my best friend's wedding.

this weekend was full of wonderfulness.
i'm not sure if you can tell. ;)

justin and i sang this song [click here] for pj and drew's first dance. 

[rach, was the photographer for this wedding.]

lots of dear friends, smiles, hard work, a beautiful wedding, laughing, crying, dancing, car rides, sunshine, children, and love love love.
♥

hitting the road...

[yesterday: reese and danny, shooting at things and digging in the dirt like boys tend to do. ;)]

it smells like rain and grass that's growing greener and we're packing up. going to leave in the next hour or so, with the whole awesome family. haha. should be fun. ;) it always is, with like 8 people plus a 4 year old boy....el oh el.
it's a weekend trip for a wedding on sunday, peoples!

[may 2011....forever ago! well, almost.]

pj's wedding...justin's sister....:) it's going to be a very very very good weekend.
:)

here's a picture full of interesting tips. heh.
have a grand weekend, lovelies. ;)

yeah. hair.

buzzcut beauty.
and
going all the way.
the comments are placing fingers on the reminders and reasons why i love having short hair and why i haven't missed long hair all that much. besides the length and softness and having something more to play with and be stereotypically feminine and sensual.
this comment [on the first post] especially hits the mark with my thoughts:

I love cutting my hair short. I just feel more me when I do...[when i first did it,] it felt great but I felt kind of like I should let it grow out, so I could be “girly” in the right way, even though I have never really felt that that fits me. Now, I cut it all off again, and it’s great. It definitely makes me feel more confident, and I like the fact that it’s clearly a chosen haircut, not just like a default long one. ...It seems really freeing.
...Short hair always makes me feel more feminine, and long hair always makes me feel like my hair is wearing me, not the other way around. It’s nice to be able to cut it off.

i'm also thinking the same thing as this lady commented: "I am giving it till [fill in the blank with a month] to see if I like it at shoulder length, but otherwise back to the scissors!"

now back to my coffee, this rainy-turned-sunny day, thinking about what to make for dinner, and some other super fun stuff [sarcasm....ahem....].
:)

rainy days and talking to jesus.

it's a very dreary day.
rainy. but warm. so i'm thankful for that.
danny's been sitting on my lap, playing with duplos and making towers and swords for the past 20 minutes.

we listened to manic drive's dance floor...owl city's vanilla twilight...some songs by katie herzig...
then he slid off my lap to stand up, with an announcement. "i'm going to talk to jesus. over by the bathroom. my gramma says jesus isn't in the bathroom." a sad face.
"don't worry, bud. jesus is everywhere. the kitchen, your bedroom, outside, in the bathroom. you can talk to him anywhere."
he walked off...i wish i would've followed him to listen to the mumbling i heard from way over here.
a moment later he was back. "i talked to jesus for a little bit. i'm back now."
and then he attempted a dinosaur puzzle.
it has tiny pieces, so we're now onto a cars themed puzzle with larger pieces. :)

and fyi, that one car --finn-- his mustache is not a mustache. it's a heater, according to the the little boy helping me with this. he's correct, and i was wrong. hahah. ;)

last week, we were doing this . . .

and it was snowing like no tomorrow.
crazy to think that. it was a week ago. weird.

mhmm.

it was after breakfast with the bride [heather] and a few friends.....i made anna, mom, and i some chai. [the packet mixes by that oregon brand. mmm.]
anna did the flowers. i helped a wee bit. like that floral tape stuff. then i brushed the snow off anna's car, prepping for the drive. f.u.n.

see? snow. it was stunning.
though slightly dangerous.

we did reception set up with the bride's younger sisters, steph and michaela. :)

she drove, i put her cell on speaker for communication, and we enjoyed more time in the car on snowy roads on the way to the church to rehearse . . .

this was friday night.

this was the wedding day. pictures courtesy of the bride's mother's phone. ;)
i cannot wait to see the pictures done by him and her. goodness gracious.
i can't believe they've been married nearly a week . . . ahhh, time. :P :)

a perfect chai.

with every sip of this tazo chai [steeped with honey and cream], there's the feeling of the spices registering at the back of my tongue.
perfect chai, i'd say.
it's weird to say --ahem, it's kind of more of an admittance, a confession-- but i have become addicted to chai over the past couple days.
addicted.
obsessed.
i've drank more cups of chai than coffee today.
is something going wrong with the world? :P hah.
by the way, the gorgeous photos are taken with rach's cute little lens she special ordered off amazon last month. i love the focus and bokeh it has. mmmmm:)

this is just beautiful:

   today i wish for my valentine,
   peace, and a healing heart
   for his burden to be lightened
   and his hand in mine in the dark.

click here for the full, original post over at flux capacitor.

caleb: "so, when is justin coming home from work?"
me: "he's still sleeping."
caleb: "oh. is this one of those days that he's gotta wake up at 3?"
me: "no, one."
caleb: "ahhh, so you're going to stay up till one."
i give him a look.
caleb: "wow. she is."
ben: "you're.....a hardcore girlfriend."
i smile and keep putting together a blog post. ;)

so today i was in a wedding . . .

this is what it looked like on the way to the church.
last night on the way to and from the rehearsal, it was pretty downright dangerous.
blizzard...white-out...lovely conditions. oy.

this is anna, me, michaela and purity on our way to the church to get ready around 9-9:30, but of course --first of all-- stopping at stone creek coffee to pick up a spicy chai for the bride and assorted coffees for the rest of us. :)

the lovely bride, heather, and us.
i do believe i was the last to get ready. heh. easy process. that's how i roll.

glue for my hair, and other supplies.
like that tube of lipstick and large americano i ordered... ;)

the groom, derek, had a basket of a few sweet things and a note sent to our ladies room for her.
...writing a note in return. :)

finishing off that americano...

and yes...because our "ladies room" for hair and getting ready was the church's preschool room, here we go.
cute little rhinoceros.
and i just spelled rhinoceros right. the first time ever typing it.
weird.

one of rach's first captures.

we walked the aisle a little after 12 noon.

another by rach.

and a couple more.
like the kiss. if you see our [bridesmaid] faces, we all seem quite happy that they're finally kissing. heheh.

ryan, one of the bride's younger brothers.

michael, ben, caleb, and ryan.
obviously having a lot of fun at the reception.

casey and steph, over on the other side.

the cutie responsible for most of the shots here on. :)
yes, you're welcome, rach. i love you, sister. ;)

that lady in the scarf? is this lady.
and her brother [robert] was the main photographer for this lovely event.

mom and dad. ♥

me and dad: at the reception.
yay for stylish black sweater/wrap things borrowed from sisters. hehe:)

siblings [the far left and the far right] and their significant others. i thought it was cute. ;)

chai tea with the tea bags and mug that heath and steph gave me for my birthday.

lyddie took these pictures as i blogged most of this......and she laughed. the camera was on the sports setting, and she got how many frames of me taking a sip. rach says she's going to make a gif and post it. hah.

and.....it's time to finish off this blogpost.
because some people are waiting to see it...because they weren't there. ;) :P
♥