a day without plans…

So, if you know me you know that I’m a bit Type A and overly organized. The husband thinks I just like to be in charge, but I just want someone to be in charge. And since he never wants to be, it usually ends up to be me. Even my big sis told me that she is now deferring to me making plans. That is weird… and I don’t want that responsibility! I love to have the weight lifted off my shoulders.

Now, my father is a good planner as well and he said something very epiphanizing to me last week. I called him to see what the plan was for father’s day and he replied, “Plans are good, but they aren’t always necessary. Let’s just do what we feel like doing.” HOLY COW! LIGHHHHT BUUULB! I think that gave me permission to just relax, and it was very cool!

So anyway, for Father’s day weekend my little family drove across the state on Saturday. We hung out Saturday evening with my little sis and then Sunday my big sis and her hubby came over. We spend the day on the boat, which is always fun and relaxing. Here are some photos:

And for those of you that don’t know, my dad was (is) a model back in the day. He decided to show off his stuff:

Dad – don’t worry… I won’t put the other ones up. And if you want me to take this one down I will.. but I think it’s fun!!!

dirty jobs.

I know I have been bad about this recently – I’ve been really lazy. That, and I’ve had a ton going on!  I promise promise promise to be better and tell you about all of my recent tales.

Real quick I just want to post pictures of our goings-on today.

We bought our home 2 years ago and the prior owners did a very nice job of updating EVERYTHING in the house, but nothing really on the outside. There were a few hostas out front, which my mother and I transplanted to the side of our house 2 years ago. It was not the most fun project I’ve ever done, so I have not really had the desire to do any other landscaping. Let’s just say I do not have the greenest of thumbs!

However, our house is in some desperate need of curb appeal. So, my wonderful husband today suggested we do a little project…

To refresh your memory, this is the front of the house as we bought it (minus the crumbling concrete steps, hubby had already demolished them before I got to snap this pic):

And here is the house before our project (with the porch and new staircase he put in last year):

And here is the “after”:

They are so teeny tiny right now and I just pray I don’t kill them because it should look fairly nice once it’s all filled in. My biggest pet peeve is the massive gray block foundation sticking out so I just want that to be covered. Anywho, it was really nice to spend the day outdoors with my husband… my thumb might be turning a little more green. Well, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here.

And this isn’t the greatest pic of me ever, but this is us after we were done! WOOHOO!

Ok, I’ll try to update tomorrow. Bye bye!

our new summer vacation home.

I know I owe a real update, which I will probably get to later today. But just so you can see it now, I’m posting the pics of the new summer vacation home we just bought:

That indoor/outdoor cooktop needs to go! It's a monster!

Anywho, that’s about it. Nothing real crazy to look at it, but it will work for us just perfectly. My only complaint is that we need to get some tacky curtains and owl lanterns and we’ll be good.

tinnitus.

So, I had myself a case of tinnitus this past weekend. For those who don’t know, this is just a ringing of the ears. Mine was caused by very loud noises. Wanna know more? OK!

Last weekend was a very busy one. It was my birthday! Oh man, I am old. Anywho, on Friday night we went to go see Lewis Black (a comedian). Before the show, the husband told me I could pick the restaurant I wanted to eat at among the few choices at the casino where the show was being held. One restaurant described itself as “fine dining” so I said no to that one, and chose the steakhouse that described itself as “casually elegant”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I LOVE fine dining. I was just trying to be cost concious since I knew we would be blowing some money this weekend.

Well, so much for low prices. This place was no Applebees. Our meal, with tip, was over $100. Dave Ramsey would kick me in the head. It was delicious, however! I got the surf & turf which was beef tenderloin (like butter) and shrimp. The husband got a huge piece of grilled pork. I opted for 2 glasses of wine, which made me very sleepy for the show.

About the show – it was very funny! The only thing that stunk was that we paid a little bit more for “good seats” which ended up sucking (I couldn’t see the stage) so I had to watch the show on the big screens. Anywho, my big sissy saw the show too, so we met up for a drink afterward. By this point my eyes are drooping (darn wine) so I asked for a Mountain Dew and gave my Long Island away. It was around midnight, we were still an hour away from home, and we had a LOT more to do in the next two days….

Here is a self portrait from after the show

Luckily, I had no tinnitus at this point. We went home and passed out!

Saturday morning it was off to Indiana! As I mentioned before, we were going to see on of my husband’s favorite bands, Clutch. We got on the road about 9:30 am. It was a six hour drive (omgoodness) but I figured with stops and such it would be about 7. He started out driving but an hour into it we switched and I drove the rest of the way. We stopped for lunch and gas, and finally got to Bloomington about 4:30. We checked in to our hotel room and tried to rest up for a little bit for the show.

Bloomington is a really cool town. It is home of the Indiana University Hoosiers and had TONS of options for dining and attractions. However, it still felt like a small town which is why I loved it so much. Granted, I don’t think school is in session so it was peaceful. I even told the husband that I want to move there and/or send our children to school here just so I could visit. Then the thought of how my own student loans for in-state tuition are horrendous and would hate to see how much out-of-state tuition would cost. Then again, if we move there now, we could gain residency…………

I digress…

Anywho, it was a neat place. That’s all I meant to say.

(I have a feeling this is going to be a long post)

While relaxing at the hotel I took my standard bubble bath (since I don’t have a tub at home) while we decided on a place for dinner. I knew I wanted to go somewhere local. They had SO MANY options. Thai, Indian, Mediterranean… even food from Jerusalem. I told him a few places that sounded good and told him to pick one. Of course, he wanted to go to the one that was connected to a brewery, so we went to Lennie’s (I DO wish I married a more adventurous eater). I knew that I was not allowed to have any alcohol if I wanted to be alert and up late for the show, so I just drank soda. Hubby got a large glass of some homemade brew that looked pretty tasty. We both got strombolis for dinner- with spicy sausage that was REALLY, in fact,  very spicy (whoda thunk?). We also ended up buying a “growler” of beer to take home. After dinner we had some time to kill so we just went back to the hotel.

The show wasn’t until 9pm at Jake’s Nightclub, which was by far one of the coolest venues I’ve been to. Not too big, not too small, and NON SMOKING. I’m sure the husband didn’t like that fact – but I sure did!  Here’s the thing you must understand – going to see a lesser-known band at a small venue is so much more exciting than seeing a national act at a basketball arena. You are literally ten feet away (or closer). The problem with this, as awesome as it is, is that you are also this close to the speakers, thus the tinnitus.

The show was great!!! I felt young again! I think I’ve been so caught up in being a student/wife/stepmom for the past few years that I’ve been neglecting doing things like this. I haven’t been to a show in so long… it was just great.

So, back to the story. We left the show with ringing ears and walked back to the car. On the way we definitely saw a prostitute. I think I even laughed, because I wasn’t sure how else to respond. Hubby thought it was actually a TRANSVESTITE prostitute. Ewww.

It was so nice to be literally about 4 minutes from the hotel. Usually when we go to any event we have to drive at  least an hour home afterward. We got back, and passed out.

Aaaaaaand I have NO pictures at ALL from Saturday. What the heck?

Sunday was also good. We got up early and headed off to breakfast at what was described as a “weekend breakfast tradition” in Bloomington (did I mention I want to live here?). It is called The Village Deli and it was SO CUTE. There were picnic tables outside where people ate breakfast while their dogs sat next to them, hoping for some crumbs to fall off the table. They are apparently famous for their extra large pancakes, so I needed to get one:

Mmmmm. It was chocolate chip and oh-so-yummy. Like a big cookie. Do you see how it barely fits on the plate!?!? And it’s a big plate!!! We shared the pancake, hubby got a breakfast burrito and I got the “Hoosier Scramble” which had an english muffin, eggs, sausage gravy and cheese. Mm mm mm. I am hungry now.

Ok Amanda, let’s stay on track here.

We left the restaurant on our way to Indianapolis to stop at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. They were just doing qualifying for the Indy 500, but it was still cool. I am NO fan of racing (at least when he watches it on television) but it was actually sort of neat to be there. First of all, the place it HUGE! I couldn’t have IMAGINED it to be this big. Also, it was very LOUD LOUD LOUD. More tinnitus for me

Here are some shots from the day. Rosalita finally got to make an entrance.

Here is the hubby – looking like a hot shot photographer:

Yellow flag means GO. Um, yeah. Not sure about that one!

This is just one section of this place. Multiply it by at least 15 (maybe even 30) and that’s how big the entire speedway is:

Some boring car shots:

Here is a shot of a car being pulled back… funny how many people hitch a ride:

What’s funny to me is that I didn’t want to take pictures of cars. I wanted to take pictures of people. There were a ton of people there and they were enjoying the day with such life that I just wanted to capture it. There was a middle-aged man that kept waving his arms with great facial expressions, the kids covering their ears, the kids crying, the kids all decked out in race clothes. Oh man, my heart melts. I figured it was probably illegal in some form or another to take pictures of random people and post them on the internet to I refrained. But I can still see the pictures I wanted to take in my mind.

Here are a few random shots – I don’t think they give anyone’s identity away so I will post them.

Here is one of my favorites – these two guys look like they have a fun job. Notice the blurry car behind them!

Here is a guy riding a MOTORIZED COOLER. Note to self: I must have one.

Look at those big tires!

And 220+ MPH? It doesn’t look that fast on TV – but BOY do they just whiz by in person!

And lastly, here is my husband standing in front of the winner’s circle thingymadoo.

He is such a winner. Or am I the winner for being married to him? In any case, this picture would be a winner if that darn camera guy wouldn’t have been in the background. But that was my only opportunity since a million people were walking by. Oh well. Learn – and move on!

We didn’t stay at the track (is that what you call it, the track?) for very long. We still had a TON of driving to do and we were both exhausted. I was very happy that I drove most of the way on Saturday so hubby could drive me home on Sunday. Not much to report, except…

We passed the Nestle factory:

I also had my first meal from White Castle (I didn’t like it):

And, of course, we had to stop at a store that sold “Fireworks and Unique Gifts”.

Dave Ramsey would NOT be proud of us this weekend.

So that’s it – the story of our weekend. Almost 15 hours of driving in 3 days with ringing ears was not the best part – but we sure did have fun. It took me a few days to recuperate!

So, now that my life is somewhat back to normal after the surgery, anniversary, birthday party and birthday weekend I should a) be back to planning meals b) be back to posting recipes and whatnot c) get back to budgeting (oh how I’ve missed thee)

Oh yeah, but now it’s summer – which means we are CRAZY busy. I said that we are going to learn how to say “no” this year, but the weekends are already filling up like crazy.

In closing, I would just like to wish you a great day and no tinnitus in your near future. Smooches!

how sweet it is…

to be loved by my husband.

This was from a few weeks back. He had told me some information about a person I don’t care for so much that got me fuming a little bit. It was a Saturday… he was out working on that darn lawn mower (we SO need a new one, but that’s not within our Total Money Makeover budget and I REFUSE to charge one) and I was inside cleaning the house. I was just storming around the house, thinking not-so-nice thoughts in my head, actually composing a blog entry in my mind about how much this is ridiculous and unnecessary when…

I came to my laptop and Larry had placed this little flower on it. It would be an understatement to say it calmed me down and made me realize I can’t control these situations that drive me crazy – so I just shouldn’t worry about them and make the best of what I can.

Anywho! Just thought I would share that with you!

I am SO GLAD to be done with Lolita and back to my Christian books. Hahaha! I am on Day 27 of my “Understanding the Bible in 30 Days” book, so hopefully once I graduate from that I will be more confident in reading the actual Bible. For now, I am also reading this:

I am really excited about this one because it is supposed to help you realize that having faith is not saying that you lose your intellectualism (is that a word??) or whatever… I don’t know why it’s so hard to me to believe, because I know I believe, but it’s almost like I need to know WHY I believe. I feel like it’s so easy to say I’m a Christian because that’s the norm… and if you know me at all you know that I HATE being the norm.

Anywho, that’s all that’s going on. I will be a whole 26 years old on Friday. I feel so old. I’m no longer a newlywed, and will officially be in my upper 20s. Yuck. This weekend will be awesome, however. We are going to see Lewis Black on Friday, and then are driving out of the state to see Clutch on Saturday. Yipee! 48+ hours with just me and my hubby. I cannot wait!

Until next time…

it’s been a while.

Yeah. Sorry about that. I have had more than one person ask where I’ve been, so I figured it was time for an update!

As for me, I have been a busy little bee. I had put off reading last month’s book for book club for SO LONG, so last week was spent frantically trying to finish the book. If you recall, it was “Lolita”, which was a very, ahem, interesting. Since we pushed our April meeting back a week, we only have 3 weeks to read the next book, which is “Pest Control”. I’m excited to read it, but I also have about 5 other books on my side table that I want to read now. AHH! Not enough time to do all I want to do!!!

I will write more on book club later!

The biggest thing to post about is the small get together we had yesterday… we had three birthdays this week (Joey and my Mom on the 14th, me on the 15th) and mother’s day to celebrate!!!  Since we had such a big blowout sleepover party for Joey last year we decided to take this year off and just have a small gathering.

On Saturday Joey and I made some “Peepachus”, ala Bakerella (is there nothing I won’t copy from her??). He wanted to stick them in his cake, which I thought was a nice idea. Here he is, posing with some of the finished products:

Here is the finished cake:

Also on Saturday Larry and I were prepping our meal… we made these amazing bacon appetizers from The Pioneer Woman that might actually replace cheesy bites as our appetizer of choice from now on. We put all of our chicken into a bowl full of spiced up buttermilk (my chicken marinade of choice, it makes it so tender!!!):

Anywho, here are the rest of the pictures:
Joey with his Grandma

Joey went out with Grandpa Roger to find golf balls – and here is his prize!

He’s trying to be patient… but he wants those presents! This is his “fort” on the couch:

Time to open! He loves his model car… thanks Aunt Kresta and Uncle Shawn!

The gift from Dad and me was too large to wrap and was sitting on the deck waiting for him… Larry put the owners manual in his card. He was a little confused at first:

But then Dad told him to “check the deck”. Look at his cute lil face:

Here he is!

Here is Grandpa Roger impersonating the look on Joey’s face when he saw the bike!

Anywho, after presents it was time for cake and ice cream… make a wish…

… and blow em out!

Now it’s just time to kick back and have fun!
Dad tries to help Joey ride in our squishy yard:

Aunt Kresta attempts to give Joey a ride:

Even Uncle Jeff joins the fun:

I took this shot with a little tear in my eye… I was just looking at him thinking, “How on earth did he get so big? I remember when he was just learning to tie his shoes…”

And lastly, here is my family. I sure do love these boys.

Well, that was enough typing for one day… so I’m out. I will try to be better about posting this week, I swear!

what a blissful year.

So, the husband and I have been married for a whole year! We are no longer newlyweds… how bittersweet. No longer rookies at this whole marriage stuff! The cheesiness is still present in our relationship, though!

Originally we were going to go away for the weekend, but I wanted to be home for Walleye Festival and we already have out-of-town plans for my bday, so we just stayed in.

Well, when I got home from Church I was presented first with a dozen roses… I already posted some close up shots of them, but here is one of the whole bunch (yes, they’re in my blender).

Gosh they are pretty!
As Larry took Joey back to his mother’s I set out to unwrap the top tier of our wedding cake. I wrapped that baby up in approximately 2,456,344.2 layers of plastic wrap and foil last year so I was praying it survived the long stay in our freezer.

It appeared to be okay – but the final verdict would not be made until it was time to taste!

I got us a really cute candle to make a wish on:

Aren’t I a dork? He he he.

Luckily, I am not the only dork in this relationship. Want an example? Ok.

These are known as the Collicker’s “special day glasses”:

Larry bought me these for our one year dating anniversary. When I opened the present back then, I kinda looked up at him like, “WTH?” He then told me that he bought them to toast our special day, and that we could use them for our “special days” in the future. They came out for anniversaries and, most importantly, for our wedding. So cheesy.

Anywho, Larry got home and we toasted with some champagne that we smuggled back from Jamaica:

It’s not like it’s Jamaican champagne, it just came from our villa.

This, on the other hand, was a “gift” from our butler, Deron. He was so freakin cool.

Larry only wanted a “sampler” but got this instead. Technically, if I wanted to relive Jamaica I would have sipped from a giant container full of vodka/cranberries!

So Larry cooked dinner, and at one point told me to go upstairs for a minute. When I came back down, this is what I saw:

Aww. He’s so good to me. He made Chicken Parmesan w/ pasta, and homemade garlic bread. He also made shrimp scampi but was so excited he forgot to serve them (they were my lunch today)!

Dinner was scrumptious, and then it was time for the cake!
(Major nerd alert!)

We made a wish then cut the cake….

It looks like it survived!

Sure tasted good (I don’t like fondant)!!!

Then we exchanged gifts. I suppose we are following the “traditional” gift scheme like my big sis, so the first year is PAPER. I originally got Larry tickets to see Def Leppard, Poison and Cheap Trick. WOOHOO! But I wanted to get him something extra and I thought a book on beer making would be good since he’s been into the home-brewing since my Dad got him a kit for Christmas. He got me some books too (he must know I’m a reader):

The three on the top are from him to me, and the bottom two are from me to him.

Anywho, that was it! I wanted to do something out of the ordinary (like go to a movie) but we ended up staying in… we watched our Sunday evening programs and went to bed. Man, we really are an old married couple!!!!

It was a great evening with a great man. I love you, Larry!

roses.

Gosh, do I love my husband!! He can certainly be sweet when he wants to be! I will post more about our anniversary later… but for now here are some pics of my pretty flowers (and Lola, looking majestic).

i am ready. i think.

I just finished the last of the 4 books Pastor Mat gave me:

It was a book by another Pastor about his ”spiritual friendship” with a girl named Alice as she found her faith. I certainly felt like Alice in the book, and not the Pastor obviously, but it was good nonetheless. I think he hits on ALL of the things that bother me about “Christianity” as a derogatory term… so that was great!

I just wish I had someone to guide me! I need some serious help!

Anywho, my old pal Carrie suggested that I also read this:

So I have been. It’s divided into sections so that you are only spending 15 minutes a day on it. It’s hard for me to not want to jump ahead, but so far – so good! I feel a bit more knowledgeable!

My “spiritual journey” is going well. I feel compelled to tears almost every time I’m in church. Pastor Mat can seriously relate some stuff to normal life!

Last Sunday they had Communion. I was so scared to take it since I’m not allowed in Larry’s Catholic church. My church doesn’t do it every Sunday so I’ve been able to avoid it for a while. However, on Sunday he said at the very beginning that they were going to, and asked that we “ready our hearts” if we were going to partake. I kept going back and forth in my mind if I should or not… I certainly didn’t want to disrespect anyone by taking it. But, as the time came I found myself standing from my chair to go to the back of the line. I got up to the front, looked at Mat and said, “I’m scared.” He patted my arm and I walked back to my seat, fighting tears. I think I cried the whole time (probably didn’t help that I was leaving after Church to go to see my dad for his surgery). Wow, what an experience my first Communion was. I kind of liked the fact that they don’t do it every Sunday – it was SO special.

This Sunday will be my first wedding anniversary. I will definitely be thanking the Lord for my fabulous husband!

she was a showgirl.

Isn’t my kitty a cutie?

I’m hoping to have some cute shots up tomorrow as it is Walleye Festival here in town. Also – it’s our whopping 1 year anniversary on Sunday!!!!!