Wedding Prep Class

Below is a sketch of what Michael and I learned at Wedding Prep class:

1) Lay people are more important to the Church than priests
(Hmm...I can't remember the last time I saw a lay person confect the
Eucharist or absolve sins...)

2) It's impossible to dissolve a covenant. Marriage is a covenant. If
you want to ever want to dissolve that covenant to get an annullment,
it's really hard to do.

3) Preparation for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony has nothing to do
with religion.

4) In an 8 hour class preparing for marriage, children didn't make the
cut on the list of things to talk about. However, the benefits of
having separate checking accounts...did.

5) Separate checking accounts solve many financial struggles of the
couple.

6) Prayer is important for the big things and the little thing. But if
you try it and it doesn't work, maybe it's not for you. Feel free to
try something else.

7) It is possible to go an 8 hour class preparing for a sacrament, and
not mention "Jesus" until the 7th hour.

Well, perhaps this little sketch doesn't do the class justice.
Actually, I think Michael and I had a good time. We talked a lot,
which is always fun. And we met a really nice couple who have been
married for 53 years with 8 kids and are really involved in the
Church.

That couple co-taught the class, and they were really nice and you
could see how pivotal the faith was to their family. But the other
couple, Ken and Lisa were so totally opposite. In the segment on
"Dreams and Goals" they seemed to omit "children" from their plan
altogether in favor of jobs at Hollywood studios or retirement in
Hawaii.  They were like low-budget actors who were thrilled whenever
they got a role as an extra....it was pretty sad.

They also had this ability to conduct the class in such a way that
many of their marital struggles were advertised in every example they
gave. I mean, more than an idea of how to have a successful marriage,
we got to see many intricacies of what goes wrong in theirs. I mean,
any marriage has its share of struggles, but they seemed totally
incapable of teaching a class without exposing all their problems, but
the sad thing was, they weren't even consciously doing it! They didn't
mean to be "open" and "vulnerable." They were just self-centered and
used the class as a forum for exposing their frustrations with each
other.

The highlight for me was when they were talking about the merits of
separate checking accounts, and I told Lisa that that doesn't really
seem to jive with the whole idea of unity they were trumpeting
earlier.  Lisa didn't know how to respond except give an annoying,
super-chipper, condescending bellow "Ding, ding ding! You go to the
head of the class for that answer."  She did that so she could have a
few spare moments to get out of the logical trap she set for herself.
It didn't help. The best she could come up with was "You should be
united in your decision to have separate checking accounts."    Please
see the picture of "crazy lisa" in the "Pages section."

If it hadn't been for that older couple, the day would have been much
worse...but we still would have enjoyed it, I think.  The thing is
that both Michael and I have grown up in oving homes our whole lives
with parents who love and respect each other...so we;ve really had
nearly 30 years each of good, solid, loving and faith-filled marriage
prep.

Thank you to Mom and Dad Barber and Gilmore!!

NB

Join group to reply 7/7/07

But if it was a good class, you really wouldn't have anything that
interesting to write about here.

So thank you, Ken and Lisa! =]

Getting a Home Together

Another big news item is that I will be moving in two weeks!

Michael and I decided it would be nice to have a 2 bedroom instead of
a one bedroom to make room for all of our (his) stuff.  It would also
be nice to have a room for guests to stay in if anyone wants to come
and visit us.

So, on June 1st I'll be moving in. It's in the same complex as my
apartment now, which is nice because the landlady is real nice and it
seems to be a nice place to live. Granted, it's not luxurious, but
it's nice, quiet and affordable. We also won't be living there super
long, hopefully.  If we got too comfortable, it would be easier to
settle in and not be in such a rush to save up and buy a house.
Ideally, it would be nice to be moving out of this in a year or so
into a real home.

We have gone furniture shopping, which wasn't terribly productive, but
I'll admit it..it was fun.

One of the funniest things was when we went to Wicks furniture and we
were browsing around, and we were followed by one of the salespeople,
Doug. He greeted not too long after we were in there. In fact, he was
stalking us while we were talking to another representative, and then
he came over and asked us if we needed any help. We told him we were
just looking, but he kind of casually followed us around the store. We
would go from place to place looking at sofas and dressers and the
like, and we kept noticing that he would keep popping up!

Well at that point, we began to realy keep an eye out for him.  He
didn't want to look like he was following us, but no matter how far we
walked away, he always showed up! It was almost like a cartoon...Pepe
LePew, most precisely, where we would move really fast, and he would
be moseying along, but still be right behind us!

We noticed that he would go to various computer stations around the
store and sit down and start typing at a keyboard to look like he
wasn't really following us. But there was nothing on the screen! It's
like he didn't want to get caught following us, so he wanted to look
like he was busy doing something else.

As soon as we would move to another area, he would get up, and then
follow us, and when we turned around, he would be sitting at another
computer station!

The second-funniest thing was when we were sitting at this one sofa
set and there were these "decorative" fluffy ;leather balls (that
looked like the McFry creatures from the 1980s McDonalds hamburger
club).  When Michael asked to me, "What is this?" Suddenly Douged
popped out, seemingly from behind the sofa (we didn't even know he was
there) and said "It's a leather ball!!"

What? Where did you come from?

So then it became our mission to try and lose this guy.  So we would
walk a little more gingerly and see if this guy moved a little faster
to keep up.

He did.

We found this sofa set we really liked and it was so comfy that we sat
down on it for a while to talk.  We were chatting and at the same
time, watching what Doug was doing (Doug meanwhile was chatting with
one of his co-workers and watching what WE were doing).

After a while (it was a while because the couch was so comfy!) Doug
came over and asked us how we were doing. He was expecting us to say
something about the couch.

Michael, being typical Michel said, "Yes, we are just sitting here
trying to decide on that nightstand right there." From where we were
on the couch, it offered a perfect view of a night stand.

"I heard," michael continued "that when you are shopping for
furniture, you should start with the nightstand and buy your furniture
based on the style of the nightstand. You then pick a bed set based on
that, and then you work your way out to other rooms, but you start
with the nightstand."

Doug didn't know what to make of that!

"You heard that, huh?"

"Yes, on one of those home improvement channels."

"Well, you don't want to do that, because you might not be able to
find that style again...No, no..." he continued on "don't start with
the nightstand. I've been in this business for a long time and I've
never heard that."

"No, they had that on one of the channels, maybe they were wrong. So
we aren't supposed to start there?"

"No, typically you start with the bed set...a  bigger piece."

He then kinda moved along, but still not sure he convinced Michael of
his error he said again, "No. Don't start with the night stand. You
don't want to do that."

michael just smiled with that thin-line smile on his face, glancing at
me from the corner of his eye.

Doug didn't come back.

So anyways, that was part of our adventure making our house a home.
The only thing we will really need is to invest in more cars to
strategically move in and out of parking spaces so Michael won't get
too homesick when he gets married to me and we have a parking spot for
each of our cars. :)

Back from Hiatus

Kim	Join group to reply 4/16/07

After an extended period of being on wedding planning hiatus, I
decided to come back to the game.

Last Friday, I had the final fitting for my dress.  Um..probably am
not going to post pictures here....but the dress turned out well.

As for the bridesmaids dresses, I am still trying to resolve this. I
have the dresses picked out, but basically, the sizing charts on the
website are the sizing charts from hell...basically, this sizing chart
makes the people looking for their size get double their normal dress
size. Definitely not something women want to do is size up. And it's
not just one size larger...it's pretty much double. Yikes!

I have yet to resolve the issue, not because it's hard to resolve, but
I have to call the place, and they are  in Utah, and by the time I
remember to call, they are closed. So, it's just a matter of
remembering to call at the right time. I need to do that this week.

I just want to make sure the are accurate charts and don't want to buy
6 dresses according to their sizing charts and then have all of them
be way to big on everyone and we either have to send them back or take
them in. We shall see this week what happens.

Otherwise, I am just working on a few side projects and the
centerpieces.

Next in line are flowers, invitations and cake. One step at a time!

NB

Join group to reply 4/16/07

Good I am glad to see some activity on here. :)

The cake and flowers should be an exciting step!