this wedding is turning me into a raving lunatic.

I’m dealing with sleeplessness because of the wedding. The last three nights I haven’t been able to sleep more than about an hour at a time, and even that has been restless and frustrating. I’m trying to kick it. I know that it’s wedding related, that I’m feeling overwhelmed by the things that still need to be done, the decisions that still need to be made, the people that still need to be paid. (Rhyme!) It seems like the wedding is still forever away, even though it is only a mere 50 days. This has all culminated into a serious case of overactive bride brain.

If you’re not familiar with the terrible affliction of bride brain, I will explain it to you.

Bride happens when a normally intelligent and organized individual is suddenly behaving like a forgetful lunatic due to wedding-induced stress overload. It’s when you have the same conversation over and over again because you just can’t remember ever having it before. It’s when you look for AN HOUR to find your car keys only to realize that they’re in the exact place that keys are supposed to be – right by the front door. It’s when you can’t remember if you brushed your teeth that morning, or the last time that you combed your hair. Basically it’s a big old case of can’t-remember-anything-because-my-brain-is-seriously-maxed-out.

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And to compound this outrageous forgetfulness is now the sleeplessness. I’m so worried about forgetting something important now and my brain compensates by going into super overdrive at night, when I’m supposed to be winding down, trying to remember every possible appointment, idea, vendor, etc.

The sleeplessness is turning me into even more of a raving lunatic.

50 days…

50 days until I can reclaim my sleep, my schedule, my sanity.

Oh, and also until I can marry the love of my life

And maybe work on my house a little bit too. Remember this house?

Tip of the Day: How to Auger a Clogged Toilet

The clogged toilet. It’s gross, but it’s a part of homeownership. And if you find yourself in the position of having purchasing a brand new Kohler Wellworth toilet less than a month ago and already dealing with it being clogged, it can be extremely frustrating. Especially when you find out that Kohler designed the bottom opening of this toilet to be larger than any size plunger on the market – which means that a plunger cannot form any seal and will not work. (Errr.)

When you find yourself in this position, you have one last resort before you’d be forced to spend big bucks for fifteen minutes worth of a plumber’s time. This last option is to auger your toilet.

An auger (also known informally as a snake) can be picked up at any big box home improvement store. I went and grabbed one for $8 at our local Home Depot, and it looked exactly like this:

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There are four basic steps to using an auger:

1. Retract the handle all the way back, so that the cord is retracted into the metal tube.

2. Position the auger so that the plastic-covered elbow bend is down at the bottom of your toilet.

3. Begin cranking the handle clockwise, while gently pushing the cord down into the plumbing of your toilet. Be very gentle while doing this, because if you push too hard, you could end up scratching and damaging your toilet. At this step you may feel resistance, which means that you’ve hit the blockage.

4. Lastly, continue turning the handle clockwise while gently pulling the cord back out of the toilet.

Here is a handy diagram that I found that illustrates the four steps well. Remember to turn the handle clockwise while gently pushing the cable further down into the toilet. That is the key.

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If all went well, one of two results could occur. You could grab the blockage with the auger and pull it back out and into the toilet bowl, which you could just grab (using rubber gloves, because it’s probably gross), and normal flushability should be restored to your toilet. Or, you could do what I ended up doing, and just end up pushing the blockage further down the line, until it is pushed into wider plumbing and can be simply flushed.

If neither of these results occur, and the ability to flush is not restored to your toilet, then you could try this method a couple more times. If it still isn’t working for you, then you’ll probably have to call a plumber, because your blockage may be further down than the auger can reach.

Let me just tell you that the feeling of relief that you get when you restore your toilet to its natural state is immense. Especially when you’ve been avoiding the problem for four days because you were sure that you’d have to hire a plumber and pay them the equivalent of what you’re paying your wedding photographer in eight weeks… yeah.

a huge wedding milestone. invitations.

Now people know in which direction to drive to see Matt and I become husband and wife.

I’m incredibly proud of these invitations. They are my babies, in a sense. I have spent countless hours designing them, printing them, assembling them, and I will soon be mailing them. All we’re waiting on is the very last piece of the puzzle – small cards that tell guests where our hotel room block is at, what time our shuttle will be available, and the URL to our wedding websites, which contains even more information.

Well, without further adieu, here are our invitations, in all their glory:

First we have the main invitation page, which details the time and place of our ceremony and reception. Shown with the outer, mailing envelope, with our address stamped on the flap, thanks to our handy new address stamp I ordered off of Etsy:

And to go with a gorgeous, all-inclusive square invitation, a semi-humorous RSVP card, pictured below with its accompanying envelope (with our address stamp making an encore appearance:

I wanted to make the choices seem lighthearted and witty, in an attempt to set the mood for what guests could expect our wedding to be like: lighthearted and informal.

Finally, here is our stack of invitations, envelopes stamped, addressed, stuffed, piled and ready to go to the post office in a few days.

Lovely. The end result of many hours of work. I can’t wait to start receiving those little RSVP envelopes back.

59 days and counting…

Jess