Summer Blooms etc.

Finally I have got around to doing some gardening. Because everything is so beautifully landscaped at the new house I've resorted to strictly pots this year. Easier maintenece, no weeding and I can move things around to see what grows the best where. My lovely chef had requested fresh herbs so I put him to work first installing the new way cool fence baskets I found of all places at Joann Fabrics and 50% off!


Insert these in them.


And this is what you've got!


They are wave petunias so they will trail down the baskets and look awesome!

Then we have the patio side.


We've got (from right to left) mint (a transplant from Althea last year!) the wonderful petunia hanging basket from the Mouws (someone won't let me drill into the house yet!)and a lovely pot my mom put together! So cute!


Chives!


Basil!


And oregano, tarragon and dill!

And this is what I sometimes catch out our living room at about 5:30am! Amazing!

I love it here!

Perspective

A few things here. Today is my last day as 30, what a year! I keep forgetting that my birthday is tomorrow. I guess that's what busy gets you. We are settling into the new house. I love it. I love coming home to our quiet little street and our gorgeous house. I love the feel of "our" house. It's amazing and so relaxing and just so us. I can now say that it has been worth all the stress and work to get here. I'm in love with our house...and this guy who keeps showing up in it too :)!!!
Of course there is the wedding. We are less that 2 months away. Where did the time go? After my little melt down/pitty party from last post(and thank you to all the sweet comments, I truly appreciate them)I just mustered up the energy and have things going in full swing. I have a few projects in the works...thanks to some amazing future in-laws!
And I've found some much needed perspective. There is this website that I frequent during the whole wedding process. It's called weddingbee.com There are selected bloggers, "Bees". Ladies who are in the height of the planning stage of their wedding. A lot of it is too much DIY for me but here's a post that resonated with me. I forwarded it on to Jason yesterday and I think his exact words were "I agree 100%!" Miss Pineapple is the author or the "Bee". Enjoy and Happy Friday!


It is Just a Wedding.
June 19th, 2008 @ 12:37 pm by Miss Pineapple

That’s right, I said it. Just.

Just a wedding.

Not the “most important day of our lives,” not our “big day,” not an extravagant party where we have to please everyone. It is just a wedding.

When it comes to planning our wedding I have asked for little advice from our friends and family. When I come up with an idea about a detail our of wedding I share it with Mr. Pineapple and he generally has one of two responses “sure, great!” or “yeah, I don’t think so.” It is a pretty simple system. This method works for us, because I get to be swept up in all the little details that I think are great fun and Mr. Pineapple doesn’t get overwhelmed with 10,000 typefaces.

Before we make any wedding related choice you can bet I have googled the heck out it first. I check Weddingbee archives, discussion boards and browse Martha and the knot galleries. I tear pages from magazines and bookmark dozens of blogs. I fill our DVR with episode after episode of “Whose Wedding is it Anyway?” (I swear, that show is on almost as much as Law and Order - which is a good thing!) After collecting as many ideas as I can and racking my brain for more, I choose one and ask for the opinion of my partner in crime. Each decision we have made, we are very happy with and we think it is the best decision we could make. After all, what is the big deal? It is just a wedding.

Whenever I imagined planning our wedding someday I always pictured lots of friends and family involved. The more we have gotten into the thick of things the more I prefer just going at it with internet and print resources. I don’t want my near and dear to feel that the only thing I ever talk about with them is the wedding, so I often only bring it up when asked.

This has backfired on a few occasions. A couple people have felt left out of the planning process, assuming I think their opinions don’t matter. They do matter, and I would love to hear ideas, but I don’t know where to draw the line with wedding talk. In the end I am confident that Mr. P and I won;t make any “bad” choices, so we don’t get approval before purchasing DIY materials or booking vendors. It’s just a bouquet, just a cake and just a wedding.

One choice we made early on was to have an adult-only wedding. I know there is some controversy on this topic, but I also know we are not alone in our choice. We love babies, we want to have a few of our own some day. However, for many reasons, we feel that an adult-only wedding really is the way to go. Because of this choice I have been told “I am going to bring my son to your wedding and I will make a scene… I will ruin your fancy wedding on the river.” Tears have been shed, family members have jumped down one another’s throats, we have yelled and hung up on one another. When in reality, it is just a wedding.

After these very real and very probable threats from a family member who has acted outrageously selfish in the past, I had to tell him and his wife that they were no longer invited. If I thought there was any chance that he was just faking it to scare me into changing our decision, or if he had accepted any of the compromises I offered, then maybe I could give him another chance. Unfortunately, I know this person is all too capable of making me cry and making my family fight in public. I would prefer tears of joy only please, thanks. Of course, there are other family members who want me to give him a second chance. People who really want him to be there. I don’t understand why. Why take the chance of something really bad happening just so he could be there? It is just a wedding.

This type of drama threw me completely off guard. I would have never imagined, in a million years, that someone would want to make a scene at our wedding. Or that someone would get angry about the design of our invites. It is just one night without your child, it is just stationery, it is just a wedding.

I wish I could issue a blanket statement to everyone that says:

“Mr. Pineapple and I are going to become a family. Our wedding day is the day that it will become official.

We would like you to come because we care about you and thought you would like to 1) see Miss Pineapple in a poofy dress and 2) see Mr. Pineapple cry.

So sorry if you don’t like our invitations and think our food is gross, we love it and had hoped you would too.

Thanks for coming.

Love,
The Pineapples”

The wedding is not our big day. The wedding not the most important day of our lives. The wedding is not what is really happening on October 18th.

October 18th is the day Mr. Pineapple and I become a family. It is the day he becomes a husband and I become a wife. It is the day our family doubles in size with additional moms and dads, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews. It is a happy day for us, because it is the first official day of the rest of our days together.

I've been busy...

Real busy.

Busy at work. We've been landing new clients, which is good but when it's more than one at a time...it gets complicated. Makes my head spin...crazy like.

Busy at home. Ok so we still are not unpacked. Finding the time to just put stuff away. It's not that there's no room...man our place has storage. But it's figuring what is the most logical place to put things. Then also with a bigger house comes more housework. Ugghh trying to keep the floors clean, the carpets vacuumed, the lawn mowed, laundry done, the toilets and counters clean. Our 30day warranty expires here soon so we need to identify all the dings, and dents and stuff that just plain doesn't work, get it over to the builder then wait to hear from subcontractors that only work when I work which becomes a scheduling nightmare. Makes my head spin...crazy like.

Busy with wedding stuff. Invitations are done...hitting the mail soon. Dress is here, no alterations yet. Still no one to marry us...hopefully getting close. Flowers, cake, hairstyle, makeup and booze need to be decided. Bachelor/Bachelorette party, wedding shower, rehearsal dinner, day after brunch to round up. There are a few diy projects that I've been eying that I really really really want to do...do I have the time? the "know how"? the patience? to pull it off...I dunno. Makes my head spin...crazy like.

Busy with life. There are birthdays (oh and mine this month), holidays, receptions, and people coming in to town. Wanting to go out and do things or just relax a bit but knowing that you are still living out of boxes. Makes my head spin...crazy like.

Such is livin "the life"....

Wedding Sneak Peek

So I thought that I might give you readers (all 4 of you...and sadly I think that's probably right) a sneak peek in to some wedding details.

First of all, the dress. Ohhh I had to scour the city for the perfect one. And I think I've found it. I've been telling Jason all about it since I've ordered it and what the heck let's just post a picture of it!

Isn't it just gorgeous??? And totally me! I'm not sure if it's pink enough or poofy enough but we'll look in to adding in more poof!

And next with the perfect dress...you need the perfect veil. Ohhh and did I nail that one on the head! Look at it!

I think the beading will just set off the white of my eyes just lovely...since it's so close to them! But I just thought the combo would be perfect!

And finally, my bouquet.

Who knew silk flowers could be so snazzy?? I will of course make sure to match the ribbon to my dress and I'm not sure that it's large enough or cascading enough...might want to add to that too. Bigger the better right?

So what do you all think :)?

Happy Signing Day!

Well the ball has started to roll. Today we sign on the new house. Tomorrow is funding day. And Saturday is moving day. Oh my! Last night we grabbed Thai food for one last time from the neighborhood place (right after we pawned Jason's old wedding ring which a whole other amusing story). Anyways, we opened our fortune cookies and mine said something to the effect of remember this date 3 months from now...it'll be good. I should hope so since that will be 2 days before the wedding! Then Jason opened his and started laughing...I wish I didn't read it. It said something to the effect of now is not the time to be spending money...frugality is the key. Stupid fortune! I wish I never read it! Oh well it's just a piece of paper. I'm not gonna let it rain on my parade...bring on the debt! Onwards and upwards!

Rented!

Greetings from mass chaos central. This week has just been a bear. It's been a tough week at work. We've had meetings with wedding vendors which just means trying to focus on making decisions on things I have no idea on and dropping mass cash. We've had meetings with new house people, walk through with the builder, communication back and forth with our agent, their agent, the builder, our lender, our insurance agent....enough to make a full time job out of that or at least to make your head spin.
I've been trying to eat healthy and get enough sleep. I try to sneak a few workouts in here and there but it just doesn't seem like enough. Today I ran the Race for the Cure. 3.1 miles...yeah I probably should have walked since I ate pizza last night, lifted way too much at the gym last night, didn't hydrate enough last night, haven't been on a run in ages oh and forgot to eat anything this morning before the race. I almost ran all the ways but towards the end I started getting dizzy and I thought the best thing would be to just walk the last quarter. My time was 35 minutes. Not great but given the conditions, I'll take it. Now my body just hurts.
Now time for some good news! We have the Boise house rented! The new choir director from St. Johns recently relocated and needs a place for him and his wife. He stopped by today to look at the place drenched in cardboard and he wants it! I hope they enjoy our house as much as we have. He's moving in May 31st so we have a lot to do to get the place all ready for them. I'm just totally relieved...
Our movers are scheduled for Sat 9am. We are working diligently to have everything in boxes and ready to move. Jason right now is busting his balls upstairs packing....I better go help him :).
Wish us luck this next week, we will definitely need it. But the payoff will definitely be worth it.

Ohhh Goldy!

Amidst all this house craziness our four legged friend has been having some problems of her own. Two Sunday's ago Jason noticed a bump on Goldy's hip that looked irritated. It was gross! It was all infected and just yuck! I took her into the vet on Monday and apparently she has a small cyst that has home to the surface and she licks it and irritates it. Well the choices were we pay a bunch of bucks to have Goldy put under anesthesia possibly putting stress on her liver, have the mass removed, them see if it's cancerous, and then she has to recover. Or we keep her from licking it anymore and put her on antibiotics.

Well yes of course there's a price difference but mainly Goldy loves her schedule. She likes her daily walks, she likes to move on her own, she likes to be normal. So we went with just treating it. I was afraid that they would put her in a cone. She would not tolerate that and honestly neither would we. Well now they have this neck brace type if thing to immobilize their neck so they can't lick. It's a pretty neat gadget called Bite Not Collar.

I think she's not too bothered by it most of the time. She's pretty much had it on for 10 days now. It breaks my heart to look at her in it but mostly I think it's cause her old lady neck waddle gets pushed up to her face...oooh Goldy

Tonight is the first night we are going to try to have it off of her all night. She usually wakes up at some point during the night and whines at us and runs into the bed and the walls trying to push the collar off of her. Cross your fingers that it heals completely and she stops bothering it...I think we could all use a goodnight's sleep!