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Friday, February 19, 2016

Crane Folding Frenzy


The wedding is drawing near ... ish. We have roughly ~130 days until THE DAY.

We are getting married at the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City, it's a gorgeous venue! Originally we were going to get married up in Yellowstone, but the logistics of that were going to be much too difficult to figure out. We're both pretty simple, so we want a simple, little hassle as possible wedding. Full disclosure, I've tried to convince Zach to elope multiple times, but he's said, "no way, never!!!" So instead we're going to have a birdyful wedding! Did that work? No, probably not. Either way, the wedding is coming together in a way that we are happy with.

I read that you should only DIY one big project for your wedding. I decided our project was going to be folding 1,000 paper cranes. Here is an example of people who have done this at the Aviary:
Pretty right? 
I think it is going to be awesome. In Japan, folding cranes is a way for the couple to build their relationship with each other and with their families and friends, "The time and energy put into the thousand hand-folded origami cranes symbolized the patience and trust necessary to sustain a happy marriage. A couple who could weather the long, time intensive folding process together, supporting each other, talking with each other for weeks while taking on a challenging task was proving their ability to maintain a long term, content relationship." You can read more about it here!

My friend at work thinks this a terrible idea and thinks we should just buy the cranes already folded and save ourselves some time. When I tried to explain the cool Japanese part and even that Zach lived in Japan, he responded, "You both live in America now ..." He dislikes this idea so much that he 1) offered to buy them as a wedding gift and 2) hijacked my Twitter account to post this:
Partly, he's right, this is going to be a really long process. A process, as he pointed out, that we could cut short by spending $20 - $45 on Etsy. We're currently at about 50 cranes, so only 950 more to go! Below see a wonderful example of his vs. her tracking methods ... I think he wins :/ Though, I do love to make a good spreadsheet!

Complete with formulas!!!
"Eventually, I'll run out of space on my sticky."

We're having fun and I do think it is "relationship building". The part about working through the process is true, even if we're watching TV while folding, it is still fun to do together. It is also fun to get our family and friends involved. My mom went and bought paper for us and quite a few of our friends have offered to help, it's even a fun talking point for the (good hearted) dissenters ;)

Friday, February 12, 2016

The Wrath of Gabzilla

I just woke up from a nap. It's 7 on a Friday night, I'm living the life. While this may not veer from the norm (I LOVE to nap), I like to think I have a slightly better excuse today.


Instead of going to work, I took some PTO so I could hang out with my niece Gabzilla. My brother usually has her on Fridays, but had to go out of town. Our dad and his mother-in-law also went out of town, the perfect storm of no one being able to watch the baby!!!

So, fiancé and I volunteered...

At family events there is always a lot of competition for her affections, we rarely, if ever, get one-on-one time with her.  We were both pretty excited to spend some quality time, especially since Zach is her almost uncle now.

We spent the night at my parents last night, since we're not used to waking up before 7 in the morning. This way no matter what, we'd at least be on time to watch her.

When she arrived she was in good spirits but a little grouchy. She cried when her mom left, but quickly fell back asleep. When she woke up from her nap, it was amazing! She was a whole new 13-month old child. It was great! We played games and ran around, until it was time to wake Zach up (who also took a nap).

Unfortunately, this is where things went downhill -- for Zach. We'd pictured having a great day together babysitting, spending time together and get experience taking care of an actual human child. Zilla cannot stand fiancé. She hates his face. She hates his beard. She hates all the things. Maybe she takes after her aunt a little bit on the grumpy scale?

Zach had to spend the rest of the day downstairs. We tried to just keep him out of sight, but whenever he spoke she would lose her sh*t and start screaming and crawling up me. Furthermore, when I sent him downstairs, I had to show her around the rest of the upstairs before she would believe he was gone and clam down. (I should also mention, to add insult to his injury -- my parents' dog stole half of his bagel off the counter.)

I will NOT be your friend almost-uncle Zach
Is it my scary beard?
The bright side, for me, is, that as soon as he disappeared she and I went back to bonding and playing! We had a great time and I got the best baby hugs in the world. I'm not sure if or when Zach and I are going to have kids, honestly, they terrify me. But, one thing is for sure, I definitely love being an aunt.

If you're happy and you know it,
clap your hands
I wear my pajamas on my neck
I will cough at you when I see you drinking until you give me your water
Greatest hugs in the world.