Emotional Week full of thanks giving

This week was going to an ordinary week with one day off for the fun and wonderful holiday of feasting. Until Saturday night the news broke that my husband's aunt had died. She had been in the nursing home for almost 5 years now, and been in and out of hospice twice i believe, it was far from unexpected. However, she was a woman who never married and devoted her life to giving. And giving for her mom, her family, and her extended family. I was saddened to hear the news, but matt's moms spoke of it rather with relief that she is free from suffering now. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday came and went and we arrived at the funeral home for the wake on Tuesday night. It was beautiful and everyone in Matt's family was there. And of course we saw her laying thier so peacefully and I couldn't stopped the tears from coming and coming and coming. I honestly didnt expect to cry, It was strange to me, i knew this women for just a couple years and everyone else hear has had 50+ years with this woman. But it made my heart sick because I knew how much they loved her, and how much she cared for her and all the great memories they shared with her. I found the whole experience just heart wrenching.

Matt family is a very unique family. Unique in the way that they are HUGE and UNBELIEVABLY close. And how is it possible that EVERYONE, just EVERYONE is just incredibly nice, and willing to help, and full of nice things to say all-the-time. It's really surreal. The things they do for each other, the love is bursting. When i sat at the funeral it made me sad that i never was around to see her well. The eulogy was amazing, all the nieces and nephews prepared memories of her and j pulled them together beautifully. It was the best eulogy ive ever heart. I laughed, i cried, i laughed, and cried cried cried. It's amazing that you dont have to know a person a life-time to be touched so deeply.

Thanksgiving came, and it ended up being the third thanksgiving for the week. Tuesday night Aunt Mary had everyone over for sandwiches. Wednesday after the funeral there was another feast for the repass. And finally thursday came around and it was just another day of over-indulgence. And although it was the first thanksgiving that the family didn't take turns bringing food over to Aunt Saucy/Sylvia/Sills/ Sauce, we were in away celebrating her life for 3 whole days. The day really gave me a chance to reflect on how thankful i am for all the blessing i have in my life. And my own family. In no particulate order, here is my list for thanksgiving 2009:
- My husband that loves me and stands by me even when i am an emotional basket case
-my friends, who never forget about me
-my Family that really, really loves me. And loves my new husband
-My in-laws who are so welcoming and inviting, loving, caring and amazing
-my dog odie, who is the cutest, sweetest, most patient and loving dog.
-My grandma, who is a rock. And I love her.
-My house, my beautiful, cozy, old house
- A wonderful start to the holiday season, my favorite time of time of the year.

fulfilled

An incredibly fulfilling weekend, jam packed with lots of guests, lots of friends, and LOTS of eating. Friday night we had dinner guests and played games with some of matt's old friends. Saturday was my friend's birthday so we went out to Andy's Mediterranean to have some Lebanese food and head out to Mt. Adams for continued festivities. I was drinking, and i think it was the first time in a while that i was definitely acting like i had been drinking ;-0.. It was great because lots of good friends were there. Sunday was absolutely PERFECT day, the weather was warm, my house was spic and span, and matt whole family came over for dinner. Lovely, just a lovely weekend.
And the nice part is i have veteran's day off so this is kind of a short week for me!

Next week wont be so enjoyable since i will be on a review team working at the Mound. I hate going on reviews. I feel so insecure and not competent yet. I hope i eventually like doing this project/baseline reviews... or at least "not mind" going on them. But we shall see.

And the best news of all? Matt parents are taking us on another FANTASTIC vacation next year!!! We have to wait a whole year in anticipation, but it will be remarkable!! We are going on a Rhine river cruise for 8 days starting in Amsterdam (Netherlands) making 7 stops in Germany, France and Eventually ending in Basle, Switzerland. I have only been to Amsterdam with matt's family last year and absolutely LOVED it, now we get to go back and have a relaxing cruise to see all these old European towns that i've never seen. We get to tour castles, cathedrals, and enjoy quaint taverns and cafe's along the river Rhine. It's going to be AWESOME!! I CANNOT WAIT!! Im sooo lucky!!!

"Homey"

Where has the motivation gone to blog? I know i never was an everyday blogger by any means, but it was always something i wanted to do and tried to do at least a few times a week. Now i am lucky to post once a week, then it's once a month, then it's? The blogs i follow have fewer and fewer updates, i dont think it helps to the motivation over here. But alas, here I am searching for something to write about.

This week had been long but good in the fact that i have kept myself very busy. Every day after work i had something going on. Monday matt and I went on the hunt to find curtains (drapes?) for our windows downstairs. Our awesome previous owner took the window treatments that we are now finding out may have been custom made for the windows. The window in the front of the house is extra wide and the length to the floor is 90''. Standard length curtains are 84" and 95". UGH! AND the best part, the window is extra wide so nothing fits both across AND down. I reeeally want to make the house seem homey and do things to do it. Matt doesn't do ANYTHING unless it's motivated by me. Hanging pictures was like pulling teeth. And making the house homey is reeeallly something i need help with. I have no knack for decorating and setting things up or doing cute little things, i really have to be lead or inpired by something in a very structured way. I wish it was cheap to hire someone to do things for the house, but that aint gonna happen.

The rest of the week night were also fun. Tuesday night i went to half priced sushi with seabass, who also gave me a Xavier Basketball ticket to go with her and her grandpa and a few of his friends. It was a blast!! Plus, it was great bonding time with seabass who is one of my best friends. Last night I went to dinner and open mike night with J andA and a few others. Also a great time and I love hanging out with them. Tonight i might try to grab dinner and coffee with my sister-in-law, who knows. We are having our first dinner guests tomorrow night so i am going to cook something. I have NO idea! Plus i need to get some appetizers to eat too. Any good suggestions? Something that is tasty but not too complicated! this whole growing up thing is hard.....

Before I close, here a couple pictures from Halloween. Back to being a kid:

I was Flo from the Progressive Commercials and Matt was Balloon Boy.

My fantastic family

Two posts in one day, yes, ITS unheard of!! bUT not impossible!! Just like my dad and sister finishing a 26.2! Yes-, they finished the New York City Marathon together on Saturday in 7 hours and 15 minutes! yES, IT'S AMAZING!! My sister has done it before, she has a few marathons under her belt.. and that's pretty impressive. But my dad-- he is no spring chicken. And he has arthritis. And he works ungodly hours. And well, this is just an incredible victory. There are certain times in your life when you switch roles with your parents. And that time is now, when i realize how unbelievably proud i am of him. And this accomplishment and how hard i KNOW this was for him. And a great feeling so be his daughter, and I have a remarkable family!

Congratulations DAD and Dena!! I love you!

My Wedding (finally!)

It's been over a month since the wedding day and i am JUST now posting a full recap, i am terrible. I have so much to write about the day, but i dont have a days worth of time to write. So here is a briefing with a few pictures I have on my work computer. And yes, they are few because we have approx 1100 pictures professionally taken that day. yes, you looked at that number correctly.

Before I begin, i will probably try to preface this post by saying-- a LOT more has been going on in my life besides the wedding. It seems pitiful that the only posts over the last few months have been about this. Actually, lots of fun things like halloween parties, house decorating, friend get togethers, family fun times, lots of good stuff. BUT first, ill get this wedding stuff up.

FINALLY!!

Honestly the day was complete blur and it went very very quickly. I remember constantly thinking about how things were planned and what was going on around me, and processing, processing, processing. YOu know what it feels like to be over-stimulated? It's that multiplied times 20. It was amazing. I remember a few minor things going wrong, but definitely nothing worth even noting. My bridesmaids were perfect, my family was amazing, matt looked as handsom as ever, everything was SO. MUCH. FUN!!!

Here goes... pictures pictures pictures!!

(In a somewhat mixed up order since I dont know how to upload pictures)

Walking from Hilton to get our hair done

Our Band

Our Cake

WE ARE UD!!!!!


Our theme was "we are lucky!" so we had casino's for our guest tables, and our favors were lottery tickets (with a lucky 2009 penny inside)

Table settings

our favors

The Head Table

OUr huge limo bus

Toasting after we got MARRIED

Bouquet Toss



Matt dove for the garter... literally. He had skinned his hands

the first kiss

walking out as husband and wife

Im laughing because matt messed up his vows ;-)

Walking down the isle

Our flower girl and ring bearer