Amazing Wedding Presents!

[This got to be really long! You better grab a drink, kiss your kids goodbye, and settle in before you read it. Oh, and don't forget to make a sandwich or take a bathroom break first!]

I'm back to the world of blogging! I'm not sure if anyone's still out there, but if you are, thanks for sticking by me during this way-too-long-hiatus! The latest reason for that, is that I have been working away at something I've been wanting to complete for a long time. Well.... I'm happy to say that we mailed our wedding Thank You notes in the mail this week! Yes, your memory is correct, our first anniversary is on Sunday the 11th, and yes, I had every intention of getting these done within the first three months of marriage. There are many reasons why this didn't happen, and you can read some of them in a post I wrote in March, but the truth is, I wanted to be sure to really express my appreciation in the almost 200 notes to people who freely gave so generously to Brent and I as we began our marriage! We were overwhelmed with blessings!!

[One side note is that I'm still gathering the last few address updates, but if you didn't receive a thank you note and you sent a gift, it might be because there were a few gifts that we could not match to a card. For instance, there were attachments to our Kitchenaid mixer with no card. These things might have been attached to something else, but we didn't realize it until all the paper had been ripped and it was too late. If this applies to you, PLEASE let me know! Of course I want to thank you appropriately for the gift, but if you're thinking it's not necessary, please still let me know anyway!! I'm one of those people who hopes to always remember just exactly "who" gave us "what" for our wedding, so that in 20 years I can tell our kids "So-and-so gave us that for our wedding". Yup, I'll be that kind of mom someday!]

As we approach our first anniversary (I can't believe how fast that time has flown by!!) I wanted to catch up on some wedding-related blog posts I've planned, so then I can move on to go back and show you some of the other things we've been up to this year. I have great intentions about going back and posting about things in the past, and keeping more up-to-date in the future! :)

Brent and I opened our wedding presents in my parent's living room, with just my mom around, even before my dad came home from work, on the last afternoon of our honeymoon. We had cut our honeymoon short by one day as Brent got sick, and we had stopped at their house as a relaxing rest stop between our trip out west and arriving back home in Appleton again.

We were going to just open our presents alone at our house, but knew how much my mom would want to see those presents, and I've been thinking now how fun it would be to share with you some of the wonderful things we received. I'm risking the possibility that someone might feel slighted by my not taking a picture of their gift, so please know that I DON'T want that to happen at all! I have no intention of showing every AMAZING gift we received, just a few fun pictures of some things I thought you might want to see. You can pretend you were right there with us, ooing and aahing over everything!!

My mom knew about this gift and had us open it first. Wow!! My dear friends in Bethel's Stitch-a-Quilt made us this beautiful wall hanging!! I love knowing that they all stitched on this, thought about us, and prayed over us as they worked. What a blessing!
Family and friends in Washington gave us this lefse grill...
and other friends helped with the pin, sleeve, board, etc.

Brent and I had a lot of fun putting it to use!
My dear friend, Leona, from Team Cameroon 2008, served with my grandparents in Africa and gave us this treasured African chess set! I get a tear thinking about it! The cool story is that these types of figurines are ones that I grew up loving in our home, and have enjoyed having one or two pieces that have been passed down to me. Well, Brent is a great chess player (I'm not sure if there's a category for master chess player, but if there is, I bet he qualifies!) and he mentioned to me that he would really like a special chess set someday!
Look at that great detail! I love the wood grain, and the style of carving! Notice each piece is holding an appropriate tool so you know what it's position is!

I wish the lighting were better, but wanted you to see these great pieces! And yes, the king is missing his head, but it's nothing a little super-glue can't handle. It was a pretty clean guillotine cut.

If you know anything at all about me, you might know that I have a ridiculous love of dishes! It just can't be helped. I've tried. Well, not really, I mean, who would want to give up great dishes? For our wedding, it was fun to pick out a new set of everyday dishes, and we were so blessed by so many of you to end up with a new set of Fiestaware dishes, and these beautiful goblets! Here you see a table set for friends who came to visit in the fall, and you can see how well everything works together in our dining room. We also got silverware from Norway that I just love, beautiful water/lemonade/iced tea pitchers that we use all the time, great serving pieces, crystal bowls, and just about anything you could ever want when you invite your in-laws over for Thanksgiving dinner! Either that or just regular dinner with your husband when you decide to eat at the table, since my aunts in Billings always taught me that "every meal is more delicious when you eat on special dishes". I feel like we get to enjoy that every single night!!!
Here in our living room you can see some of the great plaques/pictures we got, along with some Willow Tree figurines. I just took this picture tonight, and you probably can't tell this from the picture, but I finally got around to organizing our bookshelves by categories that make sense. I don't know if they make sense to my librarian-husband, but they make sense to me!
(I messed up on the placement of photos, so this caption goes to the above picture. Sorry to be confusing!) In the above picture, you'll also see how lovely the "vintage" games look on our bookshelf. We were blessed to get lots of games, vintage and otherwise, which makes for a great selection on game night! Anyone want to come over and join us?!


Below you'll see some of the beautiful Italia candleholders that we use in a variety of ways for decorating. I guess this picture doesn't flatter them to their full ability, so I'll have to change that around and show you a different picture later. You can also see a photo frame that we received, and I want to take a moment from our wedding-present-tour to say how fun it's been to get pictures in our many frames and have them showcase some of our favorite photos! You blessed us with photo frames of all sizes and I love decorating with them on the walls, bookshelves, you name it!
I've always loved these Swedish crystal vases, and I thought this would be a nice way to give honor to my 1/16th Swedish heritage! I also wanted to show you "cello-guy", the cool cello statue that Brent has. You can just ignore the big water stain on the top of our piano, you can't really see it unless you're as tall as Brent, and besides, it was a free piano and I love it!
Back to our kitchen, we were blessed with all the little things that you need in a kitchen to be a good cook, or at least pretend. It's easier to pretend when you have all the stuff! I wanted to show you one of my favorite gadgets: the red spinning, yes spinning, utensil holder we bought with a Target gift card. Don't you just love it?! I sure do!
Here you can see one of my favorite corners of our house! It's in our dining room, right next to our sliding door out to the deck. Each of these things is something that I just love. I'll go clockwise starting on the right. The "yellow girl on the beach" is a print that my wonderful Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Jim gave to Brent and I when we were visiting them in California so they could meet Brent before Jim married us. I love the beach. I love yellow. I love beach hats. I love the style of this print. Then, just recently my mom gave us the red frame, made of old barn wood, which reminds me of a red-barn-wood-frame she and I saw in Red Lodge, MT when we went to visit our aunts in Billings when I was a nursing student and just didn't feel like I could survive one more minute and said to her on a long weekend "let's drive to Billings and see your aunts and go to the mountains". So we did! Ever since that trip I've wished I had purchased the frame but was too poor at the time and didn't think I needed it. Well, it turns out everyone should have a red-barn-wood-frame. It makes life better. Next you'll see a picture of two of my closest friends, taken during a week that I really needed them around. Good friendships are a treasure! Speaking of good friends, in the middle of the picture you'll see a beautiful bowl that Brent and I received as a wedding present, from one of my closest friends who had purchased it in the Middle East just for us right before our wedding. We were so honored she could be back from a mission trip in time to stand up front and support us at our wedding ceremony, and I feel so blessed that she was thinking of us while she was there, picking out something that suits us so well! The blue cake stand is near and dear to my heart. It's from my wonderful friends/family members Tim and Rachel who gave it to us at my bridal shower. Rachel has always been so thoughtful, and she gave this to us knowing she couldn't make it to the wedding. I have this unhealthy love of cobalt blue glass (it goes along with the unhealthy love of dishes) and this cake plate is just beautiful! It's cobalt blue crystal, with a gorgeous natural pattern and texture. Tim passed away last year and this world is worse off because of it. He gets to be with Jesus now, so he's way better because of it, but this world will miss him greatly! I think of Tim often. He was a great teacher of the Bible, a theologian at heart, and had a laugh that was pretty contagious. Anytime I'm in a theological discussion now, I find that it usually relates back to a conversation I had with Tim either at a family gathering, a Youth Ministries biblical studies class, or when I was at the LB seminary building -either auditing a class or trying to support my seminary-student-friends. Seeing this cake plate reminds me of him, even though I'm sure Rachel picked it out and he might not have even know of it's existence, but his name was still on the card. On top of the cake plate is a picture of Brent and I. It goes in this corner since it's one of my favorites (and has a red frame!). Finally, the red rose. It's a real rose that's been painted and shellacked. Or something else. It's trimmed in gold-leaf. It was a gift from Brent the night he proposed to me, to help throw me off for what was to come later in the evening. It worked! So there you have it... the reasons why this is my favorite corner of our home! And, the longest photo caption in the history of photo captions!

Now if only I could write all that about each and every gift, here on my blog, so the whole world could see just how much I love the clear cake stand that decorates the top of our hutch. Or the softness of our bamboo sheets and towels that I LOVE to use to curl up. Or the blessing of gift cards. Or the fun camping stuff we're excited to try out. Or the practical stuff like electrical cords. Or the other things that have no practical use but are beautiful and look great in our home!

Brent and I feel so blessed, humbled, overwhelmed, and honored by the way in which we were shown love and generosity. Thank you, thank you, and thank you again!