She Said I Could Use Her Photo....
So, the Big Guy and I are back from Northern Minnesota where we had our wedding reception. Once I have the photos back from our photographer, we'll upload them to share with the world.

We came home Sunday and decided we would unpack the car upon arrival, settle into the comfy clothes and open our wedding gifts and cards. As I pulled out a gift from the backseat of the car, I noticed an open wine bottle in a gift bag and said, "that little BRAT!"

I knew immediately what it was. THIS was in one of the bags.

There was no card.
Oh. But I knew who passed it along to me.
Someone who got it at her wedding back in 2006 and has been trying to get rid of it for 4 years.

Amy.

I called her and she said, "Well, did you open the other gift yet?" I told her I had not. Her reply, "I anticipate another call..."

So, we open the cards and gifts, noting who gave us what so that we could send out accurate thank you cards. The Big Guy grabbed one of the gift bags and pulled out a bubble wrapped item. I asked, "Who's it from?" He said, "No idea. There isn't a card."

He unwrapped it and said, "It's from Amy."
I said, "How do you know?"
He held it up and said, "It's pretty obvious."

How can you not love this girl?
Amy. I heart you.
Thank you.

Yes. Now you know my last name.
Yes. It's the same as the show "Mork and Mindy".
Yes. I've heard it all.
No. I do not answer to "Mindy".

Why I Love My Cousins....
While we may have the same grandparents....

my cousins....



are without a doubt....



funny....



creative....



helpful....



but most of all....



They're mine.
I love you guys.
Thank you for spending the weekend with me.

I am one lucky girl.

Match Dot Com Flashback....
When the Big Guy and I were first dating, I remember an e-mail where I said, "I may have taught English Comp, but I may not always have the most proper grammar. I may not use a comma, colon or semi colon correctly. But....I do expect that the person I'm dating to know the difference between there, their & they're as well as your & you're."

The Big Guy agreed.
And it worked.
Because now we're married.

But. There is no excuse for this.


It may be an episode of 90210....but that doesn't mean you can use the wrong form of the word "there".

Yes. I watched 90210 this weekend. Don't hate.

Now THAT's a Toast!
Last week as I was surfing the internet instead of working so I'd stop stressing about wedding reception stuff, on my coffee break, I read one of my favorite blogs, Boo Mama.

I'm just going to tell you right now. If you are not adding this woman to your blog roll, you should. She is a little breath of fresh air and I love her blog oh so much.

Anyway, she posted this video and I had such a laugh and thought, "Now THAT is so much better than a toast." It instantly made me say, "How can I make this happen at our reception? Screw the homemade BBQ sauce....I want THIS!!"

Check it out.

Where I Make a List About Wedding Stuff.....

Oh. I know what you're saying.
"But you're already married!"

Yep. But I have that reception coming up next weekend. Here's what I've been thinking about.

1. I am now convinced that brides who are stressed out from wedding planning are stressed because of the reception. Not the wedding itself.

2. I've had to add to our rental list. $175 worth. *waves to the Big Guy & smiles*

3. I hope that people will have fun at this thing. Really. I mean it. Really.

4. We had to add a bartender due to city laws. The city owns the building and the liquor license, therefore a bartender needs to be on site. Which means we're paying $80 for someone to sit there and do nothing as all our alcohol is beer which is in bottles.

5. It would be nice, speaking of the city and their employees, if the manager would call us back in a timely fashion. It was after I called the city offices and the woman who worked there said, "I'll go get her" that we got a call back. Our local gov't at work, thankyouverymuch.

6. I realized tonight that all the crap we're bringing with us will come back with us...and then some. How does this happen?

7. Here's what I'm attempting to do for a centerpiece. I realized I need about 1000 mason jars. So....we'll be chaning that up a bit. How? No clue. But I'm working on it.

I'm off to go spend my weekend with 800 DIY crafty projects.
If I don't blog on Monday, send someone to come find me. I might be buried under cardstock, ribbon and glue dots.

Forty-Eight Cents....
When I began this blogging shin-dig back in 2008 I did it because I wanted a place for me to journal my training for the 2008 Susan G Komen for the Cure Breast Cancer 3-day. I didn't do much of that here because they have a blog section on your fundraising page.

But when I was told by some of Amy's friends that they read my blog...I was sorta hooked.

And then it really got the best of me.

I so badly wanted to be a popular blogger.
How can I get people to read my blog?
How do I increase my followers list?
How do I become big like Pioneer Woman?
Why didn't I come up with the "crockpot for a year" idea first?
Maybe I'll make some extra money with ads on my site!

I joined SITS and started to have a regular blogging schedule.

But soon, I just couldn't keep up.
I couldn't find time to roll call at SITS.
I couldn't come up with enough material to write about on a daily basis.
I also didn't like the idea that in order to be "popular" I either needed to be consistently funny, have a blog dedicated to a cause, or do some sort of give away.

And that money making idea with ads? Yeah.
Forty eight cents.
4...8....

Let's face it. Blogging is work.
I'm sorry....I've already got a job.

I started seeing more and more blogs becoming bigger & better and I realized that when you become bigger and better, you seem to be under a microscope. I'm sorry, but I don't need to be under a microscope.

I may not blog every day.
I may not have the most riveting content.
I may pick on my husband (come on...who doesn't).
I may post crappy photos that I think are amazing.

But that's me.
And that's who I am.
I've given up the dream of being a popular blogger--in fact, I gave that up quite some time ago.
I blog because I like to write.
I blog because my family likes to keep up with me.
I don't blog for money, fame or a book deal.

This is me.
This is my blog.

The Trees....

On Saturday of Labor Day weekend, we headed to the lake to see the Big Guy's parents. They currently rent lake property space, and by this time next year, they hope to have their home building complete on some property just down the road from where they are renting.

One of the things that his parents wanted to do was take their grandsons to the local nursery and buy trees for them to plant on the new property.

The boys went and picked out trees and came back where we all went down the road and set off to plant some trees.

Each of the boys got to pick out where they wanted their tree to be and then each of the boys had to help dig the hole.

First up was Super Z.

And then Mighty P was up next.

So, while it's sad to be leaving the farm--the only home that the Big Guy has ever known--this has been a great way to make this plot home.

Sometimes Life is Rough....
Sometimes life can be so rough.

Like swinging from rope swings at the lake and your uncle tries to get the perfect photograph....

Or puppies (yes...he's still a puppy!) who get to splash in the lake and then have to be tied to the cabin so he doesn't run away.....




Or 6 year olds who have to wait so long to open up presents and birthday cards.....

Or Culvers Cookie Dough Custard Cake that will certainly add 4 pounds to my expanding waist line (but it was worth it)....



Or campfires that seem to glow and glow and never burn out....



Yep. Life is pretty rough sometimes.
But I'll take it.

"What the Heck?" Wednesday




This is what happens when your leave your car & your keys at home, your husband is working his over night shift, you can't reach your landlord and you need to get into your home.

I keep waiting for the cranky old lady at the end of our development to come by and yell at me.