If I could give any advice to the newly wed bride, it would be Oxi-Clean…. Seriously a large conatiner of Oxi clean and nothing else matters. All the other problems have a way of working themselves out… I recieved a container that was a package deal, it came with Chuck. Once I discovered the many uses of Oxi-Clean I was hooked. Chuck and I will be happily married 2 years on April 29th.

If I could give any advice to the new Mommy, it would be a sleep slack… Seriously, get your new born a sleep sack. It’s the best thing ever!! That’s right I’m also a new Mommy. James Stillman Vail was born on April 5th. What an amazing road and journey it was to get here.

Sometime soon I will update with a long blog.

    Hello Xanga, what’s it been 8 months?? We have a lot of catching up to do, but don’t be surprised if I go another 8 months, without making time for my faithful friend. Here’s what you’ve missed…

     I find myself writing this blog from Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri… That’s right Chuck and I moved here about a month ago… I never imagined myself coming back here, it was actually Chuck who started putting the idea in my head last summer. At first I shrugged it off, and then I could not ignore the thought. Chuck is so happy, he has wanted out of Iowa and a new beginning his whole life. My emotions are a bit more mixed. I’m very happy, and I know it was right for us to move here – but I am battling feeling nostalgic from the past, who I was and who I no longer am. Friends who were, and friends who are no more. It’s a weird feeling. I can’t imagine not having my husband by my side through out it all. We started trying to make plans last fall to actually move, and then everything fell into place at once. My Dad was able to hire Chuck on at his tool and die shop as a metal grinder. Chuck is learning a lot and enjoying being challenged. I am looking for work and feeling rather frustrated. For the time being Chuck and I are staying with my Mom and Dad for a few months until we both get settled in jobs and a little cash saved up for deposits and such. I’m very grateful for their help and it has gone rather smooth, but it is weird for me being back in my parents house. We are newly weds and we need out freedom and space. It will all fall into place in it’s own time, just as everything else has.

    Speaking of newly weds, I can’t believe Chuck and I have been married almost a year already. It has gone by so fast. It has been wonderful!! We want to rent a lake resort for the weekend of our 1 year anniversary. April 29th. Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting married on our anniversary. I’m honored. Monday was March 7th, Chuck’s 36th birthday and the 2 year mark of us being together. My how the time flies!!

    In Aug Chuck finally worked my confidence up and got me excited about the idea of trying to have a baby and I stopped my birth control pill. 8 months later and we have had no luck. Meanwhile idiots all around us are getting knocked up and having kids. People with less money than us, people in bad relationships with no stability, people who don’t want to kick habits of partying, people who already have 5 plus children, etc, etc. I had a friend get pregnant and tell me it was her 1st month of trying. Then she added, “God knew that I did not want to wait to become pregnant.” Excuse me!?? How conceited is that!?? So are you saying that people who try for a baby for years, God just doesn’t care how they feel?? Get over yourself already. I try not to be jealous, but it’s just not fair sometimes. We lived in a messed up society. Every month that passes, we remind our selves that is that many more bills we have paid off, and that much more time together as just a couple, etc, etc… But we both know it’s no comparison. Chuck says we’ll either have a house full of dogs or we’ll have a few kids… Time will tell. With our luck I’ll end up prego during our stay here with my parents…

    Our pets still roll our world, they really are our babies… Last fall a dear friend of mine called me and needed a good home for her dog. She also had a pitbull by the name of Red. I had never met Red before but she promised me he was a really good dog. Chuck and I excitedly decided to take him in. The is a GREAT dog. We just love him to death. Getting Red was also one of the best things we could have done for Cocoa. Red helped Cocoa so much socially, and they love each other’s companionship. I’m so proud of our dogs. They are both so well behaved too. I have become an activist whenever possible against pitbull discrimination and or other people discriminating against ‘Vicious Dogs’. Chuck and I have experienced the discrimination 1st hand. Again, it’s not fair. We still have our bearded dragon, Spike-O. He’s a cool little guy… My cat Miley, did not make the cut. We were having a lot of problems with her, and it was clear to me she belonged outside on a farm. I suggested to Chuck if he took her for a one way ride I would not ask any questions… In my female mind I was thinking a nice spring day to introduce her to life outside… Nope Chuck did it on a very cold day in January. I still feel sad when I think about Miley.

    Chuck lost his grandmother in January. That was really hard for him, she was a very special lady. I’m thankful I had the opportunity to get to know the lady who held such a special spot in his life and in his heart. I already miss a few of our bumbling sidekicks like Bonehead. I’m confident our journey will introduce us to more bumbling side kicks we can have fun with. Chuck and I have spent our free time and extra money the past year going to parks, having bonfires, enjoying music mixes, gravel road cruising, painting walls in our old farmhouse, building something out of nothing, creating gourmet meals, and of course rolling back a few beers. Now we have a giant lake we can romp around. I just love my life and my best friend. Everything is better with him. In one year we have created a book worth of adventures. We have secrets the two of us will take to our grave. We’ve had a few memoribal squables that we can later laugh about, but most of all our love grows deeper and stronger every day that passes. 

    So here’s to the beautiful spring day that it seems to be today. The windows are open and hold the promises of adventures and life ahead. One of the first things Chuck taught me when we got together 2 years ago, was the expression, “Where the day will take you…” Cheers. As I’m mealoncholoy for now sipping coffee tongiht I will be off frolicing and discovering new things with my hubby…

A few random pics of the past few months…

Sunrise from our farmhouse…

Sweet Summer-time…

My beloved car rolled over 100,000 last fall.

Chuck still gets me flowers faithfully.

Meet Red. He’s the cutest little guy!

Friends for Life.

My 27th Birthday was a blast!!

My lopsided Christmas tree Chuck got for me.

Our arts and crafts wall from the farmhouse

      Six years ago (Aug 2004) I was a naive, energetic 20 year old who started a blog on Xanga. How would I have ever imagined at that time everything that Xanga would walk me through? Wow what a journey it has been! Six years ago, I still lived in Missouri, I still lived with my parents, I drove a 1980 Buick Century, I only worked a part time job, I had no credit cards (Or credit at all for that matter) I still had Sylvia the family cat I grew up with, I had never taken a college course, I had never had a boyfriend, I had never even had a sip of alcohol or experimented with a single drug. I knew very little about life outside of the walls of my church. My greatest fear was spending my life alone.

  Everyone knows the rest of the story. I grew up. I experienced life. I struck out a few times. I kept picking myself back up (sometimes were more difficult than others.). I thought I knew what I wanted, only to turn around and reevaluate who I was and where I was going, this cycle repeated a few times. I made a handful of mistakes, and I redeemed myself a handful of times. Lessons learned have been my greatest treasures and strength. Countless friends and relationships have come and gone out of my life in that time. The ones I thought would never betray me have been the ones who in the end, wounded me the deepest. The ones I never thought would follow through have been the first ones at my side, thick and thin. Life has a sense of humor. The past six years were really an incredible time for me of self discovery, and most of all achievement. Figuring out what I wanted, and going after it full force… Watching my deepest dreams come true in full force!!
    I remember when I was younger (Around six years ago) I always felt so very anxious. I was anxious to catch a glimpse of my future. My life was so uncertain. I remember describing to people that I felt my life was a puzzle and I only had a few pieces of it put together, but I wanted to see what the full puzzle looked like. I get excited jitters today, knowing that some large pieces have connected for me in the past six years. I still don’t see the full picture, but I feel so much joy in the connecting pieces I have now. The love of my life, My husband Chuck, our life together, our dreams, our pets, our house, our laughter and jokes. I know these patterns will only continue and magnify as I mature and my life goes on.
     I am so very grateful that I have recorded the past six years of my life in VERY deep detail. Perhaps someday I shall print it all out, and when I have a daughter going through awkward times she can read it and relate and take comfort knowing she will get through it all. Xanga was my deepest friend for so very long, when I had noone else to listen. Life is different now. I have Chuck. I don’t need to rant or ramble or be witty, Chuck is there for me. My life is starting a new season. Priorities change after marriage and Xanga is quite low on the list. With this new season, I think now would be a good time for me to simply fade away from Xanga.
   At present we are having our internet canceled effective Monday, because we have decided it is one monthly bill that we don’t NEED. I may randomly still get on from time to time just to give an update, but I already know, those days are behind me…
    I’m so busy looking forward now, and pressing on in the day to day. Working hard to earn an honest dollar and pay off bills. Planning for babies. Realizing I really have no control at all, and everything will be ok at the end of everyday. Enjoying fun moments as they come and go. (Going to see David Allen Coe play next week for free. Planned a fall trip to a cabin at Lake Belvedere, etc etc.) Life is floating by fast and smoothly for me now. Embrace it.

With Great Love to all… Thanks for the past 6 years, the childlike girl I was to the strong woman I have become. Cheers!~

Myself, July 2002 (Just after graduating High school)

Myself, Aug 2003

Myself, September 2004

November 2005

May 2006

May 2007

July 2008

July 2009 (2009 was hard to find pics of JUST me, because Chuck was beside me in all of them!)

Myself, May 2010

Fireworks are rained out. I’m bored… What do you do? I haven’t done a quiz in years…

quiz 004

Wala. I finally have all of the worthy wedding pics, edited and up in chronological order. I did not include the honeymoon pics, there’s only like another 700 of those!! For now, check out this link.

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0EYuWzRs2Zs3NA

   I have a few free minutes, I thought I would catch good old Xanga up. Xanga is just like an old friend to me. Chuck went to CR to visit his Dad for awhile this afternoon and should be home in awhile. I worked late tonight….
   Actually I have been working all the time lately… The day after I got back to work from our honeymoon, I found out Shelly had been fired from the Will Call office while I was away. Rather than posting the position opening like our company always does, they waited 2 full weeks for me to get home from my honeymoon to see if I wanted that job position full time. I really thought that was an honor. So now I have a more official title, and a more important position, I am getting butt loads of overtime on each pay check… but still no raise. What do you do? That seems to be the American way. I have worked 11 hour shifts, 13 day stretches, weekends and holidays since taking this position in the past month. I miss my time with my husband. Thankfully things will slow down in another month once they get the new people trained in Customer Service and then I will just be getting a mild amount of over time each week. A healthy balance.
    Getting back from our honeymoon was instant reality check. We arrived home to a flooded basement (again) a water heater down, Chuck ran a fever, a Bat got into the house, Chucks cell phone died, etc, etc, etc. Just before our wedding and honeymoon we were tossing around the idea of trying to start a family. As soon as reality hit that hard, I became a bit gun shy and convinced Chuck that needed to take a back seat until we could pay off a few more bills… Such is life. It seems right now I am learning a lot about balance.
     Chuck and I have our eye on a farm house in Kalona on an acre of land. Chuck has known the lady that wants to sell it for years, so we have been talking with her. We went to the bank to check things out and back to the lady, and she needs a few more months. That works out well for us, because we could use a few more months to shrink down some more debt ourselves. I don’t know if it will be possible for us to buy the house, but we are looking at our options and putting our heads together to figure things out. It is exciting!
   On one hand I can’t believe we have been married just over a month already. On the other hand, it feels like 6 months have been cramped into this past month. Time is such a funny way of measuring relevance. The few free moments I have had lately, Chuck and I have been getting our kicks out of camping in our own yard and having huge bonfires. I know we are rednecks.   My Mom was in town in Cedar Rapids this week, so she came to Wellman and hung out with us for awhile on Memorial Day weekend. We had a lot of fun with her. My Dad and her will be having their 30th wedding anniversary on June 6th. My Grandpa and Grandma’s 51st anniversary is that same day. I still don’t talk with my Grandma and Grandpa and things have actually been a lot eaiser with out them or their games. Last night we had two of my co-workers over for a few hours. That was a good time. Slowly we are getting more social, our relationship was so secluded to just the two of us for the longest time.
    Still playing with wedding photos and trying to collect and organize them all together in the few free moments I have. As soon as I do, I promise I will post them on a Shutterfly link for everyone to view.

Guess that’s about it for now. I’m working tomorrow morning, so I’m going to unwind. Hope everyone has an awesome weekend!

    Back from the wedding and honeymoon. I have to go back to work today after being off for just over 2 weeks. Now we get to pay it all off. Lol.

I had the time of my life!!! My wedding was everything I have ever dreamed and hoped for, and so much more. Our honeymoon was awesome. Most importantly, I have married the most wonderful man in the world and we get to share our lives together!

Let’s see the 20 hour plus truck ride out there went smooth. It was just very long. Our honeymoon suite was flipping amazing. The ocean was even more amazing. The first week we spent a lot of time with our families and guests who were also there for the wedding. We spent our fair share of time on the beach soaking up the sun, sand and salty ocean air. We saw all kinds of cool stuff. Ripley’s Aquarium, an Alligator Farm, a dolphin cruise in the ocean, Medieval Dinner Theater, the Atlanta GA aquarium, my personal favorite was the morning after our wedding Chuck woke me up just before sunrise and we took a 2 hour walk down the beach. Picking up seashells and snapping pictures of the sunrise. It was so romantic. We ate at a ton of cool places too! I ordered crab legs for the 1st time ever and I LOVED them! I bet I gained 40 pounds! We ate at Joe’s Crab Shack, Bonefish Grill, Hardrock Cafe, a place called Dick’s where they act really rude and make fun of you. They made everyone at our table a dunce cap. Mine said, “Retired Pole Dancer” Chuck’s said, “I collect gay porn” My Mom’s said, “The lights are on, the door is open, but noone is home.” Dad’s said, “The only thing still getting hard on me is walking.” Jeremy’s said, “Don’t laugh at the hat, the real joke is in my pants.” and Joni’s said, “I will flash for Wal-Mart gift cards” Too funny! We also stumbled across a local restaurant called Duffy’s Street Seafood Shack. The food was awesome and the atmosphere was even better. We liked the place so much I think we went back about 4 times during our trip. One night we were out cruising the town and we stopped in a bar called Duck’s. Chuck and I were really amused. The place was a dive, and filled with local people. They were playing a ton of retro 80′s music, complete with lights and a dance floor. Chuck and I decided it made us feel like we were either in a VFW or it was a flashback to Skate Country back in 1990. Our families took super good care of us while they were there. The night before our wedding both of our families were all together in a bar hammering down the beers. It was a hilarious experience watching both of our families get drunk together. Everyone really hit it off. The rounds just kept coming! At one point I looked down and had 4 beers in front of me still needing drank. I was sooo very hung over the morning of our wedding, but I wasn’t the only one. Lol. I think there were very few meals we had to pay for that first part of the week. Our families also kept a flowing supply of champaign and wines going in our direction for our honeymoon. I think I counted 16 bottles of wine and champaign that we went through in 9 days. That was the nice part about having family along on our honeymoon. It was also nice when everyone went home after the wedding and Chuck and I had one on one time. We had to laugh at the irony, because there we were on our honeymoon and all these couples around us were bickering nonstop. Chuck’s Dad and Step-Mom, Coralie and Mike, and Angie and Donnie. I’m glad Chuck and I don’t argue like that.

The wedding ceremony itself was Thursday April 29th. It was beautiful. I was nervous about the weather but I could not have asked for a sunnier day! I loved it when my Dad walked me down the isle. (Or the beach) Our minister was a cool guy to work with. Even Chuck liked him. Thinking back to the ceremony it feels like a blur. We did the sand ceremony instead of a unity candle and that turned out really neat. Our pictures turned out amazing, and I have only seen a fraction of them so far! Plus they took us out a few nights later in casual clothes for an extra photo shoot. Too cool! We literally have thousands of pictures from our wedding and honeymoon. After our wedding ceremony we had a really nice dinner at a formal restaurant. It was a good time with people and a lot more easy going than doing a reception. We did have a wedding cake, and it turned out really cool!! I don’t have a picture of it yet (Mike still has a bunch of pics) but I will post a pic when I get it.

So much I could say, but nothing I could say about our time there could do it justice. We brought home countless souvenirs and that still doesn’t cover it. So on that note I will close with a few photos and introduce myself as Mrs. Kristen Vail. Here it is, the beginning of my happily ever after. It is good to be home sweet home. We really missed our pets. Happy to have them back! Life is good!!

The sand ceremony

Just married!

The wedding party

My bridesmaids and I

My parents and I

The Vail’s

All of our wedding guests

The rings.

Casual beach pics

Angie made me this shirt. So cute!!

At Ripley’s Aquarium

Hangin at the beach

Vail Village I created.

Myrtle Beach Sunset

The view from our balcony (4th floor)

The view from my parents balcony. (17th floor)

After our wedding…

Sunrise

Angie and I

Chuck at Joe’s Crab Shack

    17 days ’til I say, “I do” forever… 2 weeks from today Chuck and I will be arriving in Myrtle Beach and checking into our honeymoon suite after a 20 hour drive across the country. I’m so excited!!
    Meanwhile we have been keeping busy getting everything in order. Angie came to town last weekend, so on Friday night Chuck and I drove into CR, with the dog and met up with everyone at the bar. It was a lot of fun. We don’t see many people from our old posse anymore, so it was just like old times. We left the dog in the truck while we were at the bar and checked on her on occasion. She did really well, but she is very scared of strangers. Then we rented a cheap ghetto motel in CR, snuck Cocoa in with us and crashed for the evening. The next day we got new tires put on Chuck’s truck, before our trip. The price tag on that about made me want to cry! Last Sunday was Easter. After the fight I got into with my Grandma, I had no desire to show up for their side of the families Easter dinner. (Nor do I plan on seeing them on Thanksgiving or Christmas.) In fact they haven’t even spoken to me since then, and I don’t expect that to change anytime soon. Chuck’s family is going through a lot of drama with his Grandma getting older and sicker. So we managed to stay home for Easter and have a day to ourselves. It was really nice. The weather was beautiful. We grilled out steaks that were about a pound and a half each. Maybe some year we can do Easter at our house for our families?
    My work week went by fast. My boss got fired a week ago. Apparently his rude comments were reported to the HR office by a handful of people over the years and he finally had one too many complaints against him. So currently, I don’t have a boss. Actually it has been kind of peaceful around the office since then too, with out him breathing down our backs and digging into our personal business that is not work related. My Dad shows me more respect than my boss did, yet my boss was always trying to act like he was my dad. It got old fast. We have been so busy at work I really haven’t had much time to think about who will be our new boss, and nobody is saying anything yet. All I know is I have 10 work days left, and then I am off work for 2 weeks!
    Things are getting really exciting around home. Packages upon packages are randomly showing up at our doorstep. The 1st time it happened last week Chuck was teasing me and saying, “What did you order off the internet this time?” I was like, “Nothing, I promise!” Turned out my cousin Jennie in New Mexico had sent us a wedding gift. She sent us this miniature backpack with our initals embroidered into it. The back of the back pack had a thermal holding area for a bottle of wine. The front of the backpack was intended for a wine a cheese set. It came with plastic wine glasses, cloth napkins, a cutting board for cheese, a knife spreader for cheese and a bottle stopper for the wine. That has to be the coolest gift ever. Perfect for romantic walks and picnics. Plus she sent us a really fancy corkscrew with our wedding date inscribed in it. I was really surprised. I could tell she put a lot of thought into that. I wasn’t expecting anything from family that distant. In fact I have only seen Jennie maybe twice in the past 10 years, but she figured Chuck and I out that much, just from facebook. My Aunt Sandy in Kansas City sent us a blender that we were registered for too. That also surprised me. Sweet!
    This past weekend was a blur. Saturday Chuck mowed for the 1st time this year. It took him 7 hours. He has an acer to mow, which is not so bad and he has a riding lawn mower of the land lords, but we have really deep ditches he has to push mow, and that’s what took so long. He is tan already from it. Makes me so jealous! I did a lot of deep cleaning inside all day on Sat while he mowed. Yesterday Gina came over so Chuck could change the oil in her car. Coralie, Michael and Chuck’s other Sister Nina and her kids Faith and Gavin all ended up showing up too. On top of that Chuck’s friend Bonehead randomly showed up for a few beers. The weather was perfect and we had a blast with our surprise company! We ended up grilling up a bunch of hamburgers, and the kids (My new niece and nephew) were really cute!! They were chasing our 3 pets all over, (including the lizard) and they loved running around our yard. Nina and Coralie had thought to bring a bunch of outdoor toys for them. Plus I thought it was neat, I really haven’t had much of a chance to get to know Nina and I probley chatted with her more yesterday than I ever have before.
   Now it’s getting into crunch time. We have one weekend left before we leave. Checking our to do list and double checking. I need to start packing for the 2 of us on the week nights. I need to make sure all of our bills are paid before we leave. I need to finalize the road trip tunes on the i-pod. I need to set addresses into the Garmin system. I need to call the courthouse in Myrtle Beach and make sure they got the paper work for our marriage licence. I have a last minute hair and tan appointment set up. I have baby sitters arranged for our pets. We should have the mail stopped. I have thank-you gift baskets made for the wedding party, I just hope they travel fine. Our final head count is, 15 adults, 2 children and 1 baby. I don’t know. I need to relax everything will work out fine and smooth. It already has.
   Whelp I should get ready for work. Actually I should have done the dishes this morning, instead I choose my beloved computer… Talk with you all soon!

A few snap shots, of Course!

Me and Gina

I thought this was cute

Hanging at the new Chuck N Dale’s

Chuck, Me, and Foxy

Chuck can always make me laugh…

Roses from Chuck. I’m spoiled!!

My 120 lb lap dog. haha!!

Faith terrorizing the cat.

I’m a proud Auntie, aren’t they cute?

Faith is a ham.

Gavin had to work up his courage with the lizard. He said the lizard was, “Different.” He also asked if Spike-O could fly? Funny coming from a 2 year old!

    Just a few more days of March left. I love March, but that is ok with me this year, it brings us that much closer to the wedding. One month from today!! 4 more weeks of work, and then Chuck and I will be off of work for 2 weeks for our honeymoon. I can’t wait! Angie got married on the 20th in Georgia. I really wish I could have been there. She called me later though and it was SO great talking to her. I can’t wait to see her at our wedding! Chuck is really bad at keeping secrets, and he told me Angie had called him while I was at work one day… She has something up her sleeve for the night before our wedding, she was asking him my underwear sizes and such… So poor Chuck said he had to dig through my dirty laundry to figure out my clothes sizes. I bet that was hillarious! I would have loved to be a fly on the wall for that conversation! Friends like that are few and far between, but they are forever, nothing can seperate a friendship like that.
    I have really been loving our house this month. We shut the furnance off and tore the plastic off the windows. It is so great to get all that natural sunlight in. We found a patio set at a consignment store and snatched that up. I was really happy to dry clothes on a clothes line. We have been BBQing all the time. Our latest kick is enjoying a fine bottle of Moscato. I love sitting outside and chatting with my best friend until all hours. I discovered the senesty line. The house smells so good now! I’m trying to teach the dog how to take a walk. She needs some work. It’s like no one has ever taken her for walks before. Poor Cocoa. Meanwhile, my beloved kitten Miley, has apperently hit her toddler stage of cat hood. The past week she keeps getting into so much trouble. Acting bad and getting into EVERYTHING, including the lizards cage. I don’t know what to do with her. St Patrick’s day I met up with Chuck after work. We drank green beer, had an Irish car bomb and an Irish viagra, followed by a HUGE plate of corned beef and cabbage. Next year I am tempted to just take the whole damn day off work. Our weather is finally supposed to hit the 70′s this week. Yay!
    We have been busy wrapping up a lot of details around here. We had 4 inches of water in the basement after all the snow melted. Turned out the drain was plugged and Chuck had to feed a 50 foot snake through it. We might install a sump pump at some point too. We scored a washer and dryer from Chuck’s sister Nina. I am soooo happy not to have to go to the laundry mat anymore!! It’s funny the things you take for granted until you don’t have them. We ended up taking out a loan for $5,000 to help with our wedding expenses and to pay off a few bills. That ended up being a goose chase, they took the loan out against my car, which is paid off, but they discovered the title was from the state of Missouri, so it had to be transfered to the state of Iowa, but before I could do that I had to contact my old Missouri bank and have them mail me a lean release that was noterized. What a headache. Robbing Peter to pay Paul, it’s the name of the game. Yet somehow, day by day, week by week, everything is ok. I don’t know how it just is. One of my co-workers is scheduled to have her 2nd baby this coming Friday. She has me teriffied to ever have kids. She was telling me day care for the two of them is going to cost her over $300 a week!!! That’s more than my weekly take home pay!!! If that’s the case Chuck and I will never be able to afford to have anymore than one kid, unless we space them 5 years apart, so one starts kindergarten first? Chuck told me we will cross that bridge when we get there. Will we ever get a break in this economy?? At least my job is holding steady.
    Guess that’s about it. Wow. I really don’t know where March went. Next weekend is Easter. Chuck and I decided to have a quiet day with just the two of us. I think we are going to get out the fishing poles and go fishing. That’s sounds so realxing. I haven’t fished in years. I do know I need to get ready for work.

Here’s a few pics of the magical month of March.

Our Babies…

Crusising down a gravel back road. Not too far from our house. How beautiful!!

Laundry on the line, heck yeah!!

A view of the sunset from our front porch.

Flowers from Chuck, with no reason at all. Aww.

    I’ve been wide awake since 3 am. Oh well. The days are getting longer now, and the weather warmer and I’m feeling more energetic and motivated. Finally seeing rain instead of snow! A muddy march mess is what we have on our hands, but I’m ready for it. I decided last night, that contrary to popular belief the 1st sign of spring is NOT a robin. The 1st sign of spring is Chuck getting his truck stuck in a really big mud hole. (It happened last night.) Let the good times roll!
    The past weekend was a lot of fun. Chuck’s birthday was on Sunday. He turned 35. We started celebrating Friday night. I got off work and met him at Murphy’s Bar in Riverside. Then we went to the Casino and enjoyed the seafood buffet and pissed away a handful of money. Saturday we went into CR and spent the day with his Dad. Chuck’s Dad’s birthday was Friday. Chuck and I decided we need to plan it out to have a kid on March 6th, that way we have the 5th – 7th covered with birthdays. Sunday we had to go back into CR and do Chuck’s birthday with his Mom’s side of the family. Chuck choose to do a chinese buffet instead of an at home birthday party. It was a good day. No drama, everyone was in a good mood.
     Sunday was also Chuck and I’s 1 year mark. We talked a lot that day about how far we had came in a year. We never would have believed it one year ago. We laughed about the long awkward drive when I drove him home from CR to Riverside a year ago… The rest is history. I am forever thankful Chuck came into my life.
    The count down is down to 49 days, or 7 weeks from today until we say ‘I do’. I prefer 49 days because it sounds shorter than 7 weeks. Thursday April 29th, here we come. I’ve been keeping busy wrapping up all of the last details and everything is going very smooth. What a great feeling! Then I can just kick back and have fun once we get to Myrtle Beach.
    Work has been the same old, same old… Other than a fact, a lady that worked in our accounting department was murdered over the weekend. Turns out her boyfriend did it… For no apparent reason. They were drinking and popping pills and he just randomly hit her in the head with a baseball bat, then strangled her to death to put her out of her misery… Then he tried to kill himself, he slit his wrists, drank bleach, and tried to hang himself and failed at all attempts. It is really a sick story and has been disturbing to me all week. I really did not know this co-worker other than she was who we sent an e-mail to anytime there was an account change of address or phone number, but this is the 1st time in my life I’ve known of anyone that directly close who has actually been murdered. Yucky. The rest of the story is that it sounded like she was a victim of domestic abuse by this guy repeatedly. It made me realize I should not be so quick to judge, because I have no idea what crap some people may be going through outside of work.
    Guess that’s about it for now. I’m so happy the weekend is almost here!!

Here are some pics of our memorable weekend…

At the seafood buffet, Chuck’s favorite!

This pic was kind cute/funny.

A selfer, with a cool old bridge Chuck showed me that’s just outside of Kalona.

Goofing around at Daddy’s. (Chuck’s Dad’s)

A Birthday gift from Gina. How appropriate.

Chuck gave me roses for our 1 year anniversary.

Coralie and Mike