 Home Sweet Home
Just wanted to come in and say that I am home sweet home. Vegas was beautiful, even though we spent most of the time indoors. My mom cried at the wedding which was such a non-event. We got hitched at the Chapel L'Amour of the Little White Wedding Chapel fame. It was less than $500 out the door, I even wore a new dress. Mike's dad was there as the best man because Jay ended up not being able to extend his leave.
Oh, after we left the wedding, we took the parental units around Vegas to see the sights. The limo driver was kind enough to let Mike's Dad watch the flights taking off and landing at McClaren and he even drove by Wayne Newton's place. My mom was suitably impressed by that.
Yesterday, we spent most of the day at the strip. While I was playing 21 with my brothers and Mike's dad, my mom decided to play slots. She hit the jackpot and walked out $35k ahead of the game. She is going to take the money and go back to Europe for about 6 months, she thinks. My mother hasn't been back to Ireland since she was 6 or 7 when she moved to the States. I'm really happy for my mom because she never does anything for herself. She is always thinking of us kids, or the grandkids. I think if all of us hadn't been there when she did it, she would have divided it up and sent it to us. But we all decided not to take anything from her!
All in all, it was a nice vacation and it was the best wedding for us. Mike and I are not pretentious people and I can't imagine planning a huge wedding for us. As it was, with ten extra people, it almost seemed too big. The only person I wish was there was my dad, but then I was always Daddy's girl. I know he was there, though, even if it was only in spirit. My brothers did a good job of stepping up to the plate and filling the role. They even threatened Mike with severe bodily harm if he hurt me... Umm, I think if he had those intentions, he would have done it long before now. Mike was a little disappointed that his son from his first marriage couldn't make it either but then again, if I went into the whole story behind his ex, we'd be here for a week.
On a side note, as we were flying back to Austin, Mike asked me if I had any intentions of changing my name to fit his. I said that I hadn't really thought about it much, but as my first thought about it was to go with a hyphenate like we did with the two trolls-aka Mayhem and Destruction... He said he liked that idea because it showed a true partnership, so he's hyphenating his last name as well now. I'm sure the Army is going to freak out about that--Oh well.
As soon as I get some sleep, I'll post the pictures of the wedding. I just want to sit and watch something really stupid on TV that requires no thought. I have to grade tests tomorrow so I can be ready for class on Monday! | 
AART 
EIZER
