Holy Week

This Holy week is so different from last year. I am surrounded by love and happiness, I am feeling very productive and successful, and I feel like I'm walking the path I was meant to be on all along, with the man I was meant to be with all along.

Let us not forget, though, during this Easter season, surrounded by colored Easter eggs and trips to visit the Easter bunny at the mall, egg hunts, candy baskets, that the real celebration is in the sacrifice Jesus made for all of us. He not only died in crucifixion (one of the most horrible ways yet to be killed by a human) but was scourged first, tortured, mocked, spat on, and forced to carry his cross all the way to golgotha. Jesus gave up his life for us. In the ultimate sign of love, he died to save all of us.

I have made it a tradition to watch "Passion of the Christ" by Mel Gibson every year at Easter time. Jereme is going to be joining me in this tradition as of this year :) We are scheduled to watch it this Thursday night together. I'm sure I will cry (I always do) but how can you not?

Palm Sunday was last Sunday. We went to Mass with Jereme's mom at Annunciation, and then she took all of us out for pizza afterwards. I (of course!) cried through Palm Sunday Mass. This is always such an amazing, and thankful, time of year for me.

This is the last week of classes. My finals are the Tuesday and Wednesday after Easter and then I am on break, I can't wait!!

The Ring!

We picked up the ring last night from the jeweler. We had to take it to be sized and so I haven't been able to actually wear it since the night Jereme proposed. Now I can't stop looking at it! I feel like a giddy teenager again LOL!

My summer, it seems, is going to become complicated. Hopefully it will work itself all out though. There are so many changes going on it my life, and other people's lives that directly effect me. I have a feeling it's going to be a challenging summer as a result of school + all the changes going on.

More to follow!

We Got the Hall!

So we reserved the hall for the wedding reception on Monday. After a weekend long dialogue between Jereme and I, trying to decide if we should cut the guest list or just get the bigger hall, we opted for the bigger hall. So, we decided to rent the Winter Park Garden Club building that is in Mead Gardens. The hall is actually beautiful and it overlooks the gardens. I love it. So I am secretly happy that Jereme won the dialogue and we're just ending up over budget for the hall.

So, the main part of the hall has a stage, and a white sash that stays on the ceiling at all times. It has long windows but they have shutters that close from the inside to block out sun if you want. the lights are dimmable, and globe shaped. They include tables in the rental, and chairs as well, which is cool, but it does not include linens or plates or anything (which the smaller hall did).

The hall also comes with a smaller room which is going to be used as the "buffet" room. It is a fairly good sized room with a kitchen off of it, and a place for the bar to be set up. The kitchen is small, but plenty big enough for our mother's to get to work in it for the food! LOL!

We have six hours with our rental fee, and just over $70/hr for any additional time that we need. The cost has me a bit on edge about the budget, but I'm going to have faith that it will work itself all out. Jereme and I will be paying for this wedding all on our own, since my family has no money to put into a second wedding for me.

now that the question of the hall is all squared away we can get to more fun little things. Of course there are still a few big things we need to get (photographer anyone?) but most of the rest of the things we have to plan can be done over time instead of needing an earlier reservation time.

School is winding down, and we only have two weeks left. I'm so excited to have yet another semester behind me, and I am doing so great! I can't wait to be a junior and have to be in Gainesville less often.

More updates to follow!

Bridal Party Bouquets

So Jereme convinced me (it actually wasn't too hard, though I do still have some misgivings about it) that fresh flowers is the way to go for a spring time wedding. I made all the Bridal party bouquets for my first wedding, and I wasn't even really very intimidated by it, though I knew nothing about making such bouquets, and I had never attempted anything like it before. I also, I might add, am not a crafty person. At my first wedding the bride's bouquet ended up costing me around $15 and each bridesmade bouquet cost me between $10 and $12 (the maid of honor's was a little different and so cost a few dollars more). I was determined to not spend more than that this time around, even though I'm using real flowers this time.

Our theme for this wedding is gardens, and even though we're having the actual ceremony in the Church (not in a garden LOL!) the reception will be held at a gardens, with an inside hall and an outside we'll be able to use.

My favorite flowers are lilies, especially Easter lilies, but really any lilies. I love the smell of them, I love the beauty of them. So we definitely wanted to incorporate a lot of lilies into our floral arrangements for the wedding. So, I set about at my first trial of making the bouquets for the wedding. I have a year, so it may seem like I'm starting way too early considering we'll be using alive flowers and can't make them months ahead of time, but the intimidation level was high so I wanted to practice, and lilies are more expensive when they aren't in season. Since it's April now, and they're in perfect season, now is the time to try! Plus it gives me a variety of flowers I'll be likely to find next year at this same time as well.

While Jereme and I were at Publix, we saw a small bunch of flowers, with Lilies in them. They were pink and purple and white and pretty. We went ahead and picked up a small bunch ($4) and then went to walmart and got some floral tape and ribbons and pearl headed pins. A few nights ago I set about to work on attempting to make my first live floral bouquet and this is what we ended up with:

So, it is still a little rough around the edges, but I think I did a pretty good job for a first attempt! I want the Bride bouquet to have more flowers though, probably by twice. at least one more stem of lilies, and possibly incorporating a few small calla lilies in it as well. I am thinking the guy's boutonnieres are going to be mini calla lilies so we need to have some in the bridesmades as well. Also we may try to go with a different color flower, depending on what's available next year. I think we've narrowed the wedding color down to a soft light purple (think lilac). The total cost of this bouquet that I made was less than $5.

sick, sick, SICK!

I am so sick of being sick. We have pretty much had at least one person sick non stop in my household since October of last year. I have started completely disinfecting my house wondering if there is some hidden bacteria or something in here making all of us sick. I don't know what the cause of our crippled immune systems is, but I know that it stinks.

On another note, my semester is winding down. I have only two weeks of school left (three more trips to Gainesville left) in the semester and I can't *wait* for summer break. I have so much to do during summer break that it's not even funny, but I'm aiming for at least one trip to the beach as well in there somewhere.

My daughter's First Holy Communion is next month, on the 21st of May. Her dress just arrived from Ohio where it was being made. My grandma's best friend Jeanne made the dress out of my wedding dress from when I married the children's father. Tori looks so beautiful in the dress and now she has something special, a part of me and her father from the days when we loved each other, to keep forever as part of her history. I have many other things to do (and get) for her First Communion, and so I look forward to the break in school so that I can appropriately prepare her for her big day!!


Speaking of big days, Jereme and I have gone and spoken to the priest at Good Shepherd about our planned marriage. We've gotten the paperwork started for it, and reserved a date with the priest. So our official date is April 14, 2012! We've started the beginnings of planning for the big day. I have given myself quite a challenge, as our official budget for this even is a mere $3000. I managed to have my last wedding for a mere $2000 but there were not nearly as many people invited, nor expected, at that wedding. This time we are planning to invite just over 200 people, and expect around 150 to actually come. So I am going to have to come up with many ways to be super frugal. I have many projects and ideas that I am working on, and I will update on the blog as I develop them!

Finals this week are Female Sexuality class and Midwifery Practicum class. We'll see how it goes!!