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Eight days.

Last night I finished somemore packing up of my room. I also went through pictures to be displayed on one of the tables at the reception. In looking at the pics, I've discovered that Andrew and I are WEIRD. (of course... most of you probably already knew that)

Things left until the wedding:
5 nights sleeping at the Daisy House.
1 full day of work and 2 half days of work.
2 loads of laundry at home.
1 road trip to Mom & Dad's.
1 Pre-wedding party (not including the rehearsal dinner).
1 More night with the girls before being married.

My friend Erin told me about a children's book that talks about the last things. It's about how we always remember the first things in life... the first kiss... the first baby step... the first word. But we never remember the lasts. Like the things I just listed above.

I want to have a blast in this last weekend of being just Kristi... and not Mrs. Kristi. I want to enjoy every moment and second left as a Daisy House girl. I want to treasure every hug and laugh and goofball thing that won't be quite as frequent with my gal pals once I'm all old and married.

Here's to a fabulous weekend!

10 days... and some hours

Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.

Blessed the people who know the joyful shout;
in the light of your countenance, O LORD, they walk.
At your name they rejoice all the day,
and through your justice they are exalted. -Psalm 89

Yesterday I ran the gammit (no idea how to spell that) of emotions. I'm still excited... a little stressed... somewhat concerned... and so incredibly in love. But most of all I just feel blessed.

Tuesday morning at my job we had our quarterly Staff Retreat. It was so fabulous to spend the morning in prayer and discussion with some of the coolest coworkers there could ever possibly be. It just baffles me what this place I work at has done in my life over the past 3 years... and I've only been working there for 6 months.

Let's review. 3 years ago I went on a young adult retreat there... and that's how I first met all of my awesome friends in Wichita. It's also how I bonded even more with my wonderful roommate Kimmy and how I became plugged in to the young Catholic culture that exists in this city. Then 4 months letter I met with an amazing priest (who happens now to be my boss) to discuss my vocation. Should I be a nun? Was God calling me to that? And he plugged me in to a discernment group which connected me to more amazing people. 18 months later I found myself helping to lead the very same retreat that I was on the first August in town... and there I found Andrew... my future husband. Approximately 8 months after that I was interviewing for a job (my dream job) at the very same place with the very same man who had helped direct my vocation. And a month after that I was working there.... A place that changed my life. Everyone at work always says that we work on Holy Ground. And I believe this is so wonderfully true. God has transformed me, and this center where I work has been a center of Spirituality for me since college.

As we reach 10 days away from the Big Day... I am doing well. My biggest struggle at this moment is trying to grasp that I'm only sleeping at the Daisy House for 7 more nights before I'm going home for wedding stuff. Lisa and I cried a lot because of that. What great blessings this house has brought! What great blessings my job has brought! What great blessings these friends have brought!

Thanks be to God that His smiles are so easy to see sometimes. So incredibly unworthy I am... but so very grateful for His love.

Thirteen B****ES!

Okay... so the title is in honor of my brother Tom who screamed that out after having 13 Jaeger Bombs during his bachelor party.

But, really, folks... we're 13 days out. WOAH.

This morning I woke and had heart palpitations realizing that it was the second to last Sunday that I'd be waking up in the Daisy House. That, dearest friends is quite strange and a bit scary.

I am completely treasuring all of the moments left of hanging out at my house with tons of friends. It is fun that I get to go home with a husband in two weeks... but it's weird knowing that they'll be no more nights of staying up til 5 in the morning laughing and having fun with all of the people that hang out at my Daisy House. I will miss that a lot.

Emotional, I'm mostly calm today. We're plucking out last minute to do's quite well and we're both in pretty good moods about it. Andrew and I went for a walk this morning which was relaxing and nice. It's great to take a few moments off. We looked at an apartment home yesterday that we both kinda like. Unfortunately it's on the East side of town... so we'd have to move away from our friends. But all would be okay I think if we decide to get that one.

That's all I've got for now. I hope you all have a very Blessed Divine Mercy Sunday. God is Great!

16 days 5 hours and 40 minutes

39....38....37...

Things are better this morning. Andrew and I had an extremely productive last evening. We finished printing song sheets, finally got the bridal party itineraries in the mail, and even went to our final NFP class before we're married. Because of my way screwed up bodily issues, I am now switching to a slightly modified version of NFP which includes waking up at the same time every morning, sticking a thermometer in my mouth, and writing down my temperature. I'm actually kind of excited about this as it makes me wake up with my alarm the first time. And it's fun to sit in anticipation until the thermometer beeps. I'm weird.

OOOH... we also went for a walk around the lake by A's apartment. We decided that we wanted to know the distance so we counted our steps. I think the people we passed thought we were nuts... but it kept us on a pretty steady pace. We decided that our measurements must be slightly off because if we figured it right, it's only a third of a mile around the lake and that doesn't really seem long enough to us.

On the way to work today I was thinking about putting on my wedding dress on wedding day. It's SOOO exciting. It's a little over 2 weeks away and I'm so super pumped.

In 16 days, 5 hours and 35 minutes...
Bells will ring
The Sun will Shine
I'll be his
And he'll be mine
We're gonna love until, the end of time
And we'll never be lonely anymore........

SEVENTEEN to GO

Okay... so I missed a few countdown days in there. I decided to celebrate the death and resurrection of Christ this weekend, and sorta just let the wedding slide. It was nice to hang out with friends and go to Church and just chill... but man, oh, man did it bite me in the rear starting Monday.

Andrew and I had grandiose plans to finish a bunch of wedding errands. But Monday morning when he came to pick me up, he had caught it. He was sick with the stress bug. It was as though the entire world lay on his shoulders and there was nothing I could say or do to make it better. So the morning became more grumpy than productive... but we were better by afternoon.

Then yesterday I caught whatever it was that he had. I was a mess. I couldn't focus at work. I couldn't handle any form of chilling out. And working on wedding stuff just made me angry because nothing is happening in the timeline that I need it to happen in. For example, I planned to send out the Wedding Itineraries on Monday... but then I got busy and couldn't finish them... and then we were still missing a piece yesterday, so THEORETICALLY they'll go out tonight... and if they don't, I might cry for another hour.

In HAPPY NEWS... my office threw me a shower yesterday. It was way awesome and fun and Andrew and I got our Queen bedset which makes me very happy. Plus my coworkers are the bomb-diggity and make me feel super special.

I've decided that 3 weeks away is still overall yucky though and I'm ready for the wedding to be here. Nothing that we have left to do is MAJOR... however it is vaguely necessary. It needs to be done so I can stop stressing out my fiance.

.... here's to hoping that today balances out and is fun and exciting....

Love and Hugs.

23 and Counting

Today I gave Andrew a ride to work as my car (which he has been driving for like 6 months) has decide to emit the fumes that cause massive migraines again. It tends to do that when it's hot outside. Stupid Erma! Does anyone want to buy a car? I'll sell her REAL cheap.

Anyways... on the ride to his work we were talking. And it struck me that even though we're only 23 days out... we sure as heck aren't freaking out very much. This in and of itself freaked me out so I worked out a nice little "to do" list today at work.

Tonight I mostly finished the program and also got a teeny tiny start on part of the table decorations.

Emotionally... I'm good. Things are very tension-filled in the Daisy Household these days. I'm not sure if it's just too much estrogen running around... or if it has to do with the fact that I'm only here for 3 more weeks. I'm hoping it will work itself out soon. I'm sure it's stress more than anything... and lack of chocolate due to Holy Week... man... I MISS chocolate.

Well enough babbling this evening. I shall turn in to think of more wedding things that I should be doing. YEE HAA.

Toodles!

24 Days to Go.

Hmmm... today I'm feeling relaxed. I'm sorta freaked out that I'm not worrying about all the stuff we've left to do in 3 weeks. But other than that I'm good. And I'm SOOOO ready to go home to Andrew. It's like if he's in the room, I have to be right next to him or holding his hand or having his arm around me. It's as though there is something even deeper happening with our relationship as the wedding gets closer. It's neat.

In other news... we finally found out that we have permission from the KC diocese to get married there. I don't think there was ever a problem... but the paper work has been delayed for like 4 months. Our marriage prep priest still doesn't have it in his hands... but we're hoping that happens sometime this week.

OOOH... and Andrew is picking up the marriage license this week!

YIPEE!

Now.. it's real.

This weekend was unbelievably and superly duperly fun!

Friday evening was Karaoke night with my brothers and sister in law (plus Lisa, Jose, Ray, Randy, and Andrew). We had a blast. And I discovered that not drinking much for 6 months makes me a bit of a light weight. I was only halfway down with a double Tequila Sunrise and the room seemed a little floaty. The rest of that drink, a jaeger bomb, and a little beer later... i was DONE (but still not drunk).

Then came Saturday. It was my Wedding Shower!!! All of my awesome possom family and friends collided for this delightful afternoon. I have some of the best party planning bridesmaids EVER. I was so struck by how many amazing people I have in my life. My mom... my friends... my aunts... my new family... it's just neat and nearly made me cry.

Saturday evening was the bachelor/bachelorette party. We had dinner with our families and bridal party first. My brother and Andrew's sister like really hit it off (both of them being the crazy fun personalities that they are)... and the dinner was so much fun. Christi and Joe got Andrew and I to take these funky minty shots which sort of made the room spin for awhile. They were sweet. Plus, the crazy corner of the room decided that this would be as good of time as any to start the clanging-on-glasses-til-we-kiss tradition. So that was fun!

Then we went to a house party at Erin's lovely house. There were drunk people... not drunk people and a whole lot of fabulous funness. Andrew and I played "the Newlywed Game" against my parents and his Mom & Don. We tied with my parents...but Kim & Don were only a point behind. It was strange to find out how much GAS my dad and Andrew have in common. :)

I have some fabulous pictures from the event... which you can find at this link:
Click here... then on Slideshow

There should be more to come considering all of the digital cameras that were running around. I just want to say thanks to all of you who came out to celebrate with us. This was the most fun Andrew and I have had in a long time with so many people. You guys rock the party that rocks the party!

I've decided that for the next 20 something days I am going to do a little run down of my emotional and physical state. So Delightful Delirium is going to become a bit of a Wedding Trauma Site. I figure it'll be a fun thing to look back on in a year or two. :)

I think I actually believe I'm getting married in 3 and a half weeks. It is real. Wow.

Goulash

3 Things:

1) I had a bizarro dream the other night. It was about this guy that I almost dated but never did date. I had just gotten married to him... and I was absolutely adamant that we would NOT consummate the marriage. Why did I not want this? Because I didn't want the marriage to be real. I wanted to be married to Andrew. Why had a married this guy who I only sort of thought was cool? It was a not-so-fab dream that I was extremely happy to wake up from. I'm wondering if it was a sign of needing closure with this fella. Strange.

2) I went shopping with Lisa today. Our mission: to find shoes for her to wear with her bridesmaid dress and possibly to find an outfit for me to wear to the bridal shower. She said, "Let's go to Kohl's first!" I wasn't thrilled at this idea... but I agreed. 3 hours, 25 outfits, 4 trips to the checkout counter, 1 call to the East store and 8 trips to the dressing room later... we left with no shoes... halves of two outfits... and some really cute stuff that we weren't really planning on getting. But we had a WHOLE lot of fun!

3) Do you ever wish a day wouldn't end? This was a wonderful day. This evening we celebrated the possible feast day of a could-be Saint John Paul the Great. It has been one year since we lost our amazing Papa. The Daisy House threw a potluck dinner which we started telling people about yesterday... and we actually had about 15 show up. It was so much fun. Then we went for a walk (the whole pack of us) and played some great tag. (though Andrew and Kim are pretty competitive) After that we prayed a rosary and a Divine Mercy Chaplet (my favorite prayer ever right now). Then we had dessert and spent 2 hours on the back porch in front of the chiminaea (I don't know how to spell that). It was such a GREAT day!!!! (This paragraph had too many parentheses)


O... I guess my three things are up. So I'll sign off for now. I wonder what happen to the crazy Kristi that was posting this time 2 and a half years ago... I had some nutty posts back then. Now they seem a bit humdrum. Strange I think.