Happy Wedding Day.

I met Lauren on the first day of Kindergarten.  We were excited.  No doubt, wearing our back to school best and carrying our hard plastic Disney Princess lunchboxes with matching thermoses.  Lauren always had cheese sandwiches in her lunch.  I was jealous of those.  

To be more specific, we met on the school bus.  Front seat.  Left side.  Right behind the bus driver.  I think that I knew right then that she would be a lifelong friend.  We were inseparable.  We had secret languages, sleepovers, and played pranks on her little sisters (evil sock monkey, anyone?).  We made nasty concoctions of condiments at Burger King and ate the buy one get one free kids dinner buffet at the Hickory Hills buffet before Wednesday night church.  When I think of my childhood, I think of Lauren.  I know that her American Girl Doll was Samantha, she always kept candy in her top dresser drawer, secretly wished for years that she had a retainer, and loved dill pickles.  

Now we are all grown up.  We have jobs and grown up lives and live hundreds of miles apart.  Although the days of American Girl dolls and sock monkey pranks are gone, we have managed to keep in touch and remain friends through junior high, high school, a brief hiatus in college, and now marriages.

You see, Lauren is getting married on Saturday!  Regretfully I won't be able to make the trip to Virginia to be with her on this amazing day, but I will be thinking about her as she walks down the aisle and begins her life as a Mrs.  And I know that whatever changes happen in our lives, we will always be friends.  And hate sock monkeys.  And wish we had retainers.  :)

July.

The month of July has been good to me.

Pool parties, campfires, cookouts, and plenty of time with My Love.

The highlight of the month may have been the premiere of the last Harry Potter movie.  Yes, my mother and I went all out.  Yes, we looked like complete nerds.  Yes, we had a blast.  I've been trying to live every moment to the fullest.  Not to miss out on anything and to make it a point to really make "The Simple Things" matter.  So, dressing in my Harry Potter shirt and glasses, buying a wand, and drawing a lightning bolt on my head was the way to go.  When else am I going to have that opportunity... okay, well maybe Halloween, but thats beside the point.

It has been a month of Farmer's Markets.  And Friends.

And a month of good 'ol American fun.  Caleb was less than thrilled when I told him I wanted to go to the rodeo at the fair and he told me that this last picture of him represented his feelings about being there, but he hung in there.  You can't read it, but one flag said, "Rodeo.  The True American Sport."  It was only about a million degrees that day... I think the heat index was 115.  The poor horses must have been miserable.  I know that I had sweat dripping from every inch of my being.  The highlight was definitely when the cowgirls participated in barrel racing.  I was yelling and cheering and Caleb was looking at me like I was crazy!

We rode the ferris wheel at the fair.  Caleb kissed me at the top cause thats what people in love do.  They kiss at the top of the ferris wheel.  We also ate fried food and drank drinks made from pure sugar mixed with more sugar mixed with sugar.  I love the fair.  I like the smell of the animals mixed with the fair food and grease from the rides.  I like the dusty dirty pathways between rides and the carnival workers yelling obscenities.  I do.  I love it.

I can't forget to mention the fact that I went to Harry Potter a second time and dressed equally dorky for round two.  While I'm making confessions I guess I should admit that I also went a third time... within four days of the first time... my dorkiness knows no bounds.

This guy has been having a good month too.  He's done a little relaxing.

There have been some sad moments too.  Like the fact that these two (in the upper left corner) moved away.  Sad, I tell you, sad.  Val has really challenged me to care more for this wonderful world in which we live and I look forward to many years of friendship.  

I get to see them again this weekend.

I closed out the month with a bang.  More like with a  buggy and a bonnet.  An Amish buggy and bonnet that is...

My mother-in-law (who is the best mother in law, by the way), my sister-in-law, and I went to Amish Acres in Napannee, IN for a mini vacation.  Obviously we had a blast.  I think we laughed non-stop the whole trip.  It was just what I needed! 

We ate Amish church lunch and the famous Thresher Dinner.  YUM!

There were these rabbits running around outside and they were all surprisingly tame... That was may favorite part so I saved the picture for last.  :)

Thanks Kim for a wonderful weekend!

That just about sums up my month of July.  Its been busy, but amazing.  I can't wait to see what August has in store!

Stress

This has been a stressful stressful week.  By looking at what I do all day you would never know how stressful it can be!

I think one of these might be in my cards for the weekend... Swedish massage compliments of my lovely husband!

"Hogwarts A History"

Hogwarts

This coming week will soon become a significant landmark in my history.  This weekend an epic battle will be fought and many lives will be lost.  The good guys will fight the bad guys and only one can win.  It has been a long fight.  A hard fight.  A fight that began when I was a mere lass in Junior High School.  

For those of you who aren't quite as well read ;) , I am talking about the epic and classic tale of none other than Harry Potter.  The Chosen One.  The Boy Who Lived.  I have grown up with Harry Potter.  I remember checking out the first book when I was in the 6th grade and reading the last book when I was in my third year in college.  Thats a pretty significant chunk on my life spent in anticipation.  Anticipation about the next book, the next movie, and a visit to an amusement park attraction.  

In a way, Harry, Ron, and Hermione have taught me about loyalty, bravery, and friendship.  As Harry and his friends were growing up so was I.  When I read the last page of the last book I cried.  It was the end of something great.  Something I looked forward to and now something that I can look at and remember precisely what was happening in my own life as I was reading different parts of the story.

Now I am preparing to watch the final movie with my mother.  We're celebrating in true Harry Potter movie going style.  We will be wearing our dorky Harry Potter shirts, Harry Potter glasses, and carrying our wands.  We are seeing the double feature.  Deathly Hallows Part I followed by Part II at midnight.  And again I will cry because it marks the end of something that carried me through the final chapter of my childhood.  Something that I hope to share with my own children one day.

If you aren't a Harry Potter fan, you are rolling your eyes about now.  If you are, then I think you understand.  :)  Pictures to come.

Drinking Butterbeer with my Mama

The Elder Wand

Ignore the weird man in the doorway...

I don't know if you can see, but there is puke
coming out of this ghoul's mouth.

Honeydukes

All aboard the Hogwarts Express!

Happy 9th of July!

There may be one thing better than the 4th of July.  The weekend after the 4th of July.  Yes, you heard me right.  The weekend after.  It's like the 4th of July's appendage... or its big brother.  It's an encore to all of the fun that I had the previous weekend!  Complete with an amazing fireworks display that I wouldn't even be able to begin to justify by posting pictures.

Every year my family attends a fireworks celebration at Sugar Mill Lake.  There is food.  There are fireworks.  There is a golf cart parade.  Oh yes, a golf cart parade.  

All of the kids scramble for candy and trinkets in the 95 degree heat.  It's fun.  Really.  

Truthfully its all about family.  And friends.  And pie.

My grandmother prepares a feast that is concluded with pie.  Raspberry, peach, apple, and strawberry.  A 4th of July tradition... oh sorry... 9th of July.  Mmmmm....  Theres also a lot of cold beer, cornhole, card playing, napping, and just plain being with family.

I hope you had a Happy 9th of July!

This made me laugh... Ha!

Summer Treats

I love the Farmer's Market.  Here in Muncie its fairly small, but I like that fact that I can recognize all the vendors and they recognize me.  Like the guy who sells the Afghan Naan bread... when he sees me coming he is ready with the best of the selection of the bread.  Delicious, let me tell you, delicious!

The best part of Farmer's Market is the flowers.  I usually pass them by and dream about how beautiful they would look in my apartment, but I couldn't pass these up.  Aren't they lovely?

I think that Splinter liked them even more than me.  :)

I also picked up some of these.  Mmmm!

The Corn is as High as an Elephant's Eye on the 4th of July.

What is better than an Indiana 4th of July.  Nothin, I tell you!  Swimming pools, fireworks, hot weather, and cookouts make this by far my favorite holiday of the year.  I love the heat.  I love the watermelon and corn on the cob.  And I love being with family and friends.

Caleb and I spent the long holiday weekend pooling it up with friends from our hometown.  I love going back.  Driving through the country with corn rising up to the sun on both sides.  The smell of cut grass and the hot breeze that almost has a life of its own.  Stars so bright at nighttime that you almost don't need the fireworks.  After living in a run-down city made of concrete and pavement its hard to deny the beauty and charm that I once took for granted in the place where I grew up.  Where cows are plentiful and and everyone waves when you pass them driving down the country roads.  Lovely.

Whats even more lovely?  My name twin and handsome husband.  Oh, and the hairy man you can see in the background of the first photo.

 

The amazingness continues this weekend with a family campout, reunion with an old friend, cookout, and a grand firework display at Sugar Mill Lake.