Mammoth Ski Trip Day 2: Shutterbug on the Mountain

Today we were skiing all day on the mountain, and although the air is thinner due to the altitude and my legs are burning with the exertion I am doing skiing so much, today is one of the best days of my life. Mr. Rogue in his attempt to keep his wife happy is yet again braving the cold and wintry sport of skiing, and I could not be happier because today, Mr. Rogues fifth day on a ski slope is the day that he had his skiing breakthrough and he is FINALLY able to see what I love so much about it. I adore skiing and I would be so sad to not be able to share this with the man I love, so I have been very patient teaching Mr. Rogue to ski and that has finally paid off. Instead of today following our usual skiing outing, with Mr. Rogue not happy being on the mountain, and frustrated with his inability to go where he wants on the hill has been replaced with a new level of confidence and an understanding of how wonderful it is.

Because I am teaching and therefore constantly have to slow down I am again attempting to make lemonade from my lemons. Since I am yearning to get off the green hills and only the blues and blacks and because I am teaching and because I want Mr. Rogue to not give up I am stopping often on the hill waiting for him to catch up. I brought my camera onto the mountain and I decided what better time than now to work on my photo skills and to enjoy the scenic view. In effect going slower is forcing me to stop and smell the roses.


STUNNING LANDSCAPING


ANCIENT GOLRY

A WINDOW THROUGH THE TREES

THIS OLD AND TWISTED BARK WAS SO BEAUTIUFL

Since our condo is only a short walk away from the chair lift when we were done for the day we slowly started to make our way home for a well deserved nap and wine to drown our aching muscles to sleep. On the way to skiing the walk was refreshing and exciting, but on the way back I looked up the steep slope we had to climb and inwardly cursed that I was walking up hill instead of down. With my legs weeping in exhaustion I was sure I had no energy to do anything other than force one leg in front of the other until I saw this flaming bush stripped of all its plumage. I stopped while the others trudged on so I could snap this photo. The flaming orange against the darker evergreen background ended up being one of my favourite shots of the weekend.

WINTER WITH ITS SUPRISING BURSTS OF COLOR

Mammoth Ski Trip Day 1: The People

We are starting an annual year Mammoth Mountain Ski trip in either January or February. This year was our second and we are planning to go again in next year. Organizing a group trip has its problems and our trip wasn’t without its issues. But with each year I learn something more so hopefully by the time I am 40 we will have it down to a science. This year we got to a late start picking the date and instead of just choosing something that worked for me I decided to take votes and try and find a weekend that worked in all the people that wanted to go schedule. Listen to those who are older and wiser, when there are 12 different people, all without children, all living in Los Angeles, it is IMPOSSIBLE to find a weekend where everyone is available, and even if you find such a rare thing as a free weekend for all, the condo that you want to rent, the perfect condo right off the chair lift will defiantly be booked. So after two weeks of email tag with everyone on the list we ended up choosing a weekend that worked for some but not all of the group. Lesson learned to get around this issue I am going to book the condo and take deposits from the group in June instead of December.

We got 10 people to put down deposits and I thought that all of our worries and troubles were gone. I was very very wrong. Mr. and Mrs. Rambo, this would be their first trip with us, were so excited to go, that is until they found out that the weekend they thought it was was in fast the weekend BEFORE we were going. It had been a weekend discussed but a weekend that had to be changed because the condo got booked in the day it took me to get everyone’s confirmation so I just booked it the following weekend and emailed everyone about the change. So we were down to 8 people and had to scramble to find replacements which we did with Mr. and Mrs. Football. Then another couple found out that that weekend they had a wedding and were not going to be able to make it even though they had paid their deposit already. Then just when we thought no more could happen Mr. Football injured his ankle and was not in any condition to ski so they cancelled. My brother in law who had already declined going ended up filling one of the spots but that still only left us 7 people in a cabin that can hold 12. This was a very weak turnout to the 20 people we had the previous year.

Even with all the drama we had a great time. Mr. Rogue went skiing for the fifth time and seemed to finally hit a breakthrough, he was finally skiing well and I think by the end of the season he may be able to handle keeping up with me. To be fair I have been skiing for years and he only the past three years, since I started dragging him to the slopes.

THIS YEARS GANG

US ON THE MOUNTAIN

THE SLOPES WERE PRETTY EMPTY

THE VIEW FROM THE CHAIR LIFT

MR ROGUE AND I IN THE COLD

The only real downer for me for the weekend was the fact that I felt everyone was not on the same page as me as how to spend the down time. There was a lot of naps and TV watching which I thought would have been better spend playing games and having fun. But that is the problem not everyone has the same ideas on what to do with their free vacation time. I tried to garner interest in the bin of fun that I had brought full of cards and board games but I was out voted and left drifting off to do my own thing. At least the skiing was kick butt.

Split Personalities

People know me as a little bit of a fashion slut. I love clothes, I love bags, I love jewellery and I would do almost anything to become the woman with the largest shoe collection ever. This is how my husband gets out of the jailhouse, I am not a flowers and candy kind of girl when you make me mad oh no just offer me shoes. Note: special bonus goes to the one who gets all three.

So when I go out I love to wear nice cloths that match with my new purse and matching never touched pavement shoes. However when I come home it is a different story. I am like Mr. Rodgers, you know as he enters his house and starts singing it is a beautiful day in the neighbourhood his jacket comes off his sweater goes on and he changes his shoes. This is his transition from his outside public self to his inside private self. I am exactly the same way except that my outside self is a fun loving artsy fashionista and my inside self is a hobo who only likes to wear my husband’s comfy clothes. I climb out of my skirt and slither into a pair of old flannel pants that are 3 sizes to big, I remove my cashmere sweater and pull an oversized hoodie on, and I take off my gorgeous stiletto heels and replace them with my comfy pink crocs. This transformation happens as soon as I come into the house, I like to think of it as my Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

I do this for multiple reasons, because I have a dog and two cats who seriously have house shedding parties with all their four legged friends from the neighbourhood the second I walk out the door. There is so much hair in my house on any given day that I am convinced there is NO WAY that all of it comes from my three animals. It is more comfortable in my husbands bum cloths, I like the way the fabric is swimming on my body, like I am a little kid where the sleeves hang to long, and I like the subtle smell him in the fabric. I like to keep my nice clothes nice and when I am home I am often cleaning, or playing with my animals, or taking a very long nap; all of these activities are much easier minus a silk shirt and linen skirt.

My poor husband wonders aloud sometimes why I look so cute when I go out with my friends and why when I return home I don’t just leave on the outfits I wear when I go out. He is learning cute girly girl = out; and I can do anything comfy girl = in.

Mood Ring Indicators

I was talking to a friend the other day, and we were discussing hair, as in the hair on your head, and how to go about getting the best, silkiest hair ever. This in turn caused a long debate over the best products, store bought and at home recipes like mayonnaise and egg whites. Thousands of dollars spent over a lifetime to get the best possible shiny tresses.

This got me thinking later about how it would be so nice to get an indicator as to who the inherently good people on the planet were and who were the bad, like an outward indicator, a report card on weather in general you are naughty or nice; which in turn got me to wishing that the quality of your hair was tied to how good of a person you were as if your hair was a permanent mood ring that changes slowly over time as you get meaner or nicer. That way it wouldn’t be that she was just born with it, or that she obviously does not have children and therefore can spend an hour every day getting her hair to look like that, or she has a million dollars to spend on stylists professionally groom her hair every time she walks out the door.

I think this is a fabulous idea, only the good people would have great hair and the jerks would get the unmanageable brillo pad fro. And the mean man behind the home depot counter today would defiantly be bald. Note for the ass behind the home depot counter helping me today baldness means that you got an F. You failed at life!

Octo Mom

I would like to talk about the woman who decided to have octuplets, a woman who is getting massacred in the media, a woman who is just trying to be a mom. She is so easy to judge and I agree that some of her decisions were not the smartest and she obviously like many of us has issues, however I am not in her situation and I am trying really hard not to get into a conversation and start berating her for her choices. It is hard not to make judgements when there are so many things against this woman but I also think that there is a lot going on here that she had no control over. I agree that I would have not made many of the decisions she did but I am not going to jump on the bandwagon and start attacking someone I don’t know.

I know that I know that she has 6 children, two of which are special needs, I know that she lives with her mother, that she is unemployed, that she lives off welfare, that the donator and father of the children has no contact or responsibilities, that she has a plastic surgery problem and that she is bringing 8 more babies home soon with no way to take care of them all adequately. There is a lot to make fun of or make comments about all these horrible facts; however I have heard nothing but great things about her as a mother. That she has done everything the doctors have told her to a letter to make sure that she brought these babies into the world healthy and with mothers in the news beating, murdering, or abandoning their children I don’t see some of the things she has done to be so bad. Now I don’t agree with a lot of what she has done, I don’t think that in a million years I would have made the same decisions, but she is not me, and I am not her.

This woman has an unusual life and she is making unusual decisions but I feel that if I start trash talking her god given rights to do what she wants with her private personal life then in some way I am becoming an advocate of giving the government rights to moderate her life and in turn mine. And I mean this by people who make comments like “That woman should be locked up for having so many kids.” or “She should not be allowed to do this when she cannot provide for them.”. It is my opinion that people need to mind their own business, it isn’t like we want the government to govern or moderate how many children a person has, yea this is an extreme case but really everyone should butt out.

Book Club - "Stealing Horses"

The girls all got together for book club yesterday. We read ‘Out Stealing Horses’ which sounded good from all the articles I read but turned out to be mostly a disappointment. I did not feel that there was a lot of depth, I felt it very hard to read being as the book is about mortality and facing death (so basically it made me super depressed), I also felt like the book lacked any type of wave and that it was very flat with its plot, and the only redeeming quality I felt was that it was beautifully written.

Thank god that because book club fell on the same day as the Oscars the girls and I all decided to turn on the TV and talk about the book during the commercials. It was also suggested that we do a movie/fancy night theme for the article of food that we brought to share. Yummy.
Although I am not a fan of TV I do love movies and I like watching the Oscars to see what the best of the best was. I loved all the bubble guy purple on the red carpet this year especially Alicia Keys and Natalie Portman. Damn to Marissa Tomei, Anne Hathaway and to Sarah Jessica Parker. Marissa Tomei was stunning in Versace, and I will always love her for her role in ‘My Cousin Vinney’. Anne Hathaway is always stunningly gorgeous, I don’t think I have ever seen her looking sub par, she always looks like a queen. Sarah Jessica Parker looked so divine in the Dior gown she was wearing, like a fairy princess I loved this look for her, as I will always love her for her ‘Sex in the City’ days. Kate Winslet, I really want to love you I do, but you are such a damn drama queen, which makes her GREAT as an actress, loved Titanic, but horrible in real life. I just want to punch her every time she opens her annoying mouth. I also did not like her choice of dress AND I hated her hair, I realize you were going for old Hollywood but really, seriously, you should hire a new stylist, and if this was of your own choosing then please stop you need a stylist. I was really surprised by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, I realize that he never looks great but tonight he looked fat and like crap, what the hell is going on with that beanie, he looked like a retarded kid not like a grown man. Jessica Beil also had a completely unfortunate choice with her dress, which I feel did not fit her well at all and looked more like an expensive top sheet than a dress.

Unfortunately for me and many in my group we had not seen a lot of the winners for the movies this year, which made it hard to guess who was going to win. Movies that I must see tonight if not as soon as possible are ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’, ‘Milk’, ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, ‘The Reader’, ‘Rachel Getting Married’, ‘The Changeling’, ‘Wall-E’, ‘Smile Pinki’, ‘Revolutionary Road’, ‘Doubt’, and ‘The Duchess’. Thank god I am unemployed it may take me all week to watch these even if I watch them back to back which I may so I don’t feel so out of the loop.

The Devils Cereal

Sometimes you are at the grocery store with a set list of things to purchase so you don’t overbuy and so you don’t ruin your rule of only having healthy things in the house so you don’t totally screw your diet. However despite the best of intentions I fall into cravings that are beyond my control. Usually these cravings lurk like evil spiders in the back of my mind, I don’t even know they are there, until I round the corner display of chips and that spider launches full force and bites me in the face. I don’t even have a chance that black widow just rips my head off and tosses it to the floor.

So in this particular spider biting instance I was at the grocery store in the cereal isle and I picked up my trusty Plain Cheerios which I love and could eat every day of the week. As I walked back to the cart I ended up with the Cheerios in one hand and Captain Crunch just somehow ended up in the other. And as I wondered how the Captain Crunch even wound up in my hand a craving so intense washed over me that the Cheerios got put back on the shelf and the Captain got put in the shopping basket. This craving did not go away even when I went through the check out line, where I battled myself to tell the clerk I did not want it, on the drive home it got worse, to the point that when I walked in the door I could not wait to put the groceries away so I could sit down and have a bowl right now. The intensity and the pressure mounted until I had consumed 2 large bowls.

Sickened with my lack of self control, sickened with the fact that I had probably consumed enough calories for the next 2 days, and defiantly in a food coma I shuffled off for a nap. When I woke up I had the worst taste in my mouth, the Captain Crunch which I had not had in over 5 years had cut up the inside of my mouth. Like shards of glass those evil little pellets of sugary goodness had sliced the top of my tongue and the roof of my mouth. I considered kicking the crap out of the box but that would not fix my wounds. Instead I decided to boycott any Captain Crunch in the house for life. I was so disgusted I threw the rest of the box away down the garbage disposal. Thank god for garbage disposals, Captain Crunch cut up my mouth so I pulverized the existence of the rest of the box.

Big Bear Ski Trip - The Mountains

Today I woke up bright and early for my second trip to Big Bear Mountain this week. I am so excited to be going again but I am sad Mr. Rogue decided to stay at home. I had to get up at 5:00 am, not my most favourite thing in the world, but for a day of skiing I would do a lot of things I don’t really like. Once I got to my friends I found out my girlfriend, Ms. Dancer was not going so it ended up being Ms. Dancer’s boyfriend our mutual ex-co-worker and myself. And both the boys were snowboarders. I was slightly annoyed at the fact of being left alone with the guys but then decided to make the best of the situation. Now I could just spend all day skiing on the mountain alone, I could go my own pace and not have to try and keep track of another person’s wants and needs.

This trip was so unlike our trip a couple of days ago, see here. The weather was perfect, warm even at 40 degrees, and the sun was shining with almost no cloud cover. Last time we got the best powder for skiing and very bad weather, this time we got amazing weather and less than perfect powder. Because of the amount of rain we have been having the air in the Los Angeles area is so clear, usually we are bogged down with a cloud of smog. I got the most amazing mountain vistas on the drive up and on the mountain. Here are some of my favourite shots.

Confessions of a Shop-a-holic

Needless to say I could not seem to resist going out today and getting a few things. After the movie last night and then my late night surfing on the web about what is hot this spring I decided to only pick up a few trendy things and that was all. I bought more than a few more like some new things (for those of you who are confused as I was a couple is two, a few is three, some is more than three).

I am not ashamed to admit that I blame it all on Ms. Sweetie as she is the one who conned me into going to the store in the first place. I was trying to be strong to stay home and enjoy a movie while working on crafts, but she assured me that we would just go to look, that we would just try stuff on, and that we would not buy anything. Yea that is like taking an recovering alcoholic to a bar and telling them they can just drink soda. Anyways I did end up with some very cute stuff that fits perfectly in with some new spring 09 trends.


Oversized necklaces made are going to make a big impact for the spring season. I picked up this colourful bib necklace from Anthropology.


I loved this 80’s big bold print and picked up this tank as a perfect everyday top in the spring when it gets warm.

Lemon is one of the it colors for this spring and since I cannot wear magenta (The number one it color) I will just have to make do with the yellow. Also from Anthropology I love the detail in their clothes.

I got a fun blue and green plaid scarf and a gorgeous melon and silver scarf to throw around my neck to dress up a plain t-shirt. These will defiantly get a lot of use this spring.

Plaid although this is not so much a spring trend as a winter one, I figure I can get away wearing it for the next 2 months before it has to be stored for fall.

Confessions of a Shop-a-holic

It is tax season and of course I have again waited until last minute to pull together all my information for the meeting with our accountant. Sadly I do this every year, I have to stay up late the night before just so I can make sure all the paperwork and my deductions are in order. Usually I am better at this kind of stuff, staying on top of these life things, so that my life is as organized as possible. I think I just ignore the taxes every year out of spite because even though I KNOW they are necessary I resent giving 40% of my hard earned cash to someone else.

Because I would so rather spend it on some super fabulous stuff like these:


LAMB – DARJEELING HENNA JAIPUR TOTE


DRESS BY RODARTE


GUCCI WALLET


VALENTINO – STUDDED TOTE


FANTACY FUS SDE


MILA MULBERRY - APEPAZZA

So Mr. Rogue and I went to the accountant and talked about money, goals for our money, and how best to correctly spend our money. Needless to say I left there, like I always do every year, with high aspirations and a new way of looking at what I want and what is important. These views usually only last as long as a mayflies lifespan, about 24 hours. I don’t think I am a horrible person with money. I pay all my bills on time and I save for important things in the future. I own my own home and generally I am responsible about how I spend what I make. But now without a job I am having a hard time saying no to the things I took for granted.

Since finding out about my future jobless state on December 15th I have not shopped as much as I normally would, I have turned my back on stores I normally visit often, I have not touched a fashion magazine, and I refuse to even think about driving past the mall as I am afraid the temptation may be to much. I have been doing well and then today I went out with my girlfriends for sushi and to see the new movie, named after my Confessions of a Shop-a-holic, where a woman with a shopping problem learns to stop shopping and find happiness elsewhere. I am afraid I am not to that self-enlightened phase because the movie has turned my “Must not shop for any reason” into I cannot wait until morning so I can go and get some super cute new things.

When Bones Creak

We went skiing two days ago and I was happy to say I did well, I did not fall excessively, and it was a great day. I felt good coming home if not just a little tired. Today I woke up and to my dismay my knee is creaking. And I mean creaking in a “Screw you I am refusing to get out of bed because you BROKE ME” kind of creaking. My knee is obviously on strike and all I can say is it can have the next few days off but it better be back in commission for Saturday because I am taking it skiing again. And then it can go back on strike for a few days until the big ski trip next weekend at Mammoth. Under absolutely no circumstances is it allowed to strike on non strike days or I just may go berserk. There are knee replacements you know. Right knee consider yourself warned.

Pep Boys Stole A Hour Of My Life

What is it with the service industry. You would think in these troubled economic times that companies would be culling their staff of slackers and people who don’t know how to do their job. You would think that people with jobs would pay a little bit more attention and work a little bit harder and NOT LESS.

I happened to have to take my car in for unknown ailments, ailments that Pep-Boys said would cost up to 1400 dollars, ailments like 2 new something’s for the axel and 2 new tires and an alignment and an oil change. Of course we don’t need all those things at that price and I went to go pick up the car so we could get a friend to do it for much cheaper.

I had my cousin drop me off because I was assured the car would be ready in the morning and it is already 2:00 p.m. The guy behind the counter was more interested in talking with his friends who had stopped to visit then with the line of customers. It took me 20 minutes to get my paperwork, take it to the counter to pay for it (it was a zero balance so not really sure why I needed the receipt to get my key) and then wait for the idiot stick figure with no soul to go and get my Jeep which he tried after another 15 minutes and me prodding him twice.

Then the battery was dead, then he tried to sell me a new one, then he tried to jump it only to find his jumpers not working, then he needed to charge the jumpers which he assured me would only be 15 minutes. 45 minutes later I still did not have my car, and I went crazy. After my fit I was able to get my car up. The only positive thing about the whole experience is that I got to watch some spin-off judge show of Judge Judy where a trashy slutty woman was trying to find out if the skezzy slime bag man was her baby’s daddy. The story was so unbelievable that there was no way someone had made it up and I was reminded of all the crazy people in the world. That show made me wait 15 minutes longer then my usual 30 min rule because I wanted to see if he was the baby-daddy. He was just in case you are wondering.

Big Bear Ski Trip - The Blizzard

Yesterday I got a phone call for an impromptu trip to ski at Big Bear. Since it has been pretty much dumping snow constantly over the past few weeks due to the enormous amount of rain we have been getting I jumped at the chance to get up there and break in the skis for the first time this season. Since it was a holiday weekend Mr. Rogue had the day off and was able to come also he has only been a few times and I wanted him to get on this mountain to warm up for our large trip to Mammoth mountain in two weeks.

This trip was fraught with issues and I swear someone was seriously trying to prevent me from skiing today. First was which vehicle to take. My jeep has an issue, we found out both front axels are screwed, which was the noise my mother and I heard on our Condor Trip so there was no way we were going to be able to take that car. The other vehicles available to us were cars and all had a high performance tires which means that we cannot use chains so those modes of transportation were out. We finally ended up renting an SUV for the day which worked out perfectly. But that was not the only issue. Mr. Rogue did not want to leave at 6:00 am because that was to early so we ended up deciding on 7:00 am. Of course no one was ready on time and we ended up leaving at 7:30. Then we had to stop at multiple stores looking for chains for the SUV and we had to stop at a sports store to buy goggles for one of us in the group, then there was also there was the mandatory Starbucks run. So instead of taking an hour and a half to get to the base of the mountain it took us 3 hours. Once we got to the base of the mountain we found that the route we were going to take was closed due to the EXCESSIVE amount of snow that was dumping down on us. We took another way up but instead of taking the usual 40 minutes to the top it took 2 hours. This put us with skis on and ready to go at about 12:30 pm and the mountain closes at 4:00 pm.

I have been skiing for many years and today I had the best skiing conditions ever. The powder was so thick and if it would have just let up snowing just a bit so I could have seen I would have said that it was one of the best days of my life. There is something about being on a hill with virtually no one around, just you and the mountain and nature it is the best feeling in the world, like you are so connected. I imagine our ancestors took this awe for granted but our generation locked inside so often it is a unique moment when it is you and the elements.


ME ON THE CHAIR LIFT


THE SNOWFALL WAS SO THICK YOU COULD NOT SEE A THING


ME HAPPY TO BE SKIING


COVERED IN ICE WITH ONLY OUR NOSES SHOWING

What ended up being a very short time to ski initially was pretty sad but in the long run it turned out to be ok. Mr. Rogue was not up for skiing more than that and since the mountain was almost completely empty we got quite a bit of runs in.


THE GANG

I also took some time away from the skiing to pause and take several nature shots. These are my favourites.

ROLLING MISTY HILLS

LUSH GREEN MOUNTAINS

THROUGH THE FOG

SLEEPING GIANTS

RED SHRUB

EVERGREEN

CLOSE UP OF FROSTY BARK

After the long day skiing and the VERY long drive down the mountain which took 3 hours instead of 40 minutes, we were ravenous. We pulled over at a southern style ribs and steak place decorated from the outside as an American saloon from the west. I loudly voiced that if there was any type of animal head in the restaurant we were NOT going to eat there. Here is one of many of the animal heads; this one was hanging just inside the entrance.

THE HEAD IN THE RESTAURANT

I was overruled and we ended up eating there DESPITE my loud protests. I knew I should have drove, he who is the driver is he that has the power to veto all decisions. Sadly in this case I was out-vetoed.

Premonitions

I knew when I walked into my aunts house and saw this that it was a premonition to run away and hide, that some catastrophic event was going to take place and I should just take cover already because this doll was going to come to life like some hairless chucky and chop me to little pieces. Thank god that premonition was incorrect but there was something in that mini flash of doom.

We stayed for a nice long visit. Whenever I got to my aunts I always end up leaving with a ton of stuff. Today was no different; she gave me a new plant, a few bags of tangerines and oranges, and a ton of cupcakes. When we were ready to leave I had to take multiple trips to the car in order to carry out everything, I really need to learn to carry those baskets on my head, and it would be so helpful in situations like this.

Anyways in the process of trying to shuffle things around so all our stuff and the four people that were with me could all fit in the car I managed to lock my keys in the trunk and since my car is the spawn of Satan and auto-locks I now have no way to get my keys out of the trunk. After discouragingly pulling out my hair and banging my head against the car window I plodded back inside to call my husband. My cousin Ms. Sweetie who was with us heard that you can try to click a car unlocker over the phone, that it works when you hold the phone up to the car. We decided anything was worth a try but it did not work. So I called AAA to get them to break in.

I hate being hair-brained and locking my keys in the car, I hate when my husband who is the type of man who would NEVER lock his keys in the car is incredulous at his wife who is the type of person that does lock their keys in the car, and I hate not being able to leave when I want to. AAA at least was super fast responding and super fast at breaking into my car. I wonder if AAA occasionally trains a guy who goes awl and becomes an auto thief after being taught how to break into any type of car.

The Wedding Recap: Moments Part 2

The reception was a whirlwind of people and duties and I could barely have time to pause and take a breath. I am glad for a few hints that other brides had passed on. One was to build in time in the wedding schedule for some quick little trips out of the busy room to freshen up or to just skip away with your new husband. Another piece of advice was to make sure that if you are wearing a veil to put your chin down when you went to give someone a hug, otherwise the persons arm goes around the back of your head and tightens your veil almost ripping your hair out with the millions of bobby pins the hairdresser will use to secure it. Another was to not sweat the small stuff, to not become a nitpicky bride and to just roll with the punches, you will be much happier because things will INEVITABLY go wrong.

So here are moments from the reception that I found memorable.

Mr. Rogue and I could not stop holding hands and touching as if we could not believe it were real and because there were so many things going on it was almost as if we drew on each others strength. I know that I felt so much more comfortable at his side working through the evening together and stealing many little kisses.


HE IS MY ROCK

We cut the cake the second we walked into the hall after being announced. I wanted to streamline a lot of the formal activities so we could attempt to eat at least part of our meal. We managed to cut the cake and not get messy while gently feeding each other the cake, there was no face cake smashing for us. Even while we are kissing in this shot you can see we are holding hands.


CUTTING THE CAKE

We decided to do a formal head table even though I knew there were some people that would not be happy (especially those who had brought dates that they could not sit with). I was laughing so much and so happy and I love this shot of me laughing as Mr. Rogue smiles into the camera.


THE HEAD TABLE

So the maid-of-honour did her toast and even though I told her not to bawl like a baby she ended up doing exactly that, of course I also bawled like a baby which I vowed not to do so I guess we were even. I remember trying to get her to cut her speech short because I was so afraid she was not going to make it, but after a few deep breaths to calm her nerves she managed to give a killer speech. I love her so much!


MAID-OF-HONOUR’S TOAST

My father and I are very alike in so many ways and we are very close. With me being the only daughter my father was super protective of me. My dad looked so happy today and I am so grateful that I could always depend on him to make all my monsters disappear and protect me. Now I have two wonderful men in my life that will keep me safe.


DADDY DAUGHTER DANCE

Our wedding dance to ‘At Last’ wasn’t the dance we had practiced, we ended up just swaying gently to the music and smiling into each others eyes. I remember pausing and saying to myself that this moment, this second in time, it does not get any better than this. I remember thinking I was the luckiest woman in the world, and I am happy to say I still think that I found the best man for me.


THE HAPPY COUPLE