Shower me with your love...

This past weekend, my mom, sister and I headed to the Chicago area for the joint bridal shower Jim's mom and sister were throwing me and Jim's brother's fiance. We had a great time! This was just the distraction I needed. You see, the medical fiasco is still ongoing. I need to go back to Toronto in a week for EVEN MORE chest x-rays. I am still worried that this could ruin our wedding, but this weekend I chose not to dwell on that.

After some shopping along the way, we arrived at our hotel late Friday night. We were all tired, but awoke on Saturday ready for a full day. Jim drove down from Minnesota Friday as well, and he came to pick us up to go and pick out the tuxes for the wedding. This process was pretty easy. We quickly decided what we wanted and I am confident all the guys in our wedding party (and Jim too!) will look great on our wedding day.

Next, we went to the hotel where we will be holding our reception to meet with the new wedding coordinator they have. We picked chair covers, and got any last minute questions we had for her taken care of. Then, it was on to lunch. We ate at the restaurant where we will be having our rehearsal dinner. We will be having some great deep dish pizza so we needed to sample it, of course.

After that, we headed to church. Jim and I had to get all of our forms taken care of for the wedding. We also needed witnesses to attest to our competancy to be married. My mom and sister were my witnesses and Jim's parents were his. The priest led us all into a 'holding room' and called each of our witnesses in one by one. Then, Jim and I got to go together but of course were seperated for the big questions. After we were done with all the paperwork, we headed for dinner. We went to the Olive Garden. It was yummy!

After a long day, we were all exhausted so we made sure to get some good rest for the events of the following day. I awoke Sunday morning very early to head to my hair and makeup trial. I was excited about this! I wanted to see what they would do with both of these. I know that my hair is going to continue to grow, so the hairstyle I had that day, was not necessarily the same hairstyle I would have on my wedding day. This was actually a good thing, since besides the shower, we had arranged to get our engagement photos done on Sunday as well. My hair and makeup was actually done pretty quickly. Both took just a little over an hour. I headed back to the hotel and got ready for the shower, then my mom, sis and I headed to the restaurant where the shower was to take place.

I loved the shower! This was my first ever shower! It was so much fun and so much thought was put into it. It was so nice of Jim's mom and sister to put so much time and effort into the shower. It was great to be able to share this shower with Hedda, as well. It was also great that my friend Claudia from Catholic Match was able to come. I hadn't seen her in awhile so it was great to catch up. Jim and I received so many wonderful gifts and it was so overwhelming to know how many people love and support us.

After the shower, we got ready for our engagement photos. Our photographer was supposed to meet us at 6 p.m. and even though we waited for over an hour she never showed up. I was really upset. Luckily once we returned to Jim's parents house, Jim's brother mentioned he has a great camera and would snap some photographs if we wanted.  They ended up looking really good. We decided instead of trying to find another photographer at a later date to just go with these pics. Here are a few of them:

All in all, even despite the little snafu with the photographer, we had a great weekend! Stay tuned for even better pics taken at this photo shoot in the near future! :)

Doctor, Doctor....

 Last weekend I headed to Toronto for my medical that is required for immigration. I still find it crazy that I had to go all the way to Toronto for a medical, but c'est la vie. My mom and I headed up to Toronto Sunday afternoon. My appointment was scheduled for anytime between 7:30 and 9 a.m. on Monday. We got a hotel that was about a 10 minute walk to the medical building. We had a pretty uneventful drive to Toronto and the traffic was manageable and we made great time. We got there in less than 4 hours. We ate dinner at the Pickle Barrel restaurant (my mom loves this place!) and then we checked into our hotel. The hotel was not a 5 star by any means, but it served its purpose.

Once we were settled, we took the 10 minute walk to go and find the building where I needed to go early the next morning. We found it easily. We relaxed in the hotel room and aside from a toilet overflowing and having to move to a new room, it was a nice uneventful evening. I set my alarm for 6:15 a.m. Thanks to the visajourney site I belong to, I knew that if you get there before 7:30 they will process you early. I was up and ready to walk out the door by 6:55 a.m. After the short 10 minute walk, I arrived at the building. Almost immediately a woman came up to the door and asked what I was there for. I told her my medical for immigration. A guy walked up as she was talking and she asked him the same question. She is the receptionist for the doctors office and told us to follow her upstairs. We went in and since I was the first one at the door she started processing me. I handed over my passport, my passport photos my 350 bucks (300 for medical and 50 for them to courier it to me!!) signed some forms and then she brought me to an exam room. She told me the nurse would be in soon to take my vitals (height, weight, blood pressure etc.) Almost immediately the nurse arrived. She was really nice. She had me sign another form. She then told me the doctor would be in shortly. At 7:30 the doctor came in and he was very nice. He had me sign some more forms, looked over my vaccination records to make sure they were up to date (they were!) and gave me back my passport that I gave the receptionist. He asked me some basic questions like "Do have any chronic illnesses?", "Do you smoke?", "Do you take any medications on a regular  basis?", "Have you had any major surgery?", "How is your mental health?" etc. Then he checked my throat, glands, and breathing. He made small talk while he was doing all this asking me where I was moving to in the US and why I was moving there (they do medicals for people doing many different types of visas). He congraulated me on my upcoming nuptials and told me the nurse would be back in shortly. She came back in and told me to go back to the waiting room where they would call me shortly for blood work.

The blood work is to make sure I don't have any STD's I think. I got called in fairly quickly and the lady had no trouble finding a vein. I then had to sign another form. After that, I had to go check in with the front desk and they gave me a map to the place I had to go for the chest x-ray. It was literally around the corner. I got there at 7:55 a.m. and they don't open until 8:00a.m. I waited the 5 minutes and was called in shortly thereafter. It was an easy x-ray and I was done and walking back to the hotel by 8:20 a.m. I stopped at Starbucks on the way back and was still back in the hotel by 8:30!

My mom and I then checked out, went for breakfast then headed to IKEA! :) While we didn't buy much, I managed to mentally purchase all the items that I thought would look nice in Jim's house. It is going to look great when I am done with it! :)We then headed back home. After a quick stop at a little country store my mom wanted to stop at, we were home by 4:30. I was glad my mom was able to come with me. It felt more like a vacation than a chore. We had a great time!

Unfortunately, the very next day, they doctors office called me. They told me that I need to repeat some chest x-rays before they could sign off on the medical. Even more unfortunately, I have to go back to Toronto to do them. So, this Monday I am heading back. I am not going to lie. I am worried. They won't sign off on the medical unless everything is ok with the medical. They are mostly looking for TB, but if they were to find something else I would need to prove it was nothing before they could sign off. My big worry now is that if it is something else, then all of that proving could take months! Months that I don't have to the wedding! So in essence, our wedding timeline could be in jeopardy. I am praying they will take these new views, see nothing and I will get the medical in the mail by the end of the week. I would appreciate some prayers if you could spare them, that all will be well. I will keep you all posted.