A few weeks ago, a couple doors down from a cousin of mine in a small town a couple towns south of us called Owls Head a duplex became open for rent... Katy & Jed fell in love with it at first sight. We have been trying to be hands off with the choice of where they will live for two reasons... One, they have to live there, not us and two, this is an exciting thing for them to do, just the two of them... Our only advice was for them to aim at being at least ten minutes from either set of parents. We had a lot of reasons for that, but most of them I am sure you can guess. After a week of much anxiety on their part, they heard back from the landlord and the place is theirs. Jed will move in soon, and Katy will join him after the wedding (of course) but they are already having a good time picturing their new life in their new digs... Paul, Allison, Dakota and I dropped by they day after they signed the lease to check things out... Here is the grand tour...

Katy greets us at the door...

As you will see in a moment, they have virtually nothing.. But Katy made sure she had this cute greeting for their guests...

Here she is in the living room... It is such a sunny place!

They are not exactly tripping over furniture at this point... Ah, to be just starting out again!

Jed was not as excited with my picture taking... I don't know why he wouldn't strike a fun pose for y'all, but I decided no to torture him further with my picture taking!

Here is Allison and Dakota pulling up a piece of rug...

I caught this moment in the background of one of my other pictures... I asked Allie later what they were so intently talking about, and they were talking about how excited they are for Katy and Jed and how they can't wait to be doing this kind of thing a mere 14 months from now. She thinks at this very moment she was asking him where he would want to look for a place when the time comes, (as I've mentioned before, Mid-Coast Maine, like most of New England is made up for lots of little towns all bordering each other.) and he was telling her that he wants to choose wherever she will be happy, because if she is there, he will be happy... Can I get an "Awwwww"?

Back to the tour...

Here is Katy in her new kitchen...

Yes, she has two dish towels, two small mixing bowls, and a tea kettle she got for her birthday... When people ask me what they need as her shower approaches and I say everything... I mean it!

What I didn't take a picture of was to my left as I took this picture... They have french doors that lead to a small deck and back yard that is bordered by woods... It is really nice and quiet.

Here she is in what will be her master bedroom...

 It's sunny too!

And their guest/spare bedroom...

 With the one of only two pieces of furniture they currently have. The top to a desk we gave them. The other piece is a coffee table they were given... It cracks me up when people ask me what on their registry they really need... I said it before but I mean it... Everything... If you look at some one's wedding registry and they registered for a can opener, it is a good bet they have nothing!

Here is Katy in her "laundry room" or as it will be known until they can afford a washer and dryer... The big storage closet! I will be storing a lot of the wedding mess in this very spot in the coming weeks!

Sorry...Couldn't resist...

She raided my supply of shower curtains to have something to hang up in here... I switch mine out fairly often so I won't miss the one she snagged until late summer... She snagged my extra set of hooks and a liner too... I buy them whenever I see them on clearance and apparently she shops in my bins!

Well, that's the grand tour... Does it bring back memories of your first place... It does for me... I think I may need to drag out the old scrapbooks!

Thanks for listening,

 

Hodgepodging with Only 79 Days to Go...

1. What's the last job you did that required elbow grease?

I feel like a lot of the jobs I do require elbow grease, but the first one that comes to mind for down and dirty elbow grease was cleaning the deck and getting out and cleaning the patio furniture... Something sticky got on several of the chairs and it took some hot soapy water and good old fashion elbow grease to get them clean.

2. March Madness, aka the men's Division I basketball championship, is nearing an end. What sort of 'madness' has your house seen this month?

Wedding...Wedding ... Wedding... and more Wedding! With 80 days to go I spend quite a bit of time focused on Katy & Jed's upcoming wedding and the upcoming shower.

 

3. What's your favorite shop for browsing?

I love to browse in all the little shops in Downtown Camden, Maine...  Just one town north of us (About a 7 minute drive)

(Camden in the Summer)

And the little shops in downtown Rockland, Maine... Just one town south of here (About another 7 minute drive from here.)

(Rockland in the summer)

But as spoiled as I am to live in an area of the country with alive and thriving Main Streets, I have to admit there are times when it is so worth the 45 minute drive to wander the aisles of the closest Target!

4. Is there ever a time when giving up makes sense?Yes, of course... When continuing on becomes foolishness... When the only reason you haven't made a "course correction" is a matter of pride... (One of those deadly sins!) During my days as a home-school mom I can think of a few times I got all excited about some new curriculum only to have it fall flat with the girls. Do I keep banging my head on a wall, and make everyone miserable or do we make a "course correction"? I can also think of numerous times with parenting when we had to give up on tactics that didn't work, or dreams we had for our girls that were not their dreams... I can even think of one time when it became really clear to us that the major decisions we had made were not what the Lord wanted for us... We could have forged on, but why stay outside the Lord's will when "giving up" would put us back on his path for us?

But... On the big things like marraige, children and faith... Never!
5. What's a song you love that contains the name of a city, state or country in its title?

I don't live someplace that people wax poetic about... At least not in musical form... The kind you can identify with and dance to... I don't know if it counts but whenever I see that reception scene in Steel Magnolias where they are all whooping it up to Jambalaya on the Bayou I wish mid-coast Maine had an "anthem"... Alas, we have no Sweet Home Alabama or the like to cut a rug to...

6. When did you first begin using a computer?

It was a huge deal when our school got computers for each class room... Two for each one! I was in fourth grade. Now the State of Maine gives a laptop to every student in the 7th grade and above. They have to turn them in during the summer, and we pay approx. $80 a year for insurance but otherwise the computers are the kids to use both at school and home... A big step up from two per class!

7. Did you buy girl scout cookies this year? What's your favorite?

No, I usually do, but missed out this year. I don't know a girl scout so I am dependant on finding them at the local grocery store... This year I didn't. I love the Samoas and Thin Mints, and have recently discovered that Keebler has some out that taste just like both of them...

(images from Keebler.com)

So all I have to do is drop by Wal-Mart for a fix... Of course these don't support the girl scouts, but since I don't know a girl scout these days I don't feel too much guilt.

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I am too tired for a random thought... I have been staring at the screen for over ten minutes and nothing interesting is coming to me... All I keep thinking about is wedding stuff... And that is not so random! Oh, I know, Jed and Katy signed the lease on their new place last Friday. He is moving in next week (she will join him after the wedding) but we got a chance to go over and check things out today... I took lots of photos... I will share those later this week.

Thanks for listening,

81 Days...

Where is the time going? We are running out of it! I know you guys are probably sick of wedding talk by now, but it is consuming a big chunk of my life at this point. So bear with me for ohhh 81 more days and I promise I'll take a break on wedding talk for a few months before I start in on wedding #2!

This week I finally got the shower invites out...

I like how they turned out... I won't tell you what draft this was but lets just say I have rough sample layouts for the next 12 bridal showers I throw... Sorry about the picture quality, but I am just too lazy to scan it in...

Here is what Allison and I were working on for three nights last week...

This photo was taken after night one... You know what doing this in advance told us? That we had left nearly 20 people off the list that really do need to be on it! You will notice the "head table" has lots of tags and they go all around it... Katy doesn't want to sit at a "display" table, she want to have a few minutes of fun with their closest friends. They also do not want to separate their attendants from their dates... That is just uncomfortable for everyone, so we decided to do a totally nontraditional "family" style table.

I purposely made this photo a little fuzzy since a few of my readers are real life friends and I don't want you to spot yourself on this and later be disappointed if I have to change your location. (Allison P. you guys are at #2, and that won't be changing.) The new chart has three more tables across the bottom of the dance floor.

This is what I've been working on tonight...

Printing 100 copies of this and 100 reply cards... We only had to run out for more ink once so far, but I am only on #60 when I quit for a break...

Yes, we are now all wedding and youth group for the next 81 days... Allison and I finished our last "other" commitment this past Sunday... We had a baby shower we planned Sunday afternoon... We wanted to do a vintage circus theme, but were unable to find the props we wanted, so at the last minute we mined a theme we had done recently...

Sock Monkey!

Here is one shot of the banner and candy bar... I will upload pictures of the tables and such later.

We love planning these parties, but this is the last one we will do (besides Katy's shower and wedding) until July. We decided we will need a break until after the wedding, but will pick back up in July. One thing we discovered as we did this party, we always become insane during the set up... Both Allison and I are very into the details... Little details mean a lot... We like all the custom water bottles to face outward, all the straws we pre put into the punch "cups" (mason jars) but all the straws need to point in the same direction... Stuff like that... This typically drives others nuts and nobody wants to help us. Paul will do manual labor... Lug stuff in and out, set up tables and chairs, take out trash at the end, but otherwise he is out of there... Katy and Jed will show up if it's a huge party but tend to leave when Paul does, but Dakota can handle our "crazy" and is actually a big help. He will do everything exactly the way we do and not just do things hap-hazard and say "it doesn't matter nobody cares which way the straws point"... We do, and even though he doesn't "get it" anymore then the others do, he respects that it matters to us. He was a huge help at our last party and we were on a seriously tight set-up schedule and couldn't have finished on time with out him. Another thing we learned... Adult women LOVE a candy bar... As you can see above we did a small one for this party. This party was for 21 people and only one of them was a child so we scaled down the candy bar to save money... The women in attendance descended on that candy like locusts... It was crazy, but they were having so much fun too. Allison made the cones to hold the candy and they packed those cones and a few of them secreted candy to their pockets... We will be suggesting one at every party from now on. This six item (small) candy bar with customized cones was only a $35 upgrade, but a huge hit...

We also did our last Monday night Bible Study until after the wedding last week and I have to admit as much as I will miss the weekly fellowship, I won't miss the weekly stress of having the house "company clean" every Monday.

We still have Allison's birthday in April and the Prom in May, but other than those things we are only focusing on wedding and youth group. It will be nice to not feel like our focus is so divided for a little bit!

Thanks for listening,

PS. Based on Dawn's comment below I realized I have left a couple things out. Allison and I are starting a party planning business. Not a large scale (weddings, etc... Although we are planning two of those.) but our vision is to help make small parties more memorable. I have always thrown really cool parties for the girls. I was "that" mom that always had a theme and spent months planning elaborate parties for the girlies... It was something I loved doing. When Allison got older she discovered a passion for it too, and when we moved back to Maine we started volunteering to do all the parties at the church, and several more here. Everyone encouraged us to go into business so we decided to give it a whirl. Right now we are only doing them for friends and only charging our expenses for three reasons, to get experience, to build a portfolio, and (most importantly) to see if this is what we really want to do. Our goal is for as little as $50 people can throw customized parties for their loved one. If you price the "Character theme" (Sponge Bob, Dora) at a party supply store it will cost you at least that much and not be at all individualized. So, that is what we are doing... Sorry for any confusion...

84 Days...



Thanks for listening,

86 Days...

Well, as I am sure you have figured by now, my life is totally nuts these days... First of all I can't not mention the weather... Today it is forecasted to be 80 degrees out... In Maine... In March... Unreal!! It is 10:30 and it is already well above 70... Craziness...

We voted last night about a name for my younger girlie's finance' and decided as a family to just all start using our real names. It seems kinda silly that Paul and I do, but that they have fictional names on here... So without further ado...

Meet Katy & Jed....

(Short for Katherine & Jedidiah of course)

And may I introduce Dakota & Allison...

(Ironically, not short for anything...)

My life just got a lot simpler!

(But people who go back and read my old posts will be forever confused!)

Also today, my darling, Katy turns 20! I am waaaay to young to be the mother of a 20 year old, let alone the mother of not one, but two engaged girls. I am not planning much of a party for her since I am spending all my time planning other parties for her! I will bake her a cake and got her sapphire earrings (something blue), so there will be a little frivolity! Her birthday gift from Jed is on hold. A week after the wedding he is taking her on a cruise for their honeymoon and he plans to let her pick out her birthday gift on the trip. His parents are buying her the cowboy boots she wants for the wedding. (One more thing off my list... yay!)

As for the wedding... I have been so stressed thinking about the food. We know what she wants to serve, but the thought of spending days cooking and worrying about the food at the reception was one of the thing I was dreading... I finally gave this worry up to the Lord and declared it would all work out. (I did not voice these concerns to anyone but Paul.) On church Sunday a family we barely know approached us and told us they have a catering business and would like to bless us by catering the wedding for us FOR FREE!!! I mean we will pay for the food, but they will cook it, transport it, serve it, tend it, clean up after, and since they do this professionally we will not need to rent anything (chaffers, etc) for serving the meal other then the dishes! PRAISE HIM!!! Why am I continually awed by his provision? Why do I continually need to re-learn to trust everything to the Lord? I am actually starting to get excited for the big day!

On other Wedding news... Katy and Jed just got their first wedding gift in the mail yesterday. The shower is still three weeks away, and I was tempted to make her wait, but seeing as it was the eve of her birthday and since just an hour earlier they found out that they got the apartment they were really wanting, I decided to be kind and make it a really memorable day...

Doesn't Jed look thrilled? He is actually looking at Paul who I am sure was making fun of him at this very moment...

Pyrex bowls! YAY! (Notice it this one I didn't bother to crop out the mess... Keeping it real folks!) She has decided the Target gift registry is the best invention since sliced bread! You should have seen the look of disappointment on her face when her dad told her she couldn't open the box until the wedding... He said "That gift isn't yours until you seal the deal." He is so mean. I really don't know the etiquette on this, but I told her if she waits until the shower I think she is fine. (Opinions?)

I am also working like a fiend this week to knock as much non-wedding stuff off my to do list as possible. I am making good progress so far! I would like only weeding and youth group stuff on there after this month! (We'll see how that works out!)

Thanks for listening,

The One Where I Fess Up...

So this was a crazy few days... It is now 11:30 PM on Saturday and I feel like the last three days were about ten days long... I'll start at the beginning. (As good a place as any.)

Thursday: I woke up with a horrible migraine... As I am sure you can tell my emotions have been all over the place for the last week. I am pretty sure it was triggered by my allowing stress a toe-hold in my life. I will tell you why I have been so stressed in a minute, but back to Thursday... It was such an intense headache, no medicine I took had any affect so I just had to sleep it off. That resulted in me being passed out on the couch until about 2:30 in the afternoon. About that time I still had a headache but was able to cope with life. I tried to do some housework, but pretty much just vegged on the couch and ordered pizza for everyone for dinner. Here is where this effected the rest of my weekend... That much sleep meant I was still awake when Paul woke up at 5:00 AM Friday... I was just heading to bed when I passed him in the hall. I begged him not to let me sleep past 9 AM and crawled into bed.

9:00 AM Friday... With four hours sleep under my belt I had to get up. I had a crazy busy day ahead and had lost all day Thursday, so I was really behind schedule. I downed a HUGE cup of coffee with that new York Peppermint Patty creamer (Cate picked it up at the store and it is yummy!) and rushed out to run errands. First stop the bank, then off to drop off a deposit for the wedding. Since I had company coming  at 11 AM for lunch I ran to the store to see what the deli had to offer in ready made salads. I got home and the girlies had done everything I asked them to so thankfully the house was presentable in time for Cate's bridesmaids and their moms to get here for a dress fitting and lunch. When I ordered the dresses I had to guess two of the four girls sizes, and am happy to report all the dresses fit perfectly!

3:30 PM Friday... Paul and I had our monthly meeting with our pastor to go over all things youth group. We had a fruitful meeting with lots of things figured out. We are so blessed to work with someone we can communicate so easily with and supports us so fully.

4:50 PM Friday... Arrive home... Take a deep breath at the back door...
Enter, squeal, jump up and down...

5:00 PM Friday... Load up the girlies and their guys to go to grab a bite to eat before the concert we were going to that night. We had "Meet & Greet" tickets so we had to be at the concert by 5:30 so it was dollar menu drive thru for dinner... The concert was "Chasen" and they blew us away. The sing the song Crazy Beautiful (since I can't seem to link anything up right now you'll have to look it up...) We know their drummer Lee because he was in a band that takes part in our church's annual summer concert in the park and we have come to think of them as family. So I am sure it was weird for the rest of the guys that we just wanted to chat with their drummer... It was fun to see Lee again and to meet the rest of the band. The downside is we got there at 5:30 for the "meet and greet" but the concert didn't start until 7 PM... Lots of waiting... So I snapped some pictures of the girlies and their guys...

Sparky & Her Guy (I really need a name for him)

Cate and Jackson

(Hey dude, if you sit up strait you won't look a foot shorter then your future wife!)

He's another shot of Sparky...

Yep, we were pretty bored, but the concert was great! We went out for a real meal after and ran into a bunch of people from the concert at the restaurant including the opening band. We kinda took over the place and it became an impromptu after-party. (Where sweet tea and Dr.P were the hardest things imbibed... Yep, we party hard!)

12:00 Midnight Friday/Saturday... We got back to our house. Since the guys both live thirty minutes from here and we were all exhausted we had them call home and crash in our livingroom.

8:00 AM Saturday... Wake up... Fix breakfast, send the guys home to change for a wedding we had to go to at 1:00 PM.

10:00 AM Saturday... More company! There is a young woman from church that has become like family to us, but because of her job she moved 45 minutes from here. Now we only get to see her on Sundays, but she was going to be down this way so I foolishly scheduled another thing for this weekend...

1:00-5:00 Saturday... Wedding and reception for a super couple from church. They had a beautiful service and we took notes for our upcoming nuptials. Their reception was a much more formal affair then ours will be but it was very nice.

Oh Wait...

Did you want to know more about 4:40 PM on Friday?

I kinda told you already...

Did you miss it?

Look again...

That is a ring...

A Sapphire ENGAGEMENT ring...

Yep, our Sparky... Our 17 year old Sparky is engaged. Do you see why I was kinda freaking out this past week? He came to us to get our permission and my husband's blessing. We knew these two were headed this way eventually, but not as seniors in high school. We kinda thought some time in the next year... At least I thought I'd get one wedding under my belt first. I am overjoyed for them and can see that this is from the Lord, but I am admittedly a little freaked out too. I am glad that my husband was the one he had to ask, because the Lord had recently put it on his heart that this guy is the man for our Sparky. When he came to ask, Paul already had his answer from the Lord. If you re-read some of last weeks posts they may make more sense now... You see... He asked us and talked to his parents, but it took a little over a week for the ring to get here. While we were meeting with the pastor, he was asking her!

There it is... Our shocking and big news!

Thanks for listening,

Five Favorites Friday... Wedding Edition

I think I simultaneously bored all my readers... Yesterday as of 8 PM I had zero page views... That has never happened on a day I posted... I guess even I wouldn't want to read my weepy narrative on the fears I have about an empty nest... In an effort to perk things up a bit, I thought I'd revisit one of my favorite weekly post themes of the past...

So, here goes... These are my favorites right now... Wedding Planning Style...

1. Doing things that are a bit crazy but will make the day special and unique...

Like a "Nacho Bar"

(source)

One of Jackson and Cate's favorite foods are Nachos so we plan to do a nacho bar at their wedding. We found a little "chocolate" fountain for 5.99 at Goodwill last week and plan to see if we can get it to work for the cheese, but may have to fall back to a crock-pot. Since we won't have a "cocktail hour" (because their won't be alcohol at the wedding) but do need to find a way to fill that hour when the ceremony ends and the pictures are being taken we came up with a plan. We are planning to set up a nacho bar and put little trays of appetizers on each table for people to share. We decided on a small veggie tray and a tray with spinach cucumber dip (a family summertime favorite) w/ baguette to snack on.

2. Pre-Invitation Seating Chart...

(source)

No, this is not the actual seating chart... But why do one before you even send out the invites you ask? Well, they go out very soon and we will start hearing back. We are very limited by space and budget so here is where I confess... We have an "A" list and a much longer "B" list. If we do a seating chart in advance when we hear someone can't make it we can choose strategically from the "B" list who will best fill in without having to shuffle the whole room. I know this sounds kinda cold, but Jackson has a huge family and a lot of family friends and they don't all get along... This chart already helped his mom decide who to put on the "A" list... We have a little room on our list, but most of our friends are out of state so we will have to wait and see who can make it!

3. Clever Guest Book Ideas...

I found all of the following ideas in about five minutes time by searching "guest book" on pintrest... (I am not taking the time to source all these photos if you are not on pintrest and want to know the source of one, just let me know... I'll pass it on!)

The Birthday Calendar...

Cate wants to do this one.

 Heirloom Bench...

Cute idea, but I could see this getting burdensome by year 10 or so...

Jenga! Such a cute idea!

A scrapbook full of envelopes for your guests to put messages in...

I have seen this one done as a bulletin board full too...

They took the envelopes off it after the reception and tied all the envelopes with a pretty ribbon to be read later.

Vintage typewriter for your guests to type you a little wish...

I saw this on one with super lung paper that they rolled into a scroll for cute storage.

Leaf Print...

Too Cute!

Surf board anyone?

Sparky found a guitar one that was similar...

So many things you can sign...

Who knew?

There is tons of "thumb print" art ideas...

Here are some of my favorites...

 I want to do this one!

Super Cute Idea!

This is the one I see everywhere!

 Do you collect rocks or just like the look of them in pretty  vases?

I think seashells would be fun too...

Perfect for "beach" theme weddings.

Old LPs... So clever, especially for a "classic rock" type of couple!

This one is so simple and DIY friendly...

And like so many of the others...

CUTE!

Custom monogram artwork?

Please and Thank You!

 I saw one that was the couples initials

(ex: J & C)

4. Clever Photo Poses...

I also see these all over Pinterest and the following ideas are from there...

Love this one!

 Lots of "Save the Date"Ideas...

I wish we had thought to do some back in the day...

These are just so fun!

The "Thank You" idea...

Just print up and your Thank you cards will be saved forever...

Yep... Love this idea...

5. Pintrest

If you are a blogger (or not a blogger) and not on pintrest I am about to rock your world! Pintrest is where you form "boards" of all those clever ideas so you can (theoretically) go back and do them someday...

There is so much to see on pintrest just looking at other people's "pins" and "repinning"...

But that is just the start...

You can also get a little button for your toolbar that says "Pin It" and as you are blog hopping or shopping, or anywhere online really if you see something cute, or a good idea or a recipe you want to try, you click "Pin It", pick a photo from the choices given and theta picture and the link to it are now yours forever... Three years from now when you try to remember how to make the book-page wreath, just refer to your pintrest and it will take you to the tutorial link you pinned... Genius!

 Well, ladies, that's what I am loving these days...

Thanks for listening,