Well, this next week will be full of "this will be the last time I _______ as a single person".
It started this morning with me saying to a co-worker "This is my last Friday as a single woman!!" It really did just hit me this morning. I will never have another single Friday. Not that any of my single Fridays before were anything special, it was just the realization.
I have a friend who has flown from her home in Virginia to be a bridesmaid in the wedding. She has been in town for the last month, staying at different homes and this weekend is my turn to have her stay with me. Oh, and this will be my last sleepover weekend with a friend as a single woman.
I know that this is kind of a melancholy post. Next Friday I will start saying "This is my first time I ________ as a married person!"
But until then, I am savoring all my lasts....
Friday, November 30, 2007
Thursday, November 8, 2007
29 Days...
until I am a wife.
Kinda scary but very exciting. I finally get to check the box that's labeled "Mrs."!
Unfortunately I haven't had a whole lot of time to really soak up the idea of being a grown up, married woman. Time, these days, has been taken up with all the nitty-gritty details of planning the big event.
I tell people sometimes about some wedding show I saw on TV a few months ago about a bride who went to great lengths to free up all her time in order to plan her wedding. She went as far as quitting her job! At the time I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had heard someone do. But a couple weeks ago....I started to understand why she would do that.
Planning a wedding is STRESSFUL! So many details to accomplish, so many people to contact, always having to hound people to keep on top of their specific tasks, getting all schedules to line up, and still try to maintain a positive attitude. It's not easy. And I applaud Ben for hanging in there with me. I have not been a fun person to be around most of the time.
29 days. These past several months have seriously flown by.
I've been asked many times if I will miss being single. And to be honest...of course there are things I am going to miss. I can think of a few things off the top of my head. I'm going to miss the freedom of leaving at the drop of a hat to go meet up with a friend at anytime of day or night. I'm going to miss the ability to just make decisions for myself and not have to confer with anyone else for their input. I'm going to miss my alone time in my quiet apartment.
But I'm also really looking forward to sharing my life with someone else too. I'm looking forward to coming home and having my best friend there to talk to whenever I have something that I need to get off my chest. I will have that special person to go places with and do things with at any time. I will have a constant companion for the rest of my life and I'm thrilled about that.
29 days to practice my new signature.
Up until now I had always hoped I would marry a man with a short last name. Brookshire was just too long of a name for my taste but it's what I was dealt. But...my luck, I'm marrying a Christensen. Good thing I'm not a fan of hyphenating!
Kinda scary but very exciting. I finally get to check the box that's labeled "Mrs."!
Unfortunately I haven't had a whole lot of time to really soak up the idea of being a grown up, married woman. Time, these days, has been taken up with all the nitty-gritty details of planning the big event.
I tell people sometimes about some wedding show I saw on TV a few months ago about a bride who went to great lengths to free up all her time in order to plan her wedding. She went as far as quitting her job! At the time I thought it was the most ridiculous thing I had heard someone do. But a couple weeks ago....I started to understand why she would do that.
Planning a wedding is STRESSFUL! So many details to accomplish, so many people to contact, always having to hound people to keep on top of their specific tasks, getting all schedules to line up, and still try to maintain a positive attitude. It's not easy. And I applaud Ben for hanging in there with me. I have not been a fun person to be around most of the time.
29 days. These past several months have seriously flown by.
I've been asked many times if I will miss being single. And to be honest...of course there are things I am going to miss. I can think of a few things off the top of my head. I'm going to miss the freedom of leaving at the drop of a hat to go meet up with a friend at anytime of day or night. I'm going to miss the ability to just make decisions for myself and not have to confer with anyone else for their input. I'm going to miss my alone time in my quiet apartment.
But I'm also really looking forward to sharing my life with someone else too. I'm looking forward to coming home and having my best friend there to talk to whenever I have something that I need to get off my chest. I will have that special person to go places with and do things with at any time. I will have a constant companion for the rest of my life and I'm thrilled about that.
29 days to practice my new signature.
Up until now I had always hoped I would marry a man with a short last name. Brookshire was just too long of a name for my taste but it's what I was dealt. But...my luck, I'm marrying a Christensen. Good thing I'm not a fan of hyphenating!
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Starbucks Wisdom #280
"You can learn a lot more from listening than you can from talking. Find someone with whom you don't agree in the slightest and ask them to explain themselves at length. Then take a seat, shut your mouth, and don't argue back. It's physically impossible to listen with your mouth open."
- John Moe
Radio host and author of Conservatize Me.
- John Moe
Radio host and author of Conservatize Me.
Monday, October 8, 2007
I'm An Aunt Again!!
My sister had her second baby boy!!
Samuel Lee Fuller was born Sunday Oct. 7th at 7ish in the morning. He was 7lbs, 19inches.
I had been shopping with Tara Saturday night around 6:00, all the while she kept having strange feelings that she later found out were contractions but they felt different than they did with Jake so that's why she wasn't sure.
Later on Saturday night I got a call from mom 11:50 telling me Tara had gone to the hospital. I called Ben and we headed up to the hospital to wait. We waited with my parents until around 7:20 the next morning when we were told that baby had entered the world.
We got to go in and hold him. He is so different than Jake was. Jake was loud, crying, and bald. This one is so mellow and has dark hair! He is so sweet and quiet, and he has long fingers too. Hopefully he will become a pianist like Tara and me. :)
My family has a strange thing with the number 7.
Jake was born Aug. 7, I was born Sept. 7, Baby #2 was born Oct. 7, and Ben and I are getting married Dec. 7.
Who knows what will happen on Nov. 7!
Samuel Lee Fuller was born Sunday Oct. 7th at 7ish in the morning. He was 7lbs, 19inches.
I had been shopping with Tara Saturday night around 6:00, all the while she kept having strange feelings that she later found out were contractions but they felt different than they did with Jake so that's why she wasn't sure.
Later on Saturday night I got a call from mom 11:50 telling me Tara had gone to the hospital. I called Ben and we headed up to the hospital to wait. We waited with my parents until around 7:20 the next morning when we were told that baby had entered the world.
We got to go in and hold him. He is so different than Jake was. Jake was loud, crying, and bald. This one is so mellow and has dark hair! He is so sweet and quiet, and he has long fingers too. Hopefully he will become a pianist like Tara and me. :)
My family has a strange thing with the number 7.
Jake was born Aug. 7, I was born Sept. 7, Baby #2 was born Oct. 7, and Ben and I are getting married Dec. 7.
Who knows what will happen on Nov. 7!
Friday, September 28, 2007
Finally!
Last night I was blessed with my first David Wilcox experience, thanks to Ben. And I really mean...blessed.
I had listened to Ben rave about David and how his concerts are nothing like you would ever experience anywhere else. So when Ben heard David was going to be in town he told me far in advance to reserve the date. Ben would play his songs on his mp3 player in the car while we were out driving and we'd sit back and listen to David play and tell stories that intertwined with his songs. I love that kind of story-telling acoustic music. It's relaxing and easy to listen to.
He writes such simple songs with great messages to them. I, who am not prone to tears, got a little misty when he sang about a car. That's right...I cried about a car.
It was about this car's life, but sung from the car's perspective. How it had the chance to be apart of its owners' lives. Their baby was brought home from the hospital in the car, stains from spilled drinks were on the carpet, tears from the kid who spilled the drinks on the seats, grass stains from soccer practices, a long lost Starburst that got smooshed in between the seats leftover from Halloween, pine needles from years of Christmas trees on its roof and so on. Then the song continues to when the kid grew up to be old enough to drive. The car then hopes the owners don't get rid of "the old and weathered" car and allow the kid to drive it. The ending line of the song, the car is wishing the teenager to drive safely and stay alive so that the car can continue to build sweet memories with the family.
I really did get teared up. It reminded me of my beloved International Scout that had been in our family since the beginning of time.
It was a '79 and I believe my parents got it when it was either brand new or very close to it. It was the last year that Scouts were made, so we wanted to hang on to it. That car...beast really...was such a trooper. It had been through everything with our family. Many drives to Sunriver, Mt. Hood in the snow, Christmas tree hunting, drives in the gravel and mud on the gun range with Dad. It had so many things wrong with it throughout the years but it still hung on.
Originally it was Dad's car, then Mom drove it for a long time after Dad got his Ford van, then when Tara was able to drive she drove the Scout for years, then it was my turn. By the time it came around to me I had so much love for this car, I never wanted to see it go. We gave it new seats, new paint job, new tires, new parts...it was my baby. It really became a member of the family. I drove it for about six years before it started to poop out. We could have spent a lot of money to keep it going, but it wasn't realistic. I needed a new car that was more reliable and safe. It killed me to think of giving it away. But it had to be done.
Dad posted the ad on the Internet and within a week probably, a man on the east coast saw it and contacted Dad. That was it. My Scout was gone. But to my surprise a few months after my Scout was taken away...we received an email from the happy new Scout owner. He was giving us an update on our baby. He had put some new parts in it and it was living happily on the east coast. It was bittersweet news. I was glad it was being taken such good care of by a genuine Scout lover, I just wish I could still have it with me so I could romp around freely in it on pretty much any terrain. I love my Ford Escape that I have now...but it's just not the same. Far from it.
So this song David sung about the car loving it's family just hit home with the Scout and I began to miss it and feel bad that we didn't still have it. Kind of silly I guess to those who may not have had a similar experience with a car like that.
Long story short...I LOVED the concert. It was an intimate group of people who all knew David's songs from years ago. It was so laid back. People would randomly shout out requests and he would jump at the opportunity to fulfill. I told Ben at intermission that I feel like I should be in my pj's with a pillow and blanket because it was such a cozy setting. Funny because after intermission that's exactly what David said. He could picture his audience with blankets and pillows and that would be great to him. It was a really great concert, probably my favorite that I've ever gone to. I don't think I remember laughing that much in any other concert. 2 1/2 hour long concert may seem long to some but Ben was right...I wouldn't want it to end.
I'm so glad I finally got to experience a David Wilcox concert. I will probably become the biggest concert critic and snob now. None will be quite like his. :)
I look forward to the next time he is in town for concert. I would love to see him again. Thank you to Ben for introducing his music to me.
I had listened to Ben rave about David and how his concerts are nothing like you would ever experience anywhere else. So when Ben heard David was going to be in town he told me far in advance to reserve the date. Ben would play his songs on his mp3 player in the car while we were out driving and we'd sit back and listen to David play and tell stories that intertwined with his songs. I love that kind of story-telling acoustic music. It's relaxing and easy to listen to.
He writes such simple songs with great messages to them. I, who am not prone to tears, got a little misty when he sang about a car. That's right...I cried about a car.
It was about this car's life, but sung from the car's perspective. How it had the chance to be apart of its owners' lives. Their baby was brought home from the hospital in the car, stains from spilled drinks were on the carpet, tears from the kid who spilled the drinks on the seats, grass stains from soccer practices, a long lost Starburst that got smooshed in between the seats leftover from Halloween, pine needles from years of Christmas trees on its roof and so on. Then the song continues to when the kid grew up to be old enough to drive. The car then hopes the owners don't get rid of "the old and weathered" car and allow the kid to drive it. The ending line of the song, the car is wishing the teenager to drive safely and stay alive so that the car can continue to build sweet memories with the family.
I really did get teared up. It reminded me of my beloved International Scout that had been in our family since the beginning of time.
It was a '79 and I believe my parents got it when it was either brand new or very close to it. It was the last year that Scouts were made, so we wanted to hang on to it. That car...beast really...was such a trooper. It had been through everything with our family. Many drives to Sunriver, Mt. Hood in the snow, Christmas tree hunting, drives in the gravel and mud on the gun range with Dad. It had so many things wrong with it throughout the years but it still hung on.
Originally it was Dad's car, then Mom drove it for a long time after Dad got his Ford van, then when Tara was able to drive she drove the Scout for years, then it was my turn. By the time it came around to me I had so much love for this car, I never wanted to see it go. We gave it new seats, new paint job, new tires, new parts...it was my baby. It really became a member of the family. I drove it for about six years before it started to poop out. We could have spent a lot of money to keep it going, but it wasn't realistic. I needed a new car that was more reliable and safe. It killed me to think of giving it away. But it had to be done.
Dad posted the ad on the Internet and within a week probably, a man on the east coast saw it and contacted Dad. That was it. My Scout was gone. But to my surprise a few months after my Scout was taken away...we received an email from the happy new Scout owner. He was giving us an update on our baby. He had put some new parts in it and it was living happily on the east coast. It was bittersweet news. I was glad it was being taken such good care of by a genuine Scout lover, I just wish I could still have it with me so I could romp around freely in it on pretty much any terrain. I love my Ford Escape that I have now...but it's just not the same. Far from it.
So this song David sung about the car loving it's family just hit home with the Scout and I began to miss it and feel bad that we didn't still have it. Kind of silly I guess to those who may not have had a similar experience with a car like that.
Long story short...I LOVED the concert. It was an intimate group of people who all knew David's songs from years ago. It was so laid back. People would randomly shout out requests and he would jump at the opportunity to fulfill. I told Ben at intermission that I feel like I should be in my pj's with a pillow and blanket because it was such a cozy setting. Funny because after intermission that's exactly what David said. He could picture his audience with blankets and pillows and that would be great to him. It was a really great concert, probably my favorite that I've ever gone to. I don't think I remember laughing that much in any other concert. 2 1/2 hour long concert may seem long to some but Ben was right...I wouldn't want it to end.
I'm so glad I finally got to experience a David Wilcox concert. I will probably become the biggest concert critic and snob now. None will be quite like his. :)
I look forward to the next time he is in town for concert. I would love to see him again. Thank you to Ben for introducing his music to me.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Under the Weather
Well, I've had probably the worst cold/sore throat/sinus/earache/headache combination that I can remember for the last few days. Perfect timing for my moving weekend. Thankfully everything went smoothly and quickly with the move, but I sure was not feeling good the entire time.
Monday is already here and I haven't had much time to catch up on sleep to help me get over this stupid cold. So I'm at work and know that I have to take something so my headache will go away and the sinus pressure won't bother me while I try to concentrate on being productive at work.
So I take a Tylenol Cold and Sinus, Non-drowsy. Or so it says. Here I am an hour or so after I pop the pills and I'm in a complete daze. My fingers are tingley and I am slightly sluring my words when I answer the company phones. Not so good. I'm definitely in a happy place, but I know it's not good when you type the same sentence multiple times on a fax cover. Ha!
Fun day!
Monday is already here and I haven't had much time to catch up on sleep to help me get over this stupid cold. So I'm at work and know that I have to take something so my headache will go away and the sinus pressure won't bother me while I try to concentrate on being productive at work.
So I take a Tylenol Cold and Sinus, Non-drowsy. Or so it says. Here I am an hour or so after I pop the pills and I'm in a complete daze. My fingers are tingley and I am slightly sluring my words when I answer the company phones. Not so good. I'm definitely in a happy place, but I know it's not good when you type the same sentence multiple times on a fax cover. Ha!
Fun day!
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
Busy Busy Busy
It's been awhile since I've last posted. Here is what's been going on:
Moving- This has been on my mind and the top priority recently. Erin and I had to be out of our apartment by Aug. 31st, but I am not able to move into my new apartment until Sept. 7th (my birthday). So consequently...I would be homeless for a week. And a big problem was, where I would store all of my furniture and clothes and shoes for a week? I certainly didn't want to load everything up and drop it off some place, only to turn around and load it all up again in a week. So to avoid all that, I found a place that was able to store my furniture in one trailer, parked, and locked in a garage for a week...for free! Not a bad deal.
Mom and Dad are in Indiana for several weeks (which I will explain further) so they offered their house for me to stay in and to store all my stuff until I have to move. Very thankful for that. My clothes however are all draped over the seats of my mom's minivan, still on the hangers. I'm getting a little tired of trekking out to the van every morning in my PJ's and slippers, standing outside the van trying to decide what to wear to work. What a sight I must be.
I will be moving my bed and clothes into the new apartment on Friday and start early Saturday morning moving everything else. I have lots of people helping me so it should go by quickly I'm hoping.
Wedding- Plans are moving along well. We recently decided on a photographer who is able to do both engagement and wedding in a package deal for an amazing price. Huge answer to prayer. I was getting pretty nervous that we weren't having any luck with photographers. We are very excited to meet with her. Ben's brother was the one who suggested checking out her website and wedding photo albums. So thank you Andy!
I'm waiting for my Mom to get back from Indiana to do anymore cake shopping. Mom really wanted to be apart of that. We did get a chance to visit a couple places and taste several yummy cakes before she left though, which was pretty fun because Tara and baby Jake were able to come with us. Jake had quite a sugar high that day and was very entertaining. :)
Ben and I just met with our premarital counselor this past Sunday for the first time. It was a very short meeting. Just answered a few questions, then we were handed "The Test". It's basically the Marital SATs. Fill in the bubbles with #2 pencils. Our counselor will get the results of the tests that Ben and I both took separately. Then the 3 of us will come together, discuss everything, and the fun begins.
Registering and Invitations are the next things on the list that need to be done soon.
Family- Most of my family members are from Indiana and we usually visit at least once every 1 or 2 years. My parents had been planning a trip to up-state New York for several months now. They wanted to travel all up in the scenic areas and possibly cross over to Canada. They got their passports updated and everything. They decided to stop in Indiana on their way to check in on the family. They left for Indiana on Aug. 22. They were going to stay there for about 8 days before heading to New York, and return home on Sept. 17.
My Grandma (Mom's mom) has been in bad health for quite some time now and getting a lot worse. She has been hallucinating constantly and her pace maker is due for replacement but at 91 years old, most of us don't think it's a wise idea to go through with a surgery like that. The doctors examined her and decided to try with the surgery which was scheduled for Sept. 4th. The medication they put her on was making her hallucinate even more than she normally does and she kept trying to pull out all her IVs. The doctors decided to wait and try again in a few days. But they will have to sedate her and there is a possibility of cardiac arrest. Poor mom is a wreck right now trying to deal with the whole situation and Grandma's weird mood swings and hallucinations. Mom and Dad had to cancel their whole New York trip and now they don't know when they will be home.
Fun- This past weekend Ben and I along with Erin, Lindsay, and Benny (with his puppy) went geocaching. So much fun! I had never done it before and I can't wait to do it again. Ben and I enjoyed it so much that we decided a GPS MUST be an item we register for. :) Ben has a good post on his blog about our geocaching experience, so you can check it out.
Ben and I also enjoyed some time with the family at Katy & Renjy's place. We had a BBQ and played the game Sequence. If you haven't played the game before (this weekend was my first time) here is the object of the game courtesy of Wikipedia: Sequence is a board-and-card game distributed by Jax Ltd., Inc.. It involves an average-sized playing board, on which are depicted two packs' worth of cards (minus the Jokers), two full standard decks, red, blue and green playing chips which total 135.
Players are dealt a certain number of cards (3-7 depending on the number of players), and then take turns to play these cards, placing a chip of their color on the corresponding card image on the board. The object of the game is to form a row of 5 chips (be it horizontally, vertically or diagonally) before the other players. If there are only two players, 2 sequences must be formed to win the game.
The Jacks fulfill a special role. If a player plays a two-eyed Jack, he or she may place a chip anywhere on the board (except of course on the wilds). If a one-eyed Jack is played, the player may remove an opposing player's token from anywhere.
Ben and I need to work on our silent communication a little bit more because we kept losing. :) But we pulled through and won the last game of the night.
Ben's been on a murder mystery kick, so we have been watching movies like: Clue, Murder by Death, Private Eyes, Pink Panther, and The Thin Man. They are all comedies so it is fun to watch them. I'm sure there will be many more movies on the list because Ben's been doing some research for more.
So that pretty much sums up everything that has been going on.
Moving- This has been on my mind and the top priority recently. Erin and I had to be out of our apartment by Aug. 31st, but I am not able to move into my new apartment until Sept. 7th (my birthday). So consequently...I would be homeless for a week. And a big problem was, where I would store all of my furniture and clothes and shoes for a week? I certainly didn't want to load everything up and drop it off some place, only to turn around and load it all up again in a week. So to avoid all that, I found a place that was able to store my furniture in one trailer, parked, and locked in a garage for a week...for free! Not a bad deal.
Mom and Dad are in Indiana for several weeks (which I will explain further) so they offered their house for me to stay in and to store all my stuff until I have to move. Very thankful for that. My clothes however are all draped over the seats of my mom's minivan, still on the hangers. I'm getting a little tired of trekking out to the van every morning in my PJ's and slippers, standing outside the van trying to decide what to wear to work. What a sight I must be.
I will be moving my bed and clothes into the new apartment on Friday and start early Saturday morning moving everything else. I have lots of people helping me so it should go by quickly I'm hoping.
Wedding- Plans are moving along well. We recently decided on a photographer who is able to do both engagement and wedding in a package deal for an amazing price. Huge answer to prayer. I was getting pretty nervous that we weren't having any luck with photographers. We are very excited to meet with her. Ben's brother was the one who suggested checking out her website and wedding photo albums. So thank you Andy!
I'm waiting for my Mom to get back from Indiana to do anymore cake shopping. Mom really wanted to be apart of that. We did get a chance to visit a couple places and taste several yummy cakes before she left though, which was pretty fun because Tara and baby Jake were able to come with us. Jake had quite a sugar high that day and was very entertaining. :)
Ben and I just met with our premarital counselor this past Sunday for the first time. It was a very short meeting. Just answered a few questions, then we were handed "The Test". It's basically the Marital SATs. Fill in the bubbles with #2 pencils. Our counselor will get the results of the tests that Ben and I both took separately. Then the 3 of us will come together, discuss everything, and the fun begins.
Registering and Invitations are the next things on the list that need to be done soon.
Family- Most of my family members are from Indiana and we usually visit at least once every 1 or 2 years. My parents had been planning a trip to up-state New York for several months now. They wanted to travel all up in the scenic areas and possibly cross over to Canada. They got their passports updated and everything. They decided to stop in Indiana on their way to check in on the family. They left for Indiana on Aug. 22. They were going to stay there for about 8 days before heading to New York, and return home on Sept. 17.
My Grandma (Mom's mom) has been in bad health for quite some time now and getting a lot worse. She has been hallucinating constantly and her pace maker is due for replacement but at 91 years old, most of us don't think it's a wise idea to go through with a surgery like that. The doctors examined her and decided to try with the surgery which was scheduled for Sept. 4th. The medication they put her on was making her hallucinate even more than she normally does and she kept trying to pull out all her IVs. The doctors decided to wait and try again in a few days. But they will have to sedate her and there is a possibility of cardiac arrest. Poor mom is a wreck right now trying to deal with the whole situation and Grandma's weird mood swings and hallucinations. Mom and Dad had to cancel their whole New York trip and now they don't know when they will be home.
Fun- This past weekend Ben and I along with Erin, Lindsay, and Benny (with his puppy) went geocaching. So much fun! I had never done it before and I can't wait to do it again. Ben and I enjoyed it so much that we decided a GPS MUST be an item we register for. :) Ben has a good post on his blog about our geocaching experience, so you can check it out.
Ben and I also enjoyed some time with the family at Katy & Renjy's place. We had a BBQ and played the game Sequence. If you haven't played the game before (this weekend was my first time) here is the object of the game courtesy of Wikipedia: Sequence is a board-and-card game distributed by Jax Ltd., Inc.. It involves an average-sized playing board, on which are depicted two packs' worth of cards (minus the Jokers), two full standard decks, red, blue and green playing chips which total 135.
Players are dealt a certain number of cards (3-7 depending on the number of players), and then take turns to play these cards, placing a chip of their color on the corresponding card image on the board. The object of the game is to form a row of 5 chips (be it horizontally, vertically or diagonally) before the other players. If there are only two players, 2 sequences must be formed to win the game.
The Jacks fulfill a special role. If a player plays a two-eyed Jack, he or she may place a chip anywhere on the board (except of course on the wilds). If a one-eyed Jack is played, the player may remove an opposing player's token from anywhere.
Ben and I need to work on our silent communication a little bit more because we kept losing. :) But we pulled through and won the last game of the night.
Ben's been on a murder mystery kick, so we have been watching movies like: Clue, Murder by Death, Private Eyes, Pink Panther, and The Thin Man. They are all comedies so it is fun to watch them. I'm sure there will be many more movies on the list because Ben's been doing some research for more.
So that pretty much sums up everything that has been going on.
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