It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas........

Our work Christmas tree. Not a huge fan of blue, but it actually looks really nice in our entryway.

I have always loved Christmas but never more than the years I have celebrated it with the girls. They encompass everything that is wonderful about the holidays: the excitement, surprise, anticipation, mystery, love, and hope.

I began decorating the house last night by putting up greens and lights. We are planning to get our Christmas tree tomorrow and that is always our favorite thing to decorate. The girls have lots of ornaments that they have received every year from my mom and they love finding just the right spot for them. As they get older, the better the tree looks. When they were little all the ornaments would be all clumped together because they couldn't reach very high. It's always fun to listen to them reminiscing about ornaments past. "Hey Sam, remember this one?" and "Ohh...this is one from when I was a baby." and "Aww....isn't this cute?".

Hopefully we can get the outside decorated as well, weather cooperating.

Have a great weekend!

North Conway

This is the "Love Nest" and also where we spent our mini honeymoon. Since "Bob" loves Elvis, I thought this would be appropriate! We absolutely loved the room and will be visiting the Adventure Suites again.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Tying the Knot

I am officially an old married woman! Saturday was a magnificent day. The weather was a bit on the cold side but the sun was out in full force. We were married at my aunt's house on the water and it was beautiful. My cousin, Jessica, was my official wedding planner. She made our wedding cake, which was absolutely gorgeous and tasted amazing. In addition to creating a masterpiece, she also decorated the house in my favorite motif: fall. When I walked into the house I walked into my vision of a perfect fall scene. Throughout the open concept living room, dining room, and kitchen was visions of colorful oranges, reds, yellows, and burgundys. Lighted candles in small glass holders ran along the length of the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the water. There were pillars of cream colored candles with a burgundy satin ribbon wrapped around each one.

There were pictures of family members lost, who were with me in spirit. Seeing the pictures of my dad and my Uncle Lou brought the tears to the forefront! Having them "there" made the day even more special.

The girls looked so beautiful in their dresses. Samantha had her hair cut short and she is LOVING it. She looks so much more grown up. It's bittersweet for sure. She has always worn her hair long but she was ready for a change.

We hit North Conway for a few days and it was nice to get away! We stayed at the Adventure Suites in the "Love Nest". It was all about Elvis baby. The entire room was loaded with Elvis memorabilia from blue suede shoes, records and guitars affixed to the ceiling, to an Elvis shower curtain, beaded curtain to the bathroom, pillows, blankets, you name it! And as we walked into the room Elvis music was playing. it was great. All the rooms at the Adventure Suites are themed: The Jungle Room, The Love Shack, The Cave, Roman Spa, The Penthouse, .........Check it out.

Note to Self:

Drinking champagne at work is not productive.

My company had a small "wedding celebration" for Bob* and I today, complete with a champagne toast. We even had real wineglasses while everyone else had festive paper cups. Fall decor and all. And since the champagne was already poured and left over in these cups, I thought it was only right to finish it up so it didn't go to waste. I know, I know. I'm a company girl. Always taking one for the team.

I'm finally stabilizing and the screen in front of me is much more clear. Hope all those e-mails I sent out were OK???? Hmm......

Off to bring Megan for a haircut and to pick up our wedding bands. Time is running out!

Going to the Chapel and Trying to Get Married

This is our ceremony for our upcoming nuptials on Saturday. I went to Staples last night and bought nice ivory "Program" paper. As the ceremony will be relatively short there really isn't a need for a program, per say, so I printed out the entire ceremony so my family can follow along and have a keepsake from our wedding. I have 25 printed out and ready to go. See, I can do some things ahead of time!

Deciding that today was the day to get our marriage license we headed down to City Hall on our lunch break. As all of you know, City Hall does not employ friendly, kind, happy people. Our visit was no exception. We inform the snarling woman that we need to get a marriage license and upon finding out we are both divorced, asks us for a certified divorce decree. A what? Well, we have the paperwork we received from the court stating in plain English that we are both divorced. Apparently, that means nothing. In order to get the license we need to get a certified divorce decree at the courthouse: my most favorite place on earth.

In the car and to the courthouse. By this point in life I should have a "speed pass" to go to the front of the line as they have had plenty of my business. Not the case. We wait at the Plexiglas window for at least 10 minutes waiting for a sign of life. There is no bell to ding so we keep knocking on the counter. A woman peeks her head around the corner of her cube and informs us that someone will be right with us. Well, why the hell can't YOU help me? So we wait and huff and sigh and finally we get some help. I think her name must be Mrs. Slowski. We give her our docket numbers and she comes back five minutes later with our files. She puts them on the desk in front of her and Bob* and I look at each other and start laughing. One folder is perhaps 1/4 inch thick and the other folder is at least 4 inches thick. Hmmm......I wonder which one could be mine. The woman looks at us and asks "So whose is whose?" Yup..........I'm a good customer. Naturally, there is a fee to get these very important documents and they are never sent out with divorce papers. Bastards. So a divorced person is never really aware of this existing document until they are in these situations. Gotta love the system.

Back to City Hall. Do we HAVE to? I don't like Cruella. We fill out more paperwork and I offer up my first born and lo and behold, we have a marriage license.

Now, we pick up our wedding bands. Hopefully without incident.

The Final Countdown

In five days at this time I will be a married woman. No longer will I bear the burden of carrying my ex-husbands last name. Yea me. Though it will be a change for the girls to get used to me having a different last name than them. Megan doesn't like my soon-to-be married name (it sounds funny....gotta love her honesty) but I am happy to have it...BELIEVE me. The less I am associated with Mike the better. Hopefully the girls will feel that way at some point too.

So, five days. I'm thinking that we should perhaps get our marriage license. Might not be a bad idea. Also, maybe pick up our wedding bands. Again, not a bad idea. I'd hate to be too prepared so I am trying to save as much as I can until the last minute. I think I am doing a pretty fine job! Thankfully we can get the marriage license on the spot.....no more waiting period, or for those of you who are much older, blood tests. Really, what purpose did the blood test serve? If it was to test for diseases well, at that point most people are s.o.l..

Anyway....some people in my family went to get started on some of the decorating for the wedding this past weekend. Personally, I didn't go so I will be surprised when I show up Saturday. SURPRISE! I mean really, who doesn't love a good surprise? Well, imagine my surprise when I found out our JP doesn't have a standard ceremony to go by for Saturday. Apparently, it's up to Bob* and I to provide the ceremony to him. HUH? What the hell happens when you go to City Hall to get married? Do you have to bring your own ceremony to that too? Craziness. So I wrote our ceremony today and it should take about 30 seconds, perhaps a minute if we stretch it out into long silences. That way we can eat and get the hell out of town. Just kidding....naturally. I did, in fact, write the ceremony and it will be short but nice. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Have a great night.

Double Digits

Samantha officially turns 10 tomorrow. Double digits is going to be the start of an entire new chapter for us and I think I might be scared. Actually, I know I'm scared. Nothing that a lot of Valium can't fix I'm sure! I have to admit I enjoy the fact that the girls are getting older and more self sufficient. I do miss them being little too, though. Both have advantages and disadvantages. I guess this is a good segue into a question I'm sure I'll be getting a lot...."Are you going to have any more kids?" Well, actually, HELL NO. My baby days are over. Now that we have five people in my family, there is simply no more space to expand. And I really have no desire to start over. I've been tired for the last 10 years and I'd like to start catching up on some sleep in this century. I really can't wait until the kids are so lazy and want to sleep until 11:00 am. I'll be slumbering right along with them. I have turned into more of a night owl and I really hate getting up early in the morning. As those of you who have children know, you're up at the ass crack of dawn each day. Not so much fun. And just because it's a weekend? Yeah, doesn't mean you're going to get any more sleep than every other day of the week. Bummer for sure.

So, we celebrated Samantha's birthday on Saturday with family and a few of her friends. It was mellow and nice. She wanted an "underwater" theme so that's what we did. Now, for the past 4 years I have been making their cakes to go along with their party theme. And I have to say that they have come out fairly good. I've done dog bones for a Clifford party, a purse for a "Fashion" party, the Wildcat paw print for Megan's High School Musical party, and I figured, how hard can it be to make a dolphin cake? I can whip that out in no time. Thankfully, my fiance, (we'll call him "Bob") is artistic and creative so he carved out the shape and I decorated it. I found out that I do not take after my cousin, Jessica, or my friend, "the crazy cake lady". How the hell do you frost the cake and not get all those million tiny bits of cake mixed into the frosting? I have to admit it aggravates the hell out of me. I guess when you use Betty Crocker frosting and a kitchen knife, the results are somehow not as professional as someone who has the right tools. Go figure. But it came out cute none-the-less.