Feeling Blessed

Hey friends. Spring is finally here! We are leaving our windows open, our allergies are taking their tolls, and we found four disgusting spiders in our apartment yesterday. But we are happy, and for the most part, very healthy. Our baby is growing and we're so excited. But, recently, major things in our world took a tragic turn.

Most of you may have seen the horrific events that occurred at the Boston Marathon this past week. As a resident of Massachusetts, someone who works in the heart of the city, whose dreams have come to life here and someone who has a great deal of passion for the city it has been a very tough week.

Patrick and I were extraordinarily lucky. I had the day off from work, so was able to be safe at home and not enter Boston that Monday. Patrick works in the city, but he was at a safe enough distance that he was able to confirm his safety to me quickly. He also happened to drive into the city that day (because he was running late that morning) and came home soon as he could. Our friends and family were safe and checked in very quickly. But many were not. My heart grieves for them. My heart grieves for this city. For an event that is meant to be joyous, and a celebration of life and freedom.

But on the other hand, I have seen such heroic deeds done; marathon runners who continued to run past the finish line two extra miles to the hospital to donate blood. Spectators who instead of running away from the explosions, ran to the victims to help. The FBI and the law enforcement of Boston, the state, and more recently, Watertown, who searched tirelessly in the days after the events to find the two suspects. And who, yesterday, bravely did find them and put a stop to them.

On Monday and yesterday, when the whole city was on lock down, Patrick and I stayed in our home. We felt all day the same feeling that swept Massachusetts, the feeling of anxiety and of being unsafe. Now that those responsible for the terrible acts of violence have been stopped, and it is a new day, I am truly counting my blessings.

I'm grateful to have love, safety, shelter and friends to share it with. A healthy pregnancy so far, exciting projects to work on and a beautiful new home to build (we moved!). There are countless things, little things that I fail to think about each day that have been returning to the forefront of my mind in light of these attacks. I'm heartbroken for what has been done to Boston and to its people, relieved that justice will be served, and hopeful that I can remember to be grateful for every day that we have.

With love and thankfulness,

Micah

Hello, Hello, Hello!

Hello everyone! Like so many posts before this one on this blog, I am apologizing for disappearing. Again. I'll fill you in on what I've been doing...

Basically, from the moment we stepped off the plane home from Italy to now, I have been in a show. Not one, but four separate ones. Next to Normal with Patrick in August, Evil Dead: The Musical in October, A Christmas Carol reprising my role from last year (!), and The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus in January/February (for which I was acting and producing). So ridiculously busy!

Now that it's March, I think things are finally calming down a bit for me to return (triumphantly) to the blogosphere, keep up with some recaps and move forward! Good thing too, because Patrick and I have a big announcement to make...

We're going to have a baby!

Not kidding. Completely thrilled. Almost no words to express the joy and love. We found out a little before Christmas that we'll be expecting the Little One in August! (Woo hoo!). Patrick and I had decided not to wait too long before having kids. We feel incredibly blessed, overwhelmed with joy and excitedment and content.

Lucky me too, it just so happens that one of my best friends (and bridesmaids) Abbie is also expecting (she's a full trimester ahead of me, so it's been wonderful to ask questions and discuss things with her!). 

Facts:

I am, this week, four months and a week pregnant.

We are having a little boy!

We're moving to a bigger apartment!

So, you can see, our lives have been even more of a love-roller coaster. We've been lucky, again, to have quickly found an apartment we really love (a little further out from where we were before) and we've slowly been packing and moving into the new place. It already feels like home! I can't wait to share with you our decorating (especially Baby's room!) adventures and life as a married (and soon to be parenting) couple! Don't worry -- there are plenty of crafts, wedding re-caps, and other typical Roses are Blue posts! So stay tuned!

:) :) :)

My very (preggies) best,

Micah



Family, Friends, Toasts & Champagne! {Rehearsal Dinner}

First things first: I apologize for disappearing. As soon as we returned from the honeymoon, my theatre company opened our second production (of which I was the production manager), and then Patrick, myself and a few other friends went into rehearsals, and opened a run of the musical Next to Normal, followed by me immediately going into rehearsals for Evil Dead: the Musical (yes, that's right...Evil. Dead. The Musical.). Needless to say, our life as newlyweds began and continues to be super busy!

I want to begin re-caping our wedding, if only for the joy of re-living it. It was the best week of our lives thus far. Let's start at the very beginning, The Rehearsal & Rehearsal Dinner!

Our rehearsal was at 11:00am on the Friday before our wedding (there was another wedding happening that day in our venue), so we woke, got ready and headed out immediately to the Towers. I wore my white strapless BCBG I told you about, with my DIY beaded necklace!

My Soon-to-be Husband wore a matching shirt! Love.

I admit I was getting nervy and stressed on the way to the Towers for our rehearsal. We had spent the night before assembling the favors (which, of course, I'll tell you all about), and there were a few things that still needed to fall into place. I hadn't seen Patrick for a few days (I had left work early to be able to finish up last minute errands/projects before the wedding, and had headed down to RI), but as soon as I saw him, I felt the nerves calm and excitement grow!

To tell the truth, as soon as our Officiant arrived and took charge, things went relatively smoothly! Our groomsmen and bridesmaids stepped up to the plate! With our friends looking on, my dad and I preceded to practice our walk down the aisle to Patrick who was waiting for me. During the rehearsal of the Ceremony, both Patrick and I suddenly became very emotional. I believe it started really to sink in that the following day would be our wedding day. We could barely make it through the vows! I looked around at my friends; some from when I was in elementary school, some new friends; and to my family, the smiles shining from their faces. I started to really feel the love and support around us that would continue to grow through the rest of the day and continue past our wedding day that still goes on today. We completed the rehearsal and finally got a clear picture of what our ceremony would be like. It was just as we hoped for, but until then, couldn't fully picture. We were so excited!

After that, we parted ways again; the girls and I to mani/pedis and the boys for lunch and maybe a game or two of disc-golf. I opted to drive with Bridesmaid Joelle, who sweetly offered to cart me around. But when we got back to the place where she had parked her car, we noticed that her driver's side rear-view mirror was hanging by a thread! Someone had swiped the car, and knocked it almost off! We headed to the police station to report it (all the while, my stress levels slowly rising). When we got there, a nice family was reporting that they had swiped a car a few moments before! We found that it was the same accident, and cheer was restored to both Joelle's and my own faces as the report was filed and apologies were accepted.

We arrived late to the nail salon, and I made a few changes to my original plan for my nails (opaque white heart on the ring finger and bright blue toes). But I went with a soft pink for fingers and toes and outlines of hearts on the ring fingers --- I think they came out really well!

Final pic of my sparkly without the wedding band!

After all the ladies were properly pampered and polished, we headed home. I gathered up the peacock fingerprint guestbook and headed with my parents to the Tower House, the beautiful bed & breakfast where we stayed the night we got engaged!

My handsome little brother and beautiful MOH sister!

Guys, I can't sing enough praise for this place. Not only was the rehearsal dinner delicious and full of family, friends and love, but they decorated for us and made the place into (seriously) an enchanted garden. The weather was perfect, everyone was outside, there were lights and lanterns in the trees, and delicious nomblies around every corner.

But the best part of that night was the toasts. It's actually quite hard to capture with words the amount of love, honesty, friendship and family that were poured into each toast; and almost all of our friends and a lot of family members stood up and said something. P and I were overwhelmed with happiness! Our best friends made us all teary with their sentiments. Patrick's cousins made us laugh and cry and our ring-bearer and my little cousin stole the show with some fantastic lines ("I remember when you two started marrying each other..."). The toasts were such a gift to us. My grandfather came up to me at the end of the night and said "You know, you have amazing friends." And I do know that. I couldn't be more grateful.

 

With a beautiful rehearsal dinner where we re-connected with far away family and old friends, laughed and cried happy tears with our dearest and toasted and ate delicious treats, Patrick and I got ready to spend our last nights as an unmarried couple. He drove me home, just like he did when we met and carpooled to rehearsal in that fateful production of Birds of Paradise. We kissed goodnight. And turned in, dreaming of our wedding day!

More to come!

Love,

Micah

Honeymoon Recap!: Our Trip to Paradise

Hello all! I am still alive, still married and still blogging! I know --- I have been absent for weeks, but as you would expect, things are already ridiculously busy! As soon as we got back, we had to begin work, and I am (thankfully, and most happily) booked through February with shows! Anyways, to the point. Before I get to recap our wedding (which was the best day of my life so far), I wanted to talk about the most beautiful amazing place on earth, our honeymoon destination: The Isle of Capri off the coast of Naples in Italy!

So, after our wedding day, we decided we wanted to leave straight off to our honeymoon the next morning. So we booked our flights and after leaving our Bed & Breakfast in a cloud of love, and a car bedecked by our friends with "Just Married" decorations as a surprise, we headed up to the airport and onto our first adventure as a married couple!

We left little RI, for Philly, and then on to my first flight abroad landing in Munich, Germany. We spent a few hours in our layover loafing about the airport, exchanging our dollars for euros and giggling about how we actually could call each other 'husband' and 'wife.' As most flights are, ours was delayed. So, Patrick read and I fell asleep on his shoulder. But FINALLY we boarded our plane to Naples and took off. Arriving in Naples, we saw the beautiful countryside and heard the melodic tones of the Italian language and immediately felt like we were home. Admittedly, it would have been nice if one of us were fluent in Italian --- we got stuck in Naples due to confusion in taking the hydro-foil (a super fast ferry boat) to the island and ended up catching the very last boat. We were exhausted, but overjoyed.

  

We reached our villa by taxi cab at the top of Capri in the little town of Anacapri, and honestly, passed out. But we woke up the next morning to this:

This is the view we woke up to every morning. I know... 

Ooh! Suggestion: If you plan on taking your honeymoon abroad, or on a more than 5 hour flight where there will be a time difference, we strongly suggest not sleeping on the plane? Or if you must, just kind of cat-napping. Why? For this reason; we actually braved the nine hour flight from Philly to Munich without sleeping and then from Munich to Naples not resting until we got to Capri. That way, it seemed like just a very, very long day, and our bodies went to sleep on Italian time instead of American time. We slept in the first day, but were ready for adventure when we woke up, and felt less jet-lagged then had we slept on the plane and had to re-adjust our bodily clocks. 

We set about exploring, relaxing and enjoying each other for a golden eight days.

Here's the patio right outside our villa; that's where we had breakfast, read
and planned our activities for the day!

A view of the ocean that surrounded us. You can almost discern the curvature of the Earth! It's crazy!


Lovely blue Mediterranean waters



Steps from our Villa down to the pool!

OMG you guys, the POOL.

My new hubby at our beautiful gate!

To avoid this becoming a novel of a post, I want to just share with you some of our favorite moments of the trip!

The FOOD was amazing. No matter where we went.
This is a picture of our favorite: pizza a la caprese! (Fresh Mozzarella, Garden Ripe Tomatoes,
Basil, Marinara Sauce).

   

Watching the sunset over the shoulder of Mt. Vesuvius, while sipping
local-bottled wine on our roof-deck.

My husband is so handsome! ... and check the new European threads!

We took a trip up to the highest peak in Capri, Monte Solaro (You get there by chair lift!).

  

  

Fancy date in Capri Town.

Gorgeous views! (hi, honey!)

We rented a boat and sailed around the entire island, taking in all the sights and even going for a swim in the Mediterranean!

  

Our villa was the perfect spot for relaxation together. It was the most beautiful place I've ever seen.

 

One of my favorite adventures we had was seeing the ancient artifacts and beautiful gardens of the Villa San Michele.

  

  

This was an Etruscan (right, OLDER than the Roman Empire) Sphynx.
We were told it's good luck to pat the rump!

Next, unto il Faro (the lighthouse of Capri) Beach for some toe-dipping and yummy lunch (including one of many Caprese salads we enjoyed there).
 

Then we walked up the Via Krupp!

Yummy dinner for two!

Our preferred method of travel? Scooter!

 



For us, the recipe for a perfect honeymoon was equal parts relaxation and adventure! 

  

 For our last day of the honeymoon --- we stayed in Naples and journeyed to Sorrento to visit the ruins of Pompeii (the ancient city destroyed but preserved by a volcanic eruption of Mt. Vesuvius).

  

And as we explored the ancient city, the clouds opened up, and we were drenched! It was amazing! Seeing shelter throughout the ancient city.

Soaked, but joyful!

  

We found an ampitheater...of course...(we're so ridiculous!).

We had the most incredible time in Italy. By the end, responding with "Grazie" or "Perfecto!" seemed natural. We both took a piece of Italy (especially Capri) back with us in our hearts. It has become a special place for us that we plan on returning to as soon as we are able. (There may or not be a goal of retiring there...). With the spectacular sights, astounding history to explore, wonderful and kind people, and beyond delicious food, how could you not fall in love with Italia?

Ciao!

Micah

P.S. Oh! Sorry, this post ended up a novel. I really couldn't pick a few favorite moments!