La Mariée Future

Ever since we returned from our Christmas vacation this last January, I have been working hard on an enormous project. I couldn't write or post pictures, because it was supposed to be a secret. Well, now it's all over and done with and I can finally tell you what I've been up to with all my free time the last three months!

Heather and I met in 7th grade, when we both moved to the little town of Shelley, Idaho. I treasure Heather because she is the first person I'd ever met who really challenged me - intellectually and spiritually. My first memory of her was when we were taking tests for the Gifted and Talented program in middle school - she finished her tests before me. She got up, handed in those tests, and walked out the door. All while I was still working on mine. Wait....what? She did --- what? She finished ..... GASP! Who was this girl?

Soon after I asked her to eat lunch with me, and we became inseparable after that. She was a "good" girl - and I....well, I had just been yanked 1200 miles away from my childhood home and best friends - not to mention my father -- and I still had a lot of learning and growing up to do. We weren't active in Church then, I didn't care to be active in the church, and I was missing a solid male figure in my life (not an excuse, just the truth). Heather didn't judge me when I hung out with the wrong crowd, took up swearing, and even pierced my belly button (you can tell in these pictures, in case you're wondering). In fact, she did the opposite - she clung tighter to me. She, in all honesty, saved me. It is because of her I came back to church, took out that belly button ring, stopped swearing, cut ties with my "bad" friends, and gained a testimony of my own - after leaning so long on hers. We would write endless notes and fill journal after journal, passing it back and forth between each other. I read through one of those journals a few weeks ago. I never realized until then - just a few short weeks ago - how selfish and ignorant I was. What a terrible friend I was. And she only gave me love. Years later, her 14 year old self is still teaching me lessons. Does that paint a clear enough picture of how wise she is now?
We have been through our good times and bad, Heather and I, our thicks and our thins. But always, we come out stronger.

Now, this sweet lady is getting married. He is a lucky man, I tell ya.
And because our lives somehow brought us both to the East Coast, I had the pleasure of throwing her a Bridal Shower. Keep in mind, I am an English major throwing a party for an Event Planning major. The pressure was on.

With the long-distance help of her other bridesmaid, and my other best friend, Robyn, I decided to make the party French-themed, as all three of us had taken French together in high school, and Heather and I had spent a week in France just one year ago (read about that here, here, and here.)

First, the invitations:

which were then sealed in pink envelopes and stamped with the HOMEMADE Eiffel Tower stamp that my husband HAND-CARVED out of a pink eraser. He is awesome.

Then, the welcome table:

Hand-painted welcome sign, homemade tissue paper flowers (which I made while watching countless episodes of Friends), a schedule of events, name tags, and 12 homemade berets for everyone to wear (at least for the group photo!)

The gift table:

Digital photo frame playing over 100 photos of Heather I creepily snuck off of Facebook, a cute, hand-decorated jar to hold a Wish for the Bride, more tissue paper flowers, and a cute poster made with paint, cardboard, Mime scrapbook paper, and Modpodge.

The Food Table:

Vintage-edited photos I took in Paris on twine, hand-painted Cafe-cup menu sign, scrapbook paper poster, 35 homemade crepes, powdered sugar, chocolate and caramel syrup, Nutella, whip cream, strawberries, bananas, berries, raspberry jam, croissants, ham, cheese, butter, cream puffs, oranges, grapes, 3 gallons homemade strawberry lemonade -- not to mention the adorable banner lining the table (also made with hours of Friends in the background). Plus! I read tons of articles and books on the art of Macaron-making and had one practice session -- and I produced a beautiful batch of Homemade chocolate macarons (though I hesitate to mention the failed batch of raspberry macarons I left at home. aaaand the fact that the chocolate ones got smashed on the way down....but they still tasted great, even if they looked ugly!). Complete with hand-painted French labels for everything!

The Games:

Then we played some silly games with silly prizes, of course. I had a He said/She said game with different things Heather and her fiance had said on Facebook, and everyone had to guess who said what. That was another nasty bout of Facebook stalking, but it was pretty funny. 

The next game required me to get some answers from the Groom, so I set up a time to Skype with him (since he lives in England, and all). Heather had to guess how he answered my questions, and had to put a marshmallow in her mouth for every wrong answer. 

Last, what else but a game including blindfolds, an extra-large pair of panties, and a little too much intimacy?

:

And of course, the gift-opening (which I will spare you the details and Heather the embarrassment):

Finally, the Departure Table, which I did not get a picture of:

Hand-painted Au-Revoir sign, more tissue paper flowers, my favorite homemade poster of all, and a homemade gift bag for every girl that contained a mini-canvas print and a homemade necklace. 

This was my first time ever planning a party quite like this. It was tons and tons of work and time and planning and money, but it was lots of fun and I'd say a success! 

And I have to give a shout-out to my husband, for all his help with everything too. He even drove down to DC with me, helped me unload everything from the car, set up, and then just cruised around DC for two hours while us girls partied. He was so patient and helpful and I really could not have done it without him (two days straight of cooking and baking and last-minute preparing + already sore and swollen feet + a ginormous belly and 40 extra pounds = one tired mama). I love these photos he took while waiting for me:

December of Craziness

The Holidays were so fun. We were busy and it was grand.

(If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have already seen some of these photos. But if you stick with me you'll get the narrated version straight from me!)

December 17-22: My bestie from high school, Robyn, visited. We had a trio reunion with Heather. I sure love my best friends.

Then Robyn and I walked TEN MILES one day touring all of DC. We saw Lincoln, Washington, WW II, Library of Congress, US Supreme Court, the Capitol, the Archives, Arlington Cemetery, and the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial. ALL IN ONE DAY. My poor pregnant body barely made it, but Robby was patient with me :)

It's a good thing she kept me so busy, because the next day was my ultrasound and we found out we're having a boy (less "found out," and more "our suspicions were confirmed").

Then the following day we went BACK to DC and hit up Jefferson Memorial, Holocaust Museum, History Museum, and Georgetown for Georgetown Cupcakes (HEAVEN!!!)

December 23: Dad, Sheri, and my brother flew out to Baltimore
December 24: Heavily medicate our dog, and the six of us are off on a 5  hour drive to Pennsylvania!
December 24-27: In Ulysses, PA with our great Aunt and Uncle, Nan and Claude.

Kaleo LOVED it there. He would just run around with his tongue stuck to the ground, lapping up the snow everywhere he went. He would sleep in front of the door so he could go outside anytime it was opened. He was definitely meant for a country life, this dog, and hopefully one day we can give it to him (even if it is when he is old and gray).

December 28-30: In Niagra Falls, Canada

Preggo Meggo! 21 weeks.

December 31: Palmyra, New York. One last night with Nan and Claude

Hill Cumorah

Smith Family Farm

I'm always on this side of Adam!

Sacred Grove.

On the way back to Nan and Claude's we made a detour at Watkins Glen State Park - so glad we did. It was gorgeous!

January 1: On our way back home!

It's been a busy last 6 weeks - Which has really made my pregnancy go by fast. I don't have quite as much to keep me busy the next four months, but here's my countdown list:
-Jan 10: Dad's birthday
-Feb 14: Valentine's
-Feb 22: Adam's 26th birthday
-March 6: My birthday!
-April 8: Easter
-April 25: Mom's birthday
-May 3-10: Possible due dates

Lessons learned in Southern France

-Please play this song as background music to this post, as we had it stuck in our heads the entire time we were in the South of France.

-The day we were heading down to Montpelier (remember how that was the only destination in the South available to us?), we woke up bright and early, stopping at a bakery for breakfast. We clumsily ordered a giant loaf of bread for both of us, and some macaroons (heaven on earth). And that is all we ate. The. Entire. Day. And because of that, we learned this simple lesson: Man cannot survive on bread alone. Though it's a pretty cheap alternative.

This is a video I took on the train ride from St. Malo to Rennes, on the day we were heading down south. This is the day we only at bread. The video/scenery isn't too exciting, and the only sound is the people around us, but Heather's in it, and she's cute, so you should watch it. And when you see her eating, don't ask what it is because you already know. 

- The next lesson we learned: sometimes events are too coincidental to be coincidences -- Remember God is watching over us and is in control. Hop on these events like white on rice. (Even if it means doing so illegally? Um...potentially. Sometimes you just gotta go with your gut instinct, even if it's not what the "authorities" would tell you) When we arrived in Rennes, I was preparing to wait for our next train that would take us to Paris, and then to Montpelier, where we would be arriving in a creepy city at 1am to head towards a creepy hotel. I was feeling not so fantastic about this, when Heather said, "Meg, there's a train heading to Montpelier right now. We would get there around 3pm - a much safer time. Let's take it." I don't know how she saw that, but we went to the ticket box to ask for a reservation, fully expecting --- and eventually receiving --- a big fat NO. But, Heather and I weren't giving up that easy. We were now left to decide: do we get on that train without a reservation, after we've been told we can't, or do we take the train we do have a reservation for, and put ourselves in danger by arriving at 1 o'clock in the morning? After praying and thinking that the worst that could happen to us was that we'd be kicked off the train at some random stop and charged lotsa Euros, we decided to take the chance. It was the most uncomfortable 7 hours of my life. I was so paranoid, neither of us could relax, and we were scared of every single train man that came by to check our tickets. Since we didn't have reservations, we weren't assigned a seat, so every stop that new people came on, we had to move around so we weren't in someone else's seat. It was so nerve-wracking. I had to pee so bad, but I knew the ticket man hadn't come around to check our tickets yet so I thought I would wait. Heather finally told me to just go, and of course, that's when ticket man showed up. Heather said she  just showed him her Eurail pass, he looked at it like he didn't know what to do with it, and moved to the next person. It was so intense. Oh, and we were starving and so sick of bread! But we both believe we made the right decision, because Montpelier was a sketch-a-thon when we arrived at 3pm, and it would not have been good to be out on the streets at 1am. 

-When you're staying in a sketchy town, in an even sketchier hotel, you become very resourceful. The hotel in Montpelier we stayed in had a shared bathroom for showering. Heather and I gagged everytime we stepped into it, and felt dirtier coming out of it then we did going into it. One night, Heather and I were loudly discussing ALL of our plans - where we were going, where we were staying, what trains we were taking, etc. Then Heather left to go to the bathroom, and I realized we had left our bedroom window wide open. Not only that, but directly underneath our window was a rooftop that led to the next building's wide open window. And in that wide open window was a man, talking on his phone in French. This man could easily hop out of his wide open window, crawl over the rooftop, and hop through our wide open window and murder me in about 2.5 seconds. I got so freaked out, I started listening to his conversation, and I swear I heard him say something about AMERICANS. I quickly ran to the door, shut off the light, and waited for Heather to return. When I told her the story, she looked over at the window and saw that there were no curtains, and a dinky lock on the window (what would a lock do when the window was GLASS???!!) So, she very simply and decidedly began to drag the GIANT ARMOIRE that stood as high as the ceiling over to in front of the window. We slept soundly that night, as the old wooden armoire creaked nonstop, settling into its new position in front of the window. Ain't no murderer gettin' through that security system!

- Nothing beats the ocean. After being so stressed out the last couple of days, Heather and I both needed something to lift our spirits. The ocean is what did it for us. The ocean seemed sacred to me this day in a way it hadn't ever before. It brought me closer to Adam, to God, to who and where I wanted to be right then and there. The open air of the ocean was refreshing, and I could feel my lungs and brain rejoice at the chance to clear out the gunky and smoky city/train air.

- Sometimes I like to not listen to the travel books, but usually they are pretty right. Case in point: The South of France wasn't as great as I thought it would be. From Montpelier, we took a train to Marseille, where we hopped on a boat and took a tour of the Chateau D'If (think Counte of Monte Cristo). The ocean and the boat ride were gorgeous and oh-so-refreshing. However, the castle was only worth it because we were already there. I'm glad we only spent one day in Marseille. In the future, I would not plan a separate trip to Marseille (we later found out that Marseille was a major drug port! Joy!). However, if you are already in Marseille, then the castle and walking along the boardwalk is a fun day trip

- Bring sunscreen. It's really expensive in Europe (just like everything else).

- Don't think of travel/train days as "wasted time." It's easy to fall into this trap of thinking, if you're not doing something cool, then it's a wasted day in Europe. But Heather and I had a lot of time on trains, and we came to really love that time. We could just sit in peace and quiet, nobody bothering us, not being paranoid that something out of our bags is going to get stolen, we could rest our legs, we could just chat and reminisce about high school days, and play phase 10. Plus, you are still seeing and enjoying the beauty of Europe while you are on the train - just look out the window at the scenery, fields of flowers and tall grass, wide open spaces, old cozy homes, and, like our trip to Nice, the ocean.

-We love hostels. I always felt so much safer in a 8 person mixed male/female dorm room than I did in a run-down hotel with just Heather and I in the room. Even when me and the older Asian man would wake up at the same time in the morning and somehow manage to lift our heads at the exact same time and find each other accidentally and awkwardly staring at one another at 7 in the morning. And even when we had to skillfully dodge the annoying blonde canadian and her two men that she found and latched onto, and her texting and phone calls to her boyfriend late in the middle of the night, and her extremely unbecoming potty-mouth. And invitations to go drinking. 

-Save your money on food by shopping at grocery stores. (So you can splurge once later!) We learned our lessons with the bread day, and started shopping at grocery stores when we knew we were going to have a long day on the train. This was healthy, cheap, and delicious. And it allowed us to save money, so when we had a relaxing night in a beautiful city like Nice, we could splurge a little at a nice sit-down restaurant and not feel guilty (or completely broke). 

- The tops of mountains and hills aren't just the tops of mountains and hills in Europe, as we learned both in France and in Switzerland. In Nice, we walked down the Promenade des Anglais, and skimmed around the shops and streets in Vieux Nice (like Old Town). We found and took some steps leading up to a panorama view. But what we found wasn't just a great view, but a playground, a giant field for running/playing, a restaurant, a cemetery, and an archaeological site. Incredible. One thing I really learned to love and appreciate about Europe (minus Italy) is that they love their open space. They leave so much s p a c e to just relax and enjoy, 

- Overall, France was so different than what I was expecting. I would go back, but only to see more of Paris. Nice was more exciting/ more worth it than Marseille or Montpelier, but I still would rather spend my time in Europe in places like Switzerland or Austria, our two next stops.