Fall... Winter....Fall.... Win... oh whatever this season is

Wow, there have been so many things happening for us lately and I just haven’t had time to write about it so here’s some updates!

First off, with the wedding, we have a pastor to officiate! We asked my friend and former pastor, Russ Ham. He was the pastor at Rural Chapel United Methodist Church while I was in high school and some of college, and is a great mentor and friend! I am so excited that he is going to officiate at our wedding!

Second, we have picked our caterer! A very important choice for us to make- and one that we’re very happy with – Nicole’s Catering (based in Westerville) You may ask how we were able to pick a caterer while living hundreds of miles away from Columbus, the answer is we are very lucky to have a ton of friends and family members who are pitching in to help us plan. My mom, my mom’s best friend from growing up, my dad, and our friend Matt (who happens to be a chef) went and tasted food for us and asked all the right questions, so we are set for food!

I was so stressed out about planning the wedding from this far away and only being able to supervise from afar but from the nightmare that I thought it was going to be it has turned out to be surprisingly easy. If there’s one thing that has allowed it to be that way it is our friends and family. We are blessed with so many wonderful people in our lives that are helping us out daily, and I cannot begin to express how grateful I am for that. We also lucked out in having between Andy and I, a friend who is a florist, a friend who is a chef, a friend who is a fantastic cello player, a mom who is an amazing decorator, a mom who is great at keeping me on top of things (as she has been for the past 22 years), a dad who is pouring his heart and soul into landscaping, a dad who is great with logistics (especially with electricity, for which I am so grateful because I have no idea what I am doing (I daisy chain power chords and it would really be better if I wasn’t in charge of how we’re running power at the reception)), a friend who is a great designer, and of course many many friends who photograph for a living, so basically we have everything we need.

As far as work goes, my job is going well and basically the same as it has been. I’ve been photographing more sports lately (including Air Force football in freezing temperatures and freezing rain, let me tell you that was fun), other than that work is pretty much same old same old for me. Andy on the other hand has some exciting news. As of today he has signed on with a photography studio based in Old Colorado City (really close to downtown Colorado Springs, a really nice area) called Unforgettable Images. It’s a good deal for him and a job where he gets to photograph! So we’re both looking forward to seeing how that works out. While this is a welcome change, it does mean we’re going to have to shelf Pictovita (www.pictovita.com) (our photography company for those of you that don’t know about Pictovita yet) for a while. However if we choose to break out on our own and leave Unforgettable Images that could happen in the future.

As I mentioned earlier, the weather here has been somewhat sporadic as of late, with temperatures ranging from the mid 60’s to the teens with a wind chill factor bringing below zero temperatures. This brings on an adventure every day getting ready for work and trying to figure out what layers I’ll need to wear. The most interesting weather we’ve had recently was the freezing rain, which is nothing like freezing rain in Ohio. Instead of falling and making a clear coat on everything it’s more like being inside of a cloud, (which I’m pretty sure is what’s happening), the rain isn’t falling its just swirling around and collecting on things (The cloud is trying to take over the world!) which ends up looking like fine white ice crystals on everything (very pretty but still just as dangerous as the freezing rain back home while driving). We’ve also had our first Snow! It actually snowed a few weeks ago but out here they don’t really count it until it sticks to the ground in town. That happened for the first time this past weekend. Andy and I had fun taking some pictures of our yard, and I’ve been in a holiday mood for weeks now (As a rule I never listen to Christmas songs until after thanksgiving but this weather is totally making me break that rule as I’ve been listening to them for about a week now… and it’s not even Halloween!)

Speaking of Halloween… Andy and I are having a pumpkin carving party at our apartment with some friends and neighbors this weekend, which I’m looking forward too! I’m also hoping to have a friendly carving contest online where all of us can upload pictures of our pumpkins and show them off. (Can you tell I’m missing our normal Halloween hayride and bonfire celebrations?) More on that contest later…..

Anyway, that catches you all up on most of the recent happenings, and I’ll try to keep up with more regular posting! Check back soon and hopefully we’ll have some pumpkin pictures up!

-Rachel

p.s. Here are some photos from the freezing rain/cloud/thing that came through town... enjoy!

Extreme Landscaping

Andy and I made a trip back to Ohio this past weekend, which as always was a whirlwind but well worth it. We came into town to photograph the wedding of our friends Aaron and Maria who we know from school, so that was wonderful! We also were able to do the senior pictures of our good friend Martin. Beyond both of those photo shoots we also had a chance to see family and friends and talk about our own wedding which is less than a year away now.

Officially- the wedding will be September 18, 2010! So mark your calenders! Save the dates and offical invites will be coming soon so keep an eye out!

Also, getting to walk the yard and see all the yard work my parents continue to do was amazing! We got to have Andy's parents, Fran and Joe, over for dinner at the house friday night and it was wonderful to talk about plans and look at the site of the wedding. We are so excited! Here are some photos from this past trip of the yard, look how quickly things are changing! -Rachel


The hill by the driveway which was cleared of trees and bushes and has now been replanted

The planter at the end of the garden now filled with flowers


looking at the tree we're going to be married under from the driveway


another view of our tree and the garden from the driveway

Looking down the stairs which the old rock has now been removed from and my dad is pouring concrete steps in their place, which are beautiful!

A closer look at the steps, my dad is decorating each one with patterns of stone and bricks

Looking back up toward our tree and the newly replanted hill


looking out from the tree down the valley, which has been cleared out a ton!


Another view of our tree (that's Dan by the way getting into a lot of these pictures)


The tennis court where we're going to pitch the tent for the reception!


Another view of the tent location, we're going to be doing some more tree trimming etc.


On the tennis court looking toward the pool and the storage building (which is going to be our bar!)


My dad looking at all the clearing that he and my mom did around the fence of the pool (making a better path from the house to the tennis court (reception area)


Another close up of the stairs my dad is working on


The path that has been cleared around the outside of the pool fence as a path to the tennis court (reception area)


Another view of the tennis court