My brother and I were blessed with an amazing mother. Seriously. When I think about how she spent 8 hours a day at work to come home and run me to my practices for piano, dance, show choir, jazz band, volleyball, girl scouts, etc., it exhausts me. I honestly do not know how she had the energy to do it. Not to mention she cooked all of the meals (including different variations of some dishes because I don't like taco seasoning, or meat loaf, etc.), cleaned the entire house every week, managed the finances, did the grocery shopping, etc. I have always appreciated my mother, but as I have matured and have my own 8-5 p.m. job, I am amazed by her.
In honor of her amazingness, Shane and I decided to get her a very special Mother's Day gift and to make her a feast fit for a queen - which turned out to be brats/hot dogs, pasta salad, baked beans and deviled eggs. :) Before we sat down to eat, we gave her her gift:
It has been a couple weeks since my last post. Since the 28th, we have had many things happen. Some happy, like Ben completing his master's program, and some not so happy, like our transmission going out of our car. (Is that proper use of punctuation and sentence structure? I don't care. I'm too tired.)
As I mentioned, Ben has successfully completed his masters program and received an A on his final project or paper or presentation or whatever. SO proud of him!! To celebrate, we went for supper at R.G. Books in Cedar Rapids. Ben ordered a 12 oz. steak and it was huge. He was very excited. He grudgingly allowed me a bite and it was delicious. Otherwise, he ate the entire thing. I was impressed. . .
Continuing with education, my wonderful mother has completed her first year of college!! It is amazing to see how much she has grown and the confidence she has gained from this experience. It is also amazing how quickly that year went by! I always tells her to enjoy her time as a college student, because as soon as you are at a job 40 hours a week you really envy the freedom of the student life. I would LOVE to go to the gym in the middle of the day for a couple hours, or sleep in until 8 a.m. and study with a cup of coffee. Ben agrees, so I know I'm not alone in that thought.
And again with education: I am officially signed up for summer and fall classes at the University of Iowa!!!! I have wanted to be able to say I have a bachelor's in something (anything!) as well as to be able to say that I'm a true Hawkeye and Iowa Alumni. Insha'Allah, that will be a reality in the spring of 2016. I'm excited and nervous for classes to start. I keep having these dreams that I have skipped class the entire semester and am down to finals week and if I don't pass the class then I don't graduate. I'm nervous to fail.
Even when we have crazy schedules, we always try and fit in a "family dinner" at least one night a week. Since it is finally warming up, we are breaking in the grill! We had everyone over this week to make kabobs and socialize. I also like to use the time for some baby lovins from my sweet Goddaughter:
Sweet nugget! :)
Aren't they precious?!
Switching gears to Mother's Day, I was able to celebrate with my mother in Cedar Rapids. She came up on Saturday and stayed through mid-day on Sunday. We did a bit of light shopping and then went for a 5 mile ish bike ride. Ben and I then took mom out to the Lincoln Wine Bar which is my absolute favorite place. Ma has been wanting to try it and they had a cellist playing so we decided to go. It was crowded, but comfortable and we enjoyed delicious food and quality music. After supper, we went to a local ice cream place for some soft-serve and ended the night with a movie.
On Sunday, we had a leisurely morning and ma went with me to grab some groceries. She had marinated salmon and brought it up, so we fixed that, asparagus and rice for lunch. Absolutely amazing! Ben and I will be making that same dish in the near future.
I am so blessed to have such a truly wonderful mother. I love her so much and always get a little down whenever she leaves or we have to leave her. There really is never enough time.
On a final note, I leave you with this picture of Ben. We took a car full of large objects to the dump during city dump day and Ben had to practically sit on the steering wheel. Not safe, really, but makes for a funny picture. :)
I have not been very faithful to my posting the past few weeks. It has just been non-stop going!
A few weekends ago Ben and I decided to paint our main entertaining room & bedroom. We finally narrowed down our colors, bought the samples and tested them out. We used French Grey and Warm Caramel for the walls in our entertaining room and Atmospheric for our bedroom. The results are beautiful! I'm hoping in the next week or two to do a post with pictures of our house and I will include some in there. As a preview, here is the following before/after pictures in the living room:
Before
After
Grover appreciates the new set up and has happily found his perch:
After our exhausting weekend of painting and clean up, we headed into a short work week. Ben and I had Good Friday off and welcomed my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, & wonderful nieces into our home for some respite from their drive down from Minneapolis. We enjoyed smoothies and play time at the park. They headed down to Ft. Madison around 1 p.m. and Ben and I followed later.
Our time in Ft. Madison was fun and relaxing. We went to a candy-pick up in the park with the girls for Easter, shared delicious meals, and enjoyed the outdoors. It was a perfectly beautiful weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't take very man pictures, but I did find this gem on my phone of Nina & me:
A little blurry, but still so sweet! :)
On Easter Sunday, we had lunch with my mom, Clif, my brother and his girlfriend. We have the tradition of feasting on ribs on Easter and thankfully we had gorgeous weather for grilling. Before, during and after dinner we enjoyed each other's company and conversation.
Ben and I both enjoy all of the time we spend with our families. There never seems to be enough time with any of them. The weekends pass so quickly and then we are back up to Cedar Rapids and to work. On our way home from our Easter weekend, Ben and I both agreed that while we would have enjoyed being somewhere besides the mid-west, we love that we are able to take a two hour trip south to see our parents/siblings. Ben's siblings are a bit further away, but with social media we are able to stay in touch a bit more easily. That will, of course, never replace our face-to-face time, but it helps us to stay close.
Another thing we have discussed is how lucky we are that we both truly enjoy our in-laws. Thanks, families, for being awesome. :)
I never did get around to how wonderful our Christmas was this year.
Our tree! It was given to us for free by my work.
They had it stored under an old elevator & it smelled so they bought a new one.
This aired out for a week and ta-da! No more smelly!
It was an exciting year for both of us since we hadn't had a Christmas close to family since we'd been married. Happily, all of Ben's siblings & significant others were able to gather at Ben's parents' home in Ft. Madison.
Ben, Andy, me, Tescia
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Prior to our travel to FM, my brother-in-law, Andy, and his gf, Tescia, stopped by for a visit. Most of our time was spent sitting around the Christmas tree telling stories and catching up. Tescia brought the world's largest box of cookies & a case of wine, so we were set for good times. ;)
Can't take them anywhere. . .
Trip to Iowa City to show Tescia Andy's old stomping grounds.
After their departure, Ben and I had our own Christmas. We cooked a delicious, healthy shrimp Mediterranean pasta for supper, turned on the xmas tunes, and enjoyed a glass of wine. When we opened gifts, Grover was excited to receive new, yummy treats, Ben was excited for his $$$ to invest in an electric acoustic guitar, and I was excited to get my groove on with my new Kinnect & dance games!
This is how I presented Ben's $ for a guitar. :)
I had to work until noon on Christmas Eve, so we weren't able to get to Ben's parents' home until close to supper on Christmas Eve. Bri was the only one home when we arrived, so we took a minute to unload our things and check out the newly remodeled basement. (It's awesome, btw). When everyone else returned from church, we were greeted with many hugs and smiles. We soon were indulging in appetizers and fine wine. When everyone was hungry, we sat down to a meal of oyster stew or chicken noodle soup (whichever you prefer).
Story time!
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Before the Kara and Nina went to bed on Christmas Eve, Glenda read us all The Night Before Christmas. Kara helped Glenda to remember to show us all the pictures. Her concern was adorable and made us all chuckle. :)
Photos from Christmas Eve:
We had matching bows!
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Nina watching Ben play his new guitar.
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Beautiful fireplace! Andy and Jon were looking for Santa!
Or lighting a fire. . . whatever.
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Keith, Nina & Kara
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Glenda & the girls.
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Jamie, Nina, Kara, Keith
Andy, Nina & me
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Andy & Tescia
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Nina was very curious.
I think we have a musician on our hands!
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Love Kara's face in this picture!
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
The girls LOVED the train!
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
Glenda playing a bit on Ben's guitar.
Christmas Day began with French toast casserole, then presents galore! It was fun to see Kara and Nina get excited about their presents from Santa. Kara received play make-up and my goodness, she was in love!
Playing with the girls and their Santa gifts.
(Photo courtesy of Tescia)
After gifts and thanks were given, Ben and I headed over to my mom's house for lunch. We arrived early enough to help her cook and get things ready for company. I really regret that we didn't pull out a camera, or even our phones, to capture our time spent with Ma, Clif and Shane. We enjoyed our meal, opened gifts, and then Ben and I headed back to his parents' house.
Here is what we did with the rest of our Christmas Day night:
Bill & Jon boxing
Bri, Jamie & Andy dancing to Applause
Tescia & Andy boxing
Needless to say, everyone was sore the next day.
I look forward to many more happy holidays with our families.
After the fabulous wedding of the Zink's, Ben and I made our way to Minneapolis to visit Jamie, Keith, the girls, and Andy. Ben's parents were also there for a couple of days and we were able to enjoy their company as well. We were amazed at how much Kara and Nina had grown in our year away. Both girls are very active and we enjoyed getting to play with them.
Thoughtful Kara
Silly sisters!
Fearless Nina
Silly sisters!
Ben and I took a day to do a bit of a MN date. We started our morning with a bit of Hazel's drunken banana French toast (absolutely, hands down, the greatest French toast EVER). We stopped at a few shops by Hazel's before heading to downtown St. Paul to hit up our favorite used bookstore. We stopped at a few other stores along the way and decided to head back to the house.
Mouth watering. . .
Nap time. :)
While in MN we cooked a couple meals for everyone, one being an Arabic dish we learned how to make in Dubai. Both went over very well. Keith almost made his delicious Pad Thai one night which is always on my request list! Aside from yummy eats, we also enjoyed wonderful conversation and quality time with everyone.
Sometimes it is hard to believe that we are grown ups, but we are, and that means big life changes. Shortly after our return to the States, Ben and I picked up and went to Austin, MN for a wedding. Ben's college friend, Ari, was marrying a beautiful and wonderful young woman, Breanna. We felt incredibly honored to be invited to their wedding and were glad to be able to attend. It was a truly enchanting and beautiful wedding. The ceremony and reception were held in a lovely garden with simple, yet stunning decorations. You had to take a wooded path to reach the location and it was like being in a fairy tale! The love present at the wedding was almost palpable and made both Ben and I equally sentimental and lovey. :) Boy, do I love weddings!!
Now that we are closer to everyone I look forward to getting to know and spend more time with friends of Ben's and my own. And of us both. <3
Ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to cross the dam in Keokuk via boat. Well, my wish has not yet come true but I got a lot closer to it! This summer the Keokuk Dam celebrated it 100th anniversary and had fun festivities down by the river. We were able to cross the dam via trolley and tour the plant. There were different junk food vendors in the river park that offered everything from fried frog legs to gourmet pasta. We Iowan's like to keep it classy. I indulged in a pulled pork sandwich (I have missed quality pork for the past year!) and a funnel cake!! I also got to see Shane and Clif for the first time since my arrival. My darling husband stayed up in Iowa City to continue a bit of packing and mingling with friends.
(I don't know why I can't get these pictures to be larger and more focused. Sorry!! Will try to fix later!)
After touring the plant we DID get to see a boat go into the lock! I took a video of the bridge we had crossed rising and lowering because I thought it was pretty fantastic. :)
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