The Day I Became a Mrs.

I have been married to Travis for 19 days already and it has been crazy getting used to this new normal that I am in now.  Between unpacking, rearranging, working on Thank Yous and work I have had a bit of a chance to really reflect upon our wedding day.

So I have a Top Ten from our Wedding Day:

10. Bridesmaids Dresses

I was so excited to have sisters and friends stand up with me.  I just wish that I had one of their dresses!  I know that nobody ever thinks of saying that. But they were navy blue and they carried sunflowers.  So the blue on yellow was so exciting to see.  I was excited to have that point come together because I was initially having trouble finding a dress color and picking out flowers.

9. The Shiloh

Life was so crazy leading up to the wedding that I don't know how I could have done it any other way.  The Shiloh Reception Hall was my one stop shop for some many parts of the reception.  In one meeting we took care of the Hall, food, decorations, and cake.  I was able to be efficient with my time and didn't have an over abundance of meetings that I had to go to.  They even when above and beyond because I wanted mason jars for the centerpiece and Dana brought the mason jars from her home at no extra cost! I was excited to get the centerpieces that I liked and I didn't have to set up the hall in the morning.

I was really happy with they service before the wedding when it came to planning, and during the reception with their wonderful service.

8. My Little Ring Bearer

I have one Godson and he is my sister's oldest.  At 3 years old he could have either done extremely well and people would have thought that he we cute, or he could have done something wrong and people still would have thought that he was really cute.

I don't think that he could have been any more adorable!

7. Music

I love music, especially good Church Music.  So this was one thing that I was looking forward to planning, our Wedding Mass Music.  I honestly don't remember any music when I was walking down the aisle.  But when I got up to Travis and he was holding my hand we sang an opening song.

The beauty of it was hearing all of the people behind us sing along!  It was a little heaven on earth moment, because you could just feel the love of everyone surround you.  Ahh it was so wonderful and just from that moment, you could hear people singing and that moment was wonderful!

6. Photographers

I have only seen three pictures from our Photographers that they had on Facebook, but even if those were the only three pictures that came out I would be happy.  Our photographers were Jacobson Photography Inc. a husband, wife duo that are actually parishioners at the church that Travis will be teaching at in the fall. They did my sister's wedding last summer and my friends wedding two months back. What I really like about them is that they are two so you always have the great angles and they work so well with you and your wedding party.  They listen to what you want and don't push anything on you.

I mean how can you hate a photo that turns out like this?  

Just last year I went to 8 weddings and you notice that most photographers leave once all of the reception things are done (bouquet toss, cake cutting, first dance, etc.)  but the Jacobson's stayed up to the last song.  They take pictures of people dancing and they get the pictures that you would have wanted.  And before they leave they ask if there is anything else you wanted.  They were easy to work with and I can't wait to see the rest of the pictures!

5. Spending Time with Family

Now I am not what you would call a social butterfly (That would be my new husband!)  But having his family , aunts, uncles, cousins and friends there, along with my family, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends there - nothing can ever really replace that.

4. Mass

Travis and I met at Newman group at IPFW where we went to school.  So our Catholic Faith has always been a central part of our friendship and relationship.  So there was no question that we were going to have a Mass for our wedding.  It was so beautiful to come together in the Sacrifice of the Mass and have that be the frosting on the cake (pardon my pun!) to the whole wedding ceremony.

It was wonderful to have Fr. Tom (My parish Priest), Msgr. Galic (Travis' Parish Priest), and Deacon Jerry Kohrman (Travis hung out with that family now and growing up) all come together and celebrate the Mass together.  With knowing so many priest through IPFW's Newman group and my job, it was almost like we could have had more, but I think that 3 was enough to celebrate the Mass together.

3. Grandparents

I was so excited that my grandparents were able to come to the wedding.  The weeks and even months leading up to the wedding I was told not to have high expectations.  But Travis and I went to go visit them two weeks before the wedding and Grandma showed me the two outfits that she was thinking about.  She said that she was glad to get the bride's approval!

When I was headed to the back of church to 'hide' while people were showing up they walked through the door!  It was a wonderful thing to see them before the ceremony.  I think that having Grandma and Grandpa there will always be a special part of the day!

2. Family

It is always great to get the family together!  It is crazy to see how much we have grown as a family.  My first sister was married just 7 years ago.  Now we have 5 more guys (4 brothers-in-laws + Travis) , 3 nephews, one niece.  We went from a family of majority girls to now the girls are outnumbered (by one, but who ever thought that would happen?) But nothing can replace a family.

The Entire Family

Travis and I had a goal to get all of our siblings involved in the wedding.  Between the both of us we have 10 siblings. So between wedding party, ushers, readers,  and singer we were able to have all of the siblings be a part of the wedding.


and the Number one point from the wedding day....


1. Getting to Marry my Best Friend!

I mean how could this not be the best part?  I get to see my best friend every day.  I don't have to call him every night to pray together.  I might have to deal with his cheerful mood in the mornings.  But despite all of the changes that we are going to go through together in the future. I wouldn't ever change who would stand by my side through it all!

:-D

---------------

Now it is the new challenge and adventure of getting used to this new normal!  and I can't wait!

The Next Great Adventure

Now you might be thinking how have I gone this far in life and never moved.  Well if you stay at home for college and get married a year after college, I never really saw the point to move out. I thought of it more as an expense that I couldn't afford.

Now I am good at moving rooms.  Having 4 older sisters and roughly 4 bedrooms (three actual bedrooms and the large old 'play room/classroom' converted into a bedroom)  I think that every time a sister went away to college we all rearranged rooms and moved.  I think that some time or another I have occupied 3 of the four rooms, some rooms at different times in my life.

But this move is different... Much different...

This time I am not moving down the hallway.  I am not staying in the same home.  I am moving five miles into town.  Yes I know that it could be much further, but right now it seems really far away.  But it is just the next adventure that is on my life path.

It is like going up the Millennium Force's first hill.  you keep going and  going up and your stomach and brain start deceiving you and con't decide if this is going to be wonderful or terrifyingly hard.  It is like I am at the crest of that hill that I have been climbing for awhile now.  and it is time to enjoy the ride down the exciting and thrilling coaster.

The great thing that I have to always remember is that I'll have Travis right beside me.  And remembering that is just half of the great adventure!

Hate getting my hair Cut

So I never really liked making time to go and get my hair cut.  It is one of the lazy things about me.  I just hate making an appointment, and then having to go, and then pay, and I guess tip as well.  Too complicated for me. But since graduation, I have been wanting to get a 'grown up' hair cut. aka one that actually requires doing more then straightening my hair every day, because I feel as if I look like I'm a high schooler still.  So I would like your opinion.  Do you like any of the following pictures?  Please don't let the person influence the opinion of the hair.  it was just what I could find.

I like the look of this one, and I guess what she has pulled back could be some shorter hair like bangs, so that could add more style options.  Granted I'm not blond and I don't have that much color texture in my hair

I don't think that my hair is this long, but I think that is is simple, but I don't know if it screams that  I am trying to be a business professional...

this girls face is kinda creepy.... but the hair is simple.  so it could work.  but it is just the straight that I normally do anyway, just added bangs...

So these are the three pictures that I found when I was just randomly looking.  I just want to look more professional I guess and the way my hair is right now, it doesn't really say that.  So I would love everyone's opinion! Thanks!

Change

Well I graduated a week ago and I can't believe that I should be here already.  I think that I am horrible with change and I hate when everything changes at once.  But I think when anyone has to go through that we all have a road sign that tells us that we should be expecting it

Now wouldn't that just be helpful to have that sign. Now I know that if I had the time to reflect upon what was all going on in my life I would be able to understand that change was going to be coming.  But Because I was so busy with school and projects, I didn't have time to reflect upon what was actually coming in my life.

I am a college graduate, how did they let that happen? I should still be a freshman that doesn't know my way around the campus and still gets buildings confused (well when they change building names that does get confusing as well).  But I don't know how four years have gone by already and it is time for me to let go.

Albert Einstein says:

“Life is like riding a bicycle - in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving.” 

We have to know when it is time to turn the page and begin a new chapter of our lives.  While that sounds exciting, it also brings about the fact that everything that I have had these past four years I have to let go of and only take what I have learned from those experiences.  I know I shouldn't be afraid because I know that I am going to be guided, but it is the whole letting go that I need to do.

I know that deep down I am looking forward to this new chapter of my life, because I know that there will be exciting things that are going to be headed my way.  I know that if this was a book, it would make for a very good chapter.  But it is really only going to get better from here and I can't wait.  I know that with God's guidance and with my family and friends this is going to be a new chapter.

So let the page turn, and shall I never look back in regret. For this new chapter is going to be one for the story books!  :-) 

The Final Moments

Have you ever been to a midnight showing of the last film of a trilogy or a series?  Have you ever bought the last book of the series that you have been reading for years?  The lead up to the last scene, the last moment is what we have been waiting for. But, when it gets there, you realize that you didn't think that it would ever come to an end.

That is how this week has been feeling for me, and I have been associating it with when I read the last Harry Potter book and when I saw the last movie.  It was the end of something that had been a part of your life for so long that you never thought that it would come to an end.

This coming Friday is my last day at the job that I have had for almost 4 years, and even though I knew that this day would come, I didn't think that it would come.  I know that sounds stupid, but, when you are somewhere for so long and you know that you are only going to be there as long as you are in college, you sometimes don't connect the two timelines together.

It is an end of an era. I thought that I was ready to say goodbye to the people that I have worked beside for 4 years.  But when I had to start doing that this past Saturday, I felt a ting of sadness. I'm read to move on, don't get me wrong, the unknown frontier is an exciting place to look at.  But it is the people that I am going to miss.  I cherish all of the moments that I have had, but it is time to move on.

God is the writer of my story.  But I can't stay stagnate, I have to keep moving, I just have to listen, to pray for his guidance on where to go to next.  He knows, I just have to let myself go and give it all up to Him.  God is great and I am just his hands and feet on this earth.

Not my will, but His be done.

A New Page Turning

I feel like this week is going to be one of those weeks where things are just going to be changing.

I don't know what it really is, because on one hand it is exciting and yet on another it is the unknown.  My next door neighbors are moving to assisted living this week. and that is getting to be one of those inevitable things that I knew would come, but I never totally grasped it.  They have been like second grandparents for me and my sisters while we have grown up.

They would make us cookies, and random cakes.  They would send us birthday cards (when she arthritis wasn't bad she would draw us cards with Disney characters on them).  They had our spare key if we were ever locked out.  and they were always there.  Having them there, it taught me, while growing up, that you don't have to see eye to eye, to find one playing field that you are on an even field.

Over the past few years, they have been both been getting older. Him with diabetes, and her with a stroke that has left he not talking for over a year.  But, while their bodies are beginning to fail them, they are still the same neighbors that have been next door since we moved there before I was born.

My mother last year was helping our neighbor get a birthday gift for her husband.  She did it with my mother so it would be a surprise for him. Over his birthday she ended up being in the hospital again, but yet my mom brought the gift so she would be able to give it  to him.  Here she was a woman who couldn't speak, giving her husband a birthday gift.  My mom expressed the interaction as a strong man in spirit who has never cried much had tears in his eyes as his wife gave him a simple birthday gift.  Something so simple can change everything.

With them moving in the next few days it is making me realize how things will be so drastically different once their house is empty and then when someone else moves in. But I know that they will be better off when there are there.  They will have someone watching over them, and everything will be safer. But things will never be the same.

But that's okay  :-)

because no matter what changes in this world, the sun will rise and set. The coffee will brew in the morning, and the world will keep on spinning.  We are all on a journey our choices that we make in our every day lives will take us forward.  It is up to us (and God) to figure out where that forward will take us.

So Marge and Dave, may God bless you on your next journey and may you never forget your neighbors who will always be here, helping you through. Because you will always be our neighbors. Love always