Grandma Judy's Birthday Weekend

Grandma Judy has a BIG birthday this October, and it was the perfect excuse to celebrate! Mom, Emma, and I had planned a special weekend—we gave Grandma a birthday card {almost a month early} that informed her of our plans for a girls’ weekend in Madison…2 weeks later :)

Finally, this birthday weekend arrived. I picked up Grandma, and we headed for “Madison”. {We may have stopped at Dunkin Doughnuts on our way!} I took a different highway about 2 hours into our trip—told Grandma it was because of construction {which was not totally honest}. About 1 hour later, we drove into Brookfield. Grandma commented that “she’d never been on this side of Madison”. Once we arrived at the hotel and met up with Mom and Emma, they asked her if she realized we were not in Madison. She hadn’t figured it out yet :) {There was a Badger game in Madison this weekend, so we REALLY wanted to avoid all the extra people. And it was fun to throw in one more surprise!}

Saturday brought lots of shopping, talking, and eating {what could be better?}.

Manicures and pedicures were SO fun. Relaxing. Nice. A girl could get use to this!

Complete with pretty fingers and toes, we headed off for supper at P.F. Chang’s. Birthday dessert from Cheesecake Factory was a nice addition to the evening—we got 2 different kinds {of cheesecake} and enjoyed every bite!

On Sunday morning, we enjoyed a big breakfast at our hotel and headed out to score some more good deals! We thoroughly enjoyed our time together celebrating this special lady’s BIG birthday :) Happy Birthday, Grandma Judy! Thankful we could celebrate YOU!

September Life {2013}

This post is way too long, and I probably should have broken it up. But if you’re suuuuuper bored, this will sufficiently fill you in about my life in September.

My September kicked off with Labor Day Weekend, which I spent in Indiana. I could tell you about the good food we ate {including an Italian FEAST}, the beautiful sunsets we saw, or the children that were covered head-to-toe in mud, literally.

{Mud-covered children occurred *several* different times during this 3 day weekend!}

I could also tell you about children (10 and under) who gleefully rode their bikes into the pond. And the adults who built a ramp for said children to ride their bikes into the pond.

I could also tell you that when the above excitement was no longer enough, children and adults rode bikes down a hill, off a ramp, onto a dock, and into the pond. (In my head, this bordered on dangerous and ranked in the category of “things I don’t want my kids to do”. And then Micah went plunging into the pond J)

…Or I could tell you about a giant homemade air cannon that sent zucchinis and gourds {and other objects} flying.

All of the above is actually true, and this is only a small part of the fun, unique times that comprised Labor Day Weekend 2013…Marrying into this family is definitely going to bring out my adventurous side ;)

Only 2 weeks after Labor Day, I headed back to Indiana to celebrate…for 2 reasons! September 15^th is a big deal—It’s my mother-in-law’s birthday and it’s also the day Micah and I got engaged!

This year, I was able to help surprise Linda the day before her very “big” birthday! Marta, Amy, and I showed up at Linda’s house about the same time her and Rachel had planned to go out for lunch and do some shopping. Of course, Rachel knew of our plan all along! Needless to say, Linda was surprised to see us {because she wasn’t expecting any of us} and in her words “You aren’t even supposed to be here this weekend!”

Note: In mid-August, when Linda asked if I would be in Indiana this particular weekend, I told her I didn’t think so. At the time, it was true information. (If/when she asked after that, I may have been…dishonest. It’s bad to lie, but for the sake of this surprise, I had to!)

And…we happened to drive by these giant signs that her sons had put in her yard the night before J

We thoroughly enjoyed our girls’ day—we had a yummy lunch at Chili’s, enjoyed non-stop conversation, and got some good shopping time in, too!

When we got back to the farm Micah and Jeremy had made 2 birthday cakes. And I will admit—I was impressed with their baking skills! Cake and ice cream was had by all, as we celebrated this very special lady.

September 15^th marks a whole year of being engaged. And just in case anyone is still reading this, I've included 2 more pictures in this awfully long post...

9/15/12

Here’s my one whole sentence telling you how awesome my fiancé is: Micah’s a hard worker, he takes super good care of me, he manages to be responsible without taking life too seriously, he makes me laugh, he's a good listener, and he’s the person I prayed for! And I cannot wait to marry him! :) 

9/15/13

It's {FINALLY!!} double digits until our wedding! I’m simply overwhelmed with God’s goodness to me! 

Wedding Shower Weekend #2

Can I just say that life is so crazy and awesome right now? It’s way busier than I would like, but time is flying! Last weekend, my fiancé, mother-in-law, and Grandma loaded up the car and prepared for a roadtrip! Our trip to Wisconsin took a little longer than usual, thanks to lots of traffic and road construction. I can assure you that there was plenty of conversation to be had along the way!

We had a wedding shower on Saturday morning, complete with delicious food, lots of gifts, a fun game, and most importantly—people! It was great to catch up with friends I don’t see very often anymore. And we were overwhelmed with all the gifts we received! 

Micah enjoyed a long day of fishing on Saturday with Dad and Al. They got rained on for approximately 4 hours and didn’t have the best success in catching fish. But seemed to thoroughly enjoyed their day J I don’t try to figure this out…I can simply appreciate the fact they had a good day!

I had the opportunity to take Mom, Grandma Judy, Neva, mother-in-law Linda, and Linda N. for an appointment to pick up my dress. Unfortunately, the dress wasn’t totally done, so we weren’t able to bring it home. But it was fun to try it on again! Since the dress fit, we went to Red Robin. And yes, I did eat onion rings J  

Thanks to Micah’s very strategic packing skills, he was able to fit in lots of the gifts we had received. Somehow, the back of the car became like Mary Poppin’s bottomless bag J It’s a good thing he’s such a strategic packer because I am not. 

I'm thankful for these times with family and friends!