A day in the life of...

Today:

6:45 - got up

7 - started the first of six loads of laundry (maybe I'm weird but after being at school EVERYTHING felt dirty), kept unpacking (only to have to pack it all back up again soon)

7:45 - 2 mile run (I'm not going to lie, the hills of Boyertown are brutal and it's been waaaay too long since I've run. Here we come, wedding day body!)

8:45 - loooong shower (finally didn't feel gross after getting out like was often the case in a dorm bathroom)

10 - shopping with mom for all the little details -- only 25 days, folks!!

12:30 - ruined the effects of my run by eating a whole box of mac and cheese (I've just been craving it since spring break.)

1-5 - I won't tell you what I did this afternoon because it was incredibly unproductive.

This evening - started reading Mansfield Park, contacted a guy about renting sound equipment (you know, I'm not sure that it's any cheaper having this wedding at my parents' house because now we have to rent everything.), looked for apartments, worked on the programs for the ceremony -

Aren't these great! Like everything else it seems, we're doing them ourselves. Maybe we won't print them ourselves, but we're designing them and we'll cut them and pick out and attach the pretty, flowy ribbons that will go on each.

Tomorrow:

First dress fitting!! That I cannot show you a picture of because the love of my life tends to read my blog. I love that he's that interested in me.

Us against the world

So, I'm supposed to be studying for my final (literally) exam of my college career in Physiological Psychology. I'm filling my brain with the details of schizophrenia, cataplexy, Tonic-clonic seizures, and others; but I find myself distracted by Miley Cyrus, the drama of a junior high girl, and mostly finding a dwelling for my precious fiance and myself. Well, he's finding that dwelling. My lack of trust is taking over more than I've been praying it would.

We visited this sweet little apartment that seemed just perfect for our needs. After we got through it and wanted to sign the papers the landlord informed us that not 20 minutes before we arrived a couple had called and wanted to bring a deposit the next day but needed to get some loose ends tied up with their current apartment and lease. Why in the world did you even show it to us!!! - I wanted to scream! She left it open that if they didn't bring the deposit in a reasonable amount of time the very next day we could have it. We fought discouragement so hard the rest of the evening. Our faith was tested. Our weeks between now and married life are dwindling (I can't wait!) and we still don't have a place to call our own yet.

We've been wondering why God would allow it to work out this way, why He even allowed us to see this place if He was only going to take it away. That's really not for us to know. But I have to say, Tim continues to amaze me. It would have been so easy to blame God last night, or to get our hopes up and think that this couple wasn't going to take it after all. Instead, we prayed and poured out our hopes and our sins to our Father. He reminded me throughout the evening not to dwell on "could haves." He challenged me to no think that good theology would be rewarded - in other words, if I trust God and give this over to Him He's going to reward us for that by giving us the apartment. He also reminded me that we might not get something better. Just because God kept this apartment from us (and it was for a reason) that doesn't mean that there's some bigger, more beautiful, more perfect apartment out there for us. All we're promised is that He will provide... and He always does. There was a reason He put this apartment within our grasp for a moment and then took it away. Maybe it was just to build our character. Philippians 4 says that He works all things together for our good. That good is being conformed to the image of His Son. I hope we don't waste this opportunity of learning to be more like Christ by wallowing in our self-pity.

If nothing else, I have learned the power and security of "together." Tim and I are in this together. I'm so glad that for these moments in time I have another human soul to share the challenges of this life with. God is more than enough, but Tim is that super special blessing that I hold loosely and reverently. He's my most precious friend and it truly is us against the world.

photo by: Kim Winey

I’m getting married...June 5th...less than 3 months. Everyone seems to always tell me that the time just flies, or it’ll be here before you know it. Well, time is not flying and I’m sure I’ll know it when it gets here. One would think that since this is my last semester of my senior year in college (although, a 25 year old graduate) time would be moving at a pretty good clip considering assignments and tests consuming my thoughts and activities, as well as working several hours a week babysitting (which we all know can be quite stressful). On top of that, I’m heavily involved in ministry at church. I help Tim with whatever I can (he leads our young adult group on Sundays) and we co-lead a small group on Wednesday nights at his house. And to make my life more crazy, I’m planning a wedding while I’m not even at home. Thankfully, I have a mom and sweet bridesmaids and future sisters-in-law who are tremendous helps to me. Oh, but I forgot what my point was - time is seemingly standing still, and it has been for a few weeks now. I’m trying my very hardest to embrace the time I’ve been given because I’ll never get it back, but at the same time I long so desperately to marry my best friend.

This leads me to the real reason I’m writing. My mom and bridesmaids threw a surprise shower for me on Saturday two weeks ago.

Well, it was supposed to be a surprise, but I knew all about it. I didn’t try to figure it out, but analysis is one of my character qualities. It was just beautiful! My mom decided on having it in her church’s coffee shop, this exquisite little cafe-style room with a fake fireplace, comfy leather sofas, cute bistro tables and chairs, and cozy mood lighting.

It was filled with about 40 ladies made up of aunts, cousins, friends from school, friends from home, and long time friends of our family. My dad even took his station behind the counter in his barista apron and made drink after drink for all of us. (Since my mom sings in the church choir and needs to be there early on Sundays, my dad got bored not having much to do, so he’s now a trained barista so he can have some social interactions on Sunday evenings before church starts.)

We received so much! God blessed us with so many people willing to invest in our future, it was overwhelming.

Tim and I (yes, Tim stayed for the whole thing!) took our stations at the front of the room to open the mound of gifts with our names on them. They had two thrones set up for us (not really, just the “special chairs” that look really expensive that have wood legs and arms and beautiful upholstery on the seat and back). Before we started working through our mountain of presents I wanted my dad to make me a drink. We went back and I asked him to make me the hardest thing on the menu. He loves me for things like that. He finished my perfect caramel macchiato and I headed back to my throne with it. I set it on the wooden tv tray sitting next to me so I could start ripping through all those presents. Oh, I forgot to mention, Christy (my brother’s wife and one of my best friends) framed tons of pictures of Tim and I and had them strategically placed in different locations throughout the room. The most beautiful of them all was a sepia tone 8x10 that Tim took of us.

That picture was sitting on the tv tray for us to gaze at when we first walked in. Well, that was a precarious place for a big frame to be.

Tim set his cherished vanilla latte down, I my caramel macchiato along with my lemonade from lunch on one said tv tray. It wasn’t long before chance and fate had a conversation and decided to give me some special memories. Without any notice, that frame slid down and took out all the drinks and pushed them right in my direction. Before I knew it, coffee had soaked all the way through my Banana Republic jeans to my Target underwear and down into my Payless shoes. I’ve never seen people move so fast in my life. Towels were suddenly thrown out of nowhere, the frame was whisked away, and I was given a Bed, Bath and Beyond bag to sit on so my coffee-soaked posterior didn’t stain the chair anymore.

We made it through opening the rest of the gifts without another mishap and my dad made me some kind of berry smoothie.

a little intro.

It seems it's time for me to enter this unknown domain of the blog. My thoughts and ideas need an outlet. I'm in process of planning a wedding and starting a home with all the furniture, cooking, and creativity that involves. I want to make the blog world aware of the things I come across as I'm sure many of you are searching to make weddings and homes unique. I love all things vintage (without overdoing it), making things from scratch whether that be cookies or stripping down old chairs to the bare bottom and working my way back up, taking good pictures - although, for this blog I may resort to my little point-and-shoot casio for quick pics of current projects, and loving on my fiance Tim which you will hear about from time to time.

Here we are - in love and ready to start our life together.