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Remember this post from forever ago? No? Figures. It took me a while to dig back into the archives and dust it off. And if you do remember the post, which part was most memorable? For me, it was the wood-fired oven and the Frank Lloyd Wright house. But if you read the little side note at the end, you'd probably find out that I also told you we got engaged. In Chicago. In the rain. In Millennium Park. It was one of those little side notes that wasn't super important, but I figured you all would love to know. And I wrote that post, oh you know, almost two years ago. No biggie. Post engagement photo? This is as exciting as it gets.

At this point, some of you are probably suddenly remembering that Oh yeah, she did get engaged. So when is the wedding? Truth? I hate weddings. I suppose I am the epitome of the anti-bride. While others have been planning their weddings since they were a little girl, I have thought absolutely nothing of it. And quite frankly, I get sick of the question, "So have you set a date yet?" followed by the maniacal laughing as if it is the funniest joke that has ever been told.

Here's my thing. I'm not a lovey dovey, gushy mushy type of person. I hate ceremonies of all kinds. I am not religious. I am a complete introvert. Getting married is about me and Andrew, not our family and friends. Yup. I just said that last bit. And I'm not afraid to say it again. It's all about us! So why should I have to have this ginormous wedding just for the sake of friends and family? Why would I want a church wedding? Why would I want to partake in a huge ceremony? And why would I want to be in front of dozens upon dozens of people proclaiming my love from now until forever?

Here's another thing. I did a little research and found this awesome site. Click the link and you'll see that on average, a wedding in Baltimore costs between $18,000 and $31,000. Ummm, excuse me? Say that again? You mean a wedding in this city would most likely cost me more than I paid for my car? I don't think so!

With that same money, I could travel around the world for several months. Or I could purchase ten round trip tickets to Sydney, Australia. And I've been dying of homesickness (even though it's not my original home) since I left Australia after living there in 2005. I think that sort of experience is much more warranted when it comes to celebrating spending the rest of your life with another person.

Speaking of spending the rest of your life with another person, why is it that it is only socially accepted that marriage is what must happen? I think I got more congratulations from our engagement than when we moved in together five years prior. We like to do things backwards-- we moved in together, we got a dog together, we bought a house together, then we got engaged a while later. However, just because getting engaged was the last of these things to happen did not mean that we had already planned on being together for the rest of our lives.

Actually, we got engaged several years prior at one of our favorite bars as we discussed that we would eventually get married. I think Andrew asked me if I'd marry him, and I'm pretty sure I said yes and told him that I should wear a twisty tie on my ring finger from here on out. All joking aside, we are partners in crime for life and always knew that. So why the formality? Well, health insurance benefits would be pretty nice I suppose if I go self-employed. And it is probably a good idea to have all of that legal stuff worked out. However, it all seems a bit of, well, a formality.

So how are we going to get married? We plan on going to the courthouse. I don't really know when-- probably sooner than later. Then, we're going to have a giant cookout with cornhole and beer and grilling and invite our closest family and friends. There. I've planned my wedding! Now for those of you that keep asking about if we've set the date-- you'll know as soon as I do! ;)


P.S. Don't forget to enter the group giveaway going on right now! 

Happy end of Spring Break, guys! Or should I say, sad end of Spring Break? Today is my last day of break. And by last day, I mean that today was supposed to be a professional development day, but I needed a sick day to recoup from a very intense weekend that included the end of a visit with my sister and nephew and taking care of Andrew all Sunday while he was blowing chunks. Seriously, it was a draining last few days. Either way, the rest of the week was absolutely fabulous!

As a rundown, I finished my huge wholesale order for Urban Outfitters. My sister and nephew came to visit. We spent Thursday at the Science Center, which Jasper loved! He liked the dinosaur section the most where he spent a good half hour (at least!) brushing off the dinosaur bones and pretending to play paleontologist.


Friday afternoon, we headed to the aquarium and spent the later portion of the afternoon hanging out at my favorite coffee shop. When Andrew got home from work we spent the rest of the beautiful evening at the park.

Saturday morning, we headed down to DC. We had hoped to see the cherry blossoms blooming since my sister had never seen them before. We thought we would be lucky since many of the cherry blossoms in Baltimore are already in bloom, but alas they were not out yet. However, the weather was absolutely gorgeous-- the perfect day to be out and about on the National Mall where people were flying kites, enjoying, picnics, and Jasper got a chance to run around and play with Andrew.
After spending the day in DC, we headed to my aunt and uncle's house in nearby Hyattsville, Maryland for dinner. Sunday was a low key day hanging out in the house. Jasper loved playing with Lilah.
All around, it was a good week!

What have you been up to this past week? I feel as though I am out of the loop right now!

I've been a little out of the loop these days. If you may have had any interaction with me in the last few days, I was probably pulling my hair out or being a major stress case. There is a reason for that, my friends. I didn't want to spill the beans until I knew without a doubt that this was for real-- until someone pinched me and told me I wasn't dreaming. I'm rather superstitious and I worry about jinxing things.

Over these past few days, I've been putting the finishing touches on a ginormous wholesale order for Urban Outfitters! Probably about a month ago, Urban Outfitters got in touch with me and wanted some samples of my cards. They decided on my most popular Father's Day card, and over the next couple weeks I got my supplies in order and started cutting, printing, scoring, folding, and packaging cards. To be honest, I'm not really sure how I got it all done considering the amount of time I couldn't work because I was teaching during the day. And to be honest, hand-scoring over a thousand cards rips your hand to shreds! (Time to reconsider how I do things if there is a next time around).


Either way, the cards will soon be making an appearance in Urban Outfitters stores across the country. Send me a little Instagram (@heidishenk) if you happen to spot one in your local store! It would totally make my day! I know I'll be stalking the two stores in the Baltimore area. One of the Baltimore stores is near Andrew's architecture firm. I think I'll be making him check in on his lunches and be my personal card stalker..... he doesn't know this yet so don't tell. ;)

I'm feeling really lucky these days. I'm incredibly thankful for all of the support that you all have given me. Many evenings, late nights, and weekends of hard work have gone into my business after I come home from an already intense teaching job. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it as far as I have without all of the support. So, thank you, thank you, and thank you!

It has been refreshing for me to write about things that I truly believe and experience and have others relate to me about this. This was definitely the case last week when I wrote about how I think babies are aliens and my hatred for mom blogs. I think I finally just got to the point where I said, screw it! I'm writing about what I want to write about even if some may feel offended. And you know what? It feels pretty good.

I think I finally let go. I let go of any sort of weird feelings about what I was "supposed" to be writing about. For me, letting go is one of the hardest things to do. I remember my parents constantly telling me to "just let it go" while growing up. I couldn't let go then, and I still have a hard time doing it now.

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When talking about letting go, I think about two Christmases ago. I had finally come up with the best idea for a Christmas gift for Andrew. These sorts of ideas are few and far between and it was the best idea for a gift that I'd ever had. I was going to give him a home brew kit. He'd been talking about brewing for about a year and I knew he would never see it coming. I spent hours doing research, but simply didn't know enough to get all of the supplies he needed on my own. I decided that we could go together and pick the supplies out together. Instead, as a lead in to the ultimate gift, I gave him a super fancy schmancy bottle opener along with the explanation that it would be for opening his home brew bottles once we went to get the brewing kit.

The next day, we drove up to Cleveland to Andrew's parents' house for Christmas. We sat in the living room and exchanged gifts. The final gift was one given to Andrew. As soon as he opened it, my heart sank. His parents had given him a home brew kit. Andrew didn't say a word about my gift. He just excitedly thanked his parents. An hour later, Andrew and I were in the car driving to meet up with a college friend of ours for dinner. I told him how upset I was that my Christmas present was ruined and that I wished he would have at least said something to his parents. I couldn't blame his parents-- how were they supposed to know that they had had the same idea for a gift?

In the car, I was literally in tears over this. My gift was meant to be something that we could do together which made me even more bummed about the whole thing. I couldn't let go of the fact that Andrew didn't even mention my gift to his parents. A little over a year later, and I still have a hard time letting go of the fact that Andrew never told his parents about this. Sometimes, when he's brewing a new batch of beer, I actually tell him, "I can't believe you never told your parents about my Christmas gift." In some ways, it felt like he hadn't stuck up for me, and I just couldn't let go.

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I know it's not healthy. It's not ok to keep bringing up something of the past or to dwell over something that is probably so trivial. But I struggle. I constantly struggle. I have a hard time letting go of the fact that Andrew never told his parents. That the resource teachers at my school often get the day off from classes when we have an early release day and I lose a planning period. That a friend made plans with me and canceled at the last minute. That I had to leave an entire grocery cart full of items at Sam's Club because their debit card machines weren't working and I didn't have cash (true story and I couldn't stop talking about it for the rest of the day, poor Andrew, and I still hate going to Sam's because of this). That the lady at the post office told me she wouldn't sell me regular forever stamps for international mail.

I can't let go. I try really, really hard, but somehow it just doesn't work. I've gotten better. Much, much better, but I still constantly struggle with this. However, I have to say that after getting all of these trivial events off of my chest I finally think that I have let go.

Do you struggle with letting go of things? What helps you cope with letting go?

I have a problem here, people. And when I say I have a problem it only means one of two things. A) I have a serious addiction to something (like shoes) or B) I have a decision that I need to make and good old indecisive me can't make it. I'm not writing about shoes today, so we're going to have to default to letter B on this one.

I've been doing a little spring shopping lately and wanted to add a few more lightweight scarves to my wardrobe. However, I have a problem (as mentioned before) and I can never decide on just one. I claim that this is genetic. My mom and I are Victoria's Secret clothing shoppers. I don't mean the slutty shirts that show off your boobs or midriff. I mean the normal shirts, dresses, pants, etc. Why? They actually fit. They are good for tall people like us. I realized this weekend that I have picked up on a genetically passed down trait. I looked through the VS clothing catalog for an hour over coffee and picked out a few things. Next, I migrated to my laptop and started adding things to my online shopping cart over another cup of coffee. Finally, I looked at my shopping cart and noticed the total amounted to $668 and I gave up.

I mentally talked myself back into this online shopping by telling Andrew that he had to look at everything in my cart. Thirty minutes later and I had whittled my way down to a much, much smaller price tag and a few items for spring including a couple new bathing suits for my summer sun addiction. My indecisive nature made me take FOREVER while online shopping. This is genetic. I promise. If you could ask my dad right now he would probably tell you that he may or may not have to do the same thing I made Andrew do this weekend.

Now. I did a good job. I ordered my shirts and swimsuits from VS. I made it in and out of Gap in record time on Sunday with some great items. I have had a successful spring wardrobe update, except for my scarves. And Andrew? Andrew was no help this time. I think he seriously had overload from the whittling down of VS clothing.

So here goes nothing. I love this beautiful shop Gertie & Baxter. I can choose two scarves. Two is what I am allowed without Andrew probably making a comment. True story.

 1 // 2 // 3
I think I need to at least get number 2 since it's the only one that is pink. However, I am undecided about number 1 or 3-- I love them both. I can't have both though and really two mint scarves is probably impractical.

Which would you choose?