Best day

Today I got to go to the beach with my fiance and just hang out for hours talking... about the wedding, our future marriage, our goals and expectations, etc. It has been so long since we have had the time in our busy and somewhat conflicting schedules to just sit and get to read through these pre-marriage books we have been given and really reflect on our relationship, what is important to us, and what we are looking forward to. You know, it was one of those days where we didn't do that much, but that was the beauty of it. We met up with Josh, a high school buddy of Wes', then visited with his mom for a minute trying to work out details of a potential wedding shower, went to dinner at a great little Mexican spot (Wes' food of choice), stopped by Trader Joe's, rented a movie, and now he should be here shortly to watch it. Tomorrow we are heading down South to spend some more precious time together :-) and visit with one of our closest friend's family. He's here... gotta go.

Today...

Today was a busy yet fun day! It started out with a workout and breakfast at the hotel with my mom, then we went to look (unsucessfully) for a mother of the bride dress, then to a hair style/highlight/cut appointment, and finally, to my very first dress fitting! Exciting! My mom was only here for two days, but we packed a lot in and had a great time. She will be out quite a few more times before the wedding. She is planning to come for a shower out here maybe, the second dress fitting, my graduation, and she will drive out here with me with stuff to move into our future house. She is a really dedicated and loving mom. She is so helpful and involved which is great! It has definately been a blessing to have a mom who is so excited and supportive.

Then I came back to school for volleyball practice which ran late. I didn't get home until well after 10pm, but Wes was sweet and stayed to spend time with me even though he has a lot to do tomorrow and hasn't gotten much sleep the past few days. I better head to sleep now though, I am exhausted. That's all for now...

Big week

Tomorrow my mom is flying in, and we have a hair appointment to go to at 12 with the guy who will be traveling to the wedding with us followed by my first dress fitting!! Exciting stuff! I am going to stay with my mom Tues and Wed and then she flies back Thurs morning. Also, I passed the test on the US Constitution today that I had to pass before I can turn in my application for a teaching credential program. It was harder than I thought even after studying a little... sure am glad I passed :-) The Lord is good!! Wes had been interviewing a lot for next year. Hopefully we will know what he will be doing before school gets out and the wedding nears, but I don't want him to feel too much pressure which may be inevitable. I know the Lord will provide and that Wes will take care of me. One thing that we have been talking about is making sure we don't take on jobs that require us to spend weekends or any other excess amount of time apart. This year it has been hard because we have been busy almost every weekend (me mostly)... not hard on our relationship, but just hard because we miss each other when we don't get that time on the weekends to just hang out together. A lot of times when we see each other this semester it is in between classes or briefly after he bikes me home from volleyball. It is different when we get the kinda time where we can just sit and enjoy each others company. I remember one Sunday during the summer we both worked in Nicaragua. We laid next to each other on the ground of a room in the house where we lived with a bunch of other volunteers and talked ALL day... I am talking six or seven hours straight. It was one of the best days ever! I remember doing the same thing a few days after we met each other. We played ping-pong and sat and talked from afternoon until after sun-down. That is when you know you really have something great, when no matter how much time you spend with one another, you always want to spend more.... when you can talk for hours and never get bored, when you can just be together and not always need to fill the silence with words. I am so thankful and blessed by Wes! What an amazing time!!

Great day yesterday

Sorry I have not made as many entries lately. Both spring break and this week have been busy, and I suspect the next few weeks will be as well. Two days ago I had an advisement meeting for a teacher credentialing program I am thinking I will apply for (starts in the fall). All of a sudden the deadlines are approaching, and I did not know the extent of the application process until I got to this meeting. I have so much to do before next week... get fingerprinted at the police station, get TB test results, get copies of my transcripts, take a test on the Constitution which will require studying, apply to the university, get it, and then apply to the program by April 1st. Not to mention I have class most of the day today (and they don't give TB tests on Thursday), and then I leave tonight for Las Vegas. My volleyball team has a tournament in Vegas all day Friday and Saturday, then I should be home just in time to study the Constitution and take my test on Monday...

Back to the title of my post... yesterday I got to talk to Robin, my maid of honor, and Luke, Wes' brother and his best man, in one day! Robin is doing great and recently returned from Nicaragua where God did (an is doing) an amazing work in both the people that Robin and other volunteers interacted with, as well as the volunteers themselves. It was so good to talk to her about freedom and the victory we have in Christ! Yesterday afternoon I had a hair run-through with the hairstylist we will be bringing to the wedding, and I liked him much better than the other option! We are going to do it again next week and my mom is going to come out for a day or two, and hopefully my dress will be in for my first fitting! Exciting stuff! Then practice got canceled which ended up being such a blessing because I got to spend time with the love of my life who I didn't see much this week and won't see this weekend (until Sunday night which will for sure be a date night!). We got to go to a nice dinner and share crepes for dessert with one of Luke's good buddies from college, stephanie, who I happened to go to high school with back home. It was great spending time with her!

I have a lot of volleyball right now and am going home for Easter in a few weeks. Tomorrow is the three month mark! The day is quickly approaching... we are so happy!

Constant planning

So today I spent most of the afternoon with Wes' mom printing out pictures and going over which photos should be included in the slideshow for the wedding. It was a fun day, but who knew that looking through pictures could take so long? It was great spending time with Teri also! Then I had a super long volleyball practice, got a bite to eat, cleaned up a little (I think a bomb might have gone off in my room...oops), and now here I am, about to hit the sack and try to squeeze in some rest before getting up early to edit something for my brother and make it to an interview for a pre-teaching credential program. I have only been back a day, but I am right back in the swing of things. Gotta love it...

News from Maine

Yesterday I had way too much sugar, but the good news is, we have found a cake lady! My mom, Craig (the event planner) and myself took off on a two hour trip North to find a cake lady I found on the internet. We ended up lost on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere and eventually made our way to Diane's kitchen, where she had set up a cake tasting including a printed out menu, waters, pens for note taking, and specially made cookie bridesmaid dresses with my initials on them for gifts. What an elaborate tasting. She has the cutest little quiet house with a beautiful view and we sat for an hour and tasted 11 cakes that were made specially for us. They were incredible, and we actually decided on five flavors to use... three in the groom's cake and two in the wedding cake. I won't give away all the details, but they were soo good! In fact, we came home from the tasting with half of the cakes left for my dad and my mom's cousin to taste and ended up retasting them ourselves and switching our choices. Pretty much all I ate aside from a nice dinner in Portland was cake! The cake lady also makes cookies which she ships and seem to keep her really busy. She can design anything you want her to, but she has a number of examples on her website. She also ships pound cakes, and I highly recommend her wild maine blueberry one for breakfast/brunch! You can find Diane at http://www.mainecakesandcookies.com/. Check it out!

Yesterday we also got about ten inches of snow here. When we got off the plane on Wednesday, it was 65 degrees, and yesterday it was back down in twenties and snowing. We braved it and made the trip to town for dinner, but it looks like I won't be doing much outdoors today. Yesterday, we also went to Damariscotta pottery on the way to the cake lady to the store where our fun pottery is coming from. I got to pick out a number of pieces that are being kept there for order. It was fun to pick out pieces myself instead of just looking through the hundreds my mom had.

Today is our last day in Maine and then back to school. It has been a fun and relaxing break with a lot of good food and good sleep. It will be good to get moving again and see my Wesley who I have only gotten to even speak to a couple times since the start of break. He is off in Canada skiing. I miss him! I am excited to see him tomorrow :-) That's all for now...

Update

I haven't had as much time to write since I have been home. My mom and seem to have a lot of errands to run. Today is our last day here, so we need to finish some details like measure my brother for his tux, take pictures of our plates to post on our website, visit with family who we haven't seen much in the past few days, get alterations done, etc. We have also had big dinners three out of the four nights I have been home. Last night we celbrated my brother's birthday a few days early at our house. My mom is an awesome cook! Hopefully I will learn to cook like her, or at least a little bit like her :-) I tell myself I haven't really learned yet because I don't have people to cook for. Wes and I are quite busy, and we don't seem to have time to cook dinner often if ever. Plus, when you only cook every once in a while, it is expensive because you have to get all the little ingredients that you would already have if you cook more often. So... hopefully once we are married I will have more fun cooking and more time to do it.

I am excited to go to Maine. The highlight might be our cake tasting. We sent seven flavors to the Maine Cakes and Cookies to taste including a normal vanilla butter cake and chocolate cake along with pumpkin cream cheese, carrot, italian cream, maple cinimmin butter, and german chocolate cakes. Hopefully we will have better luck with this place than we did at our last cake tasting... I have high hopes :-) I will probably have more to share when I get back from Maine...

So funny...

I wish I had a videotape of my uncle Charlie tonight after a few glasses of wine, going through all the old beatles albums, motown, aretha franklin (I don't know how to spell her name), and other old records. He plays in a band in Maine with a bunch of old buddies (he has grown up spending summers in Prout's as well), and they are going to play after our rehearsal dinner. My mom and dad started dancing in our living room, and pretty soon we were all doing the jitterbug to old beatles songs and getting super excited about the wedding and everything! I think uncle charlie is going to come over tomorrow and go through songs again. It was so fun! What a great night... we had an awesome dinner and hung out all night. My grandmother was here and so was my cousin who is going to be our ring bearer. He is so cute! He kept playing "Joyful Joyful we adore the..." on the piano and playing chess with my dad. He is quite competitive, and absolutely adorable!

Another big step was taken today. My mom and I got our act together and finally ordered the flower girl dress for Eliza (my beautiful cousin!). It is soo cute! I also got to try on my dress again because they had it at the store we were at. I am getting beyond excited!

Houston has been great so far, but I better get some sleep. We have a full day tomorrow with ladies doubles, the gym, researching tuxedos for the boys and ring bearer, going through songs with Uncle charlie, and whatever else comes up.

This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

I can relax...

It has been one busy week so far. I haven't had much due until this week, and I just finished my paper for this class last night before my volleyball game (in which we beat UCLA, yeah!). The team is starting to play better, and there is a feeling of confidence and fun out on the court again. Today is going to be a busy one as well. I have class this morning, then an appointment with the makeup artist for the wedding, class from 2-6, and then I am hanging out with my Bible study girls tonight. I am exited to go to Houston... I leave the house at 4 am tomorrow. That's so early!

Anyway, is it wrong to still be dreaming about a camp I haven't been to since I was 16? I had the most vivid dream about Camp Ozark last night. I was back there, and it was so much fun. I got to be a counselor for a week (something I never ended up doing), and I was loving it! Then i woke up :-( Sometimes I wish I had gone back to be a counselor. It is the kind of thing I know would be so much fun for me, but there has been a clear purpose that the Lord has had me in the places where I have spent my summers in college.

That's all for now. Can't wait to see my family and head back to Maine!

Our Pottery

We are registered for an everyday china that can go in the microwave. It is simple, and we have ordered some in a cream color and some in a pale blue. These pictures are our fun pottery that we decided to get instead of a fancy china. They are each hand painted and every one is different. It is called Damariscotta Pottery and is made in Damariscotta Maine. My mom and I will go when we visit in March. These pieces are ones that I have picked out of my mom's collection. She is now selling them to people to give as gifts. I am excited to go to the place where it is made and see what they have out!

Pictures

Today is a busy day. I just came from class and the gym, now I am finishing studying for my exam at 2 pm, and I am about to go meet my incredible fiance for lunch. I was getting together pictures for Wes' mom, and I thought I would post a few more. They are from last summer.


In Maine


In Hawaii

School work

That's what I am up to right now. I have big midterm tomorrow and the paper for this class due Thursday. I have a volleyball game Wednesday, Thursday I am meeting with my makeup artist for the wedding, and then I leave at 5:45 am for Houston on Friday. I have to get back for a hair appointment in Houston... it continues. I knew there was a lot that goes into planning a wedding, but it is really amazing how a constant dialogue can continue for months on end. I emailed the florist again today to figure out what arrangments I want to see next week when we are in Maine. Then we were supposed to collect pictures for a slide show, but Wes and I still haven't gotten our act together... hopefully we will get those to Wes' mom within a few days. I love it though! Planning this wedding almost makes me want to go into event planning, but then I remember that it means working nights and weekends, and I want to be home with my husband. That and I really love working with kids! I need to start applying to credentialing programs soon. I passed the CBEST, and now I have to take the CSET, but I can't take it until May. Hopefully I will have more time after Spring Break to focus on what I will be doing next year. That's all for now... I am really looking forward to returning to Maine over Spring Break!

Quick update

I think I have found the bridesmaids jewelry :-) I got to spend all day yesterday with Chase's mom which was so great! She is such a talented jewler and a good friend! Then I had a volleyball tournament in Irvine today (and tomorrow). We won all four games, and even though it doesn't say much because the competition wasn't great, it was fun, and I think we are slowly getting out of our funk. I am excited to play again tomorrow... but for now, I am off to shower for my date with none other than the best fiance in the world! I am so blessed!

Oh, and I got the flower proposal from our florist in Maine complete with sketches and descriptions of the flowers we will have at each venue. I am super excited, and it is so fun to start seeing everything come together. The proposal is still in the works, but it is looking good! Fun stuff...

Not much

There is not that much going on right now. I mean the same details are being worked out like planning appointments for my trip to Maine with my parents in a week or two, but mostly I am getting work done this week. I had a midterm today (in my PE class, but still, I study), and I have a big one on Tuesday. Then I have a paper due for a class (the one I write this blog for actually) due in a week which will require a LOT of time. This weekend I have a volleyball tournament in Irvine, and as I previously mentioned, I will get to see Chase's mom on Friday. Then I come home for Saturday night in between tournament games, and I believe I will either get to go on a date or a double date, depending on Whitney and Matt's availability. Wes and I don't get as many dates this semester because of our busy schedules, so any chance I get to spend some alone time with him is awesome!! I get to have lunch with him on Tuesdays and Thursdays which means today was a good day :-) And then on Mondays and Wednesdays, he bikes me home from volleyball because it is dark and what can I say, he loves me and wants me to be safe. So I end up getting to see him most days which of course I love, but I am beyond excited for when I get to share a home with him! I think we might be by the beach the first year too so that's also something I look forward to. We both love to be active and be outdoors, and it will be great to live in an area where outdoor activities are so easily accessible!