Etiquette Class

Okay, so if this wedding has taught me one thing... people can be really clueless. I've decided that it should absolutely be mandatory to learn things like... how to respond to a wedding invitation at some point in their life. I think high school would be an excellent place for such a class.

Seriously... the first unit would be on "How to use your cell phone appropriately" Nothing bothers me more.

Lesson One - Texting - Sure, it's quieter than a phone call, but it should still only be done at certain times. The police say, don't text while driving. Well, I say.....
Do not text while having a conversation with someone... they can see you aren't paying attention to them
Do not text while eating a meal, even if it is at your own house. Have a real conversation with a person.
Do not text in school or church... or any other social atmosphere where someone is trying to talk to you... have some respect.
If absolutely necessary, go ahead, text ONE TIME... don't keep popping open your phone.

Lesson Two - Taking phone calls
Unless there is some emergency... Don't answer your phone in a meeting. It is rude to everyone else in that meeting. None of them are answering their phones are they? Oh, and did you turn that ringer off? Something about hearing a 40 year old co-workers cell phone ring with "Soulja Boy" is a huge loss of respect. haha.

When in a public place, do not talk about closed doors subjects or use the speakerphone feature... everyone doesn't want to hear your conversation. Plus, the other person probably doesn't appreciate you allowing their conversation to be announced to everyone around.

Lesson Two - The art of Eating at home... or at a restaurant
It seems like people these days have spent too much time at McDonalds or other drive thrus and haven't had to learn any manners about eating because they are stuffing their face between one place and another. No, you don't have to be all prim and proper like people from centuries ago were, but you also don't have to chew with your mouth open or tell everyone how disgusting the food is. And oh my goodness, please do not blow your nose at the table. Sick. A few days ago, this guy blew his nose and I'm not talking a mere blow of the nose, it was a severe snot fest. I almost threw up. Anyway, when the bill comes, please for the sake of humanity, tip your server. Even if you thought the meal was terrible... that is the cook's fault. The cook is making big money whether the food is good or not. The server merely brings the food. They don't make good money unless you tip on the food they brought you. (Note: I also think it should be mandatory for everyone to be a server at some point in their lives. They'd become much better customers and tip a lot more freely)

Lesson Three - The art of driving like a civilized person
USE YOUR BLINKER. PEOPLE CAN'T READ YOUR MIND. USE YOUR HEADLIGHTS... PEOPLE CAN'T SEE YOU IN THE DARK. DO NOT TAKE UP THREE PARKING SPOTS WHEN PARKING YOUR EXPEDITION. It is big, but it isn't a bus. Learn how to fit it in the parking spot please. End of lesson :)

Lesson Four - Weddings
When you receive an invitation in the mail... look closely at the names that were on the invitation. Was your name there? If not, sorry, you weren't invited... If so, proceed. Open the envelope... read the fancy words. On the small response card, write the names of the attendees or the people who were invited. Do not add a name. Review the options on the card... check yes/no chicken/fish/beef/etc. and put it in the little envelope provided that should also have a stamp on it. Tomorrow when you go to your mailbox, put it back in there and raise the little flag on the side of the box.
If you are sending out the invitations go over your guest list 10 times to make sure you included everyone. I know that I (believe it or not!) actually missed some people completely by mistake. When you are inviting over 200 people, it is easy to do. People usually don't come and ask why they weren't invited to the wedding, so you won't be able to realize that you completely left them off. So be sure to go over it a few times with your future spouse to make sure everyone is on there.
If you are not planning the wedding, please keep your opinion to yourself. The bride and groom are grown ups... they can make decisions for themselves. If they really want your opinion, they will ask for it. Let them know you are there to help, but please don't tell them how things HAVE to be done. Especially if you haven't planned a wedding in twenty years.


Alright... I'm done venting on some of my biggest pet peeves :) I'm really not Emily Post or anything... I just get really irritated when people are brazen and rude. But then again, maybe I'm just getting old. These things don't seem to bother younger people. In ten years, instead of holding a staff meeting, everyone will just text message with their boss while driving and eating their food with their mouths open.....

Less than one month away!

Yesterday morning I was greeted with an email from The Knot telling me I had exactly one month to finish planning one of the biggest, most expensive days of my life. Thanks for the reminder people, but I don't do well with countdowns.

Little by little... my "To Do List" for the wedding is getting shorter.
I'm one week away from my third and hopefully final dress fitting. Got an appointment for my trial hairdo on Saturday. I have all but 5 of our centerpieces done. And all but three of our aisle decorations done. And we go for our final meeting with the venue next week... and get to taste cake... YUM! I've just got small minor things from here on out. Except for maybe the whole name change thing... that's a little daunting to me. Have you ever stopped to look how many things your name is on??? (Car, loans, bank accounts, utilities, business cards, name plates, checks, address labels, drivers license, bank cards, credit cards... whew)

But with one month left, it's starting to really sink in that I'm getting married.... I'm moving three states away from the family I've spent my entire life with...I'm not going to get to watch Katie play softball, baseball, soccer, or any other thing she chooses to participate in...I won't get to listen to Khris be his goofy self... I won't get to eat Mom's good cooking as often... or find something different every day to give dad a hard time about. I'm going to be starting a new job.... I'm going to be living in my own place, maybe even buying my own house. I'm going to be a wife. (Hmm, note to self... come up with a new word for wife... it makes me feel old.) That is A LOT of change. It's going to take a lot of adjusting...and it'll be a lot of ups and downs but in the end, it'll all be worth it. I'm ready for the next chapter of my life with Russ. I'm excited to start a new family (as old as that makes me feel) and... I'm ready to be close to Russ again!!!!!!!

It's Picture Season!

So I finally broke out my camera again. Man, I miss taking pictures!

So here are some pictures of us coloring Easter Eggs while Russ was in town...

We always have competitions on the best eggs at our house and as Russ says "Kacey always wins, hers always look awesome and mine look crappy" Hey, he said it, not me :)

So, here is my batch of eggs... with my wedding egg in the middle :)


Then, gotta love her... Katie made a Junior... or should I say 'Junoir' Bridesmaid Egg for herself :)


She also decided to win the ugliest egg contest:


And we had a tie in the Sports category :) We gave one award for NCAA and one for NFL :)







In other picture related news... Katie started softball season. I love watching kids play sports. They are so into it one minute and then they are staring at the birds in the sky... Like here... I don't know what she was doing... her glove was off... Runner is on second... you are on third Katie... put that glove on girl!



She did well though... she was serious when she got up to bat. Of course I was behind the plate when she hit a beautiful shot past second base... but I made it around to the opening (gotta love fences when you are trying to get a good shot) in time to get her on second base







And finally, when I was leaving the park that night, the sunset was beautiful over the farm that is right next to the park. Not the greatest picture because of the cars traveling on the gravel road created dust... plus I took it from inside my car... while driving (smile)... but these nature pictures are my favorite... its a simple reminder of God's beauty and awesome-ness :)

My momma always said...

to watch what I post on the internet. And I've really never put anything incriminating on there... at least I don't think so. But after this week... I think that I've gotten a better understanding of what Mom meant.

There was an unfortunate tragedy in a nearby community where a man killed his wife, kids and himself. In a press release yesterday, they revealed that the family was in debt (what family isn't these day?) and that could've been a reason for the husband's stress. The Washington Post went into the wife's blog and found a blog where she said she likes to spend money (again, what woman doesn't) and that she likes to buy specific shampoo and they speculated that her high tastes might be the source of their debt. OKAY... sure, they could've been. But who are the newspaper reporters who know NOTHING of this lady or her family to speculate on that? Like I said, I like to spend money too... but Russ will be the first to tell you that I will do everything in my power to keep us out of debt. And from what I read of this lady's blog... she was willing to make sacrifices so that she could be home with her kids. I guess the community wants answers to why... but should we really care why? There were lives lost for no apparent reason. There are two families mourning their losses. Let's focus less on the past and what has happened and more on the future. The lesson I think we should all take from that is that we don't always know what other people are going through... we should try to be more compassionate and helpful to those who need it.

And maybe to not put that I like to spend money on my blog. I might suddenly become an out of control spender in the eyes of the media. :)

Praying for those families and friends who lost dear ones this week!

Love and Marriage... Love and Marriage...

Goes together like a horse and carriage. Haha. That song always made me laugh for some reason....it just seemed so silly and reminded me of "Sally and Johnny sitting in a tree.... K-I-S-S-I-N-G"

ANYWAY, that song has been stuck in my head... so it was my random post title. I haven't posted in awhile... oops.... sorry, Russ was in town, so I had someone to talk to when random thoughts poured across my mind.

One of the things we talked about while we were together was the large amount of negative feedback we've been getting from friends and co-workers about marriage. We've heard just about every negative comment in the book. I mean, really people, we are getting married in two months, can't you pull out the nice comments that you write in the guestbook????

We know that marriage isn't all fun... it's not always neat and organized. It's life. It gets hectic, stressful, painful, hard.... but we also know that "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." and in the end, thats what we want. And that's what we are striving to show the world... the different kind of love... the different kind of marriage. The marriage rooted in God.

With that, we've decided to either play, or possibly even sing this wonderful song at our wedding ceremony. I absolutely love it and play it anytime I'm feeling a case of the wedding blues setting in. haha.

Sir, may we borrow your donkey?

On Saturday, I was driving with Katie to go shopping at the outlets. On the way there, for some reason this donkey in the field caught my attention. Katie was talking to me and I don't even remember what she was saying because I couldn't pay attention because I was zoned in on this donkey. Interesting right? Well, actually, it was.. when I got closer, I realized that not only was there a donkey in the field, there was actually a zebra. Yes, a zebra... in the middle of nowhereville Maryland... where it just snowed yesterday. Katie thought I was crazy until I pointed it out to her on the way back.

Anyway, with Easter a few days away, I've been reading the Easter story and thinking about all of the events that took place in just a few days. I think my life is stressful sometimes with the amount of events that take place on a day to day basis... but wow, a lot sure went on in three days.

Anyway, with this donkey incident in my mind, the part of the story where Jesus rides a donkey into Jerusalem really stuck out to me. Why a donkey? I don't really know. I mean, it seems kind of weird to me living in 2009 where you rarely see donkeys, but they weren't so uncommon then. Problem was, it wasn't Jesus' donkey that He rode in on. Not even one of His disciples. He just told the disciples to go fetch the donkey in town. The donkey belonged to someone... What would your reaction be if you were shopping downtown and came out to find these 2 strange men taking your car? And when you questioned them, their answer was "The Lord is in need"

Would you be willing? Would you say "Sure take it!"... or would it be more like "Um, I don't think so" Or... maybe you'd be willing... if you could be in the drivers seat. Something tells me that the story wouldn't have been the same had the owner of the donkey also been riding Jesus. haha. No, instead, the owner must've been okay with it (or the disciples were slick....... hmm, doubt it)

The owner probably had no idea that his donkey would be used for such a noble purpose... that the story of his donkey would be told for years to come.

We all have donkeys... something we have been given in our lives that we can use to move Jesus' story along the line. If God asks me for something, am I going to be selfish and keep it to myself? Or am I going to allow him to use my gift to carry Jesus to another place?

Then

I heard this song on the radio the other day andthe part about going back to the place where we first met and getting down on one knee... it made me laugh.... a good belly laugh. Because that was Russ' plan... but I wouldn't let him propose in the restaurant that we had our first date in. haha. I sent it to Russ and he said "Do you want to dance to that instead of what we chose?" But I don't think I could... I'd be laughing when he sang that part and making fun of Russ (hehe)... and no one would know what we are laughing about. But then again, its our story.... and what makes us... us. And that's what the day is about... us.

68 days to go!!!