Six Years.....

August 17, 2007.

Not sure how to put into words that day.  It was a day of tears.  It was a day of joy.  It was perfect.  It was a mess.  It was dramatic.  It was calm.

Six years ago, Jeremy & I were married.

It wasn't exactly your average wedding.  The easiest way to describe how odd it was, is that our wedding invitations stated the "anticipated date and time."  You see, Jeremy was in the Marines.  We planned our wedding for the couple of weeks that he would be home betwen in country training and heading overseas.

This means that we planned a wedding without a date, and he was home for only a few of the decisions related to the wedding.  As is the curse with the military, he was also out of reach most of the time.

But plan we did.  And plan, and plan, and plan.

Our wedding day finally arrived.  I had my hair done by a friend.  Then on to the wedding rehearsal.  Yep, same day as the ceremony.  With a Friday evening wedding, we didn't want everyone to take off more time from work, than necessary.  Then makeup, getting dressed and pictures.  A very, very busy day.

Wedding time rolled around, and it wasn't time to start yet.  There were so many people showing up, that they hadn't all made it into the church.  Not sure anything can make you feel better than knowing that there are 175 of your friends and family showing up to support you and your future spouse.

Honestly, I remember almost nothing about the rest of the night.  Most of the memories that I have are from the videos of our wedding and reception.  I do know that it was beautiful, that my father provided a beautiful sermon, and I was smiling so hard that my face hurt.

But anyways, here we are.  Six years later.  Who knew we would make it this far?  It was been a wild ride thus far, plenty of ups and downs, but nonetheless, I wouldn't have wanted anyone else with me on this ride. 

So Jeremy, thank you.  Thank you for being my husband and my support.  I could never ask for anything more.  I love you!

 Our Wedding Day

At dinner one week shy of our anniversary

So in honor of this milestone...I have a song of the day.  I know you're shocked, right?!?

"Not with Hate" by Mumford & Sons.  It seemed like a perfect choice.

The Next Six Days....

My birthday celebration went well into the night...I think we got home about 1:30am.  Not too bad, but certainly not early enough to be productive the next day.  Liz, Lainie, & I had predicted this.  So we made a plan.  A plan for a Very relaxed day.

Tubing.

The three of us and our husbands headed out in the early afternoon to spend a few hours on a river.  I think it may have been our best idea ever. :)

Then came Monday.  Back to the real world. 

Tuesday was my actual birthday.  However...our return State Survey showed up at work.  That meant work...and lots of it.  I came home and napped for a couple of hours in the afternoon, but was back at the office until about 9pm.  But hey, we passed, we cleared, and with some luck we won't see them again till next summer.

I don't really remember most of the rest of the week.  My husband and father worked on our front porch...it is looking awesome!!!

Friday evening, I left work early.  To sit in my hammock chair and read.  It was perfect outside.

 Following that we had a mini double date with friends, including a bonfire.  A perfect Michigan summer evening!

Not a bad week, overall.  I would choose it again in a minute, if it were my choice.

So my song for you, for tonight, in memory of an amazing week, is "Chasing the Light" by Mat Kearney.

Birthday Party...or Weekend...or Week...

So, I have long realized that I have amazing friends and family.  However, that has become all the more apparent over the past couple of weeks.
I turned 30 this past week, and have been able to experience the best ten days possible.  It is far too much to detail in one blog, so bear with me while I work my way through this. :)

To kick it off, my parents, along with myself and my husband, purchased a Groupon for an 11-course French dinner.  In a castle (or as close as Michigan comes to castles!).

The food was awesome, the locations beautiful, the service...well, not so great.  But I am thrilled that we went and it was a great way to kick off the weekend.

Next came the day to end all days....My birthday bash....

Now, I had entrusted Liz & Lainie to plan the party.  All of the details that I was provided with were related to where we were parking, where we were eating dinner, and what I should wear (which was basically not large heels).

However, to prep, the three of us got pedicures and then I got my hair highlighted.  A very nice start to a very busy evening!

Next up.  Dinner.  I had requested a part of the evening to be a smaller group.  So Liz and Ryan planned dinner with Jeremy and I.  Then I found out that some of my friends, who live on the other side of the state, would be coming...so of course they had to join dinner!  We went to an amazing tapas restaurant and had a chance to visit and chat.

 

We then hung out for a short time, just the seven of us, before everyone else joined us.

 

Finally, it was time.  Time to find out what we were going to be doing for the rest of the night.  Turns out, it was a scavenger hunt! We were divided into three groups, each group had to take pictures in 4 locations, and take shots at 4 locations.  It was a blast! (And yes, there were paper cutouts of my face for each group to take along)

 

We ended the night with a party at a local bar.  All in all, it was truly a perfect night!

So...in memory of a perfect night...thanks to many phenomenal friends...I have a fun little song for ya...

"My Life Would Suck Without You" by Kelly Clarkson

And yes, I do realize that this is normally about couples, but trust me...it totally works for friends!!

One Day....

Well, I’ve done it.  Again.  I am so busy that I have run out of time…for anything.  Work is going well, but with my job, I am on call every other weekend, so that pretty well limits my time.  Then I have some things I am doing with my church, to try and help out for a while.  Things I am very happy to do, and am very capable of doing, but yet it is still more time that is taken up.  I am doing things that I enjoy with friends, and yet it feels that I don’t get to see them as much as I want.  I am seeing my husband more, which rocks, but it still feels like I rarely see him. 

This is something I am good at.  I love to be busy.  I hate being bored.  But I do not enjoy feeling overwhelmed.  I am okay with having plans every night, as long as I still feel like I have room to breathe.  It is a very careful balance for me.  If I am too busy, I become exhausted and stop doing anything.  If I am not busy enough, I sit at home and become depressed.  I have not yet perfected the balance.

I think some of my feelings of being overwhelmed is that I have such an amazing weekend coming up.  Yes, I know I’m weird. When I look forward to things, it becomes very all encompassing.  I live for anticipation of an event, as much as for the event itself.  I have a weekend of family time, friend time, me time.  It’s perfect.  But I have been so busy preparing for it, that I am swamped. 

I have so many blogs, with so many pictures, that I want to post, yet I cannot seem to focus enough to actually sit down and write them.  I have so much that I want to do on my house, but I never have the energy, or the time.  I have so many more concerts and events that I want to go to, but every evening is accounted for.

The key, I think, is to remember that it only takes one day.  One day to turn it around.  And you only need to take it one day at a time.  It is so much easier to say, than to live.  But, okay.  I will keep trying  What else is there?  I have a very bad habit of trying to make broad, sweeping changes, all at one time.  I rarely make one small change, it is normally an entire lifestyle change.  And big surprise…they don’t stick.  They don’t last more than a few days, as it is just too hard. 

One day.  One change.  One step. 

Tomorrow is a new day.  Tomorrow is a day when I can start over.  It is the beauty of this life that we live.  It is the beauty of forgiveness, the beauty of grace.  Tomorrow is a brand new day. 

And after all, tomorrow starts my amazing weekend.  I promise that I will blog about it. 

So how about we all try to treat tomorrow like a brand new day.  A day to start anew, a day to stop beating ourselves up over the past, a day to try and change one thing, no matter how small.

And of course, my song of the day.  The perfect song for this day.  “Brand New Day” by Joshua Radin.

Grateful

Do you ever have those days where you are simply grateful for your life? Days where you look around and feel pretty darn content?  I'm not talking about a time when nothing is wrong, when you don't have a care in the world. I think these days are better. You see the troubles, you are aware of your life, with all its ups and down, and you are still happy.

Last night, I had one of those days. I was driving home and an amazing feeling came over me. I felt okay. I felt blessed. I felt like things would be okay.

It was really a pretty ordinary day. I worked, had some good moments and some really tough ones, but that's the usual. Then I headed to my church to volunteer for a few hours. Next was meeting up with two of my best friends for some Zumba. That felt good. On the way home, we chatted about my upcoming birthday and their very secretive plans!  Then it was to home. And life felt good.

Despite my stressors at work, in life, and (being the type-A person who prefers to be in control) my birthday - I just felt content.

I love those days. I sincerely hope that everyone gets to experience a day like that, at least once in a while.  It is pretty amazing.

So, for my song of the day, I am going with "Happier?" by Teddy Geiger.  It is off of his new album, "The Last Fear", which, by the way, is phenomenal.  In it, he asks...Could I be happier?  And right now, I'm okay without answering it.  Maybe the grass is always greener on the other side, but I am okay with how things are.  I am very content, and that makes me extremely happy.

Therefore, I give you "Happier?" by Teddy Geiger.

Fun. - In Concert

So now, it's time.  Time for Fun.

It was...simply...Amazing!

The quality of the music, the performance, the lights, the energy, you name it!  It absolutely was amazing.

The show was about an hour and a half.  It felt like ten minutes, no more.  Time flew.  That, to me, is the sign of a perfect show.

The way to determine if it was a good show, is by asking if you would go see them live, again.  To Fun., I say YES!  Absolutely, without a doubt, no question in my mind...YES!

So check out the pics, please watch the videos, it is worth your time.  And if you get a chance to see Fun. perform, I strongly recommend finding a way to make it happen.

And, of course, my song of the day.  What else could it be?  It is "Some Nights" by Fun. (This was their encore piece!)

And for those wondering, yes, we did make the trip back home that same night.  It was a long night, but we made it safe and it was worth every moment!!!!

Tegan & Sara - In Concert

Sorry for the long hiatus, life got quite busy for a while.

But anyway.

So, several months ago, Fun. announced their US tour.  Liz & I immediately started searching dates to see how close they were coming to home.  The closest was about 2.5 hours away.  When it appeared that they weren't coming any closer (sad face!), we decided to hunt for tickets.  Then we found out that it was sold out!!!  Major bummer!  Next step for us was to search second hand sites.  It took a while, but we found actual seats in the price range we could afford.

Next up was the three month waiting game.

Being the type-A person that I am, I spent quite a bit of time researching the venue (we had never been there before), the drive, and more.

Finally, the day came.  We left work early (love that little bonus) and started the drive.  We got there at about 5:20.  The show started at 8pm, but we had no idea when the doors would open, so we figured early was better than late.  We hung out on the lawn, listened to the four competing radio stations blast their respective music (whose idea is that???), and tried not to die of heat stroke (it was 95 degrees!).  Then the crowds started to grow, and grow, and grow.

 Finally, the doors opened, and we headed in.  Inside there was an area set up for merchandise, for drinks, and for several organizations related to LGBT rights.  We picked up these rockin stickers!

(the view of the venue from the top of the hill)

(Yep, there was a giant Fun. sign too!)

With merchandise purchased, pictures taken, and drinks in hand, we found out seats.

(Second to last row of seats, but still in front of the 4,800 people on the lawn)

A while later, the opening band came on.  Tegan & Sara.  Simply put...They Rock!  I had gotten their album a few months ago, and they are just as amazing live as they are recorded.

Check out the crowd shot!  We took this while making a quick run (ha! nothing is quick with 7,700 people!) for snacks. Figured we better do it before Fun. went on....

(Panorama shot covering most of the crowd.)

So in honor of one of the best opening bands I have seen, my song for the day is the one that I have the clip of above...."Closer" by Tegan and Sara

A giant THANK YOU to Tegan & Sara for an amazing start to an amazing night!!!!!
(and stay tuned for the blog about Fun.!)