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.

Full coverage of wedding week staaarts...tomorrow.

8 days, folks.

Everything is pretty much on hold right now, and it's safe to say that for the next week this blog will be a wedding blog more than anything else.

It's surreal to think that in 8 days, I'll be married. I'll be surrounded by everyone I love. I'll be a bride. I'll be walking down the aisle to my best friend. I'll be getting a cheese tray when I get dressed. And man, I really do love cheese trays.

My sister is doing my hair. She has a very scary contraption that does big, loose curls.

The contraption.

She came over to do a trial run, and even though I had used crappy shampoo and no conditioner that day and my hair was dry and crappy, it came out great.

My grandmother came over for it, too. She's one of my bridesmaids, which I know is technically strange, but my sister is one of my best friends and had to be my maid of honor...but my grandmother is way too close and important to me to not have a formal role in the wedding. Someone suggested that she could be the something "old" when I was looking for something old, new, borrowed, and blue. Hardy har har.

 

Any excuse to hang out with the nephews is a good one.

And speaking of the nephews...

I challenge you to find cuter ring bearers.

My mom is a photographer, and wanted to shoot the dress. I brought it to her while we were at church. She got some awesome pictures. Here we have the giddy bride hugging the garment bag full of dress. When you guys see this thing, you will know what I mean by "full of dress." Think Cinderella ballgown.

For a number of reasons (Natalie's nervous bladder, Violet's general anxiety, Java's issues overall), dogs in the wedding were a no-go. But needless to say, that had to be included somehow.

Enter: custom cake topper.

Eric spent hours working on the programs. I helped. We took them to family night with us to share with my mom and grandparents...and found an error. A critical error. A left-someone's-name-off error. And had to start all over again. ^%$#!@

We made kids' favors, with snacks, little toys, glow bracelets. We had to keep a couple glow bracelets for ourselves.

If there's a fridge in Indiana, we're probably on it.

My grandmother and stepmother both unleashed their inner hot stuff when shopping for outfits. Who knew?

Shoe shopping with my sister: one more good excuse to see my perfect nephews.

Best man getting fitted for his tux.

I'm determined to photograph every-damn-thing for the whole week-of. I've gone in the opposite direction lately, tired and stressed and busy and hardly photographing anything. I will start taking pictures of everything tomorrow.

Eight days.