There's probably some unwritten rule about no longer celebrating the anniversary of when you started dating after you get married. Too bad. We're celebrating! HAPPY 5 YEARS TO US! We're spending the day doing a whole lot of nothing. We did go for a run, but beyond that not much. That's ok though - we wouldn't have it any other way.
Flashback: August 3rd, 2008
We've been busy celebrating other happily ever afters too! Two weeks ago we we went to Appleton for the wedding of 2 of our great friends. Remember this post? The one where I explained how much I don't like summer heat and how it had been the hottest week of the summer? Well, Mother Nature listened and provided us with WONDERFUL weather for J and Ashley's wedding. 70's and partly cloudy is my kind of day! {I did still manage to get sunburned. I told you the sun and I don't get along!} We had a great time and were so happy to be there. And, we got to spend the weekend with our friends Jenny and Tyler as well!
Last weekend I headed back to Appleton for my friend Brittni's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party. She was one of my Bridesmaids and I feel super lucky to be one of hers as well! We had some GREAT girl time at the hotel, dinner, and out that night.
College roomies with the bride
Room Upgrade! We've got an extra room, a whirlpool tub, and robes!
Ready for our night out!
Tonight, Paul is headed to the bachelor party of one of his groomsmen. Yup, it's definitely wedding season! {We're not going to talk about how it's already August and summer is ending way too quickly. Nope, not doing it.}
Actually, not much sun. Just fun. You see, the sun and I don't really agree. I either end up with some kind of over-heated sick feeling, or a major sunburn. So instead I layer myself in mega-proof sunscreen and stay in the shade as much as possible. For short amounts of time. And sometimes only at night.
Sun or no sun, we have been having fun! We kicked off our 4th of July celebrations with my Mom's birthday. Her birthday's the 3rd and every year she is absolutely convinced that the fireworks are for her. I think it's safe to say I get my "birthday princess syndrome" from her. My mom and I both have a great amount of love for our birthdays. So, to celebrate we had dinner at our house then headed to Madison for Rhythm and Booms. This year we tried a new super secret spot to watch the fireworks. I won't tell you where it is because it was awesome and we had the place to ourselves. If you promise to bring your own drinks and bug spray I might invite you along next time. There was one other family there. Until we started playing Heads Up. It's kind of like charades, but the person guessing holds the iPad on their head and then it videotapes everyone giving the clues. We have a video of the point in the evening when the other family there apparently decided we were too loud and left. You can see them walking behind all of us in the video. Whatever people, we were having fun and the fireworks hadn't even started yet!
We spent the 4th at the annual Jones family party - complete with parade. The first couple of years I went the kids had bikes, scooters, and big wheels. Now they have 4-wheelers, go karts, dirt bikes, Gator/Rangers, and...well...Paul's poor newly licensed still without a car cousin had her bike. Luckily we came to her rescue with some pretty sweet signs that I think might have made everyone feel a little bit bad for her. There are rumors about a Facebook group starting for donations.
{I fought with the captions for over 30 min on these pictures and have no idea where they went. So, in a nutshell: Paul protecting himself from squirt guns and silly string, the start to the parade, grandpa bringing up the rear, the boys and their sweet rides.}
We took a trip to the Farmer's Market last weekend and ate the entire bag of cheese curds that we bought by mid-afternoon. Oops. They were SO GOOD! And squeaky. We also spent a couple of hours at Lake Wingra on a kayak. I didn't take the camera with me for obvious reasons. It's a lake. Think about it. I think it's safe to say that I am too nervous of a kayak rider {I didn't paddle much, so yes, rider.} to go kayaking again anytime soon. The good news is it was only $5 with my college ID. That I still have and take full advantage of whenever I can.
In our quest to participate in as many fun things Madison has to offer that we possible can we also met up with Paul's Aunt and Uncle for Concerts on the Square last week. So much fun! Nothing better than drinks and music. I think we also picked the best week possible to go. This week is about 20 degrees warmer and 500 times more humid.
This week is the first time in 14 years that my family is not headed to the Dane County Fair. It seems a little strange to think that we won't be going, but by looking at the forecast I am ok with staying away. This is once again going to be the hottest week in July, as it always seems to be. Instead of standing next to hot furry animals, I am perfectly ok with staying in the comfort of our air conditioned house with a much smaller furry animal who enjoys the heat as much as her momma.
This weekend we get to go to the wedding of 2 of our very good friends. I feel so honored to be part of their special day and can't wait to celebrate with them! I just hope there's some shade...
Our wedding day has come and gone, but we have some AMAZING pictures and videos to help us remember our special day. We're still waiting on "final products", but we do have some previews to share! We put all of these on Facebook, but in case you missed them here they are! Unfortunately I can't figure out how to insert them right into this post so you'll have to follow the link. They're worth the extra click though. I promise!
Our videographers made a "Love Story" video. We spent a day filming in the rain to share the story of how we met, started dating, and got engaged.
Our photographers worked SO HARD all day and well into the night. We've had so many compliments on the photos we have so far and can't wait to see the rest!
The photo booth had a line all night long. We have some GREAT pictures in our scrapbook. Take a look at all of the fun pictures that were taken! Password: Schlimgen
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.
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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