Fairy Tales CAN Come True

If you've been reading this blog for at least the last four months, you recognize this picture:

You know that my youngest brother James and I flew to Korea to witness the marriage between my brother Matt and his bride, Dawon.

This is going to be a story in two parts... past and present, for who knows what the future holds?

THE PAST

Once upon a time, there was a wonderful but sad young man. He'd been married and divorced and come home to mend his broken heart. He searched fruitlessly for a job and when none appeared on the horizon, he moved to Atlanta to try his luck there. Unfortunately, his luck didn't improve much and after his holiday gig stocking shelves at Toys-R-Us ended, he couldn't find another employment situation. Casting about for something, he somehow tumbled to the idea of teaching English in a foreign country. After applications, passports, tests, visas and shots, he found himself in Korea, teaching young children in a private school.

Happy to be gainfully employed and learning about another culture, he also found himself lonely. He joined a church where he found some friends. One of those friends mentioned to him that there was a young lady of their acquaintence who was training to be a translator. Would the young man be interested in talking with her so she could practice? Sure, he replied. It would be nice to speak with someone who spoke his language reasonably well.

He met the young woman and they talked. And talked. And talked. And somewhere along the line, they fell in love.

She bravely came to the US on her own to attend a translation school course and when it was over, she flew east to stay with the young man's family for a couple of weeks. His family looked at each other and raised their eyebrows... Who was this girl and what did she mean to our young man that she would come to stay with strangers like that? They had their suspicions then, but chose to say nothing but get to know her. And found that they loved her.

She went back to Korea. Time passed. And then....

There was much celebration on both sides of the world... She said YES!

Things began to move quickly then. They would be married in Korea - first at the American Embassy, then with a traditional ceremony for the family.

Weddings come with plenty of activities for the couple involved...

There's not much time to just sit and enjoy each other's company...

There are clothes to try on, which is serious business - even if it IS a monkey suit.

Oh, but how beautiful they were... the dresses and the pictures that were taken of them.

But the most beautiful thing of all was the faces of the two people involved. You could see that they truly enjoyed each other's company.

That they were comfortable with each other...

That it was LOVE. And so the marriage... with Korean family and friends. It wasn't long before the young man and the young woman settled into domestic bliss.

And that is the story of how my brother Matthew came to marry his love, Dawon.

THE PRESENT

We are scrambling... Matt and Dawon are coming to America (along with her mother and aunt) and they want to be married here, among Matt's family and friends. We have less than two months to pull it all together, but I feel confident that we can pull it off.

I am working on logistics. As of this week, I've accomplished much.

We have a church (and the parish hall for the reception afterwards).

This is St. Clements Chapel. My parents were the first couple married here after it moved to this location from Lloyd. We grew up with this chapel - both Matt and I served as acolytes in this tiny church. My first wedding was here. This building means something to us, and I lucked out in nailing it down for the first weekend after Matt and Dawon arrive.

I've started researching stuff like cakes and flowers.

I find many of the cakes out there these days a bit over the top. And I'm not fond of fondant which seems to have become the staple "frosting" on cakes these days. But something like one of these (without the top tier on the first one) would do just fine.

Flowers, I've discovered, are hideously expensive. One of our goals is to keep this as simple and inexpensive as possible. But with bouquets for the bride ranging from $150 to $200, it's time to get creative. When I married Darling Man, I bought a few bunches of flowers and made my own bouquet, boutineers and arrangements. And it was beautiful. I suspect I will be doing the same again this time.

Mom is checking out caterers. I'm sure this is a job she's going to relish, as I believe that part of the job there is sampling the wares.

So far, I had a date, a time, a church, a reception hall. But no priest. The man who performed those services for my parents (50 years ago) and for me and Darling Man (16 years ago) is in frail health. The rector of the church where we're having the ceremony will be out of town that weekend. I was dreading the prospect of trolling for priests when my father suggested Father Mike. Perfect!!! Matt doesn't know him, but he's been there for my family through serious illness and hospitalizations - and every weekend at my parents' church since he signed on there. He is as close to a family minister as we have now... the only problem was - would he be available and willing? I got a reply today - he said, "I'd love to."

So here we are. The necessities are taken care of. The rest will be taken care of in due time.

It occurs to me that this might be the only wedding I get to plan to this extent. I don't have any daughters. And unless ZBoy marries a woman with no mother or an estranged family, I will be a peripheral player in that future wedding. So this is it for me. And I'm giving it my best shot!

Nice While It Lasted

One of the few perks we get at work is the week off between Christmas and New Year's. It's supposedly a cost-cutting measure but whatever it is, I'll take it. It does make for some crazy work before the holiday, given that as soon as we wrap up pledge in the middle of the month, I am then plunged into working ahead so that everything is covered during the holidays.

Is it any wonder that by the time this week rolls around, all I want to do is be lazy? And this year, the record cold December only encouraged me to stay inside.

It hasn't been a total waste of time though... Before Christmas I began experimenting with felt ornaments, jumping off with a published pattern (the owl) then making up my own.

I wound up giving most of the owls away as Christmas gifts - and the weiner dog was a one-time effort as a gift for someone who hasn't received it yet. I've also made a fish (loved that one) and these bunnies. It's fun and relatively inexpensive - I already have lots of crafts stuff and felt is cheap. I may be doing these for a while.

Meanwhile, the guys have pursued other activities. I bought a used XBox360 for Christmas and a couple of games - and that's what they've been doing. Walking the dogs early, or riding the bike - then back to the house to become zombies in front of the TV screen.

Z didn't even blink when I took that first picture. The flash went off and after a minute, he turned and looked at me and said, "Mom... you're distracting me!" Maybe, but it took you an awfully long time to notice that...

I'd hoped to be bit more productive during this break - maybe get a few projects done, but I think I was so tired that I just couldn't. I've enjoyed sleeping in until 8am, getting up and realizing that I didn't have to do anything if I didn't want to. It all ends tomorrow. School is back in and it's back to work I go.

That's not a bad thing though. My brain feels ready to go again. But it sure was nice to be idle while it lasted!

Fun Monday - What I Need to Survive Winter

January's host is Ari!

Theme for Jan. 3: I live in a climate with a long, cold winters. Over the years, I've built up a supply of clothing and items to keep warm and dry. I think of them as my arsenal for winter combat. What's in your winter weather arsenal? Or, if you don't have tough winters where you live, tell us about something you own that you wouldn't want to be without.

Um... I live in Florida. Don't snicker. It gets COLD here. Just not for prolonged periods of time. But it does get cold - really cold! I actually don't mind that much... I'd love it if it got cold more than it does already. But the big problem that I have with winters here is the dryness.

This is something I cannot live without. It's cool-mist humidifier. Not only does it put out a nice cool mist of moisture, but is a lovely white noise for sleeping.

Dry in Florida sounds very odd, given our amazing reputation for 100% humidity in the summers, but winters really do have very low humidity. When you add heating to that - well my throat dries out, my sinuses ache and my head hurts. Running this overnight as I sleep helps tremendously. Once we discovered this, we bought one for every bedroom so everyone gets the benefits of slightly moister air.

Now go visit Ari and see what the other participants can't live without in the winter! You can bet their answers will be different from mine.

First Day of a New Year

I slept in. I think I've been trying to catch up on all the sleep I miss during my "normal" life during this week of idleness. In fact, I've been feeling spectacularly lazy this week. Not my usual self at all.

My plans for this week included finishing off some of the projects I started - but I didn't. I did have the stepson and his family over for Christmas dinner, I washed dishes at my mom's house - but really, other than that... I've done nothing. Well, laundry. Believe me, there was a pile of it as I'd been putting it off and putting it off. Most of it's done now, but there will always be more.

This spectacular week of laziness has given me a little time to think and reassess a few things. What follows aren't resolutions, per se, but a list of goals, variably attainable. Some will take a while. Some will happen quickly. I love the quick ones - so gratifying - but the long term goals are the ones worth really putting effort into.

1. Hit list the house. I want to go through every room and make a list of what needs to be done to it. What needs fixing, completing, starting. In addition to the cosmetic repair, I need to declutter. There are six rooms tht need that kind of attention. If I spend one weekend a month in one room for decluttering, I could have much of the house in pretty snappy shape come summer. Of course one of the "rooms" I'm counting is the garage - a giant project. Perhaps mid-spring I should take an extra day off work and tackle that one seriously - when it's not too hot, not too cold and it's not raining.

2. I need to help plan a wedding. Last October I went to Korea to see my brother Matt marry his love Dawon. They're coming to the US in March and want to have a small religious wedding here. This week, I'm going to talk to the priest at the church they want to do it in. It will be small, and probably kind of quick, so hopefully I can get him to fit it in there. There are other things to be done (catering arranged, place for reception) because they won't be here to do it. We'll remain in close contact though!

3. The usual - improve my health!!! I've got weight to lose, pills to get off of, and while the marathon's not going to happen (repetitive achilles injury), I want to do SOMETHING. Possibly join my brother Jay in the Braking the Cycle ride next fall.

4. Make a plan for the future. I've been working for the State of Florida for a long time now. You would think that as time goes by, the stability of your job would improve and your general income level would rise. The opposite has been the rule of the day. No raises (merit or cost of living) in the last six, going on seven years. Insurance costs more and as of next year, we will also be paying into retirement. In addition to all these lovely perks, we are under constant threat of being laid off as the state tries to balance its budget on the backs of the state workers... who are the lowest paid and fewest per capita in the country. As it becomes more and more difficult to pay bills and my husband takes on more and more freelance work, it is obvious that I will need to do something else in the near future. At this point, I do not know what that will be, but I have a little time to figure it out. I'd thought about going for a general contractor's license given how much I love remodeling, but the requirements will make it very difficult to fulfill - some of which require 4 years employment in each field before said license is granted. Were I 20, that wouldn't be such a problem, but I'm nearing 50... problem. So I'm thinking hard about what I can do, what I love, and how I can combine those things and perhaps a little schooling to make a late career that might actually allow me to retire one day. But at this point, I dont' know what that will be.

I think that's quite enough... for one year, anyway.