With an army, you can do anything!

It's official!  We're married.  By now, the Boone County Recorder has the marriage license and we are on record as tying the knot :-)  Before I add a post related to the fun part of the wedding or the honeymoon,  I want to send a shout out to all of the people who helped along the way.   Thank you to every last person who helped brainstorm, prepare, enact and clean up the best party we've ever thrown.  We love you all very much.  

• Thank you to all our parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents and friends who helped us plan, gave advice or thought of us on one of the happiest days of our lives.
• Thank you mom and bridesmaids for helping me find just the right dress and for wearing bridesmaid dresses with pride.  
  
• Thank you aunts, cousins, family and friends who threw us parties in celebration - the showers, bachelorette and bachelor parties were wonderful. 
  
• Thank you Jayme for your style advice and for helping me group our green flea market glass into just the right settings.
  
• Thank you mom and sisters for  helping with our birdseed sendoff.
  
• Thank you Laura F. for making the delicious pulled pork for our rehearsal dinner.
  
• Thank you Laura G. and Rachael for helping with various last minute projects and saving the day a few times.   
  
• Thank you family, Jamie, Cassandra and Katie for helping us set up our reception site.
  
• Thank you Shelly for making the most beautiful pew decorations I've ever seen.
  
• Thank you KB, Jayme and Brooke for reading so beautifully at our ceremony. 
• Thank you Grace for playing our unity candle song.
• Thank you Pat for creating some beautiful handkerchiefs for the special day.
  
• Thank you, Mom for helping me sew tables squares, making the candy table, helping me shop, making lists with me and keeping me sane in the months of preparation.  
  
• Thank you dad, for hanging globes, setting up tents, coming up with ideas for lighting, picking up equipment from the rental company, and planting my garden :-) 
  
• Thank you Jac for advice throughout and for the beautiful sterling roses. 
• Thank you bridal party for your speeches and support and starting the dance party and for looking just so darn good :-) 
  
• Thank you Will, Beth, Spencer and Evan for videotaping throughout the day.  
• Thank you Andrew for being our DJ, keeping us on our timeline and helping us "adjust" the lighting on the dance floor :-)  
• Thank you Cathy for helping coordinate our day. 
• Thank you friends and family for coming to our wedding and for staying until the end to clean up.  
  
• Thank you friends and family for traveling long distances to see our special day.  It means so much to us. 
  

There are so many other people to thank and for now, my mind is just drawing a blank.  But let it be known, that even now, our hearts are swelling with the love we felt from all who were even slightly involve in our wedding process.  

It's 12:01.  July 17th, 2010.  We're getting married today!  And I can't sleep.....  

So excited, so excited, so excited.  I have wonderful family and friends who helped me prepare, enjoy and clean up my homegrown rehearsal dinner, but now I can't sleep.  

Okay, bedtime for a long day coming up.....if my mind stops racing :-)   

Pre-Wedding Countdown

I shouldn't have done it, but I knew I wouldn't be able to control myself.   It was only going to torture me and now I'm my own worst enemy.  Today is no exception, but I just can't stop.  

Here's the story to clarify.  A few months ago, I found a feature on my cell phone called "D-Day Countdown."  I had never used it before, but thought it would be fun to put in the wedding day so I always knew how many days away it was - helpful when it was 64, 63, 62, 61 days away, etc. NOT so helpful when it's only THREE mornings away and I'm in "get-all-the-last-minute-details-done" mode.  I know the wedding is Saturday.  I'm perfectly aware that it's two days away from the rehearsal dinner at my house and the house is a train wreck, the lawn needs mowing, the rehearsal dinner food needs to be purchased and the wedding decorations need to be packed up.  I know all of these things yet I continue to check my phone for the D-Day countdown. 

 Today, it simply says in the left-hand corner of my phone's screen, "D-3."  It's absolute torture, really.  It just sends a wave of 'AHHH!" right through me every time.  And you may ask, why I torture myself this way.  

I do this because I'm  EXCITED to be Matt's wife.  And even though as the number on the countdown gets smaller, I get a little more stressed, I also get that much more excited.   I check it to savor this time and the fact that yes, in just three short mornings, I will get to walk down that aisle to him. And at the end of the day, no matter what goes wrong or right, we will be husband and wife and it won't matter if the weed-eating was finished or if the rehearsal dinner dessert was perfect. 

I. CAN'T. WAIT.

DIY

Thanks to the girls and especially my mom, we now have birdseed packets for our exit from the wedding, table runners and cocktail table squares :-)  Thanks for the help, girls! 

The One Good Thing About Summer School - Besides the Paycheck

I have time to read! Every day, I give my students 50 minutes to read and I teach two classes (one morning and one afternoon). So I get to read for 100 glorious minutes a day! This has really gotten me thinking about how I need to choose my books carefully - being so excited over mandatory reading time tells me there is no time to mess around with fluff I'm going to forget. I need books that make an impact! So I thought about what I've loved and what I've hated....bringing me to the (much more complicated than I thought) task of naming my top five books. Well it can't be done. No way. Never. What I can do is create a working list of books I love and I can tell three or four books that would definitely make the cut (at the moment anyway)! But to commit to that fifth book and leave out ALL OF THE OTHER BOOKS is a little too much for me to handle without some serious time devoted to this selection process...

So these are not set in stone and they appear in no particular order. Remember that this is the current list, not the be all, end all list. I repeat, it is not the "I would bring these books to the deserted island above all others list" but it's a darn good start. And I will say, I've decided to leave Harry Potter legacy off of my list altogether even though I love that world and wish I could visit Hogwarts for real :-)

My "Top" Four:

The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon. Scandal, suspense, mystery, history, intricate story lines twisted together and fantastical ideas and love. The history of it fascinates me and I'm in awe of the complexity of the story.

The God of Small Things - Arhundhati Roy. It is so poetic and so full of voice. Absolutely immerses the reader in the culture of India's caste system and the reality of all consuming temptation - haunting after it's over. Sometimes I go to it for something old and familiar to read. For years, I have quoted this as my "favorite" book.

Olive Kitteridge - Elizabeth Strout. Is this because I just finished? I'm not sure. Only time will tell...But this is so real. The characters are so well written that you believe they are people you've met before. And there is no sugar coating the tough stuff - I love Olive even though she's a bit of a witch. And I understand the very human-ness of each character more than anything.

The Red Tent - Anita Diamant. This make me SO proud to be a woman. I have a Catholic upbringing to guide me through this very loosely biblical history so I know the characters and really enjoy reading it from a woman's perspective instead of the male centered view Bible stories normally include.

Others to consider as contenders:

Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott

The Great Gatsby

The Poisonwood Bible

The Time Traveler's Wife

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Heart of Darkness

Mrs. Dalloway

The Hours

Me Talk Pretty One Day

Slammerkin

And there are so many more.....how does one decide?????