The invitations have been mailed!  I feel like I've been working on them forever and I kind of miss the black box stuck in the corner by the dining table that had all of the supplies. Yeah, not really.

No going back now!

I was truly honored with a bridal shower today hosted by my bridesmaids and a couple of additional friends at The Stockyards Hotel. It was great having ladies there from all of the corners of my world! My mom and her sisters were there, as well as James' mom, sister, several college friends, neighbors and a few friends from work. My soon-to-be step-daughter Lizzy was there and a big help in handling the gift opening.

Much to the chagrin of a few of my hostesses, I had requested shower games. Thank goodness one of the hostesses enjoys them as much as I do. My favorite game was "toilet paper wedding dress design" where the guests are split into teams and given a few minutes to create a wedding ensemble with nothing but toilet paper. The picture here is my mom modeling her team's creation. My mother is rarely silly but she was on a roll in her TP gown!

This was absolutely the best bridal shower I've ever been to and, from the bottom of my heart, I thank the gals that put it together: Julie, Rynn, Sharon, Lori, and Shea.  

Wow, time has flown by since James proposed to me on February 13th. November 23rd seemed so far away for a really long time. Yesterday, though, a couple of my girlfriends and I went to lunch in the Stockyards. One of them had not seen our venue yet and she's going to be doing the set-up for the day, decorating the guest tables, etc. We walked over to the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame and I got a little dizzy standing there looking at the room. I could picture vividly just how the room will look all decorated and full of our family and friends.

James and I were in a minor car accident this morning. I stayed home to deal with the insurance companies, towing the car to the body shop, renting a car, etc. I was also able to finish up our wedding invitations with the exception of a couple of people whose addresses I don't have yet. They're all packed up and ready to send to my friend, Hildo, who is a mail carrier. He graciously agreed to hand cancel the postage for me so that I don't have to worry about the invitations getting mangled in the conveyer belt of the automated machines. 

Yesterday was absolutely insane with moving details and waiting hours and hours on the Internet installation guy but I did manage to stop by the post office and have the invitation weighed. In the midst of our move today, I had a little break so I sat down and ordered the postage stamps we need to send out our wedding invitations in just a couple of weeks.

We're really getting down to the wire now. After we have completed our move (ie, cleaned up the apartment we are leaving), we will have time to focus on all of the last-minute details of the wedding and enjoy the process a bit more.

We both read The Hunger Games trilogy and loved the books. The first movie did not disappoint and we were anxious for the second one. When we heard the release date is 11/22/13 we discussed either going to a matinee the day before the wedding, catching a later showing after the rehearsal dinner or finding a movie theater on Maui! We still haven't decided which option we'll choose but now instead of saying "It's XX days till the wedding" we are saying "It's XX days till Catching Fire!" Yeah, we're nerds.

In other news, we found a darling townhouse in our neighborhood (important for school attendance zones) and will start the move-in process tomorrow! I'm not excited about the actual moving part since I just did that 4 months ago, but at least most of my belongings are packed and ready to go from storage. We are all very excited to find a place that suits our needs much better. There's a small yard for the dogs and the kids get their own rooms.

As I told James a couple of days ago, I am ready for life to just settle down. I know that won't be till, oh, January (at the earliest) but I'm definitely looking forward to it. Since the proposal, we've had nothing but upheaval...getting my house ready to rent, finding a renter, moving, figuring out how to live together and manage a household of 4, honors day, commencement, orientation, James' new job downtown, another orientation program, now another move. And, oh yeah, we're planning a wedding amongst all that.

89 days till "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire." We can do this.

James and I spent a couple of hours comparison shopping between tuxedo stores today. It was overwhelming but we had a couple of very helpful salespeople. In the end, we went back to our original store and got better prices than they originally offered. I can't wait to see my handsome groom and all of our menfolks in their spiffy formal wear. 

You probably know that the word "fan" is short for "fanatic." I really should not abbreviate the phrase when referring to my fiance's love of baseball. He is, truly, a baseball fanatic. At our wedding, you will notice an undercurrent theme of baseball. I've never really been interested in the game myself but I choose to be happy he's not a Trekkie or some such thing. I enjoy watching him engrossed in something he loves so very much, especially since he's happy I'm in the room, never mind that I'm reading or playng around on Pinterest.

Lizzy and I have been getting our save-the-date cards ready to mail. I had to order stamps online and, since he loves baseball so much, I thought it would be a neat touch to use some baseball-themed postage to send them to James' list. I showed him the stamps. They come in sets of 4: Larry Doby, Willie Stargell, Ted Williams and...Joe DiMaggio. Honestly, DiMaggio is the only one I would have heard of except Ted Williams' kids did that weird thing where they wanted to freeze his remains. James took one look at the photo of the stamps and said "Well, we can't use DiMaggio...he was a Yankee." He even got Lizzy in on the discussion. Are you freaking kidding me? He suggested I use the DiMaggio stamps on the cards going to my list. Uh, no. My people absolutely would not understand.

Oh! James also had this "brilliant" idea that Walter could walk up and down the aisle before the wedding yelling, "Peanuts! Getyerhot peanuts!" and tossing bags of peanuts into the crowd. Couldn't wait to tell my mom that one. That was one nasty look my mama gave him with a swift "I don't think so" that really brooked no argument, thank God. I'm about 80% sure James was pulling my leg but only 80%.

Only 170 days until the wedding...time is really flying! I picked up our save-the-date cards today. We have a few wedding tasks on the to do list for the upcoming weekend such as addressing those save-the-date cards, registering at Bed Bath and Beyond, and updating the website.

It's all starting to get VERY real...and exciting!

Life has been hectic...nay, manic, the last few weeks. Immediately following the big move from my house to James' apartment, I had a preview day event at work for incoming students. Colleen and Rich visited the same weekend and we selected a venue for the rehearsal dinner. For me, event season was in full swing with Honors Day, Hooding Convocation and Commencement, New Student Orientation, and all of the craziness that comes with the end of one semester and the beginning of the next. And, oh yeah, I had to figure out how to live with someone else...I haven't even had a roommate in 14 years or so, much less one with kids.

This weekend was great. I tackled the kids' closet and bedroom and made some order out of that chaos, at least temporarily. James worked every day and the kids were with their mom, so I had the apartment to myself a good bit. James and I spent some quiet time on the patio with our books, coffee and dogs. I think I was finally able to breathe for the first time since moving.

For James, life is still pretty busy at the moment. He started a new position this morning as assistant court officer downtown. The great thing is that we will be able to ride together most days, significantly cutting down on our gasoline usage. He will work regular hours Monday through Friday. No home visits to probationers. He does give up his Fridays since he's not working four 10-hour days each week. He gave notice at Lowe's this weekend so, after mid-June, he'll be working just one job for the first time in many years. He promises to help with the laundry...stay tuned.

I'm moving tomorrow so I took the day off work. Although there are about 3,567,231 things left to do, we took time to have lunch with our friend, Kelly, who will be making our wedding cakes. It is really funny. Here I am, a cake decorator myself. I have a very strong opinion on what I want the groom's cake to look like but I just have general thoughts on the wedding cake. I just want it to be white, buttercream icing, and pretty. Kelly pulled a couple of other ideas out of me but the cake is really not something I am stressing over which I think is weird. Kelly makes beautiful cakes and I am confident that ours will be one of her best. This photo is a sample of her work.

But who cares? I've got movers coming in 9 days!

My grand plan was to have my house ready to show on Discover MyHSC Day, an event we host on campus to help all of the students entering programs in the summer or fall relocate to Fort Worth. Yep, that was the plan and it was moving along just perfectly. I had my ubiquitous and extensive lists and was happily checking things off at a reasonable pace. I put an ad on our campus housing website in anticipation of the April 27th showing date. In just a few days, I received an e-mail from an interested incoming student. He and his wife were planning a visit to Fort Worth to arrange housing that very weekend. I didn't want to turn down the request, so James and I switched into  high gear. For the most part, the house was in pretty good shape. There was no time to do the painting or carpet cleaning but closets were straightened and staging done in time. It all paid off because a few days later, they submitted their application and letter of intent.

That original plan centered on having a medical student renter. Med students start school in late July so I was planning for a July 1 move in. My renters are entering a program that starts in mid-May. They're graduating college and moving out of student housing May 10th so, naturally, they want to be in their new place on May 11th. Things have really kicked into high gear now. Every spare moment is spent organizing and packing. Movers will be here on April 20th to move some of James' things from the apartment to storage, the bulk of items from my house into storage, and the few large pieces I'm moving from the house to the apartment. James is scheduled to work at Lowe's that day so I'm on my own overseeing everything that day. I'm a little dizzy just thinking about it.

Meanwhile, we are not making any trips from the house to the apartment empty-handed. Most of the boxes that I will be moving into the apartment should be there before the official moving day. I'm trying to unpack as each box is brought in and be very thankful that I had somewhere to move on such short notice!

I hosted a luncheon in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens to formally ask my favorite ladies to be in my wedding party. They all got sparkly t-shirts to wear down the road as well as some other fun items like makeup bags with "bridesmaid" in rhinestones. Since I don't plan on blinging the wedding, I thought it would be fun to give them a little bling here. Their swag bags also included a card with e-mail addresses and phone numbers for everyone. 

A couple of days before the party, my sister, Sharon, texted me this: "The stupid question is the one that isn't asked. Do you have a wedding planning notebook yet?" I assured her I had a very plain, serviceable 3-ring binder. She surprised me with a beautiful binder made just for wedding planning. I'm afraid to write in it and mess it up!

I got some big items marked off the (really big) list yesterday.

My college sorority sister has been booked as official photographer. Her normal line of work is teaching deaf education students but she's been doing photography on the side for a while now. I really love that I've known her for a long time and will feel much more comfortable with her than someone I don't know.

When I called to wish my sister, Leslie, a happy birthday, she was with her granddaughter, Eryn, who will be one of my flower girls. We have not given much thought to what the little girls will wear but Leslie always dresses Eryn in the cutest things so I pretty much just delegated their outfits to her. It sounds like pettiskirts might be the order of the day. I love the poofy stuff, just not on me, so that will be great.

My mother is making my bouquet. She has a white bride's Bible that is simply a part of our family weddings. She wanted me to carry it and I definitely want to; however, she told me yesterday that she just doesn't see how she's going to be able to attach it to the bouquet. She said her feelings wouldn't be hurt if I didn't carry it. Well, mine will be! Most of my cousins, sisters and even some close friends have used it in their weddings and I want it in mine too. Mom has also been saying how much she does not like to wear flowers. My response to that is I want her designated in some way as my mother. I even joked about having the flower girls carry a sign in front of her that says "Mother of the Bride." During the phone conversation about the bouquet and the Bible, I had an idea. I asked Mom if we could pin her corsage to a ribbon on the Bible and she could carry the Bible. She agreed that was a good compromise.

That makes something like 183 things checked off of the list. Don't get excited. I'm pretty sure there's 1,000,000 things left on it but at least I'm making some progress!

James' wedding ring arrived today and we are both excited about it! Since I ordered it online, I was nervous that it wouldn't fit and I had him try it on for size. Now he doesn't want to take it off (I kinda love that part.) Here's a little back story:

I am absolutely hooked on Pinterest. I've found lots of great ideas there from recipes to crafts to party ideas and I have no idea how people planned weddings before Pinterest came to be. Scrolling through the pins one day, I found a men's wedding band that was decorated with baseball stitching. I was dumbfounded. I mean, really, who would want that?

We had been talking about getting married for a while. When the conversation turned to rings, I mentioned that I had a ring that my mother had designed and had made with her wedding band from my father after he had passed away. James loved the sentimentality of it but he just didn't feel great about not buying my ring. So, we decided to get matching wedding bands.

A few days after I had found that baseball ring on Pinterest, James had emergency surgery. This hospital stay included the ICU and was a lot scarier than the surgery the week before. We both needed a laugh so I showed him the picture, prefacing it with "can you believe this?" He took one look at the picture, his eyes got huge and he was just soooo happy!

"Is this my ring?" he asked.

"Um, well, no, I can't really believe somebody would want a baseball ring for a wedding band. Didn't you say you wanted us to wear matching bands?" I replied, trying not to comprehend that I was going to have to buy him a baseball wedding band.

"But you have that ring of your mother's you wanted to wear. You're really not going to get me this ring? Why would you show it to me?" I really thought he was going to cry. In that moment, I knew absolutely that I was going to purchase a baseball ring for my future husband.

"Sweetheart, if that's the ring you want and you're okay with me wearing my mother's ring, then that will be your ring." I promised. He proceeded to show the picture to everyone that visited, all of the people at work, and pretty much just anybody who made any sort of comment about weddings or baseball. Knowing that I'm not a baseball fan myself actually makes the ring more meaningful to him. Isn't that kind of pride what every bride wants?

My new catchphrase for signing cards or texting him is "ILYMTYLB" which means "I love you more than you love baseball."

All of the wedding experts say this is the time to start looking for the wedding dress. I will be skipping that step!

My mother is an incredibly talented seamstress and has made clothes for me most of my life. She has also made wedding dresses for my sisters and several of my cousins, so I felt very strongly that I wanted to continue the tradition and have her to make my dress. I actually had a beautiful dress she had made for me to wear to one of our campus events. It was ivory moire faille with a straight skirt and scoop-necked top. I loved it and thought we could just "bride it up" a little with lace or pearls. When I tried it on, it was so much too big for me that it couldn't be altered to fit. However, we still had the pattern in a smaller size and she agreed to make a new one. Before she did that, I thought it would be a good idea to try on a full-skirted dress just to make sure I didn't want one. I asked my sister, Leslie, to bring me her daughter's wedding dress. Leslie and Mom made the dress for Kristi several years ago for her wedding. I knew it wouldn't fit but I could at least get the feel for the big skirt.

As I suspected, the dress didn't fit ... but it was close enough that it could be altered! I put it on, added the veil I'd already purchased, and picked up a flower arrangement from my dresser. Leslie had tears in her eyes and as soon as I saw myself in the mirror, I did too (granted, it doesn't take much to make either of us cry). This beautiful, ivory slipper satin gown that had been so lovingly crafted by my mother and sister for Kristi would be my dress too. The fact that it was worn by my only niece makes it all the more special.

That's one BIG check on the to-do list.

That may seem like a long time but we have so much to be done before the big day! Our list includes getting my house ready to rent which means major decluttering, garage sales, painting, packing and storing. James' son, Walter, starts spring baseball this weekend. We are participating in a financial peace group through our church, and we both have very busy jobs. Somehow, we've got to work wedding planning into the craziness that is our life together.

Since I plan a lot of events in my job, I know that the more that is done early, the happier we'll be come November. I was seriously stressing out over our venue. We wanted to use the church we've been attending, partly for sentimental reasons, partly for cost savings. The church administration has many qualifications that must be met before they will allow a couple to get married there and they always have the option of canceling a wedding for a church event that may arise. So, we decided to book a much different venue, the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum in the Fort Worth Stockyards. As soon as we made that decision, so many things fell into place, we can't help but believe it was Divine intervention! Just this week, I have crossed so many really big items off of the task list, that I'm practically giddy. And I'm sure that makes James less stressed too.