Questions...

My mom and stepfather and uncle are here for pre-Christmas. This was the first time I've seen any of them since Gary and I got engaged. It was the first time they saw my engagement ring. I showed them my dress (but did not try it on. Not enough time playing wii boxing, hitting the heavy bag or doing Hip Hop Abs to let anyone see me in it yet...) We went to Dreamland for lunch (because there ain't nothin' like them nowhere) - where we hope to do some kind of dinner while everyone's here. Then I took them to Vulcan, even though they've all been there before. I wanted to show them where we plan to have the ceremony, see if anyone had thoughts on set up and that kind of thing. My mother thought it would be cool to have us face the guests rather than our backs to you. She also suggested we find a, um, smaller officiant. Like someone you could see over and wouldn't block your view of us. I'm not sure she still feels that way about having a smaller person do our wedding - I made her watch Bad Santa tonight. LOL. One of the funniest Christmas movies ever, but not for the faint at heart. Anyway - so later my uncle and I were talking about the reception and I mentioned those conversation starter card things and he then told me that when he used to have parties, he would have guests do sort of a Q&A with each other - kind of like a scavenger hunt only with people. You know, like you have to find a person who owns a boat, and one who has 3 kids and one who has a dog or something... only then, as we drank more wine, we started coming up with the most ridiculous questions - in fact, I'll not even repeat them because they were that raunchy. It reminded me though of when my mom and my sister and I took my niece to the American Girl place in NYC. They had those little cards at our table at lunch to ask each other questions. My sister and I both got one something like, tell the others something you can do that they may not know about. My sister said she was good with vacuum cleaner attachments. I said I could tie a cherry stem with my tongue. My mother insists my sister really is good with vacuum cleaner attachments. I think it was code for other things. So anyway, you see how this could be a fun thing for you all to do while you have cocktails when you're waiting for Gary and I to arrive at the reception. What better way to get to know each other quickly? We're only inviting people we know and love - and we think you'll all have a great time together - we just want to help you break the ice and get that party started! Have ideas for questions for this little game? Bring 'em on. Reply here, email me at mariesawoodring@hotmail.com, or write me on my Facebook page. C'mon - this is going to be so much fun!!!

You ARE reading this! :)

...just a little shout out to Randi because we know at least *she's* reading this... The Christmas card from she and Chad said, "as I am writing this card you have 272 days 7 hours 11 minutes & 40 seconds or 6,535 hours or 392,111 minutes or 23,526,650 seconds until your wedding." Gary and I both laughed out loud. Really.

More about the marriage than the wedding...

So, in getting ready for the family to come for the holidays, there were a lot of things that needed to be done - as usual. One big thing - we needed a new futon frame. For as long as I can remember, we've had to prop the weight bench under the futon to keep it from flipping over when anyone sleeps on it because the little bar thingy was missing. A few weeks ago the frames were on sale at Big Lots so I went and bought one because it's near my office. Of course then realize there was no way this thing was going to fit in my car. The following weekend, while I was working at Bath & Body, Gary took his much, much bigger vehicle and picked it up and brought it home. We had to get that thing up before anyone got here. On Sunday afternoon, we grabbed the tool box and headed up to the Barbie Room (that's the guest room to those of you who've not yet been here). It only took about 10 seconds to realize we didn't have the right allen wrench. Thinking perhaps the new frame came with an allen wrench, I opened up the enormous box and inside I found two. Armed with those and a set of needle-nosed pliers, Gary took the old futon apart. With just a box cutter and some really bad instructions, I got all the pieces and parts of the new one out. I spread them all over the floor and tried my best to follow the directions. A football game was on the TV, and the dog wedged his fat butt between us on the futon mattress. We had exactly zero space in which to work. Had to squat down and lean because there was no room even to sit on the floor. Gary loosened and wiggled screws and bolts. Having no clear path to the door, he handed sections of the old futon frame to me and I stacked them in the hallway. I took screws and nuts and bolts and washers and springs and lined up what went with what and where. I assembled what could be done ahead of time. When he was done, we moved the new pieces in. We put things together and then he tightened and tightened. Then I realized I had put a big piece on backwards, and we loosened and wiggled and flipped, and screwed (lol - I had to say that) and bolted and tightened again. Piece by piece, part by part, we took the old one apart and put the new one together for close to 2 hours. We dragged the old parts and boxes and plastic protector thingies out to the garbage. We got Bartlet's big doggie butt off of the mattress and put it back on the futon (the mattress, not the butt). And then we moved on to something else.
So, what, you're asking yourself, was the point of that? We do really, really well with DIY projects together. We always have. The first was an enormous glass entertainment center thing - and when we got through that with ease, I knew we'd be good together - and I was right. With the futon frame, even not having the right tools and having no room to work, and a big butted beagle hogging up what little space we had, there were no problems. No griping and whining and cussing at each other. No muttering or bickering or bitching. He did what he was good at, I did what I am good at - without even needing to discuss it. We both jumped in - full speed ahead - with a clear vision of where we needed to be, and what we needed to do to get there. We know ourselves well enough to tackle the task, and know - and trust - each other well enough to not hover or question what the other was doing. We help each other. We complement one another. We work well together. Actually, we always have. And I think that's a wonderful thing to bring into our marriage...