Mark & Tina's Wedding

It's been a little while since the big day, but I finally got my pics uploaded to my computer from Mark & Tina's wedding.

Their big day started off a little crazy with the fear of rain, but after some last minute changes to move indoors it all went well. It was still a big cramped.. ok, a lot cramped! Which 7 bridesmaids, 1 junior bridesmaid, 5 flower girls, & 7 groomsmen there wasn't a lot of room in my mom's house for guest to watch, but somehow we made it work. And then the sun came out for the party and we had a blast.

Mark looked amazing as usual all dressed up & Tina was very beautiful in her gorgeous dress. It was probably the most emotional wedding I've ever been too as everyone seemed to be crying. Tina was crying on her way down the aisle with her grandpa and the tears kept flowing the whole time. Soon EVERYONE was crying. It was like a bad soap opera but in a good way kind of thing. I even got a little teary eyed this time and let me just say that the only time I've ever cried at a wedding was my own.

And I have to say that the music was AMAZING. Some amazing chick.. aka me.. put together the best dance music ever plus she did a wonderful job of managing the untouchable mixing board as Cody was part of the wedding party and couldn’t maintain control at all times. Poor poor boy he was. To get a sense of the music energy of the day, here are some highlights: The bridal party walked to “Halleluiah” by Bon Jovi, Tina walked to “My Best Friend” by Tim McGraw and the grand finally after the ceremony was to "I'm to Sexy" by Right Said Fred. Yep, Mark just had to have that. I’m sure you can see why this set me to tears. ;)

Then there was the first dance to “You and Me” by Lifehouse, a father/daughter dance to “My girl”, & the mother/son dance to “A Song for Mama’ by Boys To Men. As a special tribute to Mark from Tina, her daughter sung a beautiful version of “Because you Loved Me”. But by far, the most enjoyable song of the night was “Enter Sandman” by Metallica. It was probably a dangerous choice due number of children in the room who almost got stomped to death and the fact that Mark ended up hurting his leg, but how was I too know that my family were so talented at moshing? Now that’s a wedding!

Hanging On... Just Barely

“President Bush said it's now time for a change in Iraq and he wants them to have a Western-style democracy like ours. So right now in Iraq, the economy is collapsing, businessmen are corrupt, and Hussein wants his son to take over as president. Sounds like mission accomplished.” -- Jay Leno

Like most American's these days my hubby and I have been glued to the TV watching the presidential debates, watching the stock market crisis unfold, watching the often hilarious comedy spoofs of our future elect. And although I find this stuff entertaining & often funny, I mostly find it VERY scary. Today it really hit home. Cody came home with bad news: he was laid off. No work. Something I've heard a lot in the last few years..

Yep, his boss went on vacation for 2 weeks in France & when he left all looked good. Coming back, all of his clients had pulled out. They can't afford the remodels due to the stock market. There is nothing on the books at all. No jobs. And these are clients in the Napa Valley & Bay Area with million dollar homes! Almost everyone is being let go, even employees who have worked for him for years. Cody already was laid off from 2 other cabinet shops in the last few years that had middle class clientele. These are upper class clients who make MILLIONS & now they can't afford it! What the heck is going on? Worse yet, where is he going to work now? We just moved last year to Ukiah for this job.

We can't sell our house as no one can get a loan, our renter left because she can't afford the rent 'cause she has no work, and now we are paying for rent in Ukiah & our mortgage w/ no 2nd income that we need. Thank goodness for our savings which already has been vastly depleted. It isn't like we can just go back to Cobb as there is NO work there. All 3 of the shops in Lake County closed. And of course this couldn't come at a worst time as we leave for Peru this month. What a crappy time to take a vacation! I'm just glad most of it is paid for already.

I know that Cody and I have been blessed and that we are still better off then most people even with him loosing another job, but I'm starting to think that maybe we could loose everything. I'm very angry about the US economy and that all this is happening. We can't even sell our biggest asset - our house - to go find other work in another town because so many people bought homes they couldn't afford, so many banks lent money they shouldn't have.

I know that we did the right thing, we saved our money, we invested smartly for our future, we didn't buy a huge $300,000 dollar home, we paid a huge amount down & have paid over 1/3 of our house off, we bought a small home and we upped it's value (it's still worth way more then when we bought it, we paid taxes, we have no debt except our house & a little bit on one of our cars, and yet we could loose it all because our government can't do it's job & because a lot of dumb corps & dumb banks, & dumb people in the US can't manage their money and they spend more then they should have. Everything that we have worked for could be lost and we can't do a darn thing about it. Already we've lost a ton of money from our IRA's & savings and now our best asset -our home - has become a liability. If we can't rent it out, how can we afford to rent someplace else?

We don't have the money for health insurance now either. If either of us gets sick we could loose all our savings & possibly our house. Both my brother & my sister owe over $40,000 for emergency health fees now. These days I live in fear that Cody or I'll need to ride in an ambulance or helicopter for some stupid accident and end up owing $60,000 or that the bank will call our house loan and we won't have the cash to pay it off.

I know that we will be ok and that my family will always help us, if they can. But it is scary and I am angry. I'm glad for a sense of humor though and that we have shows like SNL to make us laugh at this situation and lighten up this insane time. But I really have my doubts that anything, even the next President, could fix this mess anytime soon. And what are we going to do between now and then? And how much will we loose in the meantime?