San Diego (A.K.A. Sunny D)

No time for relaxation. Friday was our first full day at Home and it was not a slow one. I believe I woke up at 5 AM (thinking it was 7 AM because of the time difference) and began cleaning. I unpacked all of the kitchen gifts, washed them, and put them where they needed to go in cabinets. Then it was on to the living room and bedrooms. By the time 8:00 PM rolled around it was looking a little more decent and I decided to take all the rest of the junk and put it in boxes so I could stack them and make it look somewhat normal...because....at 10:30 Lizzo flew in to visit!!!!

I made Micah be the taxi driver so I could shower before she arrived. But then it was chill time while the three of us sat and chatted in front of the T.V. And then shortly after it was off to bed. In the morning we all got up and got ready so we could head off to the zoo. Micah was not too thrilled about the upcoming adventure but he came along for some quality Whitney/Liz/Micah time. And what a time it was. Liz and I were like 4 year olds at the zoo and loved every moment of it! Micah seemed to enjoy himself as well.

Mr. Panda Bear....laying in the shade looking ohhh sooo fluffy

Some really messed up animal...Part Zebra part Horse...they need to stop this mixed breeding stuff...haha But it looks cool

Guess what this is.....Oh Ok I will have to tell you. It's 2 Hippo butts...I though their tails looked funny...haha
Hello HIPPO
Little Baby Panda in the tree...So sweet

After the zoo we cooled off a bit a headed to our favorite little Mexican place….Miguel’s on Coronado Island, which is apparently everyone’s favorite little Mexican place because we had to wait 1 ½ hours (but it was worth it!!) Then we headed back home for bed….worn out doesn’t even begin to describe how we felt. And then at 5 AM Micah woke me up as he headed off to the Airport for a business trip. Yes we are home for 2 days and he leaves me fore 10 days. He will be visiting Belgium, Slovakia, France, and Chicago….BOO

But Lizzo stayed with me again Sunday and Monday so I was not too lonely. We ventured out to IKEA and Wal-Mart on Sunday. Learning to drive in a big unfamiliar city without Tom-Tom was a slightly nerve wrecking experience…but we made it with no injuries :o) Then it was off to the pool to catch some sun and relax. And of course, we finished off the day with some Cold Stone Ice Cream. Monday was then my first day driving downtown San Diego and parallel parking (in this city anyhow). Again it was a safe experience….And I went with Liz to check into her hotel (she was supposed to be here on business anyhow so she just have them fly her here early so she got a free vacation out of the deal ….smart girl) We wandered up and down streets looking in shops and checking out restaurants and coffee shops. Then it was Goodbye for now as I headed back home to finish up some cleaning and head to bed.

Now it is a week filled with “Thank You” note writing, more unpacking and organizing, looking for a job, and packing for the Honeymoon (which is on the 13th, and don’t ask me where because I don’t know due to it being a surprise).

I cannot wait for my Hubby to be home in a week!!!

A New Journey

If you know me, you know how I LOVE to see new places and experience new things. I prefer change to static life, and change is what I get!

Our wedding was the happiest day (thus far) in my life. I honestly cannot explain how incredible I felt all day long. It went too quickly....way too quickly. I didn't get to speak to half of our guests (I'm sorry to those I missed; I love you all dearly I was just a whirlwind of a bride and had no organized method of meeting with people).

After the craziness ended I got to spend a few special moments with my Maid Of Honor (who makes me tear up every time I think about how much I miss her). She helped me get out of my incredibly filthy and incredibly heavy wedding dress. She had also aided my husband in decorating our hotel suite so I felt special when I finally got to relax. A girl couldn't ask for a better friend and I cannot wait to fly home to stand up as her Maid Of Honor in 57 days! I miss you Beautiful B.

In the morning Micah and I were greeted bright and early by some of our guests who stayed in the same hotel as us....Thanks for the love Chi Omega's and Jennie and Dave. I love you all and was incredibly excited to hear you all pounding on the door at 9 AM.

Then we packed up and headed to open up gifts with the family and said some goodbyes to my brother and Micah's sisters. Bryce and Zach...I miss you guys and cannot wait for you to come out and visit. I could not ask for better brothers to support me.

Jennie and Dave got us the rest of the day and they were amazing friends and helped us pack up all of my belongings....thanks for loving us and being there even when you needed to get home to sleep.

Monday morning we said goodbyes to Grandpa Herman and Mavis and we surprised by a run in with Aunt Kathy who we were delighted to see!

On the Road....for far too long. Crunched in an overloaded Jeep Compass Micah and I headed across Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and into Colorado where we finally stopped for a bit of rest in a sketchy town. The drive was long but it was fun to just sit and talk for 10 hours. Love you babe!

Driving through the Beautiful state of Colorado

God's Creation is honestly...breathtaking!

Woke up in the morning and headed out bright and early Driving through Colorado (the most beautiful state I have seen ever seen) and then on to Utah (the most boring but interestingly pretty state I have ever been in). We decided to make the trip a little thrilling when we were close to empty and realized the closest gas station along our route was 90 miles ahead of us and the other was 30 miles back the opposite direction. We literally coasted in neutral down every hill in hopes to save some gas and not get stranded in the 98 degree desert. I asked Micah what our game plan was if we ran out of gas...he said "well baby, I will start jogging" And with much praying...and more praying...we made it, still had 0.5 gallons left in the tank. If we would have been in drive the whole while instead of neutral we would have ran out of gas....God was watching over us.
Grateful for gas we headed out trying to make up the hour of time we lost backtracking to the gas station....finished off Utah, Arizona, and Nevada.

Utah...A weird pretty....and a HOT pretty

Micah when we stopped off to check out the views

We look like we had been riding in a car for the past 24 hours...Oh wait, we had.

Our gas tank and we frantically made our way back to the gas station.

We stopped in Vegas and stayed over night in Planet Hollywood. It was nice to be able to roam the city together and finally be out of the car for a day. We saw Steve Wyrick's magic show (Highly recommend!!), wandered through shops, ate lots of food, and watched Micah win $250 in craps (where I almost soiled my pants as he laid down $100 to start with....I am not a gambler) We enjoyed the extreme heat and visited the Siegfried and Roy Secret Garden where they keep Tigers and dolphins.....I was in heaven. It was worth the $15.00 because I enjoyed it, but the exhibit only takes about 15 minutes to walk through. I got our money's worth because it took me about 1.5 hours (sorry baby).

Finally out of the car and enjoying Vegas....

Definitely not as good as the real thing...But it sure brought back Memories (For which I have the Duffy family to thank!)


I loved the Greek atmosphere in Ceasars Palace...probably my favorite part of Las Vegas

Enjoying the Air condition of the malls....I love how the ceilings are painted like the sky...I sure thought i was in heaven when I was walking past Gucci, Coach, Louis Vuitton, Kate Spade, and Burberry.....

Outside The Mirage....Beautiful landscaping and fountains!

Dolphins!!!

Little Baby Dolphin showing off

Baby Tiger....I would pay anything to be that guy!!

Micah, wishing his Wife was not obsessed with taking pictures

IIIITTTT GOT ME!!!!!!!!!

Then it was...On the road again. 6 more hours in the car and we were.....HOME.

I must say that I was quite relieved to be able to unload the car and start setting up the apartment (in a slightly more organized fashion than Micah had attempted prior to my arrival.) There is a lot of work to be done….

PICTURES

A sneak peak at our professional pics are now online....We LOVE our photographers!

www.reichmanphoto.com/blog check them out and be sure to click on the link to look at the slideshow!

Hope you love them as much as we do

Mr. and Mrs. Micah Roeschley

It is true....I am no longer Whitney Janssen and that's fine with me. For those of you who were unable to make it to the wedding or just wish to relive it...here are a few shots. I took them all from other people so the quality is not the best but when they are on our photographers website i will be sure to post that so you can check it out!

The wedding was literally everything i had ever hoped for and more. most of my closest friends were there to celebrate with us and the love and support was overflowing. Pastor Tom Zobrist gave us a ceremony that placed God first and spoke words of truth like no one else could. We are so grateful for his teaching.

I always said i would never cry at my wedding, but sure enough i was in tears within a minute of walking down the aisle with dad.

I honestly could not have made it through the day without many of the people there but a few stick out in my mind:

Todd and Jamie Reichman, spending all day with you made me feel so much more calm. I knew that no matter what was going on you were sure to capture it on film, and helped guide me through the day. The pictures you took are breathtaking and we thank God for you presence in our lives. (and i miss you both and even cried a little when we left.)

Katie and Luke, Thanks for standing up with us and our Maid of Honor and Best Man, we are so grateful for your friendship and unconditional love.

Bridesmaids and groomsmen, we LOVE YOU all and cannot thank you enough for all the running around you did for us during the wedding. You never complained and made sure that we felt no stress during the day. You are some of our closest friends and we will never let that go.

Families, thanks for putting up with us (me) for the past 7 months of planning. And thanks for doing everything you could to allow me the resources to have my dream wedding. It would not have been possible without any of you.

Julia, Laura, and Heather....the wedding music was flawless and i cannot tell you how much it brought to the wedding. I received so many compliments on your beautiful music and with that i could hear it over and over again.

Pastor Tom and Cindi....you are honestly the most amazing people EVER and we are so grateful for all that you did for the wedding. We love you both.

I'm leaving out so many people but don't think i don't love you all just the same. But the blog could get boring with all those little personal messages so enjoy the pictures and i will write more about the weekend later.

Myself and my little ring bearer getting used to his pillow that he would throw like a football during the ceremony...Love it

Maid of Honor Katie and myself at the rehearsal dinner.

Sophie Ann!!! My beautiful little flower girl.

Erin doing my hair while Brittney is taking a nap on my lap.

Erin and myself after my hair was finished.

It took a lot of people to get me in the dress but it went rather smoothly.

Katie!!! I love you Maid of Honor

The Bridesmaids at the reception I think....

The wedding party....don't ask me how we got everyone in one pic but it was defintely not easy.

Maid of Honor, Best Man, and Mr and Mrs Roeschley (almost lol)

My little Dylan giving me a good luck kiss before the wedding

Trying to escape to the reception

Cutting the cake

He enjoyed hunting down the garter....and of course i was scolding him during the process

Our first dance and Mr and Mrs

Step Daddy Leon dancing during the dollar dance

Myself and Hubby and my Maid of Honor and her Fiance Jerrod

The Chi Omega's!!!!! Oh how i love you all

Dancing with three of my favorite ladies. Love you Katie, Sophie and Brittney...and Love love love this picture! haha

More to come later

Who said planning a wedding was easy?

We are now down to 4 days.... I honestly never thought we would get here, but now I'm wishing I still had more time. Basically everything major is done, but the little details that can make a person go insane still remain. This week all final payments will be made, programs will be assembled, the candy buffet will be pieced together, dress picked up, planning phone calls made, mani-pedi with the Maid Of Honor, and of course the marriage license will be picked up....and the list goes on.

Final guest count: 313
Bridesmaids: 7
Junior Bridesmaids: 2
Groomsmen: 8
Ring Bearer: 1
Flower Girl: 1

Organization.....a must.....so for those of you who make fun of my OCD it is not being put to good use. Considering I alone am having to keep track of everything, piece everything together, and make the majority of the decisions.....it is necessary to be an obsessive compulsive organizer and
perfectionist. However this obsession made me sick....literally. exactly 2 weeks before the wedding my body began shutting down. I don't use that expression lightly....103 fever, sore throat, laryngitis, sinus headache, no sleep, cough, runny nose, and eventually ear problem. according to the doc there was so much pressure in my head that my eardrum kept popping and swelled up like a balloon. He believes it ruptured (which would explain why it felt quite numb and i couldn't hear out of it) but said he could not be sure because the swelling was covering it up. SOOO he piled on the medicine and now over a week later i am still trying to get better. The ear pain is definitely better, but still not normal. Hopefully i will be 100% by Saturday.

Friday and Saturday we bachelor and bachelorette parties. Mr. Micah and his buddies camped out on a lake all night and seem to have enjoyed themselves. I went out Friday with my favorite twins (Jennie and Betsy) and Jeeves (aka Dave our driver) and met up with Dani down town. Just a low key sittin around talking kind of evening with occasional dancing. Then Saturday it was shopping and dinner at Flat Top Grill with the best of the best. Thanks to those of you who made the time to show up even if only for dinner. It really meant a lot to me!

The plans for the Wedding and after are as follows:
Rehearsal Friday at 6
Rehearsal Dinner at Jonah's
Wedding Saturday at 3 (but bridal party starts at 8 AM)
Reception at Packard Plaza at 5
Sunday is breakfast with the friends and family still in town, and then packing up the vehicle for the week long drive back to California.
Back in Cali Friday morning and Friday Night Liz O comes to stay for a week while Micah heads off to Belgium for work.
Honeymoon September 13-20 and i cannot tell you where we are going because my amazing Fiance planned it (with the help of my Maid of Honor) and I am not allowed to know until we get to the airport!!!

I think we should be back to a normal schedule in a month or so.......then i have to find a job :0)

Race to the Alter

We are now down to 22 days until "I Do" and all I have to say is...I'm ready!!! The planning may not be 100% complete, and my groom may not even be in the same state yet, but if i could I would walk down that isle today!

Miss Katie and I have been marking off as many tasks as possible each day. Her wedding is in November so its kinda nice to bounce ideas off one another while planning our own weddings. Today we picked out everything for my candy buffet....lets just say it's going to be AMAZING!!

Its weird to think that in about three weeks I will not be coming home alone, won't be fixing myself dinner, and won't be on my own schedule. I won't know where anything is (in San Diego), won't have any of my friends close by, and won't have a job....Its going to be a big change. I always say I don't get homesick (I don't) but I do tend to miss different things from 'home'.

• Jubilee Ice Cream
• big cowboy trucks
• my dad talking to the cows whenever we are driving anywhere
• my amazing neighbors
• the brothers who make my life a little more enjoyable
• my kitty cat
• my best friends and their families
• Monical's pizza
• Avanti's
• knowing my way to just about anywhere within a 40 mile radius

...and more.

I'm getting excited about the wedding. Mostly because i get to see all of my friends and family that i have not seen in a long time! I cannot wait to wear my wedding dress, veil, shoes......eat my amazing dinner, get a gazillion pics taken with some of the most amazing people i have ever met, and DANCE the night away....

As of now we have 270 people coming and are wating to hear from 170....its going to be the event of a lifetime :o)

One More Month!

Haven't posted in weeks, I know! (computer batter won't charge and don't have Internet access...and the honey that is supposed to fix things like that moved away already)

SO what has been happening in our lives? Micah left a while back but he has had some interesting adventures courtesy of Caterpillar. He got to Cali and was there a week before he started working. What did he do for that week...enjoyed being a bachelor with his best friend Luke and Jimmy. They went to L.A. and around San Diego, and then snuck a little trip to Las Vegas in there. Then it was off to work for Micah....for 4 days. (no he didn't quit) CAT decided he needed to fly to Belgium and around Europe to work with some new dealers. So off he was, not knowing anyone from work, having no idea what his job really is, and traveling across the world with a stranger to make sure that another company was going to be a good supplier of products he knows nothing about. They really must trust their employees. But then he came back and has been riding the trolly to work (saves on the $4.60 gas) and hangs out with himself at the apartment. I'm sure it looks just as lovely as all his other apartments did when he live there. I know my first week there will be full of cleaning cleaning cleaning and decorating...and then more cleaning. Now he is preparing for another trip before the wedding. He will be in Mexico and 3 states between the 10th and 17th. Then he will come home to get our marriage license and leave again for more work. But CAT was nice enough to let him off work on the 22nd so we can actually have a rehearsal before the wedding on the 23rd. And they even let him take off the week after the wedding so we can drive all of our stuff our to Cali. But they thought that was nice enough because as soon as we step on Cali soil he is back on a plane to Belgium... SO that will leave me in Cali knowing no one, having no idea where anything is, and terrified to drive :o) Thank God for Best friends and Bridesmaids (LIZZIE) Who is so willing to entertain me for a few day while she is there on business. Love you girl!

And as for me? Ohh my life has been full of babysitting, school, wedding planning, working at camp when they need me, wedding planning, running numerous errands, wedding planning, and bridal showers. I have had four beautiful bridal showers. The first was our couples shower back in June. But then my Maid of Honor threw me a shower for all of my bridesmaids and close friends from the area (as well as Chicago and WI: Liz Court and Laura thanks for driving down!). it was wonderful to just hang out and enjoy the company. It was a beautiful shower.

Then Aunt Lynn threw a shower for the Roeschley family. Chair covers, candles, desert buffet, and catered vegetarian meal...AMAZING. It was a great time for me to visit with some of Micah's family i don't see much, and meet more cousins, aunts, and uncles that make up the hundreds. (but i still hope to not be quizzed on names at the wedding :o)

The day after Aunt Lynn's shower was the Hermann Family shower (Micah's mom's family). This again proved to be a great time to visit with people and put more faces to names. Thanks so much Aunt Sara and Kathie for the beautiful shower and amazing vegetarian food!

After the four showers, the registries were basically bought out. Our friends and family are wonderful to us, and we are very grateful.

So far:
Invitations have been out for a while and replies are coming in bundles everyday.
Cake has been chosen (created by myself, Jennie, Betsy and our favorite Cake Lady: Eileen Musselman)
Final Dress fitting is this afternoon
Final meetings and contracts are in progress from now until a week before the wedding
chair covers (ordered)

All other major details are complete, and the minor ones are either done or almost done!

I am so excited for the next 30 days. I know there will be tons of plans to stress me out and little details i have forgotten, but over all i know it will be so exciting to count down the days.

I am throwing my Maid Of Honor her own bridal shower on August 3rd (with her sister Kim) The following week my Duffy family comes home, and I finish my EMT classes! Then Bachelorette Party on August 16th (shopping and Eating at my favorite stir fry place!!) So much to do and so little time, but all i can home for are 30 days of friends and family time because i know after the wedding that time will be hard to come by.

And thank God for the people who have kept me sane for the last few months! I would probably be locked in a closet crying somewhere if it hadn't been for all of you!!!