no idea what i'm doing

I have no clue what I'm doing in the blog design arena.
I know the header picture is HUGE but have no clue how to make it smaller.
I'm also noticing that most people have neat, personalized headers... again, clueless.

Help? Suggestions? Offers to do it for me? :)
(hints to Becca, Jillian, Kristine... who all have neat blogs)

For Emily

Well, sort of for Emily. I didn't know what to write about and she suggested that I give details on the "humbler" things in our life right now: the laundry and the grocery stores.

We do our laundry at the Naches Laundry. It is not my favorite place to spend time, but then again, it would be a bit sad if my favorite place WAS the laundromat. For a laundromat, I think it's actually pretty expensive so we do laundry less frequently than I'd like. I usually sit in there with a book, or with one of the 1980-something magazines sitting there. They're quite entertaining, actually.

A "story" about the laundromat and why I do sit there reading old magazines: We washed our comforter one day and then went to town. We were gone longer than we should have gone. Actually, the whole thing wasn't super smart. But when we came back, the comforter was not there. We'd love to know who ran out with a comforter but who have no idea. Hopefully they're warm! (We do have a new one - thankfully, we had lots of Target cards as wedding gifts and we got one in similar colors)

And the grocery stores: This is actually funny to me, that Em wanted me to write about it at all. She LOVES the grocery stores out here. I'm fond of them too, but would never have thought to write about them. I shop primarily at Fred Meyer. It's a grocery store, yes, but also has a clothing section, jewelry store, bank, cookware, house ware section and a deli in it. That makes it sound like Wal-Mart but it isn't. It's cheaper for one thing. And it doesn't have really bright fluorescent lights. And it's not that huge. And the one in Spokane, which Emily loved, had an escalator up to the clothing section, which is just neat in a grocery store. The one in Yakima doesn't have an escalator, but I still like shopping here.

And no, we don't have a grocery store in town. What we do have: a park (pool, tennis courts, playground), a restaurant/bakery, a statuary (place that sells garden statues), laundromat, a library, a fire station, a welcome center (oddly enough), 2 bars, lots of fruit stands, several schools, a general store, two gas stations, several churches, a medical clinic, a pet spa, a dance studio and a place that sells or repairs (I wasn't paying attention) appliances. That's about it, to my knowledge.

tidbits

- Never in my life have I frequented Craigslist so much as I have this week. Carson always says that until you get a job, finding a job is a job. (And not my favorite job, I must add. Which encourages me to pursue one so I don't have to keep looking!)

- A discovery: Running to Frank Sinatra makes even running feel classy :)

- A note on that - I've been running... three miles or so, which is NOTHING compared to the PT Carson does but I'm still impressed with the small amount I can run!

- Carson's mom came for a visit Sunday-Monday. She's our first overnight visitor. Since you are now wondering how that worked, Carson slept on the floor... our guest couldn't very well do that, could she?

- My brother, Scott is coming this weekend. We'll be heading over to the Leavenworth area for hiking/camping/exploring. Scott desperately wants to climb a mountain. Though climbing one is doubtful, we will see mountains.

- Carson still hasn't gotten to go on a fire. The time with him has been wonderful, but he's still hoping to get that experience before going back to school. So, we're praying for that...

- We have been married for TWO months! And it doesn't seem that long... probably because weddings are such a memorable thing and we can still visualize and process through that day as if it were yesterday. Carson, apparently, thinks it's been longer: "Happy twelve - wait - two - month's anniversary!"

More Wedding Pictures

These are the wedding pictures that didn't fit in any particular category, yet couldn't be left out! 

I like this one - just before the veil went on

Driving to Huspah for wedding pictures - Emily and Brooke

Morgan, Becca and Jillian - all the bridesmaids made sure to take pictures of themselves and what they did on my camera!

The wedding party!

Emily doing "crowd control"

Keeping the rain away!

My bouquet - totally different than I envisioned, and so much prettier!

On the way to get married! I love this picture

Bustling my dress

Bride, bridesmaids and flower girls - I'm excited to see the photographer version of this

The "Ultimate Maid of Honor" picture

The ring picture with the threesome :)

reception

We were married, so the next thing to do was to sign the marriage license. Our bridal party witnessed the signing in the living room which had earlier been cleared out due to rain. 

 

We started off with a group picture (which I'll be getting from our photographer soon!) 

And then, we ate. One nice thing about being the ones getting married is that you're first. We were both hungry but not that hungry, so Carson grabbed a plate and we both ate off it.

What did we eat? Well, Barbeque, for one. This wasn't my first choice (I don't like it) but it worked out to fit the outdoor wedding and the price point. We also had Macaroni and Cheese and fruit.

Tables and chairs were moved from the ceremony location to the other side of the yard. Everyone sat or walked around and talked. I love the busyness of this candid.

The Cake: The alligator cake toppers were carved by my dad and brother and made pretty by my mom. The eyes of the alligators are airsoft pellets, courtesy of Scott, given brown and blue Sharpie eyes. 

The cake itself I didn't care about. Becca and Mom picked it out at Publix. I think the inside was yellow cake mix. I had one bite. 

The alligator "theme" is because Carson's mom thought that alligators just ran rampant all over South Carolina and kept thinking that they'd be at the wedding.

I'm not sure how Carson found out about groom's cakes being a Southern tradition, but he really wanted one. We were originally going to have an Armadillo cake like the one in Steel Magnolias, but we decided to go for an alligator one. It was HUGE - like three feet or something. Apparently tasty too - red velvet insides to look like, you guessed it, blood. Gross. 

And here we are, cutting the cake (after toasts from our Best Man and Maid of Honor - no pictures of that though). I was laughing because we had no idea how to do it. Carson has his concentration face on.

I made him promise (roughly 30 times) that he wouldn't smash cake in my face. He complied and we just  got it in our mouths :)

And then, the first dance! We chose "The Way You Look Tonight" by Michael Buble and faded it out at about two minutes. When we practiced the few days before the wedding, it was awful - I stepped all over his toes, he tripped me... it was not good and we were dreading that moment. But when the time came, our first dance actually turned out decently. Carson threw in a few spins for good measure:

We chose to combine the Father-Daughter and Mother-Son dance into one because 

1. None of us are super dancers

2. None of us wanted to be the center of attention for a 3 minute song

3. Not everyone loves sitting there watching people dance forever

We chose "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (chosen the day before the wedding)

Ps - I like this picture too - the lights are twinkling!

More dancing... poor Morgan is going the wrong way and knows it...

After a little more dancing, we left! We had people throw lavender because it was purple and not very hard :) The camera flash in this picture makes me look headless.

Carson's camera was sitting in the car with us, so we took pictures of ourselves covered with lavender. Mom's poor car the next day... and I heard that more lavender was used as a prank in someone else's car.  

Just because we were gone, didn't mean people couldn't stay! I heard that people were dancing until late in the night. What a fun picture :)

wedding ceremony

The wedding! 

I hope everyone feels about their weddings the way I feel about ours. Though the rehearsal was a little crazy, the wedding went SO well. We started a little late because of a rain shower an hour before, but no one seemed to mind. We returned from taking pictures, ran into the house to touch up makeup and hair (and my veil which fell out...oops!) and all of a sudden, we were being ushered out to the front porch. Why? I wondered, assuming we were taking more pictures or something. We were not. The wedding was starting. I could faintly hear music as the grandparents and mothers were seated. Then the bridesmaids started leaving my line of vision all at once. The flowergirls left. Then Dad and I were standing there. Just us. 

He looked at me, tears somewhat feeling his eyes (or rain drops - I guess we'll never know) and he closed his eyes and prayed, hugged me, and then we walked. It was a long walk across the grass, strange to be looked at, and with everyone standing, I couldn't see Carson. We stopped at the top of the aisle and I saw him, our moms, and the bridesmaids, beaming. Gulp. 

After that, everything went really fast. Carson sweated a lot, making me think he was going to fall over (he just wasn't used to the South Carolina heat!), Carson spoke to our guests (I can't wait for the video), Vince talked really fast, we repeated vows (I have no recollection of that moment), and then prayed with our parents. Soon after, we were pronounced man and wife and were walking back to the house. It felt very strange, like it never happened. 

Carson's brother and best man, Trent and Carson walking Mom Bay down the aisle.

Lindsay's brother, Scott walking Mom Norman down the aisle

Dad Norman walking Lindsay down the aisle.

Bridal Party as the bride comes down the aisle

Before our vows, Carson shared his heart in a mini-sermon

Saying vows

Our first kiss as husband and wife

Back down the aisle... this was the most surreal part. We're married!

getting ready

Morgan and Becca prepping 

Maria working on my hair. We stopped for a break when it looked something like this and asked the flower girls what they thought. "Isn't it pretty?" We asked. "Noooo! It's ugly!" they said. 

The bridesmaid's dresses. 

Okay, so I love these dresses. They were the perfect purple (hard to find!) and they were like $30 from Target - can't beat that! The day before the wedding I had some time (read: I was procrastinating on something more important) and made tags with each girl's name so she could locate her correct dress. 

More hair... Hilary Mansell came to help with bridesmaid's hair. As far as I know, she got no direction - just made up these updos in her head. All the girls's hair looked so great! Here she is making Brooke's hair lovely...

And now Becca's turn...

My something new (green shoes [our colors were purple and green]), Something old (garter with a piece of Mom's wedding dress lace), and something blue and borrowed (Brooke's blue hair pin)

Emily primping (I think Jillian took this one - I love it!)

And now we're restarting the morning (I uploaded in the wrong order):

Everyone sitting in the den just after waking up morning of. I had been there alone. First Dad wandered in, then various bridesmaids, then Scott...

After chatting in the den and grabbing tea for us tea drinkers and coffee for the ones who needed a buzz, we headed into Mom's room for a devotional led by Jillian and a time of prayer. A wonderful way to begin the morning and such a blessing to look back on!

This was taken in the middle of getting ready. I love the busyness of it. Those not pictured previously are Amy, my photographer and Erin, my sister-in-law.

The dress going on... (I had an audience...)

Lastly, the bridesmaids putting the final touches on their ensembles. I really like this one too... so much going on.

rehearsal

 So, I'm going to post wedding related pictures because, well, I love looking at them :) 

We'll start with our rehearsal:

This is such an accurate depiction of the evening. It was chaotic, unstructured, and kind of fun. No one knew what to do, where to go, and the wedding seemed destined for failure... at least as far as making it down the aisle went. 

The girls - Morgan, Jillian, Emily, Becca and Brooke

The guys - Carson, Trent, Scott, Tyson. Anthony's flight didn't come in until Saturday morning.

We waited on the front porch until it was time to go around to walk down the aisle. It's sort of funny getting married at home.

Carson's family sitting down, bridesmaids and various others on the lawn. In the background you can see the decorations that went up all day.

And finally, the rehearsal dinner!

We had spaghetti, garlic bread, salad, and an apple dessert (because Carson's from WA). 

After dinner, we talked to everyone, and then Carson thanked people for coming. 

Then we took pictures. I felt like we took more pictures that night than at the wedding - here's the girls again!