we're alive!

And we're married!

Trey and I decided we couldn't wait, so we semi-eloped on 6 January. In a weird way, the quickie courthouse thing was immensely romantic, and it was cool to see the guards' faces when my button bouquet went through the metal detector.

So - that's that. We're hitched. There are rings. I've got a new last name and an adorable new husband.

Where've we been? Dead computers. Both. On the same day. *Yeah*.

eighteen days later...

Yes, eighteen days since my last post. And what's been done? Not a lot towards the wedding. Remember, Didge and I are digging out from under about five years of stuff accumulated during my almost constant moving *and* all the stuff that was displaced while the contractors were ransacking, I mean *improving*, the house. And then we rearranged pretty much all of the furniture...yeah. It's been, well, let's just say it's *been*. And then, it was time to get ready for the holidays. And now?

Well, they're here, and I we're as almost ready as I think we're going to be, save a few shopping stops and a whole lot of wrapping. How does this relate to our wedding? Baby, the very moment that last crumpled gift tag is sent to the bin it is *on*. Mom hopped in and developed a game plan that has us getting the difficult-to-transport stuff from a range of stores just five minutes from my house, and accessible with no serious traffic drama. I'm having a little trouble pinning down a supplier for meat for the nacho bar, but that's the only challenge.

So far.

I overhauled the how-to's for all the crafting I had planned, which simplified that process, and am starting to get my head around a floor plan. Straight up - I don't know where in blazes the nacho bar, cake, favors, candy array, anything is going to go yet. I know what I would *like* to do, but I don't know how to get to that place. Yes, I will be calling my mom. Call me a wimp. I've nixed some ideas in favor of keeping my sanity, but on the flip side of that, we added a small after party.

And a confession: Trey and I nearly eloped. You have no idea how close to getting married today we were.

multitasking...

While we're not exactly taking a breather, per se, from wedding planning, we *are* starting to take care of holiday zazzles at the same time. It's kind of odd to be putting up trees in the middle of getting our home in order, but they do offer a nice breather after a day of sorting cookbooks, chucking dead highlighters, and mulling over how to display a collection of chickens in the kitchen. And, frankly, I'm looking forward to a leisurely printfest when I start knocking out movie stills and invitations with the images for the living room Christmas tree - *maybe* I'll do laundry at the same time.

It's hard to believe this will all be happening in just a little over two months! I don't think it'll sink in until after Christmas, when the trees come down and the decorations are stashed. Something tells me I'll have a moment of realizing, "It's on!", once it dawns on me that I have to decorate the house all over again.

The big thing right now is carting Trey to a jeweler to get his ring size - we keep going out on errands and winding up distracted by the toy department or Hello Kitty missions. Absolutely, positively HAVE to get this done - no matter how appealing those Star Wars figures are!

it keeps growing...

Trey and I attended his stepsister's wedding over the weekend, and *someone* was most taken with the candy buffet - so now we just have to have an array of sugary goodness to hype our guests to the rafters. To be honest, I'd wanted one, but didn't think he would go for it - - perhaps there is something to letting the man think things are his idea? We've also discussed the idea of giving out guitar picks in addition to soundtrack cd's, and have added an after party to the whole thing for those we don't have room for during the dinner/ceremony/cake thing. We're both getting custom Converse, and he's kind of coming up with his own colors - which I think is completely cool.

We had a bit of an incident - my growing pile of fallen tree branches that were to become my silver twig trees? The ones that were perfectly dried out and ready to begin their transformative process? They're laying in the front yard. Candy Man (ha!) got mad at them and chucked them out there. It's been raining quite a lot, too, so the drying process has to start all over again. He's right, I do need to find a better place to store them - but so does he. There. I said it. I'm having a protracted, silent 'Zilla moment over this.

back to it...

Yep. I can plan again, and I don't have to whisper. Now if I could remember what I was going to write about...

Oh! My bouquet has arrived! And, yes, I will be sharing pictures of it after coming back in from a tremendously busy day, taking care of scanning a bunch of photos for Trey, and tweaking some descriptions on photos on Facebook and Flickr (these aren't wedding related). I might even share a picture of the pile of sticks in the foyer that will be transformed into twinkly magical twig trees, but you'd likely think I was just being a smart aleck and popping up pictures of kindling.

It's on my calendar to begin the flurry of printing all....this.....stuff next month, from invitations to movie stills to banner letters. That also means I have to make a run for crafting supplies. What do you want to bet our holiday decor is going to wind up being a bit like our wedding decor? (Actually, I have a feeling our holiday decor is going to be a tad minimal what with wedding prep and house redux.)

(I really need to start posting some pictures of all this....)

(But first, I really need to tie up the end of what's been a really busy week.)

(sneaking in again....yay!....)

(Our cake topper arrived yesterday. It's adorable, but it's also super secret, so this is basically me telling you that it's here and I can't show it to you. Wheeee!)

(I can stop sneaking on Monday.)

(sneaking)...

I'm sneaking in (remember, I'm on "vacation") to jot down that we registered for Nerf guns last night, as well as a supply of extra "bullets".

And, yes, we would actually use them. Play is very important to Trey and me, and we believe in indulging this belief as often as possible.

(sneaking back out...)