A Word From Our Honeymoon

Posted on June 30, 2007 by Laura

St. John was amazing!  We love snorkeling! We’re in Tortola now and will be home in a few days!!  Love to you all!
Love,  Laura B

Posted in pre-kids | 1 Comment

The Last “We’re Engaged” Post

Posted on June 22, 2007 by Laura

ONE MORE DAY!!!!!!

Posted in engagement | 3 Comments

God’s grace through a cell phone company

Posted on June 13, 2007 by Laura

So Monday night, I discovered that although I was only halfway through my billing cycle, I had already used up all my cell phone anytime minutes as well as the rollover minutes that I had left, as well as going 11 minutes over (at $.60 a minute).  And my next set of minutes doesn’t start until 6/26 – three days late!  So last night I called to see if there was any way I could buy a bundle of minutes to get me through the next 10 days and the lady said, no, I’m sorry, there’s no way.  But then she said she could give me 500 rollover minutes and a  $25 courtesy credit on my bill, neither of which would be able to kick in until next month.  So I thanked her, figuring that at least the credit would help pay for my overage minutes, even though I’d still probably end up with a big bill.

This morning, I checked my account.  The money and the minutes ARE THERE!!  Praise God!  So I can talk all I need to over the next few days and I will likely have far more minutes than I need!

Posted in faith, wedding | 3 Comments

Some letters

Posted on June 12, 2007 by Laura

My kids are practicing writing letters this week.  Today and tomorrow, they
are writing letters to Rachel in response to the letter she wrote to
them.  They think this is very fun!  Yesterday, they wrote a short
letter to me to practice.  Here is some of what they wanted to tell me:

I hope you get many things when you get married.  I love you except when you
get angry.

I know you will get marry on June 23, 2007.  I am very glad you to get marry
with Mr. B.  Are you come to school next year? I hope you come to school
because we need a nice teacher.  Can we hear you say you will be have a
baby in next year?  We will be glad to hear!  I hope you is a nice
wife!

You are a good teacher.  I wish I have you next year.  I wish you have
long life to get loving man and have good family and get a baby look like you
or like Mr. B.

I am so happy that you are going to get married.

Ms. J, how you feel because you going to married? I hope you will be happy next
to Mr. B!  I would like you to have 3 childrens.  I hope that Mr. B
thinks that you are a feast for his eyes. I know you will be happy when you married. With you I learned many things I didn’t know in my country so I want to be with you always to learn more. 

With you I learned many things I didn’t know in my country so I want to be

with you always to learn more. 

Congratulations for your wedding!  Can you tell me about your country?  Do you want
henna?  So you can come to my home because my mom know how to do henna.  I will miss you in summer holiday.

How is the your fiance, Mr. B? I miss you so much!

Ms. J I don’t like these new seats.  I want to go to the old seat!

I know you will be happy when you married.

Posted in engagement, school, wedding | 4 Comments

Less than two weeks!!

Posted on June 9, 2007 by Laura

We are so close!  Nik is away this weekend, camping with his friends for his bachelor party.  I have been attempting to accomplish way too much.  One thing I did get done is buy bridesmaid shoes!  The stripes are even pink and orange!  I like them and that issue is solved!

Posted in wedding | 3 Comments

This weekend

Posted on June 4, 2007 by Laura

Thursday night, I had the surprise of my life – RACHEL CAME FOR MY
BACHELORETTE PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I suppose the
whole family was in on the surprise but I certainly wasn’t!!  And the
second best surprise of the evening was that I didn’t have to go to
school the next day.  Kristen worked her magic and got me the day off.
The weekend was wonderful.  I’m too tired to write much more but here’s
a few pictures (from Rachel’s camera!).

Kristen with all the snacks that Lisa brought
Lisa with adorable Abby (who’s already one!!)

Having fun outside on the dock

My wonderful friends made all 180 of our wedding program covers!!
(Rachel is the one who lined them up so nicely.)

On the dock at night (after Katie and Julie had joined us)
Rachel making the scrambled eggs for Mom’s delicious egg dish for Sunday morning:

The amazing house where we stayed

The sisters:

At sushi last night with Dan Gerding and Rachel

And it wasn’t even that hard to say goodbye to Rachel this morning because I’ll see her again in 2 weeks!!

Posted in wedding | 6 Comments

A Long Island Wedding

Posted on May 28, 2007 by Laura

Nik and I, along with Dan Gerding and Dan Francis, flew up to Long Island on Saturday to attend our friends, Ryan and Heather’s wedding.  It was over the top and fantastic and I am very tired!  The exciting news – our wedding is next!

Dan Gerding, being the amazing photographer that he is, found just the right light and setting to take this great picture of us at the reception (at a country club):

Only 25 days to go!

Posted in engagement, friends | 2 Comments

Some great reasons to be happy

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Laura

1.  Nik is so awesome – he surprised me at school on Monday afternoon with some yummy Trader Joe’s hummus and pita chips along with flowers – to help me get through my long night preparing for my formal observation on Tuesday.  AND he graded a bunch of tests for me – which enabled me to leave sooner than I’d planned on that night.  And he even managed to pick a bouquet of flowers that had Gerbera daisies in it – our main wedding flower!  (These are not what my bouquet looked like but we are going to have similar colors in the wedding!)

2.  My observation on Tuesday morning went really well!  That was my last one of the year so I’m now well on my way to being tenured.  And I don’t have to be observed again until school year after next.  Hip Hip Hooray!

3.  The bridesmaid dresses have arrived and are now on their way to Alaska and New York.  They are beautiful, very well made, and I love the color.  That one can be fully checked off the list!

4.  On Sunday, I gave Nik a list of 11 things to accomplish for the wedding and he’s basically done with the list!  He had two very easy days on Monday and Tuesday because of state testing and so was able to do a bunch of it at school.  It makes me feel much calmer about the state of our wedding planning.

5.  I get to go on the 7th grade field trip on Friday and Monday is a holiday so that makes for almost a 4 day weekend for me.

6.  Nik and I are going to the Baltimore Symphony on Friday night.  On the evening’s program is Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  Who could ask for a better way to start a long weekend?

7.  We’re getting married in 31 days!!

Posted in engagement, school, wedding | 7 Comments

A boy’s house?!?!?!?!?!?!

Posted on May 20, 2007 by Laura

As Lisa put it yesterday, “Your stuff is in a boy’s house now!!” [insert appropriate giggle track here!]  

That’s right, yesterday, Nik, Kristen, and I along with our good friend Judi and two young men from the church youth group moved the majority of my stuff into Nik’s house.   His roommates moved out last week and we knew that if we didn’t move my things in this weekend, it wouldn’t be happening until the weekend before the wedding.

The move was super easy – thanks in no small part to Mom’s masterful packing of my room during the day when I was at school and she was at my house.  That combined with the fact that I hadn’t even unpacked the majority of my things from my move in October made for a move that only lasted 1 1/2 hours!!  I was blessing Kristen yesterday for making me move in October.  I would have been incredibly stressed this spring if I hadn’t already done the vast majority of my sorting and packing last fall.

So now it seems very real that we are on the home stretch and will be married very soon.  Hip hip hooray!!

P.S. I just finished this book last night.  Mom and I found it at the Book Thing.  It was very good (I was pleasantly surprised – not much fluff there).  I think it’s number four in the series but I think it’s also meant to be read by itself.  Anyway – Meggan or Mom, if you want me to save the book for you, let me know.  Otherwise – I’m taking it back to the Book Thing!

Posted in wedding | 1 Comment

Mom, I don’t speak Greek, and presents

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Laura

Hey all!  This weekend was really great.  Mom flew in on Wednesday and we had a whirlwind few days of meeting Nik’s parents, shopping, dress fitting, going to my friend’s birthday party, and finally to my shower on Saturday afternoon.  The shower was really fun – there was a fun mix of my friends and Nik’s mom’s friends – most of whom speak Greek.  In case you were wondering, I don’t speak Greek and it was fun to be there and listen to all the Greek swirling around me.  We got so many wonderful presents.  A couple highlights – Kristen gave me a beautiful pottery bowl from Wild Yam Pottery, Mom made a couple of beautiful aprons for me and Nik mom’s gave us almost all of what we need for our bed.  All in all, a fun weekend.  I was, however, sick for most of it and exhausted by Sunday night.  So I decided to take today off to catch up on rest and grading and hopefully get better.  It seems to be working.  I have all my grading done, I’m feeling better, and I’m going to start on my thank you notes now.  I’ll post pictures once I get some from Mom or Nik’s mom.  I love you all!

Posted in engagement, wedding | 3 Comments