Sixteen Days To GO

Sixteen days to go until the wedding and I am rapidly crossing things off THE LIST. And when I say I am crossing things off the list, I really mean getting rid of things that I wanted to do, but just don’t have time, nor the desire to stress out about it. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes the list gets a little longer with backup idea; but, it is not too bad. Sixteen days left and WAY more than sixteen things left to do.

At least the honeymoon has been booked and we are ready to go. We still need to get the menu picked out, the music picked, the ceremony designed, Dan’s sit picked, my hair done, etc. But, all I really care about is that at the end of the day Dan and I are married and we get to spend time with all of the people that we care about and that care about us.

My Dress has Arrived

Yesterday, while sitting in my pajamas, with my blank piece of paper in front of me and pen posed, ready to write out my weekend "to do" list, I got a call from David's Bridal.

"Your dress has arrived. Would you like to reschedule you fitting for sometime sooner?"

"Of course. When is there an open appointment?"

"How about 1:30pm today?"

"Sure!" and because it was 12:45pm I raced to the shower, yanked at my knotted "Sunday Hair", dressed and ran out of the door.

When the tailor opened the impossibly long dress bag and pulled the plastic around the hanger to reveal the dress, my breath caught in my throat. I had forgotten how beautiful the dress is. I just couldn't wait to get it on again. Unfortunately, it is a process, getting into a wedding dress; but 20 minutes later I was beaming, despite myself, and feeling very pretty.

My dress fit perfectly, we did not have to make a single alteration. They measured and pinned up the bustle and I undress and I was on my way.

I am scheduled to pick up the dress in one month. Since I have been busting my butt working out, I am a little afraid that some alterations may have to be made at the last minute, but that is money I am willing to spend.

The Greatest Wedding IPod Ever!

Dan and I received our very first wedding present from our wonderful friends out in San Francisco, Kym and Jared. It is the cutest green IPod and we are going to use it to DJ our own reception. I can't wait to start loading up the wedding music. It is going to be super fun!

Anyway, now we have an IPod so if you want to get us another one, that's fine, but for now we're good. Thanks Kym and Jared.

The Bride and The Big Bridal Business Beast

Today I went back to David’s Bridal to pick up my shoes for the wedding. I had left them there to get dyed to match the dress. (They were white and the dress is ivory.) In the past, I have had very good service there. In fact I was surprised at the level of good service as David’s always seemed to me to be the “Walmart” of bridal stores. Well, today I reminded that one good service incident does not necessarily mean there will be good service in the future. I walked in to get my shoes and was ignored by the lady talking on the phone. So I headed over to the main registers and the girl behind it greeted me timidly, and then cut me off in the middle of my telling her why I was there to help the women who apparently she was supposed to be helping before she started to talk to me. When they were gone, she asked me again, what I needed. I told her I had to pick up my shoes, and she got them for me. I was handed a box, one corner of the shoe box was crushed and broken, the shoes were inside, bouncing around in the broken box, not tissue paper, cardboard, anything to protect them from damage, and the worst part about this was that no one seemed to think this was a problem.
I am glad that I have decided to keep this wedding more and more stripped down. The more I get involved with “Wedding Big Business” the less I want to get married.

Wedding Gifts

If you would like to get us a gift, we have registered with Honeyfund.com. It allows us to pick out things for the honeymoon, instead of for our house, as we have already been living together and have plenty of stuff. If you don't like the honeyfund, buy us ipods, or pots and pans or something like that. Otherwise, give a donation in our name to Piedmont Family Service. For more information see our website.

Invitations are Sent!

The invitations are finally out. Many have already received them and even RSVP’d already. It’s like this wedding is actually going to happen after all.

The wedding planning has really come together in the last few weeks. The invitations were a big thing, so I am glad those are completed. Today I have to pick up my shoes (they were dyed to match the dress). And we still have to figure out what Dan is going to wear. I would have thought that the groom’s outfit would be easy, but there are a ridiculous number of options out there, so we will keep looking. No matter what, he is going to look great.

I just need to go by the bakery this week and pick out the cake. Chocolate it is, but I might mix it up a little. You will just have to see.

Now I need to figure out what to do about my bouquet. I was going to have beaded flowers and I still want that, but I am not sure what colors to do. Having no bridesmaids has made it easy to never have to pick “my wedding colors”. Thank goodness, because that would be annoying. But now I think the time has come to start color coordinating.

The Cake

Our wedding is going to be fairly untraditional. I mean, we are not going to have attendants, and our friend Ethan is officiating (he was “ordained” via the internet). But there are a few things that are going to be traditional. I mean, we want people to realize they are at a wedding after all. My dress is traditional (it is ivory and fluffy and big like wedding dresses are), and the tux will be recognizable. But when discussing the cake, I had ideas about cupcakes and other desserts and Dan pointed out that we need something traditional to remind people where they are; and I think he is right in this case. The cake is such a wedding icon. Dan doesn’t even eat cake, but we are still going to spend the money to at least have something people will recognize as wedding celebration. So here is the only question left to answer: What flavor?

Wedding Bands

Yesterday we purchased our wedding bands. We chose matching white gold bands. Dan’s is little thicker than mine.

We looked at a number of options. I looked at a few diamond bands, but they all took the attention away from the topaz stone in the engagement ring. So we went with the plain bands and they are beautiful. Along with the purchase of the dress, the purchase of the rings really hit home the fact that we are actually getting married! Hooray! I can’t wait.

Now we have to pick out Dan’s outfit. We went to the tux rental place, but since we don’t have any attendants, we don’t really have a color scheme. Dan’s couldn’t decide what color vest to go with so we took home the catalogue and will be returning later in the week.

Lots more to do…

I fit in my pants!

Today is a good day. I tried on this pair of pants that I had bought right after the baby was born when I hadn’t realized yet the extent to which my post-baby body had changed from my pre-baby body, and they fit. They hadn’t fit ever! They still had the tags on them. This of course got me excited so I put on my snazzy heels and a bright shiny necklace and went to work. Now I am falling asleep at my desk, as usual, and counting down the minutes until I can get back home and go on my bike ride.

Five pounds down, 25 left to go!

I love my Bike

Okay, I hear what you all are saying and it is comforting. Measure inches not weight (I have gained a pound. It must be the incredibly buff arms that I am getting), exercise and eat right, don’t starve yourself, etc…Thanks all. It really does make a difference to get a little support!

Here is some good news. I finally got my bike put back together. About 5-6 years ago Chumbley ate it. He ate one pedal, the seat, one of the breaks, and gnawed on the tires. It has taken me this long to replace all the chewed up pieces and give the whole thing a bit of an overhaul. It is a great mountain bike. A 15 speed and it rides well on roads too. Finally, this morning I took it out again for a workout ride. I drove all the way down Spring Garden Street, riding in that very scary bicycle lane until I hit downtown; sped around the roundabout in front of Mcouls and headed back home. Then I cooled down by circling Lindley Park. It is amazing how many people are out and about at 5:30 in the morning.

I did a total of about 7 miles in 45 minutes. (I stopped twice to drink water. I need to get one of those fancy bike water bottles and holders. That is the next upgrade!) Although I am sitting here feeling each muscle twitch and seize up, it was good exercise and I hope to do it again tomorrow.

Nothing is happening

I have been dieting and exercising for 3 weeks now and I have not lost one pound. At first I thought I might be pregnant. At least that would explain the total lack of anything happening. But fortunately I am not pregnant so it must be something else. This week I am going to try another experiment. I am going to drop all alcoholic beverages and bread and see what happens. If nothing works this week, next week I am going vegetarian to see what will happen then.

Ummm, Delicious Pain

I have been working out. Yes, I know it is hard to believe but I finally got my butt in gear and have started running, doing crunches and using the barbells to tone up my arms. Today I am suffering from that delicious pain that comes from just exerting oneself enough to burn calories and build muscle, but not enough to be gimping around, unable to move properly.

My stomach muscles ache nicely, with that tightness that makes you feel like you may have actually tightened some muscles already! My legs are sore only when I bend down and try to stand back up. But it reminds me that I have actually run recently and that makes me happy.

I think I am going to run tonight when I get home. It is drizzling a bit outside, but I am sure it will feel great as I jog my way around the park.

The first run of the rest of my life

I am completely exhausted today. This weekend was very busy and I am feeling the effects of only six hours of sleep last night. This morning I ran my first morning run; the first of the rest of my life. I was surprised to find that I was able to run the majority of the mile without having to stop and walk.

Bronwen woke me up at 5:21am for her morning feeding. I fed her and we cuddled for ten minutes and then she went back to bed and I went out to run. It was about 5:45am when I set off down Willowbrook towards Lindley Park. The sky was still dark and the air was bracing. It felt wonderful. I was energized.

The park was very dark and I had a hard time seeing the sidewalk in front of me, so I ran in the street. When I got back home I stood in the front yard and stretched and felt so alive. I remembered this feeling. It takes me back to high school and those sports camp mornings in the fall. The classic autumn in Connecticut, the roadways lined with birch and elm, the morning mist listing in the meadows. The air tasted the same this morning as it used to taste after our three mile run for soccer practice.

Not so good

So, I am not getting very far with this diet. I am have begun exercising, so that should help, but nothing is happening. I need instant satisfaction.

It doesn't help that everyday I set new rules, no beer, no fried food..., and everyday I break my own rules, off to Fat Dogs for beer and waffle fries! It couldn't be more frustrating. I am just really bad at denying myself the things that I want.

Despite all this complaining, I am actually feeling pretty positive today. It is friday, I will be exercising a lot this weekend, and hopefully I will be able to stay off the beer. It is going to 82 degrees and sunny so the beer thing might be a problem, but all I can do is keep making up rules!

Temptation

Sitting in class, trying to stay awake and engaged is difficult enough without being extremely hungry. I have started only eating maybe a banana and a cup of coffee every morning with maybe a bowl of cereal, or low fat, low sugar yogurt. But this morning I am hungry! And it is hard to concentrate on what I am doing. The problem is: what do I do with this feeling? Do I wait patiently for lunch; it is, after all, only 2 hours away? Of course not! Ellie waits for no food! I stuff my face with snack foods, pretzels, bulk snack mixes and coffee.

Back to the number problem. These calories are just adding up too quickly. (90+40+110+250=490!) Okay, and now lunch will be here soon. I will just have to be careful for dinner! No brownie desserts for me!

I am already getting bored with this food counting. Oh well. I'd better get used to it.

It begins...

Ah, the American woman on a diet. What hasn't been written about this cliche. I have to admit, I have always turned up my nose at the dieter thinking, if you are not happy with yourself, nothing will, not even losing weight, make you happier. But now it is a health issue. (Whatever happened to the invincibility of my 20s? Could it be the birth of our child that has made me worry about the future?) It is definitely the birth of my child that has made me fat! Oh and my love of beer and brownies!

I have a goal of 30 pounds in 20 weeks, or 1.5 pounds a week. I will record my journey here and hopefully it will make it a lot more fun for me! (I just denied myself chocolate cupcakes for carrots! Argh! This isn't fun at all!)