Wedded Bliss

My dear friend, Michelle (aka Kitten or Little One), who survived the tortures of nursing school with me, got hitched this past weekend! She and her fiance, Mike, have one of those amazing love stories that just makes you feel gooey inside...but that's a blog for another time. As with any wedding, it had its share of crazy times and drama, but overall, it was AMAZING! The wedding itself was so personal and heartfelt! Michelle looked so very beautiful and Mike so handsome. It was a fun party and I felt so very honored to be a part of it!

Some of the memorable moments of the wedding weekend:

* The day before the wedding the bride took her entire bridal party out for a day of pampering. Each of us got a manicure and a pedicure complete with our choice of nail color! It was SUCH a treat and oh, so relaxing!

* The day of the wedding, my friend Carrie (who was also in the wedding) and I picked up the bride (including wedding dress, veil and overnight bag for the honeymoon) to get her to the salon to have her hair done. Miracle #1: I arrived at the bride's house ON TIME. This may not seem like a miracle but trust me...this is no small feat for me as I am perpetually late...ALL the time. So, together we drove the bride down to her hair salon which happens to be on the outskirts of an area with lots of boutiques and swanky shopping. Miracle #2: I got a parking space RIGHT in front of the hair salon...a major accomplishment on a busy Saturday with lots of shoppers. At the hair salon we were met by another bridesmaid, Rosemary, who was in town from Portland, Maine with her 1 month old daughter, Caty. While the bride got her hair done and Rosemary fed Caty, Carrie and I raced around town stopping at Whole Foods to get the bride some lunch and schedule a nail appointment for the bride to get her nails touched up. Upon arriving back at the hair salon, 1 bride, 3 bridesmaids and a 1 month old piled into my car...along with 1 wedding dress, 1 veil, 3 bridesmaids dresses, a car seat, one small bag of luggage for the bride and Rosemary's suitcase and we headed off to get the bride to the nail salon. Upon arriving at the nail salon...Miracle #3: We got a parking place RIGHT in front of Aveda which is in a part of town notorious for its congested parking. While the bride got her nails touched up, Carrie and I went to grab her coffee while Rosemary put on make-up on in the salon. As both Carrie and I have NO idea about the whole make up thing...Miracle #4: two very kind make-up artists offered their services ensuring that we wouldn't ruin the wedding pictures! So, into my car piled 3 sensational-looking bridesmaids, 1 baby and a beautiful bride with amazing hair and freshly primed nails. Off to get married...

* Unbeknownst to him, I graciously offered up Tremaine's babysitting skills to Rosemary so she could leave Caty in capable hands while she performed her wedding duties. My diabolic plan was to thwart his persistence at starting a family by intimidating and overwhelming him with the work and care a newborn requires. Suspiciously, unlike many other men, Tre was completely unfazed by my offer to Rosemary and was actually pretty excited about the whole thing. I do believe his initial comment was: "If I do good with this one, can we get one of our own?" Hmmm....sly! So, Tre was outfitted with a baby Bjorn and a snugly, albeit fussy, baby Caty nestled therein. In keeping with good timing, she began to fuss louder and louder throughout the wedding party's processional and commenced with a good wail at the onset of the Wedding March. Needless to say, Tre missed the ceremony. On the bright side, baby Caty now has a good head start on naming all the herbs in the garden out at Edgefield under Tre's careful tutelage. Much to the admiration of all, baby Caty fell asleep in her baby Bjorn on Tre's chest. He was the talk of the wedding, dubbed the "Baby Whisperer"and I received more than a few comments on his capabilities. Drat! I was hoping to intimidate and overwhelm him...methinks my plan backfired completely! Grr!

A toast to the McLemore's: Congrats newlyweds! May your journey together be as blessed as the lives you have touched as a couple!


Michelle and Carrie enjoy some pampering before the wedding


The groomsmen enjoying some refreshments at the rehearsal dinner

Rosemary and Carrie...serious discussion?


The mother of the bride with baby Caty


The gorgeous bride in her elegant wedding dress!

The day after the wedding, my friend Carrie and I went to the park with our furry kids. Her furry kid, Molly LOVES to play fetch in the water, especially if it involves enormous tree-trunk sized sticks. While Molly waded in the water, retrieving thrown stick after thrown stick, my aquaphobic furry kids preferred the safety of the shoreline. After awhile, Tsavo got his little paws wet and even retrieved a few small twigs in a few inches of water and after while I coaxed Ellie to do the same. Despite their dislike of water, Tsavo and Ellis sure love Molly...and I sure love the company of Carrie so we were all happy campers! It was a nice end to a blissful weekend!

Tsavo was king of the hill!

Molly enjoying the water!

My dear friend Carrie!

Scooter clubs, Fireworks and Michael Jackson Impressions

No pics to go with this entry so you'll just have to visualize the tasty scenes I'm about to divulge...

Wednesday July 2 - I had a pretty awful day at work and as an unforeseen reward at the end of my day, Tre had scooted over to coax me into going out to supper and then joining him on a scooter ride with the St. John's Scooter Club. Honestly, the LAST thing I wanted to do after a horrific work day was scoot around P-town with a bunch of strangers. But after bitching about my day and snarfing down a panini, I was evidently in enough of a food coma for hubby to convinced me to join him. So, we arrived at the rendezvous and set off on our adventure with 5 other scooter enthusiasts. One scooter...the diesel one of the bunch...sputtered and died 10 minutes into our ride! But not to fear! The ousted scooterist got to ride bitch in the sidecar of our orange scooter and thus we could continue our journey! After being horribly embarrassed for the first 15 minutes of the ride (worried someone would recognize me amidst the noisy collection of odd people and machines) I realized I was actually having fun and so embraced my inner dork and enjoyed riding around parts of Portland that I have many times passed in my car and thus never fully appreciated. After much whining and skepticism...scooter club gets a thumbs up of approval!

Friday July 4- Independence Day...it's humorous and tragic to me that as Americans we take great pride in drinking copious amounts of alcohol and setting fire to things to commemorate our freedom from Britain. Alcohol consumption and arson do not seem to mesh well, but then I guess we've been doing things this way for a number of decades without annihilating our race so...whatever! We spent the evening with Tre's family just north in Vancouver, enjoying bar-b-que and conversation. Then we went to the parking lot of the local school where Tre, grinning ear-to-ear and giddy as ever, produced a grand fireworks display. He shot of a number of fireworks that are illegal in Oregon but by crossing the river, we can enjoy them without the threat of fines and police involvement. A fun night was had by all!

Saturday July 5- Tre and I hung out with our good friends Andy and Paige. Our first stop was to check out the "garage sale" at Rogue Brewery. Every year, Rogue has a sale on cases of beer, clothing and other merchandise. The boys shopped for tasty libations, sampling and reading about hops and malts while Paige and I watched them with a mixture of horror and awe. They boys settled on a case each, which were left in the car while we walked to the stadium to take in a Portland Beaver's baseball game. Now, I'm not a fan of baseball by ANY stretch of the imagination but I enjoy the company and people watching. Beers were consumed, some yelling occurred and fun was had by all. Next stop...find food! We ended up at the Deschutes Brewery where additional brews and some tasty vittles were consumed! With the addition of our friend Kim, we then moved the party across the river to Grand Central Bowling. This little establishment used to be pretty run down and eclectic but has since been renovated and now hosts several bowling lanes with enormous TVs at the end of the lanes which play a schizophrenic assortment of music videos. So, while we all enjoyed yet more beers, we strapped on our classy bowling shoes and bowled our little hearts out. At one point a Michael Jackson music video came onscreen and Tre began to dance and moonwalk while he bowled. Honestly, it was pretty humorous and I think the other bowlers enjoyed the free freak show which Tre was more than happy to accommodate.

And there you have a snapshot into our everyday lives!