A Nice Little Visit

Last weekend we had a long weekend. It was Glorious. It was actually really great for my sick self. Thursday I stayed home. Sick. Oh, and I went to the doctor. She gave me some medicine that gave me some very uncomfortable side effects and allowed me to blow lots of colorful snot out of my nose. I took that as a sign of getting better. I am nearly all better now. Hopefully I stay that way and I don't relapse and get sick again. As it happened last time. The only thing that I am still really suffering from are awful headaches. It's like one big permanent headache. Not so enjoyable, let me tell ya.

Another good thing about the long weekend was that we got to go visit my sister in Ohio. It has been forever since we went up there. Not because it's a long trip, it's not. It's because shortly after visiting her this past summer I got a job. Which was a wonderful blessing and answer to prayer. However, it also left me with no time to breathe. The long weekend provided a chance to breathe and visit. It was loverly.

cuddling with the pup while I'm sick before heading up to my sister's

playing nap time : ) my favorite game

Legos!!! We used to play for days. Only stopping for dinner and bathroom breaks. 

Love me some Legos.

playing Legos with two of my little Ns : 0 

My sister and her baby boy. And Light Saber. 

I just thought this was so sweet. 

cuddling. Not the best of all of us, but the best of the pictures to pick from. 

I love visiting my sisters and their cute kiddos. I'm glad we were able to go up for a little visit and some cuddle time. 

Last Week

In honor of today being Friday and almost a whole week since I have been at my sister's house, I want to share some of my Minnesotan adventures with y'all.  

This is one of my adorable nephews, he was giving me some Tinker Bell chap-stick. I love his mop of curls! 

Maybe his Mama Papa won't appreciate this, but I just couldn't help myself! He is a stinkin' cutie!  

 

Remember when I told you we went blueberry picking? We did, and this is one of the "gigantic" berries he picked and promptly popped in his little mouth to enjoy. 

The cute sister pickin' her berries. 

 

little munchkin!

berries!  

 lots of berries. 

  

I would like to take this opportunity to say that it was quite chilly that morning. And it rained. And I was the only one without a jacket. Apparently I just wasn't very prepared. I'm not complaining, just noting to you all that I did not freeze to death while I was picking berries. Actually, it was really the perfect morning to pick berries. Perfect because it was chilly and a little rainy. And that is my favorite kind of morning. I would much rather be chilly than hot. Which do you prefer? 

I never realized that's what I look like when I munch on blueberries. 

my sister with all of her plunder.

my loot ... not too shabby, considering I didn't have any help ; ) 

I just want to eat him up! 

I love this pitcher and these kiddos! 

 [you should try spelling picture like that some time (pitcher), it lifts your spirits immediately. do it, you will thank me later :]

the farm 

chillin', and yes, the bunny is apparently reading a book : ) 

  

munchin on some of that yummy cake batter frozen yogurt I was tellin you about. I will post a recipe for that here soon, that way you can all enjoy some! 

Anyhoot. I know there were loads of photos, I just couldn't help myself. That's pretty much what I did all last week, hang out with some cuties and pick blueberries. Oh, and shop at The Mall of America : ) it's always a fun time with my sister. I just didn't take any pictures of that outing. 

Happy Friday, y'all! 

home sweet home and some yummy cake batter frozen yogurt

Well, gee-peers. I feel like it has been far too long. And is has. Let me explain why. 

I was gone for 9 days on the mission trip I mentioned a little while back. But you already knew that.

What I didn't tell you was that when I got back we only had three days at home to get unpacked and do laundry (including folding and putting away) only to have to pack our bags right back up again. I didn't want to let the whole world know I was going to be MIA from my precious home for one more week. So I just didn't really say anything at all. Maybe I should have, but I'm weird like that. Although, now, if I ever don't post for a month you will probably know that I am not at home, which defeats the whole purpose of my not saying anything. Or maybe not. I suppose it depends on my location. 

In the Dominican Republic I really couldn't do a thing about it. No internet. No computer. No tv. No phones (not that I have a fancy phone anyway). No nothing. It was wonderful. Only, it was a little tricky to get back into having all of those nice things once again. kind of. I suppose it wouldn't have been too difficult to get back into a regular blogging grove had I not been on the move yet again from the Dominican Republic . . . 

to visit these three little loves of my life . . . 

[though, I soon discovered they were not all quite so little any more : ]

yes, yes. I got to take a nice short long drive way up north to Minnesota and spend a delightful week with my oldest sister and her little munchkins. 

But, now I am back home. And I have pictures loading onto my computer for picture stories to come later in the week (for real this time). I am excited about this. 

I am not excited about the fact that today I am as old as I have ever been in my life. I suppose you could say that every day of your life, but for some reason birthdays make that point stick out a little bit more. o bother. 

On the bright side . . . today is my birthday! And I get to go out to a yummy dinner with The Hubs. And I made some cake batter frozen yogurt! it is De-lish. I will have to post some pictures in the morning, if I remember to take any before devouring what is left of it, that is :D 

cheers for now!

The Cake

Today the hubs and I have been married for two whole years. Crazy. I feel like that is a Lifetime. I mean, really that's a pretty long time. Two years. That's more than I've really stuck with anything. ever. in my whole long life. shame really. But true. So anyway. We got hitched two years ago today. For some reason thinking about that day makes me happy. Here are 10 reasons why:

1. I was getting hitched!

2. My whole big entire family was together. All of my brothers and sisters were there. We were all together. The last time we had been together was Christmas in 1997 (I think). That was a really long time ago. So for us to all be in the same spot at the same time was really something very wonderful. So happy. Probably one of my favorites parts about having a wedding was seeing all of my brothers and sisters. Also, my grandparents came and a bunch of aunts and uncles. More of my family was together that day then they had been in a very long time. It was just so wonderful. really. it was.

d. I got to wear a really pretty and beautiful white dress. O, it was sooo pretty! I felt like a bride in it.

f. Lots of other friends and family and even people I didn't know were there.

4. The day was simply beautiful!

5. I was able to say I had two more sisters and even more family!

j. It was the day I got to start spending the rest of my life with my very bestest friend.

10. and that's starting to get a little mushy, so I'll just stop there.

But, it really was a happy day full of fond memories and such. I think one of the best memories, would be the cake, or lack there of. You see, we ordered a cake. A very yummy cake. O, it was an amazingly delicious cake. There was going to be carrot, pineapple, and strawberry. Lots of cake. Pretty cake. Yummy cake. It was one of those things that we decided needed to be at the wedding, regardless of the price (wedding cakes are expensive!). So we got one. We ordered the cake. When we ordered the cake I told the man the address and the time that the cake needed to be there. He said, "Fine. No problem!" Three days before the wedding I called to confirm my order, the time, and the place. Again, he said, "Fine. No problem! We will be there."

Well, come Saturday at 1:47 pm (13 minutes before the ceremony starts), I see the Fan-say (obviously he's not my hubs at the time so I can't call him the hubs, he was still my Fan-say, you know, the guy I was engaged to be married to. In 13 minutes!) and he looks very distracted and very secretive. Like he is hiding something. Let me just tell you, 13 minutes before you are going to walk down the aisle is NOT the time to hide something from your soon to be life long pal. ya know? So I says to Fan-say, "What's wrong, Fan-say? You look suspicious."

"Huh? me? Wrong? Nothing. No. Nothing's wrong," he stutters as he is running out of the room to escape what he thinks will be my wrath. Obviously Something is Very wrong. Not good.

"What's wrong?" I ask again chasing him into the next room.

"Nothing," he looks at me. I stare back at him till his eyeballs are dry.

"Tell me. I don't care. I just want to know!" I demand. It is after all MY day and if I want someone to say something or do something, they must. Right? Right. Yes. my day. Everyone will do as I say!!! hahaha. not really. but you know. I wanted him to tell me. So he did... not...

"Well, I just don't want to upset you and it's almost time to start and .... " he doesn't tell me.

"What already?! Just tell me! It's ok. I promise I won't get mad."

"Promise?" Fan-say looks a little scared.

"Yes, I promise, tell me already!" this is taking entirely far too long. I just want him to spit it out already. ... I notice all of the groomsmen sheepishly backing out of the room at this point. They also look a little scared. huh. Could it really be that bad?

"Well, ok," he inhales. "The cake's not here," he quickly spits out while he takes a step back. Why I wonder does he take a step back? huh? I mean, does he think I'm going to hit him? Does he think I'm going to go crazy cause the cake isn't here even though it was supposed to be here two hours ago?! probably.

"Oh. Ok," I chirp.

"That's it?" he looks at me incredulously.

"What do you mean that's it? Yes. That's it," and say. "I mean, what can we do about it now? Nothing. Don't worry about it." I think he's a little shocked and surprised that I just said that and that I am entirely calm about it because Fan-say starts to say...

"Well, it's really all under control. Really. The ladies downstairs have your phone" [really? when did he give my phone away?] "and his number and they are calling him and it will be here before the reception starts. That's what he said when we talked to him."

"Ok." And that was that. We skipped away and down the aisle and got ourselves hitched. Except that wasn't really it. About the cake at least. Nope. No. None. Not. No. You see, the cake was still Not there when we walked downstairs for the reception. No cake. Not even a little cupcake. Not even any icing. And the cake wasn't there as lots of people were leaving. And the cake wasn't there to cut and eat. There was no cake.

Then he came. Cake Pants arrived. 5 hours late. He opens the door and comes in with a very pretty cake. Of course everyone in the room starts cheering. The cake is finally here and we can eat it now. Sheesh. The cake was yummy. very much so. it's a shame it got there so terribly late.

I found out later that when Cake Pants went into the kitchen the ladies that were helping in there gave him a licking. They chewed him inside out, telling him he should be ashamed of himself for ruining my day. I like them. He did not care. I bet he did care when we didn't pay him a dime, not even a penny for the cake. Of course we weren't about to pay for a cake that we didn't really even get to enjoy. We were going to hold up our end of the deal and pay him, he failed to do his part. Severely failed. So much so that we even got our deposit back. So really, I was just fine with Cake Pants pretending to get lost and arriving 7 hours late with our cake. Free for us. Bad for him. O well. His loss. Our gain.

But yes. I like to think about that day. It was nice and fun and happy. I think that's all I have to say about that.