Lavender Lavender

Description now, pictures later:

My beautiful and wonderful aunts and grandmother threw me the most lovely lavender bridal shower. If you had any doubt of our wedding color (which you knew was purple if you've known me for a day in my life) now it's all cleared up. It was a brunch, primarily because of my love of mimosas (I owe it all to STB). I can't help but smile thinking about it. 

The day started by making your own wine charm *pictured awkwardly at the end of the party* to distinguish champagne flutes. We settled in for a round of introductions before moving back to grandmas living room for the Create Your Own Favor part of the day *Not photographed* because the favor was a sugar scrub for hands that required all people to drop the electronics. Fittingly, the scent I chose was lavender with matching lotion they gifted me at the end of the party! I fear Tim is not ready.

For brunch we had boxed meals. Each was wrapped with ribbon and a label with my name and a smaller label with the list of contents (keish, yogurt, fruit cups, baked goods). My aunts have become so Pinteresty and added the tissue paper, doilies, and purple ribbon for effect. No one could stop oohing and aahing. Truly. We then went for an opening of many many way to generous gifts before closing out with the usual round of pictures. 

Thank you so much to everyone who planned, contributed, and attended. If you ever want to feel loved, get married and people throw you parties inviting all the most important women in your life just to give you support and to celebrate. It makes me sound vain and selfish but really I just feel so so lucky to look through the pictures of so many wonderful women who have touched my life.

Also, if you are wondering, I am wearing two necklaces. One from JCrew. And the other a shower tradition to wear a gift around your neck, it's a ravioli press. My mom had a wash cloth. Additionally, I worked very hard not to break bows or give any ideas, people rooted and plotted against me, this includes hot glue. New levels my friends, I am not sad I broke one, more so just impressed.

 

 

Employment, Apartment, and Adjustment

As I am writing this post, and looking at these pictures I see so much of college Rylee. Replace this smile with a concerning face and you could have photoshopped this out of Luaupalooza (I would be yelling at Levi Stevens) or any other event where I go into planning mode and over dramatize the work I have to do.

See: Crazy Rylee, Watch Out for Rylee Today, Calm Down Rylee, Do You Really Need a Backpack and Purse and Clipboard Rylee?, and Power Trip Rylee

It's my biggest fault, and I am working on it, okay?

 Now we (we meaning I) need to work on transferring these pictures from college to real world because of the story these photos really tell. I just told you about Boston. And it had been a time of despair. I kept praying. And kept hope almost solely on the positive responses of others. When you ask a priest for prayers in finding a job and he doesn't skip a beat before responding, "you'll find a job," it's oddly comforting. And the hope in the message of "Rylee, if you really want to serve Him, He will show up in a huge way. It seems impossible to you because it is, but nothing is impossible to Him." And even just the text message that reads, "JESUS." So, there was hope but it was rough. 

And then the next thing you know, you've gone from 5 months of applying without even a phone call to having two interviews in a day. And both want second interviews. And that perfect apartment you wanted? Available. And another one in your price range? Became available during your interview. All of the sudden, in the course of three days my prayer went from asking Him to show up in a huge way to saying, "What the heck God! I didn't ask for options?!?!?" I don't know what to do with options, and now there are two of us making the decisions which sounds like it would make these things easier but it really just makes you more concerned that he's saying what you want to hear or he is holding back to make you happy which is really what you are trying to do and you can't read what is going to make him happy so you go with what will make you happy and then you worry that you are being selfish. HALP!

But, I am happy to report, that one week after this period of options, I have a job and we have a perfect apartment. Thank you everyone for your prayers and concern, and know how happy we are to turn the prayers into praise! Also, shameless plug, we found a great deal on a two bedroom apartment so y'all need to make your plans to come visit!

The story behind the picture is that I got a voicemail offering me a job. I called Tim who immediately drove out to me. I called her back. Tim pulled up dancing and screaming. I shot him crazy eyes and mimed shhhhhhh. He runs over and dances around me waiting for the call to end. Call ends. He screams and lifts me off the ground. He's crazy and I love him.

Same State, Different Country

Let me describe the busyness of Tim's and my summer. After my 3.5 day and Tim's 2 day trip to Boston, we landed in Chicago. Scratch that. Tim landed hours before me (curse you AirTran for having one flight option a day) and was able to get lunch with K.Jo before grabbing our car and swinging by to pick me up. Then we had to rush, rush, rush home for session 2 of our NFP classes in South Bend. After which we went back to my house to go to sleep early, share stories of Boston with my family, and let Rylee cram for the next day. 12 hours later, we are on the road again. When does one breathe? You'll see!

I was so sick of fast food and craving some Subway (when am I not craving Subway?) so I made Tim stop for "a healthier option." The way home was DQ so you see what I mean. He kindly obliged and here I was obnoxiously taking pictures of this man over a 12" sub. He loved it. Clearly.

So we drove and drove and went through some construction and drove some more. We realized the construction was making us late so we -not so- wisely decided to take the back roads. It said it was only an additional 7 minutes and Tim was convinced he could make it up if not in bumper to bumper. So we cruised. Literally cruised. Through Southern Indiana. There were hills and trees and mainly a whole lot of nothing and it was beautiful. I love open space, such a contrast from the hustle to a big city airport the day before. I foolishly have no pictures of this rare beauty because I was trying to memorize my ToB presentation and add backgrounds to my slides and avoid the insane heat coming in on my side of the window and crawling to the back while we cruised. Tim thanked God on that trip that I don't get car sick, and here I am. Sorry, that was a lot of unnecessary background story to this trip. I could delete it but I wont.

Ahh. Saint Meinrad was so good to us. There was a threefold reason for us to go through all the effort to drive south: 1. Marriage prep with Fr. Christian, 2. I gave a presentation on ToB to their college interns, 3. to relax and spend time together away from it all. And praise God because all of those things went wonderfully. But seriously, Praise God because we didn't realize how much grace was being poured out from all three of them.

There is so much space in So. IN and aside from the bells EVERY 15 MINUTES a lot of peace and quiet, so much so that we went to the nearest pizza place for dinner on Friday when we got there and it was an hour away. Kid you not. But we didn't mind it, it made for a great car conversation. I would hate it to live there but you know, life.

This was the view from my room cell. Just kidding it really was a room, they don't let just any body into the monastery.

Archabbey Church

Throughout the whole weekend I found myself taking huge sighs of relief. Looking at the beauty of the little things and the big space and the peace and the comfort and the people. It was all so good. And so necessary to remember all that I have to be thankful for.

Thank you Fr. Christian for hosting us. We so loved your pace of life and your ministries there. We can't wait to host you in 36 days!

Side note: made Tim carry my backpack because after almost a week out of living out of my three condensable carry-on's, my back needed a break.

So, in the halls of the labyrinth of a monastery, I made Tim take a solo shot. Because I was ready to go home and get cracking (does anyone even still say that?) on wedding plans and apartment hunts and job searching and you know just summer. I knew I would blog it and for some absurd reason I thought my blog was worthy of making someone take unnecessary solo shots. Laugh with me folks.

Bostonia

Here I am. Finally able to bring myself to blog this now that there is more peace in my life. 

So Boston: Take Eight.

I got to Boston, my new city and landed and freaked almost immediately. It might have been because I was alone. Or maybe that after a month in suburban Indiana I was not ready for a big city again. Or maybe I was just overwhelmed. Or maybe it was a lot of these things at once. I don't know. But I do know that I popped up from the T and was so torn. Like look at the beauty and all of the opportunities. But also what the heck am I doing? So I walked myself on over to South Station to buy a Charlie Card because I needed something to do. And I ended up sitting there on a wooden bench for a half hour full eyes, focusing on my breathing so that I didn't vomit. So panic attack. It happened. I'm not proud that it did, but it did. Blergh. Emotion. I don't handle it well.

It got better with time though. And purpose. And people. That helped.

Steve and his family were so so good to me. Great to see him. And fight traffic with him. Selfies.

Some joy was added to the trip when Ryan texted me a picture of a day date with Nicole on the way to Volleyball, and miles away we are still rocking the same power outfits!

Apartment searching and job interviewing made for a busy 48 hours. With Tim it was good. He provided so much necessary support and perspective. I'm ready for this whole marriage thing.

The one super positive thing we were able to walk away from the week with was finding the greatest Irish pub in our hopeful future neighborhood, complete with authentic Irish accents. 

I don't know if I am ready for you Boston, but I am still excited for you.

Date Night

So I have a lot of blogging that I need to do, like a lot to catch up on. But for now I am going to skip it all and talk about last night. Because last night was a date night. And last night was lovely. And I can go out of order because it's my blog. And if I lose any followers because of it, well then I'm just confused becasue I have 4 followers and they all happen to be my closest friends soooo...

After a really stressful week and fear of drowning (see previous blog post) Tim suggested demanded that we have a date night. And I quote, "I just want to spend time with you. Just you. Because I'm tired of all our time being measured in standards of productivity." Can you tell what his love language is? And how am I to stand against his demands?

So we got all dressed up and went to a new-ish fancy Italian restaurant in DTSB because it's Restaurant Week! i.e. 2 meals for $33 look it up it's a national thing, find participating restaurants. Except not the one that Tim and I went to. We don't recommend that one. The food was subpar and the whole place confusing. They were aiming for trendy instead of Italian and landed at neither. Swing and a miss.

*No pictures because the lights were uncomfortably dim

So we left and headed out to Mishawaka's finest dollar theater. Well really its a $2 theater in the evening so false advertising there but you get the jist. They show the movies in the inbetween times, you know like after the non-sketch theaters and before RedBox or Family Video if you want to go old school. We saw the Lego Movie. And got a large popcorn, extra butter, so we could refill it on the way out the door and make my moms day (who will eat it even if it's days old she loves it so much, wanna know the key to Mamma Magee's heart?)

Tim planned the date and was so perfect all night. He held umbrellas and opened doors and I wanted to blog about my knight in Jcrew armor but when you pull out the camera, he abandons the door holding and runs for his life.It's as if he doesnt want the 22 page views to view his chivalry.

But then you take him for a Margarita, the man is no longer camera shy? (Key to Tim's heart= tequila?)

 I love this man. We had such a great night and so much to talk about. I am so lucky to have him in my life reminding me when to relax. You go on and find yourself a Tim Kenney ya hear?

This post is sponsored by Date Nights: essential for couples of varying levels of commitment. :)

Birthday Time

Late Spring and early summer present a heavy influx of birthday celebrations in the Magee Household. And that means the actual best thing ever. You pick the meal. Only people from big families have a true appreciation for this. Truly. And all other family members get to benefit from meals where everyone is present and dinner is homemade and on time and lasts for hours. With many people and many schedules, this is a huge blessing. 

You can tell I am one of my families when dinner choices include ribs and burgers and fries and mashed potatoes and watermelon. Hefty, hearty, Midwestern meals. I think two more years on the east coast with dairyfreeorganiclowfatvegan meals on the rise might kill me.

So we went to the beach for the boys birthday at the perfect time. 4pm. Everyone is leaving and the heat is falling. And the sun it setting. Perfect. 

HBD to all of these lovely people. Don't worry, each and every one of them got the Magee family rendition of the birthday song which includes replacing Alleluia with Happy Birthday to any and all of the Gospel Antiphons. Try it. Be impressed by it. And switch it up next time the candles come out. I betcha won't go back. We never did.

Unpictured: Dad's birthday. Sorry Daddy.

Hoarder Status?

My computer was running super duper slow. Has been for awhile now. It was starting to make me nervous that my beloved and extinct Macbook was on it's last leg. But fear not fellow friends! My computer is not dying. It is just full, full, FULL to the brim. So I am trying to rid myself of these things and bring my computer back to the pace of my life, speedy quick. But where to start?

The place that has the most use. Pictures. Because on my itty-bitty computer I somehow managed to store 25,000+ pictures. What? I mean I knew it was full of 2 cameras worth of pictures. And I knew I lacked the external hard-drive I needed. But who takes that many pictures in 4.5 years? Me I guess.

Now, you should know that in most areas of life I am the furthest from hoarder. I actually scoff at Tim who has a serious problem. I tend to remain emotionally unattached and throwing things away gives me such a thrill it makes people uncomfortable. So, what the heck am I doing hoarding pictures? So I knocked some sense into myself and am deleting. And deleting and deleting and deleting. But I wanted to remember some of the gems that I held on to for some reason or another, or no reason at all. And to some people who read this post, there will be great memories attached, and to most they will see this and question if I have a serious problem. Have fun looking at hoarder-girls blast from the past.

Note: These are in no particular order.

Also, some are included less for the image itself and more for the fact that I had about 30 similar images without cause.

Kudos to the usual camera theif suspects. Madeline, you should be glad that I didn't include any of your selfies.