Pre-wedding

Well, the house is all quiet and I'm just spending some time catching up on work and personal email. :) My family is mostly asleep (my mom's in the office also on the computer, I'm in the living room) and Geoff and his family are at the hotel.

It has been a fun week! The only bad thing is I haven't been to the gym since Monday. This is a HUGE problem - Hood to Coast is 15, yes, 15 days away! That is going to be one painful weekend. I'm hoping for a good long run tomorrow. The good news about that is that both my back and my knee are feeling stronger, so I guess I can just view that as some good rest and recovery time before H2C. Even if I don't run tomorrow, I WILL run on Saturday... that will be my wedding day me-time! It will clear my head and make me feel fresh and fabulous! I love how I feel after a good long run.

Monday and Tuesday were just finishing up things in Oregon... working, packing, stuff like that. Tuesday night Cindy (my fabulous coworker) picked me and Geoff up and we left for the airport! With Wilma the Wedding Dress, of course (pictures to be posted of Wilma's journey at a later date ;-)). Anyway, we got to the airport WELL in advance, checked in, and enjoyed our time at the airport. We had a nice empty flight to SFO which went by quickly. SFO was AWFUL - we had to leave security to get to our next flight, to find that terminal we had to walk through the parking garage, there was mold growing on the ceiling, etc. GROSS. Sorry to my Bay Area friends. ;-) We arrived in Dallas about 6:30 Wednesday morning. My dad picked us up and we came home and went to the justice of the peace for our marriage license (they opened at 8). Well, they don't do marriage licenses until 9! So we came back home (it's only about 5 mintues away) and hung out for a bit. Then we went right at 9 and got the marriage license. Then home for a quick nap before we went to David's Bridal and Men's Warehouse (right next door to each other, how convenient!) to drop off our stuff to be steamed. We came out the doors at the exact same time - yay for good timing! Then we picked up some Boston Market for lunch and came home for a while. Geoff took a looong nap while my sister, mom, and I just talked (we might have done some other stuff but I don't remember!). At 3 we had to go to the church to figure out how we wanted the altar and stuff set up. We ran into both our pastor and organist which was fun! We got that all done and then picked up my sister and went to the mall to get our nails done. Geoff looked for ties while we were doing that (that's right people, we still don't have ties for the groom and best man. And I don't even care! I love our wedding). Then we picked up Taylor and Mike, Geoff's cousin and uncle who are here (Mike came in early for business). We went to dinner at Pei Wei (owned by PF Changs, but fast-style like Chipotle or Panera). Then home for LOTS of swimming in the pool. I judged hand stand contests and races for 2 or 3 hours. Then finally, sleep. :)

This morning we woke up about 9:30 AM to the flowers being delivered! YAY! They are GORGEOUS. They are from costco.com and seriously they are absolutely fabulous! Picture below (okay, I decided to just go ahead and download the pictures tonight, so Wilma pictures below too). Then we needed to get started on errands, so we woke up Geoff, picked up Taylor, and off to Ikea we went. We need tons of candles for the church, so we picked up most of those. Then Costco for food for the reception. I love Costco. Seriously I do not understand my obsession with Costco! Then we came home. We got Geoff working on programs, my sister and Taylor working on favors and running to WalMart, and my mom and I went to Central Market and Tom Thumb (a grocery store). When we got home, we started chopping onions and peppers for kabobs for the wedding. My mom is awesome and had already bought meat and chopped it up and frozen it several weeks ago, so that just had to defrost! Then we skewered, Geoff kept working on programs (the whole thing took him 7 hours!) and Taylor and Christine went out to the pool to clean the deck, swim, and clean the pool. Quite fun! Around 7:30 we were all starving from working all day and not really eating, so I went to Raising Cane's and picked up chicken (I can't remember if I already linked all of this stuff when Geoff and I were here in June... and I haven't linked much lately!). I got a 25 piece tailgate box and 4 orders of fries which ended up being perfect for the 6 of us (my dad was home from work by then). Then we all ran around cleaning up the house (just the clutter so it's ready to really be cleaned tomorrow) and then Geoff and Taylor went home. BUSY day. I can't believe I haven't really been online all day or been to the gym. But we got a LOT done, and my very stressed out mom feels MUCH better. She was most worried about the programs and the kabobs and those were both done by 9 PM, so that's great. Plus I think now she sees what a lot of people can do, and tomorrow we get 5 additional people to add to the mix! (Geoff's family is all here now, YAY!). I'm glad that we were able to get enough done so that Mom can relax a little more. Tomorrow is mostly just cleaning, getting tables set up, etc. The rehearsal is at 7 and the rehearsal dinner is at 8:15. Should be a great time!

Praise: my sister arrived from Spain on Sunday but without her LARGE suitcase with gifts and wedding things in it. It just arrived!

Okay, picture fun time!

Wilma all packed up and ready to go!

Me and Wilma, about to load her into the car!

Me in the Alaska Airlines line with Wilma

Geoff guarding Wilma while eating his Panda Express

Me with Wilma in the parking lot at SFO... and that's the end of her journey pictures, but she really did make it the whole way just fine! She's at David's Bridal being cleaned now!

The flowers, in the GIANT box they arrived in from Costco! They are beautiful, SO fresh, and I just love them!

This is a random. But we were at Costco and saw a car with Illinois plates. Then we saw Harper College and Palatine Township stickers on there! Those are from Palatine, the town in Illinois I'm from! It was so cool... I had to take a picture. My Palatine friends will appreciate this!

Christine and Taylor decided the hot tub was too dirty, so they emptied all the water and threw it in the pool (the pool cleaning system is better than the hot tub). It was a HILARIOUS site to watch, they had an assembly line going so they could get it done quickly enough before it filled back up. Too funny.