Directions!

http://www.co.collin.tx.us/parks/myers/MyersCC.pdf

Myers Park & Event Center
7117 County Road 166
McKinney, TX 75071

From northbound Central, take 380 west to FM1461. (There's a Valero gas station on the left.) Turn right on FM1461. Take 1461 to FM166. The facility is on your left. There is a white pole fence around the event center. Our reception is in The Landing which is the last building inside the white gate. It's white stone. The gazebo is right behind that building.

From Custer go north to 380. Take a right on 380 and a left on FM1461. Take FM166 until you see the event center on the left.

Whoa...less than a month!!!

I've started to write several updates but life keeps interfering! I'm on track to get my invitations in the mail tomorrow with the exception of the addresses that I washed in the pocket of some pants. AWESOME! I'm a little confused about whether to send invitations to people who have already said they can't make it. It seems silly to do that but I don't know for sure. The truth is I've broken every other "this is how a wedding is done" rule so I guess I can wing it on this one too.

There are literally twenty things on my to do list for the week and there's a list at least as long for each week until W-day! This is such an exciting time but as Big Daddy puts it, I am "crying on a dime." 98% of the emotion is unbelievable gratitude and the other 2% is crazy train. Wooo wooo! (Okay I made those percentages up and I'm pretty sure Steve would add a few dozen points to the crazy train ratio.)

I got my airbrush and I flippin LOVE airbrushing my make-up! I also got my hair cut and dyed and I've got a sort of Snow White/Rock-a-Billy black going on. Dad & Steve got measured for tuxes and I took my usher boys shopping for shirts and ties. (BTW Brandon is the pickiest most irrational shopper I've ever seen in my life. To me his "look" is kinda Goodwill funky but apparently there is some science behind it all.)

OH and I found out that the china/dishes from Bed Bath & Beyond are ONLY available online so probably the best thing to do is have guests who want to buy dishes give gift cards and I can order them after the honeymoon.

Steve and I have been working on our first dance and that's been so fun. I think it's important that we still make a little romance time while we're working in what has become the wedding factory. His job is beyond chaotic right now so Steve is having to work double-time to give me time and attention while being SUPERCHEF at work. He blows me away with his patience and generosity, he NEVER plays the "what about me" game which makes me want to shower him with pressies and indulge him in a thousand ways.

It's so funny all my people keep saying, "OMG you're really getting married!" and that's all it takes to put my tear ducts into overdrive. I don't know if every bride goes through this but I am so blown away by our family and friends and the love we share. I've also been thinking about the Steve I met in high school, the Steve I met two years ago, and the Steve I'm going to marry. He's grown so much and yet he still looks at me like I'm the most beautiful woman on earth. He has this amazing ability to treat our raltionship like we just said "I love you," for the first time.

Checklist Fever!

This week we hit the four month countdown and Steve & I have been going full throttle on our checklist. Today we went to dance lessons and then I finished up our aisle runner. Another justification for buying the Cricut I love so much! Rather than taking hours of my life to paint and repaint the runner, I cut letters from vinyl using the same font I'm using for our invitations and programs, and I did a variation on the seal we're using on our goodie bags and napkins. I think it turned out looking almost professional. Of course if I had do-overs, I'd do the ampersand in red and the names in brown, but live and learn.

Steve & I have been dancing fools! We've spent a couple of days working on East Coast Swing and I LOVE IT! It's such a sassy dance. There's this kick combo we learned last night and as I was watching the teacher I thought, this could go very wrong. At one point I kick between his legs and then he kicks between mine and sure enough we got the order mixed up and I kicked him in the shin and he kicked me in the shin. I laughed so hard I almost wet myself. The waltz is a train wreck, and the fox trot is kind of boring, but I love to swing! I can't wait to learn something new.

Next weekend we're having the parents meet at our place for a little Forth of July barbeque action. Things are moving in real time now. We've sent out "Save the Date" reminders, I bought a dress, Steve has ordered the catering, he's contacted the church about an officiant, I've been working on the guest and address lists and we're crossing things off the list about as fast as we're adding things on. We're taking a cruise for our honeymoon and Steve has got that 2/3 paid off! Other than a minor melt-down when I realized I'd gotten frozen because I wasn't sure what to do, everything has fallen into place nicely.

On a personal note, I have decided that my job is not working for me anymore. As many of you know things have been chaotic around the office, and I finally made the decision that I need to make a move as soon as possible. I hope you will pray with us that I can find a new opportunity soon.

Once Upon a Time

In case you are one of the three people on the planet who haven't heard the saga of Jen & Steve, I thought I'd take a minute to tell the story one more time. Once upon a time there was a boy and a girl who went to the same high school. The boy saw the girl and his heart went squish! The girl saw the boy and thought, what a nice boy I think we will be friends. So the boy asked the girl out and they went on a couple of dates, but the boy was too nice and the girl was too dumb and nothing happened.

In college, the boy saw the girl again and he was happy and she was a little sad. He was a nice boy and she was a wild girl and she pretended not to notice that his heart went squish. The years past and the girl was a woman and she stopped being so wild. The boy became a man and he was a little wild and then he settled down. They lived close to each other but they never knew. He moved away and she tried to fall in love but nothing worked the way she hoped. The woman had lots of friends and she had fun and everytime she thought about getting married it would make her weepy but she told herself I have the best friends in the whole world, I have a family that loves me and that I get to spend lots of time with. I get to travel and meet new friends. I love my life and it's okay if I never find a man who wants to marry me...and she tried very hard to believe that and most days she did.

The man lived in Colorado and he was a partner in a restaurant and he liked his restaurant and he liked his work but he was lonely. One night he was on the Internet and he was looking at MySpace. He thought of the girl who made his heart squish and he typed in her name. Then he saw the picture and he knew it was her even though she was much older and much wider than the last time he saw her. He joined MySpace and he posted a picture of himself holding a big fish. He sent the woman a message on MySpace and waited to see what happened. The woman opened the message and thought I wonder what flavor of weirdo this is. Then she looked at the picture and recognized her friend from a long time ago and she was happy to see him, even if he was holding a big fish! She sent him a message back and they began to email each other every day.

The man had a trip planned to visit Texas and he asked the woman on a date. They emailed and messaged each other a lot and one Friday night he sent her a message telling her how he felt, how he had always felt about her. The woman ran home to check her messages before she went out with her friends and she read the message over and over and over and her heart made a giant SQISH!

So they had a week together and they fell in love. Then the man had to go home to Colorado. They were very happy that they were in love but they were very sad because they lived far apart. So they called and emailed and missed each other a lot. They thought it would be a long time before they could be together but things at the restaurant had changed and the man didn't want to work there anymore. He didn't want to live in Colorado anymore. So he made some decisions and he took some actions and before they knew it, they lived in the same town, and then they lived in the same house, and then the man bought a ring and he gave the woman a ring and everyone was very happy! Their friends said, "YEA!" Their family said, "YEA!" And they live happily ever after.

A Plano East Themed Shower! Too Cute!

Our shower was on Sunday and the girls (and boy) did an amazing job to make it unusual and personal and sooooo thoughtful. Some of my favorite memories are the cracked bell stamps, my mom trying to tactfully tell me she didn't know where her invitation was and thus, didn't know when or where the shower was, the great cheese and cracker solution, pulling up to see the Red Bull mini in front of Paula's mom's house and knowing they really HAD thought of everything, Audrey running around looking for the "keecat," Lexi telling off "Mr. Jeans," getting all sniffly during the slide show until everyone shouted EWWWWWWWWW everytime there was a kissing picture, and all the amazing family and friends who made our day very special. I can't imagine how blown away we'll be at wedding time. Speaking of which, I have work to do!

April Showers

This weekend is our shower and I know our "shower angels," Paula and Chrissie have been working hard to put together a wonderful afternoon. Paula was distraught (and if you know Paula, you know I'm not exaggerating) that the wedding bell stamps she ordered were actually Liberty Bell stamps. For some reason a cracked bell seems appropriate considering all the characters involved.

I caught Steve "tweaking" the registry on Amazon last night and I'm just not sure how much kitchen stuff one couple could possibly need but apparently the future hubby has a different assesment of the situation than I do. He was showing me the ice cream attachment for the kitchenaid mixer:

"Steve, we have an ice cream maker," I said.

"Yeah, but it's a little ice cream maker. This is a big ice cream maker. I can make more ice cream with this one!" Thank goodness he cleared that one up for me since apparently I don't have a grasp on the more is better school of thought. (Ha!)

I have been working on the wording for our invitations. Everytime I finish a session of editing and reformatting them I think I'm done and all I need to do is print them until I open the document the next time. I need to have my mom proof them for me because MS word and I have different ideas about capitalization. Those little green squiggly lines underneath the words make me nervous. After the shower I have to work on my address list, send out my save the date reminders, book a session with a photographer, continue working on the design for my dress (and I thought the invitation design would drive me to distraction!), paint my aisle runner, talk to Mary Ann about the flowers, finalize the menu with Steve and the caterers and sign us up for more dance lessons. The plans are going to start moving a lot faster now that we're nearing the six month countdown.

Steve and I have also started going to church together and it's been a real blessing to get spiritually filled before we return to work on Monday. Both of us have challenging jobs and are learning daily how to respond to those challenges more effectively. We both fall short regularly but there has been amazing progress and it has taught us some new lessons about being partners with each other.

I'll post pictures from our shower on Sunday! Best wishes and warm thoughts to all!

February Update

This picture is for everyone who thinks Steve is this mild mannered yes ma'am no ma'am kinda guy...trust me, there's more than meets the eye. (Sorry Mom!)

So here are the latest updates:

Dancing-We're half way done with our intro to push & swing class and Twinkle Toes and I are having an absolute blast with the dancing. The only frustration I have is that Steve doesn't get that you can Jitterbug to anything except the three songs we've heard in class: In the Mood, Chattanooga Choo Choo and Mack the Knife. I think intellectually he gets that it could be done to an upbeat contry song or an oldie that isn't quite AS oldie, but I can tell he thinks he'd look like a total freak doing it. The man needs visual aids. So I'm thinking I'll sign us up for another ballroom class AND talk him into taking some freebie country classes at a dance club so that he can SEE what I'm talking about.

Our get fit plan is coming along nicely too! Steve's lost 24 pounds and I've lost 19. That's since the first week in January. The first twenty comes off so fast, but there are so many pounds to go! I will say that the chef has gotten much better about lightening his cooking and getting realistic about portion size. I think that fact that I burst into tears every couple of weeks about being ENORMOUS on our wedding day, has keeps him on his toes. I'm not going to lie, I enjoyed every sugary, fat-filled, deep-fried calorie that got me to this monsterous size, and I've got no dellusions about EVER seeing a single digit size, but I want to look and feel better than I do now and if we can just stay the course and make positive choices, it's going to happen.

As far as the wedding plans go I've been shopping! I've got the containers for the centerpieces and the jars for the candy buffet. I also got cello bags for candy and little frames for the cutsie sayings that go with the candy on the buffet ("Hugs & Kisses from the Mr. & Mrs." and such.) I really want to start working on painting the aisle runner but everytime I think about it, I have a flash back to these banners I did for my nieces last Christmas and they were SUCH a whip. My back hurt for weeks on end! I know I can't cut corners on this or leave out steps or I'll wind up screwing it up and having to buy another one. I also just can't leave it white. There's no way.

Steve & I have been talking a lot about the food and I think we have a basic idea for the menu. We've also had preliminary discussions about the ceremony itself. Anybody got any suggestions on officants? I still need to work on what I'm hanging from the shephard's hooks along the aisle. I've got tulle in half a dozen colors but I need wreaths or buckets of flowers or something to hang from those. We have NO idea what we're wearing either but I don't have to know that yet. I think I'm going to wait awhile, especially on Steve's stuff because I bought his ring and due to his phenomenal weight loss, it's already a size too big.

Registries are Updated

I spent the last couple of days working on the registries and that was a beating! It's hard for someone who's always had second hand things to make wish lists for others to choose from. I feel greedy and guilty. But after three interventions about filling my registries, I finally sucked it up and chose some dishes, bedding, bath stuff, and other housewares. I thought would love doing the registries, that Steve and I would sit together and wax poetic about the various strengths and weaknesses of dish patterns. Instead, I bit the bullet and he reviewed my choices giving me these "have you lost your damn mind" looks while I babbled, "delete it, just delete it!" How romantic.

So for those of you who are interested, I'm registered at Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Amazon.com. Too bad Michaels doesn't have a registry or I'd show Mr. "I Trust Your Judgement" exactly what I think we need. ;)