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Is your handwriting better in Times New Roman 12 than what you can make with a Bic pen? Is your Bic handwriting better than your spouse’s handwriting? Do you have several hundred thank you cards to write? Did you go on a long whirl-wind vacation for two weeks and then not open presents until a week after that? Do you feel that it is very important to follow etiquette and handwrite every single thank you card? Do you feel, that no matter how late, you should still send a thank you card for a wedding present? Do you believe it is ok to relax a bit after a wedding and honeymoon, and not open presents right away? Do you believe it is more important to learn how to communicate better with a new spouse, and enjoy the first few months as newly weds the best you can? Has those two months had the careful dance of your first major holiday and a birthdaywith new families? Has those past two months flown past filled with everything post-wedding that happens? And, after the stress and drama of the past year that continues to this day, are you just barely starting to feel like the nice kind sweet person people have known you as?

So, if you are one of those people and sympathize with all of this, and you gave us a present, I promise I will have those thank you cards in the mail as soon as possible, and your gifts are very much appreciated. I haven’t forgotten, and I take these things very seriously. I have given wedding gifts in the past that has either not been appreciated nor did the new couple send thank you cards. So, thank you, here and in the notes that are in need of addresses and stamps.

If however, none of these things describe you, then how about this…

If you can’t help make the situation better, please then stay out of it. And nagging on me is not the way to help. I will get those notes out, but continuing to pester me about it is not helping that stress level at all.

Thank you.

“One is my name, the other is not.”- Data

What is it with people that they think that just because I got married, my name is suddenly Mrs. Doug… ? Wrong-O!

My name is still, and always will be, Christy. Please get that right. You can screw up the last names all you want, but don’t mess with my name. Yeah, I will be using my last name as a second middle name, and Doug’s last name as my new last name. But sheesh! My name, my first name, the name everyone knows me by, my personality, my character, what my inner-most core responds as, is Christy. I am not Doug, Doug is Doug. I realize the priest screwed this up, but if you were there, you saw that I would not leave the alter, and even scolded the priest for it until he gave me my name back. My name is Christy! Not Kristi, Kristy, Kristie, Cristy, Christie, etc. Good grief- Get it right!

(Grumbles as she walks offstage…)

1.
We have a new black female kitten named Sprite to keep Sadie company and to be her playmate- they are slowly getting used to each other, and tired each other out yesterday by running and chasing and playing.

2.
We have a new couch- it is sage green with two tan accent pillows and a red “pop” pillow with a beautiful design on it. The couch is micro-fiber so spills clean up better. The old futon and cider blocks are gone- thank goodness- now there is something to relax and watch tv on that is comfortable in our apartment, though we spend more time sitting in candlelight with the radio on to the Martini playing Frank. Our apartment is much cleaner now, without the 40 square feet of recyclable boxes, and without the things we donated to charity and the other things we recycled. It looks like the apartment of a new married couple instead of two college vagabonds.

3.
I decided to get my hair cut so that I can try to look less like dull drab woman and more like a young women of my age and culture. With that, piece by piece, parts of my wardrobe need a bit of modernizing as well. Sara helps me with both of those, and Doug grins at the results, and it feels to me that I am adding a freshness to the way I present myself to other people in my profession.

We all (Doug’s family) are anxiously waiting for Greg and Teresa’s baby. We were at Ron and Michelle’s last night, and we all sat on the edge of the chairs, jumping at the slightest sound of a phone’s ring tone. Hopefully, it comes soon for her. Come out into the world, little one- there is a whole family just waiting to love you. But, for now, we wait.

Wednesday 11/1- And the rumor is that they had a girl this morning. Now, another wait- permission to come visit the new little girl.

Wednesday evening- Isabella Rose is a beautiful little baby, sleeping peacefully bundled up tight in her daddy’s arms.

“So, how is married life?” That is the common question right now.

Now, I have asked this question in the past, when I was still single. I honestly wanted to know what it was like to be married, especially in the first few weeks of a marriage, and how it differs from being single or dating, and to get an idea how the answer changes over time.

I have also observed several married people (either married for a short amount of time, or for many many years) ask the question. I interpret the question differently than the single person’s question. “Remind me of what it was like to be freshly married, help me see how much I have learned, how much things have changed or stayed the same, how does your married differ from my own, or is it similar to mine.”

Short answer-

Doug and I have gone on a honeymoon/vacation, and have gone back to work.

Long answer-

No one ever mentioned that there is a huge amount of analytical planning logistics involved in all of that. It might seem obvious, after thinking about it, but the romantic side of me, when dreaming about the first few days and nights of a honeymoon, didn’t think of the logistics of moving bags from one place to another, having to be on time, traveling through airports, transportation in other cities/countries, etc. I only thought of the relaxation and the fun and the dreamy Hollywood romance kind of stuff. But, we told ourselves, we also planned a wedding. Next time we go on vacation, we will know better, and will have the vacation planned better.

We learned a little about communicating and working as a team to get something done, and to help the other person in areas they are not the best at. For example, I have trouble lifting heavy bags- Doug helped me with that.

We had a wonderful time traveling throughout Australia, and we will have to share pictures and the stories of adventure, once we get that all organized.

And to answer the “Is your marriage like mine?” Well, if you know either of us very well, you know there is an on-going whip cream battle that recently extended into chocolate pudding too. So, if you end up in the kitchen laughing so hard you can barely breathe, chocolate pudding on glasses, in hair, on faces, on shirts, on floor, on counters with a cat licking up the spots she can reach, then yes, ours is like yours. We are still trying to figure out the morning routine better, but I do like having breakfast with him. And, he scraped the ice and snow off my car this morning too. We have the normal bills to pay, and he picked up groceries the other day. After the chocolate pudding laughter fit, we watched “Finding Nemo” to see the coral on the reef again. We are taking time this week to relax and get our feet under us, before we start visiting people again.

So my question in return is this- “Is this is what married life is like, with its ups and downs, learning curves, helping each other out, discovery, laughter and adventure?”

Or maybe I am over analyzing, as usual, and it was either a simple question, or there was an underlying question, not mentioned above. So, the answer to both of those is… “Great!”

Hi everyone!

We are back from the Land Down Under, and we had a great time. Until we get those pictures up on this webpage, here is the link to the photos from the wedding…

http://www.eventpix.com/guest/Events/Event.taf?_function=detail&key=269a45ce32494df48380fbbb93d404a1

saturday

Link Text Here

Hello All!

As we sit here on the morning of our third day here in Oz, life is great. In about 30 minutes we are headed back to the airport to hop a flight out to Uluru (Ayers Rock) for a short visit out there.

We have been in Sydney since we arrived at 6:30am Tuesday Morning. I’m not sure what happened to Monday, although we were up for a little over 50ish hours since we left the states.

Sydney is BEAUTIFUL!!!! In our wanderings, we have seen most of the sites in Sydney Proper. (Sydney has 3 million people, in a landsize about the size of Denver). There are also 600 Suburbs in the Metro Area. The Bridge was nice, the Opera house is way cool (its actually 3 different buildings – woah!) and we have walked all over the place. The harbours are way cool and have about everysingle thing you could think of.

The architecture is great. most of the city is over 200 years old, with a lot of refurbished buildings mixed in, and skyscrapers in about 4 different areas around Sydney.

Anyways, I need to get going, to take a shower. Its a little before 7am here, so I am outta here!

Doug

We had a blast last Saturday. A group of us got together, and went putt-putt golfing at Boondocks, and we played laser tag. One of the guys got the great idea to haul off and hit the ball into the cave, and it nearly hit him on the straight rebound, and we all nearly died of laughter. We also went to Sing Sing’s Dueling Piano bar in LoDo, and had a grand time. Brian, a guy I have known since I was 4, the son of one of the gals that threw us the barbeque party, was there, with Aly, a neighbor that moved in when I was ten, both at a party for a gal that we all went to school with. Small world.

If you go to the Renaissance Festival or to Sing Sing’s, you need to know that they are going to tease you in any way they can, and try to embarrass you. So, they had me sit next to a gal in leather and lace on one of the pianos in front of a very crowded piano bar, and they sang to us. They also had all the bachelor/bachlorette people get up and do the “Head shoulders knees and toes” song with the modification of “butt and boobs” or “butt and balls”. For each one, I got a bumper sticker that says “Shut Up And Sing” which they place for you on either your bumper or your boobs.

Doug and I had a meeting with Father Don on Monday. There is a verse in the Bible that says something along the lines of ‘feed the worker’. Well, the worker had a gift certificate, and took us to 3 Margaritas, where, on Mondays, they have the Mariachi band playing, and he fed us. What a treat- getting to hang out with a very unusual person, listening to his stories and advice, getting to see and hear the Mariachi band play, and of course the food there is always wonderful.

We will be sure to pay-it-forward as some other couple probably had done, because Father does not believe sacraments (marriage in the Catholic Church is one of the 7 sacraments, 2 of which are shared in the Protestant churches) are for sale. He loves weddings and directing the wedding ceremony, but doesn’t charge a fee for it. Instead, you can choose to donate money to the church, or, apparently, some in the past have given him gift certificates.

Father Don helped iron out some of the details for the ceremony, and reviewed the rehearsal info as well. If every pastor/priest gives the same advice as he does about weddings, then most people don’t take that advice. Therefore, I tend to think that he does things differently. If you are extremely knowledgeable of the wedding ceremony in the Catholic Church, then you will see some differences with this one, but nothing that detours from the whole purpose and intent of the ceremony.

Anyways, there is still stuff to be done, so I must be getting back to it.

Doug and I attended a wedding in Estes Park over the weekend. It was one of the first weddings that neither of us have been in or worked in longer than we can count. It was a wonderful “sneak preview” of what our wedding will be like in under two weeks, because Father Don directed the ceremony, and will direct our ceremony as well. We both had a wonderful time.

We took the list of remaining things to do between now and then, and broke everything up into who’s job it is to complete said task, and even put dates with it. We are meeting with Father Don tonight to finalize the ceremony part, and we meet with the music gal last Friday evening to talk about which songs we want her to play. And this morning, we both went to the courthouse to get the marriage license from the Clerk and Recorder. That was “new and exciting”- I’ve never done that before. Raise your right hand… Do you solemnly swear that all this information you have provided is correct to the best of your knowledge, so help you God? Wow, that was actually an exciting moment. So, now all we really HAVE to do, is sign the license. The rest is just details, even though details like paying for the catering and the flowers and the DJ… etc will cost money, and are not minor in the slightest. But, they are just details, and no matter what happens- if anything goes wrong or the weather is a mess, we will get married. That is so cool, and I am excited.