A quick note

Happy Thursday night, everyone! This means that...it's almost Friday! Yippee! Sorry for my absence in the bloglands today...I was sequestered away at a work retreat all day. I wish I could say I had fun. But...it was a work retreat. Go figure.

Matt and I are busy "packing" (with quotations because he is packing while I am blogging) and getting ready for our big weekend in Michigan. We leave tomorrow morning for the 4.5 hour drive to St. Joseph for my friend Jenny's wedding tomorrow evening. Hmm, that was a long sentence. Saturday morning, we'll drive three more hours to my parents' house, where we will celebrate my mom's birthday! Yay! And then on Sunday and Monday, we'll be attending a visitation/funeral. So, a wedding, a birthday, and a funeral, all packed into one weekend. It sounds like a movie, doesn't it?

I am sad to report that my wonderful friend (and bridesmaid!) Anna lost her grandmother earlier this week. While Anna is from Seattle, her grandmother lived in Michigan. Anna currently lives in North Carolina, and while I wish it could be a happier occasion, I am so happy to be able to see her this weekend. It has been about eight months since we saw each other last.

Monday after the funeral, Matt and I will be driving the six hours back home. Whew! Thank goodness I start working part-time next week. Although it will still be busy. I have a regular work day on Tuesday, and then a Chamber of Commerce golf scramble on Wednesday. Nooooooo! I am dreading this. We have to get there at 6:30am and work until 8pm. Blech. Blech blech blech. Anyway, then I have a regular workday on Thursday...and on Friday, Matt and I are getting back in the car for a weekend in Nashville with Jenn and Ryan. Whew. I am exhausted just thinking about all of that!

That being said...time to get back to "packing." Without the quotations. And, thanks so much to Taryn for showing me my NEW favorite blog, Unnecessary Quotations. Check it out. You will "laugh." HARD.

Yay Friday!

Happy Friday, everyone!  Yay!  It's almost the weekend!  I'm hoping that most of you, like myself, have a three day weekend thanks to Memorial Day.  Anyone have fun plans?  I desperately wish that we were going to a super fun barbeque with all of our friends...but, you know, we know practically nobody here, so...that's probably not going to happen!

Reader was driving me nuts yesterday.  I didn't get any new posts until the evening, and it published my posts over twelve hours after I wrote them!  Annoying.

Anyway, Matt had a fabulous birthday!  Thanks for the birthday wishes.  I had special ordered a lovely cake from this fabulous bakery in town (Angel B's, if you're in Bloomington and need something yummy!).  As I was at the bakery picking up the cake, Matt texted me.  It said, "we have a cake!"  His mom had taken him out for lunch, and apparently she brought him a huge cake.  Oops.  

I got home with MY surprise cake, and realized...wow.  We have too much cake.  If you're in Bloomington and feel like having some tasty cake, let me know!  We can have a cake date this weekend.  :)  I took a couple of photos of the cake I picked up, because it is so so gorgeous.

I took Matt out to dinner at our new sushi spot, and it was delish.  We finished off the evening with cake, naturally, and we watched the Da Vinci Code.  Fun stuff!

I also picked myself up some gorgeous purple tulips for one of my fabulous vases we received as a wedding present - a Kate Spade polka dotted rose bowl.  I am bordering on obsessed with this vase, but haven't had any pretty flowers to put in it yet.  I must have mentioned to Matt about a million times that I wanted some purple tulips...but I guess he never got the hint, so I got them myself!  I am so happy.  Quality Blackberry photo below.  

Tuesday run = epic FAIL

Well friends, the title really says it all.  I missed Monday's run and went out solo yesterday while Mr. Smith was studying for his final exam.  

Solo run = fail.  

I managed to jog for about five minutes before I felt like my body was possibly going to fall apart.  My legs were killing me.  And since I didn't have Mr. Smith to keep me going...I just stopped.  After five. freaking. minutes.  Nevermind the fact that I am running my first race ever in a week and a half...and oh yeah, that race is 3.1 miles.  What the heck?  Five minutes?  

So, I decided to walk for awhile and then try to run again.  Fail.

So, I decided to talk to the gym to try the treadmill for awhile.  Fail.

Dejected, I returned home to ice my leg.  Fail.

After dinner, Mr. Smith went back to studying and I planned on curling up on the couch with a good book.  Fail.  I fell asleep promptly, thanks to the minor headache that was creeping up around my temples.  The time?  Oh, I believe it was around 8pm.  

I woke up at 10:30.  Promptly moved to the bed to pass out again.  A few hours later, I groggily woke up as Mr. Smith was getting ready to go to bed.  I opened my eyes and stared at him confusedly.  He said, "do you have your nightguard in?"  I mumbled, "no" (I grind my teeth at night...lovely...).  He replied, "well, you need it," and went off in search of my nightguard.  

I was clearly interrupting his reading with my constant grinding.  Le sigh.  

For the record, I slept soundly until around 7:30...late to work again.  Fail.

But!  I successfully testified yesterday, and all is well.  Shortly before they were going to call, I got super nervous...totally silly, considering the fact that I was basically just talking on the phone.  Of course, they had to swear me in and everything, so that was fun.  I have testified before, several times, in various court cases during my professional career (while working both in foster care AND at the hospital), so none of this was new...but I definitely haven't testified about a case that I haven't had for over two years!  I think that's where the nerves came in...just trying to remember those details clearly, you know?

So, anyway.  That's over.  Today, I am going to hope for a successful run.  Wish me luck.  And, wish Mr. Smith luck, too!  He has a big exam today in finite mathematics (I know, I know, I'm jealous he's taking that class too...gag) AND he had a great job interview on Monday.  Mr. Smith has been unemployed and desperately job searching since we moved here in September, and I'm really hoping this one works out!

Weekend, etc.

You know what I don't like about the time change?

The fact that on Friday, I drove to work in sunny warmth. This morning, it was pitch black. Oh well...I know it will change soon. It just sucks right now!

How was your weekend? I cannot lie...mine was fabulous! Very low-key, nothing exciting happened. But the weather was fantastic and we definitely took advantage of it!

I already blogged Friday about my afternoon run with Mr. Smith. A few of you asked how he can motivate me without pissing me off...and I think the answer is just that he's very patient with me. We only ran a mile, but...hey, we ran a mile! Without stopping! This is (sadly) a pretty big deal for me. I am never successful when I run by myself - I realize that I run too quickly, and then I run out of steam after only a couple of minutes. Mr. Smith makes me run SLOWLY so that I can complete the full run.

Also...I can't stop when I'm with him! When I run by myself, I stop when I'm tired. I never have the willpower to just. keep. on. going. I don't feel like I can stop when I'm with Mr. Smith...plus, he gives me little goals. "It's just around the corner! We just have to go over this last hill! We're almost there - but you better not stop til we reach the front door!"

So, that's that. I'm looking forward (!) to our run this afternoon...I'll let you know how it goes!

On Saturday, we woke up to absolutely GORGEOUS summer weather! It was 75 degrees here, sunny, breezy and beautiful. We decided to explore a new hiking trail, and ended up taking Oscar for a five mile hike. Well, walk. But it was a brisk walk. And I prefer to call it a hike. :) Afterwards, we rewarded ourselves with some frozen yogurt! Yum. We went back home, sat on the porch with the dog, ate ice cream and read for much of the afternoon. It really was fabulous. I have a feeling that we'll be using the porch quite a bit this summer!

Anyway, that was the highlight of my weekend. What about you?

Photo fun tag!

Lucky in Love tagged me for the fun photo activity.

Here are the rules:  go to wherever you keep your photos on the computer...open up the 6th folder and then the 6th photo.  Post and explain!

So, here is my photo (and this is kind of difficult to do on iPhoto, so to be honest...I just closed my eyes and picked a photo at random):

Oh my gosh!  I love that this was my random photo.  This is a photo of Mr. Smith when he was in the Army.  His facial expression pretty much sums up his thoughts about being the Army...and this photo makes me laugh every time!  I also love it because I have virtually no photos of him in any of his uniforms - and let's face it, men in uniforms just look hot.  I never once saw him in his Class As (something that still upsets me) and I only saw him in his ACUs if I woke up early enough to see him leaving for work.  Which wasn't super often.  

For some background info, especially because I know I have some military wife readers out there...Mr. Smith enlisted after he graduated college.  He was EOD (explosives ordnance disposal) and enlisted solely because he wanted to be deployed.  Four years later...he never got deployed and spent the majority of his time in Washington DC (he was stationed first at Fort McNair, in SE DC, and then Fort Belvoir, in Virginia).  He did a lot of VIP missions and spent a lot of time with politicians.  He was NOT happy...he wanted very much to be deployed and be able to do what he was trained for.  

Let's just say...I didn't mind much that he wasn't ever deployed, but at the same time...seeing him so unhappy with his job wasn't very much fun, either.  When his four years were up, he got out...and of course, we still have four more years he can be called back up.  And I pretty much have weekly nightmares that he IS called up and sent on a 15 month deployment.  Oh well...such is life!

Mr. Smith disliked his time in the Army so much that, to be honest, he got in trouble here and there.  He often felt that he was surrounded by idiots...and ran his mouth a bit here and there.  EOD units are typically a bit different than what they call "big Army," and they tend to disregard some of the rules.  I am laughing just looking at his haircut in this photo...it is SO LONG!  I have some other photos when we started dating, and his hair is super short.  Over the years...he stopped caring more and more about regs like that.  Once the uniforms changed over to ACUs, he never attached his EOD badge either...just because he didn't feel like it.  I don't think he would have ever survived as part of a non-EOD unit!

So - there ya go!  For this fun activity, I tag anyone who hasn't done this yet...and anyone who wants to!

Wedding photo fun

I am currently in the not-so-fun process of picking photos for my wedding album.  This sucks.  It is relatively excruciating and I cannot WAIT to finish.  Of course, I am procrastinating...and therefore blogging.  

Here's the main problem, ladies:  I initially was led to believe that I had to provide 240 photos for the album.  Ummm...that's a lot.  I spent about a week (yes, a week.  literally) choosing the photos, and finally got all the way to 230.  This morning, I touched base with my photographer to ask him a question about the album design...and that's when he informed me that, no, 240 photos was way too many - I could only submit about 120.  

Which means...I had to cut my number in half.  This sucks even more.  I am basically done choosing the photos...but now I have to type up all 120 image file numbers (which makes me super nervous that I'm typing the wrong numbers, and therefore I have to constantly check and recheck everything).  

So...clearly, time for a break.  Seeing all of my pretty wedding photos made me want to share some of my absolute faves with you.  Isn't that always how it goes?  Without further ado, here are some snapshots of my oh-so-fab wedding day:

Gracefully posed by the photographer.  He had to force my body to look that pretty...it just isn't natural for me.

I love this photo!  This was when my bridesmaids were trying to figure out how to bustle my dress.  It makes me laugh every time!

My parents and I.  Don't they look fantastic??!!

Four of my very favorite people!  

I absolutely love this photo of Mr. Smith and my mom right before the ceremony started!

Pretending I wasn't crying

I love this photo of my girls laughing during the ceremony.  We were married by my favorite college professor, and the ceremony was absolutely hysterical.  I loved seeing people laugh out loud during a wedding!

Yay!  Mr. and Mrs. Smith!

This photo really touches me.  It was taken immediately after the ceremony.

Some pretty portraits...

November in Michigan is COLD, people!

First dance

"Dancing" with my new niece

Taking the Michigan-Notre Dame rivalry to a whole new level...GO BLUE!!!

Good night!

All photos taken by Patrick Abel of Special Moments Photography in Plymouth, Michigan.  He is the best photographer EVER and if you are getting married in Michigan, HIRE HIM!!!

Random Friday thoughts

I'm hungry. It's not even 10am and I'm hungry. If I had my way, I'd eat lunch at 9:30. This is not right. I think the problem is that I eat breakfast at 6:45 and then I get hungry too early. Oh well. I'm trying to hold out until 11:30 and then I will devour my Smart Ones Sante Fe Rice and Beans, i.e. THE BEST FROZEN MEAL EVER.

Good news: after a visit to the Verizon store, the internet on my Blackberry works again. Now I realize that I never told you it had stopped working...but it did, last weekend, and seeing as how our internet doesn't work at HOME, not having internet on the bberry was kind of tortuous. Thank goodness I can check weather.com every morning again to plan my outfit!

I'm super excited that Mr. Smith and I are having weekend visitors - Jenn and Ryan are coming from Clarksville, TN. Yayayayay! We don't really have anything planned...besides cooking a nice Valentine's Day dinner tomorrow night. I have to go to the store today to buy all the other tasty stuff I'll make this weekend, like...chili, sloppy joes, guacamole, spinach dip, and a chevre-fig spread I found in a magazine somewhere. Yum.

I love my new kate spade shoes. I am wearing them today and I have already gotten two compliments on them - one by a coworker, and another by a student who felt that I planned and executed my outfit well. Thanks, girlie! I like it too.

It has been warm all week, but it's supposed to get cold again this weekend - back into the 30s, maybe with more snow. Sigh. I knew that 65 degree weather, in Indiana, in February, wouldn't last...but it was so so nice not having to wear a coat this week. So nice.

I'm really missing DC this week. Well, I'm really missing my DC friends. I'm planning a June trip out to Charlotte, NC to visit a friend who is having a baby in April...and I'm trying to figure out if I can "swing by" DC as well. I guess a lot of it depends on if I fly or drive, and also depends on whether or not Mr. Smith comes. It's a 9 and a half hour drive from Bloomington to Charlotte. A 7 hour drive from Charlotte to DC. And then about an 11 hour drive from DC back to Bloomington. That is A LOT of driving. Sigh. I'm just not sure if that's gonna work. But I sure am desperate to see everyone in DC.

I'm excited about the weekend not only because we're having visitors, but also because I get to sleep in! It's been really difficult for me to wake up this week, maybe because I'm still getting over my weekend cold episode. Maybe because Mr. Smith is such a good cuddler and that, along with our electric blanket, makes it so hard to get out of our comfy bed cocoon. I don't know.

Last night while Mr. Smith was at class, I planned on:

• doing three loads of laundry
• cleaning both bathrooms
• vacuuming
• straightening up the living room
• working out

What I actually accomplished while Mr. Smith was at class:

• did one load of laundry while simultaneously watching the First Wives Club
• yes, you read that right, I watched the First Wives Club
• took Oscar on a 10 minute walk

Oops. So today when I get home from work, I have to...

• do two loads of laundry
• clean both bathrooms
• vacuum
• squeeze in a jog if time

Oh yeah, and I forgot the most time consuming of all...GO TO THE GROCERY STORE.

Well, I don't have any more random thoughts for now...I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend! Happy Love Day!