Wedding Day - Getting Ready

 

Glamour Shots Gone Wild!

Who doesn't love a carnival? The rides, the cotton candy... the freak show!!!

Well, you can imagine my excitement when I heard about the Glamour Shot Carnival. The first thing that came to mind was the Glamorous photo my college friend had taken at the mall back in the 90's. Big, Curly Hair? check, High Cheekbones? check, Pouty Lips? check,  Black Leather? check, Unbuttoned shirt? check

So I e-mailed my friend and asked for permission to include their picture in the carnival. I promised it would only be used for mocking and ridiculing. As luck would have it, my friend is nothing but self-deprecating!

 What? Did I not mention that my college friend is a man? 

Thanks again, Rick! Or should I call you Ricky?

Beignets at Cafe Du Monde

We took Friedrich to New Orleans for her Senior Trip - just me, the captain, Friedrich and Grandpa (a little tradition). Why did we choose New Orleans? Cause we're cheap! You see, the captain was going there for a business trip and we decided to tag along since his flight and hotel were already paid for. Besides, Friedrich really wanted to see Wicked and it was opening that week.

Before we left for New Orleans I asked my Facebook friends if they had any suggestions for what to do on our trip. The one that stood out (besides the suggestions to keep my shirt on) had to do with a French doughnut covered in powdered sugar. I'm not really why...

Anyway, it's called a beignet. It's pronounced ben yay (or if you're Grandpa you call it Ben-gay... and you're not joking... and you ask people on the street where to get the Ben-gay's). THE place to get a beignet is at the Cafe Du Monde.  

As you can see, it was a beautiful day and the sun was shinning... right in my eyes.

The cafe in the French Quarter was so busy and we had already checked out of our hotel (which meant nowhere to park) so we opted to stop at a cafe on our way to see some Plantation homes.

Beignets remind me of a scone, but they're much denser. While I don't think there are eggs in it, the flavor kind of reminded me of a cream puff. It's served piping hot with about 1/2 inch of powdered sugar on top.

Please enjoy the show...

Before...

During...

Still during but nearing after...

After.

This was actually someone else's table. I'm curious how much powdered sugar they go through in a day/week/month/year. Maybe they own stock in C & H?

Leisl & Rolf's new blog

I promise I will be back to blogging soon... (yeah, like you've all been holding your breath :) But until then, check out my "married daughter's" new blog. She has some wedding pictures and a look at what was going on here at the house while we were in N'awlins. 

Speaking of which, that's me with Mr. Alligator! Just a little one - but still!

Who Dat?

If you thought that I would have more time to blog once the wedding was over - you were mistaken! I haven't had time to catch my breath! We brought a young man from Utah home with us for a week. He's a long time friend of the family and we had a great time showing him around ABQ. I've got some fun pictures I'll try to post once I get them downloaded. And after he left we had 2 days to prepare for Friedrich's Senior Trip to... New Orleans/N'awlins/NOLA/The Big Easy/Who Dat? Nation! Why? Of all the places to choose from... Well, the Captain had a business trip out here and Wicked was playing. Friedrich's wanted to see Wicked so bad!

So, we spent all day on Wednesday flying - or waiting in airports! John had a different flight than us. And Grandpa came along (remember he came with us to NYC/Boston for Liesl's Senior trip?). He's so fun. He creates a lot more memories on our vacations than if we just went by ourselves, but that's another post. In fact, this post is going to have to be another post because we're just about ready to go back to the French Quarter to get some beignets! We can't go home without trying them. Our flight doesn't leave here till 5:30ish. I am missing my kids, particualarly that youngest one (what's his name? It's not Brigitta. And that's probably not the right spelling anyway). I just don't like being away from my baby (who turned 3 this month). Speaking of birthdays - my Liesl is 20 today. I have one less teenager today. She and Rolf drove down here to babysit for us. Is that unconditional love or what? Technically still honeymooning and on her birthday now less! She's a good girl and she's married a good guy. I don't know what we would have done without them!

One thing's for certain, there's no place like home. And home is where my heart (my family) is!

Here's a sneak peek...

I survived! Barely! I'm anxious to share the wedding details, but I didn't take any pictures, I left that up to the photographers. For some reason I feel tongue tied without pictures. But all is not lost - I snagged a few from some friends/family on Facebook.

The reception was so Liesl! It was a party - carnival style! We had cotton candy, snow cones and popcorn...

(Thanks to my sister, Becky, for this amazing shot)

Liesl's cousins ran the machines. These little red aprons were the first projects we started and ended up being the last! They were simple until it came to the ties (which I had to make up). I put it off until the last Utah minute until my amazing sister, Cliss, drove up to Salt Lake to take them off my hands. She'll never know how much I appreciate her doing this for me!

The face painting was a big hit and we found the most amazing face painter in the Salt Lake Valley! She began before the reception started and stayed an extra hour - that's over 4 hours! Liesl even had her face painted.  

The wedding colors were red, pink and aqua. The bridesmaids wore a black dress of their own choice with red accents. Here's Friedrich and Louisa posing with a friend.

The cake was one of my favorite things about the reception! Liesl's Young Women's leader made it! We overheard some little kids asking each other if it was supposed to look like that.

(This is the guy I stole most of the pictures from)

And here's the lovely bride. The silly girl wanted to see the reception but she finally lost the glasses after one too many comments about her four eyes. Nevertheless, she was beautiful!

So, that's just a sneak peak - It was really a fun evening with lots of friends, family and FUN! One thing is for certain - I truly could not have done it without my amazing sisters and family! They came the night before and stayed until 2 am and took over and ran the reception so our family could visit and enjoy the evening. Then they stayed and cleaned up. They even cried with me. I love them so much!

Coming soon: Behind the scenes (where I get my hair colored using the church's kitchen sink) and more of the wedding and reception.

Nineteen Days - but who's counting?

 

19 days! Yikes! I'm getting a little freaked out, here!

I've been putting off sewing. I'm not a big fan of it. It can be fun, if someone else cuts out the material and sets everything else out so all you have to do is sit down and sew. But then there's always the seam ripper. Forget it! I hate sewing!

I cut out the material for Allie's dress and started cutting out the material for mine. I'm not counting on mine looking good on me (since I couldn't find one at the department store that looked good on me) but I already bought the pattern and material so I'm gonna give it a shot. Wish me luck.

Let's not talk about the wedding anymore. It's making me nervous.

Let's talk about how I ran over a mailbox in the Mother Ship. First, let me just place some of the blame elsewhere... I'll need to back track a little... We finally sold our trailer. That's the good news. The bad news is we have to find a pace to store all the junk that was in the trailer. The Captain moved everything into the Mother Ship and hadn't had time to unload it yet so when Liesl and I were driving home from walking I decided to show her a home that was for sale (we're looking into buying a home here). Liesl warned me not to drive into the driveway, but she complains about my driving all the time so I just ignored her. After taking the Peeping Tom tour I was pulling out and BOOM! Stupid mail box.

In my defense, it was a very long driveway - all dirt and gravel - and I couldn't see in the rear view mirror because of all the stuff in the van. McKenna tried to put it back up, but to no avail. What to do? Do I leave a note on the box for the bank that owns the home? Do I high tail it outta there? I'll let you ponder on that. Now, how do I turn off the comments?