myself falling off the bandwagon. But ideally, I'd like to keep this change in lifestyle up myself! The healthier eating shouldn't be an issue... but the having time to workout might be. But it is summer, so hopefully, if nothing else, Eric and I will get out on our bikes a few time a week. That's would help. And I do have my company's gym, still - that's the key. It's right here! I bring clothes and have no excuse NOT to work out after work. But I just have to remember to bring clothes. And motivate myself to go back there!

We'll see.

One Week!

I'm one week out from my wedding day. One week!!

The thoughts racing the my mind... the lists of things to do before we leave for FL, the list of things to do once we get to FL, the list of things that might go wrong... I've hit that anxious/nervous state when I'm having nightmares of everything that might go wrong. Those don't make for a good night's sleep...

One week...

And then there's all the things that I know I have to do when I come back from the wedding, including all the name change stuff and the complete move of everything to Eric's house... which may take awhile, actually. I have a lot of stuff and he still has a bit of a construction zone. But we'll deal with it.

I just can't believe how fast it's come to fruition! Time has flown by since we were engaged last December, and even faster since we set our date/location. Is it always like this?? Who knows... anyway... ONE WEEK!!!