Three is a magic number

So.  Apparently, I am just not coordinated enough to both be a blogger and…. well…. do anything else at the same time these days.  What with my eBay selling, plethora of photography projects, trying to keep my city deck garden alive, and all my fun daily life adventures with Scope and Wednesday, somehow blogging just always seems to find its sad, neglected self crying at the bottom of my to-do list. 


Just pitiful. 


But never mind all that.  Today—TODAY—is a very special day, so, dammit, I’m dusting off ye olde bloggity skillz because, you see, there’s this:




Love.


Family.


Three years ago today, I married my very best friend, my dear, sweet, precious Scope.  *squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!*  It was a truly amazing, delightful day and, honestly, each and every day since has been more wonderful, like a warm, fuzzy blanket we can snuggle up in (or pull over our heads on those more difficult days) and I wouldn’t trade this life we’ve made together for anything.  So….



To my dear, incredible Hubba Hubba Hubby,


Before I met you, I didn’t know how to trust anymore.  What could be more dangerous than trust?  Nothing.  I didn’t, I wouldn’t, I couldn’t trust anyone.  But, most of all, I didn’t trust myself. 


When I saw my reflection in the mirror, all I could see was a mistake in my past.  I could never shake it.  I sometimes felt like I was nothing more than that mistake.  It was me; I was it; we were one—just one big mess.  I couldn’t forgive myself for what had happened and I was determined to never risk it happening again.  Never. 


I knew my Mr Right was out there somewhere in the world, but I couldn’t see how I would ever recognize him or be capable of trusting him or myself enough to allow him to get close.  I remember saying aloud that “the universe is just going to have to be blunt and drop the perfect guy right into my lap” or else I’d live out my life alone, because I there was no way I was going to go out into the world looking for him and risk crossing paths with another Mr Wrong.


The universe must have heard me loud and clear, because one amazing day—BOOM!—you dropped right into my lap, just like magic.  You made trusting you feel so easy and safe.  You made trusting myself feel easy and safe as well, and I’m still trying to figure out how on earth you did that.  (Seriously, how did you do that?!)


You swooped in like Superman and changed both Wednesday’s and my lives in all the most wonderful ways and every day I am thankful and still in awe that we met.  Your smile lights up my whole world, just like it lit up the whole airport on the day we first met.  Every time you hug me or kiss me or make me laugh or make Wednesday feel loved, I fall more and more in love with you.


You’re simply perfect, Scope.  You’re sweet, smart, handsome, hilarious, sexy, silly, cuddly, and all the most marvelous things all rolled into one.  You're such a great husband and father and I can hardly remember what life was like Before Scope.... or B.S. as I like to call it.  (See what I did there?)  I love you to pieces!  Happy Anniversary!  :-)


Love,
Cora


© Coracabana

The Proof Is In The Pudding. And The Video Camera.

So, picking back up where we left off: We were dressed. And lookin’ gooOOooOOood.

(Especially Scope.)

(Hubba hubba.)

The ceremony was absolutely lovely and went off without a single snag, which just made me wanna whoop, cartwheel, and hi-five everyone in the near vicinity, because, dammit, I’m not used to such perfection. But I wrestled down my exuberance and pinned its sorry, crybaby butt to the floor (‘though, I admit, it wasn’t easy—my exuberance fights freakin’ dirty, okay?!) and settled for hugging everyone in sight afterwards.

*Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!*

I could delve into all the details of the ceremony, yapping on and on and on here, sucking all your valuable time away for many eons to come. Or I could just show you.

Uh-huh.

Thanks to Callista’s hubby, Mad Dog, who brandished my Flip Camera for me, we have the whole ceremony on video.

Wanna see?!

Scope broke the video up into three parts to appease YouTube (where size matters, folks.)

Here is Part One: The Processional, where you’ll see Scope’s parents; followed by my dad and step-mom; then my mom and my brother; our marvelous Minister, Becky; Scope; Callista and my brother (yeah, he walked down the aisle twice!); my daughter, Gwen, and Scope’s friend, Tony; my niece and nephew as our flower girl and ring bearer; and, finally, me and my dad….
.

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Here is Part Two: The Ceremony, where you’ll hear a slight hubbub as our flower girl goes back to pick up the flowers she’d dropped *snicker* and you’ll see our uberawesome photographer, Rachel, sneaking around like a Ninja in the background, getting all the golden moments on film (I love it!!)….
.

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And here is Part Three: The Vows, where you’ll see Scope and I become husband and wife, exchange rings, suck face, hug our daughter (*sniffle*), and all that good stuff….
.

.
And there you have it—proof that I am Mrs. Scope!!!! :-)

*le sigh*

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the ceremony….






(And a big, BIG thank you goes out to Maribeth and…. uhhh…. whoever was taking pictures on my camera during the ceremony (????) for those shots—they’re priceless!)

After the recessional, Scope and I went back out and excused everyone from their seats row by row. Then I ran off to the restroom lounge with my daughter and all her friends, who were wonderful enough to all sit on the floor behind me for about ten minutes, tying up the bustle on my gown for the reception….


Once my butt was bustled, it was time to par-tay!!

Up next: The Reception....

© Coracabana

Goin’ To The Golf Course and We’re Gonna Get Married….

As I previously babbled here, the night before I married Scope I slept just fine.

Mm-hmm.

It sounds like a steaming preposterous pile o’ poo, I know, and I’m sorry, but it’s true. Everyone told me brides panic the night before they get hitched, and that I’d be staring at my ceiling allllllllllllllllll niiiiiiiiiiiiiight lonnnnnggggggg, fretting, sweating and regretting what I was about to do. But no. I slept perfectly fine. I even had normal dreams.

Pffffft! I know. Go fig.

*shrugging*

I woke up feeling happy, calm, and not the least bit nervous. Not even a single butterfly. Not one. Of course, I kept expecting the nervousness to sniff me out sooner or later and then pounce and gut me like a fish. Why wouldn’t it? I mean, I was about to get married, okay?

MARRIED!!!!

*gasp*

ME!!!!

*shock*

WHAT THE--?!?!

*stunned stare*

Hadn’t I been viciously shoved off the edge of crossed this Bridal Bridge once before and ended up limping my sorry bruised self away down the cold, dark, lonely I’llNeverTrustMenAgain Lane in the wretched town of Jiltedville in the ugly State of Divorcia, vowing I’d never ever EVER cross that big old scary bridge again, hmm?

Damn straight.

Yet there I was, about to cross that bridge again and I didn’t feel the least bit nervous or frightened or unsure or anything. I just felt happy. Happy and blissfully alive! And that is how I felt the entire day. From start to end.

I’m a freak. Clearly.

And I don’t care.

:-)

As for how Scope’s and my wedding day played out—*blissful sigh*—it was truly yummy perfection with sprinkles and hot fudge on top! Nervousness? It didn’t exists. Glitches? There wasn’t a single one. Everything was lovely and I simply can’t imagine a better day. At. All.

We have—ohhhhhh—roughly a zillion pictures of the day’s events, and while I’m not going to show them all to you here, I will be posting a fair few. I doubt they’ll all squeeze into one post, so I’ll likely be splitting the tale up into a couple of posts. Or more. So, buckle up, kids! Here we go:

Gwen and I arrived at the Fairwood Golf & Country Club about four hours before the ceremony started, and along with Callista and several other generously helpful friends and relatives (including Scope’s sister and brother-in-law, my dad and step-mom, and Scope’s friend, Maribeth) we started setting up and decorating….




And, yes, I even ate lunch! Woot!….


But soon I was whisked away into hiding to transform from bagel-noshing, Skechers-wearing fiancée (see above) to beautifully-blushing, Skechers-wearing bride.

Yes. I wore Skechers at the wedding. White ones. In a Kids’ size 4. Which came in a box which says this….


Yep. My shoes were called “I’m Pretty Tall ~ shoes that make you taller!” Callista, Maribeth, Gwen, Rachel and I had a reeeaaalllllyyyyyy good laugh about that while getting ready….


Go ahead, laugh if you must. My feet never once hurt the entire wedding. Not even on the dance floor! :-)


Once we were all dressed (and wedding-oblivious golfers were booted from the private restroom lounge) our photographer, Rachel, got down to business, taking a plethora of pictures….


It’s funny, Callista warned me that the wedding would be a blur to me afterwards, and she must have been right, because I swear I have absolutely no memory of my dad being in the women's bathroom with me! When the heck did THAT happen????….


In a SNAP it was suddenly time for Scope and I to see each other and do family group pictures before the ceremony. I was led out onto the patio and was told to stand with my back to everyone so I wouldn’t see Scope emerge. Scope, as I was told, was going to be blindfolded while he was sequestered in the men’s room with his friend, Tony, and then led out behind me.

And, so, I waited.

Suddenly the crowd on the patio erupted into wild laughter and chatter about toilet paper…. Toilet paper?…. Huh?…. They blindfolded the groom with toilet paper?!

No.

No, they did not….


People, please. Just please. You can NOT leave Scope to his own devices for an extended length of time and NOT expect shenanigans of some sort to blossom, okay? I thought this was common knowledge. That’s right, my darling groom tucked a tail of toilet paper into his drawers to slay the crowd. Because he’s five. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!! :-)

*snicker*

Thank God he was sequestered in the men's room, right? I shudder to think what he might have done with the tampons if he’s been kept in the ladies’ room….

*shudder*

But anyway….

Once Scope’s behind was toilet paper-free again, I got to turn around and we saw each other in our wedding clothes for the very first time. We clean up very nicely, I must say.

We stood for pictures with our families. Here we are with my parents….


Here is my brother-in-law, my sister (who ended up giving birth a mere seven days after!), my dad, me, Scope, my brother, and my mom….


Here we are with Scope’s parents….


Here is Scope’s brother-in-law, Scope’s sister, me, Scope, Scope’s mom, Scope’s dad, and Scope’s brother….


Aaaaaaand this one is my favorite! The three of us. Awwwwww….


And then it was time to hide me away again so guests could be seated for the ceremony to begin. But because I’m mean, I’m going to make you wait a bit for the rest of the story (MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!) - hey, admit it, this post is waaaaayyyyyyy too long already.

Clearly.

[….to be continued….]

© Coracabana

Meet The Scopes

Well, we did it. That’s right. Saturday, July 3rd, Scope and I gathered our families and friends together; said a few magical tingle-inducing little words to each other; swapped rings; wriggled; giggled; grinned until our faces were sore; and ~*BOOYA!*~ now we are (….drum roll please….) married!!!!


*le sigh*

But wait—*needle scratching across a record*—first things first: let’s take a step back to how we got here….

Scope and I met right here on this very blog back in 2008. Yep. I was a nanny and brand new to Blogaritaville and I whipped up a bloggy letter to Santa, inquiring about a stripper pole (for exercise purposes) (of course) (perv), and Scope piqued my interest, curiosity, and laugh-until-you-can’t-breathe-iosity, by commenting that what he wanted for Christmas was a nanny cam.

Because I was a nanny.

With a stripper pole.

*wink wink nudge nudge say no more*

A-ha.

Did I know back then that I had just crossed paths with my future husband? Heck no. But I knew I’d just run into someone who would be verrrrrrry fun to blog with, so I scurried on over to Scope’s blog…. and I never left.

Blogging turned into facebooking, which morphed into emailing, which evolved into phone calls, and in April 2009 we finally met face-to-face. And the sparks flew immediately. And they’ve never stopped flying.

And now *TAA-DAA* I am Mrs. Scope!!!! :-)

*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!*

Whoddathunkit? I mean, when I started up this dorky little blog I never really thought someone might actually want to read it (puh-leeze)…. or that I’d make real life friends because of it (c’mon)…. or that I’d meet my future husband on it (shaddap ya face)….. but that’s life, right? You’re minding your own business one second and then *BAM* suddenly there’s a funny man from Chicago wanting to put a camera in your house the next!

But anyway….

I’ll be writing a more detailed wedding post soon. Ish. Or whenever I’m done sorting through the sixty-two trillion photos I took that day. Whatevs. Until then though, here’s a little snippet of what we did leading up to the wedding:

Scope flew in four days before the big day and we spent that time finishing up all things weddingy…. and rounding up our relatives, trying to meld everyone’s mess of conflicting plans, schedules, expectations and requests into one well-oiled, functioning machine.

Or at least a somewhat less messy blob of some kind….


(Criminy! You wouldn’t believe the flaming hoops I had to jump through to get that tiny handful of people together there for dinner that night at the insistence of two of them. About two hours before that picture was taken I was curled in a ball on my bedroom floor, crying my eyes out because of it all! Gah! But it was worth it in the end; everyone had a good time…. I think. And if not, I soooooooooo don’t wanna know about it. Just shhhhhhhh, don’t tell me.)

(No, really.)

Friday, the day before our wedding, Scope and I took 25 members of his family and friends into downtown Seattle to go sightseeing.

This may not have been the brightest idea we’ve ever had.

Ever tried to herd 25 over-stimulated, distracted, excited people in the same direction at once? No? I have…. when I was a Kindergarten teacher and we went on a field trip to the zoo. But, frankly, that was easier because kids on a field trip know to hold hands and follow the leader. Sightseeing adults? Yeah, not so much. I spent so much time counting heads, running back and forth looking for wandering group members, and juggling questions, that I was utterly exhausted by lunchtime. Like serious zombified exhaustion.

*whimper*

Scope rescued me and snuck me away for a private lunch, just the two of us, for a much needed break before rejoining the group. (All together now: awwwwwwwwwwww.) When we rejoined the group it was to find that half of them had decided to go off on their own and do the Underground Tour, which made the rest of our sightseeing a bit more manageable.

We saw the Pike Place Market….


….and the Gum Wall….


….and the Space Needle….


….and other Seattleish sights….


And then before we knew it, we were running alarmingly late and racing out of the city in a panic to the Fairwood Golf & Country Club for our wedding rehearsal. We speed-changed our clothes in a public bathroom and burst onto the scene at the FG&CC only a mere minute late. Score!

The rehearsal went fantastically….


….and afterwards we went to the rehearsal dinner, where Scope gave a simultaneously side-splitting and touching speech (he’ll be posting it over on his blog soon), where I did—uhhhhhhhhh—whatever it is that I do….


….and where I got a call from Scope’s relatives who had stayed behind in Seattle to do the Underground Tour. Remember them? They got lost on their way back out of Seattle and wanted a local Seattleite (that would be me) to talk them back onto the right road:

Them: “We don’t know where we are. I think we took a wrong turn somewhere. How do we get back to the expressway?”

Me: “Well, I need to know where you are first. Are there any landmarks or buildings near you?”

Them: “Yes! Starbucks!”

*crickets*

;-)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand on that note, I’m going to pause this tale. Next time, I’ll tell you all about our wedding day, swearsies, but while you’re waiting for me to get my act together on that, go check out our fabulous photographer Rachel Rausch Johnson’s special sneak peek blog post about our day! (CLICK HERE) The pictures are FANTASTIC! You’ll love them! I do!

© Coracabana

Ohmygodohmygodohmygod, We’re Really, REALLY Doing This!!!!

Sorry it’s taken me soooooooo lonnnnggggggg to get around to telling the latest Corascope tale, but things have been busy and frustrating and sad and definitely crazy lately what with my daughter being sick, someone I'm not supposed to mention causing problems, another relative being hospitalized, and various issues with legal paperwork (more on that in a minute) all heaped on top of the wedding and moving tasks I’m trying to get done, that I just haven’t been able to focus on bloggidy stuff.

At.

All.

My focus, in fact, slipped right out of my grip and ran off down the damn street, yelling, “nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in doo-doo,” and making obscene hand gestures at me. The mean meanie.

*sigh*

But I hunted that wayward focus down (it was hiding in the ice cream aisle in the grocery store, go figure) so, hey, let’s get this thing done!

Here’s what happened when Scope came to town:


Friday morning I awoke to find Scope in my house. Not surprising, really, since I’d picked him up from the airport just a mere 10 hours before, true. But still, the sight of that splendiferous man of mine, peacefully snoozing and all cuddled up next to me, gave me a jolt. Why? Because I knew what we were about to do: Make our way to the courthouse where we waited in line for (….drum roll please….) our marriage license.

(SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!)

Waiting in line for our license was quite an amazing, electrified feeling, like *~*ohmygodohmygodohmygod we’re really, REALLY doing this!!!!*~* I was a big, spazzy ball of giggliness, happiness, butterflies, and goose bumps all wrapped up in one gigantic Cheshire Cat grin. And, Scope? *le sigh* Scope was just as giggly and grin-prone as I—and he looked as though he was in danger of shouting “WOO-HOO!” and launching himself into a parade of cartwheels and handsprings across the lobby!

Awww….

While we waited, we smooched and smiled at each other and listened in on the couples in line ahead of us (one of whom had to return their license and get their money refunded because they had accidently applied for it too early—whoopsie!) And....

We did it. Scope and I got our marriage license!!!! And here’s the proof….




Matrimonial win!

:-)

After obtaining our license to wed, Scope and I went to Crate and Barrel and bought these quirky, adorable Verve flutes (which are SOOOOOOO us!) for our reception….


And then we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, where we shared a slice of Wild Blueberry Cheesecake (mmmmmmmmmmm) for dessert, and where I got called “Mrs. Collins” for the first time ever—and, I swear, I was tingly from head to toe for about 20 minutes afterwards!

Then we picked Gwen up from school, got dolled up, and went to Gene Coulon Park with our Wedding Photographer, Rachel Rausch Johnson, to do our Engagement portraits. (If you missed it last week, you can see a sneak preview of our pictures HERE on Rachel’s blog.)

The weather was absolutely lovely….


….and we ran around the park for about two-and-a-half hours, watching Rachel pointing her camera at us and contorting herself into the most creative poses, like this….


….all in an effort to capture the moment just right for little ol’ us, and, dammit, we had FUN!!

After that, we passed Gwen off to her dad for his scheduled half-weekend with her, then Scope and I passed out in front of the TV like TV-watchin’ zombies or something. We must be gettin’ old(ish), apparently, because by 9 pm I was shaking a deep-sleeping Scope awake on my couch and dragging him off to bed.

[….to be continued….]
.

© Love Letters By Cora

Rachel ROCKS!!!!

I was planning to tell you all about Scope’s and my latest adventures in Weddingland today, but—eh—I just don’t have my bloggidy act together enough at the moment to articulate it and do it justice.

Blame it on my mom’s birthday.

Or the two pieces of birthday cake now sitting like cement blocks in my resentful belly.

(blah!)

So, instead I’m going send you over to PhotoMuse, which is the blog of our uberfabulous wedding photographer, Rachel Rausch Johnson. Scope, Gwen and I had our Engagement Photo Session with Rachel at Gene Coulon Park in Renton Friday afternoon. We had such a huge heaping TON of fun (!!!!) with Rachel and have been impatiently eagerly awaiting glimpses of our pictures ever since.

Well (….drum roll please….) Rachel just posted a sneak peek of our pictures on PhotoMuse yesterday and I love, love, LOVE them!!!! You can catch them HERE.

Check ‘em out and then please come back here and tell me what you think: which one(s) is your favorite and why?

And, to Rachel, thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much!!!! The photos are simply SPECTACULAR and I absolutely ADORE them!!!! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you, my dear, ROCK!!!!

:-)
.

© Love Letters By Cora

Wading Through The Weekend Whirlpool….

“Whew.” That would be the quick way to sum up my weekend. Yessiree. Mm-hmm. The long way to sum it up? Uhhh…. well, read on. :-)


Friday night, my very, very, VERY excited daughter and I went to the theater to see Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland. Gwen, being the ultimate Tim Burton fan, had waited a long, lonnnngggggg time for the release of Alice and was, appropriately, grinning like the Cheshire Cat the entire wondrous evening! See?:


*snicker*

All the 3-D showings were completely sold out that night (not all that shocking, admittedly) so we saw it in 2-D instead.

And!!!!

We!!!!

Loved!!!!

It!!!!

Alice In Wonderland was a delectable smoothie of the quirky, the dark, and the maniacal madcap—(which reminds me, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter? BAAAA-RILLIANT!!!!)—all swirled together in one yummy, gooey blob of deliciousness. Absofreakinglutely. And my dreams that night? Totally insane.


Saturday morning I lugged Gwen into David’s Bridal, where (….drum roll please….) I bought my wedding dress.

Yep!

Now, if I’m being honest, (and I am) (of course), I hadn’t gone into David’s Bridal intending to buy The Dress that day. No. The plan was to just innocently try on a few gowns, get an idea of what I liked, and then drag my mom and step-mom back there with me some other time to help me choose. But, whoopsie!—I ended up finding The Dress by accident (or maybe it found me), so, well, I went for it.

Of course, I did.

(Sorry, Mom.)

My dress is truly lovely! (And not at all like a meringue, thankyouverymuch.) My daughter burst into tears when she saw me in it and sat there sobbing and gasping in the middle of the store, “M-m-mom, you look sooooo b-b-beautiful! I’m not used to seeing you like this!”

*crickets*

….Ummmm….

….Thanks….

….I think….????….

Obviously, I can’t show you The Dress. Duuuuuuuh. But, c’mon, let’s take a tour of some of the ones that almost were, shall we?:






(Yes, it was a mature, stoic, serious affair.)

(Clearly.)

(Ahem.)

After David’s Bridal, we went to All About Weddings to A-OK the proofs for the wedding invitations. (Checkaroo!) And then we picked up one of my daughter’s friends and my mom (because another one of my daughter’s friends bailed on us after I’d already bought her ticket. GRRRR) and went back to the theater to see Alice In Wonderland again—but this time in 3-D.

(A free ticket to Alice totally makes up for missing the wedding dress, Mom, I swear! Ask anyone!)

Alice in 3-D was twice as nice. If you’ve got a choice, I definitely recommend catching it in 3-D. It was amazing! And I’m still trying to pry my daughter off the ceiling, which ain’t easy.


Sunday I met up with a most marvelous and magical woman by the name of Rachel Rausch Johnson. She’s a fellow citizen of Blogaritaville (you can check her blog out HERE), but, even more importantly, she’s the photographer Scope and I have hired to help us capture our wedding day on film.

I stumbled upon her fantastic photos on her fun website HERE and got a chill right up my spine, like I knew—I just knew—she was the one for us.

(And, dammit, when my spine talks, you know I LISTEN! *wink*)

Rachel and I sat in my dining room eating scones, looking at her fabulous photos, and discussing The Big Day. It’s going to be splendiferous, I can just tell! :-)

(If you spaced on clicking the link to see Rachel’s wedding photos up there, I’m giving it to you again RIGHT HERE, because, seriously, they’re really, really, REALLY that awesome! So, click it, people—no excuses.)

Five minutes after Rachel left my house, there was a teenage boy a-knocking on my door to buy a huge glass display cabinet I’ve been trying to sell for months. He saw it. He loved it. He bought it. And I quickly helped him dismantle the entire cabinet and load it in his car lest he change his mind again.

As he drove away with that mammoth glass monstrosity in his car, I hi-fived myself (which, to the untrained eye, looks a lot like clapping) (shut up) because that’s one less thing I’m going to have to lug 2000 miles to Scope’s house this Summer.

Score!

And, there. That was my weekend in a nutshell. (Yeah, it was a ridiculously big nutshell, I agree.) And now I think I need a weekend to recover from my weekend.

*dramatically exhausted big crybaby yawn*

© Love Letters By Cora