Dubuque is for Weddings

We had a great weekend in Mike's hometown, Dubuque, Iowa. We saw family and friends, but the main event was the wedding of his highschool friend Carrie:

She was a beautiful bride and my only regret, as it always is with weddings is that the bride was very busy mingling and livin' it up, not sitting and chatting with us.

But I am getting ahead of myself...

The wedding itself was very cool. I should have taken more picture of the beautiful interior of the Five Flags theatre in downtown Dubuque, but my camera is a little sad so we will have to be happy with this blurriness. The wedding party was large and diverse, not letting the sex of the person keep them from serving as a maid or man. Loved how it was fuscia on the brides' side and graphite on the groom's. Very classy.

The program was AWESOME, modelled after a play's program. It detailed all the wedding party's relationships to the couple in their "bios" as well as how the parents of the bride/groom met all those years ago. SO SWEET! Preshow music was fun too, love songs from various musicals, like "Ten Thousand Kisses" from Rent and "My Freeze Ray" from Dr. Horrible. It was great.
The only hitch to the whole thing, was they didn't practice the running/performing of the music pieces, so there were two points when we were all just waiting for the song to finish, although it was pretty. And it didn't get aggrevating because the wedding itself was quite short and sweet.
The wrote their own vows and through groom Aarron's started as a speech the vows themselves at the end were quite beautiful and made me tear up a little. HIGHLY unusual for me at weddings.

And after a bit of chatting it was time to head to the edge of town for the reception. I didn't get a picture of the outside, it was literally a gas station, but the inside was nice enough.

They made each of the table musicals and the placecards were actual show tickets. Very Cool.

The favors were these cute buttons. There was "It all started with a fish taco" and "Dubuque is for weddings" and "Don't slow down now, babies are next"

But the best part was hanging out and meeting more of Mike's highschool friends:

Here we have artist/wedding photographer Luke, HILARIOUS Thad and Bride's maid, I mean man, Nathan. I loved them all and am sad they all live so far away.

Then there were new friends to make like Thad and Bride's college bud Tyler and his wife Jessica. They were a TON of fun and give us another reason to go visit DesMoines Iowa.

The recpetion was over before we knew it, but the party didn't stop we went to local dive/kareoke bar for one more drink. It was delightfully kitsch. Although not everyone liked it...

Luke sat down, looked around and said, "Truly, this must be hell."

But we made the best of it, these two even got up and did a little singing, although Tyler was sabotogued by the words on the screen being ahead of the music BOOO! Poor guy.

Oh well we had a good time, met good people and wonder if we will ever see any of them again...

July 5th, Diane's B-Day BBQ

On sunday we threw a bbq for our lovely friend Diane. It actually wasn't much work because Maria made the sides and brought buns! It was awesome and made me want to throw another potluck or BYO-thing-to-grill BBQ.

Here we are with Maria and Diane, the birthday girl.

Everyone chipped in and helped with the grilling so everyone had a chance to sit and eat and enjoy themselves. Stanley was super excited to see Al.

Mike did used brooms and such to prop up the tree branches to make shady seating, BRILLIANT! It was the perfect place to make ice cream.

To go with the birthday cupcakes. Homemade Hostess cupcakes. Everyone loved them,

especially the birthday girl.



We all had a good time. Stanley was plum worn out by the end, so much so he even let Maria "ride" him, as she is always trying to do.

RVA GALA

Thursday night was Rape Victim Advocates Gala. It is their 35th year of existance, but their first ever gala! We were glad to be there and to have acouple of our friends come support the event as well. These things are never as much fun when you don't know so many people, but the important thing was to be there and show support for the workers and volunteers. We are truly thankful for all they do for the people of Chicago.

Our Weekly Edition

As my electronic scrapbook, I have been not posting as much as I should. Mostly becuase the backlog of posts on here to turn into a real scrapbook has been a bit daunting. In the interest of trying to get back to this and an old tradition, I have commited to putting out a "weekly edition" of our lives. At least one pic and post a week of something going on in our lives. The old tradition was an album called the Sunday Book (the Sunday Book was comprised of pictures which we took weekly, on Sunday), but this time we can't be held to one day a week. We want it to be more of a best of our week, even if it is just a haning in at home.

One week ago was the goodbye party of our pastor Trey Hall, I know already a week behind, but I wanted it to be the first post. He has been a major influence in our lives. He was with our church for five years and officiated our wedding. My favorite thing about Trey is his beautiful singing voice. He would cantor the blessing of the eucharist, which was just so lovely. Also I love his southern roots. His sense of hospitality and how he says "y'all" a lot. He is not leaving Chicago, even if he is leaving our church, so we hope that we will see him occassionally around town. He has been really lucky to get a commission to start a new church in the West Loop (which is also where Mike's building is!) and with how our church has grown since his arrival, I'm sure he will be building the new church in no time!

How does my garden grow?

Just thought I would take a slow hot summer night to catch up on some fun garden pics.

My garden in May:

I am so thankful to the old owners of my apartment building becuase they planted some beautiful perrenials. Two peony plants which almost took turns blooming.

They were so beautiful to look at.

And flowering bushes that smell as good as they look. This mystery plant started to bloom right about when the lilacs petered out.

And irises and chives and mint and so much more!

And our tomato plants are growing, although I was worried about them with the prolonged cold weather....

My Garden in June:

This little plant popped up, which I think might be a wild strawberry plant, but we'll see.
This tall cane-like grass is very prolific and the purple flowers are pretty!
Check out the gate, where's the fence you might ask? The land lord took it out, I think to put in...

...this huge storage unit. I wonder if it will ever leave. Luckily Stanley is mostly trained to stay in the yard.

And my tomato plants are HUGE!!! Although with the cold wet weather some started developing black spots on their leaves. So I quarenteened them to the other side of the yard, hoping that it would get warm and they would get better.

The rain also flattened some of that tall cane-grass!

Time also causes the flowers to lose their blooms...

But as one plant loses it's flowers, another one starts to bloom. My tomato plants are doing much better in the warmer weather and I am happy to say have started to bloom!

Look forward to eating them!!!

Spring is Coming

It may be rainy and cold, it may even snow, but these little buds tell be that Spring is finally on it's way. They are tiny and delicate, they break at the lightest brush, but they are beautiful promises of warm, green days to come.

Every year I try to capture the first flowers I see, usually in someone's front yard as I walk to the train, but this year these were found in my Mom's garden. I am on my third week of coming and going and trying to enjoy it.

This week has been decidedly springy, besides little flowers...

There were more little baby things to ooh and aah over. Paula had Lester bring a tupper of Grandma knits. I liked this bonnet, so cute. I got to keep a couple different items to use for patterns. Although most of them are in pretty good shape, the acryllic yarn isn't exactly en vogue. I look forward to sharing more of them as I reknit them.

Another sure sign of spring is all the dog bathing that's been going on. Stanley got his back home and I gave Mom's dogs a bath. They sure look pretty and shiny in the sunshine.

And when Paula's Bianca came, it didn't take long for her to get good and muddy and into the sink she went, too.

We celebrated the coming of spring and Mom getting better with Margarita and Chips!

Our favorite! We EAT IT UP. And drink it up too. Paula don't even eat anything but the chips with ranch (and a little salsa mixed in). My friend Shannon would call that Texan Style, I think. It was fun and yummy and a great way to celebrate this rainy spring.

Hangin' at Mom's

My mom is recovering from a hysterectomy. It was an aggressive treatment for some rogue pre-cancerous cells. We are happy she took this route. But now she is stuck at home for six weeks. Well, one down, five more to go. She is doing VERY well. The only thing she needs help with is getting in and out of her bed. So here I am helping out all the days I can (about 3 a week), but her big sis, my aunt, Paula is here for the first 11 days and my sister comes by too, so she has lots of people around her helping, with more to come.

I have to say I love spending time with Mom. And when Paula is around, that's a bonus. So although I wish she hadn't needed the surgery, I am glad I am able to come and help and spend time with them.

Especially since it is the perfect enviroment for craftiness...

My big sis, Julie, has started keeping all her scrapbooking stuff at mom's, so I am treating this as the perfect opportunity to work on Erin's Wedding Scrapbook, my wedding gift to her. I am making good progress, have 11 pages done so far.

And then there's the knitting...

Hours of tv we all love, Bargin Hunters, CSI, Let's Make a Deal and MYSTERY!, are very condusive to knitting. I have made this pair of socks for Mike...

...And one of a pair for Mom

Paula is a sewing machine...

She makes adorable soft flannel blanket for people having babies, which there always seems to be lately

And cross stitches, too.

I am excited about this one, becuase she is making it for me. A cross stitch version of Van Gough's Cypress Trees, I CAN"T WAIT to frame it for my living room.

We are getting mom into it too, between naps.

These "Puzzle Balls" have been a family favorite for years, we just call it a "Baby Ball." Mom got the pattern years ago in New Hampshire at a quilting shop. Now it is in this great book, "Last-Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts" by Joelle Hoverson.

And let's not forget the food. Talking about it, making it and eating it. I love being with the women in my family because we like to plan what we will be eating over the next couple days. Every meal or found recipe is an opportunity. I love that. So when I found a recipe for "Prune Bread," they said make it, make it! And so I did.

And it was good. The recipe made two loaves, the second of which will be coming home with me to share at my Stitch n Bitch this sunday.

That wasn't all the good food, there were oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, stuffed potatoes, meatloaf sandwiches and more. Best of all, I'd have to say, was when Julie's husband Jeremi made crab legs, lobster tails and shrimp for Julie's birthday, yummy.

But no blog about Mom's would be complete with out a pic of Josie...

Modelling my new baby bib design. She's such a cutie, such a sport.