Germany - Homecoming Part 3 (finally!!!)

Remember that time I started writing about homecoming and my trip to Germany...back in April? Remember how I never finished those? Whoops, life got a tad busy. Anyways, I have had this written for a long time, just never finished it, and here it finally is. Part 1. Part 2.

The guys were expected home late late on April 6th, or very early morning on the 7th. Amy had been told at an FRG meeting that the activity center would be set up with the banners and podium once we got the 5 hour call that they were on their way home. (When I woke up on the morning of the 6th, Amy told me that she had gotten a call that trail party was arriving at 10:30 am and our guys would be after that). We took Sarah to her play group at 9 AM, which was in the activity center, and found that it already decorated with banners, signs, and the podium. We looked at each other in shock that it was already set up and wondered where our phone call was. We worried that they had called the house phone, not her cell phone like she instructed, but we continued on with play group instead. We killed time that afternoon by hanging out with the wives of the trail party, waiting with them for a little bit, going to lunch on post, me buying some beer for Seth to put in his room, putting the sign on his door that Sarah and I made and very anxiously awaiting our phone call. We would be in our own little world, dreaming of the next few hours, and one of us would just suddenly say a number, or hold up fingers, indicating a countdown of hours until they were expected home.  We talked about if we didn't get a phone call by a certain time, would we give up hope it was happening that night? When should we go to bed? Or should we pull an all nighter? Should Sarah go down for a nap, or should we keep her up and then put her to bed really early, only to wake her up a few hours into her sleep? Our heads were completely spinning with possibilities as we debated this very serious stuff! My heart would literally skip a beat when the phone would ring. We would turn our heads so fast to look at each other, and our mouths would drop and we'd say OMG! THIS IS IT!  Of course, it wasn't THE phone call, but we'd still get super excited.

Finally, after an agonzing day of waiting and thinking, at 7:30 pm on April 6th, we got our 5 hour warning phone call. We were told they landed in Germany and were going through customs. We were told we'd get another call back when they cleared customs and they were on their way to post. This is what I wrote in my vacation journal about getting that phone call: "All afternoon, every noise sounded like the phone ringing. It finally did for real at 7:30 pm and both of us jumped and she ran to get it. I called Sarah and she had a huge smile on her face. When Amy got off the phone, we both screamed and we got Sarah to scream in excitement and I felt like I was going to puke (from excited nerves) and she got a bloody nose (from excited nerves)."  She put Sarah down for bed, so she would have a little bit of a nap before being woken up in the middle of the night to go get her daddy. We tried to stay calm until we received the second phone call, which came at 8:45 pm. They had cleared customs and were really on their way home!! We were told if we got to the activity center at 11:30 pm, we would be there in plenty of time before the guys. We had planned earlier in the day to trade cameras, so pictures of me and Seth would be on my camera, and pictures of her and her husband would be on her camera. (We did have a girl who offered to take pictures for us; her husband was in the field training for a few weeks so she was free. But since it was midnight that that guys were expected home, we didn't ask her to do it after all). We spent the night getting ready and finally left her house at about 11 PM to head to the activity center. (We headed towards the main gate to exit, only to find that it closes at 10, so we had to back track, go further out of the way to exit the other gate to walk to the post that the activity center is on). She got Sarah up just a few minutes before we had to walk out the door, dressed her real quick and we headed out the door. We were practically running to the activity center, because we couldn't get there soon enough. It was pitch black out, a few street lights, a cool night, a car here and there, and us. Amy stopped to get a daffodil, and put it in her hair and kept one for Sarah. As we were getting to the primeters of post, I heard a diesel engine and looked back and said OMG MAYBE THAT'S THEM!!! Then we speculated, and walked/ran faster then determined it wasn't them. As we got closer to the entrance gate, we heard soldiers being loud and said maybe it was them, they had gotten there early, and they were waiting until 11:30 when familes were expected to be there. Amy said she wasn't looking, because she didn't want to ruin the surprise if it was them.

We got to the activity center at about 11:30 and Toby Keith's American Soldier was playing on the sound system. There were red, white and blue balloons everywhere, kids were running around with pure excitement, throwing balloons, chasing each other, jumping up and down. Soldiers were getting the podium in place, there was a slideshow playing on the wall with pictures from Afghanistan and the level of excitement in the room was awesome. Toby Keith's American Soldier song gets me every single time, and now when I hear it, I have the memory of walking into the activity center, getting ready to welcome home my love from his deployment. My heart swelled with an enormous amount of pride and excitement when I walked into the room. Considering it was midnight...and getting later into the middle of the night as the waiting continued, the kids did extremely well. There were no major breakdowns, the kids all played well, and were extremely excited knowing that their mom or dad would be home SOON. The garrison commander walked around and introduced himself and asked who we were and who we were waiting for. He was pretty nice, but I was nervous as hell to talk to him! Finally, around 1:30 AM, the white buses drove by and we could see them through the open doors. Amy and I sat down on the bleachers, switched cameras and tried to remain calm. The fog machine started generating the fog, the lights were dimmed, the music stopped and everyone got quiet and sat down. Suddenly the guys broke through the big red banner that said, "welcome back, Bravo!!" and everyone started screaming and snapping pictures and looking for their loved one. I scanned every face as they walked in and into formation and didn't see Seth. I saw Lee (Amy's husband) and Bubba and recognized a few others, but couldn't find Seth whatsoever. Amy is lucky that Lee is over 6 feet, so he stood over everyone and I got some good pictures of him. My heart was pounding and my hands were shaking and I couldn't find Seth. Plus, the fog machine was fogging everything up, so that was blurring the faces. All of them were in, but I still hadn't seen Seth and was getting terrified that he didn't make the flight for some reason. I started re-scanning the faces. I finally found him, in the last row, about 5th from the last! There were a few very short (thankfully!) speeches, and then the soldiers were released and Lee came right over to Amy and I waited to get a few pictures of them before I went and found Seth. Then Amy was right behind me and she got a few pictures of Seth and me. Within minutes, we walked out of the activity center, holding hands, reunited, finally. We walked with Lee, Amy and Sarah and then the guys got their bags from outside, and Amy and I congratulated each other that we finally made it, hugged each other, then went off with our guys. They went home and I snuck into the barracks with Seth for the next few nights.

The next few days consisted of soccer games, in-processing, hanging out with Amy and Sarah, and eating German food. I finally had a chance to meet the soldiers that Seth had talked about so many times too. Seth got a really dirty room and the shower was full of mold. So while Seth was doing his in-processing stuff, I cleaned the hell out of his shower. We had a picnic/bbq with Lee and Amy on a gorgeous, warm, sunny German afternoon. Seth also taught Sarah how to fist bump and it was the cutest thing ever!! Seth accompanied me to the Frankfurt airport (the train was packed for some reason, and I'm pretty sure we walked the whole length of the train cars to try to find a seat...and found nothing. We finally sat down in an area where the doors open and close, because it was a long ride. We hung out at the train station for a little while and then stayed the night at the Sheraton. (That place is really expensive in Euros!)

Ok, if you made it through that long of a post, here are some pictures!!! 

<3

welcome home!!!

waiting to be released!!

armed with tilex to take care of the mold in the shower. i used a clean sock as a face mask and one of those stretchy things to hold their uniform pants up on their boots to tie it to my face. a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...

german soda

soccer game. or football as they call it. 

walk back to post from lee and amy's

so this banana here? when seth got his stuff delivered from storage,  he got his favorite black backpack and it had mold all over it. he couldn't figure out why and was getting pissed that they ruined it....and then he found a banana sitting in the front pocket. it was so old and gross and hairy and nasty, it didn't even smell bad (thankfully). but he hosed it off the in the shower and it's good as new, as he would say. it's sitting on our living room floor right now. i would have thrown it away if that happened to me.

frankfurt train station

Cutest pumpkin carving idea EVER!

A friend from home just sent me a link on how to carve pumpkins with a drill!! 

How adorable are these?! These are SO much more my style than the typical Jack-O-Lantern. 

Now, I must convince Seth to let me use his drill to do this. I imagine he won't be too thrilled with the idea. We went to the pumpkin patch on Saturday and got 66 lbs worth of pumpkin to carve. I don't really even enjoy carving pumpkins, but I do love roasting the pumpkin seeds. But a pretty little pumpkin that looks like this?! I think I could definitely enjoy it.

P.S. We are definitely Washing-ganders (that's the Michigander version of Washington residents. I don't know how to say it yet). We went to the pumpkin patch on a rainy day and went through a corn maze in the mud! (Thankfully it stopped raining as we started the maze, but the ground was still soaked and caked in mud). See?

I'll post pics once I have Seth convinced it's a good use of the drill. :)

Gym time

I'm trying to get back in the habit of going to the gym on a regular basis.

All I've got to say is that it's reallllly intimidating working out with a bunch of buff dudes whose muscles are as big as my thighs.

That is all.

This book club is a bust

So, you know how I was all take charge and volunteered to organize a book club for the FRG? Thinking I could make some friends? Not so.

First, I emailed all four girls who signed up and asked if today's date, Oct 18, worked for them. I asked for suggestions on times. One girl gave me a time of 11 AM because she has an infant and an 8 year old. This wasn't really a good time for me because I work during the day, but decided I could take my "lunch hour" to do this. Another girl said today would work, she didn't have a preference on time. Two girls didn't reply period.

So I sent out another email to all four girls again and said we settled on October 18th at 11 at a library. (I know, I know...totally cliche to have a book club at a library, but since I'm still unfamiliar with what's available on post and didn't have a ton of time to get to a cooler location, I decided this was OK for the first meeting). Anyways, one girl wrote back and said she was excited, she'd be there. The girl who suggested 11 AM said that she could not find available childcare at this time. (I really only did this time because it worked for her, and now she couldn't attend. Annoying). Another girl wrote back and apologized for not replying to the first email...she read it and forgot about it (thanks!) and said she could not make it because she works during the day. Still haven't heard back from the 4th girl.

Anyways, today I got up extra early to start working extra early so in case this book club took longer than my "lunch hour," I wouldn't be too far behind. (I picked out a cute, dressier outfit than I've been wearing these days (not jeans and a t-shirt), blow dried and straightened my hair, put on make up and wore a new pair of flats that eventually gave me blisters on the back of my heels). I was excited all morning for this book club and to try to make at least one friend. I got to the library at about 10:50 and sat down at a table in the back, where I said we would meet. I saw some girl also sitting by herself listening to an iPod, and wondered if she was the girl who never responded to either of the emails. (Not going to lie, I Facebook stalked the girls so I could get an idea of who they are. And iPod girl was not familiar to my stalking). So I sat down at a different table. It was 11:15 and I decided I'd ask iPod girl if she was there for a book club. Nope! So I sat back down at my table all alone. I checked my email on my phone to see if anyone cancelled or emailed me by any chance. Nope. I decided to give someone...anyone...the benefit of the doubt who was running extremely late and was going to make a bad impression on me. I stuck around till 11:30. Still no one when I walked out of there at 11:35.

My first experience with a book club and I got stood up! How lame is that?!

Now I'm contemplating if I send out an email and tell them no one showed up and try to reschedule (so I can get stood up again...) or if I tell them no one showed up, but in order to this club going...ever...I decided on a book, here's the title, here's when we're meeting next. And tell them to be there or be lame and if they choose to be lame, they're outta my book club!

On a side note, I went to an FRG meeting the other day and saw a few girls that looked cool and I wanted to talk to them. But there were like 4 or 5 of them and I was way too intimidated to go up to them and introduce myself and be all like, "hey, do you want to be my friend?" Plus, the last two FRG meetings have been held in a movie theater (wtf, a movie theater is NOT a place to have a meeting. People are all scattered around the seats, all sitting alone, kids running up and down the aisle, yelling. It's not an environment where you can really socialize with other spouses). So I walked out of there not talking to a soul and it made me miss my real friends.

Can I have my old friends from Michigan back? Please? I really miss them. Making friends is hard work.

Oh hi...I'm on the west coast now :)

Whoa, blogger is ALL different! This is going to take some time to get used to.

So I've been living on the west coast for exactly one month now. Wait, that's a lie. One month and two days. Crazy.

I'm short on time, so this is a lame post.

Since I last posted...

• I moved to Washington! woooo!!!
• I finally live with my husband! (what a concept!)
• We have Patrick with us all day, every day!
• I work full time from home.
• Working from home has its pros and cons. I really miss my work friends and I hardly ever leave the house. I really really really really really miss my work friends. 
• I am pretty desperate for friends, sooooo I volunteered to lead a book club in the FRG. wtf. I'm not really one to lead things, and here I go emailing the FRG leader saying if she didn't have a leader for it already, I would gladly do so! Desperation at it's finest. Now I have to organize a book club and all that stuff. Yes, I googled it and got Oprah's advice. 
• We went to Seattle last weekend and redeemed a groupon my sister got us as a wedding gift! It was a gondola ride up Mt. Rainier! It was pretty cloudy up at the top of the mountain and rainy, so it wasn't that great of a view. But we decided we'd go back in the spring time when it's nicer weather. We were on a tour bus with a bunch of other people and had a fun time. We got back to Seattle early enough that we were able to check out Pikes Place! I got a beautiful bouquet of dahlia's and can't wait to go back!! 
• We have sooooo much exploring to do in this area. I can see Mt. Rainier from my home office on a clear day. We ride our bikes a lot and I'm trying to learn how to hop curbs on it. Last time I tried though, I got hurt and I've been scared to try it ever since. (don't get too excited, I didn't completely fall off my bike - as awesome as that would have been - I just pulled an arm muscle and dug my pedal into my calf.  

Now I must go walk Patrick in the drizzly rain and then go crawl into our brand new king size bed (delivered today!) without Seth because he is working late.

I hope to be back reading/posting regularly soon!!!

Awesome.

Know what's totally awesome?

Starting your period at work. and THEN learning that we have no water in the building today.

And if that's not awesome enough?

How about starting your period the day before your husband comes home and you haven't seen each other in a month?

Doubly awesome!

I'm moving this weekend! See you on the west coast!!

Ahhhhhhh

• My apartment got struck by lightning and I lost internet access and my a/c blew out. Sometimes I have hot water, other times I don’t.



• My apartment office is trying to make me pay for the WHOLE month of September, even though we’ll be out of there on August 31st. (I gave them notice on August 8th, and since it wasn’t a full 30 days before the next time rent is due, they’re charging me the whole entire month. Why can’t they charge me through the 8th, you ask? GOOD QUESTION! I want to know, too).



• I’m moving offices at work. For 2 weeks only until I leave. After I was told I wouldn’t have to move because it’s not a good use of time with the mass amount of work I have to do.



• I got a chip in my windshield on Saturday.



• I broke my parent’s lawn mower.



• I move in 2 weeks and my to-do list has about 20934802398502937523092803598 things on it.



• Packing has barely started.

The next two weeks are going to be hell. I just want to be in Washington with my husband. Is that too much to ask for?

It's official this time

So another update on moving....of course, right?

But this time it's official. Like, as official as possible because Seth signed our housing papers yesterday! And tomorrow he gets our keys! And by the end of the month, I'll be in Washington!! And he'll be living in a completely brand new townhome with absolutely nothing in it, until I get out there. Poor guy :(

I'm freaking out/excited as hell about it. I feel like I'm going to barf. I have SOOO freaking much to do in the next 3 weeks. That's when I leave Michigan: 3 freaking weeks. Holy shit. (And I'm house sitting this week so it's really like 2 weeks to get everything accomplished. Even better). I'm not ready for the goodbyes. Sooooo not ready for the goodbyes.

I'm for real this time. Promise. (disclaimer: unless the Army changes our plans for us, it really is for real).

Moving

One week I'm moving, the next I'm not, the next I am....

Can I just say I’m super excited to get to out new post? We recently changed our on post housing preference and I’m really happy about that. I was terribly afraid that the housing we originally signed up for for was going to be run down and not pretty on the outside (this is based on pictures of the outside of the homes). Plus, they only had one bathroom (single sink), and a single car garage (we both called dibs on it and I was ready to fight for it). The one major plus I was really looking forward to was a fenced in backyard. We were in the 40’s out of about 55 on the wait list, and it would have been October before I could move out there.

Seth was with a buddy yesterday and looking at a model unit for his housing and Seth really liked it. He called me and asked if I wanted to change which housing list we were on. So he sent me a few pictures, gave me a cell phone video tour and signed us up. We’re now in the single digits of less than 15! Another bonus is that it’s a brand new building, but it’s not officially available yet, so I still probably won’t get out there until October. We should have an answer as to when he can move in late next week, and then I can frantically pack up my stuff and get there sometime in late September. More bonus’s of the new home: 2 car garage with storage (!!!!), two and a half bathrooms (!!!!), brand new everything, hardwood floors in the living area, an island in the kitchen, a washer and dryer/utility room and a master bedroom with a master bath that has double sinks (!!!!). The only downside is that it’s a townhome, so we’ll be sharing walls with neighbors (but maybe, just maybe, we’ll get an end unit!!) and we won’t have a fenced in back yard. Seth said that there are plenty of grassy areas that we will not have a problem finding a place to walk Patrick. (However, since it’s rainy, I was looking forward to letting him out and not having to be outside with him). I’m willing to sacrifice these things for a beautiful new home!!!

I'm getting more and more excited as I think about finally living with Seth. It never seemed like it would ever happen, and now it's starting to feel real. I have a long list of things to do before I move and I don't have much time to spare!

Happy weekend :)

False alarm, day dreaming and pictures

I so badly want to blog. I want to read a bunch and write a bunch and share pictures but I don't really have the time. Remember when I thought I was moving in…like, right now? Well, I’m not moving this week after all. I’m content yet sad about this. But I still have a ton of stuff going on (like finishing thank you cards, getting my dress preserved, house-sitting for a week, helping my parents move, etc.)

Patrick left to the west coast on Tuesday. My grandma is long term babysitting him until I get to Washington and we get housing. We had a family photo shoot on Monday:

patrick loves his daddy

patrick loves mommy

family photo shoot

please note harry, my parent's dog, standing awkwardly by seth. he definitely wanted in on the family action.

Seth left yesterday for his long road trip out to Washington. I REALLY wish I was going with him. It’d be a fun road trip together, and we’d be able to experience and explore the new post together. But now he’ll know it all before me. We won’t see each other until late September/early October.

My parents start their move to California on Monday. My dad accepted a job in CA a few days after the wedding, so they’ve been busy packing up their house and getting things in order for a big cross country move. They had less than 2 weeks to pack up a house that they’ve lived at for 14 years and no time to sort through things they need vs what can be donated or thrown away, so they’re packing up everything and will sort it out when they get there. So like every good child, I stored some of my stuff at their house that I’d want back in like 15 years (you know, after I have a house of my own with an abundance of storage, and not moving every few years). I threw out a bunch of stuff, donated a bunch of stuff, and burned a bunch of stuff including my whole 98 Degree memorabilia collection that included a ridiculous amount of magazines, posters, sweat rags from a concert, signed pictures, trading cards, etc. The little bit of stuff I do have at their house, I will be taking to my home and packing it up to take to Washington in a few weeks.

I don’t have a lot of motivation right now…hence this post while at work. I find myself daydreaming about driving across the country with Seth and the next thing I know, I’m looking at our wedding pictures that were taken with my camera, while anxiously awaiting the official pictures from our photographers. I wish I was here, where we went on our little honeymoon, in northern Michigan:

Married life

Quick update because my life is about to change like whoa:

Last Saturday, Seth and I got married. More pictures and details to come later. He wore his dress blues as a total surprise. I've never seen him in his dress uniform...EVER. I've seen a picture of him in them like 2 years ago, but that was the old dress uniform, and we bought this when I was in Germany in April, but they had to order some of it, so I've never seen him in it. Apparently everyone knew about this surprise except me, and it was the sexiest surprise ever.

We had a quick honeymoon in Northern Michigan the last few days and got back late last night. Yesterday we watched the sun rise over Lake Michigan in Traverse City and watched it set in South Haven. It was beautiful, but pictures haven't been uploaded yet. (Sorry!!!)

And now, we just found out a few hours ago that I can move to Washington with him when he heads out next week. I was not mentally prepared for this at all, and I'm a crazy ball of nerves right now. I'm excited, happy, scared, nervous, anxious and every other emotion simultaneously. I was thinking I'd be able to move out there in September or even October, so moving in July is a huge difference.

So if I don't blog for a while, it's because we're frantically packing up the apartment, saying all of our goodbyes, and driving out west...all in the next week.

Seth's home!!!! (and wedding weather)

Seth got home last night!!! Patrick and I picked him up from the airport yesterday evening. He's back in the states!!!! We were talking in the car ride home and he doesn't remember the last time he was home in the month of July. He thinks it's been before he joined the Army, and he's been in for almost 8 years now.

Anyways, Patrick made himself a little outfit for the homecoming. I bought the materials (duh, he's too young to work, and he doesn't get an allowance because he's naughty!) but this was all his idea. I swear.

waiting (napping) in the car, waiting for Seth!!!!

(he had so much fun, he wanted the underside of his shirt to be decorated too. and p.s. the t-shirt may have come from Gerber...for an infant 0-3 months. it may have also come in a 5 pack, so Patrick may be getting in touch with his crafty side and make some more t-shirts for himself. and p.s.s. folding 5 pure white infant shirts may have given me a bit of baby fever. i can't be certain though. )

They LOVED each other!! Patrick gave Seth all sorts of kisses and licked his face and cuddled up on his lap on the way home. Seth kept checking on him in the back seat to make sure he was content back there in his cage and he was cool enough. It was so cute!!

In wedding news....I checked the extended 12 day weather forecast to get a glimpse of the weather on our wedding day. Have I mentioned that the wedding is outside? In Michigan? Where weather is completely unpredictable? Yeah...it's supposed to be 94 degrees, "humid and warmer with rain." The rehearsal is supposed to be 85 degrees and mostly cloudy with thunderstorms.

I know, I shouldn't have even looked at the weather forecast, because it can change 2,309,098 times between now and then, but I couldn't help it. Sooo if you're the praying type, please pray that it's not nearly that hot because I will literally die in my dress. And my hair won't appreciate that weather. And neither will the guests. Please pray for 76 and sunny with a breeze. But I'm not picky!

Also, while mentioning I'm not picky...have I also mentioned that Seth's brother's wife will be wearing a white gown to MY wedding? It's floor length, pure white, and looks like it's a prom dress. She posted a picture of Facebook the other day and said it was for an upcoming wedding and everyone commented on how beautiful it is, and how she'll look stunning in it. Apparently she, along with all of her friends, do not know it's inappropriate to wear a white dress to a wedding UNLESS YOU'RE THE BRIDE! Honestly though, I find it hilarious. I'm not saying anything to her; I'll let the staredowns of the other guests do the talking for me.

Wedding favors: vanilla extract

For wedding favors, I made homemade vanilla extract! I am pretty in love with how they turned out. I bought a few economy size bottles of vodka from Sam's club, a pound Madagascar beans, then cut the beans in half, took a few shots of vodka to allow enough room in the bottle for the beans and let them sit for a few months, shaking once or twice a week.


And then the fun part began:

I bought a cheesecloth from Bed Bath and Beyond and strained out the bits of vanilla. The cheesecloth had bigger holes and some of the vanilla slipped through, so I folded it in half:


I bought seventy 2 oz bottles online and washed them one by one to make sure they were clean, poured the strained vanilla into a measuring cup and set up a little assembly line:


I had a few casualties along the way. I used a funnel to fill in each bottle, and it turns out the funnel can be deceiving and make them overflow very easily if you're not careful. It smelled really good though!

Then, I was introduced to embossing. And I fell in love and we had a love affair weekend of embossing everything possible. Really, everything. (I found myself making random cards for friends and embossing them just because it's so awesome). I went to Hobby Lobby, got a stamp cut out, a variety of stamps, a variety of color of ink pads, special textured paper, a hole puncher, embossing power and lots of other stuff (for hand made shower invitations, too) and walked out spending a good $100 $150. Oops. Instead of buying a heat gun and doing each tag individually, I googled to see if it was safe to bake a bunch of these in the oven. Turns out you can! Turn it on to about 250 degrees, and let them bake for 5 minutes or so. (I used foil on the cookie sheet, but that was a personal preference).

And since I love embossing so much, I wanted to emboss both sides (the front says 'thank you' and the back says 'homemade just for you by: Stacy and Seth'). But as every embosser knows, you can only emboss one side of a piece of paper. So I did what any normal girl who is crunched for time would do: I used my hand dandy stamper cutout thingy to cut twice as many circles as needed so I could then hand stamp each one, emboss each one, bake them all, let them cool and use a glue stick to glue them together one by one. Then I put them back on a cookie sheet, put DVD's over them, put some cans of vegetables on top to keep them from curling, and let them set over night to make sure they were good and stuck to each other. Then I signed our names on each one. I also stuck a label on each bottle, letting people know it is vanilla extract.

Then one Friday night, I put all the pieces together (after stopping by Joanne Fabric and getting a bunch of cream colored organza fabric). And ended up with these pretty little things:

After I got all the little parts done, and started actually piecing everything together, including cutting the fabric and ribbon and tying it all together, it took about 4 hours totals. We're giving one 2 oz bottle per party (instead of individual gifts for each person) so I only needed about 50. But I had a lot of vanilla left, plenty of extra bottles and other materials, so I made just over 60 total. There will be some lucky guests who get more than one bottle (and I know who they will be!!)

One day closer to the wedding! And to Seth being home :) And to my sister being home and to Patrick meeting his dad :)