2 Months/Shower Power!

We are already one full week into September, which means my wedding is exactly 2 months away! I celebrated the milestone this weekend at a lovely bridal shower hosted by my fiance's mom.

I was really excited for the shower on a multitude of levels. The most important one was that my own mom was coming in to town, and I haven't seen her since... well, only June, but it feels like forever! Having her here was so great -- I got to go over wedding details with her in person, show her the ceremony and reception space, and have her generally calm my nerves. As a slight off-note, I had a horrible week last week, experiencing all sorts of anxiety, financial issues, and general distress (more on that later, or if you're lucky, never), prompting me to actually call out of work one day (this is something I cannot remember doing in the past 3 years) to try to get myself under control. Long story short, I got my act together by the time Mom got here on Saturday afternoon. I showed off the changes we've made to the house, re-introduced her to the dogs, formerly introduced her to our 9 cats, and set off to see the wedding and reception site, as well as have some dinner and pick up the hostess gift for Deane's mom Debi (which I neglected to take a picture of, fail). We also picked up the ingredients for the dishes she was bringing to the shower (and I took advantage of Mom at the grocery, college-freshman style!). Saturday night we relaxed, made some yummy snacks for the next day, and watched some cake shows on tv (typical).

Sunday morning I woke up and it was the day of my shower! I was so excited; it felt like Christmas -- only it was like a personal Christmas that no one else got to have, this one was all mine! I was really nervous in the morning -- I kind of hate having people go out of their way for me, and I felt like everyone had to travel, etc. to be here. Once we got to Debi's, though, I felt totally relaxed and comfortable. She had done SO MUCH WORK! There were pictures of me EVERYWHERE that I hadn't seen in forever (Student of the Month February 1987, anyone?) as well as pictures of me and Deane over the years. So cute! Every table was filled with my favorite delicious foods, and I was instantly glad I had worn an empire waist dress so I could feed my second trimester food baby with no worries.

The cookie, coffee, and cake table! :)

Take home cookie flowers for all of the guests!

Mom and I went to work mixing up some mimosa punch and put a lot of delicious things into pretty bowls as we waited for the guests to arrive. With each person that came through the door, I felt more and more loved! All my favorites from work were there, as well as my to-be-sister-in-law and several close friends. Once everyone had arrived, we played a Mary Ann trivia game and everyone did pretty well (Andrea took top honors, but Ashley won for best answer to "In what state did Deane and Mary Ann meet?" Her answer: "A drunken state!" Obvs true.). Then we all scooped up a refill of delicious beverage and headed outside for more games and laughter.

With Mom before all the guests arrived!

We read a little book that was put together by one of Deane's family's close friends, and it was all rhymey and pass-around-y. Hard to explain, but really cute, and of course there was a prize at the end.

Rhyme time!

Then we all settled onto the porch so everyone could make "Dough Brides". I didn't get a lot of pictures of this, but basically I had asked Debi to have some sort of activity for people to do as I was opening gifts, because I 1) hate opening presents in front of people because I fear they are dying of boredom and I will never have the appropriate thing to say about them and 2) didn't want to seem like an ungrateful bitch and not open stuff til afterwards. Everyone got some various hunks of flesh and hair colored dough, flowers, and lace, and they made mini-MA* brides and I judged them for prizes (actually, it was pretty funny in retrospect). I opened what seemed like millions of gifts, all of them so generous and fabulous, and was even more overcome with emotion when I opened several gifts from people far away who couldn't make it to the shower (Linds, I think Donna almost starting crying at the poke cake). It was really interesting because Debi had chosen a "Stock the Pantry" theme, so everyone brought a recipe along with the non-perishable ingredients to make it with. I got a lot of utensils, serving pieces, Pyrex galore (love that stuff!) and foodstuffs for my bare, bare pantry, so it worked out great! She even made a nice huge binder with pages for all of my new instructions and lots of recipes already in it.

The "wishing well" was made of a trash can with a doggie-proof lid, which we needed desperately!

Ooooh, big pile o' prezzies for ME!

Mom was great and took explicit notes on everything so I wouldn't forget anything amidst the chaos (one of my friends recently attended a mutual friend's wedding, afterwhich they received a thank you card for a clock radio that they definitely did NOT give), and of course there are pictures of every gift being opened (I'll spare you the boredom here, but you can check them out on facebook!). Once I got done being the center of attention and was 100% covered in sweat head to toe, we all went inside for some yummy yummy treats.

Nom nom nom!

Triple layer strawberry cake, yummmmm.

We all ate a ton, winded down, got to visit some more, and then everyone started to disperse. I was completely exhausted when it was over and made Deane put all the gifts in the truck while I pushed carrots and dip around my plate (read: continued to eat my way through a one pound bag of M&M's). When we got home, it was time to say bye bye to Mom and relax... only, I was so excited about new kitchenware that I stayed up until 2 a.m. cleaning and organizing all of my cabinets, as well as making an inventory list of casserole size dishes, cake pans, cookie sheets, etc. Very exciting stuff :) Today Deane finally got to chill and he went fishing all afternoon while I hit up Target to continue my beginner's foray into fulfilling a wifely duty of cooking... by purchasing the limited edition green Nintendo DSLite bundle with Personal Trainer Chef included :)

I have spent most of the day NOT finishing invitations or learning how to cook, but instead playing innumerable games of MarioKart and Sudoku (LOVE BrainAge). After this weekend, I am feeling fully refueled and refreshed. I am ready for day one of Jillian's 30 Day Shred tomorrow, ready to be back on a running schedule, ready for continued success with my fabulous staff at work, and most of all, ready to keep moving on wedding planning! I am sure these two months are going to FLY, but right now I can't wait for November 7th!