east meets west...north meets south

We were joking this weekend that our trip to Seattle this weekend was a mixing of cultures :) Chuck's from the south and the east and I'm from the north and the west--so Seattle would be as geographically far from his home as you can get in the lower 48...geographically and maybe in a few other ways too! This past weekend was AMAZING--I had not been home in a year and a 1/2 which was WAY too long, and Chuck had never been to see my home. My friends up there graciously offered to throw me a bridal shower with friends and family from the northwest, and we had a chance to experience beautiful weather and crystal clear skies. LOTS of laughter, catching up with old friends (for me), meeting new friends (for him), worshiping in my favorite church on the planet, and celebrating this next step in our lives in a place I adore more than anywhere made this weekend such a GIFT to both of us! My heart is SO full right now, and I can't stop smiling as I look at the photos from the last 3 days. There are WAY too many to post in a single entry, so I'll start here with Friday night and Saturday afternoon--keep scrolling down for Saturday evening, Sunday, and today's photos!

My favorite mountain, Mt. Rainier, from the air as we were flying in.First place I took him after we rented our car was my favorite neighborhood--Queen Anne Hill, right by my college. We grabbed lunch at my favorite sandwich shop, coffee (NOT at Starbucks, I don't go to Starbucks in Seattle as often as I can avoid it--there are way too many independent coffee shops I'd rather support!), and then we went to Kerry Park, where there is a great view of the city.Then it was on to Heather and Darbee's place where we hung out, played Wii, ate an incredible meal cooked by Heather, and just caught up. Missy captured this moment...Dinner time! Left to right--Lynn, Heather, Darbee, Jeannette, me, Chuck.
Saturday afternoon I took Chuck to Jen and Lynn's condo to study in the peace and quiet and the girls threw me a fabulous bridal shower at Darbee and Heather's! It was my first one, and it was kind of a strange and really humbling experience being the bride--I've been part of throwing so many, but obviously have never been on the receiving end of these celebrations. It was SO fun, and such an incredible time of seeing friends, family, and getting even more excited about my future with my soon to be husband!

These are the food and drink tables--they did such a great job with decorating in my colors and putting together a menu I loved!Me with Julia--a great friend, mentor, and prayer warrior from my home church.Jeannette, Darbee and JenMy mom was in town visiting her family this weekend, so she and her 3 sisters came too! This is Aunt Patty, Aunt Beth and Aunt Peggy.Mom and IThe first game was trying to guess how old I was in 27 various photos they had put up around the room--they had gotten some emailed from my mom, sister, aunt, and a couple friends! I didn't even know the answers to all of them! Here are Jen, Jeannette, Darbee and I trying to decide when various events might have happened in life!Mom and I reminiscing and trying to figure out the context for each of the photos!Michelle, her daughter Audrey (who came straight from a swim meet and was waiting for her dad to pick her up--I used to babysit for her when she was SO much smaller!) and Dianne, another amazing mentor from my home church.The next game was the sock game. Heather had placed 6 different items in 6 socks and tied them shut. We were to use nothing but our bare feet to decide what was in the socks--we were told they were items Chuck and I might need on our honeymoon ;)
Patty & Beth feeling and guessing...Jeannette, Lynn and Darbee playing--Darbee won, she got all 6 right!In the socks were random things--sunglasses, breath mints, a wine opener...and yes, a pregnancy test...and a few other things, photos have been censored for the blog-world :)Present time! My aunt Beth made me a beautiful Christmas tree skirt for our future holidays.As is typical at bridal showers, some of the gifts were..um...personal? :) Most of the photos from present opening are not suitable for public viewing, so they won't be posted. This Greenwood pajama t-shirt from Jen is though! Greenwood is the neighborhood we all lived in before I moved to LAOur serving platter from Crate and Barrel from Julia--another photo from present opening that is post-able :) We were also given our rice cooker, soup pot, soup recipes (from Dianne and Michelle!), and our surfboard toothbrush holder and tiki hut kleenex holder for the bathroom!Family photo! Patty, Peggy, Beth, mom and IMy Bethany women--these women from my church have been such faithful prayer warrior and supporters of me these past many years! Michelle, me, Julia, Dianne and Missy.Beautiful friends! (l to r: Jeannette, Missy, Jen, Darbee, Lynn, Heather)

The Melting Pot

YUM! That's about all there is to say about that! Saturday night the girls took Chuck and I out to a wonderful dinner at The Melting Pot to celebrate with us, which is one of our favorite spots!

Jen and IJeannette, Heather, and MissyJen through the steam from the fondue potOur cheese fondue being prepared--SO yummy!The meat course--they bring out plates of raw meat and you cook them in various cooking broths right there at the table--pork, shrimp, chicken, fillet mignon, salmon, and raviolis--SO good!Dessert--only the best part! Chocolate fondue with cheesecake, strawberries, bananas, marshmellows, pound cake, rice krispy treats and I'm sure I am forgetting things! They brought out a small piece of cheesecake for Chuck and I.Then they lit our chocolate on fire :)

Being Tourists

Sunday we went to worship at Bethany, which was fabulous of course :) Then we were invited to a family's home (friends of mine from Bethany) for tea and homemade scones, which were so yummy! It was great getting to introduce Chuck to Karen and John! From there we drove north for about an hour to Everett, the town my grandma has lived in for a long long time. We met my mom, grandma, 2 aunts, and uncle for lunch on the Everett waterfront by the ferry docks. We had wonderful seafood (Chuck got his first taste of Alaskan salmon FRESH from Alaska--he says it's nothing like the Alaskan salmon you can get in Florida!) and got to enjoy the beautiful view.

These are the Cascade mountains--part of them anyways!The Mukilteo to Whidbey Island ferry--a boat I took a LOT growing up to get out to the beach house my grandma would rent.That's Mt. Baker in the distanceThis morning we went to Golden Gardens, the beach I spent the most time at in college, and gathered sand for our wedding. Instead of doing a unity candle, we are going to combine two vases of sand into one vase--his sand from Jacksonville Beach and mine from Seattle--the mixing of the east and west!Missy and Heather came with us :)Then it was off to the Space Needle!The view from the top! SUCH a pretty day! This is looking north--Lake UnionLake Union with Mt. Baker in the distanceThe Cascade Mountains to the east Downtown with Mt. Rainier--i LOVE this city!A ferry coming into SeattleLooking west, to the Olympic Mountains and Elliott BayMissy and IHeather and IHeather, Jeannette, Missy and IThe group: Heather, Missy, Jeannette, Brian, Chuck and IThen it was off to the famous Pike's Place Market so Chuck could see a fish be thrown :)A fresh crab being thrownAll the beautiful fresh produce!Chuck at the very first Starbucks ever--it's down at Pikes Market

On our side

I'm learning a lot these days. Yes I'm still in school, but my life lessons are not coming from the classroom right now. Don't get me wrong, classes definitely teach us a lot--and I am especially excited about my preaching practicum where I'll get the chance to preach a couple times this quarter. But that's not the most important thing I am learning right now.

What I've come to realize in a really powerful way this past week or so is how incredible community is. I have amazing friends, and I have always known that, but this has come to my attention again in a new way. Last weekend Dave, Tera, and Jenn all helped Chuck and I put together our wedding invitations so we could get them mailed. The way that they were more than willing to give up a couple hours of their weekend to stuff, label, stamp, and seal envelopes was so humbling to us-realizing how people are willing to support us in little, but important ways.

The invitations were just one example of where I saw people's love for us this past week. Friends beginning to ask how they can support us these next 71 days (ok they don't know how many exact days there are, that was my addition!), how the girls can celebrate me (bridal showers/bachelorette parties, shopping trips to Victoria's Secret? ;) , what we think we might need as we get closer to the wedding etc. I had kind of an emotional week (that might be an understatement), which I definitely am not going into here in cyber-world, but one of the things that struck me when I was talking to a couple of close friends about it, was how their desire was to support BOTH of us, even though it was me they were talking to. I realized that those who have always been close to me are now on our side. They are willing to support me by supporting and encouraging our marriage--both with their time, but also with their prayers, their encouragement, and their emotional support. Sometimes this means they need to say things to me that I'm not sure I want to hear, but know I need to as I am growing as a soon-to-be-wife, and need to put my fiance's needs ahead of mine sometimes. (Which is not always easy!) I have a LOT to learn about what it means to love someone so fully, to support and encourage someone in the way that I hope to be able to do with Chuck. And I am so thankful that I have so many friends who love me enough to help me grow as I prepare for this next phase in life.

And even more than that, I am SO thankful I have a man who is always on my side. I saw that this week in a few powerful ways. I am learning that part of being married (even though I'm not married yet) means having someone always in your corner, even when in a disagreement with one another. (Meaning, we may disagree with one another and discuss it, argue about it etc, but when it comes down to it, he will always have my back in life). I had a week where, for various reasons, I was too emotional, tired, and stressed to be able to function well on my own. Chuck stepped in time and time again to wrap his arms around me, let me cry on his shoulder (even when I wasn't really crying for any apparent reason--sometimes as women, we just have those kinds of weeks!), and remind me over and over again that he loves me, that he can't wait to marry me, and that he may not know how to fix things when I'm emotional, but he was willing to sit with me until I felt better. His patience, gentleness, and love blew me away (and often made me cry more...sheesh, I just couldn't win this week!). One night we were reading our Psalm and praying together and I just didn't have the words to be able to do that, and his response was to wrap his arms around me and say "ok, I'll pray for you right now." He was on my side. And gently carried me before our Heavenly Father. And I can't seem to get over how safe I felt knowing he was there. Praise God for good gifts in life!

Happy 2009!

We had a pretty low key New Year's Eve, which was just fine with us after all the traveling we have done lately! Last night we hung out with 4 other friends playing Trivial Pursuit and then this morning we got up early and did what every sane Pasadena resident did. We left town to see the Parade. This place is chaos during the parade, traffic is awful, and we didn't feel like standing on the street corner for hours staking out spots. So we had a parade watching party with my girls' small group out at Christina and Steve's apartment in Simi Valley (about 45 minutes from here). We all brought breakfast food and had fun hanging out, eating, drinking mimosas, and watching the festivities.

Jenn and Megan toasting the new year with mimosasBecca and I--Becca sporting her hometown colors--go trojans!Clemson happened to be in the Gator bowl which was on out here this morning, so we switched back and forth to it for Chuck. Here's the team pep talk.Jenn and Becca saying GO TROJANS!Christina and Steve, our newly-wed hosts :)Ryan and AlethiaThe guys went to watching full-time football. So one by one the girls migrated into the bedroom to "nap"--or catch up after 3 weeks away! I can't even tell you how much I love this small group! We just missed Tera!

School starts Monday--between now and then I have a LOT of grading to do and we are going to get our invitations assembled and ready to mail. I'm not sure how I feel about starting yet another quarter of classes, but it is my last quarter in school so I am hoping it will fly by. We do have other stuff coming up that I am looking forward to though. Monday we resume our pre-marital counseling which we are both looking forward to, it's been really helpful for us and I know we would both recommend it! Wednesday night we start what was my Christmas gift from Chuck--6 weeks of ballroom dancing lessons! I didn't even ask for it or bring it up, he came up with this on his own, but starting Wed. we are going to learn basic ballroom dance steps for the next 6 weeks--hopefully we won't look ridiculous at our wedding!

This quarter I have 2 classes and will be the teaching assistant for 2. My last two classes of my seminary career are one preaching practicum and a class that will trace the theme of race and identity throughout the new testament. I'm looking forward to both, although I'm not super excited about more homework! I'll be TA-ing for Chap Clark's Youth Outreach and Evangelism class and for Dr. Schmidts' homiletics (beginning preaching) class. Happy new year everyone!