We’ve made it to the hot, muggy land of Mary. It was a 3,000+ mile trip that included a two day stop at Yellowstone. “Amazing!” “Wow!” “That’s incredible!” Seth couldn’t stop exclaiming over the beauty and mystery of hanging out on an active volcano. Angela was just speechless. We’ll put some pictures on here once we get them developed on Seth’s computer.

Speaking of which, it will be almost a week until we get internet out at the house. Seems it takes longer to get service things happening out here, maybe because there are way more people. Power didn’t get turned on at the house until four days after we’d moved in. Jenna was probably the most miserable of the three of us during that time. She is enjoying the air-conditioning flowing through the house now.

So much is different from what we’re used to seeing. Grocery stores are all different, as well as the products and brands they carry. It’s been difficult finding brands Seth can eat, especially with bread. They also drive more aggressively, which is a bit frightening to Angela, who’s also re-learning to drive a standard. There are no drive up coffee kiosks anywhere and guys Seth’s age keep their hair short (no surfer boy styles).

But we’ve met a lot of really great people. Most of the academy staff are our age and fun, our principals are fantastic and approachable. We have great neighbors and a helpful maintenance man (yay!). And our banker is on her way to finding God. It’s incredible, she was so excited to find out we were Christians and, even though she’s not supposed to talk about it at work, she just bubbled over with enthusiasm for what’s she’s learning.

We plan to post on here regularly, don’t give up on us. We’d like to take this past a wed-site. And we’d love to hear from all of you.

I, Angela, love dragonflies. When Seth and I first started dating, he would hunt up incredible photographs of dragonflies and damselflies and email them to me. There’s something graceful and charming about them and butterflies. Hence, the number of dragonfly and butterfly related items on our registry. They’ll be all over our kitchen.

And Seth has continued to surprise me with dragonfly related items. As most of you know, he moved out to the coast to be near me in February. To survive, he was substitute teaching and was kept busy as teachers started to request him (not a surprise to me!) and secretaries loved him because he was dependable and available. They especially loved him out in Jewell, which is a very rural town and basically just the school. He went out there one day to sub for the art teacher and the lesson that day was stamp carving.

That lovely stamp you see on your invitation envelope was created and carved by Seth. He also did two others that day, both just as great. Just another one of the perks of getting to marry the right guy.

We found Matt on Etsy.com, and are very pleased that he agreed to make our rings. Because I work with wood, I had something in mind when we contacted Matt. He purchased the wood and special hard finish for our rings and only charged $25 each. We are delighted with their beauty and character. We are even more excited that wood represents our warm and alive marriage to be.

Turn the rings over and the grain shows a different hue. Same rings. Matt gave us permission to use pictures he took of the rings.

Check out MnMwoodworks.etsy.com to see more of Matt’s wood art.

The director of the foundation has been very gracious. They are planning to be open to events next summer. However, many things are already ready or will be ready in the near future. She has consented to letting us use their event location for a fraction of what they will charge later (what we were going to pay for Recycled Gardens)! It’s not quite as charming as the Recycled Gardens but it does have a charm of its own. We’ll be getting pictures up in the near future.

To say the least, we are relieved. And now we are reprinting the invitations and mailing them! See you all soon!

But now we’ve got a problem. We no longer have a venue. This was the only option and now with the wedding two months away, life is getting stressful once again. I really want an outdoor wedding, with a decent price (we were paying the RG $750). But we’ve looked everywhere. So this is a plea, if you know of something with a two-hour driving distance from Hillsboro, OR, is outdoors, is affordable and available July 13, let us know. We need your help.

Papermaking is riproaring fun. We’ve got it down to about ten sheet per hour (10×16″) after the initial setup. It’s more than lavender tinted, we added lavender blooms to some of the paper, which is why you’ll feel relaxed sniffing our invitation when it arrives. Here are some shots.

This is pulp non-fiction. You have to make a lot of the stuff. Almost any paper type can be turned into pulp for your own custom look. Glossy is a bit of a trick. We used recycled printouts from school, lavender tissue, and some construction paper scraps.

This is my Waring blender. It’s a doozy. One speed–obliterate!

Sponging the water out of the paper through the screen helps it release from the screen.

One of the Forces at work.

Here’s where we learned how to make paper. You should try it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bzedan/sets/967347/

Us in front of the barn

Some more of the barn and their awesome nursery.

Where we hope to say “I do.”

Ange: That’s what we heard from most of you when we called to tell you our great news. So, now, welcome to our wedsite. We made it together, therefore it’s cool and you should check it out.

Seth: We’ve been hit full on by the Wedding Industrial Complex–a $50 billion industry–and we’re feeling counter cultural. So we love indiebride.com and loathe theknot.com. I only like carrot cake, we’ll probably go for muffins.

Ange: Hmm, muffins, that sounds good.