Green Dilly Beans: Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Just how many ch's does David throw down anyway? After numerous Googline attempts, I think I finally have an accurate count. Regardless, I've got heaps of changes to share. Although you wouldn't know it from the void that has swallowed gdb for the past 7-8 months, I've been a busy girl. At the top of my life changes list:

1. New Marriage!

2. New Job!

Adding to the turmoil (and I use that word in the most positive sense) is that fact that these changes took place within one week of each other. I learned about this job opportunity on a Thursday, submitted my resume on Friday, celebrated Heather's wedding on Saturday, interviewed on Monday, got the job offer on Tuesday, resigned from my old job on Wednesday, and left that same night for my wedding in Wisconsin. Whew!

The new job is great, but as I have a no-blogging about the job policy, I'll just leave it at that. I love my work, but it has me committed to lots of hours spent at the office. I'll just move this post right on to the wedding bells...

I am wearing my grandmother's wedding dress. She made it for her own wedding in 1951, my aunt wore it for her wedding in 1985, and here I am wearing it again in 2006. You would never guess that it is 55 years old!

We had the perfect weather for Wisconsin in September, not too hot, not too cold. Best of all, we avoided the predictions of a hail storm moving through the Midwest!

In other family craftiness, my mom knit me a lace shawl to wear for the reception. The shawl pattern is Violets by the River, a fitting choice given that violets are Wisconsin's state flower. I have to brag that this is her first attempt at lace knitting of this kind. The shawl turned out beautifully and was the perfect thing to keep me comfortably warm from the breeze blowing off Lake Michigan. Thanks Mom! Also, as you can see above, I changed out of my grandmother's dress for the reception and into a simple, knee length cocktail dress for the eating, drinking, and dancing that followed the ceremony. I know myself well enough to know the likelihood of spilling, stepping on, or otherwise staining an ivory heirloom wedding dress!

And here we have the continuation of a fine family wedding tradition, the pinata. I was a flower girl for my aunt's wedding in 1985 and one of my strongest memories of that celebration was the pinata. My uncle was the one to finally break it open, cementing his heroic status as the groom and gaining my five year old acceptance as a new member of my family. After their wedding, I have always known that I wanted a pinata at my wedding. This was the extent of my childhood wedding fantasies. No elaborate dreams of the perfect wedding, just a stubborn insistence on a pinata and the chance to wear my grandmother's dress. Twenty one years later, that same aunt and uncle, and their teenage children (my cousins), supplied the pinata and stuffings for my wedding. It was such a perfect activity to include the kids, and from the expressions in the background, I think the adults enjoyed it as much as the children!