Bridal shower – Xapa to the World

It’s official now. We got our marriage license! We drove over to the Butler County Courthouse Thursday morning (after I got some new glasses!), filled out our application, laid our cash down and then were quickly on our way.

If you are getting married in Ohio, here are the requirements (as of 4/2013):

Official US ID. Driver’s licenses work just fine.
$40 cash
Any divorce decrees

Since Matt and I live in different counties, I was concerned about where we needed to apply, BUT the lady said we could apply in either county. That was great! I don’t know much of anything about Warren County, but I’ve worked and been through and around the Butler County seat of Hamilton, so we went there.

It’s a beautiful, old building.

We sat on a bench that might have been there since the building was put up.

It creaked…and twisted, when we sat down.

I didn’t move much.

Matt had his pocket knife with him and we had to go through the metal scanners before we got into the courthouse. The deputy confiscated it from him until we were done with our visit. When we came back to the entrance, he was nowhere to be found. He must have cameras, though, because he soon appeared from a back room…with a toothbrush in his mouth. Fun times.

(Matt got his beloved knife back too…amidst our stifled laughter)

Thursday continued to be a busy day. We stopped by a friend’s restaurant downtown called Pappa Luigi’s. It’s fab. You should go…unless you don’t live in the area, and then you should travel here and go eat there. 🙂 Next door is a little shop called Jelli’s Fudgery. I bought some pizzelles and some fudge for Matt and I. He got the Dark Chocolate Rocky Road while I picked up some Inferno.

Doesn’t that look yummy? The ingredients say that there is Habanero powder mixed in. Love me some chocolate with some spice mixed in. Gives it a kick.

Don’t be fooled. This stuff gives you a kick, then punches you in the face a couple times, throws you to the ground and sits on your head while you are gasping for air…it might even pull your arm back and make you cry “Uncle.” Notice that only a smidge of the corner is missing. That little corner left Matt and me crying for some UDF shakes…which we promptly got.

After a little time we drove down to KY to meet our photographer. You can find more about her in this post. For now, I’ll just say that she’s awesome and I’m way excited!

We met at a Frisch’s and decided to grab our dinner there. I had a kid’s meal…then Matt wanted dessert. The waitress was so sweet and brought out two forks for us to share, but I never had a chance.

Someone gets a little excited about chocolate and ice cream.

Yep.

We stopped over at Florence Mall to do a little shopping. I found some cute things for certain people who are going to be in a certain big event of mine. Ahem. Also, we found a replica of the water tower nearby in the kids area.

Then, we almost got run over by a train…in the mall…twice.

The only rider was the man driving it. He seemed to be enjoying himself.

So, I wanted to share some fun things with you. I have a sickness, see? I mentioned before a sickness of buying Thank You notes. Ok, that’s legit. THIS sickness is that I like to read other artsy, creative blogs. Right now, I have five ladies that I follow. I get their latest post shot through my email to me and most days my eyes widen with delight, drinking in the wonder of their lives, and my heart whispers promises to someday be like them.

Ok, not exactly like them, but they are pretty fab – women of God, creative, and REAL! They don’t really sugar-coat anything and that’s refreshing.

I will share them with you now.

It started with:

I found Alisa on Pinterest and fell in love. Her photography urges me to run for the west coast, the deciduous rainforest of the northwest. *sigh* I really AM a gypsy at heart.

Then I found:

I’ve shared Meg’s shop with you before in this blog series. She is fab. Has a brood of kids that I can’t keep straight, lives in Kansas, loves sunflowers, has chickens and a dog named Waffle, and hosts a craft weekend for ladies all over the nation to come and create together. She loves Jesus too, and shares some raw stuff.

I stumbled on this blog mostly by accident.

This blog is very sweet and intimate. With Matt and my crazy schedule right now, this kind of communication has been an inspiration to us. We might not have a lot of time to say a lot, but we definitely have time to say a little, and sometimes that’s all you really need.

Now, this one:

I don’t really know how to describe her. She is quirky, creative, passionate, admittedly full of faults, and committed to striving forward. She emboldens me.

And the last one is a new find:

I’m still learning about this lady. She seems really cool though. I love her DIY home creations. She’s not afraid of a hammer and nails. Geez, she’s building a chicken coop with her dad! I’m enjoying this blog a lot.

Let me leave you with one thought, too.

Do you have a God-kiss? You might not know what that is…especially since I think I made it up.

I have several, but let me explain a little bit. Sometimes, often out of nowhere and very subtle, I will have an experience that will point my mind overwhelming to how much God loves me. I call it a God-kiss. It can be a sight, a sound, a smell, a touch, etc. Here are some of mine: cloud shadows, most anything yellow, fog, laughter, reunions, sunflowers, first times…

To go with the “most anything yellow,” I will share that we got a mesh bag filled with seed as a gift at our first shower. Matt put it up in te back, near the kitchen window. Since I don’t live there yet, it didn’t bother me much that the birds were taking their time finding it. But find it they did, and there has been a lovely little goldfinch couple enjoying the bounty of that little pouch. The other day, I was up and got to see them hanging on and pecking for the seeds. As soon as my camera came out, they flew off. Seems to be a trend for me. Red-wing blackbirds are notoriously shy of my camera.

The next day, Matt, knowing how much I wanted to have a pic of them, emailed me the following.

Isn’t he just the sweetest thing?! Yes, I mean Matt…of course! But that goldfinch is such a handsome little guy. I’m smitten, and so excited that we have goldfinches up at The House. I can’t wait to get up there and make it our home!

—————————–

I’m getting married to my, you guessed it, best friend on June 1st, 2013! Matt and I are super-excited and since we have quite a bit of time to plan this thing, I decided it’d be fun to blog about it. Well, maybe not always fun, but at least informative and it might give me a welcome distraction. You can find all the posts by clicking the “Getting Married” tab on the right of this page, or by clicking here. Thanks for stopping by!

My Pinterest Wedding Board

Our Wedding Website on WeddingWire.com

Getting Married: Countdown Post (xapatotheworld.wordpress.com)
Getting Married: 6 Weeks – Shower #1 (xapatotheworld.wordpress.com)
Getting Married: 7 Weeks – Postcards, Painting, and Spring (xapatotheworld.wordpress.com)
Getting Married: 8 Weeks – Workin and Weather (xapatotheworld.wordpress.com)

This last Sunday, Matt and I had our first wedding shower. I say “we” because it was at his church and since I’m still meeting people there and a bit hairy on faces and names, it made more sense for him to be there too. His lovely aunts, mom and some ladies from the church threw it for us. It was great! Here are some shots for you.

Talk about sweet! There were some other photos too for you.

Wall of photos of me and Matt over the early and recent years of our lives. We were both pretty cute kids.

We get to keep that frame on the left. I love it! Matt’s mom had it specially made for us.

We got so many great gifts. Several came off our registries, but some were extra and I loved them! We got some stone cookware from Pampered Chef, which I’m super jazzed about, and an appetizer tray with a compartment underneath for ice. How cool is that?! Lots of gardening tools too. I was quite a bit excited about the long-handled pruners and the hand-held ones too. What can I say, I like tools. One gift was entirely handmade, even the bag it came in! I love handmade things, being a handmade kind of person myself.

Can I even use these in everyday life?!? They’re so beautiful!

So many people were there too. Like I said, it’s Matt’s church and even though I’ve met a lot of people there, seen them at least once, and met most of his family, I had to stop introducing people to my mom and MOH after about 10. After we opened a gift, I wanted to make eye contact to thank them, but Matt was having trouble locating them in the sea of faces. It was great though. I was so touched.

Top: MOH Lanna and me
Bottom: Grandma Charles and her sister Mary

I was so glad that Lanna could come up to the shower. Of my clan, it was her and my mom who could come. No worries, in a couple weeks, it will be completely flipped with the bulk of guests being from my crew. Can’t wait for that! And Grandma Charles got to come up from Kentucky! And her sister Mary is one of the sweetest ladies. She gave us such a great gift of two rose bushes! They are already planted in a temporary home out front of The House until we get something set up for them in the back yard. I’m already planning on the gardens taking a good three years to get in any semblance of order. But oh! I’m so excited for rose bushes! My mom has some baby lilac trees growing in her garden and said that we can relocate one to The House. Can you say, “Woot!”? Go ahead, say it.

When we got all the loot back to The House, I wasn’t going to try to unload it all right away. But then I just couldn’t contain myself.

I pulled this out of its bag first, threw my flip flops off and ran to the bathroom. It immediately replaced the brown one that’s been in there and I stepped on it with my bare feet. So soft! Matt’s comment, “Huh…it’s thicker in some spots.” Oh, men…

In other news:

I love Thank You notes. Correction: I love buying them. Cute ones. I have a stock-pile. I thought this would be to my advantage, but it’s hard writing Thank You notes to people you don’t really know. I think I’m doing alright though. Matt says I am. He gets to just sign his name on the card without much more than saying, “I agree with everything you said. *big grin*” Lucky cuss.
.
This week has been an emotional roller coaster. I’ve decided that my world travels are a blessing and a curse. I love having gone to so many places and meeting so many people across the globe, but it makes it hard when something bad happens. My chances of knowing someone affected by it has increased dramatically. I’ve had to watch from afar as friends/family have gone through emotional turmoil, natural disasters, accidents, extreme weather, political uprisings (Egypt, Thailand, Bangladesh, etc), serious health issues and death, and terrorist attacks. This week has been an emphasis of the “curse” part. (I realize that’s a selfish way to look at it all…but since everyone is fine in the recent events, I feel at ease to introspection.)
.
Friday night, I was commandeered to help sing for a youth event at my church. Naturally, I commandeered Matt to help too. This was our sentiment of the evening.
.
.
I’m not really built for teens. But it was fun taking lots of pictures and vids of the kids doing goofy things. Some of the games were pretty fab. And there was ice cream afterwards…with chocolate chips inside. So yum.