My most horrifying moment

I thought that when I got the call on Friday saying that it was going to be over $1,000 to fix my engagement ring, things couldn't get any worse. But today, something even more terrible happened.

In church, during the traditional "hug and howdy" time, a woman came up to me to shake my hand. I had never met her before. She walked up, smiled, extended her hand and said.....

"Are you having a baby??"

Needless to say, after church I cried and cried and cried. Sure, I have put on a couple of pounds in the past 3 or 4 years. But for someone to be so sure that I am WITH CHILD that they would bring it to my attention? A complete STRANGER? While other people are standing around??? In the house of GOD??

I am never wearing this outfit again. Or eating carbs. Or drinking beer. Or wearing shirts or dresses that in any way resemble maternity clothes. Or making eye contact during the "hug and howdy" time. Or leaving my house.

(sigh)

Progression of a bridal shower

This weekend I had my first grown-up bridal shower/bachelorette party in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. I was highly amused to see the rather obvious timeline of drinking within the pictures of the day.

In this picture, there had been no drinks...just hanging out with old friends, looking at pictures and catching up....

And a couple of mimosas later...

And then a mai tai after that....

Then a few beers...and a martini or two...

Then one last beer...for good measure...

And of course the next morning...looking like death...

Anyhow..it was a SUPER fun weekend. Thanks so much to the friends who put it all together! You guys are the best! (smooooooooch!!!)

My faith in the general goodness of people has been re-established...

Yesterday when I got home something was wrong. I stood in my driveway for a moment before I realized what it was...my overgrown MESS of a yard was mowed. As in...sticks all picked up and gone, grass mowed. It was quite a mystery...I certainly hadn't mowed it, and no one in my family admitted to it. Then today I was talking to my neighbor and she said "So...Whitey mowed your yard!" I, of course, had no clue who Whitey might be. Well, evidently, Whitey is the elderly gentleman who lives two houses down. He and I have never really talked...aside from the occaisional "good morning" as I'm walking Max and he's on the porch smoking. I guess what had happened was that Whitey had been talking to my neighbors and asking them questions about me, and it had come up that my fiance is in the military and is deployed right now. And Whitey, being an old veteran himself, decided that having Mat gone is probably rough on me (which it is) and that maybe he could help me out some by mowing my lawn for me. Which really...is probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. First of all, I absolutely LOATHE mowing the lawn. My lawn is a pain in the butt to mow. Secondly, I'm not really supposed to be mowing the lawn with my busted finger. And thirdly...when I do mow the lawn, I do a really crappy job at it. Right now, it looks great. It's not very often that someone goes that far out of their way to help someone they don't really know...it really did make my day.