Wedding Pictures, June 14th, 2013

I was asked by the lovely and amazing Stephanie at Just A Little But Louder to post pictures of my wedding. I posted some pictures from the salon before the wedding but none from the actual wedding. So here we are! I tried to narrow them down but my photographer is amazing and it's too hard to choose!

My dress was custom made because nothing I found was what I had pictured!

About to do our First Look!

Best wedding Party ever? yup!

My Matron of Honor wore a coral dress and the rest navy!

SISTERS

Took a while to prepare for this moment knowing my dad wouldn't be there but I was glad I had my brother and my mom by the side supporting me and making me laugh down the aisle. 

We walked into the reception to the NFL Monday Night Theme song!

If you saw the pictures of us getting ready at the salon we jammed to this song getting ready and then owned it on the dance floor.

It was the best night of my life by far. We danced the night away and had  just the best time.

How was your wedding? Did you do a first look? Did you have dancing? 

Hello! My name is Mary-Keith

Mary-Keith? Is that your last name? Is that your middle name? It's hyphenated? What kind of name is THAT? It's a weird one. 

But it's is my name nonetheless. My whole life until I was 21 I thought the story went this like: If I was going to be a boy I was going to be named Keith. Since I was a girl they named me Mary-Keith. Turns out, that isn't the case. I was telling the story to a friend one day and my mom was like "um..no" It was my grandma's mother's maiden name (Keith) and her (my grandmother) name was Florence-Keith. Or something like that. In short, it is a family name. I could be completely wrong yet again. 

Everyone thinks it is weird. Below is a video of Seth Bolt of NEEDTOBREATHE making fun of my name. I have seen them, oh, 17 times or so. I used to try to chat with them or snag a picture with them after every show. For a while they weren't that big so I could. Anyways, long story short, Seth knows (probably more accurate to say 'knew') my name. When he found out it was  Mary-Keith he kept telling me it was a boy name and I was weird. 

Post by Mary-Keith Piasecki.

So, yes that is my name. I wanted to explain it since you probably have never heard it before. It's weird but it is mine. Do you have a unique name? What is it?

Finding Your Passion//

Disclaimer: This is not a how-to post. I have not found my passion so I am not capable of instructing others to do so. This is simply an honest account of my journey in finding my passion that I think is pretty relate able and I hope you agree.

To me, Passion is just one of things that you can never seem to find when you want to. Like your keys, your phone, your favorite lip gloss, or that one sock that never has it's partner. It is just elusive and never handy when you want it. Like when it's Monday morning and your alarm is going off and going to that job is just the last thing you want to do. That is the moment when having found your passion would be great. You could roll out of bed, walk into your bosses office and say "I have found something that makes me feel alive and it simply is not here, good day!" 

Or when you see a friend on Facebook announce that they got their dream job and they're moving to NYC, Hawaii, or some other amazing place. Then knowing that, that's great for them but you, you are happy and passionate about staying right where you are because you have found your passion.

I day dream about those moments. I really do.  Don't get me wrong I love my husband and our life here but I just don't have anything that makes me say "YES that is what I want to do forever and ever Amen" I know when I have kids I will feel differently. I suppose I hope I will is more accurate. But what about right now??

These are the 5 things I have found helpful whilst looking for my passion and maybe you will find them helpful, or maybe this will be a list of 5 things that are NOT helpful. Either way, I only hope to help you.

1)Pray about it. Ask God, because He actually knows what it is.

2)Dedicate time to spend time with Jesus everyday. As stated above Jesus knows what your passion is. Spending time with Him can only increase your chances of Him guiding you there.

3)Think about how you spend your free time. Pretend you have 2 full days to do whatever you want. Your house is clean, you are fully rested, you don't have homework. What do you do? If it were me, I would go see my family, have dessert,  take a yoga class, and go on a boat ride.

4)So after you've had a great 2 days of doing whatever you want - you still gotta figure out what your passion is. But hopefully you're in a good mood. 

5) BEEP BEEP BEEP <--- That's your alarm going off at 4:30 in the morning. BUT it's ok because you are waking up this early to______________.

Fill in that blank. That might be something you are passionate about.

I told you this wasn't a how-to guide at the beginning. I am just here to help you brain storm. I don't know what my passion is either. 

Let me know if you have any tips and maybe next time we can actually find our passions!

Am I the Only one?

Who cant remember song lyrics. I can't remember song lyrics to save my life! My husband is a song WRITER and I can never seem to stuff those things in my head far enough to make 'em stick! Philip is constantly telling me "close, but not quite" aw, nuts.

Who consistently spells remember remeber? That last 'M' is a rascally wabbit. Thank you, spell check. 

Who thinks flying is the hugest deal? Not only are we IN THE AIR. Flying. Like a bird. But it's such a traumatic experience and people do it everyday like its no big deal. And when you [I] get back people don't care that I was essentially just in outer space. Don't they know what I just went through!?! My very life was in the hands of a machine. A machine full of gas and oil. That could blow up at any moment. That can fall [crash] down to the earth in hot, fiery, flames. Doesn't anybody care!?!?

Who cries every episode of The Biggest Loser? They all have stories and reasons why they got to that point in life and they all are trying to better themselves. I just get so proud of them! Except the white team, they win everything, I am glad they finally lost.

Who cries when they see a person in the military? (or used to be) I just get really grateful that they put their life in danger for me. What about if you get a chance to thank them for their service and then you instantly tear up?? 

Just me? Can anyone relate??

Well I sure do appreciate you stopping by today, dear reader. If you happen to like worship music and blogs click on over to my husband's blog and read his set list blog. If you happen to be new here let me know you stopped by. And if you have time maybe you want to check out my previous post on prayer, a letter to my future self.

Saturday Bike Ride & Embarrassing Moment.

 If you didn't read my post in the beginning of October (Here) then you didn't know that this month is super crazy busy town for me. I am training for a new job during the week for 4 hours a night then 2 hours of homework plus my normal job. It's just a lot. To be honest it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be but I am just super tired! Anywho this weekend Philip wrote me a country song just because he knows how to make me laugh. Then we went to Ulta and spent way too much money on new make up. Then cashed in a gift card at Target and then went for a bike ride. This is where it gets embarrassing.

You see I have been riding a bike for as long as I can remember. Successfully I might add. This weekend, however, was a different story. Philip turned a corner and saw a truck coming and so he stopped. So I tried to stop. And then the next thing I know I am on the ground. THE GROUND! I fell. Off my bike. I couldn't believe it. So I got up and I tried not to cry. Because it hurt and because my pride had just been smushed to smithereens!

Philip said he was sorry because it was probably his fault and I replied with "I know" I am just a peach. Then I got back on my bike and started laughing. If I had just seen a (semi) grown woman fall off her bike I wouldn't have been able to not laugh. The guy in his truck thankfully held it together. But c'mon it's a funny visual!

Then we stopped and  snapped a few pictures of each other. My husband is studly.

 Then we used this crazy app on my phone that takes pictures through the camera but we control is on my phone. You guys- the future is NOW!!!

 The dirt that is all over me is from the fall, I couldn't get it all to come off.

 Then we went back home and got ready to go out to dinner and hang out with some friends. It was such a great Saturday and exactly what I needed to get refreshed after such a taxing week.

I hope your Saturday was as good or better than mine! What did you do this weekend? Have you ever fallen off your bike as an adult??

Dear Future Mary-Keith

[Greetings, Friend!!

Glad you found you way here. Today's post is from a prompt the Blogtober14 challenge. I really liked this prompt & I hope you write a letter to yourself too]

Dear Mary-Keith,

How are you? How is 2024? Are we teleporting places yet? Remember back to the ancient days when you had to drive? What a chore.

How is being married? 11 years! wow - bet you're more in love than you ever imagined!

How are the kids? adorable I'm sure. smart. well adjusted. I figured as much. Since everything probably went according to your plan you now have a 8.5 year old, 5 year old and a 3 year old. Wow I bet you are tired! Tell Philip to let you get a massage tonight, on me. Which is really you, man this could get confusing. What did you end up naming the kids? The names we planned? I hope so, because they are cute.

I bet we caved and got a dog. Oh - did labor hurt so bad? Was it worse than I thought? Did you get an epidural? 

How's the church? Are you still at The Point? Do we have a building yet? I bet we have at least tripled in size. 350 members. That's my guess. You're welcome for faithfully praying everyday and getting you there. Remember how hard these years were so you don't take where you are for granted.

Are you still doing yoga? Are you teaching yoga??? You better be able to do crow pose by now. Tell Denise I said hi, because I'm sure she will be in business and you will still be going to her yoga studio.

Holy crap I just realized you're 36!!!! Do you feel old? Do you look old? I'm sure you've lost all the baby weight. I hope you're not wearing pajama pants in public these days. Stop. Look at yourself. Do you like what you see? Remember you are worth so much more than the outside. You are a wife, a mom, a sister, a friend, a child of the One True God. That's awesome. I know you are doing your best and you are more than enough. 

Go out on a date with Philip tonight. Put some make up on, put on some heels and have so much fun. You've been through a lot. Give yourself a break. But be careful - you said you only wanted 3 kids so keep that in mind after your 2nd glass of wine. WINK WINK.

I know you're still a Christian. Because Jesus is everything to us. Thank Him for carrying you through this far - It's ALL because of Jesus.

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#Blogtober Day 7 Best Vacation

Today's Blogtober prompt is best vacation or worst vacation.  I decided to post about my Honeymoon. Because it was by far my favorite trip, ever! We flew to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico the morning after out wedding and spent the week in a fancy pants resort and just relaxed! We did snorkel one time but each of us read 2 books that weeks while laying by the HUGE pool. It was awesome!! We got lunch delivered to our by the pool, had dinner out every night. We had so much fun being together just the two of us. After crazy work, school, and wedding planning it was great to just relax and not worry about anything. 

 There were not a lot of Paparazzi around so we had to utilize the timer function to get some of our pictures :)

 Seriously, best tacos in the whole world!!

 I have a healthy fear of the ocean which was very apparent when we went snorkeling

By far, one of the coolest things about our trip was one night a man overheard us discussing something about the Bible and we ended up seeing him the next day and he asked us if we were Christians. He was a pastor and missionary from Canada and him and his wife were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary! We ended up seeing them quite a bit on the trip here and there and one night they took us out to dinner and gave us marriage advice, and really just encouraged us. We had so much in common including, being in ministry and the wife had lost her dad at a young age too. It was such a huge blessing to have met them and made the trip that much better.

What was your Best Vacation?? Or Worst??