Catch up on a few things

I feel like life has been so jam packed with the kitchen and the wedding, and there are a few things I have never really updated on:

Exam 3F
The ridiculously hard actuary exam I took back in May I found out I passed. Miraculously. With the just-barely score of 6. But the results of a 6 are the exact same as the results of a 9. I passed. I never have to test that material again. I get a bonus for passing on my first try and an automatic raise. And I get to move on to the next test...

For which I have already created a schedule for and ordered my study materials. They should come in tomorrow and after that it's hard core study time for the next 3 months. Back to the books... and once again, in a strange way, I am really excited about it.

Peachtree Road Race
I began training for the Peachtree (the world's largest 10K), applied and was accepted, made it to about 4 miles of running, and my knee just couldn't keep up. I began limping and dealing with serious knee pain and went to the doctor to get it checked out. Got sent to a sports medicine doctor, who diagnosed me with Iliotibial Band Syndrome. After rest (although I was by no means resting it like I should - since we were in the middle of kitchen renovations and I had to get walls painted and floors tiled) the pain subsided but a return visit to the dr. told me I was still no where near running again.

So, to get me back into running condition, I'm now going to physical therapy. I've learned all about how I stand, walk, and run incorrectly. And I'm re-learning how to stand, walk, and run. We'll see how it goes.


Just a couple of updates of my life. I'll try to do a better job of updating from here on out. Hopefully I'll have more time. :)

I'm married!

I've finally gotten around to a quick post to update you on what everyone knows already - I'm finally married! Life is still busy as ever, plenty of things occupying my time, but nothing nearly as stressful as right before the wedding. I'll leave you with some of my favorite pictures from the wedding:


This picture shows off the beautiful back of my wedding gown, done by none other than Amy Zimmerman Designs. My sister really is wonderful - I'd give anything for her talent.


Bet you didn't know we caught all of you on camera as well...




Posed pictures aren't my favorite but I love our bridal party so much...

And our families:

My family


Kyle's family


I love that you can see how beautiful the reception hall was. And I always love the first dance. We danced to "Better Together" by Jack Johnson.


One of my best friends, Erin, is currently serving our country in Iraq so she couldn't be at the wedding. We were lucky enough to get her on the phone though.


I love my Daddy


I just think this picture is really cute


I love Stephanie soooo much. She got married last year and I stole my reception from her - hers was at Maggiano's and I liked it so much, I did the same thing! Not only do her and her husband win the prize for travelling the farthest for the wedding (from Seattle!), they are also due to have baby Madelyn in October. That baby will be the cutest ever.


Best friends from college, Kate and Tricia. They also helped me TREMENDOUSLY by setting up everything at the reception. Our other best friend in the group, Katie, couldn't be there because she's doing mission work in Bosnia. We missed her!


There was SOME dancing at the reception! But I mainly wanted to get a picture of Laura Anne since we unfortunately didn't get a pic of the two of us that day. She was in charge of keeping everything running all day, and did a wonderful job. I can't imagine having gotten married without her help. Anyone need to hire a wedding planner should try to convince her to go to work for them. Seriously!


And it's time to go - leaving in the Ramblin Wreck. Finally free!

I'll post honeymoon pics soon. :)

Just a little busy...

So it's been a couple of incredibly busy weeks since I last posted. And now, here we finally are, just 40 hours from the start of our wedding. I can't believe it's almost here - I can't believe all the festivities start tomorrow.

What an adventure the past few months have been - I did such a poor job of chronicling everything! From getting engaged, to starting a new job, to studying incessantly for (and PASSING - I just found out last week) a really hard test, buying a house, renovating the kitchen, moving into a new house, training for (and making it to 4 miles) the Peachtree only to be sidelined by a knee injury and not be able to run it, to showers and parties and wedding planning and now to a wedding and a honeymoon in Aruba. Sometimes I have the misconception that I can do everything without going crazy and I definitely tested that recently. It turns out I can do everything - but not without stress, exhaustion, and sickness. But I survived and did it all. And I could not have survived without all the amazing people surrounding me who helped along the way with anything I asked for. Whether it was Randy or Emily at our house almost every night of the week helping us get the kitchen done, or my sister sewing my wedding dress and letting me borrow anything I might need, or wonderful friends planning such fun parties for me without letting me stress about any of it.

But most of all - I could not have done it without my Jesus. I have had to cling to Him so many days for the energy to conquer my To Do list. I had to rely on Him to help me recall all I had studied for the test and help me pass my third actuarial exam in a row. I've had to trust Him when things don't go perfectly as planned for the wedding. I've had to cry to Him when I was all alone in the house trying to finish everything I could before Kyle came home from Hawaii. Praise God for this time in my life - and praise Him for carrying me through it.

And in less than two days I'm about to marry the love of my life! God has brought us together, and I couldn't have asked for a better husband-to-be. We grew a lot the past few months too - although I don't know if I recommend buying a house and renovating it in the months leading up to your wedding :) We've conquered this huge project together (now don't start thinking it's ALL done - haha, it's not quite completely done yet, just mostly). But we've grown so much and could not possibly be more ready to get married.

And on that note... I WILL post some wedding/honeymoon pics eventually. And hopefully update more as my life has more free time.

It's finally officially our turn

We attended our last wedding before our very own this past weekend. Joseph and Emily were married down in Columbus in a very beautiful ceremony, which was followed with an extremely nice and extremely fun (for both Kyle and me) reception. It was especially fun for Kyle to enjoy going to a reception at the Country Club where he spent most of his weekends valeting during highschool. He can recall many many of these wedding receptions and parties that he had to valet for... and finally he got to attend one.

Congratulations Joseph and Emily!





And.... only 20 days until our very own!

Construction zone

The church we are getting married at called us a few days ago and requested that we meet them one evening to talk about construction going on at the church. So we met with them yesterday.

When we first decided to get married there we were told the construction would be done by April, and figured that would give them plenty of time to actually get it done by mid-July. If you have driven by the church lately though, you would have noticed the big green fences in front don't seem to be going anywhere. They confirmed this during our meeting yesterday, showed us the alternate route our guests will have to take to get to the sanctuary, and seemed sincerely apologetic and did all they could to make it up to us.

Needless to say, we will be getting married in a construction zone. Just can't get away from them. I'm living in one, getting married in one, hopefully I'll soon be done with them. I could make a big deal out of it - go all bridezilla. It's just not worth it. We're getting married regardless and that's all that matters.

So if you are looking for the church - it is really easy to spot. The big white one with the big green fences. You can't miss it.

23 more days!

Add cherries to the list...

of things I'm allergic to.

Along with apples.

Most people who know me well know that I have long had a thing against all "erries" (All kinds of berries and cherries). I just have never really liked them. But to appease Kyle, and prove how open I am to trying new things, I tried a cherry as he was snacking on them today. My initial reaction was, "not too bad. Maybe I could give them another try." I shared my opinions to Kyle and all of a sudden, my opinion completely changed. Just a minute or two after eating one cherry, my top lip began to get really sensitive. And then swell. And sting. I asked Kyle if he could see a difference and at first he was like, nope. Give it five more minutes and he is making fun of my lip and the lip injections I had apparently gotten with the cherry. Fast forward 30 more minutes and it is still super-swollen and feels extremely odd.

Same thing happens when I eat apples. For a long time, no one believed me when I said my lip would swell if I ate an apple. Finally my mom was present when I tried one and has believed me ever since. And now I know Kyle believes me about cherries. For some reason when it comes to apples, though, if I eat something with apple cooked (like apple pie) it doesn't bother me at all. I wonder if I can eat something with cherries cooked.

If you have any idea of what could be the common denominator between apples and cherries that might point to what exactly I am allergic to, I'd like to know any ideas! I just might have to go see a doctor to really figure it out though.



On another note... all kitchen appliances are installed now. As well as light fixtures. And we bought stools for the breakfast bar today. I'll probably post pictures before it is TOTALLY finished, just because there are a lot of little things we will still be working on. It'll all get done eventually. And soon I have to move on to decorating our master bedroom.....

Love love love this cd

I currently have a new favorite c.d. (I don't really know what I would say was my previous favorite cd - but I can now say this one is right now)

The Format - Dog Problems


Kyle owns an earlier cd by The Format, which I always enjoyed listening to, and was excited to purchase their most recent cd. And after the second listen, I fell in love.

There is something catchy, and yet musically mature in this album. I am by no means a music expert, or reviewer, but I can honestly say that I am incredibly impressed.

Kyle is borrowing it right now, and it is in his cd player, and every single time he drives me somewhere and I hear it all I want to do is turn it up and get lost in the world of The Format (it really does feel like a different world). I enjoy it very similarly to the way I enjoy my Shins cd. I wasn't expecting to love it so much, but there is something so addictive about listening to these albums.

Anyways, all that to say, I highly recommend giving it a listen.