Phew!

Hey all you people who read this blog,

So, yeah, it's been almost a month, I'm sorry, okay? :)

We are at about 36 days till our wedding. Lots accomplished! Lots to do:

Accomplished:

-tasting (going with chicken piccata with a raspberry wedge salad, wild rice, and veggies)
-ordering of parent presents
-ordering all bridal party gifts
-limo booked
-guestbook ordered
-table numbers figured out (but not made yet)
-invitations out (and OH! that was a story. That was horrible. I don't think I wrote about it on here. But maybe I will, as a "haha, wasn't that hilarious?" post. It was NOT hilarious at the time though.)
-website done
-booked flight
-bridal shower thank you notes (took me forever, I am so bad at those)
-and many other random things that I am forgetting

Still to do:
-bridal hair consultation (tomorrow!)
-makeup consultation (april!)
-make the table numbers
-write thank yous as presents come in (so fun to get boxes in the mail!)
-finish paying for honeymoon
-book rental car
-finish counseling
-get organist to agree to the music I want (she plays well, but she's a musician, like me, and "I'm not sure I can cut that piece shorter - it's just so beautiful!" Well, lady, it's my wedding. Deal with it.)
-decide on Father Daughter dance music (what the heck should I do? My dad is NOT nostalgic or cute like that, so "Cinderella" by Steven Curtis Chapman would just make him barf. Thoughts, anyone? To show you what I'm dealing with - he suggested "My Favorite Things" from Sound of Music. Yeah.
-and I'm sure, tons of other stuff we need to get finished.

In other news, I am good for my job next year! Thanks, God. We didn't really know what was going to happen with that. People told me I would be okay, that I was back far enough (hired, I mean), but I tend to worry unnecessarily. Need to work on that.

Okay, I'll try to blog more, as we get closer. I will. I'll try. No guarantees.

Miss you all!

Congrats Scott and Amy!

And WOO Christina! Have a great time this weekend! :)

6 months and counting...

...and I'm going slightly crazy.

Case in point: invitations and the fiasco that was this weekend.

Probably wouldn't have been that big a deal if I hadn't had this big plan in my head. "Here's what we'll do: we'll watch the Super Bowl (since we can't make it to a party this year), and put together the invitations, and at the end of the game, we'll have them all done, sealed, stamped, and ready to go! Productivity!"

Yeah. Not really what happened.

Some highlights:

-Getting to the post office at 3:07 on Saturday to discover that they close at 3:00.

-Attempting to print the addresses on clear labels and discover that they a) didn't line up right, b) smeared ink all over the place, and c) wouldn't feed correctly into the printer.

-forgetting the charger cable for the laptop that had all the addresses on it, and frantically trying to change all the names from "Bob and Sherry Jones" to "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Jones" as fast as I could.

-Eventually figuring out the labels, but having to remove them, one sheet at a time, and lay them on the couch so they could dry and not smear.

-Giving up on the idea of inside clear labels with the names and just handwriting it - with my out-of-shape cursive. (As in, I don't write in cursive. Ever. So it's out-of-shape.)

-Staying up until 11:30 p.m., and only finishing 30 invitations.

Holy crap.

It was awful. Probably doesn't sound as bad here, but trust me, it was bad. Why else would I burst into tears over ink smudges?

It'll all be over soon, and maybe then I'll return back to my normal, somewhat stress-free self. That's my hope anyway. 2 months seems like a long time...

RAIN!

So, yes, here in SoCal we are experiencing intense heavy rainfall. And yes, my car did get flooded yesterday - nothing too bad, but hopefully not expensive to fix. And yes, I did have to keep students longer in classes because of the tornado warning.

Still - I love it!

Rain is perhaps my favorite weather. Of course, I have never lived in snow, so maybe that will change when I live someplace with snow. (East Lansing, anyone?)

We're in for another storm today. We'll have to see how it goes - woohoo! :)

Stay dry, everyone!

Feeling better...

Hello everyone out there.

No, I haven't died.

Yes, I have been a hermit.

The word "hermit" always reminds me of the Babysitters' Club books. I think, in one of them, there is a reference to some random neighbor who was a hermit, and apparently, would subsist on nothing but dandelions.

Random, I know, but that's how my brain works sometimes.

Anyway, I have been a hermit lately. I have been canceling plans, I have been holed up in my house. It's fantastic, absolutely fantastic.

This past week, I got lots more rest than I thought I would. And I actually started feeling like myself again. Being away from the pressure of my job (or that I won't have a job...ha), not to mention not dealing with kids, not worrying about the wedding, getting more sleep, etc....it's been really nice.

And I still have about a week left!

Of course, I woke up today feeling yuck. And this week is much busier than last week.

But, I'm going to keep resting.

Please forgive me if I haven't called you. I need to rest. At some point, I'll come out of this funk. I predict next August, after I'm finished with grad school and I KNOW that I have a job.

Thank you for your patience. I love you all - even if I have disappeared.

Rest...finally

I'm not really great at resting. Things have to literally STOP for me to rest. That's why my best rest comes during vacation time - spring break, winter break, summer break. All well and good...normally.

Except that the past two summers have been mostly full of school. (I love school! But it's not resting.) And this August, when I got back, I dove into wedding planning. (I love planning my wedding! But it's also not resting.)

Sometimes, God needs to whack me on the head to get me to stop. Sometimes, I won't stop until He REALLY whacks me on the head - or the whole body, if need be.

So, He did that.

Came home after a relatively normal day at work Monday, sat on the couch, and developed a 101 degree fever in a few hours. I haven't had a fever since I had my appendix out - which, last I remembered, required a trip to the hospital. Apparently, this was serious.

Went to the doctor on Tuesday, and he told me I had a sinus infection. No big - I get them every year, usually 2 or 3 times. But this doctor said, "Don't go back to work until Monday."

Monday???

"But I have concerts...But I have this string teacher in-service thing...But I'm meeting with some other teachers to do thus-and-so...but I have to work out...but...but...but..."

Nope.

Time for me to relax, chill, watch television, movies, and whatever. Time to get pampered by my oh-so-amazing fiancee, who has cooked for me, ran errands, cleaned up, washed dishes, done laundry, and in general stayed by my side so that I didn't have to do anything.

And I am sick. I'm really sick. Sickest I've been in a long time.

But I needed this rest. So I am okay with missing four days of work. Even though I have NEVER missed that much work in a row.

I needed this.

So...

thanks, God.

Pumpkins!

How about a happy post for a change?

(not that my life has miraculously solved itself and gotten totally stress-free. Actually, I may not have a job next year. Yeah. Add THAT to the wedding stress and general sense of "I'm so tired I can't see straight, whose idea was it to go to Michigan for 2 months and write three 20 page papers?" But, that is for a later post. Prayers are always appreciated, though!

So, Kevin and I decided to carve pumpkins last Friday. I insisted that we could not use normal knives for this task - we needed special pumpkin carving knives! When we found those knives at Stater Bros, they also came with those books, with the patterns in them. I have never tried that, and given that my general pumpkin-carving skills are subpar at best, decided, "Why not?"

After Kevin broke the knives, and had to go get NEW knives - 4 sets, to be exact, because hey, we don't want any more breaking! - we ended up with some pretty rad pumpkins. The best I have ever carved, to be exact!

This one is mine.

Hmm, guess I can't put pictures of Kevin's. Well, mine was more awesome, anyway. :) Just kidding, his was sort of a "flaming pumpkin face" thing. Pretty sweet.

They rotted 3 days later. But that is okay - it was still a blast!

Nice to go back and do random childhood stuff.

I miss you all.

Some randomness

...cause that's what my life is like, right now.

This whole "becoming one" thing is a lot more difficult than I thought.

As is wedding planning. All those crazy brides make more sense now.

However, we do have all our major vendors. Next up is invitations. Whoo. At least making the guest list with the parents wasn't a big deal - no stress there.

I love my ring - especially since the stone is from his family. Legacy, heritage, so neat!

It surprises me to hear that I am the subject of much gossip. Makes me regret all the gossip I have spread in my life - and also makes me hope I will resist the next time. Gossip, however, is a particularly "tasty sin," to use the words of a pastor-on-tape. Still...it's odd to be the subject of gossip.

I miss Michigan, and my Michigander friends.

I feel bad because people call me, and I never call them back. :(

I love my fiance!

In 6 months and 5 days, this insanity will be over, and I'll be in Napa, in a cottage, enjoying in-house massages, breakfast pastries delivered to our door, and bike rides to numerous vineyards. Ahhhhh...can I be there now?

So many life changes, all at once. It makes the reasoning behind getting married quickly even more understood - even if you all don't understand it.

I love you all, and I know you don't get me all the time. But that's not my problem.

Kids are crazy.

Kevin is great.

Sleep is amazing. :)