Everlasting -

I decided to put up new background music. It's Third Day's, "The Everlasting." I adore it. It gets stuck in my head constantly. If you want to see the lyrics for it, click here.

Ryan surprised me by coming over for lunch at my office yesterday. :) He called out of the blue to say he was coming over--he just wanted to see me. He is the sweetest.

I'll be honest--at first, the thought of all we had to do for premarital counseling seemed a little...intense. Three books, three books on tape (15 tapes) and 8, one and a half hour sessions with the pastor. Not to mention the nine pages of questions he had us fill out! (Which took me, oh, roughly two hours to do) But I can't even tell you how much of a blessing it has turned out to be. It's wonderful. Sure, it's a lot of work--but of all things to invest hard work into, I think this is definitely worth it.

Our session last night dealt with compatibility, and communication. First off, let me just say--I love our pastor. He is so animated, and full of life and passion. He's about 70 years old, but he's like a much younger man trapped in an older body! He is so full of energy. You can really tell that he is passionate about what he is saying. The thing I also love about our sessions is that they're private--not with a bunch of other couples. This allows it to be completely interactive.

After our pastor talked specifically about how important clarification is when you're dealing with two different people that are trying to understand each other, Ryan laughed and brought up our experience in that area. He talked about how his background in a reformed church differed from mine. (I knew about Calvin, but thought TULIP was a flower) Anyway, when we first started dating and would talk about our beliefs, he had to keep in mind that I had no idea what he was trying to get across, so he had to really expound on what he viewed as simple, commonplace views. He grew up with reformed teaching, while I didn't. Yes, I grew up in the church, but how it was taught to us varied.

I went on to tell our pastor how it was so funny trying to get over that communication barrier. At first, we got frustrated, thinking that we were actually in disagreement over this view or that view, but once we talked through it, we realized that we were simply trying to get across the same view, but we were just saying it in two different ways! Once we talked through it, we realized that we actually agreed, but had two entirely different ways of expressing our beliefs. It was so exciting when we realized that we actually were in agreement, and our relationship deepened.

Anyway, yes, it was a productive session. :) It really didn't seem like it lasted an hour and a half...I loved it! I turned in my questions, too. I enjoyed it, but it was definitely very thorough.

So..it's Thursday! Where did the week go?

Oh my goodness, I just realized that I marry Ryan in 79 days. Wow! :) Time is really flying, that's for sure. Things are coming along...we're mailing out a few of our invitations next week, and the remainder will go out the following week. Also, my Mom ordered her dress for the wedding. :) It's beautiful! She's going to look so great.

Oh, before the invitations go out, I need to completely move our wedding website to a different address. I can't forget about doing that! If I forget, all of our guests that try to go to the address listed will be very confused about why they were directed there. (because there's nothing there at the present time...you know, minor details) Ah, technology.

¶ 7:08 AM