Happy Anniversary to Us

To celebrate our first anniversary Andy & I took a mini-vaca to Galena, Illinois. We headed out around 7:30 in the morning and arrived with plenty of time to stop and have a cup of coffee at Kaladi’s before our walking tour.

At 10:00am we headed over to the DeSoto House to meet our (highly recommended) tour guide, Steve Repp. Mr. Repp took us on a one hour walking tour of downtown historical Galena.

We learned that Abraham Lincoln addressed the public from the balcony of DeSoto House and people gathered around, crowding in the very street we were standing upon.

We were told about the great floods that nearly wiped out the entire downtown area until the flood walls were built. Over the years the streets and buildings have been updated but the public has fought to preserve the history of this little town as best they can.

 

 

Notice the curve of the street & the buildings: 

 After our tour we did a little shopping. (Mostly window shopping.) I love all the cute little shop! Lots of antiques and novelties to be found. I like to look at everything but don’t really care to bring a bunch home. We did enjoy some delicious treats from the Rocky Mountain Candy Factory. Andy & I have never met a sweets shop we didn’t like. (Reminded me of when I visited him in South Texas when we were first dating; we went to this open air mall and gorged ourselves on chocolate, toffee and other goodies.)

 

Then we had a couple drinks at the Grape Escape as we watched our Hawkeyes win another game! After a couple hours of walking around we thought we’d go tour the Ryan Mansion.

 The wind was blowing and we huddled on the front porch. The sign read “No reservations necessary! Tours begin approximately every 15 minutes. Ring bell and we will be with you momentarily.” Perfect timing! It was 11:55pm. So I rang the bell and we waited. And waited. Waited some more as the wind contined to whip through our clothes. Andy rang the bell. We continued to wait. The wind continued to blow. At 12:05 we decided we were done freezing and did not want to see the mansion that badly. Guess they must not have wanted our $20 that badly either. Oh well.

As we were waiting there we discussed how cold it was going to be at the Parade that evening so off to Wally World we went to get some long underwear, gloves, a scarf, and some kind of earmuff/headband thing-a-majig. We were geared up, ready for the Halloween weather so we headed back downtown and waited for the parade to begin.

The parade was a lot of fun – TONS of costumes everywhere! Lots of fun floats but I think my favorite at the time were all the hot air balloon baskets that were shooting flames overhead; it was REALLY warm! Andy got a video, which I will try to post soon.

After the parade we walked down to the DeSoto House where we had our Haunted Dinner!

When I booked I had no idea what we were in for. There were people in full costume and full character all night! Ghosts and historical characters reenacted scenes from the early 1800s. Ulysses S. Grant and his wife even visted our table asking for our votes. Well, Andy’s vote anyway, as I would not have had the right to vote at that time. To remind me to stand up and fight for my rights, Susan B. Anthony and a couple other women stopped by to remind us to push for women’s right to vote.

After dinner we went up to the ballroom for dessert with the Paranormal Research of Illinois. This group gave a presentation and showed us actual footage of some of their investigations around Galena & Illinois. I loved it! Andy is convinced it was purely entertainment. I respectfully disagree. If you’re into this kind of thing you should visit their site and check out the audio and video clips – spooky!! The evening wrapped up just before the stroke of midnight so we drove to the Country Inn and Suites and promptly fell asleep.

Wow. What a jam-packed, fun filled day. I would highly recommend a trip to Galena if you’ve never been. Our original intent was to do some wine tasting, which is one thing Galena is known for. However, we never got around to it. And that’s okay, that just gives us another reason to go back.

I told Andy that we should plan a trip every year for our Anniversary. Halloween is probably my favorite holiday and there’s sure to be something going on no matter where we go. He liked that idea and suggested Vegas next year. Sounds good!

Have you ever done these things in Galena? What else should we put on our list of things to do next time? Where would you suggest we go to celebrate future anniversaries?

A Good Marriage

Okay, so I’m guilty of posting this late and back dating it, but I’m trying to stick with my weekly schedule of Thankful Thursday one way or another.

This week I am thankful for having a good marriage. No, a GREAT marriage and a wonderful partner. On November 1 Andy & I will be celebrating our 1-year anniversary and I couldn’t be happier. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had so many consecutive days of being happy. And as he always says, “we’ve got a lot of life to live.” I can only hope so.

To celebrate we will be headed to the beautiful little town of Galena this weekend to walk downtown, maybe do some shopping, tour a mansion, enjoy a little wine tasting, maybe catch the Halloween Parade and I cannot believe it,  but Andy agreed to a Haunted Dinner & Ghost Tour! =) See, I told you he’s the best!

What are you thankful for today?

Safe Travels

For today’s edition of Thankful Thursday I am so thankful for Andy’s safe return from the Ukraine. While I don’t mind a few days to myself I was so excited to have him back home again. I could not stop loving on him last night, I missed hugging my Giant. He was exhausted and is still trying to adjust to the time change but at least he is home.

Check out these fun souvenirs he brought back with him:

An authentic Ukrainian weapon (a “good conversation piece” as Andy refers to it):

 

Some of the assumingly most delicious vodka in the world in a very cool bottle:

 

Fun doll toy/knick-knack (I can’t remember the official name of it!):

 

And a cute little amber bracelet:

 

On his flight back they had a layover in Amsterdam. He said it was really neat and that we should vacation there sometime. I’m game for most any international vacation. Perhaps for our 5 yr anniversary?

So Internet, what are you thankful for today?

10 Days

That’s how long Andy will be gone. He left yesterday morning for Kiev to do some equipment training. I know 10 days isn’t really a long time, and like he said it’s no different than when I went to Hong Kong last January. Except, it is different… He’s gone and I am here.

I’ve determined Andy has ruined me. A long time ago when we first started dating I sort of looked forward to my time alone when he travelled. It gave me the perfect excuse to stay up for hours into the night surfing the internet, working on elle Z design or misc. craft projects, and blogging. And now although I still look forward to having time to do those things while he’s away it’s more of an adjustment. I find that I’m not really motivated to much of anything; I’m sort of lost without him. LOL I have no problem locking myself in my workshop for hours if he’s upstairs but not when he’s away.

Actually, it hasn’t been too bad so far. After he left yesterday morning I did a little shopping, came home and did some laundry, then picked up the house (One good thing about him being gone is that my house will stay picked up.)  My nieces came over and the hours passed quickly as they always do when they are here. (I had to make an effort to keep the house picked up, of course!) I got them up and ready this morning and they headed to church with Grandma & Grandpa. Soon I’ll be getting things together for Alyssa’s 3rd birthday party, which we are having here.

I hope I will find the motivation to go to the darn gym at some point. All Andy could talk about is how his trip was really going to hinder his fitness schedule! =) He’s been doing the ActivTrax thing now for about 40 workouts and I must say I am finally seeing the results and he is loving it. I’m so proud of him. Maybe I’ll at least get a run in on the treadmill tonight since this cold weather is NOT helping to get me out of the house.

I think this week will go by fast. I have plans with friends and projects to do so I’m sure it will be over before I know it. Nine days and counting. Hopefully he will bring me back some of that delicious Russian vodka to sample!

Snippets from DC

I was in Washington, D.C. last week for a few days for work. Here are some of my random thoughts from the trip:

• The best airline food I’ve ever had is the cookies served by NWA on my first flight.
• One of the items I left at home in an attempt to lighten my load (as I always try to fly w/o checking luggage) was my conditioner, thinking I’ve never seen a hotel that didn’t offer shampoo and conditioner. I tried the eco-friendly freebies at the hotel and decided I did not like the conditioner. The second day I thought maybe I should try using more to see if that worked better. Luckily I read the label closely this time; it was actually lotion. Oops. But I did enjoy the new less-waste soap design:

• To further frustrate my morning shower experience, my room is equipped with a handicap shower. At first glance I thought, hey, more room, bonus! But the design is seriously flawed. The removable shower head is stuck smack dab in the middle of rectangular shower and I can’t seem to angle it in any direction that doesn’t directly flood my floor outside the shower. Grrr.

• Tuesday night is “Queen Night” at the Donovan House rooftop bar (and it was FABulous!)
• Google Maps and a patient husband on the phone are wonderful things when you don’t know where the heck you are at 10PM stumbling walking back to your room after an evening of dinner & drinks with associates. There are loops everywhere – take the wrong street & it’ll put you blocks away from your destination!
• The city is awesome, lots of people out and about but not the super-jam-packed-hustle-and-bustle that is NYC, but just right.

• Walking to work is wonderful.
• The glass doors to the showroom are so clean I nearly walked face first into them not realizing there was indeed a door in front of me. True story.
• I saw pigeons eating discarded hot wings. That seemed so very, very wrong on so many levels.
• I saw I guy walking around wearing jeans, a button down shirt, and a Mr. T-ish gold chain (just one though) carrying a single dumbell that he lifted every now and then. (For exercise?)
• A “severe thunderstorm” warning convinced me not to take the awesome DC Night Tour. =( It is currently cloudy, but no thunder. Should have sucked it up, bought an umbrella, and I could have managed; Stupid weather.
• Took a stroll past the Obama residence and saw the capitol from a distance.

• Luckily, right before my trip I used some nifty Fabrictac

to fix my broken sandals

and make them almost brand new again!

So I got to do a lot of walking around, which was nice.

All in all this was a great trip. I enjoyed the training and really liked the city. I would like to go back with Andy and actually see the sights when I have more time. If/when we go back, what do you suggest we do and see?

You Are My Sunshine (State)…My Only Sunshine (State)

Yippee!!! We’re off to Florida!

Well, not quite yet. But soon. Andy & I have been tossing around the idea of finally taking a honeymoon or at least going on some kind of vacation once school is over. (TWO MORE WEEKS! Wait, 10 days to be exact!) We were almost settled on going back to South Padre Island, Texas but we got an offer we couldn’t refuse this past weekend…

While in Baxter for a double surprise anniversary/birthday party, I was happy to finally meet most of his Florida family. We had such a good time visiting with everyone (unfortunately it was on Sunday so it was a quick trip up and back). We talked about how we wanted to go on vacation and that we’d like to eventually make it down to Florida for a visit sometime too. His cousins were excited about having us come visit and they OFFERED US A STAY AT THEIR BEACH HOUSE! So, after they twisted my arm a little more, I agreed to spend a few days in the hot, hot sun lounging around the sandy beach.

Soooooo excited! I love Florida. Absolutely love it. I went in to work today, submitted my vacation request, and booked the flights tonight for a few days over Labor Day Weekend. Airtran had some great prices too. And, if you sign up for their newsletter you can get $25 off your trip to Florida between now and December! Score!

So, happy graduation to us, right?!

I’m looking forward to spending more time with the other part of my new family and meeting the rest that couldn’t make it here this trip. Do ya think they’ll find it odd if I cry when we have to leave sunny Florida to come back to the too-cold-for-me- midwest??

Milwaukee Trip

After getting the ticket situation figured out we began to walk to find a bus going to Summerfest and my shoes felt funny. This is why:

Stupid shoes. Stupid NEW shoes. For once I tried to not be such a cheapskate and I spent more than I normally would invested in what I thought was a higher quality, comfortable sandal and the darn things fell apart within a couple weeks! That is so my luck with clothing, BTW. This past week I have managed to ruin two shirts that are barely a month old and now this pair of sandals. Luckily, I *think* I can save the sandals with some glue or a trip to the Shoe Hospital. I really like them!

Being the girlscout that I am, I had brought along my brand new $5 special flip flops so at least I was covered. (Forgot my tickets, but packed extra shoes just in case…that’s how my mind works some days.) By the end of the night though, my feet were covered with God knows what after having to walk barefoot in downtown Milwaukee because those suckers KILLED my feet! Not to mention the fact that we got a bit lost on the way back to the hotel. We couldn’t get a cab to stop for the life of us so we walked, and walked, and walked (several blocks out of our way in the wrong direction, we later learned, but we eventually found our way back.)

I had to alternate between the flip flops and bare feet. These were bright white at the beginning of the night:

You don’t want to know what the bottoms of my feet looked like at the end of the night. Gross. And I nearly fell over the next day when I got out of bed and stood up…my feet were SUPER tender!!

* * *

Unfortunately cameras weren’t allowed so I didn’t get any photos of the concert. I also didn’t get any photos of me and Andy. I told him we need to work on that. Neither one of us enjoys having our photo taken but we look back and are disappointed when we don’t have any together.

I did however take a photo of our coffee maker that I loved (because I’m weird like that):

I think I need to add this to my wish list since I only need a cup or two when I make coffee.

Here’s my feeble attempt to get a shot of the stadium as we drove by:

And our view from the hotel room (unfortunately not on the lake side):

It seems like a fun town and we wouldn’t mind going back when we actually had time to visit more places. We went with our two friends, Stephanie & Tim, with the sole purpose of going to the concert and then coming home the next day. For some reason we ended up leaving the concert early to just walk around the Fest. I’m a little disappointed about that, I really wanted to see Kid Rock and we only heard like two songs. But, we were in the lawn seats and were pretty far away. We were having a good time so I guess that’s what really matters.

On a side note we met Kid Rock’s bus drivers while in the Hilton elevator as we went get my other shoes. I was hoping Stephanie would use her super powers to get us invited to the after party but it sounded like they had already had a long week and were planning on heading out at 1AM after the concert. So no dice there.

Steph & Tim had some drama too…an hour into our drive home we got a call from Stephanie. She thought she lost her keys at the concert!! Long story short, she had actually locked her keys in the car and they were able to use a coat hanger to unlock the doors. Silly girl!

Between the two couples the whole weekend was a comedy of errors. But, at least we had a good time, got home safely, and can look back and laugh now that we have these lovely stories to tell, right?!

Note to Self

Self,

Lists are good. You enjoy making lists. Yes, you leave them on sticky notes all over the place, on tiny scraps of paper in your purse and throughout your random notebooks in various places, but that’s okay. I repeat, LISTS ARE GOOD.

Never, never, NEVER try to go out of town again without making and following your list of things to do, things to pack, etc. Otherwise you may travel 200 miles to Milwaukee and realize on your way to Summerfest that you have left your two tickets on a clippy on the refrigerator.

Your loving self,

~L

(Everyone gasps: Oh no she didn’t!!!)

Oh yes. I did. The very moment I realized my stupid mistake I thought I was going to cry or throw up. Or maybe a little of both. Of course Andy was calm and collected (though probably annoyed just the same) and said we’d figure something out.

Luckily, the concierge was nice enough to let me jump on his computer and log onto ticketmaster.com and re-print a new set of tickets. What would we do without the Internet??? Though, had these been actual paper tickets that I picked up or had mailed to me I would have been more likely to put them in my wallet or something.

So, that was our initial drama during our trip to see Kid Rock. Stay tuned…it gets better. (Or I should say worse!)

DIY Poster Collage

While I LOVE digital photography, I’m really terrible about printing and displaying my photos. (I still have to work on wedding photos…maybe I’ll get to it before our 1 year anniversary in November?!)

I saw this awhile back and REALLY wanted to do something similar for my Hong Kong trip photos:

But, I could never find the right map, had too many photos, wasn’t sure about the layout, etc. I thought I’d never get around to it. Then, finally got inspired to just get to work on it. I decided to try to design a sort of photo collage poster so I could show several photos and attach some of my souveniers like money and ticket stubs. I did a layout in PhotoShop, uploaded it to Snapfish, then had it printed at Staples. Once I got it home I adhered my miscellaneous memoriabilia with rubber cement and scrapbooking adhesive – I love it!

What do you think? I thought about designing a PhotoShop template so you could just drop in your photos and make your own if anyone is intersted?

God Bless Texas!

 

After a surprisingly smooth flight (seems I don’t have too many of those!) I made it to the lone star state last night to visit Veronica for her graduation tomorrow.

Thank goodness I went to the library the other day because I’ve decided Dallas Fort Worth does not have nearly enough easily accessible outlets for my laptop so I had to find something else to do between flights.  I read an entire book on the way here. It was an easy read though, I might talk about it later because it made me think. About what? You’ll have to come back later to find out!

Anyway, I’m here in this amazing King Suite in the new Holiday Inn Express. (I’m super glad Andy doesn’t travel as much for work anymore but I must admit I have often been the benefactor of his eleventy-billion points that he racked up when he did travel most of the year.) Giant king size bed (thinking we need one of these at home), marble bathroom counters and shower (another good idea for home) and fun southwestern colors. There is one framed print that I keep looking at. I want it. But it surely won’t fit in my carry on. It’s just a super close shot of the face of a clock. I’d take a photo and share IF I HADN’T LEFT MY CAMERA AT HOME!!! 

Oh yeah, totally walked off without my camera, which used to be more of an appendage to my body. I think I may go buy one today because I feel absolutely lost without it. Before you think “Oh, she’s one of THOSE girls” don’t,  I’m truly not…my camera has been on it’s last leg for about a year. It’s been held together with tape for some time, which was fine with me as long as it worked, but the screen has been going funny. It’s like 5 years old so yeah, it’s time for a new one.

Today’s plan is girl’s day with Veronica and her sisters. Probably going to get our toes done, run some errands (like get me a camera!), meet some of Veronica’s friends and co-workers, then probably visit with her adorable boys when they get home from school. I think we’re headed to Kabuki Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar (yum) sometime too!  Tomorrow is the graduation and reception, then back to Iowa on Sunday.

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