Happy Birthday, Brent!

It was somebody's birthday today!



That's right, this happy guy turned the ripe old age of.... oh yeah.... once you hit a certain age you're probably not supposed to share that with everyone except on the "big" years, right?

Anyway, we were able to celebrate on Thursday night with family and friends by using their help to unload all of Brent's stuff from his rented pods into The Lakehouse. It was so wonderful to spend the evening there, enjoying each other's company, eating a meal together, and finally feeling like I had a place to host people! I've been waiting a LOOOOOOOONG time for that! And even though the unloading part wasn't as enjoyable, it actually still went really quite quick with all the help that was there. 30 minutes maybe? I'm looking forward to posting lots of pictures of lots of picnics at our place on the lake, but for now, you'll just have to imagine it. Kids and adults all around, sitting on folding chairs, the floor, or the deck, and lots of time spent down on the dock.

Today Brent and I drove back to the Twin Cities for a bridal shower, which should be a super fun experience, and pretty strange being on this side of it! :) My mom had a cake for Brent when we got here, so I think he's feeling pretty welcomed into the family!

Happy Birthday, Brent, I hope it was a great one!

The Lakehouse

Check this out:


Well, that's the view that Brent and I will have at our new townhouse! We've signed the lease to rent what we will forever call "The Lakehouse"!!

In the month since we found out about Brent's job, we've spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out just what to do. And, that question was really in two parts, consisting of a career for him and a place for us to live. We've gone 'round and 'round on a wide variety of ideas that would take too long to list here! For a while, it seemed like stuff changed every single day!

Back to the story of The Lakehouse... We started looking for places to live here in Appleton, and in our price range all we found was JUNK! I kept telling myself:

"Self, it will be okay to live anywhere, in anything. You can survive anything and it might even turn out better than expected! After all, you never thought you'd enjoy living in a tent for an entire summer, and that turned out to be lots of fun, and you never expected to share one tiny townhouse with six other women, and that turned out to be fun, and you never thought you'd have a total of 23 roommates before getting married and look what fun friendships you have because of it! You hadn't planned to move every three months all across the country, and what an adventure that turned out to be! And now you'll get to have fun living-adventures with Brent! What joy! I mean, who cares if your stove is from 1964 or who cares if the Rottweiller's next door look like they'll attack at a moment's notice or who cares if the odd-shaped house is so grimy you don't want to ever actually use the bathroom provided? There's always the locker room at work, right?"

Anyway, I digress... back to The Lakehouse. Well, it's true. All of those things were our potential living arrangements, and there were a few other scary things as well. So, when we drove by this little sign next to a driveway that said "For Rent, Lakeshore" we decided to call. We both actually thought that the price would be out of our budget, but I know I just wanted to see something fun at that point.

Well, we were so surprised to find out that it was within our budget! And, when we went to look at the place, we were excited to find that we actually liked it!

The huge bonus is that it happens to be on a lake! WOW!!

So, this will be my new kitchen:


I love all the counter space!


Our dining room, overlooking the lake, is open to the kitchen so I'll be able to be part of the activity when we have people over for meals (which I'm hoping happens often!)


I love that the dining room goes right out onto a great deck, so I'm planning on our summer meals taking place outside!


The deck, complete with seating all around.


The living room is really big. I know it's hard to get perspective from an empty room, so I'll show you again when we get furniture in place.


The only downfall is that these window face the front yard, not the lake, but really, there are no complaints about this house allowed!


The master bedroom faces the lake.


The bathroom has a big counter, and there's a light that's off in this picture in the second part with the toilet and bathtub/shower. (We don't have to shower in the dark!)


The guest room will be ready and waiting for you!


There's also a full basement with washer and dryer hookups, and after having my own for six years and then using apartment laundry for the last two years, I can hardly express how excited I am about that! Yippee!!

Really, we feel so blessed by getting to live here. Our landlord is the neighbor who lives in the other part of the duplex, but it sounds like he's often gone for his job. He seems really nice, and I think a little grateful that we're pretty normal people. If you can call us normal... :)

He already gave us the keys so Brent will starting moving in this week sometime. Oh, and for those of you asking about his job, at this point it looks like he'll keep the 1/2 time job at his school district and then look for something else to supplement it.

It'll be fun to keep sharing pictures with you as we get settled in The Lakehouse!

Door County

On Saturday Brent took me to Door County for the day! We had a wonderful day, enjoying each other's company, the cold and windy outdoors, great food, and fun little shops.

After passing through Sturgeon Bay (note to friends visiting Door County: be sure to stop at the Visitor's Center when you first get to town, before the bridge, open 24/7. It has GREAT info regarding absolutely everything about Door County, including all the special events going on each and every day. VERY HELPFUL!) and getting into Door County itself, we first went to the county park I was able to visit last fall. It was still beautiful!
Sitting on my favorite little ledge overlooking a shallow pool of water.

My friend, LaVonne, and I "discovered" this hole in the rock last fall. On Saturday we must've been there at high tide, as the water came right up to it!

The lovebirds, practically IN Lake Michigan!

We continued around the peninsula, stopping at fun shops, eating at "Shipwrecked" (a restaurant in Egg Harbor that was a favorite hang-out of Al Capone's!), and finishing our day at a fun wine and chocolate tasting at Door Peninsula Winery!

Thank you for the wonderful day, Brent!

Birthday Present!

I had a special delivery yesterday, in the arms of the man I love. Look what he got me as a birthday/wedding present! WOW!!! You are looking at the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series stand mixer, complete with all-metal attachments, splatter-shield, and securing pins so the bowl doesn't wobble at all. What a wonderful gift!

The truth is, I decided to post this for my friends that have heard me say that this is the one thing I've been most looking forward to getting this summer, hoping to put a whole bunch of Target gift cards from our wedding together to make this purchase. It's the one kitchen appliance I've always wanted! Now my sweetheart made this corny little dream come true!

And the second part to the gift might seem a little strange, but it truly was a gift to me! Brent knows that my frugal self would worry about the cost, so even though you don't typically tell the gift-receiver what was spent on a gift, he shared with me that he was able to purchase this using a gift certificate he had been saving and a bonus check from school for extra work he had done! He also bought it during a promotion so we'll be getting a FREE ice cream maker attachment!! Who-hoo!!

What a blessing my sweetheart is!

Now I better go get ready for the day... I've already been busy as I woke up FOUR HOURS EARLY because working nights sometimes really messes up your schedule. Yuk! But, the day is about to turn around because Brent is taking me to Door County for the day! You might remember my fun weekend there last fall, talked about here. Today we're hoping to see the Cherry Blossoms in bloom, visit a fun state park, and catch some of the quaint shops and antique stores. It should be a wonderful day!

Two Months!

One of the best parts of my day:



Getting to cross off another day!

Only two more months until I get to marry the love of my life! (It'll go quick, right?)

He's All Boy

I'm out of words for a while ("phew", right??), so here are just some pictures of the fun time we had this weekend playing with David while visiting my family in Burnsville. He loves playing with balls, loves running, and loves having Grandpa around.

It's easy to make a basket when it's that close to the ground, right?

He's become a really good kicker as well, although he's usually found carrying the ball around.
Any game involving balls and/or chasing or being chased by Grandpa is a great game!
"How many can I hold?"
Where's David?
Peek-a-boo!
Hanging out at the park...
Posing for a picture...
Just swinging along!

The only way to get David to leave the park was for Brent to throw the football "long" and have David run after it.

We've had a busy weekend, as usual, but it's been productive and fun as well, and how could we not enjoy ourselves when this little guy is around??!!

My Wonderful Brent

We were supposed to close on our house today, but as you know that's not happening.

Well, I do have the sweetest fiance ever, and it turns out he's been working on a house-warming present for me for quite some time. He knows how much I've been missing my family and friends, so he made a beautiful collage as a great reminder and tribute to them. He hasn't even gotten to meet everyone in the pictures yet, but has heard stories of how important they are to me!



As you can imagine, I cried when he gave this to me! We've talked about framing some of my photographs as art for our home, and haven't started doing that yet, but he's been gathering up these pictures for a bit for this wonderful gift! This collage is about 3 feet tall and will look good in any future home we have!

Thank you, Brent, for loving me so well!

Highest Highs to Lowest Lows

(this post got long, but there's a bit of life-changing news to share)

If you've been with me on blogger for a while, you might have heard me mention that most things in life relate to music or movie lyrics or titles. This past week it's been Chris Tomlin's song "Indescribable" and the first line "From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea". It's actually my National Park song (I highly recommend playing it as you drive through a National Park), but this week it's all I can think of.

The highest of highs, to the lowest of lows.

Actually, since time helps heal all wounds, I'd say it's not the lowest low. Close, but not quite. The week did seem to start out that way, but it's a little better now. Let me clarify... In fact, let me start at the beginning...

Last weekend Brent and I were able to go to Fergus with the purpose of getting our engagement pictures done. We went to my parents house on Friday night, then left by 7:30 am on Saturday for Fergus (and if you know me, you know that's pretty early in my world!). We had a GREAT photo session with Eric Strom, so I'm checking daily for the previews on their blog. If you want to check with me, look here.

After the photo session, we were able to have lunch at Dairyland (where, by the way, Brent was proven right. I actually DO know everyone in Fergus Falls!), we registered for our wedding at Nordic Galleri, and we went around town to compare some prices for things related to the wedding. We were invited to Ryan and Jenn's for dinner and that was a fun adventure, as always, with their active family! One highlight was seeing A's flower-girl dress, and then watching her and her sister show us their tumbling skills (not in the dress... it was a separate activity). It is SOOOOO good to spend time with friends! After dinner we went to Candis and Wally's place, where we were staying. It's so wonderful to be at their place as it's easy and relaxing, and Candis and I could chat weddings while Brent and Wally talked theology. THANK YOU again for letting us stay there, and for the yummy sweet rolls!

Sunday morning we got to go to Bethel, and I was so looking forward to this. I really wanted Brent to experience worshipping at the church that feels most like home to me. And, I was really excited for him to meet many of my friends there. I have to say, I walked in the door and felt so embraced with love. THANK YOU to those of you that helped that! Thank you for welcoming me home, and thank you for welcoming Brent so well!

Yes, we were the last to leave the church (almost), and then we hopped right in the car for the eight hour drive back to Appleton. While in the car, we talked about the wonderful weekend. We weren't able to see everyone (we were only there 24 hours with an agenda), but we completed everything on the agenda, and we left feeling so incredibly loved. I'm getting used to Appleton, but the weekend was just what I needed.

On the ride home, I made the statement to Brent "I am just so amazed at how everything is working out even better than we could've ever imagined. Everything is falling into place so well. What an incredible blessing."

Then Monday morning came...

Before the school day started, Brent was told that his position as Director of Library Media Services would be cut. He works at both schools in a smaller district near Appleton, doing all the library stuff and also teaching some technology classes as well. His position along with two others would be cut down in hours significantly due to budget deficits in the district.

We found this out 10 days before we were to close on our dream house.

Monday became very busy trying to contact the realtor and lenders, knowing that with him at 50% of his current salary, we couldn't buy the house. It breaks my heart to give it up, but I knew instantly that's what we needed to do. We can't get into the commitment of a house if we're not even sure what he'll be doing or where the next job might be located.

We then had a few days of lots of back and forth with the lender, ups and downs emotionally, and Friday we found out that we can get out of buying the house. I'm sad that I won't get to live in my dream home, but so relieved that now we're able to move forward with our next decisions without feeling stuck to one location due to home-ownership.

We feel like there are 1000 questions to answer, and we're at number 50. We've already answered the first bunch: Can we actually commit to a 30-year mortgage when Brent doesn't have a fulltime job? Can we get out of a house that we've promised to buy? Will the sellers sue us for backing out?

Now we're able to move on to the next bunch: Where should we live? What will Brent do for work? If he's been thinking about getting out of education (he's been wondering that) what would he like to do and what career will match his skill-sets? Sure, he could stay at the 50% position and find something to supplement it, but maybe this is the time to start out on a new adventure. Should we look for jobs outside of Appleton since I miss family and friends in Minnesota so much? If I stay in my apartment where will Brent live since he was going to move in here when I move to the house?

Will this change any of our specific plans with the wedding? Should we just get married now since then we only need to find ONE place to live? We have all the money set aside for our wedding so that we can walk away from that day without it causing us any debt. Praise the Lord! But, can I justify spending that if we might need it for food in a few months? Do we still invite all the people we've been planning on or do we cut it down to a super small number? Would I be happy with that? If we still have the larger sized wedding will our guests understand if we have less food at the reception? Do we even need to do that if the money's there and now we don't need a house down-payment or start-up costs for the house so there's even more cash?

Obviously a thousand questions and we're trying to take them one by one. Some moments I'm very calm about the whole thing, knowing with certainty that the Lord has His hand in all this, and other times I get a bit overwhelmed. If you talk to any bride 2 months before the wedding she's probably starting to get a bit stressed, and now throw in the fact that the groom is without a job and that there's no place to live and you can imagine the stress level increases by leaps and bounds. But, I can live in truth. The truth is that the Lord has a path set out for us, and we need to just keep taking each step, trusting that He'll be guiding our way. We know that to be true. I also have been going back to what I talked about in this post.

Will you pray for us? Pray for wisdom and faith for both of us. Pray for Brent as he considers his career future and what that might look like. Pray for the students in his district that will now be lacking in a few areas. Pray for unity in our decision-making. This is going to be a hard way to start a marriage and sure adds a lot of stress to the last 2+ months to the wedding. The answers we DO know are that we still love each other very much and will be leaning on the Lord and one another so much more during this hard time! I'm so thankful we're in this together!

Thank you for praying for us. We're so thankful to be surrounded by family and friends during all this!

Three Months

I have really wonderful friends! This great countdown to the wedding was made by Jenn, a friend since high school. It's hard to believe it's only three months until I get to marry Brent. Sometimes it seems like that time will just fly by, and other times it feels like it will take FOREVER! :)

Sunny California!

I'm in California right now with Brent, introducing him to Jim and Marilyn and seeing other family as well. We got to go to Laguna Beach today! I LOVE THE OCEAN!! I've missed it and have realized that I'm definitely someone who needs to be near water. I'm glad we have a huge lake (25+ miles long) right near us, and our new house is just a few blocks from the river.

But, there's something so wonderful about being at the ocean! Here's a little preview to our fun vacation:






It's back to winter in Wisconsin tomorrow, but I'm so thankful for this fun time away!