Much Needed Vacation

Long time no write!  I won't even try to recap the past 11 months in full, but I'll share the highlights of the present in hopes that I'll be more consistent with my blogging!

Chris and I are up at the family cabin and we will be here a total of 10 days.  We are at the tail end of our vacation and it has been wonderful.  We hadn't taken off work for a big chunk of time since our wedding in April 2011, so this vacation is much needed.  The weather has been awesome and I've been able to work on my tan a bit.  We've spent a lot of time riding on the boat, playing cribbage and bags (or cornhole as some people call it), and relaxing.

My favorite view from the cabin

Our traditional 4th of July picture at the baseball game and fireworks show

Some highlights of life right now are that I have lost 18 pounds since January, which is a lot for me (I'm pretty much back to my high school weight now).  I still looked like normal Jenny when I was 18 pounds heavier (stick-like legs and arms) but my butt and stomach were a little bigger.

Anyway, key to losing weight for me?  Cut out the pop (I was drinking around 25-40 ounces of Pepsi a day), cut back on the sweets, decrease my dairy and gluten intake, and increase the vegetables!  It's amazing what cutting out pop will do.  I had to ween myself off, but I am to the point now where I can only stand one or two sips of pop and then it tastes nasty.

During this whole time I have been having some incredible stomach issues.  It went from stomachaches here and there to stomachaches every morning and every evening of every day.  I did a little test on myself during this time by going through spurts with and without gluten and dairy and seeing how I would feel.  I noticed that when I didn't eat the two, I felt better.  I had not fully cut them both out, but I significantly decreased my intake of them.

The decrease of dairy and gluten didn't fix the stomach issues though.  I went to the doctor and was tested positive for H. Pylori, so I took some antibiotics to get rid of those little boogers (and I was tested again recently and they are gone!)  Long story short, my stomachaches were still occurring, so I had a food allergy test done.  Got the results back today and they are unfortunate but very good to know: I have a severe, off the charts allergy to dairy.  From now on, that means absolutely zero dairy. 

As unfortunate as this is, it is so good to know.  It gives me hope that my stomachaches will go away soon.  The interesting thing about this allergy is that my body does not have the typical reaction time that most people think of when they think of allergies.  My dairy allergy does not have an immediate reaction in my body, but a delayed reaction.  This basically means that when I consume dairy, not much happens until several hours or days later, and that is why it was so difficult for me to pinpoint whether or not cutting out dairy had been helping me.

It's going to be difficult to restrain myself from eating cheese (which I love so dearly), ice cream (which I also love dearly) and anything else dairy.  But, the good news is that I have already dipped my toes in to this lifestyle, so I at least know a little bit of how it is.

Today I went the whole day without dairy, even though the temptation was around me.  The family had a delicious egg bake for breakfast (egg, cheese, milk, cottage cheese) and some butterscotch/caramel rolls (drenched in butter), and for dinner they had one of my favorites -- boursin cheese potatoes.

Today was just the beginning of my dairy-free lifestyle.  I no longer have an excuse to not completely cut it out--I'll only be hurting myself even more if I eat anything dairy.

My hope for future posts is to continue to give updates on what Chris and I are up to and hopefully post some things involving my dairy-free lifestyle!  A little teaser for (hopefully) next time is that Chris has agreed to let me get a friend for Augustus!  I'm hoping that a tattoo is in the near future, too!

So it's been awhile

A lot has happened since my last post in December.  I guess you could say that life just took over...specifically wedding plans.  Five months was not much time to plan a wedding in a location six hours away.  Anyway, since it's been so long, I'll recap the big events of the last nine months.

Well, in December, I caved and joined the SUV crowd.  I will say that it was probably one of the best purchases I've ever made.  Driving a small SUV with AWD makes an incredible difference in the snow.  And holy hell, last winter was awful in Minnesota.  I'm dreading the snow again...but I'll save that for another post.

In April, Christopher and I got married :)  It was seriously the best day of my life.  I couldn't have asked for anything different.  Every time Chris and I think about the wedding, it just makes us smile.  It was such a good time!  We have great pictures to remember it by, too.  They were taken by Tiffanie Weaver (you can check out her stuff here: Tiffanie Images).  She puts together such a great package, too.  Below is one of my favorite pictures of Chris and me.  We came across a dog at Vanderveer Park and asked the owners if we could take a couple of pictures with it!  So cute :)

Here's my favorite picture of our wedding party.  Such a great group of people--we're so blessed!

In July, Chris and I moved out of our awful, awful, awful apartment and moved into a fantastic condo (though, due to unfortunate circumstances, we had to continue to pay rent until the end of this month).  We actually feel like we're in a home now.  And the best part?  Besides having two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a huge deck with a grill, and a washer and dryer... there's no one below me playing the yukelele and no one above me singing, recording himself, and playing it back (among many other annoying things).

Next big thing--and no I'm not pregnant--Chris and I both got full time jobs!  Within three weeks of each other!  We both basically just got "promotions," if you want to call it that, at our current jobs.  Chris applied for the full time Business Specialist position at Apple and got it!  As for my job, there was a possibility that someone was going to be leaving their job at the pediatric clinic and so they started to train me in.  Once she was offered a job elsewhere, I was offered part of her old job and now I do accounts receivable, banking, and all of the previous tasks I had (plus 20 million other things)!  It's SO nice that Chris and I both have full time hours, pay, and benefits now.  Big step up in the world!

The next big thing that's happening is my brother's wedding!  He gets married a week from tomorrow.  I find it so crazy that we're both going to be married.  It seems like just yesterday we were kids playing with matchbox cars and GI Joes/Barbies.  Now my big brother is going to marry his best friend (you can check out her blog here: A Meandering Memoir.  Below is a picture of them at Chris' and my wedding.  They're so perfect together!

Last big thing--we hand over the keys to the old apartment tomorrow.  We cannot WAIT to have that place off our hands for good!  We're ready to move on with our lives!

A little touch of home

I moved up to Minnesota in June, and in August, two of my friends from high school--Meredith and Quinn--moved to the Cities, too.  Quinn came here to go to school, and Meredith came up here for an adventure (which you can read about on her blog MeredithRhea.com).  Though we're only 25 minutes from each other, we don't get to see each other too much.  However, the fact that they are in the Cities makes me more than happy.  I love having that little touch of home in a place where I definitely don't feel at home.

Meredith and me in high school

Quinn and me back in the day

This evening while I was working, I got a text from Quinn saying that he and Mer were in the area where I was working.  They ended up hanging around until I got off work, and then we went out to eat.  Since high school, it's been somewhat of a tradition for Meredith and I to go to Mexican restaurants, so I found it fitting that she was craving Mexican food.  I've also been searching for a good Mexican restaurant in the area, so I'm glad that Meredith's cravings were as they usually are.  Anyway, we did a search for Mexican restaurants and came across El Tejabán in Richfield.

We decided to go for it and try it out.  It definitely had that "authentic Mexican restaurant feel" to it which is what I've been looking for!  Not only did the waitress bring out salsa, but cheese too!  Both the salsa and cheese had quite a kick to them though--A little more than I like, but hey, they had two for one margaritas, so I dealt with the kick just fine.  I enjoyed my meal--Traditional Chicken Burrito--but was slightly disappointed with the lack of chicken in my chicken burrito! But, I did love that a side of guacamole came with my particular meal!

So the food was good, but I have to say that the service wasn't the best.  It felt like forever before the waitress brought out drinks.  She forgot that we had asked for water a few times.  She'd never make eye contact with us when she passed by our table either!  Overall, I felt like the food was pretty good, but the service wasn't the kind of service I like when I am at a restaurant where I'm giving a tip!  I'll most likely go back because it's the first Mexican restaurant I've found in my area.  But if I come across another one, I'll definitely try it out.

Aside from the service, food and dinner in general were wonderful.  I just LOVE spending time with Meredith and Quinn.  We got to reminisce about high school, talk about Chris' and my upcoming wedding (which apparently Quinn is ecstatic for), and talk about what everyone is up to these days.  I don't foresee either of them staying in the area long, but as long as they're here, I know I'll have that little touch of home.

I'm getting married.

I think it's finally starting to hit me that I'm getting married.  Just a month and a half ago, Chris and I got engaged, and in 137 days, we will be getting married.  Quick engagement to say the least (6 months to the day), but I'm certainly excited for it.  And you know what?  Chris is excited for it, too. You might be saying, "Well I sure hope he is..."--but I mean, it's just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside, knowing that he loves me and wants to be with me for the rest of our lives!

So enough of the mushy stuff...

Chris and I are doing fairly well with the wedding planning thus far.  Things that are crossed off the list are as follows:

• Church
• Reception location 
• Caterer
• DJ
• Engagement photos
• Dress

I like to think that we're doing fairly well.

Two more things I'd like to share.  One is that I think I'm wearing my grandmother's wedding dress.  I went dress shopping with Mom and my future mother-in-law a couple of weeks ago, and I came home with a dress.  However, the entire time since I bought the dress, I've been contemplating whether I should have chosen my Grandma's dress.  I'm calling an alterations person tomorrow with whom I have already met and shown the dress, and I'm going to see how much she estimates alterations will cost.  Without giving too much away (Chris reads this blog), Grandma's dress had sleeves (it's from the '50s), and those sleeves will be removed, as well as a couple of other alterations.

The second thing is that we just got our engagement photos back from the photographer--Matthias Orfield.  Matthias was SO much fun to work with, and he took some great shots.  Interesting fact: Chris and Matthias went to high school together...and they are both photographers!  Check out some of Matthias' amazing photos at his flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/people/matthiasorfield/

Here is a preview of a couple of our shots.

Aren't we precious?

Augustus

Augustus is my pride and joy.  He's my 7 month old kitty, and I just love him with all my heart.

He greets me when I'm home from work, he thanks me before every meal, and he plays fetch with his toy mouse.

Not only does my cat play fetch, but he likes water, too.

Basically, I just have the coolest cat on earth, though I'm sure some might disagree and say that their cat is the coolest.  However, I'm sticking to my statement.  Call me biased.

Anyway, I figured I should introduce my Gus Gus because he will pop into my posts here and there.

First snowfall

Minnesota received an early present this year.  Snow.  In the second week of November.  How early!

As an Iowan, I never drove much in the snow.  Granted, I know we get snow in the IA, but it's not like it is here.  Not nearly as many people drive SUVs in Iowa, and we usually don't brave the snow like Minnesotans do.  If it snows in Iowa like it did today in Minnesota, school is usually cancelled, businesses are closed, and kids get to play in the snow all day or watch movies. 

But, that's not the case in Minnesota (which is fine and all because I understand it's what people are used to up here).

However, I am not used to it.  On my way to work today, I drove slowly as I mentioned I do in my previous post.  The person driving behind me was tailing me (and I was really only going about 10 under the limit).  SUVs were flying past me in the left lane, kicking up extra snow and slush onto my windshield.  I just know that those SUV drivers were frustrated with me and thinking, "Dumb driver.  Pick up the pace!  It's just snow!" 

Well, Mr. or Mrs. SUV driver, I am not from Minnesota.  I don't drive an SUV.  I don't have all-wheel drive or 4-wheel drive.  I drive a Bonneville with front wheel drive.  So there.  I will not drive fast when it's snowing or slushy.  That's just the way it is.

On a semi-side note, I stopped by Haskells on my way home from work tonight.  I'm not a big drinker, but occasionally I'll have a drink or two.  And here's a little something about me--in the summer, I drink fruity drinks; in the winter, I drink whiskey.

This is what has been in my fridge:

And this is what I bought at Haskells:

It's officially time to whip out the whiskey.  Thus, Christopher and I are going to have some Jack and Cokes and watch Prison Break on this cold, not even officially winter evening.

I'm not a Minnesotan

Something wonderful happened the other day. At work, I was going through old newsletters that are sent out by the company that I'm with, and I came across a "fun" section of the newsletter by Jeff Foxworthy about "Living in Minnesota." I started to read through it a bit, and I thought I'd share what I found.

"If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 18 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in Minnesota." I don't.

"If you're proud that your state makes the national news 96 nights each year because International Falls is the coldest spot in the nation, you might live in Minnesota." I'm not.

 "If you know how to say...Wayzata...Mohtomedi...Cloquet...Edina...and Shakopee, you might live in Minnesota." I can say three of them...and only because I work in one, my fiance is from another, and there's a road with one of the names in it.

"If vacation means going 'up north' for the weekend, you might live in Minnesota." Goodness, I can't tell you how true this is for everyone in this state....EVERYONE has a cabin...including my fiance's family!

"If you can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without flinching, you might live in Minnesota." Mmm yeah, definitely can't do that. I'm one of those really slow drivers when it's snowing...

This just confirms that though I may live in Minnesota, I am definitely not a Minnesotan :)