One Year Ago

This is my first journal entry being married. I cleaned it up a bit but here you go!


12/17/07

I’m married!! I am sitting in Michael and my room on OUR computer to type this up. There is so much to write about so I thought this would be more efficient. Let’s see, so much has been happening since I last wrote. Michael and I finished painting the room. We painted it and then cleaned it out and moved furniture around. His parents bought us our first bed for a wedding present so we have that in here too.

Julie, Kelli, and Kristin through me a bachelorette party the week of Thanksgiving. It was really cute! They made shirts for all the girls who showed up and handed out marti gra necklaces and little plastic bracelets. The shirts had things painted on them like “sugar lips”, “honey buns”, “brides maid”, and my sister had a “maid of honor” one. Mine had “bride to be” painted on it and ugly lace on the edges, just to be funny. I wore a plastic tiara that blinked lights and said “bride to be” and a huge fake blinking diamond that was too big but I wore it on my pocket. Everyone wore bright pink or red lipstick. They decorated the cars we were driving with caution tape that said something like “wild girls” on it and a bunch of streamers and things written on the cars like “honk if you love bachelorettes” and “bachelorette party” and on my window it had an arrow to me and said “bride to be”. We drove to Buca de Beppo, which is a pricey Italian restaurant. We sat at a round table and the room was Pope themed so there were pictures of the Pope everywhere in the round room and even an ugly Pope statue in the middle of the table. It was fun to have a bunch of friends to celebrate with. Luckily the timing was just right so that a lot of my friends were home from college for Thanksgiving. The people that worked there had me stand up and everyone sang “going to the chapel and we’re…gonna get married..goin to the chapel of love!” It was really cute. Afterwards we went to Lisa’s house and played games and had a big sleepover for the first time in a really long time. It was also my last..but I’m okay with that!! So is Michael I’m sure!

2007 has been very eventful and I have grown a lot.

But that’s not all!! The week of the wedding was insane. I took my finals early the same week as the wedding and was very glad when that was over. People started coming from everywhere for the wedding. Savannah and Marina came(Elk Grove, CA), the Hubers (Elk Grove, CA), my uncle Marty(Arizona) and grandpa Showalter(Ohio), grandma(Arizona) and grandpa Turgeon(Canada), Steven(Taiwan),Brian(Sacramento, CA), aunt Marie(Washington) and I’m sure there were more!! Most of them stayed at our house too. We were doing last minute plans and the house was crazy. Thursday the 6th we spent most of the day preparing the stake center by setting up all the decorations. Savannah and I ironed all of the tablecloths and everyone helped with something. It turned out beautifully!!

A little side note…it was supposed to pour down rain the day of our wedding and so everyone’s prayers were focused on that too.

The morning of the wedding I got up around 6 in order to be ready for Barb to help with my hair and do my makeup at my house at 7. All the girls were in my parents’ bathroom doing hair and makeup. I felt sick to my stomach with nerves and so worried I would forget something. When I was finally ready, I drove with my parents, grandma Turgeon, and aunt Marie to the Newport Beach temple. It still hadn’t rained yet and I was praying that Heavenly Father could hold it back a little longer. When we got there I got to go into the Brides room with Michaels mom (Diana Thomas) and my mom and a temple matron. I got dressed and sat with Michael. We were talking about how we were excited and everything…ready to get the show on the road. I could not believe that it was really happening. Michael was totally ready and everyone was saying how they have never seen a happier groom! Then President Green came in to talk to us for a little while and prepared us some for what would happen. We walked reverently down the hall when we were told that our guests were ready and anxiously waiting for us. When we walked in, all eyes were on us. We sat down in our designated seats and listened as President Green spoke to us about the importance of what was about to happen. We held each others hands as we were pronounced husband and wife for all time and eternity. Right as we were married, the sun shined right on us. Then when we were told to kiss for the first time, the sun shined on us again. Talk about a miraculous moment! Not only was it not pouring down rain, God blessed us with the sun at that moment. It was a very beautiful ceremony and one I will never forget. We stood up on the side of the room and then the guests we invited to watch the ceiling hugged us and congratulated us. It was so beautiful!!

When everyone had left, we separated and went to get ready for pictures. I went back to the Bride room with my mom, Diana, and Barb (she did my hair and makeup and came in to help touch up). I put on my slip, wedding dress, veil, and shoes (I wore white converse and ribbons as shoelaces...actually I still wear them like that!). I went out and met Michael right before we went outside. It was fun to see his reaction when he saw me. He said my dress was perfect for me. I purposely didn’t let him in on what it looked like just so I could see his surprised reaction when I wore it the first time. We got our flowers and stepped outside. Normally Brides and Grooms can’t go out the front door because if they do, when the friends and family scream and clap for joy, the sound travels inside the temple and creates a disturbance of the spirit. So normally people go out a side door. But for us, since it was supposed to be raining (but it wasn’t!) they let us go out the front door!! It was really exciting to get to do that. Our friends and family were told about the sound problem of coming out that door so before we went outside someone told us they told them but that they are being silently joyful or something! We stepped outside and everyone was so happy!! It was so fun to see everyone there to support us and see us. We took a ton of pictures. People were cold because it was a little breezy but I was hardly cold at all!! I was so grateful it was not raining!

When we finished taking group pictures and people had dispersed to go to the luncheon held at Michaels grandmothers house (Mimi), Michael and I took couple photos around the temple. Our photographer was a lady from his (now our) home ward. We got a really good deal because she doesn’t do it as a living; she does it more for fun.

Then we got in his truck (which was a bit of a pain because he has a tall truck and I’m little and had a big ol’ poofy dress on!) and excitedly drove to the luncheon. By that point we were STARVING because neither of us had eaten much that morning due to nerves. We could hardly believe that we were married!! We kept saying “husband” and “wife” and stuff to try to get used to it. What a wonderful feeling!! When we got to the luncheon, it was a relief to be in a relaxed atmosphere. We sat and chatted and ate some food. When we were ready to go, we still had some time before we were supposed to be at the stake center for pictures before the reception so we went back to his house (now ours!) and got some stuff together for the honeymoon. We also started reading a book his dad gave him called “The Act of Marriage”. It was nice to have a little time to start getting used to our newfound freedom of acting as newlyweds.

We went back to my house right before we went to the stake center and got some of my stuff together and got ready to go. When we got to the stake center we took some pictures but not nearly as many as at the temple. My mom was running around getting last minute things taken care of like food and flowers. Our DJ was a friend of ours, Aaron, and he gave us half price on his services!! When guests started showing up, we got the line started. We seriously stood there from approximately 7-8. It was only supposed to be about half an hour and even after Aaron announced a 5 minute warning of cutting off the line, people kept coming. My back was killing me!! It was cool though that so many people came.

When the line was over, Michael and I had our first dance to “I’ll Be” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Then my dad and I danced to “Isn’t She Lovely?” by Stevie Wonder. Michael and Diana danced to a song by Celine Dion. Then we did the money dance where people lined up to dance with Michael and me. We made about 400 dollars from that! I don’t even care if people think that’s tacky, we made some mula for the honeymoon! It was also to try to get people up and dancing, but that hardly worked. We did the garter toss, which Tyler, Michael’s 18 year old brother caught! Then I threw my bouquet and Kristin caught it! What are the chances?! After that, we cut the cake and finally got a minute to eat something!! We were nice and didn’t shove it in each others faces. Maybe I would have if I wasn’t so worried about ruining my makeup or the pictures that would be taken! I know Michael said he was thinking about doing it. I’m really glad he didn’t though!

After we ate our cake, we tried to get people to get up and dance. The problem with that though is that I hardly dance, Michael doesn’t dance, and none of my bridesmaids dance either!! So it was a challenge to get anyone out there on the dance floor. At precisely 9 o’clock, Michael was pushing for us to take off, haha! So Aaron made an announcement that we were leaving. Actually, we left the room but then I needed to change back into my skirt and shirt that I wore to get to the temple. That was a challenge too! When we were actually ready to leave, we made sure to say goodbye to our parents and whoever else met us out in the hallway for last minute goodbyes. We couldn’t find Michaels dad (James) anywhere so we were walking to our car and then we saw him running to us with some baggies of food. He caught us just in time! And we had some food to eat on the way to the hotel!

We stopped by my house to get our luggage for the honeymoon, and when we were walking back out to the car we saw Bishop Clayton from Michaels (now our) home ward and his wife because they were dropping off gifts. We thought it was really funny that they were the last ones to see us off to our honeymoon. Bishop Clayton was purposely blocking the driveway where we were parked and Michael teasingly told him to move, lol. Then we were off to Ontario!! We had a hotel out there for the first night at a Double Tree Hotel because we were to fly out of the Ontario Airport the next morning. When we got to our room, there was a bag of cheese and crackers, a bulb candle, chocolates, Martinelli’s, and champagne glasses with a note from my mom. She had gone out there and dropped them off for us for our first night! That was really thoughtful of her. Unfortunately we didn’t have a bottle opener and the bulb broke on the candle but the cheese and crackers and chocolates were nice!! It was a wonderful ending to a spectacular and memorable day.

The next morning we got ready and went downstairs. We got to park for free at the hotel for a week and took a shuttle to the airport. The flights seemed incredibly long and we were more than ready to get settled in our beautiful suite at the timeshare that Mimi and Papa let us use in Orlando, Florida as a wedding gift.

When we got to the Orlando Airport, it was late and we looked up car rental places and made some calls. Since neither of us are 25 yet, it cost more for us to rent a car but we found a good deal with Payless Car Rental. They picked us up at the airport and we got a Nissan Altima. Then we drove to the resort and checked into our ROOMS!! We had two doors to get in. One side had a bedroom with a smaller bathroom and kitchen sink and dishwasher. Next to the bed was a couch and tv and there was a balcony. Then there was a connecting door to get to the other parts of where we got to stay. There was a huge kitchen area, a washer and dryer, dining table, couch and chairs, and a TV with a DVD player. The bathroom was separate from the room. It was HUGE! Then another door took you to a huge Jacuzzi bathtub for two and a counter that became my hair and makeup area. Then the bedroom had a good-sized bed and a TV with a chair that you could lay on. There was another balcony connected to this room too. The views from BOTH of our balconies were beautiful. There was a man made lake with a lit up fountain in the middle and a resort lighthouse across the lake. Close by was a large pool area and hot tubs. There was a restaurant/bar we ate at one night right next to the pool called the Copa Loca. When we ate there, there were Polynesian dancers who hula danced and there was a teenaged guy who showed us some different cultural dances from several Islands. They asked if anyone had been married within the month and we raised our hands. We were the only ones! When they had us come up to the front in front of everyone, he asked us how long we have been married. When he found out we were on our honeymoon, he sang a slow song and had us dance. Later on the guy who danced and one of the women hula dancers took Michael and I up there and put grass skirts on us and showed us how to hula dance. It was embarrassing and funny at the same time. Especially seeing Michael shake his whole body! When the show was over we made sure to take a picture with the main singer.

We went to a session with a timeshare consultant and he talked to us all about them and how much they cost. Even though we didn’t get one, we got 125 dollars of Marriot money just for going! We put that toward a week ticket to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. For both parks for a week, it was only 70 dollars altogether! Talk about a deal! So we went to Islands of Adventure on Tuesday, Universal on Wednesday, and on Thursday we went to the rides or attractions we missed and the ones we wanted to do again. On Thursday night we went to see the midnight showing of “I Am Legend”. It’s a really scary Will Smith movie! I was really glad that I didn’t have to go home and sleep by myself. On Friday we took it easy and that night we went to Medieval Times. It’s a dinner and show place that is pricey but really fun because everyone is selected a knight to cheer for during the competitions.

When we got home we started to pack up our things. On Saturday morning we checked out and then went to Denny’s for breakfast/lunch because we had some time to spare. We returned the car at Payless and then took a shuttle to the Airport. The flights were bumpy but somehow we were able to get little naps in here and there. When we got back to the Ontario Airport, we took a shuttle back to the Double Tree Hotel to get our car. We stopped by my house and got a bunch of things because I had not even started moving into our new room at his house yet. When we got home, it was really late and with the time difference, we were exhausted. We unpacked some and then crashed.

Sunday the next day was the first Sunday in my new ward and the first Sunday at church as a married couple. They announced me as Michelle Thomas in sacrament meeting! Michaels older sister, Tiffany and her husband Jarom and their baby Aubrey are here visiting from Nebraska for Christmas so this is a full and busy house! Last night Michael and I went to my parents’ house and opened our wedding gifts and cards. We got so much! We were really shocked with how generous people are. Even people we hardly know at all were very generous. We grabbed more of my stuff from my room and came back home and moved me in almost completely. Today is the first day that Michael is back at work and I can’t wait for him to get home.