3 A.M

We got 5 days to go in our engagement until we make a convenant with the Lord! Wow. It seems to go by quickly but then again it feels long enough.

I woke up at 3 am this morning and my dreams were about wedding coordination and how people are going to get places. I was so frustrated about this. I think about it enough during the day trying to figure everything out to make things go smoothly and it happens in my sleep...the place and time I am supposed to dream about happy peaceful things. Cannot wait to dream about something else worth dreaming.

Feel very blessed by many people right now. Love my family on both sides. My cousin Scott's wife on the lippert side, Lindsay, has helped me organize my entire schedule for the wedding and others. My cousin Jimmy Lepine, on the alaback side, is our DJ and relieving that stress from us cause he is amazing at what he does. David Lepine is stepping in to play the piano at our ceremony and beginning part of the reception. Raelyn Munneke, Andrews wife from lippert side, is helping me big time with things to remember and great at answering questions.

The key to having a wedding run efficiently is communication across all sides. Communication with the caterer, the in-laws, the parents, family members on both sides, the wedding party, the pastors, the photographer, videographer..its endless.. most importantly communication between the bride and groom.

I was talking to my new Mom friend in Fort Worth, Allison, and she asked me how my heart was. I replied "I am at this weird point where I am flustered and not frustrated and itching to have change and Travis feels the same..." and she goes," Tricia!! That means you are there! You are ready to get married! Its just like our walk with God, if we were content we would not be ready to be try to be closer to Him...if you were content in engagement you would not be ready for marriage." I love this!!

Pictures:
I took Tuffy to the park and he loves to jump and try to climb trees to get the squirrels..he never can climb the tree no matter how many times he tries or how hard he tries

Travis got a TV from his mom and doug for his birthday!! He was so excited and him and tuff like to be boys and watch Lord of the Rings on it..

Gods Blessings on your week and hope you are sleeping well :)
Tricia

Less than Two Weeks Mark...

13 days! We can't believe that we only have 13 days left of dating. Alot can be done in 13 days, why does it seem like it cannot? I feel like there are so many endless details to think about and no matter how prepared you can be...there will be somethings that go wrong or differently..thats the beauty of relaxing in the aspect of knowing you tried your hardest.

We had a huge day in Tulsa yesterday. We woke up and went to our 9 a.m appointment with our caterer. Aila is from Sweden and has wicked food that makes your mouth water. She was very helpful and we all got a great vision of the set up of the reception. Our 11 a.m appointment was with our pastor from Asbury-Dick Read- who is absolutely wonderful. He walked us through what we wanted for our ceremony. Things we wanted stressed : its a convenant not just a ceremony, enjoy the time of being pronounced husband and wife instead of walking out the church then..we will keep worshiping! We wanted our lives added in the ceremony to add color...and more!

The Alabacks had this amazing shower for us! Some of them came from Arkansas, OKC and Stillwater just to support and encourage us! it was wonderful and one of my favorite memories of engagement now. Aunt Robin planned out everything so beautifully and made it really fun for Travis and I. Love love family time.

I got my final fitting for my wedding dress after that! I cannot wait to wear it more that 30 minutes! I love it and am extremely excited to see Travis face!

We are extremely excited for our wedding, but more importantly our marriage! Thank you for the support, encouragement and prayers you have given us!

Love to all
T2

Good Morning!

I realize I've been slacking on writing! Anyways, today...there are 23 days till our wedding! Wow. Its flown by and its really going to go by quickly within the next 3 weeks. Let me give you updates!

Pictures:
Travis and I celebrated our three years last Friday. He surprised me and took me to the Reunion Tower in Dallas (the tall tower with the ball on top) and it was phenomenal! I planned the activity and we took dancing lessons! Ha it was fun to learn how to stay "connected" on the dance floor!

We went up for OSU Homecoming (bummer we got killed by Nebraska) ..pic of trav, libby and I..my best friends!

We went down to Austin for our last counseling with Zac and stay with Luke and Courtney and baby Jolene (travs cousins!) and love love that family.





This weekend is our Bachelorette/ Bachelor Parties..let me tell you how we changed this preconception of a party to an awesome weekend.

My phenomenal maid and matron of honor (Libby Francis and Meg Brown) are throwing mine at our lakehouse on Lake Tenkiller in Oklahoma! We are literally bringing food, sweats, blankets, wedding movies, guitars, and more food. What an amazing idea! I love the idea of just having sweet fellowship, great laughs, fun talks on the porch wrapped up in blankets with hot chocolate! I am so excited!!

Peter Bay (Best Man) is planning Travis' and its going to be at Travs Aunt and Uncles Ranch! He has thought through this weekend with great detail and things that Travis would love. I know they are going shooting and thats all I know!

This describes Travis and I to the T...very chill..love being with friends...not going with the normal bach party "go to the bars"..

We have absolutely LOVED our engagement and have grown so much from our counseling. To let you in on some personal stuff, we haven't kissed in 6 months. We signed a contract with our pastor to keep us accountable and we promise we have been faithful to our word. Many reasons why we did this, but I will list 2.

1) To promise each other this in engagement and to stay faithful to this, is a way to show and prove that we will be faithful to each other in marriage. Not saying couples that messed up will end in unfaithfulness( thats not for me to say) but for us this is a way to show one another.
2) We wanted to be beyond reproach with our purity. Just to guard ourselves and make our wedding extra special!

We have just been so blessed by so many people during this time. We are so grateful for all the prayers and encouragement!

Next weekend we fly to Tulsa to have an Alaback shower! Meet with the caterer, asbury pastor, and other appointments.. Then we drive up to Tulsa the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and I stay there till the Wedding! Woop Woop! So excited!

Thanks for reading! Have a joyful one!
Tricia and Travis

37 and counting..

Sorry for the lack of updates. I am trying to talk Travis into writing a blog for each day of our first year of marriage. We could talk about anything from things we are learning, recipes we've tried, sports (thats for Travis) , our plans or goals..what do you all think? I think even if people didn't read it, it would be really fun to have for our sakes to look back at our first year in marriage.

Travis is doing amazing in his job and working hard! He has freshmen guys for his klife small group. A lot of them play football for their private school - All Saints. It's fun for Travis to go support them by going to their games. I love watching him with high schoolers ..he has an amazing gift that draws these kids to him.

I am still working at Christ Chapel 5/6 ( fish stix) . I work around 20-30 hours a week, with a great staff, hilarious and sweet kids, and the most loving families. I am so blessed by this ministry. I have sophomore all saint high school girls fory klife small group. I lead it with a freshmen at tcu -katherine who is wonderful.

Things we've done recently:
Got a mattress
Met with our financial advisor (also travs friend from Austin)
Went to OSU homecoming
Got washer dryer
Finished our pre marital counseling with Zac our pastor
Gone to tulsa several times
Travs mom comes to tulsa this weekend for our tulsa shower!

I typed this on my phone to explain any randoms periods and mis spellings.

37 days and counting..
T2

A Walk Across the Golf Course

Travis grew up playing on his grandmothers and good daddys golf course. It gives him joy walking across the golf course after everyone has left. The joy has spread towards me because I just get to walk by him holding his hand admiring the sunset the Lord painted that day. Simple joys in life as so wonderful and I wish that I took more time to thank the Lord for them.

Update on Travis and I's counseling:

Reading Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas

It is absolutely wonderful and eye opening. Our pastor-Zac Allen- has really challenged us to look at Marriage the way Gary Thomas illustrates it. The theme of the book is What if God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than To Make Us Happy? This doesn't mean that happiness and holiness are parallel, Thomas explains that Marriage is a refinement process. Dieing to yourself daily and serving your spouse second, serving the Lord first. We also are learning that if you serve the Lord each day and concentrate on that, that will overflow into your other relationships. Another thing I learned is that if you feel like your spouse needs to change...change yourself first and see what happens..

We were in the car the other day and Travis looks at me and goes, "Tricia why do you think we should get married?" Its a good question.. I answered, "I know you and I were meant to be together so that we could glorify the Lord through our relationship/marriage." He replied, " I agree." Then we read the book and Thomas stated, " In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful world to a reconciling Creator." I am so glad my fiance and I are striving to do this! We need prayers.

Something that I love about Travis and I, we laugh... a ton.. I added this picture that was taken last year fall semester because it just makes me laugh how interesting we can be. I hope you all have a joyous day and notice the simple, extravagant details the Lord blesses us with to show us He loves us and to give Him glory!

Tuffy and Us

I told Travis we should start a book spin off of the Marley and Me called Tuffy and Us. We have had 3 adventures with Tuffy-"our" blonde Dudley Lab. Let me tell you..

Brianna (my roomate/one of my best friends) and I cook dinner together and make desserts throughout the week. I made some amazing Pioneer Woman strawberry cobbler. Travis and Tuffy came over to eat and then us three humans went out to show Brianna around Fort Worth. I left the freshly baked strawberry cobbler in my pyrex dish on the counter..bad idea. You see, Travis and Tuffy are freakishly alike. Travis always goes for the sweets..so does Tuffy. We came back and I look at the pyrex dish and go "Travis, did you eat more cobbler..like all of it?" and he goes, "No..." and we both looked at Tuff and Tuff's ears were down and he started squinting his eyes and getting low to the ground. He managed to eat the entire cobbler without moving my pyrex dish and only getting a few crumbs on the counter..talent.

I came home from Tulsa with some 6 yummy Porter Peaches my mom lovingly supplied me with. I ate one on the road and placed the others on the counter. Travis and I left to go run some errands that night. Travis took Tuffy home with him and the next morning I realized my peaches were on the carpet. I only had 2 peaches left and there were stains on the carpet! Tuffy ate 3 peaches and their pits too! We took tuff to the vet and the vet said that he was worried about a part in the intestines and stomach section where its smaller. Therefore, "Mom and Dad" aka us had to dig through Tuffy's poop for the next couple days. It was a good picture of us..Travis and I holding our noses, both have sticks and searching through poop while tuffy watched. We laughed through it.

Last story. I live next door to a huge cemetery. Travis and I enjoy taking walks through there. Tuffy doesn't wear a collar or leash because Travis trained him so well, therefore Tuffy just runs around smelling dead people, chasing squirrels and an even larger "squirrel" that we didn't train him to stay away from. Tuffy came back suddenly rolling on the ground and drool everywhere. The security lady drove by us watching Tuffy and goes "Oh, he did it again..that skunk gets so many dogs". Quick run to Target and got Tomato Juice and get this.. Hydrogen Peroxide, Palmolive, Baking Soda mix. We tried the Tomato Juice first and he turned out looking like a pink bunny for days. The other mix works!! That was fun.

The Anticipation of the Bride

I was in one of my best friends wedding-the beautiful Bekah Blume- in Kansas City. We were all standing up at the front waiting for Bekah to walk down. We didn't see her at the actual ceremony site before it started so we were all excited to see where she came from and if she was on time :) I was watching Luke (her husband now) and watching his face was priceless. He was so excited and so intent on looking at the start of the aisle. Immediately I felt goosebumps and had a vision of what it is like for Christ to be waiting for us (His Bride) to come to Him. We had such a great anticipation for Bekah to walk down, think about how much greater this is for Christ waiting for us. And even more, Bekah wore a white dress and her heart resembled this whiteness. She has a beautiful pure heart and this is how Christ sees us too. He sees us as beautiful and pure children of Him coming to Him. Wow. I love this vision!