Wedding Week & Bittersweet Goodbye: Thinking Out Loud #117

Happy Thursday! Holy smokes the wedding is only two days away, EEKK 🎉 🎊 We've been planning everything for so long and are so excited for the day to finally be here! My parents arrived in town last night, Brent's family gets in town today and tomorrow the festivities really begin. I'll be sharing photos and wedding fun on my instagram so be sure to follow along! Before I blabber too long about wedding stuff, let's jump into this weeks thinking out loud! 

1. We got the keys to our new apartment! We got the keys last Friday and celebrated by eating tacos on the floor and moving stuff in right away. This will be our first apartment together once we get married. Our weekend consisted of packing up two apartments, moving a zillion things, donating a bunch of things, and so many trips between apartments. I told the fiancé we are taking up minimalism because I cannot do this again when we move next 😂 

2. Speaking of moving, since the fiancé lived in a studio apartment and didn't have much we had to get a U-haul for the furniture in my apartment. Brent has never driven a U-Haul or even a trailer for that matter, but he insisted on driving the U-Haul. Five minutes of backing up (and some giggling) later we were finally out of the parking lot. A group of friends showed up at my apartment bright and early Saturday morning to help move furniture. Everything was pretty easy except for the couch...

3. If you follow me on instagram you saw the 800 pound couch saga play out on my story. My couch is amazing- I love it, it's so comfortable, but the only problem is it weighs a zillion pounds. My fiancé knows this so he invited a bunch of our friends to come help move the thing out of my apartment which was only up half a flight of stairs. It was heavy and getting out the doorway and down the stairs was tricky, but not impossible. WELP THAT CHANGED QUICKLY. Our new apartment is in a new building with tight stairwells and it's on the second floor. There's a sharp turn in the stairwell that made it dang near impossible to get the couch up. The couch got stuck. Yup, stuck. Then it got turned sideways, angled, and a lot of cussing later it was freed only to get stuck at the top of the stairwell😳This is where I yelled PIVOT (FRIENDS reference) and only one of our friends understood the reference🤦‍♀️ A few chunks of drywall might be missing from the stairwell but the couch was freed only to be put in backward in the apartment. I'm happy to say the couch is now facing the proper direction and won't be moved for at least a year. 

4. We were up bright and early Sunday morning since neither of us could sleep so we hit Target. $112 later we had cleaning supplies and food for the week so we got back to work unloading boxes and cleaning our old apartments. I'm not sure I've ever been so tired in my life. We were beat from moving, even Ginger was dead tired even though she spent Saturday with one of our friends to stay out of our way. Needless to say moving two apartments into one the week before our wedding wasn't our best idea but I'd much rather do it now than deal with it when we get back from our honeymoon. 

5. Bittersweet. It's been the word this week. We're so excited to fully start life together in a matter of days, but it's also been a week of goodbyes. We had a moment at my old apartment when everything was emptied out when we just stood there and hugged. While the apartment was outdated and ugly inside, it's also a special place for us. It's where Brent came to pick me up for our first date, it's a place we cooked together, laughed together, cried together, and it's the place he proposed to me. Closing the chapter on that apartment was emotional, but we're so ready to start life together in our place. T-2 days 🎉 

I'll probably be MIA next week and the week after as we will be on our honeymoon in Maui🏝I will be sharing photos on my instagram so follow along there. To all those who have sent love our way thank you! It means so much to me and we cannot wait to share wedding photos. Have a terrific weekend 🎉 

Dogs and Weddings: Thinking Out Loud #116

Happy Thursday! I cannot believe I am already NINE days away from getting married🥳The fiancé and I have talked a lot about how fast these past few months have gone, yet the time for the wedding to get here felt like it dragged out- part of that might be we did things a little backwards but that's a story for another day. Anyway I'm so excited that the wedding is so close, but before I get into all of that let's jump into this weeks thinking out loud! 

1. As the wedding as gotten closer the reality of not having my grandparents there to celebrate with me has really sunk in and been hard. I'd give anything to have them there with me but I know they'll all be there in spirit. I wanted to honor them on our special day so I had charms with their photos made. It's a small way to honor them and have them there with me. If you're lucky enough to have your grandparents around for your wedding day don't take a second of it for granted. I'd give anything to have mine with me for that day. I've gotten a few questions about where I got them. I got them off Etsy from Design by Tami. She did an incredible job and got them to me so quickly, I definitely recommend her! 

2. Moving is hard work! Ginger "helped" Brent and I move some things over to his apartment over the weekend before we move down a floor into our new apartment. I cannot wait to give an apartment tour because it's a BRAND NEW apartment and we'll be the first people to ever live in it! We get our keys on Friday and then the fun of moving two apartments begins. Any bets on how long it takes to unpack our stuff?

3. Speaking of Ginger, she's settling into her new life quite fine. She's been with us for over two months already! She loves pets, cuddling, the dog park, food (especially bacon), sheds like crazy despite being brushed every day (look at my shirt), hates baths, and is for the most part a super sweet dog. We got really lucky with her. Brent and I both say we cannot believe how much fun and laughter she has added to our lives since we got her💜

4. Speaking of the dog park, it's been raining non stop here for what feels like forever so dog park trips have been few and far better. Ginger has made her displeasure with that known, but the sun finally peaked out so we hit the dog park. She ran with Brent, swam, got muddy, and had a grand old time. Now it's back to rainy and miserable so we are praying HARD for good weather for our wedding day🙏 

5. My fiancé is the best. His zipper on his lunch box finally gave out and her ordered one off Amazon. Did he order a normal one? Of course not because that would be boring, so he ordered a screaming alpaca lunch box😂I happen to think alpacas are adorable- something he regularly makes fun of- so I think the lunch box was slightly poking fun at that but I don't care because it's hilarious! 

6. If you haven't heard this song I highly recommend you give it a listen. We were going through songs trying to come up with a few for our wedding slideshow. I stumbled on this one and we love it! It's such a sweet song, we've listened to it dozens of times over the past week. 

As this week wraps to a close and we get busy with moving and the wedding I'll be keeping on top of instagram so head there for photos/videos of the new apartment. I cannot wait to share wedding and honeymoon photos with you guys! Have a fantastic weekend and send prayers for sunshine for the wedding our way please🙏

Goodbye T.V. (for now!) and New Pup: Thinking Out Loud #115

Happy Thursday! It's been almost a two months since I've written and so much has changed. I parted ways with T.V. reporting, at least for now, we adopted a shelter pup, we're getting closer to the wedding, and we're moving. Needless to say it's a little hectic, but we love it. Let's jump into this weeks thinking out loud! 

1. So where to begin? This is Ginger. She unexpectedly came into our lives about two months ago now from the local humane society. The fiancé and I go to the humane society almost every week to pet the puppies and help socialize them. Ginger was a sweetie and we fell for it. She's good 98.9% of the time. Within a month of having her she ate two big pork chops off the counter (thankfully there wasn't a bone in them) and ripped open a bag of homemade chocolate chip cookies and ate all of them🤦‍♀️After a trip to the emergency vet Ginger is totally fine and I think she learned her lesson. She loves everyone she ever meets and is just a total sweetie all around, we're lucky to have such a good dog (pork chop and cookie incident aside).

2. Wedding preparations are fully underway with 23 days left until the wedding💒 We are also in the process of combining two apartments while trying to move into our new apartment at the end of the month. Also my apartment currently looks like this because items off our wedding registry keep appearing at my front door. God bless the poor UPS man who hauled a dozen packages up a flight of stairs last week while I was at work. Ginger isn't a fan of all the boxes either, poor pup is running out of room. We're so excited to get into our new apartment and finally have a home together!

3. My favorite human also know as my fiancé turned 25 at the end of April🎉🥳we celebrated by driving up to Omaha to get our TSA pre-check done...I'm not kidding😂I promise we really did celebrate too! We went to one of his favorite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory, then came home and just relaxed. It was a low-key but nonetheless happy birthday for him which is exactly our style.

4. OUR.ENGAGEMENT.PHOTOS. I have bajillions of them I could share with you guys (and trust me I'm tempted). Our photographer let me just say is the most incredible person. Katie Hammond, seriously look her up, is the kindest soul and we had a blast getting our engagement photos done. While you might think Brent and I would be used to being on camera from work we are not the most photogenic people in the world. Katie made everything a breeze and our photos left us speechless😍We are so excited to work with Katie for our wedding. If you're in Nebraska or Iowa and need a photographer look her up, she will make your special day so magical💕

5. It finally happened! I found an açai bowl in Nebraska🙌While it's no Hawaii or even Cali açai bowl it was still really good and the fruit was so fresh😋it hit the spot, but we cannot wait to eat açai bowls on the beach in Maui in less than a month!

So I know there's plenty of things I need to fill you guys in on, right now I'm just not ready to. We're focusing on moving, the wedding, and spoiling our crazy dog. I do however promise to share more engagement, and later wedding, photos because we're obsessed with them and our insanely talented photographer. And to everyone who has reached out to congratulate us or give us advice THANK YOU. We feel so incredibly blessed and loved. From the bottom of our hearts thank you for making this time so special for us💜

Have a terrific Thursday and a great weekend!