Weekend...

I decided to write a separate post on some of the other, non-wedding things going on...

The fiancé and I had some actual free time this weekend!! Surprising, isn’t it?

My wonderful parents kept the kiddo for a couple of nights, giving us some much needed time off (and a quiet apartment for the first time in weeks!)...it was sorely needed and very, very appreciated. ^_^

My fiancé had to work some on Saturday, so I took advantage of the time and took his wedding band to have it engraved...I think I picked out the perfect inscription, and I’m so excited for him to see it! I’m planning on keeping it a surprise for the wedding day, but I may cave and let him see it beforehand...

Pumpkin Spice frappe...would NOT recommend...

I also had time to meet up with on of my best friends for coffee ^_^ she’s awesome! We’ve been friends for about 15 years now...she’s been there for me through all sorts of ups and downs, and I could not be any more thankful! It was good to catch up with her, and she gave me some helpful tips and suggestions for our wedding. (She got married a few years ago, so she knows what stress I’m going through) All in all, it was a fantastic coffee date...two hours passed by before I’d even realized it! Good times ^_^

I’ve also had some time to play some video games, which is always a plus, in my opinion...

I’ve been playing some Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Undertale with the kiddo...and it’s been awesome!! Not gaming nearly as much as I used to, which is probably a good thing...but it does feel good to be able to do something that’s me. Plus, it’s something the kiddo and I do together, which makes it all that much better!

So, yeah ^_^ this weekend was full of friendship and fun, I’ll definitely call it a win!

Wedding Weeds...

No one tells you that wedding planning is like pulling weeds...as soon as you feel confident that you’ve gotten it under control, more weeds pop up! Out of nowhere!!

Over the weekend, I found myself in a naive happy place, wedding planning-wise. Invitations have been mailed out, we finished our final pre-marriage counseling session, I came up with a method for keeping up with RSVPs as they come back in...sounds pretty good, right? [I surely thought so!]

Fast forward to this afternoon. My mom asked me a very simple question, one that I’m shocked that wasn’t addressed much earlier in the planning process...what if it rains?

Queue the instant panic.

I hadn’t thought it was a concern! Our wedding venue is indoors and so is the reception venue....mostly.

What I hadn’t thought of, is that most of the dancing/entertainment portion of the reception will be outdoors, while the dining and food areas are indoors. The reception building is oddly shaped...it’s narrow and long, but with sliding glass doors on both sides. So, typically, the doors are opened so that guests can come and go while they eat and dance. Which sounds good! Unless it rains. /sigh
So, now I’m scrambling to find out information on tent vendors...So much fun! (If anyone is knowledgeable in this area, please help!)

I’m sure that we will handle this slight wedding emergency and be back to feeling good about our progress, right???

Stomach Bugs and Accomplishments...

/waves

Hope you guys are having a good week so far...

All is good with us, things are chaotic, as usual. After all of the birthday stuff, the kiddo came down with a mild stomach bug...he’s feeling better now, but had gotten sick while at school twice! (He stayed home today to recuperate and seems to be feeling fine, now)

Despite the upset tummy, we managed to hit a pretty big wedding planning milestone! Today, I mailed out our wedding invitations! /woohoo!

Well, I mailed out most of the invitations...there are a few stragglers that will be going out tomorrow. Hey, some addresses are hard to find!

I expect that in a few days, I’ll have to start keeping up with RSVP responses...and that’ll be a whole new task with new stresses...but until then, I think I’ll enjoy the feeling of accomplishment from checking ‘invitiations’ off of the to-do list!

[Well, I’ll enjoy it in a few minutes...after I check on the kiddo and finish the last few invites!]

Less than 50 days left!! Will keep you all updated with the crunch time craziness ^_^

Birthday Madness...

Oh, boy, we had quite a weekend!

The kiddo's birthday was Sunday, so we've had our hands full with celebration stuff...this year, we let him invite two of his best buddies over to go to Treetop Adventure with us and then stay for a sleepover...now that is a daunting sentence! (The kiddo hasn’t ever had company stay overnight before, and I was seriously intimidated by the thought of having 3 boys at home!)

All of the kiddos had a blast at Treetop! (It’s like Chuck E. Cheese but with laser tag, go karts, jump houses, and bowling...it’s a ton of fun!) The boys played a few rounds of laser tag and loved shooting dinos in the Jurassic Park arcade game...the show stealer was definitely the go karts! All of the boys had such a blast driving and riding in the go karts, including my fiancé! (He’s really a big kid, which is one of the things about him that I love ❤️)

I was really nervous about the slumber party...but it turned out to be just fine!! Now, I’m not saying that I’d want to have one every weekend, but I’m actually looking forward to my kiddo having his buddies over from time to time! It warmed this mom’s heart to see them all smiling, laughing, and having a great time ^_^ Plus, hearing his friends say things like, “best birthday party, ever!,” “your parents are pretty cool!,” and “your house is the best! Can I come back over?”...all pretty awesome ^_^

So, all of that was our Friday afternoon and evening. Saturday, my brother came over and brought the kiddo a birthday gift and brought me a belated birthday present (my birthday is in August lol). Guys, my brother brought me a Nintendo Switch!!!! /happy squeals (Totally awesome move by my notoriously awesome brother...and I am eternally grateful!)

My brother had managed to get one of the newly released snes classics (the mini Super Nintendo) and he brought that with him, too...so we spent the afternoon and a good part of the evening playing awesome, vintage video games and just hanging out. Especially as we get older, there are fewer and fewer opportunities for us to just hang out together like we used to....so I cherish those times and hang on to each of them.

This brings us to Sunday, the kiddo’s actual birthday! Every year, I do birthday morning balloons for the kiddo...we blow up somewhere between 50-100 of them and flood his room with them, turning his room into a birthday celebration balloon pit! It’s a cute little tradition ^_^

I’ll admit, blowing up that many balloons is quite a task, even with my wonderful fiancé helping! (We blew up 75 this year and it took us around 40 minutes! Next year, we are getting air pumps!) However, I know there will come a time that my kiddo says he doesn’t want them anymore, he’ll grow out of it, and that time will get here much sooner than I’d like. So! Until then, I’ll blow up the balloons and marvel at how much he’s grown since the last time we blew them up for him.

All in all, it was definitely a great weekend!

Frame Rates and Forgiveness...

Hey guys!

So, some good news...my computer is up and running again...mostly. It's definitely more functional than before I took it to the shop, but it's still very much on the struggle bus.

The tech guy put the cheapest, most basic hardware into my pc, just to get it up and running again. Which is fine, if you don't use your pc to game with...but, I do!

Long story short, my computer is still pretty broken. It will run World of Warcraft, surprisingly...but it completely derps when my kiddo tries to play Minecraft Story Mode. [My incredible fiancé stepped in to save the day and got me a new graphics card that was a huge upgrade! However, it didn't solve the problem] So, it seems the saga of the broken pc continues...

In other happenings, I've been struggling with something lately...

I noticed that I have a really hard time letting things go. [slightly embarrassing to admit, but it's painfully true]

More than a few times in the last month or two, the topic of forgiveness has come up in our bible study lessons and sermons... and it's kind of stuck with me as something I need to work on...especially if I expect to receive forgiveness, myself!

There are certain situations and individuals that I wholeheartedly admit to purposefully holding on the hard feelings over...though, I'm not sure why, exactly. [If there ever were a time to delve into whether or not you hold grudges, it's when you're trying to decide who to invite to your wedding! With so many potentially hurt feelings at stake, I've had to consider getting over past hurts for the sake of having everything go as smoothly as possible!]

If I'm being honest, I don't know why I intentionally choose to hold on to hard feelings...it's certainly not beneficial, and I know that. Especially if the 'offense' was particularly minor, maybe even silly, in hindsight. I know I should be a better person, take a deep breath, and let go of past hurts and resentment...but dang it, it's hard!

Why is it so hard? Is it pride and ego? Or maybe habits of the heart?

Regardless of the cause, I realize this is something that I need to work on...any tips? Seriously. Any advice at all would be enthusiastically welcomed!

Alrighty, I've got a kiddo to get ready for bed...hope you all have a great night!

Computers, Collections, and Cleaning...

Hey guys! Hope you've had a good week ^_^

Good news on the computer front, I get to pick mine up from the shop today! [hopefully] The tech guy said it needed a new graphics card and hard drive....so I'm hoping that's got it fixed. Guess I'll find out when I get it home...

I'm a bit skeptical about the whole 'repair,' though...When the tech guy realized that I would need new parts, I think he should have called me to see what I wanted installed...I mean, I play games on my PC, so not just any old graphics card will do! Buuuuut, no. He didn't call and ask at all. And he told my fiancé that he put a '$30 graphics card' in it so it 'would run.'

**Unhappy Deadpan Face**

So, yeah. We'll see how it works out. Moving on!

Remember my last post? I talked about reading Marie Kondo's book on tidying and home organizing?
I'm totally looking forward to starting on our home! I sat on our couch yesterday and looked at all of our stuff...and there was just so much! So, so much of it! Add to that all of our new stuff that we got from our shower and it's just overwhelming! Something absolutely must be done or we will spend the rest of our lives surround by stuff and boxes. However, this is where I hit a bit of a snag...

COLLECT ALL THE THINGS!

As someone who loves the idea of adopting a minimalist household...how can that be reconciled with being a collector?

I'm a bit of a serial collector. At any given point in time, I'm probably working on a collection of something. I've collected My Little Ponies, Beanie Babies, and Disney princess dolls...Funko Pop! figures, Nendoroids, and more DVD sets than I can count! I've got tons of books, family heirlooms, and sentimental odds-and-ends...it's really, well...a lot of stuff!

So. How can I find a way to balance both being a collector and minimalist? Is it possible? If anyone else has encountered this, how did you handle it?

I will keep you guys updated as this whole ordeal develops...hopefully I will have some progress to report on soon!

Showers and Sparks...

Hey guys!

Hope you're having a good week and that you've stayed safe through all of the hurricane mess...we are doing fine, we got some rain, but that's it. [Didn't stop all of the schools from closing, but I suppose it's better to be prepared than sorry!]

My computer is in the shop now. I'm hoping they can fix it and I'll be back online by this weekend..

We reached another big wedding milestone over the weekend...the bridal shower!

Some of the lovely ladies from my church family put together a wonderful shower for us! Everything was so pretty [they went with a vintage theme...lots of heirloom quilts, silver, and roses], the food was great, and the gifts were super thoughtful! My fiance and I are so thankful that we have such awesome families, friends, and church family!

Now comes the challenge of finding ways to store all the wonderful gifts...

We currently live in an apartment, a rather small one.. so it seems like some clearing out and rearranging is going to be necessary. Which brings me to my next project!

I've recently started re-reading The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. She is a tidying expert who emphasizes on only keeping objects that 'spark joy.' Her methods sound really good!! [I admit that I've read most of the book before but failed to implement her advice] A total-home overhaul seems like a super daunting task, but I feel confident that we will live much more comfortably if we can do it! Have any of you read her book? Have you tried her methods and how did they work for you?

Well, my phone battery is quickly dying, so I'm going to have to end this post here. Will post again soon!

One of the beautiful roses from the shower ^_^