5 Months

No, I am not moving (THANK GOD), however my fiance, Marc, will be moving into my house after we get married in June. For some reason this has been on my mind lately and I am beginning to realize that I should probably think seriously about where his stuff will be going and make sure I make room to make the house his as well. There is a piece of me that wishes we were selling my place and moving into somewhere together (or I was moving from another house into my house - I do enjoy my place and don't want anything bigger) sot hat together we could figure out where stuff goes and what not. I however am jazzed beyond belief that I don't have to move.

The house is plenty big for the two of us, 3 bedrooms and 1 bath, let's hope we can figure out how to live together and how to share space. If we can't we are in a world of hurt. However, at the time that we get married and Marc moves in Dakota and I will have been living there for two full years. Yes, I will have lived at the same address for two full years, I haven't done that since I was in high school 10.5 years ago. I am realizing probably the obvious:

• Marc will need to put his clothes somewhere 
• I will need to take my camping gear (tent, sleeping bag, water purifier, and all my other glorious camping gear) and skiing gear (skis, snowboard, boots, etc) out of my closet and make space for him. Seems lame but for some reason I am slow on the uptake and just realized these things
• Marc has some kitchen stuff
• while we registered for lots of kitchen stuff because we both have hand me down stuff and rummage sale stuff we need to purge some of both of our stuff and somewhere I need to makes space for his stuff logically - I do have several empty cupboards that we can put stuff in - but we need to think through the logic
• the bathroom only has two towel hooks
• yes, I use two towels - actually I rotate two towels throughout any given week between washing them - and Marc is probably definitely going to need somewhere to hang a towel or two after showering (I promote showering often - this comes from working with nonshowering junior high kids)
• Some of my junk needs to either go to the attic space (strange space upstairs in my house) or I just need to get rid of it and stop holding onto stuff
• I sort of miss the days when all of my stuff fit in my vehicle - however I don't yet feel like a hoarder by owning a bed,a couch, and a kitchen table - I just feel less like a minimalist 
• the garage needs some loving
• I have a two stall garage but one stall is currently occupied by two kayaks (one is his), three bikes (two are his), yard games, lawn furniture (for the winter), a grill, a dog crate (Dakota's travel crate), and a bunch of other miscellaneous items - we need to figure out how to best fit two cars in the garage 

I am certain all of this is obvious to you all reading it, however for some reason when this hit me like a ton of bricks this getting married stuff became more real. We won't have two places to live - Marc and I will live in the same place. I won't have my own place, I must learn to share again (it has been a while since I have had a roommate) and I am certain that I will do things that annoy the heck out of Marc and will need to come to some compromises. Transitions are strange, while I look forward to transitioning into married life there are also certain things that I think get overlooked in the business of it all and for those of us who didn't live together before marriage moving in is a crazy process. T-minus 5 months until we get married.

How do you feel about moving?

Any tips on how to get rid of stuff and downsize what you own?

Anything you hold on to that you keep thinking you should get rid of?

What is your favorite personal item you own?

Snowpacalypse

I love living in northern Minnesota for a couple reasons (yes there are reasons I hate it too - primarily because it is way too far away from my family) - but one of the reasons I love living up north is the snow. Seriously I LOVE snow. While some people freak out and get annoyed that the temperature is at a solid -4, there is a piece of me that rejoice as the ice is getting thicker and has to be nearing snow shoeing on the ice weather. GLORIOUS!

Yesterday was an ideal day to say the least: church went well, we celebrated new members and a baptism, and then I spent the rest of the day with Marc and Dakota. We wore sweatpants, watched a good movie, consumed some crockpot chili, and watched another Packer victory. Seriously, wonderful and what I needed. The day was broken up by a few trips outside to shovel the snow that kept falling (I do love shoveling snow even though most people hate the job) and conversations about this that and the other. I am thankful for days like yesterday.

While we were talking yesterday we also realized that we are now under the six month mark until we get married. It will be wonderful to begin that transition. It is a little strange to have two houses going at this point, it seems like we are always running back and forth to grab a movie or something out of the kitchen. It will be great to be in the same place, despite the fact that I know it will come with its own set of challenges too. On the one hand it seems like six months is a ridiculously long ways away, and it won't ever get here. On the other hand it seems like it is just around the corner and my list of stuff that needs (or at least I would like) to get done is relatively lengthy. I know it will all play out like it needs to and at the end of the day we will be married and this is all that will matter. I suppose one of these days I should start to move some of my stuff that is spread out all over the house and begin to make room for Marc. We'll put that on the winter project list.


What is on your to-do list on a snowy winter day?
Any good book suggestions? I am just finishing mine and need a new one.
Any winter weather training tips?

Christmas Tree

I love this time of year, setting up the Christmas tree, decorating the house, playing copious amounts of Christmas music, and baking. Last night Marc and I set up a Christmas tree in my house. Marc lives a block down the street (literally, I can see his lower level apartment from my house) and spends a lot of time at my house, I have his tv in fact because he hated how tiny my tv is. We watch tv/movies/play wii at my house most of the time because I have cable, a fenced in yard, and a couch.

This year we decided to only set up a Christmas tree at my place (partially because we only wanted to buy one and partially because really other than sleeping Marc is usually at my place if not at work) and it was an interesting process. I forget that every family has its own personalities and everyone has their own way of doing things. Marc grew up with a packed Christmas tree, he would fill the tree from top to bottom with ornaments if it was up to him. I grew up with fewer ornaments on the tree, we each picked out some of our favorites and put them on the tree. It was one of those moments last night as we both had to figure out what we would do together, it was a moment of compromise where we realized we need to think about both of us. It was a moment that neither of us anticipated, it was a moment that challenged us (while it seems like a small thing we both had ideas about what a Christmas tree should look like).

These are the things that no one tells you about when you are getting married, about the strange compromises that we make, about the things that matter to you both that don't jive together, the things that cause us to sit and pause and tell stories of why what we believe is important. It is in these moments we pause, we listen, we pray, and move forward in compromise.  Being engaged is definitely a learning process for me, and I am really learning to appreciate the importance of the engagement period. We are learning about each other, about us as a couple, and about ourselves. I am thankful for this time where we still live separately and are learning how to come together. I am thankful for family and friends who support us in this journey and the God who continues to breathe life into us and call us into community with others.

Wedding Craziness

I am super excited to be getting married this coming summer. I can't wait to be married and continue the adventure with my fiance. He is fabulous. As you can imagine since getting engaged we have been on the journey to planning a wedding: setting a date (finding one that works with the church and finding a reception site that worked with the date), finding a reception site (harder than I imagined), asking our attendants, and sharing the news with friends and family. Other than those types of things I have begun to do some hoping and dreaming about how we want to decorate and all of those types of things, but it is OVERWHELMING!
The wedding industry is crazy. The other day I was looking online at a few to-do lists of when what needs to be done in terms of months out from the wedding and some of it was ridiculous. Some time lines were yearS in advance. Seriously YEARS! Who plans a wedding for years? I was committed to being engaged for less than a year, too much longer seems crazy. I don't need all the excess stuff, this does not need to be a multimillion dollar event. I can't fathom spending that much money on a wedding. There are lots and lots of things I was looking at and thinking about how over the top it was. My friend Lynneskies sent me a couple bridal magazines, they have been fun to look through and get some ideas and laugh at the over-the-topness of some of it.
There is a piece of me that was seriously disappointed (granted some of this comes from working in a church) but in most of the stuff that I have read or seen it appears that there is little to no emphasis on the actual wedding but rather on the reception and party after. Why does the ceremony get little to know focus and almost seems to come across as a means to an end?!
I am excited for the ceremony, to gather with God, family, and friends and to be showered in prayers and love as we make promises before God. I am excited as well about the reception and celebrating life together. It will be marvelous.
I haven't been doing a ton in terms of wedding stuff. Although I did just finish making our save the dates. I used this idea from pintrest, ours are brown and green. They were fun and not too challenging to make. At some point I know I need to go start looking at wedding dresses for myself, I am overwhelmed even thinking about it. It is crazy to think of all the options and to try to decide where to even begin. It'll happen soon hopefully.
That is my wedding rant of the moment. While this is the first I am certain this will not be the last, thanks for reading, feel free to include your point of view on weddings.