Going to the chapel and we're gonna....

Have an incredibly busy and fun wedding weekend!

The wedding of the century is finally here.  Monica and Rick are getting married on Saturday and since two of us have actual jobs in the wedding (me as bridesmaid and Spencer as ring bearer) we have many wedding events to attend over the next four day.

Thursday night is a dinner at Monica's dad's house, Friday morning is brunch at her mom's house, Friday evening is the rehearsal and rehearsal BBQ (complete with make-your-own s'mores bar!!!), Saturday is the wedding and Sunday is dinner at Monica and Rick's house.  I basically don't have to cook again until Monday.

Monica, Elliott and I went to Costco on Monday to buy all the fillers for the guest gift bags.  These will be handed out at brunch or put in people's hotel rooms.  

Spencer got sent home from school yesterday because he threw up during writing time.  Jeez Louise.  My kids never, ever, ever throw up and now both of them have in less than a week.  According to the nurse something is going around and she is sending puking kids home left and right.  He threw up again in the early evening and had a high fever last night so we kept him home today.  We did, however, take him to get his tuxedo, mostly because we had to.  I picked a very non-busy time to go and made sure I did all the dressing of him so he didn't get any unsuspecting sales clerks sick.

He's not wearing the tie here, but he is going to look so cute on Saturday.  Monica got him a cape to wear too.

Now I have my bridesmaid dress in the guest room closet (along with all the undergarment items), and

Monica's wedding dress (EEEEEEEEK!), and

Spencer's tuxedo. 

That's a lot of responsibility!

That's all I have for the pre-wedding post, so I wanted to take this opportunity to answer some comment questions.  I kind of like doing this.  I'd like to make it a regular feature.

#1. Sherry asked if most of my dermatological problems are on my face and neck.

Ummmmm.  I wish.  I have moles and freckles all over my whole body.  My back is ridiculous.  As are my arms.  They keep an actual map of my body so they can compare my current issues to previous issues year to year.

#2. Not a question but Sherry expressed shock that we can still go to the splash pad.

It stays hot here until well into November, but the splash pads generally close for the season on October 31st.  And it is entirely possible to enjoy them until that date.  That's the desert for you.

#3.Cathy wanted to know if we can go to my favorite breakfast place when she comes to visit in 2016.

Well, twist my arm, YES!  I will even send you their link so you can look at the amazing menu and pre-select what you will eat in more than a year.

#4. Sherry explained all the reasons she does not like the fair and wanted to know if I am a fair person or not.

Ugh.  No, I am not a fair person.  And mostly for all the same reasons you stated.  I don't get sick on rides but I always feel as if small fair rides are really unsafe.  They freak me out in a way that I am not freaked out in amusement parks. I also always just feel dirty after going to the fair.  The animals, the rides, the people, the actual dirt.  The fair is definitely something I do for the kids and not myself.  Although I didn't always feel like that.  The only thing I do enjoy about the fair is the fair food.  Mmmm.  Corn dogs.

#5. Sherry wanted to know if my friends are as OCD as me (based on our fall craft).

No, not all of them are.  Joni is a speech language pathologist and being OCD just kind of comes along with that career.  The rest are learning though.  We are rubbing off on them.  Ha!

#6.  Jeannette asked a triple question. What exactly is the "fluff" made of? Is it like a snow cone or gelato? Is it just me or does it look chocolately too? 

This is what I found in a google search.  "Fluff Ice takes on the traditional shaved ice dessert in a non-traditional way. Through a proprietary process that takes 8-hours to complete, we create each block of Fluff Ice by infusing our flavors into large cylindrical blocks. When blocks of Fluff Ice are shaved, what results is the magical union of delicate texture and decadent taste. With a taste-texture profile that is similar to "frozen cotton candy", Fluff Ice is light and airy, yet amazingly flavorful with every bite."

It did have a really unique texture that is kind of impossible to describe.  It was soft, but kind of stretchy too.  Spencer got a small so he could pick 1 flavor of fluff, 1 syrup and 1 topping.  He picked chocolate syrup and strawberries.  Sweetened condensed milk was one of the choices and I want to go back and get that for myself.

#7.  Valerie, Sherry and Jeannette have all asked how Spencer's skin is doing.

Much, much better!  It took about 4 days using fluocinonide (a heavy duty steroid cream that he's not allowed to use for more than 2 weeks and isn't allowed to be used during wet wraps) to get everything under control.  We used fluocinonide for 6 days, did bleach baths every other day and wet wrapped him twice and then switched to triamcinolone (still a steroid cream, but not as strong).  After 6 days every part of his body looked great, except for his legs.  You couldn't tell at all that he had been so flared.  His legs are always, always, always the hardest part to clear up so we're not surprised that they are taking longer.  He's completely stopped scratching himself bloody and is now just scratching a "normal" amount.

A nurse from the study called to check on him after a week and we have a follow up appointment on Tuesday, because they were so concerned about how bad he got.  But I think after that appointment we'll just be back on our regular appointment schedule.  One thing they did tell us was that he had elevated eosinophils during the last blood draw they did (the day we dropped out of the study).  They were not elevated in the first blood draw. Eosiniphils are white blood cells and are elevated when the body has an immune response to something.  The nurse explained that Spencer was mildly elevated and that is expected in somebody with a huge eczema flare.  They are probably elevated whenever his eczema is bad, we just don't know it because they're not doing blood tests.  She said that the people responsible for the actual study at the drug company may want him tested again to make sure he is not elevated in the future.  But that is their call, and we're not very concerned about it.

#8.  Not a question but Jeannette sent me a picture of Clark wearing one of Elliott's hats.  Just out of curiosity I looked in my archives to see when I bought that hat because I remembered taking a picture of it with its matching outfit.  This is what Elliott looked like the day I bought it almost exactly 2 years ago  He was 10 months old.  Dang he was cute.  And he had way less toddler attitude.