Sean's photo shoot with Boots.

I love these pictures. They make my heart smile.

What kickstarted me (again).

So, there I was last Friday.  Getting ready for work.  Thinking about how badly I want to run a 5K again.  My thoughts drifted to last year's Monster Dash.  My thoughts drifted to Christa and Katie.  My thoughts walked me to Facebook.  My thoughts were the reason for this post.

So, there I was on Saturday.  Taking a break from cleaning my apartment.  Perusing blogs I enjoy reading.  There's a few blogs I haven't been keeping up with since before the wedding, like Can You Stay For Dinner?  I came across this post, which then led me to the original and full blog post on Flintland.

This blog post is what solidified my return and desire to run again.  Seriously, click that little link.  You will not be sorry you read it.  It moved me to tears because I am that girl.  I'm the girl who can barely run and I think it is amazing people like the writer are out there. 

If you didn't figure out from the above Facebook postings, Christa and I are running the 5K while Katie is running the half marathon.  If anyone else wants to run the 5K with us, let me know!  Katie had the genius idea today at work that if we had five girls, we could all dress as the Spice Girls.  Truly great idea.  So, I'm recruiting three more people - not strictly female.  We could do away with two people since we could be the Spice Girls post Ginger Spice leaving the group.  If this happens, I would like to go on the record and say I call Sporty Spice. 

Alright, enough of the Spice Girl tangent.  Moral of the story?  Read the linked blog post, for you won't be sorry.  I hope your week is going well.  Tomorrow is hump day. 

Ever so slowly.

Ever so slowly, life has begun to calm down post wedding.  Wedding planning is still a not-so-distant memory, but it is gaining more distance with each passing day.

I would like to thank everyone who made the wedding possible, especially my parents.  Without their love and support, it wouldn't have been possible.  The wedding was everything I ever dreamed about and it was utterly perfect.  When I think back to that day that was merely a month ago, snippets of memories flash through my mind.  People have posted a lot of these memories on Facebook in photo form.  There's a few though, that I don't have a photo of yet.  I've tried to describe them as best as possible.

Starting out the day cuddling with Charlie. (Becky's photo)

Fixing Christa's shorts after they ripped. (Katie's photo)

Being in the church basement with only my mom and photographer.  I wouldn't have gotten dressed for my wedding any other way.  I'm happy that the only person to see me in my wedding dress (besides photos) was my mom.  It was a special time for us.  Anyway, crying with my mom in the church basement right before I was to go and see Sean and begin our photos.  That will always be special to me.  I'm looking forward to seeing those photos.

Walking down the aisle doing the ugly cry because a minute before my dad and I had been crying together. (Rebecca's photo)

The hand off.  This photo doesn't even need a description. (Rebecca's photo)

The, "We are married." conversation Sean and I had quick. (Rebecca's photo)

First dance with my husband. (Rebecca's photo)

Charlie was the most dedicated dancer of the night.  He was probably saying, "More." (Becky's photo)

So, thank you (again) to everyone who made that day possible and everyone who was a part of that day.  You all mean so much to me and I love you.


Ever so slowly, life is going back to the way it was before.  My wedding dress will get preserved and the decorations will be incorporated into everyday life.  We'll be set in the housewarming department with all the gray vases we have.  I need to get that stuff from my parents house.  I want to make curtains out of the table runners.  I have plans for that stuff.  My mom is going to make three thousand white dish scrubbers with all the leftover tulle.

Ever so slowly, I begin to look forward to what life has in store.  It's just getting good.

Free Concert!

Miss Katie and I are going to the free Wilson Phillips concert tonight at the Minnesota State Fair.

Granted, this is the only song we know, but it will still be a blasty blast.

What are you doing tonight?  Happy Friday!

Haircut

New haircut

I got a haircut.  And this is my "professional" picture at work.  Really, I needed to upload this picture somewhere on the Internet so I can link to it for the IM system and my picture appears.  Sorry it's so small, it needs to be this small.  More complicated than it should ever be. 

Happy Monday!

Hello!

Hello!  Hey!  Hi there!

I'm taking a cue from Katie and starting this week at work I've been dressing (more) for success.  I'm dressing for the job I want, not the job I have - or something like that.  Perhaps feeling a bit better about myself?  That's still to be decided.

I really just wanted to check in and say hello.  I've missed you. 

Wedding is over, as well as the stress headaches.  Below are a few of my favorite pictures from the day.  Sean's sister Rebecca took the first two and the bottom picture was from Katie's camera.



This shows a lot of the emotion of the ceremony. Tears all around.

My handsome husband and I after the ceremony.

Sean and his mom were dancing, but Lilly and Charlie wanted to dance, so we all danced a bit together.

Happy Thursday!!

Wednesday thoughts.

A truly great thing: not weighing yourself for two weeks and when you finally do stop avoiding the scale, it is down six pounds.  It was a fantastic way to start the day.

Also, August 10th has showed up on Weather.com's 10 day forcast.  As of right now, there is a 60% chance of scattered thunderstorms.  I know it will probably change, but you better believe I will be stalking the forecast until the wedding day.

Please do an anti-rain dance for me.  Thanks.

The final countdown.

There is a mere 11 days until the wedding.  This is the final countdown.

You're welcome for getting that song stuck in your head.  I received my daily email from Project Wedding this morning and it told me there is 11 until days until the Big Day. 

Sean and I have been talking about how we'll be glad to get the wedding over.  While it will be a great, fun, and memorable day, we're also excited to get back to a "normal" routine and back to "normal" life.  I'm especially excited to get the craft projects out of our second bedroom and our apartment can start look "normal" again.  What is this "normal?"  Our apartment and lives have been clouded with wedding projects and things for the better part of six or seven months.  So, maybe what was "normal" isn't really "normal" anymore?  Anyway, I digress.

Two weeks from today I am getting a much needed haircut.  I'm going back to my shoulder length hair, thank goodness.  I'm sick of this long, thick, tangled mop.  It takes too long to blow dry and straighten every morning.  All I do is wash it, comb it, and let it air dry.  I've been growing this out for two years.  It's time for it to go.

Happy Monday everyone!  Enjoy the (hopefully) beautiful day!

The garden last week.

Notice the field of tomatoes in the back. Much larger now.

A perfect sunflower.

Gardening is one of my newest favorite things now.  Just look at that sunflower!  It's beautiful.  Last night, Sean and I saw there are more sunflowers blooming now and it is more beautiful than this.

I can't wait to harvest some tomatoes.  Also, I am looking forward to picking the last tomatoes on a plant and then pulling the plant out of the ground to make more room.  The huge tomato bush (20 tomato plants all leaving on each other and making one collective plant) is getting kind of annoying.  I'm ready to harvest.  Clearly, I'm a little too eager. 

Last night while I was watering, Sean pulled out the last of my pea plants.  He picked all the pods of the plants for me to save for next year's pea crop.  We didn't harvest a ton of peas, mostly because I only planted eight or ten plants.  Next year though, I have big plans for the pea.  I also have big tomato plans, but that's a whole different blog post. 

Please note the bug on the sunflower leaf in the lower left corner of the picture.  So everyone knows, it was a real ladybug and NOT an Asian beetle.  It was beautiful, just like the sunflower.  It was bright red (not brown red or orange tinted).  That ladybug reminded me of visiting Grandma and Grandpa McKenzie during the summer.  Grandma would give me a jar to collect ladybugs and I'm talking real ladybugs, before the Asian beetles.  Anyway, on the north side (I think...) of their house had an area that moss would grow.  In that moss I could also find bright pink colored ladybugs.  They were fantastic.  In the jar I would get from Grandma, someone would help me poke holes in the lid so air could get in there.  I would put leaves, grass, and small twigs in the jar as well.  I don't remember how long the ladybugs would live like that, but this memory is starting to get foggy.  I can't remember if Travis ever collected ladybugs either. 

Anyway, the point of the story was the ladybug I saw last week made me a bit nostalgic.  That is all.
How is your garden doing?

Bridal Shower.

Does anyone have pictures from the bridal shower a few weeks ago?  My camera died before I could take any pictures.  Can someone either blog a bunch of them or email some to me?  Becky or Mom?

Thanks.  You ladies rock.

Jillian Michaels kicks my butt.

I've been doing the 30 Day Shred from Jillian Michaels.  Day 4 is in the books.  Level 1 workouts are starting to get easier.


This is going to be short and sweet.  It's difficult to type with a kitty in the way.

Picture taken 5 seconds before being uploaded and posted here.

36 Days.

The countdown is down to 36 days until the wedding.  Thirty-six days until I marry my best friend and change my last name.  How can the countdown only be 36 days?  The wedding is going to be here before you know it.

About the last name thing... I have no problem changing my last name and knew I would always take my fiance's name when we get married.  But.  I'm kind of going to miss my last name.  I've had it for 24 years.  I know, I'm changing to a more common and easier name.  I know people probably won't misspell it or add other letters to it (a, r, and d are most commonly added).  It feels a little bittersweet to lose it though.  My last name has been a part of my identity my entire life and I can't imagine it without it. 

Obviously, I'm still going to be changing my name, but it will definitely have to take some time getting used to.  It's probably going to be like after the beginning of a new year, I always mess up writing it by writing the previous year for about a month.  Maybe it will be like that?

How did you feel when (or if) you changed your last name?

Wedding dress fitting and other stuff.

I'm slacking on the blogging front.  I should be more like Becky and try to blog more. 

Anyway.

Last Friday, I had my first wedding dress fitting.  It was so beautiful.  So white.  The crinoline was so fluffy compared to the sample dress I tried on.  It was so freaking beautiful.  But, I was terrified to try it on.  I was feeling very anxious.  I was afraid it wasn't going to fit at all and not slide up over my hips and butt. 

Alas, it was tight, but it went up.  It is being let out a bit.  As my mom pointed out, the alterations lady didn't say, "Oh my gosh," or panic at all.  She made it seem like it will be an easy fix.  And easy fix I hope it is.  I'm still watching what I eat and working on losing a few pounds.  I go back to try the dress on July 20.  I didn't want to take the dress off. 

It made me really excited about the wedding.  Wedding projects on my to-do list are being crossed off.  I'm going to start designing my programs this week.  I'm going to try to finish the table numbers this week.  Of course, I'm still waiting on RSVPs to figure out how many table numbers I actually need... but that is another story entirely. 

Tonight, Sean and I are going to buy his suit jacket for the wedding.  We need to figure out groomsmen gifts still.  I am working on bridemaids gifts and am just about done, but can't go into detail here since sneaky bridemaids will read about it. 

Bachelorette party is next weekend.  We're going to Valleyfair (work on our bronze) and then going out that night.  I'm so excited. 

What are you up to these days?  How's your summer going thus far?

First Dress Fitting.

My first wedding dress fitting is Friday.  Cue excitement and nervousness now. 

Definitely more excited to see it though.

Possiblity?

After realizing I need to finish the DJ reception planning sheet in the next week, I found a song that could be a first dance song contender for Sean and I.

A)  I love this song.  The Current plays it all the time.
B)  I feel like it's not super mushy so Sean is more likely to be on board.
C)  I love it.

Lunges and Squats.

When I've had to go to the bathroom or go and fill up my water glass in the kitchen at work, I've been doing walking lunges.  My booty hurts already.

Then, if that wasn't enough, I did some body weight squats at my desk before I sit back down. 

Random funny thing I saw online:

So true.

Have a good day!  Today is my Friday.  Joyous.  AND my mama is coming to visit today.

Bootsy cuteness.

Cuteness.

Sean took a picture of Boots relaxing.  Also, note the lemon hanging in the background.  She's so adorable.

Wedding Annoyances.

My biggest wedding annoyances (right now, it may change):

• People asking when the wedding date when you first get engaged.  Literally, right after.  
• People sending their RSVP back and saying they're bringing a date when their invitation did not say, "so and so and guest."  Frustrating.

That's all I have for now.  I just wanted to vent a bit.  That is all.

Summer Bucket List

My summer bucket list:

• Get married to my best friend, obviously.  That is happening anyway though.
• Learn how to french braid well.  I can sort of french braid, but I want to learn the real deal.
• Work on my awesome flip flop tan.  It's started already.

Exhibit A. Gross I put my feet on my blog.

• Pick a ripe lemon from my dwarf Meyer lemon tree.

My kitty and my lemon tree.

• I want to ride my bike 400 miles between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Can it be done?  I don't know.  My goal is ride 5 miles per day, 35 per week.  I'm too lazy to add up how much I've rode already, but I will do at least 400.

Let's do this!

Pyrex.

I'm on the hunt for more vintage Pyrex.  I've decided I for sure want to collect yellow, green, turquoise, and pink solids in every size pan and bowl they made. 

Obviously, I'm still going to collect anything I can get my hands on, but someday I would like a collection like this.  Or this. So freaking beautiful.