I've never seen it THIS good before!

I came home today a little earlier than usual, and Keith's car was already here.  I heard a lawn mower going and noticed that the front yard was cleaned up.  The sticks were picked up and stacked at the street, and the leaves were mulched.  I got really excited, though, when I realized that the back yard was being mulched at that very moment.

I have lots of trees, and the grass doesn't grow much at all.  Weeds do pretty well, though.  The truth is that I have cut the back yard about twice in sixteen months.  I always used a reel mower, though, so no leaves had ever been removed from the back yard.  

When I saw Keith's work today, I was delighted!  I took these pictures to show you all what good work he does!  In the first two pictures, you can see the difference in the mulched leaves and the untouched part on the left of the pictures.  

Those are daffodils to the left of the bird feeders.  They're just about to bloom!

Not much grass at all, right?!

Below, you can see the clean driveway that I saw when I got home today.  I love that part, and it's a lot easier than the leaf mulching.

This is the front yard, cleaned up beautifully!

Math teacher and wife: not completely unrelated

Every so often, I am in awe at the gift that I have to do and to communicate mathematics. Sure, I did my work as a student, and I still talk about math with people better than me, but I have no doubt that this gift could easily have skipped past me. I see lots of people who work hard to "get" math and never do really. I don't mean any of this arrogantly; in fact, I find that I am happiest when I am doing work that helps other people learn math. The gift is bigger than me, for sure, and I'm in awe of it every once in a while.

Yesterday was one of those days. I was working with a student who is really struggling in math these days. What was so clear to me was not clear to the student at all. I do sympathize, but I've only experienced frustration with the material in one or two situations in math in my entire life.

On my way home yesterday, I was grateful for the gift to be able to do and to communicate mathematics well. I've never been trained to teach math, except for the amazing teachers I had in my lifetime. I wonder if they know how good they are.

In light of the gift of mathematics in my life and the upcoming marriage to Keith, I thought about something. I want to be as good at being a wife to Keith as I am at explaining math. I realize that I have to do my part to get good at it, but I am humbled by the reality that a part of it just has to come naturally. Even then, it won't come overnight, and it won't always be easy.

How can I be that good? What is my part to play in getting good at being a wife? In math, I read books, watch other teachers, and listen carefully to the questions of my students. By analogy, perhaps becoming a good wife starts with reading books, watching others who are good at it, and listening carefully to the hopes and dreams of my husband.

In math, it is very possible to want to be good at it and never really get there. I wonder if that's also true with being a wife. I hope the desire to be good at it is also part of the achievement of it.

Another piece of this that I thought about yesterday was the timing in becoming a good communicator of mathematics. I wasn't born with the ability. In fact, my first tutoring client was a bit of a struggle. I was in middle school, and she was in third grade. I earned $3 an hour trying to help her learn to add, subtract, and multiply. To this day, those skills are hard for me to teach. But, within four years, I was in high school working with college students on their math problems. So, maybe being a good wife won't come on April 4 (sorry, Keith!), but it can come in time.

If I could only blossom in success as a wife like I have as a teacher of math, I'd be delighted! I am going to do my part, but I hope the instincts and gifts come, too.

The Mark of Marriage

There will be tons of things that change for us because we get married. Some things are easy to think of: Keith will move into Jennifer's house, Jennifer will take Keith's last name, and we will wear wedding rings. Other things will be harder to notice: we will share financial decisions, we will work together on projects, and we will collect traditions that mark time together.

Today, we chose our wedding rings. Something seemed official about that, and Jennifer thought about it on her way home tonight. Wedding rings will mark us as "married" in a way that nothing else will. When people want to know if we're married, they can look at our hands and never have to ask the question. When those hard-to-notice things aren't apparent, there will be the easy-to-spot wedding rings, whether we're together or separate.

When Jennifer and Keith talked about Jennifer's engagement ring, they also talked about their wedding rings. It is important to Jennifer that their wedding rings have the same design and color. Since she didn't feel strongly about either color of engagement ring, the color of the engagement ring was chosen to match the color of wedding ring that Keith wanted to wear. Today, in choosing our wedding rings, we accomplished the task of getting rings with the same design. There's nothing elaborate about our rings at all, but when we see them, we will remember that another person has a ring that was intentionally chosen to look the same.

Jennifer wondered about the tradition and meaning of wedding rings, and she found this website.

When you see a wedding ring (on your own hand or another's hand), it'll be the easiest thing to notice. But, there is a lot more to the story.

Christmas decorations

On the church calendar, the Christmas season begins on December 25 and lasts until January 6, also known as Epiphany or Three Kings Day. (Before December 25, the season is called Advent, which is about waiting.)

Since Jennifer wants to follow the church calendar, we left up our Christmas decorations after Christmas. They were supposed to stay until at least January 6. Then, life happened. Right now, they're still up.

Well, most of them. Last night, Jennifer heard a CRASH! in her house that woke her up. She listened, heart racing, and heard nothing else. It was about 2 a.m., so she stayed in bed thinking it was the digital picture frame. This morning, she checked the house and saw the wooden nativity scene with its figurines sprawled across the floor. It's a delicate balancing act to keep the stable upright, but it's been there uneventfully for a little more than a month. Apparently, our decorations are telling us that it's time to put them away for next year.

So, in the midst of life happening (i.e. planning a wedding and going to work), we're going to un-decorate for Christmas this weekend. Gotta love gravity and its lessons!

Achieving goals

I'm going to my mom's house to try on my altered dress today. She did a ton of work on it, and I've done some work to lose a little bit of weight so that it'll fit better. Let's hope our efforts work together well!

Most of the invitation envelopes are addressed--I think I'm missing less than five. Now, we get to stuff the envelopes with the relevant pieces for each guest.

Keith's suit wasn't quite ready when I went to pick it up on Monday, but I waited, and they gave us a refund of some of the tailoring costs because it was late.

I'm also working on the wording of our programs this week.

Things are coming together, and we're not behind schedule (yet!).

A day off work

I'm off work today, but I've already declared it a "wedding day." I've got just one more day off before the week of our wedding, so it's time to take care of some things.

Keith's suit is in, so I'll pick it up today.

Most of the parts of the invitations are done, thanks to my fiance, who cut lots of paper on Saturday! I bought blue pens, and I'll address some envelopes today. We've also picked our stamps (who knew that could be adventurous?!). Keith wrote lots more invitations over the weekend, too.

I'm going to visit three hotels today, and I'm hoping that they will be good options for us.

Before I write "thank you" notes, I've already thought about making my own so they'll go with the stationery theme that we've started with our invitations. Perhaps I'll play around with that today, too.

Free to the first person to come and get it!

twin bed with frame and modest wood head-board

microwave

treadmill

trampoline

There might be more stuff later, as we think through the combining of our furniture, toys, and appliances.


Anybody interested?

Where has the time gone?!

Have you checked the countdown lately? It's the box to the right that said "5000 hours" in August. Now, it's under 2000 hours. In fact, today is 79 days before our wedding!

I'm pretty excited! I follow numbers by nature, and I've known every day since Christmas exactly how many days are left. I did lots of wedding stuff in the first two months after our engagement, but we took some time to stop and smell the roses, enjoy time together, and celebrate our first set of holidays. Since I did some work early, I'm not behind now even though I took a break for a while. But, I am pretty focused these days. I feel like I need to stay on top of things so that I don't get behind.

The next month has some big days on the calendar. I'm hoping to see our musicians rehearsing. Keith's suit will be ready for pickup. I'm hoping to put on my altered dress and have pictures taken. We'll be sending out invitations starting in a month. I'm finalizing and double-checking on event locations and food orders. I'd be happy to workout most days in the next month, too. This sounds like the "to-do" list that I avoided writing about earlier this week, but getting this list done means we're that much closer to starting our married life! It'll be an adventure (finishing the list, and being married!). Thanks for joining us on the journey by reading our stories!

Our to-do list

Nope, not that list of everything we have to do for our wedding, but the other to-do list of things we want to do "one day."

Our visit to the movie theater on Friday started a conversation about things we haven't done yet in Warner Robins. We ate at Atlanta Bread Company for the first time, and we liked it. We also went to the $1.99 theater for the first time. We talked about a walking trail that Keith has seen before, and we also talked about seeing "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" one day.

On Sunday, Jennifer checked on the times for "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" and decided to surprise Keith with a visit. She drove to Warner Robins hoping he was home so she wouldn't have to figure out how to find him. Keith was home, and he was glad to see her. Jennifer announced, "We're going somewhere in 45 minutes, but I'm not telling you where. Before that, do you want to walk on the trail you were telling me about?" Keith agreed, and we saw two public parks with dog-walkers, basketball players, bike-riders, and cell phone users.

Then, we went to the movie theater. Keith didn't know where we were going until we pulled into the parking lot. He said, "We're going to the movies?" to which Jennifer offered, "'Beverly Hills Chihuahua' is playing at 4:55 if you want to go." Keith thought that was pretty good, so we went. It was a cute movie, and we laughed a lot!

Other things on this to-do list include:
- eat at a Japanese restaurant
- ride our bikes on the Silver Comet Trail
- ride our bikes on the Chattahoochee River Trail
- paint pottery
- watch more movies
- play more games
- do more puzzles

That's our fun to-do list! Any other suggestions that we can add to it? Do you know of movies we should see, games we should play, trails we should ride, or places we should eat? We don't know if we should ask about puzzles we should do because those recommendations are usually the hardest puzzles in the world!

Fireproof

A ton of people have told us that "Fireproof" is a good movie, but we wanted to wait a while to see it so we could save some money. Keith saw it advertised at a $1.99 theater, and we saw it on Friday night. The production was better than he expected, and the story was mostly believable. We were quite impressed with the acting, too. Jennifer said, "This is a good movie to see 85 days before we get married." Keith commented back, "It's a good movie to see after you've been married seven years, too." It's true.

Delegating

I've always wanted to do tasks for myself, but I sometimes take on projects that cannot be managed by one person. So, I've disciplined myself to delegate some things to people I trust.

The most recent successful delegation is to Patrick. I know we need a sound system at the outdoor wedding ceremony, and I don't have a clue about sound systems. Sounds like a ready-made delegation opportunity to me! So, soon after Keith and I were engaged, I asked Patrick to be part of the crew of musicians for our wedding, and I also asked him to handle the sound system. I think my words were something like, "Patrick, I don't know how a sound system works, I don't know where to get one, and I don't want to know any of these things. I just need one there that works." Patrick is all too familiar with sound systems and people who know about them. So, he agreed to track one down, give me price quotes for rental and replacement, and work out the details with the owners.

This week, Patrick sent me an email with his results. A shop owner in Macon will rent us a system for $150 plus the rental of two wireless mics. Not a bad deal, I think. Then, Patrick called some of his connections, and Lord's Players of Mercer University will loan us the equipment with wireless mics. Patrick wants to give a donation to the ministry because he believes in it and he was deeply committed to it some years ago. I told him that Keith and I really are trying to spend money in the direction of the people who really need it. I certainly think this qualifies! Oh, the extra deal is that the leader of Lord's Players wants to come to make sure the equipment is taken care of and run appropriately, which means Patrick won't have to be solely responsible for it all. When he's got his musician hat on for the day, we'll have no problems.

I love this! I am surrounded by people who are really smart and responsible. They get things done in ways that are better than I could accomplish. Other delegates, off the top of my head are:

my mom - dress alterations, investigating potential purchases, and who knows what else I'll ask her to do!
Lynne - the crew of musicians, investigating locations for our dinner on April 3, handling the "what if" situations of the day
Melissa - checking out hotel info, and there will be other things that I don't know about yet
Keith - flowers, writing invitations, and a lifetime of opportunities for delegating! :)
Mike - the sand ceremony container

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

We looked for a while to find a passage of scripture that verbalizes our ideals of loyalty and companionship. We are really happy with this one, and it will be part of our wedding ceremony.

9Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor.

10For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

11Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone?

12And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

while it's been quiet here

We've managed to enjoy our Christmas and New Year time, and we've accomplished some things for our wedding. Today, we're 90 days away.

We've been working like crazy on our invitations. Jennifer's mom gave her a printer for Christmas, so we've used that to make the inserts that we'll mail out. We've got maps, directions, reception cards, response cards, invitations to our pre-wedding dinner, and envelopes. Keith has been busy writing the invitations--he's more than doubled the number we had a week ago!

One of our annual traditions will be getting Christmas tree ornaments. This year, we saved lots of money when we bought them after Christmas. We got four altogether.

Another gift we got was from David and Maurine: a Blockbuster basket with snacks and a gift card. We've enjoyed several movies lately, but we've learned to check them out on NetFlix first so we don't have to browse through Blockbuster looking at the individual DVD cases. We just click through NetFlix and make a list of things we want to look for at Blockbuster. We've seen "Heaven" and "Murder by Numbers" from Blockbuster. We also saw "Wimbledon" from NetFlix.

MO and PO gave us their old counter tops today. The dimensions are perfect for our kitchen, and the quality is much better than what we have even though the counters are more than ten years old. We'll have to rework some plumbing to make the new counter and sink work, so Jennifer is saving that project for the summer. She's had some plumbing success lately, so her confidence is strong right now.

We've gone on lots of bike rides in the last two weeks as well. We rode a lot around Hueytown while we were visiting Keith's parents--more than twenty miles in three rides. Keith gave Jennifer a bike speedometer for Christmas, so she can track all of her miles and rates along the way. She used the new toy on an eighteen-mile ride last week, and Keith ask her to show him the route a few days later. Jennifer doesn't usually get to see Keith breathing hard from bike riding, so she was delighted when some of the hills on her new route were challenging for him! Since he works on his feet all day, he's got way more endurance than she does, but knowing the route helped her a little bit. Jennifer was definitely breathing hard, too, but at least Keith was joining her this time!

Keith bought a suit a few days ago, and we'll get to see him in it after the tailor works her magic! He already looked sharp when he tried it on, but the fit will be just right soon.

Paul and Jenny stopped in middle Georgia on their way home, and we took them to Ingleside Village Pizza (a local place), Washington Park, the Ocmulgee National Monument, and Jennifer's house. Keith and Paul talked about music, movies, and books, and Jennifer and Jenny talked about family, TV, and movies.

Tomorrow, we will go back to the "real world." Our next break will be after we're married! Wish us luck.