Wednesday, July 31, 2013

grey (hair & skies)


This picture is pretty random.
I've had a few grey hairs since high school, but I noticed a few more recently.
Hope I can get a nice streak going in a couple of years.

Mid-week Kansas update.
And new blog format, as you've probably noticed.
It's been a nice calm week thus far.

SAT: The Kansas wedding reception went well. 
Saw some great friends and beloved past professors. 
One old wind ensemble professor even came all of the way from Oklahoma City with his wife.
We love him.
My parents also came down for the reception, so we went over to Dorothy's old house to pack up a couch and recliner for Milwaukee that she is lovingly passing down to us. 
Good thing we're getting so much hand-me-down furniture from our parents so we have something to sit on.

SUN: Opened Kansas gifts in the morning.
Mom and Dad returned home after we tarp down the furniture in the back of Dad's pickup.
It made it home nice and dry.
Sister Emily comes over to hang out with us.
It begins to rain a lot throughout southcentral Kansas (and continues throughout Monday, which results in some flooding and wet basements in the area, including Bethel College). 
We resort to the hot tub in the evening because it was actually cool enough to do so.
This kind of weather is not normal.

MON: We hang out with Emily and Dorothy most of the day. 
Lots of reading from my new cookbooks that were wedding gifts.
I'm also reading a book about Art Therapy research that one of my future professors wrote.
Not so much time in the pool because it's raining.
We help Dorothy set up and hang pictures in her new office at McPherson College. 
Go to Ten Thousand Villages to exchange some gifts.
Go to Verizon store to get Ben his first smartphone. 
Ben and I have Tacos Mexico supper with favorite friends Kezia and Laura. 

TUES: Mostly cloudy day again. 
No rain though. 
Whew.
Ben and I tag along with Dorothy as she goes to have coffee with her lady friends at Mojo's in Newton.
Chat with friends Clark and Sam as they're assisting to clean out a flooded basement at Bethel. 
Drink coffee and mess around on our iPhones because we're addicted. 
Back to McPherson where we wait for the sun to come out.
We did get a little pool time.
Ben made guacamole. 
I drank wine.
Watched Royals beat the Twins. 

WED: A little cloudy again, but hopefully the sun will be out soon.
GETTING A HAIRCUT TODAY!
Don't be too excited. 
I "think" it will just be a trim. 
Family is coming over to the house for supper tonight. 



Saturday, July 27, 2013

kansas, round II

We're back in Kansas for our KS reception tonight.
We arrived in McPherson yesterday afternoon and promptly got into the pool with Dorothy. 
Keith and Dorothy are all moved into the new house and it is lovely! 
We ended up going to Reba's in Newton last night to catch a Misguided Professors show, who happens to be a Bethel communications professor and her professor husband.
They are fabulous musicians and should be on the radio. 
They are also fabulous people and I missed them so much while we were in FL. 
Really looking forward to a relaxing week in KS followed by 2 friends' weddings. 
Other than that, I have some art projects, reading and relaxing that I would like to accomplish this week. 
But here are some pics from SD:






Tuesday, July 23, 2013

gifties



I think we're both slowly adjusting back into the real world. 
Yesterday morning we made a trip to Sioux Falls to take our wedding clothes to the dry cleaners.
We took a few doubled gifts back to Target. 
For instance: jelly roll pans. 
Somehow we received six.
Just one item needs to go back to REI.
For lunch we went out for the tastiest Vietnamese coffee, spring rolls and pho in SF that our friends Dan and Tina had introduced us to awhile back. 
We ended our trip with Scheels (sporting goods store) where I found this prideful Sioux Falls t-shirt.

We took down the lights on the stage yesterday afternoon and just finished taking ALL of the ceiling lights down.
Whew.
Lot of work.
My whole family, especially my mom, was VERY grateful to my wonderful friends who helped clean up the shed the morning after the wedding.
When I walked in the next morning I expected to see a train wreck, but instead I saw several of my lovely friends and modmates, who had camped for the night, folding up chairs and tablecloths. 
All of the debris had already been picked up. 
It was such a nice gesture.
We love you FRIENDS!


We opened our gifts on Sunday afternoon.
We obviously received many items from our registry, but it was also fun to see a few additional surprises. 
I finally got a tripod for my camera. 
Looking forward to having a slightly less mismatched college-looking home. 

Sunday, July 21, 2013

wedding!


Photo by Jeremy Waltner of Waltner Media

My bouquet! I LOVED the flowers. 



Our wedding cake (for the cake cutting). Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting.
ALL DONE MARRIED!
I don't have the words to express how much I loved our wedding day. 
Everything happened the way we wanted it to and if it didn't we adjusted pretty quickly.
Above are a few photos I have of the day.
I can't wait to see what Jeremy photographed and Nathan videographed. 
The music, food, ceremony, reception, weather, friends, family, etc. etc. etc. exceeded our expectations. 
We are so, so lucky for everything that we received, felt and experienced yesterday.
I'd call it a success...
so now to start changing my name.
New e-mail address: susanlsharder@gmail.com
I'll still be checking my old Gmail account.
I have so many e-mail addresses.

I can't wait to regulate my sleeping schedule again!
My body is pretty angry at me right now.
I yelled a lot of my conversations last night so my voice is hoarse.
I'm sore all over, especially my feet and lower back.
I only got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night, and who knows what that adds up to with the lack of sleep over the past few days.

It was all worth it. :)

Friday, July 19, 2013

1

Just a little wedding detail for you. 
I found this fabric at JoAnn's and I just love it.
It will be going on the guest book table. 
It's 6:25 am and I'm wide awake. 
I'm filled with a ton of adrenaline. 
Must be too excited. 
Not really worried. Just a lot on my mind.
I saw a lot of great friends last night and feel so happy and grateful that they came. 
Many more to come today! 
Wedding rehearsal is at 5:00 pm!

Thursday, July 18, 2013

2?!!!?!?!?!?



Hi folks.
2 days to go so I'll try to make this short.
Yesterday Ben and I went to Sioux Falls to run a few final errands.
Afterwards we met Paula at Cousin Mindy's to work on a wedding craft.
I took the picture above with little Sutton and Denver. 
We got to see Emily for a little bit last night (Ben's sister) and more friends and family will be here today.
We have a lot of little details about the wedding that I am SO excited about.
But I actually need to go work on those now. 
Despite not sleeping so well last night (and the night before, and probably tonight as well), I am so ready for our big celebration!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

6

We've finally arrived to the week of the wedding.
It's 12:10 am and I can't sleep again.
Not because of nerves,
just some sinus pressure that comes from laying down,
the caffeine I had at the Ampride after church
and Misty (the dog) barking at some kind of animal intruder in the front yard.
I've also kind of gotten in the habit of staying out/up late these past few weeks.
My body gets used to it and boom...time to sleep in late and fall asleep later.
I felt as though Ampride coffee would not be strong enough to affect me, but I was wrong.
So while I was just laying in the bed 15 minutes ago I realized I should NOT have coffee the day of the wedding (as much as I love it).
Not just because it gives me caffeine jitters.
It also dehydrates me...
which makes me want to drink a lot of water....
excessive water means excessive trips to the bathroom...
in a wedding dress.
I can only take so many demeaning trips to the bathroom while my friends hold my wedding dress above my head.
Not doing it.

The best part about today: cloudy, rainy and cool.
Thank you, July.
The parched land and myself really appreciated the water break.
Most things are looking nice and green around here.



Thursday, July 11, 2013

9



We hadn't been to Papa's (restaurant in Freeman) for ages so I thought I should take a picture.
(Papa's food does not really match up well with Dad's healthy eating plan.)
Sometimes our family runs around taking care of our own agendas so much that it's all of a sudden 7:30 pm and we haven't even thought about preparing supper. 
This happened last night, so we all went for a nice, super-late, summer farmer, 9:00 pm supper. 

Also yesterday my brother got kicked by a steer.
He was giving the cows medicine or something. 
But no worries, the steer aimed for his brand-new 3 week-old cell phone in his front jeans pocket. 
Although he'll be paying a pretty penny to replace the screen (shocking it was even still working) I reminded him that he didn't have to pay for a hospital bill that could have resulted. 
He said his leg was a little sore, but the phone took the brunt of the kick.

Ben and I did some serious wedding preparation today. 
We hung lights out on the awning of the shed where the reception will be AND we put together an "alternative cupcake stand".
Hanging the lights was a lot of work because of several things like: 
relearning how to work the lift, 
accidentally tangling the light strands, 
breaking 2 bulbs while untangling the light strands, 
getting the lift stuck in the gravel after completing 66 2/3% of the job (my fault), 
having to then climb up, down and then move a ladder in 1-2 feet increments for the remainder of the light hanging
...in the heat of the afternoon. 
BUT IT'S DONE NOW AND IT LOOKS CUTE!

Then we made an "alternative cupcake stand" out of old wooden pallets. 
I was originally thinking about stacking wooden crates, but Ben came up with the idea to use pallets. 
This was a little tiring, but mostly fun and awesome.
Mostly because we got to use saws and drills. 
Nothing better than drilling.
We should have registered for a drill. 
We'll just have to go buy one with a gift card. 
They're the best. 
Anyway, we essentially cut up 2 pallets and made them into 9 mini pallets for stacking. 
Then we'll put cupcakes upon and around them. 
That's the idea at least. 
I would not say it was our best craftsmanship, but they'll definitely stay together 
and will look even better from 5-10 ft. away. 
Especially after we sand them. 

Our good friend Sam is counseling/doing admissions work for Bethel out at Swan Lake this week so after he finishes up tomorrow afternoon he's coming for some deck-sitting and a "sleepover". 

We're also GETTING OUR MARRIAGE LICENSE AT THE COURTHOUSE TOMORROW MORNING!
Yay for a mere $40 South Dakota marriage license.
That's on the cheap end of marriage license costs. 
Except for Nebraska, which is only $15. 
It's fun to read about requirements and costs for marriage licenses HERE.

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

10



We're still technically at 11 days...but it's 10:35 pm and that's almost 10.
It's pretty crazy to think about. 
And even though we're really close I'm still in denial and stress-free. 
I mean, we're still doing things...getting stuff done.
I'm just not freaking out while we're doing those things. 

I would really love it if it would rain around here. 
Feels a little dry (the land, not the air). 
We haven't had much rain recently, but we're definitely not in a drought. 
I guess I'll take what I can get. 

Ben and I just put 500 bulbs into some Christmas light wires. 
That was fun. 
And now I'm just going to go focus on what needs to happen next. 
Almost time!


Sunday, July 7, 2013

13



We made our trip to Dimock to taste-test cheese. 
We're still making up our minds on that one.
Dimock isn't far from Mitchell so we stopped by the Corn Palace.
Pretty lame, but necessary because Ben had never been and we needed to take a picture. 
They have different events at the Corn Palace...including basketball games...so my claim to fame is that I played basketball there...in middle school. 

And now we're down to 13 days and it's just easiest and the least boring to say that the wedding planning is still coming along. 


Friday, July 5, 2013

15



What a lovely 4th of July. 
We hung out on the deck drinking root beer floats while watching Dad and Ethan build steps.
We can now enter and exit from the front of the house, which is so convenient.
Ben made lavender lemonade from mom's garden lavender.
We also watched the Yankees beat the Twins on tv. 
Ethan went boating with friends down in Yankton for most of the afternoon and evening, but the rest of us went to Dave's Grille in Freeman for supper. 
We also partook in their homemade ice cream and fireworks.
It was really nice just to sit back and not do too much for this holiday.
We're busy enough with wedding stuff. 
Planning on going to Dimock, SD to check out some cheese today. 


Max and Molly...and their chicken legs. 

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

18



We have one million kittens at the farm. 
They are a source of never-ending joy. 
A great distraction when you're planning a wedding.

This morning I helped mom replant and mulch the last of her uprooted flowers and bushes. 
The front of the house has had quite a face-lift in such a short period of time.

This afternoon I swept out the old shop. 
It was VERY dirty and I'm pretty sure I'll be feeling some newly worked muscles in the morning.

This evening I went on an awesome walk in Freeman with my two old high school friends, Lindsey and Jessica (and Jess's 1.5 year-old son, Jackson, in the stroller). 
We made it from one end of town all the way over to the other, zig-zagging through, and then back again. 
It was SO nice to catch up. 
And luckily they'll be at my wedding shower on Saturday, which I'm pretty excited for. 
I must say that I'm still adjusting to the constant gift-getting that comes with a wedding.
And being the center of attention. 
Both make me feel a little uncomfortable, VERY special and loved, but still a little weird. 
But it doesn't last forever, right?
I guess enjoy it while you can.

Annnnnnndddddd.....here's a picture of our new home in Wauwatosa!


The whole house isn't exactly ours.
Just the lower half.
But I still love it.
I think it's super cute.
A nice little place to call home for 2 years. 

I also need to announce that I've lost my battle with allergies yet again.
I'm back on generic Allegra. 
Even though things were better than in Florida I was still waking up with some congestion and pressure, especially with the window open!
A few headaches here and there...and I finally threw in the towel. 
And guess what?
I'm really, really happy I did.
I'm on day three of Allegra and the last two mornings have been MUCH more bearable. 
NO stuffiness, pressure or pounding head.
Upgrade.