Weekend

Ack! It has come to my attention that I never posted the lovely pictures from the botanical gardens from our visit there two weekends ago. Here is what I wrote and mistakenly never posted. :-)

What a wonderful weekend! Friday night I was feeling kind of down and Jeremy took me on a walk by the river in downtown Elgin and the we got a late-night snack at a local Mexican eatery, El Faros. I had some yummy flan and Jeremy tried a torta. I felt better. :-) Saturday morning we went out for breakfast and then picked up the necklaces I bought my bridesmaids at the mall. After work, we went to another mall and bought our wedding bands - I'm ringless until Thursday because they wanted to replate the engagement ring to match the shininess of the band. :-) I also found this cute jewelry store called Na Hoku, that specializes in Hawaiian jewelry. I loved gazing at all their creative designs using pearls, mother of pearl, shells, and opals. So beautiful! I told Jeremy to keep the store in mind for an anniversary gift down the road. :-) After church on Sunday, we went to a graduation party for a friend of mine and then on to the Chicago Botanical Gardens. Neither of us had been there before, and we had a lot of fun walking through the gardens and gazing at the beautiful scenery. It's so amazing to think that God designed and created each and every one of the thousands of plants there. I took a lot of pictures! They'll be posted on my blog soon. We will most likely go again when visiting Chicago in the future. It was a nice, relaxing weekend for us not revolving around wedding or travel plans (aside from the rings). It's been so overwhelming lately with everything that needs to be done in the next three weeks. Jeremy has said he will take the whole week before the wedding off work so that will give him three whole days while I'll still be working to pack and start moving things down to Ohio. He mentioned taking a truck full of furniture and boxes down the weekend before the wedding, and taking Megabus back up. Not having a bed or futon to sleep on for those days before and the days following the wedding will only be to prepare us for sleeping on the floor in Japan, haha. At least he will have a bed at Dave's house!





















We also checked for the flowers at the forest preserve last weekend and they weren't nearly as spectacular as last year. I didn't even take pictures. :-p

Two weekends - pictures!

Here are some pictures from two weekends ago, the family time and bridal showers in Michigan and Ohio.

Our parents met for the first time... I think it went alright! ;-)


I got to meet my newest niece, Chloe, for the first time too!


Isn't Brianna precious!


Aww, isn't Chloe precious too? :-)


My entire family:


On to Ohio! Here's a group of some of the ladies at the bridal shower Jeremy's cousin hosted.


Everyone had a blast playing a new game called Quelf:


Here's a picture of the inside of the church we'll be married at:


And the inside of the fellowship hall where we'll have the reception:

Not much new

Me again. Not too much new is going on these days other than finding out we need MORE money to pay for things here before we leave. The apartment complex is fining me $2,210.00 for breaking lease... an extra $500 than I originally thought because I haven't been here a year yet. Sigh. That puts us up to needing about $6,000 by the beginning of July. Yikes. This is one very costly opportunity for us!! Good news is though, that I will receive my annual bonus from work tomorrow and get a $0.58 pay increase starting June 2nd. :-) The bonus should be able to pay off my credit card and our 3-day honeymoon.

And for those who are attending the wedding in... 5 weeks?... we'll need your help in providing the games we'll use at the reception. Originally, we were thinking of buy some older, or inexpensive copies of some popular party games and either giving them away or raffling them off at the reception, but we really can't afford to buy them, no matter how cheap they might be! So if you have any you wouldn't mind bringing along for guests to play, that would be fabulous! Some games we are thinking about using are for 5 or more people, or are general party or team games that the majority of people would be familiar with. Here is a list of games, but not limited to, we think could be fun:

Apples to Apples
Balderdash
Boggle
Buzz Word
Clue
Cranium
dice games
Dominoes
Guesstures
Go Fish
Karaoke
Life
Malarky
Memory
Monopoly
Pictionary
Pit
playing cards
Scrabble
Taboo
Trivial Pursuit
Twister
Uno
Wits and Wagers
Yahtzee

If you have any other suggestions, send 'em over! ;-)

July 14th

That's the day they would like us to begin training.

I know I shouldn't be worrying so much about finances because of the Lord wants us there, certainly He'll provide them! Just knowing that we'll need no less than $5,700 to start with between the breaking-lease fee, plane tickets, and money to come with is just a little terrifying. :-p

The veil is complete. I'd take a picture of it to show you all, but then maybe you'll just have to wait until the wedding. ;-) It looks very pretty, and not as weighed down by the trim as I thought. I think it should look nice with the dress - I'll try them on together when I go in for my fitting this weekend.

Invitations went in the mail first thing this morning! I forgot to mention some minor details, but most people know where we're registered and can let us know if they're coming or not now.

I just found out today that the stimulus checks that we're expecting the first or second week of June will actually be applied to federal loans... which means we many not get our checks from the government and that would stink. We're counting on that money to pay off my credit card which has been steadily accumulating wedding and such expenses...

Oh! I had a rather exciting day Wednesday. My right front tire decided to go flat. I've been having to put air in the tire every time I fill up, but that particular morning there was nothing that could have be done to prevent a blow out. I saw it sitting on the ground when I got out of my car at work. A co-worker took me to Autozone on our lunch break to buy a can of Fix-a-flat. I put the can in my tire and watched it inflate... looked alright to me, but I knew it needed more air so I took it to a gas station to put some air in. I got back to work again walked around to make sure it looked good, but a strange sound made me take a closer look... I could feel the air coming out of a HUGE hole in my sidewall, haha. Not good. Long story short, I had to buy a new tire, and ended up getting a second as well because the other front tire was in just as bad shape as the flat one. Sigh. I actually learned quite a bit about tires that day. I may have no mechanical training, but I can look at any given tire and let you know what kind of damage it has and how long it's expected to last, lol.

Jeremy should be out of work soon! Yippee!! Our schedules have seemed to flip flop somewhat lately as I've been the one lacking sleep. Last week while he was working two jobs, the poor guy was exhausted all the time. Now, my schedule at work is 7-3pm and with staying up to see him at night, I've been averaging about 5 hours of rest per night, much less than my usual. I look forward to naps and sleep this weekend. :-)

Bridesmaid dresses & Japan

We're going to Japan!! Of course, there are issues that will need to be taken care of first, but they want us to be there in mid-July. Sonomi said that she mailed the contract on Thursday, which includes the exact date, so we should be receiving that soon. It's very exciting and very scary at the same time! Although, it's something we have both wanted to do for a long time and we're glad we have the opportunity to teach together, there is a long list of things to do in only a short amount of time. I've decided to simplify things by keeping my maiden name until we return to the States in a year or two. I know I wouldn't have enough time to send in all the paperwork needed to receive a new passport, driving license, social security card, and then apply for an international driving license and a Japanese Visa - there would only be two months to do all of that in. It won't happen, so I will still be a Harry for a while longer. :-) I haven't talked to my apartment complex about breaking lease yet... I'm afraid to learn the consequences. Ryan said he had to pay over a thousand dollars when he broke his lease - the equivalent of three months rent. Yikes. Pray for us!! I know I need to talk to them soon. Other wedding news is that we have a set of candles now that Stacey got for us!! Thanks, sis! We also finished addressing the invitations this weekend, although we have about a dozen that still need addresses. And we finally registered at Target!! FIVE hours is a very long time to be in one store, lol. I think that's about all the updates there. :-)

This afternoon the girls and I are going to David's to look at bridesmaid dresses and put more money down on my dress (finally!). Jeremy and I plan to finish our wedding registries before the end of the weekend so all of those who are receiving bridal shower invitations will actually have something to look at in the stores. ;-) Ok... so we're back from David's and the girls decided on BLACK dresses. I wasn't too thrilled, but apparently, the colors I had chosen (at least four different ones: pearl pink, celadon, latte, and wine/cabernet) didn't suit them. At least they can reuse the black dresses, as they both said they will wear them out to other special occasions, so that makes me happy knowing that if they're spending a lot of money on them, at least they'll get more use than just our wedding! It completely goes against the light/pastel colors I wanted to help balance me out, but they'll match the guys so it won't be too off balance than if they had chosen a different dark color. I can be pretty obsessive about symmetry sometimes. :-) It will be easy for Stacey to buy a dress now too!! Haha.

Flowers and Pictures!

Sam and I went shopping at Hobby Lobby last night for flowers for the wedding and we got everything we need! On the drive home, Sam was busy making the guys' boutonnieres and has even started on the bridesmaids bouquets before the night was over. :-) She's doing a good job! I bought my bouquet pre-made, but we're adding a bit of color to it. We're using ivory/white and cabernet-colored mini callas. It's pretty. :-) I also got to see my veil in the works when I was visiting the Gabharts. By the time I left, she had already gathered the tulle and sewed it on the comb - at the rate these two are going, both the flowers and the veil will be done by the end of the weekend! Haha. I also reserved a block of hotel rooms at the Red Roof Inn yesterday for our out-of-town guests. I'm so glad things are coming along!

Now on to pictures!! Jeremy and I went to visit my cousins in Iowa last weekend to celebrate Bain's second birthday with them.

Here's the cute little toddler with his favorite things in the world: cars.


Cousin Jessa and Aunt Donna at the Wilton Cafe.


Frosting the birthday cakes...


Tasting the frosting with mom (cousin Kayla).


I believe this is our first picture together since Jeremy's big move! (I'm being silly as he looks so lovingly at me, lol)


"RACE CAR!! Woooow!!!" ;-)


Daddy (Rob) and son.

Wedding Updates

Well, this is what we have so far...

The date is June 28th at the First Baptist Church of Grove City, Ohio. Approximate time is around 4pm. Thanks Judy! There are no new updates with the dress - I still owe my friend for the down payment, and still haven't put any more money on it although I do plan on keeping the dress despite it being $400. My mom has agreed to help with at least $100 for the dress and Jeremy said he would be able to help with some of it too! I will still need to call around and see what the best price I can get for the hemming and bustle will be, otherwise, it will be David's and will cost another $150 - ouch!. Still need shoes. Sam's wonderful mom has volunteered to make me a veil! I saw the tulle and the trim she plans to sew on it - very pretty! Last Friday, I bought us three nights for our honeymoon at a nice bed and breakfast along the Lake Michigan coast. I bought the invitations last Friday as well. They're small and pretty, and we will just need to fill in our information - hopefully, we don't mess up on too many!! And we will still need the invitations for the Illinois gathering, although I know what I would like to get for that. We also have a journal that we plan on using for a guest book at all the showers and at the wedding. I think that's about all the progress we've made so far... still lots of ideas floating around and a long ways to go! Oh, and Sam said she wanted to help with the flowers! She is taking me shopping on Thursday. We also received our first wedding gifts yesterday from a co-worker of mine - a set of 4 glasses and sugar and creamer bowls. Thanks Ada!!

We haven't made a complete decision on whether we'll be heading overseas shortly after the wedding or not. We both really want to go, but it also involves some major risks! I would have to leave my excellent job and all my benefits, break my lease (which could be costly), and find room to store our things for 1-2 years. We would be leaving behind many good friends and lots of family, although I know we could count on their continued support. And we would be moving to a country where few people speak English, and where we would have very little spiritual support, as the majority of the people are either Buddhist, Shinto, or have no interest in religion or faith. It would be a fabulous mission field to be in, and I'm sure we'd have many opportunities to share the Good News to our students and friends. And of course there is the obvious, in that we will be newly weds and would encounter many new obstacles together - which I've been told has helped several couples in similar positions strengthen their new marriages. :-) Please continue to pray with us over this opportunity and as plans for the up-coming wedding come together! Thanks!!