Rebels with a Staircase

Today Christopher and I ran by the townhouse to check on a few things and talk about changing my name on the title of the house. We drove by our building to see the progress and since it was a Sunday (i.e. no construction workers), we decided to take a little look around.

Now mind you, the entire time we're in the house I'm in a full panic that someone is going to come arrest us or something. Obviously it wasn't the safest idea in the world but if I find walking in an unfinished house thrilling, maybe I need a little more adventure in my life.

Here is your grand tour!!

The entry.
Bathroom and garage on left, closet on right.
Christopher's full-basement office straight ahead.

Living room (from kitchen).
That's one big bay window.

Dining room (across from kitchen).
Living room to the right in this photo,
morning room to the left.

The morning room (i.e. sunroom).
Christopher peeking at our backyard.

From the morning room toward the front of the house.
Kitchen on right.
Dining room on left.
Living room straight ahead.

Small wall in living room.

Stairs leading to the third floor.
(Photo from living room).

Woopee! That's mine!
Master bedroom and reading nook.

Opposite corner of master bedroom.

Master bath.
Check out that tub. Sweet!

Small wall in master bedroom separating the
bathroom (right), and walk-in closet (left).

Kristi's office.

View from Kristi's office.
Hello Victor!

Spare bedroom.
Lovingly referred to as "Steph's room."

Our pre-drywall meeting is the first week in May. We'll get to discuss where to put electrical and cable outlets and other incredibly enjoyable details. I bet our windows will be in soon! YAY!

Spring Changes

Is summer here yet? I'm ready for a Boston trip!!

I HAVE to change the name of this blog - we are no longer waiting on a wedding, nor are we engaged. I think I'm having the same problem as my name change. The blog has always been Waiting on a Wedding. I started it when we got engaged. And one day you just have to up and change your legal name AND your blog name?!? What is up with that? Seriously. I'll get around to it one of these days.

Today is it rainy and just blah in Virginia. Christopher has been sick for the past week and it's only getting worse (just a bad chest cold). These two factors made me feel that the only way I could be a good wife today was to get some pity sleep for Christopher. So I woke up at nine, ate cereal, had 1/2 pot of coffee, talked to my sister, wrote one thank you note (slow process), and read myself back to sleep at 12:30. FIVE HOURS LATER I woke up and polished off the coffee (still warm thanks to my sweet Cuisinart pot from two of my favorite aunts) and Christopher had already left for work. Goodbye Saturday.

The kids are finally settling back into a routine at work. Don't get me wrong, they are still little maniacs (especially now that spring has arrived) but I think they're happy to know I'm not leaving again for the rest of the year. April is an AWESOME month in kindergarten. The kids just take off with reading and writing. They write the funniest things in their journals (e.g. "My mom's socks say no nonsense," or "My mom won't marry my dad.") They are starting to really experience the world around them and develop these little personalities. FYI - I am going to need a LOT of support June 11th when I have to move my babies to first grade. I know I'll cry my eyes out. Christopher wants to know what I'm going to do when we have kids since I get emotional when one of my kindergartners loses a first tooth. HAHAHA. It's weird though, you become very possessive of these kids. I know it's probably because they are my first class but they are my babies. I have them with me for SEVEN hours a day, five days a week. Their parents trust me to teach them and protect them and help raise them. Of course I'm going to cry with a loose tooth.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I am exhausted. Absolutely exhausted. I think it's mostly because things are finally slowing down. The wedding is over (still sad about this), our house is going up quickly (we have nothing to do but watch at this point - no more decision making) and I've learned to balance my work life and leave the building by 5:00 most nights. I feel like I'm coming down from a sugar high and I'm just crashing. The house is a mess and I have no energy to clean. I just want summer to be here so Stephanye is home and we can move into our new house and just BE. Just sit and BE for a few weeks. Christopher may be sadly disappointed to know that a summer job is nowhere in my future.

I'm still waiting on the professional wedding shots. I know Coe is taking his time and making them even MORE beautiful but I'm so anxious to see. I love photos - taking them, looking at them. I think it's amazing how you can capture one split second in time and have it with you forever. Ok, now I'm just getting sappy.

As an end note, please keep my friend Justin in your thoughts and prayers. I just found out his mother passed away last week from breast cancer.

Wedding Withdrawal

I truly believe that I am going through wedding withdrawal. Suzie said it has to be a real condition because she felt it too. For a year and a half I did nothing but prepare for this one day and then, in the blink of an eye, it's over. Not to say it wasn't everything I had hoped for. Quite the contrary. It was the most incredible, amazing, wonderful day of my life. Everything was perfect (minus my hair falling out), and all the planning and work really paid off. It seemed that everyone else had a wonderful time as well; we've received nothing but compliments.

But it's done. Over. Gone. It's nice to not have to worry about emailing this vendor, calling that vendor, repainting 17 galvanized pails that ended up being thrown in the dumpster (sad). But it's also weird. Sort of like a void. I had become so accustomed to work, wedding, house, work, wedding, house that now it seems like something is missing.

On the other hand, I'm having a really good time actually BEING married. Our photographer (a friend of Christopher's) said that being married is "different. I don't know how, it just is." And I completely agree. It's funny to say, "my husband" and believe that I'm someone's wife, but it is such a settling feeling. The name change has been difficult and I have yet to do it officially. I think it's because my kids still call me Miss Minsterman (and will until the end of the year - it took them weeks to learn how to say it - no use in changing it now) so I'm still Kristi Minsterman. My whole life I've been Kristi Minsterman. It's who I am. You can't just change that in a day and become someone new with a new name. I've never been Kristi Hartwell - I don't even know who that person is yet. (Yes, I'm going through a SMALL identity crisis). Plus, Daddy says I have to keep Minsterman in my name somewhere because the good Lord knows that Bubby won't keep the family name going. ;-)

In other news, we have been posting photos from the big day on a picasaweb site. Feel free to peruse our day. I'm so anxious to get the rest of Coe's professional photos; he has such a fantastic eye. www.picasaweb.google.com/hartwellwedding

We have also had a LOT of progress on our house within the past week. The day after the wedding Mama and I went over to take a look and we had a first floor framed out (very exciting). Yesterday I went by to see we have a SECOND floor, a THIRD floor, and a ROOF FRAME! They are really moving along! The workers probably thought I was some psycho walking around taking 85 photos but I was super excited. It is so fun to watch how efficient these men are and how good they are at their jobs. I was on the phone with Christopher freaking out that one of them was going to fall off the roof and he kept reassuring me that they do this for a living and were used to walking on roofs. Whatever, I was still nervous.

So a few updated photos of the house...

We're about to go to Garbriel's 8th birthday party. It's also odd how in one day you pick up four neices and two nephews. Marriage is so funny.

Still thinking of new blog names. Suzie offered up a few that played off the "Hart" in Hartwell but honestly I thought she was singing me 80s songs. ;-)

MARRIED!

I am so happy to announce that we are no longer WAITING on a wedding! The wedding has come and gone and it was, by far, the most incredible day of my life. Everything was perfect. The weather was incredible for April (low 60s and a little windy), everyone looked gorgeous, and all my little details ended up perfectly in place despite my worrying.

When I woke up on Friday I rolled over to my sister Morgan (with whom I was sharing my bed) and said, "I'm not getting married today, right?" She disagreed, told me to get my lazy butt out of bed and went to make me coffee. I called my Godmama who also told me that YES, I was indeed getting married but to stay in bed as long as I needed. :-)

Morgan, LA and I headed over to the Hilton where we had rented a room to get ready. My stylist Suzanne was already there and Barry had made a morning run to Bodos for us. I was so calm but even more so when Suzie showed up with Baby Grey. I just walked around with him the rest of the morning waiting for my turn for hair and makeup. Nothing is better than a sleeping baby (and an adorable one at that!) The room at the Hilton was awesome. We had a lot of space, a door outside, and all the girls had room to get ready. My aunts were all at the same hotel so they could come and go as they pleased. We ended up riding to the ceremony in the Hilton Garden Inn shuttle (every bride's DREAM getaway car!) driven by my main man Milton. Milton stayed on call for us the entire day and night - driving people back and forth to the reception/hotel.

The ceremony was gorgeous. I was so excited when I came around the corner and saw my big Seth waiting to open the church doors for me and daddy. And then when he did it all became very surreal. I just remember looking at everyone on the bride's side of the church and thinking, all of these people came here for ME. How blessed I am.

Half way down the aisle Daddy said, "He better stop crying before I start," and I looked up to see Christopher tearing. Had to be the best moment of my life. Normally I'm quite the slob around the house. Since I teach kindergarten I rarely dress up/apply makeup, so to think that he was that overwhelmed was really pretty great.

We went and got a ton of photos taken between the ceremony and the reception. It was chilly outside so we had to wear pashminas for a lot of them or just stick out the wind. We took photos on the downtown mall where a man was playing a fiddle (we all got to dance along) and on the UVA lawn. During the lawn session a "brigade" of bagpipers walked behind us - such an amazing spontaneous event!

Once we got to the reception things only got better. Everyone seemed to have an INCREDIBLE time, the food was great, the service was amazing, and my man Tyke was a fabulous DJ.

I tried so hard to take in every moment as it happened because I knew it would be over too soon. The bridal dance was a blast and I polka'ed until I literally fell on the floor.

Watching Christopher try to break through the crowd of guests to "rescue" me was hilarious. No one suspected he'd get sneaky and hit the floor. I think Lindsey's husband Tyler body-checked him more than once.

Now we are back from our little mini-honeymoon in Virginia Beach and it's back to the real world tomorrow. I slept a LOT during vacation - I had no idea how exhausted I was from planning the big affair. :-) I'm ready to see my kids tomorrow but not ready to be out of wedding mode!

WE ARE FINALLY MARRIED! WOOHOO! Thank you to everyone who was a part of our day and so graciously gave their time to drive to Virginia to be with us. A special thanks to the bridal party and especially my parents without whom we would still be waiting on a wedding.

(We need a new name for the blog... suggestions?)

Bachelorette

We are getting ready to head out for my "bachelorette" party. I put it in quotations because I don't drink very much anymore and C'ville isn't a real party-type town. We're heading to Guadalajara... God love Mexican food. I finally get to wear my patchwork Lilly dress. Hooray!

Today was the best day with LA and Morgan. :-D

Programmable Wedding

My living room looks like someone vomited pink and green all over the floor.

I won't be sad if I never tie another bow in my entire life.

This morning Christopher and I worked on the programs for the ceremony. This was a task that I had delegated to myself, because working with a graphic designer makes it that much more difficult. He wanted to check the monogram on the front to make sure it looked right and off to the races we went... Two hours later we had basically the exact same program - just in a different font.

Now I'm sitting in front of my computer cursing my printer because it's leaving roller marks on the cardstock. This should not be the difficult part. The difficult part was the formatting. Printing should be easy. This does not feel easy.

As we get down to the final stretch I'm feeling exhausted. Sadly today I don't feel super excited or nervous, I just feel tired. Physically tired, mentally drained, and tired of doing wedding things. I really wish I could be a non-type-A person (type B? type C?) and just let these things go. But alas, I am who I am and I am concerned about every last detail. I keep telling myself that as long as we're married at the end of the day that is all that matters. But I didn't spend two weeks making out of town bags for nothing! And my printer should know better than to fuss with me right now.

Christopher is off to work so it's even more difficult to find the motivation to get things done. Life will be a whole lot easier six days from now.

On a lighter note, our townhouse now has a lovely solid poured concrete foundation. You can even see the little cutout for the garage. :-) I saw a bunch of lumber had been delivered which means pretty soon it's going to start getting REALLY interesting... HOORAY!

Six to Go

If I ever meet a meteorologist in person, I plan to punch him square in the face.

I know the 10-day outlook is sketchy. I am also very aware that meteorologists are often wrong. And I know, deep down, that there is nothing I can do about the weather on Friday.

But seriously... MAKE UP YOUR MIND. Three days ago it was supposed to be sunny and 65 degrees on Friday. Then two days ago it changed to raining and 70 degrees. Yesterday/this morning it was sunny and 72 degrees. Now it's scattered thunderstorms. There is one patch of rain that moves from Thursday to Saturday to Friday to Saturday to Thursday to Friday - ARG!!!!!!!!!! JUST PICK SOMETHING ALREADY AND GO WITH IT! STOP BEING SO WISHY WASHY. (And no, I am not a control freak).

Today was another errand day (which pretty much every day has now become). Today I at least had company. Robin and I went and dropped off hotel contracts, returned things (almost unsuccessfully) to Tractor Supply, got water liners for the centerpieces, a tie for Gabriel and also some steaks at Outback. It's honestly not my fault that she can't eat flour during Passover and I had to suffer through a fillet. Really - you can't blame me. Plus, Easter is tomorrow and since I don't get a big family meal (thanks to that big family event happening at the end of the week), the least I can do is eat a steak in celebration of eternal life. That's all I'm saying.

Outback unfortunately cooked my fillet well-done (gag me, I'd rather a hamburger). Then the manager brought me a whole second meal and THAT steak was medium-well. I brought a lot of steak home for Christopher but made sure to eat BOTH servings of green beans and mashed potatoes. And I had to eat the bread solo for Robin. I didn't want to tempt her with it so I tried to eat the whole loaf as quickly as possible.

I now feel that sleep is upon me. I love starchy food and I've heard it is a FABULOUS way to help you fit into an already tightly-fitting wedding gown. Christopher is at work and my friend Cathy (who has been staying with us this week) is off to Switzerland (poor girl) so now I am all alone with my wedding bows. I should walk off my Outback but I really think I will take that snooze. Just to be on the safe side.

** After work Monday a few of my colleagues threw me a surprise bridal shower. I had a blast and it's a great story to come later when my starch wears off. But a HUGE thank you to Amanda who, I'm sure, did all of it. You're the best. :-D