Yesterday was such a joyful day of events to celebrate! Nathan and I went with his family to lunch in Castle Rock to celebrate his grandmother's 75th birthday. Then, during the meal, I received the wonderful news that Dede (one of my bridesmaids) had her baby!! Bernard David Rutkowski was two weeks early and weighed just over 7 pounds. He is such a cutie already! Congratulations to Dede and Bernie for their brand new little guy, and to Harvella for 75 years!
Yesterday I dragged Nathan into a scrapbooking store with me. While we were in there, he happened to come across stickers that matched the ones I used to make cards for my bridesmaids. He thought it would be funny to make cards for his groomsmen so he bought the stickers. He put the cards together today. I think he might be a scrapbooker at heart!
Nathan holds a special place in his heart for children. He even has a special name for them. He calls kids "kuddies"- a word introduced to him by his friend Phil. Nathan has always been awed by the behavior of "kuddies" and entranced by their cuteness. Whenever there are little ones around, Nathan is sure to get out his cell phone camera to try and capture their silly sweetness. He is so easily distracted by any child that is nearby and being with Nathan helps bring to light everything that is adorable, funny, and precious about kids.
Nathan will play with "kuddies" for hours- whatever they want. He can't say no. When we were in Boise for Christmas, my niece and nephew followed Nathan around everywhere and always wanted him to play with them... and he would do it. One morning at about 11:00 am, after playing with Zach for a couple of hours, Nathan went to take a shower. Zach listed off to me all the things he and Nathan had played that morning. "We played trains, we read books, we played hide and seek...." and ended it with a sigh and the best quote of all, "We played all day!"
In my family, the adults usually sit around and visit together while the children play and entertain themselves. That's not to say there aren't a lot of adults checking on the kids and interacting with them, but usually they are trying to get a moment or two of adult conversation. At a family function with Nathan, you would most likely find him in the room with the kids, rather than talking to the adults. I like this picture so much because it shows Nathan playing Barbies with his cousins. Playing with barbies is not something Nathan would normally do in his spare time, however since that's what his little cousins were doing, that's what Nathan was doing.
"There is in friendship something of all relations, and something above them all. It is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world."
I have such wonderful friends! For years now I have had a monthly breakfast with friends in Denver. It started out with just Becca, Ramona, and I and slowly it has grown and grown. Now there are eight of us. Those breakfasts are the best! I look forward to them all month and get so excited when the weekend of the breakfast arrives. The greatest part is seeing all these wonderful, strong women and hearing about families and jobs, joys and struggles. Everyone of us has had our own challenges and it's very clear that everybody was blessed with such amazing gifts. I love the support and love of these women and I want to say thank you to all of them for being committed to our group!
Recently people have been e-mailing me a lot and letting me know that they are keeping up with the blog. Thanks so much for reading (and don't be afraid to leave comments)! In those e-mails I have had some requests for more information about Nathan. People have asked me what he's like, how we met, what he likes to do, etc. Thanks also to my friends at a distance for wanting to get to know Nathan! So... I thought I would post some of my favorite pictures of him. These pictures best illustrate facets of his personality. I'll explain each picture that I post and why I like it. This first picture was taken outside Nathan's sister's house in Kansas. I like this picture so much because Nathan LOVES playing the guitar. He is completely content walking around for hours with his guitar, just strumming away. Nathan is proud of the constant calluses on his fingers from playing. An evening spent with his guitar is Nathan's idea of time well spent. He writes great songs and has been in many bands over the years. He will also sing songs, if you ask him to. His closest friends are the ones who can relate to his interest in music and who play music with him. If Nathan could be anything he wanted, he would be a "rock'n'roll" star and a songwriter!
This selection was in a phonics book we have at my school. Those of you who are teachers might be able to figure out the phonic skill that is emphasized by this selection. I'm just amused by how it simplifies a wedding.
People get married at a wedding. Women are brides. Sometimes brides dress in white. They look nice. Men look nice too. The people like each other. They want to stay together for life. They stand side by side. They may slide a ring on each other's finger. The rings shine. People come to the wedding. They eat fine food. They smile and laugh. They have a good time. A married woman is a wife. A married man is a husband.
Tonight our school hosted a Literacy Night. There was a great storyteller who came. I was lucky enough to get the job of collecting tickets for his session and so I got to listen to his stories all evening. It was so amazing! I loved watching the kids get so wrapped up in the stories he was telling. I loved hearing their little voices pipe up when they were supposed to "help" tell the story. I loved watching the kids use their imagination to see a story, rather than watching it on television. If I could do one thing, I would love to be able to capture the attention of children by telling stories like this man. It really was wonderful.
My district canceled school yesterday and today. Normally I LOVE snow days (and I can't say that I hated staying home these past two days), but I think this break has given me too much time to think (and stress) about the wedding. I can't imagine what the summer will be like! To add to my stress, our school board canceled their meeting for the second time in a row. At this meeting they are supposed to approve the calendar for next school year so we will know (for sure) when fall break is, thus determining the date of the wedding (for sure). Now we have to wait for two more weeks again! For now we are thinking "the big day" will be October 13.
I made a first attempt at invitations today. Here are pictures of it. You can't tell in the picture but there are tiny heart-shaped brads at the top and bottom of the striped paper on the front. There are also the same brads at the top of the translucent vellum paper on the inside, holding it down. The pink paper on the cover could have a Bible verse or special quote on it. The wedding information would be printed on the vellum paper on the inside. I have different kinds of paper to use for the cover (in place of the striped paper). I also have different kinds of ribbon, some just pink like the one on this invitation and some with pink, brown, and green on them. Finally, the brads come in various shades of pink, brown, rust, silver, and gold. I like the idea of using all these different things so that no invitation is exactly the same as another. What do you think?
Yesterday, after feeling miserable all day, I came home to a wonderful surprise! I had two cards from Lauren, a package from Kelly, and a package from Dede. I can't tell you how much better I felt because of their thoughtfulness! What a great mail day! I LOVED everything and it just reminded me how little we use "snail mail" anymore but how great it really is. Thank you so much for thinking of me and sending me mail. I loved it! I will try to be better about returning the favor in the future.
I am excited about the idea of making my own wedding invitations and I have been looking around for some ideas. I made cards for my attendants (something I actually did send in "snail mail" recently) and I like the way they turned out, but wedding invitations will be really different. As I was searching on the internet last night for some ideas, I was amazed to see that there are magazines out there completely dedicated to the art of making cards. It's amazing how complicated and fancy some of those cards are! I want the invitations I make to be elegant but simple. If you are a bridesmaid and you haven't received your card yet, watch the mail! (You too, Lauren)!
Sorry! As I've mentioned before, I am new to this blogging thing. I didn't realize that I had not set my blog to allow comments from anyone. I was told that only registered users have been able to comment so far, and that was not my intention. I think I have fixed it though. Now everybody can leave a little note, if they want to. I'll get better and better at this as I learn more. :)
Being sick is awful when you are a teacher. It's not like other jobs where you can just let your boss know you won't be at work. I'm not feeling well and staying home from work involves calling a sub line, requesting a guest teacher, and spending at least two hours writing lesson plans and making copies for the guest teacher. Then you get to stay at home and worry about whether or not "Johnny" is behaving for the substitute and realizing that you forgot to tell him/her to collect the picture money/field trip permission slips/read-a-thon forms that are all due today. (Seriously- we are collecting at least that many things right now.) So many teachers I know just come to work when they are sick to avoid the hassle of writing the plans and worrying about their kiddos. I know that there is a shortage of substitutes (or "guest" teachers, as my district likes to call them), but it doesn't help when you get an e-mail like the one we got today that reminds teachers that there is a sub shortage and to try NOT to be out this time of year because there is no guarantee that they can get somebody to cover your class. It's really not worth staying at home.
This is just an FYI- Little Lauren (Nathan's sister) is coming to town the first weekend of May and we are going to go wedding dress shopping that Saturday, May 5. I am excited to go try on dresses! Anybody who wants to join us, just let me know!
There are so many things to decide about for a wedding... colors, flowers, dresses, and most importantly, the roles that people will play in the wedding. It can be difficult! Right now I am having a color crisis- trying to decide which colors to have for a fall wedding, especially since I don't want any shade of red or orange. I am thinking about choosing brown and pink. The idea of brown as a wedding color seems a little off, but I LOVE the color combination in clothes I have seen. That's the only color idea I have so far. If you used a color combination at your wedding that you just loved, let me know what it is!
Choosing who to have standing next to you as you get married is such a big decision! How do you decide that this sister or that friend is most deserving of the honor? My relationships with my sisters and friends are all so different and each one is extremely valuable in its own way. I don't want anybody to be left thinking that I don't care as much about them, or that I don't recognize my relationship with them as a significant one.
Thinking about who to choose became so much easier for me when Nathan suggested that I look at which people have offered the most support as Nathan and I have navigated through our relationship. Andie, Becca, and Dede (each in their own way) have empathized, advised, counseled, encouraged, and reached out to me in ways that were so incredibly important, and, more than anything else, they have loved and accepted Nathan from day one! They were also happier about the wedding news than almost everybody else (except Little Lauren- who is practically my fourth bridesmaid)!
To my girls (Andie, Becca, Dede, Lauren)- thank you so much for taking on the responsibility of standing there with me (us). You will never know how much it means!
If you know Nathan even a little bit, you know how much he loves to play the guitar. If you know Nathan well then you probably know "Ol' Red." This is a guitar Nathan has had since he was a "kuddie" and this guitar has been a constant presence at my house for the past year. Today I was doing a little ironing and Ol' Red was leaning against the wall. My foot gently knocked against it (on accident!) and the guitar fell forward onto the tile floor. It banged pretty loudly and my heart just dropped. I went over to check out the damage and Ol' Red's head had completely broken off. I felt terrible! I know how much this guitar means to Nathan and I can't believe that I have ruined it. My friend, Erin, said today that Denny McLaughlin (I don't know if his name is spelled correctly), famous around here for his education seminars, has been known to give the advice that if you are in a serious relationship, you should give your significant other the "vase" test. Essentially this is a test in which you break something sentimental to your partner and watch his reaction. If he freaks out and gets upset, walk out the door. If he is solution-oriented and forgiving, you have a 'keeper.' I know Nathan must have been disappointed but he was very forgiving and even suggested that his dad might be able to fix it. I guess my cat, Chloey, is right and Nathan is a 'keeper!' Even though it was an accident, I feel like we had our first real test on "for better or worse!" Hopefully I will be as forgiving as Nathan was when it's my sentimental item that gets ruined.
We made an announcement last Sunday at church about our engagement. I guess I shouldn't say that "we" made the announcement because neither Nathan or I liked the idea of standing up there in front of everybody and speaking into the microphone and thinking of exactly what to say. So, we put Nathan's aunt, uncle, and cousins in charge of announcing the good news! They did a great job and we videotaped it and posted it on youtube. If you want to watch it, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6ZUSK3ozS4. I guess there might even be a way for me to attach the video directly to this blog, but I'm not smart enough to know how to do it yet, so a link will have to do for now.
These pictures were taken last weekend (Easter) at Nathan's parent's house. It was such a beautiful, cold day. The trees had this wonderful crystalized look with the frozen snow attached to them. I thought today would be an appropriate day to post them because school was canceled for the "blizzard" that was coming. Only the "blizzard" never came. There has been a little bit of snow but certainly not enough to make driving difficult. But, in Colorado you never know what to expect! With a little bit of guilt, I will enjoy this time off!
I have some friends who do this blogging thing and I am so fascinated by their blogs that I thought I would start my own. I'm a little nervous about it. I certainly don't yet know how to do things like downloading pictures, but I'm hoping to figure everything out as I go.
In case you haven't heard, Nathan and I got engaged last Thursday!! Yeah!! Getting engaged was the final motivation I needed to get started on blogging. So many friends and family are far away and I want them all as involved in this wedding as possible and this is the only way I can figure out how to do it. (Although I haven't completely figured this out yet!) My hope is that this blog will help me keep connected to those of you who are not living near to me right now. We'll see how this goes!
