I think we all know and realize that time flies when you are having fun...and sometimes not so much fun.
For the past two months, Dave's been getting used to the new schedule - up at 4am, out the door by 5 am to ride the bus to St. Paul for nearly 2 hours. Work for 8.5 hours respectively, and wash, rinse, repeat in the opposite bus order to get home.
I am still getting up with him at 4am.
We are both exhausted.
However, wedding planning still moves forwards. We've had a couple adventures and a few moments since June:
- We went to WineHaven (Chisago City, MN) & Eichtens (Center City, MN) and enjoyed a day of food and wine tasting. Eichtens raises their own buffaloes and cows and make their own FABULOUS Gouda cheeses and buffalo summer sausages amongst their delicious bistro/cafe and shop area. WineHaven happened to have a wine tasting the same day we headed out to Eichtens.... and so we tried a few varieties. We've already decided to get the Honey Wine and the Merlot from there for the wedding.
- Dave, Alli, and myself headed out to Howard Lake, MN for the 3rd Annual Garlic Festival; put on by the MN Sustainable Farming Association. They did a wonderful job and we enjoyed things ranging from
- demos from Minneapolis area chefs that work with the understanding of sustainability,
- belly dancers (not what I'd have thought - a few white chicks doing some pop music moves, more power to 'em - I've seen REAL traditional belly dancing though...),
- kids games & art, garlic ice cream (YUM), fresh raw gourmet garlic (It BURNED!)
Then... we hit the MN State Fair this last weekend. On Sunday early morning, we headed out on the Southwest Transit to the fairgrounds. It was a long day full of sunburn, good food (elk burger, porcupine meatballs, beef sticks, funnel cake, cheese curds, strawberry smoothy), and needing more water than I got which resulted in my crabbiness for about an hour. Yes, poor Dave. lol
We saw most of a wood chopping competition, walked around one end and saw the skate park portion with guys on bikes, hunted down food favorites (cheese curds), and waited in line for Sweet Martha's Cookies for about 15 minutes. Well worth the wait. It was fun to see the sights and smell the wonderful foods.
We also hit the Little Farmhands area for kids. Cute! Alli got to put on an apron and pick up some corn kernels, and 'feed the cows', 'milk the cows', drive the hay on the 'tractor' - John Deere of course, and 'grow' vegetables.
Here, we have Alli and Daddy. They gave the kids free John Deere sun visors made from a foamy material and emblazoned with their symbol.
Seriously, they had sunflowers that were REAL
and taller than Alli! Heck, they were even taller than me.
We also went to the Eco Experience - where Dave had been working for most of that week previously. Since Dave works for the Pollution Control Agency, he offered his volunteer services to help out at the Eco Experience photo booth - essentially, he was the 'man behind the curtain' running the technology aspect and making sure that as people came through, had their photo taken with signs saying why they promised to bring their own bag, and made sure that those pictures showed up on the Reduce.org website.
As a momento....
All said, we probably spent about two hours just going through the Eco Experience. Sustainability is something that everyone should think about. Compost when you can - we live in a townhouse and we are looking for ANY way that we can do that. We have been recycling and separating as needed with all our waste as well for a while already, but still, you feel like there's always more you can do to contribute to a healthy Mother Earth.
Alli, hugging Bernie the Burn Barrel at Eco Experience. Bernie tells people how bad for the environment burning your garbage is. He has a lot to say about keeping the environment and air clean and clear - and that just because your parents and grandparents did it - doesn't make it right!
In other news...
We finally met with my friend and the caterer, Josh, this week. Wonderful meeting. Unfortunately I think we made it a tad too long - I didn't get his email about his wife feeling poorly and could we make it a short meeting until the day AFTER. I sure felt like an ass. Sorry Joshy! My email at work apparently dislikes me intensely - but only SOMETIMES.
Thursday night this last week was Alli's Open House. She's heading into Second grade and frankly, her teacher seemed nice, but I'm a bit worried about Alli and her Math skills that we worked SO hard on last year... and haven't used much of this last summer. Her reading is perfectly fine though as she loves to read anything and anywhere.
Time will tell I suppose.
Dave and I went on our first date in about a month last night. To the Claddagh Pub in Maple Grove. It was wonderful! The food was plentiful and delicious - melt in your mouth good. Dave had a drunken steak that was a prime piece of meat with Jameson whiskey. I had the more mellow but still fantastic and homey shepherd's pie. Accompanied by a Guinness for myself and a Newcastle Nut-brown Ale for Dave, it was truly an enjoyable dinner only made better by our dessert of Tipsy Bread Pudding. Yum!
Afterwards, we headed out to the local mall to have our ring fingers resized - I'm a 7, and he's an 11.5. I'm putting it in print so he doesn't argue with me later right before we order our rings. lol
Anyways, we need to get the invitations printed out tonight and things addressed. We need the RSVPs by October 6th and are offering the option of RSVPing online or by phone, or lastly, by snail mail.
Still so much to do, but we are looking forward to it!
