Mother of the Bride

Planning a wedding takes A LOT of time and effort, but I'm truly enjoying every element and avenue.  Tom has been a saint, and he's a self admitted "metro sexual" (HA!) because not only does he enjoy, but he happily chauffeurs me around to craft stores and the wedding venue, tags along to view floral arrangements, etc...in short,  he's one hundred percent hands on part of the planning, and I couldn't be more grateful!  See, we view this blessed event as a once in a lifetime thing we get to play a part in-and even though it's not our wedding, it is "our" wedding.  Sure, we aren't the bride and groom, and if it were my wedding, there would be much more pink and pastels; yet I'm becoming an expert at finding navy blue and red ...err...I mean "apple and marine" colored accents, and again, having a ball doing so.  Just this past week I found the cutest "LOVE" sign-complete with red glitter (yep! Red glitter!) for our candy bar table-it's perfect.  And speaking of candy, I've accumulated a stockpile to make a fat kid (or PMS'ing mid 40's aged woman...eh hem...) proud; did you know chocolate will stay fresh for over a year if kept at room temperature? Well it will, trust me, I've researched.  So KK's old bedroom has become part candy store, filled with plastic bins of navy blue and white M&M's, red gumballs, flower shaped suckers, five pound bags of navy blue foil wrapped mints, Pixie Stix (who doesn't love a Pixie Stick??), and various other chocolate and sugar laden treats.  In addition, there's boxes of table runners, chair sashes, silk flowers (ok these I bought on a whim, and kind of regret doing so..but they seemed so perfect at the time and were on sale-so I bought fifty adorable little silk rose arrangements...ugh...check out Craigslist if you're looking for a really good deal on red and white silk rose miniatures...lol!). And because we are having real flowers, the vases.  Alllllll the vases.  This past August my BFF Trish and I moved her daughter Rachel, who is also in the wedding, into her dorm at college.  When we were finished, we hit the nearest Salvation Army and hit pay dirt! We found fifty some matching glass vases including a few navy blue and red colored ones, and filled her SUV with our treasure trove.  Well, these have sat up in the wedding storeroom until today, when I have ran two loads through my dishwasher, and have been hand washing the rest, then painstakingly packing them in boxes I labeled for the florists (my brother and a friend/neighbor) to have at it.  And the best part? Since I'm not renting (heck, I bought the vases for a mere buck a piece!), I can send beautiful flowers home with thirty-some lucky guests.  Buh bye, enjoy the pretty flowers, and thanks for coming! Perfect.

I can't post without writing something about my never ending exercise and dieting, and this wedding is a huge motivator in my most recent endeavor to lose weight. I love my classes and training sessions, but when I stepped on the scales this past Monday, I've gained weight.  DANG IT!!!  Sigh.  Sigh.  Sighhhhhhhhh..... It is what it is.  I was going to give up wine and all alcoholic beverages, and made it one whole day...uh yeah, not happening.  I LOVE my wine.  So last night, I treated myself to one measly four ounce glass (why even bother??) then went to bed.  Today when the vases are all washed and packed, and the house is passably clean (and I use this term loosely), I'll either take a killer "bells, ropes and whistles" class, do a Jillian or another challenging DVD, or my eliptical or treadmill, I'm not stopping even though I've GAINED weight! 

To wrap it up, I'm up and at 'em, ready to post this blog, squeeze in a workout after taking Hampton to school and before I go to work.  Michigan has been in her true form: the week started out with no school due to an ice day, days later I was in just long sleeves and a vest as I walked Pete and Belle a few miles, which they LOVED (and so did I, treadmill walking/running stinks-it was so nice to be outside), now today the forecast is calling for more snow.  I keep reminding myself that it is only February, but still, we are inching closer to spring-and what a spring this is going to be! 

Since I started this draft, I've let another five days lapse; in this time, I (HIP HIP...HURRAY!!) SOLD the silk miniatures on Craigslist-and let me just say, shame on the guy who actually made me feel sorry for him, with his Hispanic last name and "we're having a sweet 16 party for our daughter, and are on a VERY tight budget but reeeeaaaallly want these flowers, so will you take $85 instead of $110"? So of course I do, and meeting him in a public parking lot, the guy pulls up in a brand new Jeep Wrangler (as I'm in my crappy old mini van), and he's wearing the newest design 'North Face' jacket (I'm in KK's old hand me down purple Nike)...pisses me off! But It's $85 towards the wedding, and this will pay for two more guests meals.  And while I'm on the subject of money...let me back up and tie it in with a country song (a big preceding apology to my sister Lori whom I know is gagging at the mere mention of "country song"...but it's perfect...) of the Judd's (Wynona needs to take a bells, ropes and whistles class...just saying...) "Guardian Angels" which goes like this:  A hundred year old photograph stares out from a frame, and if you look real close you'll see, our eyes are just the same...  This song speaks VOLUMES to me, because I have two phenomenal guardian angels (and after a visit to a psychic?  I have NO DOUBT they do indeed watch over me...but that's another blog...) and you had better believe I do indeed have hundred year old photographs of my angels, and I tell them I miss and love them all the time. Both my grandma Gremore and Hampton would be, and I know they are, proud.  They would also shit a brick (my sweet grandma Hampton would wash my mouth out with soap for swearing, my sweet grandma Gremore said "shit" all the time, LOL!) to know how pathetic many of this generation are, the mere laziness and entitlement-I gasp at what young moms are asking for these days.  It's not been that long ago when I lived it a trailer park as a teenage mother who took NOT ONE DIME of public assistance (GASP! IMAGINE THIS??!!) and Tom and I paid our own bills.  My kids were the BEST dressed kids in Clarkston, and guess what? I cleaned a children's clothing store AND the owners personal residence to pay for the clothes.  I read on Facebook of mothers flat out asking for handouts-who don't work- and want to SCREAM!! It's disgusting, and shame on them.  I truly hope I've raised a harder working daughter (and sons), who will also make Lucille Gremore and Emily Elizabeth Hampton proud.  My grandma Hampton walked to a bus stop in Pontiac to get to work- cleaning office buildings at night, and gave birth to nine children (and buried two under the age of seven!), Grandma Gremore worked just as hard and neither had ANY luxuries...and this is an understatement.  But what these incredible women instilled in me?  Priceless. A big shout out to my own mother who, when times got tough, as a mother of four, started driving a school bus in her forties in order to help pay the bills...

So as mother of the bride...KK, if you're reading this, keep working hard; we are so proud of you. You're going to have a beautiful wedding, and you deserve it!