Priorities

First, hi!  It has been 2.5 weeks since I last updated.  I feel like I have been neglecting so much in my life.  I have doctors appointments for myself that I need to arrange, calls to make, blog and caringbridge site to update, exercise to make time for.

The other day I was trying to get some stuff done online.  I put Luca on the floor with some toys and quickly turned to my computer.  I heard a loud bang and knew immediately she had slipped on the hardwood floors and hit her head (she was crawling - not standing when it happened).  My first response was to get to her and pick her up...I knew she was fine but obviously wanted to comfort her.  Then, I was mad.  Mad that she couldn't sit still with toys for less than two minutes while I printed a form I needed to fill out for one of her medical appointments.

Then, I felt immediate remorse for being mad.  Mad at her for what?  Being a baby?  Doing exactly what she should be doing at her age?  I was taken aback at the anger.  And knew immediately I was taking it out on the wrong person.

Really, I cannot take it out on anyone.  This is our life.  It is crazy and busy and not always the most organized.

I am trying to learn to accept that with an active little girl in the house, who naps very little, things have to go to the backburner.  There will never be enough time in the day to get done what I need to.  I actually think back to pre-Luca days and laugh.  I laugh because I used to think life, at times, was super busy.  How my days now mock those days!  And I also laugh because I am so busy these days, but look back at the end of each day and think, "what the hell did I even accomplish today?"  I used to be able to write a list of to-do's for a busy day, and tackle most of them.  Now, I have a never ending list of to-do's and I get done less each day than the items I add each day.  I say I am trying this acceptance thing because truly, it is tough for me to put things aside.  I do not feel comfortable procrastinating or having a long to-do list.  But I need to learn to accept it because this is the way things are going to be for awhile.

While I feel stressed out by having this long list hanging over my head, I remind myself how blessed I am to have this growing little girl keeping me on my feet, distracting me.  She is my reminder as to what is important in life.  These other things can wait.  I do not want to miss any moment with this precious girl.

(I wrote today's post while wrestling Luca in my arm.  As I finish this sentence, she is busy occupying herself with slobbering all over her foot.)

And to leave you with a photo.  Taken by my sister over the weekend.  We asked her to take some family pictures of us so I can send a holiday card this year...and Luca, she refused to smile for most of the photos, including this one.

The Neverending Lists

I am finding myself continuing to add to a list of to-dos.  It seems like I get so much done, then add on another 10 things that need to be done.  I posted a list of to-dos a few weeks ago and here's my progress, along with many additions:

• get a book case for nursery
• get shelving for nursery
• get hanging device for nursery
• look into mobiles
• get picture frames and order other stuff from etsy that I've had my eye on
• book our doula
• find pediatrician (I *think* this is done - have an appointment set up to interview them)
• get car seat installed
• get cars cleaned
• finish reading various pregnancy/birthing/breastfeeding books
• get hospital bag together (this is started!)
• buy hamper
• wash baby clothes/blankets
• organize nursery
• put car seat adapter on stroller
• get ipod docking station for baby's room
• go on hospital tour
• take baby care class (we are signed up for this)
• take breastfeeding class (we are signed up for this)
• maternity photos
• lamp
• craft projects
• signs for room
• side table

Now, I also have an ongoing hospital bag list.  What am I missing?!

• maternity hospital gown
• snacks
• drinks
• pillows
• flip flops
• blankets
• slippers
• robe
• towels
• breastfeeding pillow
• my clothes (nursing bras, sports bra, comfortable clothes)
• toiletries
• Ian's clothes
• baby's clothes
• baby blankets (2 - one to bring home for Tessa to smell, one or stay at hospital)
• email list/phone numbers
• laptop
• hypnobirthing book/cds
• birth plan
• headphones
• ipod and ipod charger
• cameras (and chargers, and extra lens)
• hair ties
• toilet paper (thanks for this addition, Nanette!)

Welcome back, Energy!

I think starting back to school was just what my body ordered - minus all the reading and going to class part.  I think my body needed something that forced me to get my body moving.  I feel like that first trimester exhaustion is starting to lift - and this morning when I woke up, I even said I didn't feel pregnant, which is both refreshing and scary at the same time.  Scary because then I think, uh-oh, I hope baby is okay in there!  Refreshing because, well, I feel a little more like myself.

So what did I accomplish today? Got up at 8 and got ready.  Read for 4 hours. Went to class. Ran errands.  Spoke with a bridal salon to get fitted for a bridesmaid dress (tomorrow!).  Called to cancel a subscription to some facial product I got roped into (that totally does not work).  And now, I'm about to write some thank you cards that are WAY overdue.  Actually, almost all of the things I got done today were overdue.  So I am feeling good!  Go me!

Too much to do

We leave for England in 10 days.  Holy s***!  What the [bleep] am I going to do to get everything done?!  I still have so much to do.

• Study!
• Go to a doctor's appointment on Thursday
• Study
• Exam next Monday
• Study
• Exam next Tuesday
• Study
• Exam next Wednesday
• Study
• Get a hair cut (from my hair dresser who is located over an hour away)
• Study
• Pack
• Study
• Finish Christmas shopping for the people in England
• Study
• Finish Christmas shopping for people not in England
• Study
• Get some clothes for our trip
• Study
• Get Tessa to my Dad sometime before our trip
• Study
• Drop off clothes at dry cleaners
• Study
• Book hotel in London for one night
• Study
• Buy our train tickets for London
• Study
• Buy red bus tour tickets
• Study
• Call bank/credit card company to inform them of our upcoming travel
• Study
• Arrange mail pickup
• Study
• Call alarm company

Did I mention I have to study?  I don't overly mention that to be annoying, but literally exams crept up on me and now I'm fucking freaking out.  I start trying to study and then remember suddenly that I have one more thing to add to the list of things I need to do before we leave.  The above basically represents my thought process at the moment.  It's lovely, right?

I want to cry just thinking about all of this!  10 days to get all of that done, and do well on exams?  Santa, I need a miracle right about now.

List of Things to Do This Summer

*This is my 25oth post! Wowsers - I don't think it's that exciting of a post to be my 250th - but meh.

As summer freedom quickly approached, I found myself saying just about every other day - OHHH we'll have to do that this summer. I started a list because, well, because I love making lists. But the problem with me being a planner, is I overpack my lists. For instance, here's my list of things I have so far for this summer:

• Take a trapeze class
• Take dance classes
• Go to the gym 4-5 days per week
• Go to visit family in New England
• Take a trip with/or go see Lauren
• Go to NY to visit my brother and SIL
• Go to about 5489089035 restaurants we haven't tried
• Have a movie marathon day
• Have a stay in my PJs in bed and watch TV day
• Clean the house thoroughly
• Plant plants outside
• Have at least 4 get togethers at our house
• Go away for our anniversary
• Go away on vacation to a lakehouse
• Go to Bethesda (where we used to live) to have dinner at our old fave restaurant and meet up with friends there
• Have my goddaughters come stay with us for a night
• Go hiking

Add to the list that I am trying to be a better friend since I've been MIA for 9 months, and am now trying to make tons of plans to catch up with them. But then I realize, there are only so many weekends I have this summer - I think I might just run out of weekends to do all the things I've been wanting to do. Sigh. But I'm going to do the best I can. I have high hopes for a lovely summer with family, friends and beautiful weather. But I think I better stop with the list - I think I have plenty to keep my summer full of fun things!

This weekend is pretty packed with me finishing up petitioning (have I explained this??) that is due on Tuesday. But I did manage to plan fun dinner dates for tonight and tomorrow night. Have a great weekend!

Finished with Classes!

I am so thrilled to report that I am finished with classes for my 1st year of law school! OW OW!! So excited.

That excitement quickly fades when I look at how much I have to do to prepare for finals, and then taking the finals! My list of to-dos includes:

• Finishing my bioethics paper on surrogacy
• Finishing my outline for Property
• Memorizing Property outline
• Start and finish Constitutional Law outline
• Start and finish Civil Procedure II outline
• Take practice exams in Property, Constitutional Law, and Civil Procedure II

Eek!

My weekend was full of revising my paper and procrastinating by enjoying the beautiful weather. We picked up hand-me-down patio furniture from Ian's parents house on Saturday instead of playing kickball (the other team forfeited). Yesterday, I think I kept Panera in business with the coffee I drank while there studying!

Hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather! Back to studying I must go...

Signed

Saturday - we signed our new lease! It was a very exciting feeling to be picking a place of our own and feels more like our own place since it's brand new.

Sunday, we were busy furniture shopping. Our old couches were about 15 years old, a bit dirty, and just plain run down. We decided to head to Value City Furniture since they were having a big sale. It was a very successful shopping trip and we ended up with a new sofa, chair & 1/2 and a matching ottoman. Here's a picture of the three new pieces (actually I don't think this is exactly what we got but the color and shape are almost identical):

We then took a side trip to Ikea, where we purchased a couple new throws for the new couches, and Ian was desperate to get rid of the crappy old TV stand I had in college, and so we purchased this:

It looks black but is actually black/brown, and we bought 3 cute little baskets to go on the bottom shelf to hold stuff in - but got them home and realized we bought the wrong size - DOH! I hate when that happens. Oh well - looks like we'll have to go to Ikea again and get sucked into spending more money. Ikea has a way of doing that to me - part of it is I get a little confused as to where I am as a whole, and they have lots of cute things that I could always use. Do I need them - no. But I like them so inevitably we end up spending money on stupid stuff that we don't need.

I've been busy making lots of phone calls - calling the new gas and electric company to transfer the bill to our name as of the start of our lease, arranging an appointment time for them to come out to turn on the gas, booking the movers, and a whole other list of places to call before we move - Comcast to switch locations, alarm company to set up appointment to turn alarm system on, current electric company to close our bill on the last day we're in the apartment. Moving in one word: sucks!

We did find time to watch Fool's Gold - I don't recommend it. I loved Matthew and Kate in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (one of my fave movies), but their chemistry just wasn't there in this one. I think it mostly had to do with a poor storyline.

And I'm super delayed in finishing up our honeymoon recap! How was your weekend?

Calm

Everyone keeps telling me that I'm abnormally calm for being 3 days before my wedding. I'm not feeling particularly nervous or stressed out. I think my anal planning issues have paid off. I really just have a few little things to pull together tomorrow and then I need to pack and make sure we have everything together. Here's my updated to-do list:

• write 3 thank you notes
• put fruit in OOT bags
• send out rent check
• prepare last payments
• drop off OOT bags and valet cards to the Westin on Thursday
• download important reception songs
• fax list of must-plays to DJ

We had a very busy day. We woke up and both worked out for an hour then went on a walk with Tessa. It was a beautiful morning and I so enjoyed having the day off of work to breathe.

We then headed out to the mall to pick up the champagne flute (one of the originals had broken), picked me up a new dress for the rehearsal dinner and took it to be altared slightly.

We made a trip to the bank and got all of the tip money out, as well as cashing everyone's checks for hair and makeup.

Erin came by and picked up all of the ceremony and reception materials which was fantastic to get out of our house and not have to remember to bring all of it! Now, I just have to remember the marriage license, the dress, and the groom and I think we'll be just fine:)

Down to the Wire

As I'm sure you've either had experience with, or you can imagine, the week before the wedding is insanely busy! We did manage to accomplish some big projects this weekend while still having a night out with friends and dinner with Ian's family.

• We finished the Out-of-town brochures for the out-of-town bags.
• We finished designing the programs
• Got programs printed at kinkos
• The lovely Ms. Sarah came over last night to help us put the ribbons on the programs. They're all finished now!
• Met with our awesome DJ, Ray from Chris Laich. We went over details and we're good to go
• Finished writing cards to each bridesmaid
• Wrapped my junior bridesmaid and flower girl presents
• Got my hair highlighted
• Sent in my deposit to UMD
• Sent in withdrawal notices to other two law schools
• Picked up our newly engraved wedding bands
• Met with our music coordinator to finalize all music
• My mom picked up my wedding dress yesterday (after much more drama with the bridal store)

Today is my last day at work so I'm super busy trying to finish things up, while really just wishing I could be home or out running last minute errands - anything but here. Mentally, I am just ready for the wedding to be here - or at least to not be at work!

Am I nervous - a little. More excitement I think. But I do wake up with butterflies just getting so excited for everyone to be together, to be able to wear my dress, and have lots of time with Ian to relax and just be together.

We also decided this weekend that we wanted to find a way for our pup to be brought to the Chapel after the ceremony for a couple of pictures. Tessa gets super excited when she sees us so we are worried about her putting a muddy paw on my dress. So, the only way it's going to work is a) if it's completely dry outside b) if the dogwalker brings a towel with her to wipe the paws (even if it is dry out) and c) have the dogwalker bring a white sheet with her to put over me for the pictures. It's still a bit risky - so we're having either my brother or Dad hold her as they can control her a lot better than the dogwalker or other friend. So I'm hoping for good weather so we can get a cute picture of our little family!

My current to-do list:

• get fashion tape
• get heel/shoe pads
• get new engraved champagne glass
• write 3 thank you notes
• get outfit for rehearsal dinner
• put fruit in OOT bags
• buy champagne for car ride from chapel to reception
• go to the bank
• send out rent check
• prepare tip envelopes
• prepare last payments
• drop off OOT bags and valet cards to the Westin on Thursday
• buy more underwear for trip
• buy tissue packets
• download important reception songs
• fax list of must-plays to DJ
• bows for pews
• print readings for readers

I'm pretty sure this list will grow throughout the week!

Where I've Been

Even though most of our planning is complete, it seems like little things, errands or appointments are creeping up on us. It seems like just about everyday I/we have an appointment to go to or an errand to do. I'm surprising myself with how calm I've been though. I figure the important things will get done, and the not so important things - well, who cares if they don't get done!

Tuesday night we went to the Westin for our second tasting. I think I've mentioned that because of so much turnover, somehow our file went missing. They never were able to locate the notes from our file, so we had to go back for another tasting (including the appetizers) and go through everything. Mainly, we wanted to sit down with their coordinator, Robin, and make sure we feel comfortable that they will make our wedding the way we want it!

The tasting was just as good as the first one. We had already selected the entrees, but needed to select the sides for each entree. Now - here it is:

• Seared Rockfish with a basil butter sauce, creamy mashed potatoes(SO YUMMY) and grilled asparagus.
• Roasted chicken with a port wine sauce with a triple potato tart (it's like layered potatoes) and green beans.
• Mushroom ravioli comes as is in a madeira cream sauce.

We did a complete walk through to select the locations for the DJ, dance floor, 2 bars, guest book table, name cards table, cake and our sweetheart table.

We chose a sweetheart table for various reasons. We feel that so many of our friends have significant others and after being with us the entire day, we want them to be with their significant others. I know when I've been at wedding before with Ian, there's nothing better than watching a couple make that commitment and see the love between them, and be able to share that experience with him and having him there made me that much more enthusiastic for the newly wedded couple. We thought about sitting with both sets of parents, but that's hard to do when one set of parents is divorced so we went against that idea. Plus! I won't have seen Ian very much that day so I really would love to have some time together where we can talk about how the crazy day had been for each other. So - a sweetheart table works well for us!

Robin asked if we had seen the guest rooms or the suite. We had not seen them, so she got the keys and up we went. The hotel just redid all of their rooms and let me just say - for those of you staying there - AWESOME. I also think they should make a point to show the suite to people deciding on having their wedding there - it honestly is a great selling point. I was amazed by the suite. It's huge with 2 full bathrooms (which is fantastic for all of us girls getting ready in it), has a pool table, is all hard wood floors, has a big flat screen TV, a kitchen, windows that run along the entire living area, and seating for probably 15-20 people. I will be staying in the suite with my girls the night before the wedding, and then Ian will be joining me in the suite on our wedding night. Although, I have a feeling we'll be getting a late night visit from Ian and his boys the night before the wedding for them to play pool. NO - it's not happening buddy!

Tonight, I am meeting with our florist to go over last minute details, additions and deletions from the contract and make sure everything is good to go with him.

I am getting RIDICULOUSLY excited for my girls to all be here this weekend for my shower and bachelorette party. I have no idea what is up their sleeves - but I'm thrilled that we'll all be together! Tomorrow night we're picking up Laur from the airport and then the weekend fun begins. I cannot wait:)

Looking through knottie bios, I came across c_washington and couldn't help but smile at one of her pictures towards the end of her and her new hubby in their wedding attire playing Wii.

In Need of a Long Weekend

This is going to be a super short post - I have to review a very long document (1000 pages - eek).

We picked up the card box and it will work perfectly. Done! Also while at the mall, we swung by Macy's and picked up Ian's tie for the wedding, and one last gift for his best man. Done!

I have a half day tomorrow and then a 3 day weekend and I plan on sleeping A LOT!

I also got asked a question by a fellow bride-to-be who is also a date twin! Yes I am starting to stress a bit about one thing out of my control - the weather! Otherwise, I'm trying to forget about the other things! Thanks for reading!



Tonight, I am having dinner with my friend Alina. Alina was one of my AMAZING roommates when I studied abroad in Spain. She is from California and is in DC for the day to visit American for grad school. I'm thrilled she's staying long enough to have dinner with me:) And here's a picture of Alina, Nicole, Me and Sarah - we were all roomies! This was a picture from my 21st birthday party - the girls arranged for everyone to sign these huge card they'd made for me. Oh how I miss those days.

Lurkers - Good or Bad?

After posting about my nerves about our florist yesterday, I soon got a phone call from the owner. You see, I had posted on the DC Knot Board to get opinions from those who had used this florist (most of the responses were good). The owner, Sharone, could not have been more delightful on the phone. He was upfront and said he'd seen my concerns on the knot and wanted to make sure I was comfortable with everything. So we set up an in-person meeting to go over the contract, meet me and see the pictures that I had in mind, and show me flowers he plans on using. He also explained the situation with the bride who was not 100% satisfied with her flowers. The explanation made sense and I felt more comfortable. It also helps for any vendor to know your skepticism (in a nice way of course) so they know to be especially careful with their services for you.

Getting this phone call was also a reminder to be very fair on the knot. My post was in no way bashing his business, nor was I asking for anyone's rants about his business. And although I dislike vendors being able to lurk on the boards (which are supposed to be helpful to brides), in this case it did not offend me. The times that lurkers offend me are when they post about how fantastic their business is to unknowing brides. I think lurkers that use it to know how good their services are, and to hear reviews in order to improve their business are smart.

Last night we went to Bacchus of Lebanon in Bethesda with some friends and had a very long dinner filled with delicious food, good wine and had a great time. Although I don't think my body likes getting home past 11 on a worknight.



This weekend I am:

• Taking Ian's ring to be engraved (but first have to decide what to engrave it with)


• Taking Tessa to the vet for an eye infection


• Going to Chris and Chrissy's wedding in Baltimore


• Continue our Project Move Preparation (otherwise known as cleaning out closets and cleaning in general)


• Writing thank you notes


• Going tie shopping for Ian


• Going to see my flower girl in her dance recital


• Update our registry


• Wrap bridesmaid gifts


• Preparing final payments for wedding vendors

Not sure what other details we'll accomplish this weekend. Hoping Ian will start the research for the out-of-town bags but he's a procrastinator so who knows. I'm sure I'll have pictures from the wedding to post on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

6 Weeks to go!

As I checked our wedding website today - I saw that we have 42 days left! It sent me into a mini panic attack. I am getting super excited to have all of our friends and family together, but the nerves are starting to hit me as well. How were you feeling several weeks before your wedding? Did the nerves hit you about now? I am overly excited as we get closer though!

I didn't accomplish anything wedding related last night, but did manage to grab some yummy chinese food and watch Grey's.

I verified all of our guests' hotel reservations yesterday, and contacted the few that still need to book a room. We only have a few rooms open in our block out of the 25 we had originally blocked - it's going to be amazing have 45+ people stay there with us!

I also just did a list of everyone who needs to be on the two buses we're renting. Both buses are now full so it looks like we'll be upgrading one of the buses to a bigger bus! We have one bus for the attendants, our parents and grandparents, and another bus for all the guests who wish to take the bus from the hotel to the ceremony and back.

I'm getting a list together for the rehearsal dinner and sending that off to Ian's parents this weekend.

List of to-dos for this weekend:

• Quick makeup trial for the lipstick only
• Wrap bridesmaid gifts
• Write out ceremony selections
• Find hair piece
• Take ring to be engraved
• Finish choosing music selections

We're also going out to brunch and taking both of our moms on Sunday.

Have a good weekend!

Calmer

The owner of the store was fantastic. She apologized and was very proactive. She had already called the manufacturer to figure our a solution. The solution was for the manufacter to rush order the section that needed to be replaced. Problem - it wouldn't be here for 4 weeks and then all the alterations would have to be made then. I went by the store after work to decide what is best. After trying on my dress, I decided not to risk the timing and move forward with it as is. It's still beautiful without the changes and maybe it all happened for a reason anyway! Overall, the owner recovered well and I still like where I got my dress!

Oh - and I can wear my pink shoes for the wedding day. The dress is long enough for them!

I'm excited that we've received many responses already! Although considering that we're supposed to receive them all by May 17 - I think they're coming in a little slowly. We haven't received many "no" responses which is exciting.

Here is the most recent list I made of things I need to get finished soon:

• Ceremony - finish choosing music
• Donate $ to Washington Animal Rescue League
• Get Ian's ring engraved
• Get present for Ian
• Create a gift box
• Wrap bridesmaids presents (good reminder Kim!)
• Present for junior bridesmaid and flower girl - any good ideas for these??
• Write out ceremony readings and intentions for priest
• Check with hotel on a vegan meal option
• Get hair accessories
• Cancel previous makeup person

Tonight, Ian is heading out with some friends for drinks so I have another "me" night - yay! I think I will work on some of these to-do items while watching a movie!

Speaking of movies, we watched Rendition last night (Reese and Jake) and thought it was another good movie! It wasn't rated that well, but it was good I thought - rated it a 3/5 on Netflix.

Major Progress!!

Recap of our weekend:

• Saw Baby Mama on Friday night - it was witty and cute. A very good date night movie - light and fun. We had a great italian dinner and Ian was psyched to go to the movies.
• Saturday, we drove all over the place. We picked up Tessa's medicine from the vet, drove out to the middle of nowhere to pick up my Hanky Pankies from the Fedex holding warehouse (which by the way, makes you feel like you're in the Matrix - a long hallway with all closed doors), went to Target to pick up our table number frames.
• Wore my Hanky Pankies (the non-wedding pair) on Saturday night and fell in love with them.
• Finished our table numbers and boxed them up so they're ready to go.
• Took a break from wedding related stuff to go support Sarah at Catholic's first Relay for Life, which she organized!
• Designed, completed and boxed up our menu cards.
• Designed, completed and boxed up our favor cards.
• Picked up our invitations from our invitation lady's house.
• Put invitations together.

All in all - it was a super busy, but super successful weekend! WAHOO!

Today, I am heading to the post office to find out how much postage I need to put on the invitations (this is more complicated because of some of the invitations going to Europe). Also, postage rates go up again on May 12 (to .42) which means we need to put the higher rate on the return envelopes. Tonight, after we meet with our priest to sign off on some paper work, we will be stamping the invitations and tomorrow they go out. Even though it's a rainy Monday here, I am in a great mood because of how much we accomplished this weekend:)

Done, Done and DONE!

Something old and borrowed: CHECK - My mom gave me my grandma's wedding band to attach to my dress somehow.

Unity candle: CHECK - An old friend from high school who is getting married in a few weeks checked out the blog and has a candle set she isn't using - she graciously offered it up and it looks perfect for what I'm looking for!

Bows to reserve the front pews: CHECK - Our neighbor just had a daughter get married and already has them ready to give away.

Yay! Lots of little things falling into place. I also found out that our invitations are on their way to us! I guess we'll have a very busy night once we receive them.

Tonight, I am taking a break from the wedding craziness and heading to the Nats game with some friends. Can't wait!

Jolly Little Fellow

Our priest makes me smile. He is so kind and is constantly joking around. We arrived at the school and sat down in a little sitting room. He started asking us about the planning, how close we are, etc. He then informed us that the questionnaire needs to be answered individually. So Ian headed outside to relax in the nice weather while I sat and was asked lots of questions by him.

The questions were fairly comfortable for me - basics (date of birth, place of birth, full name, address, phone number, etc.), faith based (were you baptized, where, when, do you currently practice, do you consider yourself faithful), and about Ian (are you entering the marriage freely and for life, are you willing to give your spouse the opportunity for children). The weirdest questions were, please answer the following with yes or no, are any of these reasons why you should not be married: fiance is of religious profession, fiance is a criminal, fiance has abducted you. Say what?! Do people actually sometimes say yes to these questions?? And then, do you think your fiance will have the same answers to these questions? Well I should hope so if we're getting married!! I don't fault our priest for these questions - he's just following the questionnaire given to him!

Then it was Ian's turn - and he was SO nervous. But our priest was beautiful in making him feel comfortable. It turns out, we are the first catholic/non-catholic couple to be married in their chapel. We feel special. Ian was worried that the priest wouldn't like that Ian isn't Catholic, but he passed no judgment and thought it was lovely that Ian was open minded and going to church with me when I go and asks me questions.

After we all sat around and joked, he closed with a short prayer. I asked Ian if he was uncomfortable with any of it - he said nope, and that he really is the perfect priest to marry us.

Things seem to be falling into place - but the more I get crossed off our list, the more little things seem to creep up. It's amazing how many little errands need to be done, and little things that you'd never think of!

Miscellaneous

• I redesigned our wedding website - check it out and sign the guest book!
• I finished designing the menus and I think we are ready to print them - one more thing to cross off the list once we finish those.
• We watched Juno on Sunday night and thought it was very witty and cute. Certainly worth seeing I think.
• I just added a couple things to my list of to-dos - buying a unity candle and making bows for the reserved pews. Where did you get your unity candle (if you had one!)?
• We are meeting with our priest tonight - very excited to wrap up some loose ends with him and for him to get to know us better.
• I emailed our invitation person to find out where exactly our invitations are. I need to get them soon so that we can get them out!!

I have to give a shoutout to Lolly who ran in the Boston Marathon yesterday - I don't know how she did it but it's truly amazing (and a little crazy)!

Picture Post

Two months from today!! Holy Crapola we have a lot to get done!!

Since it's a rainy Monday, I decided lots of pictures are in order for today's post.

Friday evening, I had a makeup trial with Sairra Lax at her home. She was super nice and sat with me for about 10 minutes prior to even touching my face to chat and ask questions so that she could get an idea of what I am looking for on the wedding day. My skin tone looked very natural and she added some "oomph" where I wanted some - the eyes. I think she did a pretty good job and with a couple adjustments, think I will be very happy on the day of. Here's the picture:

Later that night, we met Stacy and Jon for dinner in Laurel at Pasta Plus. The food was great and the company even greater. Here's a group shot:

We played a little bit of emotives: You're getting married tomorrow:

Saturday, I woke up and headed to my hair salon (Perez Salon and Day Spa) to meet with Michael. After getting a cut, highlights, deep conditioning treatment, he did a trial run for the big day. This was just to get an idea of what we're doing - so obviously on the day of, it will be much more clean and not as sloppy.

Picture of the front: the poofiness at the top will be higher and even:

We then headed to dinner at Mia's Pizza in Bethesda with Sarah and Carlton. Here is a picture of the four of us:

Yesterday was a super rainy day, but I met up with Emily in Tyson's for brunch. I haven't seen her in ages and I was excited to hear all about her trip to Kenya!

Afterwards, Ian and I ran errands and worked on wedding stuff at home. Here's a list of the progress we made:

• Bought Guest Book
• Wrapped Bridesmaid Gifts
• Designed and Printed Table Numbers

Things I hope/plan to accomplish this week:

• Meeting with our priest Tuesday evening
• Finish designing menu cards
• Begin printing menu cards
• Purchase postage for invitations
• If invitations arrive, assemble them and send them out
• Design favor cards
• Sign makeup contract
• Buy (cheap) frames for Table Numbers

It's a long list - but I'm feeling motivated and optimistic!

Clumsy

Today is the 2nd day that I've been back in non-flat shoes (yay!). Well - I guess my feet are just not used to it. As I am walking gracefully back to my desk from the bathroom, the heel slips on the recently shined tiles and I go flying forward onto all fours. What makes matters worse, is that our building is 10 floors, and I'm on the top where all of the executives sit. As I'm in slow motion starting the fall, I hear "ding" come from the elevators (I fell directly in front of them) and immediately think "uh-oh, what executive is about to witness this?" I quickly get up and readjust myself and glance around to see one of the execs who has a confused look on his face and says "Ummm, are you alright". Secretly, I was thinking that my foot was killing me and I didn't know if I could walk (not my ankle - thank goodness - I think my foot just hit the tiles hard), but giggled as I assured him I was fine and then walked away in horrible pain.

Ahhh - onto less embarrassing topics. Last night, I picked up my veil from Maggie's, picked up the bridesmaid gifts that arrived, and went to the mall to buy earrings for the big day. I found some that I like and snatched them! Here they are:

I have a makeup trial tonight and then we're heading to dinner at Pasta Plus with Stacy and Jon. We haven't seen those two in AGES so I'm pretty excited to catch up over some fine italian food.

Tomorrow, I am getting my hair did - color, cut, and trial for the wedding day. Essentially the whole works! Then tomorrow night we are doing dinner with Sarah and Carlton!

Sunday, I am heading to brunch with Emily.

Lots of plans this weekend with friends and wedding pampering! Also, trying to complete one of our projects this weekend - we'll see if we're able to fit that in!