Welcome Baby Sawyer!

Y’all, the lovely and amazing AndreAnna over at Diary of a Modern Matriarch just had her baby boy Sawyer. And I do believe that this might be the first time that a birth was live blogged on Twitter. I love it! (No not the gory parts)

Poor AndreAnna had a really long day since she was admitted last night with preeclampsia and had her labor induced. Anyway, go visit her, send on some congratulations. Hopefully they gave that girl some food because laboring is hard work and she went all day and most of the night on a granola bar and some orange jello.

I am in awe and just waiting for photos of that little man.

God Bless the Internet

Today I had the distinct pleasure of meeting the lovely and amazing Stella. That’s not her real name and she doesn’t blog so I have no link to give you but if she did blog, it would be freakin’ hilarious. She does take amazing photos - go see them here. We’ve “known” each other in an online way for a few years now, at least. She was a blog friend well before I got pregnant, I know that for sure.

And we just now made plans to get together. We met for coffee at a Starbucks and gabbed for almost five hours. I’m not even kidding. We met at 2 and the first time I looked at my watch it was quarter to seven. And when I left my cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

It just reminded me again of how amazing the internet is. I’ve built some amazing connections with people all over the place.  I’ve shed tears of sorrow and happiness over weddings, births, deaths, pregnancies lost and relationships ended with these friends. And most of them I may never meet in real life. But that doesn’t make the connections any less real, or mean that I care any less about the ups and downs in the lives of my friends.

Can you imagine how weird this must sound to someone a generation older? To have a friend that you care dearly about and celebrate birthdays with and buy gifts for that you’ve never laid eyes on in person must just boggle their minds. But I love how none of you think it’s weird. In fact, chances are good that if you’re reading this, you are probably one of the people that I’m talking about.

Any of you have a heart-warming tale of a connection you’ve made online?

Sunday Show and Tell #5

It’s time once again for Mel’s Sunday Show and Tell.

Since it’s Father’s Day, I want to give my awesome husband his Father’s Day props

Here he is putting Bridget’s crib together about a month before she was born.

Jake turned into a Dad within the 30 seconds after Bridget was born.

He looks a little overwhelmed here, but labor went quickly and easily and I think he thought he’d have more time to get his mind around what was about to happen before it actually happened.

This is the two of them in the hospital. Bridget never liked to be put back in her bassinet after a feeding attempt. He hated to hear her cry, so he just brought her to bed with him. I snapped this picture about 2 a.m. when the nurses came to get her to take her to the nursery for something.

This was how Jake spent the first two weeks after Bridget was born. My only jobs in the world were to eat, nap, and nurse. He had her pretty much the rest of the time. I rarely changed a diaper or swabbed the umbilical stump. He could swaddle her perfectly - I never figured out how to do it right. He is such a natural at all this.

They continued to be wild about each other.

A Daddy’s Girl is born. Someday some man will either thank Jake or want to punch him in the nuts for that.

Happy Father’s Day, baby. You are the best dad Bridget could ever have.

A Wedding Story

Y’all, Rebecca has started another fun way to mosey down memory lane. Since I’m a sucker for that sort of thing and a sucker for weddings, you know I had to participate in

Our wedding day was April 14, 2001. I woke up at 5 a.m. after having a nightmare about my mother agreeing to move the time of the wedding but not telling anyone so we had no flowers, no cake, no vendors of any kind and no guests. In my dream I was screaming at her. Thankfully that was just a dream and I went back to sleep. I woke up for real around 8. I sat on the front porch with my mom and we remarked on the weather, which looked rainy but the rain had ended the night before. It stayed cloudy all day which kept everything cool but it didn’t rain again.

After a light breakfast, I showered and then my MOH came over. I went to eat lunch with her and my mom before getting our hair and nails done. A few other bridesmaids were also getting their hair done at the same place so it was a lot of fun. We had a little time to kill so we walked around the Galleria (where my hair stylist Timothy used to work in a salon) and discussed the fact that HOLY SHIT! I was getting married in a few hours. I wasn’t nervous about getting married, I was nervous about the details all coming together. I am a control freak and I hated the fact that I had to put my faith in the cake vendor and the florist and the DJ and all of that. If I could have accomplished all of those tasks myself, I probably would have done it just so I could control it.

While all this was going on, Jake and his groomsmen went to Dave and Busters for lunch and video games. I figured Jake needed some distraction that day, and he also needed to be forced to eat so he wouldn’t end up with a migraine on our wedding day.

We got back to my parents house, my hair was done and my veil was attached to my head with lots of spray and pins. I brushed my teeth while my brother kindly held my veil so I wouldn’t get toothpaste on it,  then I gathered my bag of stuff to get ready and my honeymoon suitcase and was ready. My dad was dressed in his tux pants and an undershirt.

Oh, did I forget to mention that there had been a tux shirt snafu the day before? They tried to give the groomsmen black shirts. Now I can appreciate that some people like that look of the black shirt with a tux and I like it too if you are going to the Oscars and are George Clooney. But I don’t like it for weddings and sadly was that Bridezilla who put my foot down about it. I didn’t insist on colored ties and cummerbunds (in fact would have put my foot down about that had Jake wanted it) and I didn’t care whether Jake wanted a straight tie or a bow tie. But black shirts? Sorry, that was where I drew the line. Anyway, Jake’s dad was picking up all new shirts for everyone and bringing them with him. So my dad was without his tux shirt at the moment.

He carried my dress to the black town car he had rented to drive me to the wedding and off we went. The rest of that part is kind of a blur. I know I scheduled the photographer way too early because she did my pictures first and I had to stand around for a looooong damn time. It was hot in my dress and I didn’t want to sit yet because I didn’t want to wrinkle my dress this early in the day. So my girls brought me wine and told me jokes.

Mostly to take my mind off the bow debacle. My dress had a bow on the back. Say what you will, but I like the occasional bow on a wedding gown. Now, mine was very square and tailored but when it was flat, the corners of it poked up to the point that you could see the bow on the back when you looked at me from the front. My seamstress had assured me that when she pressed it for the final time, she would not flatten the bow, and instead would stuff if to make it a bit fluffier and less pointy. I guess she forgot. And since it was my mom who picked up the dress for me the day before the wedding, it was too late by the time I noticed it. I wasn’t going to chance scorching my dress to fix it myself. Here’s the best picture I could find of the bow. It looks like it could take flight, no?

Here’s a picture of Jake I love even though it’s not of his face. You can tell that outwardly he looked calm, cool and collected, but check out his hands. A dead giveaway to how he was really feeling.

All of a sudden it was time to go! This is my dad and me right before turning the corner to go in after the last bridesmaid and the flower girl had gone. I remember saying to him that I had never been this nervous in my entire life. But really only about tripping or crying so hard I couldn’t get my vows out.

So here’s where it gets funny. You know how brides do that lovely slow walk down the aisle, giving everyone a chance to ooh and aaah and admire her gown and lovely bridal glow? Um, yeah. I think I pretty ran up the aisle dragging my poor dad with me. But I had been so nervous and when I saw Jake up there, I just needed to get to him.  Because of my hasty path down the aisle, I had lots of Trumpet Voluntary to listen to as I stood there with my dad and Jake. And I realized that it was the wrong version. Our wedding space did not have room for live musicians so we had to rely on our DJ. I specifically asked for the trumpet version of Trumpet Voluntary and told him if he didn’t have it, I did. “Oh, no, don’t worry, I have it,” he assured me. But he chose to play the organ version of it. I was a little annoyed at that moment, I have to tell you.

Amazingly, I made it through my entire wedding day without crying that much. I credit that to the advice someone gave me,which was this: I gave myself permission to cry as much as I wanted to in the days leading up to the wedding, and then no more. So I think I got teary when my dad saw me for the first time that day in my dress, and then at one point in the vows but other than that I was ok.

The ceremony went smoothly, except for the minister mispronouncing my last name, and the names of my deceased relatives that we chose to remember in the ceremony. But I was used to my last name being mispronounced - I’m Italian after all. And it was hot. We had about a zillion candles up there and I had on a big dress with two petticoats. I could really have used a good breeze under that dress.

After that it was all a blur. We did a receiving line, which I was hesitant about doing because it seems so stuffy. But the event coordinator convinced me for two reasons. First, they needed the time to turn the room from ceremony to reception. And second, it would ensure that we got to at least say hello to every single guest one time. It was the best decision I could have made They passed drinks and hors d’oeuvre to the guests in line so it all worked out. Pictures, dinner, dancing… it all went by so fast and even though I tried to slow it down in my head so I could remember it all, some of it is just a blur. But I can say one thing for sure. I had a great time at my own wedding and I honestly didn’t expect to. I thought I’d be walking from table to table greeting everyone, looking longingly at the dance floor. But see, we had done that at the receiving line so I was free to dance with my family and friends as much as I wanted.

Oh here’s another ooops moment. See this?

That would be the seating chart that I spent at least a month on. I’m not kidding. I think it’s important to do a seating chart or place cards because it tends to take 135 people a long time to get themselves seated when they aren’t sure if they should sit here or if this is supposed to be for family only at this table… It’s just easier if you tell them where to sit. They can move around if they really want to, but a chart makes the seating go faster and everyone can get to eating faster. I didn’t assign seats, just tables. This bitch cost me about $100 to blow up and get mounted on foam board to make it stand up. Anyway, the oops moment is this. We wanted the minister and his wife to be seated with the bridal party in the balcony. But their names are on the last line of the chart. The line that is apparently hidden by that lovely floral garland at the bottom of the easel. Nice, huh? I wondered why they didn’t sit with us upstairs. And I never knew why until we got our proofs back and saw this photo.

Here we are leaving, on our way to our hotel for the night before we left the next day for St. Thomas.

Such a great day. All in all, mistakes were minor and the day was lovely, better that I could have imagined it. We had fun, I think our guests had fun and at the end of the day, we were married, which is really the only truly important part. But I am wedding obsessed and I am dying to get a do-over. I still want to marry Jake, but I just loved planning the wedding. I actually thought about doing it as a career. But you know, most people want to get married on the weekends. And I’m just not sure I’m willing to give up my weekends for someone else’s wedding. Plus it would be hard for me to let them do tacky things like dollar dances and cash bars.

Friday Show and Tell

Ooh fun! Mel over at Stirrup Queens, is having a Friday Show and Tell. And I loved show and tell when I was a kid. So why wouldn’t I still love it?

Today my show and tell item is a picture that I love. It was taken at our wedding.

In this picture on the right are my husband’s parents. The other man is my husband’s uncle and the lovely lady in gorgeous hot pink is my husband’s grandmother, affectionately known as Grandma Pat. Grandma Pat passed away in February of this year and it has left a huge hole in the family that honestly will never be filled. There will never be anyone like her. Anyway, the story behind this picture goes like this.

Jake’s paternal grandparents are divorced, and his grandfather remarried. Pat never remarried. When all the pomp and circumstance of a wedding rolls around, such situations can be a bit touchy because you certainly don’t want to offend anyone. Not that Grandma Pat would ever have been so petty as to be offended by something like this, but you still want to do the right thing. We made sure that all the grandmothers were treated equally with corsages and escorted to their seats by either my brother or my husband’s brother. But when it came time to recess, there were no ushers. Jake’s parents left their seats together and Grandma Pat went with them, as she was seated next to them. But she felt a bit weird about it since she was not the parent of the groom. True to his chivalrous nature, Jake’s dad put a lovely lady, his wife and mother, on each arm and started to whisk them up the aisle.

As they got a few rows back, Brian, Jake’s uncle and Pat’s youngest son, jumped up to take over the honor of escorting his mother up the aisle. As you can see by the look on her face, she is thrilled.

I love this photo for many reasons. I love to see photos of Grandma Pat and for some reason she hated having her picture taken, although I’ll never know why. She was so beautiful and her smile would light up a room. So even at the wedding, there are very few pictures of her. I love her dress. She was always such a stylish dresser. And most of all I love the moment this picture captures of her sons stepping up to make her happy. Not that it was at all unusual for Jake’s dad to do that - he was a true hero son and he and his mom were nuts about each other. Brian on the other hand… well, he loved his mom and she loved him and accepted him for who he is. However, I don’t think attentive to other’s needs will ever be  words used to describe Brian. But as this photo documents, he has his moments.

Mother’s Day

It’s been a great day so far. We had our nieces overnight last night and it was so much fun. We ate pizza, went to Sonic for shakes and floats, played MarioKart and bowling on the Wii, and watched Enchanted, which I’d been interested in seeing but hadn’t gotten around to putting it on the Netflix queue yet. It was pretty good.

Today Jake got up with Bridget and I intended to sleep in, but I was wide awake so I got up and played more MarioKart. Jake got doughnuts (and remembered to get me coffee even though he doesn’t drink it himself!) {Can someone explain to me why the proper spelling of doughnuts is caught by spell checker? The word is not spelled donuts, for christ’s sake} and we all had breakfast together. The girls are gone now and Bridget is asleep. I might play some more MarioKart before showering and then we’ll be going out for Indian food. And I plan to take a nap too!

Jake made me the most beautiful book using Blurb, full of pictures of Bridget and me and Jake over this first 18 months, and using text from some of my blog posts. It is so incredible I can’t even begin to explain it.

Oh, and at Mother’s Day Out, Bridget “made” me a cute little card with her picture on it.

I like this day just as it is. Jake asked me earlier what I wanted and what I wanted to do. My gut instinct and immediate response was that I don’t want to turn this day into another Christmas or birthday. And I am loving it.

Happy Mother’s Day to those of you out there who are celebrating today.

Soggy Salad, Be Gone!

Today I was so pleasantly surprised to find a package on my doorstep. I was even more pleasantly surprised to see a customs slip on it, which could only mean it was from the lovely and amazing Helen. Although, significantly missing was a smart ass answer as to the box’s contents. I guess you can only buck the system for so long before the post office starts “losing” your packages, though.

I literally squealed with delight and laughed for a good fifteen minutes when I opened the package to see a beautiful OXO Salad Spinner. You might remember that I am still a bit miffed that the one from my wedding registry was purchased for me seven years ago and yet never delivered to me. Jake came down to see what all the fuss was about and laughed as well. Apparently great minds think alike and he had thought of getting me one for Mother’s Day. I must have bitched a lot about soggy salads and rude wedding guests.

I can’t wait to make some salad. I actually saw a recipe by Paula Deen recently (or maybe it was Ina Garten, I can’t remember) that said to dry your greens in a spinner and I was bereft because I had no salad spinner. But now I do! My world is complete.

Thank you Helen!

How I Met My Honey

Ooh, another carnival! I love a carnival! And this one is about how we all met our husbands/wives/significant others Go see Reba and play along too!

It was October, 1999. I was living in a really cool apartment near downtown Dallas with  my friend Alicia. I was also casually dating two guys, which is something I NEVER did. Not EVER. I was never good at casually dating because it made me feel very uncomfortable. And this situation was definitely outside of my comfort zone, but I was working it ok. The two guys in question were polar opposites. One was a total guy’s guy - sports freak, no fashion sense, fairly clueless when it came to women but a good guy all around. The other was more on the artsy side. He was a musician but not by trade, dressed very fashionably, and knew all about wine and women (which was a stumbling block to any long-term potential we might have had). Both were older than me - Sports Freak was 32 to my 25 and Skirt Chaser was 36. I liked them both ok but there was no real magic there with either of them. I had just finally after two years gotten over a very slow and painful long-distance breakup, so I guess that was the reason I was embracing my new single gal status with such gusto.

One Saturday night, October 23 to be exact, some new neighbors of ours were having a house warming party in the courtyard. Since everyone’s apartments opened out to the courtyard, Alicia and I decided that we’d better just go to the party - we wanted to stay in and watch a movie and eat pizza since we’d both had big nights out the night before, but knew we’d not be able to hear our movie anyway. So down we went, with the plan of having a beer or two and saying hi and then going back up when the noise died down.

I remember that he was standing by the grill talking to my next door neighbor, wearing a Dave Matthews Band t-shirt. I came up to say hi to my neighbor and he introduced me to Jake, whom he had just met himself. For the next hour or so, we kept running back into each other. We’d sit and chat for a moment then we’d go do something else. I was completely not looking to meet anyone new, as I already had more on my plate in the men department than I could handle, so I was not flirting. We were just talking. There was a moment when I was unintentionally bitchy to him, and although he’ll exaggerate exactly how bitchy I was, I realized immediately how it had sounded and tried to make amends. I don’t know why I cared, because as I said, I was not looking for another guy.

The night progressed and we continued to talk and talk and talk. We both liked hockey. He said very casually that we should go to a Stars game sometime. I said out loud “That would be cool!” but in my head I was thinking “What are you doing? You can’t handle dating another guy!” But instinct must have taken over. We ended up being the last ones at the party, Jake and his co-worker and my roommate and me. We sat at a table and talked until the wee hours. Jake asked for my phone number, and I invited him up to the apartment so I could get write it down for him. At that  point in her life, my dog Lucy was very scared of men and wanted no part of them. But for some reason, when Jake came in the apartment, she didn’t freak out, she even let him pet her. It was like she knew before I did.

As the weekend ended, I had convinced myself that if Jake called, which I was sure he wouldn’t, I would just say I couldn’t see him. But he did call on Monday and he had tickets to the Stars game for the upcoming weekend. Again, instinct ruled over the babbling in my head telling me to not throw another ball in the air to juggle. As the week wore on, I told myself that I would give him the talk after the date ended.

But we went on the date. And we had a great time. I wasn’t nervous. We had so much to talk about. We were laughing constantly. After the hockey game, he took me to a Halloween party. In the car on the way there, he held my hand. The instant he took my hand, my stomach dropped like I was on a roller coaster. After the party, on the way to the car, with a very light rain falling, he stopped me in the middle of the street and kissed me. And that was it.

Two weeks later, I had given both the other guys the heave-ho and he had broken it off with a girl he’d been seeing and we were exclusive and serious. By Thanksgiving, we had acknowledged the fact that we were probably going to get married. We dated for a year to make sure we weren’t insane and were engaged on September 20, 2000. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Anyone else want to share? I love to hear about true love stories. C’mon, dish!

Facebook Gives Me Warm Fuzzies

And not just because I adore throwing sheep at people and playing scrabble.

In the past week, I’ve been reconnected with eight old friends I’d lost touch with, all of them from all the way back to high school days, including my old friend K who, even after all this time without contact, is simply one of my favorite people in the world and has been since I was in 10th grade and we were in Art History class together.

This is way more fun than any of the other old-school high school reunion sites ever were. But maybe if they’d given us the ability to throw sheep at one another, I’d have liked them more too.

Seven Years

Seven years ago today, this girl

married this guy

And then they were off to live happily ever after