The Wedding, Part I

Actually this post is the prequel to the wedding. Before I jump into the wedding, I need to start off with a little back story. (Mike Twilleager you are rubbing off on me.)

The Proposal

Mike "Proposed" to go ring shopping on February 12, 2013. When I got home from work his car was parked in the garage. It was a Tuesday so he should have been at school. When I went inside he cleaned the house, got wine and flowers, and put Tucker in his tuxedo. Mike said sweet things about us and our future and then asked to go ring shopping together. I never told him that I wanted to pick out my own ring or design one. But he knew that I was picky about what I liked. A woman wears this ring every single day, it should be perfect and something that she loves. I had a nightmare that Mike proposed with a ring pop size ring. It was expensive and I loved that he gave it to me...but it was awful and I hated it. Can you exchange an engagement ring? Mike's proposal to go ring shopping was perfect. I still got the surprise of a "proposal", and I got to pick out my ring. We meet with a ring designer and three months later it was ready. Three months was a long time to wait but in the end it was worth it.

Our reenactement of the proposal 

I also found out later that he asked my parents permission to marry me the prior June (8 months earlier). He asked during a race, because he knew that might be the only time he saw them without me around. Because I was ahead of him in the race. I'm not very traditional and never expected him to ask permission, but it was very sweet and I'm glad he did.

The Original Plan

When we got engaged we knew nothing about Switzerland. We had plans to have a big party in Austin before we left to get married in Zihuatanejo.  We had venue in Austin picked out, we were narrowing down our cupcake bakeries and I had a hand drawn photo booth artist lined up.  The "Save the Date's" were even mailed. But in late November when Switzerland came into the picture, we knew it wasn't practical to fly from Switzerland to Austin for the party and then to Mexico for the wedding. We didn't have the time or money to do everything. So we cancelled the Austin party but continued on with all of our Mexico plans.

The First Ceremony

We were always going to get married at the JP before our Mexico wedding. But instead of going to the JP the week before our May 15th wedding, we decided to go a little earlier. We decided that it would make the move to Switzerland easier if we were already married. I needed to get my last name changed before we moved.

We went to the JP on December 10th, 2013. My friend Amber and MOH joined us and took a video.

That's the back story, next up will be the Wedding week.

May 7th, 2014 Run

I went for a 8 mile run today. Out and back. This is what I saw:

The first mile I'm in my neighborhood.

The second mile I run through the trails down to the Aare River.

At 1.9 miles I hit the Tierpark Dahlholzli (the zoo). I can only see the animals that are along the running path, so these are what I saw.

Mama Hog

Baby Hogs

Daddy Hog

At mile 3 I can see the Parliament House

Then through some more trails

And then at mile 4 I reach the Bear Pit and Old Town.

 And then I turn around and see it all again on the run back.

May 7th, 2014 - Randoms

It's 9:30am on a Wednesday and I've already had a repairman over to fix a window shade, walked Tucker, got ready for the day, ate breakfast, paid some bills online, started the dishwasher, drank 2 cups of coffee and emailed Mike about 10 times. Shouldn't I still be in bed? It's raining today, and it's perfect weather to lay in bed all day. But with no shades on the bedroom windows and the sun up by 7am...I can't sleep in. I guess it's a good thing. I'm not sure what I do all day, but I'm not sleeping in or taking naps. I should probably be working on my German. Oops.

The last two days were beautiful

Gloomy day today

My sewing machine, and knitting needles are still in transit. I really wished I put them in our earlier air shipment. This would have been the perfect time for me to practice. Our furniture will be here in 15 days, I feel so bad for the movers. We are on the 3rd and 4th floors, and our furniture is heavy. In addition to the furniture we have 66 boxes coming. It'll be interesting to see how we make everything fit. Once we get settled, I'll post pictures of our apartment. It's working out well so far, our only complaint is there is no garbage disposal. I never realized how often I used it.

Tucker is being boarded today. It's our second test run before we leave him to go to Mexico. He will be boarded for 9 days. He's never been boarded that long, and I'm nervous. The only place he's ever been boarded at is Petsmart (he typically stayed at my friend's house), and while I don't recommend their grooming services their doggie day camp and boarding is really good. He went there for 6 years and all the employees in that department knew him and his quirks. Someone was always in the room while he played with other dogs, he played inside with AC and a heater, was given "ice-cream" and kongs if requested, and they gave me "pawgress reports" so I know how he did. But here, dog's are treated more like dogs. The kennel area looked more like a dog shelter. Dogs play in a smaller area and unsupervised. And they don't know his quirks with other dogs. Dogs in Switzerland seem to be very well behaved, and I don't want them to take Tucker's moodiness with aggression. I'm sure he'll be fine. But this type of kennel is the norm here, and I need to adjust my expectations. He is just a dog and will be fine. Last Saturday we picked him up and he was laying outside in the sun (Tucker loves to sun bathe), not crying or upset in the least.


So why on earth am I leaving for Mexico when I just moved to Switzerland 3 weeks ago? To get married! Ok, technically we got married in the States before we moved. But we don't celebrate that day, and most people don't know when that was. So in our minds our wedding day is May 15th. It's an added bonus that I already did all of my name changes, so all that work is done! It'll be a 30 hour travel day to get there (instead of the 4 hour trip from Texas). A very long day, but we are excited to see our parents and friends. And I'm really excited for warm, sunny weather. It's still chilly in Switzerland.

Our wedding venue in Zihuatanejo, Mexico

We haven't done anything too exciting yet. We are still settling in and checking out the local Ikea and Media Markt (the Best Buy of Switzerland). It's still chilly and rainy here, but once the weather warms up a tad we'll start checking out places....and once Tucker forgives us for ditching him for 9 days.
I'll have much for exciting posts soon.

Good Day!

Michelle