The Trivial Pursuit of Happiness

We have been home for two days and I am slowly putting together a wedding and honeymoon recap, but we are in the middle of a “Renovation Vacation” which is to say: Tom is painting the entire freaking house while also looking for a job, and I sit with Ella in the basement away from the fumes. We also bought an entire living room’s worth of furniture while in B.C. at Ikea and then drove it home so that it could sit in our garage until Tom is finished painting the living room. Which? He is damn near done with. It once took me 2 months to paint a room white, and I never even got to the ceiling. We bought $1000 worth of paint this morning and he only has the edging to finish before I can watch the damn TV again. I’ve missed two Big Love episodes, people! Pity me while I read and play with the baby and Tom inhales fumes!

I have been uploading pictures as I get them onto Flickr, and am slowly going through and labeling them. If you are bored and are not on dial up (sorry Ang!) then you should head over and tell me I do not look like a lumpy loaf of bread in my wedding dress. With boobs. Bread with boobs.

Also,

watch out for those Swedish tigers.

It’s 1:30 am, and we are leaving to B.C. in a few hours (in hopes that Ella will sleep 90% of the way if we leave in the middle of the night) but I just wanted to jump on here and share a few pictures we’ve gotten so far. We have been gorging ourselves on salmon and pork loin all day, with bites of huckleberry wedding cake in between, cleaning the house, and relaxing. I even got a massage today. I felt I deserved it after this week.

We are still waiting on the professional shots of the wedding, but Ang stopped by today before she left town and gave me doubles from her camera. I love this shot, even though it’s a crappy scan of a wonderful photo. We were walking out to Queen’s “You’re my best friend”.

Oh yeah, and we graduated. Why does that seem like 3 months ago?

More photos over on flickr.

Now, to pack up the rest of our stuff, drop my sis and her boys off at the Amtrak station, and get on the road. Have a great week.

Lol @ the weather for today. It’s going to be 85 and sunny in 2 days, but it can’t reach 70 for our wedding? What can I do but laugh. The last few days has been pretty much an inverse of this little forecast, going from beautiful to poop. Poooop. But we figure we will just wait for a break in the clouds, throw a few dozen quilts at the guests, and tell them to hurry up and get outside, because we’ve got a wedding to take care of.

The last few days have also been a blur. Between graduation, family coming in, and last minute (as in last night at 2am) crafting, it’s been a very loosely controlled chaos. But I have to say that even with rain, and forgetting to put together the Ipod music list until this morning, and making boutinerres with 40% drunk girls last night, it’s going to be wonderful. You know me – I’ve been taking pictures like mad, so expect those later this week, or maybe next, after we get home from B.C.

Also, Kelly, we received the little gifts you sent, and they are beautiful. I’ve received so many compliments on my bracelet, and Ella is going to wear hers today. Thank you so very much.

It really would be prudent of me to just put up a hiatus sticker on this blog and say “I’ll be back when my hair is not on fire” but we all know that as soon as I did that, I would not be able to stay away. So, for the sake of actually getting things done in the next week, I will not put up a hiatus sticker, but rather, will just write incoherant and rambling lists. Deal?

I chipped one of my back molars bad enough on Saturday that when I poke the hole, it squishes. Bye bye enamel! I am calling my dentist office as soon as they get back from lunch to see if they can get me in, oh.. yesterday? That would be best.

This week is chocked full of awesomeness. My sister is flying in with her boys tomorrow, I am getting a massage on Wednesday, my dad and his family will be here Thursday-ish, my bestfriends will be here by Friday (hopefully), I am graduating with a B.A. in a degree that is completely useless but I love on Saturday, and then on Sunday – I’m getting married, yo! Then Monday is a lazy day, and on Tuesday we are leaving to B.C. for a few days. Who decided that having a wedding right after finals week of your last quarter of school was a good idea? Oh, right.. me. And then I go and get knocked up so that not only I am stressed and anxious about school and wedding, but I am also nauseous and whiny. I’m awesome at plans.

A short list of what still needs to be done:

• Ring pillows (which are cut out and just waiting to be assembled)
• Petals on Ella’s leotard
• Shoes for Tillie and Ella
• More poof balls
• Meet with caterer, show them the space and give last payment
• Burn music onto ipod
• Do ‘engagement’ photos 2 days before wedding (haha)
• Pick up random bouquets at costco and make the flowers for the wedding
• Finalize vows and give to minister
• Make another bag for bridesmaid
• Finish putting together wedding favors
• Plot out where tables will go in yard
• String up lights (to hang poofballs from)
• Print photos on velum for little lanterns
• Call and rent a car for B.C.
• Find someone to take video at wedding
• Finish alterations on wedding dress
• Get facial/massage
• Dance around like a kid because I am getting maaaaarrried.

Eep, I know there was more.  Wish me luck.

I.Lost.My.Journal. My paper journal that is my brain. That I carry everywhere and has all of my notes from class, and all of my Ella milestones for the last 3 months, and all of our vacation plans, and maybe my bank account information (WTF Ivory!) is. GONE.

Okay, maybe it will turn up tomorrow, but it is officially not in the house, car, any of my bags, and certainly not on my desk, where it needs to be so that I can write this 10 page paper that is due tomorrow.  I did have one meeting for the Bold group, so maybe it “fell out” (aka was pulled out by grubby little Ella hands) there, but still, that does me no good right now.

I’ve never lost a journal! Ever! I have carried one nearly continuously for the last 10 years, and have over 30 ratty sketch pads and Garfield school notebooks stacked up in a corner of my craft room, filled with beginnings of poems, magazine clippings, photos of people I would not remember otherwise – but now, the last three months of my life is a blank, because I.lost.my.brain.

Bahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Okay, two posts back to back, but I couldn’t stick this on the bottom of my wedding rant.

This diaper is amazing. We cloth diaper, and have stuck with it for a year and a half, only falling back on two packs of disposables over that time. 99% of the time I am glad we do it, and that other 1% is usually when she is poopy, and hey – even kids who wear Huggies poop, so I think I am am SOL.

Still, the idea of cloth diapering two kids is intimidating. We generally only do a load of diapers every 2 or 3 days, between the diapers I have made, and the Fuzzi Bunz I’ve bought here and there. Double that, and I will be up to my neck in, well, poo.

Another problem is keeping 40630 tiny diapers separate from the 9639 large diapers. Storing them, sorting them, knowing which insert snaps into what – it gets a bit overwhelming. Diapers are generally in three sizes: Small, Medium and Large. I made the majority of Ella’s smalls and mediums, but have not had time to make a good stock of larges. Then, there are these semi-successful diapers that they call “All-in-ones” which is supposed to mean S-L, but generally really ends up small-medium to medium-large. We have a number of them, but have been less than impressed.

But then there is this diaper:

(Ella at 1 month old, and 18 months old, showing off her belly and artwork)

This is a diaper I bought before Ella was born, and she has worn it almost every week of her life. It has a million snaps to make it smaller or larger, and a good deal of elastic, but really, it’s amazing. I am gearing up to make a million of them, so that I can use them on both the kids, but the problem is that I have no idea who made it. The tag washed off a long time ago, and I can not find a paypal record. I am faced with deconstructing this one for a pattern, or trying to stretch it and pin it and trace it and go insane trying to chart all the snaps while it curls up.

This won’t fix the problem of the poo, but hey, maybe Ella will potty train before then, right? RIGHT?

I’m taking a break from writing papers, and thought I would make it a productive few minutes, instead of staring blank eyed at my email inbox.

It’s been a productive week, which I can’t always say. We finally went and picked out a tux for Tom and got him fitted (he has abnormally long arms apparently), put up railings on the deck so that Ella does not fall off (again), I altered my wedding dress to fit me (not the 6ft d-cup woman it was made for), written 3 papers, finalized the catering menu, bought a used arch thing, had a midwife appointment, spent 20 hours watching other people’s kids, gave a 25 minute presentation on feminist literary criticism in Go Tell it on the Mountain, puked 2957 times, Tom got a haircut, did 12 loads of laundry, read three books, booked our honeymoon, and a million other small things like eat and change diapers and love my Tom.

ANYWAY, here are some links that may be useful for other altbrides. Later (likely after the wedding) I will do a specific craft post with links, but for now, here are the basics:

Offbeat Bride Fuck Taffeta

Indie Bride

AntiBride Piss on tradition, We’re doing it our way

Bridehood Revisited: The decline of civilization at $250 a plate

BrideZillas (New, but promising)

True Bride Confessions (This one, btw, makes me sick. For all my stress about this wedding, it most certainly was not because I hate my fiance but want the wedding, so I’ll go through with it and just divorce him later. WTF?)

Basically, it comes down to the fact that your wedding should reflect who you are, your relationship, and your values. If that means a cupcake dress and a church wedding, more power to ya. But the fact is that a good number of us feel like that would be a sham, and want our weddings to look and feel like us. No, I’m not wearing lime-green and serving only humanely-picked carrots – but I am done feeling guilty for not making my wedding fit other people’s expectations.