Wedding Part 1: The Rehearsal

I drank some of Mike's coffee at 9pm and now I can't sleep. But that's good news for anyone who was wanting to see wedding pictures! The weekend ended up going really well, especially considering how quickly everything was put together.

First of all, I would love to thank Lainey, Papa D, Nanny and Boppa. We all know that I totally love my inlaws and that I think they are incredibly amazing but this weekend...man. Truly, there is no way I can thank them except by promising to do for others the way they have done for me and my family. I'll tell you more about what everyone did in Part 2: The Wedding. Lainey and Papa D let me host the rehearsal dinner at their house because I wanted something more intimate than a restaurant and, well, I have no living room furniture so my house wasn't going to work. :P I was thinking it'd be something simple and nice but...yeah. I forgot that Lainey doesn't do anything by half.

The rehearsal was fun. I got to go to part of it. Long enough to get a picture of Autumn dancing down the aisle!


I decided to use a little bit of a warcraft theme for the rehearsal dinner. I wanted it to be something that Donnie and Liz would get but that other people who aren't geeky would just think, "hey, that's cute!" It ended up working out perfectly. Faith Long recommended Shannon Taylor to make the rehearsal dinner cake which was a replica of the Alliance banner, the faction we play in warcraft. Seriously, it was awesome:


I also made potion party favors which were just test tubes filled with red m&m's to go with the fall theme and to simulate health potions in game. Cheri, who did the flowers and general awesome set up for the wedding and rehearsal dinner brought me a treasure chest to put them in.


I took some photos of us in game and set up a little thing that plays on the idea of Best in Slot, which just means that a character has the best, like, weapon that he or she will ever get in the game. Playing with my friends (with a shot of the 4 of us being stupid as our WoW characters) + Playing with the one I love (with a shot of donnie and liz dressed up as a bride and groom in the game) = Best in Life (this shot was after we killed the big, bad guy at the end of the game).


The invites were along the same lines. Warcraft quest text and a Warcraft-style monogram but not super obvious to anyone who doesn't play.


The full theme cart:


Other than the WoW stuff and buying the food, I can't take credit for how amazing everything else was. Cheri turned Lainey's backyard into a romantic, candle-lit oasis and all I did was put things where she told me to and they continued the work while I was with Autumn at the rehearsal. Even Ryan pitched in by going to pick up the food for us.








I think everyone had a good time relaxing, eating and, later, sharing stories about Donnie and Liz.


Lainey even found this adorable plate that doubled as a gift and decor. :)


Another great thing about the wedding? Seeing old friends. Here are Kiley, Rachel, and Louis. Louis was the minister and Kiley shared a few words with and about Donnie and Liz. I don't think I have seen any of them in a long time although we keep up with each other via Facebook and the grapevine.


I liked this picture of Donnie. I took it while Liz's grandmother was telling a hilarious story about the time Donnie caught a fish and was amazed and terrified at her fish butchering ferocity.


Liz's eyes are totally shut here but Justin there in the back? I lol'd.


And, of course, since I was either panicking about something, taking pictures, or doing something, I wasn't in any photos so I asked Donnie to snap a few of me and Mike. It degenerated very quickly.


It just went super well, not without drama (like unexpected out of town guests, timeline issues, and forgotten items), but what about a wedding is without drama?? Haha. That ended up being the case with the day of the wedding, too. Hopefully I'll get wedding pics up soon! Here's a preview:


Seriously. How can you stand it?

This is it!

The big weekend has arrived! Donnie and Liz are getting married tomorrow! I thought I'd go ahead and get caught up on some photo posting because I'm sure I'll have a bunch of photos of the rehearsal dinner (warcraft themed! subtly!) and the wedding tomorrow (with mike as best man and autumn as flower girl!). The wedding countdown began last week with a work shower for liz at the home of one of her coworker who also happened to be an acquaintance of Mike's mom. Small world, huh? That morning, Autumn and I started out with some coloring.


And some dressup. All that day, Autumn addressed me as "Princess" and demanded to be addressed in the same manner. "Princess, are you ready for lunch? Princess, I need to go potty. Princess, I need to see my Lainey, princess."


Later, Mike and Autumn went out to eat with Donnie while my mom, Roxie, Valerie, and I went to the shower. Aren't they cute together? It's crazy how much Autumn and Roxie resemble each other. Except for their eyes and the fact that Autumn is like 10 shades darker (it's more obvious in person--Miss Roxie has lovely translucent skin and Autumn is totally the color that one would expect of a 1/4 filipina, 1/4 italian, hahaha), they definitely look related. How neat is that?


The shower was really quite nice. Linda, who hosted, really did things up with a black feather wreath and a flashy (literally!) ring...among other things.


I'm glad Liz got to have at least one fun shower where she got to open presents, have a ribbon bouquet and wear a fake veil. :D One of the sad things about the wedding happening so quickly is that I didn't have time to give a shower--but I got to do the rehearsal dinner (with Mike's mom's help because I don't have, you know, living room furniture yet >.> ) so I'm happy!!


These were awesome and I will be stealing the idea.


All the Williams ladies plus the almost one!


Oh, and check out these little guys. Seriously, they creeped me out almost as much as the coconut monkey in the last post.


They were way cute from the outside, though.


Apparently I'm just easily disturbed, haha.

And this is completely unrelated but for some reason when I saw this picture, I laughed.


Well, next time we meet, the wedding will be done! Wish us luck, send us all prayers for a drama-less event. :D

Sick Week Special

Well, this week has been an interesting one. I've been sick all week which is always fun. But this time, I had classes to teach and no one to sub for me plus I was already behind from being gone all weekend and being sick made it worse sooooo, yeah. If you've called or emailed me and haven't responded, I promise I will! When I'm sick Mike and I switch roles and I get all grumpy and antisocial. :P He apparently told my brother tonight that it was like living with a wounded wolverine. Haha. Annnnyway. Despite everything, we did get a lot done this weekend. The biggest thing Mike did was clean out the garage! We can fit both cars in now! The biggest thing I did was get most of the playroom in order, including putting together Autumn's table and chairs that she got for her birthday. Back in May.


What's that horrifying thing on top of the table, you ask? Oh, that's just the coconut monkey bank that my mom brought Autumn back from Mexico. Yeah. It's going to go into hiding because it is truly creepy. I swear the thing is staring at me right this minute. >.> I mean, how much more Temple of Doom can this get?


Yes. That's how much more Temple of Doom that thing can get. /shudder. Onto happier things, I've been reveling in my nerddom all week. I ate a bunch of cold medicine and managed to sit up and join my weekly World of Warcraft raid. Donnie, Liz, and I plus 7 other people having been working on this one thing for months and months. I knew we were getting close but I had no idea that dragging myself upright would be so worth it! We totally beat the big, bad guy, cementing my place in super nerddom.


Even better? We beat him while I was wearing my super awesome Hello Kitty snuggie. :D Tamara gave it to me for my birthday. I am actually wearing it now AND drinking a cup of hot tea (with local honey!).


Anyway, I didn't take a lot of photos this week so I decided to grab some off my new android phone. Sometimes I don't have time to go grab my camera when opportunities like this come up:


Or when Autumn is looking extra pitiful because in the middle of a bath she goes "OH NO I HAVE TO POOPOO!" Nothing like being dragged soaking wet from a bubble bath!


Oh, and this is craziness. Autumn is drawing mostly recognizable stuff. Mostly. But still! Here's a picture complete with text to tell you exactly what you're looking at.


And, last but not least, this is a shot I sent to my friends Shang and Lisa. Autumn's wearing a shirt they got her and demonstrating what a dragon says (the shirt has a dragon on it). Which is, in case you were wondering, ROAR. I'd like to think that her awesome posture here is her, like, innate kung fu ability making an appearance. Probably not BUT A MOM CAN DREAM!


Hopefully we'll be back and better than ever sooner than later. :D

"little girl, you're in the middle of the ride."

Well, friends, when we last met here in cyberspace, I was a merely a lass in her 20's. Today, one week later, I am, alas, a woman in her 30's.

/snicker

Not really. I mean, I really am 30 as of Wednesday but I haven't had a meltdown over it yet so I'm guessing it's pretty unlikely that I will have one. I've had kind of a birthday week which is pretty cool. Last Saturday was really my "celebration" because I had plans for my birthday weekend. My family banded together and got me a facial and a pedicure and that was awesome. I went to Juve Salon on Perkins--definitely recommend them! Tuesday-Friday Mike gave me a small gift every day: a card, chocolate, flowers, dinner all exactly what I asked for. Thanks for paying attention, Mike!! Too, Lainey and Papa D took me to Osaka and got me a cute outfit. I wore it to church and everyone who saw it had something nice to say. I thought about taking a picture (because, seriously, I have never gotten so many compliments), but I didn't have my camera. :/

Oh, funny thing some of you on facebook might have already heard: my mom? She totally texted me on my birthday. No phone call. Just a text. Hahahaha. She cracks me up.

Anyway, I thought about doing a 20's retrospective which I may still do but I am just way too tired. Why am I so tired? I'm glad you asked!


For my birthday weekend, I got to go to a knife and cane seminar. My friend Chuck Sullivan, who is also my acupuncturist and a really great martial artist, invited me to come along to this seminar taught by Chuck Pippin and Don Young of Innovative Martial Arts in Michigan. I had a very good time. The material was solid, well organized, and the whole approach appealed to me. Saturday's class had a wide range of people from complete newbies to a prison guard with a long martial arts history who was all kinds of cool and yet I think everyone got what they needed. I certainly did. And, my tender-hearted friends, no worries. Those bruises are superficial and I only have them because of repetition, not necessarily force. I get them from time to time in kali when we do forearm heavy work after not doing it for a while.

Today was the cane portion. Although I do kali which is easily translatable to a cane, I had never worked with one before. Dude. I am tempted to start carrying one. Chuck P. gave me one of their shorter training canes so I'm definitely going to continue to work on it. This class is where their teaching style really confirmed its appeal to me. Chuck and Don managed to take us (only 5 of us for this session) from learning the strikes in the air, to striking and blocking each other, to 4 count unstructured drills, to intense repetitions of the drills, to sparring, to street scenarios in about 3 hours and with no fear, dueling mentality (totally stealing that terminology!), or ego involved. Which is kind of amazing. I really could go on but I won't since I know most of you guys aren't dorky martial artists like me and have most likely checked out by now and are scanning down to see if there are any photos of Autumn coming (THERE ARE). For those of you who are interested, let me know and I'll tell you more!

Well, since I know most of you guys are here for pictures of Autumn and not stories about me getting beat on, have some Autumn:


She's hanging up her little craft from Sunday School. It's a door hanger.


Tonight, she prayed, "Dear God. Thank you my lainey my p'd and my mama my papa. Thank you for papa's office at work and thank you my orange band-aid amen." Her prayers tend to be kind of stream of consciousness and random and all kinds of awesome. I think that they must have written down what Autumn prays for at church because there was a list on the back. This time my mom made the list.


And, course, sheep (whose mama is a bunny, according to Autumn) had to be in the picture. I'm not sure who this Autman on her prayer list is. :P Here I try to give my kid a spellable name and her names still gets misspelled. You know my mom was spelling her name Autum for like 2 years?

So, yeah. tl;dr:*
I'm 30
a nerd
with bruises
and a missy who thanks God for her bandaids.

*too long; didn't read

Trying something new

Last week my kids classes at Mullins started up again! For anyone interested in getting in on this session, by the way, it isn't too late. :D I wasn't too worried about the class for the 6 and up kids, since it's pretty much the same set from the summer session. I mean, other than the whole "holy cow this is all me" nervousness. I've taught kids martial arts classes off and on since I was, like, 15 but never completely by myself and never using a curriculum almost exclusively created by me with a completely new set of students. It's kind of scary! But it's also really good because I've been doing a lot of thinking and research and note taking and trial and error which really can't be anything but good for my own personal training. Anyway. What I was worried about was the toddler class. Dun dun dunnnnnnn!


But, seriously, they are soooo cute! And there are a couple more that aren't in this photo who are just as cute. Even better? Autumn is in my class. And her best friend Angelee might be joining in, too.


We're doing some things like animal stretching and running. I'm using those stars on the mat as the spots where they need to sit in seiza or stand for the next activity. It worked out really, really nicely. Also, Autumn has been going around saying, "seiiiiiiiiza" and then kneeling (which is seiza). I'm also teaching them to say, "onegaishimasu" which is kind of like a before the fact thank you or a please and "domo arigatou" which is an after the fact thank you. And the director's kids have come to teach the kids how to sing Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Japanese.


As far as martial artsy things, the kids are doing different rolls. Too, they are falling onto me and then I "throw" them and they have to roll away. We're doing some other stuff, too, but nothing heavy duty.


To get the idea of circles, really one of the most basic aikido concepts, one of the tools I'm using in both classes is a ribbon twirler. :) They are super fun.


And, of course, we are playing lots of games to teach gross motor skills annnnnd to tire them out. :D Have a 22 second taste:


I'm looking forward to seeing how this class goes over the remaining five weeks. I'm also looking forward to getting used to my new schedule because, omg, I was soooo tired by the time I got home on Thursday.

Oh! And a special thank you to Penny! She came and helped me out on Thursday which is why I have such adorable photos. And one reason Thursday went so amazingly smoothly.

Blast from the Blackberry

I've been on a productivity roll all day. :) Mike, Autumn and I have been scrubbing, weeding, and organizing like crazy all day today. I sat down at my computer intending to chill out but ended up transferring my blackberry files to my computer since I got a new phone last month. Oh, man. Looking at the pictures I had on my phone has been so much fun. For example, this used to be the photo that came up whenever Mike called me:


Also, can you believe that not too long ago, this was Autumn??


From the same era:


I think that was her...first Easter? No, second. I just checked. This very awesome photo is from her first Easter.


I'm not sure of the dates of all of these but I really loved this one. It's so hard to remember when she was all chubby and had her short hair that just wouldn't grow evenly.


Although I do have to say that some things haven't changed. Her hair still gets all crazy. And she still likes to dress all crazy. Kind of like in this picture.


Which isn't as awesome as this picture.


I like this one.


I have a few photos in here of doctor visits and days that Autumn didn't feel well. I tend to send Mike pictures while he's at work. :) I send him the pictures on tough days so he can be glad he's not here and I send pictures of the good days to help him smile. I think this must have been one of Autumn's few days of pitifulness.


And this is just a photo of a spectacular lip poke. Or "pook" as my mom says. :D


Actually, I think I'll close out with some great face action...The Glare:


The Rrrrrrr:


And the OMG:


:) I might post a few more blackberry pics this week.