One Month Ago Today...

I have been married for one month. I can hardly believe it. It seems like forever ago already. And there are so many things I don’t want to forget…maybe some I should…maybe some I can’t…but I wanted to get them down on e-paper so I have them to remember.

May 16
I moved. June and Joey came and helped me move all the big stuff from my apartment to Joey’s house. I had to leave for Lansing a little early because it was my step-father’s birthday and I wanted to have dinner with him. We ate at Buddies and then I went to Joey’s. I can hardly explain how I felt when I walked into the house. It was total chaos. My stuff was packed to the ceiling in the front living room. My throat closed up pretty tight and panic set in. This was shown in the form of me looking scared and not being able to speak…or breathe. Joey asked me whose bed I wanted in his room. I pointed to his bed. So, they put my furniture in Joey’s room and placed the mattresses on it. Junior’s brother was there helping out. If you’ve never seen a picture of him before then let me describe him. He’s built like Popeye. Huge muscles. So when I say the mattress was placed on the frame, it was done so with June’s brother’s pinky finger. As I saw the bed being placed on the frame, I changed my mind. “No, my bed. I want my bed in here.” Joey was so accommodating. He knew I wasn’t having an easy time with this so he said, “no problem.” Junior’s brother switched out the mattresses and then the guys left to return the moving van.

Thank God my sister was there. She and Lyndsay helped me get settled and the tightness in my chest started to release. I was standing in Joey’s closet when he returned. He saw me looking at all my clothes and all his clothes. “How are you doing?” he asked. I started crying.

I didn’t feel at home yet here was my stuff. And Joey’s stuff. And too much stuff. Joey and I unpacked a lot of my boxes in the spare room which I quickly started calling my room. It was the only place in the house that looked like mine—not mine mixed in with someone else’s. I spent the night in that room and woke up happier.

My 17—The Bachelor and Bachette Parties
So, let’s back up a little on this story. My bridesmaid, old roommate and co-worker, Krissie, was in charge of the bachette party. We decided to rent a hotel room…a suite….in downtown Lansing at the Radisson. Aware of how much my bridesmaids and friends were spending on everything else, I decided to ask my step-dad for the $300 for the suite. All I told Krissie was that room was taken care of and not to worry.

Why was I going to ask my step-dad? Because he had asked several times how he could help us. I thought, “this will work and it’s not a lot of money.” Then, at the end of April after my last bridal shower, my step-dad gave Joey and I some money. It paid for our flight to Hawaii. Ummm….sweet! and crap. Now I couldn’t ask him for the money for the hotel. Oh well. I had a feeling it would somehow work itself out. But then I found out how much it was going to cost for my and the bridesmaid’s to stay at the hotel the night before the wedding. $300! That’s $600 total in hotel rooms!!! I knew this wasn’t going to fly with Joey and I didn’t know what to do. “Oh, God,” I prayed, “if you can get me out of this one, I’ll love you forever.” Of course, I would love him anyway but I was getting a little nervous.

Like I stated earlier, the morning of my bachette party, I woke up feeling happier. I put on some work clothes and started straightening out the kitchen. It happened to be Joey’s bachelor party so the guys started showing up. They were meeting there and then heading to paintball. It was cool hanging out with all of them. Of course, they teased me and said I shouldn’t be there because it was Joey’s party but all in fun. After they left, I went to town cleaning out the front room. I really had a system down. I was so involved in the cleaning, I forgot I had to go to the bank before my hair appointment. And Bobby needed a ride to work. And I needed to finish my DVDs. Cowabunga.

I took Bobby to work, got to the bank and was only 10 minutes late to my hair appointment. Man, I needed a nap. I headed back to Joey’s and remembered—Oh snap. The guys will be there for lunch! Oh well. Oh….well. I tried to be discrete when I walked in but they immediately asked if I wanted anything to eat or drink. So there I was, at my fiancé’s bach party, hanging with the guys. They left to play golf and I took a nap with Chessie.

During the nap, I heard mad thunder and pounding rain. I wondered if they were safe on the course but continued to sleep. I also heard my phone ring but was too sleepy to care. After I did get up and got ready, the phone rang again. It was my bridesmaid Becky.

“Holls.”
“Yes.”
“Did you get my voicemail?”
“Um…no (I’m bad about listening to my voicemails).”
“Okay, well we had to change the hotel room.”
“Okay….”
“Yeah, apparently our room at the Radisson flooded…and so they are putting us up at the Country Inn on Creyts Road….for….free.”
“Did you say free?”
“Yup, free.“No way! God is sooooooooo good. I can’t even tell you!”

I went outside and saw Mike and Jerred sitting there. I told them the story. I was so excited. God paid for our hotel room. I met up with the girls and we had so much fun laughing at stories from our past. We got a Big Daddy Taxi and headed downtown Lansing to Tropo for dinner. Very good and very expensive. Then, we went dancing. A nice night.

Joey had way more drama take place. Between Jerred showing up at 2am shining his cell phone in Joey’s face and Bobby needing to be picked up somewhere, Joe barely got any sleep. I guess the guys had fun but poor Diana and Jamie became the victim’s of a prank (long story dealing with a remote car alarm).

More to come...