Things I'm loving

These are the things I'm loving these days.

This man...

This picture...



This memory...

This girl on the far right...



This girl too...

This reminder that fall is here and cooler weather is on it's way...



This blanket - especially with this little head peeking out...



This toe nail polish...



This new addition to our home... (It still needs a few pictures!)



This invitation...

This group of friends (and the missing spouses)...

My cup runneth over

WARNING: This blog post contains items of a personal, intimate, female nature. Male blog readers might want to avert their eyes. :- )
BRITTANY: This post contains bridesmaid's drama. If you're feeling stressed about the wedding, please read it later. If you're not stressed - just know that this problem will be resolved and we are making every effort to get it fixed ASAP! We will get it taken care of before the wedding!

As you know, I'm a bridesmaid in my brother's wedding. As with almost every bridesmaid's dress, I must wear a strapless bra. I started the bra search way back in June. I went to my favorite bra store and they told me about a fantastic new style that was so comfortable most women made it their regular bra. However, they didn't have any in the store and I would have to order on-line. I was thrilled with the idea so I quickly told the sales lady my bra size and happily went on my way. When the bra arrived in the mail, I immediately tried it on! In my mind, this was going to be the miracle bra and would fit my curves perfectly. I was shocked to see that the cup of the bra didn't fit my curves at all - it came up from underneath and stuck straight up in the air! (Sorry guys - no pictures for this post!!!) In order for the bra to lay flat across the top half of my boob, it had to be folded over by several inches!

DJ doesn't have a lot of experience with strapless bras and was quite confused by the way it stuck straight up in the air. He suggested that we try on my bridesmaid's dress just to see if the bra would lay down the right way. No luck! Now my dress was sticking straight up in the air! After a hearty laugh, we agreed that the bra had to be returned.

This weekend, I returned to the store I ordered the bra from and explained my problem. The sales lady said she would be happy to help, but she needed to SEE the problem. So I tried on the bra, called her into my dressing room, and showed her just how bad the problem really was. She looked extremely confused and, after a few attempts to make the bra fit, finally suggested we try a different style of strapless bra. I put the new style on, hopeful that this one would work. It stuck straight up in the air just like the one I ordered originally. I tried on bra after bra, each with various degrees of success. Some stuck up in the air, one was about 6 inches from hooking, and each created some level of snickering from my mom and sister. Each time I put on a new bra, I called the sales lady into my dressing room so she could examine my deformed looking "girls". Mom kept saying, "Allison! What is wrong with your boobs???"

After going down four cup sizes (WOW!) I finally found a bra that didn't stick up in the air. However, it squished my girls into the oddest shape I've ever seen. They were lifted all the way up to my chin, spilling over the top of the bra, and leaking out the sides into my arm pits. I literally couldn't put my arms down! My mom and sister were rolling with laughter and close to tears. (Not to mention a serious case of wet pants!) I looked at the sales lady and, in my most exasperated tone, said, "My cups runneth over!" She didn't even crack a smile - just stared at my misshapen boobies! She told me several times to put my arms down so we could look at the way the bra fit. It took several attempts to explain that I couldn't put my arms down because I had boobs in the way. I couldn't stop thinking, "I'm standing up-right and my boobs are in my arm pits. This is ridiculous! I'm just going to forget it all and duct tape those suckers down!!!"

After 45 minutes, 16 bras, and literally covering the dressing room floor with bras that didn't fit, I walked away with the bra I came with, and a completely depleted sense of self-esteem. There's a store about an hour away from our house that hopefully has more styles in stock. So DJ and I will head that way for the next round of bra shopping. Let's just hope the girls stay where they should and we find something to strap those suckers down under my dress! I don't think my self esteem (or my girls) can take much more of this!!!

The best laid plans of mice and men...

My brother is getting married a week before Christmas. He's been engaged for almost a year so we've been planning and talking about it for a while now. However, we've now reached the point where there's less than 100 days until The Big Day and plans are really taking off! It's been fun to listen to my future sister-in-law talk about the things she's planned and always dreamed of - especially since I was in her shoes not too long ago! (I also just learned that she reads this blog! Hi Brittany!) My sister and I are both bridesmaids, DJ is a groomsman.

The big hitch in all of our plans has been that DJ and I started new jobs this year and the last day of the semester is the day before the wedding. Generally, teacher's aren't allowed to take off the day before or the day after a vacation. It's really frowned upon to take off the day before Christmas break. The last day of the semester. The day grades are due. The day of several finals for DJ's students. So we were both extremely nervous to approach our brand new principals about taking off so we could be in Indiana in time for the rehearsal.

Yesterday, we got the final word from the principal - family comes first!!! We were thrilled! In a furry of phone calls, texts, and a few internet searches we found a cheap flight that will get us there in time to actually help out before the rehearsal begins! I'm so excited about the whole thing I could come right out of my skin. I'm not too thrilled about boarding a plane that takes off at 6:20am, but I'm excited that we'll get to be a part of all the wedding activities and that we won't be rushing to the rehearsal straight from the plane!

So the plan looks something like this:
Wednesday - My sister and dad start the 23 hour drive to Indiana with all of the dresses in the backseat.
Thursday - My mom comes to our house and spends the night.
Friday - We wake up at roughly 3:30 in the morning and head to the airport. I promise I will sleep on the plane. We land at 10:20 and meet up with my dad and sister. We then drive to my brother's city and check into the hotel.
Saturday - My brother gets married!!!!!!!
Sunday - We pack up all our junk, my brother's four children, and a car FULL of games and start driving back to Texas in my brother's van and whatever car my dad and sister drove to Indiana in. When we get back to our neck of the woods, we will head to our house to pick up our car and luggage for the rest of the trip. DJ and I will go get our dogs from wherever we have stashed them while the rest of the caravan goes to the airport to get my mom's car. All four vehicles will then head to Waco to anxiously await the arrival of Santa Claus and Christmas!

Just looking at it all makes me exhausted! But I'm so excited I can hardly stand it! And now, I have to go to the gym. I'm determined to make that bridesmaid's dress fit...

Laundry Delima

So right now, our schedule looks something like this:

5:00am - Roll out of bed, scrape crusties out of our eyes
5:30am - Hubsy leaves for work and has morning practice with the JV team
8:00am - Hubsy showers at the school and puts on khakis, dress shirt, and a tie
3:30pm - Hubsy changes out of dress clothes and puts on a second set of tennis clothes for afternoon practice with the Varsity team
5:30pm - Hubsy drives home in a car with no A/C
5:50pm - Hubsy arrives home to a wife who kisses him with a clothes pin on her nose and shoos him off to the shower

So this is the delima I have here... On average, Hubsy goes through four sets of clothes a day. Two of those sets are soaked with sweat. Within 24 hours, our laundry room begins to have an odor which words can't quite describe. By days two, three, and four I can hardly stand to walk in the room without my stomach churning.

So what do I do? How do I clear the stench in the laundry room without doing a load of laundry every day? Well, it would actually require two or three loads of laundry because of the colors he has to wear. Any suggestions on making our laundry room a little less smelly and a lot more pleasant to walk by?