Relationships

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Getting Married: 9 Hours – Wedding Day

It’s finally here! I can’t believe we made it! I’m so excited and also so ready to be all finished with the prep, enjoy the party, and get on to the relaxing part. I might end up sleeping for the whole next week. I hope not though. Yesterday, we took everything up to the Barn for the reception and got it decorated. Then, we went on to the church and decorated there and had our rehearsal.

I’m not going to say much else. I wish that all of our loved ones could be here for our big day. There are so many who couldn’t make it because of distance, finances, prior commitments, health…whatever the reason, we love and will miss you all. And those who are coming, we are so excited to share the evening with you! Can’t wait to see you all there.

But mostly, I can’t wait to look into my beloved’s eyes today and promise my life to him and our lives to God. It’s going to be incredible and it’s going to be just the beginning!

We’ll see you on the flip side!!

—————————–

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

Related articles

 

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Getting Married: 1 Week – I’m Really Glad That…

This last weekend was my bachelorette party. In tradition of my bff-MOH, Lanna, I would like to style this post in the same manner of many of our conversations where most sentences, if not all, begin with the phrase, “I’m really glad that…” So, here it goes.

I’m really glad that I have one more week until the wedding!!! Eek!

I’m really glad that I have a small group of close friends who are willing to come out for my bachelorette party for as long as they can until their wifey-motherly responsibilities call them elsewhere. It is entirely acceptable and I am just glad to be wedged into busy schedules that I myself am captive to.

I’m really glad for pastor’s wives who are dear friends and mentors as well who are willing to throw brunches for an unknown number of ladies involved in the wedding. What a blessing!

I’m really glad for flower girls who come to said brunches and refuse to kiss my cheek but want me to catch them to kiss theirs.

I’m really glad for flower girls who interrupt their mommy’s stories to tell them, “Why did you say you were still eating? You’re not holding your fork…”

I’m really glad for practical married friends who give comfortable and realistic gifts at bachelorette parties. They were all very pretty too. It pays to wait to get married when you’re a little older.

I’m really glad that my friends will try new ethnic foods with me. Eritrean/Ethiopian food is so yummy and communal – sorry Emily for all the spices.

I’m really glad that I charged my camera all day to just not take it with me and that I only took this picture the whole evening.

week 1 girls

I’m really glad for the tradition of The Blind Lemon in Mt Adams.

I’m really glad for ordering a strawberry colada with alcohol this time.

I’m really glad for Virginia. (I can’t explain this here, but it wouldn’t be right to not mention it.)

I’m really glad that I did not actually witness Virginia, though. Poor Lanna and Amy.

I’m really glad for a very dear friend who gets visibly angry that she hasn’t seen the new Iron Man movie …and upsets the baby.

I’m really glad for dressy flip flops.

week 1 flips

This is what I wore for the night. Disregard the feet marks and general wear.

I’m really glad that Friday was my last day floating to the other Cincinnati branches for work. I will now only be in two branches and the second is within 10 minutes of The House.

I’m really glad for hole-in-the-wall, Tardis technology antique malls. This place was bigger on the inside!

week 1 antiques

Clockwise from top left: hand-painted table; beer mugs; cardboard Titanic; C3PO Mister Potatohead.

I’m really glad for vanity tables to rehab for only $38.

week 1 vanity

I’m really glad (this one is kind of hard) that I have such an amazing church. This Sunday is my last regular attendance there and it’s going to be really sad (not really glad), but I am trying my best to look beyond that to what God might have in store for us. I’ve left the church before, but that was always with the knowledge that I would hop a big plane in a certain reasonable period of time and be back. Please pray for me.

I’m really glad for a fiance who takes pictures of the flowers at The House for me to see when I’m not going to be up there for a few days.

Such lovely tickseed. Our wedding colors AND it's a native Ohio flower!

Such lovely tickseed. Our wedding colors AND it’s a native Ohio flower!

I’m really glad for pottery that turns out exactly how you envisioned it when you first put the glaze on.

week 1 pottery

It’s a piggy bank and he has a cute little red tail to match his wings. I think I’ll call him Stewart.

Did I already mention that I’m really glad that I’m getting married in a week’s time? Because I am…

I’m really glad that Matt and I are staying home for the week after to get used to The House and relaxing together.

I’m really glad that I have to work only three days next week.

—————————–

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

Related articles
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Getting Married: 2 Weeks – I Don’t Even Know

I don’t know what to call this thing anymore. I’m out of cute, funny or even informative titles for these blog entries. It’s a good thing we’re finally to 2 Weeks!

By the way, in preparation for the next phase of my life (our life…I have to use plural personal pronouns now, right? I’m no longer one person, yeah?), I have come up with a couple new categories for the blog. First, I have the “Making Home” category. I know the description says that I’m already married, but I just want to be ahead of the game. I’ve already added some posts to it since Matt and I really have already started making our home. I’m pumped.

Along with that one, I want to share the metamorphosis of the gardens and plants around The House. So, here’s Rose #1 (and Other Growing Things) because, who are we kidding, everything starts with roses, as much as I hate to admit it. There are already some posts in that category as well. We’ll see how it all goes. Hopefully, I’ll be more diligent about blogging after the wedding than I was before getting engaged. I am certain there won’t be a post every week like clockwork, just as often as I have something to share and can get it down for you.

Before we get going with too much other random stuff, I want to share another blog’s post with you. This blog is by a professional photographer and the post is about wedding guests jumping in front of the hired photographers, using their flashes and ruining special photos, and dictating the bride, groom, and party’s attention. I think it’s great! Having friends who are photographers, I have heard their angst about these situations, but I’ve never seen the failed photos before. There are some truly heartbreaking photos on this blog. Go check it out here. Ok, here’s one example from the site:

Oh, isn’t that awful?! I think this might even be just one camera flash.

Tuesday night, I finished up one part of the reception favors. So glad those are done! I’m thinking we will have quite a few left over, but that’s alright. I can just use the rest myself…while I eat our leftover cake. Yum! I won’t have to worry about fitting into my wedding dress anymore.

Which, by the way, we brought home on Wednesday. Everything looks great! We had a slight issue with the bustle. The hooks were a little too low so the train was still dragging, but they fixed it while we were there. We were out in no time and God even held back the monster storm that was warned to come in at the same time. YAY!!! We’re getting sooooooooo close!

I don’t know what else to put up here this week. My brain is a little frazzled and there’s a lot going on today. So, I will leave you with pictures of *ta da!* our garden!

IMG_20130516_205557

Enter impatiens and begonias

IMG_20130516_205916

Even the Right Garden bed got some pretties. We’ll see if it looks any better through the season this year.

IMG_20130516_204722

Whilst digging, I found a baseball. These gardens are teeming with strange things.

IMG_20130516_205353

Rose 1 Week 5. I wish it weren’t so blurry, but you get the idea. We cut out the big towering annoying bush behind it. Yay!

IMG_20130516_210014

I decided to take a picture of Rose 2 as incentive or encouragement for her to start growing now. We’ll see how it goes. She was covered previously by that big hosta in the back. I pruned it back a little. The begonia should enjoy its extra space.

Have a great week everyone!

—————————–

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

Related articles
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Getting Married: 3 Weeks – Shower #2

Are you nervous?

This is the question I’ve been fielding since the final month started. I can honestly say, I’m not nervous…about getting married. That part is not an issue at all. I am so ready! It gets harder and harder to drive up to The House that will be our home and then have to leave at night. And usually that 40 minutes drive is after Matt and I have been cuddled up on the couch watching a movie – the perfect activity to get you all ready to go to sleep…and then I have to get in a car and be alert and responsive. It’s much the same when Matt comes down to see me some evenings.

But, there’s light at the end of the tunnel! We took one more big piece of furniture from my room – my electric piano. Hey, it’s looking for a good home, if you know of anyone who might be wanting one. We haven’t thought out a price yet, but if you let me know, we can start negotiating. Good piano. Privia. I love it, except that we already have a piano at The House. And when only one person can play it, that’s all you really need, right?

Back to the question. No, I’m not nervous. I’m anxious. There’s a difference. But again, I’m not anxious about getting married. I’m anxious about everything getting done. Of people having a good time. Of things and people being where they’re supposed to be. I’m anxious about money.

I could try and soften it and say, “Oh, the Bible says not to be anxious, so I’m not. I’m actually ‘concerned.'” But for transparency, yes, I am anxious. It’s not an overwhelming anxiety, but it’s there. I’m not asking for comfort or whatever, just being honest. The extra attention embarrasses me. I know, I know. I’m putting it out there on a public blog, so I must be fishing for something. Nope, just being real.

Anyway, just wanted to answer the question for any of you who might be wanting to ask that question up there. Hopefully, we’re all straight on that.

Back to the post title.

SHOWER #2!!!!!

Yay! I was so touched by how many people came to the shower at my church. I know how crazy the end of the school year can get, and there were a good few who weren’t able to stay because of that wild schedule. You know, the local high school planned their graduation on my wedding day?! Can you believe it?! And then they had the nerve to plan the arts fair on my shower day.

I’ve been there too. I graduated from the school myself, and was frequently required to be at the arts fair, what with art classes and being in the orchestra. I miss playing in a large group setting, but I don’t miss the time commitment. Especially now that I have this huge time commitment of a wedding.

Everyone did a great job of the shower. It was put on by our ladies group and my two bridesmaids, er, matrons, er…that term is awkward.

This is the only picture I got of the shower and it’s not very good at all. I don’t know if anyone else took any. It was beautiful, delicious, and fun. 🙂

Week 3 07

My dear friend Amy, made all those yummy desserts. Which reminds me…

Week 3 06

For real

We got a bunch of stuff for the kitchen. I’ve been so jazzed about this kitchen. I can’t wait to live there. Can I please just be barefoot and…in the kitchen all the time? Baking…I could move my project room to the kitchen and then I could do all that stuff in the kitchen too. Ok, ok…I’m just kidding. But check out these colors.

week 3 kitchen

We also got these.

week 3 house

Those elephants are from my dad and step-mom and they’re two pieces with trunks that wrap around each other. Cute, huh? Matt was excited to have something to put together and right now, it’s housing the bedding we’ve received so far until I get up there with some clothes to put in it.

And then we will move outside, to my next favorite thing…probably my favorite right now because it’s so green and alive and I have so much hope for it.

week 3 garden

That’s an azalea flower on the left. Yes, we have a beautiful little azalea bush and I love it dearly. I talk to it and I think that’s why it decided to have just one bloom early this year because it knew I’d be happy.  Top right are the pink flamingos my nieces and nephew got us for the garden. We think they’re a hoot and are probably going to keep them out indefinitely…and put funny outfits on them when the kids are coming up to visit. Bottom right is Rose #1 at 3 weeks. She is so happy where she is, it’ll be a shame to move her after we put together the raised bed in the back, but it’ll be for the best. Rose #2 isn’t doing so great. I had to relocate her to more sunlight. We had a hostas that decided to throw its leaves all over the back of the garden and shade her from the sun. She wasn’t happy. Hopefully, we can get her back in gear.

Here is Rose #1 Week 4.

Week 3 17

Such a happy rosebush.

Oh, and I told you about how I planted some tickseed, right?

Week 3 14

We’ve got buds! So excited to see them pop out all yellow and red and bright.

I debated showing you some of the things I had worked on this weekend, but I think I will keep it all a surprise for you. Unless you follow me on Instagram and then you will probably already have seen it. So, I’ve got a bunch to get done. I will see you again next week!

—————————–

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

Related articles
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Getting Married: 4 Weeks – One Month Mark

We are under a month folks!

I can’t believe it.  As Mom says, “We’ve hit Code Orange-Red. Next week, we’ll be at Code Red.”

I had my second dress fitting last weekend. I forgot to mention that in the last post. They had to take in material at my back because I’m so short. The shoulders fit much better at the second fitting. However, my wonderful little (this time Brazilian) seamstress informed me that they might have to let it out because it was too tight. Have I really gained that much? Is it because I was working in the basement at work for so long and put on some weight? Can we blame the birth control for this too? Please?

I asked her if I walked around my block a few times a week and did crunches, would that be enough. She said, “You’ll be juuuuust fine.” (thick Brazilian accent)

She was great and actually knows/is family with, through marriage, a woman at my church.

My mom was out of town for this particular visit, so I called in Matt’s mom and aunt to come and be my designated adults. We stopped for Firehouse Subs before. Maybe that was my problem. Darn Firehouse…so yummy.

We had a good time. Nice time chatting. I haven’t had much, if any, one on one time with Matt’s mom so it was enjoyable to chat with “just girls.”

I’m watching what I eat right now. I’ve been doing crunches in the mornings and at night before I go to bed. I walked around the lake at a park near my work. I was severely distracted by the beautiful things though.

week 04 redbudweek 04 virginia springbeautyweek 04 white oakweek 04 ducks.

I love Spring. If only it loved me too. My eyes have been raging balls of fire this week.

Here’s a little something for you. I found the recipe on Pinterest. I don’t know if it’s really helping me lose anything. I feel like I have a bit more energy, though, and it tastes great!

week 04 detox

The original recipe calls for a pitcher of water – I think 2 liters, 1 apple thinly sliced, 1 cinnamon stick, and ice. I have my little 23 oz water bottle here from Matt’s work and decided I’d adapt it to my portion.

I filled the bottle 2/3rds with cold water (you should probably use filtered, but since I don’t care about tap water, I used that.) Dropped in the cinnamon stick and several slices of the apple (about half). Then, I filled the bottle the rest of the way with ice. Leave it in the fridge for about an hour and the flavor is incredible! I have only used red delicious apples so far, but I just bought some granny smith and I can’t wait to test that out.  Great thing is that you can refill the bottle about 3-4 times before the fruit and stick lose the flavor. The slices will stay nice and fresh in the water and not turn brown, so long as they are covered by the water. The pin says that it can last in the fridge for 24 hours. Oh, and munch on the rest of the apple while you’re waiting for the water to steep.

I love cinnamon. It does amazing things for your body. It’s zero calories too – boosts your metabolism, cleanses and regulates your blood. One of my favorite things is to have a piece of toast, drizzle raw honey on it and sprinkle cinnamon on top. It’s so yummy and I feel good after eating it. (You can click the picture above to go to the original link. You might get a warning that it’s a suspicious link. I don’t know why. It’s about the safest thing online.)

I don’t have much else to tell you. I have my second shower this coming Sunday at MY church this time. So excited for that. I bought these beauties in preparation.

week 04 stamps.

Yes, I’m one of those people.

I am hoping to get some things paid up this coming week too – our reception venue, cake, etc. Those are a big deal and not something we need to wait until the deadline of 2 weeks prior.

I’m also thinking ahead for some pretty things at The House. Namely, our lavender plants. 🙂 And tickseed (coreopsis)…and the strips of wildflower seeds that a dear friend sent me as a gift last year.  Why does it have to get cold again on the weekend when I can actually do stuff outside?! I want to get the garden to at least a mild form of chaos and then dial back from that after the wedding.

“After the wedding”…

That’s a glorious phrase.

We are so ready!

By the way, I’m not super concerned about losing weight. I tend to drop some mass when I just do a little more exercising. Probably won’t be that way for much longer, but right now, I’m grateful for it.

—————————–

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

Related articles

 

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Getting Married: 5 Weeks – Marriage License and Blogs

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.

IMG_20130425_125809Doesn’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.

IMG_20130425_173053Someone 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.

IMG_20130425_185428Then, 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.

IMG_20130425_101044Isn’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

Related articles
by

Getting Married: 6 Weeks – Shower #1

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.

week6 collage

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

week 6 shower photos

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

week 6 shower frames

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.

week 6 cutting boards

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.

week 6 shower people

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.

week 6 bath rugI 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.)
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  • 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.
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    week 6 throw down youth event.
    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.

Have a great week everyone!

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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

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Getting Married: 7 Weeks – Postcards, Painting, and Spring

One of the things we are excited about (well, me way more so) is our idea of a guest book for the wedding. I might have mentioned it before in this blog series, but I absolutely love postcards. When I was out of the country, I would try to send postcards to friends and family and even some to myself. It was a fun time. I remember taking about an hour to sit in a cafe in Hiroshima, filling out postcards to send home before I hopped on the train back to Shimonoseki. That was a special time for me. A time to reflect on the crazy day I had, the things I had seen, and enjoy the scenery. There were even couple people with dogs who walked by and the dogs let me pet them! That was a rare occurrence in Japan. It was the saddest point of my time there.

So, I have a bunch of postcards from all over that I’ve collected. But also, I have a bunch of friends and family from all over who may or may not be able to attend. Our guestbook will be all postcards that people have either mailed to us, or brought themselves, or just picked out at the ceremony/reception and filled out. We were so excited to get our first one in the mail from my Aunt Brenda a couple weeks ago!

week 7 postcard

Isn’t that fun?! It’s just the kind of thing we want. If YOU are picking out a postcard to send or bring with you, it can be whatever you like, but I would love it if it’s from something local to your area. Who knows, maybe we’ll take our postcards and visit each site in order throughout our marriage. That sure would be fun. If you want more instructions, check out our wedding website here.

I absolutely love to paint. I’m a crafty person (if you can’t tell). Sometimes when I’m stressing, or overwhelmed with stuff, I just need to sit down with a paintbrush and go. I did that this week. It’s purposeful painting, not just for pleasure. I’ll be able to do more of that after the wedding, but right now, everything I do just about needs to be purposeful. I’ve had this bunny shelf for years! I mean, years!

week 7 bunny shelf

The project room is one glorious hot mess. Don’t look at it.

I can’t remember when I got it, but I know I had it through elementary school. That was when I was most into bunnies. Then I loved wolves. Then I loved elephants, and that’s been a regular thing since. But I wanted to incorporate this into the wedding and then into the house afterwards. That will take some tweaking post-wedding day, but in the meantime, I needed to prime this baby and get some paint on her. I like to use flat house paint as a primer. It’s what we used in art class in high school and the habit just stuck with me. When I pried open the lid of my small paint can, this is what I found.

week 7 old paint

This used to be white…

Gross, huh? Tell me about it. I thought it was weird that nothing was moving inside when I was shaking it up. Yep, spoiled to the core. I’ve never seen anything like it. Thankfully, there is a lumber/quasi-hardware shop right down the street from The House, so Matt and I drove there and picked out a fresh can.

week 7 new paintIt’s better if the paint is not completely white. For some reason it’s harder to cover with darker colors. So, I got a tint called “Violet Puff.” Bahaha, so funny. But it did the job! And the bunny shelf is well on her way to lovely readiness. I’m pretty pleased with her. There are some other things I’m painting too, but I don’t like to give all my secrets away.

Last Fall, I planted a bunch of bulbs outside the front of The House. I have so many wonderful ideas for those garden beds. The biggest issue is that they don’t get much sun, and there isn’t much drainage. Oh, and about 12 ugly bush stumps spread fairly evenly throughout them. Those are going to HAVE to go. Matt and I dug up some weeds and were working on one of the shrubs the other day. After we finished, I asked if he felt any great satisfaction from it. He shrugged. Me, being the prophet that I am, balked and said, “You are fulfilling a command of God here! You were made and commanded to rule and subdue the earth and that’s just what you’re doing…doesn’t that bring you satisfaction? You are living to the full potential of who God made you to be!” He didn’t seem quite as impressed as I was. Go figure.

week 7 flowers

I’m starting to think that those daffodils are supposed to be that short and NOT because they get hardly any sun, but those crocuses are HUGE!

week 7 crocusesCrocuses are such a happy flower to me and remind me that winter is ending and spring is on its way. That makes you happy too, right?

While we were weeding (significantly less weeds than were rampant through the bed last year…ahem), I found a whole walnut and decided to crack it open. I had a chopper looking tool (Mom just informed me that it’s a spade) and went at it. This was the result and how fun is that?!week 7 walnut

We set it down and weren’t thinking about keeping it. Seems another creature thought it was just as yummy, er, lovely, and took off with it before we could try and keep it.

In a few minutes, I will be heading out to my first wedding shower. I’ve been to several, but this will be MY first one. It’s up at Matt’s church and I’m really excited to go and see his family and church family – get to know them a bit better. It’s hard living further away from where I will be living and not be able to spend quality time with everyone. I’m sure I will have pictures for you next entry!

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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

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Getting Married: 8 Weeks – Workin and Weather

In the last few weeks, Matt and I have been struggling through some goofy work schedules. Well, Matt’s work schedule is always goofy, but it did manage to get even more garbled up with an annual shutdown of the plant which had him working long hours for a week straight. Now he’s going to be covering vacation for another coworker, so he’ll be MIA in the mornings for a while. I was working on a big project with my bank and that had me stuck in a basement at our corporate office for two weeks. That’s about all I could handle, although, I have been able to go in early a couple days each following week to help a little more before the branch opens.

I’m glad to be able to help. I’m glad that I have the skills to help with something like this. I’m glad that Matt and I have both been able to get overtime recently. It has helped a bunch with wedding bills. I don’t think we’ll have many (if any) lingering expenses after the wedding day, which is just as I wanted it. We wanted to go as simply and inexpensively as possible – apart from my requirement of a good photographer.

But now, we’re under 10 weeks, close to 50 days until the wedding. Crazy to think about! And we’ve been doing really good on the timeline. Getting things done and ahead of time. But I can’t help but get a little….anxious? Is that the word? I’m not nervous or overly worrying about anything. I just have a lot on my mind. There’s a lot going on. Plus, I’m on this birth control, which seems to be the new scapegoat for every physical/emotional issue I have going on right now. My pH balance is off, so I’m on a minimal meat diet while I get more alkalines in my system. Good thing I love spinach, broccoli and carrots.

To top it off, one of the biggest tasks we still have on our plate requires the wide open spaces of outside and warmer temps. Ohio has been less than obliging in this department. Darn Ohio. I love my state, but man! It’s like a woman going through menopause! There’s no guarantee what temperature we will have on a given day. NO GUARANTEE. Don’t even try to figure this place out. Yesterday, I left my house with gloves on and came home without my coat.

I’m having dreamlike events. I’ve never sleep-walked before, at least that I know of. Trust me though, if I did, my family would be sure I knew about it. In the last month, I’ve had two dreamlike events that I can remember. I get up in the middle of the night and do some sort of task in my room and then crawl back into bed. I moved some clothes off a chair for the first one. When I woke up, they were definitely in the new location. The other night, I smelled a lot of garlic (mom made us some gluten-free meatloaf…that’s a whole other story). I got up to try and open my window, only to find it wouldn’t budge. I’m so glad I kept the locks set on those. I would’ve freezed to death!

Is there some sort of Sun Dance we could do? I know there’s a rain dance, but I’m sure there’s a Sun Dance out there. I’d like to do that. Wanna join me? Then Matt will have more time to work on these.

week 08 yellow jars

Don’t those look fun? Don’t you wish you knew what those were for??? Yep. Our wedding’s going to be pretty fab. I like throwing this kind of party.

Speaking of party, next Sunday will be my first bridal shower! I’m so excited! I’ve been breaking my original rule of not looking at the registries to see what has been bought. My thought is that once I see stuff being bought, I’ll not look. Right now, there’s zilch. Oh well. You still have time people, no worries. 🙂 I just really want that shower curtain…and step-stool…and those dinner plates…and the garden tools…and the bat house. Ok, that’s not on any of the registries, but we saw some cool ones at Rural King! How fun! I so want to have a bat house….and a rolling compost bin.

Ok, I’m done. Time to go to work. 🙂

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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

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Getting Married: 9 Weeks – Shopping

We were able to get a lot of things done this past week.

Monday, my sister took her daughters, my two junior bridesmaids, to get their dresses. I was able to meet up with them and give my input on styles and such. They are going to be so lovely, I can’t wait to see them when the dresses are altered and they have their hair done up.

After we left the dress shop, I stopped at Hobby Lobby to see what kind of stands they had for Unity Candles. Let me tell you, they were just pitiful. There was nothing really beautiful. I’ve got a more earthy turn and the ones they had were either glass with gem embellishments or metal with big random hearts all over. Definitely not my style at all.  I shared my dismay with Matt who immediately began searching online for one that would be a better fit.

He found something so suited to what I wanted, it was fabulous. I ordered a set and it should be here by the beginning of May! I don’t want to share it, but here is the shop on Etsy. She has some other lovely things.

Matt and I both had Thursday off and so decided to spend the day getting some other shopping done together. The plan was to find his clothes for the wedding (I’m fairly taken care of) and then find some cheap rings for the ceremony.  We went to JCPenney for the clothes and found just about everything we needed! Our bridal party are wearing/alternating of sorts, the wedding colors, and the thought was that to make Matt stand out more, we would have him all in red and then tan khakis. We easily found a red bow tie, but could not find a good fitting red shirt to match. So, Matt decided he’d rather stand out more by wearing a white shirt with the red accents. There’s nothing more frustrating than looking at wedding pictures and not being able to tell the groom apart from the rest of the guys. This would’ve been a problem because the best man (Matt’s brother Adam) would’ve been dressed almost the same as Matt. This will definitely keep him distinguishable.

Did you know that suspenders are hard to find? I didn’t think they would be, what with the hipster culture going on right now. We are not hipster, but you plan on things being easy to find and when they aren’t, that’s frustrating. So, I went to my default problem-solving website to find what I needed. And, voila! Etsy pulled through again. Albeit, a little more pricey (more than half what the rest of Matt’s outfit cost!!), but I found what I was looking for.

week09 suspendersThe shop owner is currently on vacation until the end of April, probably sewing up Matt’s suspenders! 😀 I can’t wait to see them in person. I hope they look as wonderful as I think they will.

We finished up with the clothes and on a whim, stopped by the jewelry selection. We found just what we were looking for, probably cheaper than we could’ve found elsewhere too! It took some convincing, but we finally got the lady to understand that we weren’t looking for anything spectacular. See, Matt’s job requires him to be jewelry-free, including wedding bands. He needs something he can easily take off and put back on. He also needs something that isn’t so expensive that if he loses it, we’re devastated financially. We are willing to pay for certain aspects of this wedding, but other parts are just not a big deal to us. For me, we found a simple, narrow sterling silver band that will sit beautiful next to my white gold engagement ring. Maybe for our anniversary, we’ll spring for the matching band to my engagement ring, but it’s not essential. We just need something for the wedding. What we found cost us just over $75 together! I like that kind of spending.

Might not be valuable to the world, but they're precious to us!

Might not be valuable to the world, but they’re precious to us!

While I’ve got you, I’ll let you in on a secret.

I was at Target and found this lovely little glass pitcher, the kind with a spigot on the bottom for easy dispensing. It is very sweet. I wanted to add it to our registry, but I didn’t have time to go all the way back to the counter to get a scanner gun configured and go back to scan it and then leave again. It would’ve been a pain. But recently, I added the Target app to my Android. I signed in to my registry on my phone and found this handy-dandy bar code icon at the top of the screen. I touched it and amazingly, I could scan the barcode of the pitcher through my camera. In just a few moments, the pitcher was now on our registry! Remarkable! I was so excited that, had I had more time, I might have run around the store to add some more things on it, but I’m so glad to know that I can do this in the future. You can also manage your registry from there (increasing item counts and such. It’s a great tool. The only thing I couldn’t do was remove an item, but when I got to a computer, I could do that. Anyway, take that knowledge and go with it, m’dears! Oh, and remember that you have to scan the barcode on the actual item, not the one on the shelf with the price. Why they can’t work that out to be the same, I don’t know, but it’s ok. We still love them.

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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

Related articles