Blogging on a cool winter's morning

...and by cool I mean 32F and winter I mean our Florida 'winter' ;)

We've had a lot going on in the past week and a half. I'm trying to get caught up on the oscar nominated movies again this year, so last Friday we went out and saw The Artist. It was really nicely done and a good show overall. My favorite this year is still Midnight in Paris, though. Only 2 weeks to see the rest of the 7 movies on my list, yikes! On Saturday we did a little bit of work and then went to a friend's house for poker night. Not a high turn-out but we had a good time!

On Sunday after church we had a really good talk about life and the future, covering all of the topics our pastor wanted us to go over before our next counseling session. There's really not a lot that we didn't agree on but it was great to put everything on the table and lay out expectations and concerns for the future. We then followed it up with another great session with our pastor on Monday. I feel like even though we don't really have any major "issues", we're a LOT better off than we were without the sessions and without vocalizing our concerns or ideas about the future. We're both working on keeping up this dialogue as we move forward and look to the days after September 1st!

This weekend I had a meeting in Pensacola, and Austin was sweet enough to come along and help drive. The weather wasn't agreeable for lounging on the beach but we did get to enjoy the scenery in my free time. We both thought the peninsula was absolutely beautiful and want to come back to enjoy the beaches again this spring and to do some camping as well. When Austin brings his camera over I'll try to upload a few pictures.

Wishing a happy Sunday to all!

The Wall

Our cute wall painting lasted almost a week before another club painted over it. I managed to get a picture with my phone the day before it was gone.


Next up on the wedding planning to do list: Newspaper announcements. We're almost ready to get them submitted, then it's off to the next thing on the list :)

Life in the GNV

Austin and I have had a very blessed month so far! School/work have been going well; neither of us have classes this semester so all we have to do is lab stuff, which is really nice. Austin is going to try to do his qualifying exam this spring so he will be busy focusing on that for a while, but I know he will be well-prepared when the big day comes!

We've also been able to do quite a few fun this this month already. Last weekend we went to the theater at the Reitz to see a movie (free for students, woo hoo!) and did some shopping as well. This weekend I did my 30-mile bike ride, a lot of work but really fun as well :) That evening we made some graffiti on The Wall. It's a large concrete retaining wall off of 34th street (a really busy road) and right across from our apartment). Austin had done it twice before, I had never painted anything but had always talked about how I wanted to. So last night we took our can of white paint, a "roller" (a normal paint roller but with a towel wrapped around it), and a "brush" (a small dust broom) and made our mark on The Wall! After making a political statement about voting independent for the student government elections, we did a cute Austin + Erica sign as well :) After washing the paint off, we ate dinner and then went downtown to our favorite hipster pool hall. We had some beer and I had whiskey and ginger ale (delicious!) and played pool, darts, and foosball with a few of our friends. All in all a great day!

Today we also did another Gainesville activity that I hadn't done before: Lake Wauberg. It's a recreational area owned by UF with canoes, outdoor sports like volleyball and soccer, rock climbing, and mountain biking. We got in free with our student IDs and walked around for a bit before playing a round of frisbee golf. I'm not very good but Austin is a good and patient teacher ;)

It's also been a beautiful weekend outside, and both of us feel very blessed to live in a place with so many fun things to do and great weather to enjoy them!

In other news, we've also been getting ready for life after Sept 1st 2012. We decided to go with a 2 bedroom apartment with all new appliances in the same complex we are both in now. I'll move into the new room in May and sublease my current room and Austin will move in after the wedding. It's not a terribly fancy place but it's nice and simple and will be a good place to transition into our new routine.

Well, that's most of the news from down south. Here are a few pictures from our afternoon exploration of Lake Wauberg today. You can click on each image to see a larger version. Enjoy!

We've got our list and we checked it twice!

We had a really lovely Christmas back in NE. No snow but nice sunny weather with no blizzards or travel troubles is a blessing!

In addition to eating Christmas cookies, exchanging gifts, and celebrating with friends and family, it was also a week filled with wedding planning. It made for a fast-paced break but we got a lot done so it was definitely worth it. Here's all the things we got to check off our list:

-Walk-through of reception venue and food tasting
-Met with the photographer
-Booked a florist and got our flowers mostly figured out
-Booked a bakery and picked out a cake design (and tasted it, of course!)
-Reserved a DJ
-Picked out bridesmaids dresses
-Bought my dress(!!!)
-Met with our pastor and sorted out the ceremony order and wording for prayers/vows
-Looked at rings at Borscheims and got an idea of the design we want for each band

The next few months will be focused on getting addresses for save the dates and invitations, picking out invites and programs, and thinking about the smaller details (bridesmaids accessories, shoes, etc) along with keeping busy in our normal work and life routines.

Until next time, happy new year!

It's good to have friends in high places

I realized today how blessed we are to have such good connections through friends and family members as we plan out our wedding. We only booked the venue a couple of weeks ago but already the wedding coordinator has been extremely friendly and helpful, and even got us in touch with a DJ (one of the things we had no idea about, so hooray!). And it's all thanks to my future sister-in-law, so incredibly grateful! My sister has also helped us with invitations, and now we are able to get a discount on our invites via her mother-in-law, wow!

We've also had great luck with the other important pieces of our wedding, as we have our photographer (the same person who did my senior pictures), our officiant (the pastor at the church I grew up in), and our musician (the pianist at said church). All of them are great people and it's so comforting to know that they are the ones who are going to be there to help make our special day even better.

Our engagement photographs came out FABULOUS, again thanks to Austin's connections from being in Senate :) Here's just a brief sampling of what we got after our photo shoot last weekend.

Engagement party

Last night we hosted an engagement party at my apartment. We invited our grad school friends over for a wine and dessert party. We had some great wines, delicious gourmet cheeses, and some fabulous desserts. In total a good 20-some people came and it was a great time!

Thanks to all of our friends for helping us celebrate! And for an apartment filled with over 16 bottles of wine...enough to last the whole year ;)

Mark your calendar

We now have an official date: Sept 1st, 2012. Ceremony will be held at the Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church and reception at Marriott in Regency. Austin and I are beyond excited!

More details to come, stay tuned for even more exciting future updates!

-EKA