Beyond Beautiful

You may have started wondering why I haven't said anything about Daniel and Erika's wedding on Saturday , and only put up ONE picture, since I've been talking about it basically non-stop since May 1st. The simple answer is that I am still completely in shock over the beauty and perfectness that was October 24th, 2009. I realize this may be a rather biased and controversial statement so if you're married feel free to skip to the next sentence, but I have never in my life-time and long, extensive wedding history seen a more beautiful, touching, sweet, and completely perfect wedding. In other words, it was a Mary Poppins "practically perfect in every way" wedding.

As I mentioned once or fifty times before, Erkia's brother Wesley was her maid man of honor. As such, she decided that Saturday he would get dressed at the same house as us girls. She wanted him right there with her as she prepared for the wedding just the way that any "regular" maid of honor would be. Some of the sweetest moments of the day were when he was helping her put on her necklace and later, in the pouring rain, holding an umbrella over her head as he helped her out and into to the car. I easily could have cried about it if it wasn't for the fact that I was too busy trying to protect my hair from the pouring rain by holding one hand over my head in a sort-of makeshift umbrella and using the other hand to protect my dress from the flood of water running down the driveway.

I feel I should mention here for all of his posterity that Wesley was a fantastic man of honor for his sister. He was such a good sport about spending almost all day long with us girls and even seemed to have some fun with us. Not that there is anything wrong with us girls of course(quite the contrary...), I'm just saying some guys would not have loved their sister enough to not think twice before doing what he did for his "best friend"! And his speech at the reception? I hope somebody got that on camera.


Kim did a wonderful job decorating the church with mums, pumpkins, squash and candles. On the end of every pew on the side closest to the aisle were long black candle holders with a lit candle. It was so pretty looking down the aisle at the candles and flowers as we walked in. By far my favorite thing to see as I walked down was Daniel waiting so handsome at the front of the church. He was practically bursting with happiness. I am so proud of that boy for finding such a wonderful wife!!


To those who say all brides are nervous wrecks, I say you have never seen a bride like Erika. She was so cool, calm and collected the whole time. Not to say there weren't moments when she wasn't nervous or anxious, but to see her sitting there so beautifully with her train on a chair behind her eating celery(I know that's not romantic but its part of their wedding story),and talking and laughing with us you never would have know. I think a lot of that comes from them being so very comfortable with each other. In fact, I think the most stressed she was all day was about her dad arriving on time!

We have only seen a few pictures so far so I don't have many to share yet. I was dying a sad, slow death at the beginning of the week because I hadn't seen any pictures at all when an email from Dani's sister arrived containing 8 pictures and saved the day. I'm counting down the days until we see the rest of the professional pictures because I know they'll be beyond beautiful. I am so hoping there's a picture of another sweetest moment: Daniel wiping away Erika's tears with his handkerchief. The collective sigh from the guest almost blew out the candles. I'm sure I'll be talking about the wedding for awhile and showing lots of pictures; how can I not when it was such a special event?!

What's Cookin'?

As the family of the groom, we're responsible to making the rehearsal dinner. And oh,what a responsibility that is. After much deliberation and many meetings, we decided to serve the following...drum roll please...dumdadum:

.appitizers.

cheese and crackers
olives and peppers
artichoke dip and bread
vegetable platter
green salad

.salads.

green salad
warldorf salad
dressings

.main dishes.

3 chicken jambalayas with the following sausage flavors-
apple
thai curry
garlic herb

.side dishes.

sweet potato casserole
hot green bean dish
muffins of the following flavors-sweet potato, cranberry, pumpkin and pecan pie

.desserts.

Grandma's apple crisp
hugs and kisses
brownies
truffle or another tba chocolaty dessert made by yours truly

What do you think? Sound yummy? : )

***

I most highly doubt that I'll be able to post again before The Wedding which, lest you forget, is Saturday. THIS Saturday. I really want to on Friday because that date is a very memorable one for our family but it might have to wait until next week. I'm sure the Blogging Rules You Must Follow if You Wish to Succeed Handbook 101 has no hard and fast rules that "you must post on the day _____ happens or your blog will be deleted and the world will come to an early and tragic end."

Atlest I hope not! :)

Not Me Monday

* I did not more then once post a comment on two separate blogs and forget to click "do not subscribe" and end up with over 233 emails in my junk folder. I do not feel the need to mention that I did this more then once.

* When Elizabeth and I came home from errands to find the front door wide open, I did not make her go in the house first because she was the last one out, therefore the one responsible for the door being open and make her face the potential ROBBERS or THIEVES that might be in there before me. A truly loving and kind sister would atlest walk in side by side not stand in the obviously free of ROBBERS and THIEVES entryway holding a metal bat. In my own defense I did gave Elizabeth a metal bat also and decide that I should help her search the house because honestly, how can one girl deal with possibly multiple ROBBERS and THIEVES by herself?

I think we all know that she couldn't/can't.

* I did not tell Elizabeth that "maybe ROBBERS and THIEVES are in our house" then realize that ROBBERS and THIEVES are basically the same thing.

* When writing this post, I did not publish it without knowing that I said Daniel was "half a century old" instead of a quarter century. When I realized it later, I most certainly did not jump up in the middle of his special birthday breakfast so I could fix it before anyone saw it.
I'm way to young to be making such mistakes.

In Which I Wax Poetic on the Occasion of a Birthday

Today's birthday wishes go out to my biggest brother,Daniel. Please pardon me while I wax(is that the right spelling for this meaning?) somewhat pathetic poetic.

oldest of five{undoubtedly the wisest of them all}

*

biomedical Engineer{see? wisest of all}

*

enjoyer of hiking, computers and chocolate

*

lover of Erika

*

a toddler yesterday

*

a quarter century today

*

husband next week

*

Happy birthday Daniel! I can't wait to see all the wonderful things in store for you this year! I love you! ♥

100 Posts and a New Look

How do you like my new look? I realize that it needs {a little} more color but I love the way the header turned out, and I'm happy to have a three-column blog! Please be honest* and tell me your opinions on it. Do you think the header is just a tad to big? I have a separate blog that I used to test everything on which I think was much better then trying to figure everything out on this blog! As I was working on it I realized that today was my 100th post. Not that I'm really keeping track or anything, but this is like a nice little present to myself. ; )

* As if I would say "please lie to me...".

Four Days in the Life of...Part Two

Monday

Being professional movie makers*, Katie and I decided to make a couple movies of our day together. I wish I could put one up but they would ruin any and all attempts at dignity that I have been trying to build. They also contain so much inside humor that frankly, its hard to understand unless you're us(which you're not). Honestly though, we had sooo much fun making them and I think we both really needed to laugh like we did!

After brainstorming about what to give the happy couple for a wedding gift, Miss Smarty Pants(meaning K, not me...remember, I'm the humble one)suggested we try one of those stores where you choose and paint a piece of pottery and give them that. As predicted, once we got to the store it took us over 30 minutes to choose our pottery and colors. Oh the possibilities! We choose a rectangle platterish dish and picked out the shades of red,green,blue and white we wanted. Things went wonderfully until after the first coats dried. Lets just say that it is sometimes so hard to transfer what's in your head to what you're trying to create. We're both very creative and Katie is a wonderful artist but neither of us is used to doing that type of work. After almost 2 hours we had a somewhat presentable dish that wasn't how we wanted but wasn't exactly awful. We decided to put some black loopdy-loops around the edge as a finishing touch but just as I got half way around, DISASTER STRUCK. The sleeve of my sweater brushed up against the wet paint and smudged it across one corner. I didn't notice at first but Katie did and screamed which startled me so much that I basically feel backwards onto the chair behind me. Its pretty safe to say that we were both close to tears. Katie tried smudging the other corners to make it look "on purpose" but it just didn't turn out the way we had wanted. I won't see it until the wedding though because Katie is going to pick it up from the store and wrap it. I told her to be sure to wrap it in a bag so I can just unwrap, look at it and probably cry,and pop it back in the bag without anyone knowing. I am trying to comfort myself with 'its the thought that counts' and not think about how it could have turned out!

All in all it was a very busy, but fun, long weekend!

* I believe the "professional" word is producers

Edit: Katie and I also began planning our trip to Prince Edward Island!!

Four Days in the Life of... Part 1

This has been such a busy time lately(have I mention my brother is getting married?!)that I've barely had time to post anything. I'm going to(try to)do a quick overview of the last couple days in one two post so feel free to a) skip this or b) get some water/tea/coffee/whatever-you-like-to-drink 'cause you might be here a while.

Friday

Friday night was so fun. I went to Erika's to meet up with The Girls(Dani and Rudi)so we could have one more bridesmaids/bride meeting before the wedding. We went to Macys to pick out makeup colors, which was an Experience in and of its self, and saw Rudy wearing makeup for the first time ever in her life. She looked beautiful as you can see:

We spent the rest of the night talking, eating crackers and cheese,letting Dani experiment with our hair, trying on our beautiful dresses and, believe it or not, laughing. Defiantly one of my favorite things about getting together is that all three times I've been able to spend time alone with Erika and really talk to her!

Saturday

The most exciting thing to happen all day was my phone call with Katie that basically went as follows:
me: "What are you doing on Monday?"
Katie: "Nothing. What are you doing?"
me: "Nothing. Do you want to come over?"
Katie: "Sure! I was about to ask you the same thing!"
Whoever said that girls talk for way too long without getting anything done obviously hasn't met me and Katie. That part of the conversation last about 15 seconds and look at all we accomplished!

Sunday

I was in the nursery at church Sunday and oh the joy and bliss of spending the morning with one of my very cutest little curly-topped friend's, Noa. I love when her family visits! We left church a tad early to pick up Katie and saw some beautiful Fall foliage on the way. By the way, Katie's brother Jimmy brought her halfway to met us and Dad called him a "peach" for being so kind. Thank heavens Jimmy didn't hear that! ;) I can't let it go without mention that Mom, Katie and I played two games of Sequence at night. My humility prevents me from saying who won.

Not Me Monday

* I am not so suffering from a Case of Bad Memory that I wrote various list of Not Me Mondayness so I wouldn't forget anything and forget where I put the papers.
* I did not spend an hour and a half telling the beyond adorable little black baby at the hospital how much I loved him and how I was concocting plans of how to kidnap him so he'd be mine forever. Are you kidding? Do you know what they would do if they heard a volunteer talking like that? Although, technically they can't fire me since I'm not really hired. ;)
* I did not have all sorts of plans to write to Andrew every week while he was working in NJ and not do it even once until I learned he was coming back home(hallelujah!!). When Elizabeth said she was making a care-package to send him, I did not decide that I really should send something and lovingly color a picture of a blue penguin with an orange bow tie make a beautiful work of art and write "greetings from Gilroy"on the front. And nothing on the back. What kind of a sister would "write a letter" that's only three words long, and those three words not even be "I love you"?

Please don't answer that. Its not a real question.


* And finally, I would never boast about winning a giveaway. Nope, not me!

The Addison Dress

Tuesday night I finished the first of my matching sister dresses for Addison and Keegan. I love how it came out! I love buying such adorable, sweet fabrics!

I still have to make Keegan's dress but I gave Addison's to her this morning.

I could look at the border/tie fabric all day long!

A Cousin-y Sleepover

Last Thursday night Zachary, Molly and I got together for a sleepover. Technically I was going up to babysit but its just so much more fun to call it a sleepover! Carol had already scheduled Zachary to have a flu shot but since she can't be in two places at one time(but really, who can?), she asked me to take him. She left written directions to the doctors' office and the GPS ("just in case") but I still got lost. It was all very characteristic of my driving. I won't take you through all the turn-arounds and backups but we miraculously made it to the doctors on time. The

appointment was so fast that Molly didn't even have time to make it halfway through her

Butterfinger(which Zack called a "butterthumb").

After we left I decided we should hop over to the library(which I found without getting lost)to pick out new snuggle-up-on-the-couch books. The library turned into quite a social event as we saw not one, but five, of Molly and Zack's friends. After choosing our books and explaining multiple times that no, we can't borrow all the dvd's, we left for home and snacks.

Because it was a special night, I let the kids stay up a little later then usual so we could enjoy snuggling under the soft red blanket while watching Tom and Jerry. Much to their delight, I put on my pajamas when they did. We all know there's nothing like your babysitter, aka most favorite cousin, having her pajamas on too. But after all, isn't that what sleepovers are for?

All in all it was a very fun time...even if they did love my elephant, Humphrey Bernard Ellis Jones, so much that they just about squeezed every last bit of life out of him!

Less Words Wednesday

Do you ever get the feeling that the Egyptian/ancient history sections of the museum needs a little livening up? Oh. Maybe its just my family(mostly me and Dad!). We thought this poor headless, armless, rest-of-his-bodiless man(?) needed a little help so Dad jumped right in and helped him out. He even did the whole Egyptian dance. :)

Not Me Monday

* I did not almost buy a 'congratulations on your new baby' card for Katie just because it was so ridiculously adorable. She is not pregnant. Or married. Or even have a boyfriend. I can probably wait a few years to buy that kind of card.

* I was also not tempted to buy a Braille birthday card just because it was in Braille. But would you blame me if I had bought it? I mean, how often do you see a Braille card in your average seeing people store? Or any store?

* Due to lack of tissues, paper towels, napkins, or diaper wipes, I did not simply rip a piece of paper in half and use it to wipe Max's hands and face of sticky chocolate. Max didn't really seem to be a fan but beggars can't be choosers. Actually, "necessity is the mother of invention" might be a little more appropriate.

* I did not get impatient after waiting 1 hour 41 minutes in the eye doctor's waiting room before my appointment on Wednesday. That was not the third time in a row I've had to wait over an hour. I pretty sure I will be looking for a new eye doctor.

* In an effort to protect my identity, I did not put my bank account number into my cell phone and disguise it as a "fax number". I think we all know that real fax numbers don't look like that.
* As I was cleaning up the kitchen while guests were over, I did not think one of them looked at me and said "look at that picture of a fish in the sea" when what he really said was "look at that picture of efficiency." I never mishear what people say. I would also never make a "what are you talking about 'picture of a fish'? We don't have any pictures of fish in our kitchen" face.
* It was not me who once again proved that it is completely, 100%, totally possibly to get lost even while using a GPS. I always know exactly how to get where I need to go, especially while driving the chilren I'm babysitting to the doctors.
Nope, not me!
Edit-Since I don't know where else to put it, I'll mention right here that somehow I just made the first comment on Mckmama's blog post. Eventhough I really don't care about what number my comment is, it was still a nice surprise to see. And yes, I did read the whole post before commenting and no, I wasn't trying to be first! (btw,the "don't" above is serious, not a Not Me Monday "don't"!)

Meet Zachary...

The ring bearer!

Zachary is such a slow, practical, methodical thinker--its amazing how much he takes after Daniel and Grandpa! The first time I saw him after he heard he was going to be in the wedding, he asked me "after they're married, will they have children?". So different from{his sister}Molly's here-and-now questions: "what dress am I going to wear? What color flowers will I have? What are you wearing? What's a wedding?" Zack was more interested in knowing what repercussions the wedding will have!

Considering how much alike Daniel and Zachary are, its very fitting the Zachary will be dressed as a "little Daniel!"