20

20 days?

Ok.

I guess it's starting to feel a little real.

Probably because we're about to enter the "teens" and that seems REALLY close.

Good thing Ben and Ethan finished the deck.

Still need to put the steps, railing and lattice on, but those things seem inconsequential in comparison to the actual deck portion.

I just realized today that we don't have a guest book, so I'm going to work on that. 

I saw so many beautiful ones on Etsy, but I just don't feel like spending that much on a book for peoples' names. 

Time to check out Hobby Lobby and be creative.

Paula will be home for the 4th of July holiday weekend so hopefully she can assist me in being creative. 

I also need to order some more lights...

and finish...

other things...

deck dreams

The deck is coming right along.

Can't wait to sit on it when it's all done.

Above is Jenny checking it out.

Not a lot to update.

Today I had a nice long afternoon coffee date with good friend, Stacey. (Not to mention teacher, pastor, mentor etc. She's filled many roles in my life).

Getting ready to eat many ribs at the Freeman Academy "Ribs at the Ranch" fundraiser tomorrow. 

Dad has a major role in that. He loves meat.

So both parents will be working on that tomorrow.

We'll go check it out and see where we can help.

Have a great weekend!

coffea

I spent the majority of yesterday running errands in Sioux Falls. 

Lots of little wedding stuff: make-up, thank you cards, gift boxes, ties for the groomsmen, etc.

Kind of annoying, but good to take care of so I can focus on other things.

I stopped at Coffea for the first time...even though it's been in Sioux Falls for 4-5 years (I had no idea).

Also drank a Cafe Miel for the first time (latte with honey).

I kind of regretted ordering it because I like to stick with my favorites, but then I tried it and it was awesome.

Probably because Coffea can't make anything bad (as Paula says). 

They only hire and train coffee nerds, so that may explain the high caliber of coffee (as you can read HERE).

After Paula was done with work we went to her hair stylist to do a trial run for the wedding. 

Jenny did a great job.
Can't wait to see it with the dress...which is only 23 days away. 

This last week has gone by very quickly.

Afterwards we went out for supper with our good old friend (like preschool old), Chelsea, at Tre Lounge. 

There are some people who you can go a long time without talking to and then just pick up like it's been no time at all...that is definitely Chelsea and her dear sister, Whitney. 

We love them. 

We had seen Cousin Mindy and Evan driving earlier, so we let them know we were in Sioux Falls and ended up going over to their house for some time out by the fire pit eating smores and catching up on their recent trip to Reno. 

It was a perfect night for a fire; not much wind.

A productive day in the books!

last minute deck?

Only 27 days to go, but that didn't deter my father and brother's decision to rip down the deck and take out the sidewalk today.

It was and will continue to be a family effort.

Dad, Ethan and Ben took care of dismantling the deck. 

Ethan took out the sidewalk with the skid-loader.

Mom & I removed and re-potted plants that she wants to re-plant later. 

The deck wood should be here by Wednesday. 

Our deconstructed deck was as old as Ethan (23 years), which was looking pretty disheveled. 

Ethan started talking about this project when we returned home in May. 

I was not sure whether or not it would actually happen.

Surprise.

Trying to tackle a bunch of projects amidst checking RSVPs, which are coming in at a snail's pace.

Time to RSVP! 

You know who you are and you have until July 1, people.

Make it happen.

I can't read minds.

Unless you're a particularly close family member OR you're involved in the wedding. 

rhubarb

This is rhubarb from the garden, but the picture below is also rhubarb.

My little Rhubarb kitten. 

She is one of about 12ish kittens that we have right now. 

We don't really know how many there are.

They come and go. 

But I LOVE my little Rhubarb. 

We bonded when I cleaned and put medicine in her cruddy eyes. 

Her eyes look much better now. 

This morning Ben and I returned to camp for day 2 of cooking in the kitchen with Mary.

Ben and I made 17 Stromboli!

I rolled out the dough. Ben helped assemble.

I think Mary was grateful that I like to work with dough because I was exhausted at the end, but it was a lot of fun to make food to feed the campers. 

Not sure what our Friday evening plans are, but the night is young. 

Happy Friday Evening!

one month

At the Freeman Laundromat. Quite the throwback.
Mom had some muddy clothes that she didn't want to put in her washing machine.

One month until the rehearsal dinner.

One month and one day until the wedding.

I am not worried, anxious, nervous at all.

I am in a lot of denial.

I will let you know when things start to feel a little more real. 

But that is not right now.

We made the short drive over to Swan Lake today.

Mom and I helped Mary make tacos for lunch. 

I put together cheesy potatoes for supper, cut up grapes, etc.

And then we both cut up pork loin for Peachy Pork Picante.

Ben painted with Jerry and then cut the grass. 

It was nice to be back at camp and catch up with a few friends.

Ben and I are going back on Friday to help make Stromboli for lunch.

Mom and I have been in and out of the garden. It's fun to see things grow.

rural life

It's been lovely being back home since our huge trip.

I've been helping mother in the garden (seen above), which has been the source of steady rhubarb desserts this summer. 

Wedding planning + farm work is much less stressful than home-hunting.

Speaking of which..we just signed our lease and I will put it in the mail tomorrow. 

We will officially be residents of Wauwatosa (love the name). 

SO glad that worked out.

And I'm SO pleased with our location.

A nice neighborhood 2.5 miles from school and right off of North Ave., close to fun shops and restaurants. 

If you want our address I'll give it to you personally, not on the blog. 

On Saturday we celebrated Father's Day and my dad hitting his weight loss goal...88 pounds down since February. 

He's now around 220.

Unreal.

Tomorrow Ben, Mom and I will be helping out in the kitchen at Swan Lake Christian Camp. A simple 10 minute drive from our house. I've spent a lot of time out there (I attended or counseled summer camp out there from age 5-20). It will be nice for Ben to see it, since he's been hyping Camp Mennoscah as long as I've known him. 

Wedding planning?

Just taking it one day/task at a time. 

BUT I SURE HOPE MORE PEOPLE RSVP SO I KNOW THAT THEY'RE COMING...

that would be nice. 

midwest journey: complete

The view while watching Ted and Taylor play 

ultimate frisbee with their Madison Mennonite Church team.

We have finally ended our huge tour of the Midwest.

Home-hunting in MKE was stressful, to say the least.

It didn't work the same way it did in Tallahassee where we could call and people could usually schedule an appointment within 24 hours. 

Instead, most Craigslist ads were e-mail response only and many DID NOT respond quickly...or at all.

We drove around a lot.

Looking for rentals, getting to know the area, and just checking things out because we didn't have anything else to do. 

Despite the stress, I think we have ourselves a lower flat. 

(It's very popular to have a 2 level house and rent out the upper and lower level separately. We have our own door entrance, washing machine/dryer, etc.)

We only looked at 3 places (one was canceled on us and then we canceled the last one).

The one we decided to apply for is only 2.5 miles away from my school, only a block off of a semi-popular street of bars and shops, and located in the suburb of Wauwatosa (aka "Tosa"). 

We're still waiting to hear back from the manager, but our previous rental managers should be providing some stellar references for us. We left the last place looking AMAZING.

I'll let you know when things are (hopefully) confirmed. 

We drove to Madison on Thursday afternoon and spent the evening with Ted and Taylor at the MVS house. SO happy to soon be living so close to them. 

Taylor joined us for breakfast at Madison Sourdough Co. and then we made the 7.5 hour drive back home. (I even brought back 2 tasty loaves with me.)

SO GLAD TO BE BACK.

By the way...36 days until the wedding. 

Boy, do we have some lists to make. 

browsing milwaukee

Last night we checked out Water Street Brewery in downtown Milwaukee.

Had a nice Belgian Wit. Very tasty.

It's about 2:30 pm and we're back at the Radisson.

We've been sending e-mails to our Craigslist finds, but haven't had responses on everything. 

We have 3 places scheduled to visit.

1 tonight and 2 tomorrow.

We had a good one scheduled for tonight, but they JUST rented it out. :(

We couldn't get anything scheduled during daytime hours today, so we've just been exploring.

We're trying to find a place in Wauwatosa. 

It's a beautiful, clean, safe neighborhood that is SUPER close to Mount Mary. 

Problem is that it's a VERY nice neighborhood that isn't really booming with rentals, just houses to buy.

We ate breakfast at Alterra Coffee this morning, then we drove around looking for rentals in the neighborhood.

Hoping to check out a few more places. 

Wish us luck. 

checking things off

I am FINALLY writing from Milwaukee!

We are having quite the trip and I can't believe it's almost over.

We've just been taking it one day at time, checking off one thing after the next. 

We've married Alyssa and Austin off. 

Drove to Des Moines.

Drove to Madison where we dropped off Taylor and Ted at the MVS house. 

And now here we are at the Radisson in MKE.

But first, a few pictures from the wedding.

Alyssa and Austin were both super gorgeous/handsome.

Alyssa's dress was to-die-for and they had a lovely ceremony. 

I don't have many pictures because I was busy doing other things, but just trust me.

They ended up tying these tassels down because of the wind, but they were still beautiful.

It ended up pouring rain right after the ceremony, but we stuck it out and got an awesome rainbow in return.

I can't wait to see the photographers' pictures. 

Friends shared music for entertainment.

Creekbusters played together again! It was awesome.

Wedding prep with Nat. 

I ended up changing my original hairstyle idea due to the wind.

I decided to curl it, pin it up and spray A LOT of hairspray in it. 

Here's Ben at Gong Fu Tea in Des Moines, Iowa. 

Paula got us hooked on this amazing loose leaf tea.

We had a great time with Paula and Tom. 

Got to see their new home in West Des Moines and a little bit of the city. 

We definitely need to go back and explore further. 

On June 5th brother Ethan celebrated his 23rd birthday and on June 7th Mom and Dad celebrated their 33rd wedding anniversary. 

We'll have to celebrate when we return home (hopefully on Thursday or Friday). 

I'm already a little overwhelmed with the idea of finding a home in Milwaukee within the next 48 hours.

Just trying to navigate can be stressful enough.

Nothing gets me snapping at Ben faster than confusion while driving (I'm anxious in vehicles).

Any thoughts, prayers or good vibes would be appreciated as we make decisions.

So here's to a good rest and figuring things out tomorrow!

back at bethel

It's been a lovely week back in Kansas (and a much cooler week than normal).

Ben got to play ultimate frisbee on the Green for the first time in 2 years.

We've seen some good friends and family. 

We've visited Dorothy and Keith's soon-to-be new house. 

We've done some wedding planning and met with our pastor. 

We've had several coffee drinks from Mojo's (in the Bethel student center, below).

Ben helped Grandpa Harder on the farm today.

We just had a wedding shower thrown by Aunt Lynn. We felt very loved.

Basically, it's been pretty successful.

We have a few more things to accomplish, but we'll do the best we can. 

kristin + brian

We wanted to go to Grandpa Melvin's 84th birthday party on Friday night, so we waited to leave for McPherson, Kansas until Saturday morning and had just enough time to freshen up before leaving for the wedding in Hutchinson.

Kristin and Brian are married! 

They are wonderful people and it was so exciting to watch them make it official. 

I'll post a better picture of Kristin in her dress. 

It looked GORGEOUS on her. 

Above is a semi-fuzzy picture the majority of our mod. (I'll post the original when I can download it onto my computer.)

We were still missing a very important lady. 

Cari is finishing up her school year and being amazing in Bristol, UK.

We definitely missed her. :(

Thankfully, she'll be able to make it to my wedding in July. :)

Ben and Brett, who will be an usher in our wedding.

Lots of sunflowers! Kristin is a true Kansas girl.

Birdy decoration. From one birdie to another. 

Next up: ALYSSA & AUSTIN on SATURDAY!
GAAAHHH!!!!
I love celebrating with my friends!