Thursday, March 31, 2011

The big wedding day arrived

Here is my family, in the marine's last moments as a single man! He looks pretty calm, huh?


Our darling d-i-l was calm too. Nerves of steel, those two.


Then came the ceremony.

It is official!



After 10,000 pictures, it was time to eat cake.....


....and party like rock stars......



It was a fun, sweet, crazy day. However, I am glad it is a big happy memory now! Looking at pictures is fun....and no stress! Welcome to the family darling d-i-l!!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Goin' to the chapel....

The Marine is getting married Saturday.


Hubs and the marine looking dapper.

Can I just say I am thankful I have boys. This wedding stuff has worn me smooth out. And I was only worried with the responsibility of the rehearsal dinner. I. Can. Not. imagine being the mother of the bride.

The shower was this past weekend.
Cute daughter-in-law to-be and me at the shower. (D-i-l needs a blog name...hmmmm.)
Whoa, the shower was a serious loot fest. They got everything they registered for at 4 different stores, and then some. Very blessed.

(I need to have a 16th year of marriage shower. I'm just sayin')

It is down to the wire now. I have lists on top of lists.
The guest bedroom looks like Hobby Lobby vomited all over it.

Due to Uncle Sam owning the marine, the wedding that was going to be in May, was moved (in January) to March 12. So we had 3 quick months to prepare. Living in a small town has made the task a little more challenging...having to drive 90 miles for anything other than what could be bought at W-Mart!

It has been a frazzled 3 months. It hit me yesterday morning while I was ironing blonde rascal's clothes for the weekend....The Marine is getting married. It suddenly jumped from this event that was running me ragged to my son getting married. A huge life event. Then the tears started rolling all over my ironing board.

The marine is my stepson, but has lived solely with us since he was 9. When hubs and I married he (the marine, not hubs) was 7. He was the cutest little thing and he worshiped the ground I walked on. He became a teenager and I did not think he was so cute anymore....nor did he worship the ground I walked on any longer for that matter! But through it all we stayed tight and not once has he ever disrespected me with "you're not my mom" as can happen in so many blended families. For that, I love the kid even more. In my heart he is my son.

Now he is approaching a milestone and I fear I will be a snifflin' blubbering fool at the wedding. I think I need to add a flask, matching my dress of course, to my list. Surely taking a snort from a flask is acceptable at a small town wedding, right? Think charming, like Steel Magnolias.

I am gaining a darling daughter and I pray much happiness over their union.

Should I mention that my washing machine went out a month ago? How is that for timing?
How about the fact that it went out the week before we were going to Mexico in September. (Read: this is the second time in 4 months that it has petered out.) Did I mention it is only approaching its 2nd birthday. We bought it new when we bought this house.

In September it was the main computer board that went out. Same part again this time. The repair man came a month ago, determining that it is the same part. He ordered it and it took 3 weeks to get the part. When he came to install it, the part was bad. Re-ordered another one. Still waiting.

Should I mention how terribly inconvenient it is to go to the bloody laund-ro-mat while trying to plan a yippy skippy wedding?

Oh, and how there is family coming to stay with us this happy weekend? Hope they are understanding of the roll of paper towels I leave by the shower for them to dry off with.

I will also say that one of the machines I was using at the laund-ro-mat yesterday malfunctioned mid-cycle. Completely true story. It seemed like a really good time to "go postal", if you will.

It goes without saying that I now have a flask that matches both my washing machine AND machine #14 at the laund-ro-mat.

Which leads me to my final point, very soon my name will be Brooke G. Whirlpool. Someone at Whirlpool is mere days away from me opening a can of you know what all over them. Won't be pretty.

But don't worry about me, I'm not stressed.