The Kind of Day I Can Feel Good About

Today was a successful day. There wasn't anything extra special that I managed to get done but I have completed everything in my to do list and just feel good.

I did laundry. I cleaned a little and took out garbage. I paid rent. I went grocery shopping... I LOVE grocery shopping, but that's another post. I baked chicken for sandwiches for this next week. (Yep, we're spoiled. I make our sandwiches from oven roasted lemon chicken instead of lunch meat.) I made chicken and rice for dinner- still a favorite after all these years. I started a checklist of things to be finished for our wedding and found some links to share to help my sisters and mom see some of my vision. Oh, and I sent out a mass email to my FB wedding group requesting addresses because my wedding is LESS THAN FOUR WEEKS AWAY and lots of people still haven't given us addresses.

All in all, a good day. Not a bad way to start my wedding month. HOLY COW!!! It's my wedding month, everyone! FINALLY! :)

Notably Positive

-Wedding planning is coming along. We bought our rings- the same titanium band for both of us. We bought shoes for both of us. We've purchased our plane tickets and booked our rental car. We've sent out lots of invitations- still have more to send, though. I've sent fabric to my mom and she is sewing a simple jacket for me. :) And many more things that I cannot recall at this time. All of this doesn't prevent me from having wedding nightmares, but it has changed them... Unfortunately, now most of my wedding nightmares involve Branden leaving me just before the wedding. BUT this is a notably POSITIVE blog so I shouldn't dwell on the nightmares. In good news, Branden has assured me many times that he has no intentions to leave me. :)

-I made potato soup from scratch for the first time ever today. I had leftover baked potatoes that I needed to use and remembered that my mom makes her potato soup from such leftovers. I called her up and she was kind enough to share her potato-soup-making insights with me. All the recipes I'd seen online seemed fairly complicated but my mom's was simple and it turned out deliciously! I realize that most of you moms have probably made things much more impressive than potato soup- ok, I suppose that I have, too- but since I've never made potato soup before, I feel a great sense of accomplishment.

-Branden got a job in a different department at work. He'll start training in mid-September and by mid-October he'll be on a different schedule. In this new department, he'll always be off work by 8 PM. His current schedule has him off work at 9PM, which is a vast improvement to his former schedule of leaving work at midnight. Still, I look forward to the guarantee of at least one extra hour with him.

I can't remember the rest of the positive things I've thought I needed to write about recently. I'm sure I'll remember some later and I'll write another post then. :)

Third Anniversary

Today was Branden and my third anniversary... And I JUST remembered!

I feel a little guilty but I think he forgot, too, so I'm trying to use that to temper my guilt a little. There's just been so much going on with the wedding planning and everything else... I was sitting here on the couch thinking about Halloween candy- don't ask- which made me think that Halloween was our engagiversary but this year it won't mean quite the same thing as we'll already be married and then a terrible feeling washed over me. I looked down at my phone and, sure enough, today is August 18!

Three years ago today, I was wandering around Smith's (the grocery store) with Branden while talking to Rick on the phone when Branden referred to himself as my "idiot boyfriend." Up until that point, he'd been pretty firm that he was my roommate and, even though I knew we were going to be more, he still needed time to decide. Needless to say, his statement distracted me from my conversation with Rick. I turned to Branden and asked, "Are you my idiot boyfriend, then?" As it turns out, he was! :) I know, it's a SUPER romantic story.

I guess we've just been too busy looking toward the future to celebrate this step in time. It's our last dating anniversary. I'm a little sad, but it was probably inevitable that this anniversary would be overlooked. The next big one will be our one year wedding anniversary.

*Update* Branden came home and, it turns out, he did indeed forget our anniversary as well. At least I'm not the only one!

Last Shot... First One In That Spot

Today I went to the doctor and was injected with my last birth control shot maybe ever. That's right, this shot will last into November and then it's time to let my cycle come back and, hopefully, get a family going. :) I like to think that I have accepted that this may take a while... I'm sure none of you will be surprised if I get impatient and realize that I actually haven't accepted anything.

Back to the shot, though: Every, and I mean EVERY single birth control shot I've ever received has been in my arm. Yeah it hurts and I have a bit of a dead arm for a day or two but it's what I've always done so it's what I planned on doing again. Nope! Apparently, I was given the wrong syringe for that when my prescription was filled so this time I got a shot to the butt. At first I thought, "Wow, I barely felt that! That wasn't so bad."

I was SO WRONG!!! Holy burning buttcheek, Batman! I literally took two steps and the entire top half of the left side of my nether-region began burning like I'd been injected with some kind of acid. It stopped burning after ten minutes or so only to be replaced by a deep ache. It hurts to move, it hurts to sit, it hurts to stand still, it just hurts in general! What the crap?!?! Compared to this, the dead-ish arm was a breeze!

What's Wronng With Our Refrigerator?

For the last few days something strange has been happening in my refrigerator. Three times I have gone to get my carrots out of the fridge and found that they were frozen. Each time they were in a different place but always near the front. Today I pulled eggs out and the two left in one carton were frozen- also in a different place than the carrots, this time near the back- but the eggs in the carton below were all fine. What is happening?! I guess I should have realized that eggs can freeze in-shell but it was quite the surreal experience to crack an egg and have the whole raw egg stay in one half when the shell was pulled apart... Twice.

I cleaned out the fridge and Branden turned down the temp in the freezer 'cuz he said it would help. Incidentally, nothing else in the fridge was frozen. Our fridge is now dramatically emptier- can't believe what a difference removing a few things makes!- and now we wait and see what happens next. I've never had a fridge that froze just one thing and nothing else. Has this sort of thing ever happened to any of you?

Early Morning Adventures

Early this morning, around 2 in-the-AM, Branden and I went outside so he could smoke. He locked the door of our apartment behind us and we headed down the stairs. Once outside, Branden got in his car and was looking around. He then got out, locked the door and shut it. He stood there for a second then looked at me and asked if I'd brought my keys... No, no, I didn't. And there were his keys, sitting nicely on the seat of his locked car.

It was after 2 AM and we were locked out of the car and the apartment. We had no cell phones and no keys. I won't deny that I kinda laughed a bit- it may have had a slightly manic sound to it, but it was STILL laughter!

After a quick check of the apartment building basement to see if we could find something that would help us unlock the car and coming up empty-handed, we considered our options. It came down to spending the night outside in the heat and humidity and getting someone to let us in after the office opened or walking to QuikTrip to call a locksmith. Neither option was great but walking to QuikTrip seemed best and, thankfully, Branden had his wallet so we could buy something to drink and get change for a pay phone. So we made the 1/4 mile walk to QuikTrip, which actually wasn't entirely un-enjoyable. I used to restroom- thank you for your always open restrooms, QT!- and Branden called a locksmith.

Back to the apartment we walked to wait for the locksmith. In the absence of watches/clocks/cell phones, time was doing funny things and it was hard to guess how much time had passed. We leaned on the dew-covered car and waited, and waited, and waited. There was a surprising amount of traffic and goings-on at our apartments even though it was between 2 and 3 AM. The locksmith finally arrived and in less than a minute he had the car door open and Branden had the keys in-hand. Amazingly, we paid only $80 for this early morning service.

By 3:30 AM we were back inside with the A/C. Needless to say, as we crawled into bed at 4 AM we decided to scrap our morning plans and sleep in.

Postponing MN

Branden talked to his mom yesterday and asked me last night if it would be ok with me if we postponed our Minnesota reception. OK?! YES!!!!!

I've been trying to tell him that the weekend after our wedding wasn't a good idea for the MN reception for a while now. I didn't want to take that much time off work all at once and the thought of trying to juggle all of this was starting to stress me out. I feel like I can take a deep breath and focus on just one thing now.

Our wedding is two months and four days away. I feel like I should be doing more but there's just not a lot that I can do. Branden mailed off the package to UT and it is now in Katie's capable hands. Invitations will be handed out to family this week. :) I'm hoping that's the only package to mail, but it probably won't be.

I need to mail out other invitations and may be handing that work over to our good friend Amy who has asked that I let her stuff and send them- it's hard to say no when someone wants to do the more boring work. :P I've talked to Kazia about the cake,, though I should talk to her again. (Kazia, I guess I need to talk to you so expect to hear from me soon.) There are still some things to buy in the way of clothing but the important stuff is done. I need to order the desserts as well but that needs to wait a month or so. We do still need someone to do the actual marrying... Guess that's the next thing to get done!

Letters From My Mom

My mom has begun sending out letters. Not emails. Actual letters, in envelopes, with stamps. The first two she sent were written to the family and included copies of emails from James. I enjoyed getting those- who doesn't like getting mail that isn't bills or junk?- but this last one was the best of all.

My mom wrote me a letter at the cabin. I mean, she took the time to sit with a pen and paper and write out a letter just for me. It's been a long time since I've received such a letter and I forgot how much they mean. It's so much more than an email or typed letter... It's a piece of her on that paper. It's not incredibly long, it isn't filled with flowery words or prose, it's just a simple letter written in my mother's handwriting and it means the world to me that she took time out of her life to write and send it. I love you, Mom.

Mastodon State Park

Branden and I went for a drive today to see what we could discover. We saw a sign for Mastodon State Park and decided we must go there immediately... It was a good plan. As it turns out, there's a dig site something like 15 miles from our house where paleontologists have found bones from mastodons and other pre-historic megafauna. The site is currently covered over but there is a museum and some walking trails that take you to the site.

Here we are in front of the mastodon skeleton.

Here is the skeleton without us... I know that's what you really wanna see anyway. :P

This display explains the differences between mammoths and mastodons. Essentially, mammoths are larger and ate grass while mastodons are smaller and ate leaves and twigs. Also, the mastodon evolved first.

This is just a picture I like that Branden took.

The giant ground sloth was living in what is now Missouri at the same time as the mastodons. They were four feet tall and ten feet long when walking on all fours.

This is me above the dig site. You can't tell here, but I'm half-way up something like 138 stairs. As it turns out, we hiked around and ended up having to climb these stairs twice. That may not seem like a lot to those of you who are skinny, fit women but, not being one of you, I chose to not look up and just put my foot on the next step and the next one. I obviously made it. :)

A view of the walking path. It looks really pretty, and it was, but it was also 100 degrees and 80% humidity.

All in all, a good- maybe slightly sweaty- trip. Just one more thing to add to my list of places to take people who come visit me. :)

Oh, Hobby Lobby...

Oh, Hobby Lobby, my friendliest of foes.

Among your aisles can be found a treasure trove of items to tempt a woman whose brain has been replaced by wedding bells.

You invite me in from the humid heat of St. Louis with an inviting, air conditioned breeze and immediately set my head spinning with shelves stocked full of autumn themed decor. Your plethora of harvest bowls, platters and pitchers mock me with the impossibility and price of shipping. Your intricate metal and glass tabletop pumpkins outright laugh in my face.

Your 50% off ribbon sales blind me to prices. 50% off is such a good deal! I thwarted you, however, and only spent $20!... On ribbon alone. Unfortunately, you still won since I purchased $20 worth of ribbon but still was unable to find the ONE roll of ribbon I'm hunting for: dark brown, satin ribbon.

But I cannot dislike you entirely because you did provide the adorable pumpkin-shaped pillow that I'll be using as a ring pillow. You and I have begun a love-hate relationship that I see lasting a LONG time.