They Came!

The invitations came yesterday. They look as I expected. It is fun to see them in person and in their real format. Not just the copies I printed off on a normal printer. The box was a little smashed and bent the corners of some of the invitations. Phillip thinks I should call and complain. I don’t have the energy to do it. The mail is going to beat them up anyway and they aren’t that bad. They need to go out next week and I can’t afford to wait any longer for more to get printed and mailed. Now we need to buy envelopes and print labels and finish that dang address list….300+ addresses takes a long time to organize, when you don’t have them all.

I’d like to say I’ll get something done tonight, but I can tell you I won’t. I’m exhausted and with a new puppy in the house I’m also a little distracted. Tonight’s goal is simply getting the house clean; do some laundry done so we can work hard this weekend. Time is getting short.

The Countdown

At two months and six days before our wedding I have decided to write about the countdown. Is it bad timing to take on another project at this moment? Maybe, but it will be a great way to remember all that happens in these whirlwind months.

Our invitations are due to arrive tomorrow. The 7 ½ pound box is traveling across the country waiting to reveal whether they turned out or not. I’ve been a true DIY bride in order to save money and allow myself some creativity in this whole planning process. I created the invitations myself and unfortunately, found a few errors after I gave the ok to print. Darn it!! I looked at them so many times and others looked at them too. To most people it won’t matter. It bugs me, but I have to let it go. It’s not detrimental and who cares. Most people will hardly look at them and then toss them in the trash a few weeks down the road. Regardless, they are done, but I’m slightly annoyed. The goal is to get them out around Easter.

Today there won’t be any wedding work completed. We have a couple of tickets to see the Twins vs. the Royals tonight. We have never been to Target Field and it is supposed to be a beautiful night. I’m looking forward to it!

I'm Back...Maybe

I really should update this now and then. I get so busy with life and I just don’t think about it. I would like to proudly proclaim that I feel very much like a DIY Bride. I’m quite proud of that really. I’m trying to be as resourceful as possible. We are planning a very large wedding and every penny counts. My loving fiancé might be out of town for a couple of weeks. He’s going to see if he can help his parent’s finish their basement in preparation of my sister-in-law’s high school graduation. Perhaps I will write more about my DIYness then; since I’ll be alone with my thoughts and too broke to go out and do anything. Thus is the history of my blogging life…lots of posts and then long dry spells.

Topsy Turvy Christmas Cards -- Shutterfly!

The VEAP Holiday Benefit always puts me in the Christmas spirit. This year nationally renowned performer Jearlyn Steele sang the song Home from the Wiz. I was lucky enough to have a private performance of this song at work one day. My task was to put together a video to play while she sang that evening.

The house my dad and uncles grew up in.

The song really struck me this year. We used black and white photos of Christmas memories from board members. Pictures that showed them as children back in the 1930’s to the 1950’s. I did not grow up then, but it made me think about my childhood and my Christmas memories. It also made me think about my future with Phillip and the memories we will make with each other and our children. Someday we will look back on those old digital pictures (I’m sure they will evolve to something even better than digital in the future) and reminisce about the good old days.

With my future step-son is here for Thanksgiving we are thinking of ways to make this a memorable experience for him. That includes getting a family picture taken for our Christmas cards. Although we are not married yet, we are already a family and we want to start creating those positive memories now.

Christmas 2009. Making snowman on sticks.

Since I love creating my own things I am going to design a Christmas card via Shutterfly.com. I love how I have the freedom to spread holiday cheer in a way that best represents our family. It is also a chance for me to get good ideas for how to design our save the date cards that need to be sent out within the next month as well.

Another winter weather advisory is in effect which means tomorrow we can have some great winter shots. Dadda, Momma Kelly, Braden and the three fur babies, Duke, Skippy and Monet will gather around the tall pine tree on the side of the house and smile for the camera. It will most likely be a superbly chaotic picture, but from putting a video to the song Home I found those were the best ones.

I can see it now. Phillip will be smiling for the camera while holding Braden who won’t be looking at the camera. Duke will sit next to Phillip staring up at me while I hold my cat, Monet. I will be smiling at the camera while squeezing a hissing Monet who is staring down at Duke. Skippy will be on my side wagging his tail like crazy, but also hoping no one notices him. Welcome to the Larson-Mroczek household…


My family at Christmas before us kids arrived.

Our Christmas cards will be the start of our family collection of printed memories. I can’t wait to see how they turn out! We’ll send them to our closest family and friends to show how they are important to us and in the start of our new life together.

Design your own cards with me! Follow the links below for ideas.
Christmas Cards
Holiday Cards
Desk Calendars



Oohh, if we did something like this from Shutterlfy we could do a Christmas Card and our Save the Date all at once...so many options!



Hectic November

I guess I should write something again. I’ve been so busy lately with the VEAP Holiday Benefit. Today I am processing credit cards and need a little break from all those numbers. The event was great. Jearlyn Steele, Cate Fierro, Metro Retro and Charmin Michelle all did a wonderful job performing for our guests. Channel 5 sportscaster Joe Schmitt also did a wonderful job. We were happy to see the great turn out!

I’m still tired from it. It doesn’t help that after working some 16+ hours that day I got three hours of sleep before we headed off to Nebraska to pick up Braden. That meant 13+ hours of travel time all in one day, there and back. I still haven’t recovered. I’m getting old! Which means, I am once again “Momma Kelly” for the next two weeks. We are planning on buying a Christmas tree while Braden is here so he can help decorate it. That should be a fun family activity. We are also going to try to hit up the Holidazzle parade. I bet he’d love to see all those fantastic lights. The next two weeks should lead to some good post material.

On our drive we started talking about the wedding again. After completing the benefit it is time to work on planning the wedding, which is going to be almost as big. We need to get our final guest list from Phillip’s parents and we can start sending out save the date cards. I’ve decided to design all my own stuff. I figured I should put those InDesign skills to use! And it will save us money.

Anyway, I guess I should get back to the processing.

Resignation

While giving the house an intense clean today I have realized I need to resign from NaNoWriMo. It is a shame considering I think I have a bombshell of a novel. I love the premise of my story and I believe the bits I have written so far are great. I have 17% completed! I can still write it, it just won't be within 30 days. My life just gotten extra busy.

1. November is the start of my busiest two months of the year at work and I can't write the novel while working. We have our largest fundraiser of the year in two weeks. I am highly involved preparing for that and taking care of all the donations afterwards. Also the majority of our funding comes in the last two months of the year. Needless to say I will be doing nothing but counting and processing donations, all while preparing for the audit and the annual report the first of the year.

2. I have a wedding to plan. In order to save money I am going to use my designing skills to create all our print materials for the wedding. I LOVE doing that stuff so I'm excited to work on it. We get a lovely discount with FedexKinkos so printing through them will be a great money saver. Since we decided to stick with the orginal plan with our wedding in Kearney I have a lot more work to do. A guest list of 200+ vs. 10 makes a big difference. I have finished our website though. It looks great!

3. We are traveling back to Loup City next weekend to visit the family. No novel writing is going to happen then...and we are hosting Thanksgiving this year. If Phillip's family joins us we are going to have a big feast to make. Needless to say I need to get the house clean and organized. There are some organization pieces I think I will need to buy this weekend and probably a nice table cloth.

So sadly I withdraw my challenge of writing a novel in one month's time. However, I have plenty of other exciting things to work towards. Afterall, I am going to be a wife and step-mom! And hopefully a full-time mom not super long after that. That is a pretty big challenge in itself!

Self Delegated Tasks

I am super excited for this weekend. That energy may wear off, or not. After work on Friday it is time for happy hour with some co-workers and then back home to let the dogs out. Phillip left this morning to go hunting with my dad until Monday. That is unless they get their deer. Then they might be home early. I am torn on what tasks to do first. The house needs a good cleaning, I need to work on designing save the date cards for our wedding, and I need to work on my novel. I am also going to go see my grandma sometime this weekend and wear my dress for her because she won’t be able to make it to the wedding. I also want to try working with fondant. I thought I would try to make a camo fondant welcome home cake for my big manly hunter. I am also having coffee with a friend. I know it is all stuff I will mostly be doing alone, but I am okay with that. I just need some time to concentrate on tasks that I find pretty fun and no one else can really help me with anyway. I just have to get through 7 more hours of work until I can do fun things! Yippee!!

A Change of Plans

I hope things come together as theoretically planned. The other day Phillip sent me a text message at work asking what I thought about a destination wedding. A long time ago, before we were even engaged, my dad said that if we got married in Costa Rica he’d pay for the whole thing. Well, we joked about it with Phillip’s grandparents once after we had gotten engaged. They said they would love that.

Apparently it came up again this weekend while Phillip was at home for a golf tournament, which led to the text message, which led my burning anxiety to ask my dad if the offer would still hold true. He was in all day meetings yesterday. I thought I was going to go nuts. On his way home he called and asked if we had a beer he could stop by and drink. Of course! Perfect!

Why a destination wedding? Phillip’s cousin is getting married two weeks before us, in Kearney and having their reception at our hotel. Basically we are going to have the exact same wedding two weeks later. It would also be exactly like most other weddings of everyone I know. So why not do something different, wild and crazy and make it very memorable!

We can still have a reception. Come to think of it, a reception after the fact would be much more relaxed and cheaper. We’d buy a cow, serve hamburgers and hot dogs and be good to go. We could still have our band play and make it one big party like receptions are meant to be.

My parents are on board with a Costa Rican wedding, Nancy and Chato are on board and would help plan it, Phillip’s grandparents would love to go. The only people left to ask are Phillip’s parents. I could have a bouquet of fresh tropical and exotic flowers, we could marry outside with a beautiful background and then BAM! instant honeymoon! I hope this works out.

The Wall

And I have hit it...I'm trying to write a page for my notebook in an attempt to wake my brain up. Maybe I'll gain the energy to write another story for the Fall Newsletter. I'm feeling generally stressed out, which reached a very high peak last week putting some strain on our relationship. We have both been feeling tense due to the pressures of planning a wedding long distance, its cost, the real, new, official family dynamic and both needing a change in our careers. Everything really does seem to happen at once. Maybe it’s just the normal process of 'officially' combining two lives. Maybe we are cramming more things in together at one time than most engaged couples do. Maybe we just need a vacation.

Some change like things to consider:

Us
Before we were engaged we got on a family cell phone plan. That was a big step in the trust tree! In July we purchased a 2008 Chevy Silverado Crew-Cab 4x4 pick-up truck, together.
We combined all our car and house insurance as one household, we are listed as married.
I got my first piece of mail addressed to Phillip and Kelly Mroczek. I was excited and had to immediately text friends the news.

Housing
We are considering a move. Phillip wants to return to Loup City and farm with his dad. I want to get away from the rules and constraints imposed on me by my association and by city life.
That means...
When do we sell, where do I work, when do we move, where do we live, is this feasible?
I researched the $8,000 homebuyer credit I received when I bought my house. I needed to know if or how I have to pay it back since at this point I'd be leaving before my 36 months is up. How will that affect us?
My realtor gave me statistics on what it means to sell my house, reality sinks in.

Employment
Phillip hates his job, end of story.
I've maxed out my job.
There are no raises so there are no incentives to work harder.
I can't move up the ladder because my boss will never leave.
I've already added extra work to my job to broaden my scope and have maxed myself out there too.
It is time to move on.
I researched local newspapers near Loup city for jobs, no luck.
I joined Nebraska non-profit groups on LinkedIn. I made connections, but in Lincoln and Omaha, 2-3 hours away.
I asked two of Phillip's cousins for networking help...thanks to them I have applied for two jobs in Kearney and have a lead on another in Loup City.
Are we really going to do this?

Wedding
Ceremony site, check.
Reception venue, check.
Cake designer, check.
Wedding party, check.
Wedding dress, check.
Wedding rings, check.
Final guest list/count, need.
Centerpieces, have ideas, need final guest count.
Invitations, need final guest count.
Registry, need to do, not stressed about this one.
Gifts for the wedding party, need.
Photographer, stressful, they are all booked. BUT as of today I have secured a good one if Phillip agrees.
Honeymoon, ideas.
And much more that I'm sure hasn't even crossed my mind yet.

Phew, its been hard to force these thoughts out of my head onto a page. I did it though. I'm sure I could add much much more, but I should get to work on something productive. None of these things are bad. It's just a lot of stuff that is going on all at once!