4 Weeks to Go!

After taking a week off to finalize wedding details, get married, etc. I am back on to focusing on my training. The 60 mile, 3 day walk is only 4 weeks away! I am feeling close to ready. After following the Boston 3 Day on twitter (#the3day), I am so excited!! It’s gonna be an awesome experience!

The first half of the week, it was REALLY hot, and I was not feeling well at all! I didn’t do any training.

Wednesday: There was a heat index of about a million degrees, or so it felt. The window A/C units couldn’t keep up, so the kids and I decided to walk up to the beach. It’s about 1.75 miles or so. I made sure we all had plenty of water, and on we went. In hind sight, we probably should have driven there… We were over halfway there before I really noticed just how hot it was. The beach we went to was clean, and quite shaded. It was very comfortable for me to hang out and watch the kids play. We ended up staying for an hour and a half. The temperature had dropped significantly by the time we walked home. We stopped at home to drop off the beach bag and see if Jason wanted to come to DQ with us. He didn’t, so we walked up there… I figured the kids deserved a treat since they walked 4.5 miles with me!

Friday: After dropping off my kids at their dad’s, Jason and I went jet skiing. I forgot how tiring it can be to ride for 2 hours. No walking for this girl after riding that jet ski!

Saturday: Jason and I hung out at home the first half of the day, but then headed out for more jet skiing. After 2 hours, my arms and thumb were sore, my legs/butt hurt from sitting on the jet ski for so long. I had a lot of fun – I’m finally starting to feel more comfortable at 30 miles an hour, was jumping some waves, fish-tailing some, and whipping around in some pretty good loops. Since I am still fairly new to jet skiing, I was also holding on for dear life! Man, am I sore!

When we got home and ate, Duke and I headed out for a 2.5 mile walk. We went the same path I often go, down around the park and back. This time, I opted to go the opposite way as usual, since I was already worn out… the idea of walking up a big hill at the end did NOT appeal to me! Downhill was a much better choice. By the time I got home, my thighs and hips were really ready for a break.

Sunday
I had a training walk scheduled. One person RSVP’d, but no on showed up. The training walk was scheduled to be 7.7 miles. Since I was on my own, I decided to alter the route, and ended up walking 8.42 miles! My hips, thighs, buns were still sore from all the jet skiing. At about 6 miles, I could have easily taken the short cut home. I thought about it, but didn’t want to back out of my commitment to walk about 8 miles. I sucked it up, and kept going! My whole body ached by that last mile or so, but on I went. I need to keep working on the 8 mile walks, so my body doesn’t get so sore from them.

Miles this week: 15.42
Total miles to date: 186.5
Fundraising progress: $1507/$2300 (only $793 to go!)

Related links: My fundraising page
Another Reason to Walk For the Cure

Get Hawt Challenge: The blog challenge continues, this week’s topic: food. I don’t have much to say on this… I have been trying to eat healthier, at least somewhat, but don’t pay too close of attention most of the time. I’ve been bad on drinking pop, but not having Dr. Pepper or Mtn Dew in the house seems to be helping. Coke gives me a headache, so I can only drink small amounts. I just have to remember to replace the normal amount of caffeinated beverage with water or something else so I don’t get dehydrated.

The Right Clothes for Walking

As I have been doing my training, I have figured out a few things about the clothes to wear or not wear. I am not a runner, and I believe they have different needs. As a walker though, I have discovered that for a long walk, just wearing your regular clothes is not a good idea. I’m not going to pretend to be an expert in this area, just wanted to share some things I’ve learned.

Shoes
When I started my training, I wore an old, well-worn pair of Nike’s. I got shin splints every time. I went to Scheels, and got a good pair of shoes. I blogged about it here.

Socks
When I went to buy my shoes for The 3 Day, the salesperson at Scheels was very helpful. He seemed very knowledgeable on the products he was selling, and was himself, a runner. He talked to me about getting some socks with no cotton, and how they would really help with the prevention of blisters. At almost $10/pair, I thought he was just trying to upsell me. That said, I was sick of the blisters under my pinky toe, and figured I’d buy one pair to try. WOW! What a difference they actually made! I bought some other “moisture wicking” socks since then, but they don’t seem to do quite as good of a job. Turns out, there is a small percentage of cotton in those socks. 100% synthetic, is, apparently, the only way to go. Before the walk, I will be picking up a few more pairs.

Material
The main thing I have learned in this area – jeans/denim is not a good idea for long walks. I figured “it’s just walking, why wear special clothes?” My first long training walk, I wore jeans. It was a chilly, rainy day, and I figured jeans would be the warmest. That was a bad idea. Denim, especially once it gets wet, and you start to sweat, starts to chaffe, in areas that you don’t want to walk miles and miles with. They also don’t stretch well, and tend to tighten in areas as you get hot and your body starts to swell. I think the jeans contributed to the hip pain I experienced on that walk.

I also have been learning about layers (especially when I was training in a very rainy/snowy spring). I don’t quite have this one mastered yet (for summer temps), but here’s what I discovered: a winter jacket, no matter how cold it is when you set out for a multi-mile walk, is NEVER a good idea. You’re going to get hot. When you start to heat up, and then over-heat, dehydration quickly sets in (even when you have a water bottle with you). Also, your heart may race, and you will feel quite fatigued, very quickly. When walking when the temps are cooler, a sweatshirt, preferable one that zips down, is a good idea. As your body warms up, you can unzip it to let some heat out. When you get warm enough, you can tie it around your waist.

I have not dabbled in all the breathable materials out there, or specialized clothes that so many runners wear. I have my t-shirts, and my stretchy-material pants/capris that I wore to dance class. Those seem to work just fine on my walks so far.

Bra
I know men out there don’t have to deal with this issue (lucky), but I have learned, the hard way, just how important it is to wear a good sports bra, even while walking! One morning, I set out for an early morning walk. I had my regular clothes on. I figured, it was just a couple miles, so it wouldn’t be a big deal. Let’s just say, my chest hurt so bad by the end of that day, and for 2 days afterwards. Since that day, I have only worn a sports bra if I was going for more than one mile! Oh, and to quote Karen Lopez (@datachick): “I’d bet that more than 50% of women’s running injuries are from trying to get in and out of a running bra.” While this may be true, you can also get injured NOT wearing one!

Sunblock
I haven’t gotten too burned not wearing sunblock, yet. Though, my face has had some interesting tan lines this summer (kind of like a raccoon, from sunglasses). Walking 20 miles in the sun, it goes without saying, that the effects could be BAD! When I post a training walk, I always remind people to have sunglasses and/or a hat, and recommend they wear sunblock.

Other Items
I have yet to discover the best kind of pack to wear on the walk… The 3 Day recommends a fanny pack of some sort. The pictures I have seen show some pretty huge ones! I’ll need to carry a water bottle, change of socks, my knee-brace (just in case), maybe some snacks, a poncho, bandaids, ibuprofin, etc… I bought a sling-style backpack to wear, but with my bad shoulders, it doesn’t seem to be working out. I have been practicing wearing it with my items inside, but my shoulders have gotten really sore the next day from wearing it on longer walks. My fanny pack is not large enough to hold everything I need. Not sure if I’ll end up getting something else, or just bring lots of Advil and wearing the sling-pack.

The walk is coming up quickly, and while I feel mostly prepared, I still feel like there are some things I need to figure out. I plan on buying some new insoles for my shoes, as mine are getting worn out. I don’t have a 2nd pair of shoes yet. I’m afraid I might be running out of time to get some, and get them broken in on time. I appreciate any comments on recommended items to bring, or wear on the walk.

Our Epic Party

On Saturday, July 16th, I married the man who has become my best friend over the past 2 years or so. We’ve known each other for about 15 or so years. You can read the story of us here. It was an awesome day, though the days leading up to it had a few bumps. Our day was stuck right in the middle of 3 days of rain and a heat wave, so we ended up having to deal with both. You can read the groom’s version of the story here, or read on for the more detailed version of the day.

About 2:30 in the afternoon, guests started to arrive. 3:30 came along, and we were ready to go! The Imperial March started, and the bridal party headed down the aisle. People were giggling, and some cheering at the song choice. Two of Jason’s boys laid out the aisle runner, and The Star Wars Theme song started playing. Do you have any idea of what a great march song that is? Yes, we are that geeky! We used star wars songs for our marches! It was awesome! My son walked me down the aisle. He was very nervous about people looking at him.

My grandpa performed the ceremony, which was very nice. He almost forgot the “kiss the bride” part, but we made sure that happened! After the Receiving Line (those poor people who had to hug a very sweaty bride and groom since it was about a million degrees out) it was time for a social hour, and a few remaining pictures we needed to have taken. Of course, somewhere in there, we both had to tweet that we were officially married! We had our own hashtag on twitter #stratewedding. Some people posted to it throughout the day, including myself.

I was starting to worry about some of our guests that I knew were coming at this point of the day. A few people ended up missing the ceremony due to GPS leading them in the wrong direction. A couple of my friends coming from Chippewa Falls, who followed the “simple” directions I put on our website ended up lost. It was TOTALLY my fault!!! I (unknowingly) put directions from MN only. Instead of saying “go south” on such and such a road, I said “take a right”. A few people ended up finding it, and a few gave up after driving around for a while. Can you imagine how terrible I felt that people had driven all that way (about an hour), only to turn around and go home?? I had my phone on me, but who’s going to call the bride on her big day?!? I still feel bad about it, because I know that the two families who gave up were both really excited to come!!

Anyway, the pig got done, the caterer, Twin Cities Flavor, showed up… it was time to start to chow down! I hope SOMEONE got pictures of the pig. It was such a busy day, and it was set up a ways from where most of the action was, so I didn’t even get to see it. It sure tasted good though!! My cousin’s husband, Andy, did a great job! Everyone commented on how good the food was. In fact, between the pig and the sides we had catered in, we even heard guests say it was the best food they’d ever had at a wedding!

We cut the cake, and ended up with only a little frosting on our faces!

The dance started… Jason and I danced to Marry Me by Train. Then, the wedding party danced. We took turns being silly across the floor. Jason danced with his mom, and I danced with Michael for a mother/son dance. The dance continued for a while until our unwanted guest showed up. You can read one guest’s account of the situation here.

A cute little raccoon peeked out from the corn… Apparently, it stayed for a while watching the festivities. Then someone decided to throw cake out to it. This was a BAD idea! It started to cross the road, had a stand off with a van (which was pretty funny). The raccoon continued to come closer to the wedding party, and was not afraid of the 50 or so people lining the road looking at it. The groomsmen fulfilled their “traditional role” of protecting everyone. They were lined along the edge of the tent with chairs, in case the raccoon charged anyone. A friend of mine threw a beer can, hit it in the head, and it just sat there. It started licking up the beer that was left, and proceeded to have a seizure in front of us. Then, it started foaming at the mouth – literally. At that point, I was glad another friend had called 911 to have it taken care of. Not that I wanted anything to die on my wedding day, but I also didn’t want any guests to get bit by the rabid animal either. An ambulance trip for anyone would have surely ended the festivities! A bunch of the guys got brave, and trapped the raccoon under a barrel until the police officer got there. My step-dad went to get his shot gun. While the raccoon was being “taken care of”, the preschooler teacher in me gathered as many kids as we could for an epic game of Ring Around the Rosie. The kids didn’t need to see anymore of the incident! In the end, everyone was ok (except the raccoon who left with the officer for testing), but some of our guests ended up leaving early, because they didn’t really want to see where the whole thing was going. That was unfortunate.

The party went on – we did the garter toss and bouquet toss. My cousin caught the garter. Kind of funny, since he hates weddings. A twitter friend who we met that night, Lauren (@LSquared83|blog) caught the bouquet. We also had a dollar dance. We had to laugh a bit when our friend, Jes (@grrl_geek) asked “What’s a dollar dance?” I didn’t think this was just a MN thing… anyway, the night went on, we had people dancing to Blues Brothers (complete with hats and sunglasses), kids on the dance floor the whole night, some drinking, though mostly not until later in the night… there were fireworks, a couple of which went off sideways (scary). Oh… and we had glowsticks… lots and lots of glowsticks!We even had more party crashers late in the night (though, these were of the human variety). A couple guys heard the music, saw the fireworks, and rode their bicycle-built-for-two over to see what the action was all about. It’s ok, they brought their own beer in the basket of their bike! Unfortunately, the groom was sick (and not from alcohol – from heat exhaustion), so he wasn’t cutting it up on the dance floor as much as he would have liked.

Overall, the party turned out to be as amazing as we had hoped. The kids are still talking about how great it was! My favorite two quotes post-wedding: “Mom, I didn’t know I could dance like that” (from Michael, my 6 year old). He was amazing! The second came from Jason’s oldest, Nikolai, “You guys’ wedding was pretty epic, wasn’t it?” Yes, yes it was!

Another Reason to Walk for the Cure

On August 19th – 21st, I will be walking with thousands of other women and men in effort to raise money for the Susan G Komen Foundation and their search for a cure for breast cancer. You can read about my original reasons for walking here.

Unfortunately, I have now come across another reason to walk. As you may know, this past weekend, Jason Strate (blog|@StrateSQL) and I got married. We had about 140 friends and family celebrating with us. What we didn’t know, was that one of our guests was hiding a secret. She didn’t want us to worry about her during our Big Day. On Monday, Jason got a call from his Mom… his grandma has recently been diagnosed with colon and breast cancer. Because of her diabetes, we are unsure what her treatment options will be. Next week, Jason and I will be heading up to her house in Northern MN to spend a little time with her. Unfortunately, the day after our arrival, she will be heading down to Mayo Clinic to find out what options she has.

Rosie will be joining the list of those I am walking in honor of… the list seems to be growing way too fast.

Events Leading up to the Big Day

We had a very eventful couple of days leading up to Our Big Day. Rather than including them in the actual Wedding Day post, I’m going to write a separate one leading up to the event…

Thursday
Thursday morning, the tent people showed up to put up the 40 x 80 ft. tent we had rented. As soon as it was up, it started raining. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights! OK maybe only 40 hours (with a few short breaks in between). I bet the tent guys were happy it held off until the big top was up! Being that we were in the country, with gravel driveways, there was LOTS of mud! UGH! We started getting some things set up, but decided we had done enough, and headed home. We got the tables roughly laid out to where we wanted them, and Grace and I worked on getting centerpieces put together. On the way home, a deer jumped onto the freeway, and hit Jason’s Jeep. The wheel cover was ripped off, the bumper was pulled out from the rear, there were dents along the side of the vehicle, and the front door handle was busted. Not exactly a way to start our wedding weekend!

Friday
It continued to rain, and not lightly! We worked in the rain, and were REALLY thankful we had the tent! By 10:30 or so that night, we were close to as ready as we could be at that point. Other than the rain and mud, things were going great!

We held the rehearsal in the tent. We were fully prepared for it to be raining on The Big Day. The guys pulled the grills in the tent, and we grilled burgers and brats for our rehearsal dinner. Jason’s mom made an amazing fruit/cool whip salad. My favorite!

An old friend came in from out of town. I hadn’t seen her in over 12 years. She stayed at my Mom’s house too, and the two of us stayed up chatting half the night like school girls. Probably not the best idea the night before my wedding, but it was so awesome!

Saturday
Wedding Day!!! Woke up to storms, but nothing real severe. Jason had gone home Friday night, I stayed at my Mom’s (where the wedding was to be held). Jason called me at 8:30 am or so, and said they had gotten severe storms during the night. Our entire basement had 2 inches of water, and roads were washed out. Not the best news on your wedding day. He ran to Menards to buy a bigger shop vac, since our 6 gal. one was going much too slow to keep up. Poor Jason, spent 2 hours on the morning of our wedding, cleaning up water…

Fast forward a few hours, my hair appointment didn’t get done until about 12, and we were supposed to be starting pictures at 12:30. While I had been totally cool, calm, and collected up to that point, there was a momentary panic that set in on how behind we were! We put everyone available to work to get the final details wrapped up. Luckily, our photographer was super cool about the hour or so delay in our time frame. Finally, everyone was as ready as they were going to be, and we started pictures. By a small miracle, we ended up getting most of our pictures done before the ceremony started.

Oh, and as for the rain? It stopped just as I was getting to my hair appointment. The sun came up, and started drying things out. It was going to be a great rest of the day!

The Day Before the BIG DAY

Tomorrow is the big day! Jason Strate (twitter|blog) and I will be taking the plunge. After 15 years of knowing each other, a year and a half of dating, we are “jumping in with both feet.” We’re joining our two families, consisting of us, our 5 kids, and a dog.

Tomorrow will mark the end of months of planning, moving, creating invitations, major life changes, etc. There have been high levels of stress at times, and joking around about what kind of vows we should have (if you haven’t seen the #potentialvows on twitter, check ‘em out). If we can’t have a little fun while planning your big day, then why get married, right? Just my opinion.

Yesterday, the tent went up, tables and chairs got arranged, centerpieces are about half done. My Mom and her husband, who are hosting the event at their house, have done amazing amounts of work on their yard to make sure everything looks perfect. They even created a volleyball court, badminton court, horseshoe pit (complete with markers, etc). We still have a lot of work to do today (probably why I am blogging, it’s a great way to procrastinate). Today’s agenda is getting all the decorations done, signs made (No Parking on the County Line Road), some final calls made, rehearsal, and hopefully, a good nights’ sleep!

We are so grateful for all the support and encouragement we have gotten! Between twitter and facebook, phone calls, emails, in person get-togethers, etc. It’s been great to have so many people cheering us on. We are excited to see everyone – friends, family, co-workers past and present. We have guests coming in from all over the country, and are grateful that people are willing and able to take time out of their busy summer schedules to come to our celebration.

I think it’s a little funny that people keep asking me if I’m nervous. I just tell them, “There’s nothing to be nervous about!” I’m marrying my best friend. It sounds cliche, but it’s true. If it rains, we have a huge tent that everything will be under. If something goes wrong, it will likely just end up on youtube, and we can laugh about it later.

Next week, there are sure to be blog posts, pictures, etc posted.

Wedding Week!!!

Our wedding week is here!!! Suddenly, all those little details that didn’t seem important (or low priority) need to be taken care of – NOW. We are working hard to create programs, write down vows, finalize details, make last minute purchases… no wonder I have a killer headache and funky stomach today! I think the stress may be getting to me some!

Later this week, we will be traveling back and forth to/from WI – a lot! We’ll be picking up the marriage license, meeting with the photographer, doing the last of the weeding in the gardens, supervising the setup of the tent, setting up tables and chairs, putting together the decorations… It’s gonna be crazy-busy, and I won’t be getting hardly any walking in. The walking has become a good source of stress relief for me. I guess this week, I’ll need to start drinking. I feel a bit like this picture (as long as I don’t look like that on Saturday)!

It’s going to be so worth it. I just know we are going to have an amazing wedding day… This week leading up to it is just gonna be a bit nuts.

6 more weeks

I’m feeling really good about the progress I made this week. I got some days with decent mileage in, and did a bit of ab work. Weeks like this make me feel really proud of myself! Jason told me this morning that he’s proud of me and how seriously I am taking “this walking thing” too. It’s great to have support!

Monday: The nice thing about all the training I have been doing, is that I look for reasons to walk a little more. When we went to the 4th of July parade, we parked about 3/4 miles away from where we sat. Then, we went to the lake. The kids and I parked in the far lot, and accidentally-on purpose missed the shuttle to the boat landing. We had to walk a mile from the van to the boat landing and beach. Then, the same thing “happened” as we walked back. It was good for the kids to walk, even if they complained at the end. I ended up at about 3.25 miles for the day.

Tuesday: Grace and Dysin went on a 4.82 mile walk with me. It was supposed to be 6 miles, but rather than push two obviously tired kids who weren’t complaining one bit, we just cut a part out of our walk. It was fine. There were lots of hills, so it was a good push for my body.

Wednesday: Went out to weed gardens… that’s about as close to exercise as I got with a killer headache… on the upside, we also got our marriage license application taken care of today.

Thursday: If only I had walked as much as I drove today… that’s about all I did, ALL DAY! I drove from here to Timbuktu, over to B.F. Egypt, and back again… the day completely disappeared, and so did my desire to even leave the house again! I did manage to do about 15 minutes of ab work (aka crunches galore).

Friday: Hung out with the kids all day.

Saturday: Jason left early for his bachelor party, so I went for a LONG walk. I took Duke with me for the first 6 miles or so. He was obviously tired and worn out, since I was walking faster than him at that point. After dropping him off at home, I went out to walk a little over 2 more miles. My total for the day was 8.2 miles. It wasn’t too bad. About mile 5, my buns were burning, and my right hip/leg were feeling a bit achy. My toes were also hurting a bit, which was strange, since I haven’t had any issues with my feet in a while. I’m wondering if the heat was making my feet swell, and that’s what was bothering them? I stretched a bit when I dropped Duke off, filled up my water bottle again, and headed back out. I was sweating pretty good by the time I got to the park (my half-way point). I was starting to feel a bit out of breath, and was dreading the huge hill ahead of me. My hips were feeling tight, and I was feeling tired, but I pushed through and made it home with throbbing feet.

They were so happy when I got a pedicure later in the day!! It was the first time in a long time I’ve had one. With all the walking I’ve been doing, my feet were in rough shape. I was actually pretty embarrassed how bad they were.

That night I wore wedge heels when I went out with some friends. Not a good idea with sore hips. By the end of the night (and a few drinks later), the heels, and my hips no longer bothered me.

Sunday: Today my ankles were bothering me some. I walked anyway, but chose not to bring the dog this time. I walked 3.2 miles. My side/stomach was aching, my ankles continued to ache, and my knee was sore by the end. Also, I should have listened to the guy who gave me my pedicure when he said not to walk for a few days afterwards. My feet were definitely tender most of the walk… Nevertheless, I walked. It bumped me up to my highest weekly total, about the equivalent of one day of the 3 Day Walk! I need to get some double digit days in to really prepare me…

Miles this week: 19.47 (My highest week-to-date total)!
Total miles to date: 171.08
Fundraising progress: $1495/$2300 (only $805 to go)

Related link: My fundraising page

Get Hawt: We don’t really have a theme for the week in the Get Hawt Blog Party. I want to spend a minute on safety… Yesterday, while I was on my long walk, I passed a drive way with a car sticking half way in the road. I didn’t think anything of it until about a block or two down the road when the same car pulled up next to me on the street. I don’t know if they tried to talk to me when I was walking by, since I was breaking the rules and had my headphones in. Anyway, when the car pulled up, the guy rolled down his window. I pulled out one of my earbuds, and looked over. The driver (who looked like Chris Rock), asked me if I was married. I said yes (close enough). He shrugged and said, “Huh, lucky guy!” I said “Thank you!” In my head, I was thinking, “Does that seriously work for people? What did he think, I’d say no and jump in his car with my dog?” While it was kind of flattering, it was a bit weird. What was creepy, was that he followed me for a couple of blocks before turning.

It was the first time I got nervous when I was walking, even if it was only for a moment. It made me think a bit about safety .. how do I know that where I’m walking is safe? I want to know from my readers, what do you do to make sure you are safe while walking or running?

The Benefit of Being Bridezilla

I’m not really qualified to write on this topic. Bridezilla I am not! Two different vendors for our wedding have confirmed this theory.

I joke that I have adult ADHD. To some extent, I probably do. I find myself becoming more and more scatter-brained as I get older. That said, I can be very organized – when I need to be. When it comes to the wedding, I have some things very organized, yet, some small details seem to be slipping by.

The Tent
A couple months back, I called the vendor we are renting our tent, tables, chairs, and dance floor from. When I called him, he said he didn’t have us down for a tent. Panic tried to quickly set in, but I just asked if we can still add it on our order. “Yep! No problem!” Whew!! I don’t know know how we all missed it (me, Jason, and my Mom) when looking over the contract. He felt bad it wasn’t on there in the first place! He then asked if I was really the mother of the bride. I said no, to which he replied, “You’re a lot nicer than most brides I talk to. Usually they just want to yell at me. If you feel the need, by all means, call me up and yell away!” I had to laugh at that one!! I think the fact that this is a second wedding for both of us has us much more relaxed… maybe too relaxed.

Don’t get me wrong – between moving me to MN from WI, buying a house, planning a wedding, and training for the 3 day walk, life is stressful. Add in 5 children who are adjusting to new living/custody arrangements, and some days are hard to get through! But, when it comes to being on top of every little thing involving the wedding, we are pretty laid back. If I were being bridezilla, every little detail would be taken care of (and obsessively pined over).

The Lights
Back in mid-June, we ordered all the icicle lights for our tent. Being that it will be an outdoor wedding in the country, we’re going to need some lighting. I had called a company, they told me all orders would ship within 24 hours. I thought the company we ordered from was the same company. The order confirmation email sent to us immediately afterwards said “7 Day Ground shipping”. Two weeks later, we still had no order. When I checked online, it said the order was still being processed. I searched the website for a phone number – obviously this was NOT the company I had called, as there was NO PHONE NUMBER anywhere! I sent them an email letting them know when our wedding was, asking if we would have them on time. I waited a week with no response. When I checked back a week later, their website STILL said the order was processing. This time, I searched every single page I could find on their site, still could not find a phone number. Jason found a number online somewhere, it was disconnected. I sent them another email telling them to cancel our order, and told Jason to cancel the credit card charge. I found another company 1000bulbs.com that would process the order that day, and send them out within 24 hours. She told me they’d be here by that Saturday. They didn’t, they came Friday! (insert .wav of angels singing here)

The Flowers, Cakes, and Tuxes
The other day, my Mom called me. It was 9:00 at night, and she was calling me to tell me my flower/cake/tux lady didn’t have us on her books to be doing our wedding. WHAT?!? We met with her, figured out everything together, gave her all our info… we thought we were set to go… that was definitely panic I was feeling – for a minute. She had given us a date of July 1st to have all the tux sizes to her. It was June 30th. She was the first call I had planned on making in the morning. Nope, that phone call couldn’t wait! It ended up being a misunderstanding between her and my mom. She had us down as a “tentative”, but still was still available to do our stuff. She said she was so used to hearing from brides ALL the time, that when she hadn’t heard from us in a while, she wasn’t sure we were still using her. This is where the “being too laid back” thing almost kicked our butts! Luckily, it all came together, just as it should. Tuxes are ordered, flowers will still be ready, as will our cakes.

Everything is coming together. There are small items we still need to pick up. And, of course, then comes the paying for everything… Unfortunately, most of our vendors require cash, rather than accepting credit cards. I understand their reasoning, but it’s going to make the next week a bit tricky. It is what it is. While there have definitely been stresses here and there, I don’t feel completely overwhelmed. I haven’t made mountains out of all those things that many brides would have (I can’t really say they’ve been molehiles, ’cause some of them certainly could have been huge issues).

We are looking forward to next weekend when 150 or so of our friends and family will be joining us for one heck of a party! There are so many activities going on this summer, many people we hoped to see won’t be able to make it. We can’t compete with every other wedding, vow renewal, vacation scheduled, move, remodel, baby about to be born any minute, etc. out there. That said, we have people traveling from Northern MN, the other side of WI, MI, Chicago, OR, and AZ to watch us get married! We are so grateful that so many people are coming to help us celebrate our big day!

BTW – the original lights company? We got an email JUST this past Tuesday, saying they would need to cancel our order, as the items we ordered are out of stock. A week and a half before the wedding… WHATEVER! I won’t be using Empire Balloon/Empire Supplies EVER!

7 More Weeks!

Monday: I’m surprisingly not too sore after yesterday’s almost 9 mile walk. My low back and neck are a bit stiff. My ankles are sore – almost like shin splints, but on the upper-outside part of my ankles. This time, I’m feeling it on both sides. I went ahead and walked with the kids up to the park and back, with a stop at the grocery store on the way. Total: 2.3 miles.

Tuesday & Wednesday: I was focused on other things, such as weeding the gardens at my Mom’s (they are going to look SO good for the wedding, even if they aren’t quite in bloom); collecting RSVP’s; getting through the mountain of laundry…

Thursday: Well, it was over 90 degrees, with a heat index of about a million! There was no way I was going to walk in that today! We had to empty our storage unit today; what a miserable day to be doing that! I probably sweat out 5 lbs of liquid – ugh! If my living room wasn’t full of boxes, I might try to do some push ups. How do you like that for an excuse?

Friday: Another day with extremely high heat index. Days like this make me wish I had a gym membership or an elliptical machine and Central A/C. Today was a sucky day to do ANYTHING! I did manage to move all the boxes out of the living room though. That was about all I could take in the heat!

Saturday: This morning, I woke up at 8:15. Crap – I wanted to get out for a long walk this morning! Jason’s youngest son was the only one awake, so I decided to go ahead and go on a walk. I walked 3.2 miles. My knee was achy (probably all the humidity the last few days). I forgot my water bottle, so I was pretty dehydrated, and my stomach hurt. About 2/3 of the way through the walk, I discovered there was a water fountain at the park. It was warm, and tasted like crap, but I was so thirsty, I didn’t care. When I got back, I was glad to have gotten a few miles in. Then, I plotted a new route I’m going to try in the near future that will add up to about 6 miles.

Sunday: Spent most of the day pulling weeds, mowing, and doing other such activities… I didn’t get any miles in, but I did spend about 15-20 minutes doing crunches and some yoga. Finally, some REAL cross-training. Even that little bit made my stomach muscles and my shoulder muscles ache. How quickly you can fall out of shape!! I really miss my regular chiropractor appointments!!!

Miles this week: 5.5 (I’m surprised… it really felt like I did more than that)!
Total miles to date: 151.61
Fundraising progress: $1495/$2300 (getting closer – only $805 to go)

Related link: My fundraising page

Get Hawt: The blog party is back on. There seems to be an ongoing theme of numbers on the scale not changing… I’ll say it again, that even though I check it on occasion, I try not to worry about what the scale says I weigh. I try to focus more on how my clothes fit, how I look in the mirror, how I feel, etc. Noticing that my “mama belly” is starting to look a little less like a muffin top, keeps me motivated. Knowing that my 3 Day Walk is coming up, and that people have donated almost $1500 so far for me to do it, keeps me motivated. Watching my Mom drop not only 30 or so lbs, but also look as amazing as I’ve seen her look in over 15 years, keeps me motivated. Another friend, who weighs over 300 lbs, has lost more than 50. His progress has been awesome to watch! He too went through a plateau where he lost nothing. Suddenly, just as he was getting frustrated and wanted to give up, the scale went down by 8 lbs in a week. He too is motivation… We just need to keep in mind what it is we’re working for, and keep on!!