June Photo Dump

I feel like this is a month of photos. It was hard to only pick a few, so here are a handful. I am sure you will end up seeing more photos from this month from time to time.

Wedding Ceremony

These are a few pictures from right before we went down the isle and during the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony and I can't wait to share the details with you all!

Saturday Afternoon

This post could have been 12,000 pictures long and I was tempted to make it that long, but decided to spare you. Anyways, here are a handful of shots that our dear friend Vicki took before the wedding. Soooooo mannnnyyy fuuuuunnnn pictures.

Rehearsal Dinner/BBQ

Rather than doing a traditional rehearsal dinner we invited all of our family and friends who were in town out to the camp I co-manage. We had a GREAT time, we ate, drank, played copious amounts of yard games, talked, caught up, shot the breeze, and watched the sunset over the lake. 

Five: Songs that bring back memories

For the next few Tuesdays I am linking up with Lauren at Life. Love. Lauren and Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for their Tuesday Topics. This week's topic is "Five: Songs that bring back memories." [I have linked all these songs to a youtube version of the song - I attempted to find the version of the song that takes me back to a particular moment, but that wasn't always possible]

One: Down By the Bay - Flashback to First Grade - I think my first grade teacher used to have us sing this song all that time - I believe we even did it for a program at some point - I remember getting to make pictures of all the animals and the watermelons and what not.
Two: Eye of the Tiger - Flashback to countless locker rooms and pre-game warm ups
Three: Hallelujah - by Rachel Kurtz - takes me back to this summer and the high school mission trip [phenomenal experience] - Also if you haven't discovered Rachel Kurtz as an artist I HIGHLY recommend her, she is AMAZING to say the least
Four: How Great Thou Art - This song takes me back to the hours following the Haiti Earthquake in January 2011.
Five: Fishing in the Dark by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band - Hello High school dances and my senior prom theme

Once I got going with songs that took me back to a particular moment in time or brought back a series of memories I had a hard time stopping and only listing five. This list could have gone on for a really long time. It boggles my mind how songs have the ability to do that!

What songs take you back to a particular time/place?

Rehearsal

We have begun getting some pictures back from the week of our wedding. These pictures are some that we received from our dear friend who shot a ton of photos. This week I am going to highlight some of my favorites that she shot, I will give ya a full recap of the wedding later when I have time to type stuff up, however, I can't wait any more to share some photos this week.

Crazy to be on this side of the wedding rehearsal rather than
officiating one.

This one makes me giggle and I wish I knew what we were talking about
also it looks like we are running or something.

Mission Trip Prep

Prepping to head out on a mission trip with middle schoolers is always an interesting endeavor, I feel like there are about seven layers of stuff to get ready:

• the kids forms and paperwork, the activities to pull out of my bag as I may need them, the med kits, the snacks (just in case a kid gets hungry - which leads to crabby kids), and a few miscellaneous type things for kids to do
• the work I will miss while being out of the office - this is just a strange layer of stuff - I have to make sure that all the stuff I would normally do in any given week gets covered by someone and that they have everything they need and that they are well prepped for my absence (I realize I am not the end all be all and that I am not perfect or have all the answers, however, I know there are just certain things I do without thinking about them that help to make things run more smoothly) - also I like to leave my office with a clean desk (it is easier to tell what has been piled on it while I was gone) - set up the auto reply on my email to let people know if they need something that they can either contact my colleague or call my cell
• pack for myself - this is actually probably the easiest piece for me - most of the clothes come out of the "mission trip" tote of clothes that I just keep in my closet - I know it may seem strange to have a tote full of mission trip clothes but it makes sense to have a bunch of clothes that can get painted and stained and look a little crappy with who knows what on them - and if I have to throw them away it seriously is no big deal - also the packing piece seems to be the easiest for whatever reason - I pack WAY on the light side - I have the haul enough other stuff for the kids that I don't want to have to haul anything extra for myself
• leave Marc a list of all the stuff that he may need to know - he just moved into my place and hasn't quite yet learned the schedule of when the recycling and the trash needs to go out - when Dakota needs fed - where the key to the lawn mower is - the number of the plumber who is working on fixing the sump pump in the basement etc... - yeah it doesn't sound like much however - when everything is new I would rather leave him a list with all this stuff than expect him to remember it - not to mention I think we are going to try to sell my house and it will go on the market at the end of this week --- soooo just want to make sure he knows what's happening there and what not (yes, yes, we have talked about all this and he agreed that a list would be best for him)
• return & renew the library books that I have (seriously I am anal retentive and have never had a library fine in my life and hope to keep this streak going) - I LOVE public libraries

Do you have any particulars when you go on a trip?

I love traveling with my youth but why does it always seem like more work to be gone than to stay home?

Do you get to travel anywhere fun this summer?

Funny Disney Realization

I have been flipping through a ton of old photos and looking at photobooks lately. I seriously love flipping through shutterfly books that I have had printed and we have had some rain lately which has left me some time to be a little bit nostalgic. While flipping through photobooks I realize I have a problem. While this isn't the issue with every character at Disney World, but with several. Now, I am about 5'11" so by no means ridiculously tall, but I also am never classified as short. I also am the first to recognize that the characters really are geared more towards the kids than adults, however being a kid at heart I like to get my photo with the characters as well, particularly if there isn't a long line.
Anyways, I realize that in many a good picture I look RIDICULOUS because I am half squatting. I think I am attempting to not tower over the character however, I look soooo funny. I am posting a few here for you to observe my issue.
 The Donald Duck picture above is probably the worst one, I sort of look like I am falling over or something. How funny?! I am glad I noticed and can attempt to not squat. The Mickey Mouse picture with the medals sort of makes me laugh for several reasons, talk about being in his bubble and my head is huge and apparently covers up one of his ears. The other pictures it just looks so awkward that I am leaning WAY into all of these characters.
 I imagine the people after they are all done working for the day going back and talking about all the ridiculous things people said or did while they were working and people were taking photos with them and the things people said. I imagine they hear all sorts of things and have a ton of stories to tell however, seriously, I am one of those people. Hahahahahaha. Who knew?! My friend Suzi who is in all the photos with me comes in at about 5'4" so we have quite the height difference, but that at least can give you a little bit of perspective. There are some characters who are ridiculously tall and dwarf me which is kind of fun too.

I am thankful for the photopass people who are skilled with cameras and offer to take a picture on my personal camera as well as on their camera.

I LOVE Mickey Mouse

Goal for November: DON'T SQUAT in character photos

Operation Sandwich

As part of my job I go and eat at the elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools from time to time. It is entertaining to say the least, we hear about EVERYTHING that goes on in these kids' lives while sitting at the lunch tables. Parents, here is your warning, your kids, they tell us EVERYTHING that you say, do, and what happens at your houses, nothing is kept secret. Anyways, back to the point, around the beginning of May, I began asking kids, if they were excited for summer, at this point I was fairly convinced that the snow was not returning.

I remember one day sitting at a table of second grade girls, and I asked about summer, a couple told me stories of visiting grandparents, playing with siblings, summer camp, camping with family, and swimming the days away, another couple of girls looked at me with straight faces and told me of the hatred for summer. I ignorantly assumed it was due to their love of winter, I asked if they loved the snow, and the sternly replied no. I was confused. I asked then why did they hate summer. And with innocent and young eyes they looked at me and as clear as day said "because I am hungry and lonely." It took my breath away.

I couldn't imagine a second grader being hungry in the summer. As I probed the situation I learned: the girl's mother, works several jobs and is often not home, her dad works shift work and any shift he can pick up, she is left at home with her seventh grade brother. Sometimes they have food in the house, sometimes they don't, sometimes mom or dad brings something home for them to eat, sometimes they don't. She loves school because she is among the 2,000 kids who is on the "free and reduced" lunch plan in our school district. She comes to school and gets breakfast and lunch every day. Once a month she is sent home with a backpack full of snacks. She loves school because she gets fed.

My heart broke and as I sat and heard from this second grade girl I held back the tears. Kids in my own neighborhood were going hungry and this was unacceptable to me. Soooooo I began talking to my colleagues and they too had begun to hear similar stories and we knew we had a problem. We talked to the social workers at the schools and they could easily echo our problem, they knew the reality and how serious the issue was. We debated waiting a year to get our heads wrapped around the problem and figure out a solution, but we knew we would then have kids sitting around going hungry in the summer. We couldn't wait.

So we launched what has become known as "Operation Sandwich." Every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday we hand out sandwiches, fruit, veggies, at three local elementary schools and a park. On Thursdays we try to stuff the bags extra full with extra snacks to help tide the kids over until Monday when we see them again. We dream of expanding our ministry to five days a week in the future. We dream of making more sandwiches in the future. We dream of a day when this problem is no more.

For now, we operation on a prayer and the generosity of hundred of people. We operate with the work of thousands of volunteer hands. We operate knowing that there is a sharp learning curve and we are adapting as we go, we are learning each and every day, and our numbers are growing as word gets out. We operate until all those little bellies are filled and back in school.

Come September we will re-evaluate. We will come back to the drawing board and re-tool for next summer and know we need to do things differently, we need to change somethings, we need to apply for grants. For now, we press on day by day, praying for daily bread and working as the heart, the hands, and the feet of the Triune God in the world.

If by any chance you'd be interested in donating that would be AMAZING! Please donate at: http://www.volunteerspot.com/login/entry/595331376074 for monetary donations. If you are interested in amazoning us some delicious peanut butter, jelly, or snacks, comment and I'll get you an address to mail it to. By no means feel any pressure to donate, just felt like I should include it as an option.

Six: Favorite Products

For the next few Tuesdays I am linking up with Lauren at Life. Love. Lauren and Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for their Tuesday Topics. This week's topic is "Six: Favorite Products."

One:

My trusty waterbottle that comes EVERY WHERE with me

Two:

Chaco sandals
I LOVE my chacos and wear them a TON!

Three:

Shutterfly Books

Four:

Vanilla Coke Zero
I don't drink much soda (one a week or so) I usually drink water
but when I do I love a Vanilla Coke Zero

Five:

Burt's Bee's Chapstick
I ALWAYS rip the label off - not really certain why
I also ALWAYS have one in my pockets
I had to pull one from the closet to find one with a label still on it

Six:

North Face Fleece quarter zip
I wear this fleece more than I care to admit
I LOVE IT

Name Change

Alright, I have gotten several comments/questions on what I decided to do with my name. Seriously, this decision was hard from me, I went back and forth, and I thought I had something decided and then something brought be back to square one. It seemed for several months I went around and around and around on what to do and the question on what I am going to do with my name kept coming up time and time again as I ran. I debated and debated, I hemmed and I hawed, I wrestled and wrestled, and eventually it became time to apply for a marriage license and I HAD to make a decision. I seriously even put off applying to get our marriage license because I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO. I was stressed out over this decision.

There are things on both sides of the issue and valid things on both sides of the issue at that, which didn't help. Soooo it complicated things. I hated making this decision. Marc, was fine with whatever I decided, he said he'd love for me to take his last name AND he simultaneously said he understood why I didn't want to change my name and said he'd support me 110% either way.

I talked to people who had changed their name who were passionate that I should change my name. I talked to people who had kept their name and were passionate that I should keep me name. I talked repeatedly with God about it and repeatedly asked for signs of what to do or even a skywriter. I talked with many a folk who I consider wise counsel and heard people passionate on both sides of the argument. The decision was mine and mine alone.

In the end I ended up with a mixed solution. I wasn't totally willing to drop my last name, I like it, AND there was a piece of me that wanted to take Marc's last name for a number of reasons. So the final solution was this: I kept my first and middle name, moved Thomson to a middle name (I am now one of those people with two middle names - yes, I realize that there are cons and pros to this as well), and picked up Marc's last name as my last name.

I now have begun to dreaded process of changing my name on EVERYTHING. [This process is sort of a pain and it's only just begun.] I am sure I'll update you on this process as it comes along, so far it is annoying to me.


How was the name changing process for you?
Any tips on getting this process over quicker or with more efficiency?

An Open Letter to the Wedding Industry

Dear Wedding Industry,
   
     You are overrated. You think that lots of things are important that I found trivial. Somehow there has become this great misconception that lots of material items are necessities at a wedding. My wedding and reception was wonderful. I didn't have all sorts of take home things for my guests, many details in your mind were skipped, my wedding didn't require me to take out a loan or go broke. Rather, my family and friends gathered, we worshiped, we prayed, we said our vows, we rejoiced, we ate, we drank, and we danced the night away. And we slept really hard when it was all over.
    My wedding and reception was beautiful! I couldn't have wanted anything else. I am thankful I didn't buy into your lies of what is important and what isn't. I am thankful I didn't spend thousands upon thousands upon thousands of dollars on a dress that I will wear once. I am thankful that I am didn't have to take out a loan or spend ridiculous amounts of money on one day of my life, while yes, my wedding day was very important, I also know that the next ninety (or really how many ever years we live) years are just as important as today. I am thankful for the time I had with my family and friends and the fun we had. I am thankful for my family and friends who have promised to hold Marc and I in prayer and journey alongside us for the rest of our lives. I am thankful that your lies don't rule the world.

  Love,
      a recent bride

Over Whelmed

It is crazy to think we have been married a week - I think that we surpassed several celebrity couples in remaining married a week. Sad fact.

However it has been a whirl wind to say the least. We got married and then headed off to the Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin. We had a marvelous time. It is crazy to think we are actually married, it is such a strange transition.

I have caught Marc a few times playing with his ring, as he has had to get used to wearing one. It is even a little funny to see him wearing one, he normal is pretty low on jewelry and what not, normally he only wears a watch. It is even a little funny when he goes to grab my hand and I feel it on his hand. Funny what we aren't accustom to.

I am over the top overwhelmed by everything at the moment. I am overwhelmed by the love and support from family and friends as they gathered to watch us profess our vows and become husband and wife. I am overwhelmed by the amount of family and friends who drove in or even flew in from hundreds of miles away. I am overwhelmed by the generosity of family and friends as they came bearing gifts,  I look forward to beginning the process of writing thank you notes. (I seriously love sending snail mail)

I am even a bit overwhelmed by the fact that I now have another person living in my house, not bad, but putting me into a state of transition. It is a welcomed transition just a transition none the less. No one warns you about this time.

Life is going well and slowly but surely the strange will become the familiar.

Tourist-Ville

I really do love living where I do, most of the time. I live where people vacation, I live where people buy million dollar lake homes to live in for a few weeks out of the year, I live in a very touristy location. It is a great location and has a ton of perks of being here. We get all sorts of amenities because we have so many tourists come through our area.

I was aware of this as this past week we were up in northern Wisconsin in the Apostle Islands, I imagine that those folks feel much of the same way that we do. I wish I could help out the tourists some and remind them that they don't have to haul their big boats with big trailers and their new trucks and park across nine parking spots at the grocery store and Target.

I welcome our touristy friends, I want to share that which we love with everyone, however, I wish I could some how post a sign that says something along the lines of "remember some people live here full time, work here full time, and live where you vacation."

For those of us who live in the lakes area, we alter the way we live in the summer. We get groceries Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday and we would never consider going out to eat Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. We avoid the main roads and travel back roads and dirt roads to make space for you and we try to be as friendly as we can.

So dear tourists - enjoy the lakes, land, and state parks as much as we do, but please respect them. Keep your zebra muscle infested boats out of the waters, pick up your trash, and have a marvelous vacation.

Back to Work

I feel like I am cheating by leaving only taking off Friday through Wednesday. I haven't missed a Thursday and now I find myself back on a Thursday, seriously the best day in the summer as I work alongside our summer stretch youth. True story: I am glad to not miss a Thursday. It will be interesting to see how they respond and to most of them they won't know I have even been gone. Middle schoolers are such a funny funny group of people, I am thankful that we only have to go through middle school once not to forget that hanging out with middle schoolers keeps me humble.

I am thankful to be back to work, our quick get away was great on many levels. You can count on some good updates about our trip here once I get pictures off the camera and onto my computer and catch up on a little sleep.

Life is indeed good.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

While I love traveling there is also something absolutely beautiful about coming home, sleeping in my own bed, snuggling my sweet puppy while relaxing at night, knowing where everything is at, and having access to all of my stuff. Today I am back to work and it is my favorite day of the week in the summer  in terms of work. Thursday's are summer stretch days! I hang out with middle schoolers all day - in the morning we do a service project somewhere in our community, we eat our picnic lunch, we learn a little about Jesus, and then we head off to do something fun with the other 150 summer stretchers across our town. It is glorious. Not only for me is it fabulous ministry but I also get the chance to hang out with my colleagues who I love and adore.

I am hoping after Summer Stretch is over to upload pictures to my computer, then to shutterfly (I am anal retentive about getting my photos backed up), and then hopefully get some posted. I don't have any of my professional pictures back yet, just the ones off of my camera and my mother's but I hope to at least begin to post a few.


Do you enjoy photos as much as I do?
Do you have anything you always look forward to every week?
What is your favorite way to store your photos and back them up?
Do you scrapbook? How?

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's back to reality we go

We have had a marvelous few days exploring and wandering and adventuring up in northern Wisconsin. I definitely would love to come back some day. It is totally reasonable located in terms of us getting here without having to make a twelve million hour drive or having to pay to fly somewhere. The Apostle Islands are absolutely GORGEOUS this time of year (pre-warning for a photo dump coming) and I have taken tons of pictures (this probably doesn't surprise you).

We are heading back to Minnesota today and should be back this afternoon - we don't plan on rushing our way back but enjoying what last little time we have before we are back to work and all of those joys.

Do you have anywhere in particular that you like to get away even if it is for a short time?

Seven: Things About My Job

For the next few Tuesdays I am linking up with Lauren at Life. Love. Lauren and Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for their Tuesday Topics. This week's topic is "Seven: Things About My Job."

One: I walk on holy ground, every day. I get invited into some of the most holy and sacred places in people's lives, and I am humbled to be asked into these moments, humbled to be asked to walk alongside people in some of the hardest times in their lives.

Two: I don't have a "typical day." My days are diverse, flexible, and sometimes horribly inflexible. My hours are any time and really any day. I love the variety and can't fathom working a job where I sit at a desk all day or have too much routine. My year sort of cycles and has some sense of continuity and routine but the details are all variables.

Three: I can't imagine doing anything else. I know that this is what I have been called to do and am blessed to be in full time ministry. I know all people are called to full time ministry but not everyone gets the opportunity to get paid to be in full time ministry.

Four: I love working with children, youth, and families. I get to work with a diverse group of people, I get to work with kids and their families (which really means - I get to work with kids of all ages - birth to death - with focus and emphasis on kids, youth, and families of faith)

Five: I have the world's best colleagues. I love my senior pastor as well as the colleagues in the area I serve. This could seriously make or break my job. My colleagues inspire, challenge, encourage, and uphold me daily. I can't imagine my job without my colleagues - I grieve that my senior pastor is older than me and that he'll want to retire long before I will.

Six: Sometimes I still laugh when I think about what I have been called into, never in my wildest imagination did I think I would be a Pastor for children, youth, and family ministries. NEVER in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would be a pastor when I was growing up.

Seven: I love that I get to travel with my job. I get to see other places and meet people from so many diverse places. I get the opportunity to learn and grow from people who come from a diverse set of contexts. I give thanks for the chance to travel because it heavily influences the ways in which I understand the world around me.

Hi Ho Hi Ho its off to paddle we go

I LOVE being able to throw our kayaks in the water and just go - seriously there is soooo much to see and do around here, I could see how people could come up here and paddle for weeks on end and never paddle the same location. We are in love with this place. I can't get in enough outside time or time with my husband (which that is still totally and completely weird to say).

I have managed to go for a run every morning and enjoyed every second. It is ridiculously gorgeous around here. I am thankful for some time to spend with Marc and to spend outside. We will definitely be adding the Apostle Islands/Madeline Island/northern Wisconsin to our vacation list again.

5 Months to runDisney's Wine & Dine Half Marathon

Photo Credit: runDisney Facebook Page

5 Months from today I will earn my Coast to Coast medal by completing the runDisney Wine and Dine Half Marathon. I. AM. EXCITED.

I am not actually training yet, next month I will begin my actual training plan. I am going to use one of the Jeff Galloway training plans from the runDisney website. I am still running about five times a week or so, depending on how my knees are doing but I am not necessarily massively focused on getting ready for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. Currently I am just working on getting miles under my belt and doing a bit of cross training here and there.

I have packed my running shoes (two pairs of course - a girl needs options) for these next few days while we are in northern Wisconsin, with the hopes of at least getting in a couple of short runs, we'll see if that actually happens or if I can twist Marc's arm into joining me for a run.

Hi Ho Hi Ho it's off to the Apostle Islands we go....

My car is pointed east and we are off to northern Wisconsin to the Apostle Islands and we can't wait. The kayaks are loaded up on top of my car and the bikes on the back. We are set and on our way (now hopefully the weather agrees with us that we want to spend copious amounts of time outside). We have rented a small semi- rustic (which I am thinking means it has a bathroom - I am not 100% sure and frankly don't really care) cabin on the shore in Bayfield. The area looks gorgeous and everyone who has told us about the area loves it, so we are jazzed. Now we have four hours to chill in the car, don't worry I packed all the essential road trip snack food (soda, cinnamon gummy bears, sunflower seeds, and snack mix).

We had a luncheon bbq with lots of our family and friends who were still hanging out around the Brainerd area, lots of people are sticking around to explore the area for a few days. It was lovely to be able to see them all one more time before we departed, they came a long ways to be with us yesterday and I am glad lots of them are making family vacations out of it while they are here. I LOVE my family and my extended family! My mom is staying with Dakota because her brother's family and a few other family friends will be in town for a few days. That will be great for Dakota to have the chance to run and play with everyone while they spend their days hiking and exploring, I heard word that they may even venture up to Duluth.

There will be a full photo review of the wedding coming once we get back home (Wednesday or Thursday depending on how antsy I am to get them uploaded and posted) - so don't think you are getting short changed on that piece at all. It was soooooooooooooooo much fun to see soooooooooooooooooo many family and friends (yes all those "o"s were necessary).

We plan on taking more than a couple days just into the new year and are going somewhere warm. We figured since June, July, and August really are the prime times to be up in northern Minnesota/Wisconsin we were foolish to leave the beautiful weather when next winter we will be more than game to escape. So there will be a honeymoon part 2 come this winter.


What is a road trip essential food for you?
Where is one of your favorite places to road trip to?

Wedding Day

Let's be honest here, I am not actually posting this today, I have it set as a delayed post, I am certain that keeping up with this is not on my to-do list or even relatively close to my priority. However being slightly OCD I have mastered the "schedule post" setting on here and have managed to schedule one to be posted today (because I can, not because I actually think I will have anything that riveting to say). And I am totally random and think it is fun to think there is a post going up on the morning of my wedding.

First off I can't believe today is actually here! Seriously!

Anyways. Today's schedule for me is:
9:00 am - Hair appointment
1:00 pm- Pictures begin
3:30 pm -Wedding
4:30 pm - Pictures at the Arb
5:30 pm - Reception


I couldn't be more excited, when we got engaged last summer June seemed like forever away, seriously, however here is not only June but June 8, it's go time, time to get married.

For those of you who know my love of Disney you will appreciate this. So down the back of my dress, there are a TON of buttons and every third button has a cluster of beads in a particular design. While all of the bead clusters are fun and what not, my mom had the lady while doing my alterations switch out the last bead cluster for this, a hidden Mickey. Mom knew my love of finding hidden Mickeys while at Disney World and Disneyland and thought it would be fun to hide one on my dress. In all reality 99% of the people will never even notice it, but I LOVE IT! It is the very last bead cluster at the bottom of my train. Ridiculously fun for sure.

I will at some point post more pictures of today but for now - you get a glimpse at my hidden Mickey.


Did you have any Disney shout-outs at your wedding?
Did you have anything a little silly that you were excited about that didn't matter to most people?

TOMORROW.

It is surreal to say the least. Tomorrow I shall marry my best friend. I can't believe it is already here, time has flown by and crawled by. We have had long conversations about life and the future and have spent much time in prayer about it all.

Our family and friends have come from near and far to help us celebrate and surround us in prayer. It is sooooooooooooo much fun to see everyone that I haven't seen in sooooooooo long and then to have a lot of my favorite people all in one place! Seriously blessed.

Today we are setting up our reception site this morning (poor Marc has to work a half day - there is no way I'd be able to focus) and then a girls luncheon with my grandma and my grandpa's sister (they seriously are the greatest). The afternoon is chill - not really certain what we'll do there probably putz. Early this evening we have rehearsal at the church and then rehearsal dinner out at Camp V (the camp I help to co-manage). Should be a great night of chilling by the lake, eating delightful food, and hanging out with family.

Seriously can't believe tomorrow is happening. It doesn't seem like all that long ago that we were just engaged and thinking that June 8th was forever away.

Sooooooooo excited.

I am sure there will be a massive photo dump coming at some point.

Summer Stretch

While all the wedding chaos is happening I am still working and while balancing time with my family, friends, and work. It is interesting and I feel like I am running 12,000 places at once but actually enjoying it during the process - so we are going to go with it.

Today begins one of my most favorite things of the summer - Summer Stretch - six Thursdays out of the summer roughly 150 middle schoolers from seven different churches and four denominations gather together to serve our area. In the morning we all head out all over town and we do service projects of every shape, size, and in nearly every location. We walk alongside our nursing home friends, our fire stations, our animal shelter, other congregations and ministries, our food shelf, the middle school, and so much more. These kids make a deep impact on our community and people eventually start looking for the mob of kids all dressed in the same shirt to be around. (Not to mention it gives me an amazing excuse to wear a t-shirt to work one day a week) 

After our morning service project we find a park or some green space or link up with another church somewhere and we eat our bag lunches and do a bible study. EVERY church is doing the same bible study (obviously with our own swing on it) and this summer we are focusing on Jesus and our call to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.

The afternoon is spent as a ridiculously large group doing all sorts of fun fellowship. We live in a bit of a touristy area, however, most of our kids don't have the opportunity to do many of the touristy things. Soooo we make deals with the local places and they cut us great deals and let our kids come and play for a few hours in the afternoon. We spend our afternoons at a local water park, the big mini golf course, playing at the beach, playing games in a park, paddling down the mighty Mississippi, biking up the amazing bike trail, and eating copious amounts of ice cream. The local paper is even coming during our afternoon fun today to take pictures of our kids and put them on the front page of the newspaper. THIS is the kind of stuff I love to see in the newspaper!

The idea for Summer Stretch came out of a Summer Stretch ministry that is happening the in Minneapolis/St. Paul area. 

My youth look forward to Thursday every week and are VERY annoyed with me when they graduate out of the ministry and no longer can participate. I am always tempted to begin a Summer Stretch type ministry with the high school youth except they all have 12,001 things going on between work, summer sports, and vacation. 

Unrelated side note: my wedding to-do list is getting shorter and shorter by the minute and while I am off summer stretching my mom and dear friend are continuing to cross stuff off my list! GLORIOUS!

An Open Letter to Cancer

Dear Cancer,

My Hartj at her wedding last summer.

    You. Suck. End of the story. In case I had ever questioned it before I am not annoyed at you again. You and one of my best friends are waging quite the war, and I am here to tell you that you won't win in the end, yes, you may win a battle here or there and it may seem like you have a grasp. HOWEVER, I am here to tell you this right now - you won't win. I know you have met my dear friend, which should have you shaking in your boots, she is a fighter, she is tough, she is stronger that you are giving her credit for. She will fight you and I trust she will win. You suck.
     This weekend I will get married and selfishly I am pissed because my dear friend won't be standing right next to me and enjoying all of the tomfoolery. YOU. SUCK. She is one hell of a fighter. Trust me. Know that she is stubborn as they come, and it is serving her well. The reality is, while I am a bit saddened that she is fighting you rather than enjoying the day (& selfishly hanging out with me), I know she is fighting you hard and I trust that she will stand by my side for years to come. While physically she will hopefully be in the pews and joining us however she can (still up in the air how it will work out), she will be in my heart and I in hers, her prayers will uphold me and support me, and my prayers and the prayers of so many shall surround her.
     I am annoyed. CANCER, YOU SUCK. Get that message loud and clear. Get that message and buzz off, go infest rocks or lifeless things. Get out of people. Just so you know I am praying for a cure against you as are millions of other people, and our God is bigger than you. You create havoc in millions of lives each year, directly and indirectly. There is billions of dollars fighting against you and fervently working for a cure. There is a cure out there, I know it. I believe there will be a day when you are nothing more than a distant nightmare.

GO AWAY.
YOU SUCK.

Consider this your eviction notice from the world.
Sincerely,
   Sarah

THIS WEEKEND

I get married in 3 days. RIDICULOUS. (thanks for putting up with so many wedding related posts)

I think I am still a little shocked that it is coming up so quickly and that it has taken so long to get here.
The weather forecast doesn't look horrible so we should be fine. Let's be honest the church and the reception hall are both air conditioned so we'll be fine.

I. Am. Jazzed.

The planning will be done.
The party will begin.
Family and friends will gather.
I am excited for it all
and for it all to be over.

I. Am. Jazzed.

Eight: Goals for this Month

For the next few Tuesdays I am linking up with Lauren at Life. Love. Lauren and Tiffany at The Austin Family Diary for their Tuesday Topics. This week's topic is "Eight: Goals for this month."

An Open Letter to Graduating High School Seniors

Dear High School Class of 2013,
    I am not going to lie here, there is a piece of me that is sad to see you graduating. You haven been transformed over your years at school much like the classes before you and the classes that are following you. You have grown up a ton (thanks be to God). You are fine people (despite what the world wants to tell you). You will make a difference in the world, you aren't just the future of the world but rather you are the world now, your role is very important. While at times it may seem like we adults don't want to acknowledge your presence and often think less of you than we should, we know you are gift and talented and we expect you to use those gifts and talents.
    Do what you love. Love what you do. Serve the world. Serve others. Dare to dream and dare to think you could be wrong. Go on great adventures to far off places and come back home, to where ever that may be, share your story with the world, and learn from the world. YOU ARE IMPORTANT, YOU ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
   It has been an honor to watch you transform from just young kids into awkward middle schoolers (really who wasn't a strange middle schooler at some point), it has been quite the ride watching you go through breakups and athletic success, seeing you care for one another and your passions for the world. While your greatest concern once was what color crayon to use next, now you are on to conquer the world, you can do it. Your career may change once or twice or ten or twenty times, go where God calls you.
   Thank you for the ways in which you have taught me about the world, thank you for the ways in which you have reminded me of the joy in the simple things, and thank you for being you. Thank you for being bold enough to step out in faith to trust that God has made you wonderful.
     Welcome to the world of adulthood. Welcome to the world as crazy as it may seem. Welcome to life after high school. You will do awesome.
   A blessing for you, one that I hold dear, from the summer camp that helped to form me into who I am today:
          As you go on your way may Christ go with you, may he go:
                                                            before you to show you the way
                                                            behind you to encourage you
                                                            above you to watch over you
                                                            beside you to befriend you
                                                            and within you to give you peace.

Peace & Love-
   an adult who values you highly

Family Arriving

MOM is here. She arrived Thursday night. Seriously, why is everything better when mom arrives?!
Since she has arrived she has been putting massive amounts of mason jars through the dish washer and spoiling my dog. Perfect all around - except Dakota goes through withdrawls when she leaves - for one reason or another Dakota can't figure out why when my parents come she gets to hang out with them all day and eat people food. When they leave however she spends time in her crate when I am at work and only gets to eat dog food.

Marc and I have family coming in from all over the country for our wedding. We were attempting to make a list of the states that will be represented at our wedding and here is what we have come up with so far:

Minnesota
South Dakota
Wisconsin
North Dakota
Colorado
Connecticut
Arizona
Texas
Illinois
Montana
Iowa
Michigan
Alaska
Tennessee
Idaho


*This list represents not necessarily where people are originally from but rather where they are currently living and coming from to get to our wedding - this also does not include the people that we sent invitations to who RSVPed and said that they couldn't make it.*

As we thought through our list of family and friends and how far some of them are traveling to be with us we were humbled for sure. Our. Families. Rock.

One Week

Warning: I have no clue what this week will entail in terms of posts however I am fairly wedding focused- sooooo brace yourself for probably an overdose of wedding related posts.

I am over the top excited. Seriously.
A week from today I will be getting married. I am jazzed.
I am super excited for the day and to marry Marc.
I am also beyond jazzed to be having a lot of my family (on both my mom and dad's side) and friends making the trek up north to bear witness to our marriage and then to help us celebrate. On my dad's side of the family there seriously hasn't been a wedding since I was 10 (we are talking 18 years ago) and on my mom's side of the family there was one more recently but I wasn't there the last one I attend I was a freshmen in high school (we are talking 14 or so years ago) so we all haven't really gathered in forever. My dad's side of the family had a big gathering a the turn of the century (13 years ago) and my mom's side of the family hasn't had a big gathering in a while.
Everyone is slowly but surely starting to trickle in this week. It will be wonderful. I can't wait to give everyone hugs and show them around my neck of the woods. I can't wait for my friends to gather and have friends from a wide variety of places gather together.I am excited to say the least.
This week I am going to attempt to work Monday-Thursday. Thursday will be easy because it is the kick off for our Summer Stretch Ministries and I love working with the middle schoolers, Monday-Wednesday could be rough though. We'll see what I can do and how well I can focus. Must. Focus. Must. Get. Work. Done.
YAY friends and family coming to town.
Notes to self:

• turn in final numbers to the caterer
• enjoy this week
• enjoy time with family
• remember: it will all turn out wonderfully and come together probably better than you anticipated