What's In a Name?

Now that we have decided that we will be able to keep Kitteh without her being uncomfortable around the dog, we need to think of a name for her.

I don't think that we should keep calling her Kitteh, although Mark would be perfectly happy with that. I can't seem to pin down what her name should be. She's a wonderful cat, very cuddly and fun. She's interested in everything, and can certainly be a little mischevious.

I initally thought that I would like to name her Delilah, I still like the name, but it's hard naming an animal when you don't really know their whole personality yet. Mark came up with some really terrible names, so he hasn't been much help, but the best (in my opinion) that he has suggested is Peanut. Hmm...

Any suggestions?

Day 5 of Operation: Socialization & Other Things

Kitteh and Belle are getting along better than they were. They still aren't BFFs yet, but they do seem to be getting into exchanging Christmas cards once a year territory, kinda friendly.

They seem to be less aware of one another - Kitteh actually seems more comfortable around the dog, than she around Kitteh - and today, Belle actually gave Kitteh some kisses. Belle likes to give everyone kisses. They were kind of rough, and not very loving, but Kitteh allowed it, and it seems to mean that Belle doesn't totally hate her, and hopefully won't try to drown her in the toilet while we are away. Hopefully we will continue to move in this positive direction. I have hope.

I finished reading The Host, the newest Stephenie Meyer novel, this morning. It took a little while to get into - she's actually my first Science Fiction author anyway - but once I got about 75 pages in, the plot really picked up from there. The book is about bodysnatchers (at least I think that's the proper Sci-Fi term) and the beginning was very technical, and really served to set up the rules for the story. All in all, I found the novel to be very worthwhile, different, but worthwhile. I'm hoping to see more adult Fiction from this author.

We spent the rest of today writing thank you notes. Mark actually wrote 99% of the thank yous for his side of the guest list, I wrote the rest. It was very nice being able to split the duty with someone and it really made the task go faster. We are planning to get them out in the mail tomorrow, and I will officially be done with all wedding related tasks - well, except for organizing all of our shower/wedding gifts that are still occupying the entire floor of the office, but we just close the door and don't talk about it. Now, I can move on to selling off all of the stuff that's taking up space in our spare room.

It's going to be a somewhat busy week, but thankfully it's only a 4-day week at work. My Mom's birthday is on Tuesday, July 1st, and Mark's and my birthday is on Friday, July 4th, which is why it's a holiday week at work - yes, we have the same birthday, it's very strange. I will be 22 and he will be 29. Next year, he has to say goodbye to his twenties. I enjoy reminding him of this.

Day 2 of Operation: Socialization

Yesterday was Day 2 of having Kitteh at the house and things actually look like they are moving in a positive direction.

She spent the day while Mark and I were at work locked up in our bathroom and laundry room area, she seemed very comfortable in there and behaved herself while we were gone.

Eventually, at some point during the evening, she came out of the bathroom to be with us, and the dog, in the family room. Belle was a little less interested in what Kitteh was doing, which seemed to allow Kitteh to relax some. At one point, Belle had her head propped up on the couch about 2 inches from Kitteh, and Kitteh was just looking at her. There was no hissing, no obnoxiousness from Belle, they were both just nice and calm.

The situation is definitely no where near friendly between them, but I hope that this step in the right direction after 24 hours of knowing each other, foretells a future of - at least - coexistence between Belle and Kitteh.




Belle!

Dim-witted Moment of the Day.

This didn't occur til near the end of the morning, so I suppose it's not quite as bad as other days.

Me: Are you the claimant, or the employer?
Stupid: Yes.

Me: Are you the claimant, or the employer?
Stupid: Yes.

Me: Sir, are you the claimant, or are you the employer?
Stupid: Oooh, oh, the employee.

Me: Okay, you're the claimant. What is your name?
Stupid: Gives name.

Me: What telephone number would you like to be reached at?
Stupid: Oh, I don't have a number. Do you need to call me back?

**sidenote: this is all clearly addressed in all of the paperwork that we send out. They actually have to sort through the important info that they aren't reading to even find the number to call me at.

Me: Yes, if you would like to participate in the hearing, you will need to be called back. This is all clearly stated on the paperwork that we sent you.
Stupid: Well, what if I call you back in 15 minutes (the scheduled start time of the hearing)?

Me: You would still need to provide us with a number that you are at that accepts incoming phone calls.
Stupid: Well, I'm at a friends house. I'm going to need to get the number. Can you hold a minute?

**Again, this is all clearly addressed in paperwork that you need to have this ready to go.

Me: No. I have other people who are waiting that need to be entered for their hearings. Is it the number that's showing up on the caller ID?
Stupid: I dunno. I would assume so.

Me: ::enters number::
Okay, they will call you back to start the hearing.
Stupid: What time?

AT YOU SCHEDULED TIME YOU BUTTHEAD! AND READ YOUR PAPERWORK WHILE YOU ARE WAITING!!!!!

Okay, that's what I wanted to say, but I didn't, to my credit, instead I answered a more polite way, something that had a similar notion.

Today was a trying day.

Tornado.

"Oh Sh*t, we have a tornado warning."
"Whaaaaa?"

This is what I was awakened by at approximately 12.30AM this morning. I went to sleep around 10.30PM because I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, and after too little sleep, the universe feels that it's now time for me to get up and duck-and-cover from a tornado. I was not happy.

So, up we go, throw some clothes on, and Mark, Kitteh, and I herd into the bathroom - the only "safe spot" in our house, which really isn't that safe because it still has a window so we have to actually get IN the tub to be protected at all from any potential flying glass. We left Belle in her cage because she would actually be safer closeted in there, but the remainder of The McCarrell family spent the next half hour or so crouched in the bathtub freaking out. I started to have a panic attack, the doctor would be proud of me for noticing what set it off, which occured to my knowledge because I was roused from a deep sleep to duck-and-cover from a very inconveniently timed tornado! Sheesh! However, once I properly medicated myself, I spent the rest of our tornado-hiding time a little woozier than normal. A-okay with me.

After a while (about 1AM, or shortly thereafter) the sirens stopped and we herded - yet again unharmed, thank goodness - back out of the bathroom and back to bed, where we spent the next 30 minutes or so listening to the sirens to continuously blare regardless of the fact that the tornado warning had ended - apparently they were having some technical difficulties, again, very convenient at 1AM.

Mark and I proceeded to spend the wee hours of the morning making fun of the local weathercasters. They really are nothing but a grandiose joke, it's very sad, and also very predictable. My biggest pet peeve is the fact that the weather people are more interested in showing off their wonderous technology than actually showing us a radar that is in any way helpful to us. Unfortunately I do not care about the 3-D view of the storm over Central Ohio, nor do I want to see approximately how many and where the lightening strikes have hit in the last 5 minutes, because, shockingly enough, the lighting seems to follow the line of the storm, which we would be able to see if they would take down their STUPID GRAPHICS!!!

::composes self::

Obviously there is some left over frustration there.

I eventually got back to sleep, but didn't sleep very well because between the night's excitement, the continuing storms complete with thunder and lightening, and the Kitteh, who decided it was play time, when my alarm went off at 6AM, I literally felt like I had just shut my eyes.

Not the best way to begin a Thursday morning and the good news is, we are supposed to continue to have storms for the next 3 days : (

Meet Kitteh.

This is our adopt-a-cat, isn't she darling?!

She is 4 months old, and black and white with gray stripes. She came home from the shelter with us yesterday. I had high hopes, but I was pretty disappointed with her welcoming.

We have a dog - Belle - who is nearly 2 years old. She and our old cat - Daisy - never got along. I think it was more Daisy disliking Belle than the other way around, because Belle actually seems like she wanted to play. Anyway, we lived with both of them for nearly two years and neither were as happy as they could be if they would have just gotten along.

We hoped that when we brought Kitteh home that she and Belle would quickly adapt to each other. A huge reason why we decided on this cat in particular is that she was fostered for a while by a volunteer of the shelter because she was sick. That volunteer has other cats and dogs and Kitteh seemed to be okay with dogs. Not so with ours.

When we got home, we first sat Kitteh in carrier on the floor of the living room. Immediately, Belle began to get agitated and started sniffing the box (which happens even when you introduce something inanimate of that size to our house), walking around whiny, etc. After about 5 minutes or so, we opened up the box so that Kitteh and Belle could safely assess each other. Eventually after about 20 minutes of this, Kitteh jumped out of the box on her own to explore the area. Belle was still very agitated at this point. Eventually, Kitteh got tired of the inquisitive agitation on Belle's part, and started hissing and swatting at her, and became very defensive. This only served to futher rile up our spaz of a dog.

It ended up being a very stressful evening as they never did seem to find a way to get along. Finally, once the dog got locked up for bedtime, Kitteh seemed to relax. She was very cuddly and lovey and even slept at the bottom of our bed. I will be so sad if this living arrangement doesn't work out, but I'm going to do everything I can to help them assimilate to one another. I really want them to be able to live together, and maybe even play together. I know that Belle would like that.

A friend of mine heard of my stressful night and so nicely wrote out a very long explanation of what I can do to help Kitteh and Belle get used to each other. Her advice sounds wonderful and I'm more than willing to try it out. She seems to have recently had a very similar situation to ours and took this advice from multiple pros and it did help to socialize her dog and cat properly. I hope it works for us.

On another related topic, I want to name Kitteh (which is just what I'm calling her for now) Delilah - a suggestion from our wonderful friend Suzanne. I think it's an adorable name, and it seems like it might just suit Miss. Kitteh Priss.

Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat

Halp! Take me home!

Yesterday evening, Mark and I visited the Capital Area Humane Society http://www.cahs-pets.org/index.htm to see about adopting a new family member.

We had a cat that had come to live with my family as a stray when I was a senior in high school. When she found us, she was very underweight and attention starved. We took her to the vet to get checked out, got all her shots, and then kept her at our house against my Dad's better judgement. When I moved out about a year later, I took her with me for company. I met Mark shortly there after and he also grew to love Daisy, begrudgingly, but he did.

Early this year, we had to put Daisy to sleep because she got very sick, very quickly. She got a tumor and there was no way to treat it, and she did not have any quality of life left, so it was time for her to go. We were both very sad, but now that a few months have passed, I really miss having a cat around.

Of course we have a dog (Belle, a mixed breed Shelter puppy, who will be 2 years old in a few weeks) who thinks she's the baby of the house, which she is. And, she loves to cuddle even though she weighs around 50 pounds and is about the same size as me, and of course she loves to suck up every ounce of our attention, and of course the house wouldn't be the same without her, but I miss the presence of a cat also. They are very different in personality than a dog and I love their gentleness, independence, and the way that they just love to curl up with you or greet you with the cutest little "meow!". It's time for us to get a new kitty!

When I first brought up the idea to Mark, he of course tried to put me off as long as possible. He kept saying, "Wait til after the wedding. We have enough going on right now.", which was a very vaild point, so I put it off, but kept talking about it. Well, now it's 'after the wedding', so I'm ready.

He wasn't quite so into the idea to begin with, but after a little gentle nudging from me, he very suddenly warmed up to the idea - it may have been the fact that my nudging consisted of my giving a speech about the importance of giving love to a cat looking for their forever home, accompanied with pictures of local shelter cats, but regardless, he suddenly decided that we could check out the cats and see if any of them wanted to come live with us.

It's so sad there! All of the cats want to go home with you, some sit there and meow, some are sleeping, it's like they are in jail. When you walk by the cages (especially in the room that has the babies!) the cats stick their little paws out through the bars and try to get your attention. It makes me want to take home each and every one of them! Of course, then I'd be known as the cat lady and no one would want to be friends with me because I'm always surrounded by hundreds of cats, so I don't think I'll be going that route.

In my opinion, it's very hard to decide between the cats. They are all adorable, and in my experience at least, it's much harder to get an understanding of a cat's personality than a dog's, which means that it's very hard for me to decide who will be the best fit for our household and our crazy dog with tons of energy to spare. All of the cats there are hungry for love and attention!

Anyway, we ended up finding a few that we liked, we didn't end up adopting anyone yesterday because we wanted a chance to think about it. We are supposed to go back this evening to make our final decision and hopefully Belle will approve when she meets her.

Dim-witted Moment of the Day.

Awarded at 9.45AM.

Me: Good Morning, (agency name). What time is your hearing?
Stupid: (shuffle, shuffle, shuffle. TV blaring in the background. Kids crying)

Me: What time is your hearing?
Stupid: Hello?!

Me: Sir, do you have a hearing today?
Stupid: My name is (state's his name).

Me: Are you calling in for a hearing?
Stupid: Uh... yeah... I think so.

Me: What time is it scheduled for?
Stupid: Uhhhh... (shuffle, shuffle)...

Me: Is it scheduled for today?
Stupid: Uh, yeah, I think so.

(calls start backing up in the queue because a 30 second conversation has already stretched into a minute)

Me: Do you know the time of the hearing?
Stupid: It's sometime this morning, I think.

Me: (Gritting teeth, trying not to yell at this person)
Do you have the paper with you?
Stupid: Oh... yeah... it says here it's scheduled for 9.45AM.

The he gives me his number without area code like we're psychic and don't serve the entire state.

Argh! Like. Pulling. Teeth!

I can't believe how many mintues of my life are wasted dealing with people who are so dense. I have come to the conclusion that rather than people wanting to be prepared and help themselves, they would much rather appear ignorant and pretend that they don't understand hoping that you will be there to hold their hand. This stuff is not that hard to understand AT ALL!

And, I Don't Even Know My Last Naaaaaame

Now I have the Carrie Underwood song playing in my head.

Mark and I have been married a little over two weeks now, and I haven't made any move to officially change my name yet. I need to get working on that. However, HR e-mailed me the first of many forms I will need to fill out in order to change my name at work. I filled out the form, everything went smoothly until I got down to the bottom -

Applicant Signature: ______________

Hmm... I haven't practiced my new signature yet.

I proceeded to get out a scrap piece of paper and tried to sign my married name so that I didn't look like a first grader just learning to write in cursive when I returned the form. Good thing I practiced on a scrap sheet first because it didn't turn out very well.

My previous last name is nice and short, the letters flow together well, and it's really easy to sign - not to mention I have been signing my this name since we all learned cursive back in elementary school. My new last name is longer, it has weird pokey letters in it, namely "r". I strongly dislike cursive "r's". Yes, I know, it's a strange dislike, but I'm strange like that. I just don't like the way they look.

So, I proceeded to spend about 20 mintues writing my new last name over, and over, and over again on a sheet of scrap paper. I feel like I was pretending that I had my crushes last name like we used to do back in middle school, except it's a little different now - this is actually my name (or, will be at least, as soon as I get around to going to the stupid Social Security office). It's very strange having to re-learn to sign your name at 21, almost 22 years of age.

Eventually, I signed the form of course. I'm not actually THAT obsessed with this whole name thing. It's just that I had such a pretty signature before, and I need to work on my new one some, it looks okay for now, but I hope I don't have to force my signature for the rest of my life.

Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of being a newlywed ; )

Dim-witted Moment of the Day.

And the award is presented at 9.15AM Monday morning.

Me: Are you the claimant, or the employer?
Stupid: Employer.

Me: Okay, what company are you with?
Stupid: (states company name in question)

Me: What is the claimant's name?
Stupid: (states claimant's name)

Me: Okay, what is your name?
Stupid: (re-states claimant's name)

Me: No, I'm sorry, what is your name?
Stupid: (re-states claimant's name, again)

Me: ...are you Mr. (claimant's last name)?
Stupid: Yes.

Me: ...uhm... you aren't an employer. You're the claimant in question.
Stupid: (said with unnecessary attitude) Uh, exactly. *sigh*

For the record, all of this information is very clearly stated on all of the paperwork sent out to interested parties. Also, it's pretty simple to understand whether you are an employer, an owner of a company, someone who pays OTHER people, the boss, vs. not that person. By default this should be an easy thing to figure out.

And The Color Is...

PINK!

I am a proud owner of a glorious KitchenAid mixer in the most adorable shade of pink. I lub it!

On Saturday morning, we returned the mixer that my parent's purchased for us, then went to Bed Bath and Beyond (I could live in that store) to decide on what color of mixer I actually wanted.

Mark and I stood in the small appliances section ruminating for a while as to what we should get. Well, truth be told, I stood there obsessing about what the "right" color was. Mark spent his time searching through all of the mixers to see if they even had a pink one available and continued to tell me that I should get the pink one because that's the one that I like better.

I continued to obsess and explained to my darling H that although I do love the pink one, I know that a black one is more sensible. Eventually, he said, not so lovingly I might add, "Just get the pink one, you know that's the one you want! *sigh*". At that point, it was settled. We went in search of a store employee to seek out what turned out to be the only pink KA mixer in the store except for the floor model. We then spent another hour or so perusing the lovely items in the store, and then brought my new toy to it's new home - my kitchen : )

After we set it up, I proceeded to make the most delicious cookies I've ever made. It was totally the power of the KA mixer, which helped me to craft the yummiest cookies evah! They are Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Chip Cookies and they are to die for.

For your personal enjoyment...



Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl Chip Cookies

1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Cup Butter (2 sticks, room temp, unsalted)

Cream together.

1 1/2 t. Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs (room temperature)
1/2 t. Baking Soda
2 1/2 Cups Flour

Add Vanilla, Eggs, and Baking soda. Combine. Then, slowly add in flour as mixer is going.

10 oz. Chocolate peanut butter swirl chips (you can add any kind of chips you want of course).

Stir in chips, just enough to incorporate.

Spoon out rounded teaspoons of dough onto greased cookies sheets about 2 inches apart. Bake at 350 degrees for 11-12 minutes. Transfer cookies to cooling rack. Enjoy : )

Chopper's Remorse.

So... I got my hair cut.

I don't know quite how I feel about it yet, other than I can't touch it a whole lot because when I feel how LITTLE hair I have now, it makes me feel like a boy, and then I want to cry.

My H says that he thinks it's very cute. That was the goal anyway.

I went in this afternoon, after work, and I told my stylist that I wanted a change. I wanted something shoulder-length, or a little longer, something bouncy and fun for summer, but I still wanted to be able to pull it back in a ponytail if I wanted to.

Well... I don't think I will be wearing it in a pony anytime soon, that's for sure. About halfway through the cut, I wanted to tell her to stop cutting, I was screaming "STOP!" in my head, but what would I have done then? I couldn't walk out of there with half of my head shoulder length and the other half one straight line at the nape of my neck. I think not. So, I let her keep going hoping that I would have more hair in the end than it looked like I did. This was not the case.

Here's my new hair cut (Remember: I'm going from hair halfway down my back, to this):




Mark made me smile. I was previously pouting at the camera.

On the upside, I'm sure it won't take nearly as long to take care of. I'm sure my washing and drying time will be nothing like it was before. Hopefully, I'll get used to it. If not, at least it will always grow back.

I've Been Bitten by the Post-Wedding Chop Bug

I'm feeling the need to cut my hair.

Everyone tried to warn me that this would happen. They all said that the wedding would come and immediately after, I would want to cut my hair. I told all of these people that they were crazy. Just because THEY felt the need to do so doesn't mean that it will happen to ME. I based this prediction mostly based upon the fact that many of these girls grew their hair out solely for the purpose of their wedding. I did not. My hair has been long my whole life - of course the length has varied some, and I go through stages where I want it to be short, chop it off, then want it long again, and proceed to grow it back out - but I really didn't think that my want for a hair chop would coincide so closely with our wedding.

Well, here we are not even 2 weeks married, we've only been back in town from the honeymoon for 4 days, and I've made an appointment to have my hair cut. Right now, my hair falls to about mid-back, maybe a little shy of mid-back, but it's LONG, I'm feeling that I want to have a mid-length style, something shoulder length-ish, cute, and bouncy for summer. I'm so tired of all this hair!

My appointment is this afternoon after work, so it's happening, I've been infected by the Post-wedding bug.

More on this topic to come later.

Dim-witted Moment of the Day.

While honing my Trophy Wife skills, during the day, I'm a civil servant. I am the lucky answerer of incoming calls at a State Agency. Yeah, it's loads of fun.

There are lots of stupid people in the world, people who can't seem to help themselves on a daily basis, this moment wins the Dumb Award for the day and it's only 8.53AM.

Incoming call at 8.45AM
Me: What time is your hearing?
Stupid: Well, I'm supposed to call 15 minutes before, so 8.30.

Me: Do you mean 9.00? It's 8.45 right now.
Stupid: No, it's scheduled for 8.30.

Me: ::looks up Stupid's name under 8.30 hearings::
Nope, nothing here, are you sure it was supposed to be for 8.30?
Stupid: Yes, the paper said to call in 15 minutes before the hearing, it's scheduled for 8.30AM, so I'm calling at 8.45. (said with attitude)

Me: ::scrolls through morning hearing schedule::
Ma'am, it looks like your hearing is scheduled for 8.45AM (at this point, it was about 8.46)
Stupid: Oh, well, what should I do, should I call back in at 9.00?

Me: No, you're supposed to call in 15 minutes BEFORE the hearing, that would mean that you were supposed to call it at 8.30.
Stupid: Oh, sorry.

She didn't sound sorry at all, what she should have apologized for was wasting precious moments of my life with her stupidity.

What I actually wanted to say: NO! YOU'RE STUPID! GO AWAY!

::Shakes Head::

I Like Pink.

Tell me something I don't know, you say?

Clearly, if you are currently reading this, you may have an inkling that I'm partial to the color pink. Also, if you look at my MySpace page, my profile on The Knot, half of my wardrobe, most of my baking tools, several of my purses and shoes, the majority of my nail polish, our dog's collar and leash set (and many other of our pet-related items), and basically anything I can get my hands on, and have influence over the color of, it's pink, or better yet as the case may be, pink AND sparkley!

I can't tell you how many times my husband has rolled his eyes sarcastically following a statment along the lines of, "Does this come in pink?", "How bout pink?", "Puhleeeeease, can we paint it pink?", "Any way to make this pink and sparkely?", etc. It's a little bit of an obsession with me to tell you the truth, but at the core of it, pink just makes me happy, nothing more, nothing less. I'm just kind of a pink sparkley person - it's my personality.

My musings on my love for the color pink come in the wake of our wedding (which was a black, white, and PINK color scheme of course, and decorated with as many crystals and acrylic diamonds as possible!). For our wedding gift, my parents so graciously purchased for us a beautiful KitchenAid mixer! (I have been wanting one of these babies for about 3 years now. My baking productivity is about to increase exponentially!)

I registered for a pink mixer (of course), my parent's purchased for me a white one - not because they are necessarily trying to discourage me from having a pink one, but because that's the only color they could get their hands on in time to give me the gift. They knew that I would probably want to exchange it, but they wanted to give it to me for the wedding.

Anyhoo, I'm super-psyched about the mixer, but I do want a different color. I continue to vacillate between wanting a pink one, and a black one. Certainly, the pink one is much more "ME", and I will be the one using this appliance most often, however, the opinions of others who have stated things like, "Yeah, people in the 70s were really excited about buying the Harvest Gold model, they thought they would love the color forever also". Thanks Dad.

I don't want to end up hating my mixer. Of course, it's not the color of baby poo, so that helps, but it makes me think - will using a pink mixer when I'm 50 years old still make me as happy as it does now? Or, will 50-year-old me look back at 21-year-old me and think I was an idiot to invest in something that's not quite as blendable with changing color schemes as say a black model. I just don't want to regret my investment, not that I truely think my love of the glorious color pink will ever fade away like people's interest in the hideous color Harvest Gold. Ick.

Of course Mark is of no real help, his opinion is that the decision should be mine, and I should get whichever I like best. "PINK!" my inner baking-guru yells! But my sensible side tells me black. *Sigh* Clearly, the decision has still yet to be made.

Thoughts, opinions? Please vote at the bottom of the page!

Wedding and Honeymoon Recap - Pics will be added ASAP!

Leading up to the Wedding...

Everything went fairly smoothly the week leading up to the wedding, Mark and I were both really busy with wedding stuff (obviously), but everything got done that needed to be (fulfilling my mantra for the weeks leading up to the wedding "everything WILL get finished"), and without any major drama. I kept waiting for the nervousness to incompaciate me, but it never happened!

The biggest project (by far) was the DIY flowers, but even that went pretty well, I think. The flowers were delivered by FedEx early Thursday morning, around 9 AM. Once I received them, I took all the flowers out, trimmed the stems a little, and put all 200 (!) of them into buckets of water. Later that day, I de-thorned, and de-leafed (is that even a word?) all 200 stems. That was fairly time consuming, and very monotonous, but still, it only took around 2 hours surprisingly enough.

On Friday morning, I put together the 5 centerpieces that we needed for the reception, for each one, I trimmed a dozen various color pink roses to make a little bouquet, and put the flowers into small square vases. They turned out very nicely, if I do say so myself. It was a big project, but I now feel very accomplished :)

Friday afternoon, we packed up all of the reception stuff and went to decorate the reception hall (Nicole came to help us - thank you Nicole!) it only took about an hour to do so, and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Then, after the rehearsal dinner on Friday, Carrie came over and helped me make the bouquets (mine and 4 bridesmaid's), it didn't take too long - maybe and hour or so, and I'm very pleased with how they turned out. We got quite a few compliments!

Overall, I'm very glad that I decided to do the flowers, it saved A LOT of money, and I got exactly what I was envisioning without having to convey that vision to a florist!

In the days leading up to the wedding that Mark and I were off work we finished up all of the paper products including table numbers, cards for the wish bowl, a sign for the wish bowl, created a bar menu, painted and decorated the crystal tree, made a card box, and put together all of the favors. It was a very productive 48 hours!


The Rehearsal...

We had the rehearsal on Friday evening. It went pretty well, it was hot that evening, but we were only out there for half an hour. I think the rehearsal dinner turned out really well, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, and the food was yummy. It was very nice to have the majority of the wedding stuff done at that point since we had completely set up the reception earlier that day, I only had the bouquets still to complete, so I was able to enjoy myself as well.


The Day of...

The morning of the wedding went well, I was actually really relaxed, which completely surprised me! We woke up and finished packing for our trip, I even finished reading a book that morning! The only thing that we were really concerned about that morning while getting ready was The Weather! We constantly had the radar on and we were both getting calls from our families trying to tell us that we might need to get a backup plan in case because it looked like it was going to storm all day! This was one of the only times that I felt nervous, but I tried to reassure myself that the Universe wouldn't do that to me on my wedding day!

Then, I went with my sister and Nicole to get our hair and makeup done and everything turned out really nicely. The appointment did run over though, we were about a half hour late getting to the park to take pictures, I ended up putting my dress on in the parking lot. It was super hot and muggy, but I'll take it considering that the radar looked like it was going to tornado on us that day, and somehow, the storms held off for us, and once the ceremony was over, the sky
actually started clearing up and the sun was peaking through. Someone out there heard all of my good weather vibes!

The ceremony was beautiful, it went absolutely perfectly, Carrie did a great job officiating and I was really excited to exchange vows with Mark, I didn't get nervous at all, just really happy, which again surprised me. After the ceremony, we left to go to the reception and stopped at Wendy's on the way to get giant drinks! We were both really hot, so we went through the drive thru in our wedding clothes, no one even mentioned it, it was pretty funny.

We got to the reception ahead of most people, so we hung out for a little while to let people get in, then Mark's brother gave us a big introduction and we went in to the reception hall. Everything looked beautiful, just the way I had always envisioned it! I had a great time at the reception, the food was good, I was happy with the decorations, the staff running the event was so wonderful, so it was a very, very enjoyable evening.

Overall, the day was wonderful, it went exactly how I pictured it, and I really had a lot of fun. I couldn't have asked for a better day. Mark and I went back home to our house that night to sleep, and we were both so tired! It was definitely a long day, and it was really nice to be able to go home to our own bed that night.


The Honeymoon...

The next morning my Dad came to pick us up and take us to the airport around 7.30AM. This was my first experience flying and oh, what an experience it was...


We got to the airport shortly after 7.30, it's only about a 5 minute drive from our house. We say our goodbyes and then go to get our boarding passes. The lady at the counter tells us that our flight has been delayed by around 30 minutes. Okay we should still be good Mark reassures me.

We go through security (an ordeal in itself!), check our bags, etc. etc., wait, wait, wait. Eventually, it ends up that our flight was delayed over an hour. We board the plane (an hour late) and at this point we still think we may have a chance to make our connection in Charlotte, NC but it will be really close.

Well, we sit on this tiny Express plane (the flight is only an hour long), in the second seats (only two seats in a row), this is my very first flight, and because we are up front I can see everything that's going on. This causes immense nervousness on my part. People from the crew keep getting on and off the plane, messing with paperwork, and eventually after sitting on the plane for another 20 minutes, we take off! Come to find out, there were some mechanical issues and then problem with paperwork, which is what held us up even longer. At this point, we realize, we aren't making our connection in Charlotte unless our connection has also been delayed.

When we finally arrive in Charlotte (an hour and a half, or so, late!) we get to the ticket counter and they have new boarding passes for us... for the next day. We ended up staying the night (and afternoon) in Charlotte. It was okay though, we were really tired from the day before, so we stayed in the Airport Sheraton, which was really nice. They put us on the Club Level (read - VIP!) since it was our Honeymoon, the room was really nice. They have The. Most. Awesome. Beds. Ever! I want one, they were so fluffy and the pillows were great. Sleepy-fluff as I say.

We spent that afternoon and evening watching a marathon of Dirty Jobs and taking a nap, catching up on sleep, and eating pizza. Not a very glamorous start to the Honeymoon, but it was still fun.

The next morning, we go to the airport, get on the plane and all that stuff, finally made it to Punta Cana okay (although 24 hours late), their airport down there is... interesting. It has a thatched roof, it's very small, and has no air conditioning. Obviously very different than here. They let you off the plane onto the runway, then you walk forever to get to the airport. Very interesting experience.

We eventually got a ride to the hotel, after having to arrange it through the service we used to book our trip. The driving is insane down there! No lines on the road, no speed limits, no signs of any kind, it was a scary ride, let me tell you, but once we made it to the resort it was wonderful!

We ate, and slept, swam, and lounged by the pool reading (I got through 4 whole books in 6 days). The food was decent, the staff at the resort was super friendly, the resort was beautiful, they had perfectly manicured grounds, the beach was gorgeous, the pool was awesome! It was huge! The room was also very nice. We were very pleased with the resort overall.

When we left on Sunday to come back to Columbus (and the U.S. thank goodness!), we got picked up around 12.30 at our resort to go to the airport. Our flight was supposed to be around 4.00PM. We to the airport. It is a MADHOUSE! People everywhere, chaos ensues, all that. We waited in a long line so that they can go through the luggage that you are going to check in front of everyone. We finally get up to the ticket counter to get our boarding passes and the lady tells us that our flight has been delayed by 2 hours. 2 hours! Not again!

After that lovely tidbit of news, we get into this huge, long line, that took forever, so that they can check your passport and stamp it. Did I previously mention the airport has no airconditioning! Yeah, it's hot! Once we got through that (finally!), we wait in another really long line (where everyone was standing right up against each other - back off people!) to go through a metal detector. They only had 2 going for the entire airport, keep in mind there is hundreds of people in this little snaking line, and we are literally under a thatched roof with half open walls, and no air conditioning, only fans. Needless to say, that part was not fun.

Once we FINALLY got through all that, we went to get something to eat from the Wendy's that they had in the airport, it was one of 3 restaurants in the food court, and we paid $20 for two meals, craziness. Then we went in search of a book store, or newspaper stand so that Mark could buy something to read for the next 3 hours that we were there, we never found one. I can't believe they didn't have anywhere that you could buy reading material in that airport, they did however have a random Lacoste store? Yeah, it was very strange.

Our flight out of Punta Cana ended up finally getting there around 7PM (it was originally supposed to be there a little before 4.30PM), we spent a total of about 6 hours in that crazy airport. Not fun at all.

We finally got back to the US (thank goodness! I thought we were going to have to live in the Punta Cana airport from now on!) around 10.30. By the time we got through Customs and Immigration it was nearly midnight, and we were really tired. They wanted everyone to wait in line for new boarding passes, but we had already gotten a call on our cell phones that we had been scheduled on a flight into Columbus booked for the next day, so we skipped the lines and went back to stay at our favorite Airport Sheraton, back into the comfy bed (for a few hours anyway).

We ended up showering (we felt gross after being in that airport all day) and eating pizza around 1AM, going to sleep shortly there after, then we had to wake up again around 5.30AM to get to the airport to catch our flight to Columbus. That flight actually ended up being on time and we finally made it back to Columbus around 8.30AM Monday morning. We were so happy to be home, however our house was a disaster area from the week leading up to the wedding, so we spent the next two days cleaning.

Overall, the travel was crazy, I don't know that I will be flying again any time soon, and I'm certainly not up for any international travel for a little bit, but the resort was awesome! It was exactly what a honeymoon should be like in my opinion.

The whole wedding thing was wonderful, but it's actually nice getting back to real life and a normal schedule. I can't wait for pictures!

Welcome To My New Blog!

I figured that entering into a new chapter of my life deserved a little change, hence my blog has moved! My new home will be on blogspot beginning with the wedding and honeymoon recap (accompanied by pics, of course!), which is soon to come!

My old wedding blog can be located here: WeddingBlog!