It's been a long time, baby

I want to apologize for the terrible lack of posting - I know I've said this before, but I do want to be better about posting, and since I want to review the week before the wedding (which was busy, wonderful, fun, and stressful all at the same time, and Adam and I couldn't have done it without some very lovely people who spent the better part of a week helping us. We love you lots!!). I got an email from our photographer last night letting me know that our proofs are ready! I'm so excited to see them. For any of you who didn't get the link from me when he posted a few on his website, you can see them on his blog. Here are a couple of my favorites:
 

So, like I said, I can't wait to see the rest! And, Adam and I still have another session to do with Brian, which I'm not going to say too much about just yet.

I do want to update you on what's been going on medically with me. A month and a day before the wedding, I was getting very excited. I had a post planned - nothing too exciting, but something to mark the occasion. However, someone had other plans for marking the final month countdown. I woke up that next morning, august 6th, and as I was getting ready for work, I suddenly had excruciating pain in my abdomen. I had had some pain the previous evening and already had a doctor apt on the 8th. Well, let's just say that there was NO way I was going to wait two days for an answer to the horrible pain I was feeling. So, I laid on the couch until the doc's office opened at 8:30 and told them I HAD to come in that morning. There was only one way I had found to lay that didn't hurt as bad as other positions, so the 45 minute drive to the doctor was awful...in rush hour traffic, no less. The diagnosis was an ovarian cyst, which I later found out to be two of them growing into each other. After a prescription of controlled narcotics, the pain was just slightly more tolerable...and I spent the next four days on the couch, in the same position, eating only granola bars as everything else made me nauseated. I lost a quick 5 or so pounds in those days and also lost a LOT of time working on my projects. Even after I was able to get up off the couch, everything was difficult, even standing up to walk or shower. Soo....not much got done except a lot of worrying. There was talk of surgery, but with a long recovery period of 6 weeks or more (uh...I had three weeks, not 6...). If we did the surgery before, there was no way I would be recovered by the wedding...and if we waited, there was the chance the cysts could burst suddenly, requiring immediate surgery as well. So, the honeymoon to Jamaica was out...and there was even talk between Adam, Mom, and myself of how feasible it would be to postpone the wedding. We knew if that happened, we most likely wouldn't have the wedding until Adam graduated, unless it was a quick weekend thing. So, we just said we'd keep going as if nothing was wrong. I went to the doctor once a week until the wedding and we had to re-plan the honeymoon. Luckily we had bought trip insurance at the last minute and were able to get all but about 200 dollars back. I gradually had less and less pain leading up to the wedding, but still a lot of anxiety. After the honeymoon, I went back to the doctor and he decided everything looked fine and seemed to be clearing up on its own, so no surgery. There's been no problems since, but I really hope this is a one-time occurrence.

Since we've been home from the wedding and honeymoon (to Vail, CO), I've been on a bit of a wedding break. There was TONS of cleaning to be done and I still have craft supplies strewn about the apartment that need to be sorted through, but its much more manageable. I feel like I'm finally ready to begin going back through the wedding again, to share it with you as well as to keep it for myself. The memories are nothing but lovely and Adam and I both feel the wedding was perfect, even despite a few things we forgot to do (more on that later). However, I needed a bit of time to step back from the planning and details and just let it sink in that I am Mrs. Mabe - or will soon be officially...I decided to wait until after the election to begin changing my name so that there was no question of who I was. My vote WILL count, dangit!

So...I'm going to be better with blog posts, and I'm going to get to major work on my thank-you cards. Then...its onto rearranging the whole apartment...things just seem to be everywhere!

Ok...I should be in bed now...I got my flu shot today and I'm feeling a bit extra tired... Well, like I said, I'll talk to you soon!

Love, Mrs. Mabe

Waiting Patiently

The weekend before last, Adam and I were in Maryville for our engagement shoot with Bryan Wagner, our photographer. Adam and I were pretty nervous about it - I typically shoot the photos, not model for them! After we got there and worked with Bryan for a while, we ended up having fun - though I hope we weren't too difficult for Bryan to work with! It was a bit odd to have someone so focused on you for that length of time - good practice for the wedding, though. Plus, there will be lots to distract us from the fact that there's a camera aimed in our general direction most of the night. Since the photo shoot, however, I've been stalking Bryan's blog. He gave us a time frame of about a month for our photos, but I keep secretly hoping he'll put up just a couple!

Any of you in town that weekend will know that there was quite a storm Saturday evening - and we were almost caught in it! Before Adam and I met Bryan at Maryville College, we decided to stop at Target and get an umbrella as there were some very dark, ominous clouds building overhead. Well, when Bryan showed up, he (and a friend he brought to assist him) had done the same thing - same umbrellas, even! The rain held off just long enough to let us get set up outside Pearson's Hall (most of the rest of campus is torn up right now for improvements and construction - its kind of crazy) and snap a few shots. It was getting really dark and we had just enough time to get security to open the CCM - the little chapel on campus with the stained glass window - and get inside. There were some pretty crazy straight line winds whipping through campus and I thought the flag atop Anderson was going to tear! The power flickered a few times while we were in the CCM, and we had fleeting thoughts of no lights - which could have been cool, and no air conditioning - which would not have been cool! The power held out, though, and after the rain stopped and a wardrobe change, we had some wonderful light filtering through the trees on campus! It was still drizzling a bit and we made use of that as well. Then it was on to downtown Maryville for some sunset shots and lots of standing on the edge of flowerpots! There was actually a wedding in the CCM earlier that afternoon (Adam and I watched the Bride and Groom get photographed by their photographer while waiting on Bryan) and their reception was at Sullivan's downtown as well. I thought it was kind of fun that we followed them. After it got dark, Bryan suggested that we head down to 5 points (and the new spiffy round-a-bout) for a few more. In all, it was about three hours that we spent with Bryan - and it was lots of fun! I can't wait to see how they turn out! We didn't quite make it to the duck pond to see the fireworks, but we drove out towards Alcoa after leaving Bryan and could see quite a few over the tree tops. Plus we didn't have to fight the crowds! We met up with Dane, Hollie, Amanda, and Wes at Chili's for some food - Adam and I hadn't eaten since noon when we met Anne McKee at Sullivan's for lunch and we were starving!

Other big check marks off our list that day was my dress fitting (with my dress, not the sample!) and picking out our bands. Adam and I both found something quite nice in about two hours - much quicker than we thought it would take. We met with Anne at Sullivan's to see where we'd be at for the rehearsal dinner (on the balcony, but not the banquet room) and to talk about the ceremony. We spent some time in her office afterwards as well. It was really nice to see her for a bit.

Friday and Sunday of that weekend were mostly taken up with driving...such an obnoxious drive! We got to Maryville late on Friday night (2:00 am) but didn't get to bed until after 5am...due to the tragedy of a dog running into Adam's car on 321 at while we were traveling 65 mph (yes, we were doing the speed limit). Sadly, the dog died instantly - but we still drove by it twice to make sure. There was no collar and no house nearby that we could knock at the door. Plus we didn't want to be greeted with a shotgun at 1:30 in the morning. Once we finally got to Adam's house, we realized there was quite a bit of damage that was done to his car. So, Charlie and Adam took time to figure out how this would be covered and luckily its considered the same as natural occurrences - similar to hail damage or something. No deductible but we did have to meet a Maryville Police officer that night to file a police report...they had to see the damage on the car. We'll be able to get it fixed when we go home the week before the wedding...but needless to say, we had quite an exhausting weekend. Sorry, Bryan if we seemed a bit out of it or tired for the photos. We were running on three hours of sleep after being up a full 24 hours!

Anyhow...I'll let you all know when there's photos to look at! Did I mention I'm excited?

Just after I posted, a friend at work showed me this:

http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/NEWS01/80709002

and one more thing...a petition I found for a Costco to be built in Knoxville. Not sure what will come of it, but if its Costco, it can't be all bad. Add your name if you'd like a Costco built in Knoxville - or a little bit of competition for Sam's Club.

http://www.wewantcostco.com/