Time Flies When Your Mind is Occupied

Wow. I didn't realize it has been three months. A lot has happened since then. I got married, went on a honeymoon, packed up almost all of my stuff from my parent's house, moved it all into storage, and moved to Austin.

The wedding was amazing from our point of view. Josh and I had a blast and wish we could do it again, minus the stress and $$$ out the wazoo. Some of the pictures are up on Facebook. I'm not sure if I'll put up the others; two cameras were used (for security/safety reasons) and over 700 pictures were taken. I have one camera's pictures of getting ready and the ceremony. I still have one more camera with different pictures of both of those categories, plus all of the reception pictures from both cameras. Jeff Carr did an amazing job! If you ever need a professional photographer, even just for a Christmas card, Jeff is the man to do it. No, he didn't pay me to say that.

There was only one mishap with the wedding: Josh and I forgot about the unity candle. Pastor Mike stepped aside for unity candle time and Josh and I stood there, racking our brains, trying to figure out what went next. We hadn't exchanged rings, we hadn't said our vows, he hadn't pronounced us man and wife, but we couldn't figure out what we were supposed to do. Finally Mike whispered loudly, "the candle" and the light bulbs went off in our heads and on our faces (I almost wish Jeff had gotten a picture of the dumbstruck looks we had on our faces), we laughed, the crowd laughed, and all was well. Aside from that, our wedding went without a hitch. Julie, Lara, Paula, and the rest of my bridesmaids and friends did such a fantastic job; I wish I could have done more to thank them.

Now Josh and I are in Georgetown, a town an hour north of Austin. We're staying with his grandparents until we leave for Germany in September (I'll tell you more about Germany later). His grandparents are letting us live with them (for a whole 30 days!) on one condition: I cook dinner. :D I was so excited when Josh told me! Now I'm really getting to play house and experiment in the kitchen and be creative and all that fun stuff. I have learned very quickly that Josh likes anything that is food. I don't feel that I can trust his opinion on my cooking for that very reason. That, and we're still in the new phase where he doesn't want to hurt my feelings. I have rejected my own cooking since being here (the dish really was not good and was further ruined by freezing - the grandparents are obsessed with freezing things) and Josh still said it was good and kept eating it - the rest of the 13x9 pan of it. Ah well. At least he's eating it, right? :D

I feel like I need to do something with my blog, other than bore you with the details of my everyday life, which will hopefully not be quite so boring once we move to Deutschland. The reason I feel this way is because Josh has started a blog where he solves math problems from a book of his. He's basically trying to solve his way through I. N. Herstein's Topics in Algebra in a year and he's posting the equations with their proofs (answers/solved problems) on his blog. He doesn't expect anyone to read it - he's only doing it for himself. Also, I watched Julie & Julia on Friday (excellent movie - buy popcorn and a drink for it, though, it's long) and, in case you haven't seen the previews, in the movie the main character, Julie, cooks her way through Julia Child's cookbook and posts the experience on a blog. While Julie is cooking away, you watch Julia as she learns to cook and write the cookbook that Julie and millions of Americans are using today. It's a great story.

Anyway, between Josh and Julie & Julia, I feel as if my blog is pointless. I'm afraid that once I get to Germany and get settled in, I'll get lonely during the day and I don't want this place to become a whine fest, as I'm afraid it has become in the past. I will be making a conscious effort to fight off the lonliness and sour attitudes, but just in case I get weak, I want you to actually want to read my blog. I do plan on stealing the idea from Mutating Missionary and take pictures of my surroundings and post a few on my blog every day, but I feel as if that's not drive enough. Maybe I'll post pictures of my cross-stitching work to show my progress with each piece and maybe even set goals for myself to get it finished by a certain time. If you get any ideas for me, let me know.

Ah! I remembered that I am going to post a German word or phrase every day, just to help myself out. It may be a word that I need to learn or a word that I learned that day, but it will be on here, accompanied by the English translation. My ultimate goal while I'm over there is to become fluent, or at least as much as possible. Josh and I won't even speak English to each other to help ourselves with fluency. I can't wait to get started!

Well, it's late, and I need to get my husband (!! :D !!) into bed. He has work in the morning and takes FOREVER to fall asleep. Good night, all! Gute nacht, euch (is that how you say it, Lori/Robyn?)! Aufwiedersehen!