Did any of you women leave a black and white hat with a little flower on it at our wedding? We’ll possibly take a picture of it and post it here so that we can get some help tracking down the owner. If it belongs to you, just leave us a comment or give us a call.
Well, Andy is still at home sick. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him sick. It’s hard to see him this way since I’m accustomed to seeing him much more lively. I hope he gets better soon!
Our wedding on January 1st was beautiful. We’ll post pictures soon. Many thanks to those of you who braved the weather and celebrated our union with us. The honeymoon at Gunflint Lodge in northern Minnesota was nice and relaxing. We did some dogsledding and snowmobiling. I’m back at work today, but Andy is sick at home. I hope he feels better soon because there is so much I want to talk to him about.
It’s Christmas Eve Day, we’re just 8 days away from wedded bliss!
I had my wedding dress fitted for the first time a couple weeks ago. Today is a big day because I have to jump in my dress and see if it still fits after being altered and after I have chowed down on so much cookie dough and so many Christmas cookies. If the dress doesn’t fit perfectly, the seamstress will make some final alterations. Just 10 more days!
Andy had his Bachelor Party last Saturday night. He and his friends, his brother and my brother went to the Mall of America to celebrate. They ate at Famous Dave’s, drove in a Nascar simulator, chilled out at a piano bar and went to Ocean’s 12. So far, no incriminating or compromising photos of Andy have emerged (not that I would have expected any). So, the wedding is still on. See you all in 12 days!
Saturday, December 11th was my mom’s birthday. I will not say how old she is because of my respect for my elders. But, I will give one hint – she is at least 2 times older than me and I am 28. On my mom’s birthday, we baked Christmas cookies. Poor Andy doesn’t like peanut butter, mint or nuts so he basically didn’t like many of the kinds of cookies we made. Oh, by the way, just 19 days until our wedding!
Here’s all the information our guests may need to know about our wedding:
Day & Time
Location:
Nearby Hotels:
Gift Registries:
here it comes! Andy and I are getting married in just 25 days. One questions I get a lot is, “So, are you ready?” I usually respond, “Do you mean, am I ready for the marriage or for the wedding?” I think Andy and I are ready for marriage. Whether we are ready for the wedding is a totally different story. I don’t think we’re ready for the wedding. I’m so swamped at work that I’ve had very little time to devote to wedding planning. I’m just so thankful that Andy and others have really helped out. But, of course there is so much to do and I will not be at ease until it is all done.
Andy and I spent Thanksgiving Day in Coon Valley, Wisconsin with my the extended family on my mom’s side. It was lots of fun. In the evening, they had a shower for me and Andy. Andy’s parents even came to it. That’s where my relatives played a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad (but hilarious) trick on me. They asked everyone to bring a gift that cost no more than $1.00. Everyone was in on the trick except for me and Andy. We got gifts such as a used rap video, a bag of assorted soaps (including 1/2 used bars in plastic baggies), etc. I tried my best to be grateful. It was hard. My relatives (especially my mom) were laughing like crazy. I felt bad because people were laughing at the presents given by others. But, at one point, while holding up a gift, I had to use the gift as a shield while I laughed myself. At some point, I realized that the gifts were so disappointing so I asked Andy to open them. My sister leaned over to me after I had opened about half the presents and said, “These are awful.” I said, “Shhh. They’re fine.” I also heard a cousin say, “I feel bad for Jessi.” I thought I wasn’t being grateful enough, so I tried to pick it up. I just remember how relieved I was when my aunt said that those were not my real presents. I think I started laughing and crying at the same time.
Lots of stuff transpired over the weekend. Here’s a summary:
1. Friday – Forbes Shower
My dad’s side of the family threw a bridal shower for me. It was fun to see everyone. We played a game that would determine how well Andy knows me. At all the recent Forbes bridal showers the game was how well the bride knows the groom (not the other way around). I was bamboozled! I had studied up for weeks on silly facts about Andy, determined not to eat a large piece of gum for every question I answered wrong. I learned Andy’s sizes, his social security number, license plate number, time of birth, etc. In the end, I got a mouth full of Hubba Bubba because Andy had incorrectly answered so many questions about me.
2. Saturday – Pre-Marital Class and Church
We didn’t do too much on Saturday. I worked a little at home and Andy painted some cabinet doors and installed them in a bathroom. We also had another pre-marital session before church. The sessions are now just Andy and me and the counselor and her husband (instead of us, the counselor and her husband and the other engaged couples). I just love pre-marital class and I didn’t want it to end. But, we had to quit on Saturday when we could hear worship starting in the church’s sanctuary.
3. Sunday – Brushes with Death
Andy almost died twice on Sunday. The first incident occurred during his flight lesson and the second (very shortly after) when he was driving his pick-up. Here is how Andy described these scary incidents on his blog:
Broad-Sided Answer to Prayer
Today ended up being a difficult day. I came face-to-face with my own mortality not once, but twice in a matter of just a few hours.The first came during a flight lesson that otherwise went great. While doing a few maneuvers at the practice area, I came out of a turn and saw another plane just below the nose of my plane. Had we not been about 200 feet above them, we very well may have collided. I don’t have much fear in regards to flying, but my greatest fear is mid-air collisions. Other planes can come seemingly out of nowhere leaving very little time to react. Small planes like I fly, a Cessna 172 (Skyhawk), are very difficult to see.
The second brush with death came in a car accident on my way home from my flight lesson. I stopped at the auto parts store to get some anti-freeze to flush my coolant system. As I was pulling out of the parking lot when leaving, I didn’t see a mini-van coming and pulled out. I ended up hitting him on the passenger side. Had I pulled out just a second or two sooner, I could have very easily been T-Boned, and possibly killed as he would have struck me on the driver’s side.
It was very jarring. I’ve been in a few small fender-benders in the past, never my fault, and rear ended a woman while going about 10 mph when she stuttered while making a right turn at a stop light. I’ve never been responsible for this kind of damage.
I thank God that the only way this particular accident could have had a better outcome would have been if it had not happened at all, since neither I nor the other driver sustained any injuries.
I say that this was a broadsided answer to prayer for good reason though. I have been listening to a lot of Ray Comfort’s sermons lately, and have really taken them to heart. In them, he cries out that we, the church, need to ask God to teach us to number our days. It is easy, at 27 years of age, to see so much of my life ahead of me and not take my service to God seriously. I have prayed that He teach me to number my days. I want to live each day as if it could be my last, because one day I’ll be right.
Sometimes God answers prayer in the most unexpected ways. By allowing me to get into an accident that could have had a far worse outcome, I was forced to recognize that youth carries no guarantees. Young people die all the time. I am fully confident that had I been killed in either the car accident or a mid-air collision, I’d be with Jesus right now. In the sense of my eternal position, I have no fear of death. What jarred me most though, was the thought that I could have done so much more for Him in my life so far.
Get out there Christians – use this time you have to snatch sinners from the fires of Hell. So many are headed there, and it’s our job, while we’re here, to point as many to the door of salvation as we can.
4. Only 40 days left until our wedding! CRAZY!