The Beginning of it All // Bonus Content Galore

Good evening everybody! I realize that it's mid-week, so I'm ahead of schedule for the next posting cycle. However, it just occurred to me that there were insights into the marriage that I currently find myself in floating around the internet, that I wanted to make sure that people were aware of. You see before we got married, we put together a basic wedding website in order to share information with the potential guests and keep track of things. A part of that website was a blog that I was trying to write in order to document the journey we were on toward matrimony. Unfortunately, once we got going I was less inclined to write about it, and stopped doing so rather quickly. However, there are some good bits in the words that follow, so I figured I would re-post them here so that I would remember that they happened. Especially since I don't look at the wedding website ever. In fact, I had a google it in order to find the website to begin with. Needless to say, below are my words about the process of getting married, and seeing as I am days away from officially being a pastor's husband, it seemed fitting. Enjoy as you will! 

6/27/2015: In the beginning
The first step on the road to matrimony is the first meeting. I know you're supposed to have wonderful stories about how you met, how you fell in love at first sight, and lived happily ever after. However, this is real life and things don't always happen like they do in the movies. Nonetheless, like all relationships ours had a genesis and it went something like this...

Andy's Perspective:
    Before we officially met in person, we located each other on the Facebook. Not because we were setting out to be friends, but because we were slated to live with each other for a year, and it's nice to know what sorts of things one might get into along the way. The e-mail came out with the list of housemates I was going to have, and the first thing I do is try to find them on Facebook. Megan was one of the 5 women that I got to live with during my year in Milwaukee, which is why our paths crossed. Our first encounter was at Luther Seminary in Minnesota, where we were both attending the orientation and training portion of our year together. Along with our 4 other housemates we ate meals together, learn how to get mugged (and stop an attacker), and had long discussions of what life together was going to be like considering there was a guy living in the house too.

    After our week of orientation, we all travel to Milwaukee to move into our abode, which is where all the magic happened... not really, but that's where our lives together started. I could go on and tell all kinds of stories that happened in Milwaukee, things I started, things I merely heard about, and things that never really happened (except for the giant rat named Pepe is real), but that's not really where our story begins. Yes, we met in Milwaukee, lived together for a year, ate burgers on Fridays, and she was willing to pick me up on Wednesdays after work (my co-workers didn't want me waiting for the bus after dark), but it wasn't until after we had parted ways that things really started... To be continued...

Megan's Perspective
  So as Andy alluded to we met through our involvement in a year of service with Lutheran Volunteer Corps. Going in I was not planning on making new friends(it was initially a rough transition from college life), let alone expecting to meet the person I would want to spend the rest of my life with. And at first glance, both from Facebook and initial meeting I never would have guessed it would be Andy.

  Andy gave a fair overview of life during that year, so I'll keep from repeating in that. As the year progressed and Andy and I got to know one another, he definitely became my closest confidant in the house. I don't know really when I started liking him although it was fairly early in the year. I remember when I was in Iowa/Minnesota for Thanksgiving and met one of my college friends for breakfast telling her that "this guy" in my house that I might kinda like him. That feeling for me only continued to grow as the year progressed. I told a couple of our housemates and a couple people in my life outside the house. Those who knew me best picked up on it before I even told them and there was no end to the teasing whenever I talked about him from my friends in Montana. With my college friends there was no end to their encouragement of me saying something to him.

  I didn't say anything mostly because of a combination of a lack of self confidence and not wanting to make life in the house awkward by telling him. Some of the things that I remember most clearly though about the rest of that year are the way he would shout my name up the stairs (or sometimes he called me Montana), the time we went to a bull dog day in one of the suburbs(in case you don't know he loves bull dogs), and running random errands and often picking up a root beer while we were out. As the year ended I was heading out to Idaho to work for a year and he was planning on doing a second year in the house. On our last night in the house after supper with our housemates and a few other people, we all stood in the kitchen saying goodbyes. One of our other housemates(Amy) was whispering persistently in my ear encouraging me to share my feelings with him. He and I ended up going out to get a final root beer. We usually got them from Menards but it was later that evening and they were already closed so we ended up in the parking lot of our local Pick n' Save with a root beer we were familiar with and a very cheap one to try(it ended up being disgusting, but oh well). These are some of the memories that I look back on and smile and have warm fuzzies..

  After leaving Milwaukee, I spent a week in Minnesota with friends before heading home. On my last night there, Andy was at Luther Seminary to start training for his second year with LVC. Haven, another one of our housemates and I, met up with him. Before I picked Haven up my friends encouraged me to say something to him because this could be my last opportunity. I didn't end up doing so, but Haven, Andy and I spent some time driving around, talking, and laughing. A good memory for my last night before heading home. I left in the morning for a couple weeks in Montana before starting my year in Idaho. As Andy said, that's when things really started....

7/4/2015: Choosing a Venue
One of the major parts of planning a wedding, other than deciding which colors to have, is deciding where it is going to be held: a church, a winery, an event center? Needless to say a lot of people have thoughts, feelings and emotional attachments to what it means to get married and the visual is key (apparently). So, as of today, we have decided where to host our event: Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. However, it should be said that this was not an easy decision, in fact it was probably one of the hardest things we have been through so far in the planning process. Let's talk about that!

Andy's Side of the Story
It all started when I made the comment that I didn't really care about any of the planning stuff: not the colors, not the location, not the number of people in attendance, and not the need for having a party afterwards. This then signified to Megan that this was her opportunity to make a list of "have tos," which forced me to stake a claim about the importance of certain things. This was all before we really started looking into places to host the event. Developing a scope for searching is helpful, even if it comes through a verbal assault and tears. Here's what we came up with: it doesn't have to be a church, but it could be a church; we don't have to have a reception in the same place as the ceremony, but it could be; it could be somewhere in central Iowa, or it could be in Dubuque.

After we got our list of criteria hammered out we began our search for affordable places to host a wedding, and when I say affordable I mean as cheap as possible: 2000, 8000, and even 800 were all deemed to much. We had located a nice place that was $62 an hour, which was front runner for a while; found a community center in central Iowa for $315 for the entire day; and a chapel for $450. Needless to say we managed to narrow it down to the community center and the chapel.  Yes, they were a little more expensive than hoped for, but they would both work for what we need. However, now we were about to enter another battle zone, because as much as the other was willing to accept defeat, neither wanted to back down for either of the venues.

Personally, I was hoping to have it in central Iowa, for reasons that don't really matter anymore. Meanwhile, Megan was set on the chapel in Dubuque, again for reasons that don't really matter anymore (she might explain in her side). With this being the case, and neither of us being willing to accept the other we did the only logical thing: leave it to fate to decide. We flipped a coin, well two coins, several times. In fact we flipped two different Norwegian coins a total of approximately 14 times. here's how it went down:

First round: 3-3 (tied)
Second round: 2-2 (tied)
Third round 1-0 (central Iowa wins)

Needless to say, since we ended up listing Dubuque, this was not the end of the story. You see, what happened was, being a sore loser, Megan decided that her emotional attachment to Dubuque and Wartburg were a lot stronger than what she had originally thought. Her willingness to succeed to my victory was not as willing as she originally had claimed either, and so being the better person that I can be I decided to give her one more shot. I told her, the only thing we can do is a winner takes all, final flip of the coin--even though fate had already decided it. So, we both put our wishes into the coin that had originally given us central Iowa for one more flip (even though it turned out to be 3 more; best 2 out of three still rules even when fate is deciding). Dubuque won that one, so I stepped back and allowed her to have her victory, even though I will always know fate smiled on me first, and decided not to deal with the emotional struggles of going against a woman either! In the end, it is safer to lose knowing you really won, then fight an angry she-bear!

8/29/2015: Mid-Way Update & Registering for Gifts
  So, we aren't really at the half-way point, but it feels like we should be. A lot has happened since we decided on the venue: registering for gifts, finding places for our guests to stay, designing and mailing save the dates, designing invitations, and even figuring out what we're going to eat at the reception. There was also securing some music and photography (hopefully both will come through), and fighting about what I'm going to have wear to the ceremony if I actually make it. Added to the list is planning on visiting with our presiding minister, figuring out wedding party stuff and trying to figure out how to move forward in our living arrangements to make a smooth transition from a two-house to a single-house couple.. Mixed in there also was a week vacation to Seattle, a road trip back to Iowa, work, student teaching, movies, tv shows, food, and sleep. Needless to say it's been an adventure and I feel like we should be done already., However, we're about half-way done. The hard stuff is over, and now we can hopefully just coast through this thing and get it over with! This is not the point of this blog, however, I just wanted to paint a picture of what's been going on over the past month or so. We're forging a bond and moving forward with this thing, even though life is crazy and we don't have enough time to really be together yet!

10/4/2015: The Meetings have Begun...
As we progress ever closer to the fateful day when I sign my life and possessions over the better part of my life, things are starting to become real (and stressful)... for me anyway. I have been working on setting up the important meet and greets for the people who are going to assist us with making our day just a little more special: presiding pastor, musicians and photographers.

So far we have managed to meet with the presiding pastor, Cheri Johnson of the Greater Milwaukee Synod. It was good to catch up with her and chat about what we're hoping to accomplish with this event. Megan and I met Pastor Cheri in Milwaukee when we were doing our service year in the Lutheran Volunteer Corps. She was the interim pastor at our host congregation (Divine Word-Pentecost Lutheran Church). She has since moved on to work at Alice's Garden, and just recently accepted an interim call at another church. From what I gather, she is excited for us and willing to support us in whatever antics we decide to throw at the event. However, at the same time brought up questions that I had never thought to consider before, and would rather not consider now. The fine details of the event allude me because I have never planned one before: the readings, the song selection, the vows, the way you walk in, the role of the family, the look of the wedding party, and all of the other things that got brought up in our conversation. I quickly deferred all questions to Megan, since I really didn't know what to say, nor did I really want to stake a claim at caring about any of the stuff.

Needless to say, I began to care about some of the things and the subliminal message that it would send to the visitors and supporters of our union. I'm not going to divulge the details of these thoughts or messages here, since that would ruin the surprise. Also, nothing has really been figured out yet, so it would all be conjecture anyway. So, just be prepared for something awesome; something unique; and at least one thing out of the ordinary from all of the other weddings you have attended. I mean it is my wedding after all, I can't be the same as everybody else.

Next on the agenda is meeting up with a photographer and some musicians who are going to help shape our event. I'm hoping it turns out well, and we get those pieces in place so we can then focus on the nitty gritty, like what to wear. I really don't care what I wear, but certain other people think it's important (I won't name names, but I'm sure you can guess who I am talking about!).

Oh, on a side-note, invitations are slated to be shipped by the end of the month. So, be watching your mail and hopefully I fixed all of the mistakes I made in the save-the-date shipment. No telling though, so be prepared... You've been warned!

Sincerely,
Andy

A Fire of Hope // A Hope for Change

So many thoughts.

So many updates.

So much pain in the world.

So much, so much, so much!

Let's start with the good news, the positive updates. They go something like this:

I am one step away from officially becoming a pastor's husband. My wife is in route to her home town for her ordination service. For those of you who are not familiar with the church jargon, this is merely a special church service where she is recognized as fulfilling the preemptive work of becoming a pastor and is welcomed into the fold. This, then, means that she has found a church job, has accepted it, and we are moving into our new house in a few weeks--2 days after her ordination to be exact.

Needless to say there has been a lot of "adulting" happening in the past few days as she prepared for her road trip home. We found a place to live, we started transitioning bank accounts (trying to consolidate the number of banks we have), figuring out how we are going to move, planning her ordination service, and sitting around the house not doing a whole lot.  Now that she left yesterday I've done ever less than I have over the past month or so we have been living with my parents. I'm just completely wiped out from inactivity and it sucks. So, there's all of that. We're getting somewhere, and it's pretty awesome.

As for me and my job search, I haven't heard back from the 5-6 applications that I have out for full-time teaching positions, I submitted my substitute application for the local school district, and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I dropped off the materials on Friday as we were traveling around looking for places to live, and the person in charge of that area is out until tomorrow. So, hopefully tomorrow sometime I will get a call to move forward in the substitute process--if not by Tuesday, I'll probably give them a call to check on it! It has been my experience that schools are always looking for substitute teachers and move pretty quickly in getting them into the system. So, we shall see what comes of this venture. All I can say is that I'm ready to get back to work, back into the classroom, and back to the life I had before all of these transitions started.

Oh, and just so you don't get the impression that my wife has traveled out to Montana to be ordained and I'm not going to be there; I'm flying out next week to join her for the ceremony and then we're driving back to move into our new house (rental) so she can start work on the 6th of September. She wanted to go out early in order to spend some time with her family and friends, to take care of business and whatnot before we rush through the rest of that week and finally get to settle into a life that is our own--for the first time ever! I'm pretty excited to finally settle down a little bit and finally figure out what life together will look like. It's our stuff being put into a place that we picked out, in a city and church that we said yes to (they said yes to her as well), and we'll have been married for just over 7 months! It's pretty exciting times, and a result of a lot of work and help from everybody in our lives: friends, families, strangers, churches, schools, real estate agencies, and all of those people who have went unnoticed in our lives.

So, other than that, there's not really a lot to say about my journey towards being a pastor's husband. I'm a week and a half out from making it official, and then shortly after that life truly beings as the pastor takes her pulpit for the first time (Sunday, September 11, 2016). After that point, I will be diligent in documenting the real struggles, battles, aches and pains from that point forward.''

Until then...

I don't really know. There are thing sitting heavily on my heart, that aren't directly connected to this project, so I'm going to post them on my other blog. You can find it, and other posts at this link: G-Bull Ministries Blog

There are some good posts from before there too. So, feel free to check it out, read them, share them; read this one, share this one, and love one another! Please!

Sincerely,
A [Future] Pastor's Husband

Another Week // Another Post.

I don't know if I can officially post anything, say anything, or whatnot yet.

So, until that time I can confirm/deny progress in my life I'll leave you with this:

Take a listen, enjoy!

Sincerely,
A [Future] Pastor's Husband

P.S. I really need to get some reading done, which is why I am supplanting a meaningful post with a meaningful music video.

P.S.S. If you would like to help me out with another project, which would involve editing an essay, let me know!

P.S.S.S. Good things are happening around here, but like I said I'm not sure whether or not I can share!

P.S.S.S.S. God bless you all!