Remembering the Music

Two years later: Remembering the music of our special day... music just adds so much to a wedding ceremony, and we wanted our music selections to be unique yet traditional. 

Here's what went down:

This was actually at the end of the ceremony... instead of having everyone say the Lord's Prayer together, I asked one of my college girls to sing it. I already had a CD with her singing it, so I knew it would be an amazing finish to the ceremony. 

 Our piano player was a good friend of ours who actually married Grizz's cousin. She was a choir teacher, but she is a stay at home mom - their first little one is about 8 months older than Peanut! Anyways, a little back story: about half a year after meeting this amazing piano player who has a wonderful voice to match, a group of us went up to Mt. Carmel near Alexandria, MN for a winter weekend of friendship, snowshoes and xc skis. We held our own church service where this girl sat down and played just about any hymn from the book we asked her to. She also played a gorgeous version of All Creatures of Our God and King - a popular hymn that a Christian artist recently added his flair to. Soooo, when we were deciding what congregational hymns to sing at our wedding, we of course had to include Grizz's now-cousin-in-law playing All Creatures of Our God and King. My college girl lead the songs while the piano played.

Congregational hymns (played with piano and a vocal leader):

• All Creatures of Our God and King - traditional hymn redone by the David Crowder band
• Mighty to Save - Hillsong United

(If you've never heard either of these songs, I suggest you search You-tube!)

We chose to have congregational hymns over having soloists as a way to include the congregation in our special day. However, as I was searching for first dance songs, I found "This Day" by Jadon Lavik. It is not very well known at all, but I fell in love with the lyrics. When I shared it with Grizz, he just up and offered to sing it while playing the guitar. Yes, please!!

Solo

• This Day - Jadon Lavik

 On a side note... it was incredibly awkward to stand up there without him! Well, it was a bit awkward to stand up in front of everyone throughout the ceremony. No one ever talks about that! I resisted the temptation to look out at everyone, as I did not want to see that all eyes were on us. Ugh. Even during the congregational songs... have you ever just stood and stared at your guy and sang for two entire songs? Haha. It's just one of those things I have to laugh about when I think back to that special day :)

 Last but not least, I needed to have the organ playing at least sometime during the ceremony. There's just something so inspirational about organ music in a church sanctuary. I would choose that over a piano any day. Luckily I have an aunt who still plays the organ (it's becoming a lost art!); she gets called on to play at weddings a lot. She played for our prelude, processional and recessional... this is the part we get very traditional!

Prelude:

• Music chosen by organist

Processional:

• Wedding Party - Canon in 'D' (sometimes referred to as Pachabel's Canon)
• Bride - Jesu, Joy of Our Desiring

Recessional:

• Trumpet Tune

That's all folds... the music at our wedding ceremony. I can't believe it's already been two years... it is so fun to look back and reminisce!

*Photography by Black Studios.

My old bedroom...

Not a lot of sewing has gone on around here lately... actually, not of lot of anything has been happening. But, thankfully, I took a lot of pics while we were back home for a two week vacation so I can at least show you something (well, it was two weeks for me but Grizz had to spend one week at work training...). 

Here are some pics from my old bedroom :)

 My iron bed - used by a hired hand way-back-when at my grandparents' farm. It was red at the time. Mom took it from my grandparents' basement when I needed a big-girl bed and painted it white with a few small painted details on the flowers. Perhaps in middle school or at the beginning of high school, I finally got permission to change my bedroom - wallpaper and painting furniture... so, as a 4-H project, I refinished the bed once again into what you see now.

 The quilt is one I used throughout college and the one year I taught before getting married. It's a log cabin pattern made my the ladies at my home church as a graduation gift.

When I realized it wasn't cool to where high school athletic shirts in college, I spent a summer cutting them up, ironing on some interfacing and sewing them together. This quilt is huge. Mom was the one who finally finished it as a birthday gift to me in my junior year of college, but I was in charge of tying it!

 This was my first, true, pieced, tied, and bound quilt I ever made. I think it happened during a high school summer (4-H project!). It is the Yellow Brick Road pattern that you can still find in quilt shops - a great beginning pattern that uses fat quarters!

 I love books, but I never had enough space in my bookcase. My oldest brother had the bigger bookcases in his room... Grandma Q made a Sunbonnet Sue quilt for each of her granddaughters before she passed away. Some of us got pink ones and some of us got blue ones. It is definitely a cherished keepsake!
*I'm not sure what that lamp is doing there... I did not put it there... so, let's just ignore it, huh? :)

 I used to spend a lot of time during my childhood just staring at all the stitches!

 My room is definitely not as organized as it used to be. It is mainly a storage room for all my childhood things, plus wedding gifts and other things that we don't have room for in our two-bedroom apartment.  Along with storing all my stuff, it also has two twin beds and a crib... so it's slightly full ;)

 Perhaps I shouldn't even talk about the closet. I love this closet... a walk-in with built in shelves... shelves big enough that I had a friend actually sleep in one at a middle school slumber party :)

 Yup, in those shelves :) which now are home to college books, notes, photo albums... oh, and a record player and a pampered chef cookie pan!

 Look, a wedding dress! If you go up two pictures above this one, in the back are the banners that Mom made for the wedding. All those baskets were decorations at the wedding too.

And there are my childhood photo albums and scrapbooks. I'm going to have a lot of fun clearing this bedroom and closet out someday. Memories!

Yes, Parents, I promise, as soon as we get a house, most of this will leave your house ;)

Christmas in July: Tree Memories

Here I am, gazing longingly at the air conditioner, wanting to cool down our apartment...  but I'm holding out. We have a nice tower fan that is helping cool me down instead, and rather less expensively I might add :)

So, instead of turning on the air conditioner, I've decided to share our Christmas Tree Adventure from last year! Dreaming about snow is such a wonderful thing to do in July, don't you think?!

Introducing the characters: 

 Neighbor: it was our her first time out in the snow last winter.

Grizz: it was still elk hunting season and he was hopeful. 

Location: Lewis and Clark National Forest in the Little Belt Mountains... Christmas Tree Permits are about $5 I think.

 Grizz and I quickly picked out our tree. Our first tree together of our married life :)

While he hauled it back to the vehicle...

Neighbor and I just hung out... 

 ... and guarded the rifle.

After a long time of just walking around, Neighbor finally decided on a tree!

 And yes, that is a vintage sheet they are using to haul out her tree. I was feeling generous ;)

 We strapped both trees to the top of the vehicle (affectionately called Oslo, in case you were wondering)...

 ... and drove back to town. I, of course, was worried the entire way home that they were going to fall off! They may have slid a bit, but thankfully, neither tree fell.

Next year, we'll use Neighbor's Boyfriend's truck. That should be easier!

Yup, I'm feeling cooler already. Don't you just shiver a little bit thinking about playing in the snow?! Fun times!!

A Quilt From My Past

This is one project that has stood the test of time. It may have gained some dirt over the years, but it has definitely seen some fun sights - this is a great quilt to keep in the back of the Xterra for any outdoor adventure!

 I made this raggy jean quilt back in high school as my first "patched" quilt for 4-H. I had already made a baby quilt, but that was just sewing to large pieces if material together and tying it with yellow yarn.

 The flannel was bought at a quilt shop in a neighboring small town that has since gone out of buisness. I bought the fun, variegated thread, too. I cut the flannel and the jeans the same size and then cut the batting an inch or two smaller. This is when my mother's cutting mat, ruler and rotary cutter took a turn for the worst (lots and lots of denim cutting is hard work!)... I do believe it's time she gets another set!!! The single-block sandwiches were sewn together with a big X through the middle - I used the triple stitch throughout the entire project to make sure it was secure. After that, I sewed the blocks into strips and the strips into the quilt.

After sewing all the way around it, it was time to clip... clip, clip, clip... each clip about an inch apart as close to the stitching as I felt comfortable (again, cutting denim is hard work... make sure you have a nice sharp fabric scissors!). The last step was to bring it to a laundromat to wash it and dry it in industrial-size machines - who knows what that kind of lint would do to a home washing machine and dryer!

It's Rodeo Season!

Last Saturday night was the perfect evening for a rodeo. The sun was shining, the breeze was cooling us off and there weren't any bugs. You just can't beat an outdoor rodeo in the Big Sky Country - just look at the scenery!!

I even got out my cowboy hat I've had since high school, the belt buckle from my uncle, and the boots that were part of my wedding gift last summer :)

I just had to steal a shot of these young cowboys. It reminds me of of the "You been farming long?" print of two young farmers in overalls...

This rodeo clown is always entertaining!

Here are some action shots Grizz and I took... Enjoy!

I didn't grow up going to rodeos, and the only horses I rode were with friends or occasionally with my uncle. I was pretty active in 4-H and FFA, and I spent some time in show barns at the state fair - so going to events like this always bring back happy memories from those times! That last picture could be of so many girlfriends from both high school or college. I used to ask Dad for a horse all the time, and it's still a dream of mine to own one someday. I suppose I'll have to wait until we move out of this apartment... :)

Memories on Valentine's Day

On this Valentine's Day, let's go back in time... to Thanksgiving Day 2010.

I was home with my parents since Grizz was staying in the Big Sky - he only got one day off for Thanksgiving (we weren't married yet. We weren't even engaged yet). I woke up, shared a few texts before I got ready for a Turkey Day 5k. I was on the verge of being upset with Grizz for not texting enough :)

There was maybe 100 people in the race, so I won a pumpkin pie for being the first woman to cross. Grizz didn't seem all that excited. Again, not the happiest with him. However, I knew that he was busy cooking his own turkey and then he would be spending the afternoon with friends. 

When I got home, I was quite lazy. I showered, but I didn't do my hair and I just put comfy clothes on. I also had lots of tests to grade (102 to be exact... one for each of my seventh graders in my math and pre-algebra classes). Did I do them? Nope. Mom kept telling me to go do my hair or to start grading papers. That didn't sound like fun. Instead, I hung out in the kitchen and just enjoyed my parents' companies.

We sat down to a turkey dinner, just me, my mom and my dad. My brother was spending dinner with his girlfriend's family, but they would be coming later. At one point, Dad got up, grabbed his phone and went outside. Mom said that he was calling my brother. Reception can be shaky out at our country home. He came back in, cleaned his plate and went up for seconds. As he was sitting down again, he turned to Mom and said, "Weren't we going to use a different plate for the turkey?" Mom responded, "Why, yes, I forgot to grab the platter from the playhouse... Heidi, why don't you go get it?" She told me it was the one on the old stove. Dad pretty much rushed me out the door, and when I retreated from the snow-dusted ground because I was only in socks, Dad started yelling "Go! Just run!" So, I ran...

 I opened the top half of my door and looked toward the stove. No platter. So, I looked to the other side of the playhouse. After a good shriek and a jump back... come on, wouldn't you jump if there was a strange figure in your playhouse?! ... I ran inside and hugged my boyfriend :)

We didn't get any pictures of the proposal, so we took some on our wedding day :)

He had made up the whole cooking turkey story - so when he had told me that morning that he had to baste the turkey, he was actually driving across the state. Why did Dad have to go "call my brother?" Texts had stopped coming from Grizz, but from the last text, Dad knew he had to be close. He found Grizz out in my playhouse. He had parked at the end of our driveway so I wouldn't see the car. He walked behind our shelterbelt so I wouldn't happen to see him walk past a window. It was a tad chilly out there too, but he was out there for about ten minutes before Dad found him.

After the hug, I sat on the bed, and he sat and played his guitar. He rewrote the words to Eidelweiss (Sound of Music)... I barely remember what he said once he got down on his knee, but obviously I said "YES!"

Turns out almost everyone knew about his plan. Mom was hoping I could get some grading done before dinner as she knew I'd be busy the rest of the weekend. My cousin had tricked me into telling her what type of ring I wanted (that story was told here). Grizz told my best friend to make sure I didn't make plans to surprise him in the Big Sky.

It was the perfect way to be asked to spend the rest of my life with someone. And on this Valentine's Day - the first as a married couple... I just wanted to share the memories :) Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

*Our Wedding Photographer was by Black Studios