Sunday is the three month mark until our wedding!

Today we had a big tasting and planning meeting at our venue, Moulin Events. 

Absolutely the quality of paper we want for the menus.

Chris was super excited (as usual) when I whipped out the pink camera.

They asked if we were sisters!  (We’re not.)  Also, that was the BEST photo of me from today.  All others are worse.

Some appetizers that will be passed.  We enjoyed all of them but sadly had to narrow it down to three.

Some soup options…I love soup!

Entree and side dish choices.  Just a note:  cheddar polenta and cheese grits are surprisingly similar.

In any case, we were absolutely stuffed after the tasting.  We barely made a dent in the side dishes.  Everything was delicious, and it was a challenge to pare it down. 

After the tasting, Dave and Laura left and then we spent a couple hours going over room setups, timeline, and decor options.  It really feels like this is coming together! 

We still have a lot to do—but now we know what the food will be.  And the invitations go out tomorrow.  (Mom, so check your mailbox on Monday then, okay?)

I get so jealous when I see "Wine Wednesday" tags on twitter.  I WISH.  I suppose I could, but I don’t get home until late, and when I’m already tired, I don’t really feel like drinking wine.  I guess I’m jealous around 5 pm, which is when it seems the "normal folk" are done working, and when I have to leave for work on Wednesdays.  We violin teachers have the opposite schedule of normal folk, since you want your children to have lessons when you are free to drive them.

Nonetheless.  Wednesday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week.  Tuesday is my busiest teaching day (soon to be over 5 hours of straight teaching, this, my friends, is actually exhausting), but then Wednesday I only have 2 hours of teaching at this time. 

What do I do with my time?  Well so far today I attempted a run—my hamstrings were still pulling a bit so I turned it into a walk.  I would have pushed through except that this weekend I am still hoping to run the Mo’ Cowbell Half.

I will run/walk it at least—it goes to show that the best laid plans don’t always turn out well.  Stupid injuries.

Next I got my hair done.  I have never had my hair dyed professionally, but I wanted to have it done for my wedding.  My hairdresser suggested we do it twice, once as a test, and then again closer to the wedding, so this was the test.  I’m really pleased with how it turned out, plus it wasn’t nearly as expensive as I thought it would be.

(yes, I know it’s completely unrelated.  but I’m giggling.)

Now I’m going to get lunch with a friend.  Oh, I also did a little practicing, and I’ll probably do a bit more of that after lunch.  Are you super jealous of my schedule?  I love it!  Would I like to work more?  Yes, actually, I’d love about 6 to 8 more hours of teaching over the week.  I’ll get there.  I don’t want to teach in the schools and I don’t really want to teach in the mornings, so that means I’ll have to be patient (story of my life!) and wait for my schedule to fill up more.  Remember I often work all day on Saturdays and more often than not on Sunday afternoons.  And often late into the evening.  So it’s not as amazing as it seems.

Who am I kidding?  I love my schedule.  Kids, if YOU give up your childhood to practicing the violin, someday you too can be like me.  Just spend 1 to 8 hours every day practicing, all day Sunday in youth orchestra, your summers to music camps, and your afternoons/evenings to lessons, driving to lessons, driving home from lessons…or like I said, practicing.  And by 1 hour, we really mean to average 3 or 4 every day in high school.  Some of that might have to be before school so you can fit it in.  (My point is:  I did my time so leave me alone.  And if I need to practice 3 hours a day, I can do that with this schedule.  That was not always the case in the past.)

Wow, this is probably the world’s most boring blog post!  Or borderline.  See, I’m driving YOU to drink (I bet…are you thinking about what sort of wine you have in the closet/cabinet?  Then my work here is done.)

I’ll just leave you with this picture of an "in-bread" cat. 

Happy Wine Wednesday!

In violin playing, pain is considered bad.  We’re not supposed to hurt when we play.  Granted, I hurt a lot of the time when I play, but I’m aware that that isn’t good.

Evidently I’m supposed to just deal with the pain, according to Mike.  Or the soreness.  My hamstrings have been really awful since last Thursday’s deadlifts, and my run Sunday really failed.  I told Mike today and he kind of laughed at me.  Especially after I told him I thought I had a high pain tolerance.  I suppose with my winning smile and ability to laugh at myself and everybody else it’s impossible for people to think that I am a truly hard-core individual.

Speaking of pain, here’s a link to my friend’s post about running a marathon over the weekend.

I do think I have a high pain tolerance though, for the most part.  Then again, maybe I’m not as tough as I like to think.  Who knows.

And Mike said he was kind of joking around.  Maybe I was being overly sensitive today.

As you know, my dad (@jerrydfrey) is still on his cross country bike trip.  He left South Carolina in late August, was in St Louis and left on September 10. 

He’s now somewhere in Texas (rumor has it he had plans to mess with Texas, but hopefully that wasn’t true.) My mother posted some pictures to facebook (which is shocking enough as is!) but I thought I’d steal them and post them here for your enjoyment.  Can you guess where these are taken?  Because seriously, we have no idea.

It appears to be some sort of campsite.  And yes, that’s how he’s been sleeping.  He carries that tent with him along with a sleeping bag and some sort of sleeping mat.  Along with everything else.  Solo bike trip, folks. 

This might be him crossing the Mississippi…I think he mentioned crossing by ferry.  Then again, I could be wrong.

Odd looking building.  There’s definitely a bench though.  Don’t know if that helps.

Have you seen this man?!?