Checking off the To-Do's

My my my, it has been a while.

But can I just tell you - we have been so, SO productive!! Through the holidays, the time off of school (which I'm now back into), and everything in between. Productive, productive, productive.

A few highlights of items checked off the to-do lists:

• Bridesmaid Dresses - check! Since we have such big bridal parties, I'm letting my lovely ladies pick their own style of dress. They'll all be from the same manufacturer, the same length, and the same color, but the style is all completely their own. I want my ladies not only to be comfortable in their dresses, but if they feel comfortable they will look even more fabulous than they already are. Plus, I love how everyone is going to look unique. Woo!
• Groomsmen Tuxes - check! We were able to get our account set up with Men's Wearhouse, and all of the men will be looking dapper in their tuxes. The guys have it so easy - they just get measured and it's done.
• MY Dress - check! Yep, you heard right. I have a dress. But that's all you're going to hear about it ;)
• Wedding website - check! I was finally able to take some time and update our wedding website with all of the event, travel, and accommodation information for our guests. Hopefully it's helpful for people, but I definitely enjoyed putting it together. Check it out at: www.allenandkaitlyn.com.
• Registry - check! Well, at least one part of it. We did a partial registry at Bed Bath & Beyond, but will also be hitting up Crate & Barrel in February and possibly Macy's if necessary. At first I wasn't sure how much Allen was going to enjoy registering, but once he got that scanner gun in his hand I think he felt a new sense of power. I think we both got a little scanner-happy at some points (everyone needs a wine refrigerator, right?) so we may be doing some editing once we get our other registries taken care of.
• Wedding bands - check! A super easy night out resulted in us walking out of the mall in under 45 minutes with our wedding bands. I think we both just went in with clear ideas of what we wanted, and it was just quick as can be. We have them at the house, and it's fun for me to just take a quick peak at them whenever :) So fun.
• Honeymoon flights - check! We were able to secure our vacation time for the year, and are now booked for our TWO WEEK honeymoon! We'll be flying into Barcelona, spending a few days there, then fly into Rome, spend a few days there, and then spend the second week touring around Italy. I don't remember ever taking a full two week vacation (at least not since I was much younger), so I am really excited for our adventure!
• Save the Dates - almost check! I've been working on our save the dates for a while now, and after many, many, many drafts, revisions, theme and color changes, format changes, etc. I think we finally got our favorite nailed down. I really, really love them. I'll be sure to post more up once they finally go out, but I'll be releasing the art to the printer this weekend and putting them together in the coming weeks. But MAN! If I was this indecisive and nit-picky over our save the dates, I can't even imagine how I'm going to be on our invites.

It's been really great and a huge relief getting a lot of these items taken care of. I'm so excited to keep getting things checked off!

Thank you, Madame Secretary

Feel free to disagree with me, and I welcome any discussion, but Secretary Clinton's words in this article (which, is a great article and you should read it if you're interested) definitely hit home for me:


"Just as I was very proud to say the obvious more than 15 years ago in Beijing - that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights - well, let me say today that human rights are gay rights, and gay rights are human rights, once and for all."


I hate to do this, because I know that many people have different views than I do on touchy subjects like this one, but it's one that I happen to feel particularly strong about. I am not a Democrat, but I am not a Republican either. And I know that Secretary Clinton does not agree with gay marriage (only civil unions, according to this article), but it is a step in the right direction. She is helping to make strides for protection of human rights against violence and discrimination for everyone, which is also admirable. There is definitely a little bit of hope in this article. Now I will rarely ever bring up political opinions on this forum, but I strongly believe that if I am so lucky as to be able to marry, commit, and have spousal rights with the love of my life, that everyone should have that right. That is all :)

Stocking Lurve

This past weekend when Allen and I were decorating our Christmas tree, I realized one very important detail was missing - we don't have stockings!! (well, we do, but they're tiny ones that serve as ornaments on our tree) Seeing that this was a clear oversight on our part, I decided to start a search to find ours. While I haven't officially decided, I did find quite a few that I love - pretty much all from Etsy (best site ever).  Here are a few of my favorites:

dorahdesigns - candy stripe with vintage buttons

ChristmasIsLove - vintage Hoffman flower pattern stockings

Habitationinc - burlap elf stocking

thevillagegiraffe - sheet music paper stocking

ChristmasIsLove - Red and green antique quilt stocking

Moire Accessories - vintage christmas stocking

It's stuff like this that gets me in the holiday spirit :) Falalalalala! 

House trouble and scammers

As some of you may know, Allen and I have been playing around with the idea of buying a new house these past few months. There are a few reasons for this, including practical things like low interest rates, preferable things like a shorter commute for him (he drives 40 miles to work everyday - ugh), and other nice to have things like more space, bigger kitchen, etc etc. However, since we are incredibly under on our house right now like most people are, we are looking into the option of renting our house out instead of selling right away so we don't have to cut a huge check.

All good in theory, until last week. We had posted our house on zillow.com and got a message that someone was interested in setting up a walk-through! So we're all excited, and I call the woman last week hoping to schedule it up. She answers, and proceeds to tell me how she has been hunting around on other sites like Craig's List, and actually had found something in Southfield that she really liked (I know, I was wondering the same thing you probably are - why on earth is she telling me this?!). Well apparently, the guy who was renting out the Southfield house told her that it wasn't for rent anymore, but that he had another house available to rent while he was on a missionary in Africa. The address he gave her? OUR ADDRESS. This guy had apparently seen that our house was for rent on Zillow, or had just randomly picked an address, and it happened to be ours!! He let her know that since he was "out of the country" that she could just go to our house and look in the windows and if she liked the house, he told her that if she sent him a $600 security deposit with the first month's rent of $800 that he would mail her the keys.

*#$*)!&^@%#$)*(&$#)(*@#$&#$)(*!&$]

So this woman was kind enough to forward me all of his emails so we could properly file a consumer fraud report, file a report with Craig's List, and file a police report. Also, I flagged his ad on Craig's List so hopefully no one else gets scammed by this.

But there is a bigger question out there: Who the hell do these people think they are?! I mean really. REALLY?! Sending someone to trespass on another person's property? Scamming people out of money when the economy is hard enough as it is? Those people are the scum of the earth.

Needless to say, I was in a bit of a rage over this. The woman agreed to still come see our house this past weekend (especially now that she knew we weren't in Africa), so we were at least excited about that prospect. Allen and I woke up at 6:30 am Saturday and spent about 6 hours cleaning our house from top to bottom. So we were prepped, ready, and excited for this woman to come over so we could make a smashing impression on her....and she never showed.

Sigh.

We're both trying not to be too disappointed about things, since the house really needed a good cleaning (clearly since it took a long time), and we were still able to get our Christmas tree up and everything. I think that if the woman had at least shown up and decided that she didn't like the house that we would have felt better that we had at least gotten someone to come see it. Hopefully we start to get a few more prospects after the holidays so we can really get to the good stuff - finding the house of our dreams!

A Very Happy Birthday

Wishing a happy, happy birthday to the love of my life today!

We celebrated this weekend by going up to Traverse City, and then playing hookie from work today and relaxing around the house. While we did manage to get quite a bit of wedding planning done up in Traverse City (secured our DJ, taste testing for caterer, meeting with the priest, putting in a bunch of deposits), we definitely managed to balance work with play. We hit up one of our new favorite restaurants up there - Red Ginger. And when I say that it was the best sushi I think I've ever had, that is quite an understatement. We were ready to lick our plates! I can't wait to go back again :)

It was a very productive and fun weekend for both of us. It definitely solidified why we're having our wedding up there - the entire Traverse City area is so fantastic, clean, filled with happy and kind people, and a ton of amazing food and wine! I am so excited for even more trips up there, but more importantly, I can't wait to marry this guy :) Happy birthday baby!

Bouquet Bliss

A few (out of MANY) of the gorgeous bridal bouquets I've been seeing online lately. All of these are courtesy of Karen Tran Florals:

Say "eh" to the dress

For most girls starting their wedding planning, finding and buying their wedding dress is one of their favorite and most exciting parts of the process. For me...not so much.

To put some context around this...I'm not really a shopper. Never have been. I go to the store for what I need, I leave with what I went in for. I don't browse, I hate having to dig through racks, and I hate shopping without knowing exactly what I went to the store for. More importantly, I hate dress shopping. In going shopping for dresses for other special occassions (proms, homecoming, friend's weddings, etc), I always felt a ton of pressure going shopping for a dress.

Now, imagine having to shop for THE dress. Yeeeeeeeeeeesh.

I've seriously been putting this off for a good 14 months now. I went once with my mom and sister and pretty much felt uncomfortable the entire time. One good thing came out of the trip - I realized (as most of you may know), I am not a poofy dress kind of girl. So at least that part is narrowed down.

Luckily, I've gotten to the point now where at least I'm looking at dresses online and getting ideas of ones I like. This is progress. Most people have told me that the dress style they originally went in looking for was not the one they ended up with. Honestly, I don't really know that I have a specific "style," (other than not poofy) I just want to look good and feel comfortable. So, the search continues.

It's almost hereeeeeeeee!

 

It is time.

Ah the rivalry. Which, let's be honest, wasn't much of a rivalry until U of M went 0-2 against MSU the past two years. Now all of a sudden we have the blue team all in a frenzy over who's going to win, and I have not seen such trash talk between alumni of the two schools since...well I can't even remember.

Regardless of where your allegiance lies, it's going to be a great game. Both undefeated (but let's be honest, MSU's victories are a little more substantial than UM's), both have a score to settle or maintain, and both have a lot of pride on the line. I'm all decked out at work, managed to decorate a few UM fans cubes and offices in Sparty gear (hilarious), and am maintaining my end of the trast talk. I am crazy excited :) And also slightly nervous since I have some lunch bets on the line...

LOL!

GO GREEN!

GO WHITE!

Italy, here we come!!

Part of our honeymoon is booked!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Here's a look at where we'll be staying:

 
How did this happen, you ask? Well, Allen's parents were so, so generous and gave us their week-long timeshare to use for our honeymoon! Since it's a floating timeshare, we could go anywhere we wanted, so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go one place we have always wanted to see.

The timeshare is located in a village called Loro Ciufueno, which is in the Tuscan region (yessss) and about a 45 minute train ride outside of Florence and Pisa. Perfect opportunity for some day trips! Since we are delaying our honeymoon by about a month after the wedding (this particular location wasn't available before then), we are also planning on flying in a few days early to see a few other areas of the country. We definitely would like to go to Rome, and wherever else we can fit in including lots of food, wine, sight seeing....and more wine and food ;)

Yay! So, so, SO excited!

Good Earth Gardens and Zucchini Soup

Last year, a bunch of my coworkers were offered the opportunity to take part in a kind of mini farmer's market through a company called Good Earth Gardens. The company is run by a Master Gardener (Leslie), and every week, she brought in deliveries of all kinds of vegetables for a monthly fee. You could sign up for different packages (for a single person, couple, or family) and she would bring in all kinds of variety for everyone to enjoy. Well, immediately after this started I got veggie envy, but I never participated since I would have never been able to go through all of the veggies and was afraid it would be a waste of money.

Well this year, when the opportunity came up again, I immediately jumped on it! One of my teammates and I split a "single" delivery every week, and it is still way more than enough veggies to the point where Allen and I can't finish them all! (My Mom and Dad have lucked out with the extras though) It has seriously been such a cool thing to have this summer at work, and we always look forward to our Wednesday veggie deliveries.

The other nice thing is that it has forced us to eat a ton of different kinds of veggies that we would have never bought for ourselves normally. It has also been pretty educational since there are a lot of veggies I've never even heard of that we end up receiving (i.e. kohlrabi - what the heck?!)

Kohlrabi (kind of tastes like cabbage - not my fav, but interesting!)

So this has been a whole new fun thing for us, and we are completely spoiled now by all of the fresh onion, peppers, tomatoes, broccoli (ohhh the broccoli), sugar peas, green beans, fresh herbs, a few different kinds of squash, carrots, swiss chard, spinach, cucumbers, eggplant...the list goes on and on. Plus, it's really nice to support the local produce, a local company, and Leslie is as nice as can be. So now we've gotten in the habit of incorporating all of these veggies into more and more meals, and it has also allowed us the opportunity to get a little bit more creative with our dinners. Which brings me to my next creation: Zucchini soup. Don't be discouraged if you don't like zucchini, (it has been taste tested and approved by Allen and a few of my coworkers) and this is one that I made up on my own (yay!) so please enjoy:

(I didn't take a photo of our soup so I borrowed one from Simply Recipes - it should look similar when you're done!)

Zucchini Soup

Ingredients:

Olive oil - about 2 tbsp

2 small yellow onion, chopped

3 gloves garlic (of course), minced

3-4 lbs zucchini (this is an estimate - the zucchini we got from Leslie was HUGE and would be at least 4 lbs, which was plenty), skin taken off and chopped into bite size pieces (if the skin is hard to take off, you can bake it for 10-15 minutes and it will loosen it up - little trick from my friend Jill :))

4 cups chicken stock (can also use vegetable)

Red pepper

Lemon pepper

1/2 cup heavy cream (optional - I added it, but it could be creamy enough without it)

Salt and pepper

Instructions:

Heat the olive oil in a large pot on medium-high heat. Once heated, add the chopped onion and minced garlic for about 3-4 minutes until translucent and fragrant. Add a dash of the red pepper (more if you like the spice) and a tablespoon of lemon pepper, stir until fragrant - about a minute. Reduce to medium heat and add all of the zucchini. Cook until soft, about 5 minutes or so. Add the stock, bring everything to a boil, and then bring the heat down to medium and let everything cook for about 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and use a hand immersion blender (or food processor) to blend everything until the soup is smooth. Return the soup back to the heat and add the cream if necessary (it helps to smooth it out, but the squash makes the soup pretty creamy anyway). Add salt and pepper to taste, as well as any additional red or lemon pepper if you want to kick it up a notch ;) We topped the soup with some crispy fried onion salad toppers and some yummy crusty bread. Enjoy!!

What happens here...

...stays here.

In just a few short hours, Allen and I will be departing for fabulous LAS VEGAS with our friends Elaine and Paul! Today also happens to be our -1 year anniversary, which means that exactly one year from today we'll be in Traverse City celebrating with all of our friends and family! So surreal. Can't wait :) But in the meantime, we'll be out having an amazing time celebrating our -1 year anniversary and hanging with some of our favorite people! 

PS: Don't worry Mom, we won't stop at the Little White Chapel while we're there ;)

3-Day Recap

The walk was two weeks ago, but it is still really hard for me to put the entire experience into words. There are a few words that come to mind: Inspiring, motivating, humbling, exciting, emotional, amazing, exhausting...but those don't even seem to do it justice. The people who had done the walk before had told Allen and I that this would be a life-changing experience.

They were right - without any doubt in my mind.

First and foremost, we walked with over 1900 of the most amazing people I think I have met in my life. We were crewed and tended to by over 500 volunteers who came out just to make sure that we, the walkers, were kept comfortable and healthy. I've never seen anything like it! Crew members up at the crack of dawn making us breakfast; medical staff tending to every blister, headache, ache and pain; and a security team made up of big guys on Harley's with pink mohawks and beards.

The one unfortunate piece of all of it was the extent of the blisters that I ended up getting due to the 90 degree heat for three days in a row. My feet are still in recovery! The heat made a lot of things unbearable for a lot of people - the blisters, heat stroke, dehydration, etc. We saw at least 7 ambulances take people away from camp because of how extensive the heat was. Those blisters also prevented me from doing the entire walk - I was only able to do about 45 miles in total. I know, I know, only 45 miles. But when you have a 78 year old man who is doing the walk with you, and beating you into camp every day, you realize exactly how humbling of an experience this is! However, crew members definitely made it a point to remind us that we already did what we came to do - raise the money, and bring awareness to the cause. The walking was just icing on the cake.

Downtown Plymouth - our new favorite city

The best and coolest part of the entire walk was the amount of people in the community that came out to support us. It was as simple as walking by a house on the route that had a sign up saying "Please Run Through Our Sprinklers" (something that was very much appreciated at high noon!).  There were families that sat out in their front yards handing us cups of fruit and bottles of water. It seemed like the entire city of Plymouth came out to celebrate our walking through the downtown area - they had to put barricades up so we actually had room to walk! There was a woman (we called her the dancing lady) that comes out to the walk every year with a giant speaker and an iPod, and she just stands out there every day all day blasting her music for us along the route, dancing and singing. She's a 28-year survivor. And just the amount of people that came out to support us, telling us we're making a difference, holding signs that say "You Hold Our Hopes" - it's hard to hold it together even thinking about it now.

The Dancing Lady! Still there on Day 3

Looking back on the walk, it's hard to pick a moment that is really my favorite. It could be walking through downtown Plymouth, or the rainbow that came up over camp on Saturday night, or maybe all of the walkers raising our shoes to the breast cancer survivors that walked with us. But if I had to pick one, it would be walking into closing ceremony with Allen. Just him and I, walking through the field in front of Ford Headquarters, overhearing on the loudspeaker that we had finished. I wouldn't have made it the entire last day without Allen and his support. We laugh trying to think about it now, but it's hard to look back on the walk and remember every mile - mostly because I think we blocked most of it out! But we do remember snippets, snapshots, and flashing moments that I know will stay with us forever.

Team Juggernauts

Rainbow over camp on Day 2

Raising our shoes to the survivors

Everyone keeps asking us if we're going to walk again next year. I can say with all honesty that we wouldn't be able to walk next year because of the wedding, but we will be out there supporting. This year's Michigan event alone raised over 5.4 million dollars toward breast cancer treatments, research and community outreach programs - but it still isn't enough until there's a cure. So yes, we will be financially supporting, but we will also physically go out and support those that choose to walk again. The people that came out and supported us on the walk are incredibly selfless and amazing, and we would like to give back what was given to us throughout the walk - inspiration.

The love of my life :)

Thanks again to everyone who followed and supported us on this amazing event - you guys are all incredible :)

Let the countdown begin

In a little over 60 hours, Allen and I will be starting our journey for the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk for the Cure. The 60 mile route starts us at Oakland Community College in Farmington Hills on Friday, has us looping and camping in Livonia for two nights, and ending at Ford Headquarters in Dearborn on Sunday.

Everyone, repeat after me: Please don't rain, please don't rain, please don't rain.

Thank you.

I'll be trying to report in from the walk (at least through Twitter or Facebook) to let everyone know how it's going, but I will for sure be keeping track of the entire experience while we're there, and I can't wait to share it all with you guys.

So far, I can tell you at least this much: This has been quite a commitment - and we haven't even started the walk yet! Ironically enough, that actually feels like the easy part! The fundraising piece of it has definitely been the most exhausting, stressful, and trying piece of this so far. A $4,600 required donation to raise between Allen and I is a lot of money. The rest is just endurance. We're not quite at our goal yet, (and you can still donate at the links above!) but I have hope that we'll get there.

A quick note to those who have supported us so far:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

We know our emails out to everyone have been annoying, along with all of the events, the Facebook alerts, Evites, raffle tickets, everything. But many of you not only supported us emotionally through all of this, you have put in your own time and money, and that has taught Allen and I lot about what great friends and family we have. We are very, very lucky.

If you're here in the metro Detroit area this upcoming weekend, and would like to come see what all of this is about, please click here to get all of the spectator information you need - including cheering areas all throughout the Farmington Hills, Livonia, Plymouth, and Redford areas. Also, from what we understand, the Closing Ceremony is a very cool and emotional experience, and friends and family are also welcome to that. All of the information is in that link.

Everyone I know who has done the walk has said it is an experience that changes your life. I'll have to wait to see that for myself, and I know that we'll have lots of pains and blisters when we get done with this thing, but I also know we'll also have a lot of love to carry us through it. Wish us luck!

Introducing Urban Blue

Alright everyone, I'd like to introduce you to our wedding reception site, affectionately called "Urban Blue":

Photo courtesy of Orchestrated Grace

Now it doesn't look like much now, but believe me, it's going to be fabulous. Picture in your mind a crisp white tent spanning the lawn you see above, with tables overlooking the sunset over Grand Traverse Bay (if you're going off of this picture, the beach would be all the way down at the bottom past the picture). Isn't it awesome?! Eeeeeeee! This whole space is like a blank canvas just waiting for us, I am so excited!

There are a ton of perks and great things about this location. One thing I love is the small cottage that you see at the top of the picture. It will be rented to us for the week prior to the wedding, perfect for our early arrival for preparations (but sorry, not open to everyone else!).

And this is probably the best perk ever: Guests can walk (or stumble, if you prefer) out to the beach, walk down the beach to their left, and about a half block later, they arrive at one of the hotels we'll be reserving rooms at! We'll be offering up other hotels to people as well of course, but how could you not take advantage of that?!

So many great were accomplished this weekend - meeting with our tent and equipment rental company, meeting with photographers (nothing decided officially on that yet), meetings at the church, and meetings with hotels in the area. Let the planning begin!

THE update

Alright guys, the blog post you have all been waiting for. 

We have a venue.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Ok, WOO again! So much to update on! After much, much, MUCH searching, and then re-searching, and then going back to our original thoughts, and then wiping all of those clean and making a fresh start of it, we have a venue. This was, by far, the most painful part (so far) in the wedding planning process for us, but I can honestly say that we are so happy with the decision we've made, and it's going to be a blast for everyone.

My dad said one thing to me during this whole process that really stuck with me: "You know, you're having all of these people come up north for your wedding - don't you want them to feel like they're up north? Or feel like they're on vacation?"

And BAM! The tone was set for our wedding, almost instantly. I couldn't get that thought out of my head. Then my mom stepped in with those thoughts in mind, and with all of her awesome connections and creativity, found us the link (and the people) that made that thought turn into reality.

Where is the venue, you ask? Well, it's still in Traverse City (downtown, actually). It's a private property that sits right on Grand Traverse Bay with about 200 ft of waterfront. Yes, we're rocking the outdoor reception. Yes, that's scary, but I love it. There is no other way to bring everyone up north and make them feel like they're up north without actually feeling all of that - being outdoors, being on the water, hanging out with the people you love, watching the sunset, and then partying the rest of the night away :)

Also with this venue officially solidifies our date. It was actually already solidified with the church, but now that the venue is booked, it's official official. And that date is...

September 10, 2011

Mark your calendars, it's going to be legen...wait for it...dary. 

Do you know what this means?! This means that the date is settled, we have a venue, we have a caterer, we have a bar, we have a church, and now we can start booking all of the really super fun stuff like photographers and DJs, we can start talking flowers, do invites, everything else that we've been looking forward to! How awesome is that?! That's what this weekend will be dedicated to - we're heading up north with Allen's parents to get as much of that done as possible. Also, I will take more pictures of the reception site. I can't wait for you all to see it :)

I feel like we're finally making progress on all of this now. We're checking things off the master list (and trust me, it's a long one). Finally we get to breathe a sigh of relief, and all of the really super fun stuff can start coming together. I can't wait to share the rest of our progress with all of you!!

Flowers by Gabrielle

As many of you may or may not know, my Aunt Carolyn co-owns a flower shop in Grosse Pointe called Flowers by Gabrielle (Gabby is the other co-owner) and I used to work with them quite a bit back in my college days. They do all kinds of events all over the area, including weddings, Stanley Cup parties (no joke), parties gallore - including kid's birthday parties, and all kinds of other stuff too. I am lucky enough to say that they will also be doing the flowers for Allen's and my wedding on top of all that!

Well, this past weekend, they had a monster of a wedding that they did the flowers for. They just posted the pictures up, and ohmygosh did my jaw hit the floor when I saw the photos. Stunning. Seriously. Here are a few of my favorites (all photos courtesy of Flowers by Gabrielle's Facebook page)

Bridesmaid bouquets - sooo gorgeous! (and huge!)

Tent Entrance

The Head Table - the entire table had mirrors on it so the flowers and candles reflected up (so cool)

Banquet Tables

Closer look at the banquet tables

There are so, so many things that I love about what they did! Of course, when you have the money to do all of this, that makes things easier ;) but I know my aunt and Gabby can make anything look gorgeous because they are so creative and so good at what they do! I know that I am in good hands for sure, and I can't wait to work with them. Love it!

A little birthday shout out

Gotta send some birthday love out to my best friend since age 11 - Ms. Jillian :)

There are not many people I know in this world that can say they've known their best friend for over 15 years, and I am a very lucky girl to be able to do so. Jill and I have been through lost friendships together, relationships, break ups, deaths, a few vacations, hours long phone calls, long distances, and living literally a mile from each other. Through all of it, I'm lucky to have been with my best friend and my future bridesmaid, and have come out better because of it. 

You are the sunshine on John R road my dear, I love you! Thanks for always being there for me, back then, now, and for many years to come. *pinky swear*

(

That's us (at the top), in 12th grade :)

St. Joseph Excursion

We spent our 4th of July weekend up in St. Joseph, where we rented a house with a few of our friends. Nothing but gorgeous weather, tons of sun and the lake, and even hit up a few wineries in the process! It was such a great weekend, it was hard to come back. A few pics of the fun:

Gawgeous Lake Michigan sunset

Always sweeping me off my feet ;)

Our completely legal fireworks

PHOTOBOMB!

More updates coming soon!

Things going on

Why hello, strangers.

I have definitely been MIA lately (my apologies, for those who actually read this thing), but life has been busy busy busy! A few of the highlights:

School: I'll be done with my third semester of school by next Tuesday. YESSSSSSSS! I'm in serious need of a break, and luckily because I busted my butt for the past two months, I'll be rewarded with July and August off of school. I'm really excited, but I know this means I'll be dragging myself back to school in September. Temper tantrums will be involved.

Fun Stuff We've Been Doing: This past weekend was especially fun for me because we got to have our first Top Chef cooking night with Elaine and Paul. We've decided, since we're all fans of the show, that we're each going to take turns cooking fabulous meals, and then we will eat the meal while watching that week's episodes. I kicked off last week by cooking fillets with blue cheese butter on top, tomato and goat cheese tarts, and asparagus. It was straight yummy, don't be too jealous.

Another fun activity this weekend was our pig smoke-out with a bunch of the crew. Here's Jeff with his slab of pig:

Again, yummy. Luckily, there's more pig for us to cook up, so we'll probably have another event soon. Oh, and here are the flip cup champs after their victory on Saturday:

so gangsta

Fun Summer Plans: Allen and I have many fun plans coming up in the next few months, which I am super excited about (as soon as I can get out of school). A few tidbits:

• Over the 4th we're going to head to St. Joseph's with a few of our friends that we rented a cottage with 
• Trips planned for Traverse City, Chicago, and Vegas
• We have our 3-Day walk coming up in August (yikes!), with plenty of training and a fundraising event splashed in there as well
• Finally, my old next door neighbor and sudo little brother is getting married (yaaaay!) and so my family and I - sister included, yay! - will be up in Grand Rapids celebrating that craziness in August

Busy busy busy!

Wedding: So one little step of progress that we have made in our wedding planning is that we already completed our marriage class! Finally, one thing checked off the list. It was done through a local church, and it was actually really well put together, I have to admit. I really didn't know what to expect going in, but the one thing that I appreciated was that the speakers had an understanding of where the couples were today and not 50 years ago. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience, but it was 5 1/2 hours long so we're definitely glad we have that out of the way :)

Ok I promise, soon, eventually, I will have an official "this is what's happening with our wedding" update for everyone. I just don't want to put anything out there until it is signed, sealed, and deposited. We're close. We'rethisclose. Just have to get the paperwork in close. After that, I'll be happy and willing to dish :)