Where to begin...?

Well, we got married, for starters. :)

Then, we went to Mackinac Island:

Selfie on a tandem bike. :)  Aren't we cool...?

Um... Too much fun in the children's section of Fort Mackinac...

ICE CREAM!

Then, I had a birthday!  Ryan deserves an A++ for how he handled the pressure of celebrating his wife's birthday 11 days after the wedding....

Mmm...fajitas...

We even had party hats.

Yay :)

So, Then....

We painted some more... (We previously painted the office and bathroom).

We have a column now!  The best part of the apartment. :)

ALSO, there was that whole Sunday School camp out thing...(the EIGHTH one!) Fall has officially arrived (Yay).

What was left of the group by Saturday morning. :)

That's all I will leave you with for now.  Hopefully this makes up for my recent posting deficiency...for the 3 of you who follow this closely... Haha.

Goodness, gracious......

I know a person's wedding week does different things to different people, but man, have I gone batty!  In a good way... I think...  I have turned into a clumsy, slap-happy, distractable, eccentric, giddy, manic, roller coaster of a space cadet.  But a very happy and excited space cadet.  And yes, that doesn't sound super different from my normal personality, but, trust me, it has been exaggerated!  I could tell stories, but, frankly, it's a little embarrassing.  Hahaha....Bahahahaha..... :)

5 more days. :)

One more week...

...until I get to marry my favorite person ever in the whole world. :)

God is so good.

I'm even sort of getting excited about the actual wedding part.  Haha.  Anyone who knows me well knows that my least favorite situation in general involves being in a big, crowded room in which people are very aware of me for a prolonged period of time... But my focus shifted today.

Because God is so good, I often wish I had a good way to thank him for everything he has done for Ryan and I recently...but what sort of gift does God want?  He desires worship.  SO, how about we invite 400 of our friends/relatives to help us thank and worship God for his incredible goodness to us?  He certainly deserves that much, and when I think it about it that way, how can I possibly not be super excited?? :)

One more week, one more week....
 

I laughed, I cried...I screamed in horror... ;)

Last night, I had the absolutely unforgettable experience of being bridal showered by 5 lovely girls from Saudi Arabia, 3 of whom are or have been my IEI convo partners.  I did not know exactly what to expect (I was just told to dress up...), and it was such a special night.

Look at these cute decorations :)

Quick note:  These pictures make it look like I am in this apartment alone, but Saudi culture encourages women not to display photographs of themselves for the world to see...

We had absolutely delicious food, and LOTS of it, and they showed me some traditional music and dances.  We had coffee and dates, and they showered me with perfume and incense:

Also, there may have been a henna demo involved... My friend Nourah is so talented! :)

...And then, onto the part where I screamed in horror...

I was in a conversation with another guest, and wasn't really paying attention to what was going on.  Somewhere in the back of my consciousness it registered that Nourah had come in and pinned a pillowcase to my head like a wedding veil.  It also vaguely registered that the Saudi music playing in the background had switched to the Wedding March... and I should have been slightly alarmed that all 5 hostesses had left the room...Anyway, the next thing I knew, a shadowy figure creeps around the corner wearing a Ryan mask! ...Shortly followed by 4 other creepy figures in Ryan masks!!  5 lifeless Ryan faces started to surround me....and yes, I screamed in horror...after which I started laughing uncontrollably (to tears) for a long, long time.  Then Roba/Ryan came at me with her arms stretched out, and I screamed in horror again and backed myself into the corner, hahahaha.....  It was truly horrifying.

This picture pretty well sums up how I was feeling about then...veiled, flushed, teary, and in need of hydration. :)

 

And here I am with the scary-beyond-all-reason masks of Ryan.

Eesh osh.  I much prefer the real thing...And I'm good with having only one.  Haha.

All in all, Nourah promised to give me an exceptional night I would never forget, and she definitely succeeded!!  

I am so blessed to have so many talented, creative, loving, special friends. 

:)

All sorts of fun....

I always decide to blog at inopportune times...So this post feels a bit rushed, but that's the way the cookie crumbles.  Lots of fun things have been happening, and I will quickly add a few pictures to highlight them: (None of these pictures were taken by me, by the way...Thanks to Greg, Sydney, and Dad E. for faithfully having cameras around!)

 We went to Athens to visit Sprouty-Sprout, which was fantastic.

I hope we never grow up...doesn't appear to be much danger of that...

 

 Then we had a crazy shower weekend.  3 in 24 hours.  Here's a couple pics from Champaign:

Those flower pots are dirt cups.  Adorable AND delicious! :)

 After the crazy shower weekend, Dad E. volunteered (or was volunteered??) to take some more pictures of Ryan and I.  He got a couple good ones. ;)

Last but not least, this one was taken at my bachelorette party-type thing.  I've been planning this picture in my head for a long, long time...haha.

Not that Syd will ever be any less of an Eisenmann than ever, but it's a fun picture ;)

The weddings begin...

Welcome, Summer!  Yes, oh yes... you are very welcome. :)

With the beginning of summer came 3 weddings.  I did not take many pictures at any of them...and my camera is pretty bad anyway (yes, always blame the camera ;)...but please accept this humble photographic offering.

Wedding #1: Amit & Sydney (Although I didn't get any pictures of Amit...whoops)

 

Getting ready

Bridesmaids

:)

At reception.  Ryan got to crash the head table. :)

Wedding #2: Craig & Lindsay (Okay, so this time I didn't get a picture of Craig OR Lindsay...ah well.  Here are some pictures of Andrea and Ryan. :))

 You may think there would be a story behind these telephone pictures, but there really isn't...which sort of sums up Andrea and I's relationship. :)

 Same with these bird photos... Seemed like the thing to do at the time...

Yeah...these are two of my favorite people on Earth. :)

...And this IS my favorite person on Earth!

 Wedding #3 was Joel & Laura's!  As my ability to take relevant wedding photos has been decreasing as the summer progresses, well, I did not actually take any photos at Joel and Laura's wedding. :(  But it was lovely and everyone looked lovely. :)  Of course, the important thing anyhow is that all of these people got married.  ...Says the girl attempting to plan her own wedding in a couple months... Currently, I am on a lake (well, sitting in a condo by the Lake of the Ozarks) with Andrea, Aunt Marcia, and Uncle Marty, so summer life is pretty rough...I could get used to this.  Yay, summer. :)

This seems a bit overdue, so...

...it is high time to post something [reasonably] mushy about how incredibly blessed I am and how amazingly HAPPY the loving God of the UNIVERSE has made me.

**heart**

  Psalm 37:4 --  Delight thyself also in the LORD, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I am not posting that verse to say, "Wait long enough and God will always give you what you want."  We all want to have what we think we desire (by definition), but God is bigger than that. When we are surrendered and focused on the Lord, He can first tell us what we really want (what is really best for us) and then give it to us. 

AMAZING.

You may wait 3 days; you may wait 3 years (as in this case); you may wait 3 decades...

God is faithful.

In His way, in His perfect timing.

Let everything that hath breath praise the LORD.

Praise ye the LORD.

--Psalm 150:6--

P.S.  In case you missed the memo, I get to marry Ryan. ;)