So, how's the wedding planning going?

Are you getting stressed about the wedding planning yet?

Are you nervous?

Do you have everything planned yet?

Ahh, these are the questions constantly asked of a soon-to-be-married couple. And while they're generally well-meaning people, it does get frustrating to hear the same questions routinely asked.

I'm beginning to feel a little bit like President Bush must've felt after the "Mission Accomplished" speech regarding Iraq. No matter what he wanted to talk about, the questions were always about the war in Iraq and weapons of mass destruction.

So here's my quest, and a pretty good test of who reads this blog. Be sure to ask me about our weapons of mass celebration. I'll know what you mean, and I'll give a better answer.

Bad future husband, bad...

I've already broken our first wedding present.

Technically it was a bridal shower present, but the idea's the same. After clearing our house of junk thanks to Pandora's willingness to pick it up every three months, we started putting away some of the shower gifts.

She showed me these neato coasters for the living room. I couldn't quite figure out what they were made of, but the middle was hard. I started twisting it to see how solid it is.

Good news: They're pretty darned solid. Bad news: I can generate enough torque to break one.

So there it sits, on top of the pile of coasters, the one cracked one as a reminder that I should try being a little more gentle sometimes.

(And for the guys out there... Cork. There was cork in the middle, but it had a thin plastic covering. Was it worth ticking off Jess to find out? Probably.)

The wedding shower...

Jessica and her friends engaged in the age-old ritual of the wedding shower over the weekend. I've seen the pictures finally and have some insight into what really happened.




Jessica looks at her loot after a rather successful "Dollar Dance."




That Jessica, always the cut-up, makes a joke to the crowd.




Jessica shows the other women how we get Lissie to go to sleep promptly at 8:30 p.m. every night.




Jessica shows everyone what will happen to David if he ever shows up late and drunk.




It's the world's largest cocaine cutting tray!




Here's one girl begging to be deflowered.




(And now, so I can actually look forward to a wedding in July...)
She's the greatest gift of all.

Topiaries, candles and little cut ivy leaves...

The topic of how the reception tables seems to be a common topic of discussion in our house lately.

Jessica thinks she needs to cut little pieces of ivy off a larger plastic piece. She thinks it makes more sense than buying pre-cut pieces. She thinks it'll look better than letting the white tablecloth speak for itself.

And me? Well, I really could care less. But I like to razz Jess a little bet and get her worked up. I did a pretty efficient job of that Thursday when I accused her of wasting three to four hours of her life cutting ivy.

Today we asked my mom what she thought. I didn't have to ask Dad; I could tell what he thought from the way he rolled his eyes. She sided with Jess.

So tonight after we put Lissie to bed, Jess pulled out all of the pieces to the puzzle and set them up on our living room's coffee table, keeping me out of the room until she deemed it was ready.

When she finally permitted me to come into the room, it was absolutely beautiful. I'd never seen anything quite like it. Jessica had the most amazing smile on her face, so proud of how it looked. That smile and that joy are all I needed to see.

Anything that made her that happy must be worth its weight in gold, no matter what I think of the process that goes into it. (Which I still think is riduculous, but we'll agree to disagree on that one... just remember, I'm the one supervising when it's all set up in the reception hall. Mwahahahaha....)

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Ivy, Part Two:

An amusing thing happened while we were shopping for the aforementioned ivy this afternoon.

Jessica found the bushes of plastic ivy of which she sought. Lissie and I began piling them up together when we realized we needed a shopping cart. I went to retrieve one.

When I returned, Lissie did a wonderful job getting all those branches into the cart. But alas, a stray two leaves had fallen to the ground. Given our debate, I muttered to Lissie, "If she's cutting every leaf off those branches, we'd better pick up every one of them."

Jessica laughed. She's a keeper.