The wedding was fabulous, the honeymoon was wonderful and now it’s back to real life as a married couple. I haven’t knitted since the Olympics, I think. I start teaching on Tuesday, so I’ll be back to knitting very quickly. I’ve even had a request to teach knitting to a local Girl Scout troop. :)

So you’re probably wondering, did I or didn’t I change my name. Well, about four days before the wedding. I figured out what I wanted to do. I kept telling everyone that I hadn’t made a decision, but I didn’t want to tell anyone before I told Bryan. And I didn’t tell Bryan until after the rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding. I really enjoyed keeping everyone in suspense - would I change it completely or would I hyphenate it? I read on indiebride.com that one woman just made her maiden name a second middle name. I thought that was a grand idea, so I could keep my middle name that I love and still hold onto my maiden name. So I decided to instead of hypenating it and making it complicated for everyone trying to figure out what my last name was and constantly getting incorrect mail, I would just have four names. So now I’m officially Erica Voell. :)

It still feels weird to call Bryan, my husband. I know it will feel weird for a while, but I’ve had a few people correct me when I’ve said “my fiance.” They’ve said, “Don’t you mean, your husband?” It just seems really funny to be calling him my husband after being my fiance for 19 months and 4 days. (So I’m being a bit technical here, but hey I’m allowed to do that, it’s my blog!) The first time we had to acknowledge to people we don’t know that we’re married was when we were getting our rental car in Nova Scotia, on our honeymoon. Bryan asked if we needed to pay to add me as a driver and the woman asked, “Is she your wife?” Bryan hesitated for a second and then said, “Yes.” I think we were both a bit taken a back for a second there. We had been married two days and we weren’t used to the whole wife and husband thing yet. The first time Bryan introduced me as “This is my wife Erica” was at the Lunenburg Inn when he was introducing me to one of the innkeepers.

I would love to write more now, but I need to go. I’ll try to write more later today or tomorrow.

Thank you to all of you who wrote me very nice notes! :)

Whoa, two posts in one day! I still can’t concentrate today at work. The photographer at the wedding gave my mom all of the rolls of film that she took because the photog was going to a conference and didn’t want to have to worry about our photos. So my mom got them last week and FedEx’d them to me and they’ve already arrived at my house. I can’t wait to see them!! So I’m having trouble concentrating because I really want to see the photos! Darn meeting kept me from going home for lunch. :(

In addition to the photos and just being back from my honeymoon, I have to take George to the vet today. Warning: There are kitty bad habit references ahead, if you have a weak stomach or just don’t care to hear about my naughty cat’s new bad bathroom habit, please skip the rest of this paragraph. He’s been a very naughty little cat since we left for the honeymoon. The day after the wedding, we came home for just one night so that we could catch our early flight from Chicago to Nova Scotia, we didn’t want to fly out of Kansas City the day after the wedding at 6:30am. George adopted an old bathmat we were going to throw away about a year ago and he’s slept on it almost every night since adopting it last fall. The night we were home, George left a surprise on his mat in the hallway. So we cleaned it up and left for the airport thinking George would be the good kitty he always is when we leave for several days. When we came home, the pet sitters left a note saying that the kitties had been very needy. Based on Chloe’s current condition, I know that George was the very needy one! Not only did he manage to completely soil his mat, but he also used the bathmat in the bathroom and the plastic bag that the pet sitters put over the spot where George’s mat used to be. The mats were so bad that we ended up throwing them out. George has been very angry at us for throwing his mat out. He was yowling last night after we went to bed and I thought, maybe if I put a towel down for him he’ll sleep there and forget about his mat. But NO! He managed to make a mess of the towel this morning. I am at my wits end with him. I’m so lost on how to handle this kitty. He’s a very demanding cat to begin with. He demands attention and expects to be fed on his schedule by Bryan. If I feed him, he’s not happy, Bryan must feed him. So there is trouble in the Voell household with the Georgey-cat. I hope the vet can help me solve this behavioral problem with him, we’ve used up so many paper towels!

So I must get something done today. Thank goodness for a meeting at 2pm and then I have to leave at 2:45pm. :) Unfortunately, I just found out Bryan has to work until 6pm, so I have to wait until 6pm to see the wedding photos! Oh, the excitement is going to make me crazy!