18 more days

Today has been a day of baking and making calls. Calls, calls, and more calls.

The DJ is ready to go... check.
The florist is going to do some checking on her end with the reception site and call me back tomorrow... sort of check.
Make-up at Herberger's should be under control and finalized.... check.

I baked 60 some heart cut out cookies with red frosting. I might have taste tested and I have to admit they are pretty good. They will be put out for the rehearsal dinner. I also made homemade brownies with homemade chocolate frosting. Those are pretty good too. Those were a trial run to see how many we needed to make for the rehearsal dinner and how much time they took. They were really easy.

So I'm starting think that my wedding is built around food. I think people can handle doing some eating though.

The Calm Before the Storm

Sunday was my first day of doing pulpit supply. In two churches I had never been too. Preaching to a congregation of about 55 people at each service. Oh, the REALLY rural churches. As much as I dreaded it and as last minute as I had been asked it turned out be pretty okay. Okay because I'm not sure if I'm really to admit that it was kind of fun. I still want to be a little crabby that it was last minute and that I dreaded doing it.

Eric ended up being able to come up to Aberdeen last minute on Saturday. I don't know if he will ever understand how much that meant to me and how wonderful it was to have him at both of those services. He does such a good job of being relaxed, calming me down, and being really good at giving me helpful critiques. I continue to understand more everyday how God has shaped us both and how He has blessed me with just the right person.

Today was kind of slow. Got some little stuff accomplished but it feels like I am waiting for the storm. It's so quiet, so calm, so unsuspecting. I feel like I have almost everything done that I can possibly do. Or at least all the things I want to do :)

So, tomorrow I have decided to do a test run on some brownies that I am making for the rehearsal dinner. See how much they really make and try to figure out how much I need to make in a couple of weeks. I have also decided to make some heart shaped sugar cookies. I love making cut out cookies so I suppose I will make a day of it. Why not?!?!?! People will eat them. Either at the rehearsal dinner, the day of the wedding for lunch at the church, or Sunday morning during gift opening. Who doesn't like cookies? Let's be honest here.

This weekend we move into our apartment in Dell Rapids. The church is helping us move stuff in so that will be really nice. It will feel really good to get our stuff in one spot. One more step towards being in one place together!

Storybook Land

Sunday was spent with the family out at Storybook Land. The greatest place on the earth for a 20 month old. And maybe all of the adults too. Here's us entering. They put up a fancy entrance sign. How FUN!



We HAD to ride the train because Katharine loves cho chos. I can't lie, it was a whole lot of fun. Of course she can't look at the camera for more then two seconds. Grandma has to be a little quicker with the button.



Always on the go. We did half of the park in 10 min at the pace she was going.



And always loving the slides. The blue little mouth is from drinking too much of Aunt Sarah's blue slushy. It was so much fun to share with her and to see the look on her face. She tends to drink a bunch, fill up her mouth and not swallow it, just hold it in there. At one point she had a mouth full and she heard the train whistle make it's cho cho and she opened her mouth forgetting that she had a mouth full of blue slushy. Yup, you guessed it! Blue slushy all over the front of her. LOVE IT!

Overall I am loving being more of an active Aunt. Being able to get to know her better and be there as she starts to say her words better. The hugs hello and goodbye. Being able to read books to her.

Life is pretty good.

Humble

Humble.

That's the feeling for the day.

My bridal shower was today. I was humbled. I find it kind of odd that I want to go into ministry and have to be up in front of a lot of people, but am so uncomfortable when there is a party thrown for me. I don't like that feeling of being watched.

Some of Eric's family drove up 3 hours to be here. My family who were in town came. My aunt did such a beautiful job and really put a lot of work into getting everything ready. Humble. Very, very, humbled.

My aunt put together a towel cake. It looked real when I walked in but it was a bath towel for the bottom, a hand towel for the middle, and a wash cloth for the top. Then she decorated it with silver and red ribbon with a red flower on the top. It was so cool because it was also my gift. She had wrapped the towels around pyrex bowels and there were little gifts in them. The whole thing was sitting on top of a wrapped cutting board. Who would have thought there was such a thing!

Once again I feel blessed. I wish I could bottle this feeling. This is one of the mountain top feelings. The little things in life that get us through. That remind us of who we are and whose we are. But there is always that age old question of, if all we had were great moments would they still be great?

Painting the World... or the walls

I'm feeling the need to blog a lot lately...

...with that being said....

My dad and I tore all the wallpaper off the walls in my parents dining room today. UGH! I swear that I will never put up wallpaper. It is a pain in the butt to get down. It was good father daughter bonding time though. We started at nine this morning and are just starting to paint. Dad is finishing up the ceiling while I wait to do the trim of the side walls. It's kind of fun. Painting is relaxing in this weird way to me.

Gotta go paint.

But When Is It My Turn?

Yesterday I happened to look out the window of my parents bathroom upstairs. I happened to see the cars leaving from a wedding that just ended. Our church is located pretty much in our backyard. I couldn't help but think, When is it my turn? How long do I have to wait till it is my wedding people are leaving from and I am finally married. Last month just flew, and the first week of July kind of did too, but it just feels like it is such a long time till August. I'm sure others have felt that way too. Waiting and waiting. It reminds me of taking a trip when I was a little kid and it was so hard to sleep the night before, not a month and a half before like it is now. I've been waking up in the middle of the night thinking about decorating stuff. Who does that? I just want everyone to be here. I'm excited to be married. Maybe a little excited to not be living with my parents. I love them but I have found that I really enjoy my space. I really enjoy my freedom. I really enjoy being a grown-up. I guess that's not such a bad thing.

July?!?!?!

And what happened to June?!?!?!?! I can't believe it's the 4th of July already. The summer always feels like it is down hill from here.

I have such mixed emotions about the end of the summer. I LOVE the summer. It is my favorite season. I love it being so HOT out. I know I'm crazy, but I love heat. I love sitting in the sun and just soaking up it's warmth. (PS.. that's on tomorrows agenda.) BUT, the longer the summer goes, the longer it takes for my wedding to get here. I want it to be the Thur before. That means that friends and family will be arriving. That means that I get to hang out with everyone and see a ton of people that I haven't seen in a few months. But I don't in the same way I don't want the summer to be over.... oh my life problems. It's a good thing I don't have any "real" problems.

I'm really excited because I bought a size 12 dress today. I know that might not seem like a lot to some of you but I am SUPER excited about that! I don't think I have worn a size 12 since I was in Junior High, maybe earlier then that. I also found out that I wear a 14 at the Gap. That's pretty rock'n. I really haven't lost much since I have been out of Seminary, but I have done a good job of maintaining. I'm happy with that. I remember when I was in JH and all my friends would want to go shopping at all the trendy stores and I could never really shop there. I was always that girl that went straight to the jewelry area. Now I can shop there. Now I fit into the clothes.... it's weird how now I am secure enough to be okay with not being able to shop at those stores... in JH I wasn't.

Last Thur I had my initial fitting for my wedding dress. It was so much fun! It's MY dress. Not just one I tried on that hangs on the rack. It was so beautiful. My aunt was there with my mom and I, she started crying and almost made me cry. Those are the things that matter through all of this. The time with the family and friends. I also picked out my vail and my headpiece. I guess you all will just have to come to the wedding to see it :) I'm so excited to dance and have a good time with friends! Be there or be square I guess....

Hopefully I will be better about writing this month. I am hoping things will slow down a little bit. We will see...