A proper use for wedding magazines

Mr. T and I are settling into being an established engaged couple. We are growing more comfortable with terms like "future wife" (or husband) and do a lot of teasing like "yep, that's who you're marrying." At a party this weekend one of our friends declared, "I've made it a policy never to sleep with friends," and Mr. T and I leaned forward so that we could see each other and we both winked at each other at the same time.

I knew it was risky when we started to date. Really, there was no going back. And I'm glad. So, while I can appreciate the caution, I can't say that I agree with the rule!

Anyway, when we first got engaged, I bought some books and magazines, and one of my friends gave me about 20 more magazines. The coffee table became so heavy that it was difficult to move it. I tore out pages and put them in pretty file folders and became overwhelmed with all of the details the articles said that I just had to include. One day I just stopped. It was a little bit like waking up from being brainwashed. None of the details in these magazines, once I stepped back from them, seemed to have anything to do with me or Mr. T. I did appreciate some of the timeline stuff, but I don't think total immersion in the bridal machine is the way to go.

In a seemingly unrelated piece of news, we have two fireplace screens. One is a pretty stained glass one that I found at Tuesday Morning in Idaho that doesn't sit flush to the fireplace (which is constructed of lumpy bricks), and behind the pretty screen is the other, a plain black wire one that was in the apartment when we moved in. We had the wire one, which is flimsy and tends to fall over, blocked with a plastic Harry Potter bucket full of pennies. If we hadn't blocked the way, the cats would have driven us crazy getting into the fireplace and emerging all sooty--I tell you this from experience.

Mr. T has been rolling all our (mostly his) spare change for the wedding fund and the Harry Potter pennies have come up again and again. "But if we roll those pennies, what will we hold the fireplace screen up with?" we keep asking each other. Still, we couldn't have those pennies go to waste, right?

Last week it dawned on me. "Let's use the wedding magazines to hold up the screen," I told Mr. T. His eyes lit up and within a couple of days I noticed that the magazines had vanished and the pennies were in the process of being rolled.

I don't know what the solution will be once we decide to recycle the magazines, but for now, they're out of sight, and we're getting some use out of the pennies, finally.