festivities commence!

Back: Jenna, Kezia, Jenni, Laura, Kate, Lauren, Elisha
Middle: Miriam, Susan, Alyssa, Tina, Paula
Front: Chelsy, Justine, Bethany, Natalie

The Lawrence Double Bachelorette Party Weekend Extravaganza was a success!

A great way to kick off this summer's festivities.
Here are a nice blend of high school friends, college friends, one sister, and a few gals I just met.
They were all top notch ladies to celebrate with.
I seriously have the best, most brilliant friends.
They prove it to me time and time again.
We ate a marvelous meal at Mariscos.
I'm pretty sure that place is overlooked a lot because it isn't located near Mass St.
If you're in Lawrence and want to treat yourself well, go there and eat their Lobster Mac and get a Moscow Mule.
We followed with gifts and dessert at Alyssa's house, which by the way, was beautifully decorated by Elisha and Jenna.
They are truly amazing planners/organizers/decorators/dessert makers and crafters.
I cannot imagine having a better party than the one we had, and a great deal of that is due to those ladies.
We ended the night at the bars, including my favorite: the Sandbar, where 90's dance music still rules.
Alyssa and I felt super loved.

Austin, Bethany, Alyssa, Alex, Ben, Justine, Brad, Jenna

I should also mention that we went to a Royals game on Friday night.
They lost because they're kind of horrible at the moment, but baseball games with friends are fun anyway.
And it was $1 hot dog night.

Basically... I got to see a lot of beloved friends, and we had the best time together.

wedding decor

Sorry for the hiatus.
You are already fully aware of the ridiculous amount of change, stress and illness we've been undergoing, so I'm sure you understand.

A full update:

- I was diagnosed with a "touch" of bronchitis on Saturday. I just finished taking my z-pak this morning. Feeling MUCH better.

- We've found Ben a ring and a nice grey suit for the wedding. I tried my wedding dress on last Friday and it fit very well. I'm VERY excited about our wedding attire.

- One of my jobs for the summer/forever is to maintain my father and brother's website/blog. I finally got the hang of WordPress this afternoon. If you want to check out all of the projects they're into: ss-ag.com.

- Wedding planning is FULL SPEED AHEAD. Invitations are almost fully addressed. We're going to Sioux Falls for a number of errands tomorrow. Mom and I went to church this morning to look at the church, make decisions about decorations and chat with the new pastor (she also practiced organ). Bachelorette party in Lawrence this weekend! I can't wait to see all of my lovely friends and sister!

- We're experiencing some pretty cool and rainy weather at the moment. I greatly prefer it to the nasty Florida humidity. Ben loves it. 

Those are the highlights. I'll do my best to update more frequently.  

road trip

I don't even know where to start.

Too much has happened. 

So I'll see what I can get out onto the keyboard.

My parents showed up on Sunday and we packed up the apartment, which ended up looking like a very empty shell. Above is Ben grading his finals.

We spent Monday running errands and CLEANING EVERYTHING in sight.

Had a great little send-off supper with my Life Story Group.

Going to miss them so much.

We took off around 9 am on Tuesday morning. 

The drive through Alabama and Mississippi was BEAUTIFUL. 

Lots of trees and hills.

Frank recommended Rendezvous for some good Memphis BBQ.

We arrived in Memphis right around supper time so we could not resist battling Memphis rush hour traffic for good food.

It was AMAZING and absolutely worth it. 

Memphis itself looked like a pretty cool city that I would not mind revisiting. 

We made our way into Arkansas and ended up staying in Jonesboro.

I think we spent around 9.5 hours driving that day (not including the supper detour).

Driving through Montgomery, Birmingham and Memphis traffic was a little mentally exhausting for myself. 

We only drove about 6-7 hours to Kansas City on Wednesday. 

I'm glad we had already planned on making that our stopping point.

My back was still hurting from the first day.

We stayed with friends, Justine and Kyle. Lawrence friends even drove up to KC and we went out for supper at Arthur Bryant's BBQ and then out for drinks in Westport.

SO GOOD.

You can tell we have a thing for BBQ.

On Thursday we made the familiar trek from KC to Hurley, SD. I've completed that route a couple times, so it was pretty relaxing. Despite both of us suffering from sinus issues. 

We were home by about 3:30 pm. 

By this point Ben was officially coming down with a cold. 

And as I write this I myself feel the fatigue and sore throat characteristic of a good old fashioned summer cold/allergies/and whatever else. 

I am not surprised, seeing as we just completed finals and then moved ourselves halfway across the country. 

We're finally getting the wedding ball rolling. 

We'll be meeting with our photographer on Wednesday to discuss plans. 

Need to go get Ben a ring. 

Looks like I'm starting to take planning a little more seriously. 

Already Ben and I have been spending more time outside doing odd jobs wherever needed. 

Cleaning, mowing, chainsawing and cleaning up fallen branches from the winter storms that finally ended 2 weeks ago, etc. etc.  

It turns out that I am quite handy with a pitchfork so I also get to feed the cows. 

It's a little strange to be back in South Dakota.

It's been a long time since I've "lived" here and not just "visited". 

If we ever tire of living in the city, it would be a nice option.

the pink hood and tassel

This guy is all graduated!
Our work is finished here.
Let's pack it up tomorrow and head out.
Sounds good to me.
My parents made it close to Memphis tonight.
We'll hopefully see them around 1-2 pm tomorrow.

This was actually a rough day for me.
Woke up to sinus pain-induced nausea/vomiting, (Too much information? I know. But now you know what I mean when I say "rough day".) followed by a consistent sinus headache and fatigue throughout the afternoon/graduation ceremony, which thankfully only lasted 2.5 hours.
I took some Allegra D and some ibuprofen, so I'm back on track.
I thought I was home free as far as allergy-related illness was concerned.
Not the case.
I REALLY hope that these kind of reactions stop after we leave Tallahassee.
It's just really unpleasant and debilitating.
Not quite like a headache that you can just work through.

Despite the fact that we were fairly busy/sick today, we made even more progress with the packing.
The kitchen and the Activities Room are almost entirely boxed up.
I do still have ALL of my clothes to worry about, but I have this great tactic called "shove everything into a garbage bag" if it comes to that.

boxes

It is a huge mess in here, but we are making great progress with the packing.

We had originally planned to go to the beach today, but there was a high chance of thunderstorms in Panama City. 

Not worth the 2-hour drive.

And it's probably a good thing that we stayed home to pack. 

Mom and Dad should be here early afternoon-ish on Sunday and since we'll be at church during the morning we won't have much time to pack. 

So tomorrow evening we'll try to wrap things up.

I'm meeting old coworkers for brunch at the Crepevine in the morning.

Ben's graduation ceremony starts at 2:00 pm and will probably end around 5:00 if we're lucky. 

I will make sure to get some pictures. 

a quick getaway

Our route (or something like it).

After evaluating the weather, my parents' schedule and our schedule we have decided to pack up 

THIS SUNDAY!

Ben and I will leave Tuesday morning because we're required to have the carpets cleaned AND we already scheduled a send-off-supper with my Life Story Group for Monday evening (which I think is a fitting way to end our time here). 

We're also thinking about making a pit-stop in Kansas City on Wednesday to break up the trip a little more.

Oh boy.

WE HAVE A LOT TO DO

so if you don't hear from me

you know why.

My last final is in 40 minutes, so I will leave shortly.

(ADDENDUM: I wish all of my finals had been as easy as this test. The last 2 chapters of Gen Psych were covering Ab Psych and Personality...classes I just finished taking. Not too much studying involved on that one. Finally DONE!)

To end my post...Ben pretending to be sloth.