ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Is the phrase Chris uses when ever he is surprised, astonished or oddly enough, at a lose for words.
This photo is his reaction to my wedding gift to him. Obviously I could not write about it before the wedding..Chris my most avid blog fan lol.

Those who are close to me knew what I got him and they all wanted to see his reaction. So instead of giving it to him privately, I gave it to him at the reception.
You are dying with curiosity now aren't you? hehe

Every since Chris was a boy, he dreamed of flying. I have posted in the past about how immersed he gets playing the flight simulator on the computer. He becomes a boy with a toy...a man in the clouds...a total goober swaying left and right to the rythm of the simulators joy stick. It's halarious to watch.

This dream of flying never got off the ground so to speak in his former life. It wasn't even a question of inquiry...all his needs and wants were not really an option.

Funnily enough...our small town has a private airport..so I called and talked to someone who runs a flying school. I bought him the FIRST lesson. Granted..I would have loved to put down aprox 8,000$ ahead of time to pay for what it would take to have a private flying liscence but well....I didn't have it on me lol. As it is, one lesson cost around $230.

The lesson is over 2 hours...lots of preliminaries but also flying with the instructor ofcourse, but he will be able to do manoeuvers, turns and dips etc and will also get to land and take off at the Mirabelle airport..which was formaly Montreals large international airport before they renovated and enlarged our other airport thus rendering Mirabelle obsolete. Landing on a major runway will be pretty cool and then taking off and flying back to our town.

Basically, his gift of the lesson was also a gift in saying...over time, even if it takes yrs, we can budget to make a dream of his come true. Needless to say ...he was speechless as u can see by the pic. He can't wait to book the time. It will probably be in July some time. I will be posting about his experience for sure.

WEDDING FAVORS

Now that it is all over, I can show u what our wedding favors were. I looked at all that was out there as far as favors go and frankly , as much as I thought some were lovely...most were just cheap crap or anything worth giving was too expensive.
I wanted something unique but special. I got the idea last yr when I saw something similar and decided to run with it. All the pieces other then the rocks ofcourse, can be reused so all together I thought we had something nice to give all our guests.
Given we were the 3rd generation in my family to marry on this date, I thought it was an extra special reason to make it magical in a sense.
Like an old tradition of sorts with mystical powers entwined.

We found some lovely chinese satin pouches. They had little pockets inside that could be used for jewelry...they were big enough to hold the small boxes.
This is what they looked like
Inside they found this little booklette made by Chris and I. Do u recognise the pic on it?
They were all bilingual. The first page explains what they were all about.

Under the booklette they found a box which protected another box that was a lovely red wood box.
This satin lined box held the precious wish stones. Each colour stone signifyed a
different wish ie; black was for strength. They were all explained in the pages of the booklette. There was 5 stones in all.

I hope everyone liked the idea. I thought it was different and would be something to remember us by. We purposely used brownish paper for the little booklettes with jute string and ripped the edges and aged them with tea to make them look kind of old to sort of go with the theme of magic and tradition etc.
I was so nervous when I had the mic in my hand at the beginning of the reception I totally blew half of what I had planned to say in explaining the favors. So worried we would say the same in french then english, we missed parts bla bla bla lol...I hope the favors spoke for themselves in the end lol. I hope they liked the basic idea anyway lol.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HUSBAND OF MINE!

I wonder how long it will be before I stop having the urge to giggle happily when I say husband. Today is your birthday and it is also a whole week of being husband and wife.


We have had 4 bdays each our turn since we became a cpl. I was thinking on how that first year was such a whirlwind of emotions. Being apart sometimes for up to 2 months or just through the week till the time came to finally see eachother on weekends. No matter how long, we missed eachother dreadfully and never went to sleep without a goodnight kiss on the phone.

Longing thoughts of a future living together seemed so far away but we prevailed and after a long year of fleating weekends and phonecalls...We finally started a real life together.

Although there was another long yr of looking for work, and things were lean...we were so rich with the happiness of being together. Your pride had you working any manual job u could get between going on interviews for work in your field. You have never stopped impressing me.

In a short 2 yrs, you managed to go from a temp imployee, just replacing someone on leave, to being a weekend supervisor. You amaze me. I am so proud the man I married on so many levels.

So looking back over our 4 yrs and celebrations we have had together, I say again, happy birthday my husband...how blessed we are to have gotten this far and had our wishes come true. BONNE FÊTE MON MARI, JE T'AIME.......0X0X0 De ta FEMME.....hee hee.

More photos finally

I haven't posted all week, we have been busy with Chris' parents. This is their last week here so we wanted to get some sight seeing done. Last week was full of wedding preps and company arriving so understandably the touristy things took a backseat.

We also got photos from everywhere lol...I hope this works..let me know if it does or doesn't...I have put a whole bunch on a flickr account for ppl to view if they want....go HERE to view (assuming it will work).

I will be married a whole week tomorrow! lol, It is also Chris' birthday. He goes back to work tomorrow also but we are all going out for supper tomorrow to celebrate his bday given he gets off at 5 pm tomorrow.

As a wedding gift from dear friends of mine, we recieved a very generous gift certificate of $200 to a nice resturant in our area. It was a great idea, along with it they added some money but mostly thought of the certificate to ensure we go out to enoy something. Like they said to us, money is great but we often pay bills or put it aside etc, this way, we have to take the time to get out of the house. Also, with that amount, we could take someone else (like his parents) with us. It was very thoughtfull indeed. Hense tomorrow we are going to try it out. We haven't been to that resturant yet.

This week, we went up the tower above the Olympic stadium, visited the Biodome, the Insectarium and the Montreal Botanical Gardens...We also went to old Monteal and had a few meals out. We have been busy. Tomorrow's supper out will be the last. Chris works late both sat. and sun. and we take his parents to the airport on monday afternoon for their trip back to France.

I have really enjoyed getting to know them. I have been blessed in the inlaw department. They have been very sweet to me and we have had lots of fun over the past weeks together. They have also been generous and loving. His mom brought some old pieces of jewelry for me to chose from to wear for my wedding as something old. I picked a ring that belonged to her great grandmother...its a lovely pearl ring that is over 150 yrs old. I wore it on my wedding day. I returned it to her in its box the next day so I wouldn't forget.

She said...NO! NO! It was not just lent to you. It belongs to you now. I was giving you the piece you chose among the ones I had so the ring is now yours.
I was so touched. I never dreamed it was for me to keep. I never would have been so bold as to chose the lovely ring, although the other pieces were nice too. Just shows you how sweet she is and has been through out these short weeks. I think they have also seen the obvious also, that Chris and I are deeply in love...something he never had before, regardless of having been married before.

They also really enjoyed the wedding. I think everyone did. It was beautiful and fun. We are proud of how everything turned out. We will be forever happy with our choices and memories of it all.

So let me know if the photo thing works lol. Hugs to all.

IT'S DONE!!

We are finally married!
Everything went perfectly...and after all the planning, anticipation, nervousness...it's over! Everyone had a great time. It was everything we hoped it to be.
I had to beg and plead for Rae to email me a few pics to use in my blog today! We have a video of the ceremony but I do not have a ONE pic lol. We have 8 of those throw away camera's that were on my guest tables but we haven't yet developed any. I look forward to seeing the pics my sis took aswell. ..I did take some stills the gift we received from the Hotel.

So to start, here are a few pics for now with many more to follow in the future.



We unwrapped the gift from the Hotel and found this lovely Ice/Champagne Bucket....along with decadent chocolate covered strawberries...and a lovely flowers.

More to come in future...
From both Chris and I...we thank all off our friends online who took the time to comment or just read about our wedding plans...those who sent us good thoughts and well wishes. Every email, private message, blog comment, every encouragement...kept us going, kept us enjoying the process and kept us wrapped in the caring thoughts of all of you around us....THANK YOU ALL FOR THAT.

OMG!OMG! OMG!...I'M GETTING MARRIED TODAY!

I can't believe this day is finally here. We have waited atleast 4 yrs for this day ...now that it is here...It seems this last month has flown by.

I am pretty calm...I am calm...I AM CALM I TELL YA ! !

Actually...now its just a matter of everything happening as planned. It's all out of my hands now.

So anyone reading this, think good thoughts..and have a drink toasting us.

We are getting married today and I feel like the luckiest girl in the world.

Next time I post in here I will be Mrs. Albarracin. (insert dancing happy face here!)

Hugs to all who have bore witness to my endless wedding blogs lol. Who have supported and encouraged me along the way. It has meant the world to me. I hope I have photos to share soon.

I am off to the salon to get my hair done...NOW THIS SPECIAL DAY BEGINS...

THE SEAMSTRESS IS STILL BREATHING!

She is still alive and well but just barely I tell ya. I put on the dress and found that the bust fit funny then once on the little podium infront of the mirror I notice that the hem on an inner layer of the dress wasn't done either.

Seamstress hummed and hawded, mumbling about her asistant then pinned it up. She did some adjusting to the breasticle area...asking me to hike up my huge Planets of Wonder....(ok, she didn't use that term) she said Orbs of Joy instead....erm...she asked me to fit them higher in the breast area of the dress, in other words, it was my breasts fault if it fit funny up top...Seriously..as most ppl know, this planet has a little thing called GRAVITY... even with the push up bra and the snug fit of the dress..they weren't going ANYWHERE FAST... they were right where they are supposed to be..and frankly otherwise I would have to walk around with a cpl cement pillars proped under each to get them up as far as she wanted me too....(eye roll)

So..gets her pinning done...says it will take 15 mins to finish..I purposely keep my wedding dress underwear on to try it on again...and got redress to wait. 15 mins goes by and another of the ladies there brings out my dress, all wrapped up in the garment bag ready to go...Voila! All done. she says....and proceeds to take it to the front.
Chris calmly says....We would still prefer to try it on before leaving...just incase...MY HERO!.... man its a good thing too.

I put it back on, and the hem is still only in pins!!!..she had done the tac at the top but it still need some work. The seamstress comes out..and exclaims her apologies...she had recieved a phone call of bad news yada yada...and totally forgot she had the hem to do....I just had visions of doing a hem on my wedding day, late for the ceremony.

No need to rip her a new one though..we just *laughed it off....she fixed it all, and we were on our way.

SO THE DRESS IS AT HOME!! and the seamstress LIVES ON!!!

LAST DRESS FITTING!...or...LAST RIGHTS!

Today is my last dress fitting. If the thing doesn't fit I swear to you all right now the dress shop owner will be getting her last rights!!!

When I had initially tryed on the first dress, it fit me perfectly from hip to just under my breasts then the buck stopped there. Not surprising...I have a hell of a shelf if you know what I mean...she couldn't go highter with the zip in the back. They said they would order a dress one size bigger. As you know, it took till last week for it to finally arrive.

When I put it on, I was ready to panic. It was not JUST one size bigger. It seemed to be 4 sizes bigger. NO...I did not lose weight, as much as I would love to say so. I swear to you that even all zipped up, I could take the dress off it was so big. Chris was in the changing room with me to help do it all up. He saw that I was on the verge of a meltdown. When I got up on the podium...trying desperately to keep the damn dress from falling off of me...with panic in my eyes as I saw myself in the big mirror...Chris stepped infront of me...calmly told me LOOK INTO MY EYES...REALLY LOOK...I did...he said...YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL. IT WILL BE ALRIGHT I PROMISE. NOW BREATH!
God I love that man.

He looked so calm and confident..(probably shitting his own bricks I am sure) that it calmed me down. The seamstress asured me that it was normal to have it so big and was alot easier to do alterations in that case bla bla bla...whatever. So we go back today for final fitting...when she said the 5th..Chris kindly reminded her that our wedding was the 9th. She said no problem. If there was any more alterations to be done, they would all be done there and then....(wonders if one can get a gun at such short notice)...kidding..I don't need a gun..I will strangle her with my bare hands if she doesn't come through.
So think good thoughts for ...not me...but the seamstress!!!!

On other news...Cleo had her piano recital last night (sunday)..She had invited her dad and uncle, her cousin Chantal, a school friend of hers myself and Chris' parents to attend. We were bumbed that Chris had to work but we all planned to go eat afterwards once Chris got home. He felt bad he would miss it.

I called a taxi to take us to the hall and once we were all seated..who walks in?...Chris!..with a shit eating grin on his face no less. I was so happy to see him and Cleo had a huge smile aswell. He had previously arranged to be there without telling us. Again God I love that man.

Cleo always has a hard time playing infront of anyone..even me listening outside her bedroom door praticing lol...if I or anyone was in the livingroom, she didn't have a problem.
I knew she would have a really hard time of it playing infront of a crowd. She was playing 2 pieces...
Le Saule (by Anita Weedmark)
Victor's piano solo (The Corpse Bride by Danny Elfman)
She knows then so well, that she actually doesn't even need the sheet music. When it was close to her turn I could feel her trying to breath calmly beside me. It was time to go sit at the piano...her hands were shaking so much that she got abit of the way through and just couldn't control them. She fumbled and said she couldn't continue. My heart sank for her. I knew how embarrased she must feel and mortifyed. Thankfully her teacher didn't miss a beat and said, it was ok..with all smiles and suggested she try again at the end if she felt up to it.

She sat back down, when many would have left the room I think. I tryed to console her by holding her hand but u know how teens are...big eye role, and leave me alone look. I backed off.

When everyone had done their thing. The teacher tentatively asked Cleo if she was up to it. She stood up and went to the piano. She started to play...just that was an acomplishment...She fumbled through the first one...with a few mishaps...but everyone else did on that piano ..it was a very old piano that had seen better days with worn keys and one that stuck..

Cleo played the other peice and did much better...it was a very hard piece....I was so proud of her...with hands shaking and having choked once, she got up and pulled it off....it must have been that much harder for her to do it. I was terrifyed that she wouldn't be able to do it ever again after her initial choke. She faced her fears and DID IT!

Later when I spoke to her teacher..she told me that she was very happy that Cleo had gotten back up to try but understood her difficulty. When she had first started her lessons, she told me that Cleo's hands shook uncontrolably for the first few lessons even with just her sitting next to her.

Cleo plays quite a few classical peices already...and she has only been playing piano for 9 months!

I filmed her playing. It sux that my dad missed the recital by 3 days..he will be arriving for the wedding on wednesday. He is the one that bought Cleo the piano and pays for her lessons. He does the same for my sister's daughter Tess aswell. Atleast he will see it on tape.

On a side note...Chris' parents have been going for a short walk to the grocery store everyday for fresh bread...(they are french lol) so yesterday I asked then to pick up one of those ready made bouquets of flowers there. One for Cleo and one for the pieano teacher..not only did they not let me pay for it when they brought then home...they had also got some flowers for me aswell AWEEEEE... they are so sweet.

With all the parents at the recital, I was surprised to see that no one else had thought to give flowers to their kids or the teacher even. BUT the teacher was kind enough to have presents for every one of her students. Cleo got some nice earings. I thought that was really sweet of her.

Well I am off to try a dress on..or kill a seamstress..will keep u posted on the outcome or funeral time of the seamstress.