5 days and counting....

I can't believe that the wedding is in 5 days! I am very excited. As Cody mentioned, I was in Seattle last week for a conference. It was fun but I am glad to be home. I am just finishing up some last minute wedding details today. Then I am going to work on Monday & Tuesday, then people start coming in for the wedding and all the fun begins!


I am very excited to see everybody. I think we have about 9 states represented. It is so good to have so many great friends! I really appreciate everybody coming all this way to share in our day! See you soon!

I could never be a mason......

Well, things have really been hectic lately. Where to start? Andrea is gone this week. She is at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting in Seattle. I was supposed to go also, but thought that someone needed to be in Phoenix in case something came up with the wedding. I mean, it is only a little over a week away!
It was a great weekend to do home improvement. Andrea was busy with her bachlorette stuff, and the final wedding dress/veil/hair things. And it was Daytona 5oo weekend, so I took Thursday off, and since Monday was a holiday, I got 5 days to work on the bathroom/get my NASCAR fix. I spent the entire weekend playing Mason/Electrician/Plumber. I have pretty much finished redoing my bathroom. New wall and floor tile, new sink and vanity, new medicine cabinet, new light fixtures and switches and all the fixing’s. It looks 1000 times better. I have done so much work on my house that the terrible, outdated kitchen now is the only thing left to do. And let me tell you, redoing everything else makes the kitchen look really bad now. It was very relaxing. Work on stuff for awhile; watch a little racing, repeat. I did at one point in the 500 contemplate never going to Home Depot again when Tony Stewart (the Home Depot Driver) purposely wrecked Matt (My driver). Then I realized that I may be getting a little too involved, and I needed to relax a little.
Since Andrea left on Monday, I have spent the evenings watching Season 2 of Arrested Development as I got little odds and ends taken care of – Hanging a cabinet door, sealing grout, putting up towel bars and wedding stuff like making sure everyone has a hotel for the days they will be here, getting the DJ straightened out.
NINE days! I hope they move fast.

It's like Christmas in February!

I have a box at the local post office. I got it because it's supposed to be more secure (to help you avoid identity theft, etc). It's also nice because people don't know where I actually live when I have to give them my address (this is nice if you have a stalker or something). Sometimes it can be a pain to try and remember to stop there to pick up my mail...but not lately! Everytime I open the box these days, there is one (or more) little yellow card that says "You have received a package that is too large for your box. Please present this card at the counter during office hours to claim your package(s)." It's sooooooo cool. Sometimes I get little packages; things that I have ordered and have been waiting for like books or cds or the guestbook for our wedding. I get pretty excited about any kind of package (or any mail that isn't a bill), expected or unexpected. Then sometimes I get these surprise huge boxes. These are THE BEST! One was full of dishes, another had a awesome blanket, pillow cases and a round cake container: gifts from our wedding registry. It's so awesome. It's like Christmas in February! I love the gifts. Thank you so much...

This was much better week in the wedding world...

Let me count the ways:

#1 - My beautiful dress came in this week, two weeks early. Last night I went to get it fitted. I LOVE IT!! It's really simple and the color is gorgeous; it's called "blush". Blush is a champagne color with a hint of pink. Since I am so fair skinned when I wear white (the more traditional choice) my skin appears to be a nice shade of corpse blue . Ivory (the next most common wedding dress color) usually makes me look a little jaundice. I know, picky, picky, picky... And to top it off, the alterations are going to be done before I go to Seattle for the forensic conference (Feb 20-25, yes I am crazy) so I won't have to worry about it when I get back.

#2 - Cody has our whole "mini-moon" planned and booked which is totally awesome. I am kinda tired of making decisions (because as you know, wedding planning is FULL of them) so I am very happy that he took care of that. I just want to be whisked away, to relax with him. And he seems to have no problem delivering on that one!

#3 - Today I have been working on the wedding programs. It's pretty fun because I get to figure out more computer stuff that I didn't know about (yes, I am a geek) and I get to be creative and use my artistic side. I love how they are turning out!

#4 - Our wedding rings are done! We get to pick them up next week. I am very excited about that. Amy, the aforementioned "diamond lady" said they look awesome. I can't wait to see for myself.

#5 - Only a month until I get to marry the best guys ever...

What's up with the crazy frenzy surrounding weddings?

Case Study #1: The Grouchy Wedding Coordinator
This week we met with the coordinator of our wedding site to square away all of the final details for the wedding and reception. The bride and her parents that were before us was obviously stressing him out. When it was our turn, we (Cody & I) introduced him to Kristen, our photographer who happens to be our friend. He proceeds to tell us, right in front of Kristen that you should never use your friends as a photographer..blah, blah blah. Then the rest of the night when I would ask him what he thought would work best for the cake table or the dance floor he would say "well, it's your day, you can have it however you want it." Needless to say, this was quite unnerving to Cody. The guy came off very disrespectfully. When I have dealt with him before, he was pretty nice but I am pretty sure that the lady before me had a really bad case of wedding psychosis and he thought I may have caught it by being in the same room as her. Anyways, he had a bad day and was taking it out on us. We were being really nice and really flexible but it didn't help. Then I had to make all these tedious decisions about accent colors, food tables, drink tables and table decoration. I was exhausted after this. Feel asleep on my couch at 9pm. Very sad.

Case Study #2: The Tux Place
Since all of them live out of town, Cody got all of his groomsmen's tux mesurements (and in typical Cody fashion typed them up in a nice Excel spreadsheet). Today we went to the tux place to drop them off so that the tux's get ordered. The lady behind the counter, who was super sweet, says "no bridal show for you?" in a spanish accent. I said, "no we already have the whole thing planned." (all proud and happy about it) Then she was telling us about how crazy the bridal show is. It's like endless tables of cakes, caters and reception halls. People spend hours looking at all these things, which get booked years in advance so they probably aren't even available if you getting married anytime this century. While I was standing there I was being nosy and I read the interest card from the bridal show that was sitting on the counter (in my defense, it was in plain view). It said the person was in need of 15 tuxes. Oh my gosh! That's approximately $2,000 spent on tuxes. (I would much rather redo my bathroom with that money.) Then she asked where we were going for our honeymoon. We told her the weekend after the wedding we are going to Tennesee for our "mini-moon" as Cody calls it. If you read the other posts, we are going to Memphis and Nashville (we hope to go to Australia for our one year anniversary). She was telling us that some people fly out the morning after their wedding at 6am. Are they nuts? I would think you would be very exhausted and grumpy, after planning this enormous event, hosting it, dancing the night away and going to sleep really late?! Then you spend your whole honeymoon sleepy and grouchy. No thank you.

Case Study #3: Wedding Water Bottles
When you google any topic starting with the word "wedding" (i.e. wedding veil, wedding invitations, wedding rice), everything that comes up will be cheesy looking and with have a 50% mark-up because of the "w" word. It is quite the business to be in. People will pay any amount of money to have personalized wedding napkins, candy bars, matchbooks, wine bottles and yes, even water bottles. (Don't you usually throw this away or recycle it after the water's gone? So what in the heck are they thinking?)

All of this confirms, there is a crazy frenzy surrounding weddings. It's pretty hard not to get sucked in. It's like our society belives that a wedding should be this huge spectacle (or there are people out there who like to make lots of money off people like me). What ever happened to loving someone and wanting to spend the rest of your life with them? Isn't that enough? Do we really need to have a parade, 15 tuxes and a symbolic dove release? I don't need all that. I would much rather have a nice, stress-free day surrounded by my friends and family where I get to celebrate the best day of my life so far...

In your face - (that's right) - it Feels So Good!!!!!!!!!

It has been very strange how everything for this wedding has just seemed to "fall" into place. And this past Tuesday was a prime example of that. If you know me, chances are you have heard me blabber about a band called 311. (That's ThreeEleven, not Three One One). I think it could fairly be said that they are 1 of my 2 favorite bands. (the other being silverchair). They are a band that has a huge, loyal following; and their concerts are pure energy. In August 2005, I actually went to 3 straight 311 concerts in a row: Tucson on Tuesday, Phoenix on Wednesday(which the awesome Sandra, otherwise known as "anonymous" on the comment section, flew in from Florida to attend with me) and Vegas on Friday night. All 3 concerts were a different set list!!! Well, every other year, they hold a thing called 311Day on March 11th(3/11). It is basically a day of events for their die-hard fans, with a concert in the evening. And this is no 20 song, 2 hour concert. The last 3 311Day set lists have been 47, 59 and 68 songs!!! In the past, it has taken place in New Orleans, but due to Katrina, it was not sure if it would be held there this year. Well, on Tuesday, they finally announced that there would be a 311 Day, but not in New Orleans. It is going to be held in Memphis, TN. It had earlier been discussed, and Andrea and I wanted to take a short honeymoon after the wedding, and take a real honeymoon later, say to Australia, which you will undoubtedly hear the motivation and plans for at some point. Being the unbelievable woman she is, Andrea said that we could go to 311Day, which is made even cooler since neither of us have been to Nashville or Memphis. So the weekend after the wedding, we are flying to Nashville for 2 days, driving down to Memphis for 2 more, then flying home.
This in itself is exciting enough, but then, later Tuesday night, we were at the computer and I checked to see if onsale dates for tickets were announced yet. Well they weren't, but some other tour dates were. One was on 3/3 in Las Vegas. Right. On our wedding day!! Well Andrea is so cool that she said we could move the wedding back a day if I wanted to go. So we are! (take a deep breathe. I am kidding) There was no need for that, because right below it was a date on 3/4, at the Marquee Theater, right here in Tempe!!!!!! I didn't even have to ask. She immediately said "Of course you can go to that one!". We were kinda having trouble getting everybody here on Wednesday for a bachelor party, having it the night before the wedding didn't even seem like a good idea, but this, could this really be? One of my favorite bands playing where I live the weekend of my wedding? I can't let this pass. So, in typical Cody fashion, my bachelor party will not be held before my wedding, but after. And I can't really think of anything better to do than go to a 311 concert with all my boys. Could that week span of my life be any better!!!!!!!!!!!
BTW - the title of the post is not me taunting you, it is a lyric from a 311 song.

Simple Green?

Yesterday we went to Cody's "diamond lady" to pick out our wedding rings. It was fun. Cody is having a ring custom made to look like two bands fused together (which is exactly what he had in mind - the guy knows what he wants). I got a very thin, white gold band with 11 diamonds on it. It's gonna look AWESOME with my PERFECT engagement ring; Cody did an amazing job, I couldn't have picked a better ring myself! So after we were done choosing our rings, the "diamond lady" (her real name is Amy) says "did Cody tell you how to clean your ring?" I said "no". She says, "go to Target, in the automotive section and buy some Simple Green . It's a degreaser. Dip your ring in it and then scrub the setting with a toothbrush. It'll make your ring look brand new." Who knew? So I got some and tried it. It works like a charm! My ring is now so sparkley that it will cause eye damage if you look directly at it!

Here's the weird part: When I was a senior in high school, my grandma and grandpa had a really bad electical fire in their house. The water and smoke damage was unimaginable and very devastating. My grandma was determined to save anything and everything that she could. The insurance people told her that Simple Green was the only cleaner that would take out the smoke smell and stains. So, she washed everything with Simple Green. (Plates, clothes, furniture, antiques, tupperware, you name it...) She bought it by the gallon and I am sure that she increased their stock by atleast 200%! So when I smelled the Simple Green, it brought back memories of my grandma. She grew up during the Great Depression and her family didn't have much; she didn't want to let anything go to waste. She was slightly crazy (aren't we all), but very good hearted. She used to call me "her china doll" because of my porcelain white skin (and because she was my grandma, she thought I was beautiful). She passed away right after 9-11 and I miss her a lot.