The Wedding - Season 2, Episode VI

There are a few developments and I think we can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel:

The flower girls dresses – SIL bought these cute little white dresses for 30 euros a piece and is going to have orange ribbons made for them. I think it will turn out just fine and it’s one more problem to think about.
The party – SIL borrowed 3,000 euros from the bank so that they can invite a few more people, which will make a total of 100 guests. They are already way over their heads with debt but then they are exactly the kind of people who will always exceed their budget. We paid her credit cards a couple of years ago because she was in a really bad place and she never even mentioned the possibility of paying us back, so this kind of thing makes ZM a little crazy but, hey, it’s their life right?
The invitations – are printed and will be sent this week. Finally.
The engagement dinner – well, my MIL told them to invite whoever they thought they should, which was really the right thing to do if you ask me. They haven’t said who’s coming or not, but I can tell you it’s going to be one tense evening.
The outfits – everyone except the nurse have decided what to wear and this time I think it’ll be mostly peaceful. The SILs who’s a dentist (the one with the cleavage, remember?) is wearing black pants but hasn’t decided on the top yet.

That’s about it for now, I think.

Bored, oh so bored

The problem with this job is as much the crazy days as the slow ones. Today is one of those days. I have absolutely nothing to do, and yet I still have to be here, sitting at my desk, pretending I’m working. I. Hate. This. And the worse part is that my boss’ desk is directly behind mine so all he has to do is lift his eyes to see my screen, which means I can’t even surf the net as much as I would like. I keep thinking that M is home with the nanny, it’s a beautiful sunny day outside, probably one of the last this summer, and I’m stuck here. Ugh.
I read the newspapers, answered all my pending emails, called my Mom and my sister, read a couple of blogs and am right about to run out of ideas. And it’s not even lunch time yet. I would much rather be swamped, seriously.

I'm still alive

God, I just realized it’s been a whole week since my last post. Time is just flying and I’m barely finding the time to breathe.
Last week I had yet another business trip and had to spend the night away. But the project is finally over so there won’t be anymore trips to Porto. Now my next project is in Azores, which is an island so it means I won’t be able to drive there and back as I used to do with this project in Porto. I will have to spend the night there every single time… nice, I can’t wait. Damn.

M has been sleeping better though he’s teething (we hope, since he’s almost 11 months old and doesn’t have one single tooth) so we’re not sure how long this good phase will last. So we’re making the best of it and on Saturday we woke up at 11.15 am. That was heaven.
I’m taking him to the ped today for a well-baby visit, which he hasn’t had for almost 3 months so I’m kinda looking forward to it (I just know I will regret having said this later today).

R’s school started last week and she’s just hysterical to see her friends again. She woke up on Sunday asking if she could go to school already. Wouldn’t it be nice if this would last, say, 15 years? Yesterday we spent the afternoon organizing her closet, putting away the clothes that don’t fit anymore, and she kept saying that she wanted to keep this and that for her baby sister. For some reason she’s convinced she’ll have a sister named Maria after Christmas. Not sure what gave her that idea.

The Wedding - Season 2, Episode V

Since my last email, M has been sleeping much better and that makes all the difference, as I knew it would. On Friday I took the day off because we had a wedding at 4 pm, so we had a nice three-day weekend to relax and enjoy what will probably be one of the last weekends of sunny summer weather.

As for The Wedding, there have been a couple of changes that have caused further tension in The Family.
First of all, my SIL says she will not be coming back home after all, but rather it’s P who’s going to move in with his uncle a month before the wedding. Obviously, the doubts about whether or not he’s actually moving out are in everyone’s mind. But thankfully my FIL decided to at least pretend he believes them and the engagement dinner is still scheduled for the 29th of this month.
The next problem is who to invite. Both of P’s parents are divorced and remarried and my FIL doesn’t want to invite any of the step parents. In his mind, P’s parents are married to each other for the rest of their lives and are, again, living in sin with their new spouses. MIL is trying to convince him to let P decide who to invite (which is obviously everyone) but it’s his house and he just feels bad about it.
Just to give you some background, ZM’s only cousin married a divorced woman 5 years ago and has 2 children with her. To this day they have never set foot in FIL’s house, and were not invited to SIL’s wedding, even though SIL is their son’s godmother.
Then there’s the problem with the invitations. Here in Portugal tradition says that when the bride’s parents pay for the wedding reception, they’re the ones whose names show up in the invitation. But P isn’t comfortable with that and wants his parents’ names to be in the invitation as well. My MIL is insisting it’s not protocol and will not give in, so the invitations have not even been printed, when it should be time to start sending them.
We haven’t even discussed the flower girls dresses anymore, but I foresee a very tense couple of months ahead…