Sweetest Day

I'm loved by the most wonderful woman in the world... who ever saw that coming? *happy sigh*

Despite all the craziness of her last few weeks at school, Gretchen made a surprise trip to Wisconsin last night in order to visit me a little early for my birthday. It also turns out that "Sweetest Day," (a manufactured holiday, yes, but still fun to celebrate with your sweetheart) is today, making it doubly nice to be with her.

Gretchen even made us an awesome dinner tonight, and left me the leftovers. At the Pig while we were shopping, one of my parishioners passed us in the checkout and asked if I was cooking tonight - when I said nope, Gretchen's making dinner, he said I was a lucky guy. True that! But a happy tummy isn't even the start of it. =) To be marrying someone who's beautiful, talented, a darn sharp cookie, and my best friend on top of all that... "lucky" hardly seems to do that justice. Blessed beyond all reason, beyond all sense, beyond all hope or expectations... those come a little closer!

It was a short visit, of course (every visit is too short), but we had a great time just being with each other. A movie, some Red Robin, cruising the mall and Michael's, and a lot of laughter also made the hit list. Next weekend (if the weather is good), maybe we'll fly one of the model rockets Gretchen got me! Wheeeeee!

It's exhausting being so in love with someone. ;) Happy Sweetest Day, love, and thank you for coming up to visit me... I can't wait to see you again!

(I should create a new blog category - "mush"! *LOL*)

Heros

As I look forward to my own wedding, I'm more and more aware of the couples in my life whose marriages have endured life's ups and downs, and whose commitment to one another has remained strong despite the passing years. Statisticians - and common experience - tell us that that's no small achievement. People like this are my new heros.

Celebrating the anniversary of their wedding today are two especially important of these heros - Jim and Jan Schaefer, married on this day 38 years ago. Congratulations, Dad and Mom! I'll count myself very blessed indeed if one day, many years from now, the twins look at Gretchen's and my life together and see us as the heros you are to me.

Verse of the Day

On my desktop calendar this morning:

Find a good spouse, you find a good life—
and even more: the favor of God!

- Proverbs 18:22
The Message

How true! =)

The Year of Gretchen

Last weekend Gretchen and I marked the end of our first year together and the beginning of our second. =) I took a little time off from work to give us a longer "weekend" (I still needed to be back Sunday morning for church), and although it's never long enough when I go to see her, it was a fun trip, all the same.

We took care of several wedding-related items: registry shopping at Bed Bath & Beyond; working on our "guest book" plates (more on them in a later post when they're finished); and looking at invitations (the samples I'd ordered were much more impressive online than in person... nuts!).

On Friday, our actual anniversary, we spent the morning and early afternoon running errands and taking care of some veterinary issues with Maggie. (Poor bunny!) Then it was in to Indy for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's final concert of the season, featuring hometown boy and violin virtuoso Joshua Bell. The concert was great, and Joshua Bell was, as expected, brilliant. It was a fine way to spend the evening.

We got to the concert hall an hour early instead of scrambling in at the last minute (which is what we thought was going to happen, after some downtown direction miscues), thanks to me not switching my phone over to the proper time zone. That was just fine, since we then had a chance to take care of Gretchen's chocolate craving at a very conveniently located chocolatier! (Her eyes were way bigger than both our stomachs... we had an ungodly amount of turtles to take home. *LOL*) Some turtle cheesecake got us through the concert nicely.

Afterwards, I caught a horse-drawn carriage, and we enjoyed a ride around downtown - it was a beautiful night to be out! Some very spicy shrimp cocktail and a delicious crème brûlée to share rounded out the evening's "dining" (somehow we made out just fine with only desserts and appetizers). After a power walk/final sprint to the parking garage, whose operator had already shut down despite it being at least five minutes before midnight, and we were on our way home.

(Well, there was a little "adventure" finding the freeway, which only proves my contention that I, at least, need a GPS embedded in behind my left ear, but we won't talk about that.)

Of course we traded presents, and I'm the proud recipient of the best quilt ever (sorry, Grandma!). =)

It's hard to believe that a year's gone by since I logged into eHarmony and discovered that Gretchen from Indiana wanted to begin communications with me. So much has changed in a big hurry, but that's great by me - I've been waiting for Gretchen for a very long time, after all! Each day with her in my life has been a gift - there's nothing I want more in life than to spend it learning how to love her better and better.

OK, I'm done with the mushiness now. ;) Being engaged to the most amazing woman in the world does that to a guy, though...

Wedding update

After a lot of looking, Gretchen and I found a wedding band for me this weekend.

We wanted my ring to coordinate with (if not exactly match) Gretchen's engagement ring and its matching wedding band. The small channel-set diamonds and the milgrain detail make the ring we found at Zales a good match for all the fine detail of Gretchen's rings, but with a more masculine look for me. The two look very nice side by side. Just like us, our rings will have their own "personalities," but in the end, I think they're each more beautiful and meaningful because they go together.

(What a nice bonus that the ring we both liked best won't end up breaking the budget!)

In other wedding-related news:

• The date and location are official: We'll be married on December 29 at St. Andrew United Methodist Church, West Lafayette, Indiana.
• Gretchen and I are working on registries. We're currently registered at Target's Club Wedd. I'll probably be putting together a wedding page on this site with all of the different registries and links, but that might be a little while in coming yet.

At long last - the Big Announcement!

I've got some news. =)

Alright, so it's not exactly a closely guarded secret of state, but I've held back from posting my news to the blog until I was able to personally share it with all the friends and family I could get a hold of... seemed like the decent thing to do. It's been a month tonight, and I've made a heroic effort to avoid mass e-mailing, so I think it's finally time to return to the world of blogging with the news everyone's seen coming a mile away.

So, here's the scoop - Gretchen and I are getting married. Yay!

We've established a Flickr account for our upcoming wedding (yes, that's right, the wedding has an account all of its own), and you can see lots of engagement pictures there. That's also where we'll be posting pics as we look at decorations, clothing, etc., in the months to come.

The happy day will be December 29, and we're planning on holding the service at Gretchen's church in West Lafayette.

(That part won't be official until we're able to meet with one of the pastors at St. Andrew UMC - we were scheduled for our first premarital appointment this Friday, but a funeral here put that on hold for the moment, so we're scrambling to reschedule. I've let Gretchen know that if we need a backup, the pastor at St. John's would probably be pretty willing to accommodate us. ;) But I don't think there'll be any trouble getting our date "down south.")

Obviously, I'm delighted! Gretchen's the joy of my life, and sharing our days together is the most wonderful blessing I can imagine. It's pretty remarkable to flip the pages back a year and realize how my world has turned upside down in just a few short months. How can the days have flown by, but at the same time I feel as though we've known each other forever?

Ah, well... I guess I'll leave the deep metaphysical pondering for some other night. ;)

For now, I'm just glad to finally go public with the best news I've ever had to announce! Did I mention, "Yay!"? =)