Hey, you know what? Blog therapy is great. This time around, the wedding dress worked out really well! And of course, I spent the whole time taking photos, but none of me. Great right? When the bride and groom have a chance to look over the photos, then I’ll post one of the fam. But for now, all is well in dressland. Thank you internet. Please bill my people for your services. »
I know I had a huge shoe dilema a couple of months ago. But that’s over and done. Onto more pressing matters. Finding a dress for a summer wedding. For some unknown reason, it completely has me frazzled. I have never had good luck with dresses for summer weddings for a couple of reasons. One, I’m pasty as all get-out, so I have to be very careful with colors. Two, I hate being hot and equally hate “glistening” (seriously, it’s not cool – pun intended). Let’s review:
June Wedding 2004, Springfield, MO »
I’m in the back row, 2nd from the right. You can’t see me well, but I wore a gorgeous wine-colored silk dress with delicate beading. And after the ceremony, I had to put a cardigan over my dress because I was “glistening” so badly from the heat and the silk was not my friend that night.
May Wedding, 2005, Springfield, MO »
Front row, second from right, next to the groom. Great dress (me, not the groom). Loved it. I was 105 lbs (loved that too, but I had a stomach condition at the time that wasn’t good. And it wasn’t an eating disorder). I don’t think I can squeeze myself into that one again after two years of marriage. Maybe if I double-up layers of Spanx like Liz Lemmon on 30Rock. Know what’s really bad? For a second there, I actually just considered it for an upcoming wedding, but I can’t do Spanx with 80+ temps. Although, I could lose a few pounds of water weight…hmmm…
May Wedding, 2007, Springfield, MO
I’ll keep it short and sweet, but this is the one wedding that probably scarred me the most. I wore a sea-foam green and floral dress with great salmon-colored heels. To a Friday night wedding. There was a mix-up with details. I thought it was a Saturday afternoon. Hence the reason for no picture. Not one. And I made certain of it.
May Wedding, 2007, Lihue, HI
My wedding. The best. Ever. Perfect gown. Perfect man. (See our About section)
May 2008, Ozark, MO »
Great dress here. Really, no complaints. I was dumb enough to wear spike heels to a backyard wedding. Those didn’t last more than 10 minutes. Lesson learned.
August 2008, Milwaukee, WI »
This was my brother’s wedding. Gorgeous dress, gorgeous color. But that darn heat. No A/C in the church didn’t help either. We were sitting on these hard wooden pews and I kept sliding because of the material. I just about passed out from the constriction of that dress. (Not 30 minutes after this picture was taken, torrential downpours).
Wow, now that I’ve just bored you all to tears, I feel better. Thanks for the therapy.
Seriously though, these dresses aren’t bad. I don’t think I’ve been too over/under-dressed (with the exception of 1). I just get myself so worked up. Does anyone have a Prozac?
So I’m off this weekend to look for a dress to wear to yet another Springfield wedding. It’s outdoor, in a backyard. No spike heels, check. Breathable fabric, check. No silk or satin, check. No white, check, check.
I’ll keep you posted and hopefully be able to post some great pics when I get back. »
Hey all, thanks for your patience. We’re playing around with some different styling ideas here. Dallas has been awesome (of course) in expediting this process. So hopefully now everyone can leave comments and see photos, blah, blah.
So yesterday we headed into the city for an early start to the birthday festivities. Dallas started off the day with surprising me with a Nikon D40 SLR. It’s an amazing camera. He’s an amazing man. : ) This was our first attempt at photography outside. We had just finished some shopping and were waiting for the bus to head to dinner.
Dinner was at one of our favorite restaurants, Chicago Pizza and Oven-grinder. We affectionately call it CPOG. If you come to visit us in Chicago, it is very likely that we’ll drag you here and make you wait the hour to two hours it takes to get in. And then you will thank us afterward for the little slice of heaven we just gave you.
Today, Sunday, we spent our afternoon in Milwaukee. We were a little early for meeting up with people, so we stopped at Starbucks so Dallas could figure out this site and I could play with my new camera. : )
This is our reason for the trek to Milwaukee. The handsome little guy is my little brother, John, who is technically not littler than I am. And this is his adorable wife Becca, who is much littler than I am. Dang it all. I blame CPOG pizza. And the fact that 30 is creeping up on me and stole my metabolism. They’re moving to Oklahoma next week. I’m going to miss them being so far away.
Then we headed to Kopp’s, a Milwaukee landmark of glorious frozen custard. Today’s flavors: German Apple Streusel and Cookies & Cream. Due to the loss of my metabolism and my growing waistline, I passed. I know, that sounds ludicrous. It is. But I had no choice. So instead of taunting myself with custard, I took photos of the lovely seating area. At night, this is light up and it really is beautiful. Minus the melted puddles of custard on the ground.
We had a really nice time, albeit too short. The drive home was relaxing and we’re relaxing to gear up for another week of birthday fun ahead! »
Please pardon the absence of blogging. There are a few things about my existing site that I’m not completely thrilled with, one being the lack of commenting available and secondly, my lack of web knowledge. I thought that being married to a web geek would allow information to flow osmotically across from his head to mine, but apparently it doesn’t work that way. So, please be patient while we work out some technical plans.
Thanks all!
Erin »
So we’re back in Chicago after a trip to Springfield, Missouri. Dallas’ brother Easton just got engaged (Congratulations!!) to an incredibly sweet young woman, and we finally got to meet her. They are such a cute couple and totally in love. Best wishes to them for a lifetime of love and happiness.
Our “vacation” didn’t turn out as relaxing as we had hoped. Work always seems to follow us wherever we go. From my end, I do have a job to go back to. I think my position may be more fluid then I hoped depending on where I’m needed, but I’ll take it. Halfway through the week, Dallas’ bronchial infection returned so a trip to Urgent Care ate up a day. But it made him rest, which he obviously needed.
We met up with some great friends at a restaurant, Old Chicago. Don’t be fooled – it’s got nothing on Chicago. But our calzone was tasty.
I know it’s tricky, but I’m the pasty one on the right end.
Date night took us down to Branson Landing, which was surprisingly nice. It was kind of twilight-zonish. There were shops that I felt were more Chicago-based, but we were in Branson. Kind of weird. Anyway, we went to Cantina Laredo for dinner, a great Mexican restaurant right on the lake. It was very tasty and nice to get away, just the two of us. »
The weather was scorching, to say the least. The temps were in the 90s with the heat index in the 100+ range. Considering that the week before we left Chicago was only in the 70’s and raining, it was a shocker. It made us appreciate Chicago the moment we got home. And sleeping in my own bed has never felt more like heaven. (No picture here.)
So we’ll be back in the saddle on Monday, but just enjoying our time together. Taste of Chicago is this week and next, so we’ll be meeting up with friends to hunt down some crab legs and cheesecake on a stick! I love Chicago! »
Wow, it’s been almost two weeks. My apologies. It’s been crazy busy and I can’t wait to get into bed tonight and sleepl I’ve been waiting for Saturday since Sunday evening.
My project here at work is just about wrapping up and I’ll be transitioning to a new hybrid position. I’m still waiting on signatures for a 100% final confirmation, but I’ve been assured that it will in no way affect my employment. Great news there.
Tomorrow we head up to Milwaukee for a graduation party and then a small birthday party for my brother. Then home for laundry and cleaning. Mom T. is coming in on Monday to stay with us for a few days. It’s been six months since we’ve last seen her and I love how she gushes over my cooking. Please, she cooked for 9 people her whole life – the woman has got miles on me! But I appreciate the encouragement. Dallas is also very encouraging too. : )
The week after next we’re heading down to Springfield for a getaway. Not that Springfield is really a vacation spot, but there are family and friends we have not seen in quite a while and we look forward to lots of hugs, Zio’s (a restaurant I worked at for a summer and LOVE the food), James River, and NO WORK!!
I’m sorry there is really nothing witty and clever today. I am so completely mentally exhausted. I will post more and be sure to add photos. Now if I could just find that camera… »
Last Wednesday was our second wedding anniversary. Two years! It’s gone by so fast, yet it feels like the most normal thing. We feel like we’ve been together forever, but not in the ball-and-chain kind of way. It just clicks.
We wanted to go to one of our favorite restaurants but, due to the economy and its less than ideal location, it went under. So, we went to a new steakhouse. The atmosphere was very relaxing, but dinner was so-so. The tiramisu was amazing, so that made up for it. And the company. Isn’t he handsome?? I think I’ll keep him. »
So, I did it. I bought “serviceable” shoes tonight. They were the only thing I could really stomach. And they’re Velcro, which adds a bit of flare, don’t you think? »
So next week we’re touring an industrial facility and we were emailed the dress requirements today. It was pretty standard – long pants, closed-toed shoes, etc. But what really got my goat was the specifications of the shoes. Closed-toe, hard-soled, and no gym shoes or heels. If you know me, that has tossed me into quite a conundrum.
All of my shoes fall into the restricted categories. Any boots I own, have heels. Ballet flats are unacceptable as the top of the foot is exposed (GASP), and the rest are all heels. Oh, and the three pairs of sneakers I own. Which means I have an awful task ahead of me.
I have to buy boots.
Like serious work boots.
Like, I wouldn’t be caught-dead-in-these boots.
This is bad. I’ll keep you posted on the progress and running bill from my therapist. »
I borrowed a digital SLR camera just to try it out. I also picked up a “Just for Dummies” book at the library and will have a go at it over the next couple of days. Here are a few shots I took today while enjoying the glorious spring weather. »
