Pneumonia and Rainbows: Thinking Out Loud #119

Happy Thursday! Two weeks of TOL is basically a miracle since it hasn't happened in I don't even know how long. With wedding planning, moving two apartments, getting married, the honeymoon, and catching pneumonia right after our honeymoon life has been a little crazy but we're finally settling in and starting to feel better. I'll have a wedding recap post up next week (finally) and I'm pretty excited to share all the details and beautiful photos! Anyway, before I start rambling about all things wedding let's jump into this weeks thinking out loud! 

1. After fighting pneumonia for over a month I'm finally starting to slowly get better. I'm still coughing (no amount of medications will stop that) and I'm still super tired all the time but I finally got back into the gym. My entire body is sore but I know I have to gain a lot of ground back from being sick, plus my body is still heeling. When I don't feel like driving to the gym I hit our apartment gym which is really nice and Ginger comes with me. She just lays there while I lift or hit the treadmill. 

2. All of the boxes from moving are FINALLY starting to be unpacked. The guest bedroom is starting to resemble an actual bedroom too. I wanted to keep it very clean and bright so I went with white. Ginger is banned from the bedroom because I don't want dog hair or paw prints on the bedspread but sometimes she manages to sneak in there. I'd like to think that's her annoyed face because she got caught 🙃Once the bedroom is fully put together I'll put a post together about where I got everything.

3. The dog days of summer are no joke. It's so hot in NE right now 🔥 It's been in the upper 90's all week with the heat index well into the 100's. The heat is way too much for me and way too much for Ginger. I braved the heat to get her out of the house since she's been cooped up and we hit the dog park. About .5 seconds after arriving I was already sweating. We stayed for half an hour, she was in the water the entire time, and by the time we got back to the car I was dripping in sweat. The things we do for our dogs 🐶 

4. Sometimes Nebraska doesn't suck. While I hate the heat and the snow sometimes there's some really beautiful rainbows. In the past few weeks there have been several rainbows that we've seen. I caught this one early in the morning after a storm went through. It was beautiful to watch the sunrise and see a rainbow 🌈  

5. We wanted to get Ginger's nail clipped but I was super nervous after a horrible experience with Camp Bow Wow. We took Ginger in for her "interview" and had to leave her there for a few hours to see how she did with the other dogs. We had talked about day camp, but really just wanted her nails clipped but she still had to go through the entire process. She was nervous, but it was a new environment and we weren't with her so that was too be expected. HOWEVER, what we didn't expect was to see the workers forcibly drag her out of the play area to go potty. Ginger was laying on the floor and didn't want to get up when a worker dragged her across the floor, yanked her up, and we could see her being choked by her collar. Camp Bow Wow has webcams so we were each watching at work. I was almost in tears and frantically calling Brent to see if he could pick her up, which thankfully he could. We took her to our local PetSmart to have her nails clipped and they were AMAZING! They were so calm and gentle to Ginger and her nails came out great! After a horrible experience we were so thankful for the way she was treated at PetSmart. Needless to say next time we will be taking her to PetSmart as well. 

Have a terrific Thursday and stay cool this weekend in the heat 🎉 🎊 🎉 🎊 

WE'RE MARRIED! Thinking Out Loud: 118

Happy Thursday! I've been MIA for a few weeks because we got married on June 8th then we spent two weeks in Maui for our honeymoon and life has been a little crazy since we returned. I caught pneumonia on our return trip home, which I am on the third week of fighting (working with pneumonia is horrible), and we're still working on unpacking from our move which happened the week before our wedding. It's just been slightly chaotic but we're managing. I'll do separate posts about the wedding with all our vendors and one for our honeymoon in Maui with what to do, where to eat, things to avoid, etc. Anyway before I ramble anymore here is this week's thinking out loud.

1. We're married! Technically we've been married but I'm finally getting around to sharing it. Aside from our wedding being a tad too warm, but thankfully it was windy so it wasn't terrible, it was perfect! There were hiccups of course but genuinely I was not stressed for a single moment of it and we had so much fun. Many of our friends said they don't even remember most of their wedding which I didn't want to be the case for us, so we were very intentional about being present in the moment. We didn't do a first look so Brent's reaction was so special the first time we saw one another while I was walking down the aisle. I did do a first look with my dad, who I refused to show him my dress until our wedding day. He was crying and got me crying but it was such a special moment and one I'll never forget. I'll share more details and way more photos when I write up a wedding recap post. 

2. Monday marked one month of being married and Brent surprised me with flowers. I told him not to do anything but I've long since accepted that he's going to do what he's going to do. It was so incredibly sweet of him to do and totally unnecessary. I definitely hit the husband jackpot with him 💜 

3. We had several deserts at our wedding include these brownie shots. We had a bunch leftover so we wrapped them up and put them in the freezer. I've slowly been making a dent on them because they're super yummy. I don't like frosting so I scoop it out. Needless to say these were a big hit at our wedding. 

4. Our honeymoon in Maui was a dream. It was genuinely the first vacation I've ever been on that I felt totally relaxed. We spent our days exploring, playing in the ocean, or laying by the pool and reading. In eleven days I plowed through half a dozen books. It was amazing and so, so refreshing. Having been to the island over half a dozen times it was fun showing Brent some off the beaten path places that tourists don't go to. I got to experience a lot of it with new eyes because he had never been, which made it even more fun to take him to places I love. We're already talking about going back soon- especially to escape winter! 

5.  There were so many special things from our wedding I couldn't bear to part with. I wanted to save my bouquet but some of the flowers don't dry out well so I only saved a few of them and made a shadow box with special trinkets from our big day. The purple orchids are all from my bouquet and the roses are some extra flowers that we had and my matron of honor put a bouquet together with. Brent had tucked a special note in with my shoes which I found on our wedding day. My garter, bouquet charms of grandparents who are no longer living, our cake topper, a heart from our guest book, Brent's boutonnière, an invite and a photo strip of us from the photo booth we had were all included. I got this shadow box off Amazon and I've gotten a ton of compliments on it. I also bought some extra push pins to pin things down with. 

6. Finally, Ginger. She's still living her best life with us. She's been spoiled rotten with soft serve ice cream (in small amounts), trips to the dog park, and all the snuggles. She loves our new home and has made friends with nearly everyone she's met in the building. Ginger is a special one and while she drives us crazy we love her like crazy. If only she didn't shed so much...

I'll stop babbling now, but I will do a wedding and a honeymoon post soon. Have a wonderful Thursday and hang in there it's almost the weekend 🎉🎉🎉

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 🎉