Seven Things I love ...

Tagged by Cheri over at As the Family Goes.... Thanks!

Seven Things I LOVE!

1) Joe! Being married to Joe. Talking about how cool it is to finally be married. Be watching a movie or cleaning the house or driving somewhere and saying .... "ummm We are married!" It still doesn't get old and is so fun.

2) Though I miss Minnesota and our friends there very much - I LOVE being in Washington and seeing either my family or Joe's family every weekend. We have been having a great time doing little adventures around the state. Last weekend, we went to Zillah and went to 3 different wineries.

3) Reading about and learning things I never knew. As I mentioned in a previous post I have been reading Beautiful Boy. It is a book writen by a father about his son who is addicted to drugs and they cycles of heartaches he and the rest of his family go through. I am facinated by this whole other world that I had no idea about.... The book is honest and thoughtful. The father is a writer for the New York Times and is very eloquent in his heartfelt love and deep suffering as he watches his son destroy his life. Everyone knows about suffering and heartache - David Sheff makes his come alive on the page. He isn't a man of faith, but slowly comes to see God as necessary.

4) Lazy mornings, hot coffee, catching up on good prayer time, reading books and blogs and new recipes to make for the week.

5) Being crafty. I made 2 sets of curtains and feel so accomplished.

6) Thinking about, talking about, praying about, and trying to make real long term goals or ideas. There are so many things we want to see, do, experience, try ..... It is fun to dream, and to make a reality.

7) New friends, old friends, catching up, getting to know, and loving people where they are at.

You are supposed to tag 7 people, some I would tag have already been tagged .... but check out their posts and new people can participate!
Kristine, Carrie, Laura, Sarah D, Janelle, Amelia

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For Today... Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Outside my window...clear skies and very chilly. Fall is almost here!

I am thinking... I got up a little too early today and don't have much to show for it - haha!

I am thankful for... being unpacked and settled in. Everything has a place.

From the school room... Joe started teaching yesterday. Looks like he has a great group of middle school students this year!

From the kitchen... Meals are planned for the next 2 weeks, and I am off to the store this morning. BBQ Chicken with pepper-jack cheese, baked potatoes, and broccoli tonight.

I am wearing... uh-oh. Still in my PJ's - about to get ready for the day ;-)

I am creating... my first Daybook entry and a long over-do post.

I am going... to get ready and go to the grocery store. Then off to visit my friend Kristine.

I am reading... Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and Joe is still reading me the Harry Potter books!

I am hoping... I can get everything crossed my list today (and a little more)

I am hearing... The washing machine doing some hard work on sheets and towels.

Around the house... It feels great to have everything put away, furniture in its place and things in order. Our daily routine has begun.....

One of my favorite things... The smell of clean laundry, and the 1st night of sleeping in fresh sheets. It's the little things!

A few plans for the rest of the week: Jack's retirement party on Friday, clearing out the attic with my mom to get ready for the garage sale, and enjoy the extended weekend!

Here is a picture thought I am sharing...

Nothing like great girl-friends! This is a picture from the day before the wedding. We went to Seattle and were tourists for the day. I just love remembering how all our best friend were in town for such a fun week and to be a part of our big day! Thank you!

Here are my Eight

Tagged by Kristine - this is fun.

8 Things I am looking forward to:

1) Getting married to Joe in 39 days. Enough said!2) Swing dancing for REAL, after 6 weeks - - well, 12 weeks of lessons really, we are dancing at a real swing club! Hope we are as good as we think we are.

3) Monica and Jordan's wedding, which was actually Friday night.
4) Lounging on a rainy day in St. Paul. Feels just like home.
5) Having some of my best "NET" and Minnesota friends come in to town this July to hang out before the wedding. Only a few have ever been to the Pacific Northwest.
6) Organizing our home. I am already looking forward to unpacking (1st I have to pack though) in our home together, finding places for everything, and making our home a warm, peaceful and welcoming place.
7) The feeling of having everything checked off the wedding list - - - - I've got a little ways to go.
8) Having more time in the morning to do things. I am at my best in the morning, and now that the sun is out SO EARLY, I wake up earlier, giving me more time to do all kinds of things around here.

8 Things I did Yesterday:

1) Went to work and covered the front desk for Vicky who was away on the interview weekend.
2) Took a half day at work in order to drive up to Moorhead/Fargo for Monica and Jordan's wedding.
3) Played fun car games and had good conversation for 4 hours in the car on our way to the wedding.
4) Witnessed a beautiful ceremony with lovely music, homily, and people I love.
5) Congratulated Joe on his 1st last day of being a teacher! The kids were so cute when they said goodbye, wanting to take his picture with them, etc. etc.
6) Danced the night away at the reception. I will say we NET folks certainly closed the place down, we decided not to leave until the very LAST song, and we made good on that. 1:00 am came and we danced our way to the van to drive back to St. Paul.
7) Tried to sleep on the 4 hour trip back to St. Paul, switching positions every 5 minutes.
8) Watched the sunrise as we drove down I-94 thinking - "I have been up for 24 hours, Why can't I sleep!!!!!" Needless to say, as soon as my head hit the pillow of my bed, I was OUT - only for 3 hours though. Joe and I had out last NFP class at 10:00 am

8 Things I wish I could Do:

1) I know how to knit, now it is time to crochet
2) Learn how to be a really good gardener
3) Run a marathon without having to do all the training
4) Fly a plane
5) A back flip
6) Focus long enough to have deep meditation during prayer
7) Take a small cat-nap each day around 2:00 pm
8) Focus on one things at once. I am notoriously thinking about the next things that needs to get done . . .

8 Shows I watch: (note: My roomie and I do not have a TV, but I find ways to watch a few things)
1) House - sometimes I don't like the subject matter, but MOST of the time, I LOVE IT!
2) The Little Couple (a new show about little people)
3) John and Kate Plus 8 (but not often)
4) Man verses Wild
5) 24 (It is like a drug)

That's about it.

Now I will tag : Sarah, Laura, Janelle!

7 Quick Takes ... Vol. 1

1. After 2, 6 week sessions of dance class with Joe - there was a little "skills test" on Monday night, and they also made it into a fun competition --- well, guess who got 1st place (tied with another couple)? Uh huh, Joe and Anna. It was fun. Our prize .... a box of Charleston Chews - how appropriate.

2. Memorial Day Weekend is quickly approaching - and that means going to Kentucky to visit my dear dear friend, Sr. Katherine! Kathy joined the Nashville Dominicans (go check out the website!) last August and after almost a year, she has a home visit. I will be spending the weekend with her and her family - enjoying every moment we have! Kathy is SO beautiful and I can't wait to hear stories and rejoice together in what the Lord has done in our lives.
3. What on my mind today you ask? How about the fact that Joe and I are getting married in 70 days! Reading the Psalms in reverse order has been a very fruitful way to count down the day - and put some purpose into counting down - not just wishing the days away.

4. This weekend is very busy and exciting - Not only are we going to a yummy Mediterranean restaurant tonight, tomorrow I get to hang out (babysit) with some of my favorite kids! And Sunday, Joe and I are going to a Mariner's game - well, a Twin's game ----- a Mariner's verses Twins game ---- who do we cheer for? Sunday night, Megan and I are having dinner with 2 other girls from our NET team who both live in MN - so fun!

5. Last night, today, and tomorrow I will be boxing up light weight bulky things as Joe and I prepare to move home - Those things can be easily and cheaply shipped back to WA, and I will get them out before Monday when postage goes up! Take that USPS!

6. Praise the Lord - He can not be outdone in generosity. Lately He has really been surprising me with how generous He is - and why should I be surprised. One quick story - I am selling my car - my dad had one, which is now mine, so instead of Joe and I driving both our cars back to WA, I will sell mine here. On the fly about a month ago, we told our NFP teacher how we are selling my car, and she pretty much said - "We will buy it" - This weekend, the car will be theirs. I am so thankful that the Lord has turned what could be a stressful situiation, trying to sell a car, and pack up our lives, into a very blessed and "easy" situiation. Thank you, Jesus! I will miss my little "Big Red" as I call her. She has been the best little car for me over the years.

7. Dove Dark Chocolates are my favorite sweet treat - today, the little "promise" inside the wrapper was "Believe the best in others!" Indeed I will, thank you Dove!

Easter in St. Paul

Hard to believe I just celebrated my 4th Easter at the Cathedral of St. Paul. When I was "On the Road" with NET - we went as a team to the Easter Vigil - and I have been going back ever since.

The Easter Vigil is perhaps one of my favorite liturgies of the year - with the lighting of the candles in the pitch black Cathedral, bringing in the light of Christ. I wish I could have taken a picture inside as the lighting was happening. As all the lights were out, it was still a little light outside and the stained glass windows looked more beautiful than I had ever seen before.

Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe - LaCrosse, Wisconsin

On Saturday -Joe and I planned a trip down to La Crosse, WI. It is about a 3 hours drive, so we made a fun day out of it. Joe had been sick with the flu - influenza - all week, and we were both glad he started to feel better. We took the road that runs along the Mississippi River and enjoyed the view. All of the leaves were off the trees which made the view of the river perfect, though we both commented on how it would have been nice to do that same drive in the fall or spring when things were in bloom. In La Crosse, there is a new Shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe. It is just beautiful. Below I posted some pictures. I don't think words will do it justice, but at least you will be able to see. Each set of mysteries of the Rosary had one of these 1/2 circles devoted to it. The tiles were hand painted I am certain and the light blue color made each image shine. Up close view of the Wedding at Cana. Each of the side chapels in the Cathedral were devoted to "modern day Saints" - those from the 18th and 19th centuries. This is St. Maria Goretti, a young girl who died at the hands of the man trying to molest her. He, Alessandro, is also in the picture. Maria said as she was dying that she wanted to see him in Heaven, and while he was in prison, he had a vision of her saying that she forgave him - making him repent and seek forgiveness. When he was released, 27 years later, he went straight to Maria's mother who was still alive and begged for forgiveness. She said "If my daughter can forgive you, how can I refuse?"

St. Therese, the Little Flower.

Us at the Shrine, a nice family from Delano took our picture.

St. Gianna, Pray for us!

The dome of the Cathedral, with the stars in the exact spot that would have been when Juan Diego looked up into the sky.

These are my roommates from last year, minus 1 - Sr. Katherine Webb is with the Nashville Dominicans. We were all at a bridal shower for Monica, who will be getting married June 5th. It was great to all be together again, and Mary is at Steubenville and Monica lives a few hours north of the rest of us!

Date Night

Awhile ago, Joe and I decided to set aside one week night as Date Night. We picked Wednesday's. Lately though, Wednesday's have been full of other obligations (this Wednesday my boss at the Archdiocese is having our office over for dinner) so Joe and I have been forced to reschedule - which is just fine.

Date night has been such a blessing. It gives us a set time to spend together. We sometimes have more of a "business" type meeting, now discussing the details of the wedding or planning something, but mostly it is just time set aside to enjoy one another.

Tonight Joe planned Date Night - It was a great one!

We played poker! He brought the chips, and cards, and sun glasses and hat - even big pretzel sticks as fake cigars.

Not that life will ever totally get back to "normal" after the death of my dad - it is comforting to know that life does go on, and Joe and I are living life, having fun, and enjoying each day together. Today marks the one month date since my dad died. It is hard to believe.

God continues to bless the struggle and the suffering. His grace is sufficient.

Fall is here!

Fall is here, officially as of yesterday, and the St. Paul farmers market proves it! The roommate and I (Megan) typically go on the weekends whenever we get a chance, as do Cheryl and Annie (they are the one's who got Megan hooked) and the summer at the market was wonderful, as of Saturday, Fall has taken over and it is packed full of yummy goodies! The Red peppers were redder than ever, and now there is squash all over the place!

One really great thing happened - Megan and I planned on making salsa when we got home, and of course i didn't need 12 jalapeno peppers to do that, just one or two, so i asked a nice man how much he would charge me for just a few, thinking that is a whole box was a few dollars, i would be glad to give him a few quarters for 1 or 2 - he said "well, i wouldn't really know what to charge, so here, just take two" - because of his kindness, and our necessity, we also purchased fresh green beans from him. yummy. Thank you kind man!

My favorite picture is down near the bottom, a woman was carrying her 2 little dogs like most people carry their little babies. I asked her if i could take a picture, she didn't seem to mind. Thank you nice dog lady!

Cheryl and Annie started the tradition of "Soup Day" - buying ingredients are the market and making a few soups in one day, and freezing them for the winter - Soup Day will be later in October, and i am looking forward to it!

MN State Fair -Some down home midwest fun!

The Minnesota State Fair is over on Monday, so we had to take a little trip up there to see the sights. Megan and Joe had never been before, however, I have now gone all 3 years I have lived here, so was certainly excited to go back! The big thing with the MN State Fair is everything being "on a stick". They have pickles on a stick, spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, deep fried candy bars and Twinkies on a stick, pigs in a blanket on a stick, ice cream on a stick ... I could go on and on....

I did manage however, to not eat ANYTHING on a stick. I had some ice cream, in a dish from the Dairy Barn, where the milk is fresh daily, and a Gyro, which was extra delicious, however, I made them myself a few nights ago, and I would bet that mine were much tastier!

Here are some pictures to document the event. Enjoy, and check out the fair next year, or tomorrow if you are in town!

Joe, standing next to some lawn art that best represents him .... a giraffe.
Only some of the people who were at the State Fair with us yesterday afternoon ..... Good thing the people here are "Minnesota Nice" or else it could have gotten out of control!For 50 cents, you can try your skills at milking a goat. We thought it was a genius idea on the farmers part. The goats need to be milked anyway, and this way, they are getting free labor, and being paid to DO NOTHING! While us city folks get to feel cool by milking a goat. Well farmers, we've got you figured out!
Cows showing some love.

This picture is for Kathy (Sr. Katherine, in the convent with the Nashville Dominicans.) We are waving hello to her with a super fuzzy and soft looking cow at the fair.

This is a pig - with his head, and his bottom, stuck in his food and water dish. Poor pig. Joe, myself, Mikey and Megan resting our little feet before conquering more turf at the fair. Again, another picture for Kathy, she always got on me for putting too much garlic on EVERYTHING, I thought it only appropriate to take some pictures at the garlic store, holding garlic. I love garlic, it's probably one of my favorite foods. Watch out world, here I come!

Renaissance Festival 2008

The Minnesota Renaissance Festival was this weekend, and I had never been before, but had always been interested in going, so a man I work with, who is one of the performers at the festival, gave me 4 tickets, and Megan, Jacqui, Joe and I took ourselves out to Shakopee, MN for the afternoon to enjoy .... something we were not sure about.

This was the entrance to the festival - Like a mini-Disneyland, in Medieval times

This man was a sword fighter - he greeted us as we entered into Make Believe Land. We had taken two pictures before this one, and then he decided he needed to make a better face, so I did too. I am pleased with the results.

Jim is in the center. He provided us with the tickets to Make Believe Land. We had a great time and were lucky to find him. His job is basically to escort people all around the festival, so he is never in one place for very long!These very large puppets also greeted us as we walked into the festival.

Perhaps one of my very favorite things to see at the festival - men, women, and children, walking around gnawing on very large turkey thighs. I could not help but take pictures of Joe as he participated in the activity. And in the picture here, it looks smaller than it actually was! CRAZY
After shot of the turkey leg...

Two small children with balloon bunny ears learning how to sword fight . . . one of the cutest things I have ever seen!

Check out the cool Renaissance buildings behind us!Old fashion Renaissance dancingA fire breathing, tight-rope walking, juggling, comedian. Weird, but very cool.

Going to the festival was like traveling back in time - people called us "My Lord, and My Lady" - they were wearing period clothing, speaking differently - etc. Quite the experience. We took in a lot of shows while we were there, most of them were very funny. My favorite was Zilch the Tory Steller, he tells a whole story and switched the 1st letter of all the words around, Tory Steller is an example - it is really Story Teller . . . . get it? He told the story or Parunnzel, or "Rapunzel" for those of your who don't speak Zilchs' language ;-) It was very funny, hard to follow in the beginning, but then your brain adapts to the language. A lot of the comedy acts were pretty inappropriate though, we left a few of them. All in all, it was enjoyable, but one time at the festival was enough to last me a life time I think.

Butterfly fun at Como Zoo

Today was great. The Como Zoo is having a butterfly exhibit until the 7th of September, and Joe and I decided to take advantage of it this afternoon before going to Vigil Mass at the Cathedral. It was lovely. There are some beautiful pictures of the butterflies that stayed still long enough to let me take their picture. The people working there said there were over 40 species of them, I don't think we saw them all.


We were sitting down at a bench, hoping one might land on us.

There were fruit trays all around where many of them were found having a snack. This one spread its wings so I could see all the lovely colors.
These black white and blue ones were very photogenic. They didn't shy away from my camera, and usually stayed still.
A pretty little orange one on a little red flower. Delightful.
Here is another blue black and white one - I forget what they were called.

This one opened all the way for a great shot.
A zebra butterfly, I think.
This was the sky a few nights ago before a big storm.
If you are in Minnesota, near St. Paul, go check out the Como Zoo Butterfly exhibit - - - the best part about the whole thing - it is FREE! I love free things!