I Remember...

 I remember The day I got engaged.

I remember ordering breakfast sandwiches for the 4 of us before we went on a walk, I remember the annoyance I felt at having to go on this walk while my parents were preparing for a party at home and I wasn't there to help.  I remember the look on my mom's face when I arrived home after the walk and she was waiting for me.  I remember what I said on the phone when I called those who were to far away to tell in person.

 I remember trying to get a date to go Bridesmaid dress shopping with all of my girls at once.  I remember how great it was to have us all together and how many awful ugly dresses they tried on before finding anything we liked.  I remember how excited I was when they all came out of the dressing room with "the dress" on and were dancing even though there was no music.

I remember getting ready for my Bridal Shower, not knowing where I was going, what I'd be doing, or who I'd be doing it with, but knowing it would be special.  I remember what it felt like to walk into a room and know that everyone in that room was there for me, and to celebrate with me.

I remember how amazing my girls were at planning my Bachelorette party and keeping it a surprise until we walked through the door!  I remember how great it felt having all (well, most) of my favorite girls in one place, all having a great time together.

With all of these wonderful memories flooding me, I go into this Memory-Making week with a full and open heart.  This is going to be the most wonderful memory yet, and I can't believe it's only 5 days away.

Thank you to all who have filled my heart throughout this year.

Bryan, I can't wait to make more Memories with You!

Showers of Love! ~Friends~

It's time to give more Thanks!

There are so many ladies who had a part in my lovely day, but these 4, they took the cake!  Actually... I believe they bought the cake!  But either way, I'm very lucky to have them around me.

This picture is a preview of my Bridal party, and makes me smile every time I look at it just thinking about how much fun they made this day.  There were also incredibly generous gifts that I received from them, and will help the memories of this day last years and years to come.

Everyone hopes that as life goes on they don't lose touch with friends and connections don't fade away.  I have known these ladies for a combined 36 years... I think we're good :)

I'm also lucky to have so many people from different times in my life supporting me, and loving me, and celebrating with me.  My friend Liz definitely stands out for me in the photo below, as she traveled a whopping 2,045 miles to celebrate with me!  How did I get so lucky?

All of the ladies in this photo have played a special role in my life these past few years, and I am truly blessed to have them all to help guide my path as Mr. Man and I figure out this thing called "marriage."

And that brings me to the role models.  Each of the women in this photo have taught me something about life and love.  They are part of my Cape Cod family, and it's truly incredible to me that they take the time out of their busy lives to think of me and be a part of my day.

And just because it has to be said... one of these ladies is directly responsible for our little venue-switcheroo that we pulled just 5 months before the wedding!!  And so to her I say.... "Thank You!"

And there you have it, the part of the party that falls into the "family you get to choose" category.  And boy oh boy did I chose well!!

Showers of Love! ~Family~

Thank you Thank you Thank you!

Thank you to all who made my Bridal Shower possible!  It was an amazing day full of loving gifts and lots of laughter.

There is too much to be thankful for in one post... so I'll spread it out... this first one:

Family

So many times in my life I have taken for granted the amazing family that I have.  Every one of them traveled hundreds of miles to share in this day of celebration with me, and I couldn't be more grateful.  There was nothing taken for granted this weekend, that's for sure!

These amazing ladies took a train from Manhattan to be here with my mom and me, and they enjoyed every minute of the corsage pinning, veil wearing, gift opening, lingerie sharing, favor opening extravaganza!

This is the Curly haired side of the family... My Dad's family, whom I couldn't possibly say enough wonderful things about.  They will be making the 300 mile journey from NYC 3 times in the next 2 months to celebrate various Family occasions with us MA dwellers.

How lucky am I?

And the young-in in the photo above?  Yup, that's my flower-girl!!  Whom my friends, even 3 days after party, are still commenting to me how amazing she is.  Best comment: "She could totally be a 25 year old, and if she was, I would totally hang out with her!"

Oh, and you see my cousin with me in this photo below?  She's an artist!  Hang on, let me re-phrase that... She's an AMAZING Artist!  She took a 4x6 favorite photo of Mr. Man and Me from 2004 and turned it into a magical oil painting.  Yes, she painted that!  Complete with my summer highlights and wispy hair.

Incredible!!

And again, how lucky am I, that my cousin would spend Months working on something this special for me?

And of course the new family.  3 Generations of Mr. Mans, and me, their new DIL & GDIL.  These men came all the way to the shower, to spend 4 hours sitting in the next room over, just to be close by to the festivities and in case Mrs. Nana needed anything during the party.

Now that's Love & Dedication!

So there you have it, the first installment of my undying gratitude for the family members that made my Bridal Shower what it was...

AMAZING!!!

Re-Cap

I kind of realized recently that there were no Easter updates here in the Julie BlogShell, so I figured I'd fill in that blank before this very busy weekend ahead that I'm sure I'll have much to post about.

 

So, remember when Mr. Man's Dad gave us the Xbox Kinects for Christmas?  Well we made good use of this toy over Easter Weekend.  We were visiting my folks on Cape and definitely got our Kinects on!  I received  the bowling game for my birthday just a couple months ago and hadn't played that much, so we brought it with us and explored all aspects of that disc.

When the little cousins (forever to be referred to as FG = "Flower Girl" and RB = "Ring Bearer" from now on) arrived on Easter day, we decided this was the perfect way to occupy some time.  The whole family, and momentary visiting friends, joined in the fun.  We set records for number of pins down, how far below Par we could get, least number of darts thrown to certain score, and number of bubbles popped.

It was a good time all around.

Facelift

No, the title of this post does not mean that I'm having work done before the wedding. ;)

What it does mean is that after over 2 years of living in this condo, we're finally getting around to thinking about how to make it "Ours."
There's one wall in the living room that's been painted since week 2. That room was the focal point of many a Housewarming Visitor and when the first few photos highlighted the yellow-ness of everything, I painted!

What that one wall failed to do, though I'm not sure how, was to clue me in on the fact that the rest of the house also had this problem of Yellow. When I woke up one particularly sleepy morning a few weeks ago and walked into the bathroom with my eyes still squinty, I realized how very yellow our bathroom was. not only were the walls in this room yellow, but the tile and counter-top had those hues as well...

Now I'm all for browns and warm colors, but this was pushing it even for me. So we discussed, brought home paint chips, compared, and ultimately bought a gallon of paint.

Now, I haven't painted a room, um... ever. That one wall in my living room, with 3 windows on it, so there's really not that much wall space (can be seen here) is the extent of my painting history. The one thing I absolutely knew how to do... prep the room.

Everything came off the counter, pictures came down nails pulled out of the walls, the shower curtain rod came down, and the bathmats were rolled up.

Then the real work began.
We taped off every edge that wasn't the ceiling, cut in around all edges & fixtures, and painstakingly got artsy with the door. I started the cutting-in while Mr. Man was at the gym, then he came home and took over while I rolled the walls.

After 2 days of taping, sanding, painting, drying, sanding, painting, drying, shopping for a new shower curtain, removing tape, vacuuming, mopping, and hanging up the new curtain...
We now live in this:

For a weekend's worth of work, it's definitely brightening our lives!
We each showered for the first time this morning in our new bathroom, and it was much less squinty! The blue adds a darker element to the bathroom, but the lighter shower curtain allows the light to come through.
It's only day 1 after completion, but we're happy!

Which room can we paint next?

The Waiting Game...

... a.k.a. Torture!

No one tells you that when you're planning a wedding, in the midst of all of the craziness of planning and buying and spending money, that the single thing that you will focus all of your energy on...

is your Mailbox!!

The simple task of going home and opening my mailbox to find those rsvp envelopes means everything to me these days. We started out with a solid 3 each day for the first week after we sent out the invitations, but yesterday...yesterday there were None! It was very sad.

So get on that people!
Because when I sneak out of work early, drive 20 mph above the speed limit, and run red lights all the way home today, I need to find those envelopes in the mailbox!

Hey Hey It's My Birthday!

OK, so this post is a few days late, but how could I post about what I did On my Birthday, Before my birthday? I guess I could invent a time machine and somehow fit posting into my schedule...but instead I think I'll just post about what I did last weekend.

My birthday celebration started off with a work-day-lunch-break Manicure. I went with a friend and got a fancy design painted on my nails to see if I liked it as a possible Wedding-Day Beauty item.

Then my coworkers sang happy birthday and made me eat brownies...and they were good!
Friday evening my lovely fiance invited some friends over for dinner, and I cooked up a yummy concoction, without a recipe, that was enjoyed by all. Though, to be honest, I think I enjoyed all the wine a little bit more ;)

Saturday was low-key until joining other friends in celebrating. His was the big 3-0 birthday, so he got party priority over my 2-6.


Then Sunday, was wedding day. Mr. man and I got up early and drove to our cake tasting at 10am, at Konditor Meister Bakery where we chose our cake flavors for the wedding.

Now, I don't recommend having cake for breakfast, since I don't want the healthy police to come after me... but if you are already, by your own choice, planning on having cake for breakfast... do it at Konditor Meister!!


Then came a meeting at our wedding venue. We sat down with them for 2 hours and discussed how supremely Awesome our Wedding day is going to be! There was only one "Oh...My...God" moment about plans, but we quickly worked around it and I'm So excited to put it all into play in June.

Mr. Man and I, along with my parents, had a few hours to kill before our dinner reservation, so we hit up the mall. My mom and I went on a little shopping spree for my Birthday, picking up some fun new clothing items, and my Man & my Dad played in the arcade. So cute ;)

Then...Let me tell you they saved the best for last. When we arrived at our dinner reservation, I discovered that it was made for 8 people, not just our immediate 4. Not only did my brother drive up from Providence, RI to be with us, but our friends were there before us waiting at the table to join us for dinner! What a wonderful Surprise!


We hadn't spent time with them in a while, and it was fun to swap house-buying and wedding planning stories, as their wedding will be June of 2013.
[And while friends and family getting together for my Birthday is Awesome! You'd think at least one of them would have told me & Mr. Man to wear black or grey!]

All in all, I want to thank my friends and family for making this one, my last birthday checking off that "single" box, a memorable one.