Wow, what a trip!

We managed to leave at 1:17am (only 17 minutes late!). It felt very odd, because I'd spent the whole day getting ready and I was ready to go to bed... but it was time to leave. I was hoping that I'd be ready to go in time to sleep about 2-3 hours before we left, but that didn't happen.

I made muffins and pizza rolls for breakfast and lunch on the way up. (They lasted for breakfast and lunch on the way back too, and we just ate the last pizza rolls.)


Pesto and sun-dried tomato pizza rolls.

Mixed-berry cornmeal muffins and blueberry muffins

Pizza rolls (recipe from Trina's blog). Originally pepperoni rolls... I made these with ground hamburger, and, like Trina, I put the sauce in the roll instead of dipping. Dipping was too messy for a car trip.

I made two pans of the hamburger pizza rolls.

Sadly, I didn't get any pictures on the drive up because it was either dark, or I was driving or I was asleep. Sarah got some. She will post them... or else.

This is the swimming pool at our motel room. We arrived, unloaded, got into our suits, went down the pool... got to swim a little bit and then? It thundered, and started raining, and lightening was everywhere.

This is the view from our second-story motel room of the pool. In the rain.

Joel didn't want to swim anyway.

I failed to get pictures at the rehearsal dinner. I also failed to get pictures at the wedding. I don't know what I was thinking! I was just enjoying it all... Mom and Sarah got some pictures. But Chris and Kristen wrote their own vows, and they were so sweet, I immediately wished that I had thought to get it on video!! *bangs head on desk* I also wish I'd recorded the toasts. The groomsmen were amusingly unanimous in their expressions of awe and shock that CHRIS was married the first out of all of them. And he apparently told one of the groomsmen (AJ) only about a year ago that he would purposefully schedule his wedding one day after AJ's just to make sure he won. And, uh... he lost. AJ said the purple shirt and tie (his groomsman attire) did NOT count as payment for the bet. :P

But I am getting ahead of myself. Before the wedding, we managed to swim in the pool after all. It was the perfect temperature water, and it was a nice sunny day. We all got nice sunburns. So we swam, and then ate lunch, got dressed, packed up and checked out of our motel room.

The wedding was beautiful, and very unique. Kristen carried a bouquet that I believe was composed of Gerbera Daisies. The bridesmaids were in deep purple, the groomsmen in light purple dress shirts and ties, and Chris was in a darker purple shirt and tie. (I really like the idea of having the groomsmen and groom in a color and not tuxes.) The daisies were bright pink, orange and yellow. It was all very sweet and refreshing.

The reception was a full dinner. It was very formally set up, but some people changed into more casual clothes. The men in the wedding party had to suffice with just changing from dress shoes into flip-flops.












The wedding party table.

First dance.

Cutting the cake. (Yes, like a stupid amateur photographer, I cut the cake out of the picture. Get over it.)

Feeding each other the cake. Chris suggested that they step back and try to toss it in each other's mouths... Kristen almost went for it, but didn't want to risk messing up Chris's shirt.

It was a really special trip. I'm so excited for Chris and Kristen. I wish they lived closer so that we could see them more often! Kristen really brings out the best in Chris. He's always been a great guy, and a really nice cousin, but he was usually reserved and Kristen gives him so much joy. I've never seen someone so altered (in a good way) by a special someone. I know they will have a great life together. I just hope they're around enough for me to see it. =D


And now... can you see the "I didn't get much sleep, and now we're going to travel through the night AGAIN?!?" behind Sarah's smile? We left Illinois at 8:30pm for NC. We got home this afternoon at 12:15pm.

I drove a grand total of 8 and a half hours, and 621 miles.

It was fun!

~Lizzie

Driving to Illinois!

My cousin is getting married Saturday, and we're driving up for the rehearsal dinner and wedding... and then driving back, right after the wedding. Half of the entire trip will be spent driving, but I'm excited, first because I really want to see my cousin and meet his fiancee, but also because I've never been to any states but NC and VA, and this trip will add West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to my list! =)

We're not sure exactly when we're leaving... anywhere between 10pm tonight and 3am tomorrow have been suggested. I think 1am is our current goal. That should put us arriving in IL somewhere around 1-2 pm Central time. Unless we take long stops... which would be nice. The rehearsal dinner isn't until 7, so we'll have plenty of time if we leave at 1am.

Then we're planning to leave right after the wedding (we're guessing that will be about 5pm) and that will put us home sometime between 5-7am Sunday morning.

So I better get back to getting ready now!

~Lizzie

My recent thoughts on courtship...

I was raised with the idea of courtship. Even when I was little, I knew that I wasn't going to have the typical "boyfriend/girlfriend" relationship. When I was about 7, two of my friends in the neighborhood had boyfriends. And I didn't know WHY it was wrong, I just knew it was wrong. (Unfortunately, though, I decided that I needed to fit in, so for about a year I had a pretend "half"-boyfriend.)

As I grew older, I read many books on the subject of courtship, and formed my own opinions of what it should be. I understand the reasons against dating, the reasons for courtship, and now have several good reasons that I could have told the 7-year-old me why not to lie, and to even encourage my friends on a different path. But that is past now... there are so many things I wish I could change.

But then, I swung too far in the other direction. If it was "dating" then it was wrong and if it was "courting" then it was right! And I had two very specific ideas of how courtship and dating would be (even though I have never experienced either one) and I don't know what I would have called some relationships, because hardly any fit into my tight little molds.

Finally, I am arriving at what I hope is a correct perspective. I believe that whether you are courting or dating, there are three important points of distinction.

If:
1. You are heading towards marriage
2. You are careful not to emotionally wound the other person (if at all possible)
3. You keep God at the center of your life and relationship

.... then you are courting, no matter what you call it.

If you're just in a relationship for temporary fun and are ready to "dump" the other person as soon as you're tired of them (a week or 3 years later) then frankly, I don't know how you can have God at the center of your life and relationship... but even if you do, what you're doing is dating.

It's interesting to be getting to the age where people fairly close to my own age are getting married. Sarah Garner is the first in my life. (And she is a few years older than me, and someone I've always looked up to -- like when she told us to stop throwing teddy bears on top of the ceiling fan, right, Anna? =P). I think she and Michael have a great story, and it broke away the last remnants of my "this is how it has to be" mold.
It took me long enough, but now, I finally understand that everyone is different, and even if everyone in the world courted, not one of them would have the same story as someone else. I know, that should be obvious... I'm just the kind of person who misses the obvious on first glance.

So, even though I have no idea how my story will go, I have come up with what I think is my ideal... although I doubt it will actually happen that way. I really just want to be friends with him, whoever he is, first.

I'm really excited about all the stories I'll get to see with my friends' relationships in the coming years. And of course, I am eager to know what God has planned for me. I don't think my story is going to be opening up any time soon, though... I don't know if it should feel this way, but the older I get, the less ready I feel for marriage. Maybe it's like Aslan said in "Prince Caspian": "If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been proof that you were not." =P And in that case, I need to feel even less sufficiently ready!

~Lizzie

P. S. My thoughts came together pretty quickly! ... I'm not sure how coherent they are, though. =P

*whew* Yes!!

It is with great joy and relief that I announce: the cast managed to convince Mr. Green that we needed more rehearsal time! I don't know if it was the eloquence, how pathetic the rehearsal was, or a combination of both, but whatever it was, we get to be at the venue ALL DAY this Friday, starting at 10:30am and continuing until after the first show is over... we probably won't get home until 11pm. That probably sounds kind of miserable (and it will be until the show adrenaline kicks in!) but we really need it.

This development has lifted about 10 pounds of stress from my mind. (Which is odd, considering that I will be EVEN MORE busy now...) I can basically forget about the play until Thursday. Which frees me up to relax, and calmly get ready for the voice recital tomorrow and the dance things coming up Monday and Tuesday. *huge sigh of profound contentment*

A romantic courtship/marriage musing post may be coming sooner than I thought. :P

~Lizzie

I feel like blogging something...

But unfortunately, I don't feel like I have much to say. I could announce that I FINALLY got to clean my room yesterday. But unless you saw the wreck that was my room, you won't care. The few of you that did see the catastrophe are probably rejoicing... and perhaps doubting that it actually happened.

I could also talk about my recital/performance/play/life schedule that starts tomorrow, but that usually gets boring... I suppose I could try it in a different format than usual though. If you don't want to know my schedule, then skip the bullet points. :P

• Tomorrow: Dress rehearsal for You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and the Lighthouse graduation (Sarah's playing in the band.)
• Sunday: Possibly church, voice recital (eeeeek.)
• Monday: Swimming, dance class picture day.
• Tuesday: Dress rehearsal for dance recital
• Wednesday: Just swimming... but it's not too late for something to get added...
• Thursday: Again, just swimming... but I feel like there's going to be something else.
• Friday: First performance of YAGMCB.
• Saturday: Dance recital, second performance of YAGMCB.

I'm glad I wrote it out... if only for my own sake, because now I think maybe it isn't too awfully busy... the stress makes it feel pretty crazy though. I constantly think I'm forgetting something... or maybe SEVERAL somethings. :\

I've also been debating if I should do my own love/marriage/romance post inspired by Sarah (Garner's!!!!) wedding. It has set me on an interesting morsel of thought since last Saturday, but I can't decide if I want to try to make my thoughts coherent. Or if anyone would even want to read it if I did. (... just in case you didn't catch it, that's your cue to make your wishes known... ;) )

And now, I feel that there's something I should be doing... I must go try to not stress over whatever it might be.

Oh, and don't be surprised if I don't post for the next week. =D

~Lizzie