donna martin graduates!

CW why must you taunt me? You keep playing these previews saying 90210 is airing Tuesday at 8:00 and I keep running through the schedule on my DVR to find...NOTHING. I finally had to google it. Looks like I'll have to wait until fall, but here's a little something more to keep me pumped...

goin' to the chapel

We haven't had nearly as many weddings this summer as we have for the past two summers, but we have had a few. In fact, I actually officiated my first wedding in June. I didn't know the couple personally, but my friend's husband was one of the groomsman and knew this young couple needed an officiant. I met with them for premarital counseling and felt like they were a good match and well prepared and so I was willing to do the service.
As I began to get the details I realized this was not a Martha Stewart/Preppy wedding. The couple met while working at a haunted house and wanted to get married there. I was concerned about this, but they assured me that it was actually going to be in a field on the same property, not at the haunted house. No harm done...except after I had invested several hours into planning things and doing the counseling, I learned that they were inviting their friends to wear their costumes! After consulting my other clergy friends, I decided to go ahead with the arrangement.
It turns out, they actually didn't wear their costumes...it was WAY to HOT for that. The bride wore a gorgeous traditional dress. The groom wore jeans and a black shirt. I opted out of wearing my robe for fear that I might pass out and decided to wear a black Ann Taylor wrap dress with a stole. The groomsmen were supposed to wear black pants, a black tie, and a short sleeved white shirt. My friend's husband joked that he would probably ride his bike up there so he could go out and tell folks about the book of Mormon afterward. The bridesmaids wore very bridesmaidy dresses..the congregation wore whatever the heck they wanted...it was really a mixed bag. My friend wore Lilly, other folks wore shorts.
In the end, it didn't feel that haunted housy, except for the fact that a logistical problem that occurred between my rehearsal and the actual wedding resulted in a need for a vehicle and they decided to use the haunted house's hearse. No Joke! A man also had his cell phone on and it rang during the service....and HE ANSWERED IT. I didn't hear it, but my friend said it went a little something like this...Hello? Hey, let me call you back. I'm at a wedding.
You know what though? As odd of an ocassion as it was, it was actually quite lovely. They wrote their own vows, which concerned me, but they were so appropriate and really quite beautiful....and a butterfly landed on the brides shoulder while she was saying hers. I have one photo of this very untraditional couple dancing their first dance. Their pose looks almost fake...it's too romantic to be real, but there they are, her in her beautiful dress, him in his jeans and tattoos, in front of the hearse with the bloody letters, ready to begin their life together and I think they're going to be just fine. It's pretty crazy to think I was a part of all of that. I am looking forward to the next one. But, I wouldn't mind if it had just a little pink and green. :)
7/5/8 EDIT: I took the pics down. I'm not sure if they would want them posted and perhaps it's more fun for you to imagine anyway.

cumpleanos feliz

So Jack and I celebrated our birthdays. We don't actually know when Jack's birthday is, but it's very important to me that he have one and that we celebrate it. Freddie brought him home on October 23 and when I took him to the vet for the first time a few weeks later she guessed that he was about 5 months old. Here's a random funny story about that event. I took him by the vet at pet smart the day we found him and were still trying to figure out who he belonged too. He had some puppy teeth, so I knew he was still a baby. I figured they could look at his teeth and guess his age. But, you know what the girl grabbed for when I asked her if she could tell how old he was. His little balls! Seriously. She didn't even look at his teeth even though I mentioned that he had puppy teeth. She just reached up and copped a feel on that poor little fella. I can't remember what she guessed, but when I took him to the real vet, she looked in his mouth first thing. She said she could tell by the teeth he had lost. I think that vet tech was just trying to shock me....or she's got some weird fetish.

Anyway, the vet guessed about five months in November, but then randomly decided his birthday would be May 15, which made him about 6 months at that point. My husband suggested that I give him my birthday, May 27th, but then I quickly reminded him that I don't like to share. (Dear God, please don't make me one day go into labor on my birthday!) So, he then suggested a weekend that we would be at home so we could really celebrate with him. So we randomly chose June 14th.

We actually stole a little of his birthday weekend to paint our den and I was afraid we'd have to keep the poor guy kenneled all weekend, but he behaved so well. He really is maturing :) On his birthday, we took him out to the lake for a swim and gave him a few toys and an awesome birthday cookie from the K9 Doggie Bakery. I think the birthday boy enjoyed himself.

My mom came up and the three of us (Four including jack) celebrated with dinner and dessert. I was kind of bummed because I had to work a little bit. To be honest, I actually cried on my birthday. It's a long story, but I just had a few reminders of the fact that I'm not really satisfied with my job right now and my birthday was a crummy time to be reminded of that fact. We also celebrated with the obligatory mexican and margaritas with some local friends. I'm still working on my list of things I have to do before I turn 30, but I'd say my 29th year got off to a pretty good start.

Anywho here are a few pics from the celebrations.

My birthday














Jack's Birthday

Celebrate Good Times...come on!

So, I did it. I actually did it a month ago, but it seems that the last time I posted I was anticipating doing it and then I never said anything about it, so perhaps you thought I didn't. Perhaps you thought I never celebrated my 29th birthday. It seems to be a trend around here. I like to make a few posts and then fall off of the face of the earth for a short while. I think that mostly has to do with the fact that we have a very uncomfortable chair at our computer desk and that we don't have wireless internet at our house. Yes, I'm serious, it's like little house on the prairie around here. You can just call me half pint.

So, I'm gonna try to play a little catch up. We've been doing a lot of celebrating lately. I turned 29, Jack turned 1. We attended our friends' wedding and I officiated my first wedding. We also celebrated our first anniversary. I'm uploading pictures as we speak, or should I say as I type. And, maybe just maybe, I'll stick around to actually post them. I caught up on So You Think You Can Dance last night so I should be good for a few hours