And It's Friday!!

Well folks I've made it through the week and this morning I will set out to enjoy my last few hours of the Employment Law seminar. It has been a good week and I think I am refreshes on most laws affecting the HR profession today... *Sigh*

The most exciting part of the week I will have to say was finished Snezi! I wish I had a camera because I love, love, love the shrug! Very simple and very cute. I am also on the skirt part of the summer cardi I've been working on - will be great knitting for the plain seeing as though I have 12 inches of stockinette stitch to carry me home... How do I get myself into so much stockinette?

John and I will be going to Detroit in June for a 'wedding celebration' with his family. I believe he said we are having an open house at his parents house with catering, etc. I think I should make my dress and shrug for this event, what do you think? Lucky for me RobinM posted a host of cute summery items - I will have to decide on one and set out to get the pattern!

The Hot Loops party is tomorrow night - yay! And my Knit Kit is in as well... Oh what a wonderful weekend this will be... After I get through the dreadful airport travel :-)

Happy Friday everyone!!

We're Married!!

And we're back from Hawaii... Return to work today... I plan to post pics as soon as I figure out how to save everyone else's from snapfish. Don't you miss the good 'ole days when people would just e-mail pics? Aw well, such as life!

Counting Down

Thanksgiving update... Thanksgiving did not turn out too bad after all. John's parents, sister, my niece, John and I went to my dad's house around 11:30 and hung out until about 3:00. After that we went back to our house to prepare for John's other sister and her spouse, as well as all of my brothers and sisters. I know, I'm crazy... We hosted Thanksgiving for 20 only 48 hours before our wedding. It was a long day. But in the end, I think it was worth it. Everyone brought something, so that was good... And John's mom was a tremendous help peeling potatoes, clean-up, etc.

Our neighbor's car alarm went off last night around 11 PM and he was not home. Guess what happens to car alarms when they are not manually turned off? They continuously reset! Sometimes until 3 AM. I'm hoping this means that after a long day of running around and handling last minute wedding preparations I am so exhausted tonight, that even through my own anxiousness, I crash.

I've decided to only take one knitting project on the plane. This means I may actually finish it. It's the Bono Kimono pattern from Loops, and it is for my mom's Christmas present. I can finish the hats for everyone else when we return.

Tomorrow I will be someone's wife - yikes! Keep us in your prayers, and I'll post pics when return!

Wedding Week Stress

John and I will be married in 6 days. I remember when I started counting down and we were in triple digits - now we are in single digits that qualify as less than one week! When people ask when we are getting married, I will now say --- this week --- rather than next week, next month, etc. In addition to the regular wedding week stress, I get a dose of that coupled with holiday stress :-)

When discussions of Thanksgiving began, I was very adamant that Thanksgiving was not at our house. Who wants Thanksgiving 48 hours before a wedding? Not I. Somehow, Friday night, I declared myself a 'sucker' as we are now having Thanksgiving here. Ugh!

Yesterday I kind of decided I should just make the best of it and get happy about it because denying that it was going to happen or being pissy wasn't going to get me very far! So, we'll see how it goes. Hopefully everyone is very forgiving since it is so close to the wedding...

Other news... I'm ecstatic that Wally Lamb's new book is out! The title is The Hour I First Believed. I cannot wait to start reading it - and think I will be dragging it onto the plane as well as some holiday knitting! I'm hoping to finish Bono Kimono for my mom's gift and maybe push out a hat or two for my dad and step-mom! I'm not sure what everyone else will end up with, but almost sure that it will be handmade. Lucky family :-)

Wedding on a Budget

When I was growing up or even as an adult, I do not think that cultural / geographical differences in wedding traditions had ever occurred to me. Or maybe I’ve just never known anyone so grand as to have a ‘grand’ wedding. I think I assumed weddings took place in a church and then everyone would head over to a reception hall, eat heavy appetizers, drink and be merry.

After all, a wedding is a celebration, isn’t it? I mean, I’ve never thought it approproiate to sit and dissect every detail to determine whether or not the family or couple would be filing bankrupty the following week or maxing out a credit card to pay for it. You are focused on the bride and groom and their happiness, right?

Wrong. I guess. When John and I started planning our wedding, or when I started trying to force my southern views of what a wedding was on him, I think initially he thought it a bit under scale. And I think deep down he was concerned of what his family and friends would think when they came from their area only to discover that ours is much different.

So after much debate and haggling, I convinced him that heavy appetizers are ok, and beer and wine will suit anyone fine. Who needs a full, open bar?

His initial thoughts came full circle for me today when I was corresponding with someone whose Detroit wedding he participated in oh, about a month ago. I had complimented her and told her that everything was ‘stunning’ I think I said… We were discussing budgets, differences, etc. when she commented, As for food, a sit down dinner here is a must and a buffet is a sign of a “wedding on a budget”.

When I read this I thought, yikes, is there something shameful about being on a budget? I don’t think any of us fall into the Donald Trump category where money is no object. Given everything going on, we should all be on a budget. So if you are one who is sitting and dissecting the details of my wedding, please also include in your evaluation that John and I will not be standing in line at bankruptcy as a newly married couple because we refused to stick to a budget 

Picking Up Stitches - Not My Friend!

I went home last night on cloud 9 due to my newly installed light switch (which I didn’t even get to use this morning because the janitors left my lights on) and the anticipation of finishing, yes – I am finishing something, my wedding shrug! I finished the last few rows of K2P2 and trudged through a grueling sewn-off bind off (which terrifies me in itself - thanks for the instruction Coley :-)) --- I went to put on my shrug, and damn it if I didn’t pick up enough stitches! The shrug would probably fit my 12 year old niece... Uggh!

The yarn I’m using has beads in it, ugh, and the sewn-off bind off is a bitch to undo. I was ready to cut through the ribbing and start over with new yarn. To this John says, “what are you going to do if you don’t have enough left on the skein,” Well, duh, I’m going to buy more! At $40 / skein John is thinking NOT SO MUCH so he sat on the couch and took out the entire ribbed edge of the shrug and even pulled out my ball winder to make it into a cute little mini ball for me to start over with.

I sat and happily worked on 28Thirty, which was a far less messy task than my wedding shrug.

I will finish this shrug this weekend… Even if it means staying up late! You will have FO pictures Sunday evening.

Monday, Here We Come!

This was a nice weekend, and productive - but, tomorrow is Monday! Monday's always come way too quickly for me, as I am sure they do for other's that get to return to work each and every Monday :-)

John and I did turn over some of the wedding reception decorations to my god-mother, rake the lawn, and almost finish the wedding program all this weekend! Productive, right? I also stitched up two nursing cover-up's for my good friend, Sarah! She was my first 'customer.'

I received the graphic for my Etsy shop (roseknits.etsy.com) although I only have 3 items listed to sell. I hope to post a few more between now and the wedding and get rolling full steam come January. My hope is to support my craft habits through Etsy. We'll see how that goes.

My breaking news for the weekend... We had a "Girls Night In" at Qianna's on Saturday and Nikki and I beat Qianna and Tonya at Taboo! A small feat for some, but seeing as though I've never been great at Taboo, this was a big win for me! Thanks, Nikki, for the constant encouragement throughout the entire game! And thanks to baby Kaelin for sucking all of mommy Tonya's brains out at the time of your birth (Tonya, I really don't know what this means for your hospital patients).

I believe I will now retire to the couch to work on the wedding shrug... The wedding is in 20 days - and, no, for the record, I cannot believe it!

I have my workout partner back!

Almost two years ago I joined St. John's Health Club thanks to the encouragement of a friend. I have found in my adult life that is often difficult to find extra time to catch up with friends on somewhat of a regular basis so it seemed to be the perfect opportunity to visit regularly while staying healthy... Or just maintain some sort of a balance between all of the junk food that I often find myself eating :-)

Well, that worked really well until this past January where I kind of fell off the face of workout earth. After that happened Andra abandoned me to join a gym much closer to her home (I guess I abandoned her first), and once I was to a point where I wanted to return to the gym, the accountability to drag ass out of bed at 5:00 a.m. to go work out along seemed to be nonexistent.

In September Andra and I decided to go to boot camp together ~ and this morning, she made an announcement. Andra said that she will continue to schlep across Tulsa at the wee hours of the morning on M - W - F... Just to work out with me! I have to say, this is the best news regarding workouts that I have had in awhile. As I left the gym this morning I felt a renewed commitment to catching up with my friend every M - W - F, and the bonus is I get to be a bit healthier while doing it! Many thanks to Mrs. Nelson!!

Wedding Updates: I have completed 75% of the shrug for my wedding! Plan to bind off tomorrow - then have to pick up stitches around the neck! It's beautiful - will post pics soon! I also had a fabulous wedding shower last Sunday. It was hosted by my dear friends Angie, Brooke, Caroline, Jessica and Vonchelle. If you know me well, you know it takes at least this many to keep me in line! I was honestly overwhelmed with all of the love and support that I felt during the shower. It really hits you when so many take time out of their weekend to mix and mingle. I am currently work on proper 'thank - you's' but in the interim, thank you to everyone who was there, and to those who I know were there in spirit. John and I are appreciative of the support :-) XOXO