Dispatch ..., 4

Homeward bound. Goodbye, Island. Goodbye, humidity. Goodbye, freak rainstorms. Goodbye, awesome sunsets (though we have some of our own at home). Goodbye, randomly assorted livestock. Goodbye, trade winds. Goodbye, Volcanoes and lava rocks. Goodbye, Auntie Kris.

We'll be home by 9ish tonight. Awesome vacation, first of many more, but it's time to go home.

Dispatch ..., 3

Left early. Breakfast in Waimea with new "Auntie", Kris. Hawaiian sweet bread french toast = win. Rain on way to Hilo. All pictures fuzzy. Almost-off-road scenic route adventure. Broke rental car (windshield wiper stopped wiping). Exchanged rental car in Hilo. Onward to Volcanoes.



Saw some lava.

Homeward bound by 4p. Long, long day.

Dispatch from honeymoon, 2

Met new people. Met a cat. Learned about coffee. Rescued belongings from cat. (Black shirt still in recovery from cat-hair overdose.) Got a massage. Had a nice dinner, watching the sun set. Got caught in a rainstorm. Surprised by breaking surf. Lots of relaxing. Planning where to go next. Thinking Scotland & Ireland in 2011, since 2010 is full of weddings. :)

Tomorrow: Breakfast with our new local friend at the Waimea farmer's market, Akaka falls, secret side-road of gorgeous, Hilo, Volcano, Lava Flow, long drive home.

Dispatch from honeymoon

Hello all,

We are having great fun. Drove around the north end of the island. Got caught in a rainstorm. Had dinner in Waimea. Planned week full of activities and down time.

That's all for now,
~MK & SK

New last name

We got married! There are even pictures. My cousins are amazingly cute, and already have pictures on facebook. :) We will say more either from or after our honeymoon, but we have the BEST family and friends EVER. :) It was so good to see everyone, and even our vendors have remarked that we have the warmest, friendliest bunch of wedding guests they've seen in a long, long time.

Which confirms what we've always known: You guys rock!

Much love, and see you soon!

Now is the time!

M and I are getting ready to pack up the car and head for the mountains. Next time I see home, I'll have a new last name. The last year has seem interminably long, but now that the big weekend is here it feels like time has flown. Damn subjective time courses. ;)

This week has been filled with last minute details and a lot of time to process everything. I was told last night that I seem calm (Hah!), and M seems relaxed (probably true). We'll see if the same holds through the weekend.

In about two hours, most of our wedding party will either be in cars or on planes heading this way. The festivities (rehearsal) officially begin at three today, and then just keep rolling time sometime mid-morning on Sunday.

Of all the wedding planning thing we did, I am most glad that a) we started early, made core decisions early, and paid things off early and b) I took this week off. If you're thinking about getting married soon, trust me: take the week before off. Ignoring my $Company phone has been blissful this week!

This week is all wedding, all the time...

Except that I'm baking this morning, because my procrastination patterns are that predictable. I can't even tell you how many finals-week-cookies I baked in college. Now it's the last week before the wedding, and I've refined my justification techniques (if not my procrastination style): I'm making M the muffins he's been craving.

Aww. So sweet. And sooooooo not running the errands I'm supposed to get done today.

After that I'm off to meet someone for lunch, and then on to those aforementioned errands. :) In my defense, I enrolled for next year's benefits, turned in my mileage totals, and answered a couple emergency emails this morning, so it's not been all fun, games and baking.

If you need me, call the cell. I'll be busy, but around.

Halloweeny

I am actually on vacation! Can you believe it? I can't. And it's Halloween. Rock on. And soon we get a full moon. Then I hear we're throwing a wedding or a party kinda soon. Autumn is pretty awesome.

I have a few bazillion things to do, but M and I kicked off vacation time (mine, not his) with a nice dinner, a rit at the bookstore, and some sanctioned lazy time. I woke up late, hung out in the office with him for a bit, then made an oven apple pancake for brunch. We cleaned up that mess, and immediately made another -- Pork with Apricots is in the slow cooker right now -- and took inventory of the Halloween candy, to make sure we hadn't eaten too much of it over the last week and a half. Yep, there's still enough for the kiddos.

I really ought to be making lists, or checking things off them, since this is the last weekend before the wedding... but instead I'm ignoring all that and not letting anyone "should" on my holiday.

Happy New Year! Go out and turn the wheel tonight, or stay in and celebrate solitary. Just have a fun time out there, halloweenies. :)

Maybe

So I woke up this morning, answered some emails, drank some coffee and ... realized that I feel all fluttery and unable to sit still. At ten days and counting, I think I may be actually excited about the wedding.

Or I've had too much coffee.

Or I'm just really glad that tomorrow's my last day in the field for awhile.

But maybe I'm excited about the wedding. Or terrified. But I'm voting for excited.

3

Three more days left, and only today is officially booked in. Maybe I can quietly slink off the radar for Thursday and Friday. Or maybe something mundane but local will pop up to be handled quickly and filed away. Maybe, maybe... a girl can hope.

M's got his last game night tonight for awhile. Between the wedding, honeymoon and holidays, November is looking busy on all accounts. I need to sit down and make a list of all the little things that still need to be finished off for the wedding. I have very little energy this week, due to a confluence of unfortunate circumstances, but sometimes you just don't have any choice in it. More coffee! (Which is made significantly easier by one of our wedding gifts, a coffee maker.)

I still have decisions to make, the sort of decisions other girls would have squeed and agonized over at the very beginning... first dance music, music in general for the reception, what do I want to do with my makeup, what do I want for a guest book. Blah.

And I'm procrastinating on going to work, so I should get off my ass and out the door now. Just three more work days, then I can focus on the wedding & honeymoon prep. Then it will be the big day, and the honeymoon, and ... then I'll need a new project to take up all of this extra energy. Good thing the holidays are just around the corner and we have Christmas shopping and baking to do!