And...I'm back

In Michigan.

Two summers ago, I began this blog with the full intention of "writing something every day now that I am living in a new state and it's just so exciting!"

Then, when I got back to SoCal, I kind of kept it up.

Then all sorts of life happened.

I went back last summer, fully planning on blogging, and instead killed myself reading and writing papers.

Then, I got married. Planning a wedding is time consuming.

Now, I'm back. Last summer. In 6 weeks, I will have a masters degree. It's really quite awesome. Not to toot my own horn, but I have been working very hard, and I am exhausted.

Three new things this summer (2 neg, 1 pos):

I have a husband - who (whom?) I left home. He is not here. Although this is only my second day back, it is very difficult to be apart from each other. We are struggling. Being newlyweds, I get this. Many of my friends say, "Wow, I can't even imagine doing that." Others say, "It's only 6 weeks! No big deal!" Yeah. We'll see.

I am really burnt out. Very difficult year - possible loss of job, planning above wedding (which is joyful but stressful), various ailments (food poisoning at school - fantastic), etc, combined with a hellish grad program last summer makes for tired Liz. I love it here, but man, working? Not so excited.

One good thing - I have a suitemate! Her name is Cat, and we went to UCLA together for our undergrad. She is awesome. :) It's nice, because when I lived in this same dorm 2 years ago, I didn't know anybody. I spent a lot of time on Netflix, Hulu, and Facebook. Now, I have someone to eat meals with. Yay! :)

Okay, peeps. I know, it's a lot of complaining. I need to work on my bitterness. That's one of my summer goals. Check up on me - see how I'm doing.

I'll try to write a little every day. Bear with me.

Love to you all.

Married life

So, as of today, I've been married for one month. Wow. It actually seems longer than that. Since I am so wise in the ways of marriage, I thought I'd share some of my insights:

-I can TOTALLY understand why married couples become hermits. It's just so nice to see your husband all the time - you want to see your husband ALL THE TIME. Is this a good thing? Yes...and no. I want to see my friends too, as does Kevin. We're working on it.

-Having shows you can watch together is so fun. Too bad our favorite ones are either ending (LOST, sigh...) or probably being yanked (Flash Forward, anyone?)

-It is way fun to host dinner parties using your fine china! Hopefully we'll keep doing this for a while.

-Organizing a house can be quite stressful. Multiple fights over random things.

-Garage sales are the best! We sold all our old pots and pans, cups, dishes, etc, and made $150 - plus we got rid of everything else by taking it to the Salvation Army. AWESOME! More space, cash, and helping others, sweet!

-Kevin puts me first. All the time. I hope I can do the same for him.

-There is a lot you have to do to change your name! I haven't even changed my email address yet...

I'm sure there are more insights. But it's only been a month. :)

Random tidbits for those who can't stand it anymore

I need to post about my wedding. And about my honeymoon. And married life. I know. Somehow, everything's got away from me - even though I am WAY less stressed than before the wedding. I do not miss deciding on linen colors and paper thickness at ALL.

Some random things:

-Wedding day was great! The only problems we had were quite small, no biggies at all (example: the site coordinator saying, "Oh, honey, you look tired!" right before we did the Grand Entrance. Who says that to the bride??) We had a great time, it was a blast. It went so quickly! Sometimes I can't totally remember who was there. But yeah, it was a great time.

-Our honeymoon was perfect - completely relaxing, lots of good food. We ate lots of cheese and did lots of wine tasting. Beautiful place. Check out my facebook page for pictures.

-Being married is a lot of fun! It's also difficult. Most of the time, I just want to spend time with Kevin - all the time! But yes, there are difficulties. That doesn't mean I would go back - no way, no how. I love being married. :)

Okay, that's it for now. I'll try to write more, sometime. Concert season is coming - that means Liz goes crazy. :)

Love you all!

2 more days...

...until Saturday, the big day!

Lots of interesting thoughts running through my brain. I had a dream that some random personal trainer insisted I work out with him instead of my normal trainer, EVERY DAY. It was punishment for something.

Everyone ELSE is having the wedding dreams. No fair!

Seriously though, random thoughts in my head. "Wow, this is the last time I'll work out as a single woman!" "Wow, this is my last Lost episode as a single woman!" "Wow, I'm getting MARRIED!"

Things are coming together. Running around and yet coming together, quite well.

I had a GREAT bachelorette this weekend. Spent the evening at Sgt. Pepper's Dueling Piano Cafe in Long Beach. Becky requested they play "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic" (one of my favorite songs), and I had to go on stage and do the Hokey Pokey with a bunch of strangers. I felt so loved and cherished. It was great! Also had a sleepover and ate lots of ice cream, and pancakes in the morning. Still managed to lose 3 pounds. Go figure. :)

I can't wait for my vacation. So tired!

I feel like I had more interesting things to say here, as I pondered what I would write in my latest post. Instead, you all get random thoughts. Sorry.

Hope to see you Saturday! :)

19 days and counting...

Got a lot done this weekend.

Lots of random errands that required spending money for school, how fantastic.

But also organized the rehearsal dinner (K Pasta! Yum! Thanks to my students for having parents that own restaurants!)

Took a lot of time to relax as well. Watched 2012 (entertaining) and lots of Buffy episodes (fantastic!).

Church - Palm Sunday. Easter is almost here. Wow.

Amazing. 19 days to go, and then I am a married woman for life.

I am so EXCITED! :)

Plus, spring break is next week. That's awesome too - but not as awesome as April 17th! :)

Pride...or something I'm thinking about

So, in case you didn't know, I'm planning a wedding. It's coming up pretty quick now. Like 25 days or something like that. Insane!

As I've been planning it, people have offered to help. "No, it's fine. I got it." "Kevin's helping out a lot." "We're fine, thanks though."

Someone offered to help this weekend, and I said, all right, go ahead. I later found out that she had some problems with the helping, and it didn't go as planned. "I should have just done it myself," I thought.

See, growing up, I was the go-to person in group projects. I'll do it, it's fine, don't worry that you didn't do anything and I wrote a 40 page description of Thomas Jefferson. I was the overachiever (still am, who I am kidding?), and I just picked up the slack because I didn't want to have to suffer. I even had a friend in college say, "You know, none of us in music history do the reading, because we know you'll answer all the questions." I always felt like I HAD to do everything, because no one else could do it as well as I could.

Humble, right?

Yeah.

No.

God convicted me yesterday a lot. He said I need to surrender the table numbers, and just let someone else do it. Are people really going to obsess about the table numbers? No. (If you do, please don't tell me. I don't want to know.)

So, I need to work on surrendering, and letting other people do things, and being okay with how they turn out. I need to DELEGATE.

Okay, God.

I'm working on it. But it's hard, so I need Your help, okay?

Love you all out there.

P.S. Christina, do you appreciate the wedding planning update? :)

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! :)