Do You Know How I Can Tell???

Well, the wedding is almost here. Do you know how I can tell? The boy and girl at the top of my blog header who have been running AT each other for awhile now are now almost touching. That means the wedding will happen any day now. To which I say, "Woohoo!"

There have been wedding preparation bumps, but nothing major.

My "to do" list has grown exponentially in the past 4 days.

I am still not certain of the "coldness" factor on Saturday morning, so I have a plan and a back-up plan.

I have finally purchased renter's insurance (I never had nice things that needed "insuring" before my wedding showers).

All in all, things are falling into place.

Last Saturday, one of my friends took the fiance and my picture for our church website and directory, and it kind of acted as an "engagement" picture. Here are a couple of those (I need to pre-apologize to all you facebook readers of my blog who have already seen these pictures posted on FB). The first one is a candid shot that we didn't realize she was taking, and it has become my favorite picture. The second one is the "official" photo since I am not allowed to keep the photo of me in the parrot costume as my "family" photo anymore.

Where Is Spring???

Where is spring? Hello, Mr. Weatherman. It is March in Houston, Texas. It should have been in the upper 70s/lower 80s for the past 2 weeks. Instead, we have hovered through the 50s and slightly into the 60s.

While some may love this weather, I am not currently a fan. You see, I planned a springtime in Houston OUTDOOR wedding, and right now, the outdoors are not seeming so appealing. Forget the fact that the flowers aren't blooming because of the cold, and Mother Nature was supposed to be my main source of wedding decor. I have gotten over that. What I am struggling with, however, is that I am an incredibly cold-natured person in general, and the thought of traipsing around the a garden in a springy organza dress (sans sleeves) already has me shivering.

Therefore, I have decided to take matters into my own hands and start devising a back-up plan for the cold. After searching our wonderdul world wide web, I have come up with some options.

Option 1: The Mid Length Cape. Yes, it looks a little more winter wonderland rather than March wedding, but I would be warm, and if I was having a bad hair day, I could cover up the hairdo with the hoodie.


Option #2: The Fur Muff. My hands get cold faster than anything, and usually if my hands are warm, I am feeling fairly okay. So, rather than bring out the fur cape as suggested in option 1, I could go for the smaller fur muff and insure nice, toasty hands. The one problem with this option is the question of where would my flowers go since my hands would be inside the muff.

Option #3: The Fur-Trimmed Anorak. Now, I think this is actually a good option because first off, it is trimmed with fur, and so that automatically gives it a "fancy" look. Secondly (and you can't see this very well), it has a cool pattern on it, and so I think I could pull of the "hip bride" vibe if I chose to wore it. Thirdly, fur is EXPENSIVE, and puffy anoraks are not. So, it would be a nice cheap option, and since I was giddy over my marriage coupon, I would probably be giddy over this bargain.

Option #4: The Denim Jacket. Okay, so you knew that had to be an option. After yesterday's ode, one can never count out the versatility of the denim jacket. However, if that seems a little understated for most, then I have one more option for you.

Option #5: The WHITE Denim Jacket. It is the best of both worlds (sorry for the Hannah Montana reference). I get to wear a coveted denim jacket, and it at least kind of looks "weddingy" because it is white.

I am not completely sure what I am going to do even though these are all pretty good options. Maybe I'll just have someone follow me around with a battery operated space heater.

O Denim Jacket, How I Love Thee

Yes, you read that correctly. This is a quasi "ode" to the denim jacket. Anyone who has seen me every Sunday for the past 3 years has probably realized by now that I'm a little "denim jacket obsessed". I wear one every single Sunday with whatever outfit I have on. Now, lest you think I just throw on my denim all willy-nilly, let me assure you that I do not buy a Sunday outfit unless it coordinates with my jeaned jacket.

I had a shower this past Sunday at the fiance's church. Guess what I wore...a darling new dress and my denim jacket. (pictured below--the friend who introduced us, me, and the fiance)


I had a shower a few weeks ago at my congregation. Guess what I wore...a black skirt, a cute top, and the denim jacket.


The fiance and I are having to have our picture made for the church website and directory. Guess what I am wearing...you guessed it...some sort of clothing topped off with a denim jacket. It has become my staple, my security blanket, and to those who think it might be too hot to wear it in the summer, I simply assure them that that is what air conditioning is for.

In less than 2 weeks at the wedding--the outside wedding--it is looking as if the temperatures are going to be in the mid 60's. I had someone ask me yesterday if I would wear the denim jacket with my wedding dress to stay warm. I just might. It's classic and goes with EVERYTHING.

I Don't Want Bunnies & Chickens & Ducks

Well, the wedding is less than 3 weeks and more than 2 weeks away, and there doesn't seem to be enough time in each day to get things done (and by things, I mean both wedding AND work things).

The current wedding "thing" that is wreaking havoc is the wedding favor (yes, I realize how dumb that sounds). I really didn't like my original plan, and so I set out in search of a new plan...a better plan...a plan that involves various shades of pink.

This "new plan" can at least use some of the "old plan" items (i.e. the Valentine's M&M's that I purchased), but it also needs additional candies (yes, family members, I will be sugaring you up at the wedding). So, on Monday after work, I went in search for any remaining Valentine's M&M's that might be lining the shelves of our local discount stores (yes, I realize that Monday was over a week past Valentine's Day, but I was holding out hope that there might still be some out there).

My back up plan, if the M&M search proved fruitless, was to look at Easter colored candy, because I could pick out certain shades and use only those candies (did I mention that this new plan involves picking out all of the red M&M's out the current Valentine's packs). But, all the Easter candy now has bunnies and chickens and ducks on it. And while I realize I am from East Texas and there is a good bit of "backwoods" to my general persona, even I do not want farm animals on my wedding favors. So, those were out.

I went to store after store after store looking for the perfect candy, and my overall mood became crabbier the longer I looked (this can be verified by the sales clerk at Target...I think I owe her an apology). When I was about to run out of gas on the bad side of town, I took that as a sign that it was time to give up and call it a night.

The search was not over, though. The fiance joined in on Tuesday. After taking careful notes of exactly what I was looking for, he went to 6 or 7 different stores in his neck of the woods and finally located numerous bags of a chocolate candy (from a different holiday season) that would work (after sorting out one of the colors, of course). Jackpot!

I have since added one more extra special candy to the mix, and I am now ready to turn the plethora of sweets over to my dear friend who is using child labor (her daughter) to help put all of the treats together. When all is said and done, we will have baggie after baggie of unusable red M&M's leftover, but really cute wedding favors (and isn't that the important thing).

Nothing Says Neverending Love Like a Coupon

So, as I was on my way home this afternoon, I was visiting with one of my friends on the phone, and I happened to mention something to her that sent her into a fit of laughter. After composing herself, she asserted that this really should go on the blog.

So, here it goes...

The fiance and I did our pre-marital counseling through our preacher at church. We chose to do this for a variety of reasons. What we did not realize at the time was that there was a greater, more cost-effective benefit to doing this.

You see, our church is part of a program called Twogether Texas. The idea of this program is that if couples go through a pre-marital counseling program prior to marriage, the state of Texas will give them a discount on their marriage license. That's right, folks, it is a full-fledged marrige coupon (and a pretty good coupon at that).

So, we completed this counseling, and the fiance and I are now the proud recipients of our very own marriage discount, because nothing says neverending love like a coupon.

Swimming in a Sea of Ribbons

Over the past two days, I have been swimming in a sea of ribbons. Some wonderful ladies from church threw me a wedding shower last night, and then this morning my fellow children's ministry ladies (and man) threw me a surprise shower at our monthly meeting. As much as I do not like being the "center of attention", the showers were both absolutely wonderful and I feel incredibly blessed to be surrounded by all of these people.


I have included some pictures (complete with "captioning").


These are the hostesses of my church shower. Getting everyone into the room to take a picture turned out to be a pretty big feat.





I am not a fan of pictures. So, this was me trying to hide as pictures were being snapped. I apparently overestimated the "coverage" that my jacket would provide. Also, please notice the plate of Oreos and the bowl of peanut butter. Those are the best shower foods EVER.

We are having Gerbera Daisies at the wedding, and so these were two of the flower arrangements done for the shower.

This picture is just cute. It is of my friend Roxanne's daughter (on the right) and my friend Jacinda's daughter (on the left).

This next picture is from my shower this morning. Those are my fellow CM peeps. Bless, Dustin's heart. He always gets thrown into a sea of ladies.

And finally, this is my friend Roxanne. This is the person who introduced the fiance and me (yes, I owe her BIG TIME). Even though she lives about an hour north of where I live, she and her daughter were able to come to the shower. If you notice, we have both moved to our "fake smile" part of the day.

Catch-Up

Okay, the purpose of this blog post is to play catch-up. I haven't posted in a little over a week, and because of that I was chided by someone at church for falling behind on my posting. So, here is a quick recap since I last posted.

1. I am getting married in 5 1/2 weeks. Woohoo!

2. I drove around today with 12 glass vases in my backseat floorboard. I am afraid to look and see if any of them are broken.

3. I have purchased 6 large waters from Sonic for a grand total of $1.92 ($0.30 each plus tax).

4. I finally had the inside of my car cleaned (it was filthy), and numerous people have commented on it. That worries me slightly.

5. In last Wednesday night's 1st and 2nd grade class, we glittered. We didn't just sprinkle a little sparkly on some glue we G.L.I.T.T.E.R.E.D. on piles of glue, and I then sent everything home with parents.

6. As my friend Melanie and I were walking one morning, we passed by a man sitting in the driver's seat of his truck playing a ukelele.

7. I fell in the church parking lot. Only my pride was hurt (and the car I slung myself across as I came crashing to the ground).

8. I asked a rude sales person if I was annoying him by trying to purchase something from him.

There you have it. There is my "little over a week" recap. I realize it wasn't terribly interesting, so I will try to carry a notepad with me this week so that I can jot down all the things that happen, and hopefully the next post will be more entertaining.