Greetings from...

[5LD]

Congratulations!
Wishing you a lifetime of happiness together!

[SportsFan68]

Congratulations!

I'm glad everything turned out so well, especially for the bambina.

[a1mamacat]

All the best to you

[MarleysGh0st]

...a married woman. A ball and chain. An old lady.

Congratulations!

Great story about your trip! If you had made guessing your destination into a Bored game, I'd have guessed some tropical Pacific island, but I'd never have thought of Sardinia! Sounds wonderful, even if Nina is deeply disappointed by us indifferent Americans from now on.

[ne1410s]

Great account!!

Best of luck to you and yours.

[hermillion]

Many congratulations to you! Your story was lovely, and I'm incredibly jealous.

(Let Nina know that I am a First Class Baby Wrangler, and I would be delighted to wrest her from your arms and give her all the snuggling she needs!)

[moonie]

I think travel writing is in your future! (I'd buy 'The Complete Travelogue of MMFF" if it was in Barnes and Noble)

All the best to you and yours!

Moonie

[elwoodblues]

I wonder who I gotta talk to to get myself put on the No Fly List.......?

lb13

All you have to do is take your box cutter to the airport with you.

And congratulations MMFF and NN. May you have many happy years together.

[WheresFanny]

I wonder who I gotta talk to to get myself put on the No Fly List.......?

lb13

All you have to do is take your box cutter to the airport with you.

And congratulations MMFF and NN. May you have many happy years together.

I'm sure that box cutter will be fine. It's the nail clippers and the crochet hook that's going to get him.

[Bob78164]

Congratulations! It sounds like you have wonderful memories of your wedding day that will last a lifetime. And that, of course, is how it should be.

I'm so happy for you. The Naughty Norwegian is a smart guy. --Bob

[Catfish]

Best Wishes to the three of you!!!!
Love,

[takinover]

Congratulations

[christie1111]

I wonder who I gotta talk to to get myself put on the No Fly List.......?

lb13

All you have to do is take your box cutter to the airport with you.

And congratulations MMFF and NN. May you have many happy years together.

I'm sure that box cutter will be fine. It's the nail clippers and the crochet hook that's going to get him.

Snort, LB with a crochet hook!

That is really funny!

[Estonut]

Snort, LB with a crochet hook!

That is really funny!

Is there such a thing as a crotchety hook?

[minimetoo26]

Snort, LB with a crochet hook!

That is really funny!

Is there such a thing as a crotchety hook?

Sure! Andy Rooney used it so much, it became his crotchety schtick......

[littlebeast13]

Snort, LB with a crochet hook!

That is really funny!

Is there such a thing as a crotchety hook?

Sure! Andy Rooney used it so much, it became his crotchety schtick......

Now I'm sure I have a crotchety hook somewhere......

lb13

[NellyLunatic1980]

Well, we could definitely use lots of good news around here. Congrats on everything, Amanda!

[silvercamaro]

This is lovely, lovely, lovely! I am so happy for your beautiful family. May you share great joy for many decades to come.

In your honor, I will play my favorite Christmas song, the Norwegian National Anthem.

Sure, I know that it's not supposed to be a Christmas song, but every time I hear it, I want to sing, "Deck the halls with boughs of Norway."

[Beebs52]

Congrats and best wishes and all the very best to you and your most excellent family. You can't go wrong with the Norskies! (I'm half.)

And he can't go wrong with you!

Your babe is a beaut.

[dodgersteve182]

Are you back flying international routes these days? Congrats on all, see that nice girls do really finish first!

[mellytu74]

What wonderful news!

What a wonderful story!

I am so happy for everyone.

[secondchance]

What an epic adventure- - congratulations and best wishes!

I remember hearing Audrey Hepburn describing the beauty of Sardinia once in an interview. It's been on my "one day..." list ever since.




(see ya in Vegas, lb)

[marriedmefliesfree]

Congrats to you and the NN! I'm glad to see the passport issues resolved themselves.... sounds like it was just as awesome and memorable as you had hoped it would be....

It was great...as for the passport and documentation issues. OY VEY. The hoops one has to jump through to get married in Italy are very daunting, and getting them done was an adventure in its own right. We had to get certified copies of our birth certificates and NN's divorce decree with apostilles (basically a certification that tells other countries that the document is legit). To get an apostille, you first need the certified copy...then you must get it notarized...then get a stamp from the head notary peeps that the notary in question is in fact a notary in good standing. THEN take all of that to the state's State Department for some other official seal.

For NN's, it meant that he had to fly up to NYC and back in a day. He did that, only to find out that in NY one must also get the vault copy of the birth certificate and some special 'letter of exemplification'. This cannot be done in one day. But his trip wasn't in vain. He also went to the Norwegian consulate to get an official letter explaining his name change (which turned out not to be enough to convince the Italians anyway..), but while he was there it was discovered that Norway still thought he was married. Yikes! Luckily we'd just gotten the apostilled copy of his divorce decree the day before, so I FedEx'd that to the consulate.

Getting my birth certificate required going to Nashville. The flight sched didn't work, so we drove down, figuring we'd just find a hotel once we got there. We rolled into town around 10pm. NN went into the first hotel we saw downtown and asked for their rate. "Umm...you want a room? Really?," said the desk clerk with a confused look. "Well, yes...you are a hotel, are you not?" She laughed. Not with him. At him. Turns out that the Country Music Awards would be held the following night, just around the corner. The desk clerk said fat chance of finding any room anywhere close for any amount of money. Lucky for us, we got the last over-priced room at an Extended Stay Suites place just down the road. Getting my documents the next morning proved to be a hundred times easier than it had been for NN in NYC....so basically we drove many, many hours to spend all of 10 minutes getting my birth certificate. But we did make an interesting pit stop on the way back. I don't know if anyone other than The Confessor will remember, but about a year or two ago I wrote about considering making a trip to a hokey little museum that my biological father's family owns. I didn't realize that it was on the way, but turns out it was just off the interstate we were taking. We stopped there on the way back. It was...interesting. There were ginormous oil paintings of the whole family on the wall of this place. I have to say that the resemblance was so great that I felt very conspicuous even looking at it. The guy who runs it (not related) was standing with us, chatting, and I really think he noticed it too.

We thought we were good to go with our documents all in order, but the next step proved to be the most difficult...getting an appointment with the Italian consulate in Detroit. We had to go there, with two witnesses, to perform an Atto Notorio. Basically an affidavit attesting to the fact that we are who we say we are and that we are free to marry each other. The consul was not sympathetic to our short time frame, nor to NN's name issues, but we greased the way by meeting with the honorary consul here in Cleveland.

Think it's over yet? Noooo. We had to basically do the same thing in Rome, called a Nulla Osta. But we had to get a tax stamp first. From a tobacco store. And take it all to a local magistrate for yet another seal of approval. And THEN! A meeting with the local mayor in Sardinia.

*whew* The upside is that after all the work it took to get it done, there is no question that we really wanted to marry each other.

And it looks like Nina the Bambina already has logged more miles than I will in my entire life......

Well...you could always start with Vegas.

MMFF will be honored to have her thread hijacked. Besides, the on topic posts will start back up as soon as I go to (Which will be very, very shortly).....

I am, and I expect nothing less!

I think travel writing is in your future! (I'd buy 'The Complete Travelogue of MMFF" if it was in Barnes and Noble)

It may be...but perhaps not in the form you might guess. I've got a project in mind....

Sure, I know that it's not supposed to be a Christmas song, but every time I hear it, I want to sing, "Deck the halls with boughs of Norway."

haha! I'm just so glad I'm not the only one who thinks that! The first time I heard it, I started to wonder why they were playing a Christmas song in May...

Are you back flying international routes these days?

No, I'm still on maternity leave until June 1st, 09! Not sure what I will fly when I go back....I want to drop down to just one trip a month, so it will just depend on my seniority.



********
And to everyone else, thank you for the well wishes and congrats! It was a whirlwind trying to pull it together so quickly! Once we finally made a decision about where, the when could not come soon enough. Some of you may remember my queries back in the day about how you knew your spouse was the one....I just couldn't figure out how I was supposed to 'just know'. Clearly, with TickBoy, I just didn't know. The more a "just know" now, and I do, the better I understand.

*smooches* to all, and happy holidays!

[TheConfessor]

I don't know if anyone other than The Confessor will remember, but about a year or two ago I wrote about considering making a trip to a hokey little museum that my biological father's family owns. I didn't realize that it was on the way, but turns out it was just off the interstate we were taking. We stopped there on the way back. It was...interesting. There were ginormous oil paintings of the whole family on the wall of this place. I have to say that the resemblance was so great that I felt very conspicuous even looking at it. The guy who runs it (not related) was standing with us, chatting, and I really think he noticed it too.

MMFF, I hope that museum experience was worthwhile and non-traumatic for you. I guess it was just an incidental stop on a much more significant journey. Congratulations on making it legal with your old man, and doing it in a memorable style.

Also, thanks for the Norway tips. I forget whether I gave you a detailed report, but it was a fun trip. Highlights included seeing "The Scream" at the National Gallery, riding the train and the fjord ferry at Flam, seeing the Oslo City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held, and driving to Sweden to spend a day and a night in the town of Ed.

I also saw Frogner Park in Oslo, with all the outdoor sculptures by Vigeland. I couldn't help thinking of you all the time I was there, because I thought it must have been where you got the avatar you used during your pregnancy. I never did see that specific statue, but I might have overlooked it somewhere in the park. Or maybe it was just a coincidence, and there was no connection. Was my speculation accurate?

[marriedmefliesfree]

MMFF, I hope that museum experience was worthwhile and non-traumatic for you. I guess it was just an incidental stop on a much more significant journey. Congratulations on making it legal with your old man, and doing it in a memorable style.

Thanks for the congrats! The museum thing was definitely not traumatic, but it was kind of weird. It was a random weekday, and it was clear that the 3 employees there were surprised to have a visitor. They chatted with us for quite a while, showed us some stuff in the back that wasn't on display, that sort of thing. They kept looking at me rather oddly and asking how we'd come to stop by...and totally volunteered quite a bit of personal information about the family without prompting. It was a bit surreal. When we were standing underneath all of those paintings and talking to the dude, I was so tempted to shock his knickers off and say something. I mean, I'll never see those people again so why not? But my good manners got the better of me, I guess!

Also, thanks for the Norway tips. I forget whether I gave you a detailed report, but it was a fun trip. Highlights included seeing "The Scream" at the National Gallery, riding the train and the fjord ferry at Flam, seeing the Oslo City Hall where the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is held, and driving to Sweden to spend a day and a night in the town of Ed.

I also saw Frogner Park in Oslo, with all the outdoor sculptures by Vigeland. I couldn't help thinking of you all the time I was there, because I thought it must have been where you got the avatar you used during your pregnancy. I never did see that specific statue, but I might have overlooked it somewhere in the park. Or maybe it was just a coincidence, and there was no connection. Was my speculation accurate?

I'm glad you got to see some sights...and I hope you had a chance to sample some aquavit! How'd the trivia part go? The Scream was still on the lam when I went to the National Gallery...I need to go back one of these days now that it's back home. The fetus avatar did come from the Vigelandsparken. I don't know if you noticed the little round patio type area near the creek, below the large bridge...that's the beginning of the series, where it all starts. That's where the fetus is, in position.