Hi. Remember me? I used to write on here sporatically, but usually more often than I have as of late.
I think I have a good reason. There's been a lot going on.
Chris and I got married, as you can tell by the last post, and we're also pregnant. (By we, I obviously mean me, because if HE was carrying the baby, well, let's just say we'd have a tv show of our own by now.)
We're in the middle of buying the place we're living in. (Mortgage approved, awaiting finalisation as a result of our confusion about insurance and finding out after we got a quote from one company that another in town would insure for half the cost. We were told the first we went to was the only one in town that insures, so we went there. Now we get to start over with another insurance company!)
I'm not sure who all reads this (hi, Chair!) besides the comment I got hinting that I should post again. (Good idea, btw, and thank you, it's a good outlet and I've neglected it for far too long!)
To those who DO read this, be warned that I may end up talking about the pregnancy a LOT, and in more detail than most guys would want to ever read.
There. I consider that a fair warning. It's written in normal sized letters. Good enough.
It is currently 3 a.m. and I am at work. I can guarantee that I will not get in trouble for posting while at work, because the amount of work is so marginal compared to the time we have to do it in. (At least on the night shift...)
I've been awake since 7 yesterday morning, so if this post falls apart and crumbles on your screen, don't worry, it's just me losing my mind. (Chronic exhaustion, will explain more later during the pregnancy explanations.)
I'm not sure where to start. Wedding or baby...
I haven't really thought too much about the wedding since it was over, since the baby took full priority in my head soon after.
This post is going to be about the wedding, and I'll try to remember to post about the baby soon...
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Our Wedding
There was a lot going on, like most weddings I'm sure, and the morning of, it hit rock bottom. And by morning, I mean 1:30 a.m.
The Rehearsal and Dinner were great, and then I brought Jarrod (Honorary Maid of Honour/Groomsman) around Jasper and showed him some of my favorite places while Chris went out for a drink with his BFF, Dorin (Best Man).
The evening was amazing, and Jarrod and I met up with my friend Nicole, her daughter, Crystal and Nicole's boyfriend, Mike. We went to Lake Annette, a beautiful lake, where we sat on the wide dock and just listened to the evening. There were fish jumping out of the water every few minutes, having dinner, and I tried each time to get a picture (failed miserably). We saw a huge minnow, and basically just sat there having fun, chatting.
Anyway, Jarrod needed to speak with Chris and I about the MC-ing he was to do the next day, because we hadn't managed to talk to him about it until that point, so we finally got back to the hotel and started discussing things. When we finally finished, it was late, so Chris drove Jarrod back to where he was staying, and I started to get ready to go to bed.
(PREGNANCY INFO HERE)
I had been cramping a little bit during the later parts of the evening, but since it was fairly mild, I just assumed it was stretching or some other normal symptom. After a trip to the washroom, I immediately called Chris and told him there was blood. The cramps got worse (maybe from stress, maybe from ???), and in 2 minutes he was back, and we tried calling Capital Health Link for advice. After being on hold for ~15 minutes, and getting more stressed out by the second, Chris called the hospital in Jasper to talk to the nurse.
The nurse was much more helpful than the horrible 10 second loop of classical music I'd been listening to, so we took her advice and went to the Emergency Room.
We left for the hospital at around 1:00 a.m. and after a not so empathetic doctor bluntly said that "if you're going to miscarry, you're going to miscarry" and that there was nothing they could do about it. (I know that is the reality of it, and there isn't anything they could have done, but our frightened faces should have triggered something in the man's soul to maybe be a little nicer about how he said it.) He sent me back home (hotel) and we tried to calm down.
I'd like to mention how calm Chris stayed about the entire situation, and I know that he kept me from losing it altogether at the hospital. Before and after the hospital is a different story, though. The realisation of what we thought was happening hit me hard as we were getting our shoes on, and I couldn't move. When we got back from the hospital at 2:30 a.m., I again couldn't stop thinking about what would happen, what our wedding day would be dimmed by, if it did happen.
It was a horrible experience, and it combined with nerves made the rest of my night hellish. I got maybe an hours sleep, in 10 minute increments, while Chris may have gotten 2 hours, at best.
I was nauseous all night, and unfortunately, kept Chris awake all night while I was getting sick. I kept trying to eat crackers and drink 7up, but I couldn't keep anything down longer than half an hour. I'm certain that the sugar content of the 7up is part of what kept me going, so I held it in my mouth before swallowing to try to absorb as much as I could.
The next morning, I called a few people and told them what our night had been like, and after a suggestion that we could cancel the whole days events and have the ceremony in the hotel room, I took a different suggestion, had a shower, and joined Joy, Mat, Willy and Chris in the restaurant downstairs to try to eat.
The smell of the breakfast meats made me nauseous, so I just went upstairs and ate crackers. I had cancelled my hair appointment that morning, figuring that I'd never get through it. A lot of people offered ideas on how to do my hair, and Steph offered to do my hair for me, and I am so glad that I took her up on her offer. My hair looked great, and the best part was that I didn't have to leave the hotel room, so people were coming in and out letting me know what was happening in the ceremony room, who was arriving, and generally keeping me company.
THANK YOU STEPH!!!
(Pause while I do my cashout... Back @ 4:30 a.m. only one and a half hours to go until I can sleep!)
Anyway, as it closer to the time to start the ceremony, we figured it would be nice if I wore my dress, so we rushed to put it on, and ended up having Joy* and Nicole doing up buttons.
*When I first told Joy about my dress, she said she refused to do any buttons. There was 30 that needed doing up, 87 total on the dress, and she did them anyway. : )
We were finally all ready, got our flowers (and realized the florist forgot to add the throwing bouquet to the package, so I only had my bouquet and the girls bouquet's...) and we walked down the hallway to the back of the ceremony room.
My Dad was waiting outside for me, and Joy told me not to be nervous, which, for the three hours previous, I hadn't been. I was surprisingly calm.
Anyway, the girls were all nervous (they had to go first, who wouldn't be?), and until my Dad and I stepped up to the doorway to wait to go, I was calm. Then, everyone stood up and turned, and I started to well up. The first half of the aisle I was trying to hold back tears, the second half, I was trying to smile through them. I should have tried to cry an hour or so before the ceremony like I had thought about, so that I would be a little more calm during the ceremony, but I forgot, and I don't know that it would have done us much good anyway!
I wanted to add our vows here (I know I'd emailed them to myself, but they won't open on this computer at work... ?) but since I can't, I'll have to post them another day.
After the ceremony, we had a short receiving line with our parents, and then took some pictures on the balcony. We also took some group photos, and got almost everyone in the pictures, except for the couple of people that left right after the ceremony ended.
We then took a few minutes to relax, I went and sat for a few minutes in M&D's hotel room and had a muffin (yay food) and absorbed that I was now married!
We got everyone together and went to go take pictures, at the same lake that Jarrod, nicole, Mike, Crystal and I were at the night before.
The water was choppy, and it was very windy, and us girls kept hiding under a tree for protection from the pieces of tree that were blowing around. They were small pieces, but pieces, nonetheless. I still ended up having pieces of tree in my dress later on!
We kept up with our take a few pictures, run and hide, take a few pictures, etc routine until it got really windy, and we just said we got what we'd wanted and left!
It was a lot of fun, and right after the last picture of me was taken, my veil was blown out of my hair and I caught it before it took off in the wind! Luckily, the wind was blowing from the water to shore and not vise versa, so I probably wouldn't have lost the veil even if I hadn't caught it.
We had a few hours before the reception, so Chris and I went to our hotel room to try to nap or relax at the very least. I wasn't able to nap, but was feeling ill enough, again, that I had to take off my dress.
Chris wasn't eager to have to do up the buttons for me to wear the dress to the reception, and sitting in the dress with the boustier was quite uncomfortable and made my insides queasy, so I figured it might not be a good idea to wear it to the reception. This is one of two things I regret about the wedding. (The other being the cake. Another long story.) I really do wish I had at least tried to wear the dress, even if I wore it without the boustier. I also wish that we'd done our first dance, but only with the dress, so that's kind of a package regret.
The whole day was beautiful, the food at the reception was great, and the photographer was amazing, so altogether, the minor things were nothing and the major things were dealt with.
Our total guest count ended up being 57, and since several were leaving early the next day, our reception was down to 20 people including us by 10 p.m.
We left shortly after that, and got plenty of sleep that night.
I was still sick during the gift opening, but managed to make it through.
We had placed at each table setting a blank piece of paper and a pen for people to doodle whatever they wanted on it during the reception. They were all gathered up, some were brought to us as they were finished, and I am going to add them to the guest book.
One of my favorite memories from the entire wedding, that I will cherish forever:
On my brother's guest book page, he had doodled "McCrea" in big letters in the centre, and then wrote underneath it: "just got a little more beautiful."
