June & July Bucket list (Summer)

I am choosing to ignore August due to the arrival of baby and instead am opting for a June and July summer bucket list, which while on one hand seems like it could be minimal at best on the other hand seems totally do able.

What is on your summer to-do list?
Are you enjoying the snow free time?
What are your favorite foods in the summer?

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?

Two Weeks

Two Weeks.

I can't believe it. We are two weeks away from the wedding. I am now getting ridiculously excited.

It is a bit surreal for sure. I had my "practice" hair yesterday, seriously a little crazy how everything is falling into place bit by bit.

This Weeks To Do List:

• Finish my bridesmaid gifts 
• They are about 95% done - so I just need to squeeze in some time to finish them
• Pick up the bulletins for worship
• they are printed I just have to get to the printer during business hours
• life has been crazytown around here and I haven't had time
• Make the meal tags for the reception
• This shouldn't take long - I have the tags all made they just need the appropriate color placed on the bottom of them
• Pay the flower lady and give her the twine to wrap around the base of the flowers
• Pay the cake lady and give her the ribbon for the cake
• start cleaning my house
• I am starting with the upstairs because I really don't use it all that often and I have company coming so it is time to buckle down and get that cleaned up
• double check to-do lists
• wrap bridesmaid gifts
• write thank yous from last weekend's shower
• I have half done
• write thank yous for people helping with the wedding
• lots of these to do

One Month

The countdown is now down to days rather than just months, and not hundreds of days, one month from today I will be getting married. Whoop Whoop! Seriously this count down at times has felt ridiculously long and at other moments have flown by. I can hardly believe in one month all this preparation and planning will be playing out as it is. There is a large piece of me that is ready for it all the play out, there is another piece of me that love the details and allows me the freedom to work details on something other than mission trips and work projects.



What's Done:

• I have a dress and it has been fitted
• I am picking it up in May when I go to Fargo to run the Fargo Half Marathon
• Church and reception hall are reserved
• Pastors - picked (complicated when many of your friends are ordained)
• Caterer - automatic when you get the reception hall
• food tasted (seriously this is the best job ever - I would love to do this every night for dinner)
• Cake - person selected 
• working with her to go back and forth about selecting exactly what we want - who knew there were so many amazing options
• We are now in the nailing down of the final details portion of this
• Photographer 
•  Fiances uncle and a friend
• Hair appointments 
•  reserved for bridesmaids and me
• DJ 
•  Fiance's uncle 
• Rehearsal Dinner 
• space reserved (at a camp I co-direct in my spare time)
• menu planned
• Guest book figured out
• save the dates sent
• children's bulletins made
• centerpieces done
• reserve transportation for post wedding/ pre-reception 
• Bridesmaid dresses (ordered and several of them have picked them up)
• Invitations
• Groom, Groomsmen, Usher tuxes
• Fabric Banner
• DJ
• need to get him a list of what songs are musts and what songs are not to be played
• figure out usher's gifts
• Closets cleaned out
• Flowers picked out
• set up golf outing for the guys

TO DO:

• make bridesmaid gifts
• in process & almost done
• figure out groomsmen gifts
• Pay the flower place
• Pay the cake lady
• Make labels for reception - who has what meal and what not
• Wash all the mason jars
• Put labels on mason jars for people to write their names
• Make food for rehearsal dinner
• this can't be done until later
• Contact the people who have not turned in the RSVPs
• finish designing bulletins
• Get bulletins printed
• Pick up my wedding dress
• May 17 - before the Fargo half I am picking it up
• Get marriage license
• May 9 - we are going to go get it
• Make a schedule for everyone for day before and day of wedding
• Make a list of info for host couples at reception
• Find someone to light the candles at the reception before everyone gets there

Dreaming of Summer

While sitting in room looking out at my April snow drifts (never in my wildest imagination would I have guessed that I would have April snowdrifts to stare at) I am thinking/dreaming of summer days and my summer to do list.


Sarah's Summer To-Do List:

• Get Married
• Paddle in ten new locations around my area
• thrive through a middle school mission trip
• thrive through a high school mission trip
• run copious amounts of miles outside - enough that I can forget how much I hate the treadmill and when winter comes again I will be able to talk myself back onto the treadmill
• swim in the lake
• learn to wake board
• Go camping at least four times
• Learn how to use pedals (the ones that you snap your feet into that scare the poop out of me right now) on my bike
• take thousands of pictures
• watch the sunset and the loons fish
• grill most nights of the week
• bike to work as often as possible
• enjoy summer stretch - a Thursday ministry with 6-8th graders
• lay in my hammock at least weekly
• Rollerblade the Paul Bunyan trail
• eat my weight in ice cream - seriously I LOVE ice cream
• have a bonfire at least weekly
• roast a s'more from time to time
• finish the retaining wall around my bush in my yard
• master some new marinades for meat and veggies on the grill
• spend more time outside than inside
• visit Itasca State Park - headwaters of the mighty Mississippi River

What's on your summer to do list?

Three Months

No I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, some how my blog fell to the back burner, and really it isn't the end of the world, but I am back, more importantly my colleague is back from vacation and I can breath again. I continue to work on wedding stuff and we are exactly three months away from go time.


What's Done:

• I have a dress (still needs to be fitted)
• Church and reception hall are reserved
• Pastor - picked (complicated when many of your friends are ordained)
• Caterer - automatic when you get the reception hall
• food tasted (seriously this is the best job ever - I would love to do this every night for dinner)
• Cake - person selected now to pick out an exact design
• Photographer - Fiances uncle and a friend
• Hair appointments - reserved for bridesmaids and me
• DJ - Fiance's uncle 
• Rehearsal Dinner 
• space reserved (at a camp I co-direct in my spare time)
• menu planned
• Guest book figured out
• save the dates sent
• children's bulletins made
• centerpieces done
• reserve transportation for post wedding/ pre-reception 
• Bridesmaid dresses (ordered and several of them have picked them up)
• Invitations
• I just picked up at the printer this past week
• envelopes are addressed, stamped, and return address on them
• invites are stuffed into envelopes
• will be mailed out just after Easter

TO DO:

• Groom, Groomsmen, Ushers tuxes 
• picked but now we need them all to turn in their measurements
• set up golf outing for the guys
• Mail invitations 
• make bridesmaid gifts
• figure out groomsmen gifts
• figure out usher's gifts
• Make food for rehearsal dinner
• this can't be done until later
• Flowers
• have a date set with the florist to look at flowers and pick them and all that happy jazz

What am I missing?

**I AM TOTALLY GETTING JAZZED TO SEE ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO ARE COMING UP FOR THE EVENT**