My Beautiful Days

YES! We are FINALLY home! :) Not that I'm at all complaining about the wonderful vacation we got to take, but let's just say that the road trip home was hair pulling, poke-my-own-eye-out frustrating a little bit stressful. I think we were all just so sick of being in the car and our youngest child (dear, three-year-old Colin) was going positively crazy. So, we rolled in a little after 4pm yesterday and I was MORE than ready to be here! We unpacked - we rejoiced at the fact that we didn't have to mow our lawn (thanks to our good friend, Chris, who mowed it for us while we were away!) - we were excited at the fact that we got to have a REAL meal tonight instead of eating out (I will be SO happy if I don't have to eat out again for a YEAR ... with the exception of my date to Benihana with my good friend, Becca !) .. but I think the BEST part of coming home was that we received our Engagement Pictures from Moments In Time Photography (we were at fault for not having...

So, as a treat to myself, I have began a ritual of daily taking a little bit of "Me Time" when Colin is down for his nap. During this time, I am allowed to do NO work (this was at the request of my wonderful Monte!), but I am allowed to relax and use the time to do whatever my heart desires. Today, I want to blog. So here I sit at my kitchen counter, staring at the insane MESS around me! Somehow, after my trip to the grocery store this morning, I made the command decision to clean out some of the cupboards in the kitchen. WHAT A PROJECT!! And now I'm sitting here, eating peanut m&ms and drinking a diet coke, just watching this mess stare me right in the face ... and it's driving me crazy! I just might have to break the 'me time' rules today, cause this project is one that needs to be tackled again soon! I'm happy to say that I believe wedding planning is almost complete! My sister, Tanya, and I are off to another full day of wedding shopping a...

Here I sit, 19 days away from my WEDDING DAY, and all I can think about is how the last seven weeks have flown by. I remember the day that Monte and I decided to move the wedding date up, and when wedding preparations began. I have gone from that phase of having nothing figured out, to almost being completely set and ready to go (thanks to a LOT of help from my sister, Tanya). I am so completely excited to be married to such an amazing man - and I can't imagine what life would be like without him or his four awesome kids. I think it's almost beyond belief that, in the course of a year, I went from being a single woman living with her brother and his family, barely making ends meet (or not making them meet sometimes!), just wanting to be married and life to move forward .. just wanting love; to go from that to being married with four step-children in the course of a YEAR ... holy moly! I am so thankful to God for all He has blessed me with, and I pray that I will never take...

I can't really show you a picture or tell you anything about it being the fact that my Monte has access to my blog as well ... but I HAVE A DRESS!! :) I'm so excited - it's so elegant and gorgeous! I picked out my bridesmaid dresses as well and will have the last of those ordered by this weekend (Michelle, this is the reason you need to call me ASAP!). It's going to be completely amazing! :) I'm excited ... :)

Things seem to be coming together wonderfully for the wedding, and I'm really excited about it! We've got our church (Mt. Olivet Lutheran Church in Excelsior), the reception site (BayView Event Center in Excelsior), looking into DJs, dress shopping with my sister tonight ... it all seems to be falling into place! I am really beginning to enjoy planning for this, and have yet to feel stressed out over the wedding planning. I will admit that, when we decided to move the date up to December 6th, I was a little nervous, as we were leaving ourselves with only ten weeks to plan - but God has been so faithful to open doors for us and to provide venues and details -- and to do it in a hurry! I must say, however, that I'm incredibly excited to start dress shopping tonight ...... Tanya - let's get going! :) On top of that, I'm thrilled that my best Michelle will be able to make it back home for the wedding! Monte and I were blessed that almost everybody that we wanted in...

You read correctly! My wonderful Monte proposed to me last night! He took me to a wonderful dinner at Kincaid's restaurant, then proceeded to tell me how much he wants to spend the rest of his life with me, how he and the kids love me, how we're perfect together ... then he asked me if I would marry him. I was in shock - he even had to tell me that he was being serious - and he waited until I said YES to pull out the ring! Oh my!!! :) I just had to share that wonderful news!