Baby Shower, July 18th

Hi, all! Here are some photos from the baby shower we traveled 12 hours to attend in Minnesota. The trip was well worth it! We saw friends and family we haven’t seen in a while (some since the wedding–4 years ago!), and we had a great time. The cake was delicious (I was so excited for cake), and the company was awesome. Just for consistency’s sake, I was 25 weeks, 5 days at the shower. Enjoy!

Such pretty decorations; my mother-in-law coordinated this part of the party (it was a combo party with both families--the hubby's and mine).

Centerpiece from Mom and Rachel's table.

This one's for my cousin Jennifer, courtesy of Rachel and my mom! Gotta show off that smiling face and the baby belly.

Lots of family and friends from both sides attended.

Though the men were uncertain of this unisex baby shower, they were good sports, took part in the games, and kept each other company . . . in the corner they somehow designated as their own.

It was such a comfy chair that I didn't even mind it was front and center.

We received so many awesome gifts during the shower. This particular one is from my mom and dad. They packed the baby bathtub full of goodies for Baby Girl!

Just one more present-opening picture. We received a lot of pink that day (thank goodness I love pink! The hubby is still getting used to it all), but this little bath towel was so cute and the perfect gift from our friends, Kari and Dale. It's bright and happy like they are!

Master’s Degree = Done.

I just have to send in my portfolios to my reader, Ann, but other than that, I’m all done! There are a few pages that keep getting cut off on my typeset version, so I have to wait for the little sister to get back from partyin’ hardy in Duluth (she’s at a wedding) this weekend to get them fixed, but other than that, it’s all set. Everything has been printed and assembled. I just have to put in the cover for the project and the porfolio and about 5 pages worth of project, and I’m set! Yay!

It felt weird this morning, when I started to plan my day, and it didn’t involve sitting at my computer to write. I’ve been MIA from everything else for a while, and that’s because every spare minute at work and at home was spent writing and revising–over and over again. It was worth it, though. I’m really proud of how it turned out.

Both grades (my independent study class and my master’s project) were submitted well before the deadline of May 29th, so now it’s just a matter of a couple of months, and I’ll have my diploma in hand!

Now I can get back to “normal” life–whatever that is. I’m getting caught up on my freelance editing (a big thank you to all of you who have been so patient while I finished this up), and I can start sewing and crafting again. I have lots of blankets, quilts, toys, etc., to make for a couple friends’ babies and for my own little girl.

I even got a chance to bake this afternoon–Blueberry-Yogurt Muffins.

Blueberry-Yogurt Muffins

They’re delicious. And so is having time to be.

You know what I forgot to buy when I was in Minnesota?

Wild Rice.

Darn it all. I’m sure it’s available here, but it will either be extremely overpriced for half as much or it will taste bad. I’ve learned this with other favorite local foods from my home state that I’ve gotten elsewhere. Yeah, no good.

I gotta find me a website where I can buy it in bulk. Wild rice. Nummy…

I can tell we’re getting settled here.

Because when I went to make cookies to share while scrapbooking tomorrow, I had all the ingredients with the exception of shortening.

For anyone who likes cookies, here’s a delicious recipe:

Chocolate Chip Cookies with Oatmeal

From Diana Rattray,
Courtesy of this Website

INGREDIENTS:

* 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 cup shortening
* 3/4 cup brown sugar
* 3/4 cup granulated sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 2 cups uncooked rolled oats
* 1 teaspoon vanilla

PREPARATION:
Sift flour with salt and soda.
Cream shortening and sugars; beat in eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, chopped walnuts or pecans, rolled oats, and chocolate chips.
Drop chocolate chip cookie batter by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake chocolate chip cookies in a preheated 350° oven for about 10 to 12 minutes; cool on racks. Makes about 8 dozen chocolate chip cookies.

P.S. Just an FYI. It doesn’t make nearly 8 dozen cookies. It makes plenty to share, but they would have to be mighty small cookies to add up to 8 dozen.

Up for tonight:

Watching “Memoirs of a Geisha” and eating DiGiorno Pizza. After that, I will finish reading “The Nanny Diaries” and work on my wedding scrapbook. My older sister will call tonight, too (she said she will), and I will talk to my mom and the hubby, as well.

Mmm… Life is good.

Delayed Honeymoon

I just realized I never posted any pictures from our honeymoon. Wow. I suck. So here they are with a little commentary from yours truly.

We arrived at our hotel safe and sound. It was pouring rain that day, and the driver wasn’t taking his time. We flew into Cancun, so the drive to Playa del Carmen was a ways. We thought we weren’t going to make it to the hotel, but we got there.

We were a bit stressed as we had gotten split up on the plane because no one listens to the stewardesses and all got up before I could get back to the front with my luggage. Very pissy and wet and a little unhappy that our honeymoon had started so crappily. That and I got searched by the Mexican Customs. Nothing serious. Just random bag checks, but it still delayed us and it kinda sucked. I didn’t want her fondling my underwear, thank you very much.

Anyway, we finally get to our room.

With the room number.

The bellboy shows us how to work the electricity (you have to plug one of your cards into a slide box. Quite nifty and smart, really.). This is what our room looked like:

I’ve never had cement columns in my room before. It was pretty cool.

The bed was pretty comfy, too.

Such a pretty TV stand.

That’s the vanity.

The big ol’ tub and shower were awesome. I told the hubby I wanted one that huge when we get our own place. He agreed that it was pretty nice.

And, yes, that is a phone by the crapper. It actually came in handy a couple of times. The hubby plugged it (We discovered you can’t flush toilet paper in Mexico. You put it in the wastebasket for the maid to take out the next day. Sucky.), and the maintenance guy used it to call down to the front desk when he had unplugged it.

The hotel gives complimentary bottles of champagne to their honeymooners, so it was a nice way to end a stressful day, and it made us feel a little more comfortable.

This is the view from the balcony of our room. It is another resort, though it is quite pretty at night.

Our hotel was literally on the beach.

It made it nice on the couple of days we lounged and swam. The weather wasn’t cooperating near the end of the trip, but it was still beautiful out.

We set up a couple of day trips, which we’re so glad we did now. The first one we went on was to see Chichen Itza, which are Mayan ruins around 2.5 hours from our hotel. We first stopped at an underground spring, and it was beautiful. We could have swam in it, but we decided against it as we had a long day of hiking around the ruins ahead of us.

These were the flowers on top of the spring:

I had only seen this type of flower in books before. It was great seeing them close up.

This purple was beautiful.

Walking down to the spring:

It was so nice and cool down there. I can see why the Mayans would build their cities around these beautiful springs.

Swimmers would get yelled at if they came near those roots hanging down from the ceiling.

After that, we were off to the ruins. I was personally excited for this because I am such a history buff. After seeing Pompeii in Italy, I knew this would be a thrill just like that had been.

The hubby and me in front of the main temple.

Here’s a better photo of it, but this is on one of the sides that hasn’t been restored.

We heard a rumor that they are going to shut down the temple, restore all of the sides and then no longer allow anyone to climb it anymore. Lucky for us, we got to climb it.

We even made a friend during this outing. That’s James down in the lower righthand corner. He took all of the pictures of the hubby and me together. Great guy. Very funny. That will be proven later on in the photos.

So we made it to the top, and what a view it was! Here are a couple photos from the top:

That’s the spot where they believe they sacrificed the… well, sacrifices. And, yes, I touched it.

Once we climbed back down (which was scarier than the climb up, let me tell you), we wandered around.

I was so amazed at how some of the paintings had lasted. And still so intricate.

I liked this statue the best. I don’t know why, but I did. And, yes, that’s my stupid arm in the way. I got good at getting in the hubby’s way when he took photos.

There were tons of snake heads all around the arena. There were two snakes whose bodies ran the length of the arena, as well. And, again, my stupid head in the way.

These two were taken behind the main temple. There was so much back there to see. Chichen Itza was enormous.

I wish I understood the significance of these symbols. At the very least, I can appreciate the fact that they are there in the first place.

James was told by two “crazy French ladies” that if you touched some of the unrestored columns, you could “feel the energy” of them. So here’s James feeling the column’s energy:

Here James is feeling too much of the energy:

We were shopping fiends that day. There are tons of locals with blankets set out along the trails with their wares laid out for the tourists to see.

We ended up with an onyx fish statue, an onyx turtle statue (we had bought it earlier that day at a stop along the way), and a wooden mask, which hangs on our wall in the apartment.

The next outing was to Xel-Ha (pronounced Shel-Ha), which was a natural lagoon where we could snorkel.

It was absolutely beautiful. And the day was perfect, though the sun was hot as can be. We had nasty sunburn to show for it. We used biodegradable sunblock that was supposed to be better for the fish, but it just washed off as soon as you stepped in the water. The hubby had a lobster-red back and my butt was burned to a crisp as a result, but it was worth it.

That was taken along one of the many trails around the lagoon.

The iguana liked the fish food. He was cute, but I still didn’t get close.

These are the fish we swam with. It was amazing.

After snorkeling for several hours, I left the hubby to keep swimming. I went to the hammock area and settled in for a good hour.

The view from my hammock. I even got a little nap there. Don’t worry. It was in the shade, so I didn’t get burned then.

We ended our day with two strawberry daquiris. This was taken as we stood in line.

We sure did enjoy ourselves. We did a little shopping and eating in the town of Playa del Carmen, but our best memories are from these outings.

Good Lord almighty, this pizza is delicious. Pete’s Arena Pizza has got to be the best pizza I have ever tasted. Seriously. Amazing.

The hubby dropped me off really early for class so that I could get my AP quiz and KSU fact checking quiz in to Ed, my new boss. He is the adviser for the newspaper and the magazine on-campus, so I may be able to get two copywriting jobs. Sweet.

So I’m sitting in their cafeteria/Union sort of place, sitting all by myself listening to these punk/rockers talk about life. Not really listening. Just hearing tidbits. They’re artists, too. People I would like to talk to, but I have decided not to have too much of a social life. Maybe talk to Josh and Bernie. No one else. And the people at the Sentinel and the Talon. And at the other job. School is kind of sucking the life out of everything. Not in a bad way, though. Ok, so that sounds terrible, but I’m enjoying fully focusing on my education. I get lonely sometimes, but mostly for my family and my friends from back home. Not from human contact in general. I get that way too much at the other job.

School is going well. I’m really enjoying my classes, especially my editing class. I feel like I’m taking leaps and bounds toward my goals in the future. Well, at least I’m learning about what I want to do. Copyediting position, here I come!

Life is, generally speaking, really good. Some red tape I have to battle with here, but that’s mostly financial aid and the registrar’s office. At least they’re nice there. If they were mean, that would make it miserable to even think about having to go see them.

So, I’m off to read more about copyediting and magazines and really important stuff I’m actually going to be able to use in the future. And then a late night of library perusing. The hubby’s picking me up after he’s done with work at 11 p.m., so I can get some research done in the library. I’m excited to visit it. I haven’t been in this new one yet. The library always becomes my favorite place on-campus, and this one has a rare books collection. Their oldest book dates back to before the fifteenth century. I’m definitely going to have to go check that out!

Appreciating Reusing Tea Bags

Thanks so much to Sara, a friend of mine and fellow blogger. She posted a link to an article about 8 ways to reuse tea bags, and considering I drink tea like water, I appreciate a clever and creative mind on this topic. Thanks again!