Engagement Pictures

Fun fact about me: I change my desktop background at least once a week.  I also change my phone backgrounds a lot.  I don't know, I just need a change of scenery.

Then I looked at my blog and decided that I wanted a change of scenery there, too.  My dad didn't like the pink anyways.  

Anyways.  Guess what we got a few weeks ago in the mail but I just decided to do something about it today!!!  Our engagement pictures! 

I love them so much.  And since I love our engagement pictures so much, I decided to share them with you.  Let me tell you - if you are getting married and you need a photographer, please contact Ebley Photography.  They're amazing.  Not only do they take awesome pictures, but they are super awesome to work with.  

Even before When Peter and I got engaged, I knew that I wanted engagement pictures done.  And then we won a wedding, and I decided that engagement pictures were going to be cut from our short schedule because time was quite tight, if you recall.

THEN I kept seeing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaall of these HAPPY couples being happy BEFORE they got married in their engagement pictures, so I decided that I wanted engagement pictures, too.  I made this decision the first week of April.  (Note: we were married the last week of April.)  After some hee-hawing back and forth with Peter, I told him that I would contact ONE photographer and offer the TWO dates that we were available.  And if they said no, I would let it go.

Lucky for us, five days before our wedding, Peter and I made the trip to Madison to have our engagement pictures taken.

And I'm SO happy we did!!!

Peter and I are really good at the "smile nicely and look at the camera" pictures.  

We're not that good at the "now look into the distance and imagine your future together" pictures.  Future's looking preeeeeeeeeetty grim based on this picture.

Or the "hand the love of your life a flower because you love her" pictures. 

Or the "pretend it's not windy and cold outside" pictures.  

Or the "run and jump into each others' arms" pictures.

Peter was good at the (two) jumping pictures!  (Photographer: "Sara, maybe you should jump!"  Sara: "Absolutely not.")

We had a really fun time acting all in love.

These make me laugh because Peter just didn't really know what to do.

The photographers told me that I was REALLY good at showing off my ring.

Probably because I like it so much!!  (Which is beneficial, since I'll be looking at it for the next 100 years or so.)

:)

Happy Father's Day...

... to the man who taught me how to tell a story.

... to the man who always believes in me.

... to the man who introduced me to my passion.

... to the man that keeps my head on my shoulders, and my feet on the ground.

... to the man who always makes me laugh.

... to the man who loved me first.

Happy Father's Day to all fathers in the world, but especially to mine.

Where the heck have you BEEN?

I think that this is my longest time not posting since I started this blog.  First, I will apologize.  Since we got back from the honeymoon, I've been meaning to write a blog post, but then I would get distracted or busy (you'll see why further down), and not write.  Oh, and my cute little Dell Mini has a really little brain, and since it's two and a half years old now, it decided that it should move slower than a little old man.  It's really annoying.  


Anyway, this post is going to cover quite a few topics, so I'm going to keep each topic as short as I know how, and I'll include pictures (real camera pictures, not drawings...).


I'll start with the wedding, since it was a pretty big life change and all.  In short - you all did an amazing job planning our wedding and we really couldn't be happier.  The day was more perfect than I could have ever imagined.  There weren't any problems throughout the day, but to be fair - if there were, someone else handled them which was awesome.  Anyway, our photographer and videographer did the most AMAZING job.  I seriously could look at the pictures ALL THE TIME.  


Here is the website for ALL of the wedding pictures: 


http://www.pictage.com/1235231

Event key: love

There is only a week left for you to see all of the pictures, so if you'd like to order them, you only have a week.  Unfortunately, I can't put the pictures on my blog right now because of copyright, but eventually I'll be able to show them to you!


Here is a link to the blog post that the photographer did with a sneak peek of the photos.


And here is a link to the wedding video.  I could watch it all the time!! 


So yes, it really was one of the best days of my life, and it went as quickly as everyone told me it would.  It's kind of funny because I only actually remember bits and pieces of the day, almost like I was in a trance.  I CAN tell you that one of my absolute favorite parts of the day was when the priest introduced us to the church as Mr. and Mrs. Peter Romenesko.  Looking out at all of the people clapping and seeing how happy everyone was.  That was my favorite.  The priest said it very well to us - he said that this is one of the only times in our lives that so many people who love us and care for us will be in one place, and we'll be able to see all of them.  I'm smiling just thinking about it!!


One of the BEST decisions that we made in the two and a half months of wedding planning was going on our honeymoon the day after the wedding.  Seriously.  SUCH a good decision.  Peter and I were so busy between planning and work that we both needed the entire week (I could have stayed for another!) to wind down and do nothing.  It. was. amazing.  We went to an all-inclusive resort in St. Thomas.  I can't even start to say how great it was.  SO great.


The weather was really nice while we were there.  It was overcast every day, and only one day of rain.  At first I was a little depressed about all of the clouds all the time, but then my skin was very happy, because I would wear a lower SPF to get some color, and I didn't get burned at all because of the cloud cover.  The last day and a half that we were there had zero clouds and 100% sun.  It was actually quite beneficial to have the last part of our trip in the full-on sun because I was able to sweat off all of the pina coladas and strawberry daquiris that I drank junk that I ate during the week.

Someone didn't listen to his wife when she told him to wear sunscreen.  Poor Peter's legs were RED HOT SUNBURNED, so for the entire week he had to have a towel over them.

Since there were only 2 of us, we had to take a lot of self-pictures.  We got pretty good at it!

The hotel had a pool bar, and the iguanas always relaxed there.  So we didn't.

Sick.

The ocean was SO beautiful.  Amazingly clear.  We spent 90% of our time laying on the beach.

The view we had from the beach every day.

This was the rainy day.  Note my hair.  So gross.

The REAL reason that we were never at the hotel bar was because  there were a lot of other honeymooners there that were way more fun than Peter and me.  While we were reading on the beach and making friends with couples that have been married for 15 years, the other honeymooners were doing body shots at the pool bar.  Clearly our scene, but we decided that since we were married now we shouldn't do body shots anymore.  

Even though I made fun of him at the time, I'm really glad that Peter did this - he made a little video every day about our trip.  He just has such a great voice for voice-overs.  My little MC.

If you can believe it, this was the view straight down from our balcony on the second floor.  You can see the bottom of the ocean!  Isn't that so great??

I FORCED Peter to go snorkeling one day.  Maybe sometime he'll tell you the story about why he is afraid of snorkeling.  It has to do with snorkeling in Disney World when he was 12 and getting yelled at and swallowing a bunch of water.  After he told me that, he kept expressing that he did NOT want to snorkel, and after I had FINALLY convinced him, I told him that I changed my mind and didn't want him to snorkel.  I was very afraid that he would have a panic attack in the middle of the ocean.  So, loving wife that I am, I told him that although I am a good swimmer (ten years of swimming lessons at Badger High), I wasn't a good enough swimmer to save him if he had a panic attack.  And I would be very sad if he drowned on our honeymoon.  (He didn't, so that's good news.)

Look at us looking all nice on the last night of our honeymoon.  We were all set to go on a sunset cruise, but then it was lightning and stuff, and I read somewhere that it was kind of dangerous to be out in the middle of a body of water on a hunk of metal while it's lightning.  Needless to say, the resort cancelled our cruise.  But at least we got a nice picture! 

When we got back from the honeymoon, we had to get back into our real, non-inclusive resort lives where we had to pay for drinks and ice cream.  Bummer.  


The good news is that it was much less difficult than I had anticipated returning to work.  During all of the wedding planning madness, I got a promotion at work - so that's exciting!!  So I was not only returning to work with a new last name, but a new job title and office.

Getting back into the real world also meant that there wasn't a maid to clean our living area and make the bed every day.  Lucky for me, I am a REALLY organized person, so parts of our apartment looked like this within like, one day of being back in the real world.

Unfortunately, MOST of our apartment looked like this:

Why is it so hard for me to put the squirt bottle back in the closet after I iron??

Maybe because I can't even put the ironing board away after I iron (right side of the picture).  And I just KNOW that there's a carpet under all of those boxes SOMEWHERE...

Absolute WORST part of coming back from vacation: unpacking.  

Nevermind.  REAL absolute worst part of coming back from vacation is all the LAUNDRY.

We spent about a week jumping over boxes with our dinner and eating in front of the TV.  Mom, I'm so sorry.

Where did these things even COME from??  

For approximately one week I just dreaded coming home from work because of the above was the mess that I had to come home to.  It was so much stuff that I just didn't even know where to start.  So I dedicated myself to unpacking one box at a time.  And then, it was super motivating when I could see the ENTIRE living room floor.  So once that was taken care of, I was ready to take on everything else.  


And then Peter's parents came up to finish moving ALLLLLL of his stuff from his old apartment into our apartment.  So we started all over again.  But that was all taken care of fairly quickly, because I was sick of having stuff all over the place all the time.  


So now, Peter and I are 6 weeks into wedded bliss.  Things are going very well, although it is quite an adjustment living with someone after you've had an entire two bedroom apartment all to yourself for a year and a half.  


Because Peter and I are so used to being apart, we thought it would be best to be apart as MUCH as possible.  So this last week I went to Mexico for a work conference, this coming week Peter will be in Washington state for three days, and then next week I'll be out west for 10 days touring beef ranches with a group of Brazilians.  You know, we thought it would be best to ease ourselves into the whole roommates for life thing.... 


While I was in Mexico, everyone was giving me a hard time for being away from my new husband so soon.  My friend from Brazil told me that it was better this way because then when we're together it will be like we're on our honeymoon all the time since we're not together all the time.  Good thing we don't have much of a choice but to test it out!


I'll be perfectly honest - I do miss Peter when I'm traveling.  (And he SAYS he misses me, but I think that he REALLY likes being able to play video games all the time and eat as much frozen pizza as he wants.)


So, that's been the last six weeks in a nutshell.  I'm going to try my best to post more, because I actually dislike very much having to do such a long post about so many things.  But you get the picture.

Our first formal appearance as the Romeneskos at my dear friend Libby and Sam's wedding.

I really do love being a Romenesko.

A day dedicated to mothers

For the past few days, I've been thinking about my mom.  I've been thinking about what I should tell the world about her, but everything that I was to say doesn't even begin to describe how wonderful my mom is.  


Peter and I decided not to drive home this weekend for Mother's Day because it's our first weekend in Green Bay since the first weekend of February.  We have a lot of things to re-arrange and move before the end of May when Peter will be fully moved into my our apartment.  Our moms understood, told us that we needed a weekend to relax and get things organized after such a hectic few months.  They weren't upset or sad. 


I was relieved when my mom understood that I wasn't coming home.  


But now, when I woke up this morning, I'm sad that I'm not at home with my mom on Mother's Day.  


Instead of writing and deleting and writing and deleting this morning, I decided to go back and read the blog posts that I've written for my mom on past Mother's Days.  I'm happy to say that every word that I typed still rings true today.


Missing my mom while I was in Ecuador


Last year's Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there, but especially to mine.

She'll always be our baby

Remember last year when I wrote about my favorite sister (click here to refresh your memory)?  Well, she's still my favorite sister, so that's good news.  

Lakeland School has a prom for the kids every year.  Laura was old enough to go last year, but my mom couldn't do it.  She couldn't send Laura to prom.  It's one of those things where my mom couldn't send Laura to prom not because Laura wouldn't have a good time, or because we were busy, or because Laura would be scared.  

My mom couldn't send Laura to prom because she's her baby.  Not just my mom's baby, OUR baby.  She's 17 years old, but her age will never matter - she'll always be our baby.

We want her to suffocate us with hugs and sit on our laps.  We tease her and tell her no, but always give in to what she wants.  We play with her and give her candy when Mom's not looking.  We teach her new things and explain why she needs to do something herself.  

We love her.  More than we love anything else in the world.  She's the center of our universe.

And because she'll always be our baby, it's hard to watch her grow up.  So last year, when Laura was old enough for prom, my mom couldn't do it.

When the note came home for prom this year though, my mom couldn't say no - as much as she wanted to.  

My mom couldn't say no this year because there is a whole team of people at Lakeland School that want the best for Laura, just like her siblings do.  So, my mom let her go to prom. 

And she was so unbelievably beautiful.

Laura's prom dates

Best mom in the world

Two of the many volunteers at prom making sure the kids
made room for Jesus when they were dancing.

And because Lakeland School is amazing, and our lives wouldn't be the same without it, please help support them, so that they can continue giving children and young adults the opportunities that any other child or young adult can have. 

Lakeland School's School Fest is coming up in the beginning of May, and they're selling raffle tickets!  Funds raised help the school sponsor great events like prom for the kids.  Trust me - it's well worth your dollar.  Just one dollar!  That's it!!

Raffle tickets are the same as last year - $1 for 1 ticket, or $5 for 6 tickets. 

You can visit my blog post from last year to learn a little bit more about Lakeland School and what a fantastic place it is.

If you do buy a raffle ticket (or ten...), you don't have to be in attendance to win!  School Fest is on Saturday, May 12 from 9-3 if you'd like to attend.  It really is an awesome day for an even more awesome cause!!!

Email me at sarajvander@gmail.com if you're interesting in buying tickets, and we'll get you all set up to help this wonderful school continue to change the lives of children with disabilities just like our baby sister.

Isn't she just beautiful?

My days are numbered

Numbers since February 13, 2012.  Except the ones that are like "number of days until..."   Because those are from today.  But the general ones like crying are since February 13.


Number of days until the wedding: 9


Number of months theknot.com tells me there are until the wedding: 14


Number of times I've explained that we won a wedding: 43287194021780


Number of times I told Peter we are not having a Star Wars wedding: 47


Number of times I've cried about something with the wedding: 3*******


*******BREAKDOWN


Number of times I've had a complete meltdown about the wedding: 1


Explanation: Valentine's Day.  Poor Peter.  I had a complete meltdown about the wedding because we found out that we won, but we didn't know ANY details, and I didn't know if I would like my dress, if we would be getting married in the church that I grew up going to, or if anyone would want to even come to our wedding.  And a lot of other things.  But those were the main ones.  But I'm ok now.  Because everything is turning out perfectly!


Number of times I've cried about the wedding, but the crying didn't include heaving sobs, locking myself in Peter's bathroom so he wouldn't see my cry, snot running down my face, and drooling (those are all under meltdown): 2


Explanation: (1) I didn't think that I would be able to have any say in my wedding dress.  That is very scary.   (2) My bridesmaids' dresses aren't coming in until April 20.  Remember how the wedding is April 27th?  I'll give you a second to wipe your tears for everyone involved.


Number of times we've driven down to Lake Geneva from Green Bay: 12 of the last 13 weekends.  Lots of miles.  LOTS of gas.  TONS of money.  


Number of stress-induced zits I've had: 5


Number of times I've gone tanning for 7 minutes: 3


Number of times someone asks me if I'm going to go tanning for the wedding since I've started tanning: A lot.


Number of times someone has told me that I have "good color" after they just asked if I was going to go tanning because they want to try to make me feel better: A lot + 1


Number of swimsuits that I bought: 7


Number of swimsuits that I returned: 5


Number of times I've looked at my wedding dress online: 7895234785023475820934


Number of times I've looked at my wedding band online: 902934850394582039458309458


Number of times I've been to the Social Security Administration: 1


Number of guests we have attending our wedding: about 330


Number of scabs I've picked: 1.  It's bleeding right now.


Number of nosebleeds I've gotten: 3


Number of days until I'm on my way to the Caribbean: 10


Number of times I've practiced writing "Sara Romenesko": an embarrassing amount


Number of seconds I thought about hyphenating my last name: 1.4


Number of times/day I get all giddy because I'm marrying Peter next week: ABOUT A BILLION TIMES INFINITY.


ho.ly.mo.ly.i.can.not.be.lieve.the.wed.ding.is.on.ly.nine.days.a.way.


EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Identity Crisis

I've been thinking lately, "Gosh, I should let the good citizens of the world know how the wedding planning is going, since they've been voting and being so supportive and wonderful."  


Then I remembered that I needed to finish my taxes.  So, like any good American citizen, I did my taxes and was honest about them.  And then I hit submit.  


For about 5 seconds, I was like "WHEW!  Glad THOSE are done!  And I'm even MORE glad that I'm marrying Peter so that next year HE can do the taxes!!!"


But then I got an email.


My tax return was rejected.  


So, naturally, I had a panic attack.


On this little rejection letter that they send you when your taxes are being rejected by the government, it gives an explanation of what you did wrong:


Rule Number: F1040EZ-524
Rule Number Description: The Primary Taxpayer's Date of Birth does not match the information currently available in the IRS Masterfile.


If there is one thing I know, it's my birthday.  If there's one thing PETER knows, it's my birthday.  But alas, sometimes my fingers type too fast, so I decided to look back and check to make sure that I entered my birth date correctly.


I did.  I knew I did.  And I did.  Anyways, I proceeded to call the Social Security Administration because that's what the email told me to do.  After being on hold for 32 minutes, I found out that actually, this happens all the time.  Someone probably just punched in your birth date wrong.  Even though I've been my mom's been filing my taxes for the last however many years, and this has never occurred before, this time, someone just punched it in wrong.  Complete faith in the system...


I'm sorry, this happens all the time?  I mean, it's only my IDENTITY that we're dealing with.  The lady on the phone proceeded to tell me that I'd have to go to the Social Security office, which closes at 3:30, asap to get this handled.  Do you have your social security card?  Your birth certificate?  Ironically, yes, my fiance and I are going to get our marriage license this week.  So I'd like to get this sorted out because I'm in my final days as a Vanderstappen, and now I don't even know who I AM anymore.


So of course, as soon as I got off the phone with her, I started to cry stayed strong because I'm an adult who files her own taxes now, and called Peter.  And my mom.  And then I went to the bathroom to make sure I didn't look like I was just crying went to talk to my boss.


Sara:  Chief.  You're not going to believe this.
*Note - I don't actually call him chief, but I would really like to start.  Maybe tomorrow.  Because it's AWESOME.


Chief proceeded to ask me about an important shipment that we've been having problems with.  


Sara: No news about that, this is more serious.


Chief: ... *concerned face*


Sara: So, I was being a good American citizen and filing my taxes.  But my taxes got REJECTED!!


Chief: Well.  That's not good news, is it?


Sara: So I called the Social Security Administration, and it turns out that I'm having an identity crisis.


Chief: I can't tell if you're being serious.


Sara: My birth date is wrong in the social security system.  And now I can't file my taxes.  And I have to go figure it out.  Chief.  Whyyyy me.  Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyy me???  This is what I get for waiting until the last minute to file my taxes.


Chief: Well, Sara, this would have happened whenever you would have filed your taxes.


Sara: *Dramatic Sigh* This is awwwwwwwwwwwwfuuuuuuuuuuuuuuullllllllllllll.


Chief: Gosh, I could have hired an illegal immigrant and not even have known it!  Well, this is a first for me!


Sara: CHIEF.  I'm NOT an illegal immigrant!


Chief: I sure hope not!!


So then I went to the Social Security Administration office and took a number.  I was there for a total of 7 minutes.  The guy got it all taken care of for me, and then he felt bad that I was there, since I'll have to go back in SEVENTEEN DAYS BECAUSE I WILL BE CHANGING MY LAST NAME.


Which is crazy.  


I'll give you an update soon, but in a few words - things are going well and coming together nicely.  But I seriously cannot wait for one week of nothing except my Kindle in one hand and a margarita in the other.  


Oh, and quality time with my husband.