Pomp and Circumstance

Matt graduated last week! He is finished with school FOREVER. Well, unless he decides to go back to school someday for a master's. But right now, we're just basking in the reality of evenings and weekends without homework. I'm so darn proud of him, and I thought I'd take this opportunity to share some things I love about him.

1. Above everything else, he loves and trusts God.

2. He prays for us.

3. He helps me out in so many little ways like grocery shopping, taking out the trash, shredding papers in my "shredding box" (his favorite), cooking, unloading the dishwasher, and so much more.

4. He likes to surprise me.

5. He's not very good at surprising me sometimes (neither am I good at surprising him). But I like this because he gets so excited that he just can't keep it in--it's very cute.

6. He does funny voices to make me laugh.

7. He's very passionate about baseball and Motownsports.com--a great community.

8. He never ceases to be patient with me when I'm, say, a little moody :o

9. He's a hard worker and has great ambition--one of the things I fell in love with early-on.

10. He gets excited about life, loves his family, his pets, and just like me, can't wait to spend a lifetime together!

Congratulations Matt! I love you!

Red Rover, Red Rover!

This is really a game of tag, but Red Rover was one of my favorite recess games. I'm not sure why, since someone usually gets hurt and it's a little embarrassing when you can't break through the line and instead get clotheslined, but I always loved it.

I've been tagged by Aletha at Pearls Events. I've never been tagged before, so this is a baptism or rite of passage of sorts into the blogging community. It's like they called my name to run on over! Here are the rules:

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.

2. Share 7 random and or weird things about yourself.

3. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.

4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Seven random/weird things:

1. I learned to ice skate when I was 5 or 6. My dad froze our backyard most winters. When I was 10, I started begging my parents for skating lessons, which were not easy to come by since the nearest ice rink was an hour away. Finally when I was 14, the dream came true and I took my first lesson with a real coach and all! I've now been taking lessons for 10 years and am heavily involved in the adult skating community and competitions. I'm also working toward my Novice tests, which will qualify me to compete at the Eastern Great Lakes Regionals, which feed into the U.S. Nationals.

2. Matt helped me with this one: A few things I love: black and white photography, Speedway slurpees, lab and golden retriever puppies, nice kittens, the color pink. Things I don't like: cooking, crooked picture frames, mean people, tornadoes. (Does #2 count for more than one thing?)

3. I've told Matt that if we ever have a son, I want to name him Orlando. The name is after our friend, Orlando Perdomo, who is a pitcher with the Detroit Tigers (in the minors). He is from Venezuela and is one of the kindest people we know. Matt isn't so sure about naming a child after him though. :)

4. My last name is so stinkin' long that before I went to kindergarten, my mom made me sit inside at the kitchen table with a pack of colorful markers in front of me. I had to write my name in color after color until I learned to spell it, and I couldn't go out and play until I did. She says she doesn't remember this. But that's how I remember it, Mom. :)

5. My family celebrates St. Nicholas Day (December 6--today) because of our German heritage. The night before the 6th, you put your shoe outside the door, and in the morning, there is a little present from "St. Nicholas." My mom still sends a package for the day, but I have to put it in my own shoe. Matt and I plan to carry on this tradition. It's probably my favorite holiday ever.

6. I love being by the water and spent many summers at my grandma's lake. We stayed in a very rustic cottage (mice, water snakes, the whole deal). But it was very secluded and peaceful. I dream of someday owning a cottage on Lake Michigan.

7. My latest hobby is Adobe InDesign. I took a class at the local art school and now have the software loaded on my computer. I'm spending this weekend experimenting with it in attempts to create awesome stuff for our wedding!

Ummm, I'm supposed to tag 7 people now. I don't know who reads my blog that hasn't been tagged, but Anne feel free to consider yourself tagged!

Move Over, Martha

Here's Matt with our latest craft project. We picked up three of these letters at JoAnn Fabrics over the Thanksgiving weekend. The others are a smaller "R" and an "M"--for our monogram, of course! I plan to paint these and hang them up somewhere, probably above the typewriter/guestbook.

Inexpensive, easy, and hopefully elegant (once the cardboard color is gone).

A Perfect Fit

My shoes came, my shoes came! I love these little peep-toe heels. And they're small heels, so I don't have to worry about leg pain and sinking too far into the grass. They go perfectly with my dress too.

Oh yes, my dress came in on Wednesday. I went to try it on last night, and it fits really well. I'll have to have only moderate alterations, but it came with the correct hem length, so that's a huge help. I hadn't yet seen the dress in white, only ivory, but it looks even more beautiful to me! Send me an email if you want to see pictures. I can't have the boy sneaking on here and seeing it!

The little "P" in the picture is part of our reception centerpieces. I'm in the process of collecting them from Target's Christmas aisles. All the stores in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana will wonder where their stock of "P"s went.

So we've got the dress, the shoes, and the groom--let's get married!

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Carrying on the style of my mother and grandmother (my dad's mom) I have started to collect Fiestaware! Won't these be fun in our kitchen?! So far, we have four place settings--cobalt, tangerine (ideal for Detroit Tigers get-togethers), scarlet, and turquoise. Right now turquoise ranks near the top of my favorites, but I love the variety of color and the fun combinations that result. For Christmas, I asked for the purple and green place settings, though I can't remember their accurate funky color names at the moment. I'm pretty sure my mom and grandma are pleased that I like Fiestaware as much as they do.

Today Matt and I also updated our registry at Target. We were getting complaints that our five items on there weren't enough! So don't worry loved ones--we have increased the registry options!

And I'd like to send a special thanks to Anne's lovely mother, Lee, for sending us pictures of the Coral Cove Resort. This is where we'll be for our honeymoon, and Anne and Peter, as well as Lee and Jeff, are much appreciated for their tidbits of information on the area.

198 Days!

That's right! The countdown to the wedding is under 200 days now! I'm sure it will go quickly with the holidays upon us.

It's getting pretty cold outside, so I stopped at Andicott's this evening and purchased some daisies. I had to ask a few questions about wedding flowers, but I also wanted to bring something bright to the inside of my apartment. I used to love winter, but this year, I would be fine just bypassing the whole season. I suppose it teaches me something on a metaphorical level.

By the way, if you're looking for fresh flowers, Andicott's is great, and their staff is very friendly. I encountered 3 acts of kindness from strangers today, and it gave me hope that there are still nice people in the world! The man at the flower store let me get my daisies even though I walked in the door at 5:59, or maybe it was 6:01, and they close at 6:00. He had to get to a school event for his child but still took time to answer my questions and made sure I got a new daisy when the one I picked out appeared a bit bruised. There was also the nice woman at Target who went running after my receipt when it blew out of my bag as I was exiting the store, and then the nice woman who asked if she could close my car door because she needed to get in her passenger side. I was putting my bags in my trunk and accidentally left my door open, but she made sure I had my keys before closing it, and was very friendly and helpful. So even though these people surely don't read this blog, you all made my day!

I also stopped by Home Fabrics on 29th Street yesterday. Oh, my, what beautiful things they have. I think it's my new favorite store. Quite a few things were out of my price range, including the greatest pink upholstered chair that I've ever seen. I was drooling. Instead, I was kind to my budget and hit up Hobby Lobby for some black and white fabric. I'm either making pillows or using it to redecorate my office. Unfortunately they only had a little over a yard left, so I'm going to have to go get more if I want to use it for both purposes.

Finally, but most important, thanks to Matt for creating my wonderful new header! He's great with InDesign and even let me sit by him and say, "Can you move that a little to the left?; Can you make that line a little shorter?; Oooh, just a little to the right..." Yeah, he's a good one.

aruba, JAMAICA...

Perhaps it was prophetic when my first favorite musical group at age 6 was the Beach Boys. Matt and I have booked the honeymoon in Jamaica. No, it's not Kokomo, but who really knows where that is anyway. We will be spending 6 nights and 7 days at the Coral Cove resort--thanks to Anne and Peter for their recommendation. Starbright suite, here we come! We're both very excited for the sun, water, and meeting our driver, Richie!

lovely ladies

Kara, Nicole, and I went to Diane Keith Bridal today so they could be measured for their bridesmaid dresses. What a blast we had! The girls look gorgeous. Here is a picture of Nicole in the dress. We're going to add a white sash like the one pictured here. Kara, where are the pictures of you? I think they're on Nicole's camera.

I got to try on my dress again and love it as much as ever. I didn't want to take it off. After we finished dress shopping, we had an awesome lunch and hung out with Matt at my place. The girls even helped me color coordinate my bookshelf! (Don't ask what possessed me to do this.)

Here's a picture of my lovely junior bridesmaid too. Emily is a rockin' gymnast so she couldn't join us yesterday, but this pic is from our first shopping trip. The only reason I'm posting this pic of me is because this is NOT my dress (not Emily's dress either). But isn't she an adorable future sister-in-law?

Bridal Show Fun!

Last night Aletha and I went downtown to the Van Andel Museum for a bridal show. It was a great show with three floors of vendors and tons of free food. I think I had ice cream, cake, and chocolates for supper!

I saw Barb Hoek, the fabulous baker who is doing my cake. She had some yummy samples. I got a few other ideas, but I did a good job at avoiding all the people who want me to sign up for stuff and then call me endlessly about things I don't want or need.

The highlight of the evening was riding the carousel that I last rode when I was twelve. Aletha and I rode around with a view of downtown Grand Rapids around us.

engagement photos

Here is a sampling of our engagement photos. These were taken in downtown Grand Rapids on a sunny October afternoon by Amy Carroll. She is an amazing photographer and such a sweet and fun person. We can't wait to see the rest of the proofs!

Silly!




Sophisticated!




Sassy!




Sweet!




Seductive! ...Sort of.

This is the first blog post I've written. Seems fitting since I view so many other blogs on a daily basis. This is a place for me to post all the crazy wedding ideas running through my head. Matt and I will be married on May 24, 2008, so please continue to visit here for up-to-date information on planning, locations, and travel ideas. Thanks for being a special part of our day and our blog!