Saturday - Set up, Rehearsal Dinner & Bachelorlette Party

I showed up for wedding set ups at 1pm on Saturday and hugged Kate on my arrival. I was so excited to be spending the weekend with her! What a treat to be a part of all the wedding activities and spend time with so many great friends! Kate has introduced me to a lot of her friends over the years and it's always a treat to see a few of them at a time, but this weekend was full of fun people that I loved being around!

After a dry run of some of the wedding set up, we all met at Buca di Beppo for the rehearsal dinner. Kate had seat assignments set up and I got to sit between the best man, Jay, and an Indiana friend, Heather and her hubby Nathan. We were the loudest people at the table! We were laughing so hard and talking non-stop. Between Heather and I hogging all the garlic bread, Jay was interviewing us like crazy. He was very into the whole name-tag-and-three-topics that Kate gave to each of us. We enjoyed his stories about his fiance and how they met. He was so excited to get married in only 13 days!

Heather and Me

I had borrowed my brother-in-law Tyler's camera for the weekend, so I took LOTS of photos of everyone and everything. Here is a pretty one of Kate the Bride at Buca.

After Buca's most delicious spread of Italian good eats, we girls made our way to Fat Cats for the Bachelorette party! Heather and I rode together because we had to stop off at Wal-Mart quickly to get her some socks for bowling. I got a pair too so we could match!

WE ROCK!

Emily, Me & Kate

Tressa, Laren, Kim & Angie

Emily, Kate & Lindsay picking out the perfect song for dancing

After much bowling, laughing, skee-balling, laughing, talking smack, taking photos and cashing in all the tickets we won for Kate (1300 or so), we headed back to wedding headquarters for parfait shots and more chatting and laughing. It was a fabulous night with the girls!


Oh and I can't forget that I gave Kate her wedding gift that night. A vintage family songbook that I found at a flea market in Idaho while with my other Kate. Since Kate and Brandon are both singers, I figured they would put it to good use. Plus she loves vintage books! She sang a couple songs for me before we went off to dreamland. It was beautiful!

P.S. You'll have to hop over to Lindsay's post about the wedding weekend. She is so darling!

Wedding Weekend

I just spent Saturday through Monday with my dear and wonderful friend Kate. I spent a lot of time with all the bridesmaids too... all of which are fun friends that I have enjoyed getting to know over the years. There were lists of things to be done and accomplished before 6pm on Monday, but running around in good company was a blast! We all had so much fun prepping and running and, on the day of, primping ourselves and getting the bride perfectly stunning for her evening of vows, photos, socializing and lots of dancing! She is a beautiful bride. I'll report more with other photos soon.

Notes late coming

I still haven't typed out all my notes from Women's Conference. Sorry to leave you hanging.

The new job is completely wearing me out this week. My new schedule of getting up at 6am, leaving the house by 7am, commuting into Salt Lake rush hour and then coming home to eat, bathe a cute kid, get him tucked in and then get myself to bed by 9:30 or 10pm... it's a tight few hours of wakefulness.

I do hope I get used to this. I've shocked my system the past 4 days. Even with 8 hours of sleep each night my legs don't want to move from point A to point B, I have a tension headache each evening and a wretched homesickness for the days of a 10 minute commute to work.

I am really grateful for this job though. It's a great fit for me!

Womens Conference Report

I am really glad my mom made the decision a few months ago to just book a plane ticket and plan on attending BYU Womens Conference with me this year. I wonder if I would have actually gone if she didn't make the trip. Probably not since I lost my job and didn't have a babysitter hired full time. But since she was coming, I did end up finding a couple wonderful people to tend Liam so I could go.

I had tried to see if anyone else I knew was attending this year. I didn't get any bites on Facebook and the few local friends that I called. Well I take that back. I reconnected with a dear and wonderful friend, Sheila, on Facebook through her daughters (that I babysat when I was 12 and 13). She was totally game to meet up with me and my mom after more than 15 years apart. It was a great reunion! Like no time had passed. She was the same bubbly wonderfully darling woman she was when she was my Young Women leader and babysitting employer. She lives in Utah now, so I look forward to more meet ups with her.

Mom, Sheila and Me

The conference was so uplifting and refreshing. I felt guilty leaving Liam in someone else's care while I enjoyed this spiritual indulgence, but I tried my best to not let it eat at me. I was bettering myself by doing this... creating a better mother for him. Much like the new job I've been offered, I feel like this was another morsel cleaned off my plate of life... to help me start over.

I have written down many notes from the inspired speakers at the conference. I'll be drafting those up for you very soon. I hope you can feel a fraction of the spirit I felt when you review my findings.

A New Beginning

So my last interview that was scheduled for Wednesday morning went really well. I walked out hoping for the best, but unsure of what the next step might be if they were still interested. I took an assessment test online that night as I was asked. The next day, Thursday, I got home from Women's Conference with my mom and there were no emails. No phone messages either. So I thought I'd send an email to this company and mention I took the test and to let me know if they needed anything else.

Five minutes later I got a call. It was the HR person asking if I had gotten her email. I said I hadn't checked since I sent one to her a few minutes earlier. She had sent me a message saying they wanted to make me an offer, but that we should talk first. The company had concerns about my previous company hiring me back in a few months if things turned up for them. I told her that I would not choose my previous company over them if that happened. She also wanted to ensure I didn't have any other serious interviewing going on and risk me getting a better offer a week after they hired me. I reassured her that wouldn't be the case. She said I'd have another email in five minutes.

I got butterflies opening that email. I should have just eaten my dinner first and waited for Ian to get home before I checked it out. I was too anxious. I opened it up and found the number I was looking for. I about cried from pure gratitude to Heavenly Father and to this company! I was glad my mom was here to hug and celebrate with! I called Ian and about put him in tears too! He said he was really proud of me. We are both so so so grateful for this opportunity!

The company asked for me to confirm acceptance by sending a signed agreement via fax. I got all my paperwork together and the fax cover sheet ready to go for the next morning. Since I was going to be attending BYU Women's Conference the next day, my mission was to find a fax machine on campus somewhere between our classes.

After a couple classes, we found ourselves in a building with many offices and information desks. I was able to get a gal to help me send a fax for a small fee. The confirmation printed out and I was on my way to my next class. I just hoped that it actually went through, since I didn't have time to call and confirm with HR that they had actually received it.

After the last session of the day, I got a phone call from HR saying, "Welcome to the team, your start date will be May 11th!"

Elated joy and gratefulness is all I've felt since!

P.S. My dad was so happy for me and proud of me with the good news, he told my mom to buy me a new outfit for my new job while she's here. He is so sweet!