A Happy Homecoming

Hello again, friends! It’s been an exciting week for us here, and seeing as how it’s been SO long since I last blogged, you are due for an update.

Is that squeels of joy I hear? Settle down, now, settle down. Remember whose blog you’re reading. Our lives aren’t that exciting.

But I will tell you that to me, it was one of the most exciting weeks, at least since we’ve been married. Thursday afternoon, Tyler and I high-tailed it out of here and drove up north to a cozy little Lake Michigan beach town about 2 hours away. With camping gear in tow, and food completely stashed and buried, we decided to try to hit up Jimmy John’s for their Customer Appreciation Day Dollar Subs. Unfortunately every Jimmy Johns we passed had a line a mile and a half long, so finally we settled on Subway and tried their Chicken Chipotle Cheese Sub.

Me: I’ll have the $5 Chicken Chipotle Cheese sub.

Sandwich Artist: What kind of bread would you like?

Me: Wheat please.

Sandwich Artist: Cheese?

Tyler: Yes, please, pepper jack.

Sandwich Artist: Dressings?

Me: Uh, chipotle?

So basically, the Chipotle Chicken Cheese Sub is just a chicken sub with whatever you want on it, cheese and chipotle optional. It was a little underwhelming, to be honest, since we usually order the Turkey sub with the exact same bread and dressing and toppings. And their Turkey doesn’t have the weird dry texture. Next time, I should see if they can substitute the Chipotle Chicken Cheese Sub for a Chipotle Turkey Cheese Sub. Hey, if everything else is optional, why couldn’t the chicken be too? It’s worth a shot to save a buck or two!

And THAT was our weekend. Exciting stuff, eh?

*crickets chirping*

Kidding, of course our weekend was much more spectacular than that.

We set up our tent around 5:00 pm and had just enough time to grill shish-kabobs and clean up before it started raining. And then:

hailing! There were hail stones twice this size, but this one melted in my hand a bit before I got a decent picture of it (I’m training myself how to shoot only in Manual mode).

We pretty much hung out indoors (ha!) all night and then the next morning it rained off and on, so we walked around town, had breakfast and ice cream (not at the same time), walked the beach and pier (it was almost empty because of the weather I think), and went to a movie. 

 

Overall, the weekend was great, in spite of the wet weather early on. We had a great time relaxing together, reading, grilling, and playing with fire.

 

As with every vacation, though, we were happy to come home. And happy to prepare to welcome this little girl into our home too:

Meet Rylie. She’s a sweet car-ride lovin’ bundle of fur who loves her little purple squeaky doggy. She had such a long day yesterday, but she did incredibly well. We were all prepared for accidents in the house and a long night of crying, but neither one happened.

Can you see the bullseye on her back? She such a pretty girl. And smart too. She already knows where to *ahem* “take a break” (use the restroom) outside and she does pretty well heeling. We still have a lot of training we want to do with her to get her to be the polite puppy she needs to be, but she gets tuckered out pretty quick.

My favorite thing? Watching her with Tyler. When he’s around, he has her full attention. She loves him already, and he is so good with her. Gentle, patient, and encouraging, but serious when she’s being naughty so that she knows how to behave. She loves to please him!

In spite of her getting a good night’s sleep, though, both of us are a little sleep deprived. Something about knowing she’s away from her family all by herself makes you a little more alert at night than need-be. Hopefully tonight we’ll sleep a little better.  More pictures to come, but it’s time to get the pup up and play!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered.

Well… I haven’t done such a good job of resuming my blogging in January. Life has been… busy to say the least.

I believe I mentioned before that I started the new year off with a trip to Ohio to see my dear friend Anna and her family. My visit with them was short, but sweet. I was there less than 48 hours, but somehow this time the quality of our time seemed exponentially greater than the amount of time we actually had. God is so good, and I thank him for such wonderful friends like Anna.

While there, I also had the opportunity to experience the legendary Yeast-y Popcorn that Anna has told me about since we first met.

I know what you’re thinking, because that was the exact same thing I was thinking when she first said it.

Am I hearing you right? Did you say “yeast-y” popcorn??? Blehhh.

Yes, friends, you did hear right. Yeast. On popcorn. That you eat.

My mind has been boggled all these years, until witnessing the actual preparation of said popcorn (much as yours is right now too I’m sure). You see, the yeast you sprinkle on the popcorn is not rapid-rise yeast or active dry yeast, but Brewer’s Yeast (also known as Nutri-yeast). It’s a nutrition supplement full of protein and other vitamins and minerals.

Sounds really appetizing now, doesn’t it?

Well I am here to tell you that it is! It actually tastes kind of salty and buttery, but without all the sodium and fat of the real stuff. You can find it at health food stores, and although I haven’t made it there yet, it’s definitely on my list!

And in other news… hmmm… news, news… what’s new… let me think…

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!

Yes, friends, THE news of the YEAR has come at last!!!! We actually found this out last Monday, met with our loan processor on Tuesday and signed the papers on Wednesday… SO — our hope is to be able to close on February 4.

We’re so excited, yet cautious at this point. We both realize that things could still change… nothing is certain until closing. But it’s definitely looking definite.

I think.

Next — packing! We finally can fill those broken down boxes that have been sitting in our living room.

And Tyler’s car.

And my car.

Please stand by in case the mountains of boxes overtake our apartment and constrain me to a cubic foot of standing space. I’ll be the one hollering from the corner like a maniac. Just chuck a box of cereal back there and I’ll do my best to remain calm until the moving truck arrives.

If you don’t hear from me in 3 weeks, you’ll know what happened.

Then again, with how January is going for me blogging-wise, maybe you won’t.

Well, I feel compelled to conclude at this point. All important news has been signed, sealed, and delivered within the contents of this post.

Well, maybe not signed. Or sealed, really. But delivered. That’s what matters, right?

More news to come soon. If anything news-worthy happens.

If not, I will be resigned to write about whatever random nothingness I find personally entertaining.

Indian(apolis) Summer Day

I appreciate your concern for my creative capacities which were on the fritz yesterday. And although I am still not quite feeling up to snuff (where did that saying even come from anyway???), I shall give you a long-overdue update concerning our brief trip to Indiana to visit my brother-in-law Drew.

Remember that weekend a few weeks ago where it was like 80 degrees in the great Midwest? Well, we happened upon the perfect weekend to visit the grand state of Indiana. We went down with Tyler’s parents. Packed it all up in his dad’s truck. Which actually has a more spacious cab than the interior of my good ol’ green Yoda (Toyota).

What did we do you ask?

*crickets chirpping*

Umm…. man, what did we do? That was so long ago, I can hardly remember! I really need to get better at updating this thing immediately following their occurrence.

Oh yes! We went to Indianapolis with Drew and his girlfriend Hannah (who if you will remember killed all my bunnies the last time we played games with them. But I have forgiven her for it, and we have reconciled).   

Indianapolis is a pretty cool city. We walked through the mall which is 4 stories!!! We ended up eating lunch at the food court, which is a really cool place because every restaurant has a person standing in front of it with samples. Had I been smart, I would have invested in a disguise from one of those kiosks at the mall so that I could just make 2 laps around the food court and bypass the need to order a meal from anyone of them. I’m sure they wouldn’t have thought it peculiar to serve samples to two ravenously hungry 6 foot tall women within a 10 minute period.

But alas, I settled on Chick-fil-a, hypnotized by the weaved pattern and the greasy smell of their waffle fries. Mmm’mm’mm.

We continued our adventure by walking over to the Circle Centre Monument (or so I think it is called). Here we discovered that we could actually go to the top of the monument and look out over the city. Undeterred by heartburn and full stomachs, we opted to climb the 277 stairs to the pinnacle point of the city rather than pay $2 to ride the elevator.

What a climb it was. Heaving as we pulled ourselves to the overlook platform, we pulled out our cameras to document our last gasping breaths of life before descending.

Ok, “last gasping breaths of life” in the little outlook tower.

And then we descended. Which was actually more terrifying to me than any other part of our exploit. The stairs were steep and the stairway was narrow and dark. Slight panicky feelings started to nag me as I thought about my clumsy body lunging head first down a flight, only to be stuck in the middle of this huge dark solid tower.

*shudder*

I’m not usually chlostrophobic, but I did get a little anxious in there.

But then… there was LIGHT!!! The light of DAY! And I was exstatic and spaghetti-like in my celebration of my return to earth!!!

Meaning my muscles were funny-feeling and with what little energy I had left I breathed a sigh of relief.

Next, on to the ZOO!!!

Except that… the zoo only ended up being open for another hour and a half, but still cost like $14/person!

Um, no… no way I would pay $14 to see some animals for an hour and a half. C’mon, haven’t you ever been to a zoo before??? You have to stand at the lion’s lair for an hour and half just to see one of them move!

So instead we had a nice long walk by the river and enjoyed the sunshine on this Indian Summer day.

And then we ate burgers at Cheeseburger paradise. And then we went to the hotel and all got beat by Tyler in Settler’s of Catan (Not to be confused with Settlers of Canaan). And then we said good bye to Drew and Hannah and returned to our Drew-less homes. *sniff*

*clears throat* By the way, did I ever tell you about that game? How Tyler convinced me to buy it for him on the day we got engaged as an “engagement gift.” And then weeks later when we pulled it out to play it at a family gathering, we confused by the pieces, because they looked different than we had remembered. And then we pulled out the directions and realized we had purchased the “Settlers of Canaan” instead of the “Settlers of Catan.”

Yep, we had a good laugh. But now we have both versions.

Alright, creative juices depleted again, as demonstrated by the overuse of the phrase “And then…”

Over and out.

Second Annual Mother-Daughter Shopping Expedition

H-h-h-helloo out th-th-there.

Please forgive my chattering teeth as well as any future spelling errors which I will attribute to shivers.

It’s a bit nippy in our apartment right now. 64 degrees. But I just can’t bring myself to switch the thermostat to heat. It looks beautiful outside. If I didn’t know any better, I would guess 70 degrees. But I know better than to fall for Fall’s seductive powers. I know to at least bring a jacket when I give into her beckoning calls.

Meanwhile inside, I am sitting here anxious and waiting, wasting time on my computer that could be spent cleaning. Or blogging. Well, at least I am accomplishing something right now.

“Why anxious?” you say? Well, remember how I told you about that “pinball” interview I had at work? Well, I still haven’t heard anything. And waiting makes me anxious. And last time we talked, remember how I said we have two houses we want to look at with our parents? Well, that’s not until Thursday — a whole 2 days away still! And waiting makes me anxious. Oh, sorry, I guess I just said that. Now I’m repeating myself repeating myself.

Please excuse my quirky humor this morning. I just can’t s-s-seem to th-th-th-think straight in our apartment’s arctic climate.

Anyway…

How about an entertaining story to distract us all from the anxiety of pressing news and decisions that we can do nothing about at present?

Oh, good I was hoping so.

So this weekend my mom and I went on our second annual shopping trip. And by trip, I literally mean trip. Oh, well, wait, not “trip” like a drug reference, I promise no drugs were involved (though at times, things did get pretty trippy). I really, truly meant “trip” as in “overnight expedition.”

We started our journey at Pier 1 and I found some really cool float frames for really cheap. In preparation for our trip, I had researched every possible store we would want to stop at and scoured the internet for coupons. Saved me 30% at Pier 1. Cha-chinggg!

Then we went to the outlet mall and scored some serious deals. Surely you know by now that my absolute favorite store in the whole wide world is Maurice’s, right? Well, with my coupons, I managed to get everything for about half price! Sure, I may have purchased a super cute vest that my husband finds more hideous than last year’s fashion scarf. But that didn’t surprise me too much. I tend to not be much of a trend-wearer myself, so the occasional trendy item tends to be a turn-off to him. But I think deep down he likes to see me take occasional risks. As long as they’re occasional. Which I have no problems with.

The other store that made my jaw drop at the register was the Hanes outlet. Approaching the counter, I had in hand 1 of the most expensive sports bras, 2 pairs of running shorts, and a moisture-wicking shirt for Tyler. And would you guess what it cost me??? $51!!! What??!!! Yeah, that was my reaction too. Execpt with fist pumps and hollering and gradual de-escalation as I realized what a spectacle I was making of myself.

Ok, ok, so I didn’t actually physically act that out. But inside I was doing some major celebrating and would have acted it out if it would have been socially acceptable.  

I suppose you are wondering where the “entertaining story” bit comes in. Well… let me just tell you…

After the outlet mall, we hit up a fancy-schmancy 2 story mall in Novi, then programmed my Austrailian-speaking GPS, Richard, to take us to the mall near our hotel which had a Cinnabon. You see, I negotiated an awesome price on our hotel via priceline, but unfortunately it did not come with a free continental breakfast. The only Cinnabon near where we live is at the airport, so when I discovered this Cinnabon so close to the hotel, I knew it was destiny that brought us together. And, seriously, think about it… Cinnnabon vs. expensive continental breakfast… is this even a fair contest?

We made it to the Cinnabon with ease, then programmed Richard to direct us to our hotel. By this time it was 9:30 pm and we were starving. As we pulled out of the mall parking lot, I saw a Chili’s and started drooling at the thought of their fajita pita and french fries. Oh man, if I ever needed a fajita pita, it was right then. But we really wanted to get to our hotel so we could get settled and relax during out dinner, so we took note of the Chili’s and drove on. Richard took us right off of the main drag, then 4 grueling miles of traffic to turn right again for a mile and then left for another mile or so. At each restaurant we passed, we took note, thinking “this will be more convenient from the hotel.” But by the time we were on that last mile, all civilization seemed to be reduced to dark residential neighborhood. We were scratching our heads when in the middle of a stretch of houses Richard confidently announced, “You have reached your destination.”

Uhh…. I don’t know what hotels look like in Austrailia, Richard, but this isn’t it.

So we pulled into a gas station and called the hotel. The only thing we can figure out is that he took us down West Maple instead of East Maple, because we had to go quite a ways down that street to finally arrive at our hotel.

Thank goodness!!!

At the check-in desk, the lady handed us a paper with a bunch of recommended restaurants that were close to the hotel. And can you guess what was at the top of the list?

Yep, Chili’s!

I was so excited, I felt another celebratory spasm coming on. But I think my blood sugar was just too low for it to manifest, because all I could do was drop back into the passenger side seat with a dazed look of happiness on my face. The directions were nice and clear: turn right off of the street the hotel was on and another right onto the street Chili’s was on. It was a quick drive.

Now, I realize at this point my directions may have seemed a bit superfluous. But do you realize how many times we turned right?  Quite a lot, actually. And everyone knows that 3 rights take you right back to where you started.

And that is where we found ourselves. Right back where we started at the Chili’s that had first activated my salivatory glands. Why on earth Richard had taken us the long way around, I do not know. But he came dangerously close to getting strangled with his own cord, let me tell ya.

And it my steak fajita pita was bliss… pure bliss.

The rest of our trip went fairly smoothly. Other than the fact that we reserved the hotel by another 3 story mall (different from the one the Cinnabon was in) that ended up not opening until noon the next day. In an effort to return home at a decent hour, we chose to bypass this mall. Which meant we drove all the way to Troy (and all the way around Troy) for a Cinnabon! Mmmm… they were so good though. Maybe it was worth it.

Yeah, it was definitely worth it.

And Mom and I had a blast. We laughed and ate and walked and talked. Thank goodness the men in our lives are so gracious as to allow us to leave them to fend for themselves for a weekend (although Tyler did get all crazy and run 7 miles. And decide he wanted to start cutting his own hair – which actually turned out pretty good).

So probably the more accurate perspective would be, “Thank goodness the men in our lives trusted us enough to let us out for a weekend.”

So thankful for such a great time with my mom.

And I have to also add that my hubby looked pretty good today wearing the sweater and pants I bought him.

Success!

A Photo Tour of Traverse City

Man, I have been so busy blogging lately. Posting about our 2nd anniversary, about the Detroit Tigers game we went to, more of my superb marital advice, and my recent attempt at making shredded chicken enchiladas that turned out to be burritos.

Oh, you don’t remember those posts?

Huh…

Maybe that’s because I didn’t actually write them!!! I have “written” a half dozen posts in my head since my last actual post. But I have not found the time to actually sit down and type any of them out. So instead I have had a steady stream of mental blogging during which I appear to be in some kind of catatonic state, staring off into space and moving my lips ever so slightly while I talk to myself.

Anyways… so now for a real post! That will mostly consist of a pictoral-narrative of our recent camping trip with my family (my brother included! I haven’t seen him in 3 months and the last trip we all took together was probably 5 years ago).

It was an amazing trip. We had a campfire and made smores and played uchre and ate ice cream. We also shopped in the cute downtown strip, went on a bike ride, and drove out to the peninsula to go wine tasting and spend some time on the beach by the lighthouse. It was perfect weather and the water was BEAUTIFUL. And most of all, it was just a wonderful time spent with my family. We haven’t all been together like that… well, ever before really, at least not with Tyler as a part of our family.

I also recently read the user manual for our camera and have been dabbling a bit in photography. Dabbling a verrry little bit. So here is a sample of my photos from the weekend, a miniscule representation of how beautiful it was in Traverse City.

Ok, so this is not actually Traverse City. This is a picture of my mom’s flowers that I took before we left. I was trying to play around with macro-shots (up-close).

This is another picture from my mom’s garden. I was trying to play around with the focus again. It could have been a cool picture, but my focus was all off. I was kind of struggling with the camera because I was partly in the bushes and couldn’t really see in the view finder. That’s my excuse anyways.

This is Traverse City. See that water? Isn’t is gorgeous!

At the vineyard where we did the wine tasting (I’ve never done this before. I would love alcohol if it didn’t have any alcohol in it! As it turned out, the kind I liked was the least alcoholic! I have the palate of a 7 year old I think. Which isn’t a bad thing I guess). I’d like to call this photo “There’s One in Every Bunch.”

No need for applause.

The lighthouse at the end of the peninsula.

My brother. Isn’t he cool? I love the aspect of this photo with the lighthouse in the background.

 

And, my amazing parents. We had so much fun. I am so thankful to God for such a great family.

And that, my friends, was our trip! Tune in again… uh… sometime soon hopefully for more!