I, Jen, take you, Doug... (part 1)

Ahhhh, the sweet, bittersweet bliss of 2 days after Christmas Jen and Doug's wedding. The relief of "now i can relax" and the crushing disappointment of "wow, that was just too awesome and it will never happen again". A big round of applause to absolutely everyone who participated. We did it! We got Doug and Jen married!

Now, last week was craziness. It started out well enough, but as more and more people converged on our world, things got more and more complicated. There were centerpieces to make, brunch to have, decorating to be done, people to coordinate, houses to clean, girls to be prettified. We managed to do it all.

The first major event was the brunch I held at our apartment on Thursday morning for 13 people. Yup, I managed to feed and entertain all 13 of them before 11 a.m. This involved getting everything ready the night before, including cleaning the entire apartment to spotlessness for both the brunch and our weekend guests. So we had me, JP, Jen, Doug, Jess (other sister-in-law), her bf Goat, Jean, Joe (my in-laws), Bobby, Noah (JP's uncle and 4 year old cousin), Malcolm, Maureen, and Leeanne (Doug's father, mother, and sister, respectively) eating quiche and drinking mimosas and coffee at our place. It was lovely to hang out with everyone and I'm a huge fan of feeding/hosting people. However, I did have the looming prospect of an 8 hour work day after this, while everyone else ran off to do fun things. That evening, I left work for a split second to get the worst eyebrow waxing of my life. It involved a large amount of swelling, me missing half an eyebrow, and the lady spilling the wax in my hair. Overall, I would have to recommend you not go to Daniel&Co. to get waxed.

So, the next night was the arrival of our houseguests (Bryan (best man and glassblower extraodinaire) and Jen (friend from KC)), rehearsal, and dinner. The venue was in Leechburg. Suffice to say, it's far away, in the middle of nowhere, and a little difficult to find. After we all converged, rehearsal was delayed by the fact that my father-in-law insisted that between all of us, we drink one of each kind of beer (10 different kinds) and have an "example" bottle for the bar to list the beers. We managed to do this and rehearse and get to the dinner where we met up with bunches of other people. Omi (JP's grandmother) was one of the first I talked to. She is not quite all there. However, her recent memory problems have not made her forget that she has no tact whatsoever. We had a conversation that went like this.

Omi (looking me up and down): Are you pregnant?
Me: No!
Omi: Well, you look it.
Me: (pause, as I try to think of the appropriate response that doesn't involve yelling.)
Omi: Has anyone else told you that?
Me: No.
Omi (looking me up and down again): Now you're just sucking it in!
Me: Yes, and I will be for the rest of the night, thanks.
I walked away at that point.

Here is a pic of me at rehearsal, talking with Jen and Uncle Bobby. I am wearing an empire waist dress. Maybe that confused her.

(picture by Mary Jansen)

Can you spot the baby bump?