Updates!

I need to be more dedicated about updating this. I just wish I knew if anyone was reading it...the only person who has ever commented is my sister...so if anyone else is out there reading, leave me a quick message just so I know you are there :)

I visited the Farmer's Market with friends (Joan and Beth) yesterday morning. I purchased a couple of items for the care package I am preparing for Jamison. I have a few more things to prepare before I am ready to send it off to Qutar. I also purchase these wonderful treats called "Loveknots" - which are wonder puffs of dough folded into knots with cream cheese frosting on top. Worth every second on the treadmill to burn them off :) Next time I'm hitting the market earlier because the lady selling the berries was sold out!

After I returned home from Joan's house, I ate some lunch and laid down on the couch to watch some TV. I woke up a little while later and moved to the bedroom for a more comfortable nap. I woke up 3 HOURS LATER feeling not really all that refreshed. I probably could have fallen back asleep except by then it was 5pm and I was afraid that I would not go to sleep last night. I often nap, but usually only for a half an hour or less. Three hours is completely out of the ordinary for me. Let's hope my body was just catching up on some sleep.

Matt and I are making plans for our "honeymoon" - we bought our tickets last week and are finalilzing our itinerary. I think we have decided to drive up to Seattle for a day or two. This wasn't orginally in our plans, but we are so close and it would be really fun to visit another city. I ended up getting out tickets on priceline.com and got a relatively good deal. Flying to the Northwest is really expensive - the cheapest tickets Matt and I could find online were around $400-450 each. Because we really didn't have a specific time we needed to arrive or leave Portland, we could go with priceline and see what kind of deal we could get. It ended up being an okay deal and actually extended our trip by a day because we are taking the red-eye out of Portland and won't get into Kansas City until about 9am the next morning. I've been doing research online and planning out all of the places for us to visit. Thank goodness for the internet!!

My friend Sara's husband Kenny arrived back in Lincoln today..he has been in Iraq since October 2005 and is finally home. Sara and Kenny were married mere weeks before he deployed so you can imagine how much she has been waiting for this day. She was trying to keep herself busy this entire last week to keep her mind off of the fact that he was finally coming home. They held a huge celebration at Haymarket Park this morning for all the Nebraska Army National Guard members who were finally returning home to their families. It really puts the idea of sacrifice into perspective.

I stopped by work for awhile this afternoon for some peaceful work time before my busy week begins. This week shouldn't be too bad, but I have training for at least half a day 4 out of 5 days this week so I won't be able to get much quality work time in. I actually love working when the office is quiet - I feel so accomplished!

Anyways, my point was to mention that wall of our office is only windows, which is great for getting a great view of a beautiful day - unfortunately, those floor-to -eiling, wall-to-wall windows also face west, which means that post-noon everyday it really starts to warm up in here...especially in my cubicle because I face the windows. The last time I checked our thermostat said 85.5 degrees..I'm sure it is warmer on my side of the "wall" (the partial wall created by our cubicles). Let's hope it cools down by morning!! Oh - yeah - forgot to mention that the university practices energy efficiency and turns off our AC every weekend and evening.

I'm currently enjoying one of the movies I rented last weekend, The Holiday, with Jude Law, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet and Jack Black (although Jack Black has only been in on scene of the movie so far). It is interesting...it isn't one that I would be likely to watch again at this point (I'm about an hour into the movie), but it is keeping me entertained tonight. I still haven't watched The Pursuit of Happyness, but I plan to get around to that one tomorrow. There was a preview for The Pursuit of Happyness on before The Holiday and now I am really excited to watch the movie tomorrow. I would have watched it tonight, but I think Matt wants to join me and he was watching the baskeball game in the other room. I could not care less about the game so I'm in the bedroom blogging, enjoying my chick-flick, and surfing random things on the internet :) Matt and I decided to join Blockbuster Total Access, so I should be doing more movie watching in the future. Currently, Borat and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest are on their way to our house. Hopefully, having the movies delivered directly to our house will motivate me to keep up with watching them... I have a bad habit of renting movies and then not getting around to watching them.

Matt decided to "fix" my computer while I was gone for awhile today. I wasn't aware there was anything wrong with it, but I leave the "techie" stuff to him. However, I arrived home to a laptop that would no longer connect to our wireless internet...even though it would without a problem when I left...hmmm...curious..huh? Luckily, he did work on it for awhile and now it will connect again, but apparently he had to re-install the wireless internet driver. I've asked him to be careful when "fixing" my non-broken computer in the future.

We leave for Oregon in less than 7 weeks now..provided we actually purchase plane tickets. I'm hoping to get that accomplished tomorrow. Pell and Bren are ready for our visit and I am certainly ready for a vacation - in fact, I would leave tomorrow if given the opportunity. We are looking forward to seeing a new part of the country and really traveling together (not just to Shelbina and back) for the first time. This will be Matt's second trip on a plane (the first being a guys trip to Las Vegas a few years ago) so that should be interesting. About 3 days after we return from Oregon I will be heading to Milwaukee for Girl's Weekend with my college roommates. I'm so excited to spend time with all of them...they were all at the wedding, but unfortunately we did not get to spend much time together. I'm looking forward to getting to see more of Milwaukee...my last trip was less than 24 hours!

Matt and I shopped for furniture today. I have had my eye on a side table and bookshelf at Target for awhile and my sister and her roommate bought the bookshelf a couple of weeks ago and we got to see it last weekend when we were at their apartment. I liked it even more after I saw it and convinced Matt to go to Target today to see if they had it. We have needed a side table in our family room for awhile so it made sense for us to get the one that matches the bookshelf. Luckily we had the giftcard we received from Angie and Andrew as a wedding gift to use so we were able to purchase both. We had a little bit of an adventure with the "easy" instructions included with the bookcase and table, but eventually got both put together and they look great in our living room. I will post pictures soon!!

As it is Memorial Day, I thought I would take a little bit of time and give credit to the men and women who have and will continue to sacrifice their lives for my freedom. One of my favorite quotations is, "I disagree profoundly what you say, but I would defend with my life your right to say it," which is attributed to Voltaire. To me, this is the essence of what the men and women in the armed forces are out putting their lives on the line for everyday. When a soldier joins the military they are polled to find out what their views are on particular subject, but instead they vow to defend our country regardless of the rhyme or the reason. And today we have an entire day set aside to pay tribute and be thankful for those who have served and are currently serving our country.

After our "date" tonight (every Friday is datenight for Matt and I) I spent some time on homerealestate.com looking at houses for sale. I'm ready to own a house. I'm ready to paint rooms, landscape (not just plant flowers in planters for our tiny deck), and get "settled in" someplace for the long term. I've never lived anywhere independently where I actually didn't have the thought that I would be moving sooner rather than later. I'm also ready to bring a dog into our lives. I think we are both ready for that one. I want a dog I can take on a walk, who will greet me at the door when I arrive home at night and who will curl up on the couch next to me. So, we are working on that one. Matt and I both love our apartment and it is perfect for us right now so I'm content to wait until we can save the money we need to not only purchase a house, but also purchase the items we need to put in the house. But it is fun to look and see what is out there. There is so much growth in Lincoln and between Lincoln and Omaha - there are new houses popping up all over the place. I've also found some really cool vintage houses that just need some TLC and Matt has been ready have things to do around the house for a long time.

I'm so ready for this 3-day weekend. Minus one vacation day that I took and one unexpected snow day, I haven't had a day off since mid-January. It was definitely time for a long weekend and a couple of days of rest and relaxation. Matt and I have zero "set" plans - just some things we would like to get done.

• We are going to visit Alltel to discuss our cell phone plans because it has been ages since either of us changed ours and we are fairly certain we can get a better deal that what we are paying for now.
• My co-worker gave me some grape tomato plants that I need to find a planter for and get planted.
• We want to clean our apartment from top to bottom.
• We plan to watch the movies we rented: In Pursuit of Happyness, The Holiday, and The Illusionist. However, Matt was very clear that The Holiday is my movie and he will not be joining my chick-flick fest :)
• If the weatherman is incorrect, we may be making a trip to the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning for some fresh fruits and veggies and other fun things.

Matt and I are on a complete ice cream kick - it must be summer on its way! We made homemade ice cream on Mother's Day and it turned out so good that we are making it again tonight so that I can take it to work tomorrow to share with my co-workers. One of our student workers graduated earlier this month and stayed to work for a few weeks so we are celebrating him tomorrow with an ice cream shin-dig in the afternoon. This batch took about twice as long as the first. I guess we will have to try it again so we can figure out the best method...not that I mind - more ice cream for me!!

When Matt and I were in Shelbina at the end of April we gave our nieces Madalyn and Lauren their birthday cards. Both girls have birthdays in May and we were fairly certain we would not see them again before their birthdays. Lauren opened hers immediately and was delighted with the check we had included ( I wish we saw the girls often enough for me to be able to have a better idea of what to give them for their birthdays, but for now, money will have to do). Madalyn, the traditionalist, saved her card (with check enclosed as well) for her actual birthday. When I came in the door after work today, Matt handed me a cute, little, pink notecard, gave me a look, and told me to read the notecard first. I opened it up and it is a thank you card from Madalyn that said "Thank you Matt and Lindsay. You have to explan this check cashing thing to me. Call me (and then she included her phone number) Love, Madalyn" She also included a picture of Matt and I that she had drawn on the inside of the card.

Then Matt told me to read the index card that was included inside Madalyn's thank you card. She basically explained that Madalyn had never received a check before and thought that we were sending her a bill for $20. Chris (Matt's sister) said that after she stopped laughing she had explained to Madalyn what a check was, but apparently she is still doubtful that Madalyn will accept that she is telling the truth until Matt or I calls to tell her that we are billing her for $20 and are instead giving her a gift.

I told Matt that his sister needs to write a book including all the stories of her kids.

An ice cream themed post....

I enjoyed a delicious double scoop of Honey Cornbread Ice Cream from Ivanna Cone today. Sounds strange, but it was truly wonderful. Ivanna Cone is a local place that makes their own ice cream in house - all sorts of creative flavors and combinations. Today we could choose from, amongst other things: Mango Chili Sorbet, Lychee Mandarin, Raspberry Creme Fraiche ( I think that is how it is spelled), German Chocolate Cake, Cinnamon, Vanilla Bean Cheesecake, Pink Lemonade Sherbet, Pistachio, etc. I ate mine in a homemade waffle cone - they were making the cones when we were there and the smell was fantastic! Matt enjoyed a scoop of the Vanilla Bean Cheesecake and a scoop of the Cinnamon. We sat outside in the Haymarket and enjoyed our ice cream and watched everyone go by. The Haymarket was full of people tonight - lots of families getting ice cream, couples walking around after dinner, people walking their dogs, all on a beautiful evening in Lincoln.
We are headed to Omaha tomorrow. Matt is playing golf with my dad while my mom, Sarah and I are going to a fundraiser luncheon with my grandma. On Sunday we plan to cook dinner for my mom for Mother's Day and we are going to test our own skills at making homemade ice cream. Matt and I received an ice cream maker as a wedding gift and we have been wanting to try it out. Wish us luck!!

Matt and I have been watching episodes of The Cosby Show on Nick @ Night. I forget how funny that show is sometimes. Of course, no episode is complete without some sort of quality "life lesson" learned by one of the Huxtables or someone they know. Tonight they happened to be showing the pilot of the show - which is an interesting episode because the upstairs of their house is the same as we remember from most episodes, but the lower level of the house is completely different. Additionally, there are only 4 Huxtable children - interestingly, the oldest child, Sandra, is the one that is missing - and they refer to Theo as Teddy several times in the show.

Sometimes it is fun to watch shows from my childhood.

Matt told me today that the members of Westboro Baptist Church based in Topeka, KS planned to be present at the funerals and memorial services of the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. This group believes that random acts of violence, the killing of US soliders, and other events are the result of God's anger over homosexuality. I saw one of the women from the group on a television program one night (I was at the gym and that station was the only one that was on) and could hardly believe was I was listening to. It almost made me physically ill to hear this woman (I'm sure I could find her name, but I honestly don't think that she deserves the time it would take me) talk about God's anger and how he was taking it out on mankind through random acts of violence and the death of US soliders. What made me even more disgusted was the fact that this group insists on staging "protests" at the funerals of those who have died, to do nothing more than cause further hurt to the families of the victims.

They even planned to be present at the funerals of the young Amish children killed by a gunman at school last year - they wanted to hurt a group that does not even attempt to align itself with mainstream society and attempts in every way to live in seclusion within the US.

I have to admit that I JUST DON'T GET IT!

How can this group of "Christians" believe that God harbors so much hate that He would cause the death of innocent people and, furthermore, would support infliction of pain and suffering on their families in their time of greatest need?

I JUST DON'T GET IT!

Mike Gallagher is a radio show host who has agreed to give this group 3 hours of airtime in exchange for their agreement that they will not be present at any of the Virginia Tech victims funerals. He did the same when the planned to protest at the Amish school victims funerals and exchanged 1 hour of airtime for their agreement to not be present and they held up their end of the bargain. Some have critcized his actions saying that he is "giving in" but I commend him for stepping up and keeping this group of people inflicting pain on the families of the victims. I believe in freedom of religion and the freedom to believe what one wants to believe - but I absolutely do not believe in the right of a group of people to purposefully cause so much unnecessary pain for people already mourning the death of a loved one.