Wedding Planning December 30, 2008

To bring you up to speed on the wedding planning, I’ve accomplished over break, so far with the help of my amazing parents:

• Visited the photographer
• Worked on wording for invitations
• Choose the reception site (church fellowship hall)
• Figured out how to make it look nice (it has horrible blue and white panels on the wall—we’re covering them with fabric)
• Made the guest list
• Set a date with Bethany for a shower in February
• Met with the cake lady and decided on a design for our cake
• Purchased numerous centerpiece pieces
• Bought a unity candle (oh this is amazing—a unity candle set at Michael’s was $25…our unity candle we got at Walmart for $2.50, it’s just a plain pillar candle which we might dress up with a ribbon or something, but still substantial savings)
• Jarred asked Scott to do our pre-marital counseling
• Took Bethany to order her dress
• Tried on numerous dresses
• Ordered my dress!!!

It doesn’t feel like we’ve done alot, but when I look at it like this we really have done a lot of things.  We’re meeting tomorrow with a flower wholesaler and I’m quite excited about that!  So far everything has been going alright!  I’ll write more about how I ordered my dress at a later time—thanks to Joy for her help with that!

Drive home December 22, 2008

My drive home was quite a drive.  It basically started the night before I left school, I had planned on going to bed around 10pm, but obviously that didn’t happen.  I believe it was around 2am before I even had the chance to get in bed.  I got less than 6 hours of sleep and awoke the next morning to it raing.  I had seen the weather report that had shown that it was supposed to rain the entire way up to Clarksburg, WV.  As it got colder the rain was supposed to turn to freezing rain and then snow.

Here is a picture of the national radar for my travels.

What a lovely day to travel.  I must say that when I rolled into Jarred’s parent’s driveway in Clarksburg, WV.  I have never been more tired and I felt like I had just worried away about 2 years of my life on that drive that day.  I just couldn’t believe that it didn’t stop raining once during my entire drive.  Oh what was in store for the next day of driving.  Jarred’s parents had the best dinner ever that night!  Chicken fingers and macaroni and cheese!  I’m so glad they are getting to know me so well!  After dinner, we discussed the wedding and I even managed to get the girls to play Wii.  We played until almost 2am again.  No sleep break that night.

I got up the next morning, showered and packed quickly and got on the road.  I managed to get to Grove City without any problems (2.5 hours into the drive and 2.5 hours away from home).  I stopped for lunch and gas and then continued on.  I get about 30 miles from Erie and it begins to snow and snow it does—and starts to get harder.  I get about 5 miles from the 90 and it starts to Lake Effect snow.  Traffic slows down to about 20 mph and I realized that I have no ability to cross lanes, my car won’t make it through the few inches of snow that has built up in between lanes.  So I just stayed in my lane.  Ahead of me was a SUV and he moves over into the left lane.  Then he swerves back into my lane and slams on his brakes.  I hit my brakes slowly (that’s all you can really do at 20 mph) and then my car started to slide in the snow.  I had no steering and the car just slid off into the guardrail and into the ditch.  I called my mom who called a tow truck to come and tow me out and even the state trooper came to check on the car.  45 minutes later I was out of the ditch and back on the road.  I didn’t drive over 20 mph until I got out of the snow band and then I didn’t go much faster the rest of the way home.

We took my car into the repair shop and found out the extent of the damage.  $1800 to fix a scratch that runs the length of my car, a large dent in my fender, a cracked bumper, cracked light carriage, and a bent rim.  What a wonderful thing to happen to my nice new car…  However, I did have my dad drive my car the other day and he said that it has to be the tires because it just slid down the driveway and took forever to stop.  So I guess the accident could have been a lot worse, and thank goodness for insurance!

I’ll try to post pictures of the car as soon as the snow stops here.

Thanksgiving and Callaway Gardens December 1, 2008

For Thanksgiving, Jarred and I went down to Marietta, GA to see his mom, sister, and Nanna and Poppa.  Jarred was really excited about this because his cousins Zac and Justin were going to be there and he hasn’t seen them in a while.  Dinner was good and we had a nice time with his family.  Since Jarred had to work the day before and after Thanksgiving, we just drove down and back for the day.  We were both butt-tired by the time we got home and I’m pretty sure I went to be at like 9:30.  It was the first Thanksgiving that I hadn’t either seen my family or went home–so that part kind of sucked, but according to Nurse Herron this is good practice for when you are married.  Got to give a shout out to the count down…Jarred and I are getting married in 188 days!

On Saturday Jarred got to realize one of his childhood dreams.  He got to go to Callaway Gardens with a girl.   We drove down on Saturday and it took way too long to get there.  Traffic was horrible, the weather was bad, and there were so many accidents.  I was praying periodically as we drove that we’d get there safe and we managed to roll in 25 minutes before our scheduled time to depart on the trolley.  At this point I thought we were in for some amazing lights, but I am convinced that God had other plans for us.  Jarred was going to let me sit on the outside spot of the seat, but I told him that he could and that I would sit on the inside seat (there is significance to this I promise…) and seated in front of us was an older couple.  Around the time we went to the second scene Jarred noticed that the man had sort of fallen over, but we just thought he was cold and was snuggling closer to his wife.  Then we noticed the lady kept trying to lift him up and he couldn’t sit up.  The lady kind of looked around to see if anyone knew what to do and Jarred asked her if everything was ok.  She told Jarred that he had fallen over and couldn’t sit up, but she thought that he was ok because he was still breathing.  Jarred asked her if she wanted him to alert the trolley driver but she said that they had come to see the lights and he wanted to see them.  So we proceeded on the ride looking at the lights, but I have to say that I don’t remember much of the lights because I was a little worried about the old man.  Jarred keeps looking at the guy and he wasn’t sure what to say, but he leaned up and he asked the lady if he was doing any better.  She said that he seemed to be unresponsive and she wasn’t sure if he was breathing, she thought he was drooling on her too.  Jarred (it had to be a total God thing because if he wasn’t seated on the edge of the trolley he wouldn’t have been able to do this) pulled the emergency cord and jumped out of the trolley to talk to the trolley driver, who called the paramedics and the ambulance.  While Jarred was talking to the trolley guy, a woman who was a nurse jumped over the benches to look at the old man and started to try to get his pulse.  When she couldn’t get a pulse she and the trolley guy laid him down and prepared to do CPR on him.  By this time the man sort of started responding to the nurse and the trolley guy and the paramedics arrived, they checked his blood sugar and his pulse, which was weak.  His blood pressure was all over—it was 80 something one second and then it dropped to 60 something a few seconds later.  I managed to get the story from lady about who this man was, it was her brother in law and she took him up to visit his daughter over Thanksgiving in NC.  They were from Florida and on their way home and just had stopped to see the lights.  So after a long time of the paramedics checking the man out they took him to the hospital and hopefully he’s doing alright.  God is just so cool at how he works things out—he had Jarred there to talk to the lady in the first place, the nurse on the trolley, and a spot for the ambulance to arrive.  So after all that excitement, we got to have a 3.5 hour ride home and arrived back around 2 am.  Jarred—I’m so happy I got to go with you but I’m sorry we didn’t really enjoy the lights.  We will go again some time, I promise!

Jarred’s Back! (older than when he left…) November 13, 2008

So Jarred got back tonight and I just have to say that I am so glad he’s back.  We talked more tonight in the time it took him to drive back from Commerce to school, than we did the whole time he was gone.  It was really quite nice to ACTUALLY talk to him.  I missed him something terrible.  I told him that I was trying to “spite” him by trying not to miss him, but in my trying not to miss him I actually did miss him.  He thought that was pretty funny and just laughed at me…stinks that when I want to spite him I can’t.  hehe

I was talking to Donnahoo the other day and he wondered what I was going to do for Jarred’s birthday and I said nothing.  Actually we celebrated Jarred’s birthday by going to his new favorite restaurant the weekend before his birthday.  But I did realize that since last year Jarred and I have been separated on the majority of holidays, birthdays, and other special days.

We’ve missed:
-Thanksgiving last year
-Christmas last year
-Our anniversary
-Valentine’s day
-My birthday
-Easter
-Jarred’s birthday this year-but that was his fault-:)
It’s kinda disappointing when you look back on what you missed together, but the best part is knowing that unless Jarred gets deployed we get to be together for most of the rest of holidays and special days pretty much for the rest of our life.  I’m pretty excited about that!

Late night updates on life… November 9, 2008

Well, it’s been awhile since I’ve updated my blog and so I figured that I’d write a little.  Jarred left last night to head down to Atlanta and then this morning he and Josh flew up to Washington DC.  Seems a little strange not to have him around and about 9:30 last night this weird panic set it, kind of like the feeling of when he left last year for Basic Training.  It was strange, and I didn’t expect it, but he’ll be back before I know it.  So what do I do when I’m up set, or bored, or stressed, or just happy—I clean.  I found myself at 10:30 on a Friday night scrubbing my kitchen floor last night with the new cleaner I bought.  I was all excited because it was “green” cleaner and supposed to be all natural.  Needless to say, I scrubbed and scrubbed and took out my sadness on my kitchen floor—it was quite therapeutic and the floor did look much better.

This morning, I awoke early and called Jarred (it was 5:15 am and figured since I knew he’d be up—he had given me the morning schedule for him and Josh).  They were right on schedule and arriving at the Atlanta airport park and ride thing.  After a groggy 30 seconds on the phone I fell back asleep until 7:15 when Jarred called to tell me he was boarding the plane and that he would call me once he arrived at Washington DC.  I slept until 9:15 when he called again to tell me he had arrived and then I decided that I would get up and work on homework.  I have started this new habit of getting up “early” on Saturday mornings and I do homework.  It’s so awesome because it’s just me time when no one else is awake and no one has a tv on or music.  It’s peace and quiet and I accomplish so much.

After lunch, again feeling this insane urge to clean, I tackled the bathroom floor (both bathrooms) and our laundry room.  Let me make it clear that I was not mopping the floor, I was scrubbing it.  There is a difference.  Liz swiffers and mops the floor each week, but we’ve never scrubbed it.  This was an all out war between me and dirt today, and I won.  After over an hour of scrubbing I settled in to more homework and then surrendered to a shopping adventure with Sarah.  We started our Christmas shopping tonight and I got the majority of mine done.  What a good feeling!  Just have my dad, Jarred’s dad, and Jarred left to buy for.

I have to say that at the beginning of the semester I felt quite stressed out about everything and had a hard time adjusting to being back in the swing of things.  I was taking so many classes and working so many hours that I found it hard to balance school and everything else I had taken on.  Projects—this is a semester for projects and I found myself getting stressed out about the fact that I didn’t even have time to get my normal homework done—how would I ever get my projects done, on top of a normal homework load.  But I’m so happy to say that I have completed:
1.  5/6th of my Org. Beh. paper
2.  Presentation in Senior Business Seminar
3.  Aesthetics presentation
4.  Aesthetics project-my mosaic table
5.  Aesthetics paper
6.  6 out of 8 journals for Philosophy
7.  Philosophy presentation
8.  10 out of 15 Quickbooks lessons
9.  6 accounting budgets for extra credit

I’ve even gotten lots of wedding planning done and I don’t feel stressed at all about the wedding.  (we just booked an awesome photographer)  I am so happy that things are falling into place and that I’ve had the chance to kind of slow down a little bit.  I by no means have an easy rest of the semester, but having a huge chunk of my projects done really helps.  This next week is going to be insane and I have hopes of next weekend taking some time to myself, seeing as Jarred will again be gone for Drill.  I am looking forward to next semester when I will have the opportunity to have only a couple classes.  Hallelujah!  It’s about time.  :)

Wedding October 18, 2008

Well, this week despite being back at school and being crazy busy, was actually pretty good!  I managed to get a lot of things done for the wedding!  Today we even went shopping for bridesmaid dresses and wedding dresses.  It was quite fun!  With me having bridesmaids in NY, SC, and IA it sort of limits the places where I can get bridesmaid dresses.  So Sarah & Liz came with me today to David’s Bridal in Greenville to look at a few dresses.  With the wedding being a little over 7 months away, I wanted to start looking for my dress.  I tried on a few and now know what I do not like.  I found one that I really liked, but I’m waiting to try on some dresses the next time I go home with my mom and maid of honor before I decide on one.  Here are a few pictures of the bridesmaid dresses though…

We tried a few different styles before we settled on exactly the ones they will get.  Basic black with a white sash or ribbon.

As far as wedding plans are concerned, I accomplished these things this week.

-Nailed down our wedding party
-Picked the date
-Booked the church
-Asked Shane to marry us (I’m so excited that Shane is going to marry us.  He was my youth pastor when I was in High School.  It will be his first wedding and I’m so happy he’s agreed to do ours! )
-Decided on invitations (Jarred’s mom and my mom liked them!)
-Picked bridesmaid dresses
-Found some potential dresses for Kaitlin, Jenna, and Devin
-Started the guest list (Jarred input it on theknot.com and we’re up to 171!)
-Started registering for gifts

So far things are going really good and it hasn’t been too stressful.  It’s starting to set in that I’m actually getting married and it is a little bit strange.  I all seemed kind of surreal until Tuesday night when I called Shane and then after I talked with him, I was like “Whoa!  I’m getting married!”

June 6, 2009 here we come!

Fall Break Update October 14, 2008

Well, fall break was wonderful!  I got the chance to get away from school for the week and I was able to get a great start on my projects for school.  I even got my table done!  It turned out awesome!  I’ve been working on this table that I bought at IKEA and was making it a mosaic.  I managed to get all the glass glued on while I was at school, but then I finished the grout when I got it home and painted the sides.  It turned out really cool!  I’m quite impressed…although, I don’t think that I’ll be doing a mosaic again…for a long time!  It took a ton of work…I sure hope I get a good grade on it!

Jarred was able to come home as well.  He accrued (love that accounting word…) vacation time and was able to take two weeks off.  So he came on Sunday night and left on Friday to go to his parents house for a few days before he comes back to South Carolina.  It was so wonderful to have him at the house and a great chance to get away with each other for a few days.  Which brings me to my next topic…the best thing about fall break!

Jarred and I got engaged on Sunday, October 5th!  I was so shocked and surprised and confused all at the same time–and even now it just seems so surreal.  So my week turned from doing homework to thinking about wedding plans very quickly and wow we’re actually getting married!  Still seems so strange that it’s actually going to happen.

So if you want to keep up with wedding details and plans…you can visit:

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/brittanykoppen&jarredmann

Amazing News! August 27, 2008

My parents called today and they had great news for me.  They were able to talk to the place that did repairs on my car right before it had it’s HUGE problem on the drive down here and they were able to get their money back for the parts we put into it and for the inspection!  This is awesome because we put over $800 right before we drove it down and then had the accident…  The garage that inspected it before we left was really apologetic and felt bad that they had missed the “problem spot” on my car.  So we got our money back…

BUT!  Then my parents said that they had gone looking today at cars and that they found one they liked AND bought!  Here are the pictures of my 2007 Mitsubishi Lancer!

I am so excited!  I really was so upset when my car broke down on the trip down to SWU.  It was so frustrating because I was tired on having to rely on others to get things done for me.  I remember sitting on the side of the road with my broke down car and just praying that nothing major would be wrong  with it. I just kept trying to tell myself that God was in control and that everything would be alright—and it actually turned out better than alright!  What a huge blessing that I can thank God for—a new car and parents who love me!  (Even if I do have to pay for it eventually…)  :)  THANK YOU GOD!

A horrible day… August 18, 2008

Thursday, we (my family, Sarah, and I) left my house in NY to head back to school.  We set off with three cars—my parent’s suv, Sarah’s car, and mine.  Everything was going good until we got near the Pittsburgh area.  I started to notice that my steering wheel was not straight, but I didn’t think too much of it.  We pulled off the highway to look for a place to stop, but didn’t find a restaurant at the stop, so we turned around and headed for the expressway again.  On the on ramp, we took a sharp curve and I see that Sarah has stopped in front of me to yield to another car.  I slam on my brakes and it seemed to barely slow me down.  I had to pull off the ramp into the gravel to miss her, but still didn’t really realize there was something wrong.  I started up the on-ramp again and my car just wasn’t responding to me.  I noticed my steering wheel was upside down now and
that I couldn’t accelerate very well or brake.  It felt like I had a flat tired, so I tried to pull off on the shoulder as best as I could.  I checked my tires and saw that I didn’t have a flat, but my car was definitely not working right. I called my dad and he came and immediately saw that my right front tire was sitting diagonal instead of straight.  He thought that the lug nuts just weren’t on right, but once he got the hub cap off he saw that they were fine.  He called my mom, who was now with Sarah in her car and they got a tow truck to come and as soon as they all got there, we found out the problem.  The tow truck guy (who was super nice) looked under the car and immediately said that we needed to get the car off the side of the road and then we could look at it more.

(I’m not a car person, or claim to know much about parts, so I’ll do my best with the names of things…)

He looked under the car and said that a chunk of my A-frame (the part that sort of holds the front end
of the car and the tire on had completely rusted and had fallen off and that my brake lines were out as well. He said that the car is totally unsafe to drive and that it was a good thing it happened on the side of the road because if I had been going 75 down the interstate and the wheel fallen off, it would have been really bad.  The funny thing is that I had my car in the shop the week before and had it worked on, AND to get the registration renewed I had to get it inspected for NY state.  How could the garage not seen this or even mentioned that it could eventually go out?  The tow truck guy ran his finger along the bottom of the car and more of the metal disintegrated and fell off.  So the car is now sitting in a salavage lot in WV and since there’s no way we can tow it back to NY, we’ll probably only be able to get about $300 out of it.

I was pretty frustrated about it and the whole time I was sitting on the side of the road I was just praying that
there wouldn’t be anything super wrong with the car and that if there was something wrong, that it wouldn’t
be anything major or cost too much.  I just was so upset because I had all these plans for what I wanted to happen and all the things I wanted to do with people this year and in 3 hours on the side of the road it all changed.I was pretty ticked off about it, but at the same time so grateful to God that I WAS on the on-ramp
when it happened and that I wasn’t flying down the highway.  God really did watch out for me and I’m
trying to remain focused that He’s the one in control and that He’ll provide something for me…eventually.

Here’s a few pictures of the car and it’s horrible problems that day.

The nice tow truck man looking at my wheel

my car on the truck

when the guy touched the car this is what all fell off

this is what it is supposed to look like

this is not what it is supposed to loook like

once again...this is not what it is supposed to look like

Thank God everything was ok that day, it could have been really, really bad.

Craziness… August 6, 2008

Off all the weeks to be most busy…it had to be this one…

Tonight we had dinner with friends before I leave to go back to school

Tomorrow night at 6pm is a wedding rehearsal at the church

Thursday night at 6 pm is another wedding rehearsal

Friday at 4:00 is a wedding for rehearsal #2

Saturday at 1:00 is the wedding for rehearsal #1

Somewhere in there I’ve got to fit a day at the Erie County Fair with my parents, clean my fish tank, hang out with Bethany one last time, clean my room (which is more than just pick up stuff—it’s like sort through and downsize on the things you’ve had since you were 10), and pack to come back to SWU

Sarah arrives next Wednesday and we are leaving on Thursday…if only there were more hours in a day.