Whew. It’s Friday and I don’t know where this week went!
Monday was probably the most chill day this week. Just worked and had a relaxing evening at home cleaning my apartment top to bottom.
Tuesday was hot and sweaty. Worked in the office all morning and then had lunch with Kyle at this little luncheonette at Zale Pharmacy in Warsaw, it was so good! Then the Brandpoet team spent the afternoon moving Dave (my boss) from one apartment on campus to another. Made it out of work in time to shower and be on the road at 5:30 for our first pre-marital counseling session! This first meeting was with Pastor Tilly from River Oaks church, we went over parts of the online assessment that Kyle and I did and Pastor Tilly explained what our future counseling sessions with our mentor couple will look like. The assessment wasn’t pass/fail, but if it was we got an A+ 
The points I found especially interesting were that I scored high on assertiveness (Kyle scored average) and I scored low on desire to please (and Kyle scored average). It’s not necessarily bad that I scored that way, but these are definitely areas I need to be aware of. The first session went really well and we’re so excited to continue with this process and meet our mentor couple! We’ve already picked out several books we want to read together.
Wednesday was a busy day at work, followed by a relaxing evening. Kyle came out for the evening and we finished up our resume’s, my contract with Brandpoet ends in December, and Kyle would like to work closer to Warsaw since we’re hoping to live in the Warsaw area. So we got those done and sent on to my former professor/advisor who know works at Biomet! We also looked at a house for rent, but it was sort of dumpy and pretty far out of Warsaw.
Thursday was yet another even crazier day at work. I booked it home after work to get ready for a girls night out! Last summer Becca, Toni and I went to Culver, IN and ate at 2 of Chef George Pesek’s restaurants, the Corn Dance Cafe and the Marmont Grille. The food was absolutely out of this world. So this year we decided to head to Goshen and eat at Kellie Jae’s Cafe, an adorable tapas restaurant. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed for a private party 
So we ate at A Constant Spring… It was good bar food, but still bar food. Oh well, what mattered was spending time with my best girls!
Friday (today?! what?!) was NUTS at work! Just spent the day getting stuff done, keeping up with emails and keeping everyone else in the office tracking with their projects. Now I’m home, chilling out for awhile before I get ready to go have a late-night snack with Kyle after he gets done working at the Elkhart RV show.
Wedding planning hasn’t progressed much this week, but we are getting our engagement photos done next Sunday! I have no idea what I’m going to do for a wedding dress. I liked one at David’s Bridal last week but I don’t know if I really want to spend $500 on a dress. I’m not all that sentimental about things like that, I just want it to be cute, and sort of casual, and very “me” So we’ll see…..
Wedding planning has been very fun so far! Kyle and I are both pretty chill about the whole thing and want it to be special and memorable while keeping it simple!
The day after we got engaged was a Sunday and we were able to sit out on my porch for a few hours (I think 4 hours!) and brainstorm ideas. Right away we agreed on doing a Friday evening ceremony with just parents, siblings and grandparents. Including Pastor Tilly and his wife, Pastor Rob and Lindy, 2 musicians, and Michael and Karina (hopefully our photographers!) the total number will be 20 people. It will be on his parent’s porch (with tiki torches!) and we’ll have a meal together following the ceremony. We plan on having that meal catered by Antonio’s in Elkhart, IN.
The following day we’ll have a big reception to invite all of our family and friends to! We’d originally hoped to also have that at his parent’s house (they have a beautiful yard) but after talking about dates more it was clear that the date we wanted (May 7th) would be too early to have it outdoors at their house. We looked at tons of different venues and have now pretty much decided to have the reception at River Oaks Community Church in Goshen, IN. It’s the church his parents attend, and where we went the first 4 months we dated. It’s a beautiful facility, and we think that the Main Lobby would be perfect for what we’d like to do.
Our color ideas are to keep it simple with white and khaki, and then use whatever color flower we choose as the accent color. Our first pick was to use garden roses and garden spray roses in this color:
We both love these, but before we settle on them we need to do some research and see what kind of flowers will be the most available (and therefore more reasonably priced) at the beginning of May.
For food we’d like to do 4 “tapa stations” with simple but tasty food. Also, instead of cake, we’ve decided to do pie! Neither of us like cake very much, and we both love pie, in almost any flavor, so we think a variety of different pies will be really fun! For drinks we want to use containers like this:
We’re thinking simple flavored waters (using different combinations of things like mint, lavender, lemon, lime, melon, cucumber, etc…) and we’ll have really good coffee.
Since it’s going to be more open house style with people coming and going, we’ve (well mostly Kyle) has been coming up with fun ideas of things for our guests to do as they mingle, mix and eat. If anyone has ideas, send them our way!
We’d like to have a photo slideshow continuously looping throughout the reception (we’re thinking we can set up an area with the couches/comfy chairs that the church has in the lobby so people can sit and relax while they watch) and I want to try to have it all ready to go, and then be able to stick in a little clip of the ceremony into it the morning of the reception before burning it to DVD and using it.
We were waiting on my parents to officially set a date since we weren’t sure exactly when they’d be able to come back to the states, but they have figured out they should be good to go for coming back in April in time for a May 6th wedding and May 7th reception!
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Kyle and I have also been doing some wedding band and wedding dress shopping! Both have been pretty amusing. Kyle has a little more extravagant taste with wedding bands than I do, which cracks the sales-people up. The more bling the better for him, and I shy away when it gets to blingy We saw one today that we both absolutely love! It’s a guard (bands on both sides) with lots and lots of baguette diamonds. I did some wedding dress shopping on my own yesterday, and then took Kyle with me today. I’d been debating whether I want to buy a real wedding dress, buy a bridesmaid dress in white, or have a dress made. Kyle has a friend who is a talented seamstress/fashion designer, so having it made is still an option, but we did find a dress today that we both love! Not sure which route I’ll go yet…
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In other news, I bought a car! I don’t have it yet, but it’s a 1999 Honda Accord 2-Door Coupe. I’m very excited it about, it’s super well maintained, it has 105,000 miles, and I got it for a great price!
Kyle and I are church-hunting. Trying to find one close to Warsaw that we can get involved in.
We’re also house/apartment hunting! Kyle would like to move closer to the Warsaw area by January so we can get the place ready before we get married and I move in. So far, no luck, but it’s been interesting! Seen a lot of dumpy places, and a lot of tiny places. Kyle seems to think the super tiny places would work, but there’s no way all my clothes would fit in some of the places!
It’s late, definitely time for bed…
I thought I could resurrect the blog for some….. WEDDING PLANNING!! That’s right, I’m engaged!
Kyle and I started dating 5 months ago. It’s been absolutely awesome to see how God brought us together. These past months have been pretty nuts for me and Kyle has constantly encouraged me and supported me! I graduated from college (with Kyle and his parents attending my graduation!), a friend of mine passed away and Kyle was there for me in such a huge way, I started a new job that involves supervising 5 interns and Kyle has been a great resource for me with all of his management experience, I found myself getting very overwhelmed between working full-time and trying to continue with several side-projects and Kyle encouraged me (in such a positive, not pushy way) to evaluate my time/priorities and understand that it’s OK to say no…. I hope that I’ve been able to be a help and a blessing to him the way he has been to me!
So, how did Kyle propose? Here’s the story!
Kyle took 2 of my girlfriends and I out to Fort Wayne to have a belated birthday celebration for my friend Toni. We didn’t get back to Warsaw until really late, and I was exhausted! After we dropped them both off I was being horrible and whiny saying how tired I was and that I just wanted to go home, and I got annoyed when he didn’t make the turn onto Kings Highway and instead drove into the Village. When he parked by the lake and I said once again that I just wanted to go home he said he just needed 10 minutes! Then he said he wanted me to read the e-mail he had written my parents and he handed me an 8-page printout. I knew that he had begun corresponding with my parents 2 weeks ago, but he had downplayed it and I thought they had only emailed back and forth a few times and were just beginning to get to know each other. Well, the email he handed me, which was the first email he had ever sent them, was asking for their blessing to ask for my hand in marriage! So, I read it, was so touched and honored, but still didn’t know that he was asking me, after all, I never guessed that my parents would have given their blessing already! So I said, “It might take them awhile to say yes!” and he said, “Well, they already did say yes, so I would like to know if you would take my hand in marriage?” and I said, “YES!” Then he gave me the ring, which is so pretty and exactly what I wanted! Then I quizzed him for a few minutes because I didn’t believe my parents has said yes, so he showed me the email on his phone where they had J Right after getting their permission he had ordered the ring, and he had just picked it up that night, and was going to ask me Saturday evening, but was worried that with his family knowing and several of his condo neighbors knowing that someone would let the cat out of the bag.
That was it, sweet and quiet and perfect!
Here’s a few pictures of the ring, and then it’s time for me to sign off for the night.
Phew…. This is going to be a quick overview of the last few weeks. I haven’t had time, energy, or desire to post in such a long time, and honestly haven’t taken very many photos either.
Week 20
On Sunday (Mother’s Day), Kyle and I ate lunch at his parent’s and dinner at his house, both delicious of course. Lunch was steaks and my favorite grilled peppers, haha and dinner was “post-modern and traditional” pigs-in-a-blanket.
Monday I had my favorite bento box (Beef Sukiyaki!) ever following my last lunch shift ever.
The rest of the week I spent working from the office and getting into the swing of things with the new job. My desk was the conference table until we got the office set up later in the week. I did have flowers from Kyle to make things pretty though!
On Thursday I was very pleasantly surprised with a going away party at Cerulean! They had planned it all out, getting me to come in because I had plans to hang out with Toni, hiding me out on the porch and then getting the lounge ready for the party after most of the customers had left, it was SO sweet! Toni and Lindsey made and decorated the cutest cupcakes ever
Friday was my last dinner shift, Kyle and 2 friends came in and made me a little (very little, that plate is about 2 x 2 inches!) sampler plate of their meals for me to take back to the kitchen and eat, haha!
We celebrated Becca’s birthday after work! Toni and I had put together a fun bag of presents for her, and Lindsey decorated cupcakes (2 days in a row!). We got a cute-sie picture of us group-hugging (Becca, Toni and I).
That night ended with what was the beginning of an extremely hard week. First I got an email from my mom saying that I had probably already heard if I’d been on Facebook (which I hadn’t been) that my friend Daniel Parker was in a bike accident. I immediately got online to see if I could find anything out and then got a voicemail from my friend Michael saying that it was a really bad accident.
On Saturday I got my stuff packed up, met two of the interns at the office to get them going on some work and then left for Middlebury to meet Kyle at his work and we left for Michigan from there. My brother Jon and friend Michael had both been at the hospital (U of M Hospital in Ann Arbor) since the middle of the night. We had been praying for a miracle, although at that point it didn’t look good. Not being there yet or fully knowing the situation I had some hope when they took him back into surgery on Saturday to remove more of his skull to relieve pressure, but by the time we were almost there Jon had texted me to make me aware of the situation and that the doctors had told the family they did not expect him to live 24 hours. It was just a week before that Daniel had driven from Grand Rapids, MI to Winona Lake, IN to attend my graduation, and had to immediately head back to Hillsdale, MI for his brothers graduation. A week earlier I had hugged him, taken pictures with him, and been so blessed by his being there. Now I was on my way to the hospital to say goodbye and hug his family. It was a difficult day, followed by many more difficult days. I was also able to see Rosie, one of my youth group girls (from when I worked with the Countryside youth group in 2006-07). Her older sister Kayla was one floor above Daniel in an induced coma with a life-threatening tumor on her right lung.
Week 21
Sunday was very emotionally draining. It was a blessing to be at Countryside with my church family, it was a blessing to listen to Pastor talk about Daniel and the kind of man of God he always was. That afternoon two dear ladies from Countryside hosted a graduation open house for me at my old house (the church’s parsonage). It was hard to go ahead with the open house with everything that was going on, but I was thankful that all the leftover food (and there was lots even though the open house had a great turnout!) was able to go to the church to help feed the people coming in from out-of-town to be with the Parkers. I got to see lots of people that I never get to see anymore, people not from Countryside that I wouldn’t normally see on a trip to Michigan. Mom and dad even came!!! I called them on Skype right before the open house was starting and talked for a bit and then as people showed up they would talk to me for a bit and then talk to mom and dad on video chat! At one point it died down a little and I asked dad if he wanted me to shut it down, and he said, “No, if I see someone I know I’ll holler at them!
Kyle was a huge help the whole weekend. He drove everywhere, took care of me, and let me cry… Besides crying off and on the whole weekend, after the open house I was completely spent and cried almost all the way back to Indiana. We stopped at Kyle’s parents for awhile to see them and I cried with them too.
Daniel’s breathing tube had been taken out sometime during the afternoon, and he was kept on life support until the organ donations could be all lined up. He was taken off life support at 10:15pm and he passed away at 10:30pm.
Monday was a marathon day at work with 3 out of the 5 interns there and getting ready for a big training on Tuesday. We worked a solid 12 hour day getting materials ready and binders put together.
On Tuesday we had a training for all “front-of-the-line” staff. I was one of the presenters, along with my boss, the Provost, and the V.P. of Student Affairs. The training went really well! After work Kyle and I had a sushi date at Cerulean.
Wednesday I left work early to drive to Michigan for Daniel’s visitation. Over 1,000 people went to the visitation, he had touched so many lives.
Thursday was the funeral, a difficult and emotional day, but it truly was a celebration of Daniel’s life.
I don’t remember anything about Friday… That week was just difficult. The internet played such a huge role with people grieving and sharing memories about Daniel over Facebook, Twitter and blogs that I found myself just wanting to read everything I could about Daniel in the evenings after work, which of course made me very emotional, there were several nights when I just stayed at work a little late to check my email and then left my computer there so I wouldn’t be able to get online for hours at home.
Saturday I got loads of stuff done at home (mainly laundry!)
Week 22
Sunday Kyle and I went to church, hung out with his dad for awhile, and then spent the afternoon getting sun with his brother Lee.
Monday-Friday was more of the marathon that is the new job! We’re getting ready to launch a huge marketing campaign and that requires all sorts of research, meetings, planning, writing, etc… I really need to take pictures of my desk! At one point I had 2 bouquets of flowers from Kyle, but alas they have died by now. I did snap a picture of 2 of the interns busily drafting a letter together, they’re in their “thinking” position, I love it!
Friday was the beginning of a long vacation weekend that Kyle and I spent galavanting around doing different fun things and visiting/spending time with different fun people! Friday night we had dinner with friends Craig and Cara at this super hokey looking place in Goshen called “Dandino’s.” The menu was so funny, and honestly the place looked like it needed to go on the show Kitchen Nightmares, but the food was pretty good!
One of my favorite parts was on Saturday when we went to Danville, IN to visit his friend Marcus and the three of us spent the whole afternoon at the community pool. We had a blast cruising down the giant water slides, drifting around the lazy river, doing cannon-balls off the diving board and sitting around talking and getting sun. For 10 minutes of every hour they have “adult swim,” which I guess is to give the life-guards a break and probably to encourage the kids to stop playing and use the bathroom once in awhile. Well, we took full advantage of adult swim and would go down the water slide 5 times in a row when there was no line of little kids
There’s the recap of the last few weeks!
I have been so blessed with parents who pushed me and supported me and got me to where I am today: graduated and employed.
The words written inside the graduation card from them have made me tear up every time as I’ve read and re-read it the past 2 days.
We are sooo proud of you today! We know how hard you’ve worked; how much time and effort you’ve put into doing your very best… which is very good indeed! You have special memories of friends and classes and projects. Of homework flying back and forth across the internet as we helped with editing. Of working hard at Cerulean so you could buy your books and groceries and gas for your car. Of bringing sushi or soup home after work, to eat while you studied late into the night with the help of caffeine. So many memories packed into the past few years. And now you’ll be making new memories in your brand new job as project coordinator. Have we mentioned we are sooo proud of you? Love you bunches, Mom & Dad
Thank you mom and dad for expecting me to do my best, giving me affirmation when I succeeded, and even for laughing at me and thinking I’m silly when I was mad over any grade that was below 100%.
Last Sunday was another lovely, relaxed day spent with Kyle’s family. When we went to find Dani in the kid’s wing after the church service let out, she came tearing out of the bathroom saying, “Tiiiinnnnaa!!” She may have been prepped a little by grandma She also called me “Uncle Tina” a few times, must be since I’m with Uncle Kyle it just makes sense that I would be Uncle Tina!
Monday was my first day on the new job! I ended up working from home Monday and Tuesday since they didn’t have the office ready for me yet. Monday was a bit distastrous though, at about 10:00am I realized a bolt had fallen out of the back of my toilet. So, I Skyped with dad, showed him the problem and he said it was a bolt that held the tank to the base and that I could get a new one at the hardware store and replace it. So, I stuck a bowl under the toilet to catch the dripping water, tried to turn the water off, and got the part I needed at the hardware store. Long story short – I couldn’t fix it, I couldn’t turn the water off and eventually there was water everywhere including seeping into my bedroom carpet, I was freaking out because I needed to be working, no one was readily available to rescue me, so Kyle sensed the desperation and frustration in my voice and sent me a plumber to save the day! The plumber ended up having to turn the water for the whole house off to fix the problem, then he changed the bolts and replaced the water shut-off valve with one that worked!
Tuesday I worked from home again, mainly preparing for a meeting on Thursday with the interns, also doing some writing.
Wednesday was my first day in the office! It was a busy day spent making phone calls, prepping for the meeting and compiling binders for the interns. By the time I went into work at Cerulean I was a bit frazzled thinking about everything I still needed to do, but after getting my mind off of everything for a few hours I calmed down, spent some time with my favorite ladies after work, and then went home to finish prepping for an early morning on Thursday.
I was up SO EARLY on Thursday!! So, maybe lots of people normally get up early, but not me, and I was up at 5:30am! The day went really well though; great meetings, really productive, and even a fun shift at Cerulean to end the day! I got to work with some of my favorite girls in the whole world, and we went a little crazy taking pictures! We took pictures in the sushi lounge… in a booth… in the walk-in… in the wine cellar… with the new beer fridge… but my favorite was the one on the porch!
The weekend was an absolute whirlwind of graduation related activities! Friday morning we had rehearsal (which lasted longer then the real graduation). After rehearsal I had to book it to Fort Wayne where I had a bunch of things to do. One of the things I hadn’t planned on doing, but I found a place to get my eyebrows threaded. I’d heard from several people that it was really cool and that they’d had great results so when I saw a store in the mall that offered it for $8 I jumped on it! It was painful, but only for about 20 seconds, and it turned out great
Jon, Natalie, Kyle and I went out for dinner at Cerulean. Kyle had very sweetly pre-arranged to have flowers on the table and our first course waiting for us when we got there!! I got my absolute favorite dish, the sea bass with the goat-cheese squash cake, YUM!
Becca met up with Toni and I at the dessert and I do think we both look quite lovely in our floral shirts
The two Abby’s, Prof Prinsen and myself spent some time catching up. We’re all doing new, exciting and different things with our lives right now! It was really nice to catch up with everyone.
Saturday was the BIG DAY!! Graduation was long (and at times boring) but overall really good
I felt so blessed to spend the day with so many wonderful people! 4 people from my home church made the drive (2 of them even had to rush back to MI for Hillsdale College’s graduation!).
Kyle’s parents came to graduation and lunch!
Lunch was so fabulous. We had a group of 14! Kyle had even pre-arranged for two gorgeous flower arrangements (in Grace colors!) to be on the tables!
The food was AHHH-mazing!!!
We laughed and had a good time!!
And took lots and lots of pictures!!!!!
At the end of the day it was so nice to relax. I just kept sighing!! I guess it was a mix of relief, contentment and anticipation!!
BONUS! They spelled my name right on my diploma
My mom always says to me, “you’re my favorite daughter,” to which I reply, “I’m your only daughter!” and she says, “but you’re still my favorite.”
So today I will say to her,
“You’re my favorite mom!”
Sunday I made it out to Elkhart so that Jon could transfer everything from my old MacBook to my new one!
Jon and Nat also treated Kyle and I to a delicious homemade Thai dinner, Pad See Ew. Soooo yummy!!!
I also met my nephew dog Leo’s new best friend, a stuffed rabbit named Hoppity.
Monday I was scheduled to work a double, but ended up switching my dinner shift to prepare for a second interview (that was scheduled for that night and then got moved to later in the week).
Tuesday was spent getting stuff done around the house, running errands, and working. One of the things I accomplished was going through a ton of clothes, taking some to Goodwill and getting the rest ironed and on hangers to take to Plato’s Closet. I improvised a hanging rack
I finally had my second interview on Wednesday, it went well and I got a much better feel for the position and the project. I also had one more video shoot at one of the United Way Vision Council meetings.
Thursday should have been day 1 of a road trip with my cousin, but we ended up canceling it. I’d kind of gone back and forth, and then he did too, so we decided now wasn’t a good time. Since I was in town, I attended Awards Chapel where I received the Communication Student Leader award! The new dinner menu started that night at Cerulean, so of course Kyle and I went in to try some of the new stuff! We had the lobster cakes, house-cured pork belly with mascarpone polenta and egg, seviche sea scallops, and for dessert, chocolate bread pudding with pistachio gelato – YUM!!!
Friday was sort of a big day! I mean, with working lunch… buying a new outfit at Penney’s… and GETTING A JOB!!!!! I sat down with my new boss, Dave, at 6pm and he offered me the position! I am now the project coordinator for a big marketing campaign at my alma mater. Kyle was hanging out at Bike Fest waiting for me, so when I came to meet him and tell him the good news we decided to go have a celebratory dinner at Cerulean, we can’t get enough of that place! We were still full from the night before so we tried not to order too much. It was fun to go out and celebrate and of course, tell my best girls about the new job!
Unfortunately for Bike Fest the weather on Saturday was pretty gross and rainy. Kyle and I went to the tent but it was just humid and uncomfortable. We stayed long enough to eat a little and listen to my friends band play.
Should be a big post next week, graduation is Saturday!!