33 days

oh I truly did think I would do better at this than I have. Things have been so crazy lately. I can't believe how fast the time is going. Matthew has been down here about every other weekend and we have been working non-stop to get everything together. We have made a few changes to our plans for the wedding and reception that I am pretty excited about. First, we decided to get married on June 26th and then have our family dinner that night and do the reception the next day. That way it is not so stressful and we can enjoy the wedding day and keep that special and less hectic. That night we decided to have our family/close friends dinner. I kept looking around for places that weren't going to break the bank and my oldest brother, Shawn, even suggested we should do a BBQ. I liked the idea, but we couldn't decided where to have it. There will just be too many people at my folks house. Shawn said to me, "Well, it's your day, what do you want to do?" And I said, "I want to have a beach party and BBQ tri-tip and roast corn." And so that is what we decided to do. I am really excited about that. Matthew's parents will be down from Oregon and they are excited to spend some time at the beach too. They are not so sure about the whole temple thing. I know it is hard to comprehend it all when you are not members of the church, but they are still being very supportive.

On Saturday we are having the reception in the Kettley's backyard (they are my brother, Scott's, in-laws, and they have a gorgeous backyard. It will be fun to have a garden reception. We will also have a ring ceremony before hand with just our family and friends. Shawn will head it up, and my friend Rachel agreed to sing for us. I found a beautiful Apache poem I want to read and Matthew agreed to write something he will read that I am sure will make me cry. After that we will have our reception and then off to Hawaii for our honeymoon. I am excited because I have never been to Maui. Everyone keeps saying it is just beautiful.

Things are finally starting to come together and we are finding that we are being blessed to have wonderful people who are so willing to help us. My Visiting Teacher printed our announcements for us. Another sister in the ward does flowers and is excited to help us put everything together for the wedding and reception. Another extended family member is going to be our photographer. A friend of my brother Jason is going to cater for us at a great price, and the food is delicious. Of course the Kettley's offered their backyard for our reception. My wonderful sister-in-law is going to come down early to keep me sane as my maid of honor will be on vacation and unavailable. So everything is just about done.

We sent out the invitations yesterday in the nick of time. Funny story about that. We went to take some engagement pictures awhile back and they turned out pretty good. I downloaded them onto my macbook because my dell laptop is getting sluggish and needs some help. Just as I was about to send them in to Costco to get printed my macbook crashed. The harddrive died big time. Don't believe everything you here about wonderful macs. I had only had the macbook for just over a year and barely ever used it because I am so used to my dell. Well, the stupid thing was that the mac erased the pictures off my camera and I luckily had some saved to the Costco sight. However, when we printed off 225 of them and went to pick them up they were fuzzy and horrible looking. I actually looked like I had a flesh colored beard. Yikes. So last weekend Matthew came down and we went to the Hyatt hotel in HB and my mother took some pictures for us. This sounds like a fine idea, but if you know my mom, you know she is NOT a photographer (The first 5 pictures she cut off the tops of our heads). But we gave her some pointers and finally got the shot. It actually turned out ok and since we were behind schedule now, it would have to do. The invitations I got were another hold up. Who knew that putting a little piece of ribbon on a card would be so time consuming. Props to my mom who spent hours putting them together. Then, on Saturday we went to the post office and the lady tried to sell me 200 Bart Simpson stamps. I almost went with it just because I thought it would be so funny. I thought they would just run them through a machine but I guess the stupid ribbon prevented that . So, we got 200 flag stamps and 400 military green clock 10 cent stamps because it cost $.64 each to send the invitations. So, bless my mom again, we stood in the post office for 40 minutes and stuck the ugliest bunch of stamps on my beautifully printed envelopes. All I could do was laugh. We went and got great pedicures and had a wonderful lunch after that (my mother's day present to her).

What a week. I also had Open House which went really well, thanks to two fabulous moms of my students. I honestly couldn't have done it without them. Plus, my student teacher finished her assignment and its nice to have my class back, but also puts me back in the drivers seat. I was getting so much done when she was here! I do miss her. I am glad the week is over now, and I can enjoy Memorial Day with my family. Matthew will be back down next weekend. I am getting used to not seeing him on the holidays (He makes triple time at the store, so I can't argue with that). Hope everyone has a fabulous holiday!