Okay, I don't really hate flowers, but I do resent the fact that anyone expects me to drop any amount of money on something so ephemeral for my wedding day. Just get married in a GARDEN! (If anyone knows of a garden that will not steal my unborn children's college fund just to hold my wedding ceremony there, please let me know immediately!)
And cake. WHAT is the DEAL with this tradition? I hate cake! (Not the band...I love Cake with a big C). And most wedding cakes taste even worse than a normal cake, and yet this is another thing that people spend painful amounts of money on. For what? So they can take the same pictures that everyone else takes of you feeding the cake to each other? As if that really happens in the rest of your married life! If Chris tried to feed me cake, I'd be tempted to bite his finger. But he would know enough not to, because he's smart like that.
I'm sorry if I sound like a crazy and enraged human being (Freudian slip=I almost typed "engaged" instead of "enraged"), but that is exactly what I feel like. Is wedding planning supposed to feel like banging your head against a brick wall? Because if it is, then I have nothing to worry about and I'm on the right path.
Sigh. End vent.
For now.
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Monday, April 21, 2008
Big Week Got Bigger.
On Saturday, I got popped the question. Which question, you ask?
No, you probably don't ask. There is only one BIG question.
Chris met me at the door of his house after I had spent a long day in adoption classes. He was wearing his "I'm A Catch!" t-shirt, which made me laugh, plus a big ol' grin.
He gave me a kiss and I came in and asked him how his day went as I put my purse down. He told me something about Frisbee Golf with our church friends. As I turned to face him, he was standing really close and broke out with, "I need to ask you something!" I barely got time to stammer out, "Okay" when he was down on one knee and asked the aforementioned question.
And so, in the grand tradition, I said, "Awww Honey, of COURSE I'll marry you!" He didn't pop open the ring box at that moment, but rather handed it to me in a gift box. So after a bit of anticipation of opening two boxes...this is what I get to wear.
It's perfect. He was so glad that I liked it, and relieved. But I said, "What's not to like?" I was more looking at him when I said it, though. =)
We're most likely going to be joined in holy matrimony on August 10th of this year. So now, in addition to looking for a new car as my insurance stops paying for my rental, I am now the proud owner of a big ball of stress called "wedding planning". Then again, I am also the proud...um...owner (whatever) of a fiance! So it all evens out in the end.
The amount of people that I know and love and even the amount of perfect strangers that have told us that we look and act like we completely belong together, well, that's encouraging. Knowing that God had His mighty hand in all of this, that's what makes me so confident in this impending marriage. We are going to be such a great team, because besides getting along wonderfully and being totally in love, we've got God on our side to remind us of what true love looks like.
No, you probably don't ask. There is only one BIG question.
Chris met me at the door of his house after I had spent a long day in adoption classes. He was wearing his "I'm A Catch!" t-shirt, which made me laugh, plus a big ol' grin.
He gave me a kiss and I came in and asked him how his day went as I put my purse down. He told me something about Frisbee Golf with our church friends. As I turned to face him, he was standing really close and broke out with, "I need to ask you something!" I barely got time to stammer out, "Okay" when he was down on one knee and asked the aforementioned question.
And so, in the grand tradition, I said, "Awww Honey, of COURSE I'll marry you!" He didn't pop open the ring box at that moment, but rather handed it to me in a gift box. So after a bit of anticipation of opening two boxes...this is what I get to wear.
It's perfect. He was so glad that I liked it, and relieved. But I said, "What's not to like?" I was more looking at him when I said it, though. =)
We're most likely going to be joined in holy matrimony on August 10th of this year. So now, in addition to looking for a new car as my insurance stops paying for my rental, I am now the proud owner of a big ball of stress called "wedding planning". Then again, I am also the proud...um...owner (whatever) of a fiance! So it all evens out in the end.
The amount of people that I know and love and even the amount of perfect strangers that have told us that we look and act like we completely belong together, well, that's encouraging. Knowing that God had His mighty hand in all of this, that's what makes me so confident in this impending marriage. We are going to be such a great team, because besides getting along wonderfully and being totally in love, we've got God on our side to remind us of what true love looks like.
Friday, April 18, 2008
A Big Week
This week started out normally, but it has gotten increasingly interesting as the days have passed.
Tuesday I was in a car crash that was my fault. I went through a green light that was very closely followed by a red light and just didn't see the latter. So, I daydreamed through a red light and slammed into some poor woman just trying to turn left to get to her second job. I totaled my Corolla and her Ranger. Lame.
The next couple of days I just spent in a funk, with my neck stiff and my outlook not-so-great. Wednesday it snowed a ridiculous amount, and we went out for a prayer walk...in the snow...in the dark. At least it gave me some perspective, and it ended in a hot tea and time with friends. (It also made me fall more madly in love with Chris, who despite all the odds and the whining, still insisted that it was our "Mission Week" and that we should Walk and Pray! What a man.)
Yesterday I found out that I'd need to return my rental car by Monday because the insurance company had cut me a check. The check is barely enough to cover a good used car, but I can finance and pay $50/month for the next two years to get something that I want that is slightly more expensive.
Today I had adoption training from 5pm to 9pm, and tomorrow it will be from 8am to 4pm. I didn't really know what to expect, but I thoroughly enjoyed the format, learned a lot and never got bored. It was amazing. Tomorrow we get a Continental Breakfast, too...I suppose as a consolation prize for getting out of bed at a rather ungodly hour on a Saturday.
So, things are looking up. I feel better about life, I'm more in love than ever (with both God and Chris), and I am convinced that there is no victory too small for Christ to see and give to us if we ask in faith and good motive.
Our God is the God of the universe, but he is also the God of my used car purchase! Yay for Him.
Tuesday I was in a car crash that was my fault. I went through a green light that was very closely followed by a red light and just didn't see the latter. So, I daydreamed through a red light and slammed into some poor woman just trying to turn left to get to her second job. I totaled my Corolla and her Ranger. Lame.
The next couple of days I just spent in a funk, with my neck stiff and my outlook not-so-great. Wednesday it snowed a ridiculous amount, and we went out for a prayer walk...in the snow...in the dark. At least it gave me some perspective, and it ended in a hot tea and time with friends. (It also made me fall more madly in love with Chris, who despite all the odds and the whining, still insisted that it was our "Mission Week" and that we should Walk and Pray! What a man.)
Yesterday I found out that I'd need to return my rental car by Monday because the insurance company had cut me a check. The check is barely enough to cover a good used car, but I can finance and pay $50/month for the next two years to get something that I want that is slightly more expensive.
Today I had adoption training from 5pm to 9pm, and tomorrow it will be from 8am to 4pm. I didn't really know what to expect, but I thoroughly enjoyed the format, learned a lot and never got bored. It was amazing. Tomorrow we get a Continental Breakfast, too...I suppose as a consolation prize for getting out of bed at a rather ungodly hour on a Saturday.
So, things are looking up. I feel better about life, I'm more in love than ever (with both God and Chris), and I am convinced that there is no victory too small for Christ to see and give to us if we ask in faith and good motive.
Our God is the God of the universe, but he is also the God of my used car purchase! Yay for Him.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Lord, I was born a ramblin' (wo)man...
Every year I have a day when I decide that, for me, it is officially spring.
Last year I donned a very festive green skirt, even though there were still patches of snow on the ground, and decided, "Too bad for the snow, cause its spring!"
This year, its today! I have a day off, the sun is shining, I went for a tiny Savers shopping spree ($11 and some-odd cents) and I really enjoyed driving with the windows down. If you know me, you know this is one of my most favorite things to do. Unfortunately, gas prices being what they are, the concept of going for drive might soon to become obsolete! Anyway, I was almost home from the shopping trip when the Allman Brothers came on the radio, singing "Ramblin' Man", which just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite driving/road trip tunes!
In honor of the "Cassie-decided" first day of spring, I drove right past my house and made a large loop just so I could feel the wind in my hair, the sun on my skin, and sing, "They're always havin' a good time down on the bayou, Lord...them delta women think the world of me!"
So, I just wanted to let you know...its official. Spring has sprung! =)
Last year I donned a very festive green skirt, even though there were still patches of snow on the ground, and decided, "Too bad for the snow, cause its spring!"
This year, its today! I have a day off, the sun is shining, I went for a tiny Savers shopping spree ($11 and some-odd cents) and I really enjoyed driving with the windows down. If you know me, you know this is one of my most favorite things to do. Unfortunately, gas prices being what they are, the concept of going for drive might soon to become obsolete! Anyway, I was almost home from the shopping trip when the Allman Brothers came on the radio, singing "Ramblin' Man", which just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite driving/road trip tunes!
In honor of the "Cassie-decided" first day of spring, I drove right past my house and made a large loop just so I could feel the wind in my hair, the sun on my skin, and sing, "They're always havin' a good time down on the bayou, Lord...them delta women think the world of me!"
So, I just wanted to let you know...its official. Spring has sprung! =)
Monday, April 07, 2008
Protest.
Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy, overweight Protestants, today it's open to anybody who owns hideous clothing.
- Dave Barry
Ha ha, I just thought that quote was funny on iGoogle this morning, although it really has nothing to do with my thoughts today except for that word "Protestant".
I have been watching The Tudors on my Netflix for a few weeks now. Even though I feel like I know the story of King Henry VIII quite well, it has been very interesting to see how they choose to dramatize certain things and which parts of the story they choose and all that. It is also cool because they must have money enough to hire good actors, because people like Sam Neill, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Northam all play part in the royal court, giving it a little more star power than your average TV program.
Jeremy Northam, in fact, plays Sir Thomas More, a great name in church history, and a man of very sensitive scruples trying to survive in the royal court and keep his integrity as a man of God. He sees that his beloved Catholic Church is crumbling in England before his very eyes and uses his newfound power as Chancellor of the Realm to try and quash Reformers he sees as heretics. He gets to the point where he is so frantic against Martin Luther, Reformers, and the fact that the King of England is considering major reform of his own, that Sir Thomas More begins to burn the heretics. He doesn't go crazy or anything, but in the season finale, when the King asks him how many he's burnt, More replies, "Six. But all according to law. And all well done."
Stick with me here, I'm trying for more than a synopsis...I do have a point! One of the heretics that More decided to burn was a man called Mister Fish. He had written a pamphlet stating that (horror!) the Holy Scriptures should be available to every person in their own native tongue, and that Christ had appointed us all to a royal priesthood, and therefore we had no need of priests on the Earth. This is basic Protestant stuff. But Mister Fish was BURNED at the stake for writing such a thing. BURNED!! He went to his death with Catholic priests uttering Latin prayers towards him, and when asked to recant of his heresy, he instead starts boldly praying The Shepherd's Psalm IN ENGLISH as he is engulfed in flames.
I thought about that today as I read my Bible in Greek, but then was able to read it again out loud in English, which of course I can readily understand. I often think about people in China who have died for possession of one page of the Holy Bible...one page which lead them to Christ and eternal life and which they probably treasured above all other things. Someone translated it into their Chinese dialect, and that is not heresy anymore. I don't often think about the people who were burned at the stake and thrown out of the Holy Catholic Church for paving the way for things like that.
Doesn't it make you want to kinda hug your Bible a little bit? Is that sacrilegious? I don't really know. It makes me appreciate all the more the Reformers who stood up in a dangerous time to things that were revealed to them to be wrong. They gave us the Bible in our own language, and the belief that we are a holy priesthood and that we are all saints. They even gave us the right to wear hideous clothes and play golf and have Dave Barry make jokes about us...because without the blood of the martyrs, what sort of Church would we be?
- Dave Barry
Ha ha, I just thought that quote was funny on iGoogle this morning, although it really has nothing to do with my thoughts today except for that word "Protestant".
I have been watching The Tudors on my Netflix for a few weeks now. Even though I feel like I know the story of King Henry VIII quite well, it has been very interesting to see how they choose to dramatize certain things and which parts of the story they choose and all that. It is also cool because they must have money enough to hire good actors, because people like Sam Neill, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Jeremy Northam all play part in the royal court, giving it a little more star power than your average TV program.
Jeremy Northam, in fact, plays Sir Thomas More, a great name in church history, and a man of very sensitive scruples trying to survive in the royal court and keep his integrity as a man of God. He sees that his beloved Catholic Church is crumbling in England before his very eyes and uses his newfound power as Chancellor of the Realm to try and quash Reformers he sees as heretics. He gets to the point where he is so frantic against Martin Luther, Reformers, and the fact that the King of England is considering major reform of his own, that Sir Thomas More begins to burn the heretics. He doesn't go crazy or anything, but in the season finale, when the King asks him how many he's burnt, More replies, "Six. But all according to law. And all well done."
Stick with me here, I'm trying for more than a synopsis...I do have a point! One of the heretics that More decided to burn was a man called Mister Fish. He had written a pamphlet stating that (horror!) the Holy Scriptures should be available to every person in their own native tongue, and that Christ had appointed us all to a royal priesthood, and therefore we had no need of priests on the Earth. This is basic Protestant stuff. But Mister Fish was BURNED at the stake for writing such a thing. BURNED!! He went to his death with Catholic priests uttering Latin prayers towards him, and when asked to recant of his heresy, he instead starts boldly praying The Shepherd's Psalm IN ENGLISH as he is engulfed in flames.
I thought about that today as I read my Bible in Greek, but then was able to read it again out loud in English, which of course I can readily understand. I often think about people in China who have died for possession of one page of the Holy Bible...one page which lead them to Christ and eternal life and which they probably treasured above all other things. Someone translated it into their Chinese dialect, and that is not heresy anymore. I don't often think about the people who were burned at the stake and thrown out of the Holy Catholic Church for paving the way for things like that.
Doesn't it make you want to kinda hug your Bible a little bit? Is that sacrilegious? I don't really know. It makes me appreciate all the more the Reformers who stood up in a dangerous time to things that were revealed to them to be wrong. They gave us the Bible in our own language, and the belief that we are a holy priesthood and that we are all saints. They even gave us the right to wear hideous clothes and play golf and have Dave Barry make jokes about us...because without the blood of the martyrs, what sort of Church would we be?
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
The Ultimate TEST! (dun dun dunnnn)
Well, here we are. Lent is over; Easter was a joyous day spent reflecting the wonder of our risen savior among many friends. And this past weekend was spent in what is meant to be one of the ultimate relationship tests: traveling with the beau.
Chris and I embarked on a plane pretty early in the morning this past Friday en route to San Jose, California for my cousin Brittany's wedding. Even early in the morning, Chris and I had no disputes or tiffs or anything of the sort. We flew together fine, we waited together fine. We woke up in the same house and kissed each other good morning just fine. And even when our flight back to reality required us to wake at 4am, we got along perfectly well. And even when the only tension of the trip, a ticking clock and a very, very flat tire, presented itself...we handled it as a team. Perhaps my part of the team was the shivering-cold,-don't-do-anything-to-get-in-his-way part, but I did give input on "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey", as well as help reattach some bolts.
All in all, someone mentioned near to the END of the trip that it was supposed to be a really difficult thing, or a really telling thing, to travel with the one you love (but the one you aren't legally required to stay with yet). If that's true, then either Chris and I are still firmly in the lovey-dovey phase (well, yeah) or we just get along really well (also yeah). Either way, it was a lovely weekend with family and a beautiful ceremony and reception, and I'm very grateful that I got to be there!
Chris and I embarked on a plane pretty early in the morning this past Friday en route to San Jose, California for my cousin Brittany's wedding. Even early in the morning, Chris and I had no disputes or tiffs or anything of the sort. We flew together fine, we waited together fine. We woke up in the same house and kissed each other good morning just fine. And even when our flight back to reality required us to wake at 4am, we got along perfectly well. And even when the only tension of the trip, a ticking clock and a very, very flat tire, presented itself...we handled it as a team. Perhaps my part of the team was the shivering-cold,-don't-do-anything-to-get-in-his-way part, but I did give input on "righty-tighty, lefty-loosey", as well as help reattach some bolts.
All in all, someone mentioned near to the END of the trip that it was supposed to be a really difficult thing, or a really telling thing, to travel with the one you love (but the one you aren't legally required to stay with yet). If that's true, then either Chris and I are still firmly in the lovey-dovey phase (well, yeah) or we just get along really well (also yeah). Either way, it was a lovely weekend with family and a beautiful ceremony and reception, and I'm very grateful that I got to be there!
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