Flash Back... Meet the parents

Flash Back... The LOVE Boat...
The Love Boat... Part deux...
Love Boat.. THE FINAL CHAPTER...

I have been thinking a lot about weddings this week. I am in the midst of making a slide show for my sisters rehearsal dinner... last min shower plans... (being in Norway I am a bit behind on the game). My sisters wedding is coming together text-book. She is the perfect bride to be. She had the perfect proposal, they are the cutest couple... & after a year of preparation she is going to have the PERFECT WEDDING... Alicia & Ryan have done everything right....
Makes me think back to when I told my parents I was getting married.... (promised I would finish the "how I ended up in Norway story"...)

After hubby proposed via telephone(he was in Norway... I was in LA) I called my MOTHER.. DiAnn. I don't remember her exact reaction but I think it was something like... "mmm hmmm... " ***Sound of chirping crickets***** "Mom, aren't you excited? I'm your first daughter to get married." Once again, I don't remember what my mother said... (I have probably chosen to block it out as a self defense mechanism.) I know she was neither HAPPY nor EXCITED... she thought her middle daughter had lost her mind.
To make a long story shorter... I called" hubby to be" in Norway crying.. telling him my parents were not happy about our getting married...(my Gosh, really can you blame them?)
NB ended up calling my mother and saying ALL OF THE RIGHT THINGS... he sent her a package of pictures of his family, his home, his dog etc... & promised my parents that if i wasn't happy in Norway he would bring me home. Then he booked a flight into KC to meet the P's. I quit my job with RCCL & flew home to start making wedding arrangements in NORWAY.
(mind you... never been there, didn't speak Norwegian & I had 3 months to get everything together...)
NB flew over to meet my parents. Mom & Dad loved him right off... (I still think my dad likes him better than he likes me) we had one week to pick invitations.. get our rings... get my stuff packed up & pretty much get me ready to MOVE TO NORWAY.

Because I was getting married in Norway, on very, very short notice... I missed out on a lot of all of the fun bride things... showers... registering for wedding gifts etc. During the weeks before I left for Norway my Grandmother did have an engagement party for me...ME ... by myself, because NB was in Norway... seemed perfectly nice at the time... but gosh wouldn't you have loved to be a FLY on the wall as the guests were getting ready to come to the party... (An engagement party sans fiance... "she has only known the boy a couple of weeks" " Wonder if she is knocked up?".. "poor DiANN & Bill... that Tressa has always been a little DIFFERENT.."
Same party, I remember talking to a few guests... bragging about my honey, when someone asked me what my last name would be... I proudly told them... with my practised Norwegian accent... My father munching on chips cuts in and says "that's not it..." Me: "What?" Dad : "your new last name, that's not it" ... me mildly MORTIFIED... say "ah yes daddy... that is going to be my last name..." Dad: "Well that's not how he says it..."
Can you I M A G I NE? Looking back now... in all fairness.. only 2 people asked if I was pregnant... the 1st... SEAN (college buddy... i wouldn't have expected less from him) the other CS when i spoke to him a year later.

Told you before, I am all about the double standards... My running off with some strange boy after 8 weeks is one thing... if Eva gabrielle .. or even Dane for that matter, tried to pull the same thing, I don't think I could be as cool/supportive as my parents were.