Lots of Thoughts

School always makes me look at things in a whole new way.
I guess I think about different things more philosophically perhaps.

Right now it feels like I have a lot thrown at me.
I want to be an adult. But at the same time, I wish being a little kid and being carefree.
Planning for the wedding has not been as tedious as it was earlier on while choosing date and location and whatnot.
Last night Trevor and I were grabbing sodas from the vending machine. He mentioned how the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra was starting their new set of symphonies they would be playing. He said that he would love to again. The Ordway is a beautiful place to listen to amazing, high class music. I said I would like that as well. Being at the Ordway and listening to such fine classical music really makes you feel like an adult. Not old, but sophisticated and like you have your lives together.
With everything Trevor and I are handling right now, I certainly do not feel like we have our lives together or figured out at all.
We don't have an apartment figured out for next year. We have no clue where we will live at all.
We have basically no furniture for next year. I am not staying with a twin bed for two people!
We are both still in school and neither of us have schedules figured out.
I will have the option to student teach wherever I will like, so potentially out of state if Trevor and I would like to move from Saint Paul earlier than me graduating. That is something that will need to get decided on sooner rather than later for budget reasons.
We both are unsure of what our job situations will be like next semester. We only have one car so we will need to get new jobs closer to our nonexistent apartment.

It just feels like everything is compounding quickly.

Don't get me wrong, I am beyond excited to get married to Trevor.
I do not want to push off the wedding or move in together before marriage or anything that may be suggested.
I am content with our decisions because I do feel they will be the best for us.

      | 196 days until we finally get married. |

Now to stop stressing and get some homework done!

Nikon Adventures: KAT

I just realized I never shared photos from my photoshoot at Fonferek with my sister, Kat..
She was a bit more of a challenge than when I shot with Ana. Ana is a natural, of course. Anyone who knows her, knows that. So it was nice to have the opportunity to go out with someone who didn't know what to do. I learned a lot in the short shoot I did with Kat.
Here are some of my favorites!
To check out more, visit the album on my Flickr: Kat

As I am now living in Saint Paul, I would love to take your pictures if you live in the area or are even just visiting! Let me know! 

Minnesota State Fair

Yesterday I was fortunate enough to go to the Minnesota State Fair with my family!
We used to go quite frequently, but having been living in Wisconsin the past five years...it's been a while.
This was also the first time we went with my aunt and her family!

Fun was certainly had by all.
We ate until we were full..and then ate more!

Lucy and Owen in the DNR building

Drinking our "All You Can Drink Milk" for $1

Lucy and Owen after going down the giant slide with Katherine and me

Two fisting it!

Always have to get Ostrich-On-A-Stick to support Camp Omega

Selfie--photobomb by mom

Dad and Katherine enjoying their milk

Fair crowds are amazing to me

Owen, Lucy, and Katherine enjoying fresh baked cookies (Katherine is also holding onto my mom's turkey leg)

Mom got a huge turkey leg

Selfie with some milk

Breaking News!

Yesterday was a day I will never forget!

Trevor proposed!

I've never been more happy in my life. I'm engaged to my best friend and will get to spend the rest of my life with him.
I cannot wait to begin the wedding planning process. It's probably going to be stressful, but I think enjoyable as well.

Here's to forever!

The Starbucks Blues

Last summer, I had a delicious chai tea latte nearly every morning from Starbucks on my way to work.
Oddly, only a small dent to my bank account was made by the constant transactions.

This summer however, I've had quite the shortage of such beverages. Occasionally I stop by to get Trevor a surprise drink (and to treat myself as well). But still, notably fewer than last summer.

Due to my nanny job being in De Pere, I don't have any Starbucks really on my route to work, at least the one I take.
The few times Natalie and I have driven to swimming lessons instead of biking, I have been an awful person and left the pool to go to the Dunkin Donuts just down the way. Don't worry, I've made it back in time to pick her up every time.
I feel like I'm betraying Starbucks and my Gold Card, but dang...Dunkin Donuts has some damn good iced coffee and super cheap donuts. Perfect combo.

In 9 days, I leave for Saint Paul. Land of Caribou Coffee. When I used to live in Minnesota, I had never even tried Starbucks!
Concordia Saint Paul has a Caribou Coffee on campus, so I'm sure I will quickly find a favorite there, just as I have at both Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks.

While I'm still in Green Bay these last few days, I'm going to enjoy my chai tea latte fresh from Starbucks.

Weddings Galore!

I am a sap for a good ole wedding.
Seriously.
I bawl my eyes out.

Even with the extreme emotion high I get from a wedding, they make me feel old.
Yes, I know..I'm only 19.
So young, right?

Well the past two weekends, two couples that I went to high school with have gotten married! WOW!
Now the totals are in from those I went to high school with...
From the Class of 2010: Married: 5(Bo&Rachel, Matt&Steph, Kyle) Engaged: 1(Sarah)
From the Class of 2011: Married: 2(Spencer&Lindsay) Engaged: 0
From the Class of 2012: Married: 0 Engaged: 1(K'Leigh)
From the Class of 2013: Married: 1(Chelsey) Engaged: 2(Nick&Ana)
From the Class of 2014: Married: 1(Nikki)

I think that's it, at the very least--it's the minimum. How crazy.
It's so exciting that so many of these people have started their lives with the ones they love already!


On another note, but that is still wedding related...
Trevor has booked to shoot two weddings this coming fall!
He's asked me to second shoot with him!
I'm so excited.
Pinterest will be heavily monitored by the two of us as we hunker down and learn the ropes of wedding photography. And better yet, we can do that together!

One of the weddings he's shooting is for two Pizza Ranch managers! It'll be quite interesting seeing people from work in such a different environment..especially that of a wedding.
Regardless, I am looking forward to the challenge that will be presented in second shooting these weddings with him. I know it's going to be difficult, but it will push me to become much better.

My Nanny Saga Comes to an End

This next week will be my final week with Natalie.
Crazy.
It seems like the summer has just begun, and yet I had to give Natalie's family a notification of when would be my last day with her.
We're trying to slam out what was on our Summer 2014 list of things to do, but I know we won't finish.
Friday we had quite a bit of fun though!
We had some more fun with chalk...

I also made her an adorable flower crown. I wanted one for myself, but we picked barely enough flowers for one for her...

We also made some delicious layered drinks, but I didn't get a good picture of them. Our bottom layer (with the highest sugar content) was Ginger Ale. The next layer was Lemon Lime Gatorade. The final layer was Sprite Zero. I was nervous it wouldn't work, and the flavors would mix, but my worries subsided when the Ginger Ale and Gatorade stayed separate. It was quite a fun drink for a hot summer day!

One Year

August 2, 2013--the day I had my first kiss with a truly incredible guy
August 2, 2014--a year later still with the same amazing guy.

It's crazy to see what a year can do to a person. Many things change. I'm so glad that this past year I have had one reliable thing in my life. He's not going anywhere. And I trust that he's going to be beside me for many more years.

I'm so in love with him and I can't wait to experience life with him. We have so many adventures ahead of us.

I love you, Trevor.
With all of my heart.

Nikon Adventures: ANA

As the summer has progressed, I have been indulging myself in the wonderful exploration of photography. Once upon a time, I wanted to spend my life doing photography. And now I'm dipping my toes back into that puddle. AND LOVING EVERY SECOND OF IT.
So I wanted to take some "real" pictures with one of my dearest friends from high school: ANA!
Here is the link to my Flickr page to check out more than these few: Ana

Ana was a simply amazing model and we will hopefully be getting together again soon for some more photos. She is such a natural model and her sense of style shines so brightly in these pictures. 

If you live in the Green Bay area I would love to take photos of you, so feel free to contact me! I'll be here until about the third week in August. After that I will be in Saint Paul, so if you live there, I'll be there through May!

Six Flags

I can cross something off my Bucket List!
Yesterday I went to Six Flags Great America for the first time ever.
I was extremely scared to be riding such huge coasters.
Also, I rode Goliath, which just opened. Crazy. Granted my eyes were closed for almost all of it, I did it!

I'm so grateful that I got to go with Trevor. Two of his friends were along too, which was fortunate due to the late driving on our way back.

It was certainly a moment in my life I will never forget.

DIY: Corkboard Meets Washi Tape

I decided this summer I was going to do some Pinterest projects, however, a few weeks ago I realized I had yet to do any. Shame on me. So while scrolling Pinterest, as I do most days, I came across some dorm decorating ideas.
I'm hoping my dorm at Saint Paul can be decorated easily to my liking. I'm generally rather boring when it comes to decor and I would love to change that. So now is the time, right?!
So, back to scrolling Pinterest, I came across several lovely ideas and got some inspiration. Last year I didn't have a very well functioning corkboard. I had brought along Sarah's that I had been gifted during high school. I love the look it gave my room, however, it has a slight curve in it so it doesn't stay on walls. Thus, it wasted precious desk space. So this school year, it shall find a place in my room at home for when I come home over breaks.
Back to the point of this post! I saw lots of cool ideas for how to decorate corkboards! Perfect solution to my miniscule problem in life.
Here are some of the pins that inspired me to do this DIY project:
Tribal Elephant Canvas Art: This is not actually on corkboard, but on canvas. You will (hopefully) see the resemblance between it and one of my corkboards!
Prayer Board
Corkboard & Other projects
DIY Chevron Corkboard

So here's my first attempt at a DIY blogpost! (I apologize as I don't have pictures for a lot of this)

Corkboard Meets Washi Tape:

• I went to Hobby Lobby and bought a 4 pack of corkboard & washi tape of my liking. The final price ended up being under $10 because of in-store sales plus the coupon you can use on the Hobby Lobby app (which I highly suggest using).

• I continued searching through Pinterest to find ideas I would love throughout the year. The links above were some of my inspiration as well as others I looked at for designs.

• CHEVRON: I knew for sure I wanted to do a chevron board and that would be the most difficult, so that is the one I started with. I taped a chevron pattern on the "top" of the corkboard with one color of washi tape. I made the mistake of not using a ruler and just did it by eye. This however caused issues later on. So the first row turned out well, in my opinion. I used a ruler then to create my next row approximately two inches below the first. This is where I noticed flaws in my original line as the tape was hard to make look even and similar to my first row. I then made my third,, and final, row below that the same distance between as the previous. VOILA! It's done!                                           *Later I noticed some of my washi tape was coming up already on the edges. gasp. So I flipped over my corkboard and decided to use masking tape to tape down the edges of the tape to the back so it would be sturdier.*

• PRAYER BOARD: I knew also that I wanted to create a Prayer Board. I know so many people right now that I need to keep in my prayers, and I thought this would be my best way of keeping track of everyone. I found the idea on Pinterest and knew this would be perfect. It was extremely simple. I wrote "Prayers" on a slip of construction paper and taped it to the corkboard. I also added some embellishments with the washi tape.

• ABSTRACT: I had no idea what I wanted to do with my third cork piece. So I asked Natalie, the 8-year-old I babysit if she had any thoughts. She suggested I do put random tape down. I let her choose where I placed them since she so willingly let me use one of her washi tapes that I didn't have. 

• MONOGRAM: I love monograms. They're so "in" right now. However, I won't be a Hovland forever, so do I really want a corkboard that says my current initials? I decided to just to stick to "E." (This is ironically now what a friend from work is trying to convince all of Pizza Ranch-dom to call me.) Natalie suggested I use some of her paints on this one so I wouldn't use all of my washi tape up. bless her rich soul. I decided I didn't want to attempt more chevron, like seen in my inspiration from Pinterest, and just stuck to diagonal stripes. I cut a large "E" from construction paper and set it in the center of the cork. I then taped the lines down around it. I found some awesome silver paint in Natalie's collection and painted that on over the whole cork.
  
  
  
  Sadly some of the paint made its way under the tape when I removed it. damn, no more straight lines. The perfectionist in me couldn't handle it. So Natalie mentioned she also had paint markers. Awesome sauce. I used those to outline my "E" and fix the lines that had the largest mistakes!

So there ya have it! My first ever DIY blogpost. I don't think I did too poorly..

I'd love to hear some feedback on the post, the ideas, or on the project itself!

The Introduction

I have finally received word on who my roommates will be and which room I will be living in.
I think I'm more nervous than when I found out for CUW.

We're all friends on Facebook now, but have yet to talk to each other. I don't know how well they know each other or anything, so I decided to break the ice...

"Hello ladies, I guess I don't really know anything about you, but I'm quite excited to get to know you all throughout the year! I thought I'd introduce myself before the school starts however, just so I can ease into the year a little easier.. I'm Elisebeth (duh), I live in Green Bay WI--Go Packers! I actually spent most of my life in Minnesota, and am super excited to finish out my college years back in the fabulous state. My dad is a pastor, which is why my family has moved around. I am an Early Childhood Education major with LCT as my minor. Last year I was a freshman at Concordia University Wisconsin. I loved it there and made some great friends by the end of the year. I decided to transfer to CSP for a few reasons. Mainly because I got bored at CUW, because it's like half an hour from Milwaukee and I don't own a car so I was always stuck on campus. This also caused difficulties with me getting a job. So I'm super excited to be in the city! Another reason I decided on CSP is because my boyfriend goes to a music school in St. Paul, so I'm excited to no longer have to deal with a long distance relationship. So yeah, that's pretty much it right off the bat. I don't know how well you ladies know each other already, but I would certainly love to hear about your lives"

4th of July

This was the first 4th of July that Trevor and I spent together!
We spent a lot of time together before going downtown. We ended up ordering Pizza Ranch and picking up our delicious combo (half Chicken Bacon Ranch [extra chicken/extra ranch]+ pepperoni and half Pepperoni and Green Olives along with an order of mashed potatoes and gravy and a 2-liter bottle of Barq's root beer!)
It was a terrific lunch, of course!
We then headed down to the City Deck to look at a few of the local bands that were playing. Trevor knew a lot of the guys in the bands so we shot a lot of pictures of many of the bands. While it was quite fun, my knee disagreed due to the large amount of walking we did over the course of the evening.

Waterboard Warriors

Waterboard Warriors

Red Clover Band

Red Clover Band

Red Clover Band

Red Clover Band

Bad Habitz

Bad Habitz

Fahrenheit 420

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Johnny Wad

Those are the shots I got of the bands. I think they turned out pretty well considering it was my first time shooting bands. You can see them on my Flickr page too: Elisebeth's Flickr!

Also, I love this picture of me and Trevor I took downtown on Snapchat. :)

Our first 4th of July <3