Toes and Fruit and Fireworks

This is my last night in Appleton for a few days, and I'm happy to report that everything is pretty much done for the wedding! There are just a few little notes I'd like to write to people, but all the other "stuff" is done and even packed into the car! My eyelids are ready to close, so I'm praying for a good night's sleep tonight so that I can be refreshed when we leave here in the morning.

Brent is spending the evening with some buddies, at what is my guess of a pretty tame bachelor's party! We've had his daughter, M, with us since Sunday, so tonight she and I grabbed some dinner, did some shopping and picture taking...

and got our toes looking cute for the wedding! Fergus Falls, here comes some fun feet! :)

We've had a great few days together, and it's been wonderful to have this time here in Appleton before the true busy-ness of the week starts. It's been so nice to have the projects all finished up, and M helped finish the last one! If you're at our wedding, you can thank her for the wonderful ribbon-tying she did on our programs!

Backtracking a few days, I had to work the night of July 3rd, so when I woke up on the Fourth, Brent had come over to work on a few things. We talked about eating something and settled in on an omelet and also some fruit. I tackled the omelet and asked Brent to do the fruit. When I turned around, here's what I saw!

I knew I was marrying a wonderful man, but really? This is too much. How can I be so lucky? Here's a picture of table set for that meal, and after I snapped the shot I realized I needed to dig out a couple of our red Fiestaware pieces we've started to receive, so I did just that and we've enjoyed eating on them! And they fit in so perfectly with our red dining room! More pictures to come later, once we actually have some time to unpack a few boxes...

Later on our Fourth of July celebration happened at our pastor's house with his family and a few other friends. Their son, B, hosted a magnificent fireworks show, that I've heard is an annual tradition. What fun! GREAT JOB, B!!

We trust you each had a wonderful day celebrating our country, and remembering those that have fought to keep our freedoms!

Full of Blessings in Fergus Falls

[The pictures for this post were uploaded shortly after the fun day, but there is so much I've been wanting to say, it's taken a while to finish. At this point, though, I thought I would just publish the post and trust that you know the huge level of thankfulness I wish to convey!]

I was blessed with a beautiful bridal shower in Fergus Falls! It was such a lovely day, filled with fun people, delicious food, thoughtful gifts, and lots of blessings. I have been so blessed to call Bethel my home church, and while I haven't lived in Fergus for two years now, it will always feel like that. It's been so fun to start attending our Lutheran Brethren church in Appleton, and I know we will continue to grow in the fun friendships we've started there, but it was also so fun to be back in Fergus and feel so loved and missed.

THANK YOU to each of you who were able to come to the shower, THANK YOU to those of you who sent gifts, THANK YOU to the wonderful friends who helped host it. I felt so incredibly blessed and returned to Brent on cloud nine!

These dear little friends helped distribute all the gifts.
Here are the wonderful friends who helped organize everything.
O and A also helped greet people or offer punch.
My mom was able to be there, and a wonderful added bonus is that our annual national church convention was going on, so there were other fun family and friends in town for the day. At first I started getting nervous that it would be too big of a conflict, but it ended up being a wonderful bonus to have so many out of town friends there! As some people have said, I'm a "national" woman, and it was so fun to have this become a "national" shower! Here you see a familiar face to this blog, especially from my time living in Seattle in 2007, my mom's cousin June! It was so fun to have her there for my shower and she's able to come back for the wedding as well!
Some of my dear Fergus friends who were able to come.
Opening a lovely gift. Brent and I feel SOOOO blessed as we look around our house now!
My friend, Mandy, and her dear little guy (who has the best hair!).
Christine helped with organizing everything, and she asked me a few multiple-choice questions so that I could answer them and introduce a little about Brent to everyone there. I'm not at home at the moment to tell you what some of the questions were, but I will say that Brent laughed loudly at a few of them when I shared them with him later on!
Candis gave a little history of specific wedding traditions and then tied in a spiritual aspect to them. This was especially fun thinking back on ALL the MANY wedding conversations we've had together over the years! On a side note, I am so incredibly blessed that she agreed to be our wedding coordinator, since I really have been talking about weddings with her for years! I know that any one of a hundred things that could surprise us on our wedding day will go just fine, as Candis will handle it exactly how I would want!
One of my dearest friends and bridesmaids, Jenn, and her girls helped stock our cupboards by reading a fun poem that included many things like "pledging" our love to each other, having a "fantastic" "life" filled with "joy" and so on and so on, and gave commercial items of the same name for us to enjoy! Rumor has it that her husband, Ryan, who I have known since I was 15, especially liked helping write the poem! :)
WHAT A FUN SURPRISE! My team-leader from my trip to Africa last fall happened to be in town for the church convention and was able to stop by the shower! Trisch shares my love for Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" and has loved following my love story with my very own Mr. Darcy. She has prayed for us, asked how things are going, and is even able to make a trip out for the wedding! It was the first time I had seen her since Brent and I have been engaged and it brought tears to my eyes seeing the tears in her eyes when she saw me filled with joy. She's an amazing woman that I am so blessed to call my friend!
My mom's cousin, Ginny, (in the pink) and some of her dear friends who are some of my dear friends as well!
Some of the beautiful red and yellow decorations (yes, I've been hinting at our wedding colors by the background theme on my blog!). The yellow pot is even A's flower girl "basket"!
OH MY WORD! My dear friend, Carrie, who was so disappointed to have to miss the wedding but so excited to be in town for my shower, made me a beautiful gift! She is a fellow quilter, who has made more wonderful gifts for people than maybe anyone else I know. She also is a kindred spirit with my love of fabrics, and also with dishes! She completely understands my love of a 1950's style kitchen as well! Well, she faithfully follows this blog so when she read about The Lakehouse, she knew just what to do. She quilted this wonderful picnic blanket, complete with waterproof backing so it can sit on the grass. Then she filled a picnic basket with wonderful vintage tableware so that Brent and I can enjoy a picnic out on our dock or lawn! How incredibly thoughtful! I LOVE this gift!
[I need to say here, that one of the wonderful, amazing things about this shower is that there were so many wonderful gifts like Carrie's! People have been so incredibly generous, it's been quite overwhelming! And shower's at Bethel are so fun because a bride knows she'll get many lovely things from her gift registries, and she'll also get many lovely gifts that have been picked out or made just for her! I love knowing that Sally was praying for me and Brent as she crocheted a gorgeous doily, and Brent's already enjoyed the homemade jam/jelly that Vonnie is known to bless a bride with and there are just so many other lovely gifts I'm actually sitting her with tears in my eyes thinking of the HUGE blessing you all are to me!]

Here we are as the shower is winding down, and you can see that June helped me prepare for the wedding rehearsal by making a "ribbon bouquet" to carry that night.
Her husband, Joel, is one of my favorite people and he even stopped by to say hi. Thanks for your bravery, Joel... coming to a ladies shower! :)
After the guests left, my mom and I were able to enjoy some time with Jenn and Barb while we cleaned up and ate dinner as well. It took a bit of time to pack all the gifts up because there were so many we were blessed with!
As you can see, this is a post full of blessings! I know I was told that my final gift of the day is that I don't need to write thank you notes for each individual gift, but THANK YOU again and again for the wonderful shower of blessings I received!

Father's Day at The Lakehouse

We invited Brent's family to the Lakehouse for Father's Day. They came a bit early so they could enjoy some time on the dock fishing.

Here are the men out helping the kids (Brent's nephew and niece) or throwing in their own lines, while Brent's mom, sister and I spent time on the deck watching them.
Wade is great about always baiting the hook for the kids.
Showing Jericha how to cast.
Wade caught himself a Northern Pike that was a pretty good size! He kept it swimming around in the basket for a while, but then let the fish go. That was the first fish caught at the Lakehouse, so I'd say he had a pretty good Father's Day!
Jericha quickly became an expert at casting.
Jeremiah -learning the art of just sitting there, waiting.
And finally, here you see that Jericha wasn't able to catch any fish, just seaweed. In fact, you can see by the corner post that she was growing a little pile of all the seaweed she kept catching! :)
After a good fishing experience, we enjoyed our grilled brats/dogs and a wide assortment of other goodies. I'd say it was a good Father's Day for those involved, and fun to be with family!

I want to be sure to say thanks to my dad for being such an amazing example of what a great husband and father should be. They often say that women marry someone like their dad, and while I didn't go searching that out, it's amazing to see all the great similarities that Brent shares with my dad! ~~ Also, a quick thank you to Randy. Thanks for raising such a wonderful man of God -who turned into exactly the man I needed to marry someday!

Moving to Wisconsin

It's hard to have a post and not have a picture of this little guy, so why even bother?
He's was "helping" us on moving day in Burnsville. We seem to be having a LOT of those lately -moving days. But, we're almost done and will be done for a while now! Last weekend I went to Fergus for a bridal shower (that's another post I'm working on) while Brent stayed in the Twin Cities and took charge loading all my stuff that's been in storage for TWO years into a U-Haul truck to move to Wisconsin. I got back just in time to help with one or two things from my parents house, where Little David and his family stopped by. Actually, they came the day before to help Brent and my dad load all the other stuff as well. Somehow my mom and I are the only ones that missed out on the real fun. The truth is, I was pretty insistent that all the loading happen while I could help, not because I wanted to control the situation, but because I felt bad that everyone else would be doing "my" work for me. Seeing as I'm marrying the most wonderful man in the world, he was just as insistent right back that he's now responsible for my stuff and would be just fine even if he had to do it all himself. Because I have a great family, they all pitched in so he didn't have to do it alone. I'm pretty blessed!

This little guy also had fun trying out the "new" trike that Grandma found for him.
Here's what I saw the whole way back to Appleton. I've been living here since January, but now, finally, all my stuff is here as well!
He did such a great job packing that not a single thing shifted during the entire trip back, and I was pretty surprised that ALL my stuff fit into the 17' truck and even had extra space! (I was pretty sure a 24' truck would just barely fit!)
My prince, sitting in our new living room, carefully mapping out how the new shelves we bought would fit against a certain wall. I'm happy to say I don't have to live in all those boxes anymore! We've done a good job of unpacking some or moving others to the basement for now.
My "RockStar" of a fiance, enjoying his "RockStar" of a drink provided from a fun poem/skit at the bridal shower (more to come later).
I am so excited that in 18 days he'll be mine forever! I'm looking forward to so many things about being married, but lately it's that I can hardly wait to LIVE in the same place finally! He won't have to come visit me in the Lakehouse, but he can be here all the time! Only 18 more days to go!

One Month...

We're really only a month away now! Yippee!!!!!! I have loved this engagement stage, and all the wedding planning, dreaming, and fun stuff that's gone along with it, but I am so ready for this next month to go by quickly!

If anyone in Fergus is able to save me a copy or two of last Saturday's Lifestyle section from The Daily Journal, that would be lovely! It's not online yet, and I've been excited to see it!

Bridal Showers

It's a lazy Saturday here in Appleton! I worked last night, slept part of today, waited for the INTERNET GUY to come and install the beloved internet, and have been doing stuff online since then! Brent's out of town for the weekend at a friend's place near Madison, doing a whole boardgame tournament weekend. I guess he won last night during his first game ever of Settler's of Cataan, but today lost during some six-hour battleship-type boardgame. He was between games earlier when he called and was looking forward to whatever was next. It'll be fun to hear him recap the weekend when he gets back tomorrow, and I think this was a nice way for him to unwind after his last week of school with the students -he just goes back for a couple days next week to wrap things up. Then I get to enjoy the benefits of him working for a school district = summer's off!!! :)

So, I'm here at The Lakehouse, watching the rain outside, listening to The Sound of Music on the TV in the background (not one of Brent's favorites, but definitely one of mine!) and taking the time to upload some pictures to Facebook and updating this blog! I'm so excited to have internet again, and while these next 34 days will continue to be busy leading up to the wedding, I'm looking forward to life settling into more of a routine, including blogging more regularly again!

Last Saturday I had the enjoyment of attending my first Bridal Shower! The ladies from Ebenezer Church, plus my maid of honor, Aimee, threw a lovely bridal shower for me. I felt so incredibly blessed! My mom and sister were, of course, at the shower as well so here you see Julie and I enjoyed the delicious food that was prepared.
These lovely ladies have known me my whole life and blessed me with organizing all this (plus one more who had a work conflict). Joan, the second from the left, said "you're just like one of our own daughters" when she called me about the shower. THANK YOU, THANK YOU for all the work you put into this wonderful shower!
I had a cousin who was able to come and luckily she was willing to snap a few pictures for me!
Here are some of the ladies who attended the shower. Many of these women were friends with my Grandma, and just like the baby shower held for Julie when David was born, I became overwhelmed thinking about how wonderful it would've been to have her there. We were in the Fireside Room at church, the very place where I sat each Sunday after church with my Grandma, drinking water out of a coffee cup, listening to her talk to these friends, sharing stories with them. I miss her and wish she could be a part of all this celebrating! (It would be her birthday tomorrow, June 7th.)
My mom gave Brent and I a Christmas Book, one where we can write about our celebration each year, which becomes a fun way to recap the year. I love looking through my mom's version of this same book.
Enjoying the coffee and fellowship!
It was fun to start getting some of the things we've registered for, including these great library versions of classic board games. Brent the Librarian loves the look of these, and we both love playing board games!
Passing around the gifts for all to see.
Fun to have "help" from little friends!
Then, later in the day on Saturday, Brent and I were both invited over to have dinner at David and Julie's place. It was fun to relax with them, have Julie try on her bridesmaid's dress for me, but mostly to play with this little guy! I just LOVE this face!!
He's such a goof-ball -always up to something. Or at least, he always looks like it!
Part of dinner was some pasta with alfredo sauce, and it was HILARIOUS to watch him eat this! The best picture is on Brent's phone, where the pasta is hanging from his mouth down to his shirt! Then, it was so great to watch him slurp it up, and push the last little bit into his mouth with his hands.
He was pretty proud of himself, and only maybe slightly realized how much we were all laughing at him!

It was a wonderful weekend back in the Twin Cities! Thanks again for the shower, the dinner, and the relaxing time together!!

This coming Saturday, June 13th, will be another shower, back in Fergus Falls. Some wonderful friends there are throwing that for me and I'm so looking forward to it! It will be an open house from 3:00-5:30pm with a short program at 4pm, and will be held down at the LB Seminary building. I am so looking forward to being back in Fergus, seeing all of you friends there, and I know there might even be some "extra" people in town for the CLBA annual convention. If you're one of those people, I'd love to see you as well! Come on down!