(Sigh)

We have a big group of kids who hang out with my friends and I every Wednesday night. We love them. However, most of them come from not-so-ideal home situations. They're loud at times, rowdy, and fairly undisciplined. But they are ridiculously cute and after a few months of seeing us pretty regularly, we've all started to have a lot of fun as our lives have become more intertwined.

Here's how a conversation went with me and one of my favorite kiddos (that's just between you and me ;-) ) before we were to take a bunch of them to see Ice Age in 3D a few days ago.

(Kid hanging on my leg for quite a while)

Me: What's wrong? Are you tired?
Kid: No.
Me: Do you not feel good?
Kid: No. (grips my leg tighter)
Me: Then what's wrong??
Kid: I miss my daddy. (sniffle)
Me: Well, where is he? (stupid question)
Kid: In jail.

Sigh.

What do you say to that? I didn't say anything, just helped her put her seat belt on so we could go see a movie and eat gummy bears together. That dad is missing out.

Honeymoon Highlights-Bloopers

"The joy is in the journey, not the destination...."

We found ourselves in a few amusing situations during our week in Colorado.

I saw some property of distant relatives:

We went on a crazy drive and even though we saw this sign...

it didn't register that we were traveleing so slow (that is, 10-15 mph and feeling like we were flying down the mountain). We were blown away when we got out at a rest stop and saw we were only 1/3 of the way down the road after 30+ minutes of driving.

And we ran into the father of Bob's brother-in-law, who had been at our wedding in MN, along with his daughter and and her husband, at a church we randomly searched online.

Another day, we had just left the zoo when we saw "a shortcut" on the map we thought we could take back to our cabin. After 1.5 hours of driving down a mountain, through tunnels and canyons, we were confused and asked for help from a hiker......

only to find we were just a few blocks from where we started.

Good times, good times.

11:15pm on a Monday

We finally have time. Time to sit and talk, time to not get out of bed until 10am, time to painfully jog after 2 months off, time to sort through the ideas running though our heads. Bob and I finally have time to figure out specifics concerning the type of life we want to lead, what we are going to spend our time and resources on, and the like.

So here's a few of our rambling thoughts, in my words.

We want to be open, transparent people. We want to disciple others. Neither of us is particularly gifted in this. But lately God has been throwing new neighbors, homeless people, aimless kids, and others into our path. We have heard a distinct call from God-"Get ready." We have prayed for these chances, and now we're praying even more fervently for help and guidance.

We want to be financially responsible, as well as generous. We're trying to find that balance between being prepared enough to be effective and living open-handedly enough to be faithful. We glanced at setting a budget and determined it wasn't for us--neither of us has trouble living within set limits. We're pretty cheap. We don't need something to tell us how much we can get away with spending. But we do need some structure as to where and how to give. We don't want to look up a year from now and see we were just living for ourselves.

Along those lines, we're going to do whatever small things we can to save money so we can give more away. So we're jumping on the frugal bandwagon, throwing around ideas likes rain buckets and unplugging things and getting rid of non-essentials. It's overwhelming to think of all the things you could do, but we're pretty committed to doing something to cut costs.

And we're getting back into the Word, settling down into studies and routines. My favorite part of the day right now is him on one couch across from me on another, studying the Bible and sharing truths and thoughts with each other from our various points of discovery and reflection.

Thank the Lord for time. There is 1.5 months before we both start back at school, and time will become as precious as diamonds. But until then, I'm relishing every moment.

New Cell

After 3 years of living in the state of Minnesota, I've finally gotten a local number. 507-226-4078 for all those who wish to talk to me.

Honeymoon highlights-Pikes Peak

One of the high points of our trip (no pun intended) was summitting the mountain of Pikes Peak, at 14,110 feet above sea level. Not on foot, mind you, (because that would have killed us) but by cog railroad.

This is Pikes Peak, keeping watch over the delightful farmer's market we found. At the market we found handmade bowls that perfectly match our dishes, as well as a woven basket and wooden earrings made by impoverished women who are finding a livelihood by working for the organization Suubi my friend volunteered with.

Back to Pikes Peak: It took us 1.5 hours to get up to the top, and we dropped about 30 degrees in temperature on the way. We had a tour guide that informed us on all kinds of interesting things about the mountain, the wildlife, and the railroad. For instance, once you get up to a certain point on the mountain, the landscape is covered mostly by this grass-moss plant. We found out it grows laterally at a rate of 1-3 inches every 100 YEARS! That ground covering that spanned many, many acres was ancient! Another interesting fact we learned was about the aspen trees that grow all over the mountain and the whole area. They aren't really separate trees--when you see a grove of aspen, you're really looking at one tree.....it just spreads more roots underground and then sends a shoot off. It is one root with many shoots. The guide said the biggest aspen spans hundreds of acres, making it one of the largest organisms on the planet.

It was fantastic. The pictures really don't do it justice.

It was blustery and frigid at the summit. No trees or vegetation to be seen. The only living thing near the top was the occassional marmit-a big rodent type animal that looked like a crazy, furry large cat. On the way back down, I could barely keep my eyes open despite the amazing beauty! The lack of oxygen at that altitude got to my brain, and I pretty much shut down. Definitely worth the $31 to go up, and I'd do it again tomorrow.

Honeymoon highlights-Housing

The day after our wedding, we awoke in our lovely little cabin on Lake Pepin and found this outside our front window.....



....and this later that night.

After two nights there, we boarded a plane for the beautiful state of Colorado, where we found another lovely little cabin high in the mountains, somewhere around 9,000 feet above sea level.

Kid Pic Slideshow

If you're interested, here's the slideshow we showed at the reception. It's a little longer, and it has music with it if you'd like.

One more perfect day

How do you sum up the events and emotions surrounding the time of your wedding? This is a hard task, and it is one I hope I won’t belabor you with.

Throwing a wedding on an old farm turned out to be a much bigger project than I ever imagined. I tried to keep it simple, and compared to most weddings, I suppose it was. It was a ton of work, but in the end, it was perfect (at least as far as I know)

I can't say thank you enough to all the people who helped make this event happen. The Blanshan side of the family was in for the long haul, with their help starting months ago. My family also made the effort to come early and pitch in. Quite a few of my dear buds from college flew or drove hundreds, some thousands, of miles to be with me that week, knowing I would barely have time to socialize at all. They all were also a humongous help, doing things I didn’t have time to do, reminding me to eat and sleep, setting things up, breaking down, etc.

It rained the night of the rehearsal, so we practiced in the garage. The day of the wedding--it was gorgeous! We had all kinds of people saying they would pray for good weather, and we couldn't have asked for better! Bob and I met early in the morning for a little time to ourselves, and I didn't stop for a moment after that until the wedding was over.

And it was perfect. Two weeks later, we still can't stop giggling about how wonderful and beautiful and perfect it was. Everything turned out exactly like I pictured it, if not better. The white chairs against the green grass, the red barns against the blue skies, orange flowers against tan tuxes, white tables in an old wood barn, surrounded by family and friends.... but what am I rambling about for? Let the pictures speak for themselves. These are a few of my favorites I've stolen off friends....it will be a while before the professional photos are in. And then you'll get barraged with more. :-)

He did it!

Congrats to little bro Taylor for graduating high school with honors!

Weddings, weddings, everywhere

Two weeks before my own wedding, I flew down to Texas to take part in the wedding of my dear friends Amy (Harris) and Matt Lohse. Amy and I were randomly assigned to be roommates during a summer internship at Mother Mayo in 2005, and have been great friends ever since. We both started dating our now husbands about a month apart, became engaged within ten days of each other, and got married two weeks apart.

Amy and Matt also just returned for serving 6 weeks in Cameroon, Africa for a med school rotation for Matt. Amy brought each of her bridesmaids back a beautiful custom fitted dress and we all wore them to the rehearsal dinner!

Matt and Amy are now moving on to Seattle where he will train as a general surgeon. We will miss them in Rochester!