LAST DAY!

Well, today is my LAST day of my first “real” job! And yes, I’ll admit, I’m pretty excited about it. Not that this job has been awful (though it has had its days!), but I AM super excited to be entering July… a whole month of time off! I won’t have to sit in this un-airconditioned, hot and humid office being bored or stressed (it’s pretty much always one or the other) and will have all kinds of time to scrapbook, bike, hang out with Z, and yes, blog more! We have plans for every weekend this month- including a weekend with my parents for the 4th, two weddings, and a camping weekend with Rachel and Dan who got married almost a month ago. (Wow, that went by fast!) And we’re moving tomorrow- into air conditioning and a lovely house with a yard and garage (it all belongs to Z’s grandparents). And as exciting as all that is, I think the thing I’m looking forward to the most is our mattress. I can’t wait to go to bed tomorrow night.

See you from the “new” E-town!

E

One Week Left

Well, we’re down to our final week in our “together hometown.” In one short week, we will be moving away from the place where we met, became best friends, fell in love, shared our first kiss (and many more after that!), got engaged, spent our first year of marriage, and oh yeah- went to college. This town is really full of memories for both of us.

Just tonight, we rode our bikes over to our favorite local custard place, past the run down building where I took my freshman and sophomore year architecture studio classes. And I can still vividly remember the graffiti walls, late nights, line dancing to “Footloose,” and even the smell of the building.

We know where we’re going for the coming year. Sort of. And after that, we have no idea where life might take us. We talk about the possibility of coming back here but there is no way to know if that will ever happen. Sure, we’ll be back to visit some friends and my sister who are still in classes but that’s not the same as living here. Part of me thinks that if we had moved right after I graduated, it would have been easier. But now, we know a little what it’s like to live in TOWN, not just on campus. And we like it. A lot. And now, we have one week left and last five seem to have disappeared all too quickly.

The coming year promises to hold many adventures… a new apartment (which we have yet to find), Z’s first year of teaching, and hopefully a new job for me! We’ll find a new church and hopefully some new friends. But we’ll also be far away from our “old” friends and I’m anticipating needing to get mapquest directions in order to find the grocery stores in our new, significantly larger, town (Actually, it’s a small city) as I am completely unfamiliar with the area.

We’ll also be much closer to Z’s family. Which will be a blessing in many ways but also a challenge for me as I learn how be a part of their family on a more regular basis. (Not that I’m not ALWAYS a part of their family but we’re going to be seeing a LOT more of them and that’ll be a new experience for me!)

But, we’ll be together and going through a bigger move like this will be another first for our marriage. And all of our other “firsts” turned out really well so far! :)

So, anyway… one week left and then we’re off!

In the meantime, I’ll work on filling you in on Z’s graduation celebration and his upcoming concert this weekend. (Did I mentioned that we’ve filled every spare moment between now and moving day? Or that we’ve also filled every weekend between now and the end of July with plans? No boring summer for us!)

Off to bed… only 4 more days of work!

E

My Best Friend’s Wedding

Warning: Some of these pictures are of some of the cutest little girls I’ve ever met. Proceed to read at your own risk!

The dress

So, my best friend got married on the 6th- and I had my first gig as a bridesmaid. And I must say, it was a blast. Rachel, the bride, had everything planned to perfection, the church was beautiful, and the reception hall people took care of everything. PLUS, the food was delicious and the DJ and dancing was awesome. Can’t ask for much more than that!

After our girls’ slumber party, we woke up at 6:30- too excited to sleep for much longer! Rachel’s new sister-in-law, made us breakfast (yum!) and then Alison, the hair dresser, came to us at 9.

Bridal Hair!

No, this isn’t QUITE how she looked… Alison just wasn’t finished yet.

REAL Wedding Hair

Much better!

Now for the veil…

Maid of Honor

Michelle was a great Maid of Honor- she was so excited for her big sister to be getting married!

Punks

These guys are Rachel’s adopted brothers. I met them when they were 11 and 23 months old- and it was love at first sight. It’s amazing how fast they’ve grown…

Goofballs

Cool dudes

And these two goon birds are 2 of the reasons that I can’t wait to adopt our own kids.

Family

And here is my second family.

Beautiful Bride

And the beautiful bride!

Flower Girls!Flower Girls 2

And these little girls?  They stole the hearts of every man in the room.

At the rehearsal the night before the big day, as I walked down the aisle after them, Z looked at me and mouthed, “I want some DAUGHTERS!”  They even had my bachelor friend, Joe, ready to settle down and have some little girls.

They were totally darling as they practiced their stately march up the aisle and the day of the wedding, they did their job perfectly.

Watching his bride

Dan’s face as he saw his beautiful bride for the first time.

The Bride and Groom

The priest made the couple laugh all through the homily- even the part where he told them about the old Catholic “superstition”- that the number of people in your bridal party will equal the number of children you have! Apparently, these 2 can expect 13 little ones! Rachel was excited… Dan looked a little terrified…

Sucker

Although, if they had 13 of these little dolls, I don’t think he’d mind too much. Little Claire had Dan wrapped around her finger- even getting him to order her and the other kids chocolate cake for dessert at the rehearsal dinner. He’s a sucker for a little girl in a sweet dress.

After the ceremony- and only a FEW tears, we took pictures and headed to the reception which was on the edge of a small lake. The hall was decorated beautifully…

The Hall

And Rachel made her guest book very similar to mine. So, I loved it!

The Guest Book

Here’s their rather unique cake! All of  the layers were on individual stands, rather than stacked on top of one another.

The Cake

And their table numbers and flowers. (One of my favorite parts of a being a bridesmaid. Seriously, I was so excited to take home such beautiful fresh flowers!)

The Flowers

The first dance…

The First Dance

Dan and Rachel danced to Tim McGraw’s “My Best Friend” and followed that with the traditional “Daddy-daughter” and “Mother-Son” dances. Then everyone joined in and the floor was rather crowded for the next several hours.

I don’t know if I’ve confessed this before but, Z and I love to dance. We’ve taken some swing lessons and basically try to adapt those moves to all situations… unless we’re line dancing. I’m terrible at “making it up” but now that we can at least pretend to know what we’re doing, Z doesn’t let me OFF the dance floor! Let’s just say that by the end of the night, I felt like this guy!

Long Day!

It was a wonderful, fun day and one of the best weddings that we’ve been to together. Now, we’re waiting for them to get back from their long honeymoon so that we can go camping with them later in July.

Speaking of other summer plans, we’re off to Z’s grandparents’ lake house this weekend to celebrate Z’s graduation from college. (It’s official now!) Good thing it’s going to be in the 80’s and 90’s all weekend!- I’ll post about it next week.

Have a great weekend- Choose joy,

E

Can You Hear Us?

CD Cover

Ok, so I’m taking a break from talking about weddings/anniversarys/showers/etc. for a post. And instead, introducing another pretty significant aspect of our lives…

Can You Hear Us?

So, Can You Hear Us? is a band- made up of Z and his sisters. In April they released their first, self-titled cd which they recorded over the past year with several other very talented “guest” musicians. (Friends of Z’s and some studio musicians really helped flesh out some of the songs!)

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but my husband is a very musically talented. And I say that with as little bias as possible for someone who is married to him! He plays electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin and piano. And he’s been teaching himself to play the banjo lately and a few months ago had some success teaching himself the basics on the cello.  He tells me that playing an instrument for him is like singing. You just need to teach your fingers how to sing. (I WISH it was that easy!)

Anyway, he put his singing fingers to work to write most of the musical parts that support his sister, Kaitlin’s, lyrics. She started writing songs a few years ago when she witnessed a group of Albanian teens picking on/mocking a mentally retarded man who was selling roses on the street in the Albanian city they were living in at the time. “Old Man with the Roses” tells this story on the cd.

Since then, she’s told the stories of child soldiers, children sold into slavery and forced prostitution, extreme poverty in the slums of the third world, and Christians who have died to bring the gospel to the forgotten people of the world. She’s also sung about some of the families that have fallen through the cracks in their small, rural, American town. The songs are heart-wrenching and often tear- inducing (and not really for little kids!).

But they are also full of hope. The song “Kenya” speaks about the incredible power of prayer. “Come Now, Let Us Go” is about salvation through Christ’s blood. And “The Kingdom” is a beautiful testament to all of the “little things” that people do to bring about God’s Kingdom here on earth. And then there is “Glory” which is my favorite. It’s more like a hymn- and we had Z’s three sisters sing it for us at our wedding.

Singers

And I can’t really even begin to describe how beautiful their voices are. You’ll just have to check out the sample tracks here. And while you’re there, you should also read some of the stories behind the songs. Because those are some pretty incredible stories. (Warning: it is not easy to forget what you hear/read!)

Oh, and they’ve made a family decision that all of the profits from any cd sales/concerts/whatever will be donated directly to organizations like International Justice Mission or Shared Hope International which fight trafficking and injustice all over the world.

Basically, I love that Z has a way to share his passion and talent for music along with his passion for social justice- WITH his sisters. And they’re using their incredible talent to actually make a difference for God’s Kingdom… which is at least part of why He gifts us with talents, isn’t it? It’s a pretty cool thing to watch and in my own little ways, participate. Plus, it’ll be fun to see where they go from here!

Have a beautiful day and Choose Joy!

E

First Anniversary

On Sunday we celebrated our first wedding anniversary. And I still can’t believe that we’ve been married for that long already!

As we sat at dinner on Sunday, we commented on how remarkable it is to be unable to imagine daily life without the constant presence of each other after only one year of living together and 20+ years with our respective families. We were told by several people shortly before our wedding that the first year of marriage is the hardest. I sure hope that’s the case because this first year was a breeze and we decided we’d like at least 75 more like it!

Anyway, to celebrate, we enjoyed some strawberry pancakes for breakfast (we had pancakes the morning after our wedding a year ago), and for lunch, enjoyed a picnic at the Arboretum where we started dating and Z proposed.

Picnic

It was a perfect day to spend some time outside,

Wineblueberry wine

and to enjoy some of the Wild Blueberry Wine that we purchased in Maine on our honeymoon last year- and saved to enjoy on our first anniversary!

After lunch, we played some catch.

Nap time

And because it was a beautiful day, and we were worn out from the catch, we caught a nap in the shade. :)

Evening downtown

For dinner, we dressed up and headed “downtown” for a very nice outdoor dinner- complete with wine, steak, scallops, and desserts. Definitely a once a year kind of meal…

Anniversary!

And I made sure to wear my new pearl earrings which, along with a matching necklace, were a total surprise anniversary gift from my dear husband. And here I thought that you weren’t “supposed to” get pearls until the 30th anniversary! Lucky for me, Z has no idea that “traditional” anniversary gifts even exist. I doubt he’d follow them even if he knew.

Thanks for a very romantic day, honey! I can’t wait to see what year 2 has in store for us.

~E

Transitions

Wow. I’m a really bad blogger! Not that I’ve ever been particularly diligent in my journaling endeavors…

Maybe I’ll just blame it on the fact that for the last few weeks, Z and I have spent every spare moment packing boxes, carrying boxes, moving furniture, and searching for the inevitably “lost” item of clothing amidst the mountains of cardboard filling our apartment.  We are in the middle of a multi-stepped moving process. Our lease on our apartment ended on the 31st (also, our first anniversary!) but we need to be in town until the end of June for Z to finish his last college course and for me to wrap up my time at my current job. So, we are subleasing for a friend for the month of June.

In July, we will move into the basement apartment at Z’s grandparents’ house where most of our stuff is currently being stored while we search for a NEW apartment in that area. Z’s teaching job for the fall is official and out of a desire to avoid a two hour commute every day, we will be leaving our college home and moving closer to his new school. Which means that I too will get to seek new employment. We are hopeful that i can find a job and a new apartment by August- and having the time to look in July while enjoying a rent free, air conditioned, basement apartment is truly a blessing.

And in the midst of all the searching, we of course have many plans for summer fun and adventure. We attended the first wedding of the season last weekend- of a couple of our college friends (they are dropping like flies!) where Z played piano for the ceremony…

Z on the piano

At a wedding

… and the reception had a great view of the city skyline! (not that you can actually see it in the above photo!)

And this COMING weekend, we will be celebrating with Rachel and Dan (see previous post!) at their wedding on Saturday. Throw in a few more weddings, a weekend at a lake house to celebrate Z’s graduation with our families, a camping weekend, a weekend in Cincinnati to visit our other married cousins, horseback riding lessons from Z’s aunt (which I am SO excited about!), and a list of projects that is 2 miles long a growing, and our summer promises to be a very busy- yet fun!- one.

And hopefully I’ll be better at recording it here- especially since I might actually have some fun things to talk about.

Another post coming soon- I promise!

E-town

A wedding shower- The food!

Flowers and bees

The day of the shower was beautiful. Sunny, breezy, warm.  And the morning of the shower, my parents and I ran around finishing all of the last minute details for the shower. Starting with these:

Bee pops!

Inspired in part by Pioneer Woman’s “Springy Flower Pot Desserts” and by Bakerella’s infamous “Cake Pops,” I combined the two into these adorable little desserts. I spent the evening before the shower making the bumblebee cake pops.

Bumblebees

I simply followed Bakerella’s instructions to make cake pops… and then dipped them in yellow melting candy, added chocolate chips to one end for their stingers, brown candy coated sprinkle chips for the eyes and painted on their stripes and smiles with a toothpick dipped in melted chocolate candy.

Bees

Aren’t they cute??

Then my mom and I made these:

Flower pot

Using the smallest sized terra cotta pots we found at Hobby Lobby, we made this ice cream desserts.  We placed a vanilla wafer in the bottom, spooned some softened vanilla ice cream into the dish around a plastic straw and covered the top with crumbled oreos (which, with the filling left in the mix, really looks like potting soil!). We froze them like this overnight and the morning of the shower, we wrapped them in bright red and green napkins and tied with a black ribbon. (the wedding colors!)

Dessert

The napkins kept everyone’s fingers from freezing and made the flower pots look like they were wrapped as gifts from the floral department!

We placed cut, artificial flowers and the bumblebee cake pops into the straw immediately before serving.

laughing-bride

And the bride (and everyone else!) loved them.

The bumblebees were pretty time consuming, so I used the rest of my cake balls to make these:

Cupcake Bites

Again, I used wedding colors… and had one of the bridesmaids ask if I sold desserts as a business! I answered, no, but Bakerella should! (have to give credit for genius ideas where credit is due)

We even sent everyone home with a cupcake bite…

Cake boxes

…in their own mini-cake boxes!

Cake of boxes

Mom’s digital craft cutter was responsible for these wedge shaped boxes-

Cake

And the adorable decoration they created when arranged into a layer cake! (Notice that one layer is “vanilla” and the other is “chocolate”!)

Dessert table

As if we didn’t already have enough sweets, we also served some lime bars, heart-shaped elephant ears, and HAMBURGER cookies (vanilla wafers, thin mints, red and yellow icing and green dyed coconut layered together- yum!) which fit our “outdoor”/”summer camp” theme.

We did serve lunch too…

Lunch

Salads and sandwiches!

And for good measure…

Champagne Punch

Champagne punch! Hey- we were all 21! Well, except for this little sweetie…

baby!

But she didn’t get to have any.

It was a beautiful, tasty afternoon. And the leftovers made the next day pretty sweet too!

Leftovers

Choose joy,

E

Anniversary of Spring

I’ve been doing a lot of adoption related reading lately. And one thing I read just last night was about the “anniversary feeling.” That phenomenon where we experience feelings, sensations, and memories around the anniversary of a significant event that are not all directly related to the calendar dated anniversary of said event. For an adopted child who was placed with their family during winter, the onset of the following winter- the cold, snow, etc, may trigger the feelings of confusion and fear that accompanied placement. Even if the child has adjusted well to the family. I was thinking about this and realized that it happens for me all the time.

I love autumn. The colors, the cool, crisp air, the smells. But it’s more than that. The feeling of fall prompts me to feel the excitement of new beginnings (living on a school calendar for about 20 years will do that to you!), the joy of celebration of mine and my sisters’ birthdays, the anticipation for the coming holidays, and brings back the memories of apple picking, the last campfires of the season, and attending the Feast of the Hunter’s Moon. (google it- it’s awesome!)

And the warm, humid air, greening leaves and grass, and budding flowers of spring have always brought celebratory feelings of nearing an “end.” Summer vacation, a new softball season, family vacations, and in short, freedom, awaited at the end of spring- the end of the school year. And the months preceding the end of school were always soooo long.

Last spring, I was nearing the end of my college career, the end of my life as a student (at least for the time being!), the end of four years of way too little sleep, often too much stress, and the convenience of living with some of my best friends. I was nearing the end of my wedding planning, my engagement, my life as a single woman. And I was nearing the end of my time of living with my parents. As independent and grown-up as they treated me already, every school break and holiday was spent at home with them and I knew that things would change once I moved out for good.

However, last spring, I was also quickly approaching a time of new beginnings. Of drastic life changes that would affect my life forever. More so than any softball team or summer vacation ever had. I was approaching life as a college graduate. Life as a full-time employee of a company. And most importantly, life as Z’s wife.  And that was exciting enough to make me all but forget the “endings” of last spring.

Now, this spring, as we are enjoying more numerous warm, sunny days with blooming lilacs and breezy green trees, I am again experiencing much of the anxiety and excitement, the nostalgia and anticipation of last year. And I know that much of it is linked to my memories of Spring 2008. It is the anniversary of my college graduation, of saying goodbye to so many friends and to a way of life, of saying goodbye to my old bedroom and my parents’ house. And we are 16 days away from my first wedding anniversary. A year ago, we were putting the finishing touches on our wedding and honeymoon plans and preparing to move into our first apartment.

And yet, not all of my feelings are triggered solely by the memories of last year. Z has just received a job offer for a teaching position out of town that we have decided to accept. While we are thrilled that God has provided him with employment for next year, I am feeling a little nostaligic. This job will mean moving… out of our very first apartment, our first home together- out of the town where we met and fell in love and dated and kissed for the first time and got engaged. Moving will mean the end of my first “real job.” And while it hasn’t been wonderful every day, it’s been a blessing to have an income and I’ve a learned a ton. Moving will mean being further away from many of our friends. And our first anniversary will mean the end of our first year of marriage. A year full of learning how much fun we have living together, of much we love being married.

And our first anniversary will also mark the beginning of our second year of marriage. Which will probably be even more wonderful than the first! This new job will mean the opportunity to go on an adventure together, to learn more about each other, to set up a new home, to make new friends, for me to find a new job. And I can’t help but be excited about all of those things. After all, we’ll be doing them together. And that’s what I signed up for when I made my vows last May!

Choosing Joy,

E

A wedding shower- the invitations

The invitation

I like being a bridesmaid. It’s all the wedding planning, creating, and fun with WAY less stress and for way less money!

Last Saturday, my mom and I threw a shower for my best friend who is getting married in just under a month. And the first step was creating the invitations.

We started with their wedding colors. Red and black, with apple green accents. Remembering how Rachel and I did a parody on the popular Mastercard commercials for a class project in high school, Mom and I came up with another for our invites.

the perfect guy: $ 3 summers of Camp Duncan

the perfect guy: $ 3 summers of Camp Duncan

Rachel and her fiance met while counselors at camp and since the groom is a pretty important part of the wedding, we started with “the perfect guy.” Mom’s digital craft cutter, the silhouette, cut out the black heart and kissing silhouette that we mounted on the apple green layer.

the perfect dress: $ not telling!

the perfect dress: $ not telling!

Then we stamped and embossed a white dress onto the red layer.

the perfect accessories: $ sensibly on sale

the perfect accessories: $ sensibly on sale

Then we embossed a shoe, crown, earrings, and a necklace in silver on a white layer.

the shower

having friends and family to shower you with gifts: priceless. There are some things that Dan and Rachel have. For everything else, there's going to be a wedding shower!

I then printed all of the shower information on white paper and mounted it on the final black layer.

the invitation

Then I stacked all of the layers and tied them with a black ribbon. The finished size was 5×7 and they were definitely well- received!

AND, they were fun! Up next, the actual shower! (With desserts inspired by the Pioneer Woman and Bakerella!)

Wedding Flowers

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I LOVE FLOWERS.

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And for my wedding, I knew that we cou ldn’t afford to spend a lot of money on them. So, I got creative. Instead of hiring a professional florist, I asked my friend, Laura, if she’d be able and willing to help with the flowers since she had worked for a florist for several years in high school. It was her first wedding (and she has done several since!) and I didn’t want to overwhelm her, so I tried to minimize the pressure.

I wanted a bouquet- a big one. With lots of huge orange lilies.

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(And there it is!)

I wanted corsages and boutenniers for our VIP’s. And since they can easily be made the day before, that’s exactly what she did!

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(She’s really talented!)

I also wanted my bridesmaids to be able to carry something…without breaking the bank. So I ordered some sandalwood fans for 50% off which resulted in them being less than a dollar a piece. My sister then spray-painted them black for me. And Laura had the genius idea to add a few flowers to them!

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And I was totally thrilled with how they looked!

Now, a few months before the wedding, I sat down with Laura and described what I wanted. And she helped me to decide what I needed to order and how much I should get. Then, I called several different florists to get a quote on what I wanted to order. I bought all of my flowers AND had them delivered the day before for about $150!

And I had ordered WAY too many! :)

So, my mom called my aunt up quickly and asked her to bring down her hanging mason jars to the rehearsal dinner. Then, on the morning of the wedding, Laura threw these together…

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These beautiful arrangements were hung from shepherds crooks that lined the aisle. And they were made of leftovers! (I should clarify that the woman who catered our rehearsal dinner also sent us home with the flowers that she had used to decorate and we re-used though too!- Although, there were not TONS of those!)

Meanwhile, the woman I asked to make my cake, a dear friend of my mom’s, was busy making this:

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Which ALSO used LEFTOVER flowers!

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I didn’t see the finished cake until we entered the reception hall as “Mr. and Mrs.” but I couldn’t have been happier with how it turned out!

Believe it or not, we STILL had leftover cut flowers. And not wanting them to go to waste, we put them in our hair!

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That’s a small freesia flower in my cousin Heather’s hair.

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And a bright red carnation and yellow daisy in Brittani’s.

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And more freesia in my sister’s.

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And tiny white daisy looking mums in mine! (I don’t remember what they’re actually called… that’s why I had Laura!)

One more way I saved on our flower budget was deciding against having a “throw bouquet.” I HATED having to be the single girl who would go up and try to NOT catch the bouquet and most of my friends felt the same way. So I decided to do something different.

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I gave my actual bouquet away to the couple who had been married for the longest. This is Ken and Doris, a sweet couple from my home church who traveled over 2 hours to attend our wedding. They have been married for over 63 years! It was fun to recognize all of the couples who have proved that divorce is NOT always the end of marriage and honor those whom we would like to emulate. Plus, my flowers brought them so much more joy than they would have to one of my unmarried friends!

So, with a little creativity, and luck, my wedding was FULL of flowers for under $200!

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