happy surprises

after this post, i'll be caught up with all my backlogged stories waiting to be told! hurray!
it's amazing how things pile up on ya.

a couple weekends ago, nick and i went on the loveliest of all walks, truly! it started up on the college of the ozarks campus, then meandered down by the lake, along a dirt road with a wide green grassy field, by the most picturesque boat i've ever happened upon, past 2 waterfalls, a fallen tree, a pump house, and back to the first waterfall for a vigorous hike up back onto campus. and along the hike, a surprising swing put there just for us, i'm sure! as we were walking along the dirt road, at one point nick just stopped and looked around in awe. it was a beautiful hike.


this tree was across the road, blocking our way. far be it from us to step over it - oh no, no, no! nick manfully moved it aside for us.


we had different ideas of how to pose in the boat. my first inclination was to push it out into the water and reenact anne of green gables' reenactment of 'the lady of shalot', but considering this boat was missing a bit more parts than even anne's was, i shelved that idea.


someday we want to come back to the spot and camp. it has a fire pit and a little cleared area for a tent - and the most perfect view.

waterfalls are just so beautiful, this one being no exception to the rule. we climbed up into the back side of it and reenacted a little 'last of the mohicans' since we were in the reenactment mood... then we kept climbing and came upon a swing straddling the waterfall!! i've hiked this at least 3 times before during my college years and the swing was definitely never there before. i think someone put it there just for us. if you were to go back and look for it, it would be gone, or so i'd like to think.

it looked a little risky but actually wasn't since it was over a part that ran horizontally before falling down some more rocky cliffs. it was only 3 or 4 feet off the ground.

it's like alyssa said in her last post - the surprising and fun things you didn't even know were so close at hand have a way of just making your day!
makes you wonder what else is just around the corner waiting to surprise you...

the twin cities!

we never saw the other twin, but minneapolis was pretty fun!
a couple weeks ago, nick and i drove up there to meet his parents & siblings for a day. we drove 10 1/2 hours on friday, hung out all day saturday, then repeated the drive down on sunday. a LOT of driving, but a really good time with his family!

i can't even believe how much we did in one day, even though i was there to witness it! we did 3 major walking events: sculpture garden, ikea, & mall of america.
we saw the famous spoon & cherry sculpture - turns out it's a fountain! who knew? there's water coming out of the stem!

we're being gargoyles. what else would this sculpture be for, i ask you?

this walkway had so many beautiful flowers all along the way...


this thing had huge iron beams with the balanced platform in the middle - the beams moved when you got on the platform, so it seemed unsteady at best! we all survived.

another henry moore! nick's just as excited about this one as he was the one from kansas city.

the mall of america was different than i imagined. there was this theme park inside of course (we got to ride the ferris wheel!! nick was not thrilled, but accompanied me anyhow - true love, you know), but everywhere else it was just a really big mall. i think i expected it to have huge vaulted ceilings and be elaborately decorated with fountains and geysers or something.

nick had a few favorite stores we hit - the apple store, lake woebegone store, and...

legoland!! again, my expectations were unrealistic. i didn't think about it actually being a store - i just imagined museum-quality lego creations displayed. we did find plenty of those - more than i thought possible to fit in one store! my favorite was the motorcycle guy.

then we had dinner at tucci benucche and enjoyed some amazing italian in honor of nick & i's birthdays. nick's family were so sweet to me - when we got in around 11 p.m. friday night, they took us to our hotel room and there they had a dozen white roses & several birthday presents! then the after italian on saturday, we had a cheesecake with fresh strawberries. i felt very celebrated all around.
it was a good time to enjoy each other without wedding pressures. we had some laughs for a day... then back to branson!
nick and i plan on staying home for the holidays this first year, so we may not get to see our families for a good while. :-(

speaking of news such as that, let me just throw some other updates your way...
as of yesterday, we finally were able to refinance the house!!!! after 5 months of going back & forth, getting rejected, finding new hope, getting rejected again, we FINALLY closed and are officially refinanced!
our grand scheme for the leftover chunk of cash has changed from time to time, but we've settled on using it to pay off as much debt as we can right now, getting us started with paying off ALL our debt over the course of the next 4 years. we sat down yesterday and mapped it out and that's the timeline we're looking at here. it seems like forever, but also a little bit miraculous. i hope no one's offended by sharing too much personal financial information, but right now we have around $43,000 in combined debt!!! can you believe that we can literally pay it off in 4 years?! i almost can't, but the numbers say we can, if we stick to our budget.
my friend katie sent us dave ramsey's book 'total money makeover' and his common sense approach to working toward financial freedom has inspired both of us to start working hard in that direction. it just doesn't make sense to be enslaved to money for your whole life long. it's not really a get-rich-quick scheme, because there's nothing quick about it, but the way he says it, there's no reason why getting out of debt, saving for your kids' education & for retirement, and investing should be impossible. then the payoff is, after you get all of that figured out and have all those ducks in a row, if it's done right, then you should have enough money returning from your investments to be able to 1. have fun (with a clear conscience!), 2. give money away, and 3. work at a job that you love doing whether or not it's the most lucrative.

someday we'll be there. maybe in a little bookstore. :-)

3rd street books

nick and i have discovered the coolest of all our used bookstore finds ever!!
this one's in ozark, and it's definitely worth the drive! it has a HUGE selection, and has the appropriate amount of character to go along with it.

this room was my favorite with the fun ladder and the light streaming in. there were actually around 5 different rooms, each one just as chock full of books, from floor to ceiling. i think it used to be a house. there's even a little closet room full of books off one of the 'bedrooms'. there has to be at least a million books all together. no joke.

this bookstore actually inspired me. i think some day i could own/run a bookstore. wouldn't that be a cool job?! i thought through every part of the process and came to the realization that i think i would actually LOVE it.
so someday...

the fried family

i've been a fried for almost two months now, if you can believe it! here's a little background on this family i'm stepping into...
one thing's for sure - nick came from it, so it must be good :-)

here are nick's folks, duane & dawn. some of nick's best qualities show up in these two - generosity, strong family ties, warmhearted acceptance - they've made me feel very welcome into the fried family.

the fearsome four - larissa in the front, micaela, mikey & nick.

nick's grandma anderson is the spunk of the family. i'd heard so many stories, it was good to finally meet her.

nick's sister, larissa, her husband leif and their baby owen.

mikey and his girlfriend, tera.

nick's pretty excited to have a nephew. he calls him 'odie' or sometimes 'o-dog'. i remember when larissa first called to tell nick she was pregnant - after he got off the phone, he whooped and hollered with glee! it was hilarious.


so that's the fam!
once again, there just was not enough time to spend with everyone. we were able to drive up to minneapolis last weekend though, on a lightening fast trip to meet up with most of the frieds. it was a really good time. more on that to come...

our newest additions!

mohinder has once again shared his unique vocal talents with us - we're thinking it's his special way of expressing displeasure at his territory being invaded. the last time he yodelled for us, there was a cat out on the porch staring in the window at him. he sat on the window sill for long minutes at a time, alternating between giving the double-eyeballed death stare and warbling his heart out. this time, it was his first exposure to his new playmate kittens upon their arrival in his domain and promptly eating his food and drinking his water. he was none too pleased. you should see him now though, 3 days later. he plays with them all day long! he almost doesn't even need us anymore :-) i'll have to take pictures of their antics. they're pretty hilarious.


here's nick's pick of the litter, samwise gamgee.

and my favorite - maeby.
aren't they irresistible?!

the big b-day

on the auspicious anniversary of my birth, 08/08/08, upon whence i turned 30 years old, nothing too drastic happened, but a compilation of many little things that made the day a day of specialness. allow me to enumerate them for your imagination's pleasure.

nick and i spent our last night housesitting for some friends, and this wall is what i awoke to on that birthday friday.

you may not be too impressed, but believe me, it was impressive! the air was perfect morning air, the shadows weren't just sitting there like they appear to be in the picture - they were dancing! the wind in the leaves outside the window was making them flitter and flicker all over the wall and it was so beautiful! i just lay in bed watching them.
the reason i could lay in bed so late was that nick went to clean coldstone by himself, giving me 2 extra hours of sleep. how's that for a loving husband?

after luxuriating in the extra rest long enough, i took myself over to a different friend's house where i hung out with her two children for the day...

ruby + liam = cuteys

liam's dad is a pretty amazing photographer, and liam is obviously going to be a chip off the old block. he took this picture of me and ruby and then proceeded to take several more with very intense determination. in fact, intense is the word for this kid.

then several friends joined nick and i for dinner at zio's in springfield. i love italian food more than any other food under the sun.
drea, allison, casey, erica & rob were the friends. they showered me with gifts and love.

i even got to blow out a candle! you're never too old.

after dinner we went for a brief walk at the springfield nature conservation area - super pretty, but not enough time to explore it all before it closed.

don't ask me why we're standing like that.

...and of course some ice cream gave the evening some closure.

all in all, a good birthday.
i'm so incredibly fortunate to have the friends god's seen fit to bless me with. and to have such a guy like nicholas as my husband, sometimes i still don't even believe it!
when looking over the years of my life, my 30th year has definitely been the best of the bunch.

yesterday, mohinder found a new favorite spot. nick was playing the dobro and mohinder was just watching him, cuddled up in black furry case. maybe he thought it was his long-lost mother.
there's a lady with 10 free baby kittens!! we might get a couple. mohinder needs some friends.

kristin's just about the cutest pregnant lady on the planet. and i finally made it out to a game night at her house! it's a first for the year.

casey and i were opposite twins, which you now can't see in black & white. oh well. we were cute, promise.

this is the quilt my mother made for nick and i's wedding present. isn't it beautiful? we love it, and her!

drea & carissa hosted a game night at their house which was shortlived for me (9 o'clock bedtime, you know), but super fun.


other updates for the day:

*speaking of 9 o'clock bedtime, nick and i had switched to cleaning coldstone at night -- which means midnight to 1:30 a.m. -- not a good idea for us. we were just sleepy all day long! so now we're back to mornings and seem to be pretty adjusted to the early hours. at least this way i'm all ready to be getting up early when school starts! who needs summer sleeping in anyhow? i feel bad for my poor hubby though, when school starts and i won't be able to help him.
:-(

*we're going to minneapolis for a couple of days to meet his family halfway between us and them. hopefully we'll get to go to the mall of america! i'm excited.
our beloved friend drea is covering the store cleaning for us. what a gal.

*nick and i actually thought we might very well be pregnant for a couple of weeks ago!! but turns out we're not. it was a really fun couple of weeks thinking about what our lives would be like if we were. we'd pretty much gotten used to the idea and were starting to get really excited... but then we weren't. there are so many reasons why it's a good thing. god is completely in control, all the time.
it's still just a bit sad, though.

*nick's getting back on the applying-for-college bandwagon and only lacks one thing to be fully applied to college of the ozarks! he's a little trepidatious and the thought, but i'm very excited and think it will be a great thing for him. he's looking at majoring in history/education.
we'll see what happens.

*speaking of nick, he's lost 7 pounds since being married to me!! that's a hefty chunk! i asked him if it's my cooking?! he says it's that i'm actually cooking. he's used to snacking hard core all day long on junk food, but now he gets 3 balanced meals a day.
i felt better.

*we're starting to get excited about the total money makeover. dave ramsey has us pumped. hopefully, if we are approved for the mortgage refinancing, we'll put all the extra cash into debt which will give us a good jumpstart on the 'debt snowball' which will then get us 'gazelle intense' about the rest of it, and hopefully we'll keep murphy at bay!!
dave ramsey has good common sense ideas about finances but very cheesy phrases.

*i start with new teacher meetings on monday! can this summer already be gone?! is school seriously about to start again?! i haven't even gone swimming!

*my birthday is on friday!!! in case you've missed the memo, this is a pretty auspicious birthday. it's on 8/8/08, and i'm turning THIRTY years old!!!!
officially leaving the twenties behind.
i probably might be upset about that thought, if it weren't for how great i feel at this point in my life. things couldn't be better, seriously. it took 30 long years for me to come to a place of spiritual, emotional & relational balance. so i'm heartily glad for each one of those years!
we're going out to eat with some friends to celebrate. pretty innovative celebration idea, i know. but what with getting up at 5:30 a.m. to clean, our social lives are pretty boring these days. with the little extra mula though, we'll 'live like no one else so that later, we can live like no one else!'
yes, that's another ramsey-ism.


i'll leave you with that quote. i just can't top it, so why try?

6 random things

casey tagged me to make this list many moons ago, so here it is! i confess i will not be following the rules though. i don't want to tag 6 other people. if you want to be tagged by me though, consider yourself tagged and make a similar list on your blog!

rules:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

my list of 6 random things:

1. the thought of eating ice cream occurs to me at least 3 times during a day. every day.
2. i claim to have gone skinny-dipping, but i actually had (borrowed) clothes on. everyone else was in the buff.
3. i once found a baby owl and kept it in a box but he didn't like it there so i let him go. he would just skulk in the back of the box and look resentful. i hope he survived back in the wild after having my human smell on his feathers.
4. i hate candid snapshots of people, they always tend to look unflattering, unless the snapshotter is a professional.
5. i once was almost bitten by a rattlesnake, on the bum, in an outhouse in mexico.
6. i've never had a cavity.

the end