Trying Something a Little Different

With no internet at the house my blog posting has… well... stopped. This will not do. So my new plan of attack is that I write my post on the computer at home and process any images I may use and plop it all on a thumb drive then make my way over to either the local or not-quite-as-local library (the one that opens before 1pm and has double the computers and more than double the books) and cut and paste.

If I didn’t have to drive then the internet would basically be free. So that’s good and kind of exciting however it presents it’s own special sort of hassles to be sure. …I have mixed thoughts about limitations on time on-line. I find I waste less time when I think I only have 30 minutes but if it’s slow and the pop up window asks me if I want another 15 minutes I can’t say no. Then if it asks me again… well, since time on-line is limited it makes it harder to walk away whereas when it’s at home and I know I can come and go it makes it easier to leave it alone because I know if I think of something I need to look up later I can. Lists help but they’re not fool proof and inevitably I find myself later in the day I think of something I forgot to do on-line. There are times when for business I’ll really need to have the internet more accessible so I see the library as a temporary situation. ::fingers crossed::

Now for things I actually wanted to post.

First the toads!!

These three turned up while my beau was mowing the lawn a couple of Saturdays ago. Not wanting to hit them with the mower he brought them inside (one at a time as he found them) and put them in a pace picante sauce jar.

These guys are small and soo cute! The biggest one was about the size of a gumball. So that little was pretty bitty! Of course when the mower was put away we released the trio wishing them well and for them to get fat on the hundreds of crickets in the yard.

I’m not sure what makes so many amphibians fall into the cute category—but there they are.

Next...

STEW! (maybe it’s not best to write about toads and stew in the same post… could make the tags look funny but here we go)

The weather has been cooling off (it’s raining now) and with that comes stew! It’s one of the reasons I can let go of summer and embrace autumn and winter… it’s cozy!

This was the first stew of the season (we’re currently finishing off our second-- a lentil and sage sausage number that illustrates that I need more practice but has become quite tasty). What I was excited about was the pound of Adirondack Blue potatoes I scored at the farmer’s market that week. As I understand it, any food with naturally blue or red flesh is a good source of anti-oxidants… which makes me wonder why not eat more blue potatoes since they’re just as delicious, healthier, and much more fun?

See? Pretty!

This was taken before cooking. The potatoes didn’t stay this purple, the surface turned white but they were still purple on the inside. I like. If we ever garden as much as we discuss wanting to I would love a row of blue potatoes. I’m enamored.

In Michigan, and, Happy Birthday Jayna!

We've been in Michigan for a week and the unpacking continues without much of an end in sight.

I like our little house despite the questionable craftsmanship. I think the painting we did in July has really helped make the place feel more like ours. And again I'm thinking how good it was that we did it then since now every wall has stuff stacked in front of it.

We had good time driving across -- especially in Logan. We got to see friends (many of which also helped us load our storage unit of stuff into the truck) which was so much fun (yep, it really was since the rain kindly/mostly subsided) and we got to stay with our bishop and his wife in their very lovely home... which we're told it actually was a bed & breakfast at one time. So it was even more fitting when our first morning there Lonnie made us waffles for breakfast... thus encouraging my waffle kick... (the morning after our wedding we had waffles at Tallahan's Cafe in Arnold) which has ended since we do not own a waffle iron-- pancakes will have to do.

It was easier to say goodbye to Logan this time since it really didn't feel like ours anymore. I will still miss it though.

The batteries for my camera were dead for the entire drive (boo!) but I also didn't feel like messing with it. A lot to see but not all that much to photograph (except the monument at the highest point of the Lincoln Highway and the Strategic Air Command museum-- which was pretty neat) everything else fit in these categories: Dennis Driving, Highway, Gas Station, Restaurant, Hotel/Motel... oh and we got to see the Mississippi.

So not only is today Jayna's Birthday-- which is great and wonderful since she is great and wonderful-- but our friend, Bill, along with five of his friends are crashing at our house tonight. They're taking a road trip to the Grand Canyon and we get to be their first stop! It sounds like their trip is going to be very fun-- wish I could go! (especially in exchange for unpacking) ;) I'm looking forward to the visit. Bill's been a good friend and not just because he played such a large part in the wedding implementation (for which I will always be grateful)-- he was a good friend long before all that.

Yay!

Yay!! We're Hitched!!

one of my favorite photos so far
(nice work Andrea!)


Bishop Teerlink performed the ceremony which was great!
(this photo doesn't show the wonderful aisle runner Francine painted though)


favors: little jars of home-made peach jam
(thanks Mom and Dad for the peaches--
Thanks Lois for the jam... there just wasn't time this Summer!)


this shows a bit more than half of our wedding cake buffet
(the best idea ever!! Karen rocked the catering! btw)

I sang a song... generally ill-advised but I think it turned out well. :)
(Thanks Jason for teaching me my two cords and Chris for some styling tips)

our first dance (to "I Wanna Grow Old With You" from the musical of The Wedding Singer)
(it's a movie that we've enjoyed together on many occasions)

at the end of each table runner there was a different phase stitched in
(thanks Lois and Jayna!)

the petal toss makes fun pictures!

and I can't think of anyone I'd rather be hitched to!

It's been a crazy crazy month and we're not out of the woods yet but I wanted to give the briefest to run downs about the nuptials! yay nuptials!! We don't get our photos from the photographer for about two weeks (I'm really looking forward to it!). These photos where taken by my good friend Andrea (I'll need to see if there's a link she'd want me to connect to)... and I'm very pleased with what she was able to capture. Here is just the tiniest of samplings. She took so many pictures it's like you could make a flip-book of the action. Thanks Andrea!

So many people helped make it all happen... pretty awesome! I really can't thank them enough. So many details I could talk about but I think that will wait until I have even more photos and more time as well.

Woo Hoo!

A month from today we're getting married! So much to do sometimes I wonder if it will ever get done. Part of me wants time to slow down so I can get more things done but the other part can't wait to make my beau my husband-- and take him home!

I have a lot of the wedding stuff done... there's just so much more. I want to enjoy the details and not be burdened by them-- I love details-- but I also know that I'll need to let some of them go.

Also in the personal good news: I'm letting go of some very long-held animosity.

It feels good and freeing. I've made several attempts on my own over the years but I'm feeling confident this will stick. And you know what I did? I took my mother's advice-- even after I told her there would be no way I could do it-- but I did-- I feel good-- she was right! Thanks Mom!

Off to Iddie-hoe

Looking forward to it! (just not the drive!)

WooHoo!

Bridal Shower

I came back to California Friday night-- I thought someone would notice if I missed my own bridal shower which was the next day. I really didn't know for sure what to expect although I have attended a handful of bridal showers, four to be exact, in the past. My beau's mom and aunt organized it and I really had a good time! It wasn't the type of shower with all the weird and awkward games. This shower was just about tasty food and visiting with a bunch of really neat gals. Oh and presents-- which feels really odd at first but the type of odd you get over in not too long. Something that was pretty great was that there was no need for a poker-face since everything was either very useful or very beautiful or both!

It feels so good to be surrounded by such wonderful women in my life.

(and I promise you that I put some make-up on... it just really doesn't look like it in the picture-- but in the picture it does look like I'm a unicorn! :) a happy one)

We had a loose "picture frame" theme that is if people didn't know what to bring they could just pick up a little picture frame that I could then use at the reception to display photos of me and my beau. I thought that would 1) save me a bunch of cash and 2) be fun for people to see the frame they brought used at the reception. Now a have a whole lot of very very pretty frames that come together in a very fun eclectic mix (that all looks good together) that you just couldn't get if you sent one person shopping. Amazing! An idea that I wish I had sooner was for the guests to bring pictures from their own weddings if they wanted-- I think that would be so much fun to see everyone's pictures and give everyone a chance to talk and reminisce about their own wedding. I'm kicking myself about it now because I can't think of another opportunity to get everyone together in a context where that would make sense.... ... ... unless we have an anniversary party at some point ... maybe. hmm

Me? Impulsive?

It was Tuesday, last Tuesday, almost a week ago. I had just finished puppeteering in a video shoot (for a really cute show about keeping rivers clean-- I'll let you know when I find out the name-- for the California Department of Fish and Game) and I was really really missing my beau. Not just the sad but glad I have someone to miss, no, this was the sad with no redeeming qualities what-so-ever and this wasn't the first day I was feeling this way.

So that evening I'm partaking in the nightly conversation with my beau and he gives me the good news that he had booked his flight to California and it arrives a couple days sooner than I had expected-- this pleases me very much. He goes on to tell that he found a good deal as well-- also good-- and that he was using a popular website to find it but a different website than I usually do so I hopped online and went airfare shopping and landed a $362 round-trip ticket (after all the taxes) and after much deliberation we decided that I should go see my honey! Yippee!

(as a side note: On the SouthWest Airlines website you can find flights after the summer from Sacramento to Detroit for $85 one way-- yeah, I know, awesome-- I luv SouthWest and not just because that's how I found the fella who's gonna be my husband... although that certainly helps!)

So that was Tuesday. My plane left for Michigan on Friday and here I will be until July 4th (the only noticeable holiday the he and I have been consistently able to spend together. The travel was alright (I had a flight attendant that I swear smelled of maple syrup and I got a little woosie from reading during the landing-- then unfortunately was woosie periodically for the rest of the day) and it was so nice to get to see my beau! I just couldn't stand it.

We made several stops on the way to the house which was fun but it was also nice to finally get to see the place. It will serve us very well I think but I think one of the best things about it is that it backs up to a wooded area with a trail that wraps around a pond (not one of those manicured kind... the kind with fallen logs, algae, and bull frogs) and leads to a park. We walked the trail yesterday and it was great. we had to be careful, the baby toads were out and crossing the trail. They were itty bitty bitty about the size of a sunflower seed and, if they were to hold still, two could perch side by side on my thumbnail. I couldn't believe the cuteness! Even the beau hadn't seen ones quite that small... and he's seen a lot of frogs, I dare say he's seen more than the average person. Walking is something we like to do together so I think we'll make good use of this trail... and there has been talk of getting cross-country skis so we can use it in the winter too-- we'll have to see about that though.

When we got to the park, without any known froggie casualties, we sat on a bench together for a small while and as I sat there holding his hand I realized that with him beside me growing old is not a scary thing at all.

Over There

At this very moment my beau is far far far away-- much too far for my tastes. He's been away for about three weeks now and it will be about two months before I get to see him. Time is going slow and fast at the same time and part of me wants the time to go slowly so I can get everything ready for the wedding and the other part of me wants the time to have past already so I can hold my darling and he can hold me in return.

There is so much to love about my beau. He's been in what will be our Michigan home for the past week during which time he's cleaned the carpets and the kitchen and tonight he installed under-the-cabinet lighting fixtures. He doesn't care that it's a rental. Every place we've lived he put in lights under the cabinets to better illuminate the counter work space. It's practical, yes, and I love him for it. He makes it easy.

It's apparently very difficult to live in a practically empty house. Since we have a storage unit full of stuff in Logan he is resisting the urge to get those useful things that we already have and only need one of-- like a silverware drawer divider. Tough I know, I never thought about how annoying it would be to live without one and while he packed a small "kitchen survival kit" that wasn't in it. It would be hard living in a house whose furniture consisted of one small table, one chair, and an air mattress-- makes it kind of hard to just "hang out" and this will be for the rest of the summer. Although today he picked up a small free dresser so now he can get his clothes out of the suitcase. I think I would have a tough time of things if it were me over there alone starting a new job and living in an empty house. I hope for his comfort that he finds a suitable futon.

Little Dancers

Yesterday was my birthday and it was a pretty fun day.

It started with work (yay work!) ... well, two hours of work (yay only a little work!) then I got to have lunch with my mom and with my beau's mom and aunt-- a great time was had by all. It's great to be around such fun and nice ladies!

I got to pick up the tablecloths for the wedding-- yay! and send out another batch of invitations-- another yay!

The day rounded off with my niece's dance recital-- a whole bunch of yays! She did a good job and it was all so cute. so so so cute.

Today's Forehead Slap!

It's not surprising that I made the invitations to our upcoming wedding. What is surprising (and a bit horrifying) is that during all the time I spent designing them, printing them (which was a process I might talk about sometime), cutting them and putting them all together-- checking and re-checking-- I never noticed that I flipped two digits in the RSVP telephone number (for reference the 1 and the 6 need to be switched). While that is a small mistake it is a significant one for folks who don't already know me and don't use email.

And of course I realize that posting about it on my little blog that nobody reads will do a world of good-- I know.

doh!

But the very nice man who has the number that was printed said that he wouldn't mind passing along the correct number to any of the future calls. (I don't really know how many people tried to call already and just hung up when it was clear that it was the wrong number)

Very nice man!

double doh!