Don't know where to start

wow, I've written a katrillion blog posts in my head the last few weeks, too bad none of them actually made it to the computer. It's been a busy few weeks. I mentioned my wonderful friend Sue coming to paint for us. I realize I still haven't posted a single picture of this place. Trust me, you aren't missing much, although you are missing just a smidgen more since she painted. I keep meaning to take pictures once all the rooms are clean at the same time. That actually happened Wednesday of this week because we hosted our small group so um, it was do or die (ok, I suppose I wouldn't have actually died... ). Then I think... wait, I need to put stuff on the walls before I take pictures. Then in the meantime, everything gets messy again ... round and round we go. Anyway, I do have a pile of pictures I want to post sometime.

I'm working on a fun little craft project. Can't post pictures or say much about it right now because it's a gift, but soon. Anyway, I haven't been in touch with my crafty side for so long, it's a lot of fun. I've been thinking, hey, maybe I should try to sell these puppies, then I look closely and wonder how that might work.

The weekend after Sue came to paint, was my friend and former roommate's wedding. It so happened that Dave had Thurs. and Fri. off that week for fall break. Thursday we went to a (very small) zoo close to here. Aleah was impressed with the bears and anything that was big and moved a lot. She also really liked the birds. The rest was sort of boring (in her opinion). Anyway, Friday we made our way to Kokomo where wedding preparations were underway. I've never been in a wedding since having a hubs and small child. I have to say it um... complicates things. I wanted to help, but it was also hard to be much help. Anyway, at one point Bethany gave me some plastic table skirts that were all wrinkly and wondered if I could take them to the groom's parent's house and stick them in the dryer to fluff them up a little. Hey, I'm here to serve. So off I go to stick plastic in the dryer. The idea was low heat, just a couple minutes. That should do it. So I started drying while chatting with the groom. Then we checked said table skirts. Absolutely nothing was happening, & they were still cold and wrinkly. So I changed the heat to medium, and changed the timer so it was more in the middle instead of just at the end of the cycle (not sure if that makes sense at all, or if it changed anything but...), and started chatting again... a bit later we checked the lovely skirts and ohhhhhhhhhhhhh dear - they were shall we say, very, very, very, very, indeedly MELTED. As in, "wow, someone sprayed shaving cream in the dryer, but it's hard to get off shaving cream" melted. oh deeeeeeeeear! So as the groom removed the pieces of table skirts from the dyer with a knife, I thought about other ways I might be able to lend my indispensable services. Dave and I then drove to the bed and breakfast where everyone was staying (well, all the important people), and g0t settled in, and I then drove around town looking for the party store to buy more table skirts. I finally found the place and bought 2 more, drove back to the church ages after I left on the 10 minute errand to dry the table skirts, and delivered them. WOW! I'm not sure what they would have done without me! Anyway, the wedding was beautiful, all candle light. It was great to see friends I had hadn't seen in awhile. Aleah was a basket case by the end of the wedding day, but we all survived. We drove back after all the festivities Saturday night.

The weekend after that, another wonderful friend Bethany came to visit. I don't have a single picture to document that she was here, but she was and it was so good to hang out with her. Dave was at a conference all day Saturday, where he gave a spiffy math talk that was quite impressive I hear! = ) So it was nice to have company. We ate good food and sat around and watched "Sabrina" - both the old and much older versions.

The following weekend was last weekend and we had nothing planned for the first time in awhile. I really don't remember what we did. I could if I thought about it long enough, but I don't want to waste time doing that instead of telling you about... well, I mentioned we ate good food in the above paragraph. I don't usually post about food on here because really, there's not usually much exciting to share from around here. But let me just say 2 things. I came across this recipe from a fellow blogger awhile back (thanks Sabrina) and have made it several times since then. I would suggest you do the same. Its very very tasty and quick and cheap too, other than the chicken. Ok, that's one. And now for 2, I had asked Bethany if there was anything she wanted to eat while she was here. She remembered some type of chicken sandwich she ate up in Red Lake that she thought Heather G. made. So anyway, after a little research and some tweaking, can I just tell you what I made? I feel I have to because it's one of my favorite things ever that I've made, even though it was nothing fancy (this is probably sooooooooo very boring - sorry). So I stuck some chicken breasts in the crock put with some tasty BBQ sauce and let that cook away. Then fried up onions and a pepper. Also fried up some bacon (in this case, turkey bacon). Then took sour dough bread, put some cheese on it (in this case, muenster), then a nice little pile of BBQ chicken from the crock pot, then a pile of onions/peppers, then bacon, then a bit more cheese, then the bread. Then fry it up like an amazingly glorified grilled cheese. The first one spilled all over the frying pan, then I remembered I have a George Foreman grill, so I did the rest in there. They were tasting soooooooo tasty (for Rhonda, ha) indeed. oh so very tasty. Ok, that's the end of my story. done talking about food. Except to say that Dave and I and small human are going to Chick Fil A tonight, which I'm more than a little excited about. I've been going through withdrawal these last few months. There's a new one in a neighboring town that we wanted to go to anyway to kick of some Christmas shopping, so when they wake up, that's what we'll do. = )

I guess since I'm writing about all our exciting weekends, that brings me up to this one. We had wanted to make it to Iowa to meet our new niece (Dave's brother and wife's baby) and be there for her baptism. But sadly, Dave has way too much work to do to go anywhere for the weekend, so we're sticking around here and hopefully having a productive couple days. We're looking forward to heading up north in a couple weeks to see my family, most of whom I haven't seen since last Christmas - way too long! I can't wait. Also get to meet my new great-niece. So many new little girls in our family right now. Fun stuff. And no, I'm not even close to old enough to have "great" anythings but I do because I have siblings who are way way WAY older than me... anyway, I digress.

Aleah seems to be growing like crazy. When I look at her she doesn't seem that tall to me, but according to how things are fitting, she's grown at least a couple inches in the last couple months. Also brings up an interesting dilemma. Ok, so you know how they used to say that babies have to face backwards in their car seats until they're both 20 lbs and one year? Well, when Aleah went for her one year check up, her doc told us that they've changed the recommendation and you're not supposed to turn the car seat around until they're at least 2! What?? Well anyway, at that time she was fine facing backwards and other than not being able to see out very well and having the sun blinding her eyes a lot of the time, no biggie. So we've never switched her. The "law" is still one year so we could switch whenever, and I know probably none of my readers are militant about such things, but man oh man, you should read some of the babycenter boards about such things. Those who turn around their child's car seat before they're 3 are hideous child abusers - maybe your child's cramped leg will snap in an accident, but at least they'll LIVE. eesh. Which is my next point - with all the growth lately, she really doesn't look very comfortable that way anymore - her legs are quite cramped. So it seems only nice to do the big switcheroo before the big long trip coming up. But the angry voices of the babycenter moms I hear in my head. And I think about the icy scary Canadian roads and freak out a bit. Anyway, which is the worse - traveling with your toddler unable to see out the windows, gnawing on her knees, sun shining in her eyes, or sacrificing all comfort for the most possible safety?

Ok, I'm pretty sure I've blathered on long enough. have a great weekend!!