The end is in sight

The light at the end of the tunnel no longer feels like it is most certainly an oncoming train. It's been a busy few weeks. Here's the last of the wedding/honeymoon posts (Promise!).

Friday afternoon when our plane landed we scurried home, took Dave's brother (who is the best dog/cat/house sitter ever to grace the earth) out for lunch (yay Thai food), took some dirty clothes out of the suitcase and threw them in the general direction of the laundry, added some clean ones, and grabbed my bridesmaid gear and drove up to Ottawa (about 4 hours for you out-of-towners) to Sara and Scott's bachelor(ette) party. Sara and I are really close friends - we joke that we actually share a brain (and some days it may in fact be true). We dropped our stuff at our hotel room and cabbed it over to the bar where we met up with everyone and drank until the wee hours of the morning and happily collapsed in bed.

Saturday we slept in until 10, then rushed around to get a wedding gift and run errands. We ended up relaxing late Saturday afternoon, vegging in front of the tv. We only have rabbit ears in this house, so watching all the home improvement, home repair and decorating shows made me supremely jealous. I think if we had cable my ass would never again be able to be separated from the couch. So, rabbit ears it is!

Sunday at 8:30 I was at the salon, getting all prettied up for my bridesmaidley (no, that's not a word) duties, we got ready for the wedding, and seemingly minutes later we were walking down the aisle. Ernesto the pesto struck again, apparently following us from the honeymoon right to Ottawa where his "rain of terror" (well it really wasn't terrifying but why ruin a good pun?) continued, moving the service inside. Their wedding service was lovely, the dinner was great, and the party lasted late into the night.


I promised Dave (in my somewhat drunken state after the wedding which really ought not be believed) that I would be ready to get up and drive home early Monday morning so he could get some work done to be ready for work the next day, but when he shook me at 8:00 to get up and get moving my brain could only grunt in acknowledgement. He mercifully let me sleep until 9:30, when he woke me up again, so I threw some clothes on and stumbled with my eyes still mostly closed downstairs to the continental breakfast where I grabbed some munchies for us and a coffee (which I promptly spilled all over my lap) and stumbled into the car. Dave drove the whole way home, with me passed out in the front seat for a good portion of it.

Once we got home we drove Dave's brother to the train station, had dinner and headed to bed to get ready for a week at work.

After a four day week that seemed like at least 8, Dave worked all of last weekend at job #2, and I had the fun of cleaning the house top to bottom on Saturday and hosting my great aunt from Scotland who was heading to the airport that day. Sunday I got up early and drove down to Windsor and back (4 hours each way for the out of towners) to a wedding shower, and had another long week at work this week. Wedding showers in my somewhat hick life involved jello salads and finger sandwiches and punch. Gifts at such showers were as elaborate as a toaster but that'd be the extent of it(ain't nothing wrong with toasters, I love our new one!). This one was entirely different - a 4 course meal (with some wicked desserts), and entire appliance sets. I mostly sat with my jaw gaping (like the hick I am) at the extravagance of it. It wasn't that the recipient didn't deserve everything she got (and more!) but it was like no wedding shower I'd ever experienced before - the food was amazing, and everyone had a great time.

So, safe to say anyone who suggests doing anything remotely wedding related or anything involving me not impressing ass groves into the couch will have no idea what hit them. We'll probably write thank you cards or at least pick a picture to include in them (we have pictures from the photographer! Yay!) but are mostly planning on giving our brains and bodies a break before we collapse. Here's to making it through the rest of today and some desperately needed down time.


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Oh, and find out where there's a Terry Fox Run in your area this weekend and go! This is something I've done every year since I was 7, and I've only missed it one year since. It's a fantastic cause (who doesn't know someone who has been effected by cancer!?) - funding cancer research, it has resulted in huge gains in research and treatment, and the operating costs of the organization are among the lowest you'll find in any charity. I'll be at the one in the 'shwa Sunday if anyone wants to join me!

Ernesto the Pest-o!

After what can only be described as a whirlwind wedding and a fabulous reception we walked to the hotel room my parents got us for the night, had a shower, slept for about an hour, then got up to leave for the airport. After the honeymoon I can officially announce that we will not be naming any kids (yet to be conceived in case you were worried) Ernesto. Our honeymoon was a blast, even without the space shuttle launch. Be forewarned this post is uber long, but blogger has finally let me include some pictures to break up the monotony.

En route to the airport at an unholy hour I realized I had forgotten to bring contact lens solution with me, so we stopped at a 24 hour drugstore where I unabashedly proclaimed "we just got married!" to anyone who so much as glanced in our direction. I was colossally nerdy to be sure.

While we were in the store the "light misty rain" we had been experiencing had turned into "soak you to the bone in under a second" rain - so much that Dave ran across the parking lot to get the car so I wouldn't get soaked. The thunder and lightning shook the building and we saw strikes of lightening hit not to far from where we were.

After having my contacts in for almost 24 hours straight figured it wouldn't be so great to go through customs with giant red, bloodshot eyes so I soaked my lenses en route to the airport. Once we were through security I bought a hot chocolate and we took turns passing out on the oh so comfortable seating at Pearson. About the only thing I recall was a herd of kids (a herd being 7 or more in my books) who shrieked. Nonstop! All the time! While yelling! And running! Into people! And throwing things! That hit people! And the parents? Nowhere to be seen! It was as though a pack of howler monkeys was unleashed in the airport and people of the parent-type age would just look and say "uh not mine" and turn around. serendipity hit again when they were sitting nowhere near us on the plane.

The flight was uneventful - Dave gave me the window seat (I love flying!) but it was fairly overcast so there wasn't a helluva lot to see. We had requested seats that recline (given our "up for almost 24 hours straight and nowhere near a spot where we can rest") but when we got on board we realized that wasn't happening. We did our best to sleep sitting up, and managed a few winks before we touched down at Orlando.

Now I have to say that when it comes to organization I'm not perfect. Our files and important documents? In a pile downstairs. Luckily, I'm not in charge of organizing something as important as oh, say an AIRPORT! When we got off the plane we of course went through customs (where the officer said "oh I'm sorry" to Dave after I cheerfully said "we just got married!" Asshat.), Then you of course pick up your luggage. But! It isn't over! Then you have to re-check your luggage, take a shuttle to the other terminal, go through customs/security AGAIN and then pick your luggage up AGAIN. All because the incoming and outgoing flights cross paths. Surely someone can come up with a better plan than this folks!

We quickly found our shuttle van (how romantique! I know!) after our second trip to a luggage carousel and were driven to Port Canaveral, and were whisked onto the ship. At that point all we wanted (and could ever ask for) was some food (somehow we weren't still full from dinner the previous day) and a place to crash. We managed the food thing just as we were leaving port, but our rooms weren't ready yet, though at that point we'd been up for 30 hours straight with only little naps so I nearly passed out at lunch. We lucked out and got a room with a window (yay upgrades!).



The next day we explored Freeport and Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island, played in the gorgeous turquoise waters, and went parasailing and explored a couple of shops. We had lunch at a local restaurant and tried conch salad, which I had been told was a quintessential Bahamian dish. Dave found it a bit too spicy but we both enjoyed it.


That evening (after a full day playing on the beach and in the water and exploring) we had a fabulous dinner and went to a comedy show before going to bed exhausted.

Early the next day we were one of the first people off the ship to explore Nassau and walked the streets (and checked out the very upscale jewelry stores! Holy crap you could leave very broke but dripping in jewels from any of them!), then got back on the boat to sign up for snorkeling.

En route to the Island where we could go snorkeling our friend Ernesto showed up, first with darkened skies and later with pouring rain, and driving wind. Lots of the people who came with us on the tour demanded their money back but we figured we'd be getting wet in the water anyway so we decided to dive right in . Dave had never been snorkeling before so it was fun exploring the waters. We fed the fish bread from our hands under the water (such a neat feeling to have an entire school of fish right around you, knocking into you and pecking at your hand for food!). While we were in the water the wind really picked up, and most people were still in the building waiting for the storm to pass. The wind was so strong and waves were so high the boat we came over on couldn't leave the dock so we spent some more time in the water. I swam through what I think was a school of little tiny jellyfish which left not so cute stings all over my arm and legs, and Dave had a few stings too. When we were finally waterlogged (I think we were in the water longer than anyone there) we went ashore, and raced to the other end of the Island to the hut where our things were being stored to stay relatively dry.


Neither of us had experienced tropical storms, but couldn't get over the feeling of the rain hitting your body so hard that it physically stung, and you could feel every drop even when you covered your face with a towel, and the wind pushing you along. Dave had a drop land right in his eye and it blurred his vision for a couple of hours. I was disappointed we hadn't taken many pictures (so as not to ruin the camera) and Dave was feeling rebellious so he ran the length of the boardwalk onto the beach and I took pictures. I call the one above "take this, Ernesto, you're not ruining our honeymoon!"

On the boat ride back I tried Kalik beer, a local brew that was also on the "must try" list while Dave had some VERY strong rum punchey punchey. We walked back to the ship, dripping wet. When he wrung out our towels on the pier I'm sure more than a litre of water fell to the ground. We showered and relaxed for a few minutes before heading out again because it was "only sprinkling" because I wanted to check out the straw market so we'd have souvenirs to bring back to people. We were also hoping to find an internet cafe to email home, having already paid an arm and a leg on the ship for internet access.

Of course, our friends Murphy (and his laws) and Ernesto (and his pelty rain) decided to interfere. It started absolutely pouring. I have no idea what made me decide we didn't need to pack an umbrella or rain jackets, but we didn't. The first internet cafe we crossed the street in water up to our knees to get there only to find one computer was being used for the foreseeable future and the other was broken. We decided to keep looking, since by this time we were already soaked to the bone. There was a steady stream of drips coming off my skirt. We walked around for what was probably another hour, much of the time in water up to our ankles and knees. At one point when we were crossing the street my flip flop (not the most practical of shoes I realize) floated away into on going traffic. The local guys laughed at me while I dove for it, and while Dave quizzically waited on the other side of the street, probably wondering why it took me so long to cross given that I was right behind him when we started out.

We finally gave up and went back to the ship, again dripping the whole way to our room, had another shower to warm up, and then got ready for dinner. We saw another comedy show that night and passed out about midnight.

The boat was supposed to stay docked in Nassau over night, (so we could explore the city overnight and in the early morning!) and leave at 9 the next morning but with the weather the captain decided to head back early. (because apparently he wanted to rush towards the tropical storm that was now in Florida? We didn't get it)

That meant our last day was entirely at sea so we relaxed by the pool, and took it easy. I don't think either of us could go on a cruise where more than a day was spent at sea again - we got bored pretty quickly when it was just the multitude of things on the boat that could entertain us. We decided to blow $5 at the casino on nickel slots, and lost. It was smoky though, by the time we blew our $5 we were happy to leave. We had sushi at the sushi bar before our late dinner and decided to go to show that night since the cruise director was going on about how amazing it was.

Now, I get that it's his job to sell sell sell! the stuff on the boat, but the way he was going on about this show you would have thought it was broadway calibre. After seeing it, we thought it was high school calibre, but not much more. We smugly snickered to each other from the balcony, in full knowledge that neither of us could be anywhere as good as anyone on stage, and went to bed knowing that we had to be up and in line for US customs at 6:00 the next morning.

The next morning we were indeed up in time for customs, standing in a long line with eyes half closed and important documents in hand. Customs officials sauntered onto the ship after we'd been standing in line for about 20 minutes after we all did, and then ate a leisurely breakfast before seeing any of us. We cleared customs okay, packed up our things, got off the boat and into a rental car and drove to Orlando.

We had already arranged for a hotel room at the Los Quintas near the airport. (only the cheapest for us!) Hoo-ee, was it an adventure! Dave's line is "meh, at least we'll have stories!" We got our room on the 2nd floor, and were kinda stunned to find it reeked of mildew. It was as if there was some flood and they never bothered to clean it up. We put down brochures for fun things to do in the area and within minutes the corners curled up because it was so humid in the room. On our way to the mall, we noticed two guys, probably in their mid 30s, arriving in separate trucks, both wearing wedding bands throw knowing glimpses at to each other and then slinking into a room together and started joking it was no longer the Mildew Inn, but the Downlow Motel.

We hit the mall and decided to have some lunch at a Thai place across from it, having become accustomed to the "eat 24-7" schedule on the cruise.

Thai food is my absolute favourite I think - and so when the waitress asked if I wanted my food "hot" or "Thai hot" I was wavering. I've ordered the "hot" at some places and found it to be pretty wussy, but I also knew that "Thai hot" could also mean "uh yeah, get an ambulance over here. Tall an ambulance, this dumb white chick thought she could handle hot food but apparently can't and is now wriggling in our floor coughing."

Dave solved the debate when he helpfully interjected "oh no, she can handle Thai hot" and that was it. The first few bites were completely manageable and very tasty, but by the 4th or 5th it was definitely hotter than I'd really wanted. By about the 15th I thought I was in over my head and Dave looked at me sipping my water and asked if I was okay. The waitresses, all Thai, hovered around our table wondering how I was doing. I just said it was just hotter than I expected. I think they secretly all got together in the back to say "Hah that'll teach her! Dumbass!" I tried ordering some coconut milk (which helps to make things less spicy) but all they had was coconut water, which was really of no help. Finally one waitress suggested adding sugar to it to balance things out, and that made a huge difference and I soldiered on, determined to show them I could take it. There was so much on the plate though, that I wasn't able to finish it. I was so full that I only nibbled on the mango sticky rice we decided to split, which is one of my favourite desserts.

We went back to the hotel for a quick siesta another guy was getting out of a repair van to meet up with and another dude who arrived in an SUV and they exchanged glances and went into a room together. By this point we decided that there should be the Brokeback Hotel, with signs out front saying "Gentlemen! Going on fishing trip!? (wink wink!) Come Stay here! Your wives will never know!" We went back to the room to rest for a bit but the whole mildew/gross carpet/humidity got to me and we changed rooms (and saw more men having obvious liaisons) en route to the new room.

We then relaxed a bit, watched TV (cable! Oh how it'd be cool to have cable!) had a quick nap before hitting the Olive Garden for dinner. For Americans I know this is a "no big deal" restaurant, but they closed all of the Olive Gardens in Ontario to keep Red Lobster open, so it's a total treat for us. We were stuffed to the gills after dinner and made it a fairly early night watching Cable TV and packing our suitcase up. About midnight just as we were turning out the lights we got another phone call from a man who seemed to be looking for his date. We're sure he was also there for some action too. Dave keeps saying that other than me, the staff and some old lady we saw at breakfast I was the only woman staying at the hotel.

The drive to the airport (after the mandatory panic about missing passports at 6:30 in the morning) was uneventful, as was the flight home.



Next in the seemingly unending (and hopefully not too boring) saga is bachelor(ette) party in Ottawa later that same day and Sara's wedding on Sunday.

The word of the day is "exhausted"

(Ok this post contains tons-o-wedding crap so if you're not so into the wedding stuff I'd suggest you skip it.)

Our wedding was really a phenomenal day - better than I'd expected, than we'd planned, and better than we'd hoped for. Even the freaking weather cooperated!

For now we're completely exhausted. From last Friday until today we really haven't had much of a break. We went from the wedding, to the reception, to a hotel for a couple of hours, to the airport, to Florida, to the cruise ship, ran around the ports we stopped at, to a hotel, to the airport, to Toronto's airport, home, lunch, and back in the car to Cobourg to see my parents, to bachelor(ette) party and wedding in Ottawa this weekend where I was a bridesmaid, home this afternoon, and work tomorrow. So, here's the longer version if you're interested.

The days before the wedding were spent making programs, putting together ribbons and sheets of organza to wrap the blue spruce trees which were our wedding favours for all the guests.

We rented Victoria Hall in Cobourg (where I grew up) for our reception. The exterior is one thing, and is definitely beautiful, but the concert hall is something you have to see to believe it. It's totally gorgeous. The hall itself was built in 1860 and was opened by the Prince of Wales. The concert hall, where we had the reception has walnut floors, beautiful murals on the walls and a hand painted ceiling that is incredible. (plus it rents for a song compared to most places!)

My parents, my sister, her fiance John, and Dave's mum helped us decorate the tables Friday morning and get the hall ready. We just had plain white floral table cloths, jewel toned tea lights and we were lucky enough to have a friend of my mum's take the gladiolus that we ordered for the centrepieces, add some Queen Anne's lace, Solomon's seal, hosta leaves and asparagus ferns to make fabulous arrangements for the tables. I was totally amazed at how beautiful they looked even though we were far from a big budget wedding. This is the interior of the grand ballroom for another event but you get a sense of how pretty it is.

I left part way through decorating the hall to a spa afternoon Dave planned for me. By the end of it my hands actually looked like they belonged to a girl (I've never had a manicure before). When it came to picking a nail colour for my toes that was easy. My toes were my "something blue." (Yes I have hideous feet.) The other something blue was borrowed from Sara - a blue toe ring.

The rehearsal went well and it was so fantastic to have a wonderful dinner and be surrounded with friends and family. My family spent hours pulling it together and we really appreciated it.

Our wedding day started very early for me - when a neighbour of my parents' had their car alarm going off for about 20 minutes around 4:30am. I slept like a log to that point, but it took me a while to fall asleep again. The woman doing all of our hair has been doing my hair for the last 12 years, and I've been going to the same salon before she started there since I was 4. She does a phenomenal job, and doesn't charge nearly enough for an up do. She came to the house and had everyone done in time.

It was indeed my high school stalker's wife who did our makeup. In fact, it was him who dropped her off, along with an assistant (who assisted by sitting on the couch). He lingered in front of the house and when I saw that I made my sister run to get the door. Hah! Foiled ya, creepy dude! In the end she was reasonable, and did a pretty good job of making pretty girls even prettier. No make-up guns were set to "whore" as I feared.

I don't know who picked up the flowers, but they were done by Sav-A-Centre (A&P) and I was so impressed. They were cheaper than most places, and totally gorgeous.

We had some photos taken at my parents' house before taking the limo to the church. My family has been members of the church since I was a kid, and this summer we got a new minister who really helped us personalize the service and made it feel like OUR wedding.


I was shocked at how fast the whole service went. It seemed that suddenly we were at the back of the church and the bridesmaids were walking down the aisle, quickly followed by my dad and I (the aisle wasn't big enough to add my mum in). I was really happy with the service, especially the music. My high school music teacher sang a solo (and boy can he sing), and brought along a fellow soloist and I was completely blown away. Several eyes in the house weren't dry; they were that good. I felt like all of a sudden it was all over and we were walking up the aisle (with Dave telling me to SLOW DOWN cause I was too excited and wanted to walk too fast) and we were married. The picture in the post below is us at the top of the aisle at the church. My mum did the flower arrangements in the photo above the day of our wedding.

We then went to a lakeside park for more photos, where the limo driver (who we booked until 6:30) announced he was leaving at 5:30 because he had another job to get to. My sister tore a strip off him and our photographer took a picture of me giving him the finger as he drove off. I'm nothing if not classy (actually, I like to think I put the ass in class).

So, there we were with no way back to the reception hall, when we had the rescue of the year. Dave's friend Curt and his beautiful wife Katy have a brand new white mustang convertible, and he totally became the knight in shining armour with lots of horsepower. We rode in the back of the car while he chauffeured us to the reception, honking the whole way. We just sat in the back amazed at how awesome our friends are and what a fantastic rescuer we had. It totally made our day. My dad took some phenomenal pictures of us in the car, and our wedding photographer got this one too.


When we got to the reception my gorgeous friend Jodi jumped in with her event planning background and ushered everyone in and directing hors d'oeuvres our way while we waited for everyone to get seated. Dinner was great - we served a spinach and grilled asparagus salad with passion fruit dressing, entrees were either a mushroom risotto, chicken with sundried tomato cream, or rime rib beef, along with roasted tomatoes filled with ricotta and spinach, broccoli and dauphinoise potatoes. Speeches went through dinner so no one got too bored (hopefully), and the dancing started and went late into the night. Judging from the dance floor I like to think it was a good party.

In order to get us to dance we made the tables get up and do a dance (with the assistance of the DJ who provided music). There was some definite creativity in the room. By the end of the night we decided to turn the tables on everyone and Dave danced to "The stripper" while I sat and watched to get everone else to kiss.

Our first dance was Etta James singing "At Last," and my dad and I danced to Rod Stewart singing "I wish you well." Dave and his mum danced to Carole King "Child of mine."

The boquet for tossing went directly (and completely unintentionally) to my friend Sara, who was in our wedding party and getting married 8 days after us (I was in her wedding party too). She luckily survived a few stray elbows that narowly missed her head. Apparently it went right to her like some sort of ouija board boquet. I just whipped the thing over my head.

The garter was some cruel joke too, as it went directly to my sister's fiance. Poor John was our wedding day gopher, and had, only minutes before run to the house because I realized I had forgotten to wear a stupid garter. Now the poor guy had my sweaty stinky garter in his hand, having just retrieved it. Dave and I are looking forward to being the gophers at their wedding next summer.

For our last dance the DJ asked everyone to stand around us in a circle holding hands as we danced to Louie Armstrong singing "Wonderful world." That was totally one of the best moments of the day because at every step we could see friends and family around us (and hear my dad and Dave's best man singing). It was an awesome feeling (and to anyone who is getting married DEFINITELY DO THIS for your last dance).

We walked to the hotel room my parents rented for us, crashed for an hour or so, Dave shook me until I gave in and got up, and Dave drove us to the airport in a huge storm around 2:30am so we'd get to the airport in time for our 7am flight.

Next? What kind of morons snorkel during a hurricane! Uh that'd be us!

Married!

There will be lots more to come but for now blogger just isn't cooperating. This one was taken by our photographer (who also has a blog) of the two of us kissing at the top of the aisle just after the ceremony. Her blog has other pictures of our big day.


Reflecting afterward we were both really calm the whole day, and anything that didn't go smoothly right away (and most things did) ended up working out better than what we originally planned.

We wanted to make sure everyone had a good time, and from everyone we've talked to it sounds like everyone had a blast. We both still had somewhat sore feet two days later from hitting the dance floor all night. Don't think it could've been more perfect.


(Way more stories to follow; gotta run to Sara's wedding this weekend. Had a fantastic honeymoon!)

Over the moon (and possibly to it!)

Cause we booked our honeymoon! We were planning something super small in Quebec City, which I hear is gorgeous, fabulous, and wonderful, but we decided to go for broke and take a cruise in the Bahamas!

We still need to book airfare (still shopping around for the best deals) but it looks like we're leaving bright and VERY early the morning after the wedding to Florida, then off to the Bahamas.

With everything that's been going on I wasn't overly excited before, but now every five minutes I turn to Dave and say "guess what!? We're going on a cruise!" It's short (I'm in a wedding 8 days after ours) but should be sweet. I'm so looking forward to the turquoise waters and relaxing together and getting away!

Now that I've torn the house apart looking for my passport and have managed to find it, we're ready to go!

Dave's also been doing a great deal of stripping for me lately.

Sadly, it's of the paint variety.

I've done some too, but not as much as him. Anyone thinking of doing renovations AND getting married in the SAME summer... yeah I'd advise against it. We're also lucky enough to have a thin coat of dust on EVERYTHING in the house because Dave's been sanding the plaster job he did. But? Soon we'll have flat walls and a gorgeous wood entrance! Yay!



UPDATE: we just discovered that the space shuttle Atlantis is scheduled to launch a half hour after our cruise leaves Cape Canaveral! We're so excited! I have always thought that seeing a shuttle launch would be amazing, and the fact we JUST booked a trip without knowing that was a prospect is so cool. (Yeah, I know it's going to the space station, but I can pretend it's going to the moon so it fits with the blog title, no?)

I'm not some wedding-crazed bridezilla...

and I've never been very girley... so why on earth do I find myself wanting to order these? In hot pink no less?