Day 5: Favorite Quote(s)

This one was easy, I just had to cut and paste from my Facebook page So, here we go:

“Every crime has it’s punishment” (a camper, probably in 2000 or 2001)

“I aim to misbehave” (Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, Serenity)

“I reject your reality and substitute my own” (Adam Savage, Mythbusters)

“And now, Harry, let us step out into the night and pursue that flighty temptress, adventure.”
(Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince)

“I have a dream. And in it, something eats you.” (Happy Bunny)

“My easy going nature is being sorely f*ckin’ tested.” (Bill, from the movie Slither)

“A wizard should know better! There is no curse in elvish, entish or the common tongues of men for the this treachery!” (Treebeard, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers)

Day 4: Favorite Book(s)

I love to read.  It is one of my favorite things to do!  I wrote a whole post about it on my other blog.  If you want, you can read it here.  I’m also on this great website called Shelfari.  You can make a “shelf” of all the books you’ve read, all the one’s you’re currently reading, what you want to read and mark your favorites.  You can have “friends” and join discussion groups.  If you want to see my shelf, click here.  And I of course do Paper Back Swap!  It’s a site to post books you own but don’t want any more and trade them with others for books they’ve posted.  You basically get books for free!  You just have to pay to mail a book to someone who has requested it (less than $3/book).  Want to be my PBS friend?  Click here!

On to my favorites – sorry, this time there are 12 listed…Day 5 will be much shorter, promise!

I’m one of those crazy Harry Potter fans you hear about.  I go to the midnight book release parties, I go to the midnight release of all the movies, and yes, I go in costume.  I have a wand.  I’ve read each book at least 10 times, some of them more.  I’ve even gone to a Harry Potter conference.  I’m planning my costume for the release of the last book – I will be Luna Lovegood.  I was Helena Ravenclaw this year for Halloween, and even made my own dress.  I am a Ravenclaw – blue and bronze all the way!  I don’t understand people who don’t read these books (even if one of those people is my loving husband).  Yes, I’m a Harry Potter addict, and proud of it!

This was my older sisters favorite book, so I decided to give it a try (we usually have somewhat similar taste in books).  This is a truly wonderfully written book.  The story draws you in and Niffenegger is a great writer.  A lot of the story is set in Chicago, and you can tell the author has actually been here and understands the city.  Sometimes you read a book based in Chicago and the geography or feel of the city is just all messed up.  Some of it is even set in my old neighborhood and it was really fun to read about places that I go all the time.  It’s about a man who has a “chronological” disease – he can’t stay put in his own time.  Instead he randomly jumps back and forth between the present, past and sometimes the future.  It’s also about the girl he falls in love with and marries and how they both try and deal with his constant jumping and the danger it poses to him.  This was made into a movie, but I won’t be watching it – I’m afraid they ruined the story.

I’ve always loved vampire books.  I think I read Dracula when I was about 12, and started reading Anne Rice about the same time.  This is by far one of the best vampire books ever.  At the core of it, this book is about the search for the tomb of Vlad the Impaler.  The main characters travel all over the world searching for clues and encountering strange events on the way.  This is the only book that I’ve ever read that made me stop and look around behind me to make sure I was alone!  Truly creepy!  It’s wonderfully crafted and a great thriller!  If you love vampire books you HAVE to read this one!

This book is good not because it’s a mystery to solve, but because you figure out the mystery early on in the book and it draws you in, watching the inevitable unfold.  It’s about an Egyptologist on the search for the tomb (hmmm…theme here?  I guess) of a long forgotten pharaoh.   I don’t want to give too much away in case you decide to read it, but it’s truly intriguing to watch this man’s mind work and try and figure out how it all comes about.  I stumbled upon this book in a stack of give aways and have been glad I did ever since!

Like I said, I started reading Anne Rice at a very young age and got hooked!  I love her entire Vampire Chronicles series, who wouldn’t love Lestat??  Her series of witch books is also very good, but I haven’t read them all yet.  They are beautiful books, and sometimes it’s like your reading a work of classical music instead of a story of vampires – she has a very lyric and musical tone to her writing.  Any vampire book lover should read Anne Rice.

Ah…Sookie.  Yes, I do own and have read all 10 books – I pretty much devoured them in about a week and a half actually.  The stories are engaging and make you not want to put the book down.  I’m currently in withdrawal after finishing book 10 with no idea when the next book will be out (soon I hope).  More vampires, I know.  What can I say?  I love vampire books – and zombie books (though none of those made it to the final cut).

This was listed in my favorite movies post, and it is also one of my favorite books.  I won’t describe it again.  Needless to say (if you read the movie post), I also have not picked this book in over 3.5 years – hard to read when you’re living what the book is about (infertility) – but still an amazing book.

This is actually a collection of about 5 or 6 books in the Hitchhikers series.  The humor and wit written by Douglas Adams is unmatched in anything else I’ve ever read.  Brilliant and hilarious, and at times complete nonsense!  It follows Arthur Dent, as he is unexpectedly ripped from Earth and thrown into the life of a space hitchhiker (and a little bit of time travel, too).  If you like science fiction, and love to laugh this is a MUST READ.

This series is still being written.  Currently there are 3 of the 4 books out (and no date yet for release of the 4th, though I’ve googled until I can’t google no more).  Paolini wrote the first book, Eragon when he was only 17 years old!!  It’s the type of book where there is a pronunciation guide and list of characters and words in the glossary, and you need it to keep track of it all!  It’s basically the story of a young boy, Eragon, who one day finds out he is destined to be a Dragon Rider, a race of men long since extinct and thought to be gone forever.  He must fight the evil king of his world and bring peace once again.  I don’t know the end of the story yet, but every bit of it is amazing so far, so I’m sure book 4 won’t disappoint.  If you like fantasy, epic battles and dragons, this is your book!

This is a GREAT series for those of us feeling lost after Harry Potter was over.  It certainly not a wizarding story, but it fills that same void.  It’s about a young boy named Percy (Perseus) Jackson.  Weird things always happen around him and he doesn’t know why.  One day he is told that he is the son of one of the Greek gods, and that they are still alive and well, living on Mt. Olympus (that has moved to the top of the Empire State Building).  Percy must then go on a quest to defend him self from accusations of theft (this is just the first book) and to try and figure out a strange prophecy that he’s been told is most likely about him.  There are 5 books in the series and if you like Greek mythology, you’ll love these!

If you couldn’t tell from my favorite movies, I love irreverent humor!  This book is Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal.  I love ALL of Christopher Moore’s books, but this one is my favorite.  Excellent wit and humor and great story telling.  It’s the story of Biff, Jesus’ (Joshua) childhood friend, telling the story of Christ from his perspective.  If you are easily offended, you may want to skip this one (especially the part where Jesus makes Biff hire a prostitute and then shout out what he’s doing with her while Jesus hides in the next room over so he can’t actually see it happening).  It covers Jesus’ life from birth to death, as observed by Biff (so you get all the “lost years” stuff).  Highly recommended.

This book is a classic, and I’m sure many of you have either read it or at least heard of it.  It’s the story of King Arthur, but as seen through the eyes of the women in his life.  I’m not a big “feminist” type of chick, but it is easy to see that the women in the story of Arthur truly shape him and define the way his life went.  Brilliantly written and engaging (also super long, and I love that about a book).

Okay folks, those are some of my favorite books.  I know, my posts are way long winded lately!  Tomorrows will be brief: favorite quotes!

Day 3: Favorite TV show(s)

And here we are at Day 3: favorite TV show.  Once again, I can’t choose just one!  That would be silly!  So we’ll dig right in.  And in no particular order, 10 of my favorite TV shows.

Okay, I kinda lied.  If I absolutely had to pick only ONE favorite show, I wouldn’t even blink before saying Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  Hands down: Best. Show. Ever.  I love it.  It started as a movie (which was awful) that was created by Joss Whedon – who left the movie when they started taking it in a direction he didn’t want to go.  His response was to create the TV show, to make Buffy who and what he wanted it to be.  The rest is TV history.  I could watch this show all day long, and I have!  I own every season, I own books, and posters and action figures and trading cards and much more.  My hubby and I even went as Buffy and Angel for Halloween one year (I was Angel, he was Buffy – I’ll have to post that picture someday)!  It’s brilliant and I love Joss Whedon.

Of course, I also love Angel, the show that spun off of Buffy.  It’s edgier, darker and more grown up.  While Buffy started in High School, then moved on to college and beyond, this show was for a more adult crowd.  Brilliant characters and story line.  Sadly it meet it’s doom before it was time.  Half way through season 5, right after the 100th episode aired the show was canceled and Joss had to find a way to bring resolution to a 4.5 yr story line in 1/2 a season.  He did a good job, but I would have loved to have seen where he would have taken the show next if given the chance.

Yup – another Joss Whedon masterpiece, again dead before it’s time.  Canceled after only a few shows aired, this show has become HUGELY popular in it’s afterlife.  It also has one of the best episode ever – EVER – made for TV called “Out of Gas”.  If you only watch one episode of Firefly, let it be that one.  Brilliant.  The characters are so well developed for only having 14 episodes (and only 12 of those aired on TV).  My dogs are even named after two of the characters in the show: Malcolm (the captain, in this pictures he’s the one sitting down) and Inara (the “companion”, pictured on the far left).  If you haven’t ever watched this show, you have to.  That’s an order

Moving out of my Whedon obsession and into my crime show obsession, we have Dexter.  If you haven’t seen this or even heard of it, it’s because it’s only on Showtime (which I don’t get, we just buy all the DVD’s).  I also own all of the books that this show is based on (well, I still need the 2 most recent…).  Dexter is a blood splatter analyst for the Miami PD – he also happens to be a serial killer.  But he’s a killer with a purpose, he only kills other serial killers.  He has no conscience and so was taught to act human by his foster father (who was a cop) and was also taught how to get away with murder by him.  Even though Dexter lacks real emotion you find your self rooting for him, and not wanting him to get caught, either in a lie or a murder.  It’s a brilliant show based off of some brilliant books.  You can find it on Netflix so give it a shot!

I love CSI.  LOVE IT!  However, I hate the Miami and New York versions!  I’m a purist The characters are great, and the story lines keep getting more complex and they just suck you in, trying to solve the puzzle.  I’d be shocked if you’ve never even caught a glimpse of this show.  It’s a power house and there are reruns of it everywhere!  I think it’s going into it’s 11 or 12th season?  Whatever it is, I don’t ever want this show to end!

We’ll get back to my love of crime shows, but we’ll take a break to meditate on my love of British TV.  BBC – I love you.  First up we have The IT Crowd.  Brilliant comedy!  Currently there are 3 series (seasons) of this show and I’ve heard they’re working on #4 (YAY)!  It’s about 2 guys who work IT for an office in the city and their manager, a woman who knows nothing about computers.  It laugh out loud during every episode.  Anything that can go wrong does, but in a great funny way, not an Oh God make it end kind of way.  If you need a good laugh you HAVE to watch this show.

If you watch Doctor Who, you can already judge which Doctor and companion are, in my opinion, the best.  I love this show.  I actually grew up watching the old school series on PBS with my dad.  When I didn’t catch an actually episode I could hear it in my bedroom at night when I was supposed to be sleeping, that tell tale music and the sounds of Daleks, the TARDIS and Cybermen!  Brilliant.  I’m now a devoted fan of the new series, and of course Doctor #10 and Rose.  Love her.  I very much enjoy Doctor #11 and Amy Pond, the new regeneration, but David Tenant will always hold a special place in my heart.  If you like SciFi at all, watch Doctor Who!

Last in our British Series is Black Books.  This show only had 2 series, but was absolutely brilliant.  It’s about a cranky book shop owner, his best friend and co-worker.  Bernard Black hates people, hates life, hates everything.  He’s absolutely hilarious.  Dylan Moran has become one of my favorite actors/comedians.  You should look for his stuff on YouTube – brilliant.  He smokes like a chimney and drinks more wine than anyone you’ve ever met combined.  Again, if you need a good laugh, find this one!

Let’s get back to some crime shows!  Psych airs on USA and is amazing.  If you are a child of the 80′s, you will get every single joke in this show!  It’s about a guy named Shawn who has a great talent for noticing detail.  He pretends that he’s psychic and gets hired by the police to consult on cases.  He always solves them light years before the police.  He’s helped by his best friend Gus (brilliant played by Dule Hill).  If you’re thinking this sounds a lot like The Mentalist, be assured the Psych came first, and has even poked fun at the similarities of the two shows in some of it’s episodes!  It makes me laugh out hysterically in every episode.  A must watch.

Last on my list is TNT’s Leverage.  I just started watching this show a few months ago (caught the 1st 2 seasons through Netflix, 3rd season is on now).  It’s about criminals who have banned together to do good.  A grifter, a hitter, a theif, a hacker and the mastermind.  They get hired by every day people who have been wronged (family member murdered, life savings stolen, house taken by sketchy methods).  They figure out who done it and then plan an elaborate scheme to not only right the wrong, but make sure the responsible party pays for what they did.  It’s almost like Ocean’s 11 in that you never have the whole story of what went on until the end.  Keeps you guessing and even laughing at times.  And it doesn’t hurt that Christian Kane (who played Lindsey in Angel) is in it, too!  I recommend it.

That’s it for TV shows!  Of course I thought of tons more as I was writing this (how could I leave out 24 and Star Trek: TNG??), but I’ll spare you the rest Next up: Favorite book(s).  I’m an AVID reader, so be prepared!

Day 2: Favorite Movie(s)

Welcome to Day 2 – movie day.  You thought I loved music (well I do…) – I LOVE MOVIES!!!  Ask my poor dear husband who has to suffer through me watching movies over and over again, or constantly speaking to him in movie quotes.  He’s not one to watch a movie more than once.  Me?  If I like it, I own it and I watch it continually!  So, you could probably already guess, I have many, many favorites.  So, I’m going to have to cut this post down and just choose a few (and by few I mean 8).  So again, in no particular order, some of my favorite movies:

Basically this movie is about a bank robbery.  It’s a Spike Lee film, so you know there’s more going on than that!  It’s amazingly put together (and doesn’t hurt that it stars Clive Owen *drool*) and keeps you guessing.  I’m not giving any more plot away because really, it would ruin the movie.  Watch it if you haven’t!

This movie cracks me up.  It brings back memories of my time working at camp.  There is a quote from this movie for EVERY situation in life and if you can’t find one, you’re not trying hard enough!  Tommy inherits an auto parts factory after the unexpected death of his father and has to go on the road to sell the new line of break pads – hilarity ensues!  Check it out!

One word: epic.  The movies are as beautifully crafted as the books!  Read the books!  Watch the movies and show some love for JRR Tolkien!  He wrote the books because he was a linguist and wanted to invent a language – but the story has lived on and on!

Joss Whedon is my master.  He has created the majority of my favorite TV shows, and doesn’t disappoint with Serenity, created to tie up the story line that was prematurely ended when Firefly was canceled 1/2 way through it’s first season.  The characters are rich and have more depth than the next 10 movies you’ll watch combined!  Not to mention they all kick some major ass!  If you like SciFi, you’ll love this – and watch the Firefly TV series first.  You won’t regret it!

While this movie is one of my favorites (again, Clive Owen), I haven’t been able to watch it in over 3 yrs.  It’s based on the short story by PD James (also one of my favorite books).  The premise is it’s the year 2027 and for the past 18 years no children have been born anywhere in the world – all humans have become infertile.  You can see why I may have a hard time watching this movie.  It’s an amazing story and really does give hope in the IF world, but hard to watch.  If you think you can handle the story line, give it a try.  I think it has a lot to say not only about fertility, but about the state of our world in general and where we could end up if just one thing were to change.

On the lighter side we have Kevin Smith’s brilliant Dogma.  HIGHLY irreverent but incredibly hilarious.  The basic premise is that there are 2 angels who had been tossed out of heaven eons ago and they’ve found a loop hole back in.  The problem is if they complete their plan existence will cease to be.  On top of all of this, God has gone missing and the only ones who can find him/her are a woman who works at an abortion clinic and 2 slackers from Jersey.  Yeah, I said it was irreverent!  Within all that though, it makes some great points on the state of faith and belief.  If you’re not easily offended give this one a shot!

And if you’re in for even MORE irreverence and lots of violence then Boondock Saints is for you!  It’s about 2 Irish twin brothers living in Boston who one night dream they have been called by God to rid the world of evil doers.  So they go on a killing spree.  Yup – violence.  It’s also incredibly funny (gotta love the gay FBI agent played by Willem Defoe) and even within the violence and terrible theology carried out by these 2 brothers you can find some meaning.  Warnings again to those easily offended and those who don’t appreciate blood and violence in a movie – if you can stand all that though, you must watch this movie.

And last but certainly not least, The Big Lebowski.  I think this is the only Cohen Brothers movie that I like.  The rest of them are just too far off of making any sense for me.  I like a good confusing movie, don’t get me wrong, but pointless and confusing gets a bit much (though I know that’s their thing, it’s just not for me).  But in the case of the Big Lebowski, it’s beautiful!  An unemployed slacker who’s passion in life is bowling and White Russians goes on a quest to replace the rug from his front room that was peed on by 2 thugs looking for a different Jeff Lebowski.  The Dude (Jeff Bridges) embarks on the quest only to be side tracked by kidnappings, nihilists, Vietnam vets (his best friend) and eccentric artists.  It’s a crazy good time.  Highly recommended!

Okay, well, that’s my pick of 8 favorite movies.  I have more, but I’ll spare you all of that!  I feel this is a fair representation of what I like Stay tuned tomorrow for Day 3: TV programs (oy vey, I’m sorry, you’re gonna get another long one)!

Day 1: Favorite Song

So, we begin! Day 1 of my 30 day blog journal. The theme for today is my favorite song. What? I have to choose ONE favorite song?? Not happening! I don’t think I can even pick less than 10! I have a lot. Pretty much if you want to know my favorite songs, come over and look at my iTunes list! There are thousands of them listed there. I love music, and I always have. I’m very much into Classic Rock the most, but have recently discovered some newer bands that I like too, though they are not the “main stream” bands. I really do not like the popular music of today. The radio stations I listen to play oldies, classic rock and stuff from my childhood (80’s & 90’s). So, I’ll try not to over whelm you too much, but I’ll give you a sampling of some of my favs (in no particular order).

My favorite all time band is The Beatles. I of course have many other favorites, but if I was forced to pick one favorite there, it’d be the Beatles, so I’ll start with them. Pretty much, I love all of there stuff. There are a few I don’t like (mostly Paul McCartney songs – seriously, can he write a song with more than 10 words in it? I don’t think so…). I don’t think I could pick one favorite from their whole catalog, so I’m just picking a random one that rocks. It’s “Happiness is a Warm Gun”:

LYRICS

Next on the list is from a newer “band” that I absolutely love. The “band” is Iron & Wine. Why is “band” in quotes? Well, because it’s actually just one guy named Sam Beam – he plays all the instruments and sings all of the harmonies on the albums he makes. He’s amazing (not to mention that I really go for long hair and beards…check out my husband)! I’m actually going to put up 2 of his songs here. The first is Resurrection Fern. The second is Such Great Heights (originally written by The Postal Service). Such Great Heights was on the Garden State soundtrack, so if you’ve seen that movie, you’ve heard this song. It was also featured in an M&M’s commercial a couple of years ago.

LYRICS

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Back to some classic rock, we have Pink Floyd’s masterpiece Wish You Were Here. The first time I heard this song was while I was working at camp in 2000. A group of campers from the older kids group borrowed guitars from the counselors and played this song at the talent show on Thursday. It was great and I went and tracked it down after that.

LYRICS

And of course, I can’t leave out Led Zeppelin. I love them. I got to see Robert Plant and Allison Krauss play last year (they had an amazing album come out a couple years ago). I don’t even know which of their songs would be my favorite, so I’ll just pick a random one – Immigrant Song.

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This next song is by Stuart Davis – he’s an artist from Minnesota (my homeland…) who does amazing things with a guitar. I love him and all of his songs. I couldn’t find my favorite song of his on YouTube (called Your House) so I just picked one that I also like a lot called Mermaid (warning, it gets a bit graphic – and funny!) Enjoy.

LYRICS

I had some more I was going to list, but I think I’ll stop there as it’s getting long! I hope you enjoy and maybe even find some new music you didn’t know before! Up tomorrow: Favorite Movie (again, will probably be a long one)!

30 Day Blog Journal

So, this seems to be going around the blogging circles. I decided to jump on the fun train! I always have a hard time picking just 1 favorite, so there will be multiple favorites for each one. I’m doing this as a way to keep my self blogging. Below is the list of the 30 day blog journals I’ll be doing. Hope you all enjoy getting to know me better!  Day 1 starts tomorrow!

Here’s a preview of what you will be learning about me over the next 30 days…

30 day blog journal…

Day 1-your favorite song

Day 2-your favorite movie

Day 3-your favorite television program

Day 4- your favorite book

Day 5-your favorite quote

Day 6- 20 of my favorite things

Day 7-a photo that makes you happy

Day 8-a photo that makes you angry/sad

Day 9-a photo you took

Day 10-a photo taken over 10 years ago of you

Day 11-a photo of you recently

Day 12-something you are OCD about

Day 13-a fictional book

Day 14-a non-fictional book

Day 15-your dream house

Day 16-a song that makes you cry (or nearly)

Day 17-an art piece (drawing,sculpture, painting, etc)

Day 18-my wedding/future wedding/past wedding

Day 19-a talent of yours

Day 20-a hobby of yours

Day 21-a recipe

Day 22-a website

Day 23-a youtube video

Day 24-where I live

Day 25-your day, in great detail

Day 26-your week, in great detail

Day 27-my worst habit

Day 28-whats in my handbag/purse

Day 29-hopes,dreams and plans for the next 365 days

Day 30- a dream for the future

5 yrs ago today…

Five years ago today, my life changed – and all for the better.  On July 16, 2005 I married my wonderful and amazing husband, Justin.  We’ve had a rough time the last 3.5 yrs, but it has only made us stronger together and made me love him more.  He is sensitive and caring and always there for me when I need him.  I only hope I am the same for him.  We have a long road ahead of us, but I can only hope that we will have many reasons to celebrate throughout the rest of our marriage.  I love you Justin, and I can’t imagine my life with out you!

We did our pictures before the wedding, so this is shortly after we saw each other for the first time that day, all dolled up.  We got a bunch of great shots of the actual moment, where we twirled each other around, but I won’t bore you with those Doesn’t my man look amazing in a kilt??

We got married at the camp I had grown up next to, gone to as a camper and worked at my whole life.  It is a beautiful location and I was so happy to have my special day there.  Of course, it was the middle of July in Minnesota, so it was 98 degrees outside with about 80% humidity!!  Don’t believe Minnesota gets hot??  Come on up in the summer time!

My amazing bridesmaids: Best Friend Susie, my College Roommate Kiersten and my Niece Nicole.  They were all great!  The dresses we picked out didn’t come in junior sizes so I had my friend Kate recreate the dresses in a smaller size for Nicole – and it turned out beautiful!  Kate also made the flower girl dress and of course, my dress!

The groomsmen: Justin’s brother Josh, his Friend Chris, and my Friend Josh.  They were all good sports and agreed to wear kilts as well.  There was a lot of sexy man leg around!  Not only all the groomsmen and the groom, but both of our pastors wore a kilt and a number of our guests wore either kilts or man skirts.  It was great!

Justin’s family and my amazing In-Laws!  Brenda has been the best mother-in-law and is always supportive of both Justin and I.  Josh and I can talk in movie quotes all day long.  Since the wedding the family has grown to include Josh’s wife Jenn and their 2 kids Logan and Bella.

My family:  Dad-Nevin, Mom-Debby, Me, Sister-Robbin, Sister-Shannon, Bro-in-Law John, and niece Nicole.  Since then we’ve also added my niece Hannah!

One of the best shots of the whole wedding!  Sadly, my friend Kiersten got cut out mostly.  It was a lot of fun to do these shots though, and this is the one that turned out the best.  Look at those Twinkle Toes!!

Our Ring Bearer Glen and Flower Girl Sophie – aren’t they just adorable!  There was a downhill slope to where the wedding was, and they ran the whole way down!  I was so afraid they were going to fall and do summer salts down the hill, but they made it!  Glen was great with little Sophie and held her hand the whole way so she would go to the right spot.

Justin and I walked in down the aisle together.  I never liked how people only stand up for the Bride – it was Justin’s day too and I wanted people to acknowledge that.  Of course, I think we just ended up confusing them and NO ONE stood up for us!  I guess I should have had the pastors instruct everyone to stand when we came in!  There were 2 aisle down to the front, then we met in the middle and continued the rest of the way together.  I loved it.

Our pastors Bob & Tripp.  Bob was my boss/pastor at the organization I worked at when I was in Lutheran Volunteer Corps and is a ELCA Lutheran Pastor.  Tripp is a wonderful friend of both Justin and I and had just gotten ordained into the ABC/USA (American Baptist) right before our wedding – this covered both Justin & I We also had Justin’s cousin, Andy, a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor do our blessing.  I think we’re covered on most fronts (we know a lot of pastors)!  They all had stoles made out of the same material as Justin’s kilt.

My parents, checking to see if the pulled pork is ready to go for the reception!  Since the camp where we got married is literally right next door to my parents house, we had the reception there in the brand new shed my dad had just finished building that summer.  Really – I helped him put in the last bit of concrete 2 days before the wedding!

Our cake.  My sister Shannon and her husband John made and decorated it.  It was very pretty and fit in so well with everything else!  Also…yummy sheet cakes to go with it.  We of course, forgot to actually do the cake cutting at the reception (come on, it was hot, I just got married…you expect me to remember something like that).  We saved the top and froze it to eat on our first anniversary – yeah, I think it’s still in my parents freezer in the basement…

The reception was perfect, exactly what we wanted!  Low key, cheap and fun!  It was “catered” by a friend of my families.  By that I mean, Buster made all the food and dropped it off, but it was a serve yourself kind of thing!  It was great to have all of our friends and family together all at once, and to see different groups of friends come together for the first time.

Our first dance.  It was supposed to be to Norah Jones – Come Away With Me (the lyrics were perfect for the long distance relationship we had for 2 yrs), but I couldn’t find my CD and the DJ forgot to bring the song.  So it ended up being to Alison Krauss – When You Say Nothing at All (which was also perfect).  In the background you can see our keg.  Nothing but the best for our wedding!

It was the perfect day with my perfect man.  I’m glad I have the pictures to help remind me (do any of YOU remember your wedding day exactly?).  Even though we’ve had heart break and tragedy, we’ve had each other.  We’ve journeyed together down this Long and Winding Road, and I’m looking forward to another 50-55 yrs more!

Can you help?

Howdy!  Been a while…I’m sorry about that.  I’m writing today because I need your help with a campaign that I’m running.

Some of you may know that Justin and I have had a rough year.  Not only did we loose our 1st child to miscarriage, but our 2nd as well.  We have been struggling for over 3 years to add to our family with little success due to my infertility issues.  I’ve been diagnosed with a couple of different problems, and hopefully we have found solutions to this that will work.  Only time will tell on that…

Next week (April 25-May 1) is National Infertility Awareness Week, put on by Resolve.org, an organization who’s goal it is to make infertility more known and to support those of us who deal with it.  As part of the Awareness week I’m starting a campaign on Twitter to make the word #infertility a Top 10 Trending Topic.  Now, if you don’t have Twitter, this sentence probably doesn’t make any sense to you.  Basically when people talk about stuff on twitter it is tracked.  Those words or phrases that are mentioned the most get put on a top 10 list on the side of the page and you can click on it to see what people are saying.  Now, these are usually very dumb things like #Justin Beiber or #Oprah, even #nascar.  So my goal is this: On Monday, April 26th we will be attempting to make the word #infertility trending on Facebook!  I’d love to get it to the number one spot, but the main goal is just to get it on there and get people talking about it!  Remove the shame and stigma from the topic!

How can you help?  Just tweet!  If you have Twitter, please add #infertility to all of your tweets on April 26th.  If you don’t, could you help by spreading the word?  The more people we reach the better!  If you want more details, you can head over to my other blog The Long and Winding Road where I chronicle my journey with infertility.  There you can even grab a button to put on your own blog to spread the word.  Here’s what it looks like:

I’d really love it if you could all help, simply spread the word and if you do have Twitter, add #infertility to all of your tweets on April 26th!  Thanks everyone!  Oh, and please comment if you will be joining the campaign!

My weekend

This weekend was a much needed visit with friends, evening with good music and topped off with a great meal at the end.

On Saturday Justin and I headed to Carol Stream, a suburb in Illinois to visit our good friends Susie, Erik and their daughter (our goddaughter) Jannah.

Here Jannah is showing Justin how to push her baby doll around in the doll stroller.  I think he got the hang of it!

Susie and I took the day and went out for some “girl time”.  Had lunch at Olive Garden and went to the mall to just hang out, talk and window shop.  After that we headed over to Barnes & Noble where I sat and drooled over the books I couldn’t get!  While we were out, Justin, Erik and Jannah had some time together.  I’m not sure what they all did, but I know they did go to a dog sled race.  Here’s Jannah meeting one of the dogs, who was also up for adoption.

I love huskies!  I’m so glad I wasn’t there, trying to convince Justin we could do 3 dogs, because I know we couldn’t!  When Susie and I got home, we got to work on dinner.  We had homemade calzones.  Very yummy!  Here’s Erik getting the dough ready.

Dinner was awesome.  After a bit, it was time for Miss Jannah to go to bed.  The grown ups stayed up and played a game of Settlers of Catan (one of my favorite games).  I won, actually I think I beat everyone pretty soundly and quickly.  The game took less than an hour, which is very rare with that game!

Our night wasn’t over yet though!  We said our goodbyes and jumped in the car to head to the Irish-American Heritage Center in Chicago.  The best blueirishfolkgrass band in Chicago was playing there that night, One of the Girls!!

The beer was a flowin’ and the tunes were rockin’.  It was great to be out with friends, listening to music and just relaxing!  Justin had to head to home early because he had to work in the morning, so I stayed late and then crashed at my friend Abbey’s place.  I’m glad I decided to stay longer, because I really did have a great time, and I needed that kind of an evening.

This is the Obsquatch.  He plays the upright bass in the band.

Here is most of the band: Obsquatch, Tom, Tripp and Sean.  There is one person missing, Mike D the accordian player.  Where is he you may ask??

Yup, that’s right – he’s dancing on the bar, like ya do.

Here are a few shots of the crew having a great time and listening to some great music:

I think he had just said something mean to me…

Trish enjoys the gig…

Me, Sarah, Abbey and Evy.

The next day was V-day.  I spent most of the day at Abbey’s while Justin was at church working.  When he was done he came and picked me up.  We went to Whole Foods because he wanted to make me a special dinner that night.  It was AMAZING!  Scallops (my favorite), lamb and rainbow chard.  It was so so yummy, and beautiful, too!

Malcolm and Inara even got to enjoy the meal.  We gave them each one of the lamb bones after dinner was over.

Inara was VERY HAPPY with her little treat!

Malcolm was a bit, um, demonic with his bone…

Music for the Soul

I’ve discovered a new favorite “band”.  I put that in quotes, because it’s actually just one guy who does all the vocals and instruments himself.  The band is called Iron & Wine.  If you’ve seen Garden State, you’ve heard one of his songs called Such Great Heights (a cover of the song by The Postal Service).  That is now one of my very favorite songs ever – and I don’t pick favorites usually, because I love SO MANY songs.

Anyway, I’ve fallen in love with Iron & Wine’s music.  The lyrics are usually a hodge podge of words put together to kinda tell a story.  They don’t always make sense in a linear sort of way, but it still speaks to me.  This is music I put on to just get away from it all.  I’ve been using music for that end a lot over the past few weeks.  I don’t always know what to say myself, but certain songs seems to capture it all for me.  Other songs just let me float away and forget myself for a while.  Resurrection Fern by Iron & Wine is one of those songs.

In our days we will live
Like our ghosts will live
Pitching glass at the cornfield crows
And folding clothes

Like stubborn boys across the road
We’ll keep everything
Grandma’s gun, and the black bear claw
That took her dog

And when sister Laurie says “Amen,”
We won’t hear anything
The ten-car train will take that word
That fledgling bird

And the falling house across the way
It’ll keep everything
The baby’s breath, our bravery wasted
And our shame

And we’ll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Both our tender bellies wound in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its Resurrection Fern

In our days we will say
What our ghosts will say
We gave the world what it saw fit
And what’d we get?

Like stubborn boys with big green eyes
We’ll see everything
In the timid shade of the autumn leaves
And the buzzard’s wing

And we’ll undress beside the ashes of the fire
Our tender bellies all wound around in baling wire
All the more a pair of underwater pearls
Than the oak tree and its Resurrection Fern