Wedding Plan Update

During our beach trip last week, we stopped by the liquor store on our way home.  Florida has a much lower tax on liquor so we decided to load up for the wedding while we were down there.    Even though we have an open bar for the actual wedding reception, we found out that doesn't include champagne.  That's what's in the boxes, champagne for toasting, not Jack Daniels.  Although you could probably get some very entertaining toasts if you use Jack Daniels, I'm a little more traditional.

As you can see I had a little furry visitor on the table exploring as I was trying to take pictures.  He was being very stubborn and not wanting to get down even though he knows the dining room table is off limits.

A little tail in this picture pointing at the Beefeater Gin box.

A little tail still seeming to point at the Beefeater Gin box.

Finally deciding to jump down now that he's within arms reach and he knows I'll get him.

Ed's checking out the other box that's on the floor.  Ed would never disobey the rules and jump on the dining room table.  He has better manners than Cadence.    This box had various other liquors, for the house since we will have a houseful of family members all weekend, including a brunch and a bar-b-que on Sunday after the wedding.

The house is still a mess and the carpets need cleaning, but we're prepared liquor wise.

I took pictures of my dress to the bakery that is doing the wedding cake.  She is going to match the sparkly design on the top and bottom of the dress to the top layer and bottom layer of the cake.  While there, I took advantage of the opportunity to purchase more cupcakes.  I got an assortment of different yummy flavors.  The blue one is still my favorite.

The bridesmaid dresses have come in and are the perfect fuchsia color.  My favorite color.  I love them!  I gave the Running Nazi her dress when I ran with her yesterday so she could get it altered if needed since she never gave me her measurements.  I don't know if she liked it or not even though she said she did.

 The Murph is now calling tux places so he can get measured for a tux.  We weren't able to get The Boy measured for a tux while we were in his college town and he won't be back home until right before the wedding.

Fortunately, since my ex husband (The Boy's father) just got married in May and The Boy was in his wedding, we were able to call that tux place and found out that they still had The Boy's measurements on file.

Yea!  Problem solved.  Now if we could just convince The Boy to get his hair cut.  He refused to get his hair cut for his dad's wedding.  That was almost 4 months ago and he still hasn't had a hair cut.  At this point I could just loan him a sparkly pony tail holder for the wedding.

Also, since the tux place is a nationwide chain, The Murph's brother, who lives in New Jersey, can get his tux at the same place.

Now we have to finalize everything with the music, florist, officiant, etc. and finish writing our vows.

Triathlon Race Photos And The Beach Trip

Last Saturday The Murph and I drove over to Orange Beach, Alabama from Pensacola Beach, Florida so I could do the Alabama Coastal Triathlon.  We got up at 4:30 am to make the hour and 1/2 drive.  It doesn't seem like it would be that far, but we had to go up and over and stop and go through some small towns to get there.

There were two distances offered.  One was a full Olympic distance and the other was a very short sprint distance.  I did the very short sprint since I haven't been bike and swim training very much this year.

Okay, I confess!  I have done zero swim training since Ironman Canada 2010 and most of the biking I've been doing has been on the exercise bike at the gym instead of my road bike.  The Murph is my true, very loyal athletic supporter!

This is us right before the race start.  You can see from the waves behind us that the ocean was not very calm that day.  I was a little worried, but I have had to swim in much rougher water and this was a very, very short 300 yd swim.  No Ironman distance swim here!  Thank God!

It was cloudy in the beginning, but by the time I crossed the finish line the sun was out and it was clearing up.  Also, it was getting hot.  I was glad to be finished in less than an hour.  I love short triathlons right now.

This is me coming out of transition after getting off the bike.  Now it was time to do the run which was very, very short.   Only two miles.  That's it!

I'm thinking that my butt looks fat here in these shorts.  I doubt I will wear them again.  I may need to cut back on all those cookies I've been eating too.

Despite the lack of swim training and the big butt, I place third in the masters category and was the 10th overall woman.  I was very happy with that!

The night before the race, The Murph and I went to eat dinner at Jackson's in Pensacola, Florida.  I ate tons of bread with fresh butter and the most delicious steak and crab cake ever.  

This probably contributed to the bigness of my butt the next morning....

Oh well, it was worth it!

This is The Murph about to go in the water the other day.  He didn't know I was taking pictures of him.

I added our baby pictures to our wedding website last night.  This is The Murph's baby picture.   He's such a cutie!

I tried to scan this picture in and post it on his birthday post in July, but I couldn't get the scanner to work.  I have been trying to scan things and print for two months now and couldn't get the dang printer to work.  Then right out of the blue it just decided to start working last night.

Go figure!

Wedding Invitations and Lunch With Odyssey Home

I am back in Birmingham, back to the real world and I now have access to the cord that connects my camera to the computer.  Now I can download and post the photos from the trip and the ones prior to the trip.  These are the ones taken prior to the beach trip.

Before we left I picked up the wedding invitations from the calligrapher's and got them mailed out.

Ed was hanging out under the coffee table as I was taking pictures of the invitations.  This is one of his favorite spots.   There's Ed under the glass table top.

I also had lunch with a good friend, Odyssey Home  before I left.  She was back in town for her husband's grandmother's funeral.  While I waited for her to get to the restaurant, I took these pictures.  And threw some coins in this fountain.

We had lunch at Tavern on the Summit.  It just so happens to be the restaurant where I met The Murph a few years ago.  We immediately hit it off.  I thought he was very handsome.  We exchanged business cards.  He convinced me to go out with him. (it was REALLY tough- haha).  I made sure I had a chaperone for our first date (he was a stranger after all).  Later, The Murph joked that he wasn't sure if the chaperone was for me or for him.

As Odyssey Home and I were leaving the restaurant, I retraced my steps from the restroom through the bar area and showed her exactly where The Murph was sitting the night I met him.

This is Odyssey Home.  We were busy tweeting and instagraming at the table.  I think we were causing a bit of scene and disturbing a couple of old guys having lunch at the next table.  

I had chicken salad and she had Caesar salad.   And of course we took pictures and tweeted.  At least I tried to tweet, but for some reason (user error), I couldn't get my tweet to work.

Her tweets were working.  She's way more tweet savvy than I am.

After lunch, I headed home and The Murph and I left for the beach.  We had so much to pack with my bike and racing stuff and a bunch of things we had to take to The Boy at school along with our usual stuff (and I'm not a light packer), that I forgot to pack the camera cord.   As any blogger knows, this can be a very traumatic experience.

Luckily, I did have Instagram, so I could take pictures with my cell phone and tweet them after I finally figured out how all the buttons work.  I even figured out how to follow people on Instagram.  So hey, it wasn't a total loss!

I am posting all the race pictures and the beach pictures on another post.

I feel so much better already!!

Beach, Wedding Website Stats And Anger Management Issues

Picture from a previous beach trip, but this is where I've been the past few days.

I am sorry I haven't been on here much the last couple of days.  I've been very neglectful to my blog, but the beach and I have been spending some quality time together.  We didn't get down here that much all summer and the last time we came down it was too rainy and cloudy to hang out on the beach.

The weather now is absolutely perfect so The Murph and I have been taking advantage of it.  I still don't have the camera cord thingy that hooks into the computer, so no new pictures.  I will post them when I get home.  However, the picture above gives a very accurate idea of what it's been like here this week.

We mailed out wedding invitations last week with an RSVP card linking to our wedding website.  The past couple of days I have been checking the stats on the website to see if we have any new views, RSVP's or entries into the guest book.  I'm sure The Murph really appreciates my updates every time I get on the computer.

Stats so far, 78 people invited, 14 accepted, 0 declines and 3 guest book entries,  although The Murph says one doesn't really count since it is from the managers of the website.   Probably an automated response that was sent when I set the website up.

I don't care.  I count it anyway!

The Boy is doing good at school although he says his roommates are driving him crazy and may have anger management issues.

Apparently the other two boys are always complaining about each other.  One can't concentrate on his school work because the other one is too loud.  He is doing his homework in the living room, when he could do it in his bedroom if he needs more privacy to concentrate AND he is trashing the living room. Neither one of the other roommates likes this!

from Cheezburger.com

I still don't think The Boy realizes that that's how we use to feel about him.  He totally trashed his room and complained all the time about everything.  And I do mean EVERYTHING!  He NEVER cleaned anything up or put anything away.  I wonder how he is contributing to all the complaining that's going on in the apartment.

Honestly, he's probably more worried about the electricity usage going on than any messes in the living room.  I can just see him turning off lights everywhere so they don't run over their allotted $30 bucks on the electric bill.  God forbid!!

This year should be a great learning experience on how to live well ( or not) with others.  I just hope they're still speaking to each other by the end of the semester.

Sprint Triathlon At The Beach

Today I raced in a sprint triathlon in Orange Beach.  It was very short, fast and fun.   Less than an hour and it's over!  Great workout and I placed third in the master's category.  The Murph cheered me on and took lots of pictures.

Unfortunately, I left the cord to hook the camera up to the laptop at home so I will have to post them later if I don't forget.  After the race, we lived dangerously and went to eat breakfast at IHOP after picking The Boy up from school.

The "acne" The Boy called me about the other day at 2 a.m. is officially bug bites, not acne.  Those must be some big, hungry fleas though.  We tried to get him measured for a tuxedo while we were down there, but couldn't find a place.  Since he won't be back in Birmingham until the day before the wedding, we will have to "estimate" his size.  

That should be fun!

Last night I had one of the BEST steak dinners I've ever had at Jackson's, a local restaurant in Pensacola.  The Murph and I split a 16 oz New York Strip and a crab cake and salad.  It was absolutely delicious.  My mouth is watering now just thinking about it.  

It was served with plenty of fresh bread and whipped butter.  We had to make the waiter take what was left of the bread off the table.  The whipped butter disappeared.  They make it fresh every night in the kitchen.  I think The Murph would have licked the butter bowl clean if he could.

Again, I have pictures.  They are on my camera, but I can't post them because I don't have the darn cord to hook the camera up.  I promise to post them later so your mouth can water too!

One thing I forgot to get when I saw The Boy was the accommodations form that needs to be sent to Al Rehab.  This shows them what accommodations he is getting while in college.  I will have to try once again to convince The Boy to find a fax machine or a scanner at school so he can get me a clear copy to email to the counselor.

This seems like an easy thing to do, but I assure you it's not.  The Boy picks and chooses what he wants to do.  Sometimes I don't think he listens to me at all until it's too late and then he panics and everything is an emergency.

As The Murph always says to him...

If Something Works, Don't Change It!

A few weeks ago I was out of my Obagi C Rx products that I use every day, so I went to Sephora and bought some Philosophy products that I was told would work very well.  You may remember that blog post here.

Well, while I did notice some firming and reduction of wrinkles, my face also started breaking out very bad.  My skin tends to be oily and apparently one or more of these new products was clogging my pores.

When I went to get microdermabrasion last week, my aesthetician took one look at my face and pretty much told me what I already knew...  it was a clogged mess!  Collagen breaking down and everything.

She told me I needed to immediately go back on my Obagi C products, not C Rx but the heavy duty Obagi Nu Derm shown above.   Since I am still anti-nu derm products because of the sheer number of products you have to use everyday ( I mean look at them all!), I agreed to go on them after the wedding.  Maybe.

She agreed that since I was accustomed to the Obagi C Rx system and it worked really well, that maybe I should stick with that system.  She also added the Retin A product that is key to building collagen (which she said mine was breaking down) and to clear out pores.  She reminded me 2 dozen times that my use of it was not protocol, but since I had used it before and made my own protocol, that I should be fine to use it temporarily outside of protocol.

She spent so much time doing extractions that I didn't even have time for a full microderm facial and am going back twice more before the wedding.  She assured me that my skin would be cleared up and in good condition by them.

I gave the Murph all my Philosophy products and he's been using them.  He has dry skin and has had no problem with then like I did.  He likes them.

I guess I learned my lesson.  Obagi C products do great on my skin without clogging so I better stick with what works.

The Wedding Officiant/Officianado

Friday night I was searching the Internet for wedding officiants in the Birmingham area and came across one that sounded good.  I sent him an email telling him my wedding date and my cell number, hoped he was available, etc.  I had barely hit send when my cell phone rang.  I didn't recognize the number and it was almost 9 p.m so I debated on whether I should answer it or not.  (I do this a lot!)

I decided to answer it just because I thought it might be the officiant, but did he even have time to read the email I just sent?  How could it be?  

Sure enough, it was him.  He said he was booked that day, but had a woman he was working with who could do the wedding.  He noticed my last name and said he had just done a wedding in May for a man who had the same last name and asked if I was related.  

Well yes and no, mostly no now.  He's my ex husband!  Apparently, this officiant, the first one I called, just recently did my ex-husband's wedding.  I laughed.  He said maybe I would rather have his assistant C, do my wedding anyway since he just did my ex's.  I assured him that I didn't care one way or the other, but I did think it was a coincidence.

We made an appointment to meet with him and his assistant, C, today.  They were wonderful. We really liked them a lot.  I had an outline of the things we wanted to include in our ceremony and they offered suggestions.  

We are going to write our own vows, but they said they can help if we needed them too.  We are also going to include a memorial candle lighting in memory of my father and The Murph's mother who have passed away and two readings during the ceremony, if my niece and The Murph's niece will agree to do them.  We probably should have asked them before now!!  

When we were signing the contract to reserve the officiant, I realized that today is Sept. 4.  Sept. 4 was the anniversary of my first marriage to The Boy's dad.   On the anniversary of my first wedding, we were hiring the same officiant (sort of) that my first husband had used to do his third wedding.  And this is my third, although I don't even count the second one, which lasted less than a year.

Does anyone else see the weirdness of this?

On the way home, I was going over the strangeness of it with The Murph.  I told him I thought it was a good sign.   A sign that FINALLY my ex had met his soul mate, who he was spending the rest of his life with, after being with the wrong ones and that I had FINALLY found my soul mate too after being with the wrong ones.

The Murph scoffed at that and said, "Your ex-husband has no soul!!"

Well, he's right about that, so I changed my observation to, "D (my ex) has FINALLY found someone who will put up with him and I have FINALLY found someone to put up with me!!"

The Murph laughed and said,  "Yes!  Now THAT's more like it!"

Then he clarified that he loves me with all his heart and isn't "putting up with me".  I'm easy to "put up with".

Although he does think that my ex will have to have somebody that will put up with him.  That needs no clarification!

Bed Bugs

I was sound asleep last night when suddenly around 1:30 a.m. my cell phone started ringing from the kitchen.  It woke me up immediately.   My first thought was who the heck would be calling me at 1:30 in the morning.  My second thought was, it was probably The Boy because to someone who has their days and nights all mixed up, 1:30 in the morning is the same as 1:30 in the afternoon.  No difference to them.

I stumbled out of bed and into the kitchen to grab my phone.  Sure enough, it's The Boy calling from school.

I answered the phone a little concerned, but also aware of The Boy's mixed up day and night issues and his total lack of awareness for other people's need to sleep.  I was honestly half asleep when I answered the phone,  but I think our conversation went something like this....

Me:  Hello

The Boy:  Hey!

Me:  Are you okay??  It's 1:30 in the morning...

The Boy:  No, not really.  I'm really not okay...

Me:  (suddenly wide awake and starting to panic)  What is it??  What's wrong???

The Boy:  I think I've got bed bugs.  They are biting me.

Me:  Bed bugs????

The Boy:  Yes, and that's not all,  I've got acne really, really bad.  It's all over my chest.  You need to do something.  You need to do something NOW!

Me:  You think the bed bugs gave you acne???

The Boy:  No mom!  Two different things!  Two different things that don't have anything to do with the other.  Bed bugs and acne.  Somethings biting me.  You need to do something!

Me:  What am I suppose to do??  I'm 4 hours away.  It's almost 2 in the morning.  I've got bed bug/flea spray here but that's not going to do you any good there and we won't be down there until next week.  You need to do something before then.

For the next 30 minutes, at 2 a.m. in the morning, I had to explain to The Boy what to do.  He was clueless!

Number one was to call the landlord of his apartment and get them to do something about those bed bugs immediately!  Nasty!!  I have a feeling from the weird, cloroxy smell of the mattress when we moved him in that the apartment, landlord knew something about those bed bugs.

Number two is to go to the student health building and get treated for the acne.  Acne that I'm not so sure isn't really bed bug bites after googling pictures from the Internet.

I have a feeling that I'm going to have to give that apartment landlord a little call.  There's no excuse to put students through that.  They charge way too much for that.  The Boy was in a small, ugly, concrete dorm room last year that was less expensive, but had no bed bugs whatsoever.  This apartment has had one problem after another.  Toilet broken, microwave oven door broken, hot water heater not working...

They've had to call for one thing after another since they moved in a couple of weeks ago.

After getting off the phone with The Boy, I went back to bed, suddenly feeling kind of itchy from all the bed bug talk.  Cadence had gotten all hyper and chased Ed under the table while I was on the phone.  I had to discipline him.  So when I went back to bed he was all purry and in my face.

Then it started raining heavily, which means the roof by the fireplace started to leak, so I had to put a towel down.

By then The Murph had woken up and was wanting to know what was going on out there.   I told him that The Boy has bed bugs and acne.  At 2 in the morning.  The roof is leaking and Ed's hiding under the table scared.  Other than that, things are just great.

The Murph mumbled, "oh, is that all...".  He then rolled over and went back to sleep.

Can't Take The Murph Anywhere!

The Murph and I have been busy checking things off the wedding checklist.  We've been very productive and getting things done.  It's been so great meeting with all the different vendors and actually getting the ones we want, even though we waited until the last minute to book them.

The other day we signed the contract and gave the florist a deposit.  We've already booked the photographer and the country club, who is doing all the catering.  Dresses ordered or in alterations,  cake bakery lined up.  The only things we seemed to have left were the band, DJ, and the tuxes for the guys.

We hired a jazz combo to play at the cocktail hour and during the ceremony.  Then we made an appointment with the company that hires out DJ's and was highly recommended by our photographer. Last week we headed to their office after we worked out.  It wasn't very far from us and we knew the area very well, but we had a very tough time finding the place.   They gave us very vague directions and no actual address.

We finally narrowed it down to one strip of offices in the middle of the woods with no name that we could see on the sign.  We decided to park and just walk in one of the offices and ask if they knew where this place was.  He showed us where the company was (right next door).  Apparently, they do not want to be discovered easily!

We were told later that there were some squatters across the street from the offices living in an old dilapidated house with no electricity.  They had a loud generator going and it was discovered they were stealing gas from the offices.  Who knows what else they were stealing.  Everybody was happy when the dilapidated house got torn down.  Everybody except the squatters.

The guy we were suppose to meet with greeted us at the door.  The rest of the office was quiet and looked empty.  He directed us into a room in the front with a huge table we could sit around and a huge television on the wall where he could show his presentation to us.

We hit it off with him immediately, especially the Murph because they both lived in some of the same places in New Jersey (like the Jersey Shore).

In the middle of the presentation someone came in the front door and the DJ guy had to go out and talk to him.  He excused himself, but before he left, The Murph asked him where the bathroom was.  DJ guy pointed across the hall to the bathroom.  The Murph goes into the bathroom, DJ guy goes to talk to the guy that just walked in and I stay seated at the table in the "presentation" room.

Suddenly, certain "noises" started coming from the bathroom.  Not just once, twice,  but several times!   Stunned, I'm sitting at the table glancing over at the bathroom door.  I couldn't believe The Murph was doing that in this close space with the DJ guy and the other strange guy right outside the door.

I'm sure that if I can hear the going ons in the bathroom, that they most certainly can too!  I can't even believe The Murph would feel that at ease in this strange place.  I'm sitting there trying not to laugh too loud in a room all by myself and I look up and see there is a surveillance camera pointed right at me.

I try to pull myself together.  Fortunately, just as the DJ guy is walking back in the room, The Murph attempts to get out of the bathroom and can't get the knob to turn.  We watch the door as he struggles to open it, DJ guy offering advice on how to unstick the knob, when finally The Murph gets out.  Then I am free to laugh out loud.  The Murph sits down next to me and I'm looking at him and laughing.

He looks at me like I'm nuts.  The door knob sticking was kind of funny, but not THAT funny.

Later, when we are in the car I tell him the REAL reason I was laughing.

Me:  Man, don't you think you were a little loud in there???

The Murph:  What??  What do you mean?  You heard that???

Me:  Dude, the entire building could hear that!!  I was mortified!

The Murph:  But I had the fan on.  I didn't think anybody could hear over the fan.  I THOUGHT THE FAN WAS SUFFICIENT!

Me:  I couldn't even hear the fan, but I could hear EVERYTHING you did in there, including flushing.

The Murph:  You're kidding!  When I went in the bathroom and I saw that there was a fan, I thought that I would be okay.  I was hoping there would be a fan and there was one.   I thought the fan would be sufficient!!  I thought the FAN was SUFFICIENT!!

Me:  Laughing uncontrollably, not able to talk anymore...

The Murph:  I THOUGHT THE FAN WAS SUFFICIENT!!

Moral of the story - Never trust the loudness of the bathroom fan.

The Blue Moon That Wasn't Really Blue

Last night I was excited and ready to take some photos of the blue moon.  I know I have seen a blue moon before, but I couldn't remember.  And I thought it was called a "blue" moon because the moon was actually going to be blue.  

When I went outside to take the pictures, I could see that the moon was definitely NOT blue.  It was more amber and looked like any other full moon.  Not even a blue tint.  No hint of blue at all.

At some point, I probably already knew that a blue moon was not really blue and the real reason why a blue moon was called a blue moon.  I had just forgotten.  To refresh my memory, I googled it this morning and discovered it's actually called a blue moon because it's the second full moon in the month.  The next blue moon won't be until July 15, 2015.  

It doesn't surprise me one bit that I actually thought the moon would be blue last night.  Even though I googled it and now know the real reason the moon was called a blue moon, I can almost guarantee that when the next blue moon comes around in July of 2015, I will once again look for a moon that's blue.  

 I will forget entirely the real reason a blue moon is called a blue moon.  And if I'm still blogging at that time, I will have my camera ready to capture the blue hues.

Which of course we all know will not be blue at all.

But amber.  And I will google it all over again to find out why a blue moon isn't really blue and what it all means.

Sigh....