Jerusalem, the end

Hey everyone! I finally finished my Jerusalem entries. You don't see them here because I decided to post-date them back to the actual date they were written about. (As I will be doing with all of the Jerusalem posts.) So if you actually care enough to read the last three (they get shorter progressively) you can find them here, here, and here.

Next project: Thank You cards

I love ArtCo. While I was in Idaho this week I bought over 300 thank you cards and 225 (I miscounted. Oops?) envelopes for a grand total of $6.50. You can't buy 20 thank you cards and envelopes at WalMart for that price.

I suppose this means I now have to start sending out thank you cards, huh?

Jerusalem pics

So, people keep telling me that my Jerusalem blogs are long and boring and would be much better with pictures. Well, guess what. My pictures aren't nearly as cool as Travis'. Lucky for all y'all, Travis happens to be updating his blog with pictures of our trip right now. (Well, not this very second as I am currently using his computer, but you know what I mean.) So, I'm going to go back to my old posts and put in links to his corresponding blogs, starting with June 22, 2007 and just updating links whenever he does.

If y'all don't have the energy to spare to go back and look at each individual blog, you can go here and just see all of his Jerusalem pictures. Be sure to check back often as it will update as he puts new pictures in.

The Luncheon

Ok, I promised pictures, here they come. We'll start with the luncheon. There's not a whole lot to say. The pictures say most of it. We had the luncheon at the central location of Thanksgiving Point. Beautiful. The food was amazing. The company was superb. Both dads gave excellent, tear-jerking speeches. BJ gave an adorable one, too. All of the women (moms and me) tactfully declined speaking. Throughout all of the luncheon, Jalin's kids came up and hung around at the front table. They love me, what can I say? (Ok, let's be honest. They love Grandma and Grandpa and I'm pretty sure they've all chosen BJ as the new favorite.) Ok, let's just enjoy pictures with random interjections by me.

This is Cody with Grandma and Grandpa Lovell while Grandpa said his peace. He, of course, made me cry. (Grandpa, not Cody) But that's expected, right? He's my Daddy. And I'm his baby. This was a big moment for the both of us.

This is Kristen, who spent half of her time sitting on my lap and playing with the both of us.

BJ's dad wrote me a letter, kind of explaining BJ to me. At the end he gave me the letter. I'll cherish it forever. It definitely made me cry. BJ's mom is sitting next to BJ.

Now BJ tells the story of how we met and such. It was adorable. He did a beautiful job of telling the story. All happiness. I maybe was supposed to speak, too. Instead I clung to him and just smiled at everyone staring at us.

Wedding pictures

I response to the hounding I have received to get pictures of the wedding up on this blog, I present a compromise (since I don't have any pictures here with me). Travis, my brother who was also my photographer, posted pictures on his blog. So here I present to you some pictures of The Wedding Day and also The Idaho Reception*. I'll get more pictures up when I actually take time at home to find and blog them.



*Please note that Jessica's dress was done by the Idaho reception and you can see many pictures of her in it. Also, my dress, all of the little girls' matching dresses, my mom and sister's dress and all of the little boys' bow ties and cummerbunds were made by my mom and sister. BJ's oldest sister's (who, unfortunately, is not pictured in these blogs, but will be shown in later blogs of mine) dress was made by his mom. Don't we have the most awesome families EVAR?

Pre-Wedding

Ok, ok, so it's finally time that I write about the amazingness that was the day of my wedding.

The amazingness actually started the night before. My mom stayed up way too late, trying to finish up my dress. We all agreed that was probably the most important one to get done. I, however, decided to go to bed so that I wasn't half asleep on my wedding day. (I maybe stayed up till like... 2 or something.) My former roommate, Melissa, had come down to do my hair and makeup and ended up staying up later with my mom. I had just gotten into bed when I heard a tiny knock and my door creaked open. It was Melissa. She had a problem. She had been ironing my veil (it was super wrinkled) and was all done and looking to make sure she hadn't missed any spots when out of nowhere she spotted, in horror, a giant hole melted into the veil! She felt incredibly awful... I mean, there were tears in her eyes. (Ok, let's be honest, if I were in her shoes, I would have done the same thing.) She was convinced that she had ruined my wedding. I, however, thought nothing of the sort. By this point I was so apathetic about everything that I had to keep myself from laughing. I assured her that it was ok and it'd all work out. We had to go buy a slip in the morning, so we'd just get a veil, too! No big deal.

Next morning I got up at some ridiculous hour, like 6... after only 4 hours of sleep. Melissa did my hair and makeup (I looked beautiful! Thanks Melissa!!!) then started doing Jessica's hair whilst I gathered everything together. Then Jessica, Melissa and I took off to do shopping. First it was BYU to get a gift for my sister, Jalin, who was my matron-of-honor.

As we left BYU, I realized I was out of gas, so I stopped to fill up. One crazily expensive tank of gas later, we hopped back in the car... and it didn't start. My heart sank. We were on a time crunch as it was. My car had done this before a few times. I just had to keep trying and in 10-15 minutes, it would start. But we didn't have 10-15 minutes! We sat there, laughing about the whole thing, slightly anxious about the passing time, when Melissa offered the first logical suggestion, "Why don't we say a prayer?" Jess and I just looked at each other... until I asked Melissa if she would say it. She chastised our lack of faith, then said a prayer.

Now, let me be clear here. I wasn't being faithless... I just... I dunno... didn't think about praying. I knew it would start in another 5-10 minutes, so why bother God? I mean, I had already been saying silent prayers to please let it start and please let us get everything done in time. I guess I'm just not used to saying formal prayers for little things like that.

When the prayer was over, we all looked at the ignition in anticipation. Would it start? I turned the key; the engine revved. Jess and I both looked shocked; Melissa looked smug. The engine died; we all laughed. Melissa blamed our lack of faith. I just laughed and said, "But it was so close to being the perfect Sacrament Meeting talk!"

At this point I got desperate and started talking to my car. Now, this car was bought brand new by my brother, Damian, back in 2003. Last year I totaled my car, so he sold this'un to me. It had been a perfect little car for Damian... no problems at all. Then I took ownership and it started falling apart. I had no idea what the difference was. Did the car miss Damian's kids? Maybe he missed Idaho? Perhaps he didn't like his name? (It was Charlie, for the record.) We had several long talks whenever something went seriously wrong. After the last trip to Saturn where I replaced two tires (I had replaced the other two only a few months before) and had to put off two other very costly repairs (the not starting being one of them) the car and I had a very long talk where I plead my case. He had worked very nicely ever since.

Until that morning. Why on my wedding day? Did he know I had plans to sell him once I got married? Was he rebelling? So now I was desperate and had a little chit chat with Charlie, begging him to work. Jess and I talked about it and decided that perhaps Charlie was having an identity crisis and was really a girl. What if we renamed him and made him a her? The first feminine version of the name "Charlie" that I could think of popped into my head. "Charlita?" The car started immediately.

Charlita it is.

Next stop? Walmart. Several miscellaneous things later, we were on our way to the mall. Miraculously, we were right on time. First stop? Alysse's Bridal.

"Do you rent slips?"
"No."
"Do you sell them?"
"Yes."
"Do you rent veils?"
"No"
"Do you sell them?"
"Yes."

I tried on slips while Jess and Melissa looked at veils. I picked the slip I want, then realized that the veils cost about $60-100 more than my mom bought my original one for at Michael's. But if I bought another one at Michael's, it'd be wrinkled and we really didn't have time to iron it and such! Luckily, the nice lady that works there was eavesdropping and she was much concerned about me, since I was gonna be late for my own wedding. "If you buy the veil at Michael's and bring it back, we'll steam it for you. You should never iron it."

So Melissa and I headed over to Icicle to get jewelry while Jessica went and got the veil. She called my mom once she got there, because they didn't have the same veil I had before. Mom told her to ask me what I wanted. Jess, bless her, knew I couldn't care less at this point, and picked the one that she liked best. It was beautiful. She had it back and steamed before Melissa and I were done picking out jewelry.

We met back up at the mall and sped home to meet Mom, Dad, and BJ. We all then rushed to Thanksgiving Point, arriving to my own wedding luncheon 45 minutes late. [sigh]

The only other point of stress for the rest of the day was the fact that Mom didn't get Jessica's dress done in time, so they were all late to the reception. And Jess wore her new top with the skirt that she wore to the temple.

Other than that, the day was beautiful, relaxful, and perfect. It'll get its own blog later ... with pictures.

Lovely

I was looking through pictures to blog about today and saw this one. It made me laugh again. Please note the sign on the top right.