OscArletta

Home Sweet Home

2010-05-05T17:23:00.002-05:00

It sure has been a while since the last post was made, but it is time for an update on things! Jay and I have been happily married for 284 days. Our first year of marriage has probably not been typical of other couples, but we're definitely gaining insight from everything we have experienced.

This month marks my last month as an employee at Camp Fire USA. While I will miss everyone at the council, I am thrilled to be giving up my role as a constant commuter. I began volunteering with Camp Fire's Links-Up Mentoring Program in 2004 when I was a freshman at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and then they kind of fell in love with me and thought it would be a good idea to offer me a position as the Program Coordinator. So, after six years -- SIX YEARS -- I am finally saying farewell. However, I'm not any good with goodbyes, and it's taking me a month to actually depart. If you ask Jay, he will probably tell you it has taken longer.

So, I am finally able to fulfill my role as a full-time wife! And I am loving it. Seriously. I've been cooking and cleaning and... laundry. I made a promise to Jay that when I moved back to Madison that I would cook more so that we weren't eating out so much. So far, I've fulfilled my promised, and it is day 2 of my full-time status. Not bad, eh? Hopefully, I can keep this up. And hopefully the posts won't be spaced so far apart next time...

Calming Bridezilla

2009-06-21T13:03:00.003-05:00

34 more days to go :) I cannot wait, but I know there is still lots to do before the big day. We've got to decide on songs, put together wedding programs, buy the alcohol, meet with more people, and there's more -- I just cannot remember all that is on the checklist. Things have been going smoothly though.

Last weekend we hung out with many of the important coordinators of the wedding. We met with the chuch coordinator first to go over some of the parts of the wedding program and flow of the ceremony. She's pretty cool, and Jay gets along with her pretty well. By the middle half of the meeting, the church coordinator and he were bouncing jokes and sarcastic remarks off of one another.

Then, we had a glimpse of how the flowers would be arranged in the sanctuary. Sometimes I think Miss D is too good to us (She's the one who is helping with flowers). The arrangements and layout is going to be beautiful and simplistic -- just the way I want.

We then headed to our reception site where Valerie, my wedding coordinator, set up a table to help us get a better picture of how the reception would look. Again, it was exactly what I wanted.

Although it is getting down to crunch time, I do not feel as anxious as I had predicted. I am thinking it is probably due to the fact that I have an amazing fiance whom I could not imagine being without; the numerous angels who surround us, asking what they can do to help; and our angels from above. All that said, there have been some stressful moments that caused my mother to intervene and calm the Bridezilla that was about to overtake me. I think I've done pretty good though. I'm expecting Jay to post on here stating the opposite.

Well, it looks like Jay is almost finished with the last book in the Twilight series. We are off to work on dinner plans for Father's Day.

Another Billion Dollar Idea I'm too lazy to implement

2009-06-11T21:10:00.002-05:00

So I just got back form the gym and I'm running Quicken to pay a bill, and it occurs to me that I could greatly simplify calorie counting if they'd put the caloric value of everything I buy at a restaurant on the receipt. Then I could just scan all my receipts (or better yet, download my calories from the bank).

It'd be really neat to watch how many calories each dollar buys, and budget the input and output like with all other account types. A smart pacemacker could count how many calories I burn, and the rest could be measured by a digital commode. Networking all these gadgets together would give me a real-time report of how much longer I need to stay at the gym to eat another order of fries.

I suspect, though, that much everything I do in Quicken, it's just to feed my OCD, and probably doesn't make my habits any better.

Say Yes to the Dress... Unless It's a Red Micro Mini for the Mothers

2009-05-28T23:56:00.004-05:00

Well, it's getting closer to the date... 58 more days to go. It'll be 57 in about 3 minutes from when I first started typing.
Jay and I have moved all of my stuff into our house. For awhile there, I was just bring random items in to contemplate where they would look the best. Actually, I probably still do that. I know my family is thankful that this will be my last move for a long time. I moved every year that I lived in Birmingham -- from Madison to Rast Hall, Rast Hall to Blount Hall, Blount Hall to Mountain Brook, Mountain Brook to Fultondale (please don't ask me about that mistake), Fultondale to Vestavia Hills, and FINALLY Vestavia Hills to Madison. Yes, that's a splendid 6 times. Now, it's time to unpack and see what I've acquired over the years. A lot of it will probably be going to the Asbury Thrift Store.
The bridesmaids dresses came in earlier this month, and they are quite stunning. Well, they will be stunning once we get most, if not all, of them altered. They're beautiful dresses, but none of them fit! I am also on a search for shoes. It's harder than I had anticipated, but I have many wonderful ladies that will be more than happy to help me.
This weekend should be very eventful. Jay and I are celebrating 3 years together on Friday at Connor's Steakhouse. He told me that this will be a once a year dinner. Saturday I will be helping my mother find a dress for the wedding. We will be staying away from anything that even suggests sexy or scandalous. She'll be stylish and beautiful though. Saturday night we will be going to a wine tasting where there is a prize for correctly guessing what kind of wine you were served. And Sunday, as most days, will be devoted to working on the house along with a mix of church (my baby sister has a solo).
57 more days, folks. Make sure everyone packs a box of tissues. My mother will need it soon.

Examining Personality Types

2009-04-22T16:17:00.003-05:00

Since Jay's posts were back-to-back, I have decided to add pictures to mine to make up for not following the correct posting procedure. The two figures above are talking about the different personality types. I think it would be a good idea for Jay and I to complete this assessment. While it gives an individual a clearer picture as to how their personality is constructed, it has also been used in marriage counseling to help the couple understand each other better. For example, one spouse may like to tell long, drawn out stories while the other likes to get to the point of the story. The story teller spouse may get frustrated when the "get to the point" spouse wants to rush the story along, appearing like the story is unimportant. Most likely, this kind of situation will not have a positive result. However, if each person in the relationship has a better understanding of how the other communicates and thinks, the result may have a happier ending.

Before we delve into the different personality types (INFP, ETSJ, etc.), I'll give you some of the basics.
There are 4 dimensions of personality type:
1. E/I=how we interact with the world and where we get our energy from
2. N/S=How we gather information
3. T/F=How we make decisions
4. J/P=whether we prefer to live in a structured way or spontaneously

The E stands for extraversion. These people get energy by being with others.
The I stands for intraversion. These people get energy from alone time.
The N stands for intuition. These people are imaginative and dreamers.
The S stands for sensing. These people are detail oriented.
The T stands for thinking. These people are objective and logical.
The F stands for feeling. These people are tender hearted.
The J stands for judging. These people are structured and organized.
The P stands for perceiving. These people are spontaneous.

My personality type came out to be an ESFJ. I wonder what Jay will be... Any guesses? I'll have to give him the assessment this week and post the results.

I'll have to see if I can find a test online that is similar to the Myers and Briggs' Personality Type Indicator. Although, nothing can beat going to a counselor to have your results interpreted!

Study Break

2009-04-21T22:54:00.003-05:00

It's technically Wendy's turn to post, but she got out of it by re-doing the layout. She's joined the ranks of xml-marker-uppers and put my html skillz to shame. (If you're reading this in Facebook, you're really missing out. Actually, if you're reading this at all, you're also missing out, but it's too late to worry about that.)

I'm in the middle of a take-home final right now, and it's been going pretty slow.
There are plenty of hints written into the questions, and I have notes to cover basically everything, but I guess I've gotten out of shape since the midterm.

I've started negotiations with a travel agent, but she wants a deposit immediately, and hasn't so much as sent me a picture of the place. I don't know if that's standard operating procedure, but after my experiences with booking other bargains, I'm a bit cautious. I don't tend to make decisions quickly, and fear of having to make them makes me put off beginning the deciding process, which makes them take longer still. In the end, my first instincts tend to be pretty good, but like the proverbial turkey for whom life gets better and better every day up until November 13, you can't always go by past experience.

Preparing the Nest

2009-04-14T21:08:00.002-05:00

It's been six months since Wendy & I bought our house, and after me living here that long it's beginning to look like we're starting to think about moving in. We've got a couple dozen pictures framed, but they're all on the floor, since yours truly doesn't want to put holes into the walls until they're all paid for. That should only be twenty years or so, but by then we might have the technology to hang pictures in a non-destructive manner, or have enough projectors mounted on opposite walls to achieve the same effect. The attentive reader might find it odd that I'm more comfortable mounting electronics than hanging pictures, and the reason has to do with a preference for screws over nails. I've had more successes with screws: they're more adjustable, they don't bend, and they have a built-in undo mechanism. Nails are more of an art, and seem to be much more dangerous in my experience, what with the sharp point and the blunt object moving at high speeds.

It'd be much nicer to have pegboard walls in every room, or velcro or lego, for that matter, so that everything could be hanged and rehanged just as easily, without having to repaint. In case you're wondering, I'm even less skillful with liuqids than with sharp objects, and the possibility of having to repair a wall when one of us decides a picture needs to move makes me even more hesitant.

Eventually, and likely sooner than later, the danger of tripping over one of the picture frames will exceed the danger of one of them falling off the wall on one of us, and whichever of us ends up in charge of picture hanging will get to work on the implementation phase of that project. For now, though, there are plenty of pictures on the computer, and since we spend more time looking at those than walls anyway, it all works itself out.

Here Come the Brides-In-Training

2009-03-20T20:27:00.003-05:00

These are my adorable flower girls! Caitlin and Hannah were fantastic dress models, and I especially loved the dance performances. We took a trip to David's Bridal the other night to see what we could find. However, the selection of dresses at David's was less than impressive. None of the dresses that you see on here are the official dress of the flower girls. So, on to researching dresses online. We have found some candidates, but have not made a final decision as to which will be "THE dress."
I think Hannah liked any dress that twirled when she spun around.
Caitlin seemed to love this particular dress. Actually, I think she loved every dress she tried on. Jennifer gently told her daughter that this dress would be better fitted for Caitlin's own wedding day. We are hoping that day does not come too soon, especially since she is only 6 years old. But a girl can dream, eh?

Valentine Recovery

2009-02-15T18:02:00.003-06:00

The Mrs. and I are sitting at home diligently studying psychology and tensor analysis and drinkng spiked chocolate milk. My homework is on the honor system, where I'm supposed to do as much as I feel is necessary. It's been a while since I felt the necessity of doing any, but since Wendy is such a good student, the least I can do is put in a good Sunday afternoon.

I've spent the last several weeks wrestling with a new light fixture for the bathroom. The original setup was sort of an homage to the mirrors on the Muppet Show, but wasn't actually mounted to the wall, since we wanted to make sure the paint was good and dry. About a month ago Wendy convinced me that it was, and we found a shiny industrial, genome-age one. Our domestic infrastructure needed updating to incorporate, though, specifically replacing the gopher hole that the old light hung from with a plastic box that conveniently almost fit the provided adapter plate. I think it was designed to fit a metric house, because there was considerably more sawing, bending, and bleeding than I would've thought strictly necessary. That's what you get for buying decor from Lowe's; you have to buy another $80 in tools just to install it, and then $120 to repair the damage done in the process.

The search for a honeymoon location is behind schedule, mainly because I don't know if Cuba will be open by then. It might be nice to go somewhere American tourists haven't completely spoiled yet.

Busy as a Bumblebee

2009-02-12T21:55:00.003-06:00

Who knew a year would go by so quickly? With so many things going on at once in our lives, sometimes it seems like time is being played in fast forward. These are the times when decisions are needing to be made immediately, and I don't have any more time to just kind of sleep on it. However, in the past month and a half we have made some major decisions about the wedding. I have to give some credit to our wedding planner, Valerie, because she has really kept me on top of things (even when I wanted to put them off until later). We have decided on our photographer, DJ, caterer, florist, and... BRIDESMAIDS DRESSES.

Earlier in the summer of 2008 I thought that I had found the dresses for my bridesmaids. Then, I saw another dress on this photographer's website, and I fell in love with the dress. There was a slight problem though -- I could not find the dress on any of the designer websites. Some of my bridesmaids and I continued to search for this dress, but it was getting close to the time that I would need to make a decision on which one to go with for the wedding. My Maid of Honor, Jessica, and one of my bridesmaids, Courtney, visited a bridal shoppe in Jasper to try on some dresses that we had been looking at online. It came down to two dresses, both in taffeta and strapless. So, after about 20 minutes of discussing the pros and cons of both dresses, we FINALLY came to a unanimous decision. The dress color is a beautiful bright orange with a band of lavender around the waist. I think that it will be a versatile piece that could be used for future events (Homecoming 2009?). I'm kidding about the color. I haven't totally lost my mind.

Also, I meant to mention this earlier on the blog. Please do not let Jay's last post intimidate you all. Some of you may have gotten the impression that you will need to take dance lessons to be admitted into the reception. Jay is the pro. I'll be on the same level with all of you as far as dancing. I have mastered the Elaine (you know, from Seinfeld?), but I'm not quite as good as Carlton from the Fresh Prince. Hey, I may need to get dance lessons before the wedding. Would that be a good idea?

One more thing, and then I have to head to bed. Jay wants to pair up the bridesmaids and groomsmen in a cute/unique way. Anyone have any ideas? Here are the candidates:
Bridesmaids
Jessica Cowles (Maid of Honor)
Laura Short
Courtney Moore
Emily Moore
Jeanette Chang
Ann Noble Carlton
Erin Carlton
Sian Nicole Eastwood
Jocelyn Panter

Groomsmen
Kyle Carlton (Best Man)
Alan Williams
Mark Williams
Patrick Williams
Scott Dorough
Jimmy Dorough
Chris Veit
Lawton Dorough
Jack Dorough
Michael Christopher

Line Dance Study Guide

2008-11-29T17:56:00.010-06:00

We're finalizing the guest list now, and if you found your way here using a magnet with our picture on it, there's a good chance you're on it. For those of you on the borderline, the deciding factors are whether you can be counted on to (1) sit quietly through the ceremony (2) behave completely riotously during the reception. By some quirk of anthropology, those two characteristics are frequently found in the same populations.

In an attempt to ensure the crowd stays on its feet for the duration of the party, we're only ordering one chair for every five guests. If you want to sit down (which I discourage), you'll have to bring your own.

We at OscArletta understand that some of you will be better prepared than others for the complex maneuvering that will be expected. What follows is the minimal curriculum that will ensure your slides are fully charged and shims well shammed. Of course, don't expect everything to be this linear, or orderly. The dances are listed in order of increasing difficulty, or decreasing maximum sobriety.

Electric Slide
This is one dance that should have critical mass, even with among total squares. If you don't know it, just get in the middle and try not to get stepped on.

Cha Cha Slide
This one seems to be a favorite, with a high movement:skill ratio. Not my favorite, but I understand we're not actually legally married without it.

Copperhead Road
We'll need a couple of country songs to make sure everybody feels equally at home, or equally awkward.

Shim Sham
Euclid tells us we need two points to make a line, so at least one other person will need to learn the Shim Sham if we're going to do it. It's a bit advanced for lesson one.

Slower, if that helps. Same leader, about 70 years earlier.

Superbad
Surprisingly easier than it looks, but most of you will need help with this one.

Auditions will be some time in March '09, with enough time to re-apply for those of you who need remedial help. If you've forgotten the Macarena, you're in good company, and are advised not to think of it again. The YMCA survived the cut only by intervention of the Bride, who enjoys any activity involving spelling and large scale exposure of underarms.

Faces from the book

2008-11-01T12:26:00.008-05:00

So not everybody has their face in the book yet. That's all right by me, I guess, since it's a dangerous habit to start. As soon as you get situated, you start getting stalked by old friends from forever ago, and the less you talked to them then, the more you hear from them now. Currently Wendy's family is digitally way more networked than mine, but we're catching up.

Anyway, for those of you not cool enough or too cool for Facebook, we'll be cross-posting pictures and things here in order to level the playing field for all you picture-loving readers.

For starters, here is the first batch of the engagement photos, each one lovingly tagged by Wendy so you know which one of us is which.

If you do take the facebook leap, you'll be in good company. To add Wendy as a friend, click here. Or, if you think the bride is popular enough, you can always add the groom. The rest of the wedding party is left as an exercise for the reader.

In the Beginning

2008-10-29T12:02:00.003-05:00

You all will soon see that Jay is the better writer in this group. I think I just kind of babble and ramble on about nothing... kind of like Seinfield. And catch me on a day that I haven't taken my ADD medication (like today). Ok, so this blog is supposed to be about wedding stuff. Well, for now at least... until we get married and I transform from "Wedding Wendy" to "Wendy the Wonderous Baby Maker." Let's put that off for awhile. WEDDING.

The save-the-dates are ordered. They should be arriving to mom and dad's house in about 10-12 business days... or so the e-mail says. The save-the-dates are magnets with a kissy face picture of us. The background is of one of the trains at the Huntsville Depot Roundhouse, and that's where the reception is going to be held. So, look for your invite in the coming months (no later than January... make it February).

Big news about the reception in the story below: While looking at the reception site with our wedding planner, Jay was in a particularly "comedic" mood. I almost thought that he was thinking about quitting his day job to become an event coordinator. My wedding planner and I were having a serious discussion about how the outside of the reception venue could be set up -- cocktail area, kids area, sign-in area, etc. Well, here is where my wonderful fiance chimes in with his humor that we all know and love. He suggests that we have zebra rides by the country store as well as a moonbounce. I guess this is where the bridezilla in me came out, but we'll sensor the story for the kids. Jay will probably post later and elaborate on this part later. To make a long story short, I rejected his idea at that moment. However, after talking to my mother and consulting my wedding planner, they thought it might not be a bad idea to have a moonbounce since there will be so many children coming with their parents. So, moonbounce is a go... Zebras are a no. Any thoughts?

I've gotta run to a meeting. I'll post again later.

Status: Still Engaged

2008-10-21T22:29:00.002-05:00

In order to ensure as smooth a planning process as possible, the groom has been promoted to wedding blogger. I'm starting to know what the senator from Washington, D.C. feels like. I get to show up, look good, but my vote is mainly for show.

So we've agreed on the name of the blog, a date, time, and place for the wedding, and I'm told a guest list. If you haven't been notified, you're in good company. I got cut from the list twice last week.

The official wedding site is worth looking at. Its only major shortcoming is the length of its URL, which made it too long for the save-a-date magnets. (Speaking of which, I'm looking forward to seeing which one of us ended up on the South side of the magnet. I hear that's lucky.)

Preliminaries

2008-10-20T19:04:00.001-05:00

In the grand tradition of TomKat, Bennifer, and Brangelina, meet Oscarletta. What you do is, you smush the two names together and make a new one.

So Wendy "Arletta" Short -> Oscar Carlton ==> oscarletta

It was funnier in my head.