South Dakota Pt. I

After the wedding and a nice Sunday visit with some of Ken's family in from out of state, we packed up the car and got out of town! It's been an unbelievably long semester so far with the wedding planning and students from the underworld for me (Note here that I'm trying to put that nicely -- I have some real doozies this semester). We slowly made our way toward South Dakota and the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore, but as usual found a couple of good stopping points along the way.

Stop 1: The Beanpod Candle Outlet Store -- Marcy's favorite place to buy her now-favorite soy candles at an exceptionally low price. After stocking up on some good deals, we were back on the road which took us to ....

Stop 2: Clear Lake, IA home of the Surf Ballroom, the last place Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and JP "the Big Bopper" Richardson played in Feb. 1959 before their plane went down a few miles outside of town.

I've been to the Surf Ballroom before, but had always wanted to go to the spot in the corn field where the plane went down. I'd heard there was a memorial there, so off we went to find it. We trudged our way through an extremely muddy March corn field (Hey , where was the frozen ground?). After we were almost there, the ground just became too saturated and I could not go on. By this point my sneakers were coated in mud, but being the neat freak I am, I decided that I just could not walk through the standing water/mud to the memorial. Being the trooper he is, Ken did it for me and got some nice pictures of the memorial. It was strange to think that it was almost exactly 50 years that the plan had crashed in that field killing the three rock legends.

After mudding our way back to the car and trying desperately to clean our shoes off in the lone patch of snow we could find, we got back on the road and headed to....

Stop 3: Sioux Falls, SD. There we decided to go hang at the hotel (Country Inns and and Suites) early, relaxing to a lovely room, comfy bed, and free cookies in the lobby. My idea of a real vacation!

More on the Douth Dakota trip in the next blog. There are too many pictures to post and stories to tell to do it now. It's getting late and I have to start another week tomorrow. More to come soon!

After 8 years...a wedding!

The wedding was beautiful and just the way we wanted it: simple and elegant. The ceremony lasted all of 15 minutes (Lutheran, naturally) and the reception at the ballroom at UNI was lovely. It was so good to see so many of our friends and family there -- many of whom traveled a great deal to be there. Thanks to you all for coming and helping to make our day special!

Here are a couple of pictures from the day shared with me from various friends/relatives who had cameras. If anyone else took pictures, I'd love to have copies! It's so hard not being able to take my own pictures. We'll get the proofs from the photographer in a week or so, but I love the candids that people take.



After the big day, Ken and I headed off for a little mini-honeymoon. Our official honeymoon will be in Hawaii after he comes back from Iraq in 2010, but in the mean time, we both agreed it would be nice to get out of town for a bit. We drove out to South Dakota and visited the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. I'll post pictures from that trip in a separate blog.

In short, it was a lovely wedding, reception, and trip afterwards. Now we have the grand task of writing all those Thank Yous. All I can say about that right now is that we're working on them and we will get them out soon!

IA Wedding Shower

Well, with one week to go before the wedding, I find that things are getting a little more rushed in terms of taking care of all that needs to be taken care of. Ken and I did finally get to the Courthouse to get our marriage certificate. His sister Maria came along as our witness. When we signed all the paperwork for that, I had to declare then and there what my name was (is?) going to be after marriage. Rather than keep you all in suspense, I'll just tell you that I'm keeping my name. I realize some people may not agree with that practice and some may think it's just fine. As for me, I decided that keeping my last name was important to me, and Ken didn't really mind, so I'm staying the same. We decided that we'll be just as married whether we share the same last name or not. Of course, when I went back to the Courthouse a few days later to pick up the license, etc., the Clerk had written Ken's last name as the "Bride's Name After Marriage." When I corrected her, she gave me a weird look. I suppose living around here I'll get a few weird looks when Ken and I introduce ourselves with different last names from here on.

A few weeks ago, my sister Melissa threw me a shower in Iowa for my friends and family here. It was a lovely event and it was good to see so many people all together again. We had it at the John Deere Supervisors Club in Waterloo, which had a room big enough to fit everyone in it. Here are some pictures from the day.

This is a picture of the ladies in my immediate family. Back L-R: Sister Melissa, Sister Connie, Brittaney, Mother, Niece Nicole, and Aunt Sheila. Front: Me, Grandma Frieda, Sister Corrina.

Here is a shot of my mom, Aunt Sheila, and some of Mom's co-workers. The woman in red on the right and in the center was actually there working at the hospital the day I was born. She was an OB nurse (and now teaches at the college) and even remembered what room my mom was in when I was born! That made my day!

Here I am posing for a picture with my new set of cookware! It will be so nice having some "good" things at home and to be able to pass along some of our "gently used" items collected during bachelorhood and graduate school days.

Here is simply another shot of the room showing some of the wonderful guests who were able to make it. I wish I could have talked to everyone more, but it's so hard to get a chance to just sit down and catch up with everyone. I know that will be something that's hard for me about the wedding day too, but I am excited for the chance to see everyone and hopefully catch up if only for a little while.

And so there it is. One week from today, Ken and I'll be married. It's hard to imagine that this day is almost here after 8 years and a lot of memories already together.