11:15pm on a Monday

We finally have time. Time to sit and talk, time to not get out of bed until 10am, time to painfully jog after 2 months off, time to sort through the ideas running though our heads. Bob and I finally have time to figure out specifics concerning the type of life we want to lead, what we are going to spend our time and resources on, and the like.

So here's a few of our rambling thoughts, in my words.

We want to be open, transparent people. We want to disciple others. Neither of us is particularly gifted in this. But lately God has been throwing new neighbors, homeless people, aimless kids, and others into our path. We have heard a distinct call from God-"Get ready." We have prayed for these chances, and now we're praying even more fervently for help and guidance.

We want to be financially responsible, as well as generous. We're trying to find that balance between being prepared enough to be effective and living open-handedly enough to be faithful. We glanced at setting a budget and determined it wasn't for us--neither of us has trouble living within set limits. We're pretty cheap. We don't need something to tell us how much we can get away with spending. But we do need some structure as to where and how to give. We don't want to look up a year from now and see we were just living for ourselves.

Along those lines, we're going to do whatever small things we can to save money so we can give more away. So we're jumping on the frugal bandwagon, throwing around ideas likes rain buckets and unplugging things and getting rid of non-essentials. It's overwhelming to think of all the things you could do, but we're pretty committed to doing something to cut costs.

And we're getting back into the Word, settling down into studies and routines. My favorite part of the day right now is him on one couch across from me on another, studying the Bible and sharing truths and thoughts with each other from our various points of discovery and reflection.

Thank the Lord for time. There is 1.5 months before we both start back at school, and time will become as precious as diamonds. But until then, I'm relishing every moment.

New Cell

After 3 years of living in the state of Minnesota, I've finally gotten a local number. 507-226-4078 for all those who wish to talk to me.

Honeymoon highlights-Pikes Peak

One of the high points of our trip (no pun intended) was summitting the mountain of Pikes Peak, at 14,110 feet above sea level. Not on foot, mind you, (because that would have killed us) but by cog railroad.

This is Pikes Peak, keeping watch over the delightful farmer's market we found. At the market we found handmade bowls that perfectly match our dishes, as well as a woven basket and wooden earrings made by impoverished women who are finding a livelihood by working for the organization Suubi my friend volunteered with.

Back to Pikes Peak: It took us 1.5 hours to get up to the top, and we dropped about 30 degrees in temperature on the way. We had a tour guide that informed us on all kinds of interesting things about the mountain, the wildlife, and the railroad. For instance, once you get up to a certain point on the mountain, the landscape is covered mostly by this grass-moss plant. We found out it grows laterally at a rate of 1-3 inches every 100 YEARS! That ground covering that spanned many, many acres was ancient! Another interesting fact we learned was about the aspen trees that grow all over the mountain and the whole area. They aren't really separate trees--when you see a grove of aspen, you're really looking at one tree.....it just spreads more roots underground and then sends a shoot off. It is one root with many shoots. The guide said the biggest aspen spans hundreds of acres, making it one of the largest organisms on the planet.

It was fantastic. The pictures really don't do it justice.

It was blustery and frigid at the summit. No trees or vegetation to be seen. The only living thing near the top was the occassional marmit-a big rodent type animal that looked like a crazy, furry large cat. On the way back down, I could barely keep my eyes open despite the amazing beauty! The lack of oxygen at that altitude got to my brain, and I pretty much shut down. Definitely worth the $31 to go up, and I'd do it again tomorrow.

Honeymoon highlights-Housing

The day after our wedding, we awoke in our lovely little cabin on Lake Pepin and found this outside our front window.....



....and this later that night.

After two nights there, we boarded a plane for the beautiful state of Colorado, where we found another lovely little cabin high in the mountains, somewhere around 9,000 feet above sea level.

Kid Pic Slideshow

If you're interested, here's the slideshow we showed at the reception. It's a little longer, and it has music with it if you'd like.

One more perfect day

How do you sum up the events and emotions surrounding the time of your wedding? This is a hard task, and it is one I hope I won’t belabor you with.

Throwing a wedding on an old farm turned out to be a much bigger project than I ever imagined. I tried to keep it simple, and compared to most weddings, I suppose it was. It was a ton of work, but in the end, it was perfect (at least as far as I know)

I can't say thank you enough to all the people who helped make this event happen. The Blanshan side of the family was in for the long haul, with their help starting months ago. My family also made the effort to come early and pitch in. Quite a few of my dear buds from college flew or drove hundreds, some thousands, of miles to be with me that week, knowing I would barely have time to socialize at all. They all were also a humongous help, doing things I didn’t have time to do, reminding me to eat and sleep, setting things up, breaking down, etc.

It rained the night of the rehearsal, so we practiced in the garage. The day of the wedding--it was gorgeous! We had all kinds of people saying they would pray for good weather, and we couldn't have asked for better! Bob and I met early in the morning for a little time to ourselves, and I didn't stop for a moment after that until the wedding was over.

And it was perfect. Two weeks later, we still can't stop giggling about how wonderful and beautiful and perfect it was. Everything turned out exactly like I pictured it, if not better. The white chairs against the green grass, the red barns against the blue skies, orange flowers against tan tuxes, white tables in an old wood barn, surrounded by family and friends.... but what am I rambling about for? Let the pictures speak for themselves. These are a few of my favorites I've stolen off friends....it will be a while before the professional photos are in. And then you'll get barraged with more. :-)

He did it!

Congrats to little bro Taylor for graduating high school with honors!

Weddings, weddings, everywhere

Two weeks before my own wedding, I flew down to Texas to take part in the wedding of my dear friends Amy (Harris) and Matt Lohse. Amy and I were randomly assigned to be roommates during a summer internship at Mother Mayo in 2005, and have been great friends ever since. We both started dating our now husbands about a month apart, became engaged within ten days of each other, and got married two weeks apart.

Amy and Matt also just returned for serving 6 weeks in Cameroon, Africa for a med school rotation for Matt. Amy brought each of her bridesmaids back a beautiful custom fitted dress and we all wore them to the rehearsal dinner!

Matt and Amy are now moving on to Seattle where he will train as a general surgeon. We will miss them in Rochester!

Ramblings

In a slow room at work, and I'm running out of computer based things to do.

So I'll ramble.

Today marks three weeks until my wedding. In the middle of the controlled chaos of the prep work, I've found myself in a reflective mood from time to time.

First off, it seems strange beyond words that I'm actually getting married. That is just weird.

I don't think I ever was one of those girls who dreamed and schemed about the type of guy they would marry. There was a few years where I didn't know if I would get married. I never thought about what he would look like, what color his eyes would be, all that girly stuff.

But I do know I didn't expect to marry someone so different from me. I never pictured him a home schooler from MN. Not that I have anything against homeschoolers, I think it is great for some people, maybe even my kids one day. But it was never an option nor an interest in my own home, and homeschoolers always had a greater potential to be weird in my mind for many years. As did people from big families. And the MN thing? I didn't even know where MN was for sure until my junior year in college when I applied for an internship here. And now I've lived here 3 years and say my O's funny and eat lefsa. When did that happen? Now no matter when we go next, we'll always be tied to this strange place.

I didn't expect to marry someone who knew more about Abbott and Costello than baseball or football. It never occurred to me he'd be SO tall. :-)

I'm not surprised we met at church. I like that. I'm not surprised he wants to be a minister. I'm not surprised that he's happy with PB&J, and me in no makeup, because I really couldn't handle a high maintenence guy.

I never imagined what type of wedding I'd have either. Though I did think to myself, "I'd really like to get married here" the first time I saw the Cradic's little farm, I never debated outdoor-vs-church wedding when I was growing up. It just never occurred to me to plan these things. I was probably out playing basketball or digging up stuff out of the yard instead of playing princess. It was incredibly difficult when I started shopping for wedding related stuff, and salespeople would say, "Well, what kind of wedding do you want? What's your look? What do you want??" And I would just blankly stare back at them and say, "I don't know, I've never thought about it before." I'm the type of customer they hate.

The roommates moved out last week and we've been moving Bob's stuff in, setting up house, planning out rooms. It strikes me as funny to do that sort of thing with someone. I play well with others, but I've been so incredibly independent for so long it is odd to think of things as "our house", "our dishes", "our lawnmower." It has been SO fun though, and we've both had a blast getting things set up like we want it so we can come back from our honeymoon to a furnished, comfy house. I can't wait to hang up the Welcome to the Blanshans', Est. 2009 sign I made him for Christmas.

I suppose that is more than enough. Surely there is something else I can cross off my to-do list while stuck in a patient room.

What I'm Doing These Days

You know those all-day-Saturday workdays you had as a kid? The ones where your dad comes and rips the blankets off of you while you're still sleeping at 7am, yelling, "It's time to work!" You smell the bacon already cooking, and you get no sympathy for being tired or cold or anything else that might keep you in the bed. You work hard, maybe taking a midday break for an ice cream float before going back to work all afternoon.

At least, that's what we did at my house. I've had a lot of those farm workdays recently. And that's how I've been living every day for the last little while even when I'm not at the farm. Go, go, go, with the occasional ice cream break.

The wedding count down has begun, and the farm is.....still getting a facelift. I am dumbfounded by the amount of brush, metal, garbage, and unidentifiables we have uncovered from those few acres. My back is sore, my legs are sore, but there is no better feeling than taking a hot shower when you are filthy dirty and have worked hard all day outside in perfect weather. We have made significant progress, and I'm grateful to all who have helped and to the Cradics for letting us use their farm as a wedding location. They're getting a pretty good deal with untold hours of help to get their place spruced up, but I'll leave it up to them to say whether it has been worth the stress of a deadline and the all-at-once monetary investment or not.

When I haven't been at the farm having flashbacks of my childhood every few minutes, I've been running around mad doing other things. The regular wedding planning takes time. I'm almost finished with our super-fun slideshow, (which you got another sneak preview of today). Bridesmaid dresses are shipped, my dress is in, tuxes and flowers are ordered, favors/decorations/tablecloths have arrived, honeymoon is booked, reservations are rolling in, etc, etc.

In sad news, one of my nursing school friends was killed this last week. By her husband. The whole scenario is shocking and mindboggling. All I really know is that she is gone. While I haven't seen her for 3 years, we were close in school and partially trained for a marathon together. Another painful reminder life is short.

I also managed to get in a tiny little fender bender. Except it didn't bend anyone's fender or do anything else, for that matter. Yet it still got reported and my insurance is getting taken for a paint job. Sigh.

Whoopwhoop! Today I officially finished this semester of grad school. I defended my thesis proposal (and got approved) and took two finals this week. The thesis project will continue throughout the summer, but we get a break for a while, and there's no more deadlines, persay. This makes me happy.

In my attempt to get my own place spruced up before it is invaded in June, I planted grass, got some planters and filled those with bulbs, purchased a used lawn mower so I don't have to borrow my friend's anymore, and mowed for the first time this year.

Ok, now to the next thing....