Merry Christmas

I had the family over yesterday. There were 10 people. We all fit around the table. I made turkey the night before. There was also beef tenderloin (the best!), homemade mashed potatoes, green beans with red and yellow bell peppers, lots of cookies, pumpkin pie, crescents, stuffing (Margaret made), and salad.

I gave the parent's their photo albums and a coupon book for two of each, house cleaning, dinner, and Jon is providing tech support.

Jon and I gave each other the same gift - Bluetooth headsets for gaming.

Jon also gave me a "game" for the DS called Cooking Trainer. It gives you a shopping list, utensil check list, a tutorial how-to, and some give video how-to. My first recipe to try was California Sushi. I was more concerned about the rice than anything else. The first two rolls I don't think I waited long enough for the rice to cool. The third one was almost perfect. A few more practices and I'll be ready for that sushi party!

Floor Finished

This actually happened on Wednesday and I really wanted to post about it because it looks fantastic. Jared and Richard came over and finished the floor in the bathroom. I was afraid someone would comment about how it was just in time for this weekend and the party so I held off on the post. I am SOOO happy with it. It looks great! Feels good to have one more thing checked off the list.

YMCA

You Tube Anyone?

Day 8: 11-9-08

Last day. Time to go home. Happy and sad. This was an awesome week. I am so happy that Jon planned this. We really lucked out on the Blue Angels show. The news this morning said people waited 2 hours in a car line up only to be turned away. Today's show has already sold out so we wouldn't get in anyway.

I'm excited to go home to share all the pictures and gifts/items we purchased. Jon was so wonderful this entire week. Since my feet were hurting he would ask me through out the day 1-10 where were they at. Depending on my answer we would slow down or stop and rest. When we got back to the hotel he would rub my feet if they were really bad.

I am so lucky.

Day 7: 11-8-08

Another early start-8am out the door. On our way to Kennedy Space Ctr. Paid for admission and tickets to the Air Show with the Blue Angels. We didn't have a lot of time to view exhibits at the center. Buses started loading at 10:30 and the show didn't start until 12:30. It was a good thing we went early-one guy said there were around 10,000 people expected. It was a big open field surrounded by water. I forgot to put on sunscreen so Jon acted as my shade when there were no clouds. We got about 3/4 through the air show and my camera battery died again! Just 2 acts before the Blue Angels. Jon ended up taking them with his phone. It took them 2 hours to ship everyone to the air show site. You should have seen the fleet of buses to take everyone back. We got back to the center and went on Shuttle Launch Experience. When we got off, buses were still unloading.

We stopped at Walmart to develop the pictures. They had an adapter so Jon could print his phone pictures too. I went through them at the hotel sorting by date things were done.

Did the last load of laundry. All clean clothes when we get home. Called the parents. Margaret is picking us up and everyone is meeting at our house to open gifts. Everything is pretty much packed. Hotel said we could leave any food and someone would take it. Jon is very sad. He didn't want to leave the parks. It was so much fun, it's hard for me to go back too. I miss everyone too though.

Day 6: 11-7-08

Another early day. Off to Animal Kingdom. Jon made a bee-line to Expedition Everest to get the FP. The wait was only 10 min, so we got a FP and went on the ride. While waiting for FP time we went to the Jungle Trek and watched Flights of Wonder. Took Everest again-this time smooching for the camera.

Then we went to DinoLand. Our timing was great. We just made it to Finding Nemo: The Musical. Not what I thought it was going to be. This was a full theatrical show and it was free (or included in cost of admission). There was singing, dancing, acting, even fireworks. The "costumes" and scenery were beautiful and most were people dressed up as seaweed or holding a puppet fish. Jon didn't care for it as much as I did-he described it as disappointing. For being a free musical, I though it was very good. While in DinoLand we also went on Dinosaur. There should be an order that you go on rides. Once you've been on as many rides as we have you judge all others-and they don't measure up. The are still good rides, but you know there are better. This would be the case for some later rides.

We headed to Africa to get the FP for the Safari. Decided to eat at Tusker House. The guide said it was an all-you-can-eat meat restaurant. We thought this meant it was like Fogo. It was more like OCB. Good timing there too. When we were done it was time for the Safari. I would suggest going on this more than once. Each time sit on a different side of the truck. This was an awesome ride and you get great photos. The photo of the white rhino on the left is without zoom. It was right next to the truck. We had to be very quiet so it wouldn't charge the truck. The two baby elephants were wrestling close to the trail the truck was on. Pangani Trail was right next to where we exited so we went on that next. We skipped a lot of Animal Kingdom, but told each other that it's just something to look forward to next time.

We took the tram back to the car to drop off our photos. It waited for Jon to get back on, luckily we were only 2 cars in from the tram. We took a bus to Disney Hollywood Studios (MGM). We raced across the park to the Extreme Stunt Show. Jon really wanted to see this. I wanted to go on the new Toy Story ride. We went the wrong way and ended up on the Star Wars ride-again a ride that seemed like it was an original. Disappointing. Finally made it to the Toy Story ride-80 min wait and no FP. They said they run out of FP for this by 11:30am. We were there at 6 or so. That means there were no FP for most of the day. Decided to go on Journey Into Narnia. This was just a 15 min preview for the movie-nothing else. No ride, no sitting for a presentation. Disappointed again-we headed back to the hotel. Drew a bath, drank some complimentary wine and fed each other grapes. Watched D3 (Diners, Dives, and Drive-Ins).

Day 5: 11-6-08

Woke up ready to go again. I feel like a little kid. Watching the local news while waiting for Jon to get up. Forecast comes on and they said a cold front was coming next week. All the temps said 80, one day said 77. That is NOT a cold front.

Arrived at Magic Kingdom by 9am. Parked in Dopey. In all the days we have parked at Disney we haven't lost the car yet. Took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. First top was Space Mtn. Very fun-very dark. Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin was more of a kiddie ride, but shooting things and getting points was fun. Tomorrowland Transit Authority took us around the whole Tomorrowland area. Then we hit up Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. Hilarious! It was an interactive cartoon comedy show. Stitch's Great Escape was okay. More of a sensory ride using scents and spraying water. Fantasyland had the Philharmagic. Using 3D glasses the movie and characters seemed like they were right in front of me. I thought I was going to wack the lady in front of me when I grabbed for one of the things that fly by. We wandered through the other lands to Liberty Square for Haunted Mansion. Not a whole lot to say about that one either. Onto Frontierland, got our FP for Big Thunder Mtn. There was an hour wait for that so I went on Splash Mtn by myself. Jon did n't want to get wet. It had a 40 min wait. As I am in line for who knows how long, they annouce they are having technical difficulties and don't know how long the wait will be. Many people got out of line. I didn't want to get out because I didn't know how close I was. Finally got on-chose the back. Came out with a few sprinkles. By the time I got off the ride, Jon and I were able to go right on Big Thunder. Splash Mtn not worth and hour wait in line. Big Thunder was fun and only a 5 min wait.
We took the train that goes around the whole Kingdom back to main street. Then boarded the monorail twice to Epcot.

First stop was Mexico. We had beef empenada, quesadilla with chirrizo and margaritas. China had a Chicken Sha Sha. Germany had sausage, saurkraut on a pretzel roll. That was my favorite. I was feeling really dizzy when we got to Japan. I don't know if it was a combo of heat, alcohol and no liquids to hydrate. We stopped at our fave restaurant, Yakitori House. Jon had his Japanese curry and I had the California rolls. I was feeling better. We headed to The Seas. Cute show/ride with Nemo. It is hilarious how every ride ends and dumps you into that ride's gift shop. Jon's fave ride at Epcot is Spaceship Earth. We went on again and emailed our image to ourselves and Mike at work. We headed back to Magic Kingdom using the monorail. Jon knew a little secret that you can ride in the very front with the conductor. On our way to Epcot here was a kid that threw a tantrum and the parents wouldn't do anything. The ride back was sooo much better. I got some cool pictures.

There was a castle performance called Dream Along with Mickey. Also able to get some good pics using 10x zoom. About 40 min before the parade was going to start we got a curb side spot. Three floats into the parade the battery on my camera died. You'll just have to believe me or go see it yourself. The fireworks were so beautiful. It brought tears to my eyes. Took almost an hour to get out because we stopped to get hats instead of going straight out.

Day 4: 11-5-08

This was our lazy day. Woke up at 7:30-watched the news-OBAMA IS PRESIDENT! Switched to Food Network. This made me hungry so I made a nice breakfast at 10:30 of eggs, cheese and bologna...yes, bologna. Took a nap till 2:30. Watched more food network. Took a shower and got ready for my surprise show-BLUE MAN GROUP!
I thought this was going to be like the Excel show. Besides a few acts it was completely different. It was so awesome! It was a very small room-only about 20 rows and 3 small sections. We were in the 8th row right in the center. Very personal and the chairs were wide enough where I didn't feel pinched. Plenty of leg room too. Jon wouldn't let me take pictures so all you get is before and after. They had a lot of audience participation.
Before the show we had dinner at the world's largest Hard Rock Cafe. After the show we went to Downtown Disney and had a chocolate covered strawberry each and shared a chocolate covered rice crispy bar. Most of the stores were closed so we walked from one end to the other.

Day 3: 11-4-08

Voting Day. Don't worry, we did absentee ballads. I wonder how things will go, and how will it affect security in the parks after they are announced. I slept in a little later-8am. Got my coffee and finished writing about our packed day yesterday. not sure what we are doing today. Our rough itinerary was to go to Sea World. Waiting for Jon to get up again. Doing our first loads of laundry. Forgot to mention-on the flight here a lady next to me spilled her pop down my leg and onto my jacket that was on the floor. Hence, doing laundry.

I did some research on the areas we want to visit using the Unofficial Guide to Florida. I really want to go to Animal Kingdom and Sea World. MGM won't take too long-but they have a night show and so does Magic Kingdom.

Sea World was kind of a dud. Not worth getting the free entry for a second day. We started at Dolphin Cove, Manatee Rescue, then Kraken. Kraken seemed to be the only good thing about Sea World. We went on twice. Once to find out where the camera was, second time to pose for the camera. Then we went to the Penguin Encounter and Shark Encounter. Also pretty cool because you are in a tunnel and the fish and sharks are all around you. The Clydsdale Hamlet was cute. Those horses are huge. I got film of them when we were next to the Shamu exhibit.

We missed the Shamu show and there wasn't another one until 5:30pm. We had just missed the 1:30-not worth staying 4 hours for the next showing. We'll catch it next time and just for the show. On our way out we stopped at the Dolphin Nursery. We went back to the hotel for a quick lunch. Sea World is right next to the hotel so this was easy and cheap. About 3:30 we left for MGM, which is now called Disney Hollywood Studios. Got a couple of pictures at the beginning then raced to Tower of Terror-also as been renamed-got a FP for this also. Then we went to the Rock-n-Roller Coaster for another FP. You can't have two at once so we went on this one. There was a 30 min wait. We were racing everywhere because the park closed at 7pm. We only went on those two rides then waited over an hour in the bleachers for a show called Fantasmic. AWESOME! It was hard to take photos of this show, it was mostly a spray of water with a "movie" projected on it. There were bits of Mickey appearances and at the end a boat came by with all the characters on it.

We went back to the hotel for Garmin to find a Mexican restaurant. Two couldn't be found, third one was found and was great. Back to the hotel-chillin, watching food network and poll results.

Day 2: 11-3-08

I have this problem with sleeping in. I set the coffee pot to auto@7am. I woke up at 6 and waited for the coffee. Looks like it is going to be a nice day. Yesterday is was raining/drizzling. It's now a little after 8am. I'm on my third cup of coffee, showered and dressed. Just waiting for Jon to get up so we can go to some parks! Third cup enjoyed on deck.Jon was moving by 9 and we were out the door by 9:30. Jon decided no watch and no Garmin-bad idea. We got a little lost, luckily we still had regular maps in the car. Once we got back on the main freeway (Hwy 4) we got to our destination - EPCOT! I'm not going to go into every detail because we went on everything and saw everything. We were there for 12 hours. My feet were killing me.First we got a Fast Pass (FP- a pass you get before a ride or show so you don' t have to stand in line as long) for Soarin. Then we went on Living with the land. This showed the green house that Dinner Impossible used. Everything in the greenhouse is used at the Disney resorts and parks for preparing food. Everything is fresh.Then we went to Japan, ate at Yakitori House. We took the ferry back to the other side becauase it was time for our FP on Soarin. Then we got a FP for Test Track. While waiting for Test Track, we went on Mission Space. Not my fave. I felt a bit sick. Needed to slow down, so we went to Ellen's Adventure, Spaceship Earth and then Fast Track.

We saw a couple wearing bride/groom Mickey ears. We had to get them. Another couple had buttons that you get for free from guest services-ours said Just Married. They have 1st Visit, Birthday, and Anniversary buttons too. Once we had all the items on people, workers and visitors, all wished us congratulations.
After Fast Track we made our way around he countries again starting with Mexico and the Gran Fiesta Tour. Another "ride" if you are looking to rest your feet. Another lady told us we needed to get a margarita-so we did. They were gone by China and I was a little tipsy. We stopped to sit for a bit. Some workers were roping off an area for the fireworks. I asked if there were only certian areas you could go to watch them since they were roping off areas. I had notices turrets along the shore and thought they ropes were for safety. The lady got on her walkie talkie and told another lady to look for newlyweds named MORITZ for special seating. We made our way back to Japan. When we first visited Jon picked an oyester with a pearl and had it mounted in a necklace that says LOVE in Japanese. I also got my own chopsticks. Jon really knows me. Any time I go on vacation I buy things for other people, not myself. When we went back this time, he bought a sushi set and I picked out a book for sushi parties. We bought Jason a "sword" letter opener. We also caught a Taiko drum performance.
Our special viewing area was behind the Fish-n-Chips in the UK. They knew who we were when we arrived. Jon played with the camera to get pictures of the show. When it was done we headed back to the hotel. Our car doesn't have automatic anything. We had to remember where it was. As we went straight to our car-no problem-all you could hear were car alarms going off because peole were trying to find theirs. Doesn't work as well when everyone's is going off.
We decided we want to spend another 1/2 day at Epcot to eat at all the countries. It is International Food and Wine Festival. Every country had 2-3 booths with $3-5 samples of their food. We also didn't do any character pictures and the Kodak Picturespots.
When we got back to the hotel there was a basket from the hotel with cheese, crackers, trailmix, chocolates, tea, and wine. Jon's eating the trail mix, Jadah will get the tea, and Nate will get teh chocolates. These things all had nuts in them (or I don't drink tea)-I'll take the wine :)
I drew a bath and soaked my aching feet. My fantastic husband gave me a foot massage.

Day 1: 11/2/08

Flight was at 11am. We were at the airport at 8:30. Jon set a wake up call for 7 and a shuttle to the airport for 8am. I forgot all about daylight savings time and was up an hour earlier. I wasn't tired, very excited. They had a really nice breakfast at the hotel.
Side track-it took me 15 min to wash my hair-conditioner, shampoo, shampoo, and conditioner again. Then another 20 min of picking out the knots.
Our seats on the 3 hour non-stop flight to Orlando were right behind first class. Plenty of leg room, but the seats still lacked butt room. Being that close to first class I saw the differences. They were served ice water pre-flight, unlimited alcohol, and a 3 course meal! I brought my Ipod to listen on the plane-completely dead. We arrived early. Got our bags quickly and intact. Hand picked our car-a gray Aveo. Jon's driving, of course, directions are supplied by the Garmin that Margaret provided-works great! Arrived at the hotel-OMG!! Words cannot describe-I took tons of pictures of the rooms.

We were going to go to Sea World for 1/2 a day, but ended up soaking in this awesome room. Then we were hungry, we hadn't eaten since breakfast at the hotel. It was now around 6pm. Using the yellow pages and Garmin, we found a Japanese restaurant called KOBE. Very similar to Benihana. There was an hour wait for the dinner show, so we went to the sushi bar. There was only one guy working there and he was swamped with orders. The dinner table ended up being ready before our sushi was, so we waited for the next table. All good things come to those who wait. I should have that saying etched somewhere. Food was great and there were people at our table with great conversation. One lady was staying at the same hotel as us. There was a family of 5 from France too. So diverse here. After dinner we set the Garmin to find a Target, but drove past a Wal-Mart. Jon doesn't like Wal-Mart but since it was right there we went in and bought food and other non-food items for the week. $60 later we had breakfast and lunch for the week. Plan was to eat dinner out only. Back to the hotel. Drew a bath in the hot tub. A little too hot because it actually felt like a hot tub. We went to bed early.

The Wedding Day

The day started off with the girls getting their hair done. It didn't take that long. Everyone was able to do whatever they wanted and the stylist were able to pull off some great work. I was very impressed-everyone looked fantastic. Erin brought a fake hair piece to use on herself but ended up not using it and then offered it to me. It matched my hair perfectly and really added some volume-which I don't have. Olaf ended up loading all my photos from the wedding day onto his hard drive so I don't have anything to post for pictures yet. I also do not have my professional photos yet. I will add photos when I get them.

After the hair dos we went to the hall. Some of the girls headed over early and started setting up. By the time I got there most of the stuff was already set. Jessie did a great job on the flower arrangements-they were beautiful. Having the black napkins to break up the all white table cloths really looked nice also. We had about a half hour to get ready for photos. We all crammed into the bathroom and became really close fast. We took a few individual photos while we waited for all the girls to be done. Once everyone was done we took the girl group photos. We headed outside and took some there. Outside were two shiny silver and red Corvettes. They belonged to the owner and his son. Since the girls were in black and I was in white we went with the stand out red car. I can't wait to see these photos! A car would drive up and the girls would all scream for me to take cover in case it was Jon (who didn't want to see me before the wedding). When we were done we went into the "office" for K&J. It was the boys' turn. I haven't seen any of these and don't really know what kind of poses they even did.

The girls and I waited in the office until almost right before the start of the ceremony-then we headed out the kitchen and came around to the back door. We were going over the essential wedding stuff; something old=my bracelet was from high school prom, something new=dress, something borrowed-this stumped us until Erin yelled "MY HAIR!", something blue=my hankie tucked into my cleavage.

The officiant was supposed to be there at 3:30 to go over the ceremony. 5 min before the ceremony was supposed to start-he showed up. I was not a happy bride, but at least he was there. I had the entire ceremony outlined and had what he had to say word for word typed out. We gave him our vows and asked that he feed us the lines. We asked if he needed us to write our names on them so he knew whose was whose. He said he was fine. When the ceremony started he was not fine. He read the outlined ceremony word for word-straight through to the end. He skipped over Margaret and Jadah doing readings and then fed us our lines 2-3 words at a time. I'm surprised anyone even understood what we were saying. He almost pronounced us before I looked at him and between gritting teeth said, UNITY-GET OUT OF THE WAY. Seriously, he skipped over the part in the outline that said Unity Sand. He pronounced us, we headed out. Started gathering for the receiving line and he came over to congratulate us. I didn't want to shake his hand. Everyone backed away as I voiced my concern about how he performed. I asked for my check back and he gave it back. I would have also liked my other payment back, but he did show up and when we returned from the honeymoon we already had the official license in the mail.

The rest of the night went smoothly. Margaret and Jadah had decided pretty much as soon as they were skipped by the officiant that they would do their readings during the dinner before the toasts. They each added a little something at the end that of course got me teary. Dinner was great-the plates were kind of small so I didn't get a chance to eat some of the items. My mom brought home all the leftovers and froze them, so we had them when we returned on Sunday and for the past two days. Jon had Monday and Tuesday of this week off so dinner has been pretty easy for him with leftovers. There was lots of dancing and drinking (videos will come later also)-I hope everyone had a blast because we had so much fun we ended up leaving earlier than expected. Around 10pm Mike drove us to our honeymoon hotel next to the airport. The beds were smaller than our one at home, so funny thing, our wedding night we slept in separate beds.

Next posts will be the honeymoon-one day at a time...

**there are too many photos for blogging. To see wedding photos go to facebook or myspace.

Catch Up

So it was a busy few days leading up to the wedding day so I didn't get a chance to write about the rehearsal, dinner, and Fogo.

We had rehearsal on Thursday October 30 because many of our friends are first time parents and we thought it would be nice for them to enjoy that first moment with their kiddies. When we showed up for rehearsal I noticed a couple people in costume. I didn't think much of it because I saw the same outfits on facebook-I just figured they were coming from a party or going to one. Then others showed up in more elaborate costumes. Mike and Margaret were a couple of playing cards. Everyone had conspired about this for quite some time via email. Since my parents email was not working, they didn't get the memo. Knute had just came back from Amsterdam so he had a good excuse for not dressing up.

We got into the hall a little late, but everyone was great and we were able to run through the ceremony a couple times with the music. Then we were off to the Machine Shed for dinner. Everyone had fun and plenty to eat.

On Friday I went to Midway Party Rental and picked up the napkins. Then I headed to a few other stops. We were meeting a group for lunch at Fogo. Olaf, Mike and Dave met us there. Jodi and Brian came to our house and we rode together. It was the first time for Jodi, Brian and Dave. I think they enjoyed themselves. About an hour after we got done eating Jodi's parents called and asked if she would be ready for dinner-way too full. It is a meat smorgisboard.

After lunch Jodi helped me get last minute stuff for the wedding. Then we headed to her brother's house to go trick-o-treating. When done she took me to the hotel. There was a hand off with Tamara-who spent the night with me. I was so wound up that I couldn't sleep and just wanted to keep talking. She finally said, if we go to bed now we'll get this amount of sleep. I still ended up waking up before the alarm...nerves/excitement.

Next up...the wedding day!

Counting down...

we are down to less than week.
I had my trial run for hair, and a makeup consultation.
Turned in my dress to be pressed.
Margaret bought a serving set for the cake cutting.
I bought a vase/container at World Market for our Unity ceremony. Anyone that knows me knows I am a do it yourselfer. We went to Things Remembered and they said the mouth of the vase was too large for them to be able to etch on it. So we went to Michaels and I bought the stuff to do it myself.
Jon is having his bachelor party on Thursday after the rehearsal dinner, so I am helping clean the Moritz house tomorrow. I also need to pick up the serving set from being engraved.
Just about everyone has rsvpd (thank you), so Sunday we are going to go through who is sitting at which tables. Not so much in each seat just at each table.
Jon and I are going to pick up the rings on Sunday and I am getting my nails done.
Monday I have to give the final count to K&J.
After that we just need to pack for the honeymoon and do the last minute stuff like stopping the mail and turning in our absentee ballots. Can't forget to vote!

The Fence Is In!

The fence was installed yesterday. Jon and I came home from work to find the rest of the fence was up!

Fence Posts

We had an estimate done for fencing back on 9/10. I called them back 9/11 to go ahead. Their estimate said it would be installed within 2 weeks. That would have been yesterday. Last week the utilities were marked, so I thought they would be calling shortly after that to schedule the post digging. I called them Tuesday; they called back Wednesday saying they could come Thursday between 1 and 2. I have been working so much overtime that being short hours was not an issue, it was being away from work when I am still behind. So I asked them to call when they were 20 min out so I didn't have to take off more than I had to. I arrived at home and they were already marking for the poles. There were a few adjustments in the original measurements that had to be made because of tree roots. I went back in the house with Polly and then Jon got home around 4:30. I asked if they were still here, he said no. They never said they were leaving. We looked out at the poles-5 were not cemented and they forgot to put 2 in because we are not connecting to the neighbors fence. So I called and of course they have to give me a call back. Since we were supposed to be home for the post digging part I asked if we would have to be home again when they finish because I really don't want to take off of work again. We'll see what happens. Until the actual fence goes up we now have to watch Polly when she goes out so she does not dig in the holes that are not cemented or wrap herself around the poles and pull them out of alignment.



Edit by Jon: The 2 post have been installed and the 5 have now been cemented in. Fabric will probably be installed on Monday.

Making Way

We went to a few home improvement stores last weekend to try and buy fencing that we would put up ourselves. Not realizing that there is more to just digging some holes and tying the fence to the poles. One store gave us a quote for just the materials. The other store went straight to the installation cost. If you combined the two, the deal we got through Town and Country Fence was 1/2 that price. Now we just had to make way for the fence by clearing some trees and brush. Even though it was raining today, Jon and Mike got this accomplished.
As soon as it STOPS RAINING, we can burn some of the dry stuff.

Future fire pit.