Unreal

Sometimes I sit back and can't believe where I'm at now. So many of my friends and family are married with kids or expecting, and I always thought I'd be one of them. Instead I'm (legally) single and pursuing a career. I expected I'd have 1-2 kids by the time I turned 23.

I remember when I was college I felt like graduation without marriage was a little bit of a failure. It's not that anyone told me that, but part of it was the perception of danger and risk knowing that I would be alone once I actually stretched my own wings and flew the coop (my family). What I've found is a strange world of freedom and little responsibility, and I get stressed every now and then with the thought of suddenly taking upon myself the responsibility of my family dreams and goals. Suddenly I will have a real tangible obligation, and I don't want to let my sweetheart down.

Little did I realize in college that I've never been alone, and graduation wouldn't change that. It was 4 years ago this month that I met Branden. We met on the lake. We slowly fell in love--though if you ask him, he ordered me out of a prayer, and would tell you that he went home the night we met and told his roommates that he wanted to marry me--thing is, he never told me that. I waited about a month for us to to drop the L-word, and 6 months after that for him to tell me he wanted to marry me.

Ever since the day we met (May 8, 2007), Branden has been there for me. Though the ups and the downs. Or when one of us was trying to force ourselves to let go. I don't think either of us ever completely let go. We always held onto that hope. The hope that we'd continue to receive the strength we found in one another.

I was living in New York the summer of 2010, but somehow it didn't seem complete without him. I guess it never did seem really whole without him.

And now the time has come for us to live our dreams. To let go of fears, and to enjoy the comfort and strength that is ours.

<3

Walmart

Ok, so I may be on a bit of a rant here, but I ran to Walmart today just to pick up a few things. If you know me, then you know that Walmart is pretty much my favorite store on the planet.... except since I moved here, I've never gotten through the line in less than 30 minutes. Yes, Walmart has great prices, but it's not exactly worth it if I can't get through the line. Every time, there are people stretched right to the edge of the clothes waiting for the cashiers who have no idea of what "fast" means. Unless my Walmart can do something about this, it might just lose me as a customer, which means I'll probably do all of my Walmart shopping online (I've loved everything I got on there), or on the weekends when I go to visit Branden. I'm not saying that there aren't certain times of the day where his Walmart has 30 minute lines, but at least those are at predictable hours and not just every time.

Grills and Blogs

Tonight Branden and I spent a quiet evening at (my) home. After a run to Pier 1 for a picture frame that I've had my eye for a week or two, we came back to my place and B offered to put together my new grill. I'm so lucky. We rounded the evening off with our favorite hot dogs and a round of blogging/reading.



The past few days have really been a challenge for us. So many things are up in the air right now with his job, and we're hoping to hear something back soon. It'll be interesting how it all pans out. I'm at a strange place right now. Although we aren't sure what the future has in store, I'm finally feeling settled down in my life in general. So much more now than I have for about the past year. I'm also back to reading blogs and it's just fantastic. Thanks to everyone who still posts on your blogs. I love getting to catch up on your lives (hopefully I don't seem stalkerish) but it's a great substitute for hanging out with everyone who's moved away, or who hasn't. The fact is that I don't do as good of a job now of spending time with you, but I cherish the 10 minutes I get to spending reading about your life. Good luck and keep on posting. Now, I'm going to hit the hay.

Night! (103 days)

The Challenge

I have finally decided what to do for my blogging challenge. I'm going to *try* to make one post a day for the remainder of my engagement (or at least until the week before the wedding).

I know there is so much to catch up on... and I'll post them, I promise I will, but I'll also save them for later and spend a little time now on updates. So far, we've booked our wedding venue, booked 2 reception sites, booked our caterer, bought the wedding dress, and booked my fitting.

Right now, I'm still freaking out over finding a photographer, printing my invitations, finding flowers, and a cake.

So... today is day 107, and you can expect to hear more about the craziness in the future!

100 Day Challenge

If life wasn't hectic enough already (planning a wedding, trying to find a place to live in 4 months, working full time, tyring to enjoy some summer, etc.), I think I'm going to start my own version of the 100 Day Blogging Challenge. Since I started working, it feels like I don't blog enough, but the more I try to chase down everyone else's blogs, the more I realize that this is rather common. My commitment is to blog once a week. Lets see if I can do it.