Calm Before the Storm

*yawn*
*stretch*

So what's up, y'all? I try to make sure I don't let more than a week pass between blahg entries so that I don't completely tune out and hibernate. We've had some lovely warm spring days for the first stretch of April but the past couple of days has been cooler and rainy making me want to pull the warm woolies back out from the depths of my unorganized closet and sleep for days. I might have slept eleven hours last night. It's not like total hibernation because I go to the bathroom every two hours or so and the cats can't go without food for more than an hour at a time and the stray cat, Rosalita, arrives promptly at 7am for breakfast every day but I have been nodding off early in the evening and staying in my covered nest until I feed Rosalita. (That run-on sentence left me out of breath!) So it's accumulated sleep time, not uninterrupted sleep time but nonetheless, it's extremely sedentary.

It feels like the calm before the storm around here. We had some company this week, my mom's brother John and his wife Gerri popped in for a visit while John's son Jason was here with his lovely lady friend Sandy. I was in fairly deep hibernation mode but did manage to climb the stairs a few times during their visit. I always invite people to the Whine Cellar - it has the best view, after all - because it's so hard for me to be sociable when I'm uncomfortable and nowhere in the world is as cozy as my nest. Jason and Sandy plan to come back this Summer so we'll have longer to visit then.

Calm before the storm, though, as we are right on the precipice of some very exciting things in our family such as Cosette's birth, the Gant Girl trip to New York for Helen's shower, new hardwood floors on the main level of the house, the Gant Family trip to New York and Old Lyme, Connecticut for the wedding, Oliver's birth and then my disability hearing.  You may notice that the disability hearing comes at the very end of all of these events and not smack dab in the middle as originally planned. My new hearing date is August 5th which fits nicely into my schedule without interrupting any major life events. So as the days tick slowly by with lots of random sewing and tv watching and repetitive-ness (is that a word? who knows...) we are quickly approaching a lot of out of the ordinary events and are trying to slowly and gently prepare.

One major task off the *must do* list was buying a dress for the wedding. I have four major wedding events to participate in - shower, rehearsal dinner, wedding/reception, brunch the day after the wedding. All four require me to dress in something other than my usual yoga pants/baggy shirt wardrobe. I have a lot of casual dresses so we're good for two of the events plus the theater (which, I don't dress fancy for the theater but I don't wear jeans either, you have to respect the institution, I believe). I have a couple of dressy/could do in a pinch dresses that may need a little alteration or accessorizing but honestly, what better excuse to buy a dress than a wedding, right? And I think if I wear the same dress that I wore to Cody and Marquee's wedding five years ago it would be kind of sad.

Mom and I went to Belk last week hoping that the post-Easter sales would score us some nice things at nice prices. Unfortunately there were no dressy dresses in my size and it kinda made me think less of Belk for it. I mean, come on, mothers of brides and grooms come in all sizes, especially out here where the food is good and we country fry everything with gravy on the side. Then after a couple more days of staring at the computer screen looking at every fancy dress on this side of the internet, I glanced back at Belk's website to see if they had anything new to offer and I found this dress which was HALF OFF what it was last week! I didn't even include it in the ones I viewed last week because even though we had a special wedding clothes budget set aside, I couldn't see myself paying more than $100 for a dress because, no. That's just not necessary. I'd alter/accessorize what I already own and knock the dust off an old dress before I would do that. This dress was nicely under a reasonable price and looks good even with the jacket off (which a lot of times they don't, you know?). With the jacket off it looks a lot like the junior bridesmaid dresses so it will be fun to match my nieces. I would post a picture of the girls in their dresses but I don't have their permission and I do try to ask them first. I also don't have the permission of the bride and I think some of these things do need to be saved for the special event. I got an ok from my future sister-in-law to be close in color and style to the bridesmaids. My dad and older brother are wearing navy suits so we'll look great in pictures. Well, the clothes will. The rest has yet to be determined...

I've had many Facebook conversations with my future sister-in-law this week and I've drastically overused the word "excited" to the point where if I was a drinker, I'd take a shot every time I say it. I desperately need to break out the thesaurus. My mom has also picked out a lovely dress, also from Belk, also half priced from what it was last week so we're excited. Oops. Again. I still haven't tried on the slacks I plan to wear for the shower and matched them with something but I want to make that trip as light as possible since it's a quick 36 hour jaunt to New York. We'll see. Short girls don't always look good in slacks, especially since I have the extra vertebrae which makes my torso abnormally long compared to my legs. I always try to wear empire waists so it's not noticeable.

Our plane tickets are purchased. Grandma's arrangements have been made (and we are so grateful that my aunt and uncle are traveling with her because I think my dad has enough to worry about between me and my mom). There's still some ambiguity about what to do with Oscar while we're gone. We thought about taking him but the airline restrictions are so narrow and he is really high maintenance and doesn't play well with strangers. Austin and Tasha plan to be here but Austin starts work (!) next week (details on another blog, I'm afraid to jinx it by talking about it) and taking care of both dogs is really a lot of work so my parents are entertaining the thought of a dog sitter to help out. Mom and I need haircuts, I need makeup because honestly, I haven't worn foundation in years and I don't wear makeup every day... things like that still need to be taken care of. And of course there's a baby coming any minute now. Tasha is dilated to two now and Cosette is head down - seriously, it could be any day!

I'm also on prince/princess watch because you know I care about these things way more than I should and have I mentioned that I have a birthday this month? When I'm busy I tend to blog more because there's more to talk about than my health and the weather so I'm looking forward to sharing all the fun with y'all.

And that's about it for now... hope you're doing well! Love and hugs, y'all!