Finally Some More Wedded Bliss!

Okay, so getting the photos and the rockin' wedding mixes out there is taking forever, but...at least we got all our thank you cards out in decent time! I think. I hope.

Marriage is great fun so far. We love our new place and are getting a ton of use out of our many fabulous gifts! Thank you all for your generosity--and a major thank you, again, to all who CAME to the wedding! We had a fabulous time and can't wait to see you all at our 5oth anniversary!

Thanks so much to everyone who helped!

Many, many, many, many special extra sugar-coated thanks to Mom, Dad, Wendy, Nancy, Paul, Susan, Trina, the Gardbergs and Linda Clausen, Stephanie, Lauren, Sam, Greg, Johana, and Stage for providing sooooooo much above and beyond-type help in putting the whole thing together! You are AMAZING!

Here is some evidence of the thanks we owe:




Sister Nancy: getting it ready.



Lauren, Steph, and Sister Wendy: getting it ready.



Sam, Greg, and Lauren: making party favors, etc.



Sam and Greg: running pre-wedding errands with me.




Our beautiful cake. Thank you, Trina!



Getting the hair cut a few days before the wedding...



...and the crazy sisters actually came to the salon to throw me a last-minute surprise pre-wedding party!

Now for some wedding pics. You know you want it.



The photographer told us to do something cute. So, without a moment of thought, we both started to choke each other! Ah, romance.



Much of my fabulous new family.



The entire wedding party showing its charms.



Sister Wendy and Katie's Ben gettin' their groove on.



Sister Nancy and Dan.



Stage and Johana.



Me and Niece Allison, the flower girl of preciousness.



Steph's mom, Danelle, Danny, Stephanie, and Honorary Niece Chloe



Laurens' mom, Craig, Lauren, and Joe.



Me showing my butt.



Me and my Laurabelles: Remarkable Laura, an old neighbor from elementary school in Alaska + G-Laura, a good ole college buddy from Baltimore.




the Nephews.



Baby Allison and Matt.



Me and my dad. Ah.



Nephew Matt, in an awkward wedding moment, caught the garter--though he tried not to.



Me "tossing" the wedding bouquet, flower by flower directly into the hands of some very lovely single friends.



Cutting the cake. Yum.




Eating the cake.



Cheesy dancing.



Greg showing us some cheesier dancing.



Even cheesier dancing.



Could it get any cheesier than me and Sister Wendy?




Yup. Us.





The very elegant Groom's cake.




LOVE.




The smooch that made it all official.



Dad giving me away. How could he do this to me???



Dad, Emma, me, Mom.



Nieces and Junior bridesmaids: Nat and Amy.



Ben, Katie, me, Greg.



High school buddies: Steph, Lauren, me, Sam.



Us + minister.



The girls + Michael.



Wedding party.



Lauren making an incredibly lovely and tear-jerking toast.



Love.



Me and mom.



Jogi and me.



Me + da ladies.



Mike's mom and dad + us. I love my in-laws!



Us + my parents. I love them, too!



Everybody blowing bubbles for our exit.



Us trying to leave in a storm of bubbles.



Us. Leaving. At last.



On the way to our "honeymoon" we realized that three lovely ladies needed a ride. Michael was perfectly happy to take Cherie, Daria, and Lauren to the hotel with us!




We stopped for more photos on the way to the "honeymoon"!



The crazy, amazing carpet at the Battlehouse Hotel in Mobile...our Honeymoon locale--thanks to Johana and Stage!



The tub at the fabulous Battlehouse was so big we could swim in it!




On the super-deluxe Battlehouse balcony the morning after the wedding.

Some life post-wedding:



My class door won 3rd place out of over 70 doors at George County High School! And, yes, my 4th block class did it!



Our new home. So cozy.



Us chaperoning our first GCHS dance instead of having fun on Halloween Night.
Aaaaaah, love.

I still love and miss you all...and that is NOT a load of Scrap!

Spoooooky fun!

Finally, some pics of the best Halloween Party this side of the Mississippi!

AIY-YEEEE!





The open-casket memorial service for the Headless Horseman was delicious!

Wedded Bliss

More commentary and photos to follow....

in scrapness and in health,
Scraps

I Showered Again Today!

This time it was thrown by Boy Wonder's co-workers...and it, too, was amazing!



mmmm. cake.



Us basking in the glow of the kindness of co-workers...



Aw, the obligatory Garden Gnome. I luv it.




Still sifting through the SCRAPS of bows and tissue paper...

-Scraps

Scrappy Days are here again!

I am sooooooo loving the new job and the new kids and even the new rural commute.

I will be posting photos of my commute, Lucedale, and Mobile soon.

In the meantime, just know that, though my commute never involves heavy traffic, on my first day to my new job I was stuck going 30 mph on a highway behind THIS for quite a while:



I was simply too amused to be annoyed. I am in no way making fun of Mississippi, Alabama, or my rural route--I am just fascinated by it all still.

Today I hung some of the precious vintage strawberry fabric Lauren got me ages ago on the bulletin boards in my classroom. I framed it with--yep, you guessed it--red gingham. Mere words cannot come even remotely close to expressing the insane levels of cuteness and cheese that my classroom has now reached. Soon I think I will make classroom curtains out of the remaining strawberry fabric.





If you don't love that, then I am afraid you do not know the meaning of the word cute!

The sisters threw a bridal shower for me this weekend. Yay for sisters and prizes and cucumber sandwiches! Here are some photos of the madness:



Me. duh.



Mr. (and soon-to-be) Mrs. Wonder.



Me receiving the ultimate love chickens in the love nest!



Cutting the cake.



Boy Wonder, Me, and my almost parents-in-law!



Amy, Me, Nat.



The Bridal Party: Lauren (pictured as an Ugly Doll), Emily, Me, Nancy, Wendy, Stephanie, Amy, Natalie, Allison.



Sister Nancy.



Allison and I were tired after the festivities.


AND Boy Wonder's fabulous co-workers are throwing us a shower next week! I am just dumbfounded by the supreme niceness of it all.

OOOOH--and we now have a mini-honeymoon! Johana and Stage went above and beyond and bought us TWO nights at the super fancy Battlehouse Hotel in Mobile for our wedding gift! Which is amazing and exciting because the hotel is deluxe and near everything, but it's also kinda crazy romantic because Boy Wonder took me there on our first date. Okay, that didn't sound right. Let me explain. He took me to dinner at Busaba's (where he sipped wine through a straw) and then we walked over to see the lobby of the newly renovated Battlehouse. A hotel employee told us about the whispering arches and the "ghost" stories, so we ran around the hotel looking for ghosts and whispering through arches at each other. Okay, we walked around--but it was still fun. Thai food and ghost stories; he knew what he was doing with his wooing!

So, basically: I am super happy, showered with gifts, employed, no longer in pain, and almost entirely stress-free. It's a good thing.



-Scrap diddly dee

Ole Miss Scrappy?

Happy update below!



Since I last typed I:

Mostly recovered from the Tonsillectomy--although I will always be a bit traumatized.

Quit the bookstore--they wouldn't give me enough recovery time, so I kind of had to quit or just not show up. Plus, you can't work there and teach!

Have made most of the wedding plans, and had several planning "meetings" with the siblings and mom (this means we get together to eat a lot).

HANDMADE the invitations--with help from the Sisters, Trina, and even Michael! (More on this on the craftiwoo site later).

Sent out most of the invitations (my poor mother had to write the addresses out herself--no one would let my handwriting near them. Ouch).

Found out that I had THREE schools that wanted to hire me: two in Mobile and one in Mississippi. I decided to take whichever one would pay me first, thank you.

At long last the job search is over:

And the winning town is: Lucedale, Mississippi!

I actually started TEACHING Special Education high school yoots on 8/6.

They do the inclusion/resource teacher thing there, so it is VERY different from what I did in Los Angeles, but I think it's going to work out for the best! Each class is 96 minutes (!) long, so there are only three classes per teacher a day--and one 96 minute prep period (so very deluxe). My first period is 6 students with mild mental retardation/autism. Second period I go into a 10th grade English class to teach collaboratively and to help the students. Third period I get to eat lunch and prep for 96 minutes--which is really great for someone (me) who got hired the day before the students came! Fourth period I teach 13 students of average cognition but with some learning disabilities and ADD (this is most similar to what I did in LA). These kids keep me on my toes! Never a dull moment. They already started calling me "Ms. D" yesterday; I got a tiny tear since that is what the babies in LA used to call me! Sigh.

It feels great to be in the classroom after almost an entire year of unemployment and bookstore jobs!

Soon I will post photos of the interesting things I see on my very long and very rural commute to this quaintest of quaint (I mean, I sooooo LOVE it. Seriously) towns.

If anyone nearby has any couches, bookshelves, coffee tables, etc. that they don't need/want I may be very open to scavenging once we have a place to put stuff in!

-Ms. Scraps

BLING!

Today I was feeling a bit better, so Boy Wonder took me ring shopping! We went to about five different stores and saw several nice rings that weren't exactly right. I was about to pass out from exhaustion when we finally stopped at the last store.

The second I put it on my finger I knew it was the one. I think I lit up like a Christmas tree when I put it on! I never thought I could be so enamored by a ring--or any piece of jewelry--but I was. He loved it, too, and he bought it on the spot.

It is not a traditional engagement ring, but it is what I have always wanted: garnet and white gold. This one has three little garnets and two precious hearts--yes, hearts!--on the sides...and it is even prettier than I ever hoped for.

Here are the cheesy obligatory engagement photos that my mom took:











I am so annoyed that none of the photos show just how sparkly and pretty the ring is...although they DO highlight how strangely creepy-looking my hands are! I'm gonna go ahead and blame that on the tonsillectomy too.



Though the swollen tonsil holes still require ice packs, love makes the pain bearable....aaaaaah! Sorry about that.

We are thinking September 19th for the big day. And no, we are not rushing into this for the reason you may be thinking--we are simply eager to start our lives together already.

Oh--after we bought the ring I asked the sales lady if I could wear it home. As she was putting the ring in a box she looked at Boy Wonder and said, "Oh no--you still have work to do...the whole knee thing and flowers and dinner and all that."

So, when we got home yeah he got down on his knee in the grass and popped the question again...and I said, "mmmmkay" and then reminded him that I am not supposed to make important decisions on painkillers. Ah, romance.

As you can see, we are very happy & a wee bit scared.

Make sure you look at yesterday's OFFICIAL engagement post and pics, too!

love,
Scraps (now w/bling!)