lovely 

mrs. darcy...mrs. darcy...mrs. darcy

so great. beautiful. i shouldn't be allowed to watch these movies but boys should be required to. hook, line and sinker, i'm such a sucker.

this is the one i want jess to have 

seriously...super cute 

i want this wallet real bad 

cute little pillow necklace 

pretty 

i'm better when i don't think

so i finished support lettering today. almost. and as a reward i decided to let myself come to hoa and do my visa paperwork here. turns out i need to print out a hard copy and of course i didn't do that. awesome. so instead, jess and i im'd about baseball and i found new stationary to love and presents i wish i could buy for jess. there are always things i want to buy jess because i still have in my head that if i give them to jess then i get to see them all the time which is about to be even less true than it is now. i'm thinking about raising support specifically to feed my stationary habit. i'll just call it the "correspondance fund." that's biblical, right? blissen is definitely my latest favorite but i just got the new real simple and as soon as i have time to dive in, i'm sure that'll change. i'll keep you posted. the blissen stuff reminds makes me want to watch wes anderson which makes it even greater.

a guy just came in and sat kind of by me and whipped out his tiny apple laptop (applaptop? applap? lapple? lappletop?) which is clearly brand spanking new and he's taking plastic off of things and unwinding cords and i'm so jealous and i can't wait until christmas! i'm such an american.

BRYAN HAS A BLOG...well, almost. and i helped him name it...well, kind of. i'm listening to the mixtapes he made my brother. i don't think i've ever listened to a guy to guy mixtape before and it's way different than mixtapes boys make for girls. i mean, clearly, but still. omaha this weekend? you can come if you want. matt called me at almost 2:00 this morning mostly to make sure i knew he was up late. what's with that guy? let's not have any more paragraphs with both matt and bryan in them.

okay holly is packing up which means it's time for dinner and then Pride and Prejudice and i'm so excited.

peace out

definitely not the new pink

I decided I should probably have more product reviews on my blog. I spend way too much time on the internet looking up stuff to covet not to share it with the masses. Here goes.

At Crissa's last night i tried a new Wolfgang Puck Gourmet Self-Heating Latte. It tasted a lot like either the can or like maybe some of the self-heating chemicals got into the latte but it was pretty fun. It was basically the MRE of gourmet beverages. Trying to find a picture of it online made me aware that many people are upset because they're being advertised as disposable and the packaging is obviously not very eco-friendly. Add it to the list of things from Wolfgang Puck that are just not as amazing as everyone seems to believe.

what? tim has a blog?!

chicago: round 2

Jess and i were supposed to go to Kansas City this weekend but instead, Bryan and I went to Chicago. Jess gave us correct directions to the train station (we were both shocked) and we met up with Alex and went to Christkindlmarket in Daley Plaza. We enjoyed some Glühwein (yes, I had to look that up) and took a lap around the booths. At 8:30 we realized that American Girl Place closes at 9 so we had to book it up Michigan Avenue to make it in time (to Bryan & Alex's dismay). We took the train back to the Union Station area and had a drink at Elephant & Castle. We made a new friend, Cindy who told us all about her messy divorce and questionable lineage and insulted us in Irish Gaelic but ended up picking up our tab so it was okay. She called Bryan a Nebraskan Dork-Wad but I really doubt that she really knew how to say "Nebraskan" in Gaelic.

Bryan and I drove up to McHenry and hung out with the Ecklund clan. I forgot to warn Bryan about the Ecklunds but we were okay. We woke up and took a tour of McHenry and hung out with Bill and then headed to the Andrew Bird show. It was so so so great. I couldn't believe so much was going on with only 2 people on the stage. He would play something live, sample it, loop it, and play/sing/whistle over it. It was so beautiful. He kept singing things that I didn't want to forget so I sent myself about 5 text messages with lines like "I was the cartographer of the tangles in your hair."

Sunday Bryan and I took Dan to O'Hare and grabbed lunch with Alex before getting the heck out of the suburbs. Dinner with Crissa and Tim in the 'loo and then Bryan left even though we tried to convince him that class isn't as cool as us. So here I am again in Cedar Falls, listening to the mixtapes Bryan made Luke and refusing to pack up my stuff and get back in the car.

this is andrew 

i don't remember why they were doing this 

our new friend from boston 

alex <3s anything german 

hot wine stuff at the german christmas thing 

she has arrived

So. My grandma died on Monday. It seems like we've been waiting for so long. For about a year I've been preparing myself for this loss but it's just weird now that it happened. It's a huge answer to prayer that she went before I left so that I could be here. I know that sounds selfish and insensitive but it's true and this is my blog so there it is.

my entire family is either here and I can't help but be a little excited that we're all together at my house. It feels like the beginning of Home Alone. I've been trying to organize my thoughts about the whole situation and trying to remember things about my grandma and what she's taught me. I've learned so much about being a wife and mother even though I've really never seen her actively participate in either role. My grandpa died when I was five and I only have a few memories of him, but he's been a significant part of my life because my grandma was a wife that honored her husband, even after his death.

I wasn't expecting to get emotional at the funeral but the pastor read proverbs 31 and compared it to her life and I lost it. I wish Cate would have been there because she's perhaps the only one who could have understood what that meant to me (that wasn't meant to be a guilt trip, I just missed her). Okay that's all I'm going to write about that.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

"Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

proverbs 31:25-29

i can take a road that'll see me through

I thought this weekend would be my last trip to Chicago before I leave. That may not be true. A trip next weekend to catch Andrew Bird is in the works. Here's what went down this time:

Thursday Luke and I went to 24-7 but he sat by Cate, Holly and Rachel because I sat next to my New Orleans girls whom I miss like crazy. I talked about the trip and felt old when I got cheered for because I've been around so long. Johnson asked me to commission Andy's team and I almost cried because he hugged me and it was so cute.

Friday we got up early and drove into Chicago to see the new Harry Potter on IMAX. It was pretty awesome. It was way huge and I'm excited to see it on a screen that I can see all at once. Luke and I grabbed coffee and moved my car from its $22 parking spot and waited for Jess, Eli and Alex. We ate at a diner that was moonlighting as a discotech, dropped of Alex, met up with Elia at an art show that I can't find the website for and then walked to Michigan Ave. to see the Christmas windows.

The holidays are definitely here. I'm listening to Nick Drake, taking pictures of christmas lights and shopping for a new coat. And I'm so excited to see Rent. And I wish I could afford to go to Wicked. And now I have to finish making dinner for my family.

As always, here are some pictures

luke by the river waiting for jess & eli

his secret is out, don't tell caribou

christmas in the city!

see, jess knows what's up

come on rain down on me

it's cold and rainy and awesome and all i want to do is sit at the coffee house and listen to coldplay and the garden state soundtrackbecause that's what i was listening to at this time last year. I want to take a nap and read and eat soup. Instead I'm babysitting Grant and Lauren, getting my 24-7 talk ready and changing the color scheme on my email account. I've downloaded some Radiohead and organized some music files so that makes me feel productive but in a completely unproductive way.

So I'm thinking about quitting my job. I told Lora I'd be around through December and I could definitely use the money, so I doubt it'll happen but work is definitely cramping my style. I need to find someone to take over this babysitting job so I have more time to babysit the Frisbies and the Radcliffes. Interested? Seriously - look at these cute kids:

lauren

grant

lauren again

bender no more

There's no more Bender. Which is sad because Omundso-Looker doesn't have the same effect.

I wasn't going to go to the wedding because I had been driving forever and had to keep going to Cedar Falls. I went anyway because I probably won't see them again before I leave and that would be sad. It was so great, it was totally them. I've been to so many weddings this year that they're really not a big deal and I always forget that it's a big deal for everyone else. I sat by Betsy and Jess which made me miss Kate. Times they are a changin.


Wedding Count: 14

Goodbye Count: 5

andrew stole my camera to get a shot of kimbra and i

this is laura's planning face 

this is andrew. yes his eyes are closed.

jess and betsy - we miss kate 

andy telling laura and eric how to be married 

adorable