11.9.23

On November 9, surrounded by our immediate family, Corey and I said “I do.” The ceremony lasted about 3 minutes - exactly how we wanted it. And then we all went to have dinner at one of our favorite restaurants. We had planned to have it outdoors, but of course, Texas weather did not permit it. There was rain off/on the entire day. So, we made do with what we had. And it was perfect for us!

A friend officiated the ceremony. One of my mother-in-laws decorated the room very last minute - with help from her husband and Corey’s brother. My parents and our kids were in attendance. And I was FINALLY able to wear a black wedding dress - something I have always wanted.

We are thinking of having a church ceremony and reception for our first anniversary. Pending - my annulment through the church. We don’t have everything planned out just yet, and it’s still not something we’re 100% set on - highly dependent on funds. Still, we would like to have something that we could include extended family and friends. A celebration of some sort. We’ll see. For now, this intimate ceremony was perfection. 🖤

p.s. We have a lot of photos with family - however, y'all know the privacy drill - so this is all I'm willing to share for now. 

p.s.s. Can you tell I'm a fan of Colleen?  

Hi, Hello!

Whoa, it's already the middle of September! I'd like to say that "time flies when you're having fun", which is true, though it's not entirely my case at the moment. We have been really busy! School for both Em & myself started on August 24th. I take two face-to-face and two online. This is my first time being back at school for a "full-time" schedule. Em started Kindergarten so this is her first time at a school that has more than three classrooms and 6 teachers total. We've had a pretty decent run so far, nothing too major, though some days have been hard in terms of getting ourselves ready on time.We always make it though. She's also taking gymnastic classes every Thursday so by Friday she's pretty tuckered out. Whoa, I totally just said tuckered. Anyway, so far she likes her teachers and she's making new friends! It's been really interesting to hear the stories she comes home with, and to see how excited she gets when they're able to do certain things. I'm really glad that we chose this school (we transferred her to a school closer to my work rather than our home) because she's still able to see some of the kids she went to preschool with, and I think that made her transition a lot smoother.

I, on the other hand, have just been really stressed out about my classes. Not only was it a rough start transferring over to this University (my application was not found, financial aid was not showing up, books were a week late, etc. etc.), but these classes are a lot bigger. The student to teacher ratio is a bit insane, though I've heard it's worse at other major Universities. I was lucky to get evening classes, and so far they've been great. I had my first major exam on Tuesday, and I'm still really nervous about the outcome. We won't find out how we did until next week. It's been an adjustment, and I'm really trying my hardest to stay on top of all the assignments. It's helped that we have a professor who had pretty much opened all quizzes, assignments, and exams with due dates being on the last day of class. Not having regular due dates lets me chip at that class a little at a time during the week. So yeah, fingers crossed I do well this semester.

Recently, the only thing I've been dreaming of is a vacation. I know in my "real" life this is daily topic. I'm also pretty sure I've mentioned it here on this blog too.  A plane ticket, a beach somewhere, some peace and quiet. Ahhhh. What I would give for one of those. Now, even though this isn't technically a family vacation, we will be traveling out of state and it will be to see some family. A cousin of mine, my best friend growing up, is getting MARRIED! So on the 23rd we will be flying out to Georgia for a week. I'm excited to be able to go, and consider myself pretty lucky to be able to take the time off from work. Though on the flip side to that coin, sadly, my husband will not be joining us on this trip due to his work obligations. We will be traveling with my parents, as well as some other family members all on the same flight! You're welcome, Southwest Airlines! Emery's excited to get to fly again and even though it's not to the beach she's still thrilled to be getting on a plane again. This will be our first time flying Southwest, and I'm a little nervous about it. I've been told we won't be able to pick our seats, and I have no idea how they go about doing check-ins. Add that to us flying out of an airport I've never flown out of before, and my anxiety peaks a bit just at the thought. Thankfully, we've all arranged to travel up together, and to get there earlier than the recommended hour before flight. And for the price of the flights, nonstop, I'd say we can handle whatever gets tossed in our direction. 

So that's about all that's new for now. You know, I always talk about posting more and trying to be consistent. Lately, I've been paying less time to the technological world and more to the time I have at home with my family. I'm sure everyone else out there is doing the same! So, this time around I won't make promises or even plan for the next post. I'll write to y'all when I write to y'all! Hope everyone is having a wonderful start to fall though! Until the next post. :)

Summertime And The Livin's Easy

This song has nothing to do with this post, I just like it because it reminds me of sunny California and it has "summertime" in the lyrics. Enjoy.

Summer is finally here, and with it comes summer school for me. Surprisingly, it's been a pretty manageable schedule. Not having such a huge course load eases things up a bit, but that doesn't mean it's been easy. I have homework every night of the week, and discussion boards for at least four of those nights. I'm actually enjoying the subject though. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. Almost. I have two and a half more years of studying and school in order to finally graduate with a Bachelor's degree. Thinking of that number, and those years being spent on that rather than doing normal things is a bit saddening. Still, I'm really excited to be going to a school that's close to home in the fall. 

Emery graduated preschool back at the end of May. When we didn't immediately take her to her new elementary school (which she will be attending in the fall) the day after Pre-K graduation she was pretty bummed out. Not getting to see her friends as often as she was before only added to her sadness that first week. However, we've come up with some pool time compromises. And I'm hoping that we'll be able to enroll her in some gymnastic classes as well. Now, since she's out for summer my sister-in-law has been staying with us. And if I forgot to mention before my brother-in-law is also living with us at the moment. So, we have a full house. I'm always worried about money, and how this makes more mouths to feed. It also causes our bills to go up, and of course means bigger messes to clean up after. Thankfully, both my sister-in-law and brother-in-law have helped out a lot when it comes to work around the house, cooking, and cleaning. I'm truly grateful for that. 

So far our summer has consisted of lounging, pools, a wedding, some dancing, lake trips, and TV binge watching. Last week was so hectic that my anxiety hit an all time high I think. Combine that with my lack of gym time, and I felt so on edge. Still we survived. Everything turned out great, but I now have no nails. None. This week I spent a lot of time catching up on homework, and of course the papers/questions are getting longer as we get further into the course. So again, I've gone with very little gym time which has been really difficult for me. I'm almost at the point of considering 4 am wake up calls just to fit them in. Almost. In other news, my husband will be headed out to California for one of his best friends wedding next week. He'll be out there for four days and I'm a little jealous. Unfortunately, after all of the unexpected expenses that came up we could only afford to have him go out. Not that he's completely broken up over having to spend an entire weekend alone with his boys who he hasn't seen in over 4 years. :-P He was able to get a preview a few weekends ago, but this time it'll be the three amigos reunited again. And even though I'm a little jealous I'm also really happy that he gets to do this. He'll get to see some of his family out there and visit with his cousins. This trip is going to be good for him, and he's also excited about it. 

Next month we also have some things planned. I mainly want to go out hiking, and maybe take a camping trip. I know that the aquarium is on our list as well as, possibly, the zoo again. If Emery requests it otherwise I will definitely skip out on that. I also want to head up to see some showings at the Omni Theater if we can because it's such a cool and educational place to visit. I haven't been in a really long time, but I've heard it's only gotten better. Obviously this all depends on funds and time, but I'm hoping that at least half of our list gets accomplished this summer. As soon as we get some pictures I'll post about the wedding this past weekend. I'll also post about the bachelorette party that led to a spontaneous Pure Romance party, as well as some more stuff about kayaking. Until then, that's all I've got for you folks! Hope everyone is having a pretty rad summer so far!

Another Friend Gets Married

Last Friday was our friend Annemarie’s wedding. She and her fiancé just graduated from Dordt this past May. She’s been living up there for the past three years and only came down for the summers, but since most of her family lives here in Texas they decided to have their wedding here. I’m really glad that they did too, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to afford to fly up to Iowa for it.

Kim, my mother, and I all went dress and shoe shopping that afternoon before the wedding. I was able to get some pretty heels on clearance, but regretted it after arriving at the location to find out it was an outdoor wedding. Just my luck. It was such a beautiful wedding though! Those two kids were seriously meant for each other, and they were so happy. You couldn’t help but smile when you saw how cute they were to each other. I’m seriously so happy for them! My cousin was the photographer so I didn't take my camera. Now, I'm just waiting for a flash drive full of pictures that my mother was suppose to get for me. Until then, here's one of the pictures Annemarie posted.

A Wedding & A Few Other Things

This past weekend we were able to attend my friend Dane’s wedding. It was beautiful! Very small and intimate. Made me wish our wedding had been like that: less stress and more carefree. Since we had to drive all the way back home we ended up leaving as soon as the bride and groom were sent off for their honeymoon.

Sunday we woke up to Emery being sick. She had a fever and runny nose. It made for a very crabby toddler. Still, we were able to bring her fever down long enough to run errands in town. And then we hit up Cici’s pizza at the munchkin’s request. Afterwards I scored two hardback books for $7 a piece. Which at our local Hastings, believe me, is a DEAL. Pretty excited to get them started. Once we were home, I was able to run 2 miles on the treadmill. I’m thinking this is going to be my new favorite way of running. I hate being inside, but I love that I can keep a consistent pace. Which for me, is a huge help when trying to improve time and distance. Here’s hoping that by the end of next week I’ll be able to run 3 miles.

A Bachelor(ette) Party

Let me just start off by saying that if this gets confusing, it’s okay. I’m kind of confused myself as to how this all happened, but I’ll try my best to explain.

Okay, so one of my friends is getting married soon. Well because of this wedding a bachelor party is a given, right? Right. Well, what’s not a given is inviting a girl to this party. Which is exactly what the guys did. They invited me to join them in Austin for a night out on 6th street. When I asked why they wanted me to tag along, they said it was because I was “one of the guys”. So, I said “maybe” but warning that it was really short notice, I needed to talk to my husband first (he would be coming with me), and then I didn’t even know if we could get a sitter in time. My getting to go, wasn’t looking very possible.

Now why would I want to join the guys for a bachelor party, you ask? Well, a few weekends ago my friend’s fiancé was given a “toy party” by one of her friends who isn’t very fond of me. I assumed (as did many others) that this was her bachelorette party and I just wasn’t invited. I didn’t get upset about it because this party was for her, and if the other girls didn’t want me there then I was fine with it. Apparently, I was wrong. Because once word got out that I had been invited to the bachelor party (and that it was in Austin) my friend’s fiancé (who is also my friend) asked why she couldn’t have a cool bachelorette party in Austin too. I had no idea what to tell her, so I just said “What’s stopping you from having one in Austin too? I’m sure that 6th street is big enough for both parties.”

See that right there, should have never left my mouth. One of my other friends, who would be attending the bachelor party, texted me on Tuesday and asked if I was coordinating the bachelorette party instead of joining the guys? Umm, not that I know of? As far as I knew I wouldn't even be attending the bachelor party. He continued by informing me that the bride to be assumed that one of her friends was coordinating a party for her as well in Austin. So now I had become the the accomplice of ruining the guys bachelor party for planting “the seed” of both parties being held in Austin. My friend was getting an ear full from both our friend and his fiancé. The fiancé assumed she would be going to Austin and the groom thought it was just “the guys” only trip.

And this is why I should never have opened my mouth about anything. See, I understand the guy code of having separate parties. It’s kind of the point. Had someone told me ahead of time that there had never been a bachelorette party, I would have happily coordinated one and declined the guys invitation on the spot. We could have had it in Austin on a separate weekend from the guys and it wouldn’t have been a big deal. But now, the guys trip is being threatened to be cancelled and I’m pretty sure I’ll have to take the blame for this one.

So as of right now I’ve done the only thing I can think of to get things back on track, and that’s to volunteer to coordinate a bachelorette party in Dallas (you guys know how I feel about this city) if my friend’s fiancé wants me to. And this my friends is why I'm freaking out a little. The guys are totally cool with just bar hopping and now I’ll actually have to come up with ideas if this goes through. Gift ideas, dinner reservations, club locations, the works. Stuff that I have NEVER done before. So, wish me luck?? Please??

Wedding

I'm happy about weddings. It's nice to see people in love. But all of this buzz about the Royal wedding is a tad bit ridiculous. A lot of gossip and news columns are reporting the cost to be well over 20 million dollars! I’d much rather see the money they are spending on this wedding go to a much better use. There are so many people, children, and countries that could use the money. And here it is, being wasted, for someone to get their "dream" wedding. Because they are considered royalty? Such a shame.