Below Heaven & Between the Corn

This past Sunday I was shopping for a few wedding gifts for brides-to-be.  

I logged into my Bed, Bath and Beyond account and it said, 

"Day 365 of Happily Ever After". 

I was slightly confused and then it hit me, our Wedding Celebration was one year ago that day!

We got married in Colorado in July  but celebrated on our family farm in September.

I got a little giddy as Brett was busy mowing the yard and decided to peruse through 

some photos of that day on our farm with family and dear friends.  

It was a perfect day with big, white clouds above the barns.

It was nice to take photos with family that weren't with us at the wedding and next to a 

hitching rail that Brett's dad had built many years ago.  

The homegrown wheat from our fields that Brett and I picked earlier that 

summer made for some nice decor. 

And I always wanted to have a party with long tables filled with people I know and love 

while listening to their conversations with each other.

A fall party isn't complete without some apple cider....

....and some apple pie.

Our photographers from Honey & Salt really understood how important our  work and lifestyle 

was very much a part of our wedding celebration and made sure to capture it all.

They even captureed one of me when I was totally in my element and 

had no idea I was being watched........

When it comes to events, I believe in adding character and different aspects for people to enjoy.  Hence, Brett's cigar lounge with an old barber chair that was found in an old haymow.

And if the boys got to enjoy a cigar lounge, you better believe there was a ladies lounge.

This might be one of my all time favorite photos.  

My husband surrounded by my:

Full of Life Irish Gal, Grounded Gypsy, Left Arm, 

Sister who is the the other half of my soul and my Blessed Jewel.  

He's pretty good at just letting us be while enjoying his beer.

I am blessed to have a husband who understands that he didn't just get me when he said "I do" but he got these 5 plus 50 or so more.  

And yes, someone was returning our old Farmall tractor during the party.  It had been getting worked on and some of our guests were neighbors of the Farmall experts so they just brought it to the party.  Why not? 

Our celebration was during my favorite time of the year, fall, and just before one of our busiest on the farm, harvest.  So we took a little time that night to celebrate the harvest and to give thanks to all the farmers, especially our farmer dads who were watching from up in the clouds. 

It was pretty Fancy in the Country.

And it was pretty perfect.

As we danced Below Heaven & Between the Corn 

we gave thanks and then celebrated for 367 days and counting......

The Women in My Life: Our Fancy Pants, Our Guns and Our America

This coming Saturday will mark one year of marriage to my wonderful, smart, kind and thoughtful farmer husband.  But before him, I had my girls.  And while I am with him, I will have my girls.  And it if God calls him home before me and there is an after him, guess what?  I will still have my girls.  

That's why, over a year ago, on a sweet April day we got together for a #FancyintheCountry party which was a wedding shower and a slumber party all wrapped into one.  

My dear mother agreed to allow several girls to sleep over and allowed her house and deck to become fancy and her front yard to become country.  

We had some Fancy Pants wine and plenty of champagne. 

My beautiful, creative sister created a "museum" in our parents' dining room full of photos of the weddings of the generations before us and my mom's wedding dress.

And announcements of my great-grandparents and parents from our local hometown newspaper.  

And the cake topper from my parent's wedding in the 1980s. 

There were even fancy catwalks from guests upon their arrival.

My mother made some of her classic foods such as "MLT's" pickles and SOS (shit on a shingle or Polish mistakes, whatever you like to call it.)  I made sure we had my many favorite fancy cheeses and meats.   

And DON'T forget mom's famous sugar cookies.  The favorites were the cows but she did make some fancy lipsticks too.

We gathered in groups for pictures.  These are my Alpha Chi Omega sorority sisters.  The girls that were there for me when I started my college and sorority adventure, that were there for me through those crazy college years and are still by my side even though many of us are miles apart. 

I opened a fancy, thoughtful gift from my sister that was wrapped in my fiance's, family's seed company sack from the early 1900s.  Sarah collects seed sacks and had a handful of Glick ones on hand before Brett and I ever knew each other! 

I gathered all my girls from my hometown.  One I was in kindergarten carpool with, the others I met in classes or student council or by accident.  But the bond between each of these girls and myself is individually special and collectively beautiful.  

We were wrapping-up our time taking photos that took us back to prom when your face and mouth got sore from smiling too much for long periods of time when.....

.....this guy showed up!

And he said, "get your guns and let's do some shootin'!"  

This neighbor boy, who I have known almost his whole life, was invited to my party to help teach my girlfriends how to shoot and maybe entertain us a little.....

So we got the guns and the boxes of ammo.

And then they lined up on the porch with their fancy champagne and wine drinks and I showed them how it's done.  Hitting a clay pigeon on my first pull!

There were jewels, and guns and fancy things in that front yard in the country.  Oh and my mink, Nelson & Co., that I inherited from my great aunt.  (He's a staple in my life, you'll meet him again.)

Some of my girls really brought their "America" to the afternoon party.

And some decided to stay fancy while in the country.   

But hey, a girls got to learn how to shoot in her boots and her dress!

For some of them, I got so excited that they hit their target that I laughed, cried and kissed them.  Just like the targets or goals they make in their lives, I always laugh, cry or kiss them (or do all three at the same time) for their failures and their successes.  

Because that's what you do for and with your girlfriends.  Before, during and after the guys come along.

At one point I decided to sit and enjoy the moment and those that surrounded me with their screams, laughs, cries and conversations.  I knelt down in the grass that I ran barefoot in as a child, in my fancy dress with my boots (that had a little bit of cow manure on them) with the string to pull the next target in hand.  

I kept thinking, "are we always going to be able to hit all the targets in our lives?  All the goals we have set for ourselves and for each other?"   

If we do or we don't, at least we had one day in our fancy pants and an afternoon with our guns in our America where hitting the target is very much possible for all of the women in my life.  

Especially if I have these girls there to shoot with and protect me!

So the next day, as we woke up in several rooms of my childhood home and sat at the kitchen table and on the kitchen floor as we ate our homemade breakfast, I felt fully prepared to get married.  I had enjoyed a true Fancy in the Country day with many of the women in my life and felt more comfortable that they all had practiced target shooting so that I could go and get married and not have to worry about shooting for them anymore!  But even if I have to someday, I will be there before, during and after the guy to help them hit their targets....whatever it may be.

P.S.  Thanks to my wonderful and talented friend, Lindsay Jean at Jean's Boots Blog for all of these wonderful photos!

Jewels & Bacon.....A Girl's Best Friends

BACON, extra bacon, crispy, extra crispy!!  EXTRA crispy......!!!!!!!!!!  

That's all I remember the morning after our "Jeans & Jewels"  night.  One of my best friends, Jodi, and I somehow snatched some free tickets to the hottest party in the city during the Month of May 
(for those Hoosiers out there, you know why that is capitalized).  

We had our first red carpet experience and you had to wear "jeans" and lots of "jewels"!  There were race car drivers galore, fashion we had never heard of and martinis served through an ice sculpture.  We scheduled a special shopping trip and even booked a room downtown because we knew it would be a fun night......

 We were living on top of the world at 23.  And since then we have called each other "Blessed Jewel".

But then it was the next morning, and as I stood at the hotel bedside to order the room service that we couldn't afford, but needed, all I kept hearing was her bacon order.  And rightfully so because who doesn't love bacon, extra crispy or not?!?  

These days, even though we still eat it a lot, bacon has turned into these every day gimmicks and jokes. And rightfully so, it's delicious and everyone should have the pleasure of eating it.  I mean, I take the opportunity as much as I can to eat it and buy the gimmicks.....

And yes, we still wear jeans often and lots of jewels.  And yes, we still eat bacon as much as possible.  However, sometimes we eat bacon, and do other things, to keep our minds off of our stress.  That includes Jodi and another friend of ours that love some good 'ole crispy bacon and all the relief it gives us from life's beautiful, crazy ways.

Just last month, my mom, sister and I visited the new Pig Adventure at Fair Oaks Farms in northern Indiana.  As we were watching the momma pigs (or sows as they are called) have their piglets (baby pigs), my sister and I reminisced about our days on the farm when we raised pigs.  And then my mom started asking questions.....

"Your father let you do what....?!?"  

"Is this one of those times you went to the farm and he told you 'don't tell your mother 

what you did today' type of things?"

Well, I won't go into the details of scooping pig manure (or poop) and etc., nor do I remember my dad 

ever telling us to not tell mom anything (actually that may be a lie...).  But I do know that I loved raising pigs and showing them for 10 years in 4-H AND being proud that I was a part of helping to raise those pigs to produce bacon.

Not only was I wearing my jeans, I never left the house without my sticky jewel earrings even if I was scooping that pig manure.