...the sun is out and up and down again.

apparently the Smashing Pumpkins wrote a song called 'Thirty-Three'. i read through the lyrics. i do not understand why it got the name that it did.
on a more personal note, i turned in my apartment keys today! now i just have to wait for all the ridiculous charges that they'll throw at me for apparently not cleaning it sufficiently. but i'll fight em. cuz if you show up unprepared and a half an hour late for the move out inspection, you had better be prepared to deal with the wrath of a stressed out bride-to-be and new homeowner who has just been dying to unleash the bridezilla hidden within her on some poor unsuspecting victim and giggle at the ensuing confusion and insanity.

delicious.

tonight will be my third night sleeping in the house. so far, its been like camping: both in the sense that its 'intense' (say 'camping is intense' out loud and just giggle with me) and also in the 'all my food is non perishable and packed in boxes and i get dressed out of a duffel bag and i wear sandals into the bathroom' kind of way. and while at times it is very tempting for me to complain about how the house is a mess and we're still not done painting (grr on the special blue tape STILL peeling the new paint out of the corners) and all my stuff is in boxes and my fiance is going to a baseball game tonight without me and i'm pretty sure that this month is going to result in a half-planned wedding, i am getting better at reminding myself that i am blessed beyond belief to have a house to live in, and a fiance who loves me enough to clean the bathroom for me, and no matter what this month brings i WILL get married in 34 days.

God is good.

treinta y cinco.

its been just over two weeks since i started an official daily count down. it does not feel like its been that long. but at the same time, the numbers are dropping quickly as the days fly by and i'm starting to realize just how much time i dont have left. we are at the five week mark, and its crazy to think that just over five weeks ago we had just closed on the house. that doesnt really feel like it was all that long ago - are the next five weeks going to go by just as quickly?

my dog sparky, he does tricks.

Moving Day!!!

i have been through the torturous process had the distinct privilege of packing up all my stuff and moving several times in my twenty-three years, and this one is by far the most unlike any move that i have ever undertaken. since i've been going to work at the house every night, i have been slowly moving things into the house all week. mostly non-essentials like books, movies, office supplies, boxes that havent been unpacked since the last move, and all the wedding stuff that i havent looked at in at least a month. i have packed them into my car, (nothing new there) and then taken them out the same day in a new place.

but today, everything goes: clothes, furniture, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, and every little detail that i have put into making that apartment feel like home for the past almost-year. it will become someone else's home, and i will move on to my house full of boxes and gifts and drywall dust and do my best to make it start to feel a little bit like home.  

forty-two thirty-sevens.

some days, i have trouble finding even one halfway decent picture to use for the countdown.

but today for some reason i found too many good ones to just choose one.

i almost feel a little sheepish posting them all.

but seriously, i could go on for miles.

but since i would like you to keep counting down with me, i wont.

happy Friday!!!

ex.ex.ex.vee.aye.aye.aye

HUGE thanks go out to Mark's dad, who has come over to the house the past two nights to help prime and paint in the guest bedroom. without his help i feel like i would still be cutting in the primer instead of getting ready to finish up painting that room tonight!

real fast.

time is flying.

today i am moving wedding stuff from my apartment to the house. i will be moving it into the basement bedroom. i will then proceed to make a Do Not Disturb sign to hang around my neck, and delve completely into Wedding World with hopefully wreck-less abandon for the next thirty-nine days.

over the hill...

check out my Mom's blog for a sneak peek of my wedding jars!

created by Red Gulch Pottery

let it be.

According to Wikipedia: Paul McCartney sings the phrase "Let it Be" 41 times in the song of the same name.

now i expect you all to go listen to the song to confirm this. i plan on it.

i dont get it.

"Sometimes I do think that there is something fundamentally wrong with the Universe."

Technetium.

i have discovered the joy of scheduling a time for a post to publish. i wrote this yesterday, because today i am too busy celebrating the marriage of Ed and Nadine!! (and watching my fiance be the best best man ever!)

excited yet?

you should be. i'm marrying the man of my dreams in FORTY FOUR days!

i can feel 'em flyin'...

apparently somebody thought it would be funny to put firecrackers in our mailbox. thanks, guys. real cool. i feel very welcome in your neighborhood. whatever. dont expect any christmas cookies from me. (not because i'm mad or anything, but mostly i have no way of knowing who dunnit.)

days go by...

i have nothing witty or interesting to say today. sorry bout that.

not of the AK- variety.

life update: laundry is done and (almost) folded and put away. dishes are clean (but still in the dishwasher). my internets are back!

wedding update: i (pretty much) finalized a mock up of the centerpieces!

house update: yard is (half) mowed. trim (almost) has two coats of paint. carpet guy comes to measure tonight!

if you google 'forty eight'...

...all that comes up are pictures of motorcylces.

my original thought for this countdown was to just do the major numbers... 50, 25, then count down from 10. but i'm really kind of enjoying this...

seven times seven.

we've hit the seven week mark. forty-nine days. the ticker on my wedding website tells me i have one month, 2 weeks, and 4 days to go!

lately it feels like i have two little Mandos, one on each shoulder, whispering things into my ears. one is sharply dressed, her hair is done to perfection, her laundry is done, she made a fabulous dinner AND her kitchen is clean, and she's telling me, 'hey thats plenty of time. you have all the big stuff done, you just have to nail down a few details and everything will work out great! Mark has the house completely under control so why don't you just relax, go to bed early, sleep in, take a day off, and dont worry about a thing...'

i like her. i wish i could be more like her.

but then on my other shoulder is the other Mando, who got less than 7 hours of sleep every night this week, has paint under all her fingernails, is wearing whatever seemed to be relatively clean that morning, almost remembered to brush her hair and her teeth, and ate a yogurt and an apple for lunch because she was too tired to make anything else starts yelling in response, 'dont listen to her! theres so much to do! your house is a mess! your apartment isnt packed! your wedding to do list is a mile long and keeps getting longer! you didnt get anything done on your ONE free saturday you had this month! you're never going to get it all done in time! you'll be living out of your car again and your wedding will have no decorations! and why isnt your trim all painted! you picked WHAT carpet?!?!? are you sure thats right? why are you doing this to yourself? do you even like this guy?!'
 
its a nasty back and forth. i do my best to ignore both of them and just let myself live somewhere in between these two extremes, knowing that my God loves me enough to not give me more than i can handle, and that He is big enough to keep me going when it feels impossible. God gave me the wonderful man in my life and a wonderful house in which to live with him and with his help and strength and peace we will have a beautiful wedding and a beautiful home. all in 49 days.

is it too early...

... for a wedding countdown??

making it home.

it seems to be a trend in the blogging community (or at least its true for the blogs that i read) to talk about and reflect on the idea of home. a few weeks ago, as i was writing a comment on the most recent post of this variety, and it was quickly turning into the makings of a short novel, i realized that i have a lot of thoughts on this topic as well.

the thought most recently in my head is a baseball analogy from my good friend which, in a very small nutshell, goes something like this: in baseball, the whole point is to make it back home, but since you start there, is there any point in ever leaving?

of course there are good things about leaving home. my Mom and Dad's goal for us kids was always for us to grow up into responsible young adults who love Jesus and move out of their parents house. just by leaving home, we won.  we accomplished the goal. by baseball standards, we arent hard to please. "woohoo! she hit the ball!" but if you are really committed to the baseball analogy and the need to make it all the way around the bases and back home to be successful, then think about this:  what if the goal is to leave home, round whatever bases life leads you to, and then end up at a different home, rather than to returning to where you started?

Mark and I bought a house. we made it through the process of inspections and paperwork and all the other fun and exciting and stressful things that turned it from someone elses house into OUR house. now we are starting the process of turning into more than just a house, adding our own personal touches that will make it feel a little less like a strangers house, but i wonder how long it will take before it really feels like our home?

i have lived a lot of places in my twenty three years. but there are precious few of those on the list that I have (and still) consider to be home. I know there are people who can't quite fathom the idea of having multiple homes, (especially ones so spread out from one another) but i feel that this phenomenon has largely been a blessing in my life. because home isnt necesarily "where your rump rests," it goes much deeper than that. home is where you feel comfortable, where you know you are always welcome, where you can go back to after any number of years and still be able to navigate without any need for directions. Home is where you are surrounded by people you love, living life and making memories that will last long after the termites have eaten your foundation and your septic tank has collapsed.

i am looking forward to starting my own little family and having my own home. it is just one more on the list of the many places i can call home, full of the many people i love dearly, and the many memories i have made and will continue to make.

i'm not quite there yet, but i plan on thoroughly enjoying whatever comes along in the process of making it home.

a quick note.

Dear blogging -

i have missed you. thank you for coming back into my life.

Love always,
Mando.

superfecta.

^^another new word that i just learned by googling "what comes after trifecta"

my phone has apparently felt left out of the en-mass seemingly simultanious failure of anything electronic in my life and last night decided to get in on the action by dutifully vibrating itself into two pieces. the bad news is, of course, that now my phone is in two pieces. and my contract isnt up until October (btw there are only 54 days between now and the third!) the good news is that i fixed it. with the purple tye-dye duct tape that my parents sent me in my easter 'basket'. when i woke up at 6 this morning.
so how exactly, you ask, would you fix a slide-y phone with duct tape while still in the midst of your morning grogginess and still leave it functional? well, if i had a computer at home that would connect to the internet,



then the picture would be right here.



but for now i will just leave it to your imaginations to decide for yourselves just how ridiculous my phone looks right now.

ain't in the dictionary.

Rubblizing (v) - the process of fracturing a Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement in place into small, interconnected pieces that serve as a base course for a HMA (Hot-mix asphalt) overlay.
(Source: Asphalt Magazine)

Slabjacking (v) - the process of floating a slab back to its original position by pumping a mixture of sand, cement, fly ash, and other additives beneath it.
(Source: concretenetwork.com)

some days, i learn the coolest made-up words at work!

circumnavigating.

(i think that means something to the effect of working around an issue. if that is not really the case, now you know what i want it to mean)

Just in case you would like to see some pictures of what i've been up to lately, i have been fortunate enough to have been surrounded for the past few weekends by people with working cameras. My sister has a picture of my whole family all together. And over at my other sister's blog, you can peruse a whole selection of pictures. i was not a participant in any activites in Altoona or State College, but it gives you a good idea of what kinds of things i've been up to. You can see some of what we did in New York and my bridal shower, and the bike tour, and my new house!!! all things i have pictures of, but are trapped in the trifecta. (although i did just go out and buy a replacement battery charger, so at least i can continue to take pictures!)
enjoy the pictures! and maybe someday i will once again be able to post some of my own...

a sad story about pictures.

and/or: the Technilogical Trifecta

I have probably already whined a million times about the sad state of the virtual memory on my trooper of a laptop, Vanilley. Unfortunately, whining has not amended the situation in the least bit and my computer continues to taunt me with little pop up messages sporting a bright red circle with an X and smugly stating "you are very low on virtual memory and there's nothing you can do about it nya-na-nya-na-nya-nya" (ok so maybe i'm exaggerating but its just as annoying!)

the newest development in the saga of my lack of picture posting is two-fold:
1. my camera battery is dying.
this really shouldnt be a big deal. all i should have to do is recharge my battery. however, somewhere along the way in my travels of late, i have misplaced my battery charger cuz thats just the way my life goes sometimes. so now, i am afraid to even turn my camera on for fear of killing my battery along with any chance i might have had to put my pictures onto my already-too-full computer.
2. my computer refuses to find my internets.
this weekend in my gracious-loving-host mode, i let my 'little' brother use my internets. i said to him "its real easy, just plug the gray cord into your computer and viola! internets!" and he happily spent a majority of his weekend playing games online. if only this were true for me now. i have plugged in the little gray cord. i have rebooted my computer. i have yelled and screamed and threatened to throw Vanilley right of the balcony. she still cant find the internets. so even if my computer wasnt full, and my camera wasnt dead, i STILL wouldnt be able to post any pictures because my internet doesnt work!

i am starting my christmas list now:
- an external hard drive
- a new laptop
- a new camera

challenged.

there are probably a million other things that i should be doing right now... like thinking about carpet shopping, or paint colors, or wedding ceremony details, or reception decorations, or you know WORKING lol but instead i have found myself today completey preoccupied with this blog.

i was directed to their family's musings from another blog of a family that i know and follow and love. i was attracted by their passion, captivated by their adorable little girls, became enthralled with their story, and find myself extremely challenged by their lives.

here is a young family that is a few years down the road from where I am in my own life right now, and as i read about how they are living and loving through the struggles and joys of being married and raising a family and growing together and fully relying on God to provide for direction and their every need, i can only hope that one day someone will stumble across my blog (which i will at that point no doubt keep up with better frequency than i have this summer) and have the same kind of experience and thought process that i have today.

i pray that in my life i will not become so focused on myself and my own dreams and desires that i fail to see the needs of those around me and the ways in which i can help.
i pray that my personal life and my marriage will be so Christ-focused that i dont have to work really hard to convince myself that its ok to depend on Him.
i pray that i will be receptive to Gods calling in my life, in whatever capacity that may be.
i pray that my husband-to-be will continue to be the strong spiritual leader that i fell in love with who will also be receptive to and supportive of my own convictions.
i pray that i will continue to be challenged in my own life as the years go by, that i will not be satisfied with what is comfortable and easy.
i pray that i will continue to be surrounded by supportive, Godly examples of what the Christian life looks like when lived out day after day.
i pray that above all else, my life would be a testimony to the faithfulness of my Lord and Savior and his abundant love for a sinner like me.