I did this awhile ago, but I am just now getting around to showing it to the world. 

I wanted a wall of photos for awhile. So, even before the wedding I looked forward to doing something like this. Unfortunately it took me another 5 months. But, I finally got it done last month. Since we are gonna be in this apartment for another year it was worth the effort. 

We live in an apartment that allows us limited amounts of nails in the wall. So, I had to think of another way to get those pictures up there. Those sticky wall things are amazing, but can get expensive when you have to buy 4+ packs. So, I got the sticky hooks and used rods that Matt had and ribbon left over from the wedding to limit the money use and I think it looks even cuter. 

Sorry that this is a crappy picture. I took it at 2am right after I finally finished the whole thing. And I am currently too lazy to take another. 

I like it. I hope you do too.

I have a new job. I started a few days ago. 

I have been looking for a little while. Of course I want a job for the summer, along with a couple of college courses I need to get out in the world a little and make some money. 

To be honest I have not been too excited about this. I had an awesome job in Madison before I moved in the fall. I worked at a daycare center. I loved everyone I worked with and new all the kids so well that every day at work was a joy. It was the perfect job. I know my next job would not be as good as the last one. So, it was slightly depressing.

I love kids though, so I knew I wanted a job that involved tiny humans. I didn't know what I would end up with. 

I just started a nannying job for a wonderful family in the area. It is only part time, which leaves me plenty of time for school and perhaps even enjoying some summer fun. But, it pays great (as good as some full time jobs). The only bummer is the occasional commuting traffic jam. 

I get to watch an adorable almost 7 month old little boy about 24 hours a week. Some might imagine that job to be a little boring, but it isn't. I enjoy being alone, I really find it relaxing. I talk all day long to my little boy about everything on my mind. And he just listens and smiles, now what girl doesn't want that in a man? 

The other part of my job that I absolutely love is the fact that I get to have an impact on a little life. Life is so amazingly precious and special. The life of a baby is pure and unspoiled by the world. He doesn't know about stealing or lying or murder. (He may know  a bit about selfishness, because he certainly doesn't enjoy it when I take away his wooden teethers.) I get to pour love and patience and laughter and exciting new wonders into his life. What could be better than that?

I may be a bit girly about it. I know that strong, modern women aren't supposed to like playing with babies. I do. I have a huge container of love in my life. I have been given so much love by so many people and mostly from God. I have to pour out this love. (nothing is worse than stagnant love) There are many ways people can express love. I will admit that I prefer to give it in snuggles to an adorable, chubby little boy. Also, it is a huge plus getting paid for it. 

Someday I will be a mommy. I am very much looking forward to that day. I think it is pretty cool that I get plenty of practice before I have to leave the hospital with a squirmy, crying bundle. I consider myself more prepared every day. hmmmm... I suppose we could think of it as an internship. :)

There are many moments... hours... of crying with this little guy. He is quite upset that his mom isn't there. He is very annoyed that all I have to offer is a bottle. He is very good at expressing that annoyance. I am looking forward to the day he is finally used to the new system. Until then, patience is the best way I can show my love. And, he does look pretty cute when he is crying. 

I will leave you with some picture I took at my last week of work at the daycare in Madison. These are the things I wanted to remember about that terrific, learning place.

Sigh... I love kids, kid's stuff, things that kids do. 

6 months of wedded bliss

On Easter Sunday me and Matt celebrated our 1/2 anniversary. 

I can't believe we are half way to our first anniversary. People who have been married over a year are old and boring. (ha,ha) In October I could never imagine being married for a year. I couldn't even imagine being married for 6 months. 

I can, however, honestly say that I feel the same. A week after our wedding I pretty much felt the same as before I got married though. I think this is just because me and Matt were so close before. The only thing I felt that changed was that at the end of the night neither one of us had to "go home". 

I do very much enjoy living with Matt. If anything has changed it is the fact that I love him more and know him even better. 

Me and Matt spend all our time together. Like... all of it. 

If we aren't in class or working at school we are home together, or at the grocery store together, or driving to one of our parent's house together. 

I never thought I could spend this much time with one person and not be completely tired of them. NEVER. 

But, I absolutely can. 

So, in honor of 6 months I am going to tell you about my top 10 favorite parts of my wedding day. (probably)

In no particular order:

1. being with my absolute best friends all morning and being so utterly girly it is slightly sickening.
I mean, how often do you get to spend the day with all your favorite people? 

2. watching my guests mingle in the last few moments of being alone before the ceremony.
This was just about my only time alone, and this was also the only time I actually cried on my wedding day. I just couldn't believe al these people were here because they loved me.
(good thing I had a moment to fix my makeup)

3. talking to my dad while waiting for our turn to walk down the aisle.
I can't tell you exactly what we talked about but I will tell you it had to do with underwear. It wasn't so much the actual talk, but it was special to me because I know he was doing it to calm himself and me and it was the last thing I ever did before I got married.
(I don't have an actual picture of the moment because we were alone, but this is us just after walking down the aisle)

4. After we walked back up the aisle Matt grabbed me and pulled me into the garage and gave me a huge kiss.
It may be my absolute favorite moment of the whole day. Matt doesn't usually show great amounts of emotion, but at that moment he was so super excited it was too cute. And, it was a great first alone married moment and GREAT kiss! 

(again, no moments of that exact moment... but this is us just married!)

5. It may seem obvious, but actually saying the vows.
We chose to say traditional vows. The reason we did this, is because they are special. You will never say them any other time. I mean, writing your own vows is fine if that is you, but I just think that you can always write each other love letters. I will never say, "for richer or poorer" or "in sickness and health". My favorite, of course, being... "to love and cherish".  I thought a lot about those words before I got married. They mean so much to me and I was so excited to be saying them and being so very sure that I meant every single word.

how great is this view of us saying out vows

6. Dancing with the two most important men in my life.
Of course I loved dancing with my dad. He is a great dancer, and he is my dad. I barely had to think about what I was doing. Dancing with Matt was a little different. We were terrible. I didn't even care. I was gliding (or trying to) around the floor in my husband's arms. I will admit to being slightly relieved when it was over. Don't worry though, we danced later when everyone wasn't watching and had more fun.

7. seeing all the decorations all set up and more beautiful than I could have ever imagined.
My mom did  most of the work. I will admit I was taking it hard for awhile. I felt like there was barely time for me to do anything, and I was worried that the wedding would not be what I wanted it to be. I don't know why I was worried. My mom is a genius, and so is everyone else who helped. My flowers also blew me away and I loved them more than I ever thought I could. I LOVED it so much!

8. The final dance of the night.
The last song we danced to is a personal favorite of me and my sister. (Party Rock Anthem) We had even practiced prior to the event. My whole family got out on the floor. My sister, my mom, my grandma, my cousins, everyone. It was the best way the celebration of my new life could have ended. I felt so loved to know that all those closest to me were happy for me. It was also good to know that some things would never change. 
(these are just some good dancing moments)

dancing with grandma

time for the polka

me and my sister have a long history of some epic dancing moments, usually in our kitchen

9. Saying goodbye to my parents. 
When we left the reception I was in SUCH a daze. I literally didn't know what was happening. I don't know what I said to anyone. I didn't smile for any pictures. I was so happy and so tired. I just got in the car and drove. We went back to my house to pack up our stuff before we left for Green Bay. I realized I hadn't even said goodbye to my parents. They had just given me and best present in my life and I didn't even say goodbye. Well, we were driving down our driveway and at the very end there were my parents. They were just getting home as we were leaving. I got out of the car and gave both of them huge hugs. I had to work really hard to get the words out my throat was so tight. It was a great last moment. I love them. 
(again, not a picture of that moment... but a pretty good one)

10. God

God gave me the most special present of my whole life thus far. I woke up and walked outside and could not believe the day God gave me. Planning a wedding in October in the UP is always a gamble, but I went for my dream and look what I got! It was 80 degrees with a slight breeze. The leaves were absolutely peak color. It was probably the best weather of the whole year. As we said our vows a breeze came and made the tall pines sway above us. I have never felt more love from my daddy God. To this day I can look back and feel special. I have a great father. He loves me more than I could ever imagine. He was there with me and I know He had a great time too. It was my favorite wedding gift, and I will always feel blessed when I think about it. I'm so glad He could be there with us. 

Could I ask for anything more?

my dad is cooler than yours

My dad is cooler than yours. 

I haven't heard those words since I was maybe about 10 years old. But, I will admit that I have since thought about it. 

Those words were the biggest throw down a 5 year old could ever dish out to a fellow 5 year old. As small children that is really all we got. We have parents, a house, maybe a pet (if you were lucky). Our dads are always stronger, our moms are always prettier and our houses are always bigger. It doesn't matter if any of these are actually true. We will defend our claims until the bitter end. 

The thing is, when I was little I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that indeed my dad was better than yours. My dad was a veterinarian. He took care of dogs and cats. He was the only veterinarian I knew. 

Since I didn't know anyone whose dad was an astronaut or who trained tigers for the circus, my dad was by far the coolest dad in the whole world. 

I still believe that my dad is pretty much the coolest dad ever. I mean, maybe it would be cooler if he was a human heart surgeon, or perhaps a special agent or even a famous movie star. But if he was any of those things I wouldn't be able to watch him replace a dog's knee or deliver a batch of puppies. 

I always wanted my children to have the same "cool factor". It's looking like they might not have it quite as good as me. Having a social worker for a mom is anything but exciting. A dad whose an architect is a bit more exciting as far as bragging rights go, however, I guess my kids will just have to rely on the "strong dad" and the "pretty mom". Either that or we are gonna have to buy them horses or something. 

I could go on and on with stories about having a vet for a dad. I could talk about the time a dog gave birth in our laundry room. I could talk about all the cool animals I have seen come in, like deer and baby bears and snakes and birds. I could talk about going with my dad to do presentations in the public school. I could go on and on listing all the surgeries I have seen and the procedures done. I could tell you about the never ending supply of puppies there were to play with. I could tell you about helping my dad haul away dead bodies (animal ones). I could tell you about the awesomest first job of walking dogs and cleaning kennels or about the hours of cleaning empty syringes and pretending every one as a shot I had to give myself. Feel free to ask me about any of these some time. I am more than happy to share. 

Finally, over spring break, my husband was able to see first hand the awesomeness of having a vet for a dad. He got to watch as my dad did a pretty sweet knee surgery and then a few days later was able to assist my dad in another emergency surgery. I'm glad I get to share the awesomeness. I'm glad because of me someone gets to have an awesome dad-in-law. 

watching the surgery

poor dog

Yep, my dad's cooler than yours. Yep, I'm willing to stand by that statement. 

Maybe sometime soon I can talk about how awesome it is to have a mother-in-law who is a court reporter. Yeah, that one is definitely up there as well. 

Chicago Weekend

I went to Chicago with my family this last weekend. 

It was a fantastic time. I drove down with them Friday and Matt drove down to join us for the day on Saturday, then I drove home with my family on Sunday. 

That was pretty much the perfect situation for me. I got to have alone time with my family and  I also got to have a fun day with my hunky hubby. It was basically the best thing ever. 

We drive down on Friday and after we checked into our hotel and got all dolled up we drove into the city. We went out to eat at a perfectly chicagoan Italian restaurant. It was in the old town part of the city, on a lovely street packed with restaurants and the cutest little condos EVER. And probably the best part of the restaurant was the name. "Topo Gigio", which for those of you who don't know, was an adorable little puppet on TV for kids back in the day. How great is that name?

This was my dinner. It was pasta with clams in an olive oil clam sauce with tomatoes and cilantro. It was AMAZING!!!

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me and Em enjoying our meal.




After our meal we went to Second City! Second City is a comedy theatre with both scripted skits and a few improv skits as well. It is a very famous theatre that has launched several famous actors into their careers.
Some of the most famous are:
Peter Boyle (Everybody Loves Raymond)
John Belushi
Gilda Radner
Bill Murray
Bonnie Hunt
Mike Meyers
Chris Farley
Jane Lynch
Steve Carell
Tina Fey
Amy Poehler
And these are only some, probably my favorites.
So, obviously this is a pretty amazing place to be. You never know if the person you are watching on stage could be the next Tina Fey or Steve Carell. A few of the actors there that night certainly made me laugh just as hard, if not more than an episode of SNL, which I happen to watch every week.

A fact I should point out was that there were a few skits that were quite offensive to me. Since I do watch SNL I was used to people making fun of my political views and even my religious views, but these were just a step worse than ones normally on TV. That was a bit disappointing to me. Also, since it wasn't on TV they were much more liberal with their use of sex and swearing. That got a bit old, I mean are we still all so immature that the word sex makes us laugh.
I was, however, able to forget about that stuff once they got into a nice long stretch of absolutely HILARIOUS skits. I was literally wiping away tears at one point. Also, did I mention that me and Emma were sitting in the very front row? yep. One of the actors actually spit on me, and I didn't even mind.
Overall a super fun time. Although, since it got done at 1:00am we were all ready to sleep once we finished that.

the sign outside the building

the whole fam waiting in line

we were having too much fun making fun of this lady

all of us waiting for it to start

that is how close I was to the stage for the whole thing

the old sign

On Saturday Matt came to our hotel and we rode the "L" into the city. 
I LOVE riding the L. I had some coffee and a croissant and sat next to all my loves and rode the half hour into downtown. There were all sorts of people to watch and all sorts of buildings to look at outside and the best part is pretending to be some other sort of person. I was the kind of person who lived in a cute little house in the suburbs and rode every day to my fantastic job in the city with my rich architect husband. *sigh* Perhaps someday. 


We drove the train to downtown and then walked the couple blocks to the Chicago Institute of Art. This was the second time I had been there in a year. Actually, the last time I was there was only 5 months ago. So, I felt like a pro. Of course I loved it. I could walk through art museums until I die. They are probably the most fantastic places in the world, probably only second to the Library of Congress. 
This was the first time I was able to experience the art museum with Matt. It was fun to see the kind of things he liked. And, of course, looking at art with my mom is one of my favorite things. 
Many hours were spent there and we only left as it closed for the day. 

my knight in shining armor 

Emma looking casual

sibling love

my two favorite loves, Matt and Monet

taking a rest

Matt next to Frank Lloyd Wright's actual desk




After the museum we made a stop for some coffee and caught a bus to see my fabulous friend Jake. Another thing I enjoyed was that bus ride. It was like a little taste of Asia. The bus was absolutely PACKED with people. I got completely separated from my family and thus I was able to once again take on a new persona. This time I was a single woman living in a tiny apartment in downtown Chicago, who just happened to have sold her first novel and was working on the second. *sigh*


and of course, there was a stop at the bean. My family had never seen it before. 

he is so cute!

casual Emma

my whole amazing family

almost 6 months with my man

my great parents

kisses

taking each other out




We then we went out and ate an absolutely DELICIOUS Indian meal in little India. It was at my most favorite Indian restaurant in Chicago, possibly my most favorite in America. I just love being the only white people in the whole place, eating my goat curry and drinking my mango lassi. *sigh*


On Sunday I drove home with my mom and dad and sister. We stopped at the mall and ate at chilly's and everything was perfect. 


It was a great weekend. A much needed weekend. I could use weekends like that more often. 


I love my family.