For all of those who are waiting for pics of the event and honeymoon, those pics are being processed by a many men in white lab coats in a foreign country. As soon as foreign policy allows, we will post them for your viewing pleasure. However, we were able to sneak a few that Sandals took of us.

Over the last few weeks, time has become a precious commodity. From wedding planning to radio station events to some needed personal time away from it all, we have been very busy.
Where did we leave off...the last post was from Danielle's Wisconsin wedding shower...GO!

A few weeks ago I (Danielle) was blessed with yet another Wedding Shower thrown by our church. Eric's whole family was able to come up and meet everyone. There were a lot of great gifts, fun and tears. I know I am an emotional person, but I had to continually keep using the toilet paper from the toilet paper bride game. With our gifts we started putting things up in Eric's house. We took some time on a Saturday to clean our soon to be master bath and put things together. See the transformation below.

Home Renovation: NEW WINDOWS
Along with planning a wedding, multiple work events, seeing family and friends and the day to day... we purchased new windows. The Feldco crew came out and now our house will be more efficient come this winter. The best part for Eric was to be able to walk over to the new sliding door and move it back and forth in one swift motion. He did that for about twenty minutes...just kidding!

Radio station events: Having a national radio host (Laura Ingraham) in for a two day station event including hosting over 500 WIND listeners at The Stonegate Conference Center in Hoffman Estates was a project. The past week was the AM 1160 WYLL 2007 Pastor's Appreciation Brunch, where we hosted 400 area pastors for a morning of fantastic prizes and fellowship. We can't forget all the planning for the first WIND morning show remote broadcast / one year anniversary celebration from a pancake house in Schaumburg.

For the second year we traveled out to the Joliet Autobahn Country Club for some high speed touring action. For those of you that may be concerned, don't worry we didn't race other cars, it is completely just for the fun of zipping around a track. We got to leave work a little early for the tech check to make sure Eric's vehicle was in peak condition. At 7pm on Friday we found out that Eric's brake fluid was dirty. On any average car the fluid would have been fine. However, for racing that could mean losing your brakes. So to make things easy we decided to bleed the brake lines ourselves with kit from Auto Zone. With positivity and a little bit of perseverance we emptied out Eric's dad's garage and used the trusty internet directions to guide us. By the time it was 11:45pm and we had only gotten one wheel completed, we decided to call it a night and bring it to Merlin's in the morning. With some time on our side Eric attended the mandatory meeting and I took the Trans Am over to Merlins to fix the issue. They had it done in under an hour and the tech working on it didn't realize the car was mine when he walked into a waiting room full of men and didn't pay attention to me. LOL! Anyways I got back to the track in plenty of time and Eric was able to have a great day at the track. With his whole family there, it was humorous to think back a year and realize what has developed since then. Michele is married to Domenic and we are only days away as well. Eric's mom said what is next year? And then smiled and said, "I think I know." If she is thinking babies we hope that is still a little farther off for us. :)

Both of us have come to grips with the fact that single life is over and we are ecstatic about it. To celebrate our upcoming union we had some Bachelor / Bachelorette festivites over this past weekend. Both of us went out for steak with our co-workers and on Saturday the girls went out to Bengtsrom's Pumpkin Patch in Homer Glen. It was a lot of fun and my pig even won the pig race. I went home with blue ribbon and a sticker that said, " Number 1 pig rooter." All in all it was a blast and I completely think everyone needs to make a trip out there. Click the play button below to enjoy the action!


Now the countdown is in full swing...less than a week away! This week is full of last minute details that include meeting with the photographer, first dance practice, tailoring of clothes, AV appointments, etc.

We look forward to our marriage and thank all of you that have helped make our engagement and planning go so smoothly. Look for the next addition of the Eric and Danielle Zapchenk blog coming soon. Probably with a much more tanner couple just whisked back from Jamaica!

This past weekend, Eric and I went our separate ways as you can see in his previous entry. My girlfriends and I headed up to Appleton for a fun weekend and a time for a little bridal showering.

After getting in late on Friday night we got up early and ate at Schriener's Diner...a place where I called home for 5 years as a coffee hostess and server. Then we headed over to the farmers market downtown to get some flowers, fruit and veggies for the shower. It was a little colder than we expected this weekend and so we had to raid my dad's closet for some extra sweaters (see Hillary and Amy on the left).
Saturday night we had a nice dinner, went to church and stopped by the salon to get myself a perm for the upcoming nuptials. Eric said he likes my hair curly and if that is what he likes, that is what he will get.

After a lot of preparation, especially from my mom, we had the shower on Sunday with a whole bunch of family and friends. Everything was going smoothly, but the potato soup wasn't getting warm enough. My mom told Hillary to put the crock pot on the stove top and heat it up on high. As my mom rang the dinner bell. The crock pot cracked and the bottom gave way. Luckily in the midst of the smoke and the fire alarm going off we scooped it into another bowl and still salvaged what was left. Nothing brings excitement like a little kitchen drama to a wedding shower.

Over all it was a great time! My mom and her friend Dar dressed up as these two old ladies and gave me some advice for the wedding night. There were great gifts and plenty of laughs. The girls and I left in the afternoon only to get back to Eric for a little dinner and some time together. As we countdown the days we are getting so excited and are thrilled to be married to each other.

P.S. if you are reading this and don't have your RSVP in. Send it in!

Finally, the weekend is here. There are many things to get done for the wedding, but it's nice to know that the work week is over. This past week offered a brand new "character building" experience at the radio stations. Wednesday morning at 3am, I received a phone call from a staff member that the automation network was not running correctly. The "automation network" is all the computers that store the audio and run the radio stations, in turn, making money for the company. The problem could not be fixed over the phone, which allowed me the pleasure of driving to Elk Grove at 3:15a and working until 7p that night...nothing more relaxing than a late night cruise to work. Long story short...after about 4 hours and multiple phone calls, a power surge destroyed a power supply in the main network server. Hard to believe I went to college for communications...not computer repair. Below are "action shots" of the event.

Top to Bottom:
Top: Anyone seen the missing computer?...I just saw it a minute ago!
Mid: "The donor and the patient"...the donor PC in the background was used for parts.
Bottom: Successful surgery. The gray box(new power supply) in upper left needed to be replaced so the computer would work. I had a taste for spaghetti after this "new experience"...wonder why?

One of the projects I wanted to get done this weekend was to install the front bumper guards on the '55 Chevy. I ordered these parts months ago, and have been on backorder. They showed up this past Friday at work, and now they are on the car.





The weekend will be a time for catch up around the house, some garage things, some time with Geoff at the house, and some relaxing in the new bed from the Bedding Experts, which was delivered last weekend. Danielle and the girls are "above the cheddar curtain" in Appleton for her wedding shower on Sunday. I'm sure she will post pics of all the fun ASAP.

After ten years of being together Eric's sister Michele and now brother in law Domenic tied the knot this past Saturday. The weekend was a blur of many fun and happy moments with family and friends. After making our way through the Labor Day traffic we had the rehearsal and dinner with everyone. It is always interesting to see people practice their wedding and the different emotions everyone has.

The big day was pretty stress free for the Bride and Groom and things went off without a hitch. The ceremony was nice and everyone looked great. I used my oratory skills once again to do a reading and Eric looked pretty sweet in his tails. My parents also made an appearance for the weekend and they were the hit of our table at dinner. There was even a dance between my dad and Eric's grandma Vi, who said she wouldn't get out on the dance floor.

Monday we were able to relax a little bit and get a new matress and take a cruise in the '55. Both families are looking forward to the next one and are getting plenty excited about the 37 days left.