How to be Married Two Months

Enjoy sunshine and books together...


Cheer on the Sky Sox...




Host dear out-of-town friends {Jenny & Chance! Hopefully, the whole Baumgartner clan next time.}

Adopt a dog... see below.




Take a 36 hour vacation.
{poolside coffees at The Golden Nugget}

Try to buy this house...{3rd time is a charm!}

The New {Unexpected} Addition

Buffy Marie came to rehabilitate from a nearly lethal case of kennel cough at the Marchese house on June 21st. She wasn't beating this relatively common canine "cold" of sorts {a viral respiratory condition} in the animal shelter environment and we were happy to help nurse her back to health. Probably comes as no surprise that Paul fell in love with her and insisted on adding this sweet, well-mannered Flat-coated Retriever to our already-very-cozy household.



She has inserted herself quite nicely. Even Easy is coming around, as long as Buffy doesn't mistake our tiny cat for a squirrel worthy of a chase.

Like her humans, she loves sleeping, car rides, eating, and going to the park.

The password is...

I like this picture.

The Marcheses

We did it! What a lovely, amazing time we had. {More to come... still acclimating to returning home}

Attack of the Killer Lists

As time grows short {Paul says today that it still feels like it's taking FOREVER to get here. I find that "kid at Christmas" reaction to be a good sign that he's enthusiastic}, we are being head-on assaulted by to-do lists. We make them - "we" being the operative word - and cross things off, then move the leftover items to the new list.

I have lists for work, drifting around my desk, slipping under piles of books, scribbled on scrap paper, and honey-do lists and lists of things to pick up or pack or move or drop off. These lists are not typed out or have neat little boxes sitting pretty, ready to be checked. Like most creatives, they are written across the lines in a wild slant or on post-its with unfamiliar phone numbers etched on the corners.

If I had time to be creative with my lists instead of hastily worded reminders, they might look a little like this:

• Create space for all Paul's stuff amongst my stuff. Note: try to contain his stuff, as he is male and should need only food and companionship.
• Feel guilt about the size of our newly combined carbon footprint.
• Seek therapy for the magnitude of our stuff and how we need a house big enough to contain it all. {See George Carlin on stuff - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac}
• Go to Target. Register for more {much needed} stuff. :)
• Spend any remaining wedding budget on attempt to look thinner, younger, buffer, tanner, hipper, and more like the female cast of Grey's Anatomy.
• Write meaningful, non-cheesy vows that will not induce giggling or gagging amongst our family.
• Clean and organize office so that should something tragic happen while out, no one is horrified by the mess. {You know, it's like, wear clean underwear.}
• Write lists for all the other people involved in the next couple of weeks so they are properly micromanaged.
• Pray that Paul still wants to marry me after Bridezilla-like freakouts over: a) our stuff, b) being thinner, buffer, hipper, c) writing meaningful vows, d) being organized, and e) making lists.

Sneak Peek

My incredibly talented and brilliant brother turned his eductation and skills towards making us into a caketopper that any person in 3-D would be envious of.

I'll post the full image and shots of the happy Pixar-ated "us" topping our cakes, in Napa and in Ohio, after the shindigs.

I love it. I think we are much more interesting as cartoons than we ever will be in actual wedding photos!

Catorce Días!

Turns out, Cinco de Mayo will always fall two weeks before our wedding anniversary. Maybe we'll plan on celebrating early with Mexican getaways. Or a few weeks later over that rousing June holiday, Flag Day.

Paul and I did host a small, on-the-fly Cinco de Mayo party, serving up margaritas and chips and Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. {One friend brought over the little "potted plants" of ice cream and Oreo left from my Saturday bachelorette party. Yum.} We haven't hosted much in the last few weeks because - well, my house is messy. With planning for Napa, coordinating with Mom, attempted house buying, and looming work deadlines- laundry, dusting, and de-winterizing my porch has fallen somewhere below sleeping and eating on the to do list.

We decided against the house we were buying after the seller wouldn't compromise with us on issues revealed in the inspection. But it's okay - we'll just put Paul's stuff in trash bags and keep them alongside the Ivy house. I have plenty of driveway space left. And when we resume the search for a home... we'll be much more educated than before. "Before" being the time when we NOTHING about house buying.

But the messy house and the real estate education are little ripples in this pond of getting ready for our "big day" as they call it. I think Paul and I just hope for a very lovely day that keeps us together down this path of our "Big Life". And tomorrow, our lovely day and trip is only thirteen days away. To that, I say: "Salud!"