one word wednesday: growth

Welcome back to another wednesday. There is certainly some growth around here in regards to our boat docks. Even though our docks went in a little late, people around here aren't wasting any time adding their boat to the newly set docks.

The lovely ladies Jenna & Briana featured my OWW picture from last week on their creative blogs. Join in on the fun next week....the word for next wednesday is "today".

one word wednesday: project

PROJECT certainly was the perfect word for this weekend. We had a splendid time picking out our new plants for our porch. We decided to expand our herb garden this year, and add a few more. Today I'm just sharing a snap shop of our project, but soon I will share all that we planted. There is nothing like fresh herbs from your own garden.

So excited to see our plants grow & thrive. Next week's word is GROWTH!!

one word wednesday: pink

If you haven't already seen this new photo adventure taking place, it's called one word wednesday. It's all about finding the wonderful inspirational moments of a normal day. This was created by the lovely Leslie over at my happily ever after along with 5 other lovely ladies. They have invited us to join along, so I am inviting you as well. Even if you don't have a blog, instagram it, tweet it, post it and join in on this inspiration.

This week the theme word is pink.

PINK. There aren't too many jobs that you can wear hot pink pants with a pink floral top and not get funny looks. Working in the medical field certainly has is't bonuses. I certainly tend to embrace color when it comes to my scub outfits, and why not?

Spring is here after all, lets celebrate it!!

Next week's word: project

2012 rewind {part 2}

In the month of July we took a family trip to Door County, and Brian & I spent some quality time with my parents, sister, and cousin. Also something started that I had been waiting 4 years for. The summer Olympics started off with a bang {on B's birthday, of all the crazy things} and I made Brian a traditional British meal with bangers & mash and even a red velvet British Union Jack flag cake.

In August my computer was struck by lightning {we think} and I lost it. It was a sad day to say the least. It was a sad period of no blogging, and while I probably could have found a way to post it was such a crazy month and there really wasn't time. We packed lost into August including a trip to the Minnesota Fair, a surprise Birthday party for B, and some quality time with the boat.

September was filled with everything wedding. I'm still disappointing in myself that I didn't put up more Bridal DIY posts, but when I had free time, I was pretty much always working on our wedding decorations, music, ceremony bulletins, menus, DIY projects, ceremony decor, and all those little details that make a a wedding day possible.

I was back to blogging at last. October had finally come and I was done with my job at Marshfield Clinic, the wedding was less than 3 weeks away, our family was coming to town in 2 weeks, and my days were filled with all day wedding projects. And I mean all day. When Brian and I would talk at the end of the day and he would ask me what I did that day, it was pretty much the same answer of 12-14 hours of wedding projects. I really did underestimate that planning a wedding really was such a labor of love.

The 19th day of October came and we were married on a crisp fall day. The colors were perfect, our family & friends were there, and we couldn't have asked for a better day. We jetted off to our Mexico honeymoon {courtesy of our Grandparents} a few days later and de-stressed from all of the commotion.

I look back on November and think of me as a busy house wife. I moved in the remainder of my belongings and spent days finding a place for and organizing all of our wedding gifts. Our place was a mess for days on end, but it finally got to a place where it feels like home. We also picked out our 1st Christmas tree, and while our decorations are still limited, I had a splendid time decorating our 700 square feet of apartment.

Finally we had some snow in December, and it came all at once. All 11+ inches of it! We had a lovely Christmas season with our families and finished out the year celebrating with friends.

And that about sums up my year of 2012. I'm so excited to see what is in store for us in the new 2013 year!

2012 rewind {part 1}

2012 was certainly a spectacular years. It's amazing how much has really changed in just 1 year.

January started off in a much better way than last year. Brian & I had been dating for 7 months now and our relationship was growing deeper. We enjoyed the mild weather of winter with record high temperature. I took one of the most dreaded tests and became a Certified Medical Assistant. 

In February we took our long planned trip to California {where I grew up, and where much of my family is from}. Brian surprised me with the ring of my dreams and turned our vacation into the trip that changed our lives forever.

March kicked off our wedding plans as we decided on what we wanted our special day to be like. We had a engagement photo shoot, I worked on a few wedding projects, found my wedding dress, and asked 5 of my girlfriends to be my bridesmaids. We also set the date of October 19, as the date that we would join together in marriage. We really did get a good jump start on our wedding plans.

The weather also sprang into action with some spiking temps and we all got an early taste of spring. Even though it was short lived, we got a little preview of summer and it seemed to recharge our batteries to power through the last cold months.

In April, we moved Brian into a new apartment, that would later become our apartment after we got married. It was such surreal experience to start planning on where we would spend the first few years of our married lives. 

May started the drought here on my blog. I really never thought that planning a wedding would be so time consuming, but I really should have known. After all who is the one who has been planning weddings in her head since she was a little girl, likes to be very organized, and has lots of determination when it comes to making our wedding a magical day...oh yeah that's me.

I did accomplish a few tasks including some DIY projects for our wedding and new apartment. With summer around the corner we also put the boat in the water and were able to once again enjoy the vastness of our lake. Amazing weather always brings out the creative side in me.

June set the summer in motion with being a counselor at a camp for under privileged kids, spending more time out in the sun, and revisiting the place where Brian & I met. Our relationship grew even more as we spent that weekend focusing on the relationship that the Lord has blessed us with.

Christmas update

Sometimes there comes a time when you have to prioritize, and that is just what I had to do this Christmas. My hubby and I packed up our holiday sweaters & fuzzy PJs, and headed back to Wisconsin where both our families are from. We settled at my parents house for the Christmas week and the celebrating began! My parents were about to jet off to California for Christmas with their parents, so we celebrated with our own version of Christmas. From then on it was a blur of celebrating with everyone we could. Brian & I spent Christmas Eve & Day with his family, and we enjoyed the time with our niece's faces lighting up as they ripped opening their packages.

While all of the celebrating was going on, blogging fell to the bottom the list and I decided to just live in the moment. Once the celebrations were over I was left with a nasty cold that had me on the couch for 3 days and am still trying to recover from it. It's amazing how being sick can really put a damper on your productivity.

While we may not have taken pictures of every Christmas adventure, we managed to take away the real goal of the advent calendar: celebrate the Christmas season with a festive adventures each day. So, instead of looking back on our days leading up to Christmas I have decided to look back on the year as a whole. That post will be coming later this week.

This past year certainly has been filled with amazing events. I can only imagine what the Lord has in store for us in 2013.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas season, and may the Lord bless you on this upcoming year.

on the 10th day of Christmas....

Life hasn't really allowed us to just sit back and relax with a book since our honeymoon. It seems like there are always more important things to get done, and even though I am currently unemployed it seems like job searching is a full time job. So, while there hasn't really been time to read a good book, Brian and I still manage to find time in his busy day to cuddle on our bed and read our Christmas devotion for the day with a cup of steamy tea.

1st week {at home} as a wife

I still have to pinch myself most days. It has been a whole week of being a stay-at-home wife and life is totally changing around here. This place has gone from a bachelor pad, to a slightly less bachelor pad when I moved a few things in, to a full fledged 'home of a married couple.' It smells a little bit better, is much more filled, has at least 1 person {meaning me} in it almost all the time, and is a little more organized but then again a little more chaotic with all of my crafting supplies.

Before my husband and I got married he worried that I would feel confined and claustrophobic because the square footage of our apartment is about the size of my bedroom, bathroom, and craft room at my parents house. In fact isn't quite the contrary. Our apartment is the perfect size. It is still plenty spacious to clean and I love being able to check in 2 seconds if all the lights are off, or in the summer we can air out our place with the opening of 2 windows. I love that I don't have to search across the house to see what my husband is doing, I just have to peak around the corner.

Now this doesn't mean that I don't miss where I lived before. I don't really think it quite hit me until today. I had been holding off the Christmas music {which is very unlike me} because I wasn't really in the Christmas mood. Again very strange for me, I'm normally getting into the holiday spirit before kids decide on their Halloween costume. Anyway, I have seen commercials on TV with Santa and have seen red & green creep into most department stores, but I wasn't feeling festive. All the memories I have of Christmas are tied to the house with my parents & sister, and I no longer live there.

So this holiday season will be the start of new traditions, creating new memories, making lots of Christmas gifts, sending our own Christmas cards....it will be a year of firsts.

So back to my first weeks as a wife, I have had lots to accomplish but haven't made it too far on my to-do list. It turns out that the "simple" task of changing your name & address, takes much longer than it sounds. Anyone who has recently changed their name will understand what I mean. You think it would be as simple as hopping on the internet, and typing in your new name & address but it's much more than that. I just went into a paragraph rant but then realized that nobody really needs to hear me rant about that, so in short...changing your name & address takes much more effort than I had anticipated.

I am also learning how to be a better wife. I made a lengthy trip to the grocery store to stock up. It really is nice to have filled cupboards instead of running to the store for each meal. After a little practice I can now wake up with Brian at 4:45, snuggle for a few minutes, make coffee to-go, pack his lunch, and send him off with breakfast for the car ride, all before 5:15.

Our apartment is coming together piece by piece, so stay tuned and I will show it to you corner by corner.

our honeymoon in paradise

My mom says I look like I'm 12 in this picture and Brian looks 15,
well maybe that's what a honeymoon does to you

Sometimes I close my eyes and I can still hear the white ocean waves crashing up on the beach outside our honeymoon suite. We have been back to the cold weather of Minnesota for a few days and we already want to go back to the safe haven of our honeymoon. It was 8 days of weather in the 80s, room service {even at 1:30am, which we did one night}, 3 pools to choose from, maid service, swim-up-to bars in the pools, being disconnected from the rest of the world in our own little bubble of relaxation.

Before I started planning a wedding I always thought it would just be a bonus to get away for a honeymoon. I never really understood the importance of getting away from everything. And by going to Mexico, my new husband and I really did get away from everything. We didn't have internet {for more than 5 minutes in the cafe} our phones, our regular TV shows, we didn't know a soul there, and it was wonderful! We were totally disconnected from our regular lives and it was amazing. As a new husband & wife we really needed that time to spend together.

We didn't live together before we got married, and while that may surprise a few people it was never an option for us. Living together is very intimate and that was something we wanted to save for marriage. God intended us for 1 person and I am very happy to say that my husband is my 1st and only. The relationship that we now share is stronger than I even thought possible, and with our honeymoon we were able to see our relationship grow even more.

We squished our toes in the sand, sailed with dolphins, enjoyed the warm rays of sunshine, I coached Brian as he swam in the ocean for the first time {seeing as I am a California girl}, got some pretty funny tan lines that I will NOT share online, captured amazing photos, most days accomplished nothing but relaxing {which we havn't done in months}, went to bed whenever we wanted and slept-in till whenever we wanted, enjoyed amazing food including more guacamole than I have had in years,

So my advice for future brides: make sure you plan a honeymoon. By the time your wedding comes you will be so thankful you did. Even though wedding planning is an amazing experience, it is pretty stressful, totally exhausting and the most amazing party you will ever have.

As far as other bridal advice, that is coming up soon. I have a whole lot of advice that I wish I would have known before I started planning our wedding.

firsts and lasts

This past year has been filled with firsts and lasts:
- the signing of our first apartment lease together
- his first time being a Godfather
- my last year of college and got my first career job
- his first visit to California
- my first permanent ring on the 4th finger of my left hand
- our last 'first kisses'
- our first family vacations with each other
- the last time we have to wonder about our forever's
- our first road trip together
- first time we gained new family members
- our first holidays together
- last time dating another girlfriend/boyfriend again
- first and last time he proposed and I {after many 'oh my goodness'} said yes

A year ago there was only one set of feet in the picture.....


....now there are 2

The picture above was taken last weekend at the 20s & 30s retreat: Arise and Shine. Does that sound familiar at all? It's been a whole year since we met there. Who knew how different our lives could change in just one year. It was a whole different going back there with B, knowing that all of our firsts happened there. The first time he held my hand, put his arm around me, hugged me with his protective arms. But it was more then just the physical aspects, he looked me in the eyes and seemed to be looking right into my soul. Not sure if that makes sense, but for those of you who remember the first few days that you spent with your best friend, you know what I mean.

 It's places like these that we will continue to visit each year as we grow as a couple. The Brad Paisley song seemed to run into my mind so many times over the past weekend. Last year I thought how much I liked him, this year I know how much I love him, and I'm sure next year....I will think: I thought I loved him then, this is a whole new kid of love.

welcome

 

For some reason sharing pictures of our new apartment feels just about as personal as it gets on my blog. This is our world that only Brian and I know, but now I am sharing it with you. Week by week, we add our own personal touches to our new place and it feels more like home with each visit. It's been almost a month now, and it's surprising how so much things can change it such a small time frame.

There are so many aspects to this apartment that we fell in love with. First off the view. Pretty breath taking. We enjoyed a fresh snack on Sunday {B's homemade salsa}.

Our couch is finally here! It is the most comfortable couch I have ever sat on {of I really should say reclined on}. You really must try it out.

 Our 2 butt kitchen, good thing we don't have a personal bubble problem because while this kitchen has a plethora of storage it can be a little narrow for those who are used to cooking by ourselves. 

Just look at those hardwood floors, aren't they amazing! We think so.

The kitchen table & chairs that we put together on a Sunday afternoon.

This beauty arrived with the couch and Brian can finally get the support needed from a real bed, not the floor.

Can you tell I love to add flowers to bring spring in doors? Daises really are the more cheery flower.

 

Here is the out door patio down by the lake where B and I frequently come to grill out.

 B's boat will soon be in the water and we are jumping at the opportunity to cruise around on the open waters.

The view of our porch from the docks. Brian is going to love seeing the boat from our windows.

Simple breath taking, and it's even better in person. I am so bias but don't care in the slightest.

Disclaimer, just so we are clear: I am not living there yet, not till after we get married but it is still our place.

It is our place and each week I seem to add a few more of my belongings to make the transitions nice and smooth. I told Brian from early on that I don't want to have a weekend of 'Emily Invasion' right before we get married, so this is a lovely transition through the months of our engagement, one weekend at a time.