Deva by Definition

Just a Small Shower

Wehad a very busy weekend. My parents, The Boy's mother, and one of my bridesmaids came in from out of town to my bridal shower! My Maid of Honor was a very gracious host, and Erica helped her with set-up, favors, and games.

We had such a blast at the shower - there was a lot of giggling and it was a small and intimate gathering. Jessica really outdid herself at this one! We had a delicious spread of food, including devilled eggs, bleu cheese and walnut stuffed dates, sliced pears with goat cheese, dried cranberries and almond slivers, red peppers and hummus, pesto toasts with tomatoes, veggie wraps, and delicious cupcakes! I loved the sugar roses on the cupcakes, which were moist and delicious. I was so happy I'd eaten a late breakfast and had room for all of the goodies. I'm pretty sure I had four stuffed dates and countless pear slices - so good!




There were just a few shower games. When Jessica and Erica started planning my shower last year they asked me if there were any games I didn't want at my shower, and the only one I was really dead-set against was making dresses out of toilet paper! It sounds like and looks like a fun game, but it's one that makes me cringe, too. Instead of tissue gowns, we played only two games: how well do you know the groom (and how well does the bride?), along with a game using pictures of me growing up. The goal? To guess how old I was at the time of the photo! We had many laughs over both games. The groom questionnaire included some questions about what his first pet was and what was her name, and how many times a day he toots! Everyone got a handful of questions right with the pictures, but I was surprised at how much older my friends thought I was when I was much younger!


Of course, then there were presents. I was advised that the number of bows I broke foretold the number of children we would have, so I did my best not to break MANY bows. I think I broke three - but I won't say how many of those I WANTED to break, haha! We got a lot of fun gifts and gadgets for our kitchen, and we've already broken several of them in. I'm really excited to try out the cake holder, cat creamer (my friends know me far too well), and the mustache cookies cutters!




After we finished with presents, we made a bow-quet, which was hilarious. Erica is going to keep it safe at her house until the rehearsal. I love that everyone incorporated our wedding colors into their wrappings so the bow-quet is red and white and so pretty! I had never made one before, so it was fun to help with the assembly of this paper-plate and shower-bow "bouquet"

I had such a blast at my shower, and I cannot BELIEVE that our wedding is just around the corner! It feels like we just got engaged. I felt so loved this weekend, and am already looking forward to the next group gathering (movie night!!). I'm baking cookies for that one.

How was your weekend?

A Planning-Packed Weekend

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours was jam. Packed. It was also very fun! We had several wedding-planning tasks on the agenda for the weekend and we managed to get most of them completed.

You see, this weekend was the weekend of my very first wedding gown fitting. My parents met me at the bridal shop and I pulled on my white, gorgeous dress for the first time in almost a year. It was exactly as I remembered it. Only this time, I had with me my most amazing and very red wedding shoes.

My dress needed a handful of alterations, once all was said and done: it definitely needs hemming to be high enough off the ground for our planned outdoor ceremony. We’re adding a bustle and making a few other alterations to ensure that it fits me perfectly without causing any issues for the wedding day.

During my dress fitting, I took the time out with my mom and dad to figure out what jewelry and accessories I will be wearing with my dress. The bridal consultant was more than happy to help us look at necklaces, earrings, and bracelets. In the end, we figured out all of the accessories to complete my look, including how to incorporate my “something borrowed,” for which we used a stand-in, which is pictured above. I’m eager to see how my whole bridal look will come together once my alterations have been completed next month.

Of course, while I was at my dress fitting, The Boy was with his groomsmen to get their suits picked out and purchased. With our wedding colors being red, black, and white, he wanted basic and comfortable black suits, and after a little deliberation, one of his groomsmen texted me their decision – basic but perfect for our day!

That isn’t all we determined and finalized this weekend, though. We are planning to stand under a Chuppah for our ceremony, and The Boy’s stepfather is helping us construct it. I was lucky enough to stumble upon some white organza while out with my parents that will be perfect for covering the Chuppah, and it enabled us to finalize how that will look in our ceremony space. Additionally, we started to think about and put together our ceremony itself – which is almost assembled. We’re cobbling together our ceremony to be quick but representative of us, and I am very excited with how it is coming together.

But the weekend wasn’t just about wedding planning. My birthday is coming up in a few days, and I was excited to be able to take the time out this weekend to sit down and enjoy some cinnamony-chocolate cake baked by my mother to celebrate. It was delicious, and I have a couple pieces waiting in the kitchen to devour this week.

All in all, it was a good weekend. Busy, but I imagine (and looking at my planner, can see) that the next twelve weeks are going to be busy and fly by. Our wedding is going to be here before we know it!

What about you? How was your weekend?

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Wedding: Bringing the Families Together

At the Bridal Show

Wedding: Bringing the Families Together

I have a lot of wedding planning books, magazines, guides, and even websites that I look at on a semi-regular basis. They all have basically the same information contained within: what is the best way to buy a dress, how to pick flowers if you are on a budget (and we are definitely having a fairly awesome budget wedding), how to pick a DJ - or Self-DJ, if you are so inclined (and we are), as well as many other helpful hints and tricks for any bride (or groom) to-be. 

One thing I have noticed is missing from many wedding planning guides (or something that I have skimmed over many times), is how much of the wedding is about bringing two families together. Yes, the wedding is about the marriage of two individuals, but as soon as we say "I do," we are, in a way, tying our families together into one big family, too. 

This first dawned on me as we were putting together our guest list. Sifting through the many family members we are inviting, I realized how many of them I hadn't seen in a good long while. Long enough that I started to think of our wedding as sort of a mini family reunion (but without the potluck lunch). As we have gotten more involved in our wedding planning, we are starting to really have to think about what, beyond what we have already done, will be best for our guests and their needs.

We want to throw a great (albeit alcohol-free) party for our families. A fun shindig, if you will, where we can all get together for one night, and after The Boy and I pledge to be together as husband and wife, get on the dance floor and party the night away. That is part of why we are having a small, mostly family celebration. Our plan is to serve really good, homestyle food - like mashed potatoes and macaroni and cheese - and to put together a play list in iTunes that has something in it for everyone, so nobody will feel left out on the dance floor that night.

I've also realized, through conversations with friends and emails with Rachel that other than planned family reunions and weddings, the only time that families get together in big groups like this is for funerals. Which are a sharp contrast to a wedding. While a funeral is a gathering to celebrate what was a great life, and who was a great person, a wedding is a gathering to celebrate the creation of a new family, a new life-status for a pair of loved ones. 

I know I sound a bit jumbled, but I think what I am trying to say as i type frantically at my desk is that I want our wedding to be as much about us as it is about our families and about togetherness. We may not have the budget for a weekend of festivities, but for one day, I want everyone to enjoy themselves, to get to know one another and to reconnect. I want to dance - A LOT - and eat good food and drink a lot of soda and lemonade. On my wedding day, I want to be surrounded by love, friendship, and laughter. By family members and friends, old and new.

In reality, isn't that what weddings are really about?

 

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Taking the Week Off

On Tuesday, I climbed out of bed and ran 6 miles in just over an hour. I felt great when I got back – speedy and excited for the week’s training. Every run I went on last week was amazing – speedy and great, and I was happy that my speed and running ease carried over into this week.

Wednesday I woke up and my left foot was sore – like I had bruised it. I knew when I was crossing the bedroom to turn off my alarm that running would be a bad idea, so I reset the alarm and climbed back into bed, waking up a few short hours later to begin my day. I took a “wait and see” attitude – if my foot was sore in the evening I would not run on Thursday.

Wednesday night I started feeling not-so-great. My head was stuffy, my face hurt, and my throat was sore. The Boy said he felt the same way Friday, right before he spiked a fever. I wrapped up in a blanket on the sofa to watch television with The Boy, and took a little cold medicine before bed, in hopes that I would feel better in the morning.

This morning – Thursday – I woke up shivering, with a pounding sinus headache and stuffy ears, and was grateful for the extra few hours of sleep. It would appear then, that I have caught a cold. I don’t think there is any question that I am taking the remainder of the week off from my half marathon training to recoup and recover. I can pick up again next week – when I get over whatever this is.

For now, I am going to drink a lot of juice and water, rest, read, and enjoy a few days’ break from my training.

A long (birthday) weekend

This weekend, The Boy and I took a few extra days off to celebrate my birthday – which fell today. We enjoyed a relaxing weekend, visiting with my parents, going to see The Secret World of Arrietty, picking up some new supplies to support my running habit, and taking a trip to Sephora so I could get some new foundation, bronzer, makeup brushes, and my Sephora birthday gift – some mini Fresh Sugar lip balms!

We also enjoyed some chocolate cake and cookies and crème ice cream, dinner at Montgomery Inn, and a trip to Jungle Jim’s to pick up some Meiji chocolate, soba noodles, and Japanese curry mix. It has been a very fun and relaxing long weekend and I am glad I took the time off to enjoy it. I’ve been able to sleep past nine almost every day I’ve been off, and even got to enjoy two very nice runs in forty and fifty-degree temperatures!

I am eager to get back to regular blogging as the week continues, and will be back tomorrow with another half marathon vlog. For now, though, I think I am going to wrap up my birthday weekend with some more cake and perhaps some Fraggle Rock on DVD.

What did you do this weekend?

Oh Sad Day

Today, we said good-bye to a dearly loved member of my family.

Our beloved dog passed away today, and it is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I post this. She was a good dog, a sweet girl, a true friend, and I will always have a place for her in my heart. Today I look back fondly on the fifteen years of memories I have of her and am glad she got to enjoy such a full and happy life.

She will definitely be missed.

Playing Catch-Up

It’s been a while! I decided to take a break from blogging while I was at home for Thanksgiving. My grandparents were in town, and I wanted to soak up every moment I could with my family while I could, especially since I don’t see them as often as I’d like.

Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING. My parents really outdid themselves this year and everything was delicious. My dad brined the turkey and roasted it along with sixty mushrooms (yes, they did count them), and several carrots, which came out delicious. The turkey was tender and filled with flavor and was complemented nicely by the accompaniments: roasted homegrown butternut squash, roasted brussels sprouts and grapes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, homemade rolls, and homemade cultured butter made from local cream and buttermilk. Each bite was full of flavor and texture. I loved the tang of the cultured butter and the sweetness of the caramelized butternut squash.

This was only part of what I enjoyed on Thanksgiving, I definitely went back for seconds – and pie!

I was glad to be able to spend Thanksgiving at home this year, and spent a good bit of time snuggling and petting my dog. I hadn’t seen her since last Thanksgiving and was happy to be able to pet and spoil her a bit while I was home.

I also got to take my younger brother ice skating on Thanksgiving, which was a blast! He plays hockey and is quite the awesome skater. I had to work to keep up with him!

While home, I actually stayed at my sister’s place in town. She’s a student at the university and has a very cute apartment. It was nice to get to sit and watch movies with her late at night, to catch up and talk about boys and other fun stuff we have going on in our lives, and of course, to be able to walk with her to donkey coffee in the morning for my much-loved lattes.

I, as always, bought a bag of beans to bring back with me. It made my car smell like a coffee house while I was driving home Sunday night, which made me smile.

There was a lot of conversation and joking this weekend, as well as a family trip to see The Muppets. We are a Muppet family, and I’ve loved the Muppets since probably before I could talk. I was thrilled to be able to see this latest installment into the Muppet genre with my family. At least half of our group of six was singing “Rainbow Connection” at the end of the movie – my favorite Muppet song.

All in all, it was a great, relaxing, fun weekend. I was sad to leave on Sunday and am already thinking of when I want to go visit again. I felt very thankful for my family this holiday, and I am already eagerly awaiting the next time I get to see them.

What did you do for Thanksgiving?

At the Museum

My brother went home yesterday morning. After Friday’s excursion to the Aquarium, we spent Saturday doing all sorts of things. Mainly, though, we went to the Museum Center downtown. There is currently an exhibit about Cleopatra that Ben wanted to see, and we were more than happy to go and explore for a few hours.

No photography was allowed in the Cleopatra exhibit, and I didn’t take many photos at all this weekend. Before we visited the Cleopatra exhibit, we did look at the scale model of the city as it was in the early/mid 20th century. The detail in the exhibit is incredible!

We did eventually make our way to the traveling exhibit, then through the Natural History and Science museum before making our way home.

Of course, our day wasn’t done there – no. We opted into going for Chinese food for dinner, followed by a trip to one of the movie theaters to see “Kung Fu Panda 2.” By the time we made it back from the movie on Saturday night, I was tuckered out! We stayed up just a bit later to catch up on some anime, and then I think we all were ready for bed.

Sunday I woke up early enough to fix and enjoy a yummy pancake breakfast in the hours before my brother had to head home.

I enjoyed mine with butter, pancake syrup, and a pile of sliced, extra-ripe banana. These pancakes were SUPER delicious AND filling – yum!

All in all, I had a WONDERFUL weekend. I loved having my brother here to visit, and we had a lot of fun exploring just some of the things my city has to offer. I can’t wait to do it all again.

Under the sea

My weekend has gotten off to a great start! I had today off – for very good reason: my brother is visiting!

He arrived last night and will be staying with us until Sunday – I’m super excited to have him here.

We got our Friday kicked off with some fun – taking a trip downtown to visit the bookstore AND the aquarium. We spent close to forty-five minutes just at the bookstore, looking at books, music, and movies. After stowing our purchases away in the car, we made way to the aquarium, where we proceeded to spend the next three hours wandering around and exploring.

The aquarium has made a lot of changes since my last visit – expanding some exhibits and improving others. I loved getting to walk through the shark tunnels – it was like being under the sea!

My favorite part, however? The jellyfish.

I could take pictures of jellyfish for hours. They are so elegant and peaceful to watch.

After more than four hours of walking around and exploration, we both decided that it was time to head home – we were worn out!

Tomorrow brings more fun! I can’t wait!

Just Some Craziness

This past week was a little on the busy side. The Boy and I went to a baseball game with a group of his coworkers last Tuesday, and spent the rest of the week preparing for my brother’s graduation on Saturday. He was graduating from high school and we were quite excited for him.

The Boy and I actually spent all of Saturday in Columbus visiting with my parents, siblings, and grandparents, and by the time we got back late that evening, we were WIPED. OUT. I crashed as soon as my head hit the pillow and didn’t wake up until right before my alarm went off Sunday morning. I had plans to meet my friend Jessie for church, and it was a nice break in the weekend. We enjoyed an interesting sermon before catching up over lunch at the Olive Garden. Eventually I had to make my way home where The Boy and I spent the remainder of our Sunday straightening up around the house and catching up on some anime.

Because of how crazy things were this past week, I decided to take a rest week from the gym. I’ve been keeping a pretty good routine – I am currently working my way through The New Rules of Lifting for Women, and am in Stage B, so I have been following the program pretty closely since mid-May. I’ve been impressed at how quickly I have been developing strength, especially in my arms and abdomen, and hadn’t realized just how much I missed my challenging weight lifting workouts.

BUT… I am back in the gym this week. I’m already pretty amazed at what physical changes I’ve seen in just seven weeks, and I am excited to see what continuing to lift will do. Starting next week, I am hoping to alternate lifting with cardio – I want to run a few road races in the early Fall and need to get back to running!

For now, though, I think I am going to go dig into some DELICIOUS watermelon and settle in for some “Cowboy Bebop.” I hope you have a great night!!