2004-11-29

Engagement Tour 2004

We had such a good holiday and weekend. But I must say we felt like we were on Engagement Tour 2004� coming to a relative near you!

Thursday morning Carl and I hit the road to his mom�s lake house where we had Thanksgiving dinner. The weather was absolutely beautiful the whole day. His mom�s boyfriend gave me a wine lesson, and despite my protestations about red wine giving me headaches, he said a few sips wouldn�t hurt. Needless to say, I spent the rest of the day in the guest house laying down because I had a headache that wouldn�t quit. Carl felt terrible. I made him stay with his mom and watch TV even though I really just wanted him to lay down with me. But I see him all the time. Holidays are to be with family.

On Friday we drove to Nana�s house and spent the night with her. We had turkey sandwiches when we got there and some really awesome peanut butter pie. Then I took a nap to let Carl and Nana catch up. We had pizza for dinner and just chit chatted the rest of the evening away. We got up on Saturday, had some breakfast and more chat and then we were hitting the road again, this time to Austin.

We arrived at Carl�s folk�s house where we had a bite of lunch and Terri and Larry (his folks) toasted our engagement with champagne. It was really sweet. We drove around looking at potential places for out of town guests to stay and then we headed to the UT Club (one of the reception possibilities). It turns out they were having a wedding that night so we got to peek in. It was wild, because the cake lady I had been emailing with in Austin was there! It was too funny. So we got to see one of her finished cakes and it was beautiful.

Sunday we went to mass at the church where we�ll be getting married and chatted with the priest after the service. It turns out that he grew up in Wisconsin and knew exactly where my home town was. He lived between my home town and Madison. Our high schools were rivals. He�s a bit older than me, so we wouldn�t have crossed paths, but it was fun to talk with him. I think he�s going to be great and I�m hoping that no conflicts arise that will take him away from the wedding. He gave me a prayer book to look over and gave me and Carl a book on marriage. It looks like it�s pretty good. He suggested we go back there for our counseling, and I totally want to because it was just great chemistry with this guy. Carl was really acting weird during the counseling. I asked his dad and step-mom to be in there too, because I wanted to know if there was anything they wanted or included. Carl sat way down at the other end of the couch from me and I pretended not to notice. Carl looked so nervous. He finally realized that he was sitting so far from me and scooted over and put his arm around me. He later said he felt like an idiot. He was trying so hard to be attentive to the priest that he suddenly realized his body language was being very cool to me. LOL

We talked about different things to do in the ceremony, including making Aubrey a part of the vows. After my vows, Aubrey will come forward and Carl will have an exchange of vows with her �promising to be a good father�and she promising to be a good daughter. Then we will put a pendant with three joined circles on her that represent the three of us coming together as a family. When I talked about this, Terri was just bawling. LOL I was tearing up too, but I really want Aubrey to know that she is just as important a part of this wedding and that it�s not just about me and Carl. The other thing that made Terri bawl was that I want a candle on the alter lit for my folks. The priest will mention them by name. I thought that was a really special touch. That one made ME bawl.

After church we went to taste the cake and look at pictures of the different cakes. On the way over there I didn�t know exactly how to read Carl. Again, he just looked really scared and I was a bit worried. He mouthed to me �I love you� and his eyes all filled with tears. I had to turn to look out the window or I was going to bawl, too.

The cake was delicious and all the cakes were beautiful. I chose something very simple but elegant and it was way less than I thought it was going to be. For the Groom�s cake and the wedding cake it was less than $400. We went ahead and paid the deposit and got our place in her book. It was nice to get at least one thing booked and out of the way!

After a quick lunch Carl and I hit the road back to Dallas. We cracked the book on marriage and spent the next four hours doing the questions in two of the chapters of the book. One thing about talking to Carl�it�s so easy for me. And he feels the same. I can�t believe we talked for four hours with no radio or anything. And I found out a lot about his family I didn�t know. So all in all it was a very productive and positive weekend. I know that Carl is totally committed and now that we�ve got some wedding stuff under our belt, he�s not so scared about the wedding being in June

kellbelle at 2:29 p.m.

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