Lessons Learned...

Have you ever learned a life lesson... through something that had nothing to do with you in the first place? Or by simply looking at an image and delving so deep into it that it completely changes your view into something meaningful?...

I had this experience on Sunday.

Something so small. Something alot of people would think gross. disturbing. nose wrinkling.

A baby deer, dead, on the side of the interstate.

Something so simple. I felt myself tear up. My eyes watered. My brain exploded with a meaning to this.

And this meaning came today. After 3 days of pondering that dead baby deer. So small, helpless, naive.
What did the fawn do to deserve death?... nothing I'm sure. But such is the way of life. What do the elderly do to deserve death?... nothing. It's just the way of life.

After delving even deeper into the meaning of life today, I realized something. This Baby deer, literally the size of my dog, dead. A baby. A BABY. Its increadable to think about life in a way of being greatful for being able to make it to 20 years of age. I couldn't imagine being that baby deer. I felt so terrible for the poor thing. No chance to live its life. No chance to be free like every other deer out there in those exact woods. I see dead deer all the time on the interstate. But it just amazes me how this one dead baby deer was able to help me realize just how greatful I should be to be here today. Everyday I go through life leaving for granted so much. I hardly ever realize just how great my life is. I get so tangled up in the activities of daily living. I felt terrible for this fawn, even though I wasn't the one who hit it on the road, it still made my heart melt. Why didn't that fawn get a chance to run free in the meadows? Why did the fawn have to die a grewsome death? Why couldn't it have had a normal life like all other deer... playful... energetic... free... and wild.

Do you take life for granted? Or are you greatful to be a playful, energetic, free spirited, wild human being in your own way? Are you greatful for being able to get up every morning, see your husband off to work, and provide care for the one's you love? ...

<3 Roz

Monday, June 21st 2010

Set Up Day... Ugh.

Most Brides would say they were

          1. stressed out.

          2. wanted everything perfect.

          3. crabby and annoyed

...

I'd have to say that I wasn't really any of these.

I was a little annoyed with people shouting my name

every 10 seconds about something... but other than that

I just wanted Tuesday to be here.

We started set up @ 8:00 AM. Raining... go figure...

Whats new right? ... ugh.

Well. We started out with the Tables.... Cathy ironed

all 50 of my hankerchiefs to relieve the creases...

After that Brad and Bill put the table cloths onto the tables

while I straightened them out because the men didn't get how to put

them all on the same way.

The place still looked pretty bare, but was definately off to

a good start for the reception.

After some conversation with parents, Brad and I decided

to move the ceremony into the Hospers Hall, the same place

as the Reception. The News said it was supposed to Rain on Tuesday,

and I just wasn't willing to take the chance of getting rained out.

After a few more hours of decoration, cleaning, and tidying up, the place

started to come alive...

The Beginning of the Head Table...

The Fishished Punch Table...

The Finished Center Pieces...

The Guest Book/Gift Table

The Finished Head Table! :)

Some Decorations on the Head Table

Again...

... After we had spent a good 7 hours decorating the place,

I finally felt like everything was in place. No, I didn't care

if something wasn't perfect, I was happy with all the help

that I got setting up. Everyone was so nice and helpful.

6:00 PM... Rehearsal.

y-a-y!... Time to deal with the over-emotional grandparents

and parents... crabby siblings... and hungry groomsmen.

Over all, rehearsal went really well. It only took us

about 45 minutes to get everything down pat.

After rehearsal was done, we all headed over to the park for supper.

Bill and some Uncles of Brad's grilled burgers and hot dogs

for everyone and we had an amazing taco salad and potatoe salad.

The Meal was great... but what was even better was the friendship

and laughter that was shared in those short few hours together.

Yummy Burgers!

We Played on the Slides...

The Groomsmen/Groom played on the Bird House...

And then Gave up because...

"I don't remember this thing being so small and slippery"

hehehe. men.

Overall, Monday was a great day, but Brad and I

were more than excited for Tuesday to be here. We

both had been waiting for 15 months for that day, and

we were more than ready to be hitched.

<3 Roz

Sunday, June 20th 2010

Sunday....

Oh glorious Sunday.
Needless to say, No... Brad and I didn't go to church on Sunday.
I know I know... no need to say more.

But. Sunday we had alot on our list.

Sunday started @ 7:30 AM. blah. (who knew there were two 7:30's in a day?!?!)

My dad came on over to Punts house with the hog roaster and we all got it set up and ready to go. After it was all ready, we got the coals started and headed to Hospers to pick up the hog.

White trying to haul the hog out of the meat locker, a bird flew into the locker and started flying a round. Needless to say it  proved hard to catch, but in the end it was not good for the bird... it ended up as cat food. Poor Birdie (may it rest in peace).

We took the hog back to Punts and prepped it for roasting! :) yum. We started out with the flavoring... My dads secret recipe of about 20 different seasons all mixed together and then spread all over the hog and rubbed into the meat.

After we got all the seaoning put in the meat, we had to put the hog onto the grates. The grates go inside of the cooker and rotates the hog around the coals. This is how the hog roasts. After a few hours of cooking the hog turns black on the outside and starts to smell SO GOOD!

The smoke smells like tasty pork and made my stomach ache all day for a taste of the fun and hard work.

After the hog was done roasting we had to pull the meat off all of the bones and shred the meat apart so that it could cool. We had about 15 people over to help shred the pork and to get it all ready for the meal on Tuesday. Cooking the pork took just over 8 hours, and it was difinately worth the wait.

My dads favorite part of the whole day is the time when he sits back and watches everyone else pull the pork apart while he sits there and chews on the ribs like a starving dog.

Haha. yeah....

Well, after we got the hog all pulled apart and in the cooler we delivered it off to the caterer in Hospers. After many hours of work and watching the hog roast, it felt good to be done with the work for the day. The rest of us sat back and relaxed for the evening and grilled hamburgers for supper. We all sat around joking and laughing and telling silly stories!

After everyone left from supper, Brad and I went golfing with Cory, Mike, and Tiffany. We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the relaxation. Brad and I wanted to relax before Monday... Set up day. So it was nice to have another night out with our friends before the stress set in.

Overall, Sunday was a good day! We had a lot of fun with everyone.

<3 Roz

Saturday, June 19th 2010

Ah oh glorious Saturday arrived! This was a day I was oh so excited for!

9:00 AM was my practice hair appointment. The day I got to see how aweeeeesome I'd look on Tuesday. Although it was just a practice it really put into perspecticve that in a mere 3 days I would be getting married. My hair looked awesome. They put in this little "practice" veil into my hair.

After my hair dew I ran back out to Punts house for a relaxing couple of hours. @ 12:30 Nikki came out to Punts and we enjoyed some watermelon together! :) Yum! 1:00 my mom dropped off my Sisters and we were off to my bachelorette party!

1:30- Sioux Center- We were all getting our nails done together. After 2 hours, 5 of us had our nails done. We sat and relaxed in the massage chairs while others got their nails done and overall just had a great time laughing and hanging out.

After all our nails were paid for we went on a scavenger hunt around Sioux Center. We had to find 50 different Items. 25 we had to take photos with, and 25 had to be actual objects that we took/ bought from somewhere. After a good 2 hours of running around town we decided to call it quits. there were only a few objects that hadn't been found but it was all in good fun! We met at Kirsten's house where we decorated her mothers mini-van for the ride to supper.

We rode in style. Silver mini-van covered in blue and pink window paint... yeah. it was awesome. We had a good time driving to Sioux City. We talked and joked around and had a good time.  We ate supper @ HuHot, MMMmmmmmm. Delicious. We enjoyed our heavenly meal and took a few pictures. All while laughing the evening away.

We head home around 8:00. Let me tell you what. Spice Girls and a mini van full of 18-19-20 year olds... BAHA. Fun times! We laughed and danced and sang our gutts out! We had so much fun on the ride home. When we reached Kirsten's house again we tallied up the scores for the scavengar hunt. Although my team lost by a mere 2 points, we still had a blast. And it was all fun! :)

Thanks! <3 Roz

Friday, June 18th 2010

Friday wasn't such a busy day. This was the day Brad and I Both had decided we needed to relax. We had nothing planned for the day and we just wanted to go with the flow.

We ended up giong to OK 1 Stop (where Brad used to work) and chatting with the guy's there. Brad and I had a Mt. Dew with the "Coffee" Boys (old geezers) and my Grandpa. We talked about the upcoming wedding and all the planning that occurred. We also talked about my Retainers (which were killing me at the time) and how they weren't working correctly.

After that we ran over to my dads house to drop off some wedding stuff that were in the back of the jeep. There was no reason to be hauling that stuff around so, we got rid of it at dads. After that Brad and I ran to Orange City to look for Black shoes for him to go with his tux. Needless to say Bombgaars didn't have any.

Wal-Mart, here we come! We ended up finding a cheep pair of steel toe boots for him to wear with his tux and picked up gifts for the groomsmen as well. After that we returned to Punt's house where Roz continued to take a nap and Brad continues on his way to go fishing.

Around 5:00 pm Bill got home from work and we all got ready to head to the Rocky Races. Brad and I haven't ever been to the races in Rock Rapids so we decided it would be a good time. We ran into my Dad and Missy there, as well as some other people we knew and had a great time. It was fun watching little sprint cars go around the corners at 120 miles/hr. The races were crazy and we eneded up going into the pits afterwards to check out some friend's cars. They did pretty good for the night and were having a good time packing up and getting ready to leave. After the races we all headed home and I went to bed.

Other than that, there isn't much to my Friday. We had a good time. But Roz was ready for sleep!
<3 Roz

Thursday June 17th 2010

Ok. So I have WAY too much talking to do about this wedding for just one blog. So I'm Going to go through it Day by Day, Blog by Blog.

My day started off @ 5:30 AM. Blah. Brad and I  ran out to his boss' house to do chores bright and early so that we could be on the road. After chores, we quick ran back into town to grab all our stuff, and we were on the road.

3 hour drive... lots of traffic... and LOTS of construction.

We arrive in Sioux City. We head directly to Hamilton Blvd. :) The Ortho. :) YAY!

Thursday I got my braces off. And got my retainers fitted. And got my retainers later that afternoon. Ugh. I hate retainers now ( they killed me for the first 4 days I wore them). ANYwho.

After the Ortho Appt Brad and I went to visit the mall and Hobby Lobby to pick up some stuff for the wedding that I still needed. We Ran to Happily Ever After to pick up the dresses- (luckily mine was in a White bag so Brad couldn't see it :))... After that we ran back to the Ortho to pick up my retainers and we were on our way North.

We stopped at my dads to drop off some of the wedding stuff that we didn't need to haul in the jeep all weekend, and headed onto Punt's house to chillax for a while. At around 6pm we headed over to Mike and Tiffany's for supper.

They grilled an amazing dinner of grilled potatoes and marinara chicken! Ugh. NUM NUM is what my tummy thought! :). After supper we all took the puppy's outside for some "potty" time... but it ended up being some fun time!

Tiff has a kiddy pool for her dogs on the farm to lay in and cool off in the sun... Well... Sasha thought it looked like fun, so Brad and I threw her in there. We found out then that we have a scuba-dog. :) She loves the water. She had so much fun!

There was this little dinosour toy that would sink to the bottom and Sasha would sink her head down in there and grab it! :)

Sasha Even learned how to blow bubbles under water by sticking just her muzzle into the water and then blowing bubbbles! She was SO cute. After all that fun, we went inside and played some mario cart and watched some TV. After a fun night of laughter and smiles, we headed on Back to Punts for a peaceful nights rest.

And that was our Thursday! :)

Stay Tuned for Friday's Events Tomorrow :)

<3 Roz

W-E-D-D-I-N-G

These last few days of my life have deffinately been blessings to me.
My family and Best Friends surround me and laugh as the wedding
buzz goes on. Brad and his Besties are all laughing and cracking
jokes, my girls and I all sharing secrets and memories. I'm sad that
today is IT!.. No more planning.... No more setting up... No more
Decoration... and No more Stress! (I won't miss that last one)...
After 12:00 tonight, the buzz will be gone. The bells won't be
ringing in my head, and Its on with life! A New Life! might I add!

After a full week of adventure and fun in NW Iowa, I'm sad to say
I will be leaving yet again for the South. :( I love it up here. My friends,
family, community. I miss it all. But it will be a new exciting life for
both Brad and I. Brad and I have NEVER been so happy.

I'll Admit... Brad and I have returned to that "sickly" relationship
stage. The good kind. You know... Lovey dovey, kissy kissy,
smoochy smoochy kinda love. The one where you just wanna
hang your head on his shoulder, arms wrapped around him,
hugging him constantly and never letting go. There's only one issue...

We just have to get through today. The Reasons this day could
go bad...

Brad hates  HATES others hugging him.
    * like grandmas and aunts and uncles
Brad HATES others kissing him on the cheek...
   * like grandmas and aunts and uncles
I HATE the thought of falling on my face by tripping over my dress!
  *I Faked it during rehearsal to get it out of my system! :p
I HATE people giving me advice when I don't want it.
   * If I want advice, I'll ask someone I trust and know!
WE HATE it when people invite themselves through
word of mouth...
 * If we wanted you there, you would have gotten an invite!
    (Although I'll admitt, we have way too many ppl coming
          already, and we didn't even invite everyone!)

So. All together. Brad and I will have a good day!
We just have to ignore our stupid pet peves! And laugh it off!
Love conquers all things! :)

<3 Thanks for reading! I'm off to my hair Appt! :)