The Fall Doldrums

I’ve been in a bit of a funk as of late. Finally settling into my new life, but still feeling displaced at times in this new area. I am very busy most of the time, but when I finally slow down I find myself to be super anxious and unfocused. I like to call this funk my “Artist’s Reverie.” Ever had that before? Where life seems so fast and slow at the same time, the lyrics of ballads suddenly start speaking your language, and you feel like you need to craft/write/read/draw/stare into space all the time?  No? Only me? Alright then, moving on.

I blame the weather. I am SO ready for it to be fall, but it is still hot and humid most days here in Georgia. I am even rebelling and dressing for the weather I want it to be, not for the weather it actually is. One might point out that wearing boots and scarves in mid-80 degree weather is probably what is causing my grouchiness. Perhaps.

And then today it hits me… October is right around the corner! As in next week! Wowzers. How did it get to be that time already? Pumpkins, sweaters, bonfires, fall colors, harvest… all of my favorite things jam packed in a few-week time period of the year.

But I have also realized that this year, just like every October for as long as I can remember, I will probably get the Fall Doldrums. The Fall Doldrums have plagued me ever since high school, always falling (ha, pun) in the last few weeks of October. I get antsy, and start asking myself those ever elusive, “What am I doing with my life?” questions. As the sky gets cloudy and the days become shorter, I always have this feeling of being trapped in boredom and monotony. I find that I am scolding myself often internally: “You will not find the meaning of your life on Pinterest. You will not find the… oh, okay… one more page...” I have a feeling this year will be hard as well, since I am away for the first time ever and missing out on all of the things I loved most about living in rural Illinois.

There are certainly things I am looking forward to in October… Luke has TWO long weekends, my sister Katie is coming to visit, I am going back to Illinois to see family and friends for 8 whole days (yippee!), Luke’s bromantic partner Nick is flying back with me for a week-long visit, and hopefully the pup will start learning to be a civilized creature as she begins her puppy training classes. Lots of great things happening in my favorite month of the year!

Hopefully the Fall Doldrums have just hit early this year, and/or I will figure out the meaning of life in time to FALL in love all over again with the autumn season and thoroughly enjoy my October without all the annual blahs.

Anyone have ideas on things to do to shake off the gloomies? I’m always up for a craft project ;)

I Must've Done Something Good: Part V - Where the Army Sends Us

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not so great at this blog thing.

As I sit here in the living room of my beautiful apartment, alone on a Friday night as Luke has all-night staff duty, I wonder why it's taken me so long to update.

And then I remember in the last 2 months, I've gotten married, moved, made new friends, tried to figure out what being an awesome wife to my endlessly good husband means, signed up to teach Sunday school, started a job, and got a puppy. And blogging is not on my to-do list every day. I will try to change that in the weeks to come. ;)

In this final installment of my summer series, I'm going to tell you what moving 800 miles across the county looks like:

An extended cab truck filled to the brim, both inside and out, a trailer hauling a Saturn with zero oxygen space, crates strapped on all around, a very expensive, VERY beloved Harley-Davidson motorcycle perched (at times precariously) on the back, and a conversion van with barely enough room to fit two awesome parents-in-laws in the front. Dats how we roll, people.

By the way, when we got here, we found out the Army would have paid for the biggest U-Haul we could rent. HA!.. Ha... ha. *sobbing quietly*

It was nuts. It was stressful and emotional and nerve wracking. I cried until we were out of Illinois, and went through two boxes of tissues: one for tears and one for a massive head cold that decided to plague me during probably the hardest couple of days of my life (excellent timing).

And then suddenly, it was okay. It was sometime as we were rolling through the gorgeous hills of Alabama that I reached over and took Luke's hand, and I knew it was going to be worth it. Sure, I'd never seen the house we were moving into, never visited the state that I was about to be a citizen of, and never intended on ever leaving my sweet country home prior to meeting this man. But I knew it was going to be fine. It was going to be better than fine. It was going to be great!

And great it is!

We moved into one kick-butt apartment. Seriously, I can run laps. I do, actually. It's beautiful and has such great charm.

(This is me, totes excited. "We get all this!?")

And got to decorate to my heart's content. 

(We're like...adults.)

After searching and church hopping for WEEKS within a two-state radius (no joke), Luke and I finally found a church that we love. Oh yeah, did I mention.... it's a block away? We started attending St. Maurice Catholic Church on Ft. Benning, and have't looked back. We had some misconceptions about attending a church that would obviously be so tied to the military, just because we thought it would be nice to "get away" sometimes and intermix with our civilian brethren (I joke... makes us sound like aliens. "Hello, human. Teach me your ways of not using acronyms for everything."). God had other plans, though, because after attending daily Mass one day on post, I somehow managed to walk away with a Sunday School gig for Luke and I.  We will be teaching 6th and 7th grade, focusing primarily on Theology of the Body Ah! Love. We are excited to share our passion for our faith and Christian sexuality. 

Coming here, I started out with no friends... 

("It's just me and you against the world, buddy!") 

(Yes, that's a HUGE DEAD cockroach in my house. Gross!)

And now we've met some amazing ones! We're meeting new people all the time, and just got back from a Florida vacation with some great new friends. It's very exciting, even for an introvert like me. 

(My first time in Florida! I didn't get eaten by a shark. Whoo hoo!)

Speaking of Florida, I have gotten to see some pretty cool, new, and exciting things while living in the south. Although I miss my mid-western manners* and corn fields, the south is a really unique place to live. (Besides the trees... the trees here are weird. They've got moss and pine-y things and...... never mind. Come visit and see them for yourself.) We've been all around Columbus area, Atlanta once, Destin, FL last weekend, and even threw in some pretty Alabama sunsets for good measure. 

(This is me petting a sting ray at the Atlanta Aquarium... so, so neat!!)

*Sidebar: Midwestern Friends, have you ever noticed how often we say "I'm sorry"? Apparently it's a mid-western thing that I never noticed. If I bump into you, I say, "I'm sorry." If I cut you off in the cereal aisle of the grocery store, I say, "I'm sorry." If you drop something on the floor that was 0% my fault, I say, "I'm sorry."  It's weird now to think about it. I have a friend from Oklahoma that pointed it out, and now we laugh about it every time. Sorry. 

Back to my point... 

I get to hang out with this guy ALL the time. I know, we're married, so that's like a thing now, but I'm still excited about it. 

(He is just so irresistibly good. He has an open mind and a kind heart. And he flosses every day, which I think makes him a saint.) 

After much discussion, I finally convinced Luke that we needed a companion, but not in the baby-shaped-sort just yet. So we got a sweet new puppy! Her name is Scout Francine, named after her Armor Corps roots and St. Francis of Assisi, who we believe is ever praying and interceding for us. He's also the patron saint of animals, which we're hoping will help since little, energetic Scout is quite the rascal sometimes in her puppy-ness.  She's keeping me busy, that's for sure! 

(Look at that face! How do you discipline that face?!)

And I'm sorry (ha!) but I'm going to say it. My hair in the Georgia humidity rocks. And so, I guess, I'll stay. ;) 

Army life has been a whirlwind, but it really has been nothing short of a great experience so far. People here are kind, and I am continually amazed at the genuine character and goodness of the men and women who serve our country, and their families who support them. I'm proud to count our little family among them. 

And so, the adventure continues... wherever the Army sends us next! 

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?

I Must've Done Something Good: Part IV - The Honeymoon

Alright, hiatus over. Back to the good stuff.

We left off here: Part III.

This handsome fellow and I had just said, “I do!” to morning-coffee-drinking, dirty-laundry-doing, random-slow-dancing, bed-hogging, you-are-stuck-with-me-FOR-EV-A marital bliss, and we were ready to party.

Our reception did not disappoint. Have I told you how fun our friends are? 

(Also, ladies, please take note how ridiculously awesome and professionally good-looking Luke's best man and my new brother-in-law Jake is, way over there on the left. You're welcome, Jake.) 

The morning after the wedding, Luke quite literally had to drag me out of bed. I had a grip on my pillow that would suggest I had a million dollars hidden inside of the pillow case. Though this sadly was not true, I was tired. So, so, so tired. 14 months of planning our big day, mixed in with a dash of 1^st year teacher struggles, plus the idea of packing up to move 10 days later was finally catching up to me and made me want to bury my head in my fabulous hotel pillows and never come out, a-la-scared-turtle.

Alas, I did, but not after making Luke promise that I would get daily naps for the next few… oh… months. He’s kept pretty good on that promise.  

We spent the morning with our families at Panera opening our cards, and then were off on our fabulous honeymoon awaiting us! We headed north into Wisconsin, toward our final destination of Door County, Wisconsin. After a somewhat scary encounter of getting lost in Milwaukee, in which we encountered a hit-an-run accident in a not so great part of town, we decided to go a little farther and stop for the night. We had our first married date at Panda Express (because we are fancy like that) and bought an $8 bottle of wine for our stop at Super 8 for the night. Ahh… the dream honeymoon getaway.

On Sunday we actually made it up to Door County. Luke and I were loving all of the car time, because it is usually the only place that neither of us are distracted by computers, chores, T.V., etc. We had some really great talks and went through an entire game of Honeymoon Table Topics (if you are a talker and you like conversation starters, I highly recommend investing in some of these bad boys).

When we knew we were getting close, Luke insisted that we needed to pull over to take a picture right as we got into Door County. This is how that conversation went:

Luke: “I bet there’s a huge sign with a pull off so tourists can stop and take pictures!”
Emily: “ I bet it’s a small county sign that we’ll nearly miss driving past.”

Mmm… who was right?

Once we got there, we checked into our absolutely fabulous hotel, Stone Harbor Inn . We cannot say enough good things about staying here. 

  

 After we checked in, all of our days seem to run together, which was exactly what we wanted. We had no schedule, no appointments, no where to be at any particular time. And so, we got to do a little adventuring of our own. 

(The two of us exhibiting our new status as married adults by riding on the luggage cart.)

Waking up to my new husband serving me breakfast in bed. 

(I tell ya what, I am a lucky lady!) 

Biking 10 miles around the lake. 

(One of us was more excited than the other.) 

Kayaking on the bay side in the early morning fog.

(Scary cave we "walked" our kayaks through because it was so low! It was awesome!)

Some of you may ask, "Golly gee, Emily, why do you look drenched in some of these pictures?"
Ahh, thanks for asking, loyal reader. My hubby decided about an hour into our tour that he needed to enter into more of a state of "exhilaration" to get all the bang for his buck. Enter in white caps near to shore.  Enter in Luke paddling us over near them. Enter in kayak tipping in said white caps. Enter in tour guide laughing hysterically as I point at Luke saying, "Lucas! You did that on purpose!!!"

Enter in getting the kayak right-side-up and ourselves situated just as another wave tipped us over again. Our tour guide asked us if that was grounds for divorce.

(He looks quite pleased with himself. I look quite cold.) 

 All in good fun. It made for a great story. 

More of us exemplifying adulthood. 

Pondering the meaning of life, marriage, and the pursuit of happiness. 

Not needing to ponder anything at all. 

Eating. Lots of eating. 

Fancy date nights in fairy-tale-esque places. 

Playing "Find St. Francis." 

(Seriously, St. Francis adopted us. He followed us everywhere. We should not have been surprised seeing as we met here.) 

An afternoon spa surprise, planned ahead of time by by this guy, who made this girl very, very happy. 

(Kayak incident forgiven.) 

Studying the local art. 

But best of all... getting to wake up next to this face.

(And the gelato, of course.)

We never wanted the few days to end, as we finally got to sit back, relax, and soak in all of the blessings God has given to us this past year. We talked about the wedding a little bit at the beginning, but in truth, we spent most of our time just laughing about silly things and enjoying not having to "discuss" or "plan" or "decide". We just were, and we did it together. 

I am quite sure that there is no one else in the world that I would rather be annoyed by, tickled by, prayed for, laughed at, or laughed with for the rest of my life. 

Even if that means tipping over in a kayak once in a while to keep things interesting. 

Next up, the last in this series of posts! I Must've Done Something Good: Part V - Army Life, Army Wife! 

I Must've Done Something Good: Part III - The Wedding

Aaandd, we're back. This is gonna be a long one, folks. Hold on to your hats. This is

THE WEDDING POST. 

(Duh Duh Duh)

We left off with this guy:

And this girl:

And this moment:

And their mutual agreement that the other person was pretty darn swell.

Nearly a month ago on July 5th, Luke and I were married at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Lacon. It is the church my dad grew up in, and the church my sisters and I were all baptized and confirmed in. It has always been my home church and probably will always remain my "home church", despite moving away. The threads of my family's lives are so intertwined with this place, and I'm blessed that it was the church my dad got to walk me down the aisle to marry the love of my life.

The morning of the wedding started off pretty normal. I slept in until about 8 AM, which was awesome. So much for a jittery bride or getting up early to get my hair done (more perks of sisterly-talent). I woke up, and with the advice of a dear friend in mind, prayed a rosary to get in the right state of mind for the day. It absolutely made all the difference, because there was hardly a moment of the day that I found unbearably stressful.

Before I went downstairs to hang out with my family (to be greeted by Steph with "BABY DAY!!" and "LAST SINGLE MORNING!!"), I prepared Luke's wedding gift. I wanted to put a lot of time and thought into it because, well, I've been putting a lot of time and thought into it for about the last 5 years.

Since 2008, and 2 1/2 years before I met Luke, I had been writing letters to my future husband. They included many of the times I was happy, sad, frustrated, and homesick for the person I wanted to meet more than anything. I didn't know who he was, but I wanted to let this special person know just how much I prayed for him, loved him, thought about him, and was waiting for him, until the moment I could give him the letters on our wedding day... whenever that would be. Obviously in the time that I knew Luke, I continued writing letters, but never addressed them to him (you know, just in case he left me at the altar). So, on the morning of our wedding, I wrote my last letter and finally got to write his name at the top of it.

(I know, totes adorbs.)

After I stirred from my beauty slumber/lounging, I went downstairs, got my hair done by my sister, laughed so, so much with my family, and pretty much just chilled. In fact, that's really all I did for the next 6 hours... chilled. Very calmly, very patiently. Over at the church my lovely ladies gathered in the rectory basement to get ready, and we ate, laughed, and chilled some more. It only added to the absolute perfection of the entire day.

Until the chilling became, "Um... uh oh. It's 20 minutes til the wedding and Emily is not dressed yet." Oops.

So I got dressed very quickly without much nostalgia or 1000 pictures of me slipping on my shoes or pinning my hair or freaking out because my fake eyelashes kept popping off. Those moments will have to be left to the oral histories.

 About 15 minutes before the wedding, Luke and I were each led to a corner of the church by our bridal party, while both of us had our eyes closed. Around the corner, they pulled our hands together, and the two of us had a few minutes to pray together quietly before the wedding, still without seeing each other and spoiling the fun.

And then, the rest is pretty much documented through pictures.

Seeing Luke for the first time. 

Cracking up halfway down the aisle because my dad whispering, "There's still time to run... I have the truck keys.... you can still back out." Mostly to keep both of us from losing it. Also laughing so loud the entire church heard and laughed, too. 

The beautiful wedding Mass. 

This moment. FINALLY. 

The sabre arch exit, that I managed to walk through without tripping over my killer awesome heels, which I thought was a win for the day.  

The hilariously terrifying moment when Luke did not know where his keys were. And this face I made. 

THIS PICTURE. (Our photographer was like, "Done. We are done for the day. I got all I needed.")

These beauties. 

 And these beasts.
(And I mean that in the best, 'you-are-such-a-beast' way). Seriously, these gents rocked it.

Our walk-in song, which Luke picked out and is pretty much my favorite now. 

Dancing with my dad. 

 Dancing with this guy.

(You know how happy I look? Not even close to how happy I felt.) 

New friends. 

Old friends.

 Being serenaded by devastatingly handsome military men in front of 225 people. 

But most of all this: 

And this. 

And this.

I know it is just disgustingly cliche to say your wedding day is the happiest day of your life, but seriously people. I got to have one big party with all of the people I love most in this world, and it was a blast. I got to marry a man with the biggest heart and have a beautiful wedding to celebrate our love. 

Most importantly I got to start a marriage with someone who will not be afraid

to show me the way in dark times,

who I will get to have my cake and eat it too with,

(Maayyy have been a stretch, I know.) 

and share in this crazy adventure we are about to embark on called life. 

It was the perfect day. A lot of words and stories still really can't say any more or any less than that. It was more than happiness, because there is a reason that marriage is formed as a symbol of Christ's love for the Church. It is joy, sadness, fulfillment, and sacrifice all in one. It is the rock I am going to form my family on, and the springboard for the rest of my life. I am blessed, overjoyed, and still in awe of the people we have come to know on our journey who have made the paths we took toward each other full of beauty and faith. As our paths merge into one, Luke and I just want to thank, from the depths of our hearts, all of the family and friends who made our day what it was.
Without you we would be lost. 

"Cause you make me
Laugh a little louder
Love a little harder... 

And I feel alive when I'm with you.
Every time it's something new.
You're the only reason I fight.
You're the best thing in my life." 

Dudes, if you made it through all that, rock on. Next up is Part IV: Honeymoon Stories.

It won't be as long, totes promise.