Kelly B.com

Been nursing a bit of a cold. Probably from running around in the rainy weather before. I kind of want to sleep all day and the things I swore I wanted to write about have all fallen out of my head in a haze of exhaustion. I'm not sick very often so when I am I am entirely out of my element. Even though I felt awful recently I still made dinner, organized the kitchen, vacuumed and tried to assist my husband around the house. I'm probably not doing myself any favors by running around instead of resting but resting feels like a waste of a day and each day has a long list of necessary tasks. Like going to redeem cans and buying bread and getting blueberries to munch on. All very important things. This summer should be an interesting one. The Cape Cod Cottage we've spent so many summers at is going to be demo-ed and replaced with a bigger, newer, shiny house where my bonus momma will be living full time. So I have no idea when we'll go to the Cape because we don'...

I guess I should just say it because I've been ignoring it for months. Lex's wedding has been postponed so, unfortunately no wedding this June. No rush of getting your hair done that morning. No pretty dresses to wear. No tiny favors to wrap. Because the underlying reason for this postponement are hers and hers alone there's not a lot to expound upon except to say that if you have any reservations in your mind about what you're doing then you're absolutely doing the right thing to push the pause button and if anyone judges you for it then they're not a terribly understanding friend or aunt or whatever. It's a huge decision to make and not one that you take lightly after over a year of being engaged in the first place. Moving on to a different subject, Amanda's still coming to town and I hear Cathy's coming into town as well, so I am elated that I have friends that will be in the area even if they're schedules are busy with seeing everyone else...

Okay, I'm backlogged again. I guess I'm obliged to mention I went to my friends Jeff & Jill's wedding, huh? Story in a nutshell? Jeff and I went to school together and I guess I'd consider him my best male friend in high school. He was just nerdy enough, but didn't take himself seriously or pretend to be cool and mature. We were admittedly weird and silly and that's how you're supposed to be when you're a teenager. And he was as boringly straight edge as I was. We've tried to keep up our friendship through the years although I admit we kinda suck at it. I think we always have fun hanging out but we lead busy enough lives that we don't want to drive long distances to see one another. Jeff and Jill went to the same college and have been together for 8 years. You can probably guess that this was not as rushy rushy as Kim's wedding. In fact this might be the polar opposite of Kim's situation because people have been tapping their...

So, you might wonder what if I forgot about my list. Oh no...you only wish. I've been busy. Work is like a rollercoaster of busy, busy, go, Go, GO!! My bestie is moving away and I gotta buy gifts again. Darn it! Anyway... #2 on Things I didn't know before I got married. Money. Well, obviously I knew money existed. Duh. I'm actually quite proud that I know my way with money. I often thank my lucky stars for having absorbed so much geekiness from business school. But, perhaps nothing could prepare me for sharing finances because there are inevitably inequities. Not to go into many specifics but if you have money and your spouse does not, does saying "I Do" suddenly entitle them to using your money? Maxing out your credit card? Running up your bills? I think it's a recipe for disaster. The number one thing that couples argue about? Surprise, surprise...Money. Do I know how to fix this? No. It's really something for every couple to work out among t...

Happy Anniversary, Trevor! How did we celebrate? I had a mild panic attack about my work and not being at work and kind of wishing I had more time. UGH. But you don't live your life, look back and wish you sat in your cubicle longer. You wish you spent your free time constructively and with people whom you love. So I did. I spent a lot of time with my husband. I made him a three course meal totally from scratch. Mind you, he seemed confused his Vietnamese wife made him such a convincing Chicken Tikka Masala and seemed genuinely convinced I used some kind of prefab mix. For our anniversary? Ugh, yeah...that's not my style. I also had this weird desire to make mashed cauliflower. It seems like a forgotten vegetable that no one ever buys or thinks about. I liked it okay. You won't ever mistake it's flavor profile for mashed potatoes. It can't ever whip up as beautifully as mashed pototoes, okay? But it's nice if you just take it at face value as being cau...

Congratulations to Alexis & Mike on their recent engagement. Dude, there's gotta be something in the water. Not like this is a gigantic surprise. Lex has already been talking about getting married to Mike in 2010, so I'm not about to pretend like I was even half as floored with Lex's engagement as I was with Kim's. So Lex is next. Thankfully for her we already found a dress for her that we love because while doing the whole bridesmaid thing for Kim I insisted both girls try on wedding dresses. Heck, we drove over an hour away for 10 minutes of measuring and chit chat. Why not try on some dresses? Kim and Lex were reticent about it but, for the time we ate up driving there and money in gas, why turn around and go right back home? Lex actually fell quite in love with two dresses and both were incredibly reasonably priced (discontinued-s) so I get the feeling she'll likely turn right back to that bridal shop in Newtown and snatch one up. I look back on the dr...

I have a bit of explaining to do. I haven't been keeping this up to date. But I have a good reason. The one I thing I wanted to talk about...I couldn't talk about until now. I couldn't talk about it because it wasn't my news and because when it's not your news you can't spoil it for other people. When half of her family didn't know I couldn't very well tell the entire internet. Kim's pregnant...with a baby...Vinnie's baby. It's due date is Oct. 31st, 2009. It's gender is still yet to be determined but I'm hoping girl. A.) Because girls are awesome and B.) She wants to name her son Tyler and Trevor is already in an uproar about anyone using that name because he wants to use it. I say, people who have babies first have first dibs. And unbeknownst to me the name Tyler has shot itself up to #21 most popular baby boy name per Social Security Administration. A name that popular pretty much guarantees your kid will be referred to by his...

I've been ridiculously tentative about sharing any of my wedding planning all year long because A.) I didn't want to hear anyone say "well, I wouldn't do it like that. If you did ___ it'd be better." Even if you're right I didn't/I don't want to hear it. You can say I'm hardheaded but the fact is that for my wedding day I wanted to do what I wanted to do how I wanted to do it and hearing otherwise from people just filled my head with anxiety. Because I do have a bit of wishy washy-ness inside me and the last thing I want is to be tormented with more options. I have a hard enough time trying to pick out an entree at dinner time and that's a pretty inconsequential decision. B.) I don't like the idea of someone snagging my ideas before I use them. Once I've used them you can feel free to give me credit for inspiring you, but I'd be ridiculous kinds of upset if someone outright stole an idea from me under my feet. And it's...

Now that some of the chaos of the past few days has simmered down I guess the best thing to do is give you my brides-eye view of the events. Wednesday was flowers. Oh, the flowers. lol In case you didn't know or have forgotten I decided to do the flowers for my own wedding. Bouquets and boutineers..nothing crazy fancy like giant topiary displays shaped like cherubs. Just the basics. I was up to my ears in pink roses and pink daisies but they were so beautiful. I'm really happy how they all came out and they looked really stunning against the green bridesmaids dresses. On Thursday we closed on our home. We also picked up our marriage license and were generally a little crazy. I think Devin was at least 5 times more excited about the whole house thing than we were. It was also my last full day at work and I was insane running around updating people on what's been going on with my plans. I later finished up working on all my place cards. Friday was all errands. Thi...

Bachelorette party was another really fantastic success. It was this Friday and the boys went out for their one Bachelor party though we went to different towns (not intentionally) and didn't cross paths. However, it worked out beautifully and I think any other prospective brides and grooms to be would be best served having their bachelor and bachelorette parties on the same night. 1.) I did not have to sit at home worrying at Trevor because I was occupied with my own party. 2.) Trevor did not have to sit at home and worry about me. 3.) We got to see everyone, at least for a little bit before each of our prospective parties divided up. 4.) Any couples that were going to our wedding then could also just easily travel together and it made for much smoother sleeping arrangements. I was a bit concerned because there was a distinct concern about who would be driving home the girls. The boys had rented a party bus so they were all well taken care of. But somewhere out of left field K...

Shower was so fun. Much thanks to our wonderful hostess and her bevy of assistants. :) I'm so tired. I really dislike driving and yet we still got there and home all in one piece so it took a bit of focus. lol My dear friends & loved ones are so great for traveling so very far out of their way to spend time with me. I really appreciate all the love and I'm glad it was a drama-free day with wonderful weather and a bare minimum of traffic. Considering how much it was raining all the days leading up to my shower I was pretty convinced things would be at least sprinkled on, but it ended up being beautiful, comfortable and sunny all day long. Everyone seemed to have fun and if they didn't...well, they did a good job faking it and if that's the case I appreciate that too. Positivity does wonders for an overtaxed, underfed, sleepy bride. It was also a great opportunity to talk to Kim for a few hours straight since we carpooled all together from Connecticut and I had...

Jenny's wedding was today. I bought her present Thursday so you can imagine how "out of the blue" it felt to me even though I knew it was coming. I must be acting like a chicken with her head cut off or something. I wanted to get 'em something "good" but even after weeks and weeks and weeks of thinking about it I still ran into a brick wall so I settled for simply buying off registry. After all, that's the reason why it's there; to make people's lives easier when you just don't know what they'd like. If they shot their registry gun at it one can only hope they'd like it. Waking up early was the worst part of it. Not that we got stuck in traffic. Not even that it was all that bad outside...just that it was way too early for any of our liking. We had to be down in the 203 in time to pick up Emily and still get to the 10am wedding at a church I've never been to and when you're used to waking up at around 10am on a normal Sa...

As of Sunday Trevor & I have been together a whopping 3 years. And we still like each other. lol We went out to dinner Monday because Sunday flew by and we didn't get to really do something special. Other than that things have been pretty tame. I was pleasantly surprised on Tuesday when Trevor made us dinner. Seeing as how I'm the sole dinner-maker in our home it was really special that he took the time to do that and chill our favorite bottle of wine. :) Kim's birthday was on Monday and her original casino plans unfortunately fell through due to the fact that like a foot of snow fell on Friday and we would have most likely not made it down to the casino without a lot of slipping and sliding. It's rescheduled for this coming Friday barring any further weather related complications. Since we were snowed out Kim felt a bit bummed (naturally) so I went out with her locally for some dessert at TGIFridays and drinks. That's pretty much it; some random guys hit ...

Happy Birthday, Emily!!! Today was a pretty busy day for me. We had sushi (as always) at our favorite spot, Bamboo Garden. It's at the point where they don't even bother to wait for us to order and just start bringing out soup, salad, hot tea and water. We then dropped by my mom's because she insisted I buy her some frying pans and I live closer to Linens 'N Things. To be fair, it was a set of 3 non-stick frying pans for $8...you can't really beat that. After that we dropped by the old house, because our renter is not making timely payments but he wasn't home. From there Trevor & I went to an open house at our wedding venue. Trevor was a little upset we ate because they had SO much food. They had a buffet line of a few of foods, passed h'orderves, veggie/cold food plates, wedding cake, and small venetian table desserts. It was also a good opportunity to look at the reception area with some more freedom. I was particularly interested in testing th...

Congrats to Jeff & Jill on their recent engagement! Slowly but surely all the friends are getting married. Shaun and Joe beat us all, but the rest of us are getting there too. In other relationship news, though not quite as exciting unfortunately, Kim and her live-in boyfriend Ryan have broken up. I put off posting about it though in hopes that they'd work it out. Particularly since they live together and still share a bedroom I thought it was inevitable that they'd kiss and make up but a week has passed so far and nothing's been happening. I still sort of hope that they'll re-kindle their flame, but the heart wants what it wants and if they can manage living together without an awful lot of awkwardness then I guess being apart isn't the end of the world either. All of Kim's friends are single and quite ready to mingle. lol Kim lives with Anya, Anya's friends with Viki, Viki's friends with Dianna...and so on and so on. So, usually I'd be c...

So far, I'm having a little difficulty skimming down my guest list. Trevor does not want any more than 100 people to feed and entertain, and I think that it's impossible. At best I'll be able to get the guestlist down to around 130 and that's a very conservative total. It's not as though I have a lot of friends. Kim and a few residual high school friends are still in the area so we're all friends still, but as for everyone else...it's a little more gray. I'd love to invite everyone that I care about, but the fact of the matter is that it's not fiscally sound to do so. Plus my parents have to invite apparently half the world because we're related to every other vietnamese person in the greater hartford area. I kid, but it's pretty ridiculous nonetheless since I have over a dozen cousins. That's not even including aunts and uncles and friends of family that have known me since I was in diapers. My engagement party is this Saturday. It...