It’s absolutely ridiculous that we are halfway through August!

When I agreed to stand in two weddings this summer I KNEW that August would pretty much be written off…but now that I am in the middle of it all, I just wish that I had a vacation coming up!!! (Yes, I know, I just got back from vacation, but that was a busy one!)

Anyway, we are heading out tonight for wedding #2! This one is for 2 dear friends of mine, but it isn’t going to be ANYTHING like my best friend’s wedding…I am not saying anything bad about this wedding, it’s just that there is something special to watching your best friend walk down the aisle to the man she is meant to marry. As well, because both me and my husband were in the last wedding, it was so much fun to walk down the aisle towards him again…ALSO, because it was our best friends, we got along with family and whatnot so much better. AND…the inlaws weren’t at the other wedding…

Either way, this is going to be a good time!! I am going to get to watch another one of my friends walk down that aisle to the love of her life!!

I do have another couple of busy days ahead of me though!! The drive tonight is 5 hours (AFTER work…so we won’t arrive until around 11pm). Then I am up tomorrow for a mani/pedi with the bride and a few errands while Danny takes my newly sick iMac to the doctors. Then we have the rehearsal at 4:30pm and hopefully an early night!!!

I am meeting up with the girls at 9am for hair and makeup, which means that I have to get into the city (we are staying outside) pretty early (poor Danny has to drive me!) and then I will have one busy day!!! Oddly, the bride and groom has TOLD the entire wedding party that they must stay until the end of the reception when we have to clean up…that is 1:30 am! Not to sound like an old lady, but we have another 5 hour drive in the morning!!! I am thinking that I won’t really be drinking at this wedding (not like the last!) because I want to make sure that both the husband and I are in a condition to drive the next day!

I am hoping to be back to blogging at LEAST 3/4 time starting next week…we are camping next weekend, but not until after work, so I don’t really have any excuses!! Plus, now that all of the hoopla is over, I will be able to focus on a healthy lifestyle!

Oh, and about that relaxing vacation??? I have booked a 5 day trip for the husband and I to Halifax in October to visit the girls!!! THAT will be bliss!

So we drove to Abbotsford first thing in the morning on Friday morning. It was an EARLY rise but MAN, was it worth it!!! I have NEVER had a spa experience like that one…it was AMAZING!! Fort McMurray is known for being expensive, but I am usually okay with paying for quality. This place was FAR cheaper than any spa I had gone to and they were professional and just fantastic!! I had a massage, a mani/pedi and some waxing. It was a PERFECT morning!

After the spa we grabbed some lunch and helped the bride deal with some last minute wedding details. I did a bit of running around with her and tried my best to help her remain calm…there were a LOT of people with a LOT of opinions and none of them were really jiving with that the bride and groom wanted…and since I recall how much I let OTHER people control my wedding, I didn’t want the same thing to happen to my friends.

The rehearsal went off smoothly and we packed up to head to the resort and helped the bride and groom get squared away. I was pretty much exhausted when we got to the resort, but I sat down with the maid of honor to listen to her speech and have a drink. Danny headed off to the pool with some of the Groom’s family and I used that opportunity to write some stuff for the reception. Yeah, I waited until the VERY last minute – honestly though, I have ALWAYS been like that! One of my best subjects was english and I always waited until the last minute to write my papers and it was my best work…I was pretty happy with my speech, the bride and groom had a great story, so it really helped having some good material!!!

Okay!!! Moving on!!!

The morning of the wedding!!! I got up and was killing time before heading to my friend’s room, only to find up that she had been up for ages and had taken a stroll on the beach!!! While we were in the lobby chatting, the hair and makeup girls showed up and we got the show on the road!!! The suite that the bride booked was AMAZING!!! The honeymoon suite was just to die for and attached to it was a suite where we got ready, it had a bar and everything! It was just gorgeous and SO much room to move around (which is great when there are 7 bridesmaids, one bride and 2 moms running around!). I got my hair done pretty quick and the girl did an AMAZING job!!! I felt bad because pretty much right after she did my hair, I got some really bad news from home and left the room all of a sudden. Luckily for me, I have an amazing best friend who, despite all the stress the was going through and all the things she still had to take care of, took me aside and let me cry on her shoulder…If you are reading this girl, I can’t tell you how much I needed that.

Moving on to happier things, after a while, I got my makeup done and those girls did an AMAZING job!!! I don’t think ANYBODY in the whole bridal party could have looked any better!!! What a great job…and when they finished with the bride…she looked absolutely breathtaking!!! And her dress….my god…my friend is a beautiful beautiful girl…I don’t even have words to describe how stunning she looked…just absolutely amazing.

Everything moved really quickly from there-on out. Before I knew it we were at the ceremony!!! It was exciting for me to walk down the aisle and see my husband up there (he was a groomsman) and I was so excited for my good friends to finally do what they had been waiting so long for!!! We started hanging out SINCE they were engaged, so as long as I have known them, this has been their end goal – pretty much – I was so happy to see it happen!! Those two love each other SO much and they are so deserving of it…it was just a beautiful ceremony!

SO after the ceremony…my nerves started to get the best of me…I downed two drinks PRETTY fast before I would have to get up to MC. I think I did pretty good. Except at the beginning, it was a little shaky. I was nervous and I now had alcohol in me and I got a little flustered when I had to start calling tables and didn’t realize that the buffet wasn’t set out. Hindsight is 20/20 because now I know what I would have said or did, but at the time I was flustered and didn’t know what to do!!! And at one point, the mother of the bride said I wasn’t going fast enough calling the tables and told me to sit down and she would take care of it (sorry C, I wasn’t going to tell you on your wedding night!! I did tell your sister though and she gave her the death stare!) that’s when I stood up for myself and kind of started focusing on what I was doing and the task at hand, I politely said “I am the MC, and I know what I am doing”

I was SO happy when the dancing started though and I could enjoy myself!!! Though at about 8 or 9 drinks in, I had to announce the bouquet toss…and at about 12 or 13 drinks in, I had to announce that the bride and groom were leaving…that took a little effort!!!

All in all, the wedding went off without a hitch!!! I was so happy to see my best girl marry the love of her life and that I got to be a part of it!!

Now I can’t wait for her to come home from her honeymoon and back to Fort McMurray so I can (selfishly) have my best friend back!!!

Oh, and that was the end of my trip!! We travelled home the next day!!

The husband and I head off on vacation for a week tomorrow and I have been SO busy finishing up last minute “to do” items and dealing with some other stuff that the end of the week just snuck up on me!!

Work has been flying too because I am the busiest I have ever been! I am covering for two people plus I have some of my own work to do…this is the kind of pace that I LOVE!!! In fact, this is the first breather I have taken in a while!!!

So first thing tomorrow morning (yes, FIRST thing!! We leave at 7 am!) we are flying to Vancouver, my friend is meeting us at the rental car place and dropping off my bridesmaids dress before her hair appointment (this will be my first time trying on my dress with it’s new alterations! All of it was done over the phone!). We are then packing up whatever we get for a rental (we are keeping our fingers crossed for a charger…it’s all Chrysler vehicles…so whatever is “Full Sized” in their minds!) and driving 4 hours to Kelowna!

Seems a little round-about hey??? I don’t even KNOW if I mentioned on here all the kerfluffle we went through for this trip – it was supposed to be 4 days in Vancouver then 2 days at Harrison Hot Springs. Now it’s 3.5 days in Kelowna, 2.5 days in Vancouver and 2.5 days in Harrison – PHEW!!! Thank goodness for unlimited kms on the rental!!

Anyhoo, so we have our days in Kelowna in which I plan on eating as much fresh fruit (CHERRIES!!!!!!!!!!!) that I can get my hands on and we have the husband’s Granparents 60th Wedding Anniversary (on our 6th Anniversary), then we pack up again and drive to Vancouver where we will (FINALLY) celebrate our anniversary (YAY!) and then meet up with the WONDERFUL CAT (SUPER YAY!!!!!!!!) for the next 2 days!!! She is going to take us to the aquarium and just all around wonderfullness…I also want to go to Holt Renfrew (the only shopping I really want to do besides picking up my anniversary present!) – and NO! I don’t plan on making any “purchases” like I did in TO…I will be good!!! On Thursday night we will have to say bye to Cat (for now!) and make our way out to Harrison first thing on Friday morning for a spa day! Then we have rehearsal dinner and Saturday is the wedding!!!!

GAH!!!!!!! I haven’t really STARTED my stuff to MC!!! Well, I started a little…but the wedding party is being slightly resistent to my requests for information!!! Whew…I have a feeling I know what I will be doing in my spare time this week!!!

I have found it REALLY hard not to get into “vacation mind” this week…we are frantically trying to use up anything that might spoil this week…and other than that, we have just been SO busy that there have been 3 nights that we haven’t eaten until almost 9pm!!! Top it off with the fact that we have to be up at 4:30 tomorrow morning – I am ONE STRESSED CHICK!!!

And Stress for me = eating way too much!!! Anyway…I am keeping a conscious mind about this BEFORE I go on vacation – oddly I don’t seem to gain weight on vacation (at least not much)…I find that I am only usually eating 2 meals a day…and though I do have a few treats…I am eating when I am HUNGRY as opposed to this odd schedule I seem to be on when I am at work…

Another interesting tidbit, 3 years ago we went to Kelowna and it was when I came back from that trip that I started Weight Watchers…

Some people I haven’t seen since then, so even though I am up a bit – I am still down to them…there are also a few people that I saw this time last summer at my lowest…sadly, I was very concerned of what they might think of me…well, it’s too late to change that now…HOWEVER, I can keep that in mind for the NEXT time I might see them, and hopefully I can be back the way they remember me from LAST year, or even better…because I did feel a LOT better then…and I would love to feel good about myself again!!

Wow, this whole post was just all over the place, hey??? I apologize for that!!! I am not sure if I will really have any internet access this week, so I MAY not be posting (not really a huge change seeing as I haven’t been posting much lately at all)!! I will catch up with all of you FOR SURE when I get back!!

Hope you all have a great week!!!!

So yes, recap of yesterday – it was, for the most part, pretty good!!!

Getting a few things taken care of (HUGE stress should be off my plate within the next couple of days, THANK GOODNESS!)

I took a rest day yesterday because my abs were still hurting from Yoga (yes, from Yoga, but it’s Yoga X in my defense!). So I am back to working out tonight!

I DID have a chip run in last night. Is that good? No. Do I care? Yes. But am I going to dwell on it? HELL NO. Moving on!!

I ordered my bridesmaids dress!!! WOOT!

This is the link if anyone is interested:

http://www.dessy.com/dresses/bridesmaid/6553 and it is ALL black, including the sash, and I got to order true to size because of where the dress hits…what a good feeling to not have to order a dress a million sizes bigger than what you are hey??

And to answer Eurydice’s question, this summer will have me 3 times a bridesmaid (good thing I am married hey, or the pressure would be on the husband now!). BUT my 2nd and 3rd times are within 2 weeks of each other!!! And neither of them are in my home town!!! How exciting!!! I think think that August will be a write off – work wise – and LOADS of fun!!!

For those who are interested, here is my dress for the other wedding:

http://www.impressionbridal.com/catalog.php?cat=23&im_id=15&page=12 (it should show 3 green dresses, ours is the one on the left, and they are espresso brown with an ivory sash). It’s a very cute dress, I love my black one though because i know i will be able to wear it again!

So…yeah, I think that is all i have got for today!!!

So Friday was pretty much the slowest day of my life…it was one of those days where I was just counting down the minutes until the end of the day…and then of course, at the end of the day that’s when EVERYTHING went wrong!!! I left work late but then I had to do the deposit still, so I wasn’t OFFICIALLY done work until about 5 pm (when I am usually done at 4:30)…then when I went to drive home traffic was BEYOND backed up!! We were supposed to meet some friends for dinner at 6, but there was no way I was going to make it, so I got them to pick up the husband and meet me downtown…it worked out great because I wasn’t waiting very long for them in the end!!

Anyway, then Danny and I went home and watched “Quantum of Solace” (which we bought right after dinner!) and took it easy for the night!!

Saturday morning Danny was working overtime and I went to work out with my friends. We did the P90X Yoga video and OH MY GOD! Seriously!!! Yoga is supposed to be relaxing right??? After the first 45 minutes (it was 90 minutes) I thought I was going to die…and I was disgustingly drenched in sweat and I didn’t think I could do anymore! Thank goodness that was when the video slowed down into balance positions…SO much better!! There were a couple that I couldn’t do (the crow?? – I think – and complete shoulder stands…but that’s something I want to work towards!). Anyway, I felt SO good afterwards!!!

Anyway, so the rest of Saturday was pretty laid back, I hung out with my friend and we made cookies! Yum!! I did OKAY on Saturday (except I had a couple cookies and we did take out for dinner…but still, I had a small loss on Sunday morning!)

Then yesterday when we finally got up (we were up until about 3am Sunday morning!) we met our friends for another p90 video! It was the chest and shoulders video (I THINK!) and it was pretty tough….I couldn’t do push ups or a few other things, so I modified and took breaks when needed, I felt AWESOME afterwards (though I was VERY sore later from that and yoga the day before!) and then I did really good overall yesterday!!

I love that feeling that your week is just off to a fantastic start and that you really CAN do it!!!

AND another bit of news from the weekend…I am a bridesmaid again!!!! It is for the wedding that I am emceeing in August and I get to do double duty!!! I already picked out my dress and I will be ordering it this week (just to make sure it comes in on time!) and I am IN LOVE with the dress, so I am super excited!!! The P90 workouts we are doing are with the bride and groom, the maid of honor and one of the groomsmen so we are all super motivated to be a fabulous looking bridal party!!!