Today is my first day home alone as Arild has gone back to work and I've been cleaning, doing language exercises, messaging him just like in the good 'ole days and now I'm taking a break from language learning only to find myself listening to a Swedish band. Go figure! :-)
At least the next couple of days Arild can work from home and I won't be making to-do lists for myself.
So for now, let me recap on a few things...
There was the meeting up for the final time. :-) It was the point in our lives where we never have to say goodbye again. When waiting for him to get off the plane from Chicago, I was quite impressed I was able to pick out his distinctive walk out of the crowd of people getting off the plane. I only saw the top of his hair and noticed from the movement it was him. We hugged, waited on his luggage and went home to have one of his many favorite American foods, macaroni and cheese. :-)
We ran into some difficulties with the lady we had first arranged to marry us. She wouldn't reply to my emails or my phone calls and after talking to others about the price she was charging us, she was apparently taking advantage of us as well. So last minute we had to find a wedding officiant and the man we hired worked out great.
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| Outside Squire Boone Caverns. |
We spent the days between the meeting up and the wedding with family and soon his family arrived to Kentucky after first seeing New York for a few days as it was their first trip to America. Arild wanted to visit another state and I lived fairly close to Indiana, so we made a visit there.
It was interesting to see what his family thought of Kentucky. They all said it was laid-back, lush, green and inexpensive. I found it interesting how little I know of tourism areas in Kentucky though I've lived there my entire life.
Then there was our big day. I thought I'd be so nervous on our wedding day, but I didn't even have the least bit of nervousness or anxiety. I felt calm and relaxed the entire day. I managed a sunburn the day before and I really didn't want a farmer's tan the day of my wedding so I was suggested an awful vinegar bath which didn't work, I went to the tanning bed to roast myself the morning of the wedding. I was determined to be one color on our wedding day. That was the only thing which really concerned me.
I wrote our vows, but I left out one thing....
the part where we were supposed to say, 'I do.' So we never said 'I do.' at our own wedding. Oops! :-)
I am very satisfied with how everything went for the most part. It was exactly how I wanted it to be. Small and intimate and outdoors. I was able to talk with everyone after the wedding and that suited me just fine. :-)
We even set aside some time to break away from the chaos of the day and walk around to ourselves and talk to each other.
I think our photographer from Dynamite Image did a wonderful job as well!
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| Waiting on his wife... |
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| Very excited and ready to begin! |
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| YAY CAKE! |
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We had both American and Norwegian
flags present at our wedding! |
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| An off-guard moment by the tree. |
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Americana!
To prove the old myth wrong, we really
do wear shoes in Kentucky.
I just took them off for the photo! :-) |
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Some people say it's bad luck to see
each other before the wedding, but oh well! |
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Sitting on a porch swing from the house
we rented for the reception. |
We had about a week after the wedding until the move. We made visits to family, said goodbye (this was probably the most difficult thing I've ever done in my life) and celebrated my 23rd birthday as my last day in America.
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| The last day in my very small hometown. |
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Spent my 23rd with some of my favorite
people at a park and blowing out
candles on my tiny birthday cake. :-) |
Then we grabbed our lovable 3-legged furball, Stella and we left America the morning of the 24th.
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| Ready to begin our new lives! |
So now that leaves us with a garden party we had at his parents' house. I finally got to meet Arild's friends, their wives and girlfriends and extended family members. It was quite overwhelming being surrounded by a whole lot of spoken Norwegian at once, but it was very nice to meet everyone. Everyone there was quite welcoming. It was especially a very nice thing for his parents and friends of his parents to set up a party as not everyone could make it to the wedding.
There was a variety of desserts there and this gave me a chance to finally try something purely Scandinavian. Strawberries are very popular in Norway and I obviously love strawberries. Our kitchen is decorated in them, but there was something in particular I really liked and before the garden party I had only read about it and it was kransekake or "ring cake."
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| Kransekake! |
So that was our crazy month of May and now we can begin to get settled into this next phase. :-)
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