Where I've been

Well, here, there, and everywhere! My sister got married, my brother graduated college and became an Army officer, and that was just the past month. Oh, and we moved!

I started a new blog (which I'll probably update more frequently than this one) with some house pictures. Follow me there, if you will, and bookmark it! :)

http://theedgeofthewoods.blogspot.com/

A few highlights...

Here are some photos from the wedding, just because I feel like it. :) These are scans of the professional proofs -- they are much prettier in person. Thanks to Chris and Michele for the great work!

Walking down the aisle:

(My dad and I both hate being the center of attention, so this was challenging! I have a death grip on my dad's arm and my bouquet.)

Saying our vows:

(I love Shane's smile in this picture!)

Cutting the cake, to Dean Martin singing "That's Amore":

Dancing with my dad to Andy Williams singing "Moon River," and crying happy tears:

Dancing with my husband!

More to come, I'm sure. Off to a Christmas party!

Blogging Before Coffee

As the title implies, I'm still shaking the lead out this morning, so bear with me!

What have we been doing lately? Well, for one, digging out! Our friends and relatives who get the much-dreaded "lake effect" snow scoffed at our 10-inch snowstorm last weekend, but it was enough to slow us down for a few days!

No, sadly, we didn't get a dog -- but this is the next best thing, my inlaw's Beagle, Duke.

Duke is rounding the bend of middle-aged and heading rapidly toward senior citizenship, but he's a puppy again in the snow! :)

Fun with my new camera (well, new as of September, but still new to snow!)

Thankfully, I stayed warmer than Mary...

Technically, it's not our "first Christmas together" -- we actually met on Christmas several years ago -- but it is our first as a married couple, and for goodness' sake, you know I'm going to make the most of it! (I love Christmas.)

Shane was downed two weekends in a row by a lingering sinus infection. The first weekend, I took matters into my own hands and cleaned the gutters and put up outside lights while he was sleeping.

The second weekend -- also while he was sleeping -- I decided we (well, I) needed to decorate. He woke up from a nap to find me surrounded by artificial tree parts, ornaments, and watching "It's a Wonderful Life." Don't feel bad for the guy -- he knew what he was getting into!

Things that make our new home feel like home -- a Santa identical to the one at my parents' house. My dad has had his for ages, but he found identical ones at antique stores for my sister and me. (Because he is just that sweet!)

The finished product!

Our new Nativity set (a wedding gift from Shane's aunt and uncle and cousins)

(More fun with the camera)

I hate the way Blogger does pictures. I can't get the spacing right. Oh well, you're going to make me late for work anyway, so that's all for now! Merry Christmas!

Moments of Truth

A conversation with the coffee guy (excuse me, "barista") at one of my local down-home coffee shops. (Not Starbucks, by the way.)

Me: What's the flavor of the day?

Coffee guy: Well, we have this "caramel decadence," which is pretty good.

Me: That sounds good, I'll try that. Medium, please. [Suddenly noticing the "medium" cup is labeled "tall" on the menu.] Oh, sorry -- I mean "tall."

CG: No, no, don't apologize. We should be apologizing for giving them dumb, fancy names.

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Glaring Omissions

Alternate title: Can I still call it a blog if I never blog in it?

What's that? I owe you, my two readers, a wedding/honeymoon post? I know, I know.

Before I can write about our wedding and honeymoon – which were both fantastic, by the way – I would be remiss if I didn’t finish what I started a year ago and wrap up my post about Spain.

(Photo: Madrid, putting up her holiday lights in November)

One morning, we started out thinking we'd go to Toledo for an afternoon. But after spending a couple hours in the wrong lines at the train station, we ended up heading to Segovia instead. (I'm still not sure how that happened.) No worries, because I had visited Segovia on my first trip to Spain, and I really wanted to take Shane there.

(Photos: The amazing Roman aqueduct; the Alcazar)

I was fascinated by the cathedral in Segovia the first time I saw it, and it was no less impressive the second time.

We also visted the Alcazar, and Shane enjoyed the military history -- and made some new friends. (And had me worried we'd get kicked out of Spain for good...) And, of course, we climbed the tower to see the amazing view of Segovia.

A highlight of the trip was definitely meeting one of my favorite expatriate bloggers, Sal. (Soon to be ex-expatriate?) This meeting did not occur without its difficulties.

First: Convincing the Fiancé that Sal would be harmless. The Fiancé, cautious by nature and admittedly blessed with a much better developed sense of logic than me, wanted to know how I “knew” Sal.

"Ehm… he writes funny things on the Internet about life in Spain, and coconuts, and barbecued pork,” I stammered.

“But you’ve never actually met him?”

“Well, no…”

The Fiancé didn't think this was sufficient evidence that Sal was not, in fact, a serial killer, but I used my feminine wiles and convinced him. It was at this point that I realized I should have probably sent the Fiancé a couple links to Sal’s blog before we left home. If there’s one thing he understands, it’s food, and it probably would have only taken one smoker post to lure him in.

What can I say about Sal? Well, I spotted him several blocks from our prearranged meeting point, but his steady diet of haggis and BBQ have apparently given him superhuman speed. He was hard to catch.

We finally did, and proceeded on to a bar (name long forgotten), where Sal introduced me to that potent poison, anis, and we all shared tapas and really good wine, of course.

(Note to readers who may have read Sal's post: I am not as tall as Andre the Giant. I'm 5'7".)

Eventually we made it to the medieval city of Toledo, which is one of my favorite places I've ever visited, despite the fact that I get hopelessly lost on its winding streets.

(Photos: Outside the city, pretending I know where I'm going; Resting our weary feet after a LOT of walking! Hey, it's the best -- and pretty much the only -- way to see Toledo.)

My computer isn't cooperating too well, so, to be continued, and hopefully within a year (kidding!): We finish up our trip with flamenco!

Blog-lite

In lieu of doing something productive, like unloading my dishwasher or getting ready for work:

6 WEIRD THINGS THAT I DO WHILE GETTING READY TO SLEEP OR WHILE SLEEPING
(Inspired by my two readers, Sal and Christina.)

1. I usually wash my face with Clinique facial soap and use Nivea toner, then a little moisturizer. I recently started noticing that I have fine lines at the ripe old age of 24, so the routine is becoming a bit more regular because of my narcissicm. And of course, brush the teeth, rinse with ACT, floss when I remember. I don't really think any of this is that weird, but I had trouble coming up with six things.

2. I can only sleep if I'm covered up. Even if it's 100 degrees, I have to have a sheet pulled up to my ears to fall asleep. Once I'm asleep, I usually kick the covers halfway across the room during the night.

3. I don't remember ever talking in my sleep, but people have told me I do. My sister claims I once swore at her while sleeping, when I was much to young to even know swear words. In college, my freshman year roommate told me I woke up late one night when she was working on her computer, stared at her and said in a strange voice, "You can turn off the Christmas lights now." Another night, she told me I kept saying, "It's in the corner! It's in the corner!" I think I may have scared her a little. :)

4. I usually have trouble falling asleep for various reasons, but once I'm finally asleep, I'm almost always dead to the world. (Christina -- I think I might even be able to sleep through a German marching band outside my window at 4:30 a.m.) I'm hoping this will change when I have children... or maybe not. My mother has super-sonic hearing capabilities, but I don't think she ever truly sleeps, which can't be fun.

5. When I was a child, I had several recurring dreams, and objects in one dream (including a trash can outside my elementary school) would reappear in different dreams. Many years later, the dreams still don't make sense.

6. In college, the aforementioned roommate and I had wildly different sleeping patterns, and I took to sleeping with a pillow over my head. I still do it sometimes. My fiance thinks it's strange, until I told him about this. Ick.

See? Not that weird! :) OK, maybe the last one.

Blog-lite will likely continue for the next couple months. Wedding planning is like a part-time job, especially for someone as particular (not picky!) as me. Right now we are moving into DEFCON 3 with the invitations, which WILL be mailed by Saturday. The fiance and I spent a couple hours last night stuffing them. He kind of rolled his eyes when I told him to make sure the text on the map and on the response envelope are facing the same direction. I don't think he shares my vision! Good thing we love each other, in spite of it all.

We have a guest room full of delightful gifts from two bridal showers that friends and family have given me, so the next order of business is cleaning all the hand-me-down pots, pans, and dishes out of the cupboards to make room for the shiny new stuff.

Anyway, I know none of this is particularly exciting to anyone but me and maybe my mother. :) Now you see why blog-lite is probably a good idea, at least until I have some lovely wedding and honeymoon photos to share!

Ocho

Memes are blogging-lite, which seems to fit the theme of my little corner of the web. I'm tagging myself from Christina's meme (see the link to Mausi's blog on the sidebar):

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.
2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.

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Things you probably didn't know about me...

1. I have more than 30 FIRST cousins. About half are married with children, and a few even have grandkids. Planning the wedding guestlist was a bit of a challenge!

2. When I was little, I wanted to be a ballerina. Being too tall, with too-big feet, and a complete lack of coordination killed that dream, but I still love ballet.

3. I still love Christmas the way an 8-year-old does.

4. I grew up in the country, where my sister, brother, and I used to catch frogs, toads, lizards, salamanders, the occasional snake -- anything that would make my mom shudder and order us to "get that out of here right now!" Despite my friendliness with the reptile and amphibian kingdoms, I hate bugs and I'm really, really scared of spiders.

5. In my short journalistic career, I've covered an execution, at least 10 homicides (four who were little girls), two drownings, and more violent crimes, fatal car crashes and sick people than I care to count. (No wonder I need a vacation!)

6. My grandfather was a state poet laureate and wrote the official state poem of Indiana. (Bet you didn't know there was one!)

7. I have a strange way of eating Skittles, M&Ms, or any other small colored candies. If I eat a red one on the left side of my mouth, I have to eat a red one on the right side. (And so on with the other colors.) If I only have one red one, I bite it in half. I've done this as long as I can remember. I realize this makes me a total freak, and I've tried not to do it, but it just comes naturally.  

8. In grade school, the mean girls in my gym class called me Olive Oyl (Popeye's girlfriend) because I was so skinny. When I went home and cried to my mom, she laughed because they called her the same thing in school. She told me that in 10 years, I would thank the lord for my metabolism. (She was SO right, as usual.)

I won't tag anyone either, but go ahead and do this if you want!

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