Sarison Wedding IV: Homage to Murdy and Jim-a-Lim Eato

Shocker: My family is my favorite thing. The super stars you see below get all the credit....

If anyone thought there would be an Eaton event that didn't hear the drones of the bagpipes, they just didn't even know what was up.

This was a favorite part.  To be honest, I was three sheets past delirious at the end of the night.  Thanks to the thick heat of an Irvine July, no one slept well the night before at my house, and I was just pooped like nothing else, but knew we had, in the words of Azlan, "far to go."  When it came time to phase out the night, we started loading up the cars with the reception shiz.  With each armful I lugged to a trunk, I took great sentimental joy in the sight of Dad playing his resonator guitar with a few other Reynolds music devotees.  Dad played that down the hall while I drifted off to sleep when I was growing up, and that sound is "wind down at home" to me.  Anyway it was a sweet thing to watch those guys doing, something I imagine will continue on. 

Someone asked me at the Rehearsal Dinner which ones were my mom's sisters.  I laughed and said what she would have said, which is "OH no.  No sisters.  4 older brothers.  4 Sisters-in-LAW.  Thankfully 4 wonderful women married [her] brothers."  Are they not beauteous?

There are 3 of the 4.  I think my grandparents got a kick out of that. 

When people talk about my mom they say things like, "So come on, she has to have a flaw somewhere in there." 

Sarison Wedding III: Caught Primping

I'll say the biggest difference between Elizabeth's wedding and Sarah's was with the former there was no progeny scampering about. With Sarah's there were three. Adorable in the extreme? Absolutely. Unpredictable and time consuming? That's an emphatic YES. Five adults trying to get themselves decked out in the same house on very immovable schedules while readying 3 kids who may or may want to be readied at the time we were ready was....exhausting.  All I have to say is any mother who gets to church at ALL within the 3 hour block with her brood has worked a miracle.

Even so the morning of is chock full of terrific memories. Elizabeth caught a few snaps of the primping.

My mom and Sarah did her hair. It was inspired by Rory Gilmore in the vow renewal episode. Boo ya.
 

Sheesh, why weren't the 80s my hay day???

Sarison Wedding II

Pontificating

See?  I'm not the only one who is at the mercy of those cherubic cheeks.

Now, by the way, I can no longer say Kris is my favorite brother-in-law.  He's definitely tied for first, though.

Bah.  She always looks like a freaking supermodel.

This and that.  The dinner was at the Daily Grill.  Tres delish.

Do you know HOW MANY YEARS these two (and me, since I was the lovable tag-along) have been saying, "WE NEED TO BE RELATED!"  Mission accomplished.  Annie marrying into a family of 8 boys was a magical move.

I bet there'll be more.

Sarison Wedding I

For the last 3 days my dad has been calling my mom "The Party Girl of Irvine" for pulling off such a thing.  She made that white cloud she's wearing.  Yeah, she knows what she's doing.

There.  Now you can see what we were all wearing with a little more scope.  I wish I could remember what Elizabeth and I were looking at -- perhaps a R.O.U.S.?

Oh but this was one of my favorite parts of the day.  My nephew and Jeff's niece (who is also now Sarah's niece...I know, it sounds very backwater) both live in the same city, both just graduated kindergarten, and both make it a habit to overflow in cute.  They met and over a plate of See's truffles, sushi, and other such reception tasties, tried to describe to the other where they live.  "Welllll...you drive straight...and then you go by a GYM, and then...you turn by a tree with four branches...."  I could go on all day about these small people.

TADAAAAAAA!!!  Zee Bride and Groom!!!

They believe in lurve.

Oh geez. :)

My devilishly handsome +1.  He stayed until the bitter end of the reception cleaning up. Good man, that JH.

This is what was happening to Jeff every time people born after 2001 were around and no chocolate was within their rascally reach.  They would just tug and yank and drag on him without ceasing.  Somehow my boyfriend's arms are still connected to his body.

This is Rebecca McOmber.  There was NOT enough time to sit and talk to her as much as I'd hoped.  In fact, when I look back at all these pictures I'm grumpy about how many people in them traveled so far to so darlingly support Sarah et al and I just didn't get enough one-on-one with them.  So wonderful to see them at all, though.  Weekends like these get me excited about heaven, if you must know.  Copious -- nay, endless amounts of time with all the people I love.

Too cool for school

She cannot not be kissed.

More pictures to come later thanks to Elizabeth the fantastic and talented photographer sister o' mine....

Tunes

Today I can't stop listening to rihanna's disturbia and this year's love by David gray.

Word.


-- Post From My iPhone

Residual benefits of a family wedding:

Impromptu concerts with cousins that I don't get to see nearly enough like James. He's so talented I just want to vomit.


-- Post From My iPhone

Post day

As deliriously tired as we are, we just can't stop talking about the day over some leftover cream puffs.

More pictures to come....


-- Post From My iPhone

Officially

She did it!


-- Post From My iPhone

It comes....

I'm tired. I'm more tired thinking about the next few days. It's going to be charming, it's going to be busy, it's going to be a once-an-Eaton-decade sort of thing. I'm going to be repeating to myself over and over again that I'm not losing a sister but gaining a BIL, I'm going to be wearing heels for many hours on end, squeezing a few babies, chortling with many relatives and amigos, wearing my smile muscles to death, and then just as quickly as the whipping wedding winds churned themselves up, the air will be still, nary a breeze, the impish, loving couple will be gone to some unknown honeymonic destination, and I will go back to work on Monday. Life will resume.

Until the next Friday when I fly out at the crack for Annie's wedding in Utah....

And the Friday after that when I go to Vegas for Sarison's Open House............

Lies

No, sorry, if you read the post below and have beef (ha!) against vegetarians, you'll have to scoop your eye-widening of triumph to the shadows. I ate no such steak, my iphone was just momentarily confiscated and chaos broke loose.

I've seen the light.

I had a steak. It was so good. I am no longer a vegetarian.

-- Post From My iPhone

Saturdee

Already this past month I've spent more time outdoors than I did in the whole of 2008.  

Yesterday we went kayaking through the Newport "Channel" and had a whopping good time.  I'm always glad when someone pushes me to just get out off my bottom and do these things, because they're always more enjoyable in execution than they seemed in theory.  I only wish we had some pictures, but alas.  

Then I ran some Saturday errands that had been thrust to the back-burner for quite some time.  It felt good to get some things out of the way, because the horrible truth of it is at the end of a long weekday, the idea of going somewhere, parking my car, going in, doing whatever needs to be done, and then walking out, digging around in my purse for my keys, and then covering nearly every inch of the parking lot trying to remember where the      I parked, is not always something dreamy enough to actually make it happen.  Again, when it does it's never as bad in execution as it had been in theory.  But anyway I got some things done while I had some spring to my Saturday step.  Done and done.

We saw Harry Pottah with some friends.  I am most pleased to say I give this one 2 thumbs up. I hear the 5th was good, but mine eyes have never beheld it.  The others were very fohgettable. Good job, guys.  You've hit your stride.

Is it just me,

Or did this week go by at a super sonic speed?

And is anyone else going to dry heave if they hear one more word about michael Jackson and his poor children?

And have you seen what an awesome bargain it is to go see The Fray/Jack's Mannequin on a weeknight?

-- Post From My iPhone

Bday Post II: A More Quick Wrap-Up Than the Narcissist in Me Would Like

Because my co-worker decorated my desk on Friday, the entire firm knows that last weekend I celebrated a birthday, although they (mostly) do not know my name.  Therefore in the last 48 hours I have answered more times than I am able to count the question, "How was your birthday?!"  I say something very cheerful but measured, because if I don't take care I will turn a conversation-in-passing into a 20 minute expansion, loaded with details of the front and centers of my life, how cool it was to open up my 5th tube of lip gloss of the day, how much junk food I ate etc., etc., etc..  

My favorite moments were......

- When my dad cooked a Saturday night family dinner that could not have tasted better if it were at the most swankified restaurant in town.  Obama doesn't eat as good as we did that night.  Betcher Bama dollar.  :)

- Eating cherries and home-spun oreos and ice cream in the Lake park at the heart-warming and tasteful party/picnic that Shauna and Lindsey threw for me.  It was way more than I deserved, but I'll take it gladly. 

- Getting a bike!  I LOVE that bike.  LOVE it.

- Hearing "Favorite Thing About Merzy" from those around the Saturday evening table.  I LIVE for that moment of the year.  I'll practically do anything for a compliment, and on m' birfday I don't even have to hint or cue or beg on my hands and knees for an ego fluff.  By the way, my dad called ME a chatterbox on the way to the San Diego Temple earlier Saturday.  If Jim Eaton ever calls YOU a monologue fiend, man... I mean, where do I go from there?  I've out-rocked the proverbial Bono.

- I shared the bday with Mike Cunningham for the first time this year, and as ever, with Annie Garlock Reynolds and Brie Gassin Jenkins.  Sharing is caring.  Sela Ward and Armani also celebrate with me, but they don't know it.

- I loved opening up my email from Cameron on Monday and reading his reminder that (totally strange but true) many of the "Gone Too Early" entertainers of the world went at 27.  Kurt Cobain, Janis Joplin, River Phoenix, Jonathan Brandis, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Brian Jones, Ron McKernan just to name a few.  Horrible.  I don't have a drug addiction (Diet Coke doesn't count) so I expect to make it to 28.

I had a wonderful time.  For photos check out Facebook or maybe I'll have the energy tomorrow.  Goodnight!

Bday Post I: My 3 Cakes

Work Cake

Family Cake

Friend Cake

My sister Sarah and I used to have some strange mocking attraction to that country tune, Just Another Day in Paradise.  If you know it, admit it.  The lyrics are horribly cheesy and filled to the top with TMI.  When I worked at the bank, my Manager would often utter under his breath that same thing when someone had just thrown a fit at him because THEY went on a shopping spree at the Chanel boutique when their pocketbooks only would have allowed Old Navy.  Anyway, I want to indulgently say that I feel to sing that song with verses a la Merzy. 

I never really wanted life to be perfect, and it's certainly not now.  I feel I am too old to be making some of the scatter-brained mistakes that I still find myself making, and I get frustrated.  I suppose if you'd asked me as an 18 year old ninny what my life would be like when I celebrated my 27th birthday I would have described a different picture, filled with some things I do still want and assume I'll have some other day, but I am unable to verbalize just how thrilled I am that things ARE what they ARE right now.  As imperfect as it is now and ever will be, I am enjoying immensely my ride in my hay wagon.  Sometimes, enough things fall into place all at once that you don't care much about the things that haven't, and it is enough to get you to hug a tree or spare the life of a pesky fly.  

Barfy?  Indeed.  Temporary?  Probably.  True?  Indubitably.  Sometimes life is just paradisaical, and I hereby say I'm grateful.

The Cliffs of Insanity

Last Friday was a holiday. Bless it ever.

I'd just finished popping Costco samples into my mouth when I received a text from Jeff offering 2 recreational options for the day. One of these was cliff jumping with some wardies.

Now, I am no daredevil, and I came to terms LONG AGO with my criminal lack of hand-eye coordination. I don't really know why I thought this would be a good idea, but even as those samples were breaking down in my stomach I was strapping on my handy swim suit and meeting up at the Villa with the rest of my compatriots.

I will spare the internet the details about how we got to this little jumping spot, but after we hit the sand we climbed a bunch of this and that and I almost ate it 43 times and needed help from muscley arms every step of the way, and then Brandon Brown started telling stories of the last time when he almost died and there was high tide and I thought to myself, "WHY do I get myself into these situATIONS?!" and then when we got around the "mountain" wall, we arrived at the glorious spot of shore right across from something like this:

Awesome. So after much hemming and hawing and some more muscley help and swallowing far too much ocean water and getting a wee scrape up my wee shin and climbing up the mountain wall and thinking every 8.2 seconds, "I'm going to die, and I'm going to die in my BATHING SUIT!", it was my turn to jump so I remembered the lesson I learned when I got bamboozled into going sky diving and bungee jumping: "Just jump before you have a chance to think about it." Somewhere in all that I decided that this was the best thing I could have done that day. It was so much fun.

The end.

Drenched in Loveliness

Do you know why I like a Bridal Shower for Sarah?

1. Oh wait; before I start I'm supposed to say, "In no particular order..."

1. Bruscetta. OOooh just typing that word gives me goosebumps.
2. I love Sarah. She's the loveliest one I know.
3. I love Harry. And after getting to know him as the Source of Sarah Happiness that he is over the last 2 years, I feel I am actually able to say honestly that I do. I love my family, and scrutinize very thoroughly the potential additions. I am all for this one. Spirit fingers and all. I say to him, "Welcome to the Easily Amused Club." He and Sarah are a perfect match.
4. Bruschetta.
5. Watching Sarah blush over opening a certain gift. Ahem.
6. I got to see a heap of people I grew up with and only wish my brain weren't so fried from work; my life-of-late story that I told over and over was increasingly condensed the deeper into the evening I lived.
7. The lady in the picture below (that one with the raven hair):

and I love this picture above because it gives you all a fright, doesn't it.  No, no, I'll have you all aware right now that baby carrier is NOT belonging to the bride and groom.  It's Tiff Gates Conley's DARLING baby Brooklyn's.  But Sarah, being the guest de honor, got to have the baby close at hand at all times.

July 25th, they ride off into the proverbial sunset.  I couldn't be more pleased.

Boo ya.

Manly gathering

Tonight was my friend Zach's "Manly Bday Party." Lots of sugar. More creatively endearing than your 3-year-old Halloween costume. Good job, Shavs.




This is me taking pictures of the glorious, flirtatious crowd. I'll expect no fewer than 73 nuptial unions to arise out of this bonding over brownies and diet coke. Boo ya.



I may or may not have blogged this entire post just because that Mike on the left said, "Oh man, you are SO addicted to your iPhone, Merz." I had no choice but to start blogging then and there from my telephonic device.

Boo ya.

-- Post From My iPhone

Of parades and sandboxes

I'm coming to you live from 17th street in huntington beach on this our nation's b day.

People go nuts here for it. The entire single adult population from the general Gilbert/mesa AZ area has poured into the 92648 zip code for the festivities. We've done the parade thing and now I'm inviting crispy skin into my future by baking and basking in the summer sun.






Coming up next: I will tell a tale of cliff jumping on the 3rd of July that will bring you and my mother to tears.


-- Post From My iPhone