I love giving gifts. I love searching until I find the perfect thing for someone. And you know what, I love giving them early because I can't help myself. The excitement of knowing someone just may love the thing you give them is just...too much to bear (is that the right bear?). No one understands this more than Mike. In fact, he is far worse than I when it comes to giving gifts early. He literally cannot help himself.

Our wedding is coming up in September, you know six (6) months away. I gave him his wedding present in January. It was Packer Stock with both of our names on it including my new name. My reasoning for giving it early is that there is an annual share holder meeting coming up before our wedding that I assumed he would want to go to. That was my reasoning anyways.

Cut to last week, Wednesday, Mike tells me I may have a surprise waiting for me on Thursday. Nope it didn't come. This left me another day to try and figure out just what the surprise could be. I for sure thought it was something four wheeler related, with the new four wheeler and all. But I was wrong! Mike walked in the door after work on Friday with two gift bags (that he stole from my closet) and said this is your wedding present. I said, "You can't wait?" He said, "No!!! You saw how upset I was when it didn't show up yesterday!!" And with that, I opened it.

Yee! This was my surprise!! I had zero clue even though I did see him talking with Kari, his cousin and my BFF. Turns out he was consulting with her on what to get. He got a great deal on a used Canon Rebel xsi on ebay. Its in great condition and came with all kinds of extras too. Its the same exact one Kari has so we can consult with each other. Later on Mike asked me "are you glad I didn't wait?" Heck yeah, I am!

Just like so many other people, I have a slight addiction to Pinterest. Its not necessarily the worst thing I've ever been addicted to (donuts). While it may leave me sitting in front of the computer dreaming of the things I will do, sometimes I actually do them! Or, I make Mike do them!

This first one is a wedding project that I'm happy to say is almost completed! As you can see I have some fixing to do on the corners but its nothing a a little hot glue can't fix.

The awesome thing about these letters? I'm going to use them in future babies room. I just love them.

This second project, well I had full intentions of doing it, but I needed a little help from Mike and he just took over. I'm not complaining.

We found this frame at a thrift store for five bucks and it just fit perfectly for what we needed. That crooked string? Don't worry, he fixed it.

Those little square pictures are not easy to find a frame for! It's also costly to try and buy a bunch of them! This was a really inexpensive fix to our problem. Thrift store frame, some eyelet screws and twine from the hardware store and some miniature clothespins from walmart. I call this a success!
This picture...well I saw it a lot on pinterest as well. Maybe not quite this awesome, though. Get on pinterest, and get busy pinning!

With the wedding coming up in September, I have decided I am going to try my hardest to grow the flowers we will use at the tables, and possibly the bouquets. Its just not in the budget to bring in tons of flowers from a flower shop. I'm going crazy right now looking for the perfect kinds! The tricky part is finding some that will (fingers crossed) last until the end of September. I know we definitely had flowers blooming at the end of September last year...will we be this lucky this year? Also, how do I deal with the uncertainty of it all?? What do I do as a backup?

I told our neighbor last night and she's already decided that part of the communal garden will be a cut flower patch. With her help and excitement I at least have a CHANCE that this might work.

Any suggestions as to what to grow? We will definitely be doing a few kinds of sunflowers and zinnias as they are what we had that thrived last year.

Yay, Flowers!

In honor of my Finnish heritage (Did you know I'm 1/4 Finnish?) I'm wearing purple today. Its St. Urho's Day! The story has it that St. Urho drove all the grasshoppers out of Finland to save the grapes. I think I may even have a glass or two of wine tonight to celebrate.

This is Mike's new toy, and this is they way he brought it home:I'm marrying a redneck, aren't I? Who am I kidding....I didn't stand much of a chance. I grew up listening to country music (and attending the festivals) and my dad was a lumberjack. It was inevitable I'd have some tendencies.

So, this is what we did Sunday because there was no way Mike could go a day without riding this new precious toy. What did we do? We went out on the bay and watched ice races. Now, I've never been very fond of walking on water. As you can see, there was literally a lot of water on top of the ice. It was a little unsettling for me but I guess I forgot about it after awhile.

It was a beautiful day to test out the new four wheeler. I am envisioning A LOT of riding it in my near future. I've already been warned we'll be riding to dinner this week, and going on a longer ride on Saturday. Mike's excitement is palpable. He even rode it to work last night and again this morning. In the rain.

To anyone that knows Mike and I, it's no secret that we aren't the most adventurous eaters. I've definitely got Mike beat though on what I will eat. In fact, I'm choosing to believe I'm not THAT picky anymore.

No longer do I have to eat bbq's when its taco night (Yes, this was what happened while i grew up. I didn't like tacos!) and I eat them WITH LETTUCE. Lettuce has been my hardest thing to conquer. I'm still not completely over the hill. I can't tell you how many times I've gagged while trying to eat a salad. Its the texture of lettuce, the way it sticks to the roof of my mouth. Shudder. We've even incorporated eating a small salad with dinner at least three nights a week now as a way of training ourselves to eat better for when (gasp!) we have children and have to show them how good salads are. We don't want our children to have to deal with that stigma. At the very least they won't be able to say "well you won't eat it!"

Its really frustrating and embarrassing when going to someone's house and telling them no thank you to everything they serve up! So here are some things that have been added to our willing to eat food roster:

Fish (Always on mine, but very recently added to Mikes!)
Salads (I must have it with french dressing, but not toooo much of it, oh and baby lettuce)
Spinach (I made a spinach tortellini soup last night and though it looked "scary" I thought it was really good and Mike even ate a bowl after some trepidation)
Cucumbers(always on Mike's)
Bell Peppers (not for Mike)
Tomatoes (I still prefer them cooked, but on salads and tacos and burgers, i can handle them raw)

I'm sure there are more, but for now that seems like a pretty solid list. Oh, growing up.