A Little Sugarbaker Fun

As a child growing up with my mother, we had one show that we watched religiously. The Cosby Show? No. Family Ties? No. Growing Pains? No. Alf? No, well actually, yes, but not what I'm talking about. My dear mother loved Designing Women. We watched these reruns all of the time! We never grew tired of the adventures of Julia, Suzanne, Charlene, Mary Jo, and Anthony.

We constantly tuned in to listen to Julia rant in her southern drawl, Anthony talk about his "unfortunate incarceration," Suzanne talk about her reign as Miss Georgia World, and watch the looney Bernice in action. My mother wrapped my sister and I up in a world of graceful southern living, and I imagined that Katie and I would forever be together in the same town, perhaps decorating homes and going out to lunch. We would have a maid that was always in danger of being deported, and one of us would be married multiple times.

We like to pull out Designing Women quotes whenever we can, such as "Suzanne's gonna exfoliate me!" Katie recently told me that her dear pal, Brenda Potter, plays Golden Girls trivia nightly with her sister. They try to stump each other with questions. Katie has this brilliant idea for us to talk nightly and see who exactly is the supreme head hauncho of useless Anthony Bouvier knowledge.

We started out, and are a little shaky on the rules. For example, I asked what happened the night that Suzanne threw her baton in the Miss Georgia World contest. Without hesitation, Katie quips, "it hit the rafters, sending sparks, and that WAS THE NIGHT THE LIGHTS WENT OUT IN GEORGIA!" I claimed that this was correct, but the answer I was looking for was "grown men wept." We then both laughed until we were teary eyed. This could get good.

Wedding Flowers

Mom and I met with our florist this past weekend and have finalized the flowers for the wedding! I never thought I would be that interested in such details, but I was thrilled with the flowers that were created for our day. These are garden roses, football mums and orchids. I just asked that we change the ribbon on the centerpieces from gold to pink!

A Reluctant Mouseketeer

My mom and dad spent this week in Disney World with my niece and her parents. Trinity and I picked them up at the airport, and we got these fabulous gifts. Mom said many people were on their honeymoon at the Happiest Place on Earth, and were sporting these. My honeymoon will be spent poolside in Mexico, sipping margaritas, so we utilized these hats in our very own kitchen.

He refused to cooperate. His tuxedo ears were great. He did not wanted to be internetted wearing mouse ears. Ha! Your attempts to thwart my blogging were unsuccessful.

I love my ears.

Showered by School Love

Today I had my first bridal shower! My wonderful coworkers gave me a shower at school, and I got lots of goodies! They kept in mind that my colors are Blush and Bashful.

Everything was pink, including the cupcakes.

Double fisting cupcakes makes my nostrils flare like an angry bull. This is totally misleading, since I am actually very happy!

Lifting Pyrex dishes from 2nd grade makes me strain and flex my muscles!

I am posting this as evidence for myself. My infamous 3rd grade school picture (see in previous post) has me making a very odd face. I claim I have never made it since. My friends disagree. As I looked through the photos taken on my camera, I was quite dismayed to discover that this IS THE FACE!!! 3RD GRADE AWKWARD ASS FACE. Oh, I'm such a humbled bride.

I am sporting a lovely mu-mu style top. I thought it looked like Mrs. Roper from "Three's Company." My friend Marinda thinks its more Naomi from "Mama's Family." Either way, loud obnoxious tunic top= lots of compliments from the under age 10 demographic. Its perfect for work.

Romeo, Oh Romeo

A close up shot, please excuse me in it. I swear I'm not a man, contrary to what this photo may insinuate-

Trying on my future mother-in-law's wedding gown, and posing like Juliet

Oh, I'm so excited. I have this little plan that I hope will come to fruition. I thought it would be cool to wear my mother's wedding gown to my rehearsal dinner. I wanted to cut it off and make it a short little cocktail dress. There were three insurmountable obstacles to this goal.

#1 obstacle: Young Janie Lamb (mi madre) was 6'1 and about 125 bones when she got married back in 1971. Her spawn might as well be named Brunhilda in comparison. I got a good 20-25 pounds on her, oh and I'm 2" shorter. So I don't think it would fit.

#2 obstacle: Jane's dress had a very high lacy collar, which would be something akin to me making a scarf out of tags and wrapping it around myself. Not likely.

#3 obstacle: By far the most challenging. Even if obstacles #1 & #2 weren't present, I believe my mother's wedding dress floated down Honey Creek in the great Allendale flood of 2008. We haven't seen it in its box since that fateful day. Mother had brilliantly stored it in the garage, along with lawn care tools and an old treadmill.

I still wanted to wear something meaningful for my rehearsal dinner, so it dawned on me that sweet Trinity's parents had too engaged in a matrimonial ceremony. His mother, Pat, wore a wedding dress! This could actually still happen. When I asked her about her gown, she graciously offered it to me to wear. My only hesitation was that I hadn't seen it, and I had no idea if it would fit. A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of trying on this lovely dress. I was so relieved when I saw it, because I loved the square neck, soft cotton lace and comfy fit. It seemed that my future mother-in-law's dress was the antithesis of Jane's itchy scratchy, made for a 12 year old girl gown.

I have an appointment with a tailor next week to see if my vision is possible. We won't cut unless we can do exactly what I want-to remove the sheer sleeves, cut it to above my knees, and reattach the lace at the bottom to the new hem. Updates to follow!

Jenny and Jason's wedding

Sweet T and I attended my darling coworker's wedding. Jenny teaches 2nd grade and Reading Recovery, and I've known her for several years. We went to her beautiful wedding and realized that it will be the last wedding we attend unmarried, and the next wedding will be ours! I loved not having to go up for the first time and try to catch the bouquet!

Laurie, Susan, Katie, Jill and Steph

Mr. and Mrs.

The future Mr. and Mrs.

A True Miracle

I am a fan of oddities. I am one myself. There is a coffee shop in Nashville that has "The Nun Bun, " which is a cinnamon roll that was baked and came out looking like the face of Mother Theresa. People deem things like this small miracles. I don't know if I would go that far, but I think of them as just little coincidences that make life more interesting. My new roommate claimed he discovered an amazing little "miracle" yesterday. I almost fell off the couch in laughter.

He has been complaining that I don't have anything to read in my house. I once subscribed to Indianapolis Monthly, or rather my father paid for a subscription. Sweet T became accustomed to this, and now misses it terribly. I still receive Town and Country, Instyle and Southern Living. In a pinch, these will do for his reading material. Yesterday he called out my name. "Betsy, Betsy, get in here, this is AMAZING!!!!LOOK AT THIS!!!!" When he reached for a magazine, he discovered this:

This was oddly funny. My Anthropologie catalog on top of my Lucky magazine formed a perfect little match. I giggled. He persisted. "It all lines up! Her hair, the face! That is so cool!" Ah, yes, my man. Miraculous.

Adjusting...

Ah, the joys of cohabitation. Trinity and I have learned a lot about each other this week. I've been exploring my culinary side, and have made dinner several nights this past week. He has eaten them. He installed his Bose speaker/sound system in my 6' x 6' living room, and its loud. I now hear sounds that I never knew existed. I think of all of the new things that he has experienced living with me, the existence of this little character is the most fun.

She is everywhere, you see. If she is not sitting literally on top of the man, then her fur is wafting towards him.

She likes to wait for him to go to sleep. Despite her small stature, her fur emissions lead you to think she is a cat of this size...

Despite her hairiness, she has wooed him...

Goodbye Tennessee, Hello Indiana

So this trip to Tennessee was a little bittersweet. We spent some of this week packing up Trinity's things. We are thrilled that he has accepted a job as a health and safety engineer at Rolls Royce Corporation here in Indianapolis. I am thrilled because I get to keep my job that I love in a school district that I love. I also get to stay here with all of my dear friends, with a brother who lives and attends law school in town, and parents who live 70 miles away. We get to start our life together here, in my teeny tiny little house.

For posterity, I took some pictures of his wonderful house, where he has lived as he has worked for Nissan for the past 7 years.

Posing on the porch.

We will miss this fabulous deck for grilling.

Lucky man gets to leave this...

to be welcomed by a sassy cat

and one bathroom! One bathroom!! Can he be any luckier?

A hike in the Smoky Mountains

No trip with Trinity is complete without some sort of stop in a national or state park. I'm not the most outdoorsy person, but I am adjusting. We took a hike on a rainy afternoon up to see a beautiful waterfall. It was chilly and rainy. I grew whiny and fussy. It was wonderful.

Here is evidence that a hike was indeed completed. I had about 3 coats on, and was still cold.

He also insisted that if we didn't take a photo by the state park sign, we wouldn't know in 20 years where we were. As if I would forget that cold hike! I refused to be in this photo. I took it across the road, screaming at him:)

He was much too close to the edge, in my opinion. I would like to say we weren't both singing, "Don't push us, cuz we're close to the eeeeeeeeddddddge..." but I would be lying.

The Butterfly Gap

Sweet T and I had quite an adventure this week over my spring break. Katie and Chip bought us a gift certificate to go to The Butterfly Gap retreat in Maryville, TN. This lovely place was featured in the June issue of Southern Living magazine, and I started whining to my family then how much I wanted to go. My dear sister and her sometimes annoying husband indulged us by getting us a trip there for Christmas! It was marvelous!

Here I am in the office, checking in. The place is very remote, so we went right in and had to use a walky talky to contact the owners. They came down in a jiffy to check us in, but not before...

I discovered a rack full of hand knit scarves! Naturally I had to put one on and wrap myself up mummy-style!

We posed in front of the lovely pond.

Our little house had a fireplace and homemade cookies waiting for us.

The day we arrived was a bit mucky and rainy. Fortunately, my man has a fair collection of outdoorsy gear, so he outfitted me in this slicker with a hood. We rolled up our fancy pants jeans that are way too long so they wouldn't get muddy, grabbed some Blue Moons and set off for a rainy little hike.

I am the Green Hornet!

Here is the beautiful reception area. This is available for weddings and other gatherings. I actually looked into this place for our wedding, but was worried it was too far away.

They also have a little wedding chapel.

Blue Moon walking

Blue Moon walking, lady style.

The sun came out and we were able to sit on the dock. My camera with its self timer was precariously perched on a thin railing. I will do anything to capture the perfect shot! We had a marvelous time. Thank you to the Kenworthys!