I'm an aunt! He's an uncle!

I interrupt the regularly wedding-focused talk to make a big announcement...

WE'RE UNCLE MICHAEL AND AUNT HEATHER!

We recently welcomed our first nephew into the world.

Brendan Andrew

August 27, 2007

1:04 a.m.

7 lbs., 10.5 oz.
21 inches long

Isn't he so damn adorable?? He looks a lot bigger than he actually is. As you can see from his weight, he's pretty average, but he just looks so lean and tough! When we were in the hospital on Monday, we nicknamed him Hercules. It had only been about 12 hours since he had been born, but he had already been through a lot.

Unfortunately, Brendan was not born without complications! Both he and his mommy ended up in ICU because he was born by emergency c-section. As a result, we rushed down to Binghamton to be with them. I won't go into all the details, but Monday was a pretty scary day, worrying about Brendan and Melissa--we were praying everyone would be OK. Luckily, things are looking up--way up--and hopefully they will both be home together soon.

Anyway, I'm definitely a proud aunt. I was lucky enough to get to visit him in ICU a few times, but I can't WAIT to go and hold him!

Signing off with another photo of him looking adorable... this was after they removed him from the warming bed and just put him in a normal bassinette. In this pic, he's still in ICU, but he's looking mighty cozy!

Pocketfold Invitations... The Trial

I am pretty much finished with my trial run making a sample pocketfold invitation. I still need to figure out exactly what I'm going to do to close it. I've ordered some ribbon to use as a belly band with the paper seal, but it's not here yet so I can't show photos with it on there.

These photos are a little blurry because I had to open them with the Paint program in order to blur out our last names. When I post instruction photos and photos of the actual invitation, I'll be sure to do it all in Photoshop so I don't have the same problem.

Enjoy!

Coming soon...

Soon, I will have step-by-step instructions and photos up for my DIY picture frame cardbox, as well as my DIY pocketfold invitations. Stay tuned!

Ordered my dress!

I ended up ordering my dress on Friday. I can't post photos here because Michael reads this. :)

I ordered it from a bridal shop in New Jersey (yes, Jersey!) called Chrissy O's. I had heard great things about them from The Knot. It's a "real" shop, not just some internet business, but they started taking online/phone orders to expand their business. They're not the only ones--there are several shops out there that do it. I had also checked into RK Bridal, Lee Philips Bridal, Pearl's Place, Netbride, and I think a few others as well. I liked Chrissy's because they were listed as an authorized retailer on the designer website, and also did price matching. My lowest quote was from Lee Philips, so I took it to Chrissy's and they beat it by 6%. Pretty cool. Saved me a couple hundred dollars.

I tried on and found my dress here in town at a local bridal shop. Before I knew anything about the possibilities of mail ordering it, I was planning on buying it there. I'm glad I have The Knot to teach me things! The local bridal shop lied to me and told me the dresses only came in one length. Come to find out later (again from the ladies on The Knot) that the designer offers the gowns in a "petite" length that is three inches shorter than the standard.

We were in the Poconos over the weekend to visit family friends, and Chrissy O's was only an hour away, so on Friday morning, my mom, Marie (brother's girlfriend), and I drove there to get them to measure me in person and so I could try on my dress again. I didn't HAVE to do it, I would have ordered from Chrissy's anyway, but since we were so close it was nice to make the trip to order it in person and have the extra peace of mind. While there, I mentioned to the saleslady that I had heard the designer's dresses come in a petite length, and asked if she could look into it for me. She went and looked at the sizing chart and said it was three inches shorter. She offered to pin the hem three inches to see if it would be appropriate for me. Turns out that it is--so it will save me at least $100 on the alterations because I probably won't need a hem. I was so happy when I walked out of there!

It should be shipped to me in 4-6 months. I can't wait to get it in and see what MY dress looks like! It'll be so different when it's not dragging three inches on the floor. If anyone out there has anymore questions regarding ordering dresses online, please let me know, I'd be happy to share!

The Poconos

We just got back from spending the weekend in the Poconos with family friends. My mom's childhood friend, Susan, and her husband own a lot of land there and we always used to spend time there in the summers when I was younger. I probably hadn't been in 10 years. This year, my mom and Susan decided that they needed to get everyone together there for a reunion--her kids and my brothers and me. Unfortunately, Trevor couldn't go since he's in BASIC training with the National Guard in South Carolina. But on Thursday night after work, Michael, Tyler, Marie (Ty's girlfriend), my mom and me headed down to Pennsylvania. We didn't get in until 11:30 p.m. and took a while to get settled. Susan, Doug (her son), and Brooke (his girlfriend) weren't going to get in until Friday afternoon, and Nina (her daughter) and Vinny (her husband) weren't coming in until Saturday afternoon.

We had a great time. Tessa went crazy running around playing with Susan's dogs and was completely wiped by Sunday. We went hiking through the trails in the woods, the guys fished in the pond, we went in the hot tub, and really we all just hung around. It was great to catch up with everyone and hear what everyone has been up to. It's weird to think that we're all grown up now.

Overall, it was a relaxing weekend. On Friday, before everyone got into town, my mom, Marie and me took a drive an hour east into New Jersey to visit the bridal shop I planned to order my dress from... and I did end up getting my dress. But more on that later.

Summer colds really suck

To the person who gave me this cold... I want to hunt you down and kick your ass.

I finally peeled myself off of the couch and got in the shower at 3:30 p.m. today. After sleeping for 11 hours last night and taking another 1.5 hour nap this afternoon. And I still feel tired.

I can't breathe. I can't hear. I can't taste food. My head feels like it weighs 50 lbs.

It's a beautiful 80-degree Saturday and the only time I've been outside today is to take the dog out to the bathroom and get the mail. This really, really sucks.

The cold came out of nowhere. I was my normal, happy, chipper (am I ever chipper?) self on Thursday, even attended a work event that evening and stayed late--I was having fun. I had been sneezing a lot on Thursday, but no big deal. Then as I was going to bed that night, I realized I was congested all of a sudden. Which made it difficult to sleep since I couldn't breathe through normally and had to get up every hour to go blow my nose. Lovely. Yesterday, I didn't really have any choice but to be functional. Aside from the breathing, I was actually feeling alright. I took Nyquil and went to bed early last night thinking that I'd get good rest and nip this thing in the bud. No such luck. I definitely feel worse today. I'm doped up on Sudafed and Advil, but nothing really seems to help.

I'm still planning on going to Lindsay's to hang out tonight, though. I just can't sit in this house any longer. We'll be outside, so I won't have to worry too much about being in close quarters and breathing on people and infecting them.

Alright, whine session over. I apologize, but at the moment, I really can't help but feel sorry for myself. I hate being stuck at home!

Wedding Central

There is much to be said about starting planning early. I know I'm getting things done at a good pace, maybe even somewhat fast. I still feel behind based on some of the girls on The Knot. But there is still one really important thing I'm going to have to figure out before I go much further...

Where the hell am I going to keep this stuff??

I received a heads up that Michael's was having a 50% off sale on signature mat frames, and also on a bunch of other frames as well. So I went today and of course couldn't resist buying this stuff. I got the big signature mat frame for only $15, and then picked up four 8x10" frames for our photo frame cardbox. They were only $5 each, and nice frames!

My philosophy when it comes to major expenses (like a wedding, for instance), is that I would rather pay for stuff little by little instead of taking a big hit all at once. When you do that, you don't feel quite the impact that you normally would. The only disadvantage to doing this, you see, is that you have to find a place to store all of this stuff for 10 months.

In a small condo.

With no real extra storage space.

So I've come to the conclusion that the house is just going to be a little more messy than usual until June 21. Well, a little more messy for now. It'll probably be a LOT more messy as we get closer.

The house has begun to make its transformation into Wedding Central.