Ding Dong the Brit is Wed! Part 1

May 20th-24th Jack and I were able to enjoy a vacation to Chicago to attend our friend Tom's wedding to his beautiful bride, Rachel, from Britain. It was a sweet time to spend celebrating and enjoying their union. Jack was honored to be a groomsman and it was fun to get to participate in all the activities. It was also neat to get to experience a wedding that was cross-cultural in a way. The Brits brought over many fun traditions that were incorporated in everything from the rehearsal and Pudding Party afterwards to tea and cakes for a pre-reception dinner treat. We enjoyed an amazing Scottish bad and learned traditional Scottish dances which was a BLAST!!! We also took advantage of the wedding festivities to catch up with our sweet friends Alinna and Daniel. It was a special time of reconnecting, hanging out, laughing together and touring around Chicago. What a great vacation! I'll throw some pictures up here and a couple of videos to highlight our time. I also have more pictures on Facebook so I'll connect that link as well. Enjoy!

hotel lobby

waiting to head to the rehearsal dinner

the lady Brits :)

rehearsal dinner at the Copper Fox

The fun wedding party

off to the rehearsal!

contrasting :)

the band. they sounded so good.

Alinna girl :) Sweet friends.

you RAT...you TRICKED me! Rach's dad with Jack and D.

St. Charles, IL...fun, quaint town.

hotel enterance

Rachel's beautiful hair

hotel, again. we loved it there.

D ready for the wedding.

Alinna's so pretty :)

the drums

program!

Tom can't wait to see his Bride!

stunning

Radiant, as her dad described her.

the groomsmen.

Praising Jesus throughout the whole thing. One of the sweetest weddings we've ever been to.

cleaving

They saved their first kiss for their wedding day. Precious.

praying over the new couple

Introducing: Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt!!

Jack and "Jill" (Gillian)

Tea and cakes pre-reception fun :)

yuuuum.

personalized cupcakes

sweet paper flowers and they had a paper flag banner with scripture all over it.

post wedding pictures, happy to be married!

Mr. Cool.

wedding party, brits on the right, yanks on the left :)

so sweet at the reception, it was beautiful.

Tom and Rachel.

Daniel and Alinna.

Jack and Becky.

The beautiful and delicious cake.

Tom's Russian dad :)

Gettin' geared up for some dancing fun, high heels must come off :)

I was totally into it.

Scottish Traditional dances...most fun reception ever.

doing our Scottish jig

sweet love :)

so fun...we were all sweaty from all the dancing :)

Facebook album

Videos of the dancing:

Keep on keeping on!

So I've mentioned before that I've been doing a Bible reading plan that has me reading through the Bible in a year. I'm happy to say that I am still going strong with it! I've made it further than I've ever done before and I'm really enjoying it! I'm currently reading through the Gospel of John, a few of the Psalms and 2 Samuel. Talk about refreshing, convicting, and challenging all at the same time. David, a man after God's own heart, stumbles through different situations and yet we get to read his prayers, praises and cries to God. Then flipping over to John and we read about God in human form, Jesus...knowing that David was a predecessor of sorts to Jesus, it all just ties in so perfectly. It's refreshing to read through the gospels again, to saturate my mind and heart with the truth of it, the conviction of it, and to remind myself of who Jesus really is. To read through what he did while he was on Earth...the stories are amazing and yet even more amazing is how it's all true! None of it is made up...he really walked the Earth, he really healed the sick, he really taught the crowds who were wanting to know more, he really turned water into wine, he really made the blind to see and the lame to walk and he fed the hungry. He associated with the poor, the cast-offs, the sinners. He really, truly died on a cross and even more amazing he ROSE from the dead three days later!! How easy it is to go through our day to day lives and forget the awesomeness of who Jesus truly is! Loving this reminder right now in my life. I've heard it said before and I know it to be true, we need to be preaching the gospel to ourselves daily. Remind yourself of who Jesus is, what he did for you and what your response to that is. If you don't know what I'm talking about...ask! I'd love to share more. Until then, dig into the Word y'all! It's rich.

HILARIOUS

I love the fact that Jack and I got to go to college with these guys and that they entertained our Crusade movement. Watch this video and all the others that go with it for a great laugh! HAhahaha

May Desktop Calendar!

Because you all should know by now that I love these, the May Desktop Calendar is up on Geninne's Art Blog!! Hip hip hooray!!!

So what's on tap for May for the younger Galloways you might ask? Well I'll fill ya in!

We had a good time on Cinco de Mayo (May 5th for you non-Spanish speakers, ha, ha.) with Jack having surgery on is nariz (that's nose). You may remember his bang-up job he did on it April 30th...anyways, they went up there, rooted around, straightened out his 5 pieces of bone and stuck a nice splint on it. Some fun facts the OR nurses learned while he was under anesthesia...Jack's pregnant (that's news to me!) and the SCD's on his legs (little foamy pad things they put around your legs that squeeze intermittently in order to prevent blood clots while lying still for a while) were in fact little midgets giving his legs hugs. He cracks me up.  I drove him home later that day and we just relaxed. Then he grilled chicken for dinner...because that's the way he rolls.

Pre-Op

Post-Op

We relaxed over the weekend and then Jack was back to work on Monday. He had a doctors appointment on Tuesday and they told him he could keep the splint on until Friday and then remove it...well while I was at a Pediatric Conference on Tuesday I get a text message with this:

with the caption: "I couldn't wait. It itched, so I wiggled it a little and it came half way off on it's own :). Looks straight and scabs look good!"

Haha, sorta reminds me of the time he broke his hand the last time he had surgery on his nose and got tired of the cast so he sawed it off using a pumpkin carver all on his own only a few weeks after having it put on! That guy just doesn't like to listen to medical authority!! :)

This was Jack Post-Op 2007...looked a lot worse than this go around because they had to re-break his nose to straighten it. Not this time though, it was still in fragments!!

Then he broke his hand playing basketball...after the doc had told him to not do physical activity while his nose healed. (2007)

So they put him in a cast...that he hated. (2007)

SO he cut it off and wrapped his hand in ACE wrap and tape and called it good. He's so crazy.

Anyways, so that's been our May so far but the upcoming days/weeks are hopefully going to be fun/exciting/non-injury filled!!

May 14th (Saturday) Jack is flying to Budapest, Hungary!! I'm really excited for him to get to present his Nuclear Engineering work in the conference over there. I've been praying for a while now that his trip will be better than his last time in Europe (Switzerland)! After a series of unfortunate events including but not limited to: luggage not arriving, food poisoning, migraines, trains trapping him on board so that he couldn't get off at his correct stop, hiking in the beautiful Alps and snapping gorgeous pictures only to have his jacket stolen WITH the camera in the pocket, etc...we are hoping for a much better experience on the other side of the world this go around! I will be holding the fort down and working pretty much every day he is gone...then...

On May 20th I'll be hopping a plane for Chicago to see our friends, Tom and Rachel, get married!!! Jack will be flying in to Chicago from Hungary on the 20th just in time to make it to the rehearsal dinner (he's a groomsman in the wedding) and then we get to hang out with Alinna and Daniel for a few days after the wedding! I'm so looking forward to that time with them to catch up and see the sights!! We're planning on catching a White Sox game, taking a trolley tour ride and probably enjoy some famous Chicago style pizza among other things.

Then the rest of the month will be dedicated to work, work, work. It's a busy month but I'm excited with all that gets to happen!! And don't worry...Jack will be taking a camera with him to Hungary so hopefully we'll get pictures of that trip and I will definitely be snapping pictures while in Chicago!! Until then...happy May!