Happy New Year! I've just been catching up on everyone else's blog updates, which inspired me to write my own post (though it is CLEARLY far too late for these shenanigans on a work night, but whatever). So, here's what's going on in the lives of Ben & Jenna...
Christmas
Christmas was busy, of course. It becomes something entirely different when you become part of a couple! We woek up at my Dad's for breakfast and presents (I got a Garmin! WAHOO!). Also, from my fiance, I got a snazzy new long, wool, black peacoat with some very nice feminine details that makes me feel very sophisticated on the metro on my way to work, particularly when I wear it with my new brown, scrunchy, mid-calf-height boots that my grandmother got me :) Next we each showered and got ready for the day and proceeded to my mom's house. We got money for our passports, as well as some home decor stuff and gift cards for our future first home. I stayed there for a delicious dinner while Ben joined his sisters at the hospital to visit with his dad, and then we re-convened at his mom's for (another) dinner, dessert, and more presents, of course :) Watching the kids tear into their presents was so fun! Christmas really isn't the same without little kids around, and I'm so glad I've been blessed with little ones to enjoy! We got some more registry stuff at his mom's, and he got LOTS of socks (and he couldn't have been more thrilled - you should have seen him!), and I got a few perfect clothing items, including slippers from Amberly that have already proven to be worth their weight in gold! My dad swears his heating bill was $300 last month, but I don't know how that's possible given the ice on the tip of my nose.
So, in short, Christmas was GREAT! Every time something comes up where other people are planning ahead for our wedding or acknowledging it in some concrete way (like giving us home decor and kitchen accessories for Christmas), it becomes more and more real. The day after Christmas when everything went on sale, we went "Christmas stuff" shopping. We got tons of ornaments, gift wrap, gift bags and boxes, bows, labels, tissue paper, a tree skirt, stockings for each of us, a wreath for our door, and a few little decorations for around the apartment. Ben got a snow shovel too, which was quick thinking on his part, because in my mind that's something you only need if you have a driveway (he quickly pointed out that when our parking lot gets plowed and completely blocks our cars in, something like this could come in handy!). That was his "wow, this is really happening" moment for the day - buying a snow shovel with me. That's reality for ya.
New Years
We celebrated New Years Eve, and the dawning of our "wedding year", at Ron & Jeanne's house. For those of you who don't know, Ron used to be Ben's boss when he worked at National Tire & Battery in Catonsville. He's also the ex-brother-in-law of a guy Ben played hockey with during most of his teenage years (Tom), which is how Ben got the job with Ron. They're both groomsmen in the wedding. Anyway, we played Wii, ate lots of food, drank wine (or beer), kissed at midnight, and got in the hottub after the ball dropped. It was approximately 27 degrees outside, by the way. Not exactly bathing suit weather! But we had a great time. We slept on Ron's huge comfy couch next to the burning pellet stove and snuggled - it was the greatest! Then on Sunday we watched the Ravens OWN the Dolphins, which was a GREAT start to the new year, in my book :)
"How's the wedding planning going?"
Wedding planning is already starting to kick up a notch. I figured out the place card formatting, finally, which was driving me a little batty. Actually, correction - I didn't figure it out, Em sent me the template from her place cards and it worked like a charm! The place cards we got are awfully plain for my taste, but I'm trying to remember that simplicity is really my theme for the day. And everything else is absurdly expensive. Maybe I'll print the names in color to spice it up... Anyway, speaking of Em helping me out, she and I had a great brainstorming session the other night while our boys played Rock Band 2. We decided to make a nice color scheme change that I think is going to be BEAUTIFUL, inspired by some flowers we found, that are going to be PERFECT. This revelation came just in time for my florist appointment, which is this Saturday morning. I'm excited to get some of that stuff nailed down. Em and I also looked at lots of cake photos online and basically designed my cake, which is awesome. That appointment is coming up on the 17th. And THAT happens to be the day after the Turf Valley Bridal Show, at which we get to taste hors d'oeuvres and dinner food (finally), check out some vendors, and watch a bridal fashion show. Ben is going to HATE it! I'm a little pissed that, as a Turf Valley bride, I had to pay for tickets. WTF? Why should I have to pay to taste this stuff? I'm paying these people (insert exorbitant number) for my wedding - the least they can do is let me taste the stuff I'll be SERVING at my WEDDING for free. Brief bridezilla moment... I think it's passed now. Moving on, we also decided on invitations this week and ordered them. I got the proof today by e-mail and they look great! We made a few alterations to the original design, and they're going to be beautiful. So don't ever, ever, ever throw yours away. HA! Those won't go out until probably the first week of April, so I'm not sure why TheKnot.com is so insistent on me ordering them right now, but whatever. I just do what the checklist tells me to do. I'll have to order the response cards separately since I'm not sure yet what we're serving, and since it's being served (as opposed to a buffet), I have to get a count of what everyone wants prior to the wedding day. Ugh. That may change. It would cost us less than $100 to switch to a buffet, and it would be easier. I like the formality of a seated dinner, but what a pain.
The Mundane
As for daily life, things are going just fine, though we weren't thrilled about going back to regular work weeks after having so much time off around Christmas and New Years (we each had a 2-day work week for Christmas and a 3-day work week for New Years). However, despite the craziness of the holidays, we managed to start going to the gym again during the week before Christmas, and we've been going religiously, 3 days a week. Hopefully we'll be able to work our way up to 4 days a week. We spend about an hour and a half there when we go, which is great for the work-out, but it eats up so much of our evenings together. Ben gets home around 6ish, we head to the gym at 6:30, we stay til 8 (usually each doing our own thing, though we start on the treadmill together), Ben makes his creatine shake and drinks it by about 8:30, which means he can't eat dinner til 9:30 (he's not supposed to eat within an hour of the creatine), and then we both need showers BADLY, and then we have about 15 minutes to say "how was your day" and "this is what I did for the wedding today" and then it's bed time, since he gets up at 3:30 every morning like the saint he is to work overtime for the wedding. And on top of that, we aren't sleeping together during the weeks - only on the weekends - so the weekdays basically just SUCK right now. I miss him so much :'( It's giving us something very exciting to look forward to after the wedding though!
Before I go, I'll offer a quick book recommendation. I've been reading "The Case for a Creator" by Lee Strobel. It's really good. Strobel was an atheist journalist who set out to see if there really was any scientific evidence for a Creator, since the only science he knew was evolutionary theory. His whole book is essentially made up of interviews with prestigious scientists and it presents evidence for a Creator from lots of different scientific (and philosophical) disciplines. I've come across a weak argument from time to time, but I'd say about 90% of it is VERY well-reasoned and difficult to ignore. I'm praying very hard that God will show me the right timing to give this book to my dad - I think it could really help to soften him toward the idea of a God. Anyway, I know there are a lot of Christians who believe a lot of different things about science and evolution and creation and the big bang and all these things, and I think that ALL Christians should read this book. It's important that we don't see science as the enemy, but as the methodology that God gave us for discovering the wonders of His creation. This book gives lots of honest information, and it's coming from scientists who also proclaim belief in God - many of them as a direct RESULT of their science (not just because they were raised to believe). I think information from this type of source has the potential to really get through to Christians who see science as oppositional to religion - who hear phrases like "the big bang" and tear off running for the hills, or start shaking their fists and getting red in the face. There's so much jargon thrown around and so many generalized or misunderstood ideas. We don't have to reject scientific findings to believe in God. God doesn't ask us to check our brains at the door. Science just opens up an INCREDIBLE world of discovery concerning God's creation, how He set it all into motions, and how He designed it just like a loving parent sets up an easter egg hunt for his children - so that we could experience the wonder and joy of discovering all it's little complexities, all it's hidden gems buried in caves and hiding miles below the surface of the oceans and light years away in other galaxies. So, there's my plug for that. I think that this book has taken me from being a Christian scientist who wants to believe that God "used" evolution, to being a Christian scientist who is incredibly disheartened by the blunders of scientific history and education and has a really hard time accepting evolution even as a credible theory. This is a topic that I have begun to read on as extensively as I can, and this book is the best that I've found so far.
Holy crap - it's 12:37. GOODNIGHT!
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