6 Days: A Pretty Laid Back Day (Considering)

• Woke up to a very frosty morning, but no rain, which was nice. Forecast for Saturday is now at 60 degrees, 10% chance of rain. Better and better!

Frost.

• The wisdom tooth has held steady today! That is a major pro.
• Went to church. Today was technically our last new member class - there's one more on the 11th, but we won't be there, so this was both our last new member class and our last time at church as an unmarried couple. I had serious ants in my pants during church. Signed the fellowship pad and told Eric that it was the last time I'd sign it for us with two last names.

Our church had a pumpkin patch this year!

Heavenly Lutheran coffee cake.

I really love our church.

My grandparents.

• Used all of my persuasive powers to convince my sister to stay at our grandmother's with me on Friday night. Potential success! It lies in her boss's hands whether she can have the necessary day off. We'll know tomorrow. A slumber party would be way fun.
• Went to the store for more vases for the bridal table, and batteries for one rather complicated display.
• Watched Bridezillas and had lunch. Had been worried that I'd become one. Was reassured that I haven't.
• Put together our signature frame.
• Read my anthropology homework.

• Sorted out the vase/table "number" that goes at the bridal table. It says "mister and missus." Texted my sister a picture. She said, "Did you mean to misspell misses?" Googled it for the second time, since the best man said the exact same thing. Nope, it's missus. I hope everyone there doesn't think that same thing.
• Made beef tips and egg noodles for dinner.
• Played some Sims! I've been trying to for days. Stopped frequently to clean. There's no reason to be all stressed out in a messy house, especially this week.

One of my most recently married-in Sims. This gal is too cool. This part's for you, Lorelei!

• Watched The Walking Dead. Cried a little. If you watch it, you know why. Cleaned during commercials.
• That's all. For 6 days out, it was practically a leisure day. 

Eric's Toaster Strudel. Yep. It's like that around here. Do note Natty's spooky face in the bottom right.

Some snuggly dogs were scattered here, there... 

And everywhere.

7 Days: Ghetto Bubbles

Today, at the one week mark...

• Woke up in quite a bit of pain. My other wisdom tooth is now messed up. Really. Seriously. I cannot even believe this. I feel like I went through this exact hell yesterday, and here we go again. I'm beyond frustrated. I'm on antibiotics and pain pills to try to keep it at bay for just one more week. I can have it removed as soon as the wedding is over...technically, I could now, but there are a lot of issues with doing it now. Took some ibuprofen and stayed in bed while I waited for it to kick in. Watched Seventh Heaven. I don't know if you know, but I really love Seventh Heaven. Just as an aside. Eric has been sick with a nasty cold for a few days. Luckily, he woke up much better.
• Finalized the seating chart. If I do say so, I'm rather proud of my seating chart. I have family members grouped in good ways, and for friends who don't know each other, I have people seated with people that I really think they'll like. Finished that, sent it to the coordinator.
• Played frisbee with Java. This has become something that he requires on a daily basis.
• Had some miniwheats and took my sociology test online.
• Showered and up and at 'em. The wedding dress place gave me this weird deodorant - Dove Clear Tones. Apparently it makes your underarm skintone more even, maybe lighter, so that I can do the Miss America wave with pretty underarms. Truly, I never knew that this was an issue. But I've been using it for a while now, and actually, somehow, they do look nicer. Not sure how I feel about this. Have I been running around with ugly underarms all these years?

• And off into the cold, terrible rain. I was pretty excited at the 10 day mark, because it meant that the wedding day would be visible on the weather forecast. It's varied in its predictions from 58-61 degrees and from a 10-20% chance of rain. Not bad odds. Right now, it stands at 58, 10%.
• First stop: my grandmother's house. I have day-of timelines for all of the VIPs (wedding party, parents, vendors...) and I needed to give Granny and Gramps theirs. She didn't know I was coming, and her very cool neighbor was over and her bridesmaid dress happened to be out and being passed around. So our arrival seemed timely.

While there, I encouraged Eric: "Make a face like, 'Wooo! I'm getting married in seven days!' I will show these to our kids someday.'" This skeptical look was the best I got.

Apparently it is a Christmas cactus. Granny says that it blooms twice a year: Thanksgiving, and my birthday (in February).

•  I will be staying at Granny's house the night before the wedding. Gramps recently installed a  cute little lacy curtain above the sliding door. He said, "There, now you can have a little somethin' sheer. While you sleep." It sounded a little creepy until I realized he meant the curtain. Apparently he is kind of thinking heavily about the hospitality side of things. He says, "If you have a blanket, or a pillow, that you like, you can bring it. To make you more comfortable." He always pronounces "comfortable" like "comf'table." It is ridiculously endearing.

This was her face when she realized that the photographer would be shooting our hair and makeup preparations at her house. "I have to clean!"

We went over the timelines.

She showed me her pearls. "I figured I'd wear pearls, since I'm old."

Then said that she could, alternately, wear a Santa hat.

Picture of my sister's wedding in her bedroom.

Just one more fridge that we're on, along with the "bookmark" that I made Gramps when I was maybe 9 or 10.

My favorite pictures of my grand grandmother (Granny's mother), in her hallway. One day I will actually scan these in, the originals are pretty good quality.

Their dog, Chloe. Chloe will probably forget who I am and kill me in the night on Friday night. She's not particularly nice.

• Gramps said, "What's your favorite color?" out of the blue (he is famous for out of the blue questions and picking up conversation trains hours after the fact). I said, "Purple. And green. And brown. Why?" He motioned for me to follow him to his closet and said "What shirt should I wear with my suit?" I picked him out a nice sage green dress shirt, and a tie to go with.
• Next up: our final haircuts. Scissors near my hair always scare me, times a billion seven days before my wedding. My hair lady turned out to be amazing on several levels. My hair looks exactly like it always does, minus split ends, which is exactly what I wanted, and actually exactly what I always want, but somehow I end up losing an extra three inches every time. She gave me some advice that turned out to be, unexpectedly, extremely meaningful. I can't help but think that God put us in the same place at the same time for a reason. Fact is, I was supposed to get this haircut five weeks ago.
• On to the store for some hair supplies. Ran into Eric's cousin who I work/volunteer with at the daycare in the restroom. Talked wedding. What else? She will be there. Small world.
• Eric finished the kids' favors with some Goldfish and Skittles while I ate lunch.
• Had a little "discussion" about whether to have my wisdom tooth out today. He votes yes, I vote no. I see his point (if it gets worse in the next seven days, it will ruin my wedding day), but ultimately I am going to wait. I am on antibiotics to prevent any major health threat, and if I have it out today, I'll be down for days. I don't have days right now. I am going to have to hedge my bets.
• Went back out on another shopping errand and to mail out the last timeline to a bridesmaid and groomsman that we had hoped to see before the wedding, but every single time we make plans, one of the four of us gets sick.
• Finished up the venue's online "planner," submitted it.
• Attempted to pack up the entire load of stuff that will be dropped off with the venue on the 8th. Toasting glasses, ring bearer pillow, favors, centerpieces...all that stuff. We are having bubbles where there would traditionally be rice.

This is what the box looked like. Kind of boring, but cute enough, right? Nice jaunty little bows.

Just kidding. Turns out the bows were kind of like the strawberries on the box of Cheerios. A suggestion. These bowless bubbles looked pretty ghetto. I so badly wanted to just move on and say to myself, "You know what, they're going to get thirty seconds of use and then be in the trash can."

But. I just couldn't, not when I had some ribbon right there.

So, a million tiny bows later...

Better.

I was pleased to discover that they at least produce surprisingly great bubbles.

Java demanded neck scritches while I tied a million tiny bows. He seemed of the mind that my time could be spent in any number of superior ways. Hard to argue, but still.

I also had Pandora to keep me company. Looooove this song!

The Knot.

And now, I am exhausted. I had hoped to kick back with some Sims tonight, but I am too tired for even my most enticing household.

Black & White Sunday: My Grandparents' Hands

Indianapolis Indians vs. Louisville Bats

Two days ago, I went to my first baseball game with my grandparents. Gramps got it in his head quite a while ago and bought the four of us front-row seats. I'd looked forward to it for months, and then the day came and I realized that baseball games last 3+ hours, and I have no idea how baseball even works, so if the novelty wore off quickly, it'd be a long 3+ hours. Everyone said that no one ever goes to these games, blah blah, I was kind of ehh by the time the day came.

Well, as it turned out, the stadium was pretty packed, so we didn't miss out on that baseball game feel. We got a couple of pretzels and a souvenir cup of Pepsi, and though I still don't know how the hell baseball works, it was really fun. The only downside: my camera was dead, and our seats were so great I could've gotten some awesome shots if I'd had it. All I got were cell phone shots.

Gramps on the way there.

Gramps at Victory Field.

We parked in one of our campus parking garages and walked the few blocks there. We passed the Canal on the way there, which amazingly my grandmother had never seen. I said I'd take her picture in front of it and she said "Great. Like a tourist." But she humored me.

Backlighting fail.

As we were leaving, a moth landed on Eric's cup while I was talking to my grandparents. He said later that he was "petting it" for a minute before he realized what he was doing. Once he realized, I guess he thought it was funny and touched my arm with it. I screamed. Moments later, this picture was taken. I look like kind of a freak, but whatever/

By the way, the Indians won. I was kind of sad. As much as I adore Indiana, the Bats were cool.