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?

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

Family

Blessed. I am so very over the top thankful for time with my family. It is ridiculously hard living so far away from my family and friends. The problem is I am now also falling in love with the area that I am living and the people who I get to call colleagues and the people I get to serve alongside. Life is going over the top well here, seriously. I am loving my call, I get to teach swimming lessons, I sell some hats a couple local coffee shops, and in my spare time I get to co-direct a camp. It is a dream come true, not to mention there are more lakes in this area than I can even begin to count (coming from SD anything over about two lakes is a big deal) and the state parks are amazing. I love it up north. I am even slowly but surely learning to tolerate the trees, I wouldn't say that I have fallen in love with them by any means but I think I have moved past hating them to just strongly disliking them.

The con of living up north is my family is six hours away, this is not do-able for a day trip. This isn't do-able to make it home when a friend is having a craptastic day. This isn't do-able for a trip to just eat lunch with my grandparents. However it does make my time with my family more sacred. It makes the time we spend together more wonderful. I do dream of moving closer to them someday. I dream of living close enough to my family that I can make a day trip to visit them. I do dream of being close enough to my dear friends that we can meet up for an evening without having to take massive amounts of vacation to do it.

I just had the chance to spend several days with: mom, dad, brother, brother's girlfriend (we like her), my fiance, Dakota, and Nala (brother's high maintenance puppy). It was glorious. We didn't do anything amazing per-say but everything we did was fabulous. We played card and board games. We sat around and told stories, we exchanged gifts (I LOVE LOVE LOVE giving gifts), we took pictures, we ate, we ate some more, we slept, we watched a movie, and we spent time sitting with one another. It was a glorious few days. While I was sad to see brother and his girlfriend leave for California, I know we also have to learn to share with her family too.

I am jazzed to have a few more days with my parents in town, time to massively work on some wedding stuff and time for dad to spoil my sweet puppy. Time to make some more memories.

I am blessed.
I am loved.
I am thankful.

9th grade retreat.

This past Saturday I got to spend with our 9th graders, they are fabulously strange, awkward, and wonderful. They are all on track to be confirmed this October and I have to admit that there is a piece of me that is sad that they are being confirmed because I have loved meeting with them on Wednesday nights, don't get me wrong I am excited for them that they get to move on to high school youth group, but I'll miss them. Yes, this is selfish, I know and I am admitting it.

While there are some who want absolutely nothing to do with junior high and high school kids I have grown to love those middle school aged kids as well as my high schoolers. In the town I serve the 9th graders are in a campus of their own, not quite high schoolers and no longer middle schoolers. Generally by the time they hit high school they are fairly rational and less awkward, strange, and wonderful and have matured a bit. But there really is something to that middle school/early high school age when the youth are trying to truly discover the world around them. It is that stage in which they are not certain which way is up or down most days and are experiencing all sorts of changes physically and emotionally. While yes, sometimes their emotions are over the top and irrational, it is reality for them. It is what they know and how they understand the world. 

I find it a honor to get to journey alongside these kids for a time, it is a honor to hear their story, remind them that they are loved just as they and that God loves them and created them exactly how they are. It is a honor to hear that things that drive them nuts and make them excited. It is a honor to walk alongside their families as they learn what to do with middle schoolers, who are striving for independence and yet at the same time clinging to responsible adults to lead and guide their paths.

Thanks be to God for middle schoolers/early high schoolers and their willingness to let me journey alongside them.

Thanks be to God for giving me the patience and the sense of humor to enjoy middle schoolers & their sometimes stinkiness.
Thanks be to God for the adults who loved me when I was in the strange middle school/high school stage.

Thanks be to God to a congregation who rallies to remind these youth that they are in fact amazing and loved.

Thanks be to God who loves all of us despite our awkward, strange, and wonderfulness.