one week and counting!
As you have probably noticed due to our lack of blogging, we have been drowning in wedding prep stuff. Fortunately, all the hard work, sleepless nights and endless decisions are coming to an end in 7 days. Hard to believe there is so much involved in preparing for an event that lasts such few hours!! Although, I am beginning to get excited as I see things come together.
So what exactly have we been up to?..hmm...get comfy while I attempt to unravel the whirlwind of days!
We found the missing injured kitten and despite a close call last night, where he seemed almost a gonner (!), it looks like he will survive and be fine. I have decided to detach myself emotionally from them because it was absolutely horrifying and heart-breaking witnessing that dog attack last Friday. Sounds really pathetic to those who aren't animal lovers I'm sure, but I can't even handle watching wildlife programes when the lions hunt other smaller creatures let alone watching a tiny kitten being taken into the jaws of a white Alsacian!
I had my last day at school yesterday which is a nice relief because now I don't have to be up at 6am. My family from England have been flying in and so we've had many late nights catching up and talking weddings. Now, I can enjoy it without waking up at the crack of dawn!
Today we (John, me, my brother, my cousins and three friends of mine) are all going to Limassol to a Sting concert! After we watch the England World Cup Football game of course. Dont know which to be more excited about....at least if England lose then seeing Sting will be something to enjoy and take our minds off another depressing let down! (For those of you out of the World Cup loop, England have a tendency to win and lose randomly...very unpredictable game history and yes..very very annoying!!) The USA game is on Monday against the Czech Rep...could be an interesting game.
Tomorrow is my Hen night (bachelorette party) and we're going to an Italian restaurant all wearing a crazy hat or wig! Should be fun.
This week has been a crazy time of driving to other towns on various wedding business which is really wearing us down. John and I both haven't been very well and it's making things more difficult. Keep us in your prayers because we don't expect to get much time to rest this week.
We are increasingly excited about our approaching trip and reception in two weeks. It will be nice to see most of our USA peeps again soon.
Hope we get a chance to blog again this week before the wedding. If not, we would just like to say thanks for your prayers, support and kind comments. We love you all.
Leia
XX
Two Weeks and Counting
So... we're down to two weeks before the big day. I think maybe we should change the title of this blog from "Deep Breaths" to "Our Lungs are Aching for Air." Any anxiety I feel at the moment has nothing to do with being married, and everything to do with wondering how in the world we're going to finish getting all the details taken care of. As most of the men in the audience know, being a groom basically means being dragged around for several months by a group of women who ask for your opinion on things that you don't really care about (like, "Which guestbook do you think is prettier?") and assume that they don't need to ask your opinion on the things that you actually would like some input on (like, "Would you rather go shopping all day tomorrow or do something a little less torturous?") ;-) And it seems that the list of little details that simply must be considered never actually gets any smaller. Again, my advice to you all (and I cannot stress this enough) is to elope. It's so much less stressful.
Having gotten that off my chest, I must admit that, now that a few things are finally taking shape, I think we're going to have a beautiful ceremony. Leia and I have prepared a slideshow with pictures of us as a couple interspersed with some of our favorite quotes about love and marriage, which will run as guests are entering the church. We have a unique unity ritual planned involving the mixing of brightly colored water instead of the traditional candle thing. The back garden of the church is going to be all lit up and decorated with flowers for our receiving line. I think it will be a beautiful day... I just can't wait for it to get here!
At the moment, Leia is out having another fitting with her wedding dress and picking up her custom-made wedding shoes. I love seeing how excited she gets about being a bride.. it's very cute. I don't really get the same thrill about being stuck in a tuxedo for eight or ten hours, but at least I can enjoy her excitement.
Now for a quick rundown of some of the highlights since the last time we posted (I know, I know... it' s been awhile).
* Last Friday we finished our series of lessons with the youth group, and then last night we all went out for a food and fellowship night in downtown Nicosia. We're currently trying to determine whether we have enough interest to go ahead with our plans for youth camp in July. Because there's so little time between our honeymoon and the camp, we have to start planning lessons now if we're going to pull it together in time. At first it seemed like there weren't enough kids who could make it, but after talking with them last night it looks a bit more positive.
* Some time last week (Thursday maybe? The days are all blurring together at this point) we went to the beach for a few hours so Leia could work on her wedding-day tan. We went swimming together for the first time, which was quite fun, although by the time I could finally get my chest wet, poor Leia was treading water for dear life. :-) Anyway, that was a very fun day.
* Last night we had a terrible tragedy. A dog got into our back garden through a gate that had been inadvertently left open by someone who was doing some work around here yesterday and killed one of our kittens, and mauled another one (who may or may not survive). I was on the phone at the time, and I heard Soula and Leia screaming. Leia had chased after the dog with a garden chair to scare him off, and by the time I got to the back of the house she was crying and trembling and hyperventilating. Needless to say, it was a terrible scene, and it really upset me to see her so shaken. I stayed with her last night until she fell asleep, and fortunately she didn't have any nightmares or anything.
So as you can clearly see, never a dull moment. We are both really worn out right now and basically just can't wait to be married and enjoy a couple weeks of much-needed rest.
It's been great to see s0 many recent updates from our other blogger friends (Sean and Laura, Ben, Emily, Amber). Good job guys. Now you can start leaving hints in your posts about how John and Leia's blog never gets updated. ;-) We really miss all of our family and friends and are so excited about seeing so many of you soon. From what we've been told, our Cleveland reception is going to be lovely, and we really want to thank all of those who have been donating their time and expertise to make that day special for us.
See you in a few days. In the meantime, comment away. Thanks for all the kind words and prayers. You all really keep us going.
–John
