Naturally Optimistic

ACK!!!! I'm a Mrs. An "other half." A Spouse. A newlywed. I love it! The wedding was amazing. Even though the weather wasn't quite cooperating....(ahem) the day was still beautiful. We ended up getting married right in the ballroom where the reception was due to the rains & wind but it didn't matter. The room was cozy and filled with candlelight and we said the vows and heard the music and listened to our aunts do readings and the minister give his sermon. We gave each other rings and a kiss and were announced as husband and wife!!! *sigh* The reception was so much fun (albeit a crazy whirlwind) and after the reception we had a campfire on the shores of lake superior - as the weather had cleared. The most amazing thing was the NORTHERN LIGHTS put on a spectacular show....just for us (or so I think!!). So many people came to the "after party" - we roasted hot dogs, drank beer and wine chatted chatted chatted - it was an amazing night. I will post mor...

I'm in the lobby of the lodge. The reception room is decorated. The lights are hung. I need to shower! ha. I'm off to get my hair done and put my veil on and it still doesn't quite seem real. It's amazing. The weather is CRAPPY with a capital C. 52 degrees. drizzle. Wind. Ugh. Oh well! I'm off to shower! ack. Next time I blog I'll be a bride. :-)

My co-workers just gave me a lovely (and yummy) DQ cake to send me off! Whohoo! It is our tradition here to do things like cakes & potlucks and happy hours when someone leaves, gets married, has a baby etc so this was cool. Since I'm leaving in 10 mins though they had to change the time from our usual 2 to 11...I don't think anyone really minded having ice cream cake before lunch. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

I'm still here (at work) but not for long. I asked for a 1/2 day today because, let's face it...I'm not really doing much work anyway. :-) Last night my friend Sarah H . made it to my house (she is the transplant to LA and is now back in MN for a few weeks and to be at my wedding!! whohooo!). We went and filled up a large bucket full of Lake Superior Rocks (which we will return) for the centerpieces. We also ran errands and ate salad & breadsticks at The Olive Garden. Back at home I putzed with the music list, gift bags and photos...there are a few things left to be done and I want to get them done before my head explodes. Ha. I also want to clean my house before my parents arrival tomorrow. That's causing me the most stress right now. And it's not even that bad it's just not as tidy as it should be. OH and there's cat pee on the wall that I have to clean up. *sigh* Why do my furry friends do this to me?!?!? So yeah, here, not here, brain...full and fuzz...

but not really here. Ya know? The lady bugs are incredibly close to each other, having sex practically, and that means that there's only 5 days left til the wedding! ACK. My weekend was semi-productive. I saw two plays ( Barefoot in the Park and Junie B. Jones and a Little Monkey Business ), went to a pub for a couple pints, worked on the slideshow for our reception, tried to organize pictures, started putting the dance music in order, went to a "hat" party (hats required, I sort of cheated & wore my tiara & veil from Vegas), worked on the slideshow & music some more, cleaned out the "wrapping" dresser (yes, I have a dresser just for gift bags, tissue, wrapping paper & bows) and worked more on wedding stuff. It went FAST. And today.....I just am NOT in the mood to be here at work. There are still a few things left on my "to-do" list. I am obsessively checking the weather forecast on weather.com even though I KNOW that they cannot predi...

My friend Peder is on his quest to read a bunch of American Classics - not sure what the "official" title of this project is (the book project?) but he posted today that he's starting My Antonia by Willa Cather next and as that's something I have not read and I've always wanted to be in a "book club" I thought this was the perfect time to join in. So - there you have it - my next book will be My Antonia - care to join us?

This is a fabulous recipe from the Hollyhocks & Radishes cookbook which I received last month at a wedding shower. I made it for the 2nd time last night and it's really quite tasty & not too putzy to make! So if you have a lot of tomatoes in your garden, this is a good recipe to put them to use. Chicken Breasts in Tomatoes & Cream 6 boned chicken breast halves I use the chicken breast strips 3 Tbsp Butter 1 Onion thinly sliced 1 Clove garlic, minced 1 Tbsp flour 3 Med. tomatoes, peeled & sliced 1/3 C. Sour Cream 3 Tbsp. grated parmesan cheese salt to taste In a large skillet, over medium-high heat, sauté chicken in butter until lightly browned. Remove. Reduce heat to medium & cook onion & garlic until soft. With a flat whisk, stir in flour & brown for one minute. Add tomatoes & return chicken to pan. Cover & simmer gently over low heat for 20-25 minutes. Stir in sour cream, parmesan cheese & salt to taste. Heat to serve, but do not allow to b...

Here is how I spent my weekend (aside from worrying about my Grandma...) My friend Michelle helped with putting the chocolates in the bags. Ay yi yi - it was a big project! Cutting the favor tags on my new 12x12 paper cutter I cut a lot of these buggers. I added some color using chalks. And I had a little 'help from my friends' as I watched a Beatles DVD while working on my laptop. Yum! Chocolate Covered Sunflower Seeds! I ordered 24 pounds of these babies! Each bag was carefully filled. Then I folded and stapled the tags on top. Voila! Wedding favors at a fraction of the price (of ordering them pre-made). Of course it took all weekend....

Thanks for all the sweet comments & emails about my Grandma. She's in great spirits, still in the hospital but will either go home today or tomorrow. She is enjoying the fine care that she's getting at Mayo - particularly the sponge baths by a very nice gentleman! (that is just so funny to me). No word yet on prognosis or treatment but as of now she is still very excited about coming to the wedding still and hopefully she'll be able to.

The email from my Mom: "Dad got home from Rochester about 2:00 today. They finally got to talk to a specialist. It sounds like there is cancer in the adrenal gland and the lymph nodes in the chest area - stage 4- possibly lung cancer. It is not good news." :-(

So my Grandma has a cancerous tumor. And some nodes in the lung area. *sigh* I hate cancer. She was having hallucinations last week -wild ones! People in her house, dogs that have been dead for years, Israelis (?) having a party in her room, cousins of mine there with her being loud, etc etc. They took her to the hospital. It was due to taking Tylenol PM. Did you know that anyone over age 50 should NOT take Tylenol PM? Something about how it affects your system and it's common to hallucinate with it (!). Anyway - they did more tests, they sent her via ambulance to Mayo Clinic (a benefit of living in MN no doubt). She's feeling much better and just basically "hanging out" there til they figure out what to do. She had her 83rd birthday in the hospital on Thursday. They thought it was her adrenal glad. They did a biopsy. They found cancer. I am sad. Just found out late last night. My Dad will be going over there (Rochester) this morning to hopefully talk to a specialist....

I'm so pissed! I was washing up our new-never-before-used-martini-glasses that I got at a bridal shower so we can use them tonight and I was being OH SO CAREFUL when I washed them because I'm a paranoid freak and then the last one bumped the edge of one already in the drying rack as I was setting it down and BROKE. :-( WAAAAAAAAAAAAH! I know, a silly thing to be bummed about but I am! We hadn't even USED them yet. They don't seem *that* delicate but apparently they are. Man that sucks. :-( They're from Target so it's not that big of a deal but it bums me out nonetheless. Hmph.

in the time it took me to go from my 'blog to logging in to Blogger. Wow. I am super lame. Well, anyway - it's a hot Friday night here in Duluth....we went for a hike after work, made tacos at home for dinner, then I started working on the favor tags & watching THE BEATLES: THE FIRST U.S. VISIT on my Mac in the kitchen (multi-tasking). I'm not nearly as done as I need to be for the night....but I'm tired....and the bed is calling for me...hmmmm..... Tomorrow's plans include: cleaning litter boxes, more favor work, cleaning the whole house, actually..., working on my massive "to-do" list of pre-wedding stuff rounded out by an evening of stuffing favor bags & hanging out with my friend Michelle (hi Michelle!) while watching some sort of flick and trying out the new martini glasses ifyouknowwhatImean. :-) Sunday I'm taking Miss M to a play and will hopefully get my car washed, the front porch door finished amongst numerous other "to do" ...

My lovely Mac has been in and out of the shop now for the past month. It started initially with the battery never getting charged up. I would get the "evil X" icon and never a lovely lightening bolted battery icon. That was okay - I mean I could still work with it plugged in and I managed to get a couple of weddings edited that way. Turns out it was a faulty battery connection and after taking it in, the computer place sent it directly to Apple for repair. It came back in a timely fashion - yay! I was getting nervous as I am doing a slide show for our wedding reception on it and we're playing our reception music from it. I was overjoyed when I got it back....on a Tuesday. Right before Vegas. I was frantic that week with finishing up bachelorette gifts and packing so didn't really use the computer. I got back on Monday - didn't use the computer. On Tuesday I had to set up my new iPod (HAD TO) and that was the first time I used it. Wednesday I went to turn it on and...

So, I was able to cross a few things off ye olde wedding "to do" list today... *try on our wedding bands at the jeweler's and find out the balance on the account *apply for our marriage license *go through all the leaves (literally hundreds) that we collected and have been pressing for almost a YEAR! They are beautiful and will look lovely on the tables. I'm so glad we decided to do this instead of the fake ones. I have Steve to thank for that. Now, bedtime....

I'm feeling a bit blah. I spent the evening with Miss M and I just feel like sometimes I am not a very good mentor. Today I didn't have enough activities to keep going (our "plan" was to work on our knitting projects but I could tell she wasn't that into it). We played a game with dice (Yahtzee!) but to me the dice were too loud, and they were flying everywhere and she was taking so long and I was getting annoyed (within myself - never showed outwardly) and I was sometimes annoyed with her. I feel like the worst human being ON THE PLANET for saying that. I don't know if it's PMS or wedding stress or tiredness or what but I just wasn't into it tonight. :( This makes me feel like I'm no where near ready for motherhood (yet I think I am) and that I am an awful human being who's trying to do something that maybe I'm not suited for. Or maybe I'm just having a bad night of it. I don't know. I'm not giving up I just need to go to bed I...

Um, okay - the LADY BUGS on my wedding counter ARE TOUCHING!!!! t-minus 16 days til I'm a married woman!! ACK!

Okay - time to wrap up this recap already... Sunday my LA friends (all but one) were on the road by 7am (!) as they had things to get back for and did not want to get stuck in the horrendous Las Vegas to LA traffic. I got up and groggily hugged them all and thanked them so much for everything and then got all excited again because I get to see them in less than a month! The rest of us got up later. We lolled about a bit, packed, cleaned and then schlepped two loads worth of luggage and extra crap over to the Hawthorn Suites just off the strip. Heather (who lives in LA) had her car so was kind enough to assist us in this endeavor. We couldn't check in yet to the other hotel so we headed to the Hash House a Go Go for pancakes as big as pizzas and biscuits & gravy that came in a trough. It was really, really good. I wanted to go there since last winter when I saw the restaurant profiled on The Martha Stewart show. It was fun to be there and eat that yummy breakfast goodness. And i...

Saturday morning started slowly - which was fine. I slept like crap so was wide awake by 8am which is abnormal for me (of course I was still on Minnesota time). I was a bit anxious because my last friend to arrive was getting in at 8:30am and we were expecting a phone call. Plus the condo's kitchen and living room were a bit, uh....messy and that was bugging me and I needed to tidy up. (visions of my mother danced in my head....) We slowly (as a group) started coming around. I got up, tidied up and felt much better. My friend who was arriving called and said she wasn't coming due to her 9 month old having a fever and being at the doctor after they were all up all night. That was a huge bummer but I understand. This was going to be her first time away and I know that can be filled with anxiety under normal circumstances but then to also have the baby not feeling well, well, that would be too much. Eventually everyone was up and the girls in the 2nd condo came down to join us. Sa...