wilderness adventure

So we spent the weekend outside... it was great. I haven't been camping in ages, and I was a little bit excited to go. "Giddy," according to Bob. Probably the most excited I've been about something since our wedding...

We left after work Friday (and after Mike left), stopped to borrow some stuff from Mom and Dad, and so it was kind of dark when we got there. Really dark. So there are no pictures of us setting up our tent in the dark, just of my full car. We didn't eat supper until almost 10.



This is our tent in the daylight. It was free, which we love. It has all sorts of nifty features- like a nice zippered 'electrical port' for all of your extension cord needs, interior pockets, door mat, state of the art ventilation system (um... it's a tent?), and a random half circle window near the floor that we couldn't decide if it was for ventilation or for pets. And it's really big.



This is me frying eggs for breakfast. I look like I didn't get a good nights sleep... maybe it was the hard ground... or maybe because I forgot to pack pillows. Um... oops.... :) I also forgot mayonnaise. And tinfoil. And hot dog sticks. Pretty much I'm a failure of a camper. :P



Hooray for coolers full of ice.... very full of ice... probably more ice than necessary, but I bought a big bag and I didn't want to waste it. :)



Moraine view isn't a big park, they only had a few trails, but it was fun to explore. It was beautiful out- perfect for hiking.



Somewhere between trails Jakey called to tell us he started repenting. It was a good weekend.



Then we found the park boundary. Note the hayfield and the windmills. We were afraid that if we went much further we would get lost in the wilderness, so we turned around and went back.



Lots of mushrooms growing in the woods.


Fairy dance floor....



This is the view from our campsite, we had a spot right by the lake.



Relaxing after a long hard day of hiking. *grin* And making sure the fire didn't go out.



The lake was pretty.



I look like I need a shower... o wait, I did....



And then we had to come home. We were packed up before the rain, thankfully.

My car still smells like woodsmoke and camping. I love it.

Blessings.

guests

so I haven't been a very on the ball blogger lately...

Rustin and Sharon and Grace were here last weekend so we got to spend some time with them. Abby was in town for the wedding last Sunday so she spent the night with us. She gets the dubious honor of being our first overnight guest. And the first person to sleep on our couch bed... haha... she said it wasn't too bad. :P

I spent the week getting ready to go camping.

Friday Mike and co. stopped at our house to 'freshen up' on their way from Kansas to a wedding. It was good to see him again... especially since he told us he would come visit this summer and he never did... *cough* loser *cough*.

And then we went camping. I have pictures... I'll get to it eventually. :)

Tonight I'm going to hang out with Amy and try and sell my trumpet. woot.
Blessings.

lost and found

I was looking for my pink highlighter last night. I didn't find it.

I did, however, find the two veils and head covering that have been missing since the wedding.

They were in the pocket of my bible cover....

there was great rejoicing.


and now I have enough veils for 2 months of Sundays. woot.

happenings of late

Three day weekends are great… and so sad when they are past… :)

My phone rang 13 times on Friday. Some guy was looking for “Adam” all day. I’ve never heard of Adam. The first two times I answered it and told him it was the wrong number. But he kept calling… and I ignored it. I kept expecting somebody to call and say they were Adam (to ask if anyone had called for him), or for somebody I knew to fess up that it was them. He called at least once an hour and I was getting so annoyed. You’d think he would figure it out after I talked to him twice, or after he listened to my voicemail message. He was still calling after work… one time I answered and asked who was calling and said again that I’d never heard of Adam. Then I answered, “Hello, Pizza Hut.” He still asked if Adam was there. The next time I answered, “Hello, State Police.” Yeah… he still wanted to know where Adam was. I was going to make Bob talk to him, but he finally stopped calling.

Caleb and Bethany came over for supper on Saturday. I didn’t burn anything, thankfully. Good times playing strategy games… o wait, I’m terrible at strategy. *grin*

We spent most of Sunday in Washington… and playing with all the new toys they have at home now that I’m gone. :P They just got a four-wheeler “for the farm” and we had to try it out. And Jake and Bob played Age of Empires until the wee hours of the morning… ok, maybe not quite, but it was late. :)

I went shopping on Monday while Bob and some guys played a new board game he just got… it looks super complicated, hopefully it will be easier to learn now that they’ve played it once. We went to a cookout with the Beutels for supper. Katy and I went wading in the creek with Max and Bryce; I got all wet which was great. The little boys were a little more hesitant, and Max was really nervous after he tripped and almost went under… so funny to watch.

Otherwise… nothing much going on.
Blessings.

tomatoes

It's been pretty quiet here.... which I love.

I made 12 pints of tomato sauce over the weekend. Yay. My freezer is getting more full... we'll see if there's a correlation in the money we spend on groceries.

What we really need though is some fresh bacon. And pork chops. And ham. *cough* dad. *cough*

I'm actually going to work for five whole days this week- yikes. It's been awhile since that's happened, thanks to mono and vacation and jury duty. Woot. And next Monday is labor day... hooray for short weeks! I'm kind of a fan of days off. :P

Blessings.

speedy and public

I’ve been on call for jury duty the whole month of August (it’s been a crazy month), but made it until last Monday to actually get called in. I didn’t really want to do it, but it’s not a real big inconvenience since I’m a government employee and they (obviously) encourage participation… and they give jury leave. :)

First I forgot to fill my car with gas so it was blinking at me by the time I got there. And then I drove past the poorly marked parking deck and the street turned into a one way and I had a little trouble finding it again. Hooray for starting off the morning flustered!

It was kind of cool to be there… they were selecting a jury for a criminal trial and the judge talked about how great it is that we have the right to a trial by a jury of our peers… lots of “all rise” and gavel pounding…administered the oath… introduced the lawyers, and the defendant… and then told us it was a child porn case. *gulp* um… yikes!? Yeah. So then they called out 14 names at random, I was the second one called. We had to go sit in the jury box and the judge asked us all kinds of questions about being fair and impartial, and about computers and digital cameras. Then he went through each of the questionnaires we had already filled out with more questions. Apparently he didn’t like something I had written on mine, so they called me to the side and ended up excusing me for the rest of the month. *phew*

As much as I appreciate that we have the privilege of jury trials, and the privilege of having to be proven guilty, I was not sad to leave that courtroom. The case has been in the newspaper the last few days (you can find it under police and courts on pjstar.com)… yeah, I’m glad I’m not there. My personal, gut reaction to it all is that if there’s enough evidence to indict for those charges they should be shot on the spot. I guess I wouldn’t be a very impartial juror. :)

Anyway, that’s how my week started. Blessings.

the dear departed

So we said farewell to yet another rodent friend Wednesday night. Somehow it managed to push it's way through all the steel wool that was plugging the hole around the radiator pipe.... and it was making itself at home in my kitchen while we were in the Ozarks. So my brand new loaf of bread that was sitting on the counter was ruined. *sigh* Anyway, I stopped at Farm and Fleet and bought all sorts of things to destroy mice- traps, glue boards, d-con.... it was going to be all out war. I set the glue traps right by the hole... minding my own business... putting dishes away... and I heard scurrying. And squeaking. The mouse was extremely stuck. Hooray! So Bob disposed of it for me and I've been disinfecting the kitchen. woot. Just what I wanted to come back from vacation to do.

The Ozarks was good. A little bit rainy, but sunny enough that I'm not pasty white any more. Bob and I got to share a cabin with cool people... even though they made us sleep in the smallest bedroom... haha... or cell... My little cousins like Bob a lot, it was pretty amusing. Rae: "I'm glad Jenny married Bob." (after he let her 'play' the Wii) Cailer: "But I never get to see Bob." (we were trying to convince him that he needed to spend time with his grandpa that he doesn't get to see very often; he wanted to play wii with Bob.)

I'm really not excited to be back at work... it's too bad vacations can't last all year. It's rough getting up early after a week and a half of sleeping in. *sigh* O well.

Blessings.

mono

so I really haven't got much to blog about... I've spent most of the last week laying in bed or sitting on the couch.... *sigh* It bugs me to be home and have stuff that needs doing, but I just don't have the strength. :) haha. I'm actually feeling a lot better today. More awake. I don't have to sit down to rest after washing the dishes... hooray.

Although, I probably would feel even better if I had not waited a table last night at the conference. Probably doesn't count as taking it easy for the next few weeks... O well. I survived. And I only felt like falling over once. :) I managed to not spill coffee on anyone, which is always a small miracle. I did crash pretty hard when I got home.... yikes... my head hurt bad.

Tonight we're hopefully going to leave to spend the weekend on the Wyss vacation. Woot woot. :) Should be good times, as always!

Blessings.

o me...

I got stung by a bee. :) This morning while I was out in the yard string trimming. I was minding my own business, and WHAM, my foot was on fire. *sigh* I haven't gotten stung in years, haven't missed it either. Definitely let out a yelp... haha... yeah, I was maybe a little bit dramatic....

and then later this afternoon my throat was hurting (it's been sore for a few days) so I grabbed a flashlight and looked at it in the mirror... yeah.... it looked rather nasty. I was afraid it was strep or something, but I wasn't sure. So I asked Bob to come look at it... he was slightly weirded out and made me go to prompt care to figure out what is wrong with me. They did the Strep test... negative... yeah, the doctor thinks it's mono. Hooray. Not sure where I picked it up since Bob's never had it. I'm starting to feel tired now. *sigh*

such a month- two funerals in Washington, one crazy cancer diagnosis.... eeesh. I'm counting my blessings I just have mono.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

For aught that I could ever read, Could ever hear by tale or history, The course of true love never did run smooth.

Last night Bob and I met Shelly, Sarah, Gab and B.J. in Bloomington for supper and then we went to the Illinois Shakespeare Festival to watch A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was great. I love watching Shakespeare live, it's just so fun and timeless. I'm pretty sure that this is my new favorite Shakespeare play, maybe because no one dies and there are fairies... and Puck!

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

It was raining all morning and I was a little worried that it would get rained out (it's an outdoor theater). The weather forecasts for the evening were all really bad. But it cleared off, and it was such a beautiful night to sit outside!

If we shadows have offended, Think but this, --and all is mended, --That you have but slumber'd here While these visions did appear.

My favorite part of Shakespeare is all the random phrases in our vernacular that originated from his plays. I love the insults; 'cankerblossom', 'thou painted maypole', so great. And all the jokes that are still funny after 400 years. :)

So, good night unto you all. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.

Blessings.

Pictures and Kids day

So here's pretty much the only picture I took last weekend.... Grace splashing in the jacuzzi.

These are my mystery flowers.... probably a lily? They're cool and they last pretty long in a vase too.
My tomato plants have some buds, no fruit yet.

And the rest of my flowers. I have pansies now that the rabbits quit eating them.

So we had another busy weekend. I spent Friday evening helping my mom do green beans and corn... Saturday we helped the yg with Kids day. We were in the 7th and 8th grade group... which ended up being five 7th grade girls, who probably entertained us more than we entertained them. :) They decided they didn't want to wait to go swimming and jumped in Nicole's pool with their clothes on... yeah, they had to put on their swimsuits to get dry. Us "adults" played badminton and got a little damp in the rain while they were in the pool. After lunch we baked cookies to give to people. It was a good day and it was fun to get to know them, but I was reminded why I don't do girls camp- that age group can drive me crazy. (nothing new, 7th and 8th grade girls irritated me when I was in middle school) :)

Sunday we went to Dolly's visitation and then met my family at Eureka lake for supper. Steve and Renee's kids wanted to roll down the dam.... so we watched them get really dizzy, and then we all took a walk around the lake. Good times.

Blessings.

blog bites

as opposed to sound bites...

• Tremont water is ok. It's not well water, but it's not bad. Except for when they add chlorine. Today it tastes like chlorine. ick.
• Tim and Melissa's wedding was good; the girls looked adorable, the guys didn't look too bored, definitely a success.
• Spending time with Bob's family was fun... Grace in the jacuzzi was hilarious.
• I haven't gotten enough sleep this week... and last night we ate supper with Mark and Ashley... good times, but another late night. :)
• There's a mystery flower in my flowerbed. Last week some random green stalks started growing from a plant that was already there when we moved in, yesterday they started blooming. They're pretty but I have no idea what they are.

Blessings.

*sigh*

It's been a busy week, I'm maybe a little bit glad it's Friday.

I picked beans twice... and did beans twice. I still should probably do some more. And there's fresh zucchini, which I love.

My trumpet is getting cleaned so I can sell it. Unless it comes back all pretty and shiny and I just can't bear to part with it. .... my precious.... um, anyway, it's a Silver Bach Strad and I haven't played it since high school and it's way too nice of a trumpet to be sitting in my closet. Somebody should be playing it.

We've been married 3 months-ish and I'm just now taking my dress to the cleaners.

My family went on vacation without us and they've been texting me pictures of Biltmore and rubbing it in that they went white-water rafting and hiking... *sigh* And I've been slaving away watching the garden and making sure all the flowers don't go to waste and keeping ornery boys out of their vehicles.... i do so much for them, they better appreciate it. *grin* I guess they did buy me a spoon.

Tim and Melissa's wedding is this weekend. Woot! We're going up early to spend time with Rustin and Sharon and Grace. Fun times.

Blessings.

our bedroom

So this is a random picture of the stairway... it looks about the same still... I need to hang some pictures or something. Our room before, looking into the bathroom. The walls were white, the ceiling was kind of ivory/yellowish nasty.

Small walk-in closet.

Not sure what's up with all the corner windows... and yards of cable again.

After: the walls are "Blissful Morn," aka, yellow, and the ceiling is white.


Our bedroom set was my Grandpa and Grandma Schlipf's... I love it. I just got new hardware for it, so it doesn't look quite so circa 1950's. :D This is the new stuff:

So, this would be the perfect spot for a cherry bookcase I think. Too bad we don't have one.

It's not usually this clean...

Hooray for pottery barn! And lots of pillows!

So that's all I've got for before and after pictures! Until I decide to redecorate... grin... poor Bob...

Blessings.

the second bedroom

This room was pale blue before... not too bad, but it desperately needed repainting. Check out the overabundance of cable.... seriously, I can vacuum the whole upstairs from one outlet, I don't understand why so much cable was necessary. :P


The closet was pale green inside. Ick. My dear little sister got to spend an afternoon on the shelf painting the closet.

After... It's neutral. And full of random things. *grin*

It's our computer room....

Bob playing computer games... there's another very full bookcase on the other side of the desk, and we still need another one badly!

Blessings.

potlucks and picnics

So we were pretty social this weekend...

Friday night we went to potluck at Brett and Laura's new house. They have a lake/ pond in their back yard and a row boat. Or a pontoon boat. It was amusing looking, whatever it is. :P Good times.

The transparent apples were ready at home so Mom and I spent Saturday afternoon and evening making applesauce. Woot. I'm not overly fond of picking apples... especially since no one thinned the tree this year and so there are lots that are dropping and rotting... and I was barefoot. ick. Thinning the fruit trees used to be my job (don't ask me why) so Shelly, you better start picking up the slack!

We went to Champaign for invite-a-guest on Sunday. Hooray for early mornings. :P O wait, I don't do mornings... I maybe fell asleep in the car on the way down. It was good to be in C-U again and see everyone and hang out with BDY and J-nell. The picnic was good, of course. And there was a playground- what more do you need? :) We got to see the girls' new place, which is pretty much a mansion. *grin* Or an ivory palace. Very much fun. So then we went home and it was late and I was super sleepy all day yesterday. But it was worth it.

ooooo, yesterday the new drawer pulls I ordered for our bedroom set came and I put them on!! yay!! I really like them and it makes grandma's furniture look less circa 1950 and more IKEA or something. :D

Blessings.

the bathroom

So the bathroom is small, and it has two doors.... and it had this nasty vanity with fluorescent lights on the sides. The electrical cord on the right went to a power strip that was zip-tied to the wall. um.... yeah.

Just lovely...

I almost painted it "Bullfrog" green, but went with "Crisp Sage" instead. I'm glad I did. And check out the cabinet, and the new outlet my brother wired for us. (We won't mention that he put a hole all the way through the wall in the process. haha)

So much better... oh, and we got rid of that awful storage shelf thing too...

Blessings.

the porch/laundry room

Hooray for Fridays! It's been a long week. :)

So this room is the reason I wanted to live here... it's kind of a three season porch, plus it had room for laundry and a freezer. Much nicer than a dinky apartment. :)

So it's only semi-organized. :)

There is lots of room for plants this winter!!

Blessings.

the kitchen

Yes, that is very nasty pink wallpaper. And the cabinets have scalloped trim. And the tile is brown with teal/aqua and tan. Quite lovely.

You can't tell, but the wall on the right was FULL of holes. Seriously, I spent at least an hour filling them with spackle, and we still ended up having to use wall cover on it.

And every room in the house is cable ready.... and there was about 10 ft of cable at every jack. um.... overkill??

So the paint kind of matches the blue in the tile... it looks brighter than it is in real life. :)

Yay for vintage apron curtains. They make me smile a lot.

And for tin signs!

Blessings.

Friends and Fireworks

I had Friday off for the 4th- hooray for my government job! It was great, I got to sleep in and get lots of stuff done. And I got to sit out in the sun and read.... one thing I don't like about living in town and having a very shaded back yard... I can't lay out. Unless of course I would in the front yard, but that would be super awkward. :) So I have tan lines. *sigh* O well.

Saturday some people came over for supper and games... good times. We skipped fireworks... nobody was very excited about going out in the cold and damp. We were hoping we could be outside... since our selection of games is so limited, but it was still fun. :) Mostly just good to hang out with cool people.

So I maybe insisted on going to watch fireworks on Sunday because I love them and it was super nice out and I was disappointed we didn't get to see them Saturday and it's kind of un-American to not partake! We went to Hopedale because it was close. I liked them. Even though we sat by some people with fluorescent hair (it seriously was still visible after dark) who insisted on smoking the entire time. I don't think I've ever been in front of buildings to watch fireworks, so the loud echoes were a new experience. :) maybe next year I'll get to go to Peoria's....

Blessings.

the living room

Before.... front door and very white walls.

After... front door... I'm still working on curtains. I just got some super cool fabric to make them because the only curtains that I've seen that I liked a lot were at Pottery Barn and therefore waaay too much money. Anyway, I digress.

Hooray for furniture! Direct from Klopfenstein HomeRooms in Ft. Wayne Indiana... it's nice to have connections.

Don't ask Bob about hanging these shelves... it was a pain... and the drywall anchors that came with them were worthless. I like how they look though!

ooo.... look, my orchid is blooming!

Blessings.

welcome...

So I'm sure you've all been dying to see what our duplex is like...
Check out the hanging basket and the festive windsock.

The back patio.

My flower beds- there would be more plants blooming if the stinking rabbits didn't eat them!

Sorry... no picture of the back yard and shed. *grin* You'll just have to come visit.

I have inside before and after pictures I'll post later.... wait for it...