Pretty Puppy Formal Wear

If we were able to, we would bring our dogs with us everywhere.  Including the wedding and our honeymoon.  The problem is Japan is a rabies free country, which makes getting them back into the country a long, troublesome process.  Since they were both born here, have never left the country, and we're leaving in about 6 months, I see no reason to go through this torture now.  It makes me sad my fur kiddos can't be a part of the fun!  So a long, long time ago, I started looking for ways to include them.  I thought about just putting a picture out.  But somewhere in the interwebs (sorry I can't remember where), I saw a picture of a dog in a bowtie that a couple put in their program to advertise their photo sharing site.   What a brilliant concept!  I hadn't even thought about having a photo sharing site before that, but I loved that idea too.  So set up a site on ShutterFly, then got on Etsy and found Charlie <3 Diesel.  I set up a custom order, and then waited...and waited...and waited.  It almost didn't show up in time!  Poor Ashleigh's (the owner) machine had broken.  But today, literally the last day I'll be in Japan for a few weeks, my order showed up.  I cleaned the rupps up, and took them outside.  Chiyo peed on her tutu first thing, of course.  After a good half hour of wrestling with them and using a ball as bait (for Nozzle at least) I got a few decent pictures.  Now I'm just deciding which picture to use!

I'll take any opinions!

And just for dramatic flair, I present the "far off gaze" photo that they do so well:  

Special dogs is special!  

I'm Fairly Certain I Was A Better Seamstress In Fifth Grade

But you know what?  I'm cool with that!  It's worth it.
Project o' the evening:

Once again, I couldn't find exactly what I wanted on Etsy.  Most of the ones I did find were either too rustic or too froofy.  So, with half a wooden dowl from the 100 yen shop, a roll of burlap I already owned (big thanks to Laurie for cutting out the banner for me.  My OCD couldn't handle trying to make it perfect), quilt backing given to me by my old neighbor, and stencils from my lovely Diandra, I created my own banner!  I did actually iron it too.  Here's evidence of my bad sewing job:

 But hey, it works!  Only a few projects left before I leave for America...

Finished up some goody bags last week...

 And here's a sneak peek of the programs:

And I will be forever folding cranes...

Only 16 more days guys...yikes!!!

The Dreaded Guest List

Here is a lesson learned...be VERY critical of your guest list.  I was not, because I knew a lot of my friends are military and wouldn't be able to make it.  Therefore, I was not as critical of Jason's "Family Friend" guest list as I maybe should have been.  I wasn't for two reasons:  a, to be a nice person (I rarely am), and b, because I was assured that most of them would RSVP "no"...and then they didn't.  In fact, I separated our RSVPs out into groups to see how it was breaking down.  The groups were friends, Jason's family, my family, and Schaub Family Friends.  The largest group is his family, which I expected.  His mom has something like 9 siblings.  Seriously.  The second largest group (now actually tied for first place)? Schaub Family Friends, with 41 guests.  I've met 2 of them.  So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE learn from me...please be the bad guy and say no!!!    

Wait...How Many Weddings Are You Having?

I suppose it's not so uncommon to have more than one wedding.  Especially for military people...I'd say about half of my friends had a legal wedding as well as the "show" wedding.  Even Amanda said she sees it a lot more lately among her clients.  Sometimes (ok, frequently lately...even that's an understatement), I don't want a second wedding.  It's stressful, it's expensive, it causes fighting and mistrust and hurt feelings.  I have to prod Jason to get his wedding stuff done because he's working 15 hours a day and not sleeping enough.  It's not fufilling the original purpose of getting our union blessed in the Catholic church (I will have to actually enter a church for this to happen...sigh.  The things I do for love...)

Ohhhhh GOT...I love you (via fanpop.com)

And things like this:

just don't help.  Hey, person I invited...I love you (obviously!), but really???  Here's why:  Jason has 4 living grandparents who live in the Milwaukee area.  I have no living grandparents.  I would LOVE to have it in KC, but that's not fair to his grands.  I was already selfish and barred them from attending the JOP wedding. This one is more for them, and our friends.  And so we can finally exchange rings, and have a legit party.  Yeah, we'll probably have another when we are 100% married in the church as well.  No, unfortunately none of them will be at my home...I wish I could.  This is probably more of a rant than anything else....I can't make anyone happy except us!  So I wanted to at least halfway explain our motives.