The end of a chapter and beginning of a new one!

Well we are only ONE week away from getting married! It will be the end of our engagement and the beginning of a wonderful marriage and life together. I am so incredibly excited! My life has changed so drastically in the past year and I wouldn't change it for the world. I have a man who I love so incredibly much and who loves me so well and treats me with such respect each and every day. We have a beautiful home. Wonderful wonderful friends. AMAZING family. It has been so fun to become a part of another family. We have learned so much in our engagement about each other and about how God desires for us to live--it has been an amazing experience. We have done a lot in our engagement. We sold a house. We moved me twice. We moved him once. We totally remodeled the upstairs of our house. We have planned a beautiful wedding. We have gone through a budget reduction at his school and watched him lose his job and get it back due to God's faithfulness. We decided for Pat to take a coaching job elsewhere. We have coached between the two of us 4 sports during our engagement and directed a youth league. We have spent countless hours planning things just to realize that in the end it's not about our plans...it's about God's and His plan will always work itself out. We have watched our friends and family support us beyond belief. We have had four bridal/wedding showers. And so much more. We are ready...very ready to enter into this next chapter of life. We are beyond excited for the wedding and the reception to see almost 300 people supporting us and celebrating our love for each other. We are ecstatic about traveling to Hawaii and starting our lives together. But more than either of those things we are thrilled to just start this new chapter of life on a strong foundation and watch what the Lord teaches us and where He takes us in our life. We are a good team together and I'm so grateful that the Lord brought us together in His perfect timing. I had known of Pat and his family for years but had never met him and our paths have crossed so many times between high school and college but this was HIS perfect timing. I'm grateful.

19 days!

It's hard to believe but we are only 19 days away from our wedding!!! We are SOOO incredibly ready to enter into the next chapter of life!

One month!!!

One month, one month, one month until I marry my best friend! I can't wait!!!

Totally Random...

How long is/was your engagement? It will be a little over 7 months

How many bridal salons did you visit before purchasing “the one”? Three

White shoes or colored shoes? Ivory

Heels or flats? Heels! I wear heels almost every day. My shoes are super cool though because they are really cushiony....it seriously feels like I'm in athletic shoes!

Hometown wedding or destination? Hometown

How many venues did you visit until you found the perfect reception space? 3 but we went with the one that we went to first. Most places were already booked. It's beautiful--I love it!

Ceremony and reception at the same place? No--ceremony at Warsaw Community Church where we attend church and reception at The Feast in Lakeville

Walking alone, both parents, or dad giving you away? My dad:)

Taking/took professional pictures? Yep!!

More than 200 guests? Yea..... the guest list is at 339

Spring/summer/fall/winter wedding? Summer! On Pat's birthday!

What did you/are you going to DiY if anything? I did the invitations myself, am going to do the programs and escort cards

When was your first dance song first released? 2009

Are you having a cake or cupcakes? We debated on this one but we are having cake

One thing you loved at first, but now you think is kind of ugly? At first, I thought for sure that I would get a white dress but with my skin tone it doesn't look good on me at all so definitely got ivory and love it!

Random Updates...

Here are a lot of random updates...Life has been one big whirlwind these past few weeks.

**ISTEP is OVER--praise the lord! I'm extremely proud of my kiddos for how hard they worked and they are glad to be done!!
**My track girls won their meet this past week--woohoo! :) They are awesome awesome runners and so much fun!
**I had my last dress fitting last week and it finally fits--yay! I will pick it up in June!
**My jewelry/veil came in last week and it's absolutely gorgeous!!! I love it!!!
**I have been attending bridal showers for lots of other people
**I have all the mailing labels for my wedding invitations done and will have them completely done by the end of the weekend--what a good feeling! They get mailed out at the end of next week!
**We just bought season football tickets for Notre Dame. We split them with a friend so we are getting half of them. We are super excited!
**I have been spending a lot of time with my parents lately
**My bridal showers start in two weeks from today--I have four of them! I'm super excited!
** I can't believe tomorrow is MAY! :)
**There have been serious serious budget cuts in the school corporation where Pat teaches. It's frustrating and lots of people are uncertain about their jobs for next year. Almost 300. We have been dealing with that daily but we are confident that it will all work out.
**We had marriage counseling session 2 last night. It was a lot more fun that session 1.
**The end of the school year is approaching--I have lotssss to do because we are completely leaving this building for a new one---let the packing begin!
**We have our last set of engagement photos on Sunday
**I bought new running shoes last week
**Pat bought me a beautiful necklace last week just because--he is pretty great!
**Next week is the Indianapolis half marathon--woohoo! Kari, Jill, Heather, Ashley, and me are running it! YAY! :)

Randomness...

My dear friend Rachelle did this so I thought it would be fun too. :)

The game of tag about your man:

Who is your man? Pat

How long have you been together? 10 months

How long did you date? Before we were engaged? 5 months

How old is your man? 25

Who eats more? Him

Who said "I love you" first? He did

Who is taller? He is--which is perfect because I can still wear heels and be shorter than him! :)

Who sings better? I'm not sure if either of us is better

Who is smarter? It really depends on the subject. We are both smart and very educated but if the topic is sports or random historical information he wins hands down.

Whose temper is worse? Neither of us.

Who does the laundry? Um...definitely me.

Who takes out the garbage? Both of us. We share responsibilities really really well but that comes from the fact that we both were single homeowners before this.

Who pays the bills? We both do

Who is better with the computer? Me

Who mows the lawn? Both of us--it depends who is home to do it

Who cooks dinner? We both do...once again it depends who is able to get it done. We are both busy busy people.

Who drives when you are together? A lot of times me because I like driving but it depends how much driving I have already done that day because of my commute

Who pays when you go out? Him

Who is most stubborn? We're both pretty stubborn but not in a bad way

Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Both of us!

Whose parents do you see the most? Lately that has been extremely equal. Even though his mom/stepdad live 3 miles away we see my parents just as much. His dad though we don't see very often because he lives in VA.

Who asked who out? It was a blind date from my sista. :)

Who proposed? He did.:)

Who wears the pants in the family? Both of us again....we are super big into having things be equal across the board and it works really really well. I love it. :)

Moving right along!

I have been accomplishing tons of stuff lately...I have been on a roll. As my friend Ashley would say, "I'm getting things out of my life!"

Here's some of the things that I have got done lately:

**I have all our wedding invitations printed and assembled! Whew! What a huge, huge job! They are gorgeous and I love them! I just have to finish typing everyone's address (almost done!) and print the labels and take them to the post office on May 7th. Yay!
**Bought my GORGEOUS rehearsal dress at White House Black Market when Ashley was here
**Have all our families wedding pictures for our reception
**Started collecting pictures for our slide show
**Took my flower girl dress shopping and had success!
**All the tuxes are picked out
**The hair schedules for all the girls/moms/grandmas is done
**My practice hair/makeup appointment has been set
**All the music is picked out for the ceremony and reception
**All the details of the decorations are figured out for ceremony and reception
**Schedules for the day before have been made
**Schedules for the day of have been made
**Talked again to the limo company, cake lady, photographer, and DJ
**Having our last set of engagement pictures at a state park in two weeks and making a picture schedule at that time
**Found what escort cards/ceremony programs we want
**Starting marriage counseling tonight--session # 1 of 4.
**Getting lots of other stuff accomplished at home with the house and at work (7 more weeks left till the end of the school year!)

A new adventure!

A new adventure...that pretty much sums up the theme of my current life status! :) So our school corporation just went through a huge redistricting process and is opening new buildings, which means that staff gets shuffled. Fortunately, I still have a job (this is the most important thing!) and am in the same building but after this school year I'll be heading down to second grade to teach. A bunchhhh of teachers shuffled grade levels. I'm totally ok with it. If I think about it too long it overwhelms me a little because it's a pretty big switch from fifth but it will be ok. We will be in a brand new building next year so everything is going to be new. I'm not very concerned about it right now because realistically I don't even have time to be. I'm sure that the way this summer is shaping up that after we return from Hawaii that I'll be in a whirlwind of figuring out the new transition to a new grade level but that's fine.

In other news.....

Our beautiful blinds were installed this week. These blinds are SO nice. I love them. At first, I went back and forth if we should spend this much money on them but I'm glad that we did now. They are awesome.

Our tile project is underway in the bathrooms...it's looking great. It will look even better when it's all done! :) I went and got all new bathroom stuff (new shower curtains/rugs/etc) for one of the bathrooms this week and was just so glad not to be in Lowe's for stuff!

We have to have electrical work done--gah. It's really my fault. I neglected to look at what type of outlets there were behind the stove before I bought a new one--oops. But of course we love the new stove and don't really want to return it. :)

After the bathroom project is over we have some odds and ends projects to wrap up but nothing that costs a lot of money. We need the time mentally and financially to take a break. We are going to work on the landscaping outside but that will be an ongoing project. The plan is that we will do the basement this fall maybe like August or September. We are incredibly excited about the progress we have made. It's been so fun to make this house 'ours'.

Met with the reception hall this week and got everything finalized. I'm so stinkin' excited. We figured out what food and beverage will be served, how things will be set up, decorated, etc. We are meeting next week to figure out a few things with decorations and then there's nothing more to really do with them until it gets way closer.

Went and got random stuff last weekend with my sister for the wedding. I'm constantly thinking of little things that we need. So I'm trying to get it as we go along so that it's not a whirlwind when it gets here.

I'm SO close to having the invites ready. I'm printing them next week at my mother-in-law's office. They will go out in May.

We are down to 99 days--yay for being under a 100. We are both SO ready! We start marriage counseling in a few weeks--I'm ready for that too!

We are continuing to sell stuff on Craigslist--not as fast as we were at first but still making progress. In fact, I just sold an armoire. We can start to walk through our basement again so we are making progress for sure!

It is finally spring break--praise the Lord!

It's going to be busy for sure but I'm ready for the break. Here's a preview:

Saturday--Phil and Beth (brother and sister-in-law) from Texas are here for the day. My families Easter dinner is that evening at Grandma's in Rochester and so is my mother in laws. So we are going to Rochester for a while then coming back up here for the rest of the evening.

Sunday--Going to church and lunch in Rochester with my family plus my father in law and his wife from Virginia who are driving in. Then we will spend the rest of the day with Gary and Michelle.

Monday--Michelle flies out to go back home and Gary stays for the rest of the week. Then Ashley is coming-yay!

Tuesday--Ashley is here. Going to the reception hall. Printing all the invitations in the evening

Wednesday--Taking my flower girl shopping for her dress!

Thursday--Pat has a baseball game

Friday--Pat has a baseball game.

Saturday--Pat has a baseball game

Sunday--Church and engagement pics in Warsaw

Combined with some REST, running (lots!), organizing stuff in the house, hopefully working in the yard a little, and working on some school stuff.

One more random rambling! :)

Soo.....on my 'bucket list' of things to do is run a full marathon. I have ran 2 half marathons and will run another in May and then another in June and probably another in the fall all with my sista and other friends. The whole marathon thing though has always been in the back of my mind but I would waver back and forth about it. I'm doing it though! What's even better--in FLORIDA! :) My future sister in law, and step mother in law, and I are doing the Disney Marathon on January 9th. I'm sooo excited. :)

Random Ramblings....:)

**5 school days till spring break! I'm soooo ready for a break! I am physically and emotionally exhausted and ready for a break in routine for a few days even though it's going to be a really busy spring break.
**Wedding planning is in full swing again--we are almost down to 3 months--woohoo! This past week I met with the wedding coordinator, florist, met with our families about decisions of food and such for the reception, got the rest of the invitations today and am finishing up the formatting for all the invitations. I ended up doing them myself because it was sooo much cheaper and seriously they are a piece of paper! I'm currently working on making mailing labels for all the envelopes. I got the aisle runner today and the matted picture frame for everyone to sign. I meet with the reception hall this week to go over all our decisions about food/beverage/rental items for the night of the reception. Over spring break I'm hoping to get all the invites printed and ready to go so that I don't have to think about it anymore! :) I also plan to get all the centerpieces planned out so that I can get anything random i.e. flowers or floating candles ordered. We also are going to start working on getting the favors ordered and start working on the seating arrangement chart. I have my last dress fitting on Saturday and my jewelry should be here soon! Woohoo! :)
**House stuff continues to plug along. This past week our carpet was installed, fridge and stove installed, bought a new area rug from Bed Bath and Beyond, went and bought all the tile/supplies to do the bathrooms (hopefully that will be done this week!), the blinds should be here anyday. After that it will be lots of finish work like touching up paint, putting trim back up, etc. It's nice to be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel for the upstairs anyway.
**I'm soooo blessed to be marrying such a great man. These past 4 months have been intense and quite a whirlwind and he has been so supportive through everything. I can't wait to marry him. :)

Carpet/Fridge/Stove/Craigslist!

So....my new favorite obsession! Craigslist!!! We have sold over $1000 worth of stuff on there in two days and it has been so easy! Most of the stuff that we put on except for a few things only last a few hours and then they are sold. We have had people picking stuff up from our house all weekend and all night tonight! I am now convinced that it's the fastest way to make money ever! I even got my dad to start selling things on there and he as well has had huge success. We have a few more things left to sell on there but they are big ticket items and then we are putting up a few more once I can locate them in the basement and take pictures! This is wayyyy better/easier than having a garage sale. We just have so much stuff that we didn't even know where to begin. So anything that didn't have a need in our house or we wanted to replace/upgrade and that didn't have family significance got put up there. We have sold a stove, a mini fridge, a fridge from the garage, a futon, a bike, an armoire, a dining room table/chairs, a king bed. More to come....a big screen tv, a recliner, and a tv stand. It's awesome--I love it.

Our house is like a war zone right now because Lowes comes today (hopefully soon!) to install our carpet in all the bedrooms/hallways. We moved everything out of the rooms ourselves/took up all the carpet which doesn't sound like a big job but it was huge. I am dreading starting to put it all back together tonight. It will take several evenings to get this under control again.

Our fridge and stove came today too!! It will be delivered tonight as well!!! It's so exiciting to see things come together one thing at a time!

Getting Closer....

We continue to get closer and closer to all sorts of exciting things:

1. We are finally getting closer to spring break! It has been a long haul since Christmas and we both need some time to get stuff done and rest. Even though it will be a wayyyy busy spring break it will be good to have some time to switch gears for a few days.
2. We are down to 115 days till our wedding...just a little over 3 months! We are beyond ready and excited. We have a serious amount of wedding planning that needs to resume but our lives have been more than chaotic lately.
3. The house is coming along and is absolutely beautiful! The painting is all done and is gorgeous. I love it! We should have all the hardwood done tonight--we layed hardwood in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. It is gorgeous--I'm glad that we invested in it. Monday Lowe's comes to install all the carpet in all the bedrooms and then our friend will install our tile in our bathrooms! Next week our new fridge and ceramic top stove comes! In about two weeks all of our blinds should be here/installed too! It feels good to start to see some light at the end of the tunnel even though things are way tore up right now. I'm sooo glad that we are doing this. I will definitely post pictures soon.

Loveeee it!!!

Engagement session # 1 of 3 are done! Yes, we are ridiculous. We are having pictures done at lots of places that have been important to us. All of our pictures from this past session turned out amazinggg.....I'm in love with them. :)

Randomness...

**I've been sick for two days. Yuck. I don't like being sick. My roomies have bronchitis and I'm hoping it doesn't turn into that....
**I have my next dress fitting tomorrow! Yay! :)
**Having a girls night tomorrow night and sooo looking forward to it. Going to Bar Louie and Valentine's Day. :)
**Ends up that I'm moving into our house sooner than we anticipated. Moving there in a week.....I'm more than ready. I'm ready for the next step and I'm excited about making this house ours and working even more to become established and situated in a new community and give me some time to transition to the commute. I only have a week left of the glorious 5 minute commute and I'm going to enjoy everything about it because I won't have it again at least for a long time. The painting will hopefully be done soon. Then come the next set of decisions--hardwood, tile, carpet, fridge. I want to wave my magic wand and it to be done. :) HA. :)
**I'm breathing major sighs of relief over a decision that we made this week. We decided that it's time for me to slow down on grad school and by slow down I really mean stop until August. I can't keep up with everything that's going on in my life plus that program. I want to enjoy the rest of our engagement because we are only engaged once. I'm tired of not getting any sleep and always being stressed out about it. I just got done with a class and was supposed to start another class in two weeks but I dropped it and then won't take anymore classes till August. I'm grateful....really really grateful. I'm glad that I can just focus on work, transitioning to a new season of life, all the home remodeling, planning a wedding, and to start enjoying more time with family again.

Ebay!

So today I was perplexed by the amount of 'stuff' that we have and had an epiphany moment! To start selling stuff on Ebay....we have tons of stuff that is worth money but has no sentimental value so I started listing stuff on Ebay....we'll see if we have results or not!

Too weird...

So a year ago (to the day!) my painting contractors started working on painting the interior of my home in Warsaw. Tonight exactly one year later our painting contractor and friend is going to start working on our home. Too weird!

I love you snow day :)

Awww.....snow day. While I'm not a fan of inclement weather I was desperately in need of a random day of rest and catching up! I definitely slept the longest this morning that I have in a long time...my body was starting to get really worn out and I have been on the verge of getting sick all week so this time has been wonderful! The rest of my day will be spent on grad school, grading, doing student midterms, taxes, and then the start of high school basketball sectionals! I doubt I'll get all that done but I'll give it my best shot! :)

One final transition! :)

If I could describe engagement in one word I would say "transition". It most certainly has been a time of major transition thus far! Pat and I have decided on one final transition that should allow things to be so smooth from there on out. Pat has decided that it will be way better for us financially and transitionally for me to move into our house at spring break and he will move out into his grandparents house. We decided on spring break because then the weather will be back to normal and the commute won't be bad. This will give us so much time to save money, give me time to adjust to living to the commute, setting up the house, etc. I will be sad to leave living with the girls because they have been so awesome to have me come join their house! But at the same time, I will be glad to start establishing more permanent routines! :)

Almost there.

It's been a week. A week of definite craziness, little sleep, and emotion but it's almost over. The closing ended up being pushed back to Saturday afternoon. The house is empty....completely empty. It was a HUGE job. I had been working so hard for weeks to empty that house and had done a super great job. The furniture was a HUGE job. Needless to say, everything is moved to the Walkerton house. I have some of my clothes and things that I absolutely need moved into the Parker Street house. The Walkerton house is a disaster.......imagine two houses of furniture and double EVERYTHING. In a few weeks we are going to have contractors start working on the basement of that house so we had to keep everything upstairs......it's a wreck but it will just have to be that way for a while. When I bought my house I bought it with the understanding that I would use it as the Lord wanted me to and last night I was thinking of all the people that house has served and it was huge. I feel like I have done a great job of using what the Lord blessed me with to serve others.....now it's time to pass it on to someone new. After school tonight I'm going to get the final last things out because I've still been sleeping there....on the floor--yikes. And I will say my final goodbyes. It's the end of a great chapter of life but another great chapter is unfolding as well. I'm excited for that chapter to begin.

Moving right along!

We got a call yesterday that we will be closing on my house on Thursday!! Yikes! We had been waiting to move all the furniture until we knew a closing date....nothing like throwing us into a panic. Needless to say, we already have someone lined up and paid to come move all my stuff to the other house Wednesday night. I'm in my final days at my house............it's pretty sad.

Wedding/House Updates!

Another thing is officially checked off the never ending "To Do List"! :) :) I got all the save the date envelopes addressed and they go out in the mail today! They look sooo great--I'm so happy with them! We have also secured a place for the rehearsal dinner and hotel accommodations! We found a place to have the rehearsal dinner that was very affordable but nice. I have quickly learned with wedding planning that you just have to pick what you are going to focus on for the wedding otherwise it becomes out of control expensive. My dress fitting is tomorrow in Fort Wayne and then I think I'm in a pretty good situation with wedding stuff for a while, which is a great great feeling! Next up will be a tasting at the reception hall and ordering invitations once we know exactly what we will be serving in terms of food and ordering the favors/escort cards/table number cards. I'm in love with the website www.magnetstreetweddings.com Everything is so cute and not that expensive considering the fact that I don't have the time right now to make all this stuff.

I have pretty much everything moved out of the Warsaw house except for furniture. As soon as I know a closing date then I will have the furniture moved out. Last week/weekend I spent almost all my time moving stuff to the other house. It was quite a project but felt so good to have it done. I haven't even begun putting everything away at the other house. We are in the process of making plans to start some remodeling adventures at that house so that house will just be a mess for a while. As soon as we get the Warsaw house closed and me moved out we will probably have the contractors start on the Walkerton house starting with finishing the basement first. I'm so glad that we are accomplishing these major things now before it gets too close to our wedding because I want to enjoy this time as much as possible.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend because it's a three day weekend. Tonight I have another high school basketball game to attend--John Glenn vs. Bremen. Tomorrow mom and I will go to Fort Wayne for my fitting and I'm really looking forward to spending time with her! Tomorrow night we have a high school baseball fundraiser at John Glenn. (Supporting high school athletics is a big part of my life now considering who I'm marrying!). Sunday after church we're having lunch with my mom and Grandma in Rochester then have a birthday party in South Bend for Pat's Great Grandma who will be 99! Monday I plan to sleep in, work on grad school, organize stuff at the Walkerton house, and attend another high school bball game!

What a blessing!

Things just continue to fall right into place on my 'transition' time in life! It ends up that I'm going to live with two of my friends in Warsaw and better yet in the same neighborhood that I currently live in!! I'm sooooo grateful for how wonderfully things continue to fall into place!

A huge step.....but very bittersweet!

Wow how things can change fast! My house was on the market for 22 days and it sold today. I am blown away by the amount of showings that happened during that time...almost one a day starting the day that it was put on the market. I knew it would go fast but I didn't think it would happen this fast! I feel sooooo incredibly blessed and protected that in this economy that it sold. I got a different view of this economy by selling a house in it but I just have to remind myself that we now only have one mortgage and one house to worry about. The buyer would like to take possession quickly, which could mean as soon as two weeks. We should know a closing date in the next few days. I've been pretty emotional today to say the least. I'm so glad that it's sold but I'm so sad. I will always cherish the fact that I owned my own house on my own. I adored that house and my neighbors....it was such an incredible blessing. What is incredibly hard is that I still have 6 months before we get married. That means I'll be living with my parents and/or my sister. Regardless of what I decide it's going to be a LOT of driving. So starting tomorrow I'll start packing up the Warsaw house and start moving it up to the Walkerton house. We for sure have a lot to move....yikes! Once again things are moving quickly in the transition to our next chapter of life! 186 days to go!