The Invitations Headache

If you didn't see the title of this post, check it out. If you did, read it again. Cause it's legit. Invitations to a wedding are fun enjoyable easy straightforward simple (aw heck no, 'simple' was a mistake to think of) challenging. There are a million paper vendors out there and just as many Do-It-Yourself tutorials. There are people saying they would never trust themselves to their wedding stationary and others that complain of the exorbitant costs of paying someone as a vendor for the stationary. I guess you could toss me in the second cohort? We plan to invite approximately 70 people to this shindig. That translates to about 50 real invitations, 70 programs, 70 menus, 70 name cards, and whatever else that people use paper products for in a marriagin'.

Some vendors will charge anywhere from $2.00-$6.00-$10.00 for an invitation. With some brilliant quick math in my head, that could translate to $500.00 on just the INVITATION! An invitation, that I know will eventually end up in the rubbish, because once someone writes down the date and time (which they may already know cause let's face it, I'm not the quiet type) what's the point of hanging on to the invitation? Oh, I should concede that the RSVP card comes in the invitation (which EVERYONE is sending back to me, riiiiight? Please? Pretty please?). So that's important. But even the RSVP card, gets sent back to me. So why should I spend so much money on that thing? People could as easily just send me a text, "hey, put me down for 3 peeps 2 moo moo's and 1 cluck" and be done!

So guess what I decided. Though I was not originally thrilled with the idea of DIY, we're going that route. Initially, I just didn't trust myself to design/execute such an operation. However, after some brilliant workarounds with MS powerpoint, I think I have the base design down for the invitations. Next comes researching all those DIY tutorials that will hopefully show me how to buy my cats' weight in cardstock and spend a lot of time folding and gluing. They will probably have to be professionally printed. I don't trust my relationship with the Canon home printer for this job. I'm not that smart. Hopefully people like them enough to send me back the RSVP card. Hopefully they do their job. Hopefully they don't make my wallet scream 'Shenanigans!' in the process. At least there's a lot of time until these bad boys have to go out. Any thoughts? Does anyone know of anyone else who did their invites themselves??

Eugene Thinks I Should Be an NFL Announcer

So, to be fair, this is mostly a joke and response to my random comments on the Saints vs. 49ers playoff game. Of course I sit there making all sorts of side comments about the game. We are seriously watching the game, but sometimes it's fun to notice things other than the game. Some of my winning quotes:

"Awww, Brees has the same birthday as his 3 year old, you can't hate him..."
"Wow, Alex Smith is a HUGE friggin guy!"
"Gah, Smith is such a bro-ham!"
"Harbaugh's all, stay down there, stay down there!"
Eugene: "Smith is kind of ADD like Leo"
"*Gulp*" to imitate Jim Harbaugh's very visible swallow after they failed their 2-point conversion
"Who the heck is that guy?"
*pause, have to hug fiancee after Saints TD*

Holy cow they moved that ball down the field!

"Davis, keep it together, man!"
Eugene when Davis got to Harbaugh: "Aw man, I stubbed my toe coach, it hurts so bad!"
                                                         "That's ok, Davis, I'll hold you till it gets better."

Have to say, the 49ers did really, really well. We'll see how the Packers do tomorrow. I just thought this would be fun to share. We've both been in a fit of giggles since. Take care everyone!

Reflection Of Our Relationship

First off, I have to say I'm sorry for not updating this in a long long time. I know, it's been forever. I'm sorry! I'm going to blame it on holidays and finals. That's acceptable, right? Right? Thank you, I knew you'd understand :)

On to the reflecting bit. I think everyone knows at this point that we have 2 cats: Ronan and Leo. Ronan came first. He's our 8 year old geriatric cat that we adopted from the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter. We pretty much bonded instantaneously and now there's not a day that goes by where we don't have some quality cuddle time. Leo came from the Maryland SPCA because I couldn't handle going back to BARCS. It really was kind of like Animal Auschwitz. Leo's awesome, but he really is Daddy's cat. He will cuddle with Eugene until the cows come home. So many pictures on my phone are of Eugene and Leo in various stages of cuddles.

Today, when I was reminding Leo that he has shots coming up in April at the vet's office, Eugene and I both decided to break into song. Not the same song, mind you. But hey, why not. Here's what transpired:

Me: "Leo, in April you have to get shots. Excited? Shots....?"
Songs
Me: That obnoxious song that says shots like, 16 times that was rampant in public during my first year of pharmacy school.
Eugene: "Shot through the heart! And you're to blame, you give love a bad name..."

I love that Eugene still lives in the pop culture world of the 80s.... It adds much laughter and value to my life.

We survived!

Our first holiday with (almost) the whole Udey fam-bam. Oh but did we ever have a rocky start to the weekend....Jay, Jill, Emma, Sarah, Yaakov, we missed you!

So it's Wednesday morning, Eugene and I are attempting to put the final touches on a diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) presentation. Yes, it is in fact about as much fun as it sounds. Even less, maybe. When, all of a sudden we get an email from our school saying that the whole building is without power and will be closed until further notice. Classes were cancelled for the day. Did I ever throw a fit! We had made all of our travel plans around this one case presentation only to find that it would be canceled?!? Oh the indignation! Well, then we had a relatively productive morning and off to Wisconsin we flew.

The flight was uneventful, we arrived in Milwaukee, my Mom picked us up and we drove the 1.25 hours back to Janesville. Janesville.... how you haven't changed a bit. It's quite the stark contrast, living in Baltimore and then having to go to the grocery store the night before a major national holiday centered around eating... Nevertheless we had fun.

Thursday morning arrives and Eugene is seriously the most helpful person ever. We drive off to Aunt Mary's and the fun begins!

Eugene: "Are there... cows on the farm?"
Me: "....um, yes."

Immediately as we walk in:
Uncle John: "Eugene, are you a Packers fan?"
Eugene (OHMYGOD How do I dodge this bullet?!?) "I'm a huge fan of Aaron Rodgers"
Uncle John: "Welcome to the family"

At dinner:
Me: "Sweetie, your fork is on the left..."
Eugene: "Heck if I know what's going on, where are the chopsticks?"
Me: "We'll bring them next time, Ooo! Can we bring the ones with the teddy bears?!?"
Eugene".......-.-....."

The gift exchange was fantastic. Very calm this year. Eugene ended up with a manicure set and utility knife. I had to fight off my cousin and Uncle for the tool set. Apparently they don't understand that I've got things to do with them tools! Cause I loooooove me some do-it-yourself projects, especially for the upcoming nuptials next year. Nevermind that this is at least the second time that I've ended up with a gift that TSA would definitely not let me carry on an airplane (the first was a gardening set, complete with sheers for trimming bushes!)

After that we flew home and slept. A lot. Oh, and worked on more homework, but mostly slept.

How was everyone else's holiday?

Thanksgiving in Wisco!

Oh my gosh, I can't even begin to describe how excited I am to be going home. Eugene's excited too.... I think.

He's a little nervous about the whole big, loud family thing. And, who am I kidding? We're not thaat big, but we sure do get loud. Also, we have this really awesome gift exchange described below:

In the beginning, each person is given 2 dice that they roll until they get "doubles" of any particular number. They then choose a gift. Meanwhile, everyone is still rolling dice (loudly) on the hard table surface. Everyone continues to roll until they get "doubles" again and then they select a gift card. That's all well and good, right? Everyone gets a gift and a gift card? Yeah, well, not exactly. We then roll for another 4 minutes or so during which time whenever someone gets doubles, they may steal another's gift or gift card. The stealee is then left with whatever gift the stealer started with.

Confusing? You bet, to someone who never really celebrated Christmas with the big meal. This whole to-do is after all the confusion of relatives catching up with each other's current affairs, tons of food, 2 babies running around, and a football game. Ooooooh boy.

Bottom line? I'm really not leaving Eugene alone among the locals. They might get feisty. I honestly can't say why he's a touch nervous, he's met most of them before. Additionally, the ones that he has met ADORE him. What's not to adore? He's amazing. He'll do fine, I'm sure. It'll just be better to get this first big family get together under our belts before wedding things start coming upon us more and more. I'm really excited that this is our first Thanksgiving that we get to spend together as a couple and so very thankful to have him and all of my family/friends in my life. I would be nothing without you all. Cheers, and Happy Thanksgiving!

Pinterest and Gawker and DIY, Oh My!

So, sometimes school is just too much for me to handle. Either the professor is talking non-sense, my classmates are talking to one another and I’m left out of the conversation,  there’s too much typing, or something of that nature. That’s just fine.

It’s not exactly a secret that Pharmacy Students spend time doing other things that paying attention in lecture. Our Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs (ACADEMIC AFFAIRS!!) sent us out a survey that another PGY1 resident was performing to track student activities in class. Some people spend time on Facebook, Gchat, CNN, ESPN, various blogs.

And, because I have the attention span of a 2 year old, I’m no exception. My fancies, however, tend toward Pinterest, weddinggawker, weddingbee, various DIY sites, and well, you guessed it, this blog.

But oh my goodness how I love Pinterest and Weddinggawker (thanks to one, KB) Sooo many amazing things to see, ideas to ponder, pictures to agonize over.  Don’t get me started on the tantalizing pictures of food.

Some ideas for post-wedding snackery:

Mini Salted Caramel Apple!

-Doesn’t this just sound divine? You can even put it on a stick! Guests could be dancing around, step off the dance floor, grab a stick, pop a little piece in their mouth and go back dancing! There’s a recipe online and oh man do I ever want to try it. 

Home Made Pizza

-I think pizza after dancing is more a thing from Wisconsin/Midwest that I’d like to bring to the East coast. My friend Tiffany gave me this fantastic recipe a while ago that is so ridiculously versatile. You can dress these pizzas up, dress them down, create any sort of flavor you want! Sounds like it would be easy enough to just prepare ahead of time, drop off at the venue, and they can just bake them round 10:30 or so. I mean honestly, who doesn’t get hungry after dancing?

Ok, I should probably pay attention now.  Any other ideas for foods???

Ring Around the Rosy, a Pocket Full of Posies

So remember that last post when I was all confident that we had all the big stuff figured out? Well, we did. But then, my school did one of the few things that I have been able to appreciate and granted me a scholarship. Holy mackerel did I ever crap my pants when I read that email attachment. “Oh my goodness!” I thought to myself. “I could invite 20 extra people, I could get our name in lights, I could get a fancy cake topper, Eugene and I could pay for a wedding album!”

And then I got ahold of myself. While this is an amazing gift from my school, and it really could not come at a more opportune time, we have other expenses that definitely need to be addressed first. The more practical part of me reminded my whimsical side that this could be 2 months of rent+ utilities for us. This can help us get Christmas presents for the family that don’t suck. Even though we’re both certain that Paul could probably use some new undies. This could help pay for our plane ride to Wisconsin for the bridal shower coming up in March (I swear Mom is planning it and will send invites soon)

The one thing for the wedding that I would really like to do is fresh flowers. I’ve gone back and forth about this for a long time. I love the idea of the fresh floral scents and the delicacy of once-living petals. Again, my more practical side had to voice that these are things that only last a day and then fade away. The difference wasn’t a ton of money, but it was enough to be substantial. So, with this little gift, I think we can do fresh florals. I may still use the website to make a replica of my bouquet that I can keep for always. Eugene approves, and the florist that we met with can do the personals fairly inexpensively, and she’s giving us a discount just because she likes us. Seriously, she is one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met.

The rest of the funds will be used for more practical purposes. Now both sides of me can sleep at night.