Another weekend, another wedding...

Well we had another wedding this weekend. Who could have ever guessed that?! This time it was for one of Joe's friends from high school, Brittany. Her and her new husband Max tied the knot up the north shore toward Two Harbors and then had the reception at Northland Country Club in Duluth. They only had 20 guests at the wedding ceremony but everyone was invited to the reception which was amazing!

They had a social hour with live music from Saint Anyway and then had the best hor d'oeuvres ever for dinner. Seriously, I couldn't pronounce any of them except for maybe the "grilled fruit" but it was so delicious!

Here's a view of the golf course. To the right you could see Lake Superior off in the distance.

I love how this porch looks...

Here's the insdie where you could eat and eventually the dance was held in here.

Saint Anyway!

The only picture I took besides what the place looked like. Ooops. I was too busy catching up with Alsie who I haven't seen in months!

It was such a fun reception and we wish the Brittany and Max a lifetime of happiness!

Making the good stuff

Tuesday night after dinner, Stella and I made the drive up north to my parents house. Mid-week trips aren't usually our thing but we had something important to attend to on Wednesday. Wednesday was Jelly Making Day with my grandma, Mic. She's been making her own jelly for as long as I can remember and I've been, well, eating that jelly my whole life. Store bought jelly has never seen the inside of my fridge!

Getting out to my grandparent's house Wednesday morning started off on a flat note. And by flat I mean my front, right tire was FLAT! I couldn't believe it. Remember last week when my back tire went out on me? Thankfully, this time around I had a much better ending. For one, my Mom was just leaving for work so I ended up dropping her off and taking her car so Stella and I could get our jelly making on. Secondly, my Dad and I were able to fix it! We pulled out a 3 inch nail and he patched it right up! Whew...glad I didn't have to buy another two tires.

Okay...so moving onto making the jelly. My grandparents picked the raspberries on Tuesday night because it was suppose to rain on Wednesday morning. When I got to the house, Mic was already making the juice for the first batch. Love the color of these raspberries fresh from the garden!

The juice making machine! You put the raspberries in the top, boil water in the bottom and steam the juice right out of the berries!

Juice for our two batches! You need 4 cups for each batch. Each batch makes 4 pint size jars.

Next you take the 4 cups of juice and 7 1/2 cups of sugar and mix it together.

Then you need to boil the juice/sugar mix...

And don't forget to sterilize your jars and lids...

Once the juice/sugar mix starts to boil you add two pouches of certo and then once that starts boiling, cook it for one minute.

After, pour the jelly into the jars, close them up tight and wait for them to pop!

Here's my grandpa in his raspberry patch!

Stella and Molly got to spend sometime playing together (Molly is their black lab) and I got to spend the morning with my grandparents. I love it out there...so simple and peaceful. Thanks for letting me come make jelly with you Mic! Love you both!

He gets me...

For those of you who visited yesterday, you probably noticed that Joe and I celebrated our 1st Year Wedding Anniversary! We decided that instead of getting gifts, our upcoming trip to Chicago was going to be our gift to each other. Now, I've always been a "rule follower" so I of course didn't get Joe anything. Joe, however, broke the rules! He came home from class last night and pulled out a little gift because he wanted to make sure he had someting in case I got him something too! I guess I should learn to break the rules once in awhile:)

I will have to say, Joe did a pretty good job at picking out a little something for me. He  totally"gets" me. What is it you ask? Well, he got me my own personal herb starter kit!! WHOOOOO!!!

 Some of you are probably thinking, "Really Joe? You got her a crate full of dirt and seeds?" but when I saw this I'm pretty sure my face and giddiness showed my excitement. I've been wanting a garden but 1) we don't have the space for one 2) I'm sure the squirrels would eat everything, I mean, they eat literally through our garbage can for heaven sakes and 3) we don't have the best sunlight throughout the day.

With this I can grow basil, cilantro and parsley right from my kitchen window sill!

My seeds are planted so hopefully they grow now!

The directions said to cover the crate with saran wrap until my seedlings started to sprout up. My fingers are crossed!

Thank you to my awesome husband! We're both sick today, he stayed home from work...what a lovely way to start our next year of marriage together:) At least I got to plant my herbs!

One Year Ago Today...

One year ago today I married the love of my life, my best friend. I know it sounds totally cliche but you know what? it's the gall darn truth! It has been one adventure after another this first year of marriage. Joe continued working on his Master's and I started Nursing school. We welcomed Stella into our home in January and even started a business together. We've been keeping busy with traveling and finding time to just sit with each other between everything else - even though that doesn't happen as much as we'd like.

This past weekend we spent it up at his parent's cabin in Minong, WI. It was the perfect getaway with great weather and lots of sun and water.

On Friday and Saturday we took the boat over to a couple of the sand islands in the middle of the lake. Here, Joe and Stella are playing fetch on Eagle Island.

Our private island for the afternoon and my favorite spot!

Out for a sunset boat ride!

And now sleeping...

Our humble abode for the weekend!

Two islands in the lake. The one on the left we spent Saturday at and the one on the right is known as "Party Island". You can usually find many boats parked up along the shoreline during the day!

My girl and I!

Stella and Joe!

Joe went for a sunset dip in the water. Stella really wanted to join:)

We had a hard time coming home on Sunday but know we will be there again soon before summer ends. It was the perfect to getaway to just hang out with each other, eat lots of food, go to bed early because we were exhausted from the sun and just be together.

I'm not sure what the next year of marriage will have in store for us but if it's half as good as this past year has been, well I guess we'd be pretty blessed.

Let Me Tell You About MY Day...

It all started this morning and I was going to have a great day!

I finished my summer class (whoo to the hoo) and after went to get my hair cut. Sounds like a normal day so far, right?

WRONG!

On my way home my tire pressure light came on. Now, its done this a few times before (mostly in the winter) and I was about 10 miles from home so I decided to just check the pressure when I got home. Well, I didn't make it home. When I pulled up to my first stop light I could hear a very strange noise. The light turned green and I started to drive but this time the noise got louder so I pulled over to check it out.

Lo and behold I had a flat. Dang it! My first ever flat tire. Not as special as I'd hoped it to be. As I'm reaching for my phone to call Joe, a guy happened to be walking by so I asked if he knew what number I needed to call to have someone come and fix my tire. His response, "Ghostbusters".

Ahh, a funny man.

The next thing I know he's telling me to get out the jack and starts working on changing out my tire. Not only did I get one gentleman to help me but I got two! I guess I found the spot to get a flat tire when you're in St. Paul. They both work at Cosetta's - a fun Italian place to eat at that I had happened to park in front of. The only form of payment I had on me was $5 but they said I should just come in and eat at Cosetta's sometime. So Joe, I guess we're going on a date soon!!

I am so thankful for the two of them! Praise God!

At this point I have my donut on and I finally make it in the driveway. First things first, let Stella out. Poor girl had been in the house for about six hours at this point. I went upstairs to grab something and she had gotten into one of the garbage cans and proceeded to shred everything up as well as chew one of Joe's belts in half! He still doesn't know about that one yet:)

Ugh. It just keeps getting better and better.

No, I'm serious...

I called the Ford dealership near our house to make an appointment to get my tire fixed. I got there at 4pm. I left at 6:30pm!!! At this point I'm thinking, you have GOT to be kidding me! I guess a nail had gone through the side wall of my tire which means you can't patch it up and be on your way. Nope. It meas you have to buy not one tire but TWO tires because of reasons like "unequal tread" and "balance"! Total cost: $408! And the service guy felt a deep spot in his heart to knock of a whopping $20.

Here's one for you Mr. Service Guy....How about you knock off $200 and give me back the hours I spent in your waiting room watching Judge Judy and seeing about ten other folks walk in and walk out before you came and got me?!

And now, I sit here.

$408 poorer.

Laundry needs to be done.

Grocery shopping needs to be done.

And I'm ready for bed.

We Got Hawks

On Sunday I was outside doing a little reading and noticed there was a lot of noise going on. And by noise I mean birds. And by birds I mean hawks. There are three of them that have a nest in a nearby tree and must have found something to sing about. Although, I wouldn't call it singing...it's more like squawking. I managed to snap a few pictures of one of them.

At this point it looked like he lost his balance and started falling a bit before he flew off.

Then I noticed this pretty fella.

The hawks were out and about again this afternoon. Not sure if there are little ones in the nest or what but they are loud! They can take the squirrels...I'm not a fan of them eating through my garbage can.

Alison & Bryon Get Married!

My friend Alison and her now husband got married this past weekend in Excelsior, MN out on Lake Minnetonka. It was hot and humid but it didn't matter and it was still a beautiful day. Friday after rehearsal we had the Groom's Dinner at the Wayzata Yacht Club.

Alison (the bride), Brit, Kristina and myself - just missing Lindsey who couldn't make it because she's busy being a peds resident in North Carolina!

Alison and her girls!

The morning of us ladies got ready at Alison's Mom's house where we had our hair done and ate a delicious breakfast. Soon after we were taking pictures at The Old Log Theater where the ceremony and reception took place.

The married couple! Off to take a pontoon ride on the lake!

Now a little story about the boat ride. First, the guy was 10 minutes late and we almost didn't get on the pontoon at all. Then about 5 minutes into it all, the driver goes straight on into a wave and water starts coming over onto the deck of the pontoon. Alison's dress got soaked about a foot up and two groomsmen who were in the front of the boat got wet too. We thought the boat was going to go under because of the amount of water that kept coming over.

That was not the first and only time it happened either. On our way back to the docks it happened again. And then when we got to the docks, the driver went straight into them trying to park the boat and we almost lost a groomsmen off the front. It was seriously the scariest boat ride I have ever been on and I was so happy to get back on land. Everyone on the boat couldn't believe what had happened but we're glad we're alive and safe!

The reception was filled with great food, lots of dance moves and memories made. I am so excited for Alison and Bryon - they make such a great couple! Glad I could be part of their special day and celebrate with them!