tuesdays that feel like mondays

so yesterday I stopped at the DMV after work to get my license changed... and managed to 1.) not get lost in Pekin, 2.) not get mugged (it's a scary place), and 3.) make it back to Tremont without getting lost.

anyway, so I had twice as many forms of ID with me than I needed just in case they decided to really make me prove I'm me... the lady asked for our marriage certificate... I handed her my birth certificate... *sigh* I felt dumb. O well, I have a new license with a new picture and I look less stoned than in the old one. Woot. :P

blessings.

some pictures

Since I don't really have much to blog about... some pictures from California.

The coast

We drove to San Francisco one day and ate seafood. It was raining, this is the Golden Gate bridge in the rain.

Indoor swimming pool at the Hearst Castle that we toured. The yellow tile is filled with real gold. It was a pretty amazing place.

The view from our hotel.

Shelly graduated this weekend and Kendra had her party on Saturday... so we ate a lot of graduation cake... yay. Otherwise, it was a quiet weekend and we got lots done at our duplex. There aren't boxes everywhere anymore! Now if people would just stop sending gifts.... I could be done writing thank you notes!

Blessings.

mail

So I have a slight obsession with the USPS... not sure why, they're just cool. And even though they keep raising the price of stamps, it's still cheaper to send a letter to Alaska than it is to buy anything in our vending machines. And pictures in front of post offices make amazing scrapbooks. (yes, Bob did have to endure funny looks from people in front of three post offices in Cali- which I love.)

Anyway, so T-town is pretty small, right? And there's not very many people that work at the post office and they probably know everyone in town. (The lady I talked to the other day at the P.O. saw our address and said, "oh, you just moved in, didn't you.") So before the wedding we were trying to get water, electric, trash, etc. all set up and we kept waiting for the bills to come in the mail... nothing... no mail. Finally, they delivered about a months worth of mail (with overdue bills- *ahh*) all at once with a little card to fill out since we just moved. Um... um... ok??? Seriously, we used to get mail for all kinds of previous occupants at 709, didn't matter what the name was, the address was all they looked at, all that should matter. So we were getting mail fine... and I was getting packages addressed to me... but Bob was waiting on two things that the online tracking said were delivered. So I went to the post office (which I love) to see what the deal was. Apparently, there's another Koch farther down the mail route where they were delivering all Bob's stuff. um... um... but it's a totally different address!? I'm still really confused about that, since the Eureka Post office has had no issues forwarding all of my mail and they have even been crossing out Wyss and writing in Koch... O well, hopefully it's all straightened out now. :) And I still like post offices.

Kansas was good... Ned's speech (that he wrote in the wee hours Sunday morning before graduation) was great... I need to see if any of my pictures turned out.
Blessings.

randomness

I worked five days this week. *sigh* I'm ready for a vacation... ok, it wasn't that bad... but I really wouldn't mind not waking up at 6 every morning. :)

Grocery shopping takes me forever because I can't find anything in Kroger. I miss Lindy's. And Jerry's. I'm a huge fan of Beechum's though... hooray for small town grocery stores!

I haven't burned anything or shrunk anything yet. (crossing my fingers hard though) Other than ruining half a loaf of bread trying to figure out our new toaster... seriously.... it has a scale from 1 to 9 for toasting, you'd think that 4 or 5 would be nicely browned. Um... yeah... right now it's set on 1, and I can't leave a poptart in even that long. I think we have an over achieving toaster.

We're leaving after work for Kansas City because Ned is graduating this weekend. Yay! I'm excited, I haven't been to KS since that rather expensive trip back in November. Stinkin bored Missouri cops. Anyway. I'm over it now, really.

Blessings.

the big day

So... we're back. I'm sure you've all been waiting with bated breath. Sorry, BDY said I should go on hiatus. Actually I was waiting for pictures, since they are super important.

um... yeah... so.... we got married. the end. :)

We took pictures in Champaign on Saturday, on campus. It was great- the weather was perfect. And there were a million high school kids at U of I for the science Olympiad. And for a photography contest (remember that). Pretty much everyone we saw made some comment about us.... "look, is that a bride?!" and saying congrats and pulling out their camera phones and not very surreptitiously taking our picture. Kind of weird, have they never seen a wedding before? Anyway, so Taryn and Kristi had us all lined up on the steps at Follinger and this HS kid with a camera kept getting closer and closer to where Taryn was taking pictures.... funny, but I'm sure he was annoying T and K. He facebooked me later that night to tell me he won the photo contest and this was one of the pictures he'd used:

Somehow he managed to crop out half of the wedding party... o well... it's a fun picture. :)

Sunday was good, a little bit of a blur since I was so nervous about walking down the aisle. I came in when I was supposed to, I didn't trip, and I don't think I walked too fast. :) I don't remember much of the service... although I did notice that they forgot to sing the song in the middle. Haha, pretty sure that the song leaders and ministers and I were the only ones who realized it.

This is me with my flowers... Amber's an amazing florist. She humored me and let me use ring stands on the tables at the reception. And made them look super cool.

Apparently displaying your dishes is necessary....

Guestbook... and flowers in test tube racks. Which I love.

Cake is the best thing ever. Nuts, not so much. Can someone explain to me why there are nuts at every reception? Does anyone actually eat them?

More test tubes on the piano. They make me smile.

Bubble bowls.

Bridesmaid's bouquet.

Dr. Pepper.... so good....

Amber and Gab. So cute.

This is almost at the end... my feet hurt... I was exhausted... and I didn't really want to smile anymore. :)

My poor car. Covered inside and out with sticky notes. And saran wrapped. And the paint was soaped all over (I was maybe a little mad about that... the rest of it was good/funny).

We were ambushed with squirt guns... thanks to Justin K, we had one to defend us. And Mike's suit coat- thanks mike! Check out Cliffy in his spiffy duds... and corsage... that he bawled about until he realized that it wasn't a girl thing and that Bob had one on too. :)

This is my dear friend Gab squirting water through my open sun roof and I'm trying my hardest to squirt her back. I love the expressions on the faces of the other people in the picture... so classic.

So then we drove off into the sunset... er... well drove off until we found a garbage can to get rid of most of the mess. And then we went to California for a week and it was fabulous because I didn't have to work and I could sleep as much as I wanted.