Closing in on 6 months

It's hard to believe that two Sundays from today we'll have been married for six months. It's been wonderful!

To recap, briefly:

We bought a house.

















We adopted the sweetest cat ever from our local shelter.




















We did some home renovations.







































We had a lovely first fall, including a weekend trip up to New Hampshire.




















My parents came to visit.































James' parents came to visit.
















We're learning what it means to be home owners. (A lot of work, and a lot of money, especially if plumbers are involved.)








































(I've done lots of work around the house too, just no one's taking pictures of it! Hehe.)

I got about a foot of hair chopped off to donate to Locks for Love.




















James has been absolutely slammed in work pretty much ever since we got back from the honeymoon. He would wake up at five am, get to work, wake me up at 7 or whatever, we'd go to work. We'd come home and while I was making dinner, he'd work. We'd have dinner, watch an hour of TV on DVD or TiVo'd TV (at most), then he'd go back to work. Some nights he worked the whole night through. Thankfully that period came to a close today, so that should be the end of the all nighters - at least for now.

This weekend we had our first snowstorm! It started out as a sprinkling of rain and a few spare flakes drifting down, so I didn't think it would amount to much. We ran a bunch of errands all over Northern Mass (the nearest Crate and Barrel is a half hour away, and the nearest Trader Joe's is a half hour away, but in two different directions!), including getting Christmas gifts. The snow really started coming down, and it was so much fun to be doing all this Christmas-y shopping with the snow falling softly around us. What was a little flurry in the afternoon turned into an all-out snowstorm that night, so driving home after shopping was slow and careful.

And the next morning, our neighborhood was transformed into a winter wonderland!















Added bonus: we only got a couple of inches, so the snow cleared out of the roads pretty quickly. But it hasn't really fallen off the trees yet (at least, as of this morning), so it's extremely pretty everywhere you look!















We have two and a half more weeks of work, and then on December 23 we fly out to California to spend Christmas with the Webster clan. We're flying in to San Francisco, then driving down that night to somewhere along the coast. On Christmas eve, we'll continue driving down the coast to Arroyo Grande where his parents have a house. It's going to be so wonderful! We're both getting very excited.

The Honeymoon

I have a lot of updating to do, but since I'm neurotic, I feel that I can't post anything until I finish the wedding-related updates. So, here goes:

The day after the wedding, we had breakfast at the hotel. It was really nice to see some of the wedding guests and bridal party one more time! Afterwards, James and I drove back to my parents' house, where we spent a frenzied half hour getting ready for our flight to California. It was a bit crazy: the kitchen was full of flowers (yipes, we forgot to give the centerpieces away?! Was that my responsibility? I totally forgot about that tradition, I feel my parents should have reminded me.. or just taken care of it), the dining room was piled up with some wedding gifts (my dad insisted on parading us through to see them all, when we had about a million other things to do to get ready to go!) and everyone was feeling a little tired and frazzled. But after some pictures and some hasty goodbyes, my dad and my (new!) father-in-law drove us to the airport. Our flight out to Bakersfield, CA was uneventful. We wore our "Just Married" tee shirts, which was really cute, and we got several congratulations along the way.

Once in Bakersfield, we rented a car and drove up to James' hometown of Porterville. We stopped in at his parents' house, even though they weren't back from NJ yet, and found that his mom had left us a picnic basket full of camping goodies on the dining room table! It was so sweet. We didn't stay overnight in their house though -we got a hotel room! The next day, we had the seemingly impossible task of packing up our car (which we'd left at his parents' place when we flew out East back in April) with all the camping stuff we had stashed in their garage back in April PLUS all of the stuff we brought with us on the flight the day before. But somehow, we did it! And we were off on our honeymoon :D First, we dropped our rental car off on the way, so our first half hour of driving was actually in different cars. Once that was done, then we were off on our honeymoon!

Our first destination was Yosemite National Park. We had a campsite outside of the park itself, so after a looong drive, we set up camp and then drove into the park. The campground advertised itself as being 10 minutes from Yosemite, and it was. Ten minutes from the entrance, that is. It's a full hour from Yosemite Valley, which is where all the good stuff is. It was getting dark when we finally arrived in the valley, so we didn't have time to do anything but drive around. I'd never been there before, and I was completely in awe. It's a magical, beautiful place. The word "awesome" is overused these days, but that's really what Yosemite is: awesome. We had two full days in the park, so we got in some great hikes and saw a lot of the key sights like Glacier Point, Bridal Veil and Yosemite Falls, and we took a long, somewhat arduous hike to see Vernal Falls by way of the straight-out-of-Tolkien Mist Trail. We also had a romantic dinner at the Awahanee Hotel, the ritzy and historic hotel in the center of the valley, courtesy of James' Uncle John. Our last day in Yosemite was only a partial day as we were driving out of the park, but we went a northerly route so we got to see parts of the park we hadn't seen before, in particular the Tuolomne Meadows. It was absolutely gorgeous up there, and I'm so glad that our GPS directed to go that way! We would have missed it completely otherwise.

After we left the park, we had an expensive and disappointing lunch at a diner that someone at work had highly recommended. We stopped at Mono Lake, which was pretty anticlimactic and smelly. But it was neat to see it, anyway. Then we drove to Lake Tahoe, which took the whole afternoon. We got a hotel and went on a bike ride to the lake, which was pretty but once you see the lake, there's not much else to do. We had dinner at Fire & Ice, and James made his second dish incredibly spicy but he still insisted on eating it. He had a miserably upset stomach afterwards so we just went back to the hotel and went to bed.

The next day, we drove to Salt Lake City, and it took all day. Nevada is a very wide state! And, by the way, incredibly boring. There's only so much flat deserty nothingness that a girl can stand to look at! Luckily we had books to read aloud to each other to keep us entertained (we read books to each other all the way across the country). We stayed in the Little America Hotel, which was the nicest hotel either of us had been in up to that point. Our room was decorated like a posh little French chateau. The next day we got room service for breakfast, which was the first time for both of us. It was fun! We biked around Salt Lake a little bit, got a tour of the conference center which is open to the public, and looked at the temple, which is not. There were a lot of brides outside the temple - they do multiple weddings at once! We also drove out to the Great Salt Lake and waded in a little. It was smelly but a neat experience. That night we stayed in the Grand American hotel, which is even fancier than the Little America.

The next day was Sunday, so that marks the first week of our honeymoon. We got a late start and drove all day to Yellowstone National Park. We stopped in Jackson Hole, Wyoming for dinner. It's a touristy cowboy town - it felt very Wild West with wooden sidewalks and Old-West-style buildings. We passed through the Grand Tetons National Park around sunset, and it was gorgeous. I wish we could've spent more time there.

Yellowstone, in case you've never been there, is huge. HUGE. Once we got it the park, we still had to drive a couple of hours to get to our campsite. And it's creepy, there was no one else on the road and we could smell smoke (from campfires we later found out, but how could we know it wasn't a wildfire?) and it's very very very remote. No cell reception, no sign of human anything besides the road for the longest time. Weird. We arrived at our campsite around midnight and had the difficult task of setting up camp in the dark while trying not to wake up our neighbors. Oh, and it was stinking cold, too! We had a miserable night's sleep because we could only partially fill our air mattress before the pump gave out (we forgot to charge it in Salt Lake), so we had to sleep on a nauseatingly squishy bed. And it was freezing! I spent the whole night shivering despite the fact that I was bundled up from head to toe.

Our days in Yellowstone we spent seeing lots of geothermal features like mudpots and fumeroles and hot springs. We saw Old Faithful erupt and hiked around to see lots of geisers. We saw Morning Glory (which was awesome) and Mammoth Hotsprings (which were a bit disappointing) and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (which neither of us knew about beforehand, but it's a spectacular sight that's not to be missed). And we saw lots of buffalo and elk! We got stuck in plenty of Yellowstone traffic jams caused by wild animals either on the side of the road, or crossing the road, or within viewing distance from the road. Basically, any time an animal appeared, the traffic screeched to a halt and everyone whipped out their cameras. We'd scheduled four nights in Yellowstone, but after two nights we were ready to go. We weren't sleeping well (although we did manage to fully inflate our bed), and the mosquitos were ridiculous, swarming us at our campsite all day long, not just at dusk like civilized mosquitos. And when I say "swarm," I mean "clouds of fierce, monstrous mosquitos hovering nearby and stabbing any bit of exposed flesh." Dousing ourselves in bug spray didn't really discourage the mosquitos, but it did make the fact that we couldn't shower much more pleasant. So after two nights, we cried Uncle, packed up, and took off. We did spend that day seeing more sights before we left the park.

Once we left the central part of Yellowstone, where all the sights are, we had a long drive to reach the edge of the park. But then we were still in the middle of nowhere, and it took another couple of hours to reach any civilization beyond the random ranch or tiny cluster of houses. We stayed overnight in Cody, WY, which was in our US/Canada edition of "10,000 places to see before you die." Our motel room was actually a little log cabin, which was pretty neat, and it was very nice inside! The next day we saw the Trail Village, which is a collection of authenic Wild West buildings from around Wyoming and South Dakota, including a salloon with bullet holes in the door! We drove all day and were going to stop in a little town called Moorcroft, but we got there at 6pm and the sun was still shining so we decided to keep on driving to Devil's Tower instead of waiting until the next day as we'd originally planned. Plus, Moorcroft turned out to be a little nothing town with only sketchy motels. So we drove to Devil's Tower, which was really neat, if a bit surreal. It's not an old volcano, which is what it looks like - it was a plug of magma that was level with the surrounding ground, until the sedementary rock around it wore away, so now it's this huge dark rock tower climbing out of the rolling Wyoming plains.

The next day we saw Mount Rushmore and got pounded by an intense rainstorm that included mothball-sized hail. We were soaked, but we were still happy to be there. We drove through the Badlands, which turned out to be on a road that runs parallel to the highway we were going to take anyway. It was nice to be able to add another national park to our collection! We saw prairie dogs, too :) That night, we drove until 10pm, then stopped at the first town we could find to get a motel room. There were only two motels in the town, one sketchier than the other, so we got a room in the less sketchy motel. When we went to our room, #25, we found a toothless drunk man already in there! His key to room #26 had unlocked our room, so he thought it was his. The room that was supposed to be his was a gross smoking room, and that was the only other open room, so we couldn't stay there. The rooms looked crummy and it seemed that they hadn't seen an update since the 1970s, so I didn't mind that we had get our money back and keep driving. We drove another half hour and found a clean and modern Holiday Inn Express with brand new mattresses and it was divine.

The next day we drove all day to Omaha, and it rained the whole way. We stayed with James' aunt, Anne, and had dinner with her and her children Heather and Art and their spouses and Art's baby son. Anne has a hot tub on her back porch, so after everyone left, Anne set it up for us. We relaxed in the hot tub and watched fireworks on the horizon before going to bed. The next day was the Fourth of Julyso everyone gathered at Heather's house for a barbeque lunch. We went to the Omaha zoo that afternoon, and watched fireworks over a river. It was nice to be able to spend the holiday with family, especially since Heather's husband and Art and his wife didn't make it to the wedding.

The next day (Sunday, two weeks of honeymoon!), our plan was to drive straight from Omaha to Chicago, but over the course of the day James came down with some sort of nasty cold, so we had to stop once we reached Illinois. We found a hotel, and I called Nawojka to let her know we were delayed, since we were staying with them. We got James some OJ and cold medicine and he went to bed around 7pm and didn't wake up until 9 the next morning. He was still feeling sick when he woke up, but gradually improved during the course of the day. We made it to Chicago and reunited with Seth and Nawojka (actually, James was meeting them for the first time), and it was wonderful to see them. They have a hip little apartment that is totally a reflection of Nawojka's fabulous sense of style. After a bit of catching up, James and I went to the Sears Tower, where we stood in line for over two hours in order to be at the top for less than ten minutes. It's the highest building in the Western Hemisphere, and it's really really high. The building swayed every so slightly, and I felt woozy and strange up there. We stood out on the newly-opened clear balconies and could see all the way to the sidewalk! That was crazy - even though I was telling myself it was perfectly safe, my body was freaking out and trembling and I had to hold onto James the whole time we stood out there. When we got back to the apartment, Nawojka had whipped up a gourmet dinner for us, and we had a lovely evening.

The next morning, Nawojka made delicious crepes for breakfast, and James and I went back into the city for more exploring. We took the architecture boat tour and walked around in Grant Park. We just missed getting into the art museum, which was disappointing, but we met up with Seth and Nawojka in the John Hancock Tower's "Signature Lounge" for drinks on one of the top floors. We had a spectacular view of the city - it was a lot fun! We had dinner at a favorite burger place of theirs, and just hung out with them in their apartment afterwards.

The next day we had another delicious breakfast (waffles this time) and then had to say our sad goodbyes. We drove all day to Cleveland, stopping in the afternoon to visit the Notre Dame campus.

The next day we drove to Laporte, to my parents' vacation home in the woods. It was strange to be back to somewhere so familiar after our long adventure across the country! Our visit with my parents was brief, but a relaxing stop before our final push to Massachusetts. We only had one full day in Laporte, and then we were off again Saturday morning. Our final stop was our house in Methuen, and it was strange to be back. After all, we'd only lived in that house for five days before we left for our wedding. And now we were "home" to a place that wasn't really home. But it was great to be back, to stop living out of a car, to sleep in our own bed!

And the next day, we were getting ready to go back to work, after the most amazing three week vacation. And it wasn't easy.

Wedding day!

The wedding day kind of passed in a blur. There was so much to do! It was a busy and bustling day, and it seemed like everything was laid out on a fast-paced timeline that just propelled us through the day.

Saturday morning started off with a shower (it's my wedding day OMG this is no normal shower shower), then my sister and I went to the hair dressers to have our hair washed. Cheryl didn't want us to wash our hair ourselves, because she wanted to be sure that our curls started drying properly to avoid frizz. So she washed our hair, and put product in them, and then put these metal clips in to hold our roots up so that when the hair dried, it'd have more volume on top.

When we got home, it was brunch time. There were a lot of people in the house, so it was awesome to have them see me in my mom's ugly button-down shirt and my hair all crazy. The bridal party and their dates, and some of James' friends and family were there, along with the pastor and his wife, and some friends of my parents - the house was pretty crowded! It was really nice to get to hang out with people before the wedding, and to meet some of James's friends for the first time.

I was getting worried about the weather during the brunch... either it was raining or threatening to rain, I forget which. Anyway, it was raining off and on all day and I was worried about rain during the wedding, since it was planned to be outdoors and we didn't want our guests to get wet, and we wanted to get photos outside because the setting was so beautiful. Photos inside at Auletto's would not have been as nice. A bunch of people comforted me, told me that it was just getting it out of its system so it could be clear in the evening, or that it's good luck to have raindrops on your veil. And I tried to keep a positive, "it is what it is" kind of attitude, but deep down I was really hoping it wouldn't rain.

During the brunch, my bridesmaids slipped away to get their hair done, and came back looking fabulous. It was so exciting to see the transformation from casual to glamorous begin! That really made the "The wedding is happening TODAY" idea sink in.

Sometime after the brunch, the flowers arrived. I was so excited and giddy as I opened up the boxes to see how they turned out. My bouquet was gorgeous, but there was a problem with the bridesmaids bouquets. My idea was I have white and pale pink flowers, the three bridesmaids have light pink and darker pink flowers, and the two maids of honor to have the same bouquets with the addition of hot pink roses to make them stand out. We got that - but each of the bridesmaids bouquet also had dark dark pink peonies. So dark they looked purple. The purple-y peonies really clashed with the hot pink roses of the maid of honor bouquets, and they destroyed the color scheme I had going because there was no progression from white to dark pink anymore. I was upset, but I figured, what the hell, it is what it is, I'm not going to freak out and be a bridezilla. Then my mom found out, and we looked at the flowers and decided the maid of honor bouquets really didn't work, so the delivery guy took those two back to the shop to have the florist people take them apart and remove the purple flowers.

Then my dad found out, and I tried to downplay it, but he persisted. "Is this really okay? If you don't like it, we'll fix it somehow." That sort of thing. So eventually I relented - I really hated the purple, I have an aversion to purple in weddings for some reason, and that shade of purple would really clash with the bridesmaids dresses. We talked to the florist on the phone, he said he'd send someone over to fix it, but they didn't have many flowers to substitute. He had lilies, but I sort of hate lilies. They make me think of funeral arrangements. So my dad and I went over to our neighbor, who has a hot pink hydrangea bush, and asked if we could use some. She happily donated almost every blossom on her bush, insisting that we take more. It was so incredibly sweet of her. We went back home with handfuls of flowers, and my parents also figured that they could take apart the arrangements that decorated the house if the florist still needed more blooms.

So with that crisis hopefully averted, Carrie and I went to get our hair and makeup done - I forgot my veil, though, and had to drive back to the house to get it! I loved how my hair and make-up turned out, and getting the veil placed on my head was a magic moment: suddenly, I was a bride! It was fun to drive myself home wearing a veil. Something so ordinary was suddenly special and exciting.









Surprise photographer attack!




When I got home, I was surprised to open the front door and have a camera in my face - the photographer had arrived! It was a bizarre paparazzi moment. While I was gone, the florist came and fixed all of the bouquets. He was just about to leave when I got home, and he had all the finished bouquets waiting for me on the back porch. And they were perfect. Just perfect. They were exactly what I'd imagined, and the addition of our neighbor's hydrangeas made them even more special. I just loved them, and I was so happy to see them go from something that just wasn't right at all to exquisitely perfect, I was overwhelmed. I got teary when I thanked the florist and hugged him, and I could tell that he was really touched by how happy I was.












The fixed bouquets - gorgeous!







Another fun surprise when I got back from the salon was seeing all my bridesmaids in their gowns! I hadn't seen any of the girls actually wearing the gowns before, and they looked fabulous. They're just such a pretty bunch of girls, and I think the dresses looked good on all of them.

Then I had to get changed, and the fabulous Kelly Barrows helped me into my gown. It was amazing to put it on and see myself all done up to be a bride with awesome hair and makeup. When I went downstairs, there was a flurry of photographs, then we were off to Auletto's. We piled into my dad's minivan, and I think we got some looks from other drivers who were surprised to see a bride stuffed into the passenger seat!

When we arrived at Auletto's, we headed for the bridal suite, and I was just about to go in when something alerted me to the fact that James was inside! I'd gone all year without him finding out what the gown looked like, I didn't want to spoil the surprise right before the wedding! I hurried off and hid while they cleared the men out of the bridal suite (I'm still not sure why there were in there, seems like the bridal suite should be a safe place for the bride to hide!). Then there was a bunch of waiting around to do, and pictures to take among ourselves, and complementary champagne to drink. Every once in a while someone would pop in and report that it was pouring outside. Ack! But at that point, I was pretty chill about it. I mean, I was getting married no matter what, so who cares about a little water?!

And then it was time. It was time to get married!! Craziness. We all lined up in the processional order, then went out and joined up with the groomsmen. The rain was thankfully trailing off, it was just drizzling very lightly as we walked over to the the garden. It was amazing to see all those people waiting under the tent, and to hear the music that we'd selected for the prelude floating through the air. And then the Auletto's people were telling us to go, and one by one all the bridesmaids and groomsmen walked down the aisle. Then it was my turn! I took my poppa's arm, told him I loved him, and we were off. I was doing good, smiling and happy walking down the aisle, but once I got close enough to catch a glimpse of James, I started tearing up. (So in most of the pictures after that, I'm making an ugly emotional face. Oh well!)

Standing at the front of the aisle with my dad, waiting to be given away and locking eyes with James, was an amazing moment. His eyes were filled with tears, and it was just magical. The ceremony was over in a flash, I giggled and cried my way through it. James and I made jokes to each other while we were up there, and I got a little teary at different points in the ceremony. Especially when the minister pronounced us man and wife - I just burst into tears!

After the ceremony, we got caught in an unplanned receiving line as we waited for the pictures to start happening. Then we took a bunch of photos with the bridal party and immediate families. Thankfully the rain ended during the ceremony and the sun actually poked out briefly, so we got some great photos!

After the photo session, we headed in to the wine cellar and mingled a bit. Kelly handed me a glass of white wine (no red for me, not it that big white gown!) and it was wonderful but I hardly had a chance to drink it. Then they ushered us upstairs for the reception. When we made our grand entrance as husband and wife, the band leader introduced us as "Mr. and Mrs. James Ryder!" Haha!

The reception was wonderful, tons of fun and definitely not long enough, though we were plenty tired by the end of it. We talked to every table, though not necessarily to every person. We asked for one each of the meal choices so we could try it all, thinking we'd get three servings total. Well, we got three servings each! That was way too much food, but it was nice to sample each of the main courses. We got to taste the chocolate fountain, which was delicious, and we wish now we'd had more of that good yumminess. We did the bouquet toss, and the cake cutting, and the special dances - and suddenly it was over. We made our grand exit as planned with the guests holding sparklers, but the Auletto's people lit the sparklers too soon and a bunch of them burned out before we made it out the door. But still, walking through the crowd of people with sparklers was a magical experience (if a bit intimidating - those sparklers were everywhere, and I felt very flamable!) that we'll always remember.

After we came out from the crowd of guests and sparklers, we stuffed me into my parents' best car (a Corolla) and James drove us to the hotel. We weren't checked in yet, so we had to stand around in the lobby waiting for the verrrry sloowww guest services dude to check someone in in front of us. And then guests from the wedding started showing up, and we felt kind of ridiculous waiting in line! Our guests were really surprised to see us, and it was a little embarrassing - I'd think if you had a bride and groom waiting to check in, you'd hustle up and get to them ASAP. Whatevs. It was fine. We were married!! And it had been a wonderful, unforgettable day.

The day before the big day!

Friday was a seriously busy and pretty stressful day. It began with a breakfast at my house for the bridesmaids. We had an appointment at the nail salon at 10 am, so I wanted to make sure everyone got fed before we left. The girls, Josh (Phyllis's date), and Andrew (Kelly's date) came over I guess around 9, and we had breakfast - bagels with cream cheese, cereal and yogurt. I gave the bridesmaids their gifts, and they got a kick out of the emergency kits I included in each bag - hair pins, oil absorbing sheets, advil, pepto, bandaids I think, safety pins, water bottles and snacks, and the like.

After breakfast, we all trooped downtown, where we dropped the guys off at a coffee shop and then continued on to the nail salon. I wanted to give my ladies a little pampering before the big day. I treated everyone to a French manicure (without fake nails), which they all appreciated, and everyone's hands looked so pretty! (On Thursday before the bachelorette party, I went to the same salon and got a pedicure. I wanted to give everyone a mani/pedi, but I couldn't afford it. So rather than me getting a pedicure while everyone else gets just a manicure, I decided to do it ahead of time. I hope it was less awkward that way.)

After our pretty nails dried, we walked back to the coffee shop and picked up the boys. Some of us got coffee, I got a mocha for James. We walked back to my house, and I went to wake up my groom. With Carrie, Steve and Leif also staying at my parents' house, all the good beds were full, so James had to sleep on the creaky old hide-a-bed couch in the basement. Which meant, of course, that he didn't sleep well, so when I vacated my bed in the morning, I put him in it so he could get some real sleep. I brought him his mocha in bed, but he had no interest in waking up yet. I put the mocha on the bedside table so he'd find it when he did wake up, but he didn't and the mocha was still there when I went to bed that night. Oh well.

Shortly after we got back from the nail place, we girls had to head out again for the bridal luncheon. The mothers were supposed to come with us, but then Jeanne called and bailed, so my mom said she didn't want to be the only mother there and bailed too. So it was just the girls, which was fine, but I was disappointed I didn't get to treat my mom and future mother-in-law to lunch, too. We had lunch at a yummy, small Italian restaurant in a nearby town. At some point I made a little speech saying thank you to my bridesmaids, and I teared up a bit. Aw. I'm getting a little teary thinking about it!

Sometime during lunch, I called James and had him take the welcome bags to the hotel and other stuff to the caterer. This was a poorly planned effort and it made him late to the rehearsal.

The rehearsal was at 2:30 in the afternoon, which is a strange time for a rehearsal in my book, but it was necessary because the caterer has Friday evening weddings. Pretty soon after we got back from the luncheon, we got changed and left for the rehearsal. It was a kind of stressful time getting everyone into cars and assembling everyone at Auletto's, especially with James late, when we had only a half hour to run through everything.

But eventually everyone was there and we were running through the ceremony. It was surreal to be practing the wedding, knowing that tomorrow - TOMORROW! - it would be for real. I teared up a bit during the ceremony part, but we didn't actually run through the vows, so I was spared from the waterworks that my sister had during her rehearsal. I think the vows are what get you. It was a beautiful day, and everyone loved the location, which was nice because we knew the next day it was supposed to be rainy so we were glad that our families and closest friends got to see our setting at its best.

After the rehearsal, we drove back to my parents' house for a cocktail hour to kill the time between the rehearsal and the 6pm rehearsal dinner. James' people weren't there, so my parents were freaking out about having too much food, but it worked out. Anyway, I wanted it to be a low-key cocktail hour with wines and a few nibbles, I couldn't help it that my mom went crazy and made a ton of appetizers.

Shortly before 6, we all piled into cars again and went to the rehearsal dinner. My parents were still griping about my lack of organizational skills and the fact that James' family wasn't at the cocktail hour (my mom does NOT know how to let things go), and I started getting upset. James pulled me aside before we went in and we had a little venting/calming down session outside.

James' family WAS at the rehearsal dinner, though. It was a nice little get-together. James made a little speech saying thank you to everyone for being there. I don't remember if there were any other speeches. Dinner was good, I think, but I don't think I ate much of it. I think I had the chicken. It's kind of a blur. Anyway, we went around to each table to say hello to everyone, and it was so nice to meet James' extended family and to see his parents again. My sister went around taking photos of the tables, which was really nice because no one else was.

There was a bit of a drama with my sister's gown for the wedding, too: the shop down the street from our house still had the dress! The day before the wedding! And the shop was about to close! And it wasn't going to be opening up in the morning! I made a frantic call to my neighbor to see if they could run down and get it before the store closed, but my dad ended up driving back to get the dress. It was pretty crazy to think that my matron of honor wouldn't have her dress for the wedding! Hooray for my poppa saving the day :)

Eventually, James and I were totally beat and falling asleep, so we said our goodbyes and went back home. I don't remember anything that happened after we got back. I doubt that I went straight to sleep, though. Huh.

Aaaand we're back!... The Pre-wedding Week

A lot has happened in the last three months! It's time to catch up.

James and I were scheduled to be back in New Jersey one week before the wedding, so we closed up our house and left on Friday, June 12. Actually, I closed up the house: James had to work that day but I was on vacation as of noon on Thursday, so I stayed home and got us packed and turned off the water and locked up the house. It was strange to leave the house for a month after only living in it for a week. I gave a set of keys to our neighbors, Shirley and Manny, who must be pushing 80, and asked them to keep an eye on the place. They said they'd go in once a week to make sure everything was okay inside. I felt a bit weird asking these perfect strangers to look in on our house, especially when it was so disorganized and just-moved-in, AND we had our bed in the livingroom until we had our bedroom set up. (We scrubbed a bunch of walls in the house and primed our bedroom walls with Killz during that first week.)

I picked up James at work and then we drove back to NJ - we were going to only drive three hours to Connecticut, get a hotel, and drive the rest of the way on Saturday, but since I was able to pick up James around lunchtime, it didn't make any sense to quit driving at 4:00. So we kept driving, and by the time we reached the top of the NJ turnpike, about 2 hours from Pitman, something funky happened with the car. When we went slow in traffic, it felt like the car was limping. We'd been going stuck in bad traffic for a while, so it was easy to think that it was just the road or something. Then the traffic picked up and we were cruising at 60 again, and the car went from limping to vibrating - and it kept getting worse! We were rattling pretty badly when we got to a big rest area where we could pull off. We drove over to a service station in the rest area and had one of the guys there look at the tires - one of which was all warped. The belt inside the tire had somehow shifted, and one area of the tire was now bulging out like crazy, which was causing the limping/rattling. James put on the spare tire, and I called my parents to let them know what happened. They were thinking we'd be arriving on Saturday, so they were pretty surprised to get a call from us with car trouble on the NJ turnpike! Finally we were back on the road and we made it to Pitman without any more drama.

Saturday was my brother's 30th birthday, and even though the house was still decorated with white flowers and tulle and pink crepe paper bells from the bridal shower (my mom just left it up to keep the house festive for the wedding), my brother had a big birthday party with his friends. It was a lot of fun, Kristi and I were wearing the same top from Target, the food was excellent (catered by a local Italian restaurant), the cake was yummy and the icing turned everyone's tongue blue. Carrie and Leif arrived from Norway at some point that evening, and it was so great to see them. The party was a fun time, but it was a bit odd to have all the girly decorations around for my big brother's birthday party.

I had my hair trial on Monday, and we decided that I'd get my makeup done at the salon, too - along with my sister. I was pretty surprised my mom sprang for this, but I was so glad she did. I was going to attempt doing it myself otherwise, and it wouldn't have turned out as lovely as it did. Carrie and I had appointments together - she got her hair cut and I had the hair trial. We ended up decided that I'd have my hair up. I'd been thinking I wanted it down and curly, but Cheryl said she couldn't guarantee that the hairstyle would still look good at the end of the day if it was down, but she could if it was up. Plus, it seemed more elegant and easier to deal with if it was up - that way I wouldn't have to

worry about curls deflating or frizzing up. And a lot of the hair styles I'd brought as examples were actually up-dos, so I guess I really wanted that all along. I told Cheryl I wanted my hair to still be curly, and I wanted the hair style to be elegant and romantic and not at all like prom hair. The slicked-back hair with the super-curled pile of shelacked curls piled on the back of the head - that's not for me. What Cheryl came up with was absolutely perfect. Carrie and her husband Leif and I went out to get pizza at our favorite place in town afterwards, and invited James to join us. I was kind of nervous about him seeing the hair style but he was really impressed with it!

The rest of the week passed in a blur - James and I worked extremely hard getting everything ready. Even though we'd been working on wedding stuff for a long time, there was still a ton left to do, and now it was crunch time:

We had to finish the programs, which meant stamping each cover, assembling the cover with the two inside pages, folding them all together and punching two little holes in them for feeding a length of ribbon through, and then tying the ribbon in a bow. The brand new hole puncher actually wore out on us, so punching the holes got more and more difficult. I think I actually bruised the heel of my hand doing it, and I had to have James and my dad work on it for me.

We had to assemble the 200 jars of peach jelly for the favors. My parents made the jelly, and James and I made 200 circles of pink and white fabric beforehand. We put the fabric on the jar and used the screw-on lid to secure the fabric. Then we wrapped a ribbon around the lid, slipped on a charm that said "thank you," and tied a bow. It was a very long process. And we ran out of ribbon... we made multiple trips to craft stores that week.

We had to print up the menus, because I wanted the menus to match our wedding stationary. The menus Auletto's would have pr

ovided were ugly, with Auletto's name at the top and some ugly little olive green and yellow design. So on one of the trips to a craft store, I bought a swirly kind of abstract design stamp, and we used that to stamp the top and bottoms of the menus. But first, of course, we had to finalize the design of the menus and print them all out and cut them all.

I had to finish the 150 or so crepe paper flowers, and tie a ribbon on each one so that the caterer could tie them on the napkins. And even though I'd been working on these for a long time, there were still a lot of flowers to make. And tying all of those ribbons! It took a lot time and I began feeling a bit ridiculous spending all this time on such a little detail, but I think the end result was worth it. They looked great on the tables.

We had to make the table cards (I finished all the place cards during my time off before we left for NJ - thank goodness!), which should have been as simple as setting up a template and printing it out on our printer, which we carted with us from Boston. But the printer had been

abused by all of our printing for the wedding stationary, and it wouldn't print pictures anymore - they came out looking all funky. So we had to use CVS's Kodak printer, but if we used our template, which was a full page, it would cost $7 per table, with 16 tables... it seemed ridiculous to spend that much for simple table cards. So we got a bunch of 4x6 prints for much cheaper and glued them onto the backing. It was a long project, and messy, and our gluey fingers smeared the ink a bit, but eventually we made all the table cards and I think they turned out really well.

We had to assemble the out of town welcome bags, which didn't turn out as nicely as I'd hoped. They were the one thing that kind of got overlooked in all of this, and I think it showed. They didn't have any maps or brochures for local sights like I'd wanted, and I'm not sure they got to the hotel at the right time. And I'm not sure that everyone who stayed at the hotel got one - the woman at the hotel who gave me the names of the guests who were staying there didn't give me everyone, I don't think. Grr. That was annoying. We had to go shopping to pick up all the snacks and goodies and water bottles, and then we had to assemble the bags and get them to the hotel. James took them to the hotel the day before the wedding, which turned out to be a bit of a mess because it made him a little late to the rehearsal. But the one good thing was, while we were out shopping for the welcome bag snacks, I suggested picking up a Crayola activity thingie for James' youngest cousin. Somehow that kit wound up at Tommy's table, and his mom later thanked us profusely for it. Tommy was the only child there under 10, so we didn't have a kids' table, and his parents were really grateful that we thought of him. So that was nice.

Thursday was the combined bachelor/bachelorette party, so all the wedding production stuff stopped at that point. Luckily, we got it all done. James was supposed to spend the afternoon with his brother(s) and my brother, paintballing or bowling or something. It was raining all day, which cancelled the paintballing, and then David called and said he was in Philadelphia and wasn't going to be getting to NJ until the evening, so that cancelled all the bachelor pre-party activities. It actually turned out to be a good thing, though, since James and I used that time to finish up wedding stuff. People started showing up at the house, mostly my bridesmaids, and we girls had a little pre-party in the family room. The girls gave me lingere and dressed me up in a bachelorette sash, a tiara, and a plastic penis necklace. It was a lot of fun, and it was especially fabulous to have so many of my favorite people all together. The only sad thing was that Phyllis's flight was delayed, so she couldn't join in on the fun until later. Then we all went out to dinner at a Cajun restaurant that my sister picked out. The food was so good! James's brothers David and John, and John's girlfriend Unique, joined us at the restaurant. It was so great to see them again (and to meet Unique!). After dinner, we went out to a bar and the bartender gave me a shot called a blowjob, which I guess is bailey's with whipped cream on top. At the bar, we met up with Phyllis and her date Josh, whom my dad had picked up at the airport. Also, my friend Leigh from high school joined us, which was nice.

I ended up having a bit too much... people were giving me drinks and I had some delicious pink foamy martinis, but eventually - and very suddenly -I was trashed. Which wasn't awesome. Lots of drunken conversations and spilling of drinks. I started crying at some point, which was even less awesome. I remember bawling in the car on the way home. But anyway it was a lot of fun, despite the strange way it ended. The funny thing was, the guys wanted to get James drunk, but he didn't even get tipsy as far as I could tell, and I ended up getting sloshed. Apparently I was really worried about everyone and made James text all my bridesmaids to make sure they got to their hotels okay, and I felt bad that I hadn't said proper goodbyes, and I was worried about losing my iPhone and things even though James had it all under control. Anyway we got back to the house and someone, probably James, tucked me into bed. I don't remember. I'm not sure if we made a lot of noise when we got home, if we woke my parents or if they were still up, or if they know how drunk I was or anything. But the good thing was, when I woke up on Friday I wasn't hungover. Woo!

Wedding shoes - oh, the drama!

June 2 - 18 days to go!

The search for the perfect pair of shoes has turned out to be more difficult and time-consuming than the search for a dress. I found the dress on my first day of hunting, in the second store I visited. I tried on probably seven dresses in the first store, three or four in the second. And that was it. We bought the dress that day.

The shoes, on the other hand, have been a bit trickier. Since James and I are just about the same height, I wanted to wear flats or very low-heeled shoes. I refused to wear dyeables, which to me are just clunky, ugly, bland shoes. A visit with my mom to a shoe store that focused mainly on dyeables (my mother did not tell me this before taking me there, I was horrified when we went in) only confirmed my suspicion. Example:

I would rather go barefoot than wear something that hideous. That clunky boxy heel! The uninspired design! The stupid white satin that just screams "I am a dyeable, please dye me to match your lime green prom dress"! No no no. We were in that store for all of 15 minutes - most of which was spent with my mom and the store lady showing me shoes and me saying no, followed by them making me look through catalogues and me continuing to say no. I was being open-minded, and I was genuinely hoping they had something I could use, but they just didn't. So we left.

I continued searching for shoes every chance I got, any time we were in a mall I'd want to check out Macy's and JCPenney, and time we were out shopping and saw a shoe store, I'd want to stop in. I'm sure James is thoroughly sick of wandering through shoe stores or shoe departments by now. It was immensely frustrating sifting through a sea of shoes and not finding anything suitable - the trend is for high, high heels or ugly gladiator-style flats, neither of which would work. Unfortunately, it seems that we're past the season of cute ballerina flats, which was what I was hoping to find.

In Target, though we seemed to strike gold. Or at least, something vaguely resembling gold. Something gold-like that could work if we found nothing else. Yes.

Okay, they're $12 flip flops, but they're pink and sparkly and flat! But they're flip flops and I don't want to come clopping down the aisle. Plus, even though they're quirky and cute, they're really not the Very Special Wedding Shoe I had in mind. We bought them, and they're a good Plan B, and I may slip them on for the reception, but... I wanted something nice to get married in.

So the hunt continued. And I dragged James up and down the aisles of Famous Footwear and DSW and whatever other shoe store I could find. And he was very loving and helpful about it too, going off to search so that we could cover more ground quickly. Then one day we found these:

And obviously, given the picture, we bought them. And I thought these were it. They had a low heel so they were dressier than a flat, and they were pink! I really wanted to find pink shoes, since I thought that'd be the most fun, but finding the right kind of pink shoes was damn near impossible. But they are basically glorified flip flops, so the clopping down the aisle issue is still there. Plus, I sent the picture to my mom and she disapproved, saying they looked too red and I should keep looking.

So the hunt went on. Because really, my mom was right. Those shoes, while very cute and fun, aren't really the Very Special Wedding Shoes I was hoping for.

And then, this past weekend, while on our way to PetCo to get some bedding for Winston, we saw an Off Broadway shoe store in the same strip mall. James offered to go in, so in we went, and we spent way too much time wandering around looking for shoes, but eventually, we found them. The Very Special Wedding Shoes!!

Okay, they have heels, but they're not too bad. I wish they were a little bit shorter, but even as they are I'm only a teensy bit taller than James. We decided it was close enough, and I'm hoping that his tuxedo shoes will have a higher heel than regular shoes. But anyway, these are beauties! They feel much more formal and wedding-y than the other two, and the material is amazing. It's gauzy silver with a sparkly silver design on it. They're very sparkly, but not overwhelmingly so since the sparkles are not completely covering the shoe. Unfortunately that picture doesn't really do them justice. I love that they're semi-see-through so you can see my feet within the shoes, with the sparkles delicately dancing on top. They really make me feel like I'm wearing Cinderella's glass slippers. I've been wearing them around work to break them in, and every once in a while I'll peek at them and tip my feet this way and that to watch them sparkle, and all I want to do is squeal in delight. And I've been getting lots of compliments from ladies at work, which just reinforces my love of these shoes.

The one problem may be that I got fitted for my gown in the flip flops, so the gown will be hemmed for me basically being barefoot. That would mean that if I wear these fabulous shoes, the gown would be coming up higher off the floor than it should. I'm just hoping that it looks okay... we'll see!

The long-delayed bridal shower post

June 1st - and the countdown begins!

We're getting married later this month. It's crazy that it's already (almost) here - with all the planning and dreaming and prepping, it sort of felt like it was never actually going to happen, but we'd be planning it forever.

Life is insane, of course. The new jobs turned out to be hectic and stressful and chaotic and needing more than 40 hours a week, unfortunately. We're in what's called a rolling wave, which means we're working on planning out the next 6 months of the schedule and everyone's going crazy about it. The due date to the customer is June 5 so hopefully things will settle down soon (although this week promises to be nuts!). And we just moved to our new location in Andover (all this time we'd been working in Billerica while our permanent offices were being finished) so that adds a whole new layer of craziness into the mix. Plus some people are still in Billerica, so meetings are happening in both locations, which are at least 20 minutes apart. I have one meeting in Billerica from 3 - 4 and one in Andover from 4 - 5 today, so we'll see how that works.

Our weekends have been consumed with wedding-related activities, but still in seems like we have more in the "to do" pile than we have in the "accomplished" pile. It's frustrating and exhausting. But still, we've managed to get a lot done.

But to the purpose of this post: the bridal shower! Two weekends ago (already?!), we drove down to NJ which was at noon on Satuday. Since we had to go to work on Friday, we didn't want to make the 6-ish hour trip all that night. We stopped in Westport, CT for the night to visit my cousin and his wife, which very conveniently split our trip up into two three-hour chunks. It was really nice to visit them, since I hadn't seen them in a couple of years (!!) and since they won't be able to make it to the wedding, it was great for them to meet James. I'm so glad we were able to stop by.

Me and my cousin Dick

On Saturday we got up early and took off for NJ, arriving just as the shower was starting. It was a wonderful party. I wish my sister could have been there, though! There was tons of food and so many of my favorite people I didn't know who to hug first. It was amazing to see everyone, I wish the party could have been longer because I miss them all so much and some of them I hadn't seen in over a year. Eventually they sat me down on this throne my mother rigged up, made me wear a "bride to be" sash a la Miss America, and had me open a mountain of presents. It was really overwhelming to be at the center of attention like that, and to be opening presents in front of everyone, which is something I haven't done since childhood birthday parties. I was also overwhelmed by everyone's generosity, it was so wonderful to get such nice gifts!

All too soon, the party ended, and one by one people hugged me and left. James and my dad went to the tux lady to finalize the tuxes and get my dad measured, and my mom and I left for my gown fitting. The lady, however, wasn't there. No phone calls, no messages, just not there. Annoying. And frustrating. We rescheduled for the next day, which meant that James and I couldn't leave for Massachusetts until after that was finished. We'd been wanting to get out early, so that we wouldn't be getting home too late, but the lady had to go to church first, so that scuttled that idea. Anyway, eventually I got fitted and James and I drove back to Massachusetts. We had been in NJ for just over 24 hours. It was crazy, but well worth it.

The big move - part 3

The timeline's getting kind of fuzzy in my head, but sometime on Saturday (that's Saturday April 25, the day after we arrived in Massachusetts) we made an offer on a house, which we call the Rambler house (since it's on Rambler Road). I want to call it the grandma house, since it looks just like my grandma's house. And it's occupied by a grandma right now. Complete with tacky fluffy carpeting in one room and wood paneling in another. And the woman who owns it is named Phyllis, which was James' grandma's name. So many grandma connections! But James (aghast at the thought of living in a grandma house?) persuaded me to call it the Rambler house instead. Anyway, we'd seen a bunch of houses with Marj that day, and after we were done with the touring we put an offer on the Rambler house. We got a counter offer almost right away.

And then suddenly we got cold feet. Phyllis is a smoker, and as a result the house smells smoky - not obnoxiously so, but it's definitely there. It actually isn't that noticable at first, especially if she hasn't just been smoking in the house. But we were nervous about buying the house with the smell. So we decided to do a lot of research online about removing smoky smells from houses - we weren't even sure it was possible, but luckily there are lots of solutions out there, starting with ripping out the carpet and repainting, something we'd do anyway. But before we made our counter-counter offer, we decided to look around and see what else is out there at that price range. Turns out, not much. We spent most of Sunday driving around on our own, doing drive-bys of houses on sale, and came away rather amazed that the Rambler house was so affordable. It turns out, the smokiness is what makes the Rambler house a possibility - every other house around that price was much too small, or was in a rough neighborhood, or was right on a very busy street. So with a little initial hard work, we'll be getting a good house with an attached garage and a big sunny backyard for gardening.

So we submitted our counter-counter offer, and then Phyllis came back with another counter. At this point, it came down to quibbling over a couple thousand dollars. We just wanted the house, so we accepted even though it was a bit higher than we'd hoped (but still very reasonable). So we agreed on a price! Then we had the home inspection - everything came out good, except we'll need to get a metal door to separate the garage from the rest of the house (I think it's wood right now, and a metal door is necessary for fire safety). A few days later, James and I met with the Mortgage Man and signed what seemed like several hundred documents just to apply for the loan. Once the underwriter approves the loan (and Mortgage Man assured us it'd be no problem), we'll be signing several thousand documents to actually buy the house.

If everything goes well (fingers crossed!) the closing will happen on June 5, and that weekend we'll get started ripping out carpet and scrubbing the house clean of smoke residue. (As a side note, my dad wanted to come up that weekend to help us move in, etc, and I'm trying to dissuade him because I never told them it was a smoker's house and I know he and my mom will panic at the thought. And I don't want them being all negative and stressful and hyperventilating over our house, which we're confident will be fine after a good scrubbing. Plus just having them around and being all pressure-y and GoGoGo! all weekend will be overwhelming, I'd rather they come after the honeymoon when things have calmed down!)

And after we scrub out the house, we'll be able to move in! It's amazing to think that after we get back from the honeymoon, we'll be able to move right into our little house.

The big move - part 2

We were able to sleep in a little bit the following morning, which was amazing. James' dad stayed home from work to take us to the airport. On the way there, he stopped at the hospital where he and Jeanne (James' mom) work, so we could pop in and say goodbye, which was nice. It was so strange to say goodbye to her knowing that we weren't going to be just a car ride away anymore. We also met the doctor that Jeanne works with, which later turned out to be fortuitous.

Mark drove us to the cute, sunny and remarkably empty little Bakersfield Airport and we hauled our two big cardboard boxes full of clothes (you can take a lot more on a plane in cardboard boxes than you can in heavy suitcases), James' computer bag, a duffle bag carry-on, my big duffel bag/purse/computer bag, and Winston's cage up to the check-in counter. The friendly ladies at the counter were very curious about Winston and they cooed over him a lot. But when it came time to actually check in, they realized that Winston would pose a problem since he's a rodent (apparently the chewing could be a threat to the airplane even though he was in a cage). One woman made a lot of calls about how to handle him, and the verdict was that he couldn't come aboard the plane. I was horrified at the thought of having to leave him in CA, even though James was assuring me that we could mail him through FedEx overnight and everything would be fine. I started to cry a little, and the ladies continued making calls, and they finally told us we couldn't bring him aboard unless we had a doctor's note saying that I was emotionally dependant on Winston and that I needed him to fly with me.

This is were Jeanne's boss came into play. Mark gave him a call, and the doctor faxed a note over to the airport, and we were allowed to bring Winston on board. It's a good thing we went to such a small airport with such friendly staff, because if we'd been at LAX, I bet they would've said no and that would've been that. Also, it's good it was such a quiet little airport because we were waiting at the check-in counter for quite a while but since there was no line at security (at all!), we were able to make our flight no problem.

We landed in Philadelphia around 10pm on Wednesday. We had Thursday to recover a little bit and to do some errands like buying Winston a new cage. He travelled in a cat carrier, and we threw out his regular-sized cage back in LA. It was too small for him anyway. We went to petsmart and got him a huge cage, which he loves. On Friday, we meant to leave for Boston in the morning, but somehow we didn't get on the road until early afternoon. The delightful result of this was that we hit rush-hour traffic all the way across Connecticut. We didn't get to our apartment/extended stay hotel until after 10pm. At which point the leasing office was closed. And the "late night check-in" phone number didn't work. And we didn't have the code to the late night check-in key box, where I knew our keys were waiting for us. So we ended up having to go to a Motel6, which was beyond sketchy. There was a guy checking in before us with a woman that we had reason to believe was a hooker. Classy place.

But anyway, we had a place to sleep, and it was warm, and dry, and the sheets at least appeared to be clean, so it was fine. The next day, we were pretty steamed that the leasing office hadn't sent us the code to the lock box so that we could retreive our keys. We went back to complain, but they didn't open til 10am, but we had an appointment with our realtor at 10. Which was annoying because we were all pumped up to complain and demand a refund or something. But we had to go meet Marj and we spent several hours looking at houses with her, then James and I continued to look on our own for a while.

We finally made it back to Princeton Properties (the extended stay hotel), and checked in. The room's small and not fancy but it has a little kitchen and an air conditioner and a TV with cable and we're making it work. The dresser is small and we each have three little drawers, so we're basically living out of boxes for the next month or so, but it's fine. It's nice to have a place of our own, actually! Living with my brother was nice, and had its perks, but it's also nice to have privacy and a place of our own.

Next up: the house!!

The big move - part 1

The past few weeks have been such an exhausting whirlwind that it's hard remember everything that happened.

James and I had our last day of work on Friday, April 17, and our start date in Massachusetts was April 27, giving us just one week (and two weekends) to pack up and move across the country. And even though we'd been packing up what we could for a while, it was still a hectic and remarkably time-consuming process to move out. We barely finished, actually.

We scheduled the moving truck for Monday April 20th, and our flight home was scheduled for Wednesday. But the flight was leaving out of Bakersfield, not LA - we had to drive up to his parents' house on Tuesday in order to make the Wednesday flight. We were flying out of Bakersfield so that we could leave our car at his parents' house until June 21, when we'd fly back after the wedding and start our cross-country roadtrip honeymoon.

Because we were renting space on a semi and not a normal-sized truck, we couldn't have the trucking company bring the truck to us - we'd have no place to put something that big anywhere near our apartment. So we rented a Uhaul and planned to drive our stuff over to the trucking company's hub in Compton (which, in case you didn't know, is a notoriously sketchy part of the greater Los Angeles area).

By Monday afternoon, we were still busily packing away by the time 5pm rolled around, and we still hadn't loaded anything on the big truck - just the Uhaul. And this was after we were up late packing the night before and we started packing at 5:30am that morning. So we decided that since we thought we were over half done, we'd take a load over to Compton, pack the truck loosely, then finish with the other load the next day. And that's exactly what we did, except for the fact that we were nowhere near as done as we thought we were. Everything was taking about twice as long as we expected it to. It was exhausting and seemingly endless work - oh, and by the way, we had the joy of experiencing the first heat wave of the summer those few days. And we were working all by ourselves, since we couldn't ask anyone to take off work to help us - and the trucking company wasn't open on weekends. That meant a lot of heavy lifting (the guns I have now! My word!) but luckily we bought something called the ForeArm Forklift, which made all the heavy lifting possible.

Even with all of our tireless work, we finished up packing the semi around 10pm - Tuesday, when we'd originally thought we'd finish up Monday night and drive to Porterville Tuesday after lunch. It was a surreal feeling to be standing in the semi at 10pm, eating a Snickers bar because we hadn't had time to eat and were about to fall over, and realizing that it would be 3 or 4 am by the time we'd reach Porterville. By the time we returned the Uhaul, went back to El Segundo to drop off some moving equipment that we'd borrowed from my brother and said our goodbyes to him, it was after 11pm when we started out for Porterville, and after 3am when we rolled into their driveway. I'd been worried that our flight out of Bakersfield the next day was at some horrific hour like 8 am, when Bakersfield was an hour away from Porterville and we'd have to be at the airport two hours early, so we'd hardly be able to get any rest before we'd have to be up again. Luckily, though, the flight was in the early afternoon, so we could get some sleep!

To be continued... ;)