On why there is a hand imprint in my forehead

"Wow. Look at all that rain. It's really coming down. Hurray for no more drought!"


- 15 minutes of rain later -


"OH CRAP! Guess who forgot to put their car top up? That's me!"

Moving, but not really.

Everyone knows that the first rule of blogging is that you never write about your work, unless you enjoy being unemployed. You also never write mean things about people you know, unless you enjoy being hated. The people rule doesn't bother me so much as the work rule does because funny stuff happens at my work ALL the time. Like that one time? Yeah, that was funny. And that other time? Totally Dilbert-worthy. And then there was that ONE time. I still laugh really hard about that one.

But I can't write about those. Most of my week is spent doing things I can't blog about. That, my friends, is depressing. The only thing worse than not being able to blog about work is that up until recently, most of my week was spent underground away from people. And to an extrovert like me, that felt like it could be a layer of hell. However, this week I moved offices! I moved from a cave where I was isolated to an office with people! Not only are there people around my new office, but from my desk I can see a faint glow of natural light over the cubicle wall across from me. Clearly this is a step up. I am climbing that ladder of success. At least I thought so until my brother, who is an intern where I work, pointed out that he moved upstairs with the executives and he has an actual window in his office. Apparently the graphics department scored higher than the project administration department on the favored office scale. But I'm not complaining. I have people now. People who I want to hug and squeeze and name George.

I think I'll bake them brownies they are so awesome...

Please Click

Please go visit my scrapblog here. I created it to try and win a trip to BlogHer this summer. The more people who view my scrapblog, the better my chances are of winning. Thanks!

The Dress Story

Something old, something new;
Something borrowed, something blue.

There are some wedding traditions that I prefer to ignore. Like the garter toss. But there are some that I made a point to keep. Like getting married on the upswing of the clock and following the little poem above. The "old" part of my wedding was the dress. It was my mom's altered and updated.

Here's a picture of my mom and dad on their wedding day:

Did you catch the pleats in the skirt? Totally cool for 1982. Not so much for 2007. When I was 13 my mom asked my sister and I if we ever might want to wear her wedding dress. Since at 13 I hated the world, I am sure I responded with something like, "Ummm... no. I'd rather die." So my mom broke the seal on the stored wedding dress to see if it still fit (I think it did). Fast forward 10 years and now I am engaged. When I was thinking about what I should do for my wedding dress, I figured I would humor my mom and try her's on. It fit perfectly. I did some research on how old wedding dresses can be restored and up-dated. Unfortunately, opening it 10 years ago let the dress yellow a bit. Here's a view of the back when I tried it on:

After some alterations here's what it looked like on my wedding day:

Photo taken by Bonnie Burman.

The dress got a major make-over. It was whitened and we took the sleeves and the high neck off of the dress. We also replaced the skirt to get rid of the pleats and lace and have a more simple skirt. I'm not really into that much lace. I wanted a simple, yet elegant dress and got one! Our seamstress did a great job. Here are some pictures of the work in action:

The dress turned out perfect. It was exactly the right dress for me. Which is funny because it was exactly the right dress for my mom. It was the first one she tried on 25 years ago. Plus, I didn't have to go gown shopping. I think I may have called the wedding off or eloped if I had to pick out a wedding dress. When we were at the bridal shop looking for bridesmaid dresses I watched girls try on wedding dresses. They did not look like they were having fun! With every new dress they tried on, the looked a little bit more stressed. It probably didn't help that most of the dresses were strapless and those squeeze the begeebees out of you and look horrible on most body types.

Anyway, here's the dress again in it original state, in progress and then finished:

Photograph taken by Lori Pritchard

It was an honor to be able to wear my mom's dress. I loved having a dress that was so unique and special. Thanks mom for letting me rip apart your dress to make it mine!

Phone conversation with my Grandma

Me: "Hey Grandma, I'm married!"

Grandma: "I know. You didn't invite me. I'm mad at you!"

"You are mad at me? Then I guess I won't come over and show you pictures."

"When would you come over?"

"Wednesday."

"I might be over the mad by then."

"Ok."

"I told your dad I wouldn't talk to you, but I'd talk to Ben. I don't want him thinking I am crazy or anything."


I love my Grandma. She cracks me up. She did continue to give me a hard time about having a small wedding until I reminded her that the only guests at hers was her mom and the preacher's wife...

How we make this marriage work...

Me: "So the bed's comfy enough for you?"

Ben: "Yeah. I just wish it was a king. I could use a little more room."

"What are you talking about? I woke up this morning and was amazed at how much room I had. The bed is huge."

"Show me how much room you had."

This is where I demonstrate how I was sleeping

"See tons of room."

"YOU ARE TAKING YOUR HALF OUT OF THE MIDDLE OF THE BED!"

*******
Later that same day:

Ben: "So I took a nap this afternoon and it was really nice to lay on my right side without worrying about falling off the bed."

Pictures from our mini honeymoon

Please ignore the last post. That post was more "Me Andi. I married. Can't write." than an actual interesting post. This next post will be a quiz.

This is a picture of:

a. Ben when he is hungry

b. Me during our first argument
c. A shark


This picture is of:
a. The honeymoon suite Ben booked for us
b. Our new pets
c. The reptile cage at the aquarium


This picture shows:
a. Ben looking deeply into his own eyes
b. Ben looking deeply into his own eyes
c. Ben looking deeply into his own eyes

We had a fun time at the aquarium yesterday. I had never been and they have some pretty cool exhibits. The weekend was just too short....

A Wedding Story

So the photographers posted the cute pictures, I wanted to share one of my favorites from the wedding:

We just look so tough and angry. It looks like we are ready to kick some butt. Cracks Ben and I up. Seriously, do not mess with us.

Yesterday I did something completely embarrassing. So Ben's sister wrote on his car windows things like "honk for love" and "honk, Just Married" so people were honking at us a lot! It was kind of fun. Yesterday I ran out to get some food while Ben got ready. It's really awkward to drive a car labeled, Just Married by yourself. I wonder if people were trying to guess where the groom was.

Anyway, I was sitting at a stoplight and the guy behind me honked, which was nice. Then the light turned green and I started to go. Someone was honking CRAZY loud and long. I thought it was a bit excessive and kept driving. And then I realized that it was an ambulance honking to get me to clear the intersection. And I just kept driving.

I felt pretty stupid.

More pictures

Our photographers posted some of our wedding pictures on their blogs. You can see them here, here, and here.

I think they did a fabulous job!

Man and Wife

Today I get married!

It still seems so unreal....

More Free Advice

Really I need to stop giving advice this good away. So get this free advice while you can... the price is about to go up.

Do not drink apple juice that has been sitting in a hot car for 1.5 weeks. Even if it is sealed and you refrigerated it and it looks nice and inviting. Don't drink it. And if you do take one sip, stop after you realize it tastes slightly "off". Don't keep drinking it thinking, "the next sip will taste better." It won't, and after you've consumed the entire 10 ounces, your stomach will protest. You'll be dry heaving in the bathroom wishing you could just throw the poison up.

Especially don't drink this tainted drink the day before you get married. It will cause you to start freaking out that you gave yourself food poisoning and are going to have to postpone the wedding AGAIN. This will only make you feel sicker.

If you do decide to drink bad apple juice the day before your wedding, make sure you are marrying the most understanding guy in the world. This way when you call him upset that you feel sick and want to leave work, he'll just laugh a little and say nice calming things to put you at ease. This will make you feel instantly better.

But, since you can't marry the most understanding guy in the world, because I am marrying him, you should just stay away from questionable apple juice.

Free Advice

You really shouldn't have any dental work, financial planning or medical procedures done by anyone who is getting married within 5 days of your visit. I guarantee you that they are not thinking about you, your teeth or you accumulation of wealth. They are constantly thinking, "OHMYGOSHIAMGETTINGMARRIEDTHISWEEK!" Just like that too.

Every time someone at work says, "Hey Andi, how's it going?" I have to resist the urge to say, "Fine. I am getting married this week!" Because after people have heard it 12 times, they KNOW.

I now understand why my investment account manager doesn't remember anything we talked about at our last meeting. She was getting married the next day. The most in-depth conversation we had was she asked me my opinion on whether or not they should use a credit card, traveller's checks or cash when travelling for their honeymoon. (My advice was a combination of all three.)

So here's the plan

Since Ben and I had to move our wedding, all of our plans have kind of been up in the air. We finally got one nailed down and we hope nothing causes this one to change.

Our big ceremony and reception is going to be on August 11. That was the ONLY date this summer that both the photographer and the reception hall had open (except for a couple Sundays, but we didn't really want to have on Sunday).

We quickly realized that August 11th was too far away to wait to get married. I mean we were supposed to get married 2 weeks ago, who wants to wait another 2.5 months?! So we are actually, officially, getting married on Thursday, June 14. Why a Thursday? Because at least one person from our family is out of town for EVERY weekend in June.

Thursday will just be a small ceremony with our families at the park where Ben proposed to me (the first time). I'm looking forward to it. I'll get to wear my dress twice and I'll get married, because really, living by myself sucks. I need someone to help clean...

And if one more person asks why we aren't just waiting until August, or scoffs at our plans I will punch them in the head. Because really, you shouldn't mess with a girl who's been on the edge of getting married for about a month. That's just stupid.

Because I can't help it but take cheesy pictures...

Today we went downtown:

(It was windy)

And got one of these:

Woo Hoo!

Update

I felt bad leaving you all hanging like that..... because I know that's what happens when you people read my blog. You hang on to every word and ponder them throughout the day, wondering what else is going on in Andi's life.

Umm... yeah....

So I don't have strep, just some funky throat virus that I gave to Ben. I love you honey!

Beck, who thought it was nice to wonder "what else could go wrong with Andi and Ben", doesn't have to take the blame any longer for my sore throat. I haven't figured out who gets the blame now, maybe my boss for making me work during nice weather. Which speaking of, I should get back to. Work I mean. Not the weather.

P.S. We are getting our marriage license today!

Bleh

So I might have strep throat.

Grrrr....

Storms

I've been rolling this post around in my head for a while now. I'm not sure how to write it. I want to write about the emotional aspect of all that has happened in the last few months, but every time I get started it comes out all whiny.

I'll be honest. There are have been quite a few disappointments lately. It was hard to move our wedding. It was hard to realize that we are missing some good friend's weddings because of all this. It was hard to decide to stay in Ohio for a while longer to pay off massive medical bills. It was harder still to realize we will be missing friends who are moving out of Kentucky before we get there. Things were and still are hard. And I didn't even have two surgeries.

But it wasn't just hard. Part of me wants to write about the hardships because I want to get them out but that's only part of the story. God has given grace above and beyond what I had ever dreamed of. He has taught me things and given me a perspective that is so incredibly valuable. I just don't know how to write it.

I want to write about how I could handle Ben being sick but couldn't handle missing my birthday. A missionary once said, "I can handle the large problems with grace; it's the small ones that cause me to come undone." So true.

I had always thought that my faith that was my rock would protect me from storms. That the storms could rage, but I would stand there in the eye of the storm completely calm and at peace. What I have learned is that sometimes God allows the storms to pound us and sweep us out to sea. He allows the waves to wash over us. It's in the midst of that storm that I learned to trust Him. To completely trust that even though this storm is beyond my control, Ben and I were never out of God's reach. He could calm the storm at any moment and there is a reason for allowing it to continue. I learned that faith is not dependent upon the absence of storms, but upon the belief that God is in control in spite of the storm.

God has given both Ben and I the strength and ability to handle what has happened and in this process my faith has been strengthened; for which I praise God.

I pray the storm is over and that the sea is calming. I pray that from here on out things will be smooth sailing. But if it isn't I now have a stronger confidence that my God will love and protect me. That He will weather life's storms with me and will give me the grace to withstand the waves.

Home Again

Ben is going home today! We are taking him to Ohio!

Oh Happy Day!!!!

Hopefully we can get married soon...