Ten Years

Ten years ago, Darrell asked me to be his girlfriend. It's probably one of the best things I've ever said "yes" to (behind, of course, to saying "yes" when he proposed). My roommate was pretty surprised; I'd spent the majority of my freshman year of college hung up on my high school boyfriend (who I broke up with because I didn't want to do a long-distance relationship), and had subsequently turned down a handful of other potential boyfriends because they also had the potential to turn into long-distance relationships. Dating a senior (who I barely knew) who had plans to return to his home state of North Carolina after graduation didn't exactly promise safety from a long-distance relationship. When my roommate (rightfully) questioned my decision, I told her that I had decided I was done worrying about the long-term prospects of potential boyfriends: Darrell made me happy and we had fun together, and as long as that remained the case I didn't see any reason not to be his girlfriend. I think it's safe to say he still makes me plenty happy and we still have plenty of fun together.

And--just for fun--here's our little story of how we went from barely knowing each other to boyfriend/girlfriend in a matter of weeks.

Sometime in early October, the dorm we lived in (called a "Manor"--it had two floors, boys downstairs and girls upstairs, with a common area in the middle) had a house meeting.

Ernst Manor 2005--Where the magic began

I knew of Darrell; my roommate knew his roommate and she had told me one time that "Phil's roommate is pretty cute but he's too short for me", but that was about it. Well, at the meeting it came up that I played soccer, which caused Darrell and me to strike up a conversation because he had played soccer in high school. Either at that meeting or sometime later in passing, I mentioned that we had a home soccer game coming up Homecoming weekend (October 15th) and that he should come. And he did.

Thankfully for both of us, he disappeared before the end of the game--which meant I never knew (until awhile later) what he and Phil ended up doing that night for Homecoming, and he never knew (until much later) that the people he had assumed were my dad and two brothers at the game were actually my dad, brother, and high school boyfriend.


The next ten days were a whirlwind of flirting opportunities. There were evenings goofing off in the manor, a manor Halloween party which consisted of carving pumpkins and watching Donnie Darko (during which people may have conspired to ensure Darrell and I were seated next to each other), decorating for the annual Haunted Manors, and a prank war that Darrell started against me and my roommate.

We were about all things Nerf in Ernst Manor

Pumpkin carving fun

Darrell working on his masterpiece

Acting like the monkey he is to hang spider webs for the Haunted Manor



My roommate and I swapped (some of) the furniture in Phil and Darrell's room with the furniture in the lounge to retaliate for the war they started

 On the evening of October 25th, the Charlie Brown Halloween special aired and Darrell made me watch it with him because I had never seen it. After it finished, Darrell went back to his dorm room so I could finish a lab report that was due the next morning. A short while later he came back up to my room, visibly shaken. He had just found out that a high school classmate of his had been killed overseas. We chatted for a little bit, but then he left again because he knew I needed to finish my homework. After a little bit, I sent his roommate a message via AOL instant messenger (ah, the good old days of instant messenger) to see how Darrell was doing. His roommate was confused about my concern; apparently Darrell hadn't shared the news with him and had instead simply grabbed a jacket and left the manor. Concerned, I decided to go looking for him (which Darrell claims I was motivated to do because I had feelings for him; I maintain that I would have done the same for anyone who I didn't think should be alone at the time). It was easy to determine that he hadn't gone far--his was the only NC car in the parking lot--so I hopped on my bike and started riding around campus. It didn't take too long to find him (Wartburg is a pretty small school), and after walking around campus for a little bit we walked back to my dorm room where we hung out for a little while longer before Darrell asked me to be his girlfriend (and it was technically after midnight by that time, but because we hadn't slept yet, we didn't see it as being the next day yet, so we've always celebrated our "anniversary" on the 25th).

Ten years seems like a long time, but it also feels like it has gone by incredibly fast. I look back at those pictures and feel like we have changed so much, but then in some ways I feel like we haven't changed at all. Except instead of being two college kids who are constantly goofing around and having a good time, we are parents who get to share that wild craziness with their two boys. It's a pretty darn good life I have.

Five Years

So technically our fifth wedding anniversary was back in May, but because life is nothing if not busy, we didn't get a chance to celebrate it until a few weekends ago. In keeping up with the tradition that we unintentionally started on our honeymoon, we ventured off to a nearby winery for some much needed rest and relaxation (and, of course, wine consumption). After a little cajoling, I convinced Darrell that we needed to book a room at the attached bed and breakfast, and we were so glad we did. The winery was hosting a live band the night we were there, which meant that not only were we able to enjoy a delicious dinner right on site, but also that when the band ended (a little past our bedtime, mind you), all we had to do was meander upstairs for bed. No driving necessary. Plus the breakfast. Oh the breakfast. It was fantastic. And guess what? We actually remembered to take some pictures!

The view off our private balcony. Not too bad for farm fields in the middle of Iowa!

Another shot of the property, with evidence of the buffalo that are raised on the property (and--we assume--butchered for our dinner of buffalo burgers that night) as well as the namesake of the winery: Little Swan Lake

 

Enjoying the band!

 

The owners of the winery--never in a million years would I have looked at this couple and thought "they look like the kind of people to run a winery/bed and breakfast". Plus they moonlighted with the band for a few numbers--definitely goes to show you should never judge a book by its cover!

 

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

Monks

Darrell and I have been on two date nights since Garrett was born. Both times we have ended the night at Monks House of Ale Repute. Enjoying their beer (and my dear husband's company, of course), makes it totally worth having to pump and dump (with beers packing a 9.0% ABV punch, pumping and dumping is kind of necessary).

If you aren't from around here, you are totally missing out (and should definitely come visit so we can take you there). If you are from around here and have never been (or don't like it), I'm not sure we can be friends.

Dance Party!

(Yes, Valentine's Day was nearly two weeks ago. Yes, this dance was nearly two weeks ago. Yes, I'm just now getting the pictures posted. Do you expect anything less?)

As I've mentioned many times, Darrell and I don't really get into Valentine's Day (although I do love me some Russell Stover chocolates!) But that doesn't stop us from getting into a Valentine's Day bash at the Shriner's Mosque. Friends, family, drinks, and a great band? Sign us up. Of course, now that Darrell is a Shriner, he usually has to work for a few hours (aka most of the night because he always likes to be helpful), which typically makes the night not quite as fun for me. But that was not quite the case this year--I happened to run into this girl at the dance and we had some good fun at the shot bar on the dance floor.

My good friend Brooke--one of the girls I coach soccer with, and new mother to Gavin, one of William's future best friends

But, as always, the highlight of my night was spending some time with this guy!

While we love our lives now as a family of three, it's still great to have some nights to just the two of us. And I even managed to stay out until midnight--go me!

Weekend Away

I'm actually a week late on this, and I should probably work on getting that last Christmas post put up before it's March or something, but whatever. Last weekend Darrell and I made the trip out to Chicago for a good friend's wedding, and we left William behind with my parents. And I'm happy to say that we all survived the ordeal. In fact, I daresay we all had a good time--we actually enjoyed getting away for the weekend (hitting up the outlet mall near our hotel certainly didn't make matters worse, although I bought more for William than I did for me), and my parents loved all the time with William. And William? Well, he had toys, food, milk, and plenty of loving, so I'm pretty sure he was perfectly content (although he was certainly happy to see Mom and Dad by the time Sunday night rolled around). While we certainly aren't jumping at the bit to leave him for a whole weekend again soon, we will definitely be taking advantage of Grandma and Grandpa's overnight services more frequently!

And just to prove that we did actually have a good time (and because picture-less posts are boring), here's some pictures from the wedding!

Darrell and I being super mature. NBD

Acting boring normal

With Steve and Ashlee, who we carpooled with (and who are getting married in August--Can't.Wait.)

With the beautiful bride!

College buddies--we were all goalkeepers at Wartburg!

So Darrell and I always do these self-portrait shots; it's kind of become a thing. Inevitably, though, someone always asks if they can take the picture for us and we have to awkwardly explain that no, we like the self-portrait look

Photo booth fun!

And even though William doesn't really look like he is enjoying himself too much in this picture, it's the only one I have to share of him from the weekend (apparently my parents didn't feel the need to follow through on our whole "it's okay if you send us a picture every hour or two" request).

Saturday morning pancakes courtesy of Grandpa (and for the record--even though it may look like they were letting him eat the raw batter, supposedly it's just his yogurt. At least that's what I've been told)

Summertime Goals

So I know summer is still months away, but it's been seriously cold up in these parts all week and I can't help but think of a little warmth. Of course, thinking of summer does tend to freak me out a little bit because there will be a baby--OUR BABY--this summer, and I know that the little bugger will change things. And probably in ways that Darrell and I can't even imagine.

However, it's important to Darrell and me that baby doesn't completely change our way of life, because as excited as we are for baby, we do enjoy our life as it is now. So to keep us grounded--and to make sure we don't fall into a routine of staying cooped up at home--I've decided to put together a list of things I want to accomplish this summer. There is nothing terribly life-altering on this list--in fact, in each of the past four summers we've probably completed this list two times over--but for my own piece of mind I wanted to write it down. And if our hopes of maintaining a semblance of our "normal" life totally fails because Darrell and I are so incredibly naive about having a baby, then at the very least I'll have a list of the things we used to do before baby came around. But let's hope that isn't the case.

--Have at least two bonfires

--Attend at least five Sioux Falls Saints baseball games

--Go hiking at least twice

--Make time for at least two "Mommy and Daddy" only dates

--Participate in a road race

--Have at least two lunch dates downtown with Daddy

--Go to the lake cabin at least once

--Attend at least one large public event (Jazz Fest, Rib Fest, Sioux Empire Fair, etc)

--Get together with friends for at least four social gatherings

--Go on at least one long bike ride

I'm sure I'll think of more as summer gets closer, but if we can make it through even just those ten items I'll consider our summer a success!

Getting Ready for Christmas

It's a rarity at our house, but Darrell and I actually had a full weekend with nothing on the schedule. Of course, this only happened because we were planning on going out of town, but ended up changing our minds a few days beforehand. We decided that it would be nice to have a free weekend at home and play catch-up with a few projects we've been putting off--and play catch up we did.

Friday night was spent cleaning the last few items out of what will become the baby's room so that we can start painting in there and getting it organized for when baby comes. We also started putting up Christmas decorations--usually I would do this myself the day after Thanksgiving, but this pregnancy has made me a little less coordinated than usual and I figured I should wait until Darrell was around to help, especially with some of the bigger items.

Saturday was a marathon day of running errands. We started the day by cutting down our Christmas tree...

and after visits to twelve different stores we were finally done for the day. But we got a lot taken care of--I finally have more than four maternity items to choose from, we have paint for the nursery, and we have some of our Christmas shopping done, just to name a few of the accomplishments.

We finally relaxed a little bit on Sunday: some (depressing) Vikings football in the afternoon, a casual walk in the unseasonably warm temperatures, a little Christmas tree decorating that evening, and a few episodes of Psych and ice cream to wrap up the day.

Hopefully we can keep this productivity going into next weekend--I've got some serious Christmas baking on my agenda and Darrell is planning to get the nursery painted!

BIg Day!

It's been awhile since I've posted on a Thursday, but today is such an important day that it couldn't wait until tomorrow. As of today (well, technically like midnight-ish tonight), Darrell and I will have been together for seven (!!!) years. Doesn't that seem like a lot? More than one-quarter of my life has been with Darrell. I remember so many things from those first years so vividly that it's hard to believe they've been that many years ago.

And the excitement doesn't stop there--after being boyfriend/girlfriend for 3.5 years, engaged for 1 year, and married now for 2.5 years, Darrell and I have decided to add a new set of titles to our repertoire--Mom and Dad! We are expecting a little bundle of joy to arrive mid-April next year, and are looking forward to messing it up in our own special way :)

I've got lots of details to catch up on, and lots of posts that I've been typing but haven't been able to share yet, so look for those things coming soon! I'll try to keep this blog from being consumed by all things baby, but, well, we'll see how that goes. We're just a little excited about this new development :)

My Patriot!

So I finally got a chance to catch Darrell in his uniform for one of the Shrine units he is in (for those of you unfamiliar with Shriners, it's like an adult male fraternity that is divided into a lot of different "units" so that members can join groups that interest them. Darrell is in the photography unit, and also in the Fife and Drum unit--which is a unit my dad has been in since I was a kid). Darrell doesn't usually march with the Fife and Drum unit because he is usually busy taking pictures for the Shutterbug unit, but this past weekend marked the second time he stepped into uniform. And unfortunately, I still haven't actually seen him march (carrying the flag--no way he can play either a fife or a drum), but I did meet up with him after the parade last Saturday and snagged a picture before he changed (we'll say the weather was to blame for us missing the parade; nothing to do with the fact that my mom and I were running late).

Isn't he so cute?!?

Happy Friday and have a good weekend!

Labor Day 2012

So I almost considered not even bothering to put this post up since we're already a week and a half past Labor Day... But this trip marked our fifth state park that we've camped in, so it was another item off the 101 in 1001 list and I wanted to at least document that. And since our trip to the MN State Fair was the most exciting part of our weekend I won't bore you with lots of meaningless details--just the pictures (since I'm sure you've all been waiting anxiously for those!)

Our awesome campsite

There was a ton of wildlife in the area--including these super cute little mice! We also had some deer come to within ten yards of our tent, but didn't want to scare them away by getting the camera

The park (Willow River State Park) had lots of hiking trails and a pretty sweet waterfall on its property. If you enlarge the picture you can see the tons of people that were playing in the (super cold!) water. Definitely a fun family spot 

Not much else to report--we're pretty laid back campers so when we weren't at the fair we were just hiking, napping in our hammocks, or doing logic/Sudoku puzzles! We really enjoyed the park and would definitely consider going back there (the five hour drive was a little long, but we loved the proximity to Minneapolis!)

Weekend at the Lake

Relaxing!

Quite possibly one of the best dinner locales ever

Enjoying the sunset...

and sunrise!

Love having this little oasis a mere forty miles from our house, even if the quality of the water is a little sketch (and the bottom is exceptionally gross and slimy in places). Looking forward to heading back there for the 4th!

Europe: London Edition, Part V (The Leftovers)

This last (go ahead and get excited, I know you are getting sick of all these Europe posts!) post is mostly just a dump of the pictures that didn't fit into any other category, yet ones I felt were still interesting enough to share. I hope you enjoy--and then I promise not to talk about this trip for at least a few days! :)

The Royal Courts of Justice--no idea what the significance is behind this building, but it sure looks cool! 

The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain--not really much of a fountain, but we're not judging

The Prince Albert Memorial--as you can clearly tell, Queen Victoria really loved her husband

Harrods--a really really big (and overwhelming) department store

Wellington Arch

The Queen's House flanked by the Old Royal Navy College (and if you are thinking those domes look suspiciously like the one on St. Paul's, you are right. The architect practiced his design here before putting it on St. Paul's)

And last but not least, a (massive) billboard of the royal family commemorating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. It's like the Queen is bidding thee farewell!

Other Europe Posts:

London, Part I: The Iconic Images

London, Part II: The Royalty

Anniversary Trip to Denbies Wine Estate

London, Part III: The Museums

London, Part IV: The Fun!

Paris Trip

Europe: Paris Edition

In addition to our anniversary trip to the winery, Darrell and I also planned a two-day getaway to Paris. Once we had paid for the flight and were in London, travel to other European cities was pretty easy--and considerably cheaper than planning another overseas trip--so we figured that since this might be the only time we are in Europe we might as well make the most of it. As we realized when we were in Paris, we aren't really sure whose idea it was to travel to Paris out of the available European cities, but it was certainly a great--albeit busy--addition to our time in London. With the help of Google maps, we estimated that we walked about fifteen miles in our two days there--and this was after a week of walking around London and winery!

Up at 4 AM to catch the train to Paris

Finally in Paris!

Apparently Darrell is a giant in Paris (or they just serve their espresso in really small cups...)

Place de Concord (obelisk), National Assembly (building with columns), Napoleon's Tomb (gold dome). And yes, this was as close as we got to all three of those. We just didn't have the time--there is soooo much to see in Paris 

The Louvre! We were probably there for close to four hours and *maybe* saw half of it. That place is seriously huge. Seriously.

But, of course, we made sure to see the Mona Lisa--as did, not surprisingly, everyone else in the museum

Apparently the French aren't as protective of their Crown Jewels as the British are

Darrell's cool shot of the inverted pyramid

The Arc de Triomphe

Notre Dame self-portrait

A shot of the beautiful stained glass inside

Probably the coolest gargoyle ever

View from the top! (Not surprisingly, the hike to the top was very similar to that of St. Paul's. And unfortunately, it was a hazy morning so we couldn't get any really good shots of the city)

Does this monument even need a caption?

Kisses!

Getting ready to take the train through the Chunnel! (Which--for the record--not as cool as it seems. You can't even see the English channel when you enter or exit the tunnel, and--naturally--you can't see anything from inside the tunnel)

One. Post. Left--I promise!

Other Europe Posts:
London, Part I: The Iconic Images
London, Part II: The Royalty
Anniversary Trip to Denbies Wine Estate
London, Part III: The Museums
London, Part IV: The Fun!
London, Part V: The Leftovers