Surgery goes great!

We are so thankful that surgery went well. The doctor put in a 4 1/2 diameter piece of mesh in Blake's stomach to help prevent hernias. He has a 99% chance of not getting any more in those areas! We are thrilled. Blake, however, is in a lot of pain. The doctor said this is to be expected since he has foreign mesh in his stomach. Thanks for all the prayers!

As far as wedding details, we are at a difficult part! (Well I am at least!) I have limited my dresses to a top 4. Thanks to both my mom and dad who have been incredibly patient with me :) Next step, I'm hoping to get my sister and mom in one last time, try on all 4, and make a decision! Aileen is coming in next week-on Tuesday. We are super excited! We might even find a maid-of-honor dress! I have pictures of the dresses-let me know if you want to see them and I can email them to you. Blake would kill me if I posted them :)

**Meagan**

So Much To Talk About!

We have so much going on right now. I will try to recap everything but may need to come back and add more!

1) We are having a house warming/ engagement party at our house on Aug. 7th. This is to be a small little get together with our family members who have not yet been to the new place or had a chance to see us in a while. We hope to offer them a nice first experience in our new home!

2) We are now registered at 2 places! Bed Bath and Beyond and Crate and Barrel. We are trying to keep things basic for right now as the seasons and styles will be changing. everyone was asking about our registries, so we figured we could throw our essentials on there for the time being! We do plan on making a small registry at Home Depot in the future... we'll keep you posted.

3) Blake got promoted again! He is now what is called a Service Manager. This is one step away from his goal for his first 2 years at Chipotle.... and he has only been there for a year! Congrats!

4) The Bad- Blake has had a bump on his stomach for quite some time now. We recently went to the Dr. to have him take a look at it. At first glance he did not think much of it but did find it serious enough to send him to a surgeon. So just yesterday we went and saw him. It turns out that Blake has a "Big" hernia above his belly button, a "little" hernia on his belly button, and a deformity of his abdominal muscle (untreatable for males, however it is in no way causing pain or problems). Needless to say this was a bit shocking as we were thinking it would be a nice easy fix.
So in the end, surgery is required on July 29th to repair both hernia's. This is a very common surgery, unfortunately with Blake's history of Hernia's (4), they will be taking extra precautions which will add pain and time to the recovery. He's a big boy though and will come out better from it.

I think that is all we have for now. We will be talking to ya'll soon!

Happy 4th of July!

Hey All :)

Thought I owed an update, although things are slowing down right now. We have had some serious discussions on times for the ceremony and reception hall. Here are our options: 3:00 Ceremony, 6:00 Reception or 5:00 Ceremony, 6:30 reception. I know many of you are going to like the 5:00 reception because it leaves the least amount of time in between and what wedding-goer doesn't like that?!? But...as a bride...I must put the following in perspective: time for pictures in between, everyone getting to the hotel to take the shuttle to the reception hall, and the dreaded Friday night traffic. We are leaning toward choice #1.

Blake and I are certainly not seeing each other before the ceremony-it is something we just won't compromise on. I think Blake feels stronger about it then myself!

Another thing: Write our own vows or not?!? Anyone who knows Blake knows he wants to and also knows he's going to blow any vows I write out of the water....what to do?!?!

Fourth of July plans: Meagan work-Blake family time.

Still looking for great invitation ideas-we have a few and are close to choosing.

Hope you have a safe and enjoyable holiday!!!

**Meagan**