Turkey Day

Our Thanksgiving celebrations are usually the same every year…  Dinner at his grandma’s house, and then dinner at my mom’s house.  I was a bit worried about this year because I wasn’t sure who would be cooking at my mom’s.  Last year we ended up going out to eat because Mom was in the hospital.  And the year before I made turkey breasts because prepping a turkey for roasting is disgusting.  This year my brother had the day off so he did the cooking at mom’s. 

So, our day started out with breakfast at Mimi’s.  Then it was off to K-Mart for some Christmas shopping – we got the kids out of the way.  We headed home and started to put up the Christmas tree.  We knew we’d have a bit of time before we had to be to grandma’s for dinner.

Our plan was to put up the tree only, and leave a box of ornaments nearby.  As we’d pass the tree we would add an ornament.  That was the plan…  but we started to decorate it like normal.  Unfortunately we discovered that the ornament hooks were missing.  A trip to Rite Aid was in order, then back to decorating.  Now the tree is up and decorated, the lighted garland is up and decorated, the wreaths are up, and the window thingie that I hate is sorta covered with ribbon and beads.  There are still more garlands, lights, table cloths, breakable thingies, and themed blankets to put out. 

Dinner at Grandma’s was good.  I hadn’t seen most of the people there for at least the past year.  They were amazed at the weight loss.  The girls all asked about the wedding and added that they would be upset if they weren’t invited.  *sigh* add another 10 people to the list…  Food was good, and I held a baby.  My hunny’s jealous of all the babies running around.  I think his clock is starting to tick.  Mine goes and stops, like a clock that’s running low on batteries.

Dinner at Mom’s was good.  Completely different experience from Grandma’s.  At Mom’s everyone sits around the table, passes the food, says Grace and then eats.  Grandma’s is more like a buffet.  My brother’s a chef so the food was all yummy and homemade.  I doubt any of it was healthy, but oh well.

We came home to do some more decorating and play rock band.  The decorating tired me out, so no rock band tonight.  Maybe next weekend.

Sick sucks

This cold has been slowly coming on over the past two weeks.  I hate those kinds.  You just feel tired and not quite right for a long time.  You tire out easily.  You get achy.  Mornings are difficult.  Late afternoons are difficult.   But then when it’s time to go to bed you can’t sleep.  Ugh.  You get dizzy at work just as you start to feel tired.  You get hot, then cold, then hot, then cold… 

Saturday I couldn’t take it any more and went home sick.  Slept for 3 hours.  Then continued with the tired/dizzy/achy thing and the hot/cold thing.

Today I called in because it feels like I’m trying to breathe through water, and my throat hurts a little.  Still with the tired/dizzy, but no achy… only cold.  The steamy shower actually hurt to breathe in.  No fever though.

This sucks.  And it’s not progressing fast enough for me to get over in a hurry.  If I’m still feeling icky tomorrow, I’m gonna call the doctor.  2 weeks with no real change isn’t right.

Meatballs and a jacket

My hunny’s mom makes the most awesome meatballs using her Swedish grandmother’s recipe.  It’s one of those recipes that don’t have true measurements.  One of the directions says “Add ginger powder til you can smell it” – no joke.  I attempted to make them on Monday.  Too much ginger, not enough onion, garlic and parsley, but still good.  I made them today with better results.  My hunny came home to a meal of meatballs, mashed potatoes, and wine.  Yum.

I also went shopping today.  All of my winter coats are huge.  It’s a sad thing since I only got to wear one of them for one winter.  I found one at JCPenney’s on sale, plus I got another $15 off.  Knee length, black, fitted wool with a cashmere blend.  I was super happy… and it was a size small!  I can’t get over that.  It totally cracks me up. 

I tried to find wedding shoes to no avail.  Apparently white shoes are really hard to find in the winter.  So are nude bustiers.  Oh well.  It gives me an excuse to continue my quest, right?

Not allowed

I’m taking care of my mom today so that my sister can hang out with her family at Gilroy Gardens for her birthday.  I haven’t gotten anything useful done – except for laundry – because every time I pull out homework mom starts talking to me or wanting help with something.  I’m not complaining, though.  Mom’s been very well behaved so far today.  It’s also giving me an excuse to look at wedding stuff.

So, we’ve booked the site (includes ceremony, reception, food, beverage, DJ, officiant), bought the dress, and booked the baker.  The rest…  well… 

Photographers are expensive.  At least the ones I like.  Gotta find one whose style I like but with a price I can afford.

Flowers seem to be a bit expensive too.  Why spend all that money on something that’s going to die in a few days?  I want bouquets that look like something I could pick out of my garden (if I had one).  Nothing too formal looking.  Simple boutonnieres and corsages.  Nothing special.  Loose petals for the flower girls in a basic basket. 

Candy centerpieces.  I stole an idea from Disney’s website.  The candy will double as wedding favors, which justifies the additional cost.

My sister and I bought the paper to make our own invites.  Still need to figure out the wording, print and assemble.

Bridal party clothes – I told the girls their dresses need to be the same color and same length.  Other than that it’s up to them.  So far it’s been like pulling teeth…  My hunny still needs to pick his guys, but they’ll wear whatever I tell them to (it’s nice to be queen).

Gotta take my mama and my hunny’s mama shopping too.

Gotta find a ring for my hunny.

We’re still narrowing down the wedding cake style.  My sister is fixing a computer for a friend who is a baker.  The baker will be providing my cake for free!  She makes yummy cakes, so I’m looking forward to it.

OK, I think that’s it…  just a mental list of the things that still need to be done.

My dress… almost!

Yesterday I attempted to pick up my wedding dress.  The girl at the counter was gushing over how pretty it was in white (as opposed to ivory).  I smiled and said that my niece picked out the color “Because princesses wear white.”  The girl laughed, looked at the tag, looked at me and said “Are you sure you’re a 12?”

I was a bit offended.  I’d worked hard to lose weight, and I’m still losing thankyouverymuch. I explained that I’d ordered the 12 because the girl who helped me before advised me to do so.  I knew the top would be big, but my hips are quite a bit bigger than my bust.  She said “I really think you should try it on again.”  So I did.

“That dress is huge on you!!!  Why did you order such a big dress?  It’s going to cost you a ton of money to take it in so much – like over $200 for the top alone, plus the bustling.”  Ummm…  the previous girl told me it was the right size to order.  I don’t know anything about wedding dresses.

“Didn’t they offer you another size to try on?”  I asked…  but they said that the 12 was the only size they had in the samples.  I was told it’s better to order too big and then take it in, instead of the other way around.

“WHAT?!?  OK, wait a minute”  She came back with an 8 and a 10. “Try these on.”

The 8 fit nearly perfectly.  Still a little big in the bust – maybe a half an inch or so.  Definitely doable.  “You went from a 12 to an 8.  I’m really sorry.  They should have offered for you to try on something similar in a smaller size just to make sure it fits right. We’ll exchange this for you free.  If you were to lose any more weight, there would have been no way to take the 12 in enough and still have it look right.”

Wow.  From a 12 to an 8.

So now my new smaller dress will be in sometime in February.  Still plenty of time to alter it as needed.

Did you get her a present?

My sister and I were out shopping for invites today.  My neice called and asked to speak with me.  She’s 5 years old.  She said “It’s mommy’s birthday tomorrow.”  I said that I knew.  “She needs a present.  Did you get her one?”

Too funny.  My sister thanked her for reminding me about the upcoming date.  I took my sis out for icecream, and agreed to watch mom on Sunday so she could do birthday stuff with the rest of the family.

Potluck = Bring Food

Last weekend I invited a friend over for mashed potato meatloaf and rockband.  I hadn’t seen B for a while (since before I got engaged) so I was really looking forward to hanging out with him and catching up.  Some of our other friends heard about this potentially fun time and invited themselves along.  My hunny knew we wouldn’t have enough food to feed them all so he said “OK, but it’s a potluck.”

Please tell me why one person brought Jack in the Box for herself, and two people brought 20 oz sodas for themselves AND NOTHING ELSE.  Please explain to me why they then had the nerve to complain about me not making enough food to feed them all.  Ummm… last I checked they were told that this was a potluck.  Potluck means bring food and/or beverage.  If you want to be useful, you can supplement what’s already being offered.

This isn’t the first time they’ve done something like that.  A couple weeks ago my hunny and I supplied pizza.  They each proceeded to eat 7 slices of pizza and complain that they didn’t like the topping choices.  Hello?!?  I’m not forcing you to eat it.  Domino’s delivers.  Pick up the phone and order what you want.  And if you hated it, why did you eat 7 slices?

To top it all off, they pee on my toilet seat and the floor. 

When asked why they didn’t bring anything to the potluck, they explained that they didn’t have any money.  They then proceeded to talk about the new video game they were all buying in the morning.  Let’s see… no money for food, but $60 for a game?  Sounds to me like your priorities are out of whack.  But let’s assume that these were proper priorities.  You could have ponied up another 50-cents and turned that 20 oz into a 2 liter.  Or $1 and turned it into chips or a bag of salad.

*sigh*  They’re not allowed over for a while.   I’m a bit frustrated with them.

My friend B, on the other hand, brought apple cider.  He was the only one who wasn’t told it was a potluck.  He just has good manners.  If you read this B, I had fun playing rock band with you.  Come back soon!

Busy, busy librarian-to-be

After much preparation, my new library successfully opened on October 31st.  Our book pass was great – nearly 2,000 people lined up along the route between the old library and the new library to pass 300 books.  My day began at 6:15AM with the book pass set-up, continued to the book pass take down, and then the grand opening.  It ended at about 5:15PM when the library closed.  Even though I was exhausted at the end of the day it was an excellent experience.

The community loves their library.  Everyone exclaimed over the space, the artistic elements, the technology, and how much they missed us.  Our gate count and circulation statistics are consistently at least double what they were at the old building.  I have a feeling we’ll continue to be as busy as we are now.

During my off-work time, I’ve been working on my homework.  There are teacher issues with the Public Libraries class…  She disappears without a word, and won’t answer her emails.  Several students emailed the powers that be at SJSU to find out what was going on, but the issue hasn’t really gotten much better.  This is my las semester before I do the E-Portfolio.  I’m totally looking forward to being done!!!

I’ve also been furiously planning my wedding.  I bought my dress, and tonight we put a deposit down on the site.  Our big day is August 22, 2010!  Woo hoo!!!

Anyway, gotta get to bed.

Ring Pic

As promised, here’s a pic of my ring.  There’s a wedding band that goes along with it, but I haven’t taken any pictures of that one.

My ring!

Ring shopping part 2

Tee hee! 

We bought my wedding set today from the Shane Company.  The center stone is being set and it’ll be ready when they open tomorrow.  Our sales guy was nice enough to put a rush on it, since we wanted it sooner rather than later.  It’s all pretty and sparkly and stuff.  I’ll post a picture later.

Anyone who knows us knows that my hunny doesn’t like to spend money.  He becomes physically ill when we spend more than a couple hundred dollars.  I’m so proud of him – he only ran to the bathroom once when we were picking it out, and 3 times after we paid!  He talked them into giving him a free pen.  Well, he says he paid all that money for the pen, and they threw in the rings for free.  Ha!