Ladies and Gentlemen...We Have A RING!

Yes, folks, it's true! I actually have a wedding band that I LOVE and that matches my engagement ring perfectly! I'm so thrilled (i.e. relieved) that this is an issue I no longer need to worry about. Sorry, but no picture! Since the big day is so close, I figured I'd just wait to post it with the rest of our wedding photos.

The band fits the curve of my engagement ring, and is super thin so that it actually almost blends in with the micro diamonds on the sides of the engagement ring. It just accents the beauty of the engagement ring, instead of trying to over power it. I'm so glad our jeweler understood (clearly a lot better than I did) that there really isn't a wedding band in the world that is equal in beauty to my engagement ring. The best thing to do is just let the engagement ring shine!

He was also able to do the engravings inside the rings, which made me super happy. We chose to have a quote from "Letter XXI" from Confidential Correspondence of the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Josephine: "To love you alone, to make you happy...this is my destiny."

Bart's ring reads, "To love you alone, to make you happy," and mine says, "this is my destiny." I thought it was actually kind of nice that we had to split the quote between our two rings, since, together, they create the one declaration of love.

In other news, Bart is still sick--or if you ask him, insanely ill. And he's still studying so hard for his finals. I feel so bad for the poor boy. There is nothing worse than being really sick AND having to study and take all important finals at the same time. So, I do the only things that I can do to make him feel better; I feed him his favorite foods, comfort him, baby him and give him mini pep talks so that he doesn't lose faith in himself. Please pray for him!

14 Days!

I can't believe that we have exactly two weeks until our wedding. Until we are husband and wife. I'm so excited that I almost can't stand it! Seriously, the level of excitement we are talking about here is right up there with a 10 year old going to Disney World in two weeks.

Things have been going really well with the last minute wedding details. Just about everything is taken care of (minus the flower girls' baskets and the unity candle stuff) and our rings are coming tomorrow!!! I really can't wait to see what my wedding band looks like. I made sure to give him absolutely NO instructions beyond the engraving inside the bands. Bart asked the jeweler how it looked, and he said, "Just like it should have looked the first time." I really should just leave things to the professionals from now on.

Anyway, Mrs. H has been on the Cape for the past week and decided that your every day escort cards were just not good enough for our wedding, so she went out and bought a bunch of sand dollars that we are going to attach dark blue, blue/grey and white ribbon to, depending on the meal, and write the guests' names and tables on them! Cute, right? I was hoping to write them out with my California Cousins when we all meet in NY, but she's already started them. That's okay, though, because we have centerpieces to make!

Bart isn't doing so well lately--he's sick (he gets sick ONCE a year and decides that now is the time for a viral attack?!) and has finals allllll this week before we leave. He has 13 days to get himself healthy. He'd better do it, too, because I don't want anyone sick and unable to enjoy our day.

It's so crazy that in just two weeks I won't be Kari Carelli anymore. Or ever again. Which reminds me--I need to ask Maria what I need to do to change my last name...

Opportunities

I just really love to watch a movie that makes me think. And I love it even more when the movie isn't meant to be intellectual, just funny, but it makes me think.

Last night Bart, Jason and I watched Evan Almighty after dinner. It wasn't anything any of us necessarily wanted to watch--it was just the only thing on. Anyway, there was this really great quote made by God (a.k.a. Morgan Freeman) that I've been thinking about almost non-stop since watching this movie.

"Let me ask you something. If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous? If someone prayed for the family to be closer, do you think God zaps them with warm fuzzy feelings, or does he give them opportunities to love each other?"

Does that make sense, or does that make sense? I mean, maybe it made sense to you a long time ago, but I have personally never thought about prayer that way. I always thought that, one day, God would finally instill in me the ability to not freak out over everything unsatisfactory that came my way. It never occurred to me that He would want me to PRACTICE not freaking out; that he would want me to PRACTICE forgiveness. How else do you learn how to do something if you don't try it out yourself?

So, I am proud to tell you, I took an opportunity God gave me today to practice my patience when Bart snapped at me about some household chore. I remembered that he has a big proposal for school coming up this week, along with a huge list of other stressful things, and did not mean to lash out at me. He just wanted help. And do you know what? I was PATIENT and FORGIVING without Bart even knowing it! And it felt great!

Looking Here, Looking There...

Today was our second day (or second Saturday) of apartment hunting and...the news is good! And bad! We think we may have found an excellent apartment in which to begin our lives as husband and wife! I really didn't think it was possible, especially since I so badly wanted (still want, actually) the place across the hall, but I could definitely love "the high-rise apartment." But, the upfront price is steep.

The ONLY fly in the ointment, so to speak, is that we'd have to come up with a pretty sizable amount of money pretty darn quick to secure this place. And the only problem with that is the fact that we have spent so much money on the wedding already AND we have August's rent here to still pay, that we aren't sure if we can swing it financially. We'd pretty much have to use a huge chunk of wedding money (if we receive any) to pay for the second month and bills.

So, Bart and I have something new to discuss and mull over for the next month. At this point, I don't really care what happens as long as we have a half-way decent place to live--the wedding has taken up ALL of my available stress. Say a prayer for us!

Hot

It's so hot here that I really think I might melt. And I'm exhausted from working overtime and from a day full of doctor's appointments (to try to clear up my 13 year old girl acne) and shopping for a stupid black blazer for work. In 98 degree weather. Whew.

On the bright side, I'm too tired and hot to be stressed! AND...

I'M GETTING MARRIED IN 22 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!

Outdoor TV

Last night, as Bart and I were getting ready to go to bed, I heard a man talking outside under our living room window. I forget what he said, but it apparently sounded interesting at the time because I went over to take a look. There were two police officers outside directing traffic away from the street we live on. I'm guessing that they needed one of the streets nearby to film a scene for the new Transformers movie (they've been fliming alllll over the city). Don't ask me what was so super entertaining about it, but Bart and I sat on the couch and watched all of the goings-on on the street for about 40 minutes before going to bed.

Anyway, it kind of made me wonder if that's what people did before TV and radios. There was not one exciting thing going on outside beyond the occasional near accident because of stupid Chicago cab drivers, but we just couldn't tear ourselves away. It was so neat to be able to clearly see what was going on and hear what people were saying down below and know that they didn't know we were watching. Almost like it wasn't quite real. Like it was just a bunch of actors on a television show. I wonder what will be "on" tonight!

OHM. OHHMMM.

That's me trying to find inner peace. And make peace with the fact that nothing is ever going to run smoothly as far as wedding plans go. E.V.E.R.

So, yesterday--or, if you're counting, day 3 of freaking out over the minister's kids--things got worse. Phenominally worse. We booked our plane tickets. How is that bad, you ask? Isn't it great that you are actually going to make it to this wedding you've poured your blood, sweat and tears into? Yeah, that's fantastic. The $900 (no, that is not a typo) price tag, however, was not. I'll make a long story short, since I'm sure you can imagine the extent of freaking out that occured on my part, and say that I ended the day with the WORST migrane of my entire life.

But you know what? That horrible day ended up being a really fantastic one. I slept in the car on the way home, threw dinner in the oven and got my sorry behind on the couch. Bart was so sweet. He came and sat next to me, put my feet up on some pillows and went a poured me a tall, ice cold glass of Mr. & Mrs. T's Bold & Spicy Bloody Mary Mix. I know how bizzare that sounds, but I have been addicted, and I mean addicted like thank-God-its-not-Crack addicted, since my move out here. We won't even go into how much money I've spent on bottles of that stuff. BUT I want to add that I don't drink it with booze. It just doesn't taste as good. Seriously. But I digress...

Anyway, Bart brought me my delicious drink, turned on an episode of Wipeout that we DVR'd and lightly tickled my arms to help me relax. Now, I do know how sweet all of this was, but I have to tell you I also find it almost comical when he goes to this extent to take care of me. It's like he has absolutely NO idea what to do, and so he brings me allllllll of the things I like all at once. Like a little boy. So cute.

All of that just showed me how greatful I should be for what I've got--even if what I've got is five extra brats coming to my wedding, but whatever. I need to let go of my anger and frustration so much faster than I do, because it just puts a strain on everything else I'm trying to accomplish. I know it's pretty late in the game, but I'm going to try hard to brush off all of the rest of the crap that is going to fly my way for the next three weeks. And keep in mind that I'll return to being a normal human being once it's all over!

My migrane went away and we ended up having a nice dinner, laughing our butts off at people falling down, and then going to bed early and just talking about how much in love we are and imagining our future together. After all, isn't that what really matters most?

AHHHHHHHH!

This is (another) venting post. The big news this time is that Bart, finally, got ahold of his family minister to schedule our final meeting before the wedding and to discuss the rehearsal times. Apparently, this is when the minister decided to drop a bomb on us: not only are he and his wife (whom we invited) coming to our wedding, but now his FIVE children are, too. FIVE. Can I just tell you how pissed off this makes me because we had to drastically scale back our wedding list to just one hundred people due to budget issues? And now we tack on FIVE little kids that we a) don't know and b) don't want there and c) now have to feed. He even asked Bart if there was "anything special" going on for the kids coming to the wedding. The only kids coming are my 9 year old cousin who is reading and Bart's two little cousins who are our flower girls. No, sir, I am NOT hiring a babysitter for your kids that you insist on bringing with you.

What is wrong with people? Why do people think that it is totally okay to bring everyone they know to a wedding? Don't they know that we probably have a budget for this wedding??? NOT TO MENTION the rehearsal dinner, which we have already budgeted for. We can't just raise the guest list to 40 just for him. What the hell am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to take money out of my own savings (that hasn't already been spent on the wedding) and pay for his kids to eat at a dinner they were never supposed to go to? Do I call the innkeeper and force her to allow five extra kids into our reception after I already fought her for Jack, Felicity and Aiyla? This is not what I needed to have dumped on me just a few weeks before my wedding.

Wedding Nightmares

Bart and I will be getting married in exactly one month and three days (eeeek!!!). This means that I have had a huge jump in wedding nightmares in the last week. And by huge jump, I mean one every other night instead of one per week. I guess I can forget the beauty sleep. Yikes.

At first these dreams were just plain weird, but they have gotten scarier and more realistic by the month. This week, one of my nightmares was about the infamous wedding bands. In the dream, I went to the jeweler's to pick up the finished wedding band, along with my engagement ring, only to find that the jeweler had destroyed my original engagement ring. He had two particular wedding band designs in mind that did not go with my ring, so he created two other engagement rings--one to match each of the new wedding bands. I woke up shaking and crying and filled with an overwhelming sense of panic about how I was going to tell Bart what happened to the ring he gave me. It took me a full minute to realize that it had all been a (very) bad dream.

Last night I had a horrible dream in which I realized, the day of my wedding, that I had NEVER gone back for any of my dress fittings. Which meant that, not only did I not have the dress, but it wasn't going to fit me at all. There were also a ton of other things going wrong, but I don't remember what they were. My family forced me to get my hair and make-up done, telling me that the dress didn't matter, but at the same time, whispering behind my back that I was stupid, unprepared and foolish to forget about it. I woke up at that point, again, crying, sweating and filled with panic.

I wish I knew that dreams like this were normal. Could it be weird to dream that you are walking down the aisle and NO ONE cares? That everyone is talking to each other and dressed in shorts and t-shirts?

In related news, Bart and I still don't have our plane tickets. To our own wedding. Our rehearsal dinner is still not finalized. I still don't have an appointment for a hair trial at the salon (thanks, Traci). Oh, and I still have to order alllllllllll of the stuff for the non-floral centerpieces. AHHHHH!

I feel like I won't get a good night's sleep until my wedding night.

Books

I am looking forward to a boring weekend. A weekend (for me, a day and a half) of reading, movie watching and, minimal, wedding planning. Unfortunately, I finished my box of B&N Bargain Books about a month ago and have had to resort--again--to re-reading some. Which is fine, I love to read books 2,3 or even 10 (Pride & Prejudice) times. I just don't love to read them immediately after I finish. I'm doing my best to scrimp and save here and there to come up with enough money for another load of books.

Is there anything better than a quiet day of just laying around reading a new or favorite book and eating a huge jar of pickles? I didn't think so. I told Bart the other day that I couldn't wait for him to finally become a doctor so that I can order books more often without worrying so much about the fact that the money I spent could have been used elsewhere. He responded with, "Once I become a doctor, you can order ALL the books you want, whenever you want." That boy sure knows the way to my heart <3

I've been thinking about trying to find some Agatha Christie books to read. I've been watching her stories on PBS's Masterpiece Mystery every week and I just love Miss Marple. But then I love just about anything British/European. Anyway, I do need some other ideas, so if you have a favorite book, author or have heard of a good book, let me know!

Fourth

Bart and I had a great Fourth of July yesterday. It was a little bit sad since we didn't have our friends and family from home with us to celebrate the birth of our country, but we made sure we had fun.
I woke up to a pretty surprise from Bart. Let's just hope that I a) don't kill it and/or b) it is able to get enough sunlight from our windows.
After we spent some of the afternoon reading the paper (Bart) and reading a book (me), we decided to go for a walk in the (sweltering) sun. We ended up wandering to the Lincoln Park Zoo, which is really pretty much outside of our door--and free! We wandered through the zoo for a while, but left pretty quickly since most of the animals were too hot to hang around outside where we could see them. Poor things! We did manage to get a couple of photos, though.






Like I said, we didn't get to see too many animals, but there is always the city "wildlife."

Anyway, after the Zoo, Bart and I decided to walk to the Lincoln Park Conservatory to look at the beautiful flowers and plants they have. Because we came from the Zoo, we walked through the Victorian garden that was planted in front of the Conservatory. It was so beautiful! Now, I should tell you that this is exactly where Bart brought me my first whole day in Chicago, but that was in November. No flowers, no butterflies. I was so thrilled to see the gardens full of life and to sit on a bench and people watch--just like the first day I was here.





And while we were there, we saw a bride and groom having their wedding pictures being taken in the gardens! I got so excited that I practically dragged Bart closer so I could take pictures of the happy couple, too.



Is that dress just stunning? I am seriously thinking I chose the wrong dress for myself. And what a beautiful place to have wedding pictures taken! I always love seeing couples having their wedding pictures taken in the city because it reminds me that there is a light at the end of this hellish tunnel that is Wedding Planning and that I'll get to enjoy my day with Bart when it finally arrives.

So, even though Bart and I didn't grill or even make it to the fireworks display (we were exhausted), we still had a lovely Fourth. I hope yours was great, too!

Holiday in Chicago

So the Fourth of July is fast approaching, as is my paid (!!!), 3 day(!!!!) holiday from work. I can't even begin to describe how thrilled I am to be looking forward to sleeping in for multiple days in a row. Sweet.

Bart and I really aren't sure what to do with ourselves this weekend. Right now, the Taste of Chicago is going on, but we've already been and tasted the not-so-great food. There are a ton of concerts going on in various parks and Giada DeLaurentiis is in town, so maybe I'll have Bart take me to see her and have her sign my cookbook.

The only other big thing we can do is go to one of the firework shows on the lakefront. One thing I'm worried about are the crowds. The off-duty policemen who work at the clinic/college for security told me that murders and other crimes jump dramatically during the holidays, especially during the summer. Just last weekend over 40 people were murdered in what I guess is some kind of gang war. That doesn't include the other weekends we've had in the month of June. Yikes.

Frankly, I'd love to do a little shopping (clothes for work, so it's justified, OKAY?) and maybe have a nice sushi dinner out at our favorite place. Just lay low, you know? Since most of the big wedding stuff is out of the way (I finally got a wonderful florist and the rings should be mailed out today), I figure I deserve a nice relaxing weekend. Maybe I'll even get a mani/pedi while I'm at it.