Goin' to the chapel..

• I got started on my centerpieces (take 2). I found some orange flowers that work, and I got some floating candles. This will be done for 3 of them, and the other 3 I had hoped I could use orange and lemon slices instead of flowers. That didn't work. They floated, and in the process of me trying to force them down, I turned the water all murky and pulp-y. 

• I FINALLY got my engagement ring back (and yes, as far as I know it is my original ring. And since I was already at the mall, and since I was having a shoe craving, I indulged. Please excuse my un-tanned feet.

• I got my wedding shoes! 

• My mom came home from church tonight and said, "I talked to your brother." Oh Lord. My mom asked how thing were going up there, and he said they were cooling off. My mom told him she would really like for my nephew to come to our wedding, regardless of whether they did or not. He said, "Just give it a couple more weeks and hopefully it will all just blow over. But Hilary said some nasty things to me, Mom." Exactly. He's manipulative, and here he goes again. I have written him two direct e-mails. The first one was rational and calm. Telling him that anything that happened was between he and I, and did not involve our mother. He wrote me back telling me I was arrogant and childish, and went on to be "nasty" as he calls it. I had had absolutely ENOUGH. I wrote back, angry, and I'll be honest, I might have been mean. But I didn't say anything that I didn't feel was merited by his behavior. My first paragraph was about him not accepting my apology. I apologized again, and included the fact that there were no "but"s in the e-mail, so anything that he deemed insincere was on his part, and all I could do was apologize. My next paragraph pointed out that I've done more in my 22 years than he has in his 41. He gets mad because my parents helped (not completely) pay for my college. Yet, my mom paid almost as much for him to go to motorcycle mechanic school 2 years ago (which he has yet to use). I told him that by not coming to my wedding, he was doing me a favor, because he brings drama EVERYWHERE he goes, and I don't want his drama at my wedding. Next paragraph, I told him to quit bringing up Leigh, because we both knew this was between he and I. I told him I was done with the e-mail battles. E-mails don't do anyone any good. And my conclusion was that I was through with the catty, dramatic, mud-slinging. That he had hurt my family too much, and I wasn't going to continue letting him do so. By this, I mean, he may some day be a brother that I am on speaking terms with, but he will never again be a brother that I let my guard down to. So, it may have been nasty, on his terms, but it was honest on mine.