Faithlift, Wedding Dress, and Blue Suede Shoes

So, no wireless over the weekend at Grace Chapel. That was okay, because it meant I spent the two days talking with the people in the music group and spending time with them. I think my favorite thing about doing gigs like this is the downtime between worship sessions when we get to socialize and enjoy each other. Normally when we get together on Sunday mornings, we are focused on prayer, and then on the music, and then once mass is over we all have family and friends who pull us in different directions. This weekend, we had two separate stretches of time with nothing to do but hang out with each other. In the morning, I went to the Burlington Mall with Zack and Sue, and in the afternoon the ladies spread a blanket on the grass outside and hung out and chatted.

The conference itself was phenomenal. There was about 1000 women there, and they were very enthusiastic and responsive to the music, clapping, lifting their hands, singing and shouting. When we played "Shout to the Lord," they were singing so loudly that I could hear them well over the sound system. So well, in fact, that when they sang a line with a different rhythm than I usually sing it, they threw me off and I lost my place! I recovered quickly, but it cracked me up. There was a whole group of deaf people in the front, and I've never seen deaf people do this before, but they signed along with us the way a hearing person would sing along. That was pretty cool to watch. I did catch the end of the keynote speaker's afternoon talk, and she was funny and the part I heard was excellent. Overall just a great conference. After the conference was over, I had many women come up to thank me and tell me how much they loved the group, and we sold a lot of CDs.

So, also this week, my wedding dress came in. I went to pick it up on Monday, and I was absolutely heartbroken because it doesn't fit. It was fine in the hip and waist, but the bust was about 3 inches away from zipping. This really surprised me, because I carry weight in the waist and hips, not up top, but the girl measured me and said that I was 2 inches bigger from when they measured me to order the dress. I left there crying and feeling miserable about myself, hating my body, feeling like I'd ruined things because I had "let myself go." And I was so stunned, because I haven't noticed my bras fitting differently or my shirts pulling. I will be honest, I have gained about 5-8 pounds, but from the way my clothes feel, I had thought it was in the butt.

And then I started thinking about it, and it really started making NO sense to me. 3 inches? Surely I would have noticed 3 inches! Surely Matt would have noticed, but when I told him he assured me that he has not noticed anything like that, and he "keeps an eye on them," so to speak. And then Thursday I brought the dress to the tailor. I put it on, and he took one look and said "This dress isn't going to work." Tears all over again, but then he told me that it made no sense to him that the dress would be too small on top, and that he thinks that the dress shop screwed up. And then yesterday morning I remembered that Lands End has a virtual model on their website that you plug your measurements into and it tells you what size to order, and I had done this last fall. I access my virtual model, checked the measurements on there and remeasured myself. SAME. Nothing gained. So it was kind of a relief and kind of maddening to realize that I have been walking around all week feeling like a fat cow, but it really was that either they messed up measuring me the first time or the manufacturer messed up in making the dress.

So the plan now is that the tailor is going to put a corset into the dress, and that will make it work. I am also going to put all of this into a letter of complaint to the dress shop and see how they respond. I will post their response here.

Last thing this morning, I found the shoes I'm going to wear for the wedding. They're blue suede and they perfectly match the blue of the girl's dresses! I found them with Zack and Sue at the Burlington mall, but the store didn't have them in my size there. They called around and located a pair in my size at the Natick mall, so I'm driving down there tonight to pick them up. I had wanted to wear blue shoes instead of the traditional white, so I'm pretty excited. I'll try to post pictures tonight when I get home.

Okay, I have to be better about posting

I know that I anticipated that I would have less and less time as the wedding day drew near, but I didn't expect to have it happen so fast. When I'm home, it seems like I have thank you notes to write or RSVPs to file or I just want to sit and veg out with a mindless video game. So my posting has slacked off. Heck, I haven't even had time to read my favorite blogs, let alone write anything. I will try to be better about it, but my goal was to post something everyday, and I am expecting that I'll still post less frequently than that for the next 6 weeks just because of how crazy things are getting!

A few things I'll try to blog about this weekend though: the shower, the dress, and the women's conference at Grace Chapel, where Covenant will be singing this weekend. I'm bringing my laptop with me, and hoping I will have wireless. We'll see.

Will the Weather Please Make Up Its Mind?

I know that I live in New England and our spring are always hesitant. I know that every year spring will peak her head in only to duck around the corner again, either shy or playing hard to get. And on the whole, I really don't mind winter. I'm not a fan of shovelling snow, and I don't like the extra heating bills, but I love the way things look when they're covered with a fresh layer of snow, and I love that feeling you get when you sit down on the couch with a book and a blanket and a coffee and there's a storm raging outside. Still, every year in March I start to get impatient, wanting to pull out my warm weather clothes and sick of blankets and the over-dry air. Yesterday I wore sandals. Saturday Matt wore shorts. Today I'm looking at near white-out conditions as I contemplate what to wear this morning. Another sweater, heavy shoes, gloves and a coat... blech.

Amazing to think that only 2 months from today, it will be spring. Better, it will be our wedding day. That makes me all cozy warm and happy inside. :)

Pope Benedict's intention for the month of March:

"That the role of women may be more appreciated and used to good advantage in every country in the world".

Testing the Grill

I have been fasting on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for Lent, which means I am only eating one meal a day. By the time I got home today, I was very very hungry and I didn't want to spend a lot of time cooking. Fortunately, we had decided to get supplies to make panini when we went grocery shopping earlier this week. So I took some of the whole grain rolls I made over the weekend, some salami, prociutto, and asiago cheese, cobbled together some sandwiches, and took the new grill for a test drive.

The rolls I made are really almost ball-shaped and the first couple sandwhiches I made were too tall. When I pressed them down they started sliding apart. So for the next group, I sliced a round about 1/4 inch from the middle of the roll. That worked perfectly, but what to do with the leftover rounds? I brushed them with olive oil and made tiny crostini while I assembled the rest of the sandwiches. They would be perfect for bruscetta in the summer! Overall, the sandwiches turned out well. I had forgotten to add salt to the dough when I made the rolls, so they have almost a sweeter taste. I thought they were kind of bland on their own, but with the meat and cheese, the contrasts turned out to be delicious!

Shopping, Pot Pie, and Running Errands

What a great weekend! We spent Saturday shopping with Matt's godparents at the outlet in Kittery. They have a tradition: to celebrate each other's birthdays every year they spend the day together, shopping and hanging out. Our day started at Kim and Aaron's house with eggs benedict and looking through pictures of Matt when he was little. He was an adorable kid, and it was also very cool to see pictures of his parents and aunts and uncles. Kim has been going though a pile of family pictures and slides, scanning them into the computer, color correcting them and organizing them.

Around 12:30 we left for Maine, and spent several hours in the outlets in Kittery. We got Matt some dress shirts and socks, and I bought a few pairs of pants and a really pretty blouse. I picked up a giant tub of honey mustard dip for chicken fingers at Le Gourmet Chef -- Matt thinks I'm crazy for getting such a big tub, but it's good stuff and it's not like it goes bad quickly. We also stopped at the Pepperidge Farm outlet and got several boxes of snack crackers and pretzel things VERY cheaply. Then it was Yummies for sour watermelons and chocolate covered pretzels. We checked out a few more places and were going to head home when Kim asked if we wanted to get the Cuisinart Grill I had been eyeing at Le Gourmet Chef. Wow! So we went back and Aaron ran in and bought the last one they had. Hurray! I am planning on making panini, turkey burgers and steak tips this week.

We headed back home again and got Chinese for dinner, brought it back to Kim and Aaron's to eat while we watched Without a Paddle. I heart Seth Green and Matthew Lilliard (although I couldn't stop being shocked with how tiny Seth Green seemed compared to the other actors in the movie).

Yesterday after mass we hung out for the afternoon. Matt folded my laundry. I heated up the pot pie I had made the other day in order to have something easy to just pop in the oven without a lot of work. It was nice to just hang out without any kind of schedule or plan. Around 5 we stopped by Mike and Tanya's to drop off a pot pie for them and so Mike could swap out the new keyboard on my laptop. We went food shopping, and then headed to youth group. We went back to my house after to watch tv for a little while before saying goodnight. Which is getting harder and harder with every passing day.

68 more days.