A month from TODAY Scott and I will be saying our vows and exchanging rings in front of our closest friends and family members. One month from today, Scott and I will become husband and wife and commit ourselves to each other for the rest of our lives. How cool is that!? It's crazy to think that we are only 30 days away from our "big day"! These past 18 months have flown by! I wish I could say that the past 18 months have been perfect, wonderful and easy....but I would just be lying to everyone! The truth is, these past 18 months have been the hardest and most challenging months that either one of us has had to go through. We've had our ups and we've had our downs. We've celebrated together and cried together. We've been angry, frustrated, happy, excited, sad, hopeful and disappointed. Life has handed us challenges that we were not prepared for or wanting to take on! But through everything, Scott and I have stuck together, supported one another and had faith that we could get through these past 18 months as long as we did it together.
On Oct. 18, 2008 Scott got down on one knee (Yes, he really did) and asked me to marry him. Even though I was sick as can be, it was the happiest day of my life! That day, I think we both imagined that our lives would be perfect from that moment on! :-) We were getting married! We were soooo in love! We were so excited for our future together! Well, those feelings lasted exactly 3 weeks and 6 days. On Nov. 17, 2008 I got laid off from my job. That was the day that we started a journey together that neither one of us had planned for!
Now, I don't want to make it sound like these past 18 months have been awful! To be honest, we've actually have had more good days then bad days. I graduated from grad school, we got our first apartment together, we went to a dozen concerts and tried out a hundred new restaurants, we went camping, explored the Rocky Mountains and have begun making Colorado our home. We meet new friends, developed stronger relationships with our families as a couple and built a stronger foundation for our life together. I know both Scott and I are disappointed that we were "robbed" of our "honeymoon" phase in life and wish that reality hadn't come quite as fast as it did, but I guess that's life.
If I've learned nothing else from the past year and half, I have managed to learn these 5 things:
1 - Life never goes as planned
2 - Enjoy today and don't worry about tomorrow (the biggest life lesson Scott has taught me)
3 - As long as I put my faith and trust in God I can make it through life's challenges
4 - Scott is the love of my life and I never want to go a day without him by my side
5 - Scott and I are so blessed to have loving and supportive friends and family members
As I look forward towards the next 18 months of our lives, I wonder what challenges life will bring us. Where will we be in 18 months? What will we be doing? What exciting new things are coming our way that we don't even know about yet? I guess only time will tell!!!
On a quick wedding note: We have been busy trying to finalize our last minute details for the wedding. RSVPs have been rolling in each day, final payments have been made and final touches have been done to make our wedding weekend even more special. We still have a long list of stuff that needs to get done, but neither one of us is feeling too overwhelmed! We are excited to see our family and friends at the end of the month! We are very excited for our honeymoon (a much needed vacation)! But I think most of all, we are just excited to finally be husband and wife! It's been over 10 years since Scott and I first met....I think we've waiting long enough!
With Love,
Heather
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Spring Break in the 515
Most people go some place cool for spring break...Colorado, Florida, California, Mexico....well, not me! For the past 7 years I have left Colorado (one of the most popular spring break destination might I remind you) and made the trip back to Iowa over Spring Break. This year was no different! Scott, my Mom and I packed our cars full and headed East on I-80. Here's a recap of our vacation in the 515:
Tuesday, March 23
Scott, my Mom, Cooper (my Mom's dog) and I were our cars and on the highway by 6:00 am! We made a stop at Starbucks for a little coffee and breakfast before we headed out of town...thanks goodness for Starbucks opening at 5:00 in the morning! Tuesday's drive was relatively uneventful. We made our regular stops along I-80...North Platte, Karney and Lincoln...for gas and food. The nice thing about traveling in the middle of the week is no traffic. The sun was out, which also made for a nice drive across Nebraska. Scott and I rolled in to Des Moines around 6:00 that evening. We unloaded our bags at John and Vicki's in Clive and headed out to dinner with them. We went to Biaggis for dinner, so that Scott could get his Chicken Parmesan meal for the week! :-) We had a wonderful time at dinner getting all caught up with John and Vicki! But after a long day in the car, Scott and I were exhausted! We went to be early and slept great!!!!
Wednesday, March 24
Wednesday was our only day to sleep in while on our trip...so we took advantage of it. We slept in until 9:00 and took our time getting ready. We went to Boone to meet my cousin Danielle, her kids Hunter and Kate, my Grandma and my Mom for lunch at the Dutch Oven Bakery. It was good to be "home." After lunch Scott and I headed to Ames where we met up with my Dad. We were able to spend that afternoon with my Dad. We had dinner at Hickory Park....yum...with him before we headed back down to Des Moines.
Wednesday night Scott and I stayed at Scott's Mom's house. That night we spent our time in the basement looking through hundreds, maybe thousands, of pictures and albums! Scott wanted to go through old picture albums so that we could pull some pictures of him as a little kid for the slide show we are putting together for the wedding. Well....I think we got more then we were expecting! :-) It was fun going through all the old pictures! I really enjoyed seeing pictures of Scott as a baby and little kid. He's cute now, but I think he might have been a little cuter when he was little! ;-) By midnight we managed to get through a good portion of the albums so we decided to call it a night and come back to it on Friday!
Thursday, March 25
Thursday morning we enjoyed a nice family breakfast with Jane, Dan, Scott, Stephanie and myself. Jane made eggs, cheese sausages, cinnamon rolls, fruit and coffee for us! It was wonderful! I really enjoyed our breakfast and look forward to having many more of them with the family! Thursday afternoon, while Scott went to his dentist appointment, I went shopping with Danielle, Kate, my Aunt Clare and my Mom. Went went to Davids Bridal in West Des Moines so that Kate could try on flower girl dresses. We finally picked on and got it ordered! She is going to be soooo cute, I can't wait! :-) Afterwards we went to Valley West Mall to find shoes and make-up. Danielle helped me pick out make-up for the wedding! What a great girl's shopping day!
That evening Scott and I headed downtown to meet some of Scott's co-workers from ING Des Moines and some of our friends for happy hour. Scott's friend, and groomsmen, Chris drove from Colorado to Iowa on Thursday so that he could attend Scott's bachelor party (what a friend!) so he was there and able to meet some people as well. Our rather large group went out to dinner and then to another bar for a few more drinks before we ended the night. I know Scott had a great time seeing all of his old friends! I'm glad they were all able to come out and join us!
Friday, March 26
After my dentist appointment at 8:00 am Scott and I went to my friend Erin's cafe for coffee and cheesecake. If you are in the Des Moines area you need to stop by Flarah's (2815 Beaver Ave) for lunch and try her cheesecake...tell her Heather sent you! :-) After our mid-morning snack, Scott took me to Hy-Vee in West Des Moines for lunch. He has been raving about Hy-Vee Chinese food ever since he moved out here, so he was so happy to finally be able to take me there for lunch. I have to admit that it was really good! Nice job babe! After lunch we went back to Jane's house to go through more pictures. This time Stephanie was able to join us! We made our way through the other half of the stack before we had to leave to head to Boone. I can't wait for everyone at the wedding to see how cute Scott was when he was a kiddo!!!! :-)
Friday night we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. We had Godfather's pizza and cake. It was a great night! I miss having birthday celebrations with the family, so I really enjoyed myself that night. Scott definatly fits in well with the family, which is nice to know! :-) Kate seems to like Scott...in fact, I think Scott is Kate's best friend! She had to be sitting right between us and wouldn't leave Scott alone! They are too cute together!!!
After dinner Scott and I headed back to Des Moines to watch the UNI basketball game at a friends house.
Saturday, March 27
Saturday was a big day for both Scott and I. Scott went golfing that morning with John, Chris and Matt. It was his 2nd time golfing, and from what I hear he doesn't suck too bad! My day was wonderful! My Aunt Clare and Danielle threw me a wedding shower that afternoon in Boone. It was sooooo wonderful! The room looked beautiful, so many of my friends and family came (some who I hadn't seen in years) and the food was amazing! My Aunt and cousin did such a wonderful job and it really made me feel special! After the shower was over Scott stopped in to say hi to everyone. He was also impressed with everything and I know it made him feel just as special to know that there are so many people who care so much about us!
After my shower, I made the rounds and said my good-byes to everyone. Then my Dad and I went to dinner. I really enjoyed the father-daughter time I had with him that night. It was a nice way to spend my last night in town.
Saturday night was also Scott's bachelor party! I can't give you too many details because, well, Scott doesn't remember too many details! :-P The boys started out the evening with dinner at Granit City. After dinner they went downtown and bar hopped the rest of the night. It sounds like everyone had a great time and Scott really enjoyed the night! He kept telling me how awesome his friends are....so I'm guessing that means that they took care of him and treated him well that night! No one ended up in jail, with a tiger in their hotel room or a baby in their closet (see the movie the Hangover for these references), so I guess I can't complain too much about it!
Sunday, March 28
Scott's bachelor party ran into the early hours of Sunday. Poor guy only got an hour of sleep before I had to wake him up so we could leave. We, once again, left at 6:00 am and headed West. I drove while Scott sat in the seat next to me hating life! :-) I tried to make him as comfortable as I could, but I really didn't feel that bad for him....! The drive home was uneventful as well. Scott and I got home around 5:30 that evening and crashed!
We had a great time on our trip. It was so nice seeing all of our family and friends! We love living in Colorado, however, we wish Iowa was just a little bit closer!
Since we've been back, we've been busy getting ready for Scott's dad to come to visit tomorrow. We've put things away that we got for the shower and have cleaned the apartment for our guest. We are both looking forward to having Steve in town. Scott is especially excited since this is the first time Steve has come to visit since Scott moved here. They have a full weekend planned that includes a lot of airplanes and airports! I'm sure I will tag along, however, I have long list of things that need to get done this weekend too....thank-you notes, sleep, relaxing and getting caught up on Gossip Girl!
That is all for now! I hope everyone is doing well! I'll write soon...
Love,
Heather
Tuesday, March 23
Scott, my Mom, Cooper (my Mom's dog) and I were our cars and on the highway by 6:00 am! We made a stop at Starbucks for a little coffee and breakfast before we headed out of town...thanks goodness for Starbucks opening at 5:00 in the morning! Tuesday's drive was relatively uneventful. We made our regular stops along I-80...North Platte, Karney and Lincoln...for gas and food. The nice thing about traveling in the middle of the week is no traffic. The sun was out, which also made for a nice drive across Nebraska. Scott and I rolled in to Des Moines around 6:00 that evening. We unloaded our bags at John and Vicki's in Clive and headed out to dinner with them. We went to Biaggis for dinner, so that Scott could get his Chicken Parmesan meal for the week! :-) We had a wonderful time at dinner getting all caught up with John and Vicki! But after a long day in the car, Scott and I were exhausted! We went to be early and slept great!!!!
Wednesday, March 24
Wednesday was our only day to sleep in while on our trip...so we took advantage of it. We slept in until 9:00 and took our time getting ready. We went to Boone to meet my cousin Danielle, her kids Hunter and Kate, my Grandma and my Mom for lunch at the Dutch Oven Bakery. It was good to be "home." After lunch Scott and I headed to Ames where we met up with my Dad. We were able to spend that afternoon with my Dad. We had dinner at Hickory Park....yum...with him before we headed back down to Des Moines.
Wednesday night Scott and I stayed at Scott's Mom's house. That night we spent our time in the basement looking through hundreds, maybe thousands, of pictures and albums! Scott wanted to go through old picture albums so that we could pull some pictures of him as a little kid for the slide show we are putting together for the wedding. Well....I think we got more then we were expecting! :-) It was fun going through all the old pictures! I really enjoyed seeing pictures of Scott as a baby and little kid. He's cute now, but I think he might have been a little cuter when he was little! ;-) By midnight we managed to get through a good portion of the albums so we decided to call it a night and come back to it on Friday!
Thursday, March 25
Thursday morning we enjoyed a nice family breakfast with Jane, Dan, Scott, Stephanie and myself. Jane made eggs, cheese sausages, cinnamon rolls, fruit and coffee for us! It was wonderful! I really enjoyed our breakfast and look forward to having many more of them with the family! Thursday afternoon, while Scott went to his dentist appointment, I went shopping with Danielle, Kate, my Aunt Clare and my Mom. Went went to Davids Bridal in West Des Moines so that Kate could try on flower girl dresses. We finally picked on and got it ordered! She is going to be soooo cute, I can't wait! :-) Afterwards we went to Valley West Mall to find shoes and make-up. Danielle helped me pick out make-up for the wedding! What a great girl's shopping day!
That evening Scott and I headed downtown to meet some of Scott's co-workers from ING Des Moines and some of our friends for happy hour. Scott's friend, and groomsmen, Chris drove from Colorado to Iowa on Thursday so that he could attend Scott's bachelor party (what a friend!) so he was there and able to meet some people as well. Our rather large group went out to dinner and then to another bar for a few more drinks before we ended the night. I know Scott had a great time seeing all of his old friends! I'm glad they were all able to come out and join us!
Friday, March 26
After my dentist appointment at 8:00 am Scott and I went to my friend Erin's cafe for coffee and cheesecake. If you are in the Des Moines area you need to stop by Flarah's (2815 Beaver Ave) for lunch and try her cheesecake...tell her Heather sent you! :-) After our mid-morning snack, Scott took me to Hy-Vee in West Des Moines for lunch. He has been raving about Hy-Vee Chinese food ever since he moved out here, so he was so happy to finally be able to take me there for lunch. I have to admit that it was really good! Nice job babe! After lunch we went back to Jane's house to go through more pictures. This time Stephanie was able to join us! We made our way through the other half of the stack before we had to leave to head to Boone. I can't wait for everyone at the wedding to see how cute Scott was when he was a kiddo!!!! :-)
Friday night we went to my Aunt and Uncle's house to celebrate my Grandma's birthday. We had Godfather's pizza and cake. It was a great night! I miss having birthday celebrations with the family, so I really enjoyed myself that night. Scott definatly fits in well with the family, which is nice to know! :-) Kate seems to like Scott...in fact, I think Scott is Kate's best friend! She had to be sitting right between us and wouldn't leave Scott alone! They are too cute together!!!
After dinner Scott and I headed back to Des Moines to watch the UNI basketball game at a friends house.
Saturday, March 27
Saturday was a big day for both Scott and I. Scott went golfing that morning with John, Chris and Matt. It was his 2nd time golfing, and from what I hear he doesn't suck too bad! My day was wonderful! My Aunt Clare and Danielle threw me a wedding shower that afternoon in Boone. It was sooooo wonderful! The room looked beautiful, so many of my friends and family came (some who I hadn't seen in years) and the food was amazing! My Aunt and cousin did such a wonderful job and it really made me feel special! After the shower was over Scott stopped in to say hi to everyone. He was also impressed with everything and I know it made him feel just as special to know that there are so many people who care so much about us!
After my shower, I made the rounds and said my good-byes to everyone. Then my Dad and I went to dinner. I really enjoyed the father-daughter time I had with him that night. It was a nice way to spend my last night in town.
Saturday night was also Scott's bachelor party! I can't give you too many details because, well, Scott doesn't remember too many details! :-P The boys started out the evening with dinner at Granit City. After dinner they went downtown and bar hopped the rest of the night. It sounds like everyone had a great time and Scott really enjoyed the night! He kept telling me how awesome his friends are....so I'm guessing that means that they took care of him and treated him well that night! No one ended up in jail, with a tiger in their hotel room or a baby in their closet (see the movie the Hangover for these references), so I guess I can't complain too much about it!
Sunday, March 28
Scott's bachelor party ran into the early hours of Sunday. Poor guy only got an hour of sleep before I had to wake him up so we could leave. We, once again, left at 6:00 am and headed West. I drove while Scott sat in the seat next to me hating life! :-) I tried to make him as comfortable as I could, but I really didn't feel that bad for him....! The drive home was uneventful as well. Scott and I got home around 5:30 that evening and crashed!
We had a great time on our trip. It was so nice seeing all of our family and friends! We love living in Colorado, however, we wish Iowa was just a little bit closer!
Since we've been back, we've been busy getting ready for Scott's dad to come to visit tomorrow. We've put things away that we got for the shower and have cleaned the apartment for our guest. We are both looking forward to having Steve in town. Scott is especially excited since this is the first time Steve has come to visit since Scott moved here. They have a full weekend planned that includes a lot of airplanes and airports! I'm sure I will tag along, however, I have long list of things that need to get done this weekend too....thank-you notes, sleep, relaxing and getting caught up on Gossip Girl!
That is all for now! I hope everyone is doing well! I'll write soon...
Love,
Heather
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Pictures From Our Trip To Iowa
Since I don't have a lot of time to write all about our trip back to Iowa last week, I thought I would post a few pictures of our time back in the Midwest. I promise, in the next day or so I will take time to sit down and tell you all about our the wonderful time we had back home! Till then...here's our week through pictures. ENJOY!
Hickory Park in Ames...Yummy!
Scott and I eating at Hickory Park in Ames
Scott, his mom Jane and sister Stephanie
Scott and I at his Mom's house
Scott with his Mom, Sister and Step-Sister Hillary at my wedding shower
Scott and I at my wedding shower...he didn't attend, just stopped by to say hi to everyone
My cousin Danielle (my Maid-of-Honor), me, my Mom, Aunt Clare (who hosted my shower) and Danielle's daughter Kate (our Flower Girl) at my wedding shower
Opening gifts at my wedding shower
Well, there you go! Just a few pictures of our great week! Like I said, I will write all about it in the next day or so! I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!
Love,
Heather
Hickory Park in Ames...Yummy!
Scott and I eating at Hickory Park in Ames
Scott, his mom Jane and sister Stephanie
Scott and I at his Mom's house
Scott with his Mom, Sister and Step-Sister Hillary at my wedding shower
Scott and I at my wedding shower...he didn't attend, just stopped by to say hi to everyone
My cousin Danielle (my Maid-of-Honor), me, my Mom, Aunt Clare (who hosted my shower) and Danielle's daughter Kate (our Flower Girl) at my wedding shower
Opening gifts at my wedding showerWell, there you go! Just a few pictures of our great week! Like I said, I will write all about it in the next day or so! I hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!
Love,
Heather
Friday, March 12, 2010
Who decided that the days should only be 24 hours long???
Time has flown by and once again I failed to write last week like I had promised. It is my life goal now to someday live a normal-boring life because right now, my life is INSANE!!!! I thought that once I was done with grad school my life would calm down and I would have time to relax. Boy, was I wrong! I honestly think I'm more busy now then I was when I was in school, seriously! Maybe I just have more time on my hands and I'm able to fill it up quickly? I don't know. Whatever it is, it really needs to stop!!! I wish I could say that I see the end in the future, however, I'm really not sure if this busy period of my life will ever end. I'm sure I will find something else to keep me busy after the wedding is over. BUT someday, I promise you, this blog is going to be so boring (because my life has slowed down and I have nothing to write about) that you will stop reading it. Believe me? Yeah, I don't either!!! ;-)
I'm really not sure where March has gone, I can't believe it's already the middle of the month! Our wedding countdown is at 79 days!!! YIKES!!! We are busy busy busy trying to get everything ready for our big day! On the First day of March Scott, my Mom, my Aunt Clare and I went to Estes Park to do our final wedding walk through at Della Terra. We now know: how many tables there are going to be, where they will be located, what our bartender will be serving, the schedule for our whole wedding day, what color of table linens we will have (probably one of the hardest decisions I have had to make for our wedding...no joke), when we will be doing our first day, where the cake will be displayed, how the cake will be cut and served, where the food will be located, what time we need to get there on Sunday, what time pictures will be and finally what color of napkins we will be using. I think I made more decisions on that Monday then I have this whole time we've been engaged! It was a long day, but we got so much done that now I'm finally not stressing about the day of the wedding...it's just everything else that is still stressing me out! :-)
Another big task we've crossed off our list is the invitations! Who knew DIY (do it yourself) invitations would cause so much stress! (Please stop laughing at me, I honestly thought this was going to be easy and in theory it should have been!) Picking them out and buying them was the easy part!!! We had planned on printing them with our own printer, HA! We were wrong! For whatever reason our printer just didn't like the paper so we were unable to print them at home. We thought that the next best thing would be to take them to Kinkos and have them print them. It wasn't going to cost us much and it sounded like a good idea on Tuesday. Wellll.....Kinkos didn't like our paper either. For whatever reason their printed decided not to print our invitations either. After I got the call yesterday, saying that "You're paper killed our printer" (yeah, friendly people they have working at our local Kinkos) I didn't know if I should cry or laugh...so I just sat silently at my desk until I thought of a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A was to take them one last place to see if we could get them printed somewhere else. Plan B was to take them back to Iowa with us in a week and print them at my Aunt's work...this plan would put us about 2 weeks behind of when we wanted to send them out. Not bad, but still if you know me you know how I like my plans to all work out! So after work last night Scott and I went to Kinkos, picked up our blank invitations and headed to Staples. After taking the wrong exit (my fault) we found no Staples store in sight, but we did see an Office Max! Let's just say, Office Max will get my business from now on. The guy at the printing counter was great and got our invitations and RSVP cards printed in 10 minutes and it ended up costing us less then what Kinkos had quoted us!!!! Now, I wish I could say our invitations are ready to be put in the mail, but they're not! We still need to tie the ribbons on them, put them in the envelopes, put the RSVP cards in the envelopes, lick and stick the envelopes and put stamps on them! But that's the fun part! Sunday I am having a Invitation DIY party at my house. A couple of my girl friends are coming over to help. :-) We are hoping to have them in the mail by next Wednesday!!!
So besides all of our fun wedding stuff, Scott, my Mom and I are getting ready to head back to Iowa in a week. We'll be home March 23 - 28! We are so excited to go back and see our family and friends. It's been a full year since we've been back so it's time for a visit. As always our trip is already packed full of plans and we haven't even begun driving east! We are planning on spending time with Scott's Mom, Step-Dad and Sister, my Mom's family and my Dad and his family, John and Vicki and as many of our friends as time will allow! My Aunt and Cousin are hosting a wedding shower for me while we are home and Scott's partaking in his bachelor party Saturday night. We will barely have time to sleep while we're back, but since we have a limited time with our loved ones we want to spend every minute with them that we can get. It's going to be a lot of fun! When we get back from Iowa Scott's Dad is coming to visit the first weekend in April. After that weekend we have one awards event to go to for the AIA and that's it until the wedding!!!! I am going to make it a priority to relax and slow down in the month of April. It's going to be hard, but I think it will be much needed!!! Wish me luck with that! :-)
Well, that's what's been happening in our lives. Besides being way too busy, Scott and I are doing great! I think we are finally over being sick! The weather is starting to warm up so we have been spending time outside trying to enjoy it! I'm still job hunting and hope I will be able to give you all an update soon! Scott had his annual review at work this week and got excellent scores! I am so proud of him! I hope you all are doing well! We miss you and hope to see some of you while we are back in Iowa!!!
Love,
Heather
I'm really not sure where March has gone, I can't believe it's already the middle of the month! Our wedding countdown is at 79 days!!! YIKES!!! We are busy busy busy trying to get everything ready for our big day! On the First day of March Scott, my Mom, my Aunt Clare and I went to Estes Park to do our final wedding walk through at Della Terra. We now know: how many tables there are going to be, where they will be located, what our bartender will be serving, the schedule for our whole wedding day, what color of table linens we will have (probably one of the hardest decisions I have had to make for our wedding...no joke), when we will be doing our first day, where the cake will be displayed, how the cake will be cut and served, where the food will be located, what time we need to get there on Sunday, what time pictures will be and finally what color of napkins we will be using. I think I made more decisions on that Monday then I have this whole time we've been engaged! It was a long day, but we got so much done that now I'm finally not stressing about the day of the wedding...it's just everything else that is still stressing me out! :-)
Another big task we've crossed off our list is the invitations! Who knew DIY (do it yourself) invitations would cause so much stress! (Please stop laughing at me, I honestly thought this was going to be easy and in theory it should have been!) Picking them out and buying them was the easy part!!! We had planned on printing them with our own printer, HA! We were wrong! For whatever reason our printer just didn't like the paper so we were unable to print them at home. We thought that the next best thing would be to take them to Kinkos and have them print them. It wasn't going to cost us much and it sounded like a good idea on Tuesday. Wellll.....Kinkos didn't like our paper either. For whatever reason their printed decided not to print our invitations either. After I got the call yesterday, saying that "You're paper killed our printer" (yeah, friendly people they have working at our local Kinkos) I didn't know if I should cry or laugh...so I just sat silently at my desk until I thought of a Plan A and a Plan B. Plan A was to take them one last place to see if we could get them printed somewhere else. Plan B was to take them back to Iowa with us in a week and print them at my Aunt's work...this plan would put us about 2 weeks behind of when we wanted to send them out. Not bad, but still if you know me you know how I like my plans to all work out! So after work last night Scott and I went to Kinkos, picked up our blank invitations and headed to Staples. After taking the wrong exit (my fault) we found no Staples store in sight, but we did see an Office Max! Let's just say, Office Max will get my business from now on. The guy at the printing counter was great and got our invitations and RSVP cards printed in 10 minutes and it ended up costing us less then what Kinkos had quoted us!!!! Now, I wish I could say our invitations are ready to be put in the mail, but they're not! We still need to tie the ribbons on them, put them in the envelopes, put the RSVP cards in the envelopes, lick and stick the envelopes and put stamps on them! But that's the fun part! Sunday I am having a Invitation DIY party at my house. A couple of my girl friends are coming over to help. :-) We are hoping to have them in the mail by next Wednesday!!!
So besides all of our fun wedding stuff, Scott, my Mom and I are getting ready to head back to Iowa in a week. We'll be home March 23 - 28! We are so excited to go back and see our family and friends. It's been a full year since we've been back so it's time for a visit. As always our trip is already packed full of plans and we haven't even begun driving east! We are planning on spending time with Scott's Mom, Step-Dad and Sister, my Mom's family and my Dad and his family, John and Vicki and as many of our friends as time will allow! My Aunt and Cousin are hosting a wedding shower for me while we are home and Scott's partaking in his bachelor party Saturday night. We will barely have time to sleep while we're back, but since we have a limited time with our loved ones we want to spend every minute with them that we can get. It's going to be a lot of fun! When we get back from Iowa Scott's Dad is coming to visit the first weekend in April. After that weekend we have one awards event to go to for the AIA and that's it until the wedding!!!! I am going to make it a priority to relax and slow down in the month of April. It's going to be hard, but I think it will be much needed!!! Wish me luck with that! :-)
Well, that's what's been happening in our lives. Besides being way too busy, Scott and I are doing great! I think we are finally over being sick! The weather is starting to warm up so we have been spending time outside trying to enjoy it! I'm still job hunting and hope I will be able to give you all an update soon! Scott had his annual review at work this week and got excellent scores! I am so proud of him! I hope you all are doing well! We miss you and hope to see some of you while we are back in Iowa!!!
Love,
Heather
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
95 Days To Go!
Whew! What a month it has been! Scott and I have been busy as usual, although, we've also been really sick!!! For the past month or so, we have both been hit several times by different cold/flu bugs. They just don't seem to leave our house! As soon as one of us gets well the other one starts to get sick. It has been a repetitive cycle for weeks now! But, the good new is, we are BOTH finally feeling better this week. :-) Hopefully we got all the germs out of the house and our systems.
Even though we've been sick, we have managed to get a lot done for the wedding. I thought we were getting closer to getting everything done, but as soon as I cross something off my "To do" list 3 more things get put on the ever-growing list. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed by the multiple pages of things to do in my purple note book, but I'm not always successful at it. We are now getting into the little details of the wedding...
- What color napkins do we use? (black, white, pink, a mix of colors....do I really even care?)
- What music do we want to have playing during the reception? (Nothing cheesy...more classical romantic stuff)
- What song do we want to have playing as we walk down the isle for the first time as Husband and Wife? (Nothing "traditional" is all I know!)
- What color of table linens do we want? (black over white, white over black, a mix of the two...again, do I really even care?)
- What beer and wine do we want to serve our guests?
- What style of ceremony do we want to have?
- Are we going to write our own vows? If so, we should probably get on that. If not, we should probably start looking for pre-written vows.
And the list goes on and on....The best part is, I am not doing this alone! I have many people by my side helping me make all of these decisions. I am so thankful that Scott wants to have a part in the decision making for our wedding and is willing to give me his input on all the small details as well. My Mom has also been a big help! She's always willing to offer her advice and opinion, but understands that the final decision is really up to Scott and I! She's thought of things that I hadn't even thought of yet, which is a huge help when it comes to all of these little details that really make the wedding day special! My Aunt Clare has also been amazing. Even though she is in Iowa, she is only a phone call or email away. She has been named the official Ludwig/Greenfield "Wedding Coordinator". I am so lucky to have her helping me out! And of course there are my wonderful friends who make this so much more fun and so much more manageable! Without them, I think I might loose my mind. They are always there for me and offering to help in any way!
Even though there are still questions that have remained unanswered and details that still need to be figured out, we really have managed to get a lot done in the past few weeks. I took my wedding dress in for alterations (I hate being short) a few weeks ago. It was really exciting to put my dress on again, I haven't had it on since I bought in back in Nov. 2008! It's more beautiful then I remembered! :-) I am going in for my final fitting this Friday, hopefully everything will be done and I can take it home. My bridesmaid Amy and personal attendant Tiffany are going with me so they can "learn" how to get me into my dress...it's a process, trust me! I also figured out how I am going to do my hair for the wedding. It's funny how a dress can dictate how one should have their hair...but I knew instantly how I wanted it to look as soon as I put my dress on! I can't wait to see how everything comes together on my wedding day...dress, hair, make-up...everything! Besides my dress, Scott and I did decide on what wine and beer we are going to serve at our wedding reception (I guess I should go ahead and cross that one off my to do list...). Della Terra hosted a wine tasting event at the chateau last Saturday. It was a snowy morning, but a beautiful (slow) drive up the canyon! Both Scott and I were recovering for our most recent colds, which limited the abilities of our taste buds, but we were able to select a few wines that we thought would appeal to us and our guests. They also had a local caterer and baker there with samples! Wine, food and cake...Scott's favorite things! It was a great way to spend a snowy Saturday! Della Terra looked so beautiful all covered in snow....I guess that's good to know b/c it could be snowing on our wedding day (let's just hope it doesn't!). This coming Monday Scott, my Mom, my Aunt, our caterer and I will all be heading back up to Della Terra for our FINAL walk through! This is where all of our unanswered questions will be answered and the small details of our wedding day will be planned out! Scott and I are so excited for this day! I think after Monday we will feel like we are just that much closer to getting everything done! Check back for an update next week!!!! We have also been meeting with our Pastor, Kevin, on a more regular basis now. I wouldn't call it "marriage counseling" but more "marriage/life mentoring". Scott and I really like Kevin as a Pastor and friend and are very excited to have him a part of our lives. It's nice to have a someone on the outside asking us questions and encouraging us to engaging in different conversations that we might not have had prior to getting married. Scott and I love each other so much that we want to do whatever we can to keep that love strong and healthy for the rest of our lives. We already know marriage isn't easy and you have to work at it everyday, so it's nice to get all the advice and as many pointers before hand that we can get! :-)
Well, I believe that gives you an update as to what's going on with the Ludwig/Greenfield wedding planning and preparation! We are down to less then 100 days to go...which just doesn't seem possible! I am getting more and more excited for the actual wedding day! I know it will be here and gone in no time, so I am trying to relax and enjoy each minute of it from now until May 30th!
Love,
Heather
Even though we've been sick, we have managed to get a lot done for the wedding. I thought we were getting closer to getting everything done, but as soon as I cross something off my "To do" list 3 more things get put on the ever-growing list. I'm trying not to get overwhelmed by the multiple pages of things to do in my purple note book, but I'm not always successful at it. We are now getting into the little details of the wedding...
- What color napkins do we use? (black, white, pink, a mix of colors....do I really even care?)
- What music do we want to have playing during the reception? (Nothing cheesy...more classical romantic stuff)
- What song do we want to have playing as we walk down the isle for the first time as Husband and Wife? (Nothing "traditional" is all I know!)
- What color of table linens do we want? (black over white, white over black, a mix of the two...again, do I really even care?)
- What beer and wine do we want to serve our guests?
- What style of ceremony do we want to have?
- Are we going to write our own vows? If so, we should probably get on that. If not, we should probably start looking for pre-written vows.
And the list goes on and on....The best part is, I am not doing this alone! I have many people by my side helping me make all of these decisions. I am so thankful that Scott wants to have a part in the decision making for our wedding and is willing to give me his input on all the small details as well. My Mom has also been a big help! She's always willing to offer her advice and opinion, but understands that the final decision is really up to Scott and I! She's thought of things that I hadn't even thought of yet, which is a huge help when it comes to all of these little details that really make the wedding day special! My Aunt Clare has also been amazing. Even though she is in Iowa, she is only a phone call or email away. She has been named the official Ludwig/Greenfield "Wedding Coordinator". I am so lucky to have her helping me out! And of course there are my wonderful friends who make this so much more fun and so much more manageable! Without them, I think I might loose my mind. They are always there for me and offering to help in any way!
Even though there are still questions that have remained unanswered and details that still need to be figured out, we really have managed to get a lot done in the past few weeks. I took my wedding dress in for alterations (I hate being short) a few weeks ago. It was really exciting to put my dress on again, I haven't had it on since I bought in back in Nov. 2008! It's more beautiful then I remembered! :-) I am going in for my final fitting this Friday, hopefully everything will be done and I can take it home. My bridesmaid Amy and personal attendant Tiffany are going with me so they can "learn" how to get me into my dress...it's a process, trust me! I also figured out how I am going to do my hair for the wedding. It's funny how a dress can dictate how one should have their hair...but I knew instantly how I wanted it to look as soon as I put my dress on! I can't wait to see how everything comes together on my wedding day...dress, hair, make-up...everything! Besides my dress, Scott and I did decide on what wine and beer we are going to serve at our wedding reception (I guess I should go ahead and cross that one off my to do list...). Della Terra hosted a wine tasting event at the chateau last Saturday. It was a snowy morning, but a beautiful (slow) drive up the canyon! Both Scott and I were recovering for our most recent colds, which limited the abilities of our taste buds, but we were able to select a few wines that we thought would appeal to us and our guests. They also had a local caterer and baker there with samples! Wine, food and cake...Scott's favorite things! It was a great way to spend a snowy Saturday! Della Terra looked so beautiful all covered in snow....I guess that's good to know b/c it could be snowing on our wedding day (let's just hope it doesn't!). This coming Monday Scott, my Mom, my Aunt, our caterer and I will all be heading back up to Della Terra for our FINAL walk through! This is where all of our unanswered questions will be answered and the small details of our wedding day will be planned out! Scott and I are so excited for this day! I think after Monday we will feel like we are just that much closer to getting everything done! Check back for an update next week!!!! We have also been meeting with our Pastor, Kevin, on a more regular basis now. I wouldn't call it "marriage counseling" but more "marriage/life mentoring". Scott and I really like Kevin as a Pastor and friend and are very excited to have him a part of our lives. It's nice to have a someone on the outside asking us questions and encouraging us to engaging in different conversations that we might not have had prior to getting married. Scott and I love each other so much that we want to do whatever we can to keep that love strong and healthy for the rest of our lives. We already know marriage isn't easy and you have to work at it everyday, so it's nice to get all the advice and as many pointers before hand that we can get! :-)
Well, I believe that gives you an update as to what's going on with the Ludwig/Greenfield wedding planning and preparation! We are down to less then 100 days to go...which just doesn't seem possible! I am getting more and more excited for the actual wedding day! I know it will be here and gone in no time, so I am trying to relax and enjoy each minute of it from now until May 30th!
Love,
Heather
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Life Update
I had hoped to be able to write more on our blog after the first of the new year, however, that just hasn't happened yet! To be honest, Scott and I have found ways to fill up our new free time together. In the last few weeks we have filled up every weekend by trying to cross things off our every so long and growing "To Do" List. Who knew planning your life took so much time! :-)
After the first of the year Scott and I got really excited about our future. Not that we haven't been excited about until now, but we finally feel like we are at the point where we can start planning our next chapter. With school behind me, we are looking forward to our wedding, being married, buying a house and kids....hopefully in that order and not all at once! ;-) Since both of us are not from Colorado, neither one of us knows any of the surrounding towns and communities. I only know the Boulder and Fort Collins areas well, the rest of the Front Range is much of a mystery. So, after talking about the fact that neither one of us knows much about our options for a community to call "Home" one day, we have decided to take the time and go "Community" hunting. It's much like "House" hunting, but on a slightly larger scale. We figured, if we find a place we'd like to live one day, it might be easier to look for a house when that time comes.
So, we have been actively looking for the past couple of weeks at our options. We have both decided that most likely we will both be working in or around the Denver area for the next however many years, which helps and doesn't when it comes to looking for a place to settle down. Denver is a big place with lots of suburbs surrounding it. We have both agreed that raising our future children in the city isn't something we want to do. So that leaves us with the 'burbs! It's not my first choice....oh come on, does that really surprise you? Mrs. Architect here doesn't want live in a development that has the houses so close together and everyone's house looks the same it's just painted a different shade of bage? But, I will do it for the safety and better life style for my family! Besides, newer developments have much better architecture then the ones built in the 80's and 90's!
Okay, so a couple of weekends ago Scott and I headed straight East about 20 miles from where we currently live. We ended up in a town call Brighton. Friends of ours just bought a house there this summer, so we are slightly familiar with their neighborhood. We drove around and around...without a map...and eventually found the town. As much as we love where Jake and Melissa live, the actual town of Brighton didn't excite us. We headed home deciding to keep looking, but to revisit the neighborhood in the next year as they were starting construction on a new retail area which often leads to more development.
The following weekend we decided to head South West about 35 miles from here. At work I was given a project to research the town of Littleton and everything I read about it made me love it more and more. So, our next stop was Littleton, CO. Now, this town of roughly 45,000 people impressed us. It felt like home in the sense that besides the 360 view of the mountains, we could have easily been in Iowa, which is a nice feeling. The town has a ton of open space, multiple lakes, great schools and friendly people. We found a local pizza place to eat at for lunch and decided that we should keep Littleton on our short list.
So far, we have enjoyed our weekend adventures to different towns around the area. Maybe it's been the 50+ degree weather or the sun shine or just the excitement of our future together, or maybe a little bit of all that has made this a great experience. We aren't done yet! There's still plenty of neighborhoods for us to explore. I'll keep you posted as we continue our adventures.
The rest of our time has been spent thinking about wedding stuff. I can't believe it's 4 months away!!!! It just doesn't seem possible! I feel like we still have so much to do....yet, when I look at my list I realize how much we already have done. We will be busy these next couple of months getting the rest of the stuff accomplished, but so far, I am confident we won't have to be panicking the week before the wedding....at least that's what I'm praying for. :-)
The rest of my time has been spent looking and applying for jobs. My current internship ends in May, so the pressure is on to find something else before then. I am still praying that a job in an architecture firm opens up, however, I am being realistic in that fact that I am applying for other jobs. I'll work 3 jobs if I need to....but it would be nice to find something full time with benefits. Hopefully something good will come up soon. :-) I feel like that is the missing part in my life right now. I would like to know I have a steady, full time job by the time we get married. I can't imagine what it will be like to have us both working full time jobs!!!??? I will have to say though, that this experience has been very humbling. It has made me look at the big picture of life and realize that I (and we) are not as bad off as others. I have a roof over my head, food in the refrigerator, gas (barely) in my car and I do have a job I can go to every day. Scott and I may not have extra money to go shopping, buy a new flat screen TV or go on a vacation, but we have managed to save a lot of money for our wedding, pay every bill on time and still treat ourselves to Chinese take out once in a while. This situation has allowed us both to realize that we can live on (almost) nothing and still be happy. It's not the ideal situation, nor is it one that I'd like to stay in forever, but we've shown ourselves that we can make it through and come out the other side happy and still madly in love with each other. And for that, I have to thank God for showing us that we can get through anything as long as we have each other.
Well that's all for now. I should get to bed so that a new day can start tomorrow! I hope you are all staying warm, safe and healthy. We think about you all often and wish we could see everyone more!
Miss you all!
Love,
Heather
After the first of the year Scott and I got really excited about our future. Not that we haven't been excited about until now, but we finally feel like we are at the point where we can start planning our next chapter. With school behind me, we are looking forward to our wedding, being married, buying a house and kids....hopefully in that order and not all at once! ;-) Since both of us are not from Colorado, neither one of us knows any of the surrounding towns and communities. I only know the Boulder and Fort Collins areas well, the rest of the Front Range is much of a mystery. So, after talking about the fact that neither one of us knows much about our options for a community to call "Home" one day, we have decided to take the time and go "Community" hunting. It's much like "House" hunting, but on a slightly larger scale. We figured, if we find a place we'd like to live one day, it might be easier to look for a house when that time comes.
So, we have been actively looking for the past couple of weeks at our options. We have both decided that most likely we will both be working in or around the Denver area for the next however many years, which helps and doesn't when it comes to looking for a place to settle down. Denver is a big place with lots of suburbs surrounding it. We have both agreed that raising our future children in the city isn't something we want to do. So that leaves us with the 'burbs! It's not my first choice....oh come on, does that really surprise you? Mrs. Architect here doesn't want live in a development that has the houses so close together and everyone's house looks the same it's just painted a different shade of bage? But, I will do it for the safety and better life style for my family! Besides, newer developments have much better architecture then the ones built in the 80's and 90's!
Okay, so a couple of weekends ago Scott and I headed straight East about 20 miles from where we currently live. We ended up in a town call Brighton. Friends of ours just bought a house there this summer, so we are slightly familiar with their neighborhood. We drove around and around...without a map...and eventually found the town. As much as we love where Jake and Melissa live, the actual town of Brighton didn't excite us. We headed home deciding to keep looking, but to revisit the neighborhood in the next year as they were starting construction on a new retail area which often leads to more development.
The following weekend we decided to head South West about 35 miles from here. At work I was given a project to research the town of Littleton and everything I read about it made me love it more and more. So, our next stop was Littleton, CO. Now, this town of roughly 45,000 people impressed us. It felt like home in the sense that besides the 360 view of the mountains, we could have easily been in Iowa, which is a nice feeling. The town has a ton of open space, multiple lakes, great schools and friendly people. We found a local pizza place to eat at for lunch and decided that we should keep Littleton on our short list.
So far, we have enjoyed our weekend adventures to different towns around the area. Maybe it's been the 50+ degree weather or the sun shine or just the excitement of our future together, or maybe a little bit of all that has made this a great experience. We aren't done yet! There's still plenty of neighborhoods for us to explore. I'll keep you posted as we continue our adventures.
The rest of our time has been spent thinking about wedding stuff. I can't believe it's 4 months away!!!! It just doesn't seem possible! I feel like we still have so much to do....yet, when I look at my list I realize how much we already have done. We will be busy these next couple of months getting the rest of the stuff accomplished, but so far, I am confident we won't have to be panicking the week before the wedding....at least that's what I'm praying for. :-)
The rest of my time has been spent looking and applying for jobs. My current internship ends in May, so the pressure is on to find something else before then. I am still praying that a job in an architecture firm opens up, however, I am being realistic in that fact that I am applying for other jobs. I'll work 3 jobs if I need to....but it would be nice to find something full time with benefits. Hopefully something good will come up soon. :-) I feel like that is the missing part in my life right now. I would like to know I have a steady, full time job by the time we get married. I can't imagine what it will be like to have us both working full time jobs!!!??? I will have to say though, that this experience has been very humbling. It has made me look at the big picture of life and realize that I (and we) are not as bad off as others. I have a roof over my head, food in the refrigerator, gas (barely) in my car and I do have a job I can go to every day. Scott and I may not have extra money to go shopping, buy a new flat screen TV or go on a vacation, but we have managed to save a lot of money for our wedding, pay every bill on time and still treat ourselves to Chinese take out once in a while. This situation has allowed us both to realize that we can live on (almost) nothing and still be happy. It's not the ideal situation, nor is it one that I'd like to stay in forever, but we've shown ourselves that we can make it through and come out the other side happy and still madly in love with each other. And for that, I have to thank God for showing us that we can get through anything as long as we have each other.
Well that's all for now. I should get to bed so that a new day can start tomorrow! I hope you are all staying warm, safe and healthy. We think about you all often and wish we could see everyone more!
Miss you all!
Love,
Heather
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Happy New Year!
With 2009 behind us, we are in highest spirits around here! 2010 (twenty-ten is how we say it here in the Ludwig/Greenfield residence) has already been better then the whole year of 2009 was! 2009 was a tough year, probably the toughest year yet! But, I am happy to report that Scott and I (and our family and friends) managed to make it through!
However, the year did end well for us! Scott and I spent our first Christmas together here in Colorado. We decided not to travel over the holiday this year to save money, and it's a good thing we decided to stay put given the harsh weather that hit all over the country over Christmas...had we tried to travel we may have had to spend Christmas in a hotel somewhere in Nebraska! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Fort Collins at my Mom's house. We all enjoyed our time together! It was a quite weekend, but just what we all needed! We ate a ton of food, watched movies and relaxed. New Years Eve was just as quite. Again, trying to save money, Scott and I decided to forgo the wild and crazy Denver New Years Eve scene. Instead, we went over to our friend Stephanie's house and hung out with her and her two little boys. We ate a great dinner, played yatzee and watched the ball drop in New York City from the comfort of Stephanie's couch.
And with that, we began what will be one of the best years of our lives! I know that is a big statement, but how can it not be one of the greatest years? Scott and I are getting married in 5 months!!! I think that right there proves that this will be a great year! :-) Now that the holidays are over and I am finally finished with grad school, we can devote the next 5 months to our upcoming wedding! I just ordered my bridesmaid's dresses yesterday, bought the programs for our wedding ceremony and have started finalizing the menu with the caterer. With all this free time I have now, I am in full "wedding mode"! :-) I love that I can now focus entirely on our wedding and enjoy the next 5 months! I know this time is going to fly by and then it will all be over, so I am going to make a point to enjoy every minute of it. I have really enjoyed having my Mom close by so that she can be a part of the planning and excitement too. It just wouldn't have been the same if she was still in Iowa and I was left to do this all my by myself. Who would have gone dress shopping with me? Or gone to Michaels and spent hours in the wedding section (folks, there are only 2 isles dedicated to weddings in the entire store...and yes, we tend to spend hours there...only a Mom would do that for her daughter!) and David's Bridal 100 times with me? Or gone to all those bridal showers? I have to think it was destiny that she moved out here just 4 months before I got engaged.
There are still plenty of things on my "Wedding To Do" list! But I look forward to checking them off one by one in the next few months!
Love,
Heather
However, the year did end well for us! Scott and I spent our first Christmas together here in Colorado. We decided not to travel over the holiday this year to save money, and it's a good thing we decided to stay put given the harsh weather that hit all over the country over Christmas...had we tried to travel we may have had to spend Christmas in a hotel somewhere in Nebraska! We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Fort Collins at my Mom's house. We all enjoyed our time together! It was a quite weekend, but just what we all needed! We ate a ton of food, watched movies and relaxed. New Years Eve was just as quite. Again, trying to save money, Scott and I decided to forgo the wild and crazy Denver New Years Eve scene. Instead, we went over to our friend Stephanie's house and hung out with her and her two little boys. We ate a great dinner, played yatzee and watched the ball drop in New York City from the comfort of Stephanie's couch.
And with that, we began what will be one of the best years of our lives! I know that is a big statement, but how can it not be one of the greatest years? Scott and I are getting married in 5 months!!! I think that right there proves that this will be a great year! :-) Now that the holidays are over and I am finally finished with grad school, we can devote the next 5 months to our upcoming wedding! I just ordered my bridesmaid's dresses yesterday, bought the programs for our wedding ceremony and have started finalizing the menu with the caterer. With all this free time I have now, I am in full "wedding mode"! :-) I love that I can now focus entirely on our wedding and enjoy the next 5 months! I know this time is going to fly by and then it will all be over, so I am going to make a point to enjoy every minute of it. I have really enjoyed having my Mom close by so that she can be a part of the planning and excitement too. It just wouldn't have been the same if she was still in Iowa and I was left to do this all my by myself. Who would have gone dress shopping with me? Or gone to Michaels and spent hours in the wedding section (folks, there are only 2 isles dedicated to weddings in the entire store...and yes, we tend to spend hours there...only a Mom would do that for her daughter!) and David's Bridal 100 times with me? Or gone to all those bridal showers? I have to think it was destiny that she moved out here just 4 months before I got engaged.
There are still plenty of things on my "Wedding To Do" list! But I look forward to checking them off one by one in the next few months!
Love,
Heather
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