Adios Mexican

Since I don't currently fit into my wedding dress I made a vow that I would begin to watch my food intake beginning March 1st. Because of my past issues with dieting and, well, starvation - I decided not to be TOO strict on myself. I purposely ordered my dress a size too big so I wouldn't have to go through the bridezilla wedding dress fiasco. It's still tight.

Plan B: no more Mexican food.

WHAT?!? I know, I know. I figure I can easily get into that dress if I give up the Mexican and eat a little less candy. Now I'm not giving up candy all together - that would be masochistic. I'm just laying off... slightly. But the Mexican has got to go.

So in honor of my countdown pledge, I ate my last "Mexican" meal tonight. Went to Q Dubs (Qdobo) and got myself a nice large burrito and some chips and queso. This is going to be a rough few weeks...

Honestly, Can She GET Any CUTER?!?

I know I need to be planning for the week and showering and all that Sunday night stuff, but I could NOT resist posting these photos. My cousin Julie had them on her Facebook page and I must admit, Christopher and I have the most adorable flower girl in the history of the world. The end.

Semi-Successful Saturdays

I try to make Saturdays wedding-errand days. It's not always easy since we have house-related meetings and I have that little thing called first-year-teaching to deal with. But yesterday I was determined to check a few things off my list.

It doesn't help when your tailor is closed. I went to pick up my rehearsal dinner dress to make sure it fit as well as drop off my gown for alterations and... FAIL. No such luck. So I had to drive around the rest of the day with a wedding dress in the back of the Volvo. Good thing it didn't start raining... (we have a window that refuses to function correctly). I did get a few little things from Michaels that I needed and updated the RSVPs in my Martha Stewart online program. Technology is a wonderful thing.

There are SO many little details that have to be addressed and I'm always afraid I'm going to forget something. I'm meeting with the DJ - my main man from Maryland Tyke - soon to discuss music selections. Prepare yourself now, there will be no "Wind Beneath My Wings" nor "Butterfly Kisses." We will have polka though. SWEET.

Today is Suzie's in-town baby shower. A friend of Joe's from work is throwing the party for them this afternoon. HOPEFULLY I'll be able to stop by. I have to get to work and since I'm not authorized to use the alarm system I have to wait until someone else is there. It's hard when your schedule is so dependent upon other people's. Suzie is P-R-E-G-G-O. I am getting SO excited for this baby to come. He's due less than a month from now (St. Patrick's Day) and I'm hoping he comes just a wee bit early so I have more time to play with him before the wedding. We do need a ring bearer... Hm.

My goal today is to make it to mass. I must admit I have been a little bit delinquent on my church attendance for quite some time. It's Lent. It's almost wedding. It's stress. It's time to go back to church. Speaking of, maybe before I go I'll finally choose the Gospel reading for the wedding. There are a lot of readings you need to pick in a Catholic mass! I have everything chosen EXCEPT the most important one. Sigh.

Off to be productive. Snow, snow, melt away! Come again NEVER BEFORE MY WEDDING. :-)

** If you have received your invitation and have not yet booked a hotel room, I would suggest doing so as soon as possible. The cutoff for the blocked price is March 8th or 9th depending on the hotel. Go to www.weddingwire.com/chrisandkristi and click on Accommodations for more information.

Weekend with Morgan

Last weekend was wonderful. It was divine. It was the best weekend I have had in a long, long, long time. Morgan landed at Richmond airport at 8:50 AM on Saturday (way too early for me, but she was the one flying so I guess I shouldn't complain). We drove to Short Pump (a decently large outdoor mall outside Richmond) and actually arrived before the doors opened. That has never happened to me before -- probably because I'm never up before noon on the weekends... So we got some coffee and watched the snow fall and caught up on life. We tried to find her a dress for the rehearsal, helped ourselves to random bagels and water on a make-up counter in Nordstrom and got a slip for my gown (THAT was quite the debacle). Oh, and of course we had to stop by Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids where Morgan found the world's largest Sparky Dog. She wanted it so badly - it took everything in my power to convince her otherwise.

After arriving back in Charlottesville, we drove around so Morgan could see the "sights." It took less than 10 minutes before she was ready to move here. (I'm ALL for that idea!!) I showed her the outside of the church, and the reception hall, and our local Lilly Pulitzer... We came home, got in jammies, took a couch break and then went out to dinner.

Sunday morning I awoke to these on my dining room table. Good thing Christopher knows my obsession for pink tulips. LOVE THEM. :-D

Later, Morgan and I went out and ordered the suits for the boys and found Mo a rehearsal dress at Ann Taylor (best part of the weekend!) We also insisted on buying matching Valentine's Day t-shirts. We seem to have this odd obsession with buying matching items of clothing for specific holidays. Today I wore my Valentine's Day shirt to school. It's just a Gap (RED) shirt with pretty flowers. The whole (RED) campaign supports the treatment of AIDS in Africa. We didn't get a shot of us together but here's my half of our ensemble.

Monday I had to work (snow makeup day), so Morgan came in with me (she wore HER Valentine's shirt under her sweater). It was a lousy day overall because my kids were SO off schedule and Mo had to leave at 1:00. She did an art project with them before she left though - making log cabins for Abraham Lincoln (whom my one little man is convinced is named "Abray"). Unfortunately I had to crop the kids out of this shot because their faces were PRICELESS.

And then, before I knew it, she was gone. :-( Christopher picked her up, drove her to the airport and I was left all alone with 18 crazy kindergartners. I miss her already...

Good thing I only have to wait 47 days for her to come back to Virginia!!

Favorite Favors

From RoomtoRead.org

Let me begin by saying the point of this blog is not to give away all the "secrets" and "surprises" of the wedding. Trust me, I'm sure something will happen April 9th that will prove surprising even to me. I just feel that it all goes by so quickly on the actual day of the wedding. Hopefully all the little details will come together into the "big picture" I have in my mind, but I want people to really notice those little details... I have spent a LOT of time on those details.

Today we received the wedding favors in the mail. I felt very strongly about using our favors in a charitable way. Although I'm sure our guests would enjoy the traditional jordan almond, I wanted to do more. Christopher and I decided to make a donation in honor of our guests to my favorite charity - Room to Read. Room to Read is a literacy charity that supports the education of children in third world countries. Because we made the donation during the holiday season, the Financial Times matched our gift and therefore we ended up being able to do more than we had hoped.

Many people who choose donations in lieu of favors leave a little scroll or a note at the table explaining the gift. I thought that it would be cute if we made bookmarks. Get it? Literacy. Bookmarks. On one side it tells our guests about our choice for a charity donation and on the back side it provides information about the charity. Our hope is that people will use the bookmarks regularly and will be reminded of our wedding. But even more, we hope our guests learn to love Room to Read as much as I do and choose to make their own donation to help support the organization.

Here's a sneak peak of the top of the bookmark - side one.

If you want to learn more about Room to Read, you can visit their website at www.roomtoread.org. Here's a little bit about their work:

Room to Read is an innovative non-profit leader dedicated to promoting and enabling global education. Founded in 2000, the organization is based on the belief that education is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty in the developing world. Since then, the organization has supported over three million children by providing increased access to higher-quality educational opportunities. Room to Read has established more than 800 schools and over 7,500 bilingual libraries with six million books, and continues to support the education of more than 8,700 girls.

P.S. I have to go back to work tomorrow. BOO. But, we do have a two-hour delay. ;-)

School or No School?

Tom Petty said it best -the waiting is the hardest part. (Note: Tom Petty says most things in the best possible way. He's Tom Petty).

I loathe when the school districts wait to postpone/cancel until the morning. I absolutely cannot plan for the week when I don't know if I'm even going to be at work. The county schools have closed, and I think we will too - it's been lightly snowing with some freezing rain and sleet for a few hours now. I'm just lying here loaded with anxiety, checking the website every 3 minutes. I know that the district won't post anything this late, but I find it very hard to sleep when I'm wondering if I am going to have to be prepared to teach 18 kindergartners tomorrow morning.

I normally don't hope for snow days. We've had so many lately that I really miss my kids. Plus, they are so off-kilter after days off that the fewer we miss the better. My plan is to pray that we have off school tomorrow and then go to school Thursday and Friday. That means that Friday would be the 100th day (my kids have been ANXIOUSLY awaiting their party for, well, the past two weeks) and our Valentine's Day celebration. Always good to have those things fall on a Friday - especially a Friday of a two-day week.

Today was a productive day. I met up with Robin and Joey for coffee, mailed out NINETY wedding invitations, returned 6 pairs of shoes that I bought online for the wedding that I didn't like, and dropped off the Volvo for an oil change. Since our driveway is a constant death trap of ice and snow, this is how I transport things to and from the Jeep (parked at the top).

I have also started to come back down the driveway in this manner. Load up my purse and bags, hop in and slide on down. Hip hip hooray for little yellow sleds.

COUNTDOWN TO MORGAN
4 DAYS!!

COUNTDOWN TO THE WEDDING
2 MONTHS!!

Wedding Madness!

Downtown mall in Charlottesville
Saturday night

I finally got out of the house today to go suit shopping with Christopher. This was an exciting adventure for me because I've been stuck in the house since Thursday night. Chris, on the other hand, has been able to go to work and took the above photo outside his restaurant last night.

We found suits for the guys today at Jos. A. Banks. Now all we need to do is get everyone fitted and get them ordered by the weekend. We also had a chance to stop by the automated postage machine and get a boatload of stamps so that I could stuff the invitations. I sat and completed 88 tonight so that tomorrow I can take one in and weigh it and get postage for the outside. I'm sure it will be a hefty bill to send them out but they're so beautiful it seems to make it less stressful. :-)

Since school is cancelled AGAIN for tomorrow, I'm also hoping to take my rehearsal dinner dress to get tailored and make an appointment to take in my gown. I will feel much better once I get my things fitted. There is still SO much stuff to do; these snow days are the pits for the summer but are proving to be SUPER helpful now since we're getting into crunch time with the wedding. Let's just hope I can actually meet with the florist on Wednesday - our appointments have already been cancelled twice due to snow!

COUNTDOWN TO MORGAN
6 DAYS!!

Blizzard in the South

Sad, bent-in-half tree number one.

The snow will not stop falling. It just keeps coming and coming and coming. It is not light fluffy snow. It is wet, heavy snow.

Yesterday I shoveled our driveway twice. Being a "northerner" I'm dead set on keeping up with shoveling. I know I shouldn't shovel because of my arthritic elbows, but Christopher had to go to work. Plus, if we get the 20 plus inches we're supposed to get, we'll never be able to get to our house EVER AGAIN.

We woke up this morning and it is still coming down. We have probably another six inches from what we had last night. Christopher is out shoveling the driveway right now. All we do is SHOVEL. I refuse to go out today while he's home from work. :-) He gets angry with me for shoveling anyway because of my elbows so I suppose I'll let him have this round all to himself.

Thank goodness we have the Jeep. During the December 19th storm our only 4WD vehicle was in the shop. We couldn't get ANYWHERE. Christopher was able to get to and from work last night which is a blessing in itself. The restaurant is packed on snowy nights because most places shut down and there are so many houses within walking distance.

We currently have a tree leaning against our house. Poor buddy is at about a 90 degree angle and just laying there. Yesterday my neighbor told me that someone called him frantic because a huge cedar had snapped and fallen on her heat pump. What in the world? THIS IS VIRGINIA.

Poor buddy - he's a goner.
The mound of snow on the right used to be bushes that reached up to my window.

Today I think I will lie in bed and read. I got over 60 invitations addressed yesterday so I feel on the ball. I really wish I had postage so I could start to stuff them, but oh well - thus is life.

Happy snowstorm to everyone! Stay safe and warm. :-)

A Sneak

I nixed the "M" on the line. That M drives me bonkers.

Just write your name for goodness sake.

While the impending doom is falling from the sky, I thought I would share just a PEEK of the excitement that arrived at my doorstep yesterday. I received both my rehearsal dinner dress and the invitations. The dress is WAY too big, but I suppose that's why they make tailors. Christopher says he really likes it and the photos don't do it justice at all. :-) It looks very "bridal" - currently it looks like I'm drowning in bridal - but that's ok.

I also received a HUGE box with all of my invitations. Have I mentioned lately my love for my Aunt Cammy? They are GORGEOUS. I am so so so excited to get them sent out. It made my belly do a little flip to read the invite; it's so formal sounding! They really are "Kristi" looking. I promised Stephanye I would get hers sent out to Israel ASAP so I'll be working on that today. I've basically been confined to the house for the next several days so I will have time to address all the envelopes. Morgan will be here next week and she can help me stamp and mail. WOOHOO.

The national weather service is now saying Charlottesville is scheduled to get between 20 and 30 inches of snow, with over 30 inches in localized areas. I MOVED TO THE SOUTH FOR A REASON. This is the pits. It's really pretty now, I'll have to take a picture of my backyard, but in a few hours it's going to be a disaster. I should probably take some painkillers, ice up my arthritic elbows and go out and clean my tunnel to the road every few hours. I absolutely cannot shovel two feet of snow again in one fell swoop.

I'm Turning into Daddy...

I am becoming my father. Now, in general this is not a bad thing. My dad is my best friend and I love him more than life itself - really I do. But today... today I am cursing his name.

Daddy has always been an early riser. Just woken up for no reason and then decided to stay up instead of lying in bed staring at the ceiling. Mama and I think he's crazy because we can both sleep until 11:30 if no one disturbs us. And then this morning, BAM. 4:30 am. I am wide awake.

I got up, got some water, used the bathroom, stretched. Laid back down and nothing. I tossed, I turned. Nothing. So, in the spirit of my father, I got up and did some work. It is now 10 after 7 - still earlier than I usually get up for work. I've already called Daddy and given him a piece of my mind. Turning out like him would be a blessing - but this sleep thing he can keep all to himself...

I Win!

We had another day off school today due to snow and icy conditions. My kids are going to be so off-kilter when we get back tomorrow. And then we will most likely have off on Friday because we have another huge storm coming through tomorrow evening. Between Thursday night and Saturday we are supposed to receive 12-18" or more. Seriously, I can not be snowed in this house one more day. I have cabin fever... We live in the SOUTH for goodness sake. Plus, I'm not happy with Phil the groundhog telling me I have six more weeks of this misery.

But... good news came my way today. The beautiful shoes I found late last night I also found on eBay. For 40.00. I was jumping with joy. Against Christopher's advice, I bid on them last night in hopes that it would be a sure win. Plus, I didn't want Christopher to forget to keep an eye on them if I had school today. Well, wouldn't you know we got another bidder this morning.

Now, I despise eBay for the pure fact that it is very much like gambling. I'm more of a "give me the price, I'll pay the price, you give me the merchandise" kind of girl. Well these shoes had no "Buy Now" option. Therefore, Chris and I went into a bidding war during the last seconds of the auction.

Turns out... I WON! I'm so excited. I did have to pay 61.00 for them, but definitely worth the price (about 1/4 of the true cost). They are everything I have been looking for in a wedding shoe. I hope they fit because I will wear them with everything all the time. If they don't... well, I'll at least force them to fit for the wedding. I love love love love love them.

I also went into the local Lilly Pulitzer today because corporate found my rehearsal dress in my size. It is STUNNING in person. And it fit perfectly. Unfortunately I had already purchased a bigger size online and since it was on clearance it's non-returnable. I suppose that's ok since our local store was charging much more. Just another thing to get tailored. It should be here tomorrow. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY.

Off to fix up some lesson plans and get ready for bed. This one day off, one day on, one day off work schedule is really messing with my body. It's only going to get worse this weekend!!

COUNTDOWN TO MORGAN
10 DAYS!

SHOES

Ok, as soon as I published that last post I found the most perfect shoes. I am normally a nut about shoes because I have weird feet. But these are absolutely everything I've been looking for. Plus they are on clearance. But clearance is still a little out of my price range. But... I am in love with them. If anyone wants to make a donation to the Kristi-Really-Loves-These-Wedding-Shoes, please feel free to comment or email me...

Moving Right Along!

Since we had a snow day Monday I decided it was about time I got a few things checked off the wedding to-do list. So here's the excited news I received today...

1. Invitations have been printed and are in the mail. Hopefully they will arrive soon and be PERFECT. (Proofing things always makes me nervous....) Thanks Cam!
2. My veil is ordered and in the mail. I have no idea why I waited so long to do this - it's so simple but I'm very excited to see it. Especially with my dress. Especially when Morgan comes NEXT WEEK.
3. I just now, this second, ordered my dress for the rehearsal. I have been looking for months and a few weeks ago found a Lilly Pulitzer (obviously) and just fell in love with it. I headed over to our local store on the snow day, but alas, it was not in stock. Both the women there were all for it though. Said it's the perfect bridal dress. WOOHOO. I ordered a size up hoping it will fit and we can tailor down the hips if we have to. (I vary between three sizes in Lilly). So.. here it is!

It is from the fall collection, therefore is VERY difficult to find. I pray that it fits because it's non-returnable. Whoops! The back is a scoopneck with the beading. Ah - perfection. I'm so excited I might just jump right out of my cableknit sweater. Hehe.

Let's hope the snow doesn't hold up my packages!! By the way, Robin, Suzie and Joey have not had work all week. In fact, I believe they were canceled Friday as well. That makes FOUR days off plus a weekend. Must be nice. ;-) We're supposed to get 2-4 more inches tonight (on top of the 1 or 2 we already got today) and some ice. I'm hoping for a delay. Cancellations are the worst because you have to make them up at some point; trust me, my little angels are much more bearable at 10:00 than 8:00 (probably because I need my coffee and am generally not a morning person!)

Off to get ready for bed. According to the website, I have to be at work on time tomorrow. Happy Groundhog's Day to everyone!! (Although, Phil tiffed me this morning with this whole shadow business... I'm over this Virginia snow).

COUNTDOWN TO MORGAN
T MINUS 11 DAYS!!