a fun fun fun wedding weekend

I am waiting ever so patiently to have access to Roxanne's professional wedding photos. I have a feeling they are going to be spectacular.  Roxanne and Jonny are off Honeymooning, so I'm sure we won't see the pictures until they get back and they can take care of that transaction.  In the meantime, we do have photos from family and friends. Here's some of the fun we had before, during and after the wedding.

Roxanne bought a strapless wedding dress that we all loved and I was sure I could re-make and build a bodice and sleeve that would go with the style of the dress.  I told her we could get it done before the end of February and not have that to worry about.  In actuality, it was done and steamed and ready to wear 48 hours before the wedding.  I thought she and I might have long-term emotional damage to our relationship over the near disastrous project I took on for which I clearly did not have an adequate skill set.  (By the way, thank you Juanita and Vicki for giving me some sewing direction and advice.)  We took a layer off the bottom of the dress to make the front bodice and sleeves, but ran out for the back, so I valiantly searched every store in town and found something that perfectly matched the color, but was too shiny.  We decided we would take clear mat spray paint and spray over the fabric to take the shine off.  But I had to do a fire resistance test on the fabric first.  She was going to be ending the evening at the reception walking under a hundred sparklers and I didn't want the shoulders of her dress to go up in flames.  It worked, and the shine was dulled down a bit and nothing caught on fire.  All is well.

Also, I was asking Rachel to do some research on where we could buy sparklers this time of year.  She sent me a text - call this guy, he doesn't have a store, but he will meet you and the prices are good.  I ended up going across town and buying fireworks out of the trunk of his car.  I felt like I needed to give him a code name and a secret handshake to make the cash transaction.

Dave was so excited about the party, he was promoting it all week.  "Make sure you come. There are so many lights in the yard, you can see it from space".

Melanie made a run to Costco to meet up with Shannon to pick up the flowers and I also had a large order of dinner rolls waiting to be picked up.  Apparently, I didn't communicate the whole assignment to Melanie.  She took the long way around Costco until she found the floral dept, so she had already walked about a mile, then after getting the flowers ready to load up, Shannon sent her over to the bakery for the rolls.  Since she didn't know she was getting rolls, she heard "bowls" (maybe they were to put the flowers in??). It didn't make sense, but she dutifully asked the bakery staff for some bowls. They looked at her like she was clearly crazy, then Melanie tried to reason with them, maybe Shannon had sent her for 'boxes' for the flowers? Again they looked at her like she was crazy. Melanie hiked the mile back across the store and clarified that she was picking up rolls. (Dinner rolls from the bakery? Well, now that makes sense!) Aren't the flowers spectacular?? Thank you Shannon!

Jonny and Roxanne went out the day before their wedding for a photo shoot. The photographer kept calling Jonny the wrong name all morning. (Tony? who's Tony?)
Roxanne: "There are ants on this log!"  Photographer: " Oh don't worry. The ants should be fine. The last bride had grasshoppers on her dress when we finished." 

Melanie shows up on our work day, we're all ready to decorate: "I don't have much to offer, but I have an orange safety cone in my car if you need it for anything."

Brady's head was about to explode when he realized that the decorating was going to be not only all day, but into the night too. But I think he got into the spirit of things by the time the party started.  "So Brady, will anyone be able to top this wedding?"  Brady: "The first wedding in our family will NOT be the best one!"

I fell in love with chalkboard markers!


After the guests were seated at the ceremony, there were a few minutes before Roxanne and Jonny came in. Grandpa: "Should I get up and sing for everyone?" Me: "Shhh, No! We're in the temple". Grandpa: "Oh, that's right. Ok, I'll sit quiet."

After the temple ceremony, we walked out onto the temple grounds for some family and friends photos.  Poor Jonny had some horrible allergic reaction to the olive trees.  There were several photos with him posing like this: (it didn't stop us from taking about a bazillion pictures, Sorry Jonny)
:

A mid air jump is always a fun shot, however, there is an issue with dresses flying up inappropriately.  Melanie tried to make sure her dress stayed where it should stay.

It is impossible for so many photos to be taken and not have some of these:



Grandpa was thinking we were taking a very long time with the photos.

Mom and Wayne needed to leave after the temple ceremony.  There were the obligatory pictures on the steps of the temple, then they told me they needed to sneak away.  I told them they better sneak away and RUN down the sidewalk or someone would think of a yet one more group picture they needed to be in.

No one in our group drinks, so the wedding toasts involved plastic cups of water.  I hope that still makes the toast valid.

My nephew and his wife, Dave and Chelsea, graciously offered to do some video of the festivities this weekend. But along with the video, they took a lot of pictures.  A LOT!  During the luncheon, someone at my table asked pointed over at Dave taking pictures at the buffet table.  "I think he's taking pictures of the grated cheese."

It was a long day, there was a bit of relaxing before the reception started.  A couple people were laughing that Roxanne had accepted their Facebook friend request at 4 pm on her wedding day.  "What is Roxanne doing on Facebook on her wedding day???"  (Actually, people were posting some photos of the morning and she wanted to see the first pictures)
Suzanne: I have been talking to you for weeks about this wedding and I didn't know it would look like this.  Me: Heck Suzanne, I didn't even know how it would look until it started coming together on Friday.

Penny and Suzanne were prepping food before the reception.  Penny's work apron had come untied around her neck and the top half was dangling from her waist.  Suzanne: "Penny is cutting all this watermelon topless!"

There was a lot of conversations among my kids and their cousins about bringing a date to the reception. Ben was trying to decide whether or not it would be to his advantage to have a date, or be available to the possibilities of the young adult masses that would be in attendance.  Melanie almost brought a friend to the reception.  "Roxanne, I'm bring someone to the reception." "You can't bring a random person to my party"  "Yes I can, he's my +1"

I asked my friends to help me make much of the food - prepping ahead of time.  But my math didn't quite work out.  I cooked a bag of pasta, then measured with a serving spoon - and figured there were 10 servings per bag.  Then there was a math equation involving the estimated number of guests, size of servings, those who might have two plates, those who won't have any, and some extra just to be sure. Then they cooked and seasoned a load pasta and we packed it in an ice chest to use through the evening.  When the evening ended, the ice chest was still completely full (sorry Kristi, Suzanne, and Melissa for wasting your day cooking pasta) apparently we needed about 1/4 of what I calculated. I figured about right with many things, but there was SOOO much pasta left over. Go figure. (But there really were a lot of other things to put on the plates too)

By the way - this is Debbie. She is the magic behind the magic.

Sunday afternoon naps were abundant - bodies everywhere lying around our house after church.

What a fun fun weekend.  I'll post more later. I'm sure I will post pictures until everyone tires of them and unfriends me. And then I will post some more!

i'm tired

                                      
I cannot get our taxes done. I am so sick of this pile of paperwork - I can't get to the end of it.  Most of it confuses me.  I know there are personality types that can mentally engage in organized paperwork and make sense of it all. I'm not that personality type.
I have to send out forms to our sub-contractors. It is a form that I'm finding out that maybe I should have been sending in the past, but haven't so I'm reading the IRS instruction forms to make sure I'm sending the right number of copies of the form to the right recipients.  This is where I don't get the logic of the IRS. We are in the construction business, and are sending a form to another construction business. The form is not particularly long, and I'm using one we received from another contractor as my template so I'm not sure I need to read the 10 page instruction package that goes along with it.  NO, I"m not exaggerating.  This is a 1/2 page form with 10 pages of instructions !!  Anyway, I glanced through the instruction novel and found this on page two: "If you are in the trade or business of purchasing fish for resale, you must report total cash payments of $600 or more paid during the year to any person who is engaged in the trade or business of catching fish. "  And then it goes on to explain that 'Fish' mean all fish and other forms of aquatic life.
It gives instruction on using the form for deceased employee's wages, royalties, coin operated amusements, Indian gaming profits - but the 'Fish' business seemed so weirdly specific.
I don't believe I'll ever understand the taxation industry.
As much as I dread finishing these taxes, I dread even more the check that we have to write. It's one of the horrible downsides of being self employed.  No matter how much we try to estimate the quarterly payments, there is still a chunk of money to hand over at the end of the year. Another downside to being self employed is keeping health insurance for our family.  It is crazy expensive. Oh and keeping liability insurance on our business - crazy expensive and hard to find in our industry.  Our last insurance company sent us notification that they are no longer carrying our particular type of business in the future.  Luckily, they gave me several month's notice because it has taken that long to find a new carrier. I hate the research and the applications and the forms that go along with finding new insurance companies. I want to find one that suits our needs and stick with it forever.
There are so many good things about running our own business, but like anything there's the good and the bad.  Unfortunately, all the bad has piled on my desk this month. It's exhausting.  Dave's been overly busy and exhausted this month too, otherwise I'd make him sit here with me and finish up our taxes and paperwork.
We both would rather be working on Roxanne's wedding plans. The plans for her adorable reception are coming together and we are all getting excited.

The Phoenix Marathon was held today.  It is a huge event.  I knew it was a big deal because Rachel has been preparing to run for some time now, and I knew I was planning to go see her cross the finish line, but late last night, I got on the web site to find out where to park etc and I realized it is a HUGE EVENT.  The runners start out from 3 different spots - the 26+ mile marathon, the 13+ mile half marathon and the 10k.  They even had a little 1K children's run too. The route winds around the east valley.  My sister-in-law Debbie, told me the runners would be going by near their house so we could see them there.  As I was pulling into the neighborhood to see Rachel, I got a text from her saying  "past it".  Oops, she was faster than I thought. I stayed in my car and hurried through back streets to get ahead of her so I could stop and cheer her on. When I finally found a viewing spot on Stapely and Brown, I was amazed at the number of runners. At this point, they were all the half marathon runners and the pack went on for miles!  After Rachel zipped by, I watched for my nieces Roni and Kelsie. This run was a first for all of them - they were so inspirational!

After cheering everyone one, I drove to the finish line.  The event was held in the Mesa Riverview shopping area.  There were thousands of people there.  I had to shove my way through to get near the finish line. Luckily as groups crossed the finish line, the fans spread out too and I was able to work my way up to the front and see Rachel go by and over the finish line.  She finished 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 29 minutes.  She has never entered a race longer than a 5K and had never run more than 9 miles before. We were all excited for her.  She was still smiling when she was finished.

We watched for other friends and family too. There are so many people going by, it's hard to see everyone.  A couple people I was watching for zipped by before I recognized them and then I was yelling their name from behind as they has already gone by. Then after the race, everyone melts into the crowds and you can never find anyone again.

My nephew Ben ran the full marathon.  He has been in inspiration for the whole family. He has turned everyone (almost everyone, but not me yet) into runners. He had an injury on his foot that kept him from running and training much recently. That didn't stop him from completing 26 miles!!
It was fun to be with friends and family today. I left the house at 6:30 am, got home at 1:00.  I was gone long enough, I should have just run with them!

overheard

Random woman on the street talking to her niece (about 4 or 5 years old): "I can't hold you. Once you weigh more than a bag of my dog food, I can't pick you up anymore."

Same random woman telling her niece why she couldn't have a soda: "If you are thirsty, you can't have soda. You will still be thirsty. Because soda has sugar in it and it's like a sponge in your mouth and soaks up all the spit and makes your mouth dry because you don't have any spit. If you're thirsty, you can only drink water and juice."

In Mexico, this sign just made Dave and I want to touch the bird!

The dining room on the cruise ship was called "The Golden Pearl".  I just couldn't see pearls, I could only see fried eggs everywhere:

This liquor store in Avalon is apparently only open from 9am until noon.

I like the addition of the wording "common decency" requires . . . 

A text I got while riding in Suzanne's birthday limousine:

from Roxanne: "Remember girls, have a good time, don't be a good time!"

and from Rachel: "Make smart choices!"

Suzanne planned a picnic  . . . in the middle of the lake.  She rented a pontoon boat and invited a handful of friends and off we went to Lake Pleasant. It was a perfectly pleasant day on Lake Pleasant.

overheard:
Cameras come out as we eased out of the Marina.
"This may be the last photo we ever take"

"Is this the map? Ok, we are here." (circling finger generally over the whole map) "We are going to go in an general eastern western direction to about here." (still circling finger generally over the whole entire map)

We found out there was an actual recorded song about a Pontoon Boat. Who knew?

"Sorry I put my elbow in your salad."
"That's ok, I've found worse things in my lunch."


"Don't eat so much that you don't have room for the cake."
"How about we wait a while before we break out the dessert."
"Because sitting around leisurely on a boat is bound to work up an appetite!"


Outside the gate of the boat - walking on water!


There were conversations involving words that went right over my head. Did you know there is such a thing as a Dendrologist? (the science and study of wooded plants . . . I had to look it up)

There was also a conversation about the pronunciation of the word "Marina".


"I heard some friends were going to Las Vegas to see the Eagles. I couldn't figure out why there would be eagles in Las Vegas!"

"Oh, I look like 'Gilbert'. . . . no, wait . . . 'Gilligan'!"

"I look like I'm wearing a bonnet!"

"Do you want to drive? or do you want to sit?"
"I think I'm going to sit whether I drive or not."

"When do you usually see the wild mules out here?"
"Probably more like dawn and dusk. And they are usually by the shore."
"Hmmm, where else would we be looking for them, swimming alongside our boat?"

"This is a good day to get a little tan on my legs."
"What? your tan Mexican legs need to get some sun?"

"Oh, sorry, am I talking to the wrong people?"