Progress!

I'm off crutches and out of the boot! Whoopie! I've been off the crutches for about a week, but it's my first day back in a regular shoe. My ankle still feels really weak, but I think it's a good decision. Last night when I got home from work I did my regular routine of "watch The Office until Zach gets home". When he got home I stood up and had major pain in my hip. My hip was cramping and felt really painful, and I knew it was from limping around too much. It feels much better today since when I'm not wearing the boot I'm walking almost normal.

Classes start Monday. Crazy. I hope I'm ready!

I've officially decided what our most needed present that we received from the shower was. The new coffee pot. It has a timer, and let me tell you, it's a thousand times more pleasant getting up at 5:30am when there's the smell of fresh hazelnut coffee coming from the kitchen. Yum! We tried it for the first time this morning, and it made all the difference.

I've made a spinach salad for lunch, so we'll see how that goes. In my quest for being healthier I'm trying to eat more greens, but I really hate spinach with a fiery burning passion. I like putting it in my morning smoothies, because then you can't even taste it, but I hate just eating it plain. Something about the texture just really throws me off. I also packed, however, a mini Babybell cheese. I highly recommend those! They're perfect snack size and delicious with these rosemary crackers that I found.

Bridal Shower Pictures

A few choice pictures from the Bridal Shower....

And the Bride wore crutches....

Today was the Bridal Shower that my mom and sister threw for me. It was SO much fun! It was great to see everyone. The shower was 1950's housewife themed, which was super awesome. We played plant the kiss on the Elvis poster and I received some very sweet aprons and other things that proper house wives should own. Zach's family came down, which was really nice of them. I really like his family, so it was good to see them all. It was also nice seeing my extended family, since I don't really see them that often. I really appreciated seeing everyone and the very wonderful gifts they game me and Zach. My mom and sister did a wonderful job of decorating and setting everything up. The party was a hit!

I'm currently on crutches....After I received a black eye from playing softball I talked a lot of talk about how I wouldn't play any more sports before the wedding. That didn't go as planned unfortunately. I recently joined a women's soccer team, and sprained my ankle really badly at practice. My whole right foot is very very swollen and I can't put any weight on it. I'll be okay with wearing flats to the wedding if necessary, but I was really looking forward to rocking some killer heals at the bachelorette party!

I've signed up for classes for this fall! (Because life's just not busy enough...) I'm going to be taking Archeology and the Prehistoric World and Physical Anthropology. I'm so SO excited! I get all happy every time I think about it. It was also sweet getting to buy more school supplies because I'm a nerd and love everything office supply related.

We're currently relaxing on the couch while Zach watches the Packer's first preseason game.

Yummy Food

I've been really inspired lately to try and eat healthy. I've become obsessed with this blog: http://www.pbfingers.com/ It's really helpful to read about how exactly someone stays healthy. I also really like her clothes! In turn, Zach is now inspired by me trying to eat healthy, so it's a group effort. We went shopping yesterday and bought all sorts of yummy foods. For breakfast this morning I had some strawberry and honey flavored greek yogurt with blueberries, strawberries, Quaker cereal and Chia seeds. I've become obsessed with Chia seeds! They're kind of like flax seeds, are super healthy, and yes, are the same seeds that are involved in Chia Pets. I leaned about them from the aforementioned blog, and instantly loved them.

Now time to go see Harry Potter! :)

"How to Survive being Married to a Catholic"

So me and Zach have been having problems trying to find a way to make sure our kids are baptized Catholic because we're not getting married in the church. To me, it seems silly, since we're still getting married in a church, but whatever, apparently Catholic's don't role like that.

 I met with my priest yesterday, and he had the good suggestion that we just get married as planned, then have our marriage blessed by him. That's great! It was a relief to have an answer to the problem, especially one that's not that difficult to do. The new problem is that we now have to do all sorts of marriage prep! Marriage preparation in general, I think is a very good idea. I think it's healthy to sit down at talk about the important stuff. The problem is that I'm not so sure I'm going to like Catholic marriage prep. I have no problem taking time to sit down and plan our future and talk over our issues, I just have a problem with being told that we shouldn't be living together and need to have twenty children. So, we'll see how it goes!

They consider us a "mixed marriage" because Zach's not Catholic. (We both felt that this was a little uncomfortably reminiscent of 1960s racism) They gave him a book to read that's hilariously titled "How to Survive being Married to a Catholic". Unfortunately, the problems they site (me needing to go to church every Sunday, me not wanting to use birth control, me wanting to be a traditional wife) are not the actual problems we'll have (me having large amounts of Catholic guilt, me getting bored at work and following The Pope on Twitter, me spending large amounts of time discussing Catholic churches in Northern Illinois with his cousin Stephanie...).

In other news I'm considering for signing up for some Anthropology classes this semester! I know my life is pretty full at the moment, but it's something that sounds really exciting to me. My mom likes to talk about having "shackles on" or "shackles off" feelings, and this is definitely "shackles off".

Excitement!

I'm starting to get really excited about the wedding. Maybe it seems weird that I haven't been more excited before this, but I've been really stressed out by all the planning, and now, finally, everything is starting to come together! Last night I had started working on the invitations when Zach got home from band practice, so he sat down and started helping me. It's a bigger job than I thought it would be! My mom and sister helped a lot with the printing, but I didn't realize what a big job it would be to put them all together and address them. We're planning on putting on a movie tonight and working on them more. If you get an invitation and the hand writing is messy, you can blame Zach. If they're crocked and off center, feel free to blame me. :)

I'm also getting really excited about the wedding shower! Things are going so quickly! I just have to find a dress to wear. I want something that's almost vintage looking, and really flattering. I was going to wear something I owned, but I think I want the excuse to buy another dress.

So enough with wedding talk....I'm also excited to take the GRE. I know that sounds weird, but I've felt pretty stuck with where I am lately, and so it's exciting to be doing something proactive. I think after work I'm going to go to the library and check out some study guides. Because, yes, I'm actually going to study this time.

I'm currently reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Steig Larsson. Oh my God! His books are incredible! It's the third one in the series. I highly recommend them to anyone who likes mysteries, and isn't bothered by a little violence. They're pretty graphic, but they're so incredible that in my opinion it's totally worth it.

Good Times

I just got back from dinner at a friend's house, and it was so delicious! Oh my God! Yum. We had pasta with olive oil, yellow and green zucchini, pine nuts, basil, and parmesan cheese. Then, for dessert, we had frozen yogurt with a bunch of different fruits and graham crackers and whipped cream. It was so amazing. The rest of my plans for the night include working on the wedding invitations while watching episodes of Teen Mom. All in all, a pretty good night!

Welcome!

Planning a wedding is hard work. So is taking your GRE and applying to grad school. So is trying to get in better shape and be as healthy as possible. So is possibly buying a house. I'm doing all these things!

In an effort to get more organized and have some accountability, and, let's be honest, complain a bit, I've started this blog. I never thought of myself as a blog person, but it's just like emailing, right?

Let's start with the wedding...Me and my fiance, Zach, are getting married this coming October 1st. It's really coming up fast! Thankfully my mom helped me get really organized this past weekend, so I think I'm in pretty good shape. We're getting married in Madison at Holy Wisdom Monastery, and then having the reception at The Madison Club. I'm super excited about the food. We had our first tasting and it was so delicious! I'm also excited about my dress, which I won't comment on too much in case Zach reads this. He's not going to see it until the wedding.

I'm going to be taking the GRE again one month before the wedding. Smart timing, right? I've applied to med school umpteen times and haven't gotten in, so now I'm looking at grad school. I had an epiphany recently that I don't have to be a biologist! It was really freeing. I'm now considering Anthropology. I've been talking to a woman at the University who's been really helpful, so we'll see where that takes me. I mostly want to retake the GRE so that I have more options, not exactly to specifically apply to anything yet.

I'm also trying to be healthy. Not loose weight, precisely, just be healthier. I'm going to be joining a women's soccer team, so hopefully that will be helpful and not just cause me to have a heart attack on the field. Zach's super pumped about that, seeing as he's played soccer for years and has been trying to get me to for as long as we've known each other pretty much. I'm also considering becoming vegan, like my mom. I've been a vegetarian since I was five, but being vegan sounds scary and hard. Come on, I live in Wisconsin! How can I give up cheese!? So I'm not strictly going to, but I'd like to greatly reduce my cheese intake.

And finally, me and Zach are starting to look at houses. I've been wanting one for so long! I desperately want to be able to paint my walls!

So life is pretty exciting right now! Getting married to the most amazing man, possibly changing careers, becoming the next Hope Solo and finally not planning all of my decorating decisions with the thought of future moving in mind. C'est le bonne vie!