Where to begin??

It seems like forever ago that the biggest day of my life came and went. Because its been so long since I've posted I'm having a little trouble trying to figure out where to start.

I guess I could always "go back to the beginning."

Friday, May 15th was the day of our rehearsal. In the morning I got to go golfing with a lot of friends and family. It turned out to be a very nice day, although very windy which made the golf a little challenging. Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and it really helped relieve some pre-wedding day stress. :-)

The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and everyone seemed very excited for the big day. Everyone learned their roles and knew what they had to do so all-in-all it was a good rehearsal. The grooms dinner was held back at Tartan Park and was a really fun dinner. Kelsey surprised me by having a 3D cake made of a boom running race. I was one of the 3D frosting dudes, and the funniest part was that during transportation, my dude tipped over off his log and fell into the "water." Originally Kelsey was a bit worried that this would wreck the cake, but once she found out that it was my dude that fell in, it suddenly became the most realistic cake ever. ;-)

The other big hit of the night was something that Kelsey had planned for us a few months before our wedding day. She had found online a description of a "Dutch Tradition" where the couple puts two wine glasses, a bottle of wine, and two letters, one for each person written by the other, into a box. The mothers of the bride and groom nail the box shut and it is to remain sealed. The only way you are supposed to open the box is to pry it open when you are at your last resort before a potential divorce. The idea is that the wine is supposed to get you to sit together and drink, while you read the letters reminding each other why you loved each other when you began. If you make it without ever needing "the box" then Kelsey and I set a time of 20 years to open it anyway as a little wedding anniversary idea. Needless to say a lot of the comments about the box were positive and even more were humorous in nature. A couple of my friends said they'd already would have been through at least two boxes in their marriage. A couple of the groomsmen starting quoting that they are going to start new drinking traditions and claim that it's a "Dutch Tradition" and Kelsey and I found a new joke to say when we are on each other's nerves... "That's it.. GET THE BOX!!" All jokes aside, its a very nice thing to have as a new tradition in our family and I will enjoy opening it in 20 years. :-)

The wedding day began rather early for me, but not as early as the girls. :-) Brian and I had to drive down to Stillwater to drop off my car for the night as we were staying in a hotel in downtown Stillwater that night. We got back and I got showered up and headed over to the Church when I was told to. I got there at 11:00am ready to have Kelsey come and begin our big day together. We decided to see each other before the ceremony because that way we could get all our pictures in before the ceremony and still have a little time to not be rushed afterwords and to just enjoy the day. She was supposed to meet me in the little Chapel outside the Church at 11:15am. Well, 11:45 rolled around and she finally came out. :-) We realized that I was on time, and she was running a little late. It worked out fine, but with my nerves being as they were that morning anyway, I got a little worried for about 5 minutes in that span. :-)

She was as anyone would expect, the most beautiful bride I had ever seen. She looked AMAZING in her dress and it really was everything I had hoped for. We took some great pictures and were all smiles throughout the ceremony. Nothing really went wrong in the ceremony, except that when I went to light the unity candle, my candle stuck to the candle holder and as I pried it out the wax spilled on my hand... it didn't feel too great.

We even had my nephew and Kelsey's niece make it down the aisle as they entered the Church! Chloe, the flower girl, was to everyone's surprise, in a dress and down the aisle right with Trevor. It was spectacular!

The ceremony continued without a hitch and before we knew it, we were married. We ushered everyone out of the Church and after a little cleanup, it was time to get on the limo bus and begin the party time. :-)

I think i'm all set

I'm going to pick up my tux in a few hours, all of my gifts and cards and letters for Kelsey are all set to go, the rings are well hidden in the house, our out of town guests are starting to arrive, we're all packed for our Honeymoon, I'm done with work for the month of May, i'm ready for golf tomorrow, and all the little details seem to be wrapping up nicely. Yep.. I think i'm ready to get married.
I'm 26 years old and I'm getting married. Life never works out the way you think it will, and I guess it didn't take me the full 26 years to realize the full meaning of that phrase, but in the end, I'm very glad life didn't work out the way I planned.
There are so many thoughts going through my head but I think the one thing I can hold onto is the happiness that I feel to be experiencing this art of finding someone special. I tried so hard to force myself to find someone, when in the end she found me. I've discovered a lot of new things about myself through her and some of the new things will stick with me for the rest of my life.
Its also exciting to look forward to seeing old faces and sharing a few drinks with all my friends and family.
The slide show is complete and barring a technical glitch with the software at the reception hall it should go over very well. I'm happy with the timing and quality of both of our songs choices and the timing worked out exceptionally well.
All in all it should be a great weekend and I'm looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

time to make some memories.. I'll follow up with some pictures and insightful postings later.

Ho K.. Peace out... last time as a "single" blogger. :-)

168 Hours

168 hours from now I will be taking my position and getting ready to get married. :-) Its really getting close now! The good news is that we have almost everything taken care of. We have a few loose ends to tie up but nothing that is extremely stress worthy (in my humble opinion). In fact this weekend, the biggest task I have is yard work, and that is mostly self appointed work. Other stuff that will get done is other house work and cleaning getting ready for our guests this upcoming week and for when we are gone on our honeymoon. Its kinda nice and settling knowing that the big day is so close, and I guess all I have to do now is just wait and look forward to what will be a wonderful day.

Kona seems to be settling into her groove of the non-winter seasons. She spends more time outside then in, and she is exponentially harder to get inside when you need her to come in. Luckily I've got my own little trick that works 90% of the time, so at least there is that. She's sorted through her toys and bones and found two of her favorites and will only pay attention to them. She's settling down into a very nice dog in my book. I think you have to try and remember how bad she used to be, and just be able to look at her now and say... its not that bad. :-)

I had a little realization the other day when it comes to this blog contest. I'm actually going to have to take some time on my honeymoon to post something. I think i'll have to do it when Kelsey is in the shower getting ready for dinner or something, because I'd rather take a DDT, a four-figure leglock, or a pile driver than skip any of the good time on our honeymoon to post a blog entry. We'll see what happens.

That's about it for me today. We've got some errands to run and some Mothers day stuff to figure out, and then before you know it, it will be Sunday and one day closer to the wedding.

Ho K Peace out!

Odd and ends

OH lets see... what to write about.

Recently I've fallen into the habit of listening to talk radio on the AM dial. The only reason I listen to any radio anymore seems to be to get my sports highlights. I enjoy the 93X morning show because they are the only morning show that makes an effort to talk sports. I'll listen to an afternoon show on KS95 for the trivia stuff, but other than that, radio for me is boring and I hate the commercials. I have enough CD's to listen to for the music aspect but honestly, I don't know why I listen anymore. I ended up on KFAN one day and realized that they talk a lot of sports! I figured this would be a good way to pass the long drives home (when Kelsey isn't in the car) but after I dove into the actual afternoon programming I noticed that these guys are just idiots! I think one of the hosts actually has more dead air periods than when he actually is talking! It drives me nuts! Then they throw in random topics when they have nothing to talk about concerning sports, and dear GOD, they can be even more obnoxious when they go on tangents! I don't know.. I'm doing this to myself so I shouldn't complain... but seriously.. I'm not impressed.

Softball started this week. Running to first now feels like I have a plow strapped to my back instead of my usual fleet footed speed burst the 60ft to the bag. My legs still hurt two days later! Hopefully I can get into softball shape soon enough... maybe more beer will help. :-)

A while back the Johnsons were nice enough to have us out to the club for dinner. Trevor was there and he hit a new point in his young life as viewed through his uncle's eyes. He quoted Princess Bride. I'm not talking one or two lines... I'm talking MULTIPLE scenes. It didn't help that Russ and I egged him on to do most of them, but you could tell he loved it. I want him to memorize this scene:




If he does that at our wedding I'm going to die. I'll see if i can work on him this weekend. :-)

Its Derby weekend! I'm resurrecting my Calloway golf hat for luck. We'll see how it goes. Looking forward to seeing some cousins and aunts/uncles as well. But the big news is that the lake is filled up! We can finally take advantage of the whole lake! The best part though is the new boat. Dad's putting it in this weekend for the grandkids and probably even the big kids too. :-) That is of course, after the work of putting the dock in is done. :-)

All in all it should be a nice little getaway weekend to avoid the hassles of home life and wedding planning! I'm looking forward to it!

HO K Peace out.

It begins

This week has been the launching pad for a few things new to 2009.

On Monday we had our first round for the Theodore Wirth Golf league that Rich and I won last year. Something tells me that this years title defense will be harder than last years league. There are different people playing, and the talent level seems to have risen from last year. This calls for some serious sandbagging! But since we already have our handicap established from last year, it won't be as easy. Should be an interesting summer of golf!

Another first this week is that Kelsey and I have our first wedding to go to tonight. Yep, the first of ten for this year. This one is south of the cities, (i think) but should still be a fun time. I'm sure we'll be taking some notes as to what to do for our wedding and I know I will be interested to see some of the differences between their wedding, and what we have planned. Hopefully the beer is free and the DJ/band is done right. That's about all I need for a good wedding. The food can be a variable, as I have been known to go get subway during the dinner portion of the evening. :-)

Work is becoming very busy with a few key jobs in the wheelhouse. I'm more of a supportive role now due to the fact that I will be gone for 2+ weeks in May. I also did not pass my LEED test this Friday. I'm a little disappointed but I don't think I could have done well enough to pass. The information was just a little too out of my league right now. Maybe next time!

Other than that we're finalizing some wedding details and Brian and I are finishing up the slide show. Should be an interesting week coming up! Every day gone is another day closer! I can't wait!


Ho K Peace out!

Wow.. what a week..

This week marks the home stretch. We're now within one month of the big wedding day, and this week couldn't have been a more appropriate lead into what is probably the most stressful month of the engagement.

Work plain and simple has been chaos this week. I have two projects that needed direct attention all week and really haven't had any time to come up for air until just now. Thankfully they both look prosperous and it might actually be a very good couple of revenue generators for us. So there's the good news.

The bad news is that our little dog Kona has had yet another adventure and unfortunately this time she didn't come out unscathed. Kona took it upon herself to crawl through our culvert in the back yard. This culvert starts in the middle of our back yard, goes 20 yards underground, and ends up opening up to the ditch next to the road that borders our back yard. Once she crawled through this culvert, she was on the outside of the fence and free to run all around. The bad part wasn't that she got out, but that somehow, while crawling through the culvert, she ended up getting a laceration just below her butt-hole (I could use medical terms but i'm just not into it). So with the severity of the laceration, we had to take her into the vet for stitches. She had to be put under for the work and has since come back home a little groggy and confused as to why her butt got shaved. I'm sure she'll be her old self soon enough, but its just not the same without our normal crazy dog running around. Maybe after a weekend of rest and relaxation in her trusty kennel she'll be up and about ready for more walks, some fetch, and the constant annoying of Kelsey. :-)

Now that its less than a month until our wedding, Kelsey and I have been pushing through all of our to-do lists. We got a lot of stuff done this week, but it also feels like we didn't do as much as we wanted to. While there is still time, we both have the feeling that it will be here before we know it. We've been ahead of the curve the whole time and we're not about to let things slip away just yet. From here on out it'll be all things weddings, unless Kona decides to hurt herself again. :-)

That's all I got for now..

Ho K Peace out!

Long time coming

Well, for the past 40 days I have done my best to give up pop and swearing for Lent. The swearing part didn't go as well as planned, and that kind of surprises me. I don't like to swear and I think I do a pretty good job of using replacement words but for this specific season, I'd give myself a D- for my poor performance.
The pop side of the effort was a lot better. It killed me to not ask for a Mountain Dew while I was on the road. Its so much easier to have a pop while at McDonald's or out at a restaurant. It seemed like the immediate substitute at the restaurants was beer. Not the greatest substitute but still, it wasn't pop. There was the occasional request for only water, or perhaps some form of juice or lemonade, but I can honestly say that I did a pretty good job of giving up pop. Needless to say, tomorrow I'm going to have at least 3 mountain dews if I can. :-)
Work is picking up. I got back from a trip with two big sites and the big project of the year has to be completed by June 20th. This was an interesting thing to try and work out with my co-workers seeing as how I will be gone for 2 weeks in May. The good news is that we got it figured out and there shouldn't be any big problems.
Wedding planning marches on. This is our big weekend to finalize any plans we need to dust off and get down on paper. I'm off to get our marriage license paperwork filed with Kelsey! I think she'll actually have to write her name as "Kelsey Trauscht!!!" HAHAHA!! This is going to be fun!

Gotta run! Happy Easter Everyone!


HO K PEACE OUT!