the course of a lifetime

Thursday, March 02, 2006

The date on that last post should be March 1st.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Another wedding post

Since wedding planning consumes most of my time...here's another related post. I have successfully found a DJ, florist, cake person, photographer, videographer, wedding location, and reception location. I feel good about these accomplishments because this wedding planning crap is not easy-or cheap for that matter. Don't let my tone fool you, I've been having fun making these decisions. It will feel even better when I see it all come together. The bridesmaids dresses are light green and the flowers/decorations will be bright orange and yellow. We chose the tuxes and I'm picking up the invitations on Friday. Now there are mostly the little decisions to make-but I have a feeling they will cause more stress in the end. If I could just get all of my bridesmaids to pick out the style of dress they want to wear.

Not much else new around here. We went to Missoula over the weekend and managed to eat a lot as usual. We kenneled our dog and got chewed out when we got back because she's too hyper. So now we're trying to break her of that. She's really smart, so I don't think it will take too long...we just have to stay strong.

I think my residents are rubbing off on me, I'm having an Alzheimer's moment. I can't remember what I wanted to post.

Oh yeah...I started going to the gym in November and I have successfully lost about 9 pounds. I've been wanting to do that for forever, but could never quite get motivated. I think between Bernie going all the time and the upcoming wedding I finally found it. I have 8 more pounds to go.

On a sadder note...

No one out there met him I don't think, but Tad (the father of Marlena's second son) died last week of a methadone overdose. So she's pretty flipped out about that. We went to his memorial (at the Loading Zone of course) on Sunday.

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

I promise. This is the last time plans will change.

I hope. I have to promise myself that or I can't fathom how difficult the rest of wedding planning is going to be. The wedding and reception have been planned on the same day again-July 15th. The wedding will be at Showdown and the reception still at the Heritage Inn. Planning a wedding as far out of town as Flathead Lake is not a good idea, and I don't recommend it to anyone-especially when your fiance's family/friends are all from North Dakota. We went to Showdown this weekend and they have a shitload of snow. They took us to the top of the mountain on a snowmobile and it should be a really beautiful place in July. The owners are really accomodating and they are going to open up the chairlift so people can ride it to the top if they want.

Bernie's out of the deck in the below zero weather making dinner on the barbeque. He just dropped a tool and I can hear him cussing out the grill.

We need advice on something...

Bernie wants to have the bar open at Showdown for a couple of hours. I worry about this because I would hate to have anyone get hurt or get a DUI on the way back into town. There will definately be alcohol at the reception, but we will be in a hotel, and there will be not excuse. What do you smart people out there think?

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Halloween party

Highlight photos from our Halloween/Housewarming party:

The best costumes: HookerDonald's and her husband 70's Pimp Vampire

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Bernie and I. He's white trash. I gave him a black eye, mullet, and tattoo with my name spelled incorrectly. I am....nothing.

This is my mother in perhaps the finest form I have ever seen her. Bernie was calling her is "mother out-law."

Monday, October 24, 2005

I need to be more clear...

The bachelorette party will be in Great Falls on the 12th, the wedding at Flathead Lake on the 14th, and the reception in Great Falls on the 15th. We should all be sufficiently exhausted by the end of the weekend.

We spent the weekend in Missoula for my birthday. I managed to only get drunk on Friday night and then be semi-hung over on Saturday. We mostly just relaxed, ate, and shopped. Amy and I went dress shopping in Hamilton of all places, and I actually found a dress! I felt silly in every dress until I put this one on:

http://www.alfredangelo.com/index.cfm/fuseAction/COLLECTIONS.productDetail/fromAdvancedSearch/0/productID/cd360f5e-646a-4d54-ae8c-36eaedd52a9d/categoryID/32e5a88c-cbf1-498f-afcf-dbfca138c5d3
That address will be really long, but it shoud work.

It screamed "Amanda" all the way. So I ordered it in ivory and it will be in during the next three months. I have to say that it's a load off of my mind...only to be replaced by many other plans needing to be made. Bernie and I went out downtown on Friday and we ate at Finn and Porter on Saturday night. We wen out again with Amy and my cousin Denise that night. I told Denise the only joke I know at the moment:

"Did you hear that Ellen Degeneres died?"

"NO!?"
"Yeah, she was found face down in Rikki Lake."

Denise and I laughed so hard and for so long, I couldn't breathe for a couple of minutes. I thought the joke was moderately funny, but she was drunk enough to think it was the funniest thing ever.

New wedding date news: The reception will still be on July 15th, but the wedding is going to be on the 14th somewhere on Flathead lake. Whenever I imagined myself getting married, it was always on the lake...not in a hotel. When we send out the invitations, everyone will be invited, but I imagine not as many people will show. If any of you ladies want to come for the bachelorette party, we are probobly going to have it on Wednesday the 12th to avoid getting married while hung over. Hopefully this change won't ruin anyone's plans to atttend.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

I tried on wedding dresses last weekend with Melanie and another friend of mine, Melinda. We spent well about 3 hours in 2 different shopt and came away with nothing. People seem to love the frilly, six foot train dresses, but they are just not for me. I never imagined myself in a princess dress...I played in the mud my whole childhood and a fairy-tale wedding was never part of my imagination. I just looked silly in most of them. There were a couple with certain things I liked about them, but my mom took all the excitement out of that. She did not want to watch me try on a thousand dresses I hated, but rather wanted to come when I found a few I liked. She came near the end and told me that she did not like any of them because they were strapless. Apparently Miss Manners (yes, the newspaper columnist) doesn't like sleeveless without long white gloves. I don't know if any of you have seen a bridal magazine lately, but I see lots of sleeveless dresses and no long white gloves anywhere! Mom won't be helping out with that anymore. Bernie and I are going to Missoula for my birthday and I already have two appointments to try them on there. Amy should have much better taste than my Miss Manners-obsessed mother.

In other wedding-related news: save the date for July 15th. In fact, you better save the whole weekend because it is going to be a huge party. We are probobly going to have the ceremony at Ryan Dam and the reception is already planned at the Heritage Inn. I think we are going to have a sit-down served dinner with three entree choices and a couple of kegs. No open bar though...people can pay to get themselves drunk. No escuses for drunk driving either due to the fact we will be in a hotel. There will be a block of rooms reserved for anyone who wants to make life simple and crash there. I'm also thinking a quartet at the ceremony, and of course some sort of DJ at the reception. There really is a ton of decisions to make, and at this point, I have way too much time to think about options and change my mind six thousand times.

We're all moved into our new house, and I am actually impressed with my ability to keep it clean. I'm acutally on a cleaning schedule (I think this might have something to do with living with Kristen). Anyone who saw my room at my dad's house can attest to the pigsty in which I used to live.

Bernie is going to North Dakota tomorrow for 5 days to go pheasant hunting. He's taking Hailey to teach her how to be a good hunting dog. She should be pretty good at it if the ease with which she has trained to this point continues. She still has a lot of puppy in her, but she sits, stays, lays down, rolls over, holds treats on her nose until told to take them, and the jumping is much less. She will even sit and not eat her food until one of us tells her too. All in all, she's a really good dog, but we've been strict and very consistent with her. She still has not set foot inside the house and has never tasted anything but dog food.

Sunday, August 28, 2005

the big news

First of all...Congrats to Grace for her first steps! What an exciting moment in your lives. Also, applause for breaking into the housing market and not throwing your money away anymore. The house is really cute.

I have the big news I think everyone I know has been waiting to hear. So here it is, Bernie and I are engaged. He asked a couple of days ago and we're setting the date sometime next summer. It depends on when his sister in Samoa can come home from the Peace Corps. I really want the wedding to be at a lake in the mountains, but our plans are definatley still in the infancy stage.

I know I used to say I wasn't interested in getting married, but I guess I just needed to find the right person. What a cliche! I love Bernie on so many levels and when I imagine my future, we are always together. We have mutual respect for each other and, believe it or not, have never been in a real fight. We do not yell at each other and I have never even felt the need to do so. Maybe I see enough drama from people close to me.

OK...enought gushing for now. The house closes on Wednesday, so we have a busy week ahead of us. It's time to take Hailey for a walk.