Christmas and a visit from Tom

Last Wednesday we got to hang out with Tom and went to see the new Mission Impossible movie.  Then on Thursday we ate at Dave and Busters with our high school friends. I hardly ever see Laura anymore so it was fun to talk to her. We had an awesome waiter and played a bunch of games.  I beat Matt at a racing game even though I was sitting there trying to figure out what I was doing.  I’m sure that made him feel real manly.  He got 200 tickets and all he had to show for it was a Spiderman smarties dispenser. 

On Christmas Eve we went to my parents’ house.  We always have a variety of appetizers for dinner and then open presents.  We normally play games afterwards but Michelle had to take Christian to his dad’s which takes two hours round trip so we watched a Muppet Christmas Carol and snuck one game of catch phrase in before midnight service.  When I was around 8 years old I remember holding a candle at midnight mass but that’s not what they do here L I was a little bummed.

We went to Minnesota for three days and celebrated Christmas with Mattt’s mom’s family the week before Christmas.  That’s normally what Matt’s family does for Christmas but they decided to do it earlier this year. On Christmas day we went to Matt’s parents in the morning, opened presents, ate lunch and the boys watched Captain America while I took a nap.  There was no Christmas tree; it reminded me of this movie our grandma used to make us watch “The House without a Christmas Tree.”  That title really gets to the point.  At night we went to my parents for a candlelight dinner and watched “White Christmas.”  I just always loved the way my family does Christmas and it is so fun to pick out presents for everyone.  It's hard to let go of the holidays but there are more exciting things to come in the next year!

We pretty much went out every night after Christmas and Tom left for home this morning.  We probably wont get to see him until August :(  He has visited us a lot so we were hoping to visit him in Washington this summer but I don't think that is going to work out. 

 I hope everyone had a blessed Christmas!  

He will not leave you or forsake you

Tomorrow is the court case.  No one said I couldn’t talk about it but I imagine I’m not supposed to say much about it.  So I’ll just say that this verse from a hymn has been playing through my head:

Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight

Be Thou my armor and be Thou my might

Thou my soul shelter and Thy my high tower

Raise Thou me heavenwards, oh power of my power

(Be Thou My Vision) 

 I get so nervous in front of strangers, in new places, in new situations and in front of lots of people.  Plus I am really emotional right now anyways.  I am not looking forward to it but I know that God will be with me and give me strength.  I know He has a plan.

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.   Deuteronomy 31:6  

Matt's Birthday

25 years ago today, the love of my life was born.  I cannot believe we have known each other for almost ten years now.  It makes me wonder what the next ten years will bring!  God has blessed us so much, and I am incredibly grateful for Matt and the wonderful life we have started together. Isn’t he handsome?

It’s Christopher’s birthday too of course, but he thinks blogging is for emo kids and hipsters; so he doesn’t get much of a shout out.  Nevertheless he is an awesome friend and brother-from-another-mother and I’m grateful for him too.

In case you don’t know what an emo kid is* (Aunt Patty) its basically a kid with dark hair that wears skinny jeans, too much mascara, has no enthusiasm and acts like life sucks.  Then the emo kids slowly morphed into hipsters* as they grew older.  They kept the skinny jeans, but have a slightly more positive outlook on life. 

This is Matts (edited) definition of a hipster: "Someone who tries to be ironic and puts a lot of effort and care into appearing like they don’t care”

Chris’ definition: “People I don’t like”

Not very helpful Chris, but true all the same.

*Disclaimer: This is not a scientific answer, just my best attempt at expressing my understanding of what a hipster/emo is.  I know a hipster, so I can say anything I want. Thank you.

Then I called her a mean name

Matt’s been sick for several days and he had to have some dental work done on Monday, poor guy.  Today he texted me to say that he got the flu shot:

Me: Sweet!

Matt: No its not sweet lol, I only got it because I didn’t want you to nag me lol.  I asked for a tmnt (teenage mutant ninja turtles) Band-Aid and the nurse just looked at me like I was crazy

Me: ROFLMAO did she give you one?

Matt: no she gave me a generic adhesive medical bandage strip

Then I called her a mean name and offered to buy him some. He declined. They just want to beat the unique qualities and creativity out of everyone.  All of a sudden you’re an adult and you have to favor plain, boring bandages.  What is the world coming to?

On Saturday we took Christian and Caroline to a hockey game.  I was pretty excited; I thought they would love it.  We gave them three rules before we got out of the car.

#1. listen to us

#2. don’t ask us for anything

#3. be polite/nice

Side note: I made these rules up on the spot because I am a genius.  However, those of you who took “classroom management” know that #2 is a BAD rule because it is negative, not positive.  FAIL.  It should be “keep your requests to yourself” or perhaps “keep your head in the game” Aren’t you excited to see our house rules when we have kids? ; ) 

Anyhow, after about half an hour of me trying to make sure Caroline didn’t accidently hit the woman in front of us with her pom-pom, and telling Christian not to kick the seat in front of him, Caroline said “you can get a snack if you want.”  Christian said “I’m starving” and couldn’t remember what they ate for dinner (chicken nuggets and fries).  So after the second period Matt was going to get some donuts and lemonade to share.  Caroline was bored by the second period. She kept asking if it was time for a snack, while she played with her chair.  Even the mascot and the giant floating Wimmer's wiener did not entertain for long.  I did hear Caroline trying to cheer, and while she got the words wrong the tune was spot on.  For the most part they were well behaved, and our team won.

Maybe it’s all in my head

        My parents let us borrow their fake tree this Christmas. (Thanks Mom!)  I put it up two Sundays ago all by myself because Matthew said “IT’S NOT CHRISTMAS YET.”  He did, however, help me move the furniture so I forgive him.  We finally decorated last night and I think it’s beautiful.  I can’t decide if I want tinsel, or a bead garland or anything else.  

Also on the 20th I went to lunch with my Aunt Patty.  We went to a Chinese restaurant because I could currently live off of fried rice.  I am so bad at keeping secrets, I already told her the next blanket I am making is for her.  I just can’t promise when it will be done, as I am a total procrastinator and often get distracted by shiny objects and donuts.  Maybe if I had more self-control my face wouldn’t be so chubby and people would stop mistaking me for a 17 year old.  Maybe that’s all in my head and I actually pass for early 20’s?  Maybe I shouldn’t have made that giant bowl of puppy chow…

Anyhow, Matt was completely helpless when he realized he was eating lunch alone.  “What am I going to eat?  What am I going to do?” He said he would do the dishes and clean up his messes and study.  So when I got home he was sitting on the couch with Chris playing video games and hadn’t accomplished any said tasks.  Don’t feel too sorry for the kid.

Last week Matt a round cake for me; red velvet with cream cheese frosting.  

He did a pretty good job but he was sad because it didn’t look like my mother’s cakes. 

Matt:“She makes it look so easy!”

Me: “Well she has been doing it most of her life”

Me: “Wait, what about my cakes?  You’re comparing yours to my mom’s but I make cakes too!”

Matt: “Well you’ve only made me one”

TOTAL lie, I have made several round cakes that he has gotten to eat so I was incredibly offended.

We celebrated my dad’s birthday on the 15th.  We were discussing his age:

Me: “You’re 49 now, right?”

Dad: “Yeah, 49”

Christian: “you’re 90 what??”

(Everybody laughs)

Mom (or somebody): “99”

Christian: “wow next year you’ll be 100!”

Me: “If he makes it”

I should have written it down earlier but that’s my best recollection.  All was explained to Christian and the eating of the cake commenced. 

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving!

A Wedding, an Engagement and Why Matt's Parent's Think I'm Insane

Emilee is engaged!  I'm so excited!  I met her freshman year of college.  We sat by each other in English class, I admired her purse, and we ended up being roommates for about 2 years.  She was one of my bridesmaids of course.  Aaron actually went to Peru too, and we talked to him some in school but never got to know him very well.  He noticed her at graduation, thought she was cute and asked her out.  I'm pretty sure that's the story.

I found out while I was in Virginia for Matt's Uncle Ed's wedding with Kate.  I was sitting at my table at the reception, got the text from Emilee, flew out of my chair which knocked it over and when I told Matt "Emilee is engaged!!!" he said "your chair fell over."  Um thanks for the support. Men.

The wedding was beautiful, it was in the country at an old house that was built in the 1800's and is now an Inn.  There were still some colorful leaves on the trees so I took about 50 million pictures because the countryside was so gorgeous.  They got married under a tree on top of a hill so you could see all the rolling hills in the background.  Her dress was so beautiful!  It was an awesome vintage-y themed wedding.  Her bouquet was made mostly of broaches passed down in the family.

 This is the front of the Inn/Ranch whatever you want to call it.

 This is a view on the way up to the house.

 The back of the house.  Isn't it pretty! 

 My husband :) (When will it get old to say that?)

 My super professional picture of the stone walls I was obsessed with.  All over the place.  They must have taken forever to build.

 This is where they got married.

 They did a binding ceremony (? or something) it was very sweet and different.

 I didn't get any pictures with her eyes open but you have to see her dress.

 Super flattering and professional self portrait.

This is a house that was downhill from the Inn.  The bridesmaids stayed there after the wedding.

I got to talk to Matt's grandma a lot.  She has been through a lot in her life and her husband died before Matt was even born.  I can't imagine living that long without Matt :(  I met tons of relatives and they were all sweet, warm welcoming people.  I know I am part of the family but there's a difference when you actually FEEL like it.  They made me feel like family.  Ed drove us around DC to see the sights from the car.  I told Matt that's as much as I desire to do in DC except I want to go to the holocaust museum and maybe a couple others.  I appreciate that its historical but I just hate crowds. Also, I generally hate leaving my house.  I would rather go to a living history museum!  But then I would be jealous that I was wearing modern clothes and they got to wear pretty dresses.  I always thought it would be fun to work at one but I'm brown so that's not historically accurate.  I don't think they would put the brown girl in the pretty dresses.

Matt's poor parents have learned several of my idiosyncrasies/issues.  Like how I don't like shiny food, leftovers, nuts, sleeping in front of people, talking about anything that has to do with the body, strangers, disorganization, driving fast, anything that requires ugly clothing, mini bags of popcorn because they burn easily, etc. etc.

I've been holding back and have not decorated for Christmas yet; however Matt came home to me cooking and blasting an Andy Williams Christmas cd the other night.  The old music is what takes me back to my childhood Christmas's.  I've also been dragging him to the Christmas section whenever we go out. I tried to get Matt into the Christmas spirit by letting him pick out an ornament for the tree.  You can see where this is going.

I picked this out:

He picked this.  I asked him 12 times if he was serious.  

Matt named him Chester. He is cute and all, but most of the things I bought were glittery.  I guess I did say I wanted a hodgepodge tree.  It's better than Star Wars or Spiderman right?

Jills baby shower and silly people who expect me to do athletic activities

First let me show you the blanket I made:      

                                 

  

      My mom helped me block it (shape it, using a steamer) last night and I was so excited to have it all finished!  Now I’m ready to start a new one and I’m pretty excited to work with a new color.

     When I was little I used to watch my mom crochet, cook, sew, bake, and do other crafts; I always wanted to be just like her and do everything she did.  I even had my own little sewing machine.  I have a possibly skewed memory of going to a store and being allowed to pick something out.  I chose some sort of my-little-pony (because it had a pretty ring on it) but my mom talked me into a kid’s sewing machine instead.  I have no idea why I remember the most random things.  I reminisce a lot.

      Anyways, speaking of reminiscing, Emilee and I are party queens.  One time in college we did a “food on a stick” party. This was inspired by the state fair.  They had all kinds of food on a stick but it was $10 for a piece of pizza, a hot dog, a twinkie, you name it.  So we decided this was a really good excuse to have a party.  We made tons of food and invited people into our dorm.  I believe this was the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year:

 

      

      This weekend we threw a baby shower for Jill and Shad.  We had a lovely food spread, prizes and favors.  We played a game where you match the celebrity to their baby and one where everyone raced to finish apple juice out of a sippy cup.  Also a guessing game: guess how many hershey’s kisses are in the bottle.  Shad won every game!  He got every baby/celebrity match correct which was pretty sweet. 

      After the shower we went our friend Matt’s birthday party at Upstream.  The boys played pool and I got to talk to Allie, and Matt’s girlfriend Katie.  Katie is one of the funniest people I have ever met.  I’ve hung out with her a few times and I’m pretty sure I’ve cried every time from laughing so hard.  Allie and Chris are trying to talk me into going white water rafting or something next summer but I will never do such a thing.  I have my reasons ;) Besides, you have to wear a helmet and helmets are ugly.  I have no desire to do anything that requires ugly attire.  Story of my life. 

 This is either the conversation or an imaginary conversation in my head:

Allie and Chris: "Julie do you want to go white water rafting next summer?"

Me:"No"

Chris:" Why not?"

Me: "Do I have to wear a helmet?"

Allie: "Yes."

Me: "No."

Chris:"It'll be fun!  be adventurous! you're going."

Me: "I don't like adventure, I like hotels"

Anyways, I'm hoping to have an excuse not to go by then...

     The kids were cuddling during a movie and it was adorable.  I tried to take a picture but of course they just acted all goofy instead.  Sophie was much more cooperative.  For once.

Baby rabies, psychosis and bitter sarcasm

      It’s taking everything I have not to write about Christmas and babies right now.  They don’t go together, its just two subjects on my mind.  My favorite term is baby rabies and I have a severe case. Specific babies like Jill’s are exempt from the writing ban.  I would show the favor bags I finished last night but I can’t til after the shower.  I’m pretty proud though if I do say so myself. 

      We have another busy month. This weekend is the baby shower and a friend’s birthday party. Next week Matt’s uncle is getting married in Virginia!  I heard that it snowed down there but I’m hoping Ill still get a glimpse of the beautiful fall leaves.  The week after that is my dad’s birthday and then the new Twilight movie comes out *swoon*.  Then we are going to spend Thanksgiving with Matt’s family in Minnesota; I might brave black Friday for the first time in my life but we’ll see how that goes. Finally…decorating for my favorite holiday ever.  Matt thought I got a little kooky for Halloween but that was nothing compared to Christmas. 

      Now that I’ve taken all my Halloween décor down, I realize how bare my apartment looks.  I still need to put wedding pictures up and do a diy project for the dining area.  I don’t decorate for Thanksgiving because it’s my least favorite holiday ever.   It has my least favorite foods (turkey is just not my thing), no good songs, and once you’re done eating you’re left with a ton of dishes and your reward is football.  Boring.  I always did appreciate family time though and I’m looking forward to becoming closer to Matt’s family;  especially since I lost half of my own to a serious case of psychosis.  (Obviously that last sentence was ripe with bitter sarcasm.) 

      When Matt and I were in high school people would call us pessimistic.  We would say “we’re not pessimistic, we’re realistic!”  We bonded a lot over our twisted, mostly negative sense of humor.  No wonder I married that guy!

Happy Halloween!

I got a new camera for my birthday from Matt!  I will definitely be taking more pictures now.  

This weekend we went to a Halloween party.  I was bridezilla and Matt was Maverick from Top Gun.  We went with Bart (Goose from Top Gun) and Anna (an angel) to Bart’s friends house.  My favorite costume was a pregnant girl dressed as a sumo wrestler!

                                                              This is Matt in his costume

                              Me throwing a fit (you can’t see my veil but I promise I’m wearing it)  I didn't realize anything was wrong with this picture til I put it up.  The lighting is all wonky and my face looks weird.  It looked so good when I saw it on the camera! :(

                        Then self portraits we took.  Me strangling Maverick, notice the devil horns.

After the party we watched Paranormal Activity 3.  I thought it was scary and good but it didn’t traumatize me as much as I thought it would.  No more than any other ghost shows I watch (which is a lot because I’ve always had a strange obsession with such things.)

On Sunday we went to Cracker Barrel.  I wanted Matt to take me for so long but he wouldn’t because it’s “too country.”  It was good but super crowded.  We argued about the reality of Ouiji boards.  He said it’s been proven that people move them and their subconscious decides what to spell out.  I said that may be true sometimes but I believe that it opens the door to letting ghosts or non-human entities communicate with you.  I don’t think it is anything that should be messed with.  Either way we both agree that it won’t be allowed in our house, so I guess it doesn’t matter.

I made bathroom curtains!

 We got a new shower curtain after we picked this fabric out but it works for me.  I like the different patterns together.  

I went to my parents house to see the kiddos in their costumes. The colors in front of the house are so beautiful, I just love fall! 

Caroline is a cat:

Christian was a ninja, Michelle worked really hard on this costume:

Matt is supposed to take a pharmacy tech test next month so he can get certified and get a job.  He is also supposed to apply for grad school (clinical psych) in November.  We will find out in February whether or not he gets in.  They only accept about 8-10 students a year and it is the only school around here that has this particular degree.  I’m not sure what is going to happen but I trust that God has a plan for us.  I just hope that my plan and his plan are very similar!  :)

I'm ready to say goodbye to Halloween. 26 days til I can decorate for Christmas!!!!