Update

Let's look at how the countdown is going.

1. August 22 - Drury starts, 4 days til... DONE
2. August 26 - Mom's birthday, 8 days til...DONE
3. September 3 - Bethany gets married, 2 days til...  JUST 4 MORE DAYS
4. September 5 - Dad's birthday AND Labor Day, 3 days til...
5. September 8 - My birthday, 34 days til...
6. October 12 - Organizational Communication ends, 2 days til...
7. October 14-23 - Fall break, 1 day til...
8. October 24 - Organizational Change starts, 6 days til...
9. October 30 - Saints game in St. Louis, 1 day til...
10. October 31 - Halloween, 22 days til...
11. November 22-26 - Alabama for Thanksgiving break, 18 days til...
12. December 14 - Organizational Change ends, 1 day til...
13. December 15 - Public Relations ends...18 days til
14. December 19  January 2- Winter project begins...15 days til
15. January 17 - Spring semester starts...10 days til
16. January 13 January 27- Winter project ends... 49 days til
17. Mary 16-26 - Pennsylvania for spring break...11 days til...
18. April 6 - Good Friday off...1 day til
19. April 7 - Jim's birthday...1 day til
20. April 8 - Easter...29 days til
21. May 7-12 - Finals...3 days til
22. May 10 - Graduation rehearsal...1 day til
23. May 11 - School ends...1 day til
24. May 12 - My graduation...7 days til
25. May 19 - Robert's graduation...1 day til
26. May 20 - Our wedding!

So school has officially started.  In fact, I'm almost done with week two.  After tonight I'll be 1/4 of the way finished with seminar in organizational communication.  Yahoo!

We had a fun time celebrating Mom's birthday.  We had a delicious dinner with my grandparents.  Red velvet cake was included of course!

Robert was the RA on call over the weekend, so we had to stay in town.  He only has three more RA on call weekends EVER!  Let's celebrate with him. :D

I found out that the winter project is now January 2-27.  That's good news, folks.  That means I actually get about two weeks off for Christmas!  The bummer is that it overlaps with the spring semester for ten days, but I think it will be tolerable.

I had proposed a formal request to the Drury graduate council in hopes that I would be able to take an MBA class at SBU in the spring instead of an MBA class at Drury.  The classes sounded identical, and if I could take it at SBU it would mean:

1. Cheaper tuition
2. Less money spent on gas
3. Time saved by not driving 90 minutes each time I have class
4. It's online for eight weeks at SBU so it would be over faster, and I could work on it whenever I want

Anyway, the proposal was thirteen pages long, and I thought it was very impressive.  I found out on Monday that I was denied 4-0.  It was a major blow at first.  Thankfully, I have a very kind fiance and parents who keep telling me it happened for a reason.  Right now I can only see it as a negative and a let down.  On the bright side, my adviser said my proposal was impressive.  Whoop-di-do.

I read OurSpace by Christine Harold this week.  It wasn't exactly a fun read, but it was tolerable.  I'm almost finished with my book review for it.  Progress, baby!

Also, just in case you were wondering - 263 days til our wedding!

Engagement Pictures

Robert and I had our engagement pictures taken last night, and we had a great time!  Anna Brandenburgh took our pictures.  She did such a wonderful job!  She made us feel very comfortable during the session, and she had a proofs ready for us today.  I would definitely recommend her!  We took the pictures in Memaw's garden, sun room, and the road in front of my grandparents' house.

First day of school

Monday was the first day of the fall semester for Robert and me.  This semester I'll have Seminar in Organizational Communication on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:20-8:00 (August 22-October 12), and then it'll switch to Organizational Change on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:20-8:00 (October 24-December 14).  I'm also taking Corporate Writing and Public Relations on Thursdays from 5:20-8:00 (August 25-December 15).  That's nine hours total.  It's really weird being at home all day and then going to class all evening.  My entire schooling life I've gone to school in the day and studied in the evening.  It's nice and quiet at home since my parents are at work, but it's weird having Mom come home for the day before I've even left for school.  This week has been pretty chill so far.  I know after this week I will not be saying that, so I'm trying to take advantage of the calm before the storm.  My first big-ish assignment for org comm is a critical book review.  We had a list of 19 books from which to choose.  We passed around a sign-up sheet, and I got OurSpace.  It was my fourth choice.  It's supposed to come in the mail tomorrow.  Once it gets here I hope to read it and write my report by September 6.  That'll give me plenty of time to turn in a rough draft and get feedback before it's due September 19.  Tonight we're finding out about our assignment of leading class discussion over one journal article.  That shouldn't be too hard since I've done it in a few classes already.  Then the only other major thing in that class is a research proposal, but the professor really hasn't talked about it at all.  Another 100 points will come from class participation and a few small homework assignments like answering some questions over the night's reading.  It doesn't sound too terrible yet.  I'll let you know how PR goes tomorrow.  I have a feeling it won't sound too overwhelming since I have 15 weeks to finish the class instead of my usual 3 or 6 week classes.  15 weeks will feel like forever!

Robert's first day of his senior year at SBU

My first day of my second semester of grad school at Drury

Already ready for the school year to be over.  Is that bad?

Mom's first full week of school.  Keeping up the first day of school picture tradition.

 Wedding planning is going well.  Mom and I did some shopping last weekend and bought thank you notes from Target ($2 for 10 cards - steal!) and a truckload of items from Hobby Lobby - 2 small vases, a medium vase, tan sand, and brown sand for our sand pouring instead of unity candle; 10 yards of khaki tulle (On sale for $0.77 a yard instead of $0.97), 7 yards of dusty blue tulle (On sale for $0.77 a yard instead of $0.97), 25 yards of shiny ivory tulle (On sale for $0.97 a yard instead of $1.17), a few fabric samples (30%) to give to Aunt Pam for our centerpieces, 9 rolls of ribbon (50% off), and 13 stems of dusty blue silk flowers (50% off = $1 each).  Plus we had two coupons for 40% off a single regular priced item (2 of the vases).  The thriftiness prompted a surge of energy for both of us, trust me.  Mom and I stopped by Norman's to get a swatch of the fabric for my bridesmaids dresses.  While we were there Mom tried on four mother of the bride dresses.  She also tried on a few at David's Bridal.  Former mothers of the bride, where did you find your dress?  How did you find a dress that said, "I'm not trying to look like a 21 year old bridesmaid, but I'm also not a grandma?" 

Yesterday we met with our florist.  While I believe we've chosen the best deal in Bolivar, it's SHOCKING how expensive fresh flowers are.  Thankfully we're only buying bouquets for my five bridesmaids and me.  No fresh flowers anywhere else.

We picked up our invitations yesterday.  They turned out perfectly!  We did them at "Our Other Office."  Talk about a confusing name.  Robert and I designed them, and we decided to go postcard style.  We're hoping that this way people will look at the invite sooner since they won't have to spend time opening it up.  I know opening an envelop doesn't seem like much of a burden, but seriously, how many people have stacks of unopened mail?  Too many!  Also, this will reduce the cost of postage by 50%.  We printed in black and color on one side and just black on the other side.

We also met with our wonderful cake baker and discusses details.  I know Alana will do such a great job!  We're definitely on the same page which is very helpful.

Robert has picked his groomsmen which is very exciting.  We're wanting to guys to wear khaki pants with matching khaki vests.  Mom and I looked over the weekend only to find out khaki is seasonal.  All the stores have random leftover sizes of khaki items on sale now, and they won't have their new khaki items til March.  HELP!  Any ideas?  As you know, I would be totally on edge waiting til two months in advance to even start looking for their outfits.

Did I tell you I already have five ladies who have asked to help host my main shower?  Blessed!
Does anyone have photographer suggestions?  Robert and I are struggling between wanting nice photos but not being able to justify spending a large chunk of money on photos because, let's be real, after a few years of marriage most people only have a couple of nice wedding photos out on display.  What happened to the other 1000 photos they paid $3000?  I rest my case.

School Days

The public school district started the new year today.  My mom was out the door before I woke up.  I had planned to wake up at 7:00, but that didn't happen.  I did wake up at 7:30 though which is pretty impressive.  Amanda (Jim's girlfriend) also went back to teaching today.  I know people say this every year, but the summer sure flew by.  Don't even get me started on the concept of time. haha
The freshmen moved into SBU today.  It made me reflect a bit.  Three years ago I was move into the dorm for the very first time.  I didn't know what my major would be, I wasn't dating Robert, I didn't know my roommate, and I had just left all my friends.  Let's look back on my very first dorm room:

Flowers from Mom for my 18th birthday

Sitting at my desk after buying my first and last lottery ticket to celebrate being 18

The outside of my dorm

My roommate, Lindsay, and me

Wow.  It seems like so much has happened since then.  Probably because so much HAS happened.  In just three years I've graduated college, completed 40% of a graduate degree, gotten engaged, been an RA for two years, traveled to El Salvador/Ireland/England, worked away from home for the summer, babysat countless hours, made many new friends, and learned multitudinous lessons.  Although it is pretty much never easy, life is good.

Planning

The last 4 days have consisted of extreme planning.  As most of you know, I am a planner.  I enjoy: writing things down in my planner calendar, doing things efficiently, not procrastinating, marking things off my to do list, and working before playing.  That's exactly what I've done the past few days.  My goal was to get ahead of the game so I can take it easy with wedding planning once school starts.  We all know how overwhelmed with summer school I was.  I know the fall semester won't be as crazy since I'll take three classes in fifteen weeks instead of four classes in nine weeks, but I still can't imagine planning a wedding in my non-existent spare time.  Here's what I've done so far: book the wedding site and bride's room, booked the reception site, bought my wedding dress, bought my garter, bought the guest book and fancy pen, picked my bridesmaids (Leigha [MoH], Kelsey, Elise, Tiffani, and Tarah), booked a cake baker, determined my colors (dusty blue, khaki, and ivory), insured my ring, bought Robert's wedding band (simple 10k white gold band, 6mm wide), created a wedding website, booked a videographer, decided on a florist (Flower Patch and More) and flower type (blue hydrangeas), set up registry (Bed Bath & Beyond.  We'll register at Roweton's Home Center later, too.), asked Pepaw to be the officiant, booked Michael to play the piano, got Matt to run the sound, got FBC's outdoor sound system, decided on outfits for bridesmaids (dusty blue dresses by Forever Yours in chiffon), decided on guys' outfits (khaki pants, khaki vest, dusty blue shirt, ivory or blue tie, brown shoes, brown belt), ordered invitations, scheduled makeup for bridesmaids and me, and did lots of brainstorming.  Whew!  I need a nap.
Today I got a bad surprise:  I've been going along thinking school starts Thursday, August 25.  Well, apparently I wasn't the only person who thought this because we got an email today basically saying, "School starts August 22, not the 25th.  Sorry for the confusion."  It sure is nice to find out A WEEK IN ADVANCE.  What the heck, Drury?  Glad I'm not out of the country with a return flight August 24 or something.  Can you imagine how stressful that would be?  Holy cow!  So of course I got a pit in my stomach instantly.  With all the happiness of getting engaged I hadn't thought about school the past few days.  It was really nice, but all of a sudden it hit me like a ton of bricks.  Can I get some motivation and inspiration for a new school year, please?  This is me motivating myself: 4 classes down.  5 classes, a "project, and a "capstone" to go.  I'm definitely more than a third of the way done.  Also (since I'm a planner) I've written down the milestones that come along the way between now and THE BIG DAY:

1. August 22 - Drury starts, 4 days til...
2. August 26 - Mom's birthday, 8 days til...
3. September 3 - Bethany gets married, 2 days til...
4. September 5 - Dad's birthday AND Labor Day, 3 days til...
5. September 8 - My birthday, 34 days til...
6. October 12 - Organizational Communication ends, 2 days til...
7. October 14-23 - Fall break, 1 day til...
8. October 24 - Organizational Change starts, 6 days til...
9. October 30 - Saints game in St. Louis, 1 day til...
10. October 31 - Halloween, 22 days til...
11. November 22-26 - Alabama for Thanksgiving break, 18 days til...
12. December 14 - Organizational Change ends, 1 day til...
13. December 15 - Public Relations ends...4 days til
14. December 19 - Winter project begins...25 days til
15. January 13 - Winter project ends...4 days til
16. January 17 - Spring semester starts...59 days til
17. Mary 16-26 - Pennsylvania for spring break...11 days til...
18. April 6 - Good Friday off...1 day til
19. April 7 - Jim's birthday...1 day til
20. April 8 - Easter...29 days til
21. May 7-12 - Finals...3 days til
22. May 10 - Graduation rehearsal...1 day til
23. May 11 - School ends...1 day til
24. May 12 - My graduation...7 days til
25. May 19 - Robert's graduation...1 day til
26. May 20 - Our wedding!

Breaking it into milestones really helps me.  Sure, there will be little meetings, assignments, projects, and other things along the way, but I have these big, good things to look forward to.  Thinking about it in little increments like "11 days til..." really helps me.  We need to work on something fun and good during the 59 days between the spring semester starting and spring break.  I can handle the other increments, but 59 days is a long time!  Sometimes, May seems so far away, but then I try to remember what I was doing nine months ago.  That would have been November - I was going to the Chiefs game in KC with my parents, Robert, and his parents and sister.  I was enjoying Thanksgiving break and getting excited that I was almost finished with the semester.  It seems like that was only yesterday.  That encourages me that the next nine months will continue to fly by.  Sometimes each individual day drags on, but then you reflect, and nine months have flown by.  
On a side note, I'm almost finished with my summer babysitting gigs.  I have one loooong day next week (Thursday) where I'll babysit for a family from 8:00-5:00.  After that, babysitting will be drastically reduced.  In the fall I'll babysit about seven hours a week, and in the spring I'll be babysitting ZERO hours a week!!!  I've decided not earning money during that time frame (January-May) will be worth it.  I can always pick up some random jobs if needed, but I hope to use that extra time to study, plan the wedding, and keep my sanity.  Robert will be working 10-20 hours a week at church in the fall and spring so that will compensate for it.  Thought: Maybe Robert could be the Jan term RA so he could be close to me and work full-time at church in January.  A lot of times I can get very focused on earning money.  It's not so much that I'm have the mindset of "Gimme more money," but I want to feel as though I'm working as hard as possible.  I constantly have to remind myself that God will provide, and He also doesn't want me to take control of the situation.  Such a hard balance - working hard but not becoming controlling.

Website

We have a wedding website:
http://GrabowskiVarner.ourwedding.com

YAY!

Our Engagement Story

After dinner, but before the actual proposal.

Right after I said, "YES!"

Showing off the ice.

The incredible scrapbook Robert made me.

YAYYYY!

On Friday while I was in Olathe my good girl friends (Elise, Leigha, and Kelsey) texted me and asked me to join them for a girls' day in Springfield on Monday.  We left today around 11:30.  We ate lunch at Panera, hit up the mall, stopped by Bed Bath and Beyond, got feather hair extensions (wild! hehe), stopped by Andy's Frozen Custard, and then headed back to Bolivar.  Leigha kept insisting that we had to be back to town by 5:00 because her mom wanted to make dinner with her (lie).  I texted Robert to let him know I was on my way back, and he said we could make dinner at my house because my parents were going out to eat (as he had asked them to do).  I got to the house and helped him finish up dinner (grilled chicken, corn on the cob, and mashed potatoes).  I teased Robert and said, "Should I dress up?"  He said, "Yes.  Go put on your long, blue dress."  I knew something was up then.  I'd been teasing Robert for several days because I knew it was happening sometime soon.  When I asked if I should dress up I was totally kidding, so when he said yes I knew.  I smiled really big, and then left to change.  Robert said we didn't need drinking glasses because we weren't eating at home anyway.  I got slightly confused for a minute, thinking that we had actually made dinner for other people.  We took the food with us to a pavilion in town.  Robert had a table, chairs, cloth napkins, and drinks awaiting us.  We ate our delicious dinner, and then Robert got out his guitar.  He played his guitar and sang a beautiful song he had written just for me.  During the song I went from tearing up a bit to smiling from ear to ear.  After that, he had me open a package which was a scrapbook he made all by himself.  He had been saving tickets from dates (movies, plays, sporting events, etc.) the whole time we've been dating, so the scrapbook consisted of tickets from dates, pictures, and notes we had given each other.  It chronicled our relationship and ended with a new note from him where he promised to love me and take care of me forever.  When I finished, he got down on one knee and proposed.  Of course I said, "YES!"  We snapped a few photos, and then headed back to the house where my parents were waiting for us.  Robert had asked their permission last week, and they are very happy for us.  Jim and Amanda came over to celebrate too.  We called Robert's parents and our grandparents to share the good news.  Then we went over to Elise's house to have an engagement party with about fifteen friends.  When we entered the house we saw a lovely hand-painted congratulations sign made by Elise, and it had twinkle lights around it.  Leigha had made a cake, and we toasted with sparkling grape juice.  It was a perfect day, and I am blessed.

I'm Melting

Today it's supposed to be 108 with a heat index of 115.  Can you say "sweltering?"  I cannot remember another summer in my life where it has been this hot for this long.  Can you?
This is the last week of summer school.  I'm getting so antsy for it to be over.  Only 53 hours to go to be precise.  I have to go to Drury for actual in-person class Today, Wednesday, and Thursday from 5:20-8:00.  Not too bad.  I've turned in everything for entrepreneurial communication, and now I'm just waiting for things to get graded.  I'm nearly finished with communication consulting.  I just have an oral presentation on Thursday and a paper to turn in with it.  Thankfully, all the work is done.
To celebrate the end of summer school Robert and I will be spending the weekend with his family.  The weekend will consist of going to a water park, sleeping, relaxing, watching movies, eating good food, and NOT thinking/talking about school.  It is greatly needed.
When we get back I'll still have about a week and a half sans class.  Next Wednesday Robert and I are taking the day off and escaping to St. Louis.  We plan to go to the zoo, have a picnic lunch in Forest Park, go back to the zoo, and eat dinner on The Hill.  It'll be the first real date we've had since before summer school started.  Sure, we've had meals together and wandered around Wal-Mart for cheap and easy dates, but it'll be nice to get away without feeling guilty or like I should be studying.  It'll also be nice for Robert because two days after our trip he starts RA training.  I guess it's our end of the summer last hurrah.
Yet another change: Jim (my brother) found a place to live.  This is a big deal and very exciting for everybody.  Things seem to be falling into place.  The satellite guy came today and got everything set up.  Water and electricity were set up yesterday.  Tomorrow the Internet/phone guy is coming.  We've gotten quite a bit of stuff moved over there.  It makes me feel old to know I have a brother who has a rental house.  Crazy!