I really am short! Kurt, President Truman and me 

Mr. Wedemeier, I'm ready for my close up! 

Our room - the Stripe room 

Our Wedding B & B  

Aaaargh!

I hate math. I'm not too excited about my job either.

I'm prejudiced

Turns out I'm prejudiced. I didn't think I was racist, but it always turns out there are certain people I don't like dealing with. I was discussing it with Rikki. She said "You're not racist, but you might be prejudiced." I replied, "Against whom? The stupid people?" Then the little light came on. That's exactly who it is! I can't stand the stupid people!

Garden of Eden

My garden is nothing like that. However it's getting there. My great aunt Betty inherited a huge perennial garden when they moved to their new house. She and John are in their upper 80's and don't want to to deal with it. They are giving it away to whomever will come dig it up. I got a trunk full! I don't even know what some of it is. I got a couple of different ground covers, some purple stuff, sunflower/daisy stuff in dark reds and yellow, what i think is coreopsis, yellow siberian iris, day lillies, and hostas. It took 4.5 hours but I got it all in the ground. If we weren't going to MN tonite, I'd go and get more. It will have to wait until the weekend though.

I got my front flower bed and the bed by the house free of grass. I should mulch it now, but I ran out of energy.

We're supposed to close on our house today. Everything is f***ed up though. The landlord is a jerk, the realtor is an idiot/jerk, and Kurt's at work. Now there is some handyman here to take out the upstairs cupboards and sink. I'm filthy from the gardening, but I'm uncomfortable taking a shower with him in the house. All the banging upstairs is making Lewis crazy. It's a great day.

A walk down the aisle

We had a wonderful wedding and honeymoon. It was laid back and relaxed. The food was good, the friends were good, the cake was good. It was good all around. I don't have any pictures to post, but I'm sure I will eventually.

We've just been too busy trying to catch up from being gone to do anything.

28 days

28 days left til my center closes. Do I hear an "Amen"? I had to write up one of my friends today. It was lovely. Another teamlead had to sit in and was unsupportive. The rep thinks it's funny and the other TL thinks it's dumb. I swear I have no idea why people are so stupid and lack integrity. It irritates me to no end.

Our Mother is SO proud!

My mom has two very talented daughters.

Thursday Marn called to tell me she was locked out of her house.

Moments later, as i heard the kitchen door thunk shut, I realized my keys were on the counter and I, too, was locked out.

Yet, Mom tells the people she meets how smart and wonderful we are!

Ah, nothing beats a mother's love.

In Love

I am IN LOVE with bullet points on the computer! They make TO DO lists so much better! Kurt and I have a ton of things to do before I leave for DSM this afternoon! See you all tomorrow. Again, since I forgot...

• Wedding @ 6:00 pm

with......

• Heather Family pictures @ 4:30
• Kurt Family pictures @ 5:00

A week from today

The wedding is a week from today.

I'm a little stressed.

I just drank half a bottle of wine, took my math test and did one chapter of homework.

Kurt is C R A B B Y!!

We've been watching CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM on netflix. Love 'em both.

We've got a way busy week ahead of us.

It appears I'm having a bachelorette party saturday night since I'm staying in DSM that night. The Wonder Twin will be there and so will Rikki and her girlfriend. So if you want to go out call me! I DETEST that bachelorette BS stuff though so don't even think about it. I WILL leave!

*%*#*&%#%#%#

Number of Meltdowns in two days of Beginning Algerbra class...........

TWO!!!

To Do List

• Get a new lawyer
• Call the lady at the chapel
• Make vet appt for Lewis
• Make hair appt for me
• Start Pre Algerbra class
• Return black flats
• Plant Rikki's rose bush
• Plant the jalapeno, verbena, tomato and moss roses
• Buy cilantro to plant
• Call Caterer with final numbers
• Do more laundry
• Track down funky smell in bathroom
• Plant seed packets
• Balance check book
• Clean out fridge

Again with the Insomnia

Kurt has it too though. I'd much rather be asleep. Wedding details are starting to keep my up. I have a lot I haven't done. It's all little stuff, but it's stuff that matters.

We went to the Memorial Day service at the park. It was very nice. I'm not sure I've been to one before. The band played, flowers were laid, and a wreath floated in the river.

From there we went an laid pink carnations on family graves. Kurt's family plots are too far away for impromptu planning to work so we toured NE Iowa hitting (and missing) mine.

We ended up having a picnic at backbone featuring Wonder Roast chicken, potato and macaroni salads, and molasses cookies. We must have looked like savages tearing into the chicken. It was OMG delicious!

Happy Birthday to my Wonderful Husband!

Yesterday was Kurt's birthday. It was also his first day of unemployment. (He starts the new job on Monday). I had to work so he was going to spend the day watching Sci-Fi. Sunday we are having his family party since I have the day off.

Thursday night was his going away party from RSM. I went down for it. We had a fantastically fun time and then went to Texas Roadhouse. Delish! Neither of us slept well when we got home. We were both up around 4:15 am so I asked if he wanted to open his birthday presents. He did. He liked them. I got him Freakonomics by Stephen Levy and the 2006 Commerative Stamp Collection book.

I went to work. He came up and got me for supper and then we went to the DaVinci Code. I thought it was fun and thrilling in spots. The theater has been redone. The seats are AWFUL. They are like those video recliners you see in the stores. We were so very uncomfortable.

Happy birthday honey bunny. I love you.

The end is near

We bought a scientific calculator for me so I can do my Beginning Algerbra class. It starts next week. The calculator has lots of buttons, symbols I've never seen, and a cover. It's scary. I wanted to put it in the freezer.

Grades

Three classes. Three grades. A B C. My GPA is 3.19 overall. Not fantastic but not terrible either.

Too much going on

I am too busy and distracted and I'm missing the details of life.
Two things:

1) If you got a wedding invitation the ceremony is at 6 o'clock in the evening.

2) If you got a picnic invite it's being held in Independence.

Frank Lloyd Wright's Cedar Rock 

Alex and Christy on Cedar Rock 

Nick and the Pikman 

Tickled Pink 

Spring Time  

A Passing

Sunday night brought at phone call from my dad. That's pretty unusual as he is anti-phone. I had an "Oh No" moment when I saw his name on the caller id. Turns out my Aunt Doris had passed away sometime between Friday and Sunday. It appears to have been a heart attack. I feel immense sympathy for my 4 cousins who are my age and older. Their dad passed when we were very young. Now their mom is gone. I feel bad that they have no parents.

I'm not close with her. However, she was a permanent fixture of my childhood. My cousins Jean and Wade are the same age as me. The three of us would ride bikes back and forth between our farms. They lived just around the square from us. We'd have week long monopoly games and Aunt Doris would give us cookies and kool aid. We'd camp out in the living rooms and fall asleep to the sounds of her distinctive laughter as she and my Aunt Merry did cross word puzzles and smoked cigarettes. Aunt Doris loved game shows and would have them on TV always. It felt wild and forbidden because my mom didn't believe in day time TV. She had an old green car with vinyl seats and no A/C that we'd all pile into for swimming lessons or when she'd pick us up from practice. If we went somewhere and Jean and I lost track of her, we'd just wait for the cackle and we'd be able to find her right away. She collected red glassware from Avon. She was my Aunt Doris.

The funeral is Thursday.

Crash

Kurt and I watched CRASH last night. I really thought it was good. Everything tied together a little too nicely, but I liked it overall. Kurt was saying how it wasn't really entertaining. I said most Oscar winning movies aren't usually entertaining. It was thought provoking though. I've thought about it several times today. The opening lines of the movie really struck a cord with me.

Tuesday night we went to my book club. I've missed not being able to go. I'm going to arrange work so that I can go from now on. The club started out with a bunch of ladies from church starting at my mom's age (60's) and going up to the middle 80's. Overall it's a pretty conservative bunch. Also a pretty Danielle Steele bunch with a few exceptions. Book club has always been more about the snacks than the books. One of the main problems with it is no one reads the books! I haven't been able to attend for a couple of years. Mom left for Europe that morning so I figured I should go so there would be one more persin that had read the book. This month's selection was Big Thaw by Donald Harstad.

Donald is a former deputy sheriff from Clayton County, Iowa. I lived in Clayton county for 7 years. His first novel 11 Days is a thinly disguised story about life in the county. When I read it several places and people were easily identifiable. It's pretty hard not to work in a convenience store that sells guns and not know the criminal element! The author was at book club and told many great stories about being a deputy and how the publishing industry works. Both aspects of his life were very interesting. Kurt now wants to read the novels, but I can't find them. They must be in one of our overstuffed rubbermaids in the basement. Next month we're reading a book from a series about a town called Mitford. I'm supposed to be studying for finals so I haven't picked it up yet.

Oh yes! The snacks were awesome! There was pre cheesed crackers, fresh asparagus roll ups, mini reuben toasts, cookies, crackers and dip.

Anticipation

Tomorrow is my day off! I am so very excited about it. It's supposed to be 80 degrees and sunny. I might take the pupper for a walk along the River. We both need the exercise. I made big list of to do items today during class. The teacher is awful. She's retyped the textbook onto note cards and lectures from there. She says "one might say" and "quote" constantly. She'd said "quote" 9 times in the first 10 minutes of class. She had a new word of the day today. It was "provocative". She used it 7 times (I didn't start counting until she'd uttered it at least 3x)(plus I bolted at 3:30 - I wasn't even there for the last 45 minutes). She told me the paper I wrote was ...."Provocative." We had to interview a resident of who lived in age segregated housing. It started out:

"Sunlight streams in the lace curtained east facing window. A white haired woman in a pink quilted house coat looks out at the birds feeding on seed scattered on the ground in front of the Redwood gazebo. She spends her mornings in front of this window enjoying the view. She is Zelma Crowden".

Of course I put it off so I had to make the entire thing up at the last minute. Got an A on it. The teacher said it was "visceral" and "I can see Zelma clearly." Egads. Fake it til you make it. That's what I learned in photography school. Looks like that is a life lesson that carries over.

Kurt is exhausted. He was too tired to do Astronomy homework tonite. We took the quiz over Mars, Mercury, and Venus. I read the material and he did not. I told him I thought we could manage because there was NO MATH in this week's lesson. We can take the quiz 2x anyway. So if we did badly the first round he could read it before we went again. 1o/10 baby! Perfect score first time in under 6 minutes!

The Tally

In case anyone was wondering...In 9 days it was 19 loads of laundry and 15 diswashers full.

Sunday night blahs

• I wish I had a job that I didn't have to work at night or on the weekend.
• I wish I didn't have this awful cold/whatever and I could cough without peeing and talk with out croaking
• I wish it didn't cost so much to go to the theatre. Mom, Marn, and I went to the LION KING on Friday night. The costumes/staging was spectacular! The music...not so much. There are so many cool shows I'd like to see but it's not like I have the time or money to go to Chicago/Minneapolis/New York to see them.
• I wish I were nicer to my husband.
• I wish I wouldn't let people's offhand comments/tones/inflections get to me.
• I wish my brave little tulips would continue to brave the unpredictable Iowa weather & the rat-fink squirrel and bloom already!
• I wish we'd hurry up and buy the house so I could rip the hideous, peeling wall paper out of our bedroom.
• I wish it were the weekend already.

Busy Busy

We've had a pretty decent weekend. Saturday, while Alex was at his girlfriend's band solo contest, Kurt, Nicky, Christy, and I went to Spillville to the Bily Clocks www.bilyclocks.org. It's a museum I'd gone to as a kid. My family was always big on educational day trips. It was cooler than I remember. Dvorak spent a summer there so the upstairs has an exhibit about him that I didn't recall. The museum has various collections of stuff like Indian artifacts, rocks, and other clocks. We got in for a family rate and got a guided tour!

As long as we were in the area we drove down to see Ft Atkinson. It was a fort helping to protect the Indians from 1840-1849. It was a bit chilly but the kids got to run around for a while.

The next stop was the world's smallest church in Festina. St. Anthony of Padua was built in gratitude after a mother's son returned from the Napoleonic Wars unharmed. The brochure said the son was the only veteran of those wars in Iowa. (I found that hilarious).

Our next stop was to a Fish Fry. It was worth the wait! They had that yummy sweet colesaw with poppyseeds. I love that stuff! However, I think fish frys are going to be an activity we pursue once we are childless.

Sunday, Christy and I went to the Taste of Grace Tea at my home church. Mom had invited us. She emceed and did a great job. The had 50 different sweets and savories for us to load up on our snack trays. The accordion Club of Iowa was part of the entertainment. They were pretty good, but 2 hours of on and off accordion music is more than enough. While we were there the boys had some male bonding time. They did archery in the side yard and some yard clean up.

We got everyone to and from their first day of school with us. Nick has a 50 pt project due on Wednesday. He wasn't going to do it because he didn't have any money for tagboard. GRRR. Kurt and I have been working with him on that.

In order to amuse myself I'm keeping track of the number of loads of laundry and dishes during our week with the kids. It's for 9 days. Any guesses??

Heading out to Mother - Daughter Tea 

The Spread 

The goofballs at the Bily Clocks museum 

Christy opens the cannon window at Ft Atkinson 

They arrive!

My week as a full time soccer mom has begun. I ran some laundry, stuck supper in the oven, did some dishes, and went to get #2 at soccer practice. Kurt arrived at 6:30 with kids #3 and #4. #1 stayed at the farm saying he'd come over "if we did something special". You all can guess how I reacted to that :)

I'm out of the dreaded 'pac until Monday, April 3rd. Today was supposed to be my official date of separation. I got to work, fired up my computer, and saw I had a calendar reminder that said, "Last Day at Work - 59 minutes overdue". So sad. I wanted to try and keep it up so it could continue to tally for me until our next mythical close date in August. It didn't work though.

I have big plans for my vacation next week. I want to order wedding pictures, finish wedding preparations, work on the kids' scrapbooks, figure out some curtains for the living room, and sell my grandpa's truck. I'd also like to make it through some more boxes. Maybe part of my plan should be to be a such a fantastic wifey-poo and evil step mother that Kurt sees the light and says, "screw the severance! Go ahead and quit!"

Irritation

Kurt and I have reached the point in our marriage where we irritate each other. JOY! It mostly has do to with my sister giving the entire family the plague last week which made our vacation less than relaxing. (I never knew one man could hold so much gas)("hold" might be the wrong word). Therefore, Chicago was fun but not f**king fantastic fun like I had hoped. We did have an AWESOME room at The Seneca. It was 1 block from the Hancock Tower and 2 blocks from Water Tower place. Despite the ick, Kurt, Amy, Rikki, and I had a good time. We had tapas at www.CafeIberico.com, we went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Museum of Science and Industry. We also hit the Cheesecake factory, and Second City. Oh yeah and World Bazaar and the Container store.

Now back to the irritating. The children are irritating, my job (which will NEVER end) is irritating, and spring break being over is irritating. Also, one of the stones fell out of my wedding band. The REALLY irritated me. I was mostly over being a crabby crabberson by Sunday. I'm trying to remain in a quasi good mood this week.

Next week we have the kids full time. I can't begin to fathom how much food and laundry that's going to entail. We pick them up Friday night and don't take them back a week from the following Sunday. Pray for me.

This and That

I've been in a scrapbooking mode lately. I've gotten quite a few pages done as well as finished our vacation album. I was planning on getting all the kids' baby books done while I was Unemployed. So much for that idea.

I downloaded a bunch of free fonts which is cool because I have such terrible handwriting. I'd love to have 12 x 12 printer, but we looked and they are terribly expensive.

My sister tells me Target has scrapbooking paper and embellishments on clearance. Of course, yesterday was the first day in months I haven't checked my email at work!

Thursday I went to CR with Kurt. I dropped him at the office then went in search of business casual pants since we're back to dress code. I power shopped and got 3 pair. It was $80 worth of clothing for $42! Gotta love sales and coupons. However, I was done shopping by 2:30 and not due to pick him up until 5. I checked out the phone book and decided to head to coralville to the Reminisce scrapbook store. It advertises itself as Iowa's biggest and best. I don't think it was either, but it was pretty nice. They had a lot of stuff I hadn't seen before. Apparently they have their own paper line and they are VIP vendors for other stuff. They were all a twitter because some scrapbooking celebrity was coming in that night. Thankfully, I'm not so far gone that I know who those people are!

Nicky and I have a lot of homework so I better get us started!

Annoyed!

I found out today that my center is staying open until AUGUST 25TH! I'm completely annoyed! I hate that they expect us to bend to their every whim with no warning whatsoever. "We're closing March 10" "No, wait make that March 29th" "NO wait, August 25th" "What you've planned a vacation, doctors appointments, and committee meetings? That's too bad. OH, and NO we don't know what your schedule will be".

I've had a lot of tenured employees with vacation leave because they were told they would be jobless. They are now in jobs where they don't have benefits.

I guess on many levels me still having a job is good. It's too late for me too pick up more school hours this semester, it will be better for us when when fill out loan applications, and it may help our custody case. BUT it's still annoying.

It's A Feast!

Sometimes I make great meals. Today was evidently one of them. As I set everything on the table, Christy proclaimed, "It's a feast! We've got turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and corn!" The turkey was on sale for .69 a pound. A family of 6 can't resist a deal like that! I've had it for a while, but this was the first week I remembered to get it out to thaw so we could have it for the weekend.

Kurt and I are both sick-ish. We've got hot and cold flashes, stuffy heads, and alternate stuffy and runny noses along with a horrible come and go headache. It's been since Wednesday night. I hope it ends soon.

On an awesome note, this was the last weekend I have to work. My program is going M-F from 8 am to 9pm this next week. Plus I took days off so I only work M W and F this week!

Kurt has to go to MO for work the first week in March. I'm not excited about it in the least. Plus since we have Parent Teacher conferences he'll have to go, come back, and the go again.

I got our vacation scrapbook done. It's 26 pages in 8.5 x 8.5 size. I'm really impressed with a couple of the pages. I should be a scrapbooking Diva and scan in some of the pages. Now I'm working on one of Ryan as well as miscellaneous pictures I have lying around.

A Feast!

The Kiss 

The Wedding Party 

Mr and Mrs 

The Wedding Feast 

White Roses 

The Exchange of Rings 

Still Waiting

I haven't gotten any wedding pictures from the Wonder Twin yet. He didn't have a cd to burn them to last night so when I went to get them today the mailbox was empty :-(

Why is it that right after I move or change my name I get free address labels in the mail? I had some arrive from the March of Dimes the day after the ceremony. UGH. It's hard to get something for nothing these days!

More Changes

As of 1 o'clock February the 8th, I became a Mrs! Kurt and I got married in our civil ceremony (in our living room). Rikki, Amy, and Brian were in attendance along with the magistrate and the dog. It was short and sweet. We are still having our Wedding in June in front of friends and family. This earlier ceremony came about so I can continue to be insured after my job ends.

The five of us went and celebrated at Biaggis. Kurt and I spent the night in the Roman Suite at www.super8ofurbana.com. It was VERY nice ( i was shocked)(plus we got a great deal since it was in the middle of the week).

Hopefully I will have pictures soon. It was a wonderful day. So far it's been a very successful marriage :)

OH and we sold the other house too!

In front of the Paddle Wheel 

Erosion exhibit at the American River Museum 

The Main Altar at the Basilica in Dyersville 

The Home Stretch

Tonite and Sunday are the last two nights that I will have to work until midnite. Starting on Monday, my program at work will start closing at 10pm. Thank goodness! Kurt and I need the sleep. Our schedules do not jive at all with me not getting home until 12:45 or 1 am.

Work has begun to have state services coming in to help us "dislocated workers". I have a feeling as we get closer to the closing date the staffing around here is going to be pretty pathetic.

I was a bad girl and skipped both my classes this week. I was just too exhausted to go.

Tomorrow is our pretrial hearing for the custody case. It's also the day that the mediation and trial dates will be set. Pray for an open date soon. Unfortunately it will probably be sometime this summer. Let's hope "good things come to those who wait" is true.

It's a struggle

Every weekend it's a struggle to get the kids to do their homework, brush their hair and teeth, take a shower and put on clean clothes. It's ridiculous.

Today we are going to go to Dubuque to watch the Bald Eagles. Christy loves eagles and the weather looks to be decent. Also, we are Fred-less so it's much better for a long car ride. 5 in the car is oh so much better than 6!

I've been up since 5:30 and am thoroughly irritated about it. I need a nap already. I made bacon and eggs on the huge electric griddle we got for Christmas. It worked out awesome + it's fully immersible for clean up!

Christy getting ready for her party 

My honey bunny wishing he were the one asleep! 

My adorable nephew Ryan