"Home, Home, Where I Wanted to Be"

"I want to live in a wooden house, where making more friends would be easy." 

Thank you, Coldplay. 

Yes, that is the home where I wanted to be, and I was there, and now I'm back and I want to be there again! I'd really like to do the whole trip over again because I learned a few things. 1. Do NOT fly United Air. They are crap. They do not have the little personal screens on 12 hour flights. The stewardesses were rude and did not follow the "do not stick your butt in the passenger's face by bending over, but simply kneel to grab something from the bottom shelf" rule. When there are two hour delays on the runway, they do not make an announcement letting passengers know what is going on. They estimate everything will take 20 minutes, but it always takes at least an hour. See? United Air sucks. 2. Take lots of medicine on the flight over so that you are not deathly ill when you wake up the next day and have about 4 hours to find a dress to wear to your sister's wedding. 3. TAKE MORE PICTURES. I don't have any pictures of just me and my mom or just me and my sister. It's sad. I mean, I'll see them both in February, for my wedding, but I would have liked to have more pictures. Sadly, wedding madness ruled the weekend. So, yes, I'd like to do the trip over again wiser and better, but I'll take the time I got with my family and friends anyway! 

I'm not much of a picture poster, just because I like to show you things with words instead. But this is a special exception for you dear readers because you have been severely neglected lately. And I keep promising to rectify the situation and it's just not happening, is it? I'll try to make it up to you. A few highlights from Kenny's first trip to America, full with commentary! 

Morning ritual for Kenny: sitting on the deck with his coffee. I am here for your viewing enjoyment with airplane+sleeping hair and my beautiful kitty Kimchi! Kenny took lots of pictures of my house. I was glad he did that because I got to see it in a different way and appreciate my home even more. (I guess it's not technically my home anymore, although my mom would beg to differ!) Being at home was comfortable. I wanted Kenny to feel comfortable in my home, to experience the warmth of my family. I think he did. 

Holly and Matt exchanging their rings.

The whole fam. 

My little sister got married to a wonderful man and I now have a goofy brother-in-law to discuss my latest bowel movements with. I cried when she walked down the aisle with my daddy and I cried again when they danced together. My family is so precious. And yep, that's me in the little black dress! AND, dear readers, go ahead and open your mouth and gasp in preparation: I wore high heels. Almost the entire night. I even danced in high heels. Here's evidence: 

My mom was upset because no one was dancing. My moves were meant to inspire others to join me. (They inspired a little growl from Kenny!) Anyway, a good time was had by all except my feet. I left the heels and the dress at home. We'll see if the dress still fits next summer, when it will be a little more season-appropriate. Ultimately, I was of course, the fatter sister, seeing as how Holly is a size 0 and that is not a possibility for me, ever. But I was NOT the fat sister. So, I think the Super Duper Don't Be the Fat Sister Workout Plan was a success. I think I need to draw up the next stage which will be something like the Don't Have a Belly in the Wedding Dress Workout Plan. Or, Look Hot and Make Your Husband Drool on your Wedding Day Workout Plan. Or Love Yourself and Your Body on your Wedding Day Workout Plan. Hmmm... I'll have to give it a little more thought. 

Speaking of things fitting, I AM OFFICIALLY 63 KILOS. Which means, in plain American English.... 139 pounds. (I will take a moment for your applause. Yes, thank you, thank you.)

I'm pretty excited about this. Seems that being sick probably was rather beneficial because it did a number on my appetite. I did not consume nearly enough sweet tea or fried foods. But I didn't gain 5 pounds either. Rather, I came back close to 2 pounds lighter! Tomorrow I'm rejoining the gym with the boyfriend and the fight for the next 4 pounds and losing the rest of the belly continues! 

Also along the line of things fitting, please grab your barf bag because I found my wedding dress. I'll wait while you read that sentence again to make sure you got it right. Yep, wedding dress= check. It's not anything like I thought it would be. It's everything I walked into the store saying I hated. I am not going to thrill you or cause you to puke up any more of your guts by showing you previews. But I will show you how much fun 4 hours of wedding dress shopping is for the father of the bride. 

Doesn't he look thrilled?

Do you love it? I gave you a bigger size so you could focus on the sincerity of the facial expression. And yeah, Kenny was there, too. But shopping is his thing. Some guys are good at like, throwing balls or playing video games. My guy is good at shopping (among many many other things.) And he's way more picky than I am. So it made sense for me to have him help me pick out the dress because with my taste, there was a good chance I would walk down the aisle and have to see that look register on his face. The one I get when I point at things in the store and he rolls his eyes like he can't believe he knows me or that I just touched that piece of clothing. I wanted to make sure he liked it and there's no better way to do that than to get his approval from the beginning! So now, he gets 3 months to forget what it looked like! (Okay, it's 96 days until my wedding. 96 DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYS! Oh, sorry. I should have warned you that you still may need the barf bag. I'm finished now. You can put it away.)

I also got to spend some time with my Wifey and her hubby while I was at home. It was AWESOME to see her. She did my makeup and my hair for the wedding and it was just like being back in good old sub-par paradise, getting ready for a night out. It was pretty much pure bliss. And I got to hang out with my good friend Melanie, whom many of you might know from her blog. Yep, she was my real-life friend first! We've known each other since high school and I couldn't have made it living at home after college without her! 

Kenny, 139 pound Me, Kerri, and Buck

Melanie and Me

Well, I could choose to complain about all the things that went wrong or could have been better on my trip home, but hey, I already did that at the beginning of this post. I had a good trip home and when we got here, the first set of our engagement pictures were ready. I'll give you a peek here and the rest you can see in this Facebook album. 

This was a purely self-indulgent post, but I'm hoping you loved it anyway. I'm heading back to the hell hole tomorrow for a few more months of work with the monsters. They've given me a week to do evaluations for all 25 of my kids. Oh well, whatever. By the way, I totally ate a donut today. Do you know why? Because I deserved it! 

It feels good to be back. I missed you.