Poo, Poop, Shit, Doo-Doo, Ca-Ca

What ever you call it, my yard is full of it!! When the snow first started melting I went out and picked up as much poop as I could. I filled 3 bags with snow and doggy-doo. Then the rest of the snow melted and I went out again, this time with the intention of reclaiming our yard and hoping that the turds would still be frozen enough that they would be easy to pick up and not too messy. They were frozen alright, frozen to the ground... I actually broke the piece of shit pooper-scooper on a piece of shit! This weekend I finally bought a new scoop, a bright turquoise one! Never before have I been excited about a pooper-scooper, it works like a charm, I don't have to touch anything except the handles, and it's pretty.* 

On Saturday I got the yard cleaned up as best I could. Between the trees, the house, the fence and the "good-neighbour" fence on our deck, our little postage stamp size patch of lawn gets little sun and grows hardly any grass. Add the dog to that and this year there is even less grass. It was hard to tell some of the brown patches apart. Am I digging a hole in the ground, or removing the mud-pie? For now the yard had been reclaimed... until next week. 

* I never thought I'd say that about something that picks up poo.

Little Parable

Who keeps his eyes upon a star, 

Serene and beautiful  and far, 

May stumble on a stone and fall. 

And he whose eyes are on the dirt 

Will miss the star and walk unhurt. 

We have to choose: no one has it all. 

By Georgie Starbuck Galbraith

Wedding Dress

It just occurred to me that I started this blog well after I bought my wedding dress, and never shared the story with you all yet.

I knew exactly the dress I wanted. Well, not exactly, I could see it in my head but had yet to find it in any bridal magazine or on any website.  So when D's mom told me that this big Toronto bridal boutique was having their annual sale I was convinced, convinced, that I would not find it there either.  It was still early January, D had proposed less than a month ago, I still had not set a date, and my maid of honour was in the hospital... but a sale on bridal gowns was just too tempting to pass up because, well - you never know! 

The sale was on for four days and I went on the last day.  There also happened to be a small snow storm that day, but hey, we live in Canada... what else would you expect??  My mom came with me, just the two of us.  It was so nice to be with her, to talk to each other and be completely open and honest about things that we just can't be open about with other people.  But I digress...

When we arrived, both mom and I decided that we did not want to pay the $2 to check our coats, we probably weren't going to be there long and we are always cold anyway.  So in we went with no expectations so there would not be any disappointment.  When we entered the showroom we were both pleasantly surprised how uncrowded it was.  I had always pictured the Friends episode where they go the the sale and have to wrestle other women to get the dress they want. 

Working on a budget, we headed straight to the $199.00 rack.  I was hoping that maybe the reason I could not find my dream dress was because it was now a few years out of style.  But it was not there.  At that point I was prepared to say "OK, we didn't find a steal here. Time to go."  But mom convinced me to keep looking through the rest of the dresses.  

"We're here already, there's no sales pressure, so we might as well just have some fun and try on dresses."

"O.K."

We first went through the size 10 rack (keep in mind that bridal gown sizing is crazy) and pulled out 4 dresses to try on.  None of them were what I saw in my mind of what I would wear on my wedding day, but they were all beautiful.  There were dressing rooms set up all around the outside of the big ballroom/showroom made out of tent poles and blue drapes.  We chose the one with no light (oops!).  I tried on all four dresses and as I was trying on the second one, mom remembered to take some pictures for my sister.  No I will not be posting them anywhere.  

I decided two of them were worth holding on to even though they were all a little big and we headed back to the racks in search of more.  This time we went through the size 8 rack.  Here we found a whole bunch of dresses I liked.  Mom was carrying 4 or 5, and I had 4 or 5 and we were heading back to the change room to try them on when I saw it.  The bottom of the dress sticking out between two others.  With my last free hand I grabbed the dress without even looking at the top of the dress or the price and knew it was the one.  When we got back to the dressing room mom could tell by the stupid grin on my face that I had found it.  I tried it on first, and it fit perfectly!  Mom looked around the little change room at the 10 other dresses that were hung haphazardly along with our winter coats, purses and snow boots. 

"Do you even want to try any of these other ones on?"

"No"

But this was not how this was supposed to go!  I wasn't supposed to find the perfect dress today!  I was supposed to go dress shopping with my sister and bridesmaid and my cousin said she wanted to go too.  How was I going to tell them that I had gone without them and found a dress on my own?  This was altogether too complicated because it just wasn't supposed to be this easy.  Too easy... there must be something wrong.  I need to think about this.  We asked if they could hold the dress while we went to go and get coffee to think it over.  They said they could not hold the dress if we left.  Shit!  OK, so we won't leave.  We put the dress back in the little change room with our coats and a few other dresses to make it look like we were coming back any second to try on more and we took our purses and went to think.  

Since we didn't have our coats we didn't actually leave the showroom, instead, we wandered through the accessories and bridesmaids dresses and talked about how this was just too easy.  What if I left it and then never found another one like it?  I would kick my self.  This dress is at the top end of my budget (still within budget), but what if I get it, and find one just like it for much cheaper? I would kick my self.  This was a big decision.  I have never spend that much on clothing, let alone one piece of clothing that I was going to wear once! After an hour of wandering, I finally decided to get the dress.  

First big decision down,  a million more to go!  

It's Official

We have officially changed the date of our wedding.  I'm not as panicky as I was last week.  Everything except the dress has worked out, and I'm sure that if the bridal store won't do the alterations, I will be able to find a custom dress maker to do it.  And I bet I could find one closer to home, the bridal store is over an hour away.  I have found a photographer that we are going to meet with this weekend, and they are the same price as the last one I found, but I think their photographs are better.  Also, for the same price, I get two photographers!  So they will be able to capture many more candid moments than any other photographer that we could afford.  I am really looking forward to meeting with them on Saturday.  I guess the next big thing we need to worry about is setting up our registry.  I'm thinking Sears and maybe the Bay.

Ok, a little panicky now...

Last week I thought it would be a good idea to entertain the option of moving up our wedding to September 5... now I'm not so sure I should have allowed myself to even think about it.  Now I don't want a November wedding at all any more.  But I still haven't found out if the Ceremony location can accommodate us on the 5th.  I sent them an email last week and called and left a message today, but sill nothing!  Also, I should have to be fitted for my dress by May 1.  I have already bought my dress, so it needs to be repaired and fitted, but because I bought it during a sale, they won't use their prime fitting time on someone who bought a sale dress.  They won't do any final fittings between May1 and September 7!  eeek!  I don't know if I can do this...

A Change of Plans

When my fiancee proposed at Christmas and we were trying to decide on a date, there were a number of things we had to take into account.  Both my sister and his cousin are also engaged and planning their weddings.  So in trying to be as far away from my sisters wedding in the summer of 2010 as possible with still having time to plan our wedding and not being too close to his cousin's wedding in the fall was proving to be a challenge.  

So we decided on the beginning of November, 2 months after his cousins so that there would not be a financial burden on more than half of our guests for having two weddings to attend to so close together, and 9 months before my sisters wedding so my parents wouldn't have as big of a burden paying for two weddings.  As it is, they weren't preparing for us to get married so close together, we are 5 years apart after all.  This summer was too close and I didn't feel we'd have enough time to plan.  Since then, I have been so busy planning that I think sometimes I could have pulled off a summer wedding if I had decided to do that right away.  

Then we found out on Saturday night that D's cousin is postponing their wedding because both of them are having a hard time finding jobs after returning from going to school abroad.  So now the question is, do we move up our wedding?  I decided on Wednesday to send out some emails to see if it was at all feasible to move our wedding to warmer weather (I am always cold, so any earlier/warmer would be preferable).  First I checked with our reception venue to see if they even had any dates available before November 7.  Sure enough, they have a few dates!  I still don't want to move it too far ahead, June or July, for example, would be pushing it and I think I would start to panic!  but they also have September 5 open... that would be perfect... too perfect, I don't want to get my hopes up yet.  

Last night I sent a few more emails to the caterer, photographer and ceremony venue to see if they also had that day open and I haven't heard back yet.  Also I have sent an email to D's cousin to confirm that they are in fact officially moving their wedding because, as it turns out, September 5 was their original wedding date.   I would feel terrible if I changed ours and then the both got jobs tomorrow and decided not to postpone it and D's family had to choose which wedding to go to.  That would be horrible!!

I know what I will be doing in 8 months, 1 day, 21 hours, 31 min. Do you?

Tuesday night I met with a photographer, he seemed really nice, a bit of a geek... a young guy, seemed younger than me, but he was married last year so I don't know.  His work is nice, and his price is right so I think we will use him.   When talking to him he had some good ideas about what we could do if the weather didn't cooperate, like go to one of the restaurants downtown for pictures, also just taking pictures in downtown would be nice too.  

We have also decided on our caterer and will meet with them again this weekend to sign the paperwork. They are  Silver Thyme Events and Catering.  They used to be Kentner's Social Catering and H and I both worked for them, so I know what they are all about and how they work etc. even though they are under new ownership, I don't think much has changed.  I also have the museum for the reception confirmed.  To do that, and for the caterer I had to make an itinerary for the whole day... that was weird, I now know exactly when I will be eating breakfast and taking a shower in 8 months from now, but I don't even know when/if I will eat breakfast on Saturday...