Hi there my lovelies…

How are you? It’s Monday.. Positively beautiful out.. which is awesome seeing as tomorrow is the first day of Fall. Ah… a fall wedding… How glad I am to say that I am having a Fall Wedding. The little crispness in the air.. starting to watch the leaves turn.. refusing to shut the windows at nite because it’s cool out.. so you rush to put on sweater and sweatpants and cozy socks and you feel like you’re doing something your mom would’a told’ja not to… hearing “shut the windows!”

So exciting.. I feel calm even though I feel I have tons to do still… the menial laundry/cleaning included in that tons.. to prepare for the flurry of guests coming in and out.. Gotta drop my Pez girl off at my parentals on Wednesday evening.. so she I know she is in GOOD hands!

But get THIS!!! A few months ago..like April?  I read in the Washington Post (cause I enjoy reading the paper.. especially when the Sunday Source was a part of it. Well they were going to Start a new section called “On Love” and I was like OOH! So I filled out the application.. and waited to hear.. I figured Peter and my story was unique enough.. not the typical ‘we met.. dated a year or so.. and got married” but ours was chocked full of mystery and intrigue.. that I thought I could hook them… Nope. Didn’t hear anything.

TILL TODAY!!! Holy Moly I get an email from someone at the Post saying we’ve been considered for the Newspaper.. So I just confirmed with our interviewer.. She will be here, hopefully getting to know us over a cup of Joe on Thursday Morning! How awesome is THAT!!! VERY!!! Wouldn’t it be KILLER to, along with Michaels AWESOME Photographs of us.. we’ll have a newspaper article to show our children too!!!! Wow. I’m kinda excited.. What do I wear to such an interview? Hmm…. gotta think on this. That means.. that most likely someone from the Washington Post will be taking pictures of the Wedding/Reception.  I’m so excited!!!!  It’s funny from the first time I saw that they were starting a new section called ‘On Love’.. I thought.. OOH.. I want us to be in there! And.. well.. so it might be! So awesome the way the Universe works!

So yea.. just in case you are wondering (Cause I’m SURE you are…) my week..(This is probably about me just writing it out than anything.)

Tomorrow:
- Thanks to the Great K – I’ll be busting out some Table Numbers and Place Cards. Probably involve a trip or so to Staples. (Random Thought) Oh and doing laundry and cleaning.. you know when you do one thing for an hour then you break and do something else? Yea that’ll be me tomorrow.

Wednesday:
- Spill over time for doing Place Cards if need be. If not.. Relax? ha! More cleaning probably.
- Gotta pick up my dress at noon. (Yippee! Macy’s Rocks.. seriously I have had a great experience with them)
- Drop off Welcome Bags at the Hotel
- Come home.. more cleaning probably.. then sometime around 4ish.. drive my little Kitty Girl to my parentals and have last Fox Family Dinner. (actually that makes me a little Sad. I’m changing my name to Russo.. so I will no longer be a Fox after this week… wow.. that just hit me.)

Thursday: (LONG DAY!)
- 10:30 meet with interview woman from Washington Post at the house. (Coffee and Muffins… check!)
- Noon  – Hair appt at Aveda in Chinatown !!!  Get hair chopped off (KIDDING!!!)
- Get nails done afterward…. aww purty nails!
- Michelle comes around 5ish… I have an eyebrow wax appt at either 5 or 6.. can’t remember.
- Michelle, my friends Liz and Matthew (who hail from Atlanta) and I will be getting together to go out to dinner (Probably Mexican)
- Then Michelle and I will be staying at the house while Peter is whisked away with his guy buddies. He won’t be home Thursday nite.. (Take good care of him boys!)  I think Matthews girl Melissa will be joining us. Maybe go for a walk in G’town.. who knows… I’m keeping it LOOSE! I  know I don’t want to be up till 3am or anything.

Friday
- Get up.. Realize I’m getting married the next Day.. Do a Happy Dance!!!
- Go have Breakfast/Lunch with my peeps somewhere.. (Maybe Lunch @  Carsyle?)
- Go get my toesies done.. hopefully with someone. That would be nice.
- Check into Hotel at 3pm.. Maybe a little before that (find out from POC at Hotel) If I can go earlier… then maybe I can drop off my stuff at Hotel THEN get toesies done… we’ll see.

- Get ready at Hotel for the Rehearsal.. People will be on their way or already here! Butterflies!!!
- Rehearsal at 6 at Oronoco Bay  Park.
- Rehearsal Dinner at 8:30 at LIAS
- Afterwards.. who knows..maybe go for a walk thru Old Town? Maybe get a drink (A drink.. not copious drinks)  I KNOW I’m not going to bed at 3am.. (I’m just not a late nite person usually and I’m sure I’ll be nervous… Kristine is staying in the room with me at the hotel.)

SATURDAY (THE BIG DAY!!!)
- I think I just hang out in the room all day while my girlies come and we do girlie things like get our hair and makeup .. done.. People will filter in and out.. Michael our awesome photographer will be in the loft at 1:30ish… and well.. I think you know what happens then… PARTY! oh.. wait.. we get married first then Party! Ha!

okay well don’t you feel better knowing what the heck I’m doing? I know it helped me to write it all out!
I am so excited to see everyone.. for everyone to see our surprises.. Hopefully the food will be stellar and I KNOW.. BEYOND a shadow of a doubt I am looking forward to DANCING!!!!! I’ve been practicing my dancing.. ha! now i’m being silly.

I feel so blessed sitting here right now.. I can only hope that The Wedding and the Reception is a mere reflection of how loved and appreciated everyone is for spending the time/energy and money to be with us . It has been my TOP priority to make sure everyone feels the love…..

Put your dancin shoes on… let’s dance the night away!!!
Much Love,
Kerilyn

Hi my people..

Wow.. Can you believe this? I know I’m sitting here.. on my little back patio.. listening to the cicadas.. on this beautiful day.. the sun is shining.. the breezes filter thru my hair as I sit a moment and look back…

Look back in the past…

WHO KNEW? That meeting Peter that day at Dulins Irish Pub in Morgantown, WV in 1996 would lead to us saying our vows.. and wearing rings? Um.. I would be lying if I said I knew. I didn’t. I didn’t know 3-4 years ago… even though the love was there. The Love.. has always been there. But the strongest buildings in the world have the deepest foundations to bear the weight of the height of each floor of glass and concrete. We have bore down into the earth.. to create this very strong.. very sturdy foundation. Created of  good times and bad times. Enough memories and experience to know that what we build as Husband and Wife will be placed on a strong foundation. Has it been easy? No. Would I change a thing? Absolutely Not. Not a one.

And this recent experience has given us even more strength.. to yet again lose my job.. and to face the challenges of only having one salary.. while having to continue on.. has also brought us closer together. With the grace of friends and family… we can sit and relax.. knowing that all has played out the way it should. I have been extraordinarily blessed to be able to focus on the wedding/myself and Peter instead of being stressed out about a job. True it came with it’s own set of challenges… but together we united and I think I can speak for Peter as well as myself that Today.. September 14th.. we both are READY to become one.

Side note: It’s kinda amazing to me… how.. the more I become rooted in my OWN self love.. with my own desire to face the dark spaces in my soul… the more I see things spinning from outside my own personal circle. It’s been an interesting experience to say the least.. to see everyone else spinning about… while I feel calm.. and centered.. and still. Maybe it’s that everyone is always spinning. Maybe it’s just ME that’s not.. and that’s the only difference. I admit it probably is.  I have spent my entire life running and fighting and searching for my purpose.. for my ‘home base’… and I am SO grateful that I can say I have found it.. Safe in the arms of the man who I love.. and who has always loved me.

I am surrounded by wonderful friends and family.. who have been there for me more times than I can count and that I wouldn’t have enough money to pay everyone back for the times they’ve saved my life.  My emotional angels around and about me.. whether I see you every day.. or talk to you once a year (or less!) I FEEL you with me.. and I am grateful that I do.

I have never been one to be shy about how I feel. Good, Bad or Indifferent. As I have come to learn to love myself more now than I ever have… I see just how amazing I am.. and I don’t mean this in a selfish way.. that I have had so much to give… I STILL have so much to give. It’s funny.. Peter and I just had lunch today at PF Chengs (YUM) and My fortune cookie I think summed it up.. it said “The more you give.. the more you have”.. and I couldn’t agree more. I have given to my friends… over the years.. I have always believed that “Friends are our chosen family” and I mean that to the core of who I am. But I feel a shift…. Peter will soon be my family.. as my own family will have grown exponentially by being a part of the Russo clan.. and I feel a shift to dedicate my time to my own family.

I feel happy about this shift. Do I know where it will lead? No. But do I ever really know? No. It is my new dedication to give to my little sister the gift off a Big Sister… Of which I feel like the roles had always been reversed. She has always taken care of me and now… Now that I am RIGHT where I belong.. I feel I want to be the Big Sister she has always deserved. I am grateful for all that she has done for me.. but it’s now time she take off the Big Sister hat and to relay it over to me. And I am ready. I will do all that I can to be by her side.. and to take care of her.. as I carry her heart (I carry it in my heart).

I am ready. I sit here with all conviction that I have NO idea where the road will lead… Before that would have scared the shit out of me.. but now.. I feel calm. I am with the man of my dreams.. Who was there all along but it’s amazing what timing and the gift of experience will do. Will we be in this area? No idea. Move away? Maybe. Will I continue doing design or decide to shift gears and really dive into the untapped potential that I know is brimming inside me. I definitely would like to dedicate some time to writing something.. a memoir I think… as a testimony that Life.. is what you make it. And that we are never alone.

If you will be with me.. I look forward to the laughter and the tears as I believe there will be both. And if not.. I look forward to the next time we meet. Whether you read this as a stranger or a friend… know that you are exactly where you are supposed to be… on the way to something new and exciting.. if you choose to see it that way. Live today as if it were your last. I will NEVER EVER admit to being perfect or having it all under control.. (I mean do you KNOW me? HA!) but I will always do my best to continue learning.. and to NEVER… EVER.. no matter WHAT.. give up.

Much Love,
Kerilyn

PS: I just thought I’d tell you in case you didn’t know (what? NOT tell you something? Ha!) Peter and I TOGETHER decided to postpone our original Honeymoon to Italy for a few months (March) a mutual decision we both feel is the right one. We will be spending some relaxing time.. on a road trip down to Charleston, SC.. and hopping over to Savannah for a night or two.. I am SO excited to share MY Savannah with my soon to be husband. Don’t you worry my friends.. Italy is still there.. waiting patiently in the wings.. I predict Italy will be the place where we will begin our journey to begin our family (Peter says it’s our wedding night but I say no way Jose)… Always.