In the campaign state of mind

Unless you've been hiding in a cave, you're probably aware that the presidential campaigns are well underway. "Only in America" is already once again etched into my brain. POTUS and his staff appear in my dreams on a regular basis. I've been on the road with POTUS quite a bit in the past few months but only now is the travel really picking up. In an effort to be a better blogger, I'd like to catch you up on my adventures with POTUS but there's not enough time because the campaign season is about to crescendo to its peak on November 6th. But I can condense the past few months into a few short categories of trips.

First, there is the West Coast fundraising swing. I somehow ended up with these trips rather frequently. As you probably know, California, Oregon, Washington states are not battleground states for this election. But there are many, many rich Democrats in these areas so we visited them numerous times. It would usually start with a stop somewhere like Denver, for example, for an official event and then would include stops in Seattle, Portland, and of course Los Angeles, or San Francisco. I did this trip three times in the first month after I got back from our honeymoon. So it was quality and quantity time on an airplane which was really helpful in getting our thank you cards done! The scene was usually the same for these trips... a convention hall or hotel conference room, or occasionally a theater. And by and large, it was the same speech over and over. In the course of these trips, I also got to run into a couple of friends on the West Coast, as well as finally make it to San Francisco, and later eat a maple bacon VooDoo donut in Portland, Oregon. Yep, that's correct. It's a donut with maple syrup icing with three pieces of bacon on top. Somehow, it tasted pretty good.

The second category so far is the Day Trip. One reason I like these is that I get to sleep in my own bed at night. Generally these trips are to Ohio, Iowa, Virginia, etc.- all the important swing states. The major downfall of this category is that there have not always been chartered planes to these stops. But this category brought POTUS to my hometown of Roanoke which was pretty cool! I was even interviewed on the local news! (Side note, don't let it throw you off. The reporter's name was Becky so she has her segment of On the Road with Becky. I'm pretty sure I've been a lot more places than she has but she's really nice and I won't try to steal her segment title.)

FOX 21/27 – WFXR Roanoke/WWCW Lynchburg News, Weather

It was a really neat experience to see POTUS in downtown Roanoke and it probably deserved a blog post all to itself. But life has been a bit crazy and so it just gets a mention in this post! And a picture too!

The final category is the Bus Tour. I've done this twice now and am gearing up for another one next week in Florida. This is where you spend at least two days riding around a swing state in a caravan of buses. My most recent experience was two days in Ohio. Two. Long. Days. I saw a lot of Ohio and yet nothing at the same time! We worked our cabooses off and even during our down time of riding through the countryside of Ohio, which I'm sure was scenic, we were doing liveshots from the press bus. Most of the stops were in small towns and in outdoor parks. Oh, and it was also at least 100 degrees. So every time we stopped for an event, we would lose approximately 10 pounds in sweat while waiting for POTUS to catch up with us and deliver his remarks. This made eating six meals a day much easier on the waistline. But still I've had to practice self-control on the campaign trail because it can get out of hand pretty easily.

But from now until November 6th, we'll be on the serious campaign trail. I'm looking forward to it. It's something I have never done in my 15 years at my network. I'm looking forward to the experience but also to be able to cross it off my list. I've been home for almost three weeks now which has been completely awesome, don't get me wrong because I absolutely LOVE seeing my awesome hubby! But I have a feeling that will be the last three week stretch at home over the next couple of months!

I'll try to keep up with the blog from the road but I don't want to make any promises!! Life will be all about hustling and bustling for the next 70 days! 

The Absolutely 100% Perfect, Most Magical Weekend: Part Three

God bless you if you are still reading along. If you are still awake and interested, I'll continue with our receptions and other fun moments of the Big Day!!

Because we had such a large wedding, we decided the best option would be to have our reception downstairs in our church's Faith Activities Center. It was the perfect option for 400 of our closest friends and family! As I mentioned before, my bridesmaids and friends had decorated the room the day before and everything was in place! 

Table decorations- check.

Food, catered by my friend Amy- check.

 A billion cupcakes, 250 of which were made by Brian- check.

 Friends and family- check!

I've been at my church for a long time and I know I'm biased, but this was prettiest (and fullest!) it had ever been!

Once we entered the room and were introduced, things started to fly by!! It's amazing how many conversations one can have in a limited amount of time. It was soooo awesome to see so many people from high school, college, church in Roanoke, church in Alexandria, work all in one place. I met a ton of Brian's friends and family (although I wasn't always clear with whom I was talking!)! It was sooo much fun and a bit overwhelming! I wanted each conversation to last about 100 times longer than it did. Brian and I went in different directions to speak to as many people as possible. We knew we had too many people to talk to to have a receiving line or to just speak to together. So we divided and conquered and occasionally saw each other in the process! I can honestly say that talking to everyone, many friends I hadn't seen in years, was definitely a highlight of the weekend. I mean, I love the fact that I married my best friend, but getting to see all those people who have influenced my life and walked together with me in different stages was truly meaningful and invaluable. The only regret, like I said, is that it couldn't last longer.

We did the usual cutting the cake thing which Brian was good about not putting any icing on my face!!

And of course, as a Hokie and true Virginia Tech adorer, I had to figure out a way to do the Hokey Pokey. It's a tradition that most of my college friends have included in their festivities. However, since we were at a Baptist church, technically dancing at a wedding reception was not allowed. I decided to seize the opportunity of a bare stage and went with the whole "it's better to ask for forgiveness than permission thing" and asked all my Hokie friends (and those in the crowd under the age of 10) to join me on stage. The only real problem was that I kind of surprised Brian by the whole thing and bless his heart, he hadn't done the Hokey Pokey since he was about three and he was worried that he couldn't do it! Luckily, it's not hard and we had a great time!! It was so much fun!! And the good news is that I asked for forgiveness and they aren't kicking me out of the church! :) [side note: I am almost always a rules follower but in this case, it was literally just the Hokey Pokey and since they do this in the preschool, I felt like the rules could be bent for a second!]

After all the fun was over, Brian and I and a few groomsmen headed to the next place most brides and grooms go- FIVE GUYS!!! The other thing you need to know about my husband is that he LOVES cheeseburgers and thinks that Five Guys is the greatest place on earth. His original catering plan was to have them provide the food for our reception but that wasn't really a viable option so I wanted him to celebrate the happiest moment of his life with one of his favorite things! The funny thing was that not many people really stared at us. It seemed perfectly normal for a bride and groom to be still in their wedding attire and eating cheeseburgers! I made sure to not order ketchup on my burger so I wouldn't make a mess but honestly, I didn't eat that much at the reception or at Five Guys. I was just running on pure adrenaline!

Our last event of the evening was a second reception at the hotel where most of our friends and family were staying. We had invited everyone to this but had no real way of knowing how many would show up. We had about 200 there! It was fun to be able to spend more time with those who had come from so far to see us! We had costume changes so we I could be more comfortable while visiting with everyone. But we also had another round of food and of course cupcakes! :)

The party was over about midnight and we were soooo bummed that it was over!! We just had the greatest time with everyone!! We did get to see a lot of folks the next morning for brunch and then a few of us spent the afternoon at the Air and Space museum. Brian and I wanted to spend as much quality time with our friends and family as possible and it still didn't seem like it was enough time! Maybe we'll throw another big party to celebrate our anniversary so we can relive all the fun again!!!

The Absolutely 100% Perfect, Most Magical Weekend: Part Two

Saturday morning came and surprisingly, I got plenty of sleep!! I woke up more excited than I have ever been before in my life! Today was the day I was going marry the most kind-hearted, generous, loving, and handsome guy in the world. When I woke up, I really couldn't believe it! I haven't really been dreaming of my wedding day since I was 7 like other girls but it's always been something that I've looked forward to but seemed so distant. And here it was! God had answered my prayers starting from when I was a freshman in college and first prayed for my future husband. I don't want to get all preachy on you but if you need one small example of God's faithfulness, this Big Day is proof. And while Brian is not a perfect man, by golly, he's close. He'd never agree with that statement but it's true. And April 21, 2012 was the day that I got to marry this gift!!

First thing I'd like to point out was that the actual Big Day was much more relaxed than I anticipated. At this point, I had done all I could to have it go off without a hitch and it was out of my hands! And bottom line- God took everything that had been prepared and completely blessed it ten times over. Even the weather forecast which as you know, I have no control over. It had been 100% chance of rain when I looked at it earlier in the week. I figured there was nothing I could do about it so I stopped looking at it. And wouldn't you know, it was blue skies all day!!

Anyway, my sister Katherine and friend Catherine (that's a common name in my world!) went with me to get my hair and makeup done by my hairdresser. I had gone through a trial run a couple of weeks before and came out looking not quite Jon Benet Ramsey-like. Actually funny story... that day, Brian was out of town and so afterwards, I went to go get lunch and decided on Chinese since Brian's not a f an. Well I go into the Chinese restaurant with my hair all done up and wearing a tiara and said, "table for one". I think the waitress thought I had been left at the alter!! Anyway, back to the Big Day. The three of us got our hair done and I texted Brian (we decided not to see each other before the actual ceremony) about some last minute logistic. And then it was just waiting time to go to the church. I hung out with Catherine and then got to the church a bit early and just waited. It was the longest waiting time ever! All the girls got to the church and we got ready in our church's beautiful bridal room.

Then it became real. I couldn't believe I was actually getting married! Brian and I exchanged cards and his card made me cry. I actually couldn't read the whole thing because I was positive my make-up would run. I have since read it and re-read it. He really is so sweet. Anyway, back to the part about being in disbelief that our wedding was imminent! I can't describe the peace and excitement!! Those two emotions/feelings generally don't seem like they go together but in this case, they absolutely did. Peace that I knew without a doubt that God had brought us together and led us to his moment. I know that our life together will not be perfect but I have complete peace that God will bring us through whatever life throws at us. And then of course, excitement! Excitement for all the possibilities ahead! Of living life with my best friend by my side and all the fun and exciting times ahead! Excitement that sooo many of our friends and family were gathered in one place to witness the official beginning of our life together. I tell you, I had a glimpse of what heaven might be like because I had sooo many friends from different phases in my life all in one room! So many people who have had such an influence on my life! It made me look forward to that day when the reunion is so much bigger and there is no time frame!

Anyway, back to the wedding.... When I heard the brass start playing, I couldn't help but beam with joy!! I wasn't nervous at all, except that I was finding it difficult to walk in my dress and maintain a smile on my face! But with me on my Daddy's arm, we slowly walked down the aisle, past so many loved ones just smiling at me! I knew many in that congregation had prayed for this day almost as much as me! It was such a wonderful moment!

We exchanged vows and our pastor and dear friend, Don, gave a wonderful homily. I had told him that I wanted him to read a certain verse in Ephesians but he decided to base his whole message off that verse and it worked so perfectly. I'll be honest, I don't remember every word he said (but we have gone back and watched the video to refresh our memories!) but I kept thinking (and probably told Brian several times) that this day was exactly what I had wanted and dreamed about. I kept waiting for something to go wrong but it never did. It was purely exactly what I wanted. I wanted an event that reflected not only how much Brian and I love each other but more than that- how much we love the Lord and feel blessed by Him. All the nitty-gritty details about the flowers and decorations and other trivial things that usually seem blown out of proportion really didn't matter to me. And hopefully the ceremony reflected that!

  Of course, we might have hampered all dignity and respect of ceremony when at the end, Don pronounced us husband and wife. We, of course, kissed- in that church appropriate way! LOL! :) But because Brian loves to high-five, we ended the perfect ceremony with a good high-five!!

All photos courtesy of Zumbro Photography

The Absolutely 100% Perfect, Most Magical Weekend: Part One

I know it's been three months but it just seems like yesterday. The absolutely most perfect day of my life. The day when I married my best friend. I hope to always remember every moment because the entire weekend was so perfect and so much fun! Honestly, it gave me a glimpse of heaven. Nearly all of my friends from various parts of my life, all in one place.

But let me start from before the Big Day. I didn't have a wedding planner and had been pretty busy with work during the planning process so there was a lot of room for errors and things going wrong. I made the decision from the beginning that I wasn't going to get stressed about it. After all, it's just a wedding and the more important part of all of this was that Brian and I would be starting our lives together. In the end, the details didn't really matter as long as we had a bride, groom, and minister. So honestly, I really wasn't stressed at all. I did have a to-do list that I slowly checked off and my sister Laura came up the week before the wedding and I had a couple of days off to finish the list. Even having a possible run-in with bed bugs (from my trip to Korea) two weeks before the wedding and then getting hives six days before, things went so smoothly!! Once the wedding weekend was here, I was ready to go!!

Stick with me here, I'll try to make it as concise as possible but also include all the awesome details!! 

Family and wedding party members started arriving Thursday night and Friday morning. Friday was such a busy day!! My dear friend (and my pastor's wife), Audrey, hosted a bridal luncheon for my girls. It was the first time we had all been together and it was just a really special time. My friend Missy's mom drove up from Virginia Beach to join us which made it even more special. Audrey went out of her way to make the luncheon so wonderful! Afterwards, some of the bridesmaids and a couple of very special friends and I went to the church to decorate for the reception. I had bought all the decorations but they made it even better than I pictured it in my head!

I ran home to change for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner and was about five minutes late arriving back at the church. Brian started to get worried! :) He said I had never actually RSVPed to the wedding! But we had the rehearsal and it was just so neat to have most of the most important people in our lives all in one place. I had asked several of my friends to play in a brass quintet with organ for the wedding and they were all there to rehearse as well. Brian told me that I could plan the ceremony because well, I'm the bride and he knows nothing about music. Luckily even before we were engaged, I had to work an overnight shift while POTUS was somewhere else in the world. So I had had plenty of time to pick out the most perfect songs! Anyway, at the rehearsal, the quintet came into the sanctuary after practicing the music I had given them. They rehearsed the processional as I was practicing walking in with my daddy. As soon as they started to play, I started to tear up! It was a rush of emotions! A) I couldn't believe that I was actually rehearsing for our wedding and B) it sounded so much more awesome than it had in my head beforehand. Seriously, people. Not to brag, but it was EXACTLY what I planned and dreamed about.

After the rehearsal, we all headed to Mount Vernon for the rehearsal dinner. Again, it was even better than I had planned. We kind of were late to the game in planning the rehearsal dinner but I couldn't have asked for things to work out any more perfectly! We had such a great time with our friends and family. I admit I didn't eat that much because I was busy talking. Shocking, I know. But it was cool to see our families and friends get to know each other! We were able to introduce our bridal party and tell everyone how much they meant to us. We had such an awesome time with everyone and my only regret was that it could have lasted longer!


I couldn't figure out where to stay that last night. I thought about going to the hotel and staying with my parents. Or staying with some of my bridesmaids. But in the end, I was exhausted and I still had a couple of last minute things to take care of so I came home and slept in my own bed. Before I went to sleep, I wrote a card to give to Brian before the wedding, telling him how excited I was to be officially beginning our life together! I couldn't have asked for a better last day of single life!

Where did April and May go?

I can't believe it's almost June!! It's been so long since I've blogged that they've changed the format! AAAHH!! Well, life is finally beginning to settle into a new normal. As you probably figured out, April was a HUGE month for me! Easily my favorite month ever! Brian and I got married!!!! I thought I'd go through the entire two months and hit the highlights and then go back and blog about specifics, like the wedding so it's adequately archived on the blog. But just to give you a preview about the most amazing day of my life.

So after the best wedding in the history of the world, (so I might be ever so slight biased!!), we went on the most amazing  honeymoon in the history of the world! We spent almost two weeks in Costa Rica and it too was soooo awesome!! Here is a preview of the upcoming blogpost:

Then we had to come back to work and boy, was that an adjustment!! I immediately hit the road with POTUS on a trip across the country and back!! Talk about jumping back in the pool with two feet!! And I've been on the road at least two days a week for the past few weeks. So add all of that to moving Brian's stuff out of his apartment and finding space for his things in our house (and in storage) PLUS trying to make a dent in the thank-you cards and you'll understand why I've been MIA for the past two months!! But in the coming days, I'll recreate the past two months for you. They were pretty awesome so I totally don't mind going back in time!! :)

Trip to the DMZ

Usually on any trip, it's just work, work, work, work. I can't tell you how many places I've been to where I can't say I've really seen anything. Occasionally, we have some down time and we make the most of it. But on this trip, the WH arranged what some called a "field trip" to take the media to the DMZ and I can honestly say it was one of the most educational, informative trips I've ever taken.

We got on a bus and drove about 45 minutes to the DMZ while POTUS was busy doing meetings for the summit. We got to Camp Bonifas and had to wait for our military escort/tour guide. Let me stop for a moment and explain that before this trip, most of my knowledge of Korea came from watching M*A*S*H reruns with my dad. He's seen all of them and my basic understanding of the Korean war includes Radar and Hawkeye and Klinger. Sadly, watching M*A*S*H episodes leaves a lot to be desired in the actual history. My understanding of the conflict with North Korea was definitely deepened to a whole new level from the tour of the DMZ.
Once our military escort/tour guide met up with us, we went to the DMZ visitor's center for a presentation on the history of the DMZ. I think I was a sponge because I couldn't keep track of all the interesting facts the major was telling us.We loaded into a UN bus and started our way to the Joint Security Area. Along the way, we were told that we were not allowed to take pictures until our guide told us to and that we were not allowed to point or gesture to the North Korean side of the line. We also learned about the ax massacre of 1976 and why it used to be that North Koreans and South Koreans co-existed in this area. You should definitely google it because it's a fascinating story. Bottom line is the North Koreans killed two Americans in a massacre basically over the pruning of one tree. I felt reassured because knowing that the last killing took place before I was born made me feel like the chances of something bad happening to me 24 days before my wedding were extremely small!The bus stopped at the Freedom House and we were told we had to go inside and wait in two lines until it was time to walk through. The building was rebuilt in 1998 and we were told that it was supposed to be where reunions between South Koreans and their family members who are in North Korea but no reunions have ever taken place. We didn't really tour the building, just waited in line with our cool press armbands they had given for us to wear. We had to wear them because it's part of the armistice apparently. Too bad we had to give them back at the end of the tour.We walked through the building outside to a building where the armistice was signed. It's basically a conference room. The military demarcation line ran across the middle of the room so half of it is in South Korea, half is in North Korea. (I was standing in North Korea.) Both countries have use of this room but only one at a time. We were instructed that if we did see any North Korean soldiers (which we didn't), we were under no circumstances allowed to communicate with them. Inside the room were two South Korean soldiers standing guard. They were very serious and didn't smile. Our military escort gave us a brief presentation about the historical significance of the Armistice Room and then let us take pictures with the guards and of North Korea outside the window. It was such a surreal experience!After hanging out in that room, we walked back across to the outside of the Freedom House. We looked across to North Korea and saw their main building. Outside was a North Korean soldier who was looking at us through his binoculars. This was as close to a North Korean that we got. He stared at us for a few minutes but then went back to just standing post. We were told that we could take pictures but we had to stay in certain parameters and that no gesturing or pointing to the North Korean side. Of course some of my colleagues missed that part but thankfully, nothing happened to us!After that stop, we went to an South Korean outpost and saw the demarcation line. At that spot, we were surrounded by North Korea on three sides.On one of the sides, we could see the North Korean village of Kijong-dong. Our military guide told us that the North Koreans refer to it as the Peace Village because it shows how nice it is to live in North Korea. But our guide said that really it is a Propaganda Village because no one actually officially lived there and many buildings had the windows and doors painted on or some were actually only shells of buildings. Unfortunately, nearly all North Koreans live in hunger and poverty. Kijong-dong also has an extremely large flagpole which flies a flag that weighs nearly 600 pounds. They said it was the third largest in the world and constructed to outdo a huge flagpole on the South Korean side.Our last stop on the tour was a brief pause at the site of the infamous tree incident of 1976. We could see where the tree had eventually been cut down in Operation Paul Bunyan. That's another thing that is totally worth the Google effort. The amount of back-up support to cut down one tree was amazing!!Nearby, we saw the Bridge to No Return. After the ax massacre, they had 72 hours for the North Koreans to get back on their side. Once across, they were never allowed back into South Korea. There was a movie about it and after being there, I definitely want to see it!We returned to the visitor's center and we were all set to go to the gift shop. I could think of nothing better than getting a "I've stepped into North Korea" t-shirt. Those gifts would have been the most unique from any trip I've taken. But alas, the gift shop was CLOSED!! We were soooo bummed!!I guess we'll have to buy souvenirs on the next trip to the DMZ! :) Even with the gift shop closed, it was totally worth it to go on the tour. Like I said, I have a much better understanding of both history and today's conflict. If ever presented with the opportunity to take a tour, I vote that you should totally do it!