Happy 2010!

Happy 2010, I shall call this "The year of Weddings!"

 (not mine..just everyone elses!)

I'm very much looking forward to the following weddings this year:

The Strassman/Leef's

The Longo/DiChino's

The D'Angiolini/Chalmers

The Todosow/Rodzianko's

Any more I should be aware of??

I hope everyone had a looovely Holiday and New Year's!

As of last night we have booked the church for our wedding! Chris and I met last night with Father Cunningham at St. Gregory the Great in Bellerose. Father Cunningham was a real nice, old man who made us both feel very welcome. Seeing as how I booked this appointment 3 weeks ago and right before Christmas, I prooobably should have called to reconfirm our appointment, but I didn't want to bother him and figured he must make appointments like this all the time. Well...he was a little confused when we arrived, he had forgotten to write the appt. down in his book, eek..whoopsie! But he was there in the office anyway and was available so he didn't mind meeting with us. We sat down to talk with him and went through all the neccessary paperwork and questioning. Name, age, birthdate, parents names, place of birth. We'd chit-chat a little, make small talk and then he led into the hard-core questioning:
"Do you plan on raising your kids catholic?" -sure "Do we have any mental or health issues?" - no "Have we ever been married before?" -no "Am I pregnant?"- no (I thought this was funny because they obviously want to make sure that we're not jumping into marriage before I have the baby. That would mean I'd have to be pregnant for the next 17 months) "Did I ever have children in the past?"- no "Are we both  above 18?" -yes "what's your age difference?" - 8 months "Are both our parents fine with this?"- as far as we know "Do we plan to remain faithful throughout the marriage?" -uh duh.... and so on and so forth.

I felt he was more "inquisitive" about my religious upbringing (or lack thereof) than judgmental about it, which was very refreshing. At one point, he asked me if I wanted to become catholic. I smiled, opened my mouth to speak and before I could say anything he jumped in and said "You're not ready. You need to do it on your own terms when you're ready and that's fine." Phew..I didn't even have to explain myself? This was going great!

I'd say the only thing he kept pressing was that Chris should go back to church more on Sundays. Which really, was harmless. Then, Father Cunningham told us about the In-Home Pre-cana Classes
Here is the wikipedia definition of Pre-Cana:

Pre-Cana is a course or consultation Catholic couples must undergo before they can be married in a Catholic church. The name is derived from John 2:1-12, the wedding feast at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus performed the miracle of turning water into wine.
Approaches to Pre-Cana vary among Catholic dioceses and parishes. Often six weekly sessions will be led by a priest or deacon with support from a married Catholic couple. Common topics include: compatibility of the couple, basic principles of Catholic marriage and family life (namely theological meaning of marriage), conflict resolution within marriage, rules the couple are expected to follow.

Honestly, I'm super pyched about Pre-Cana. Heck...I think that I personally should decide on who is allowed to marry and procreate in this world anyway (as in..actually be responsible for handing out licenses to those who pass my test and reject licenses to those who don't) Sooo I'm all for making an engaged couple go through a five week session before deciding to marry and perhaps one day procreate. If it can cause one less divorce in this divorce-happy world...then great! There is always room for improvement in anyone's relationship or marriage, so bring it on!
Let me explain...I realize we all have different religious or non-religious rituals/traditions/beliefs/ backgrounds/etc. But, I think it will be very interesting getting together with other couples who are planning to get married and just talk about "relationships". Those basic topics listed above are extremely interesting to me, with or without the religious aspects thrown in there: "Compatibility of the couple" "Basic principles of marriage and family life" "Conflict resolution within marriage" I loooove talking and learning about this stuff and as long as I take the religious components with a grain of salt (because that's what I need to do personally), I think that it will be an extremely interesting 5 weeks. If the classes end up being way more religious than I think and I'm the only "non" catholic and they all hate me and smite me....well, then I'll be humming a different tune. It's a little weird because we don't have to take Pre-Cana classes until Fall/Winter 2010 so that's a loooong way off before we even really do anything with the pastor and the classes. But you can bet I'll prob. have a TON of entries when they start up!


To end, I got this facebook message from my 9th grade english teacher two weeks ago:

"Hello Laura - My mom is keeping me posted via mailings of the latest happenings in the Lehigh Valley (I'm currently in NH). I just read your engagement announcement and wanted to send a Congratulations! I wish you both the best!"

What a pleasant surprise to hear from someone from so long ago. And who knew people actually read those engagement announcements?! Her mom must have seen that I graduated from Parkland around the time she was teaching there and sent it to New Hampshire. I love little reconnections like that, they make me happy.

That's all for now...I have lots to update on tomorrow regarding my dress dilemna and may also discuss my thoughts on being 25...what??!!