It’s All In The Details….

Posted on October 31, 2012 by

During my last post we were 47 days and counting from the big day.

As I expected it’s now come down to the details for everything, all those tiny little things that start quietly sneak up on you.

So what have we done over the last 35 days?

- Created the timeline for the ceremony including musical cues

- Received our wedding license

- Put together all of the wedding favors (Thanks Jenn Johnson for your help!)

- Checked up on our honeymoon plans

- Created the seating chart

- Coordinated with our friend Eric about officiating the ceremony

- Purchased decorations including frames for photos and our sign-able picture framed

- Paid for the flowers

and so many other tiny little tasks, e-mails and errands that honestly escape me at this point in time. It’s quite remarkable how important all the little details are with such a big event.

This Friday my co-workers are throwing us a wedding shower and Jenny will get her introduction to the C.A.R. staff, people who over the 14 years have become a 2nd family to me.

Little League is coming to an end with my last practice last night, and my final game with the kids on Sunday.

Sometime this weekend I’ll manage to clean the house, and prep it for the arrival of family next Thursday.

While Jenny and I are very excited about everything, we are getting to the point where we’re looking forward to just being done with the planning, enjoying the day with family and friends, going on the honeymoon and beginning our life together as husband and wife.

12 days and counting…

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It’s All Getting Incredibly Real and SUPER CLOSE…

Posted on September 25, 2012 by

So here we are now only 47 days away from the wedding and November which seemed so far away is so incredibly close.

Jenny and I had a feeling that there would be a point in time, that despite our extensive planning and advance work that things were going to come fast and furious as we headed down the stretch.

The past couple of days I’ve happily spent my train rides working on everything from photo shot lists to a hotel for our wedding night to planning out the pace and timing of the ceremony and events.

Jenny has been working away at getting the various accessories for the wedding, putting together and mailing all of the invitations and getting things in line for her formal fitting for her dress this evening.

Some of our bigger to-dos still include…

1. Wedding License

2. Bachelor & Bachelorette Party

3. Cake/Cupcake Tasting

4. Music Playlist

5. Wedding Favors

There’s lots more little things here and there and while slightly overwhelming when combined with work and Kaylin’s little league schedule I couldn’t be more excited, thrilled or happy about all of it. Especially because when it’s all said and done I will have married a woman I thank God for every day and look forward to every day of my life with her.

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Food Tasting…Yumminess for our guests

Posted on August 3, 2012 by

 

So this post is a little delayed…meant to write it when it happened, but alas life got kind of crazy as we tried to purchase a house. With that mess now behind us I can get caught up on some blog posts and back into my creative writing.

On Saturday, June 23rd we headed to our wedding location for the food tasting.

There we were joined by Jon (my best man), his wife Misty, Jason (Jenny’s Man Of Honor), his boyfriend Eddie and of course Josh and Kaylin.

With a beautiful view surrounding us, we tasted a variety of salads and chicken dishes and everything was pretty darn awesome.

The kids got to sample the chicken fingers and french fries that we’ll have for all the kids.

Now these are no run of the mill salads or chicken dishes. These things were fresh and had A LOT of flavor.

What were they?

What did we choose?

Ummm….errrr…hmmmm…

I can’t remember.

I can say that with the helpful insight and comments from our taste testing group we’re going to have a great wedding meal!

We also had a chance to choose our linens for the tables, and again with the help of our group we settled on a really nice silver color that will go well with the Maroon/Burgundy.

Since Jon, Misty, and Eddie hadn’t seen where we’d be having our reception, we took them upstairs and found a reception being prepped that was using the same linens.

As we took a look around and came up with some more ideas to make the reception even better, the kids took to the dance floor to practice the moves they’ll make come November 11th.

It was a great visit and so nice to get the help of those close to us. Another check for the list and again our deep thanks to Jon, Misty, Jason and Eddie for taking the time to help us out!

 

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Happy 35th Birthday My Love!

Posted on June 28, 2012 by

My dearest Jenny,

Today I along with your daughter, step-son, parents, friends, family and everyone you’ve touched over the past 35 years celebrate a day that has wonderfully impacted our lives.

Over these 35 years you’ve accomplished so much and you continue to do so with each and every day.

You are an amazing mom to Kaylin, balancing love, patience, tenderness and caring discipline to help her become an incredible young lady. Being a single mom has not been easy with numerous challenges thrown at you, yet each and every one you’ve overcome while at the same time teaching Kaylin valuable lessons about life and love.

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You’ve taken that same incredible skill as a parent and shared it with Josh. I know he’s learned a lot from you already and has experienced every bit of that same love you give to Kaylin.

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Despite having a couple thousand miles in between you and your family you are still a supportive, caring and loving daughter, sister and aunt. You do everything for them that’s within your means and even then you’ll go above and beyond that. You may not be able to see them as often as you’d like, but they know how much you love them and how you’ll do anything within your power to be there for them each and every day.

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Friends like the ones you have are not easily gained, and even harder to keep. You are always there for them with a listening ear, a loving hug, cheers of support or a wealth of reasonable advice and guidance. You love them like an extended set of family, each and every day, with every Facebook post, phone call and text message you make. To them you’re not just a friend, you’re a sister to them all with a big heart and bright smile.

And then there’s the woman you are to me….

You give so much to so many others, yet you still manage to give me so much each and every day. I get everything they all get and so much more!

You are patient and understanding with me like no one has ever been before. I can seemingly drive you nuts, yet your love for me never falters.

You have shown me love.  Pure, true, wonderful and totally unselfish love that I thought was just something that was made up in movies.

You continually inspire me and help me see how much more I am capable of accomplishing. Just when I think I haven’t got anything left, you help me find that I can do so much more and then help me do it.

You have made and continue to make me a better man in every way shape and form.

I cannot wait until the day I get to call you my wife, and look forward to getting to spend the rest of my life with you.

Jenny, you are so much to so many people and none of us will ever be able to properly show or tell you how much you truly mean to us. Had it not been for that day 35 years ago that God blessed the world with you, life just wouldn’t be the same.

Happy Birthday My Love! May God bless you (and us) with many, many, many more!

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Countdown To A New Life…T- 6 Months and 3 Days

Posted on May 8, 2012 by

In a little over 6 months I am going to get married to an absolutely incredible woman.

ImageA woman who reminded me how incredible she was over the last couple of days and continues to show me what a mature and healthy adult relationship is like. She’s even able to put up with me, which can be no small feat sometimes. ;-)

After having a really good evening with Jenny last night and feeling a little more in the creative writing mode I decided to work on my vows while on the train ride in.

I had already written a good part of them and I went through and refined it, added a little here and there and took out some of it so they don’t go on too long. While I think they’re mostly done, I imagine over the next few months I’ll continue to touch them up. In the end though my my ultimate challenge will be getting through them without tearing up.

After working on my vows and reading a Mashable article on using Pinterest to help plan a wedding, I thought why not journal some of my experiences as we get closer to my wedding day? So with that I’m going to start threading in blog posts about my journey towards the beginning of a new life.

We are for the most part pretty well done with the essential parts of the wedding planning.

The location, DJ, photographer, florist, baker, best man, man of honor and rings have been chosen and deposits made.

Her dress is sitting in a closet that I am making sure I go nowhere near and at this point pretty much everyone I know has seen it, but me (of course).

I think this is where it gets interesting though…all the little details.

We still have as yet to do our tasting and set the menu. The flowers while generally thought of aren’t totally selected. The music playlist is something we’ll actually let some of our friends and family help select…just NO CHICKEN DANCE and NO MACARENA!!!

There’s a multitude of other details and selections as well as a special project and a few surprises for our guests that have as yet to be done and I intend to share that experience here so it should be interesting.

So stay tuned…this is gonna be fun!

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Happy 15th Birthday Son!

Posted on May 1, 2012 by

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Today is my little boy’s 15th birthday!

While I’ve wished him Happy Birthday on the phone and on Facebook and we celebrated this last weekend, I had to blog about it too.

C’mon…what kind of tech Dad would I be if I didn’t blog about it?

While growing up I certainly had my dreams about being a Navy pilot or Astronaut, I also had a dream that not many young boys have. I wanted to be a Dad. Even moreso I wanted to have a son.

That dream was realized 15 years ago when Josh came into the world and was placed into my arms. I can still vividly remember every part of that day, from the way the weather was to the sounds and feelings I went through. It was and will always be one of the greatest moments of my life.

Over those 15 years we’ve had good times and we’ve had bad times. He and I have both grown in so many wonderfully different ways and we continue to grow every day. While like most teenagers he can be frustrating, the majority of the time he makes me incredibly happy and proud. He’s smart, he’s funny, he’s loving, he’s caring and he has an incredible spirit that I like to think is a result of the best parts of me.

I am proud and honored to be Joshua Tellez’ dad and happy to again celebrate a dream come true.

Happy Birthday (Son/Bugaboo/Buddy/Kid)! I love you and thank you for being my son. Love, Dad.

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The Best $5 I’ve Ever Spent!

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

I do believe that the occasional homeless person we encounter is a test from God.

This morning as I was riding the red line a homeless person entered the car, held out his hat and went around to people hoping to get some amount of money.

Earlier in the morning I had been reading a chapter of “The Purpose Driven Life” where it said that one of the key things we need to do as followers of Christ is to love one another. That putting out love is one of the things that pleases God the most.

Having been inspired by what I read I decided to go into my wallet to see if I had some dollar bills.

When I opened it though I found I had two fives.

I’ll admit there was a little bit of hesitation to give out a five, it was more than I usually gave.
In that moment of hesitation the following things flashed through my head…

- My incredibly loving, strong, supportive and all around wonderful fiancee’

- My awesome and very healthy 14 (soon to be 15) year old son and 7 year old future step-daughter

- My amazing friends who have seen me through so much and stuck around no matter what

- My loving family, current and future

- My really great job that I’ve been blessed to have for so long with such a good company

- The many things I am fortunate to have as a result of that job…a roof over my head, healthy food, nice clothing, vacations, evenings out, a car and all the wonderful tech gadgets I get to play with

It was then that I very happily pulled out the five dollar bill and placed it in his hat.

Seriously…what is $5 compared to everything that I have? It’s nothing.

The homeless man said thank you, started to walk away and then looked down in his hat. I could see the surprise that came over his face when he realized I hadn’t tossed a dollar bill, it was more than that.

He then turned back around to me and said thank you many more times. He told me that I was a great person and that God would not only reward me in heaven, but had a wonderful place for me there. He then thanked me many more times and said “God bless you!” as he walked away.

For the incredibly small amount of $5 I not only helped someone out, I made his day. I reaffirmed his faith that there are still good people out there that care and demonstrated to God how DEEPLY THANKFUL I am for what I have.

That was the best $5 I’ve ever spent!

 

 

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