Our Weekend Project

Last weekend when I was visiting our friends Alsie, Josh and baby Grayson I picked up our new bean bag toss game! The previous neighbors left their homemade boards up in the rafters and now Joe and I are the lucky owners. They need paint and little bit of TLC but they'll spruce up quite nice. We can doing anything we want with them...like this

Joe and I will be picking up paint this weekend and hopefully start on them. The only thing we needed to complete the game were beans bags. And look what I found!!

Each set was $9.99 plus shipping so it was about $30 total for the two sets but they are heavy duty! We got them yesterday in the mail and I think they'll last many, many games:) I'll update to you on our progess Monday but until then have a wonderful weekend!!

We Did It!!

Joe and I passed premarital counseling! Well, I guess it wasn't a pass/fail type of thing but we made it through:) Last night after work we drove to Hinckley and met with our Pastor to talk about our family origins, finances and faith. I enjoyed this session much more than our previous session with him because we were able to converse with each other and share our story of how we came to be compared to the first time when Pastor Jeff did more of the talking and we did a whole lot of listening.

It was kind of funny when he was talking to us about finances and how we really need to start early on with our retirement and how much we need to save. Joe and I both laughed on the way home about how we wanted to interrupt him and say we're already on top of it! Joe is extremely good with all that finance fancy type of stuff. (I guess he should be if he's taking all these finance classes for his Master's!) Ha. Joe is my number guy...I put my total trust in his ability to make those money decisions, what kind of stocks we should have and where we should put our money so it helps us in the future when we're sick of working.

One thing Pastor Jeff told us to do was make a plan for our marriage - what we expect of each other in all aspects of our soon-to-be marriage whether it'd be finances, faith, our relationship to each other, to our families and eventually our own kids one day. We talked a bit about this on our way home and both felt it was an important topic to put some time into and to let each other know our expectations. It's one thing to get married and have the perfect day you've been planning months for, but it's another to have a lifelong marriage with your best friend.

I feel like the meaning of marriage has changed drastically over the past many decades. Many people give up too quickly when they're going through a rough patch, many think it's going to be easy because you "love each other and no one gets you like they do" type of thing, when the truth is, it's not always going to be easy. I know Joe and I will have our fair share of arguments and there will be times when we don't like each other but I'm not going to dwell on all the bad that might happen because what's the fun in waiting for that?

Pastor Jeff asked "Why a Christian wedding when you could have gone a different route? What is so important about a Christan marriage to you?" And he said, it's because of forgiveness. Christ died on the cross for all who have sinned and has forgiven us when frankly, we don't really deserve it. His grace covers us and when our spouse has hurt us and we don't feel like loving them in that moment, we must remember that in Christ's eyes, they are forgiven and Christ loves them. I know I'm not explaining his conversation about Jesus's forgiveness very well but it really made an impression on my heart. Forgiveness is powerful.

T Swift!

Last night was the night Sadie and I have been waiting for since I told her about the tickets back in February! Taylor Swift was finally in town for her Speak Now Tour and my mom graciously drove Sadie down so we could go together. I got these tickets for Sadie's birthday and I don't know how I'll ever top this birthday present:) We had such a good time and Sadie is definitely a screamer! I had to plug my ears she was so loud! We sang along to every song, took some good pictures and made another memory together for the books! Thanks for being such an awesome concert buddy Sadie! Happy Birthday!!! Love you!

Cake Topper!

I promised I'd share pictures of the cake topper I made so today is your lucky day! I used the same fabric as the larger bunting banners I posted about yesterday and picked up the dowells at Michael's for real cheap - under $3 for a pack of 12!

 

A little hand sewing going on

Wrapped the thread around the top of the dowel quite
a few times to make sure it stayed on

Bada bing bada boom and we have a cake topper folks! I loved how it turned out and think it will look great on our cake! I showed Joe my little project yesterday and he loved it as well. I've been going through my "To Do" list and we're getting close to being done. Wouldn't it be nice to have everything ready to go by the beginning of July and then we can just sit back and relax before the big day? Oh the dream...

PS...Sadie and I are going to see Taylor Swift tonight at the XCEL Energy Center! Can't wait!

D-I-Ying All Over The Place

Joe is HOME! I picked him up from the airport around 6:30 this morning and he is just as cute as I remember:) Yea, I may have missed him a little a lot!!! I really didn't get a chance to talk with him because he was exhausted from an overnight flight, I was tired from getting up so early & he raced off to work as so as we got home but I packed him a lunch and sent him on his way. He even got me a present from Alaska! It's an Under Armor Jacket which I won't be able to wear it until Fall/Winter comes around but I love it! He is such a thoughtful person:)

This weekend I went home since I can't handle being in the house by myself for more than one night at a time. After work on Friday I went straight to my cousin Cody's grad party. Grad party food = delicious. He's headed off to UMD (where I went!) and know he will have lots of fun and do great! I gave him some good advice like take advantage of all college has to offer - meet new people, attend school/sporting events, enjoy every moment, even finals week.

Saturday Sadie and I headed off to Duluth to run some errands. I had to get more fabric for another project I was working on and then went to Michael's to get a few things for our cake topper. (Pictures to come!). Our last stop was to Ulta. Ulta is a huge makeup store and I am in desperate need of help when it comes to that department. Sadie found someone to help me figure out what to wear for the big day and uunfortunately she put on a ton of makeup. More than the "light, summery, fresh" look I was going for and I walked out looking like this...

I don't even look like myself (or maybe it's just a bad picture of myself) and I had about four layers on my face alone. I had to wash my face twice before I got remotely close to getting all the makeup off. For a girl who wears little makeup to having more products on her face than she can count with BOTH hands...let's just say I'll be sticking to the saying, "Less is More". Here's a couple more pictures of Sadie on her second wind at Michael's.

Back to my DIY escapade. Sadie and I spent some time at Hancock Fabrics to find a few more fabrics for the bunting banners I want to make. Sadie was a great help and we found some keepers. Three yards of fabric, a few more smaller squares and bias tape all for a grand total of $28. Score! It may have taken me four hours to cut everything and pin for my grandma to sew together but I love the banners so far!



The paper template for the pendants



The winning fabrics - these will go on the tables with the yellow
runners - the beverage, gift and dessert table)



 


Three eight foot banners pinned and ready for sewing!



 

This last banner is a little different than the rest. I originally was going to do one that said "thank you" for when we send out our thank you's but then I remembered seeing a banner that said "mr and mrs". So as you can see, I have two spaces for the mr and three for the mrs. If I change my mind there are enough pendants to write thank you as well.  

Unity Sand

This is our Unity Sand vase.

I would like to get some sand from Grave's Lake where my grandparent's have had their camper for as long as I can remember. I spent a lot of time there growing up & wish it was easier for me to get up there nowadays. My grandma and I would play Yahtzee or walk the circle while Papa was out fishing. And at 10pm one gentleman would play Taps on his trumpet. Oh and I loved waking up to the sound of the loons on the water.

Another place we thought about getting sand was from Park Point in Duluth. Joe and I both grew up next to Lake Superior and of course the beach is full of sand. Haha. The sand at Grave's Lake is a little lighter in color than the sand found on Park Point so you'd be able to see the two color intertwined together.

I'm headed home for my cousin Cody's Grad party tonight and Joe made it safely to Alaska yesterday. He said he is surrounded by mountains. Lucky dog. Happy Weekend Everyone!

44 DAYS

I completely spaced out blogging yesterday. Maybe it's because I don't know what to post about at the moment or because lately I've been so busy. Who knows. My weekdays have become insanely filled with something going on every day. Things started picking up last week and will continue through next Friday. Take a look at this week for example: Monday I had dinner with my girlfriends, Tuesday I had to start my Health Assessment with the U of M, last night Joe & I went to Sadie's soccer game, this morning I had to drop Joe & our roommate John off at the airport at 5am so they could catch a flight to Alaska & tomorrow I head home for the weekend since Joe is gone. Ay Ay Ay!

And....I already miss Joe.

It's going to be a long weekend until Monday morning at 6am when I pick him back up!

Yesterday we receieved 600 of our napkins. Hoping the last 150 come soon. We also have been sending out invites here and there as we get a "no" or two since the first batch was sent out. The last six invites were sent out on Tuesday so I can officially say we're done with the invites. Haha. I've been playing around with our Wine/Beer Menu & programs on Photoshop. I am so excited about these:) I think people will be surprised with our programs as well. They're a little...um...untraditional but still are traditional at the same time if that makes sense.

On to the next thing....