The Beauty and the Mess

Hi guys. Thanks so much for all your prayers - I know they made a difference! Evan is fine. ( More about Wreck Day. )

On Saturday, once we were sure Evan felt good enough to go out, we got a lot of things done. We finished our Target registry and did our Home Depot one in one shot. Then we booked our rehearsal dinner, which was a huge load off my mind. Also, last week we signed a DJ whom we all really liked. She recommended a more reasonable photographer (the one we've talked to is pretty expensive), so we're meeting with him on Wednesday. I have a good feeling about him. After that, the only really big thing we need to book is the florist. Woo hoo!

Sunday was a nice day. At church, the wife of one of our Sunday School leaders shared about their recent mission trip to Guatemala. It was very eye-opening. (Did you know Guatemalan children only go to school four hours a day?) I also got to talk to admael between services. Her new haircolor is very cool. :) After church we went to lunch at Mozzarella's, which Evan and I enjoyed more than usual since we're cutting way back on our eating out. In the afternoon I took a refreshing walk, and later Ryan came over to eat spaghetti with us. I also made an apple pie for Evan- it's his favorite. It was much better than the last one. My cooking is improving! Yay!

So that's what I've been doing. Despite the drama, it ended up being a pretty nice weekend. Our time together was even better knowing how much worse the accident could have been. I can't wait to be married. 110 days! And tonight Kathy is coming over! I haven't seen her since her wedding. This is the longest we've been apart in...well, a long time. :) So I'm excited about hanging out with her. God is good.

Kathy is home! She called me a couple of hours ago. I didn't realize how much I'd missed her until I heard her voice. The honeymoon was good- they parasailed and went on a hot-air balloon ride! She recommends the parasailing, so if they have that in Jamaica, we'll probably go too. Anyway, I'm so glad she's back.

I am so rich in friends. Last night was the last Bible study of the summer at our church, and we had a great time worshiping and spending time with everyone. Our friend Chris is preparing to go off to Mississippi State to be the RUF intern there, so I'm glad we're all getting quality time together. In the middle of singing last night, Evan and I had the great idea to have Matt (who's a groomsman) and Chris sing something before our ceremony. We had been stressing trying to figure out the pre-ceremony music. This way we don't have to inconvenience any additional people. :) We asked them after the study, and they excitedly went back to their posts and "auditioned" different songs for us. We quickly settled on "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," because they have a great arrangement of it that they've already performed for the church. They're comfortable with it, it's a great song, and it has "love" in it, so my mom can't complain that it's not weddingy enough. Also, I don't know if I'd mentioned that Myla wrote a song for our wedding that she and Luke are going to sing during the unity candle. All our friends have heard it and say it's wonderful and will make me cry. Tonight after our IPC study, they're finally going to perform it for us, so expect reviews tomorrow. I'm so humbled by the way things are coming together better than I had planned. Our wedding's going to rock! :)

Oh, and Robert happily agreed to perform our ceremony. Again, most of our friends have talked to him recently and all report that he's really excited. He just got ordained last year, so ours will be the first wedding he's done. How cool is that? Again, God comes through. When will I stop being surprised?

We saw The Village this weekend. I highly recommend it. It's not so much scary as thought-provoking. Unfortunately, I can't really say anything about it without giving it away, so you'll have to take my word for it.

Evan's car inadvertently acquired a name this weekend. On Saturday night he was trying to tell me about his gas mileage and said "Hey, guess how long my fill-up lasted," but I thought he said "my Philip." I thought, is this another car part I don't know about? He clarified, laughed a lot and then said that he refused to have a car named Philip. I told him that was too bad. I mean, my last car was named Petunia. It could be worse. contradictions and fettman can be happy. :)

My birthday is in 14 days. I want two things for my birthday: a new watch battery, and a stereo repair. My Kenwood hasn't worked in at least six months and I don't know what's wrong with it...the standby light never goes out, but the stereo won't turn on. If I want to listen to music at home, I have to do it from the computer. It's not the same. So I'd like that fixed. Evan knows this so I assume it'll be taken care of. :)

Happy birthday Lisa!

Yay - Evan has his new (to him) car. He actually picked it up Tuesday night. It's a Metro like mine. His is a '94 and mine is a '99, but there's not much difference between them. They look exactly the same inside. This is the nicest car I've ever known him to have. It drives fairly smoothly and the air conditioning works! God has provided. I'm so thankful Evan doesn't have to drive the ticking time bomb anymore. Last night he washed both of our cars, and then we went to the library together. It's still so exciting to me that he likes going to the library as much as I do. Geek love.

Oh, speaking of geekiness, I saw a greeting card that had a picture of Gandalf (the wizard, not my cat) on the front, and said "Happy Birthday from Gandalf!" On the inside it said, "You actually got a little excited, didn't you? Man, what a geek!" Someone should get that for me.

I've been looking at different wordings for wedding invitations, and some of them are pretty funny. The best one I've found so far is "Mr. and Mrs. ___ invite you to witness a miracle - the marriage of their daughter ____!" I told Evan that was the most appropriate, given our history. Instead, he keeps suggesting things like "You are reluctantly invited..." LOL. I guess I'll stick with the traditional phrasing.

Target has those cute pink-and-black initial purses on sale. Of course, all they have is A, L, and R. They never have B! I've been looking forever for an initial purse, and the only one I've found was at Kohl's and it was kind of shoddy-looking. Hey Danielle- if you find a cute B purse in all your purse shopping, let me know. :)

Random observation: On American Idol, everyone kept saying how unique Fantasia was and how they'd never heard someone with her style. Well, I was listening to my 1998 Grammy Nominees CD last week, and you know who sounds exactly like Fantasia? Erykah Badu. Listen if you don't believe me. And where is she now? Weird. On another music note (ha ha), I've noticed all 3 Doors Down songs seem to lead to thoughts of Harry Potter. All those angsty songs about lonely, misunderstood heroes. Any one of them could go on the soundtrack.

So tomorrow my best friend is getting married. And then all the brides will be wives. Except for...(Elle Woods voice)....ME!!! LOL. Just kidding. Man, I'm spastic today. Maybe this is my brain's way of dealing with such a big event. Anyway, I hope everyone has a good weekend!

I spent two hours at my parents' last night talking to my sister about marriage, jewelry, and politics, among other things. I told her how I'm close to not watching the Today show anymore, because Katie Couric is becoming almost unbearable in her liberalism. A few mornings ago, Kathy and I were eating breakfast in the dining area when we heard NBC Special Report music. Immediately we went to see what was going on. Since 9/11, whenever I hear special report music, I sort of steel myself to see more planes flying into buildings. (I don't think I'm alone in that, either.) So once most of the viewers were on edge, what was the special report for? A Kerry/Edwards photo op! Unbelievable. We flipped to the other channels, and of course, none of them thought this worthy of a break in programming. Kathy was disgusted. Now she keeps saying things like, "Breaking news! Kerry's brushing his teeth for the first time since he announced his candidacy! Look, he even got the back ones!"

I'm going to miss her.

Gandalf has been funny lately. Every morning just before I leave, I give him a cat treat. He's good at routine, so as soon as he hears me go to the door with my shoes on, he hurries over. Well, the other day I was walking into the kitchen, and he came barreling around the corner and literally knocked me out of my shoes. It was hilarious. Apparently the treat is the high point of his day. I explained that I couldn't give it to him if my arms were broken, but that hasn't deterred him from tripping me before.

( Honeymoon waffling, etc. )

I had lunch today with Alli, my third bridesmaid. She bought my lunch and gave me a copy of Chicken Soup for the Bride's Soul. Isn't she nice? I'm so glad she's going to be in the wedding. And now I have something to read on the plane. Virginia, here I come...

Oh, and happy birthday to laraemily, one of the most fun, creative people on LJ. Yay!

I miss Helen, because she'd also find our new receptionist situation at work annoying. Our nice receptionists were removed from the entrances about a month ago and moved to building C, where they just field calls. Instead of Lois, who was always sweet and pleasant to talk to, there's a professional security guard in a suit sitting at the front desk every day. He's nice enough, but twice a day he demands to see my name badge. (I should point out that our badges also serve as keys, meaning you can't open the door without one.) It's gotten kind of ridiculous, to the point that he calls people by name and asks to see their badges. The only way to placate him is to keep my badge clipped to the outside of my purse at all times, which is 1) unsafe when I'm out in public and 2) increasing the chances of losing my badge, in which case I will probably never get into the office again. :P

Now that I've vented about that, I'm ready to share the official Wedding Lineup! ( Blathering - here's a cut for the uninterested. )

Gosh, I could go on for quite a while about other wedding things, but how much can you guys take? Plus, I probably ought to find work to do. I already feel bad about my wedding fixation during work hours.