It Beeps

Millie and I are still fulling enjoying all of our naps.  The only problem {and not really a problem at all} is that it has totally thrown off my sleep schedule.  During the school year I HAVE to be in bed by 9:30 otherwise...forget it.  The next day is just not good.  BUT it's summer!  Even though I was up at 6:00 yesterday, I took a little nap and was happily awake until midnight.  My kind of night!

UNTIL.....BEEP!  You see, I'm a total chicken so my initial reaction included thoughts of bad guys trying to break into our house.  With beepers.  Paul assured me that it was probably just the smoke alarm with dying batteries and if it beeped again, we would change them.

I waited.  For at least 10 minutes.  And did not hear any other beeps.  So, I fell asleep.  I had dreams of staying in a hotel and the hotel workers changing beeping smoke alarms {not joking, I did}.  The beeps continued to take over my dreams until I woke up at 6:00.  With only 6 hours of sleep.  And even though it's summer that is just not enough sleep for me to function on.

So, I did what any good, responsible, nice wife would do.  I nudged Paul and told him to change the batteries in the smoke detector.  He had to be awake soon anyway.  When I thought he fell off the chair he was standing on I ran to check on him.  Actually no, I yelled from the bed to see if he was ok {he had just jumped, he was fine}....all the while listening to BEEP   BEEP   BEEEEEEEP.

He couldn't figure it out so he brought the dumb thing into the bedroom.  Prepared to show him that it's NOT THAT DIFFICULT to change batteries in a smoke detector I took it from him.  Hmmm...seemed a bit more tricky than I thought.  Don't worry - I'm smart.  So I looked up the owner's manual online.  No such luck.  For real?  Oh wait, the dog needs to be taken out.

Ok, smart, obedient Millie.  You've been going outside ON YOUR OWN for nearly a week.  We stand on the porch, she WALKS (that's important) into the yard, does her thing, and returns.  YAY!  Our dog is growing up!  This morning?  I stood on the porch, she RAN (bad sign) into the yard, chased some birds, started barking, jumped up on our neighbor's door, and looked at me with those "I dare you to try to come get me.  I'll run away if you do."  eyes.  So there I am trying my best to quietly (it's 6 AM!) get our dog to come back, still in my pajamas, beeping smoke alarm in hand.  No wonder the neighbors don't seem to like us...

{I promise, the end to this story is coming.}

So, I tried AGAIN to figure out where the darn batteries were on the smoke detector.  Then put it inside a cooler in the garage.  No joke.  Felt a little like Phoebe on Friends when she wraps her smoke detector in a blanket and throws it in the trash chute.  My dad's coming tonight for mom's birthday celebration.  He'll come to my rescue and fix it!  So, smoke detector in cooler...I'm going back to bed.

BEEEEP!!!!!  Are you kidding me????  It's IN THE GARAGE.  In a COOLER!  How on EARTH can I still hear that?  Paul's solution?  He'd take it to school with him and leave it in the car.  Love him.

But no, that does not solve the problem.  Even though I've only had 6 hours of sleep and the smoke detector has won up until this point I am smart enough to know that if the smoke detector is inside a cooler in the garage there is no way I should still be able to hear it that loudly.

So again, sleepy Paul to the rescue.  After explaining this to him about 10 times he comes up with a great solution.  "Maybe it's that other thing hanging on the wall."

You mean the carbon monoxide detector?

Yes, it was the carbon monoxide detector all along.  With easily removable batteries.

Don't worry, the smoke detector is no longer in the cooler and I'm going back to bed.

Video courtesy of You Tube

{Ignore the Chinese subtitles}

The 5 Greatest

Summer is FLYING by faster than I thought it would and way faster than I would like it to.  I know it's not even July yet, but it is the end of June which means that nearly 1 whole month is gone.  We have already had an awesome summer, and it's really only been 3 weeks!  The first week was the week of the wedding.  Does that even count as a week of summer????  I'd prefer to not ever re-live the craziness of that week, but I do have to say we handled it like champs and with minimal Bridezilla moments.  Thank you, color-coded checklist and schedule!  Week 2 was wedding recovery.  So many things to put away and organize.  {Which, by the way, I'm still not done with...oops!}  Not to mention an incredible amount of sleep to catch up on.  So really, this is the first week of my vacation and it's already almost July!  Point proven that summer is going by WAY too fast!

So, our 5 greatest moments this summer (so far).

1.  Our wedding.  Of course it was number 1 - I don't think this one needs much more explanation.  We'll share links to more photos and videos once we have them.

2.  Our very last minute mini-moon.  We still have high hopes of making it to Hawaii for an actual honeymoon sometime in the next year-ish, but for now the Wisconsin Dells had to do.  I think it was Wednesday when we decided that we needed a getaway and it was 20 minutes later when we realized that if we didn't go this past weekend we wouldn't get to go until August.  That's not even an exaggeration.  So, to the Dells we went!  It was the most planning I could handle in the shortest amount of time.  But, we were determined to make it awesome and awesome it was.  Shopping, dinner, and massages!  And, the cutest baby tiger cubs in the hotel lobby!

3.  Nightly porch time.  We made it our goal to spend time each night together hanging out on the porch.  It sounds lame, but it's the only time we get to spend away from the rest of the word.  Otherwise we're in front of a TV surrounded by phones, computers, homework, and not actually interacting with one another. This way we get to relax and have meaningful conversations.  And laugh at the dog barking at fireflies.

4.  Paul's school schedule.  I don't think many people realize how much time PT school demands of him...and us.  I know I've mentioned it before, but he totally impresses me with the amount of time he dedicates to school and how he's stuck with it.  I would have quit a LONG time ago if it were me.  In fact, I've threatened to quit many times and I'm not even the one in school.  BUT he attended his very LAST first day of school last week.  Luckily their summer class schedule is pretty sweet.  Home by noon Mon-Wed, and no class (for now) on Thursday and Friday.  We can handle that!  It's even better knowing we're this close to graduation in May!

5.  Naps.  Afternoon naps, morning naps, evening naps....naps whenever I want.  With or without the dog sprawled out next to me.  It's pretty awesome to get all of the extra snuggle time.

We're looking forward to many more top 5's as the summer goes on and can't wait to share them with all of you!


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It Was Perfect

From start to finish our wedding day was absolutely perfect.  We would not have changed a single thing and feel so lucky to have spent our day and night with so many wonderful family members and friends.

Our perfect family totally pulled through and ROCKED the set-up that was to be done on Friday.  They had over 200 chair covers and sashes ironed and placed on chairs by noon - well before I anticipated we would finish that job.  I hope someone took a picture of our ballroom surrounded by extension cords, irons, and ironing boards!

Our perfect wedding party helped to make our rehearsal and rehearsal dinner so much fun as they helped to take away some of the stress from the day.  The food was perfectly delicious and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I got to enjoy one last glass of wine with my sister and college roommates back at the hotel on Friday night.  It was the perfect way to celebrate my last night of single life in the same way we celebrated so many other important life events when living together.  Many laughs were had by all!

The actual wedding day went perfectly according to plan.  Everyone was where they needed to be, when they needed to be there.  We had everything we needed and if anyone forgot anything I never found out.  There were even a couple of points in the day that believe it or not, we were actually ahead of schedule!  Our wedding party, parents, and grandparents all looked amazing.  Paul and I?  We looked pretty amazing too!  :)  The ceremony went perfectly and so many people were there to witness the start of our new life together.

We had a blast taking pictures and the weather cooperated perfectly.  The forecast for the day said it was going to rain in the morning and at 3:00 - the exact times we would be outside taking pictures.  Instead it was the perfect temperature, a bit windy, and there were just enough clouds to keep us from having to squint from the sun.

The reception was beyond amazing.  It was exactly as we had dreamed it would be and yes, absolutely perfect.  We have an amazing scrapbook of pictures from the photo booth and the dance floor was packed all night.  Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and Paul and I had a blast.

THANK YOU to everyone who was there to celebrate with us, or had to celebrate from afar but was there in spirit.  Our wedding day was beyond perfect and we have all of you to thank.

Let's Rewind a Bit

Since it's been awhile, let's back up a little bit.  October ended with nothing other than Halloween.  We ducked out on the very few trick-or-treaters that actually make their way to our street and went grocery shopping instead.  Exciting, I know.  We did manage to carve some pumpkins though.  I think we had more fun watching Millie than the actually carving the pumpkins.

We spent Paul's 26th birthday at the Nitty Gritty with friends and doing what he loves to do most on a Thursday night - playing volleyball.  I worked on school work.  :)  November was pretty uneventful.  We celebrated my grandma's 80th birthday and enjoyed great Thanksgivings with both of our families.  

December started with a weekend spent with some great friends from college.  We had a blast making Christmas cookies.  Then it was only 15 minutes in and we still had to make the rest.  3 hours later we swore we'd never make cookies again!  We had a great time at the Christmas party for Paul's school.  We danced the night away and were able to spend time with some great friends.

On Friday we said goodbye to one of our best friends.  Our dog, Peaches, had to be put to sleep after 14 wonderful years of memories.  We're all sad to see her go, but know that she's much happier now chasing birds and airplanes like she used to.  I just hope there are some cows in Heaven that will let her lick out their ears.  Its one of her favorite things to do!  

And that brings us here.  Yesterday was 6 months away from our wedding and a week away from hosting my mom's family for Christmas then 3 more days of Christmas fun.  The tree is up, decorations are hung, and shopping is almost finished.  Tonight we head out for our annual shopping trip with Dad.  Sometimes I think we'll be 40 and still shopping with Dad.  It's one of our favorite Christmas traditions!  

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and in case we're not back before then, a Happy New Year as well!  

Want to go for a run?

We spent most of our weekend dodging rain drops, but had a great time doing it!  Paul ran his first half marathon on Saturday.  I'll be the first to admit that when he first talked about signing up I secretly thought "Really?  You're really going to do this?  School will get busy and stressful, you'll quit training, and will eventually give up."  I know this doesn't sound the most supportive, but school usually takes priority and running gets moved to the back burner.  I should have known better though, because when he puts his mind to something he does it.  And run he did!  In the rain and the cold.  I will say that I was pretty impressed and take back any thoughts of doubt.

 

 

He was concentrating so hard he didn't even realize I was there! 

 

 

 

Looking good after an awesome finish!

I wasn't originally planning to be there, but those pesky raindrops were actually a good thing!  I know what you're thinking.  First I didn't even think he'd be able to do it, and then I had no intentions of not going.  World's worst fiance?  No.  I felt awful about not being there, but I had signed up to do the Color Me Rad run with my sister.  On the same day.  At the same time.  Unfortunately for us it was down pouring at the start of our race.  Since they were running multiple start times we decided to hold off on running our race and headed over to watch Paul finish his.  The rain cleared up a little bit, and we headed off to get colorful. 

 

 

Pre-Race.  Check out those nice, white shirts!

 

 

 

It turns out the rain turned our color run into a tough mudder as well.  We were dodging puddles, avoiding slippery hills, and sprinting through colored powder.  Ok, maybe not the intensity of a tough mudder, but it was still pretty messy.

 

Our not-so-white-anymore shirts.  Hope's arm is still a little blue!

 

We had a great time at both races and enjoyed the rest of our weekend at home working on school work, taking a nap with Millie, doing a little shopping, and supper at Mom and Dad's.  A great fall weekend in Wisconsin at the {soon to be} Jones House!