Wedding! Cont.

So the ceremony started a little bit late, but everything was going smoothly. I was waiting in the bridal room while the bridemaids began to walk down the aisle and I was laughing about how funny it would be if Ellie (our Yorkie flower girl) would poop going down the aisle. This comment even got me a compliment from the bartender who was in the room with us that I was in the top 1% of calm brides he's ever seen there. I was proud of that compliment because if you know me, I am kind of always a stresser and a worrier, and not very often the calm one. But I know that my marriage to Trent is right and I just couldn't wait to make it official! So I wasn't stressing or worrying about it.

When it got to be Wade's turn to walk down the aisle with Kelsey and Ellie (we tried to make it as fun for him as possible) with his dad sending him off and his mom at the end of the aisle with M&Ms and trains waiting for him, he didn't want to do it! No worries, it was the effort that counted. At least he looked adorable! And Ellie got a laugh out of everyone. The Jazz festival was supposed to have a break during our ceremony time, but of course, they were running behind as well, and so we had a little tune for the first few minutes of our ceremony. Once again, no stressing so we made the best out of it and did a little dance at the front. Rod, our officiant, gave a very personal and perfect homily for Trent and I, and made the ceremony very special. It all went by so fast. No matter what may have happened during that wasn't supposed to happen (the wind blew out the candles to light the unity candle with, I couldn't find the kleenex that was in my dress pocket, YES I had pockets in my dress, and a lovely Jazz festival patron who decided to yell at us during our ceremony about the large mistake we were making- shout out to all the wonderful men in the audience who later told me they were 2 seconds away from getting up and hitting that guy in the mouth), it was absolutely perfect- and rain free!

Trent and I left to take pictures while the reception got started, and walked around the park for a while. I was sort of sad because the awesome park with the awesome view of Atlanta's skyline was covered in tons of people watching a concert, so we had to find some more secluded areas to take photos. I think they turned out spectacularly, though. Our photographer Kate Byars (www.katebyarsphotography.com) was amazing!! Check out her website for more pictures.

The reception also went by in a blur full of yummy food that we never got to eat (I heard it was delicious), a photo booth for our guests which created the best and most hilarous guest book ever (I DEFINITELY recommend having one of these at any event you throw), a green cake which Trent and I smashed in each other's faces, and many great friends and family members. We absolutely loved every minute of it. Special thanks to my parents for throwing the wedding of my dreams.

Hopefully you all could make it to the wedding and hopefully you loved it as much as we did. If you weren't able to be there, here are some pictures to help you feel like you were! Honeymoon blog coming soon!



Love,

The Stapletons

Married!

Hello everybody!!

We did it! Finally, we got married!! We are now Mr. and Mrs. Trent Stapleton. I thought I would write a little summary of wedding weekend first, and then do another post a little later for the honeymoon. This will be Erin's version of the story, so if any of you read this only for Trent's witty entries, I'm just warning you. I'll try to be witty, too. TRY being the keyword...

The weekend really started on Thursday when we had a birthday dinner for my sister-in-law Jennifer, myself, and my twin Kelsey at Henry's. If anyone has not been to Henry's in downtown Acworth, you should pretty much stop what you're doing now and head down there. It's delicious. Cajun, but even I like it, and I think mild things are way too hot to eat. Just my family got together and celebrated, and it really kicked off the weekend for us. Family started getting into town, and it began to sink in...

Friday was a packed day starting with a morning rehearsal at Piedmont Park. Thank God for my friend Ashley who did the run through with everyone and told us all where we needed to be and when. THANK YOU Ashley! It was very smooth frankly because we had awesome bridesmaids, groomsmen and family. Wade (the ringbearer) also made it all the way down the aisle during the rehearsal like a pro and gave us all hope that it would work just the same way during the actual ceremony.

After the rehearsal the boys went off to play a manly game of Whoorly Ball (I have NO idea how to spell that, so please don't judge me). If you don't know what this is, I like to describe it as lacross in bumper cars. You each have your own bumper car and those little hand net things and try to score goals. It can get pretty violent... I'm pretty sure some of the boys had bruises afterwards. The girls had a really nice lunch in the way cute Viriginia Highlands area and then kind of dispersed and did nails.

The rehearsal dinner was DELICIOUS at a yummy Italian place called Scalini's. We had a really great time with my family, Trent's family, and all the massive bridal party that we had. In case you didn't know, there were 11 each of bm and gm plus a ring bearer and a lovely Yorkie flower girl. We played a slideshow I made that I am going to attempt to post on this blog a little bit later so you can see baby Erin & Trent. Pretty cute if I do say so myself. So a huge thanks to the Stapleton's for a wonderful rehearsal dinner.

Wedding morning came with a lovely forcast of thunderstorms starting at 1pm and going through the rest of the day. I kept my fingers crossed for this to be false since the ceremony was supposed to be outside. Girls went to the hotel and got all pretty with hair and makeup, and the boys met for some fun foozball games at the Stapleton household. Ceremony started at 6:30 and ladies had to be there at 3:00 to start getting dressed and take pictures. When we got there the ceremony was all set up and ready to go... under the tent. I was slightly heartbroken, but they assured me it was only a precaution and it would be much easier to move the setup outside than it would have been to move it inside. So I put my heart back together and got ready for pictures. I got the girl's monogrammed umbrellas for a gift and had them bring them along just in case. We got some really cute photos of the umbrellas and the girls. I love them! I also had a pair of galoshes (again, I can't really spell well) that I had as another precaution. Boys arrived at 5 for pictures, and still no rain!!

I was waiting in the bride room trying to stay calm and be thankful for some air conditioner when I was told that they were moving the ceremony setup outside! The rain had held off! I couldn't have been happier! Although the ceremony would have been fine in either location, and the wedding ceremony is not about the look of it all but about the joining of two people into one, I still had always pictured the ceremony outside, so I was very relieved. The next thing they told me was that the cake had yet to arrive. Ha! Oh well, I thought, as long as it's here before it's time to cut it, I don't mind! The ceremony got off a slightly late start because of some lovely traffic caused by the Jazz festival that was going on, which also provided the backdrop and background music for our ceremony. No worries, though, it allowed for some extra people to join the audience.

**The rest of the story will be explained in the next post...

My Apologies

So, It has been over a month since I have let the pen hit the paper, and for that I do apologize. Life has been far too busy, and I think that most of you will understand why. If not, I will proceed to explain.
I believe that the countdown is now to 9 days. 9 days! That's soon. There are still plenty of things left on the registry! But, in all seriousness, we are very excited. In fact, we have just decided this evening that we are most excited for the week following the wedding. And we have also recently decided that we should have saved the money and planned a week stay at a hotel in Alabama...as long as it meant that neither of us had to work for a week! I suppose that we'll keep the week in Costa Rica...because that definitely means no work!
As far as I am concerned and understand, I believe that everything is ready to go for the big day...if you ask Erin, there is still plenty left to do. But we'll just about there and we are all set and ready to go!
Erin is still enjoying here job. Despite the desire for the week off, we are both enjoying our jobs at the moment. Barbecue Street and I have a love/hate relationship. But it is a healthy one. Speaking of that work relationship, I have been toying with the idea of prolonging my time at Kennesaw State and continue on at the restaurant full time for about a year or so longer. Let me know what you think, but here is the scenario: First of all, I have had overloaded semesters since I have started at Kennesaw, with the hopes that I could graduated as early and as quick as possible. I am finally to the final few semesters and I am looking at a full semester this summer, one class with TOSS (it's like student teaching) in the fall, and student teaching next spring...which would mean that I would graduate next May. The problem with that are as follows:
It would be a lot of work..but that is no excuse. I have had full semesters plus a full time job my entire college career. But I will not be able to work full time at the restaurant during TOSS or student teaching...so, in essence, I will be able to work full time for the next 4-5 months, and then I will have to cut my hours back a lot. I will be able to work 1 day a week during student teaching. In other words, Erin and I will be eating a lot of ramen and living off of what I can grow in the garden this summer. And, the biggest problem of all is the job situation. The state is not really in any shape to be hiring new, inexperienced teachers...seeing as they just let many of them go. That's a little scary. We just bought a house and I don't want to be out of work for 1 1/2 semesters only to find out that I still don't have a job.
Now, if I would slow down the graduation process, here is what I am looking at. I will not reach the goal of graduating as early as possible...which was the whole point of all of the work for the past couple of years. But, I would be able to work for the next year, in a good job with plenty of job security. I could spread out the remaining classes that I have left, maybe even get a minor in something. So...not that you know the readers digest version of what I am up against, let me know what you think. I have until Wednesday before classes begin..so I am giving myself until then to figure it out.
And here is the picture that I promised:



We are hoping to look like this at the end of the Warrior Dash on Saturday. The first of our annual Warrior Dash run!...maybe! We'll see how this first crazy one goes...but wish us look. We are hoping that we all come out unscathed and still able to walk without the aid of others!

Quick Update

Hi!! It's Erin (if you couldn't tell by the exclamation points).

I thought I'd give a quick update since neither of us really write in here all that often. The main reason for this is because we don't quite have internet hooked up yet at our new house. Of course, Trent still does at his parent's house (where he is living), but he's definitely at our house more often.

Here are the highlights of the past few days/weeks. They are finishing the house work TOMORROW! Hallelujiah! If you have talked to me personally in the past few weeks you should already know how I feel about contractors, but if not, I DON'T like them very much! haha They're difficult to work with. BUT tomorrow is the last piece of work they will be completing... resurfacing the guest bathtub. I can't wait for them to be out, and all the holes in my walls to be patched (which is happening as we speak).

We do keep finding lovely little things that go wrong with the house, but what else can you expect with a 20 year house (or if you're part of my family as my dad would say)? The brand new fridge decided to leak all over our new hardwood floors, but that guy is coming to fix it today. The outlets in both of the bathrooms decided to stop working, and then to start working again. At least they work now! There is a lovely leak from the Master bath that we have yet to investigate. But, of course these are all tiny little things that don't matter because WE HAVE A HOUSE!! It is actually starting to sink in, that it's all ours. The first mortgage payment helped that sink in...

I have also decided we have a ghost. He's a friendly ghost, though, so we've been calling him Casper. He just likes to move things around and such. But no harm, he keeps us protected at night.

Now that the contractors will be done, Ellie gets to come live with me! I CAN'T WAIT! I have missed my baby so much, and I know she'll be missed over at the Stapleton house, but I need her back! She is going to stop loving me the most I can't handle that :)

Not a funny post like Trent's, but just a little update for everyone. The wedding is in 33 days, and we are so ready! Can't wait to be married!

Ta for now. And just for you, Trent, I posted a picture of the house. It's a "before" picture, though, so it looks much better now. We'll post pictures soon.

Technological impairments

It's not that I don't know how, because I know I could if I tried, but I'm jealous of everyone with photos in their blogs. Does anyone want to be in charge of uploading my photos onto my computer for me so that I can use them in here?
It has been a couple of very interesting days, and that's where the sudden need for photos has come from. I can think of at least three (3) times since Monday that I have thought to myself "I wish I had a camera right now". Writing about them would just not do them justice, so I won't even try, but just know that I have seen some excitement this week!
My brother told me about blip.fm today, and I'm not sure how active I will be with it. I'm still a little confused with the idea behind it. I already really like my music, and enjoy everything that is on my iTunes. I'm not sure if I want to listen to what someone else wants to listen to. For example, the station I am on right now started with a little Gordon Lightfoot (which isn't bad, but if I were choosing I don't think he would have made the cut), MC Hammer (You Can't Touch This....and I won't. This song belongs everywhere), and now it's on to some other kind of nonsense that I have never heard of. Unless there is anyone else with such a satisfied taste in music as I have...in other words, someone that could listen to the same songs a million times and never get sick of them...I'm not sure if Blip.fm is for me. But, regardless, if you are interested in seeing what kind of blipper I become, my user name is tstaple1. In fact, if you are looking to follow me on any kind of social networking site, tstaple1 is probably the screen name..so go see what you can find.
I succumbed to the temptations of the digital age this evening. Erin and I have been looking in to getting the internet at the new house for a few weeks now. She is going to be officially moving in this weekend after the showers are finished, so I wanted to try and have the internet installed so she doesn't die of boredom while at home. We had also decided that we wouldn't get cable yet and save the extra 30 or 40 bucks a month. So I went out and bought a digital antenna, and we were well prepared to continue watching tv on the internet. Neither of us have had cable in oer a year now, so it is not a big deal...until I started finding pricing deals for cable! I got sucked in by the great deals! Now, I am not a cable salesman, and I am not trying to get a job with their marketing firm, but as cheap as Dish was going to give us cable, I couldn't resist. The good news is Erin will no longer be watching the freshly painted walls peeled to pass the time!
My goal for the next entry is at least one picture.

I couldn't think of any clever title for today's entry. I tried to think of something to allude to how busy the past few weeks have been...but nothing I could think of would do it justice. On top of being a full time students, a full time restaurant manager, and purchasing and working on a new home...blogging has been pushed to the back-burner. Nevertheless, much has happened and deserved to be noted.
House update:
Everything is going well. After clearing up the original miscommunication with the contractors, work has preceded quite nicely. The new hardwoods are in place and look great. I have, as of last night, finished installing all of the new ceiling fans and light fixtures. Greg and I somehow managed to squeeze the new fridge into place without destroying anything in the process. I replaced the leaking water valve for the dishwasher. The new hot water heater was installed today and seems to be working just fine. Met a new neighbor, his name is Hudd. Shapour and I have leveled and planned out nicely the first tier of the new garden...by-the-way Shapour, if you are reading this, I need to get the second one finished and get some things planted... you up for playing in the dirt again? The painters finished painting the house today. It's nice to have these things being taken care of!
Wedding update:
I believe things are right on track. But we'll have to ask Erin to get on soon to give a complete update on that.
Life update:
Life is good. Once again, it has become an extremely busy time for both Erin and I. She is trying to pull all f the loose ends together and get things ready for May 29th and I am trying to pull all of the loose ends together and finish the semester strong. Unfortunately it has kept us apart for longer than we would like, but when we both actually have a free night it makes it that much more enjoyable to be able to spend the time with each other. We are getting very excited about the wedding and getting to see some old friends that we haven't seen in a long time! To Mr. Ben Cragun, if you are reading this, thanks for the package from Gallina. I finally got it in the mail this week. I can hardly read Russian handwriting anymore, but I was just able to make out what she said. So, thanks for getting it here, even if it was 3 years late.

Sweet Caroline!

I hope that someone else out there just enjoyed watching Neil Diamond belt out "Sweet Caroline"during the middle of the 8th in on the opening day of the greatest sport in the world.

It sure is nice to have baseball back once again! The Braves are opening tomorrow, and as the commercials are saying, "this is the year"! Spring has definitely arrived! In fact today you could have argued that it skipped right over and went right into summer!..and they games back on, I'll be back in a few minutes...

I hope everyone enjoyed their Easter. I certainly enjoyed procrastinating the papers that I needed to get written! 9:30 class was cancelled, so it'll give me something to do in the morning! But for now, once again, baseball season has begun!

As for the day, we spent most of it trying to get Erin moved in. Our plan was to get Erin moved in and ready for tonight to be her first night staying in our new house. The appliances were delivered by Lowe's today, so while Erin organized book shelves and made her bed, I was installing ceiling fans and tried to pretend like I really knew what I was doing. I can proudly say that now I do know what I am doing when a ceiling fan is concerned! Nothing blew up, I was not electrocuted once (which is something that, historically speaking, has plagued my electrical work) and all of the lights turn on and all of the fans spin around.
The big hiccup came when I headed downstairs to the basement to light the pilot light for the water heater. We are having a larger water heater installed in the next few weeks, but Erin was not looking forward to a cold shower at 6:00 AM...and I can't blame her...been there, done that! Of course, as I sat down and checked all of the gas lines to make sure everything was on, found the pilot light, prepped the tank, and felt confident that everything had been done correctly, I lit the match and moved cautiously toward the water tank and....nothing. Absolutely nothing! I tried for a few minutes before realizing that there was no gas going to the tank. So, Erin is bunking at Kelsey and Greg's place for the next few days, at least until we get the new water heater installed and ready to go for her.
The contractors are getting started in the morning. We are hoping that they work ahead of schedule! That is probably not going to happen! But, we can still hope, right? We are really looking forward to getting all of the work finished and getting the house in order...just in time to actually start to have a monthly payment! This month long grace period after closing couldn't be long enough! Once again, any donations can be sent to our new address!
The big event for the past few days was the beginning of the new garden! One of these days I'll get adventurous enough to take some photos and learn how to upload them here...but Shapour and I dug out the foundations for my new garden on Friday! We have a beautiful upper tier, a nice little stone path, and we still have some work today for the lower tier, but it is definitely a garden! Enough to make your average home gardener jealous!
And in one more out, the 2010 baseball season will have begun exactly how I could have hoped...with the Yankees losing! I'm off to enjoy this last out!