Abi & Andy

A few weeks ago, I realized I had a few extra days off that I hadn’t already accounted for….so I decided that last weekend was a good opportunity to use them for a nice long weekend in North Carolina.  I loaded my SUV as full as I could possibly get it (got all 6 boxes of books, all my winter clothes, and all of our shower gifts somehow wedged in) and drove down after work on Thursday.  I had a good drive down there and didn’t get caught in traffic at all really - made it down there before midnight.  On Friday, Andy had decided to take a day off work too so we had a nice lazy day of wandering around the town of Southern Pines and trying to get me oriented.  He even took me to Sonic!  We drove over to Fort Bragg and I got to see where he worked at Womack Hospital and meet his co-workers that I had heard so much about.  Then we went out to dinner with his co-workers so that I could get to know them a little bit.  We had a good time.  We did a little shopping in Fayetteville that night and looked around for things like ties for Andy and the groomsmen to wear.

On Saturday we got up early and found a couple of yard sales to go to.  We were looking for a few things for the apartment and found exactly what we needed at the first yard sale we stopped at - a dining room table and chairs!  We’d both been looking online for tables and had checked a few out in various stores, but hadn’t found anything we both liked.  We were happy to find a good, well made, and still fairly new looking table at a good price.  We took it back to the apartment and then went out again and didn’t find much else yard sale-wise.  We ended up back in town and walked around a bit more to the paint your own pottery place that Andy had stopped in earlier this summer.  He talked to the owner back then about his idea of painting a platter and having guests at our wedding sign it instead of a traditional guestbook.  I thought it was a great idea and we went in and found just such a platter.  Andy let me go to town with painting it and we both had a lot of fun.  You’ll have to wait to see how it turned out when you sign it on Sept. 1!  The paint your own pottery place was a lot of fun and Andy seems to think I’ll end up going there to paint a lot……  We relaxed the rest of the day by swimming at the pool in our apartment complex, making homemade pizza for dinner, and watching a movie.

The semi-finished product…it still needs to be fired so the colors will end up looking a lot different.

On Sunday we went to the church that Andy has been attending off and on throughout the summer.  We then came home and got some work done!  We unpacked my car and tried to put away most of it.  We had bought a bookshelf that we managed to put together (just barely!) and I got most of my books put away.  Andy worked (a little) on unpacking some of the boxes and things he still hadn’t put away since he moved in back in March.  He assures me that he’ll work on unpacking and organizing more before I move down after the wedding.  We had fun starting to set up our new home and are looking forward to doing more of that in the coming months.  I’m going to try and make another trip or two down in August to get the rest of my things down and then I’ll be there for good in September!  So exciting!  I’ll miss my family and friends and everything in Maryland, but we’re looking forward to starting this new journey and settling into a new life together.

Andy putting together a bookshelf
(and yes, he does have a cast on his leg….he managed to get a stress fracture last week.  He says he should be out of it in 6 weeks by the time of the wedding, so just pray that his leg really does heal up quickly!)

Andy went back to work on Monday and I stopped at Sonic before I left town on Monday morning.  I had a pretty easy drive back up to Maryland and am now dealing with lots of wedding things up here this week.

Only 45 days!!! -abi

Over the 4th if July week, I was happy to be able to take a week-long vacation up to Rockport, MA with my family. My parents rented a house there for the week so that we could all come up and have one last big family vacation and celebrate my brother, Patrick and Jenn’s wedding on the 4th of July. Unfortunately, Andy couldn’t get either a good ticket price to fly up there or the time off work (since he’s saving his vacation time for our honeymoon!), so he wasn’t able to come up. I missed having him there. And he said he had a pretty boring 4th of July….he didn’t even go see any fireworks!  Oh well - we’ll make sure to see some together next year.

Here are a few pictures from the week:

We went on a whale watch

My brothers having fun on the boat

We saw several whales that came pretty close to our boat and even a shark!
This was one of the best shots I got of a humpback whale eating.

The wedding was really nice - Jenn, Patrick, and Jenn’s family put a lot of work into it.  Jenn and Patrick asked me to help out by being the wedding coordinator at the church - which meant helping make sure everyone knew where to be when and when to start walking down the aisle.  It was a lot of fun and good practice for our wedding in Sept.!

My proud parents

All the siblings of the bride and groom

The happy newly married couple

Fireworks for their 4th of July wedding!

The night before I left to drive up to MA with my mom, my bridesmaids and another good friend came over and helped me address and stuff all of our wedding invitations! They are awesome friends and it was a huge help. We were able to get them done quickly and I was happy to be able to get them out before I left for vacation.

Yay! They’re all done!

Dropping the invitations off at the post office before we left town

One family wedding down, ours is next!  Only 50 more days and counting…..abi

Last weekend my maid of honor and bridemaids threw me an amazing bridal shower! My mom, sisters, and friends helped out a lot too from what I understand. It was weird for me to not to help out or know anything about it - I’m usually the party planner in my group of friends.

They had a great spread of homemade food - my friends Becki and Erin love to cook! They looked like they had a lot of fun decorating the room in the church where the shower was held. There was a fun mix of family and friends there - I’m so thankful that so many people were able to come. It was great to see everyone.

My sister, Katie, my mom, my cousin Kendyle, and my sister Emily

My cousin Elva (in the back), my grandmother, and my aunt
(who surprised me and drove 7 hours to come to the shower!)

My family and friends were so generous! We received a lot of very nice gifts that Andy and I look forward to using in our new home. Everyone was asked to bring a kitchen utensil and a recipe to help stock our kitchen. I can’t wait to try the new recipes out!

A fun Wok set from Becki and Josh!

My mom and I - we really do look a lot alike!
She brought this delicious chocolate and strawberry cake!

My friend Nichole made the traditional ribbon bouquet for me

But my friend Emily Joy thought I was supposed to get a hat instead….

a great group of friends!

Thanks so much to everyone for the shower and the wonderful gifts - Andy and I are both very blessed to have such good friends and family.

only 74 more days! -abi

Last weekend we had a really good, yet busy weekend in Baltimore. Andy came up for the weekend so that we could attend a marriage counseling workshop together. We both have known since we got engaged that we wanted to do some type of marriage preparation/counseling. Unfortunately, since Andy moved very shortly after we got engaged, the distance has made marriage counseling a little more challenging. Andy had found out about a counseling group called PCSM (Pastoral Counseling Services of Maryland) when he was working as a minister in Maryland - he liked and thought highly of the services they offered and was planning to recommend them to any of his parishioners who needed counseling services. He never ended up needing to refer anyone to them, instead, we ended up trying them out ourselves when we found out about their marriage preparation program called “Marriage for a Lifetime.”

The “Marriage for a Lifetime” workshop was a one day event that we attended on Saturday. It was a good experience for both of us, as we learned more about each other and ourselves. It was a smaller group (5 other couples) and there was a good mix of group time vs. just the two of us time to talk and discuss things. We did Myers-Briggs personality tests - which was fun. We found out that we have similar personalities, but with a few good differences. I am an

ENFP

For ENFPs the dominant quality in their lives is their attention to the outer world of possibilities; they are excited by continuous involvement in anything new, whether it be new ideas, new people, or new activities. Though ENFPs thrive on what is possible and what is new, they also experience a deep concern for people as well. Thus, they are especially interested in possibilities for people. ENFPs are typically energetic, enthusiastic people who lead spontaneous and adaptable lives.

This has always been what I have tested as and I feel like it is a really accurate description of what makes me tick. I am a people person who always has big ideas like trying new things. Which is great since I have a lot of new things coming up (being married, moving to a new state, getting a new job….), and we will most likely be moving around and doing a lot of new things for the next few years of our life!

Andy ended up being an:

ESTP

For ESTPs the dominant quality in their lives is their enthusiastic attention to the outer world of hands-on and real-life experiences. ESTPs are excited by continuous involvement in new activities and in the pursuit of new challenges. ESTPs tend to be logical and analytical in their approach to life, and they have an acute sense of how objects, events, and people in the world work. ESTPs are typically energetic and adaptable realists, who prefer to experience and accept life rather than to judge or organize it.

He is also definitely a people person (he had absolutely no introvert answers on his test - all extravert!), but will hopefully balance me out with a little more analytical side. He said that he thinks his current job with the Red Cross has made him more adaptable than he maybe once was.

Other things we did/talked about at the marriage workshop were marital expectations, communication, how to handle conflict, and how our past and our family backgrounds affect us. There wasn’t really much that either of us were surprised by or felt like we needed to work a lot we needed to work on right now - we had previously discussed a lot of the big topics and how we plan to handle them. We both know that marriage takes a lot of work, but we both think it’s worth it! We did learn/were reminded of some good tools and strategies for the future and were glad that we completed the workshop - mostly for the reassurance that we are really ready to be married!

Perhaps the bigger thing we did last weekend was the binding (well somewhat binding) commitment of starting a new cell phone contract together with a family plan! We joined up with Verizon because we both have heard good things about their nationwide coverage and also because we both know so many people IN the Verizon network. Free IN network calling is a great feature - especially for me! And we’re excited to be on the same calling plan so that we can more easily get in contact with each other throughout the day without worrying about using too many minutes or anything. Andy has already had fun calling me in the morning as he’s driving to work….I’m barely awake, sluggishly getting ready for work, so we don’t have much of a conversation - but it’s still fun to hear from him at the beginning of the day. And thanks to Andy’s discount by being an employee of the American Red Cross, we are going to be getting a percentage of our bill taken off each month and we got a great deal on two brand new phones! I got the purple one and Andy got the black one with a bluetooth headset. All in all, a great and productive weekend!

only 80 more days until we get married! …abi

I can’t believe it’s already June! Time is flying by….only a few short months until our wedding! Summer is going to be pretty crazy for me. My brother is getting married on the 4th of July in Boston, MA and my family is getting a house up there for week before the wedding to vacation and celebrate with him. At the end of July, I am organizing and leading a mission trip for a group of high schoolers from my church to do community service-type projects in Cincinnati, OH. And in between those two big things, I have to be packing up and moving things down to NC. It’s all keeping me plenty busy.

This past weekend though, I got to relax a little and sleep in on Saturday morning. Then I visited with my sister, Emily and a good friend of mine on Saturday afternoon/evening. On Sunday I went to the church where my brother is a music minister with his fiance’, Jen. That afternoon I was able to help them move my brother’s things to a house that they are going to be living in after they get married that is near his church. I was happy to help and to be able to spend time with my future sister in law….and happy that since I helped him out, my brother is going to help me pack up and maybe even move some of my things down to NC in August (side note - of the many, many times I’ve moved in my life, without fail, my brother has “happened” to be out of town for each and every move - so this time I’m coordinating moving with his schedule!). Oh and I had my first ice cream cone of the season on Sunday. I have this weird thing where I only like and eat ice cream during the summer months - June, July, or August. It just never even sounds good to me any other time of the year, so I’ve made that my rule for years. But after helping move a little on Sunday and with the hot humid day - I was reminded that it was June 1 and we all (my dad, brother, and his fiance’) got ice cream cones at a little local store in the Hampden area of Baltimore city (where we were picking up their new furniture). Fun times. Good ice cream.

Andy was busy this weekend too - he had to give his first Saturday presentation for the summer youth program - training students to be American Red Cross volunteers for the summer. He said it went really well and everyone said he did a great job. He said he did get a chance to relax Saturday afternoon and Sunday and he even tried out the pool at his apartment complex.

only 91 days until we celebrate the end of summer with our family and friends at our wedding!…-abi

Since I still hadn’t met much of Andy’s family - we decided it was time for a visit to Georgia. Andy flew out of Fayetteville, and I flew out of Baltimore, and we met in the Atlanta airport last Friday evening. Andy’s mom, Cathy, and his grandmother, and his sister, Emily were really nice and all came to pick us up. We went to the Varsity restaurant for a taste of Atlanta, then drove around a little. I had never been to Atlanta or anywhere in Georgia (except for the airport!) before, so I got to be the tourist all weekend. It was good to finally meet more of Andy’s family and see where he grew up. We had a good time relaxing, walking the family dog, shopping, and exploring downtown Marietta, GA. We went to Stone Mountain on Saturday night and I talked Andy into climbing the mountain with me. It was a bit steeper than I originally thought and I was exhausted by the time we got up there, so we decided to ride the cable car back down the mountain. On Sunday, Andy’s aunt and uncle (Janice and Rip) came to visit and it was great to meet them. Andy asked his uncle Rip to be one of his groomsmen since he was such an influential part of his life as he grew up. Monday came too quickly and we were back at the airport. We were both glad we had the opportunity to take the quick trip to Georgia and were very thankful to Andy’s family for their generous hospitality all weekend.

Emily, Cathy, Andy’s Grandmother, Abi, & Andy’s Aunt

only 96 days until we are married! -abi

Andy decided that he couldn’t wait until our next scheduled weekend
visit to see me, so he came up to Baltimore this weekend! The weather was wonderful and we had the chance to get some exercise in and go on a long hike around the lake on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon we had a great time visiting with some of my close friends, Emily Joy, her husband, Nate, and their daughter, Olivia. We had a picnic dinner at the inner harbor and enjoyed walking around down there with them (thanks to Emily Joy for taking and sharing the pictures shown in this post). On Sunday we celebrated another one of my close friend’s birthday at a restaurant after church. Then Andy came with me to a youth group cookout - he wouldn’t play capture the flag with us though! We had a busy, but fun weekend together and I was so glad that he was able to come to visit. He got back into North Carolina pretty late last night and says he’ll be drinking Mountain Dew all day today to help him stay awake. He has a lot going on this week at work since one of the other Red Cross staff is on vacation this week and he will be in charge of the volunteers at the hospital.

We both had relaxing weekends for a change! I didn’t have a whole lot of church stuff going on and got to catch up on some sleep and spend time with friends and family. The fact that I’m really going to be moving down to North Carolina in is starting to sink in and I’m becoming more intentional about using the time I have left here to visit with all the people that I care about while I’m still up here in Maryland. I hung out with my mom some on Saturday afternoon and then spent the evening with 5 of my close girlfriends (3 of whom are going to be my bridesmaids!). We had a great time and talked late into the night.

I decided I’d try to start blogging, since we have a lot of family and friends spread out all over the country. This way you can read about what we’re up to in the months before we get married and a little bit about our plans if you’re interested. We will probably keep up the blog as a modified version of the wedding website (minus all the wedding related pages) after we’re married and will try to continue to blog/post pictures to keep everyone up to date on how things are going for us in North Carolina and wherever else across the world we end up.

Last week I sent out “save the date” postcards to a lot of out of town family and friends. We’re working on getting out a few more as we collect addresses from everyone. We have already heard from some of the people we sent them to and we really appreciate your kind words and congratulatory comments.

Andy came up to visit me a few weekends ago and we interviewed a few photographers for the wedding. We recently decided on one, and we’re in the process of getting everything set up with him. We’re excited about the photojournalistic/artistic style he has and are looking forward to having him be a part of our wedding day.

Non-wedding related, I have been busy planning and leading a retreat for my church youth group this past weekend. I had a really great time up at a ranch/retreat center up near PA with 30 middle and high school students and adult chaperones. I was once again reminded that I have been so privileged to be able to work with such an incredible group of students. Everything went really well and we had a lot of fun. It took a lot of hard work and late night hours though, so I came home and crashed into bed early Sunday evening.

Andy is really enjoying his job with the American Red Cross and he likes being back in North Carolina with all the warm weather. But he’s not too fond of the deer down there, as he ran into one last week! Andy is fine and his truck didn’t suffer too much damage, but the deer on the other hand didn’t fare so well….

only 133 days until our wedding…. - abi