Musings

There's a lot happening in the world right now. Some things that impact all of us like the presidential election. Some things that impact many of us like Lance and his latest news. Some things that impact my closest friends and family like our wedding.

It's hard to balance all that's going on right now and still focus on trying to get through the day to day to-dos. Some days feel really hectic and tense.   I have done what I can to influence the presidential outcome (yay for early voting in Texas) and will continue to do what I can do to ensure that LIVESTRONG is seen as a separate entity from Lance.  Now I must focus on my wedding.  This is the only wedding I'm planning to have and it's such an exciting and memorable time.

I have heard many times that the wedding day will fly by. That I will hardly remember anything.  I'm sure this will happen to me (because why wouldn't it if it does to everyone else) so I really want to make the most of the time I have leading up to the wedding.

I'm officially off work for 3 weeks now. This is the longest I have ever taken off work and the timing is good and bad. Currently my days are filled with errands and self care and beginning to welcome visitors into town.

Katie and Rob arrived from England on Saturday night and we spent most of Sunday with them. It was so special to me. Not only because it was great to see Katie but I loved getting to spend more time with Rob and for them to get to know Carl.

So I apologize if I'm not the greatest blogger in the coming weeks as family arrives and our free time is taken up with last minute errands. And as we head off to Spain (without my computer!) and enjoy our much needed honeymoon.  But I will have some great stories to share in a couple of weeks!

This Weekend's Projects

I had my last work trip (before the wedding) this past week. While it was in one of my favorite cities (NYC) at my favorite time of year, I was happy to come home on Friday night and put in a full weekend of wedding related prep and errands. With officially less than 2 weeks left every second counts (yes, that was a purposeful reference to Lance's book).

Carl's dad came in town to help with some land related projects. The final things to complete are the following:

1. The step up onto the deck
2. The dance floor
3. Final land prep and clean up

Carl and his dad got some of the step completed on Saturday but it was pouring down rain (even hailing) a lot of the day, which delayed some of their progress. I went out to the land and brought them lunch and worked on my signage plan.  I now have the wood selected and the list of signs I need to make. This is a project for next week, once I'm off work.

The dance floor supplies are all bought and should be completed next weekend, along with a big group clean up.  It really does feel like it's all finally coming together.

The big project today was beer bottling!  Carl brewed 20 gallons of beer a couple of weeks ago and today began the assembly line to prep for distribution.

Carl and I have worked on many projects together but I think this may have been our most successful. It really highlighted both our strengths - Carl and his physical strength and inventive strategies and my efficiency and process expertise.  We were unstoppable.

First, there was bottle soaking.  We had to clean the over 200 beer bottles in a large tub.

Then we had to rinse. We had to ensure the soap and residue was all gone.

Then we moved inside to begin the bottling process.

Carl had to do something to get each jug flowing to then pour into the individual (freshly cleaned) bottles.

Then I got to cap them!

All in all it took us about 6 hours. But I felt a huge accomplishment that we have almost 200 beers for our friends and family to enjoy during our ceremony.  It was well worth the mess that was our kitchen for a few hours.

Now only one more (albeit hectic) week of work before the final prep, wedding and honeymoon are finally here!

Licenses and Brews

This week, Carl and I went to get our marriage license.  I did a lot of research ahead of time to confirm that we could get it in Travis County even though we're getting married in Blanco County. I couldn't find a clear answer so we just went to the County Clerk's office and asked. The only thing they seem to care about in Texas is if you are related. Turns out, you can't get married if that's the case.

So, it's official, we have our marriage license! And in 22 short days we'll be married.

In other news, Carl took on another project for our wedding this past week and home brewed our ceremony beer.  While we'll have kegs for the reception, Carl made beer for our guests to enjoy when they arrive and during the ceremony. I love how many personal touches we're going to have at the wedding. It makes all of this so worth it.