Squirrel!

We've told many of you about how the squirrels in our neighborhood beg at our back doors. The other weekend George took a few photos through the back doors.

Proof that our squirrels beg:

Bleeding Heart

Although most of our life, at the moment, revolves around the wedding, there are other things that also need our attention...like the garden. This morning, I was putting cow poo and mulch on our flowers, and I noticed our first bloom in the perennial border that Pat planted for us. It's a fuchsia, but at first I thought it was a bleeding heart.

I asked Pat to include a bleeding heart and a few other flowers from my childhood in our garden; I'm so glad that she did. Bleeding hearts remind me of my Uncle Wayne. When I was a kid, I spent time during the summer on the farm where he and my Aunt Sherry raised sheep. I remember going home from one particular visit with the start of a bleeding heart, though I never had success getting it to grow.

In July of 1996, Uncle Wayne passed away suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack. There are times in my life when his absence feels overwhelming. Over the past few months, I've been thinking about him and how his nieces were like the daughters he never had; he called us his "gurls." This has been a very special year for us with Kristi's wedding a couple of months ago and mine next week. Although the emptiness left by Uncle Wayne's death makes my heart ache, I'm so glad that Aunt Sherry is able to be part of our special days. Although it's the fuchsia, and not the bleeding heart, that is blooming, I still feel like Uncle Wayne is watching us from afar and smiling down upon us.


**UPDATE**
My mom assures me that the bleeding heart Uncle Wayne gave me years ago was a success and still lives and blooms at the west end of her house. So, apparently Uncle Wayne is watching out all the way from Ohio.

Monumental

Today was a monumental day in the life of our weddidng. First, I got a call from my dear cousin, Shannon, wishing me happy 10 days until the wedding. Woah!

Next, I finished the last wedding craft project: our just-in-case-we-forget-our-vows books (a few pages of white cardstock in between black cardstock, laced like the programs). It wasn't a significant project, which is why I left it to the end. Perhaps they'll find a place in our wedding scrapbook, since we'll each handwrite our surprise love declarations, but we could certainly get married without having made these little guys. It still feels really good to know that I've reached the end. We are soooo excited for the wedding that it's nice to have some light at the end of the tunnel!

Most importantly, George and I are now the proud owners of a license to get married in King County. That's right - with our signatures and those of our officiant and witnesses (following the declaration that we each take the other as husband/wife and following the three-day waiting period), we will officially be married.

Marriage is a fundamental right and, we believe, a civil right. Because not all people are afforded this very precious right, we appreciate it that much more. It was shockingly easy to procure the license; we just had to pay $64 and fill out a very basic form with name, address, parents' name, and a little declaratory paragraph. We hope that one day (soon), it'll be that easy for any individual to gain access to this very important right, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

Curtain Crisis

Spring cleaning is complete...just in time to start all over again, I think. In the process, we had a bit of a curtain crisis, specifically curtain shrinking crisis. Now that I've solved it, I think the wounds are sufficiently healed to write about it.

Put simply, FAIL (old curtains, post-wash):









Fixed (new Ikea linen curtains, relentlessly ironed by George but still wrinkled):

Brilliant Sun

I've said I'm not going to check the weather for our wedding day until just before the wedding because there is no need to worry about something I can't change. However, upon realizing that the wedding is LESS THAN TWO WEEKS away (thus within the 15-day forecast), I decided to take a quick look. Knowing that our forecasts usually change right up to the day and are rarely accurate, I told myself not to worry if the forecast was for rain...or for high temps...or for low temps...or really anything other than perfect.

Look at what I found:


Not just sunny, but brilliant sun. Not too hot. Not too cold. PERFECT. I feel like I just checked my grades expecting a C and ending up with an A. You better believe that I will be keeping my fingers crossed that our day actually ends up with the predicted weather. Please...