Happily Ever After

The dress is bought! But that WASN'T the best part of the night.

No, NOT the dress.

I went to my final fitting. Again, not the best part.

You see, earlier in the afternoon, I was busy online, when I found a website that featured my X-weighted show. So, for the first time in, like, a YEAR, I watched the very beginning of the show, and the very end. Again, I HATED watching it, as I know what was happening behind the scenes and I hate how naive I look now. But, I like watching the physical change.

My 'before' photo I sent in with my application. Click for full fatness overload!

The other day, a publicist from the show asked me if I'd be willing to do a follow-up interview for the website they're launching in the fall with 'where are they now' information.

Of course, the first thing she asked, is did you keep the weight off? Are you still living a healthy lifestyle?

At the beginning of the show my measurements were 41.5 bust, 40 waist, 48 hips. At the end of the show, they were 35.5 bust, 32 waist, 41 hips.

It's been two years since filming began, and about a year and a half since it ended.


And last night, they took my measurements for the dress.

Last night? My measurements were 38 bust*, 32 waist, 38 hips.
The best part of the night- I knew I wasn't falling into my OLD life again. I was happy that I was a "permanently" changed person. I was happy that, when she asked me where I was now, I could report that I was divorced from Chris and engaged to be married to a wonderful, LDS man, my visions of a large family would come true, Will loves me no matter WHAT the scale says, and I was happy and healthy. It's happily ever after, and it hasn't even officially started yet.


*bust is obviously not the same- but that's understandably easily explained.

Tuesday Tidbits

A post of tidbits. Not Timbits... although... I had some of those with the dayhome kids yesterday, and forgot how gross they are. I mean, I love donuts as much as the next person, but timbits are so much drier. Although, the handy bite-size makes me feel less guilty when I eat 20 of them. Those powder-covered ones are my fave!!

Last night, I donned my VERY FUN wedding shoes, and went with my lovely friend, Becka, dress shopping again at a friend's bridal store. Funny enough, the dresses we narrowed it down to are TOTALLY different than the dress from the other fitting with Sin and Babbling Brook. hmmmmm. Now what do I do? If Will didn't read the blog, I'd ask all of you your opinions. Alas, no pre-wedding shots here. But I'll help ya out-- just imagine: white or off-white dress. To the floor, or slightly above the knee. fitted on the waist or empire waistband. Low cut or not. Sleeveless or strappy or full-arms... :)

Invitations are out. That feels good.

And today's the last day I have with my longest-standing dayhome child! :( I've had Andrew for over 2.5 years now. It's sad that today's my last day with him. Moving on to bigger and better things.

House NEEDS TO SELL!!!!!!

yah. That's it for today. Pretty lame post- busy dong laundry and cleaning and getting ready for the long weekend coming up.

And check out this blog: www.cutelikemegiveaways.blogspot.com They always do fun give-a-ways. Not to mention, Hailey's awesome herself. After all, only the awesomest of people have a birthday on a holiday.

Mimi Makes Me Laugh

*during family prayer*

Mimi: Heavenly Father, please bless us. Fank you... a house. Fank you... a fam'ly. Fank you...a temple. Fank you...a dessert and ice cream!

*Getting dressed in the morning, she brings me her dress*

Mimi: But Mom! I can not get dressed out here! People will see my pirates!
Andrew (dayhome kid, 3 years old): There's no such thing as pirates. Pirates are only on TV. Like Dora.
Mimi: Yes there is. Hers has pirates. Hes has a penis.
Andrew: Not pirates. Privates!
Mimi: No. See? (pulls up her dress.) My pirates.

***

***

Not Me Monday- Family

So, I did NOT spend the weekend with extended family members.

Friday after work, I did NOT drive to Will's birthplace where I met a LOT of his family members and friends for the yearly celebrations they have there. I did NOT forget probably 90% of their names by the end of the night. I am NOT so fired from good-future-in-law of the year position.

However, I did NOT have fun going through the 'Josephine' haunted forest- a family tradition based on a very funny and cute folkstory about the family farm's heritage. Something about being raised by cows and forgetting to moisturize your ugly elbows and brush your teeth....and..uh... somebody loved someone else and then they all died.

After that, I did NOT get the worst stomach pains and did NOT spend the rest of the night hurting and feeling yucky.

Saturday morning, I did NOT then head to MY family reunion 3 hours north. I did NOT enjoy the beautiful countryside as I drove, sunroof open, music blaring.

Family farm on the left

Although I miss British Columbia, Alberta is gorgeous. I really did NOT like seeing some family members I hardly see, and did NOT catch up with a few distant cousins. I did NOT also LOVE seeing my nieces and nephews that live in the centre of the universe Toronto, albeit for a short time.

Saturday was a birthday party to commemorate 7 of our family members who are NOT older than 90 years. I also did NOT eat a piece of each of the 7 birthday cakes. I do NOT have a bet with Sin (and Andy) about how much weight to lose before the wedding, and I don't NOT think that eating 7 pieces, albeit SMALL pieces, is very helpful to my diet. Oh well.

They did NOT have a pig roast dinner, and I did NOT also eat far too much of that. Thankfully, my stomach was NOT kinda better. This family farm is NOT a haven for kids-- playgrounds, trains, a zipline, and, check this out---- this car does NOT have only two wheels. Pretty cute, if you ask me. And me and my brother did NOT also try out the Segway. And, in true prairie fashion, I was NOT surprised to decide to go home while the sun was NOT still totally hot and still shining. Although, it was NOT, like, 10 pm. All in all, it was a great visit.

Driving home

I am NOT off the computer to go send out our invitations today, and am NOT dreaming wedding-mares already. It is NOT annoying.

Six Word Saturday - Family

Old people run in my family.


And by that, I mean it's hereditary to grow old, AND they run. Like... deer. Healthy brood, they are.

*I'm at my great-aunt's 100th birthday party today. It's a thing-- my dad's family all live until FOREVER, and hopefully I will also get to live 72 more years. As long as Will lives for 72 more years and a day, right Winnie?



For more Six Word Saturday, visit Cate at Show My Face dot com.

4/52

It's Find Mom Friday.

Which sux, cuz this week I didn't even SEE my kids, so I couldn't have taken a picture of me with them.

:(

Instead, we'll use one from last week, since that's allllllls I gots. As you can see, this is a pic of me with all my daughters (and daughters to be) working hard at setting up camp! ;P It's tough being a girl.


I'm off to family reunions with Will's family, and a family birthday party on my side tomorrow, so have a GREAT weekend and we'll chat Monday when I'll tell ya what I DID NOT do. ;)

For now,
peace out.

Mom's Week Off

Being without my kids for the week is taking its toll.

Firstly, it's awesome.
I got to sleep-in yesterday (as sleep-in as 8 am is... and for me, that's 2 hours!), and once the dayhome kids go home, I am FREE to do what I want (any old time?). I don't have to make dinners, my house is staying pretty dang clean (not that anyone's asked for a showing this week, which is both a relief because I don't have to leave and also a pain because that means it's not being sold and just FIGURES since this is the EASIEST time for me to show the place), and there's NO responsibilities to keep me at home at night.

So, last night I went out with Becka.

We went shoe shopping, and AMAZINGLY, found the shoes I was looking for for the wedding! The right colour, the right heel, everything perfect. Nice.
And we headed out for dinner after with Lena to The Olive Garden. Which, by the way, was soooooo yummy!

But, to my surprise, my kids came with me. Oh, every few minutes I'd end up thinking "Oh geez, it's getting late and I have to get back to relieve the babysitter" or "Chris is gonna be mad that I've been out so long, he probably wants to go home" or something along those lines. I'd actually have to TRAIN myself NOT to think about them and enjoy the night out.

We got home fairly late after traffic issues and going downtown to drop off dinner for Becka's working hubby, and it was odd to walk into an empty house that late at night. Not bad. Just... odd. The doors to their bedrooms have remained closed (so they don't get messed up by dayhome kids) and last night it was so hot, I opened every door and window to get some cross-breezes goin' on. Their little beds are still made. Their rooms SMELL like them. (remind me to give those bedrooms a bath! ;) )

And then I chatted with Will on the phone.
And my kids were there.

During the conversation, I had to remind myself that the kids weren't going to be overhearing anything I said. That I could talk 'loudly' and not worry about waking anyone up. Although, it's a relief to be able to have a full-blown conversation with someone and NOT be interrupted at least once with "MAAAHWHHHWMMM, soandso is looking at me!"




It is very odd not having them here. I had them alllll last week by myself, and I'll have them alllll next week to myself too. I'm enjoying my week-off, getting stuff done and relaxing. But it sure is empty, and peaceful quiet and a nice home-cation.

Wednesday Ws- Dress

Who: Sin, Babbling Brook and I
What: had a blast
Where: at the bridal store
When: last night
Why: so I could try on wedding dresses. I didn't try on dresses when I got engaged to Chris... in truth, I didn't even SEE my dress until less than 12 hours before I got married. My awesome sister and I were the same measurements, so she sewed a dress (IN A WEEK!) and fit it to her. When I arrived in Calgary from Vancouver a day before the wedding, I tried it on. It fit exactly right. Pretty cool to have a sister that selfless with her time.

But THIS time, I tried on dress after dress. It was cute to watch Babbling Brook get super super excited with EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. We brought the camera, and she went to town taking photos of every dress I tried on, even pictures of the wall, the chair, the veils....

All in all, it was a fun experience. It was good to try on a bunch of different styles so I could know what TYPE of dress I'd like best.

And when they say when you find THE ONE, you just know?

Yah. We totally had that moment. It made me feel shiny. It got us allllll excited. It inspired hair accessories and visions and squeals. It's so pretty. We even tried on others AFTER that one, and nothing made me feel like that one.

Then we scoured for shoes, checked out flowers... had a total "girlie/wedding" night.
I even managed to get Will to agree to the wording for the invitations without pulling too many teeth, although, I'm pretty sure guys have a daily allotment of wedding planning before their heads explode, so that was the extent of our decisions for yesterday.


And it's Wednesday, so time for Jillybean's Word Verification Wednesday. Type in the word verification in the comment section, and make up a dictionary definition to go along with it. Play as much as you want, and if you don't like the word, just refresh the page for a new one.

Have fun!

My To-Do List

Do you know how many things need to get done for a wedding???

We have limited time to get it all done in. Which, in THIS short of time, is tough enough. But with moving and school and all that ON TOP of what is going on by then-- yikes. Even more stressful. My first wedding, we were engaged and married in a week. We had lots of people help pull off a quick wedding for $1000.00! Dress, rings and food for 75 included. But this one isn't like that... so:

• Make the guest list
• Fight over who is important enough for the list.. and by fight, I mean with our family members who think Gramma's brother's married-uncle Sam needs an invitation. Although no one has spoken to him for a decade.
  
• Take a new photo for the invitations (or do we just use one we already have, since we have a MILLION to pick from?)
• Print up the photos
  
• Make the invitations
  
• prune the guest list
• Find addresses for all those people you don't usually send mail to, like Uncle Sam. (you knew you were gonna lose that fight, right? right? )
  
• throw away the guest list and start a new one
• Find addresses for all those people you send mail to, but have been facebooking with for years instead
• Forget the frikken invitations and send out a mass email on Facebook. Or better yet, start a Facebook group! lol (I hate those wedding group pages)
• Try on dresses
• Cry at how fat you feel in the dresses, storm out of store because you're IRATE that their sizes MUST be wrong
  
• Go on immediate water diet
• try on dresses again
  
• Find a dress out of your price range
• Consider paper bags, or duct tape (WHAT THE?)
• Go online and find the dress second-hand, cheaper
• Get the dress in the mail to find it's Purple
• Change your wedding colours to purple.
• Find flowers you LOVE LOVE LOVE.... but they only come in red
• Find shoes- they come in orange only.
• get the food figured out
• decide a wedding is too much work, elope 2 days before the wedding date, and tell everyone their invitations must have had a typo.

Yep.
Will, I love you, but who's idea was this?! ( haha.)

Not Me Monday- Camping

I am NOT back.
I did NOT have the BEST time!
I do NOT think Will's family is crazier than I knew they were.
And that does NOT make me happier, knowing he still has yet to meet most of MY family! muahaha. And, heck, we already know he can handle crazy.

I am NOT tanned after spending the entire week at the foot of the beach.
I am NOT bruised all over my hips from sleeping on the tent floor.
I did NOT miss my bed!

I did NOT love swimming.
I did NOT love learning to ride the new ripsticks Will and I have.
I did NOT enjoy kayaking around the lake to see the turtles and fish in the SUPER CRYSTAL CLEAR water, and I did NOT laugh my butt off when Em tipped the kayak while she and I were in it!
By the way, the water was NOT cold and refreshing.
I did NOT love that my kids got a heck of a lot more water confidence after this week, even though there were a few moments that I had to 'save' Mimi.
I did NOT love being goofy with the kids.

I did NOT give my kids to Chris for the week, while they camp with him and my ex-in-laws.
I am NOT happy to have a week to myself (minus dayhome kids during the day) to get some wedding planning done.

I am NOT excited that Will and I have a house to move into.
I am NOT happy to live closer to my family.
I am NOT moving in a few weeks, even if this place doesn't sell by then. Which means, I will NOT be living out of suitcases for a while.

I am NOT so in love!
Oh, did I mention, I do NOT think Will is DANNNNNG hot?! ;) And he's NOT all mine. :D
I do NOT think my little Willy rocks. (haha, that sentence is NOT funny!)

I am NOT upset that the house across the street has a conditional sale sign.
I am NOT hoping I'm next.

Six Word Saturday- Marrying a King

Kissed Many Frogs. Finally Found Prince.

For more SWS, join Cate by clicking on the button below! Have fun!

*still on vacation, but here's a picture showing our soon-to-be family dinners, with Sin and her family too.

Let's hope this pre-posting is working again. Silly blogger.

When Ya Gotta Go...

So, the showing yesterday....

For ya'll who aren't from Calgary, it's been rainy and thundery and lighteny lately 'round these parts. (and, apparently, that kind of weather brings out my inner Honkey tonk-- sheesh, ONE day at the Stampede and my cool quotient is GONE!)

So, yesterday, when the showing happened, I had the dayhome kids with me. We couldn't walk to the park, as it was not only rainy but COLD outside. And so I packed them into the van, and we drove down the street to watch a movie on the DVD player, and wait the hour.

An hour in a parked car with 7 kids is ANNOYING!!!!! At about 10 minutes to the end of the hour, the two three-year olds tell me that they both have to potty. And by 'have to', they mean NOW. In fact, Mimi even suggested that she peed on the grass. Which, not that it mattered to her, was someone's front lawn.

SO I drove home. Usually, the showing only takes 10 minutes tops. So arriving back at the house 10 minutes early isn't usually a big deal. But when I got in the house, there was no indication (business card, lights off) that anyone had arrived.

So I called my realtor, wondering if this was a cancelled showing again. It wasn't, so we were both confused.

All the kids went out to play.
And then all the kids came inside screaming, "They're HERE! The people who want to see the house are heeeeeere!!"

Great. Two minutes of the hour left.

I shove all the kids back out to the van, shoeless or not. Appologizing to the realtor for being in the house, she and her clients watch me pack the van profusely full of children.

I get in the van.
"Everyone in?"

"No. Andrew isn't!"

oh crap.
So I run into the garage door to find Andrew. He's still in the bathroom. (one of the three year-olds who needed to potty) Luckily, he didn't lock the door, so I go in to rush him out.

OH CRAP.

LITERALLY.

He has poohed his pants, smeared it all over the toilet seat, down on the floor, IN BETWEEN HIS TOES, and all over himself. And, the realtor and the clients are already IN the house!!!!

I grabbed a towel, wrapped him in it, wiped the toilet with wet toilet paper just to make it LOOK clean (ew. SOOO sanitizing that when the showing is over!) and clean the floor. turn on the fan because MAN IT STINKS IN HERE, and pick up poop-boy and get into the van.

Then I drive down the street, and spend 20 minutes cleaning poop off a child with wet wipes that I keep in the car for emergencies.



I'm sure THIS will be the couple that buys the house, right? ;)

Like a Chicken With It's Head Cut Off

Gasp- two posts in one day?

Yah.
Remember the list I had to do today?!!! (see post below)

Remember the part: Call the realtor? Yah, he called me. We lowered the price on the house, and he called all the realtors who had people who had come to see it to let them know.

Ten minutes later, a second showing.

*YIKES*
Like I had nothing else to do today other than clean a house!!!!! AHHHHH. Sell, sell, sell!!!

Checking in, checking out.

So, today is gonna be one of those OHMYGOSHWHEREDIDTHEDAYGO type of days! I'm taking off with ***my future husband** (squeal of joy) and the in-laws camping tomorrow, but I have a MILLION things to do today to get ready: laundry, packing, cooking, cleaning the house so it can get sold while I'm gone, calling the realtor, calling a few friends, hopefully celebrating the purchase of a new home Will bought, making wedding plans, watching kids, getting passport photos done for the kids.. all this withOUT my ring (which Will took back to get sized, and possibly exchanged for Palladium, as I'm allergic to gold)! :(

Last night Will and I took my kids to Costco to buy food for the week. For ALL 9 of us. And let me tell you, it was hilarious. We bought 9 loafs of bread!!! Bought 2 jugs of milk, spent 20 bucks on BREAKFAST cereal!! Spent a fair amount of cash, and we're ONLY camping until Sunday! It was a lesson on reality; that once we're married, we'll be doing this on a regular basis. yikes. lol

I'll be out with everyone until Sunday, after which, Chris will meet us half-way and take my kids and the van camping with his family for the week. I still have to work, so I'll be back Monday.

Until then, friends, I'll miss reading all about your lives, but I'll catch up with ya next week!!!
Just pray that the thunder and lightening storms ease up this week-- I'd LIKE to play outside instead of all of us crammed into my borrowed sister's trailer or my tent for 5 days! yuck. (and by borrowed sister's trailer.. I mean I borrowed the trailer, not the sister! )

Suddenly, I'm Craving French Loafs of Bread

So, this weekend was so much fun!

Will and I headed out on Saturday morning, and decided to just have a fun "date-day", no kids, no schedules, no plans. Thankfully, he brought his Rollerblades, and so we drove downtown to blade through Prince's Island Park. It was funny, Will hadn't been on his Rollerblades in YEARS, so it was hilarious to watch him nearly biff it once. I'm sure the passing cars enjoyed the visual too. We had a lot of fun, although our feet were sore by the time we decided to go back to the car! Totally, the best part of the day!

Then we drove up to Peter's, shared a milkshake, onion rings and burger. And HOLY CRAP I love Peter's. Forget the exercise, I think PETER'S was the best part of the day! ;)

We headed back to the Stampede grounds, and after finding parking (not the easiest to do on the last Saturday of the Stampede), we got into the gates. Walked around a bit, taking in the million smells and sights. We went on this one ride, The Skyscraper, where they strap you in nice and tight and then spin you around a massive circle at 4Gs! Will and I were screaming and laughing our heads off, and, suspended 160 ft in the air was exhilarating!!
It topped ANY ride I had ever gone on with ANYONE, and was DEFINITELY the highlight of the day, as everywhere we went you could see that ride and we'd just laugh and remember how fun it was.

My favourite part of the Stampede is the agricultural buildings with the goats and animals, so we headed into the buildings to check out the huge horses and uh...cows and sheep.

And, of course, to defile the livestock!

At one point, we left the buildings, and ended up slightly outside the grandstand where the chuckwagon races are held. We found some bleachers there, and decided that since we were both tired and fighting off a bit of a headache, we would sit there for a bit.

I sat on the bench in front of him, leaning up against his knees. Although it was getting later in the day, and slightly cold, when Will asked if I wanted to go get his coat from the car, I declined. It was too nice to sit and I didnt' want to walk all the way back to the car. We were playing with our little mood rings, and he had mine and I had his. It was awesome, we got to see some horse-pull teams come RIGHT in front of us to 'warm up', and just chilled on that bench for a while. I was holding Will's hands, on his lap, which was kinda behind my back, when I gave Will back his ring. He put mine back on my finger, and we sat there for a while just holding hands. He must have been getting cold, though, as he was starting to shake when he pulled out his camera, and we took this HORRIBLE photo.

Then, he let go of my hand, and I saw his hand.

There were two mood rings on his hand: his.. and... MINE?!!!!!

That's when it clicked in!
I looked at my hand.

He was already on his knees behind me, and said "I've talked with your Dad, and he thinks it'd be a good idea if you said you'd marry me. All you have to do is say when and say YES!"

Of course, I said "It's about Freaking Time!" And then. after saying yes, we kissed and I fought back tears. We talked about how he had tried to talk to my dad a FEW times, we talked about when, we talked about how his kids helped him pick the beautiful ring and gave him suggestions on "how" to propose in a fun way.

We're ENGAGED!!!!!!! I am sooooo freaking excited!!!!!!!

It was soooo fun telling our kids. His daughters were so excited, Em especially. When we told MY kids, LL was screaming and soooo excited!

My brother and sister are both getting married at the end of Summer, within a week of each other. And seeing as all my siblings will be there, we figure it's easiest to just plan our wedding around that time, when everyone can make it already.

So, although we're not decided on a DATE yet, we have two dates in mind. I'll keep you updated! For now, I'm gonna have to admit that getting engaged was DEFINITELY the best part of the day! And, of the year.

Engaged on July 11th. Oh Thank Heaven, for Seven Eleven! ;)

Six Word Saturday- Ye Hawwww

I'm Off Stampeding with My Cowboy

For more SWS (Six Word Saturday), click on the button and join Cate!

My sister Kiki and her fiance Ken visited last night. They went to the Calgary Stampede and reported back: Good times. Ricockulous outfits prices. Bad food. Shiny fireworks and flashing women lights, Horrible line-ups, and smelly fat men farm animals. What more could one ask for!?

So, guess where Will and I are excitedly headed for the day!? :D

3/52 and As My Friend, Montgomery Burns Would Say: "Exxcelleeent!!"

Hey! So, remember this post, from not too long ago? It was that one where I entered into a contest for 'looking back' on a post from when I first started blogging and comparing it to now.

Yeah, well the other day, I won! (okay, I was one of 7 winners, but still, that's pretty great) How awesome is that, hey?

You can read all about my claim to stardom *here*. Then you can beg me unashamedly for one of the Ben & Jerry's coupons I have. Maybe I'll even do my very first giveaway. Although, that takes a lot of work, and to be quite honest, I'd probably rig the results, just for the sake of feeling all powerful and omnipotent! muahaha.

Cuz everyone knows, I need to feel SOME sort of power in my life. :)
Besides, it's so unlike me to share ice cream. Let's be honest here.

Oh, and it's Find Mom in Foto's Friday.
So:

This was Family Home Evening this past Monday night. We did a high quality, slave all day making it 'board game', girls against boys, on which Latter-Day Prophet said which quote. Girls won by a landslide. Then we had pie and ice cream. As you can see, I dressed up for the occasion by wearing sweat capris and Will's T-shirt. Stylin' eh?