Our Wedding...

It's hard to believe that it has come and gone already. We have been married for two and a half weeks and I have yet had time to update my blog. So here's the skinny...everything went perfectly! Our day was so beautiful and amazing. The church was a little on the warm side, but once we got outside for pictures it was gorgeous!!! The rain that was predicted never came and we got some amazing pictures at Riverside park. You will have to check out my photographers blog to get a sneak peak at the professional pictures. (Shawn Marie Photography)
Here is a few others...

To everything there is a season...

As the wedding draws near, people keep asking me if I am nervous. And to tell the truth I was starting to get nervous in the following departments; what if I don't get all my stuff done on time & oh crap I have to stand up in front of 100 people and hope I don't pass out. I think this is all very common as far as wedding jitters go.
BUT...since god has this way of messing with me, I was ill prepared for the blow that struck me last week Monday. I had taken the day off to get some stuff done. (this was the Monday after my Bachelorette party) OK, so my boss's call me at home on my day off and drop the bomb...we are being purchased! (mind you, I've already been through one buy out!) We are being purchased by one of our competitors and they cannot guarantee that I'll have a job once this happens. OH... did I mention that this "purchase" is happening the weekend of my wedding??? LOVELY! So, as of right now, I don't know if I'll have a job to come back to. And, I'm for sure loosing my company vehicle!
So, I apologize for not blogging lately...I've got a lot on my plate. Let me tell you... this doesn't make the stress of the final weeks of wedding planning look like much! God's always throwing curve balls. Thank god I'm so prepared. (I know you all secretly laughed at me when I was doing all this misc. wedding stuff months ago. You all thought I was nuts for doing it all so early. well... I'm glad I'm crazy anal, cause it's helping to save my sanity now!!!) Go Katie!
Ok, Happy thoughts..... (sorry, I've gotten a little frazzled this past week :)

Gitty with excitement!

So, I'm a little slap happy today! Not only is it Friday, payday, and a long weekend (I took Monday off!!!)... Tomorrow is my bachelorette party! We are going out to diner, going to a show at the comedy club, and then where ever the night takes us! I'll update you next week with some fun stories!!! I cannot wait to go be silly with my girlfriends!

Monday, we are going to the court house to go and do what we have to do to get our marriage license. And then the curb people are coming to install our curbing. Mayer family fun.

Back to School...

"OH...back to school, back to school, to prove to dad that I'm not a fool. Got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight. I hope I don't get in a fight. Ohhhh... back to school, back to school, back to school. Well... here goes nothing!"

Ok, I'm sure most of you know... I live in my own little fantasy world. And Maysun isn't going back to school to earn our families hotel chain. BUT... she did start the second grade on Tuesday. She is excited to be back in school. She has Mr. Van Dueser as a teacher this year and seems to like him so far.

I am not as excited for school to be here.... I hate early bed times, packing lunches, fighting w/ her to do her homework, etc... PLUS... It mean that winter is around the corner. BOOO!!! Don't get me wrong, I love fall. I just don't like what follows.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Labor Day Weekend. Friday Jacob and Morgan slept over. I watched Carter until 10, so that Amy and Scott could celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary. We made a nest, snuggled, ate popcorn, and watched movies! I had fun and I hope the kids did too!!

Saturday morning I made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, we cleaned up our mess, ran to the bank, dropped books off at the library, played in the fountain at Shattuck park, picked up produce at the farmers market, and then I dropped the kids off at home.

Saturday afternoon, Stephanie, Angie, Cassandra, and my mom came over to help assemble the table favors for the wedding. I am happy to say that they are DONE!!! Woo hoo!!!

Sunday we spent the afternoon at Todd & Jody Schwartzkoph's house. We hung out, had a few cocktails, and spent the day in their pool. What a relaxing afternoon!

Sunday night, we went out to a friends house in Omro. The city of Omro cancelled their 4th of July celebration because their river was too high. So they rescheduled it for this past Sunday. So we watched the fireworks in Dan and Sarah's backyard. We hung out there until 11 and then went home.

Monday...ah, my favorite day. We spent the entire day in bed watching TV! I LOVED IT!!! That's the best kind of day off!!!

Weight Watchers update

Ok... I have been doing Weight Watchers on/off for a year and a half. I started the end of April 2007 through July 2007 and lost 20 lbs!!! I gained two/three back and restarted Weight Watchers again in June 2008 through August 2008. I am proud to say that I have lost, through both WW attempts, 30 lbs!!!
And if I am not mistaken, Kurt is down 25 lbs since March 2008! Way to go babe!!! w

Silly Shower update

I have received some really cool stuff through the 'SILLY SHOWER' thrown for me by my cousin Clarissa. Yesterday I received what I assume will be the last gift. It was from my Aunt Nikki in Galena Illinois. She sent me these really cool spatula's, a box of Rice Krispies and a bag of marshmallows!!! I was so excited! I cannot wait to make some treats!!! Home made Rice Krispie treats are probably one of my absolute favorite snacks! What a NEAT idea! I may have to re-use the idea in the future! THANKS AUNT NIKKI!!!

Nothing new

Nothing new...Just working on wedding stuff in my free time. Hard to believe that the wedding is four weeks from tomorrow. I have done so much these past eight months, yet I feel like there is so much more to do. Here's what's left... design and print the wedding programs, put together the photoboard, order the wedding rings, send out rehersal dinner invites, type out the readings, finalize the selection of organ music, get the guys in to get fitted for tuxedos, finish up a few last minute wedding flower extra's, drop off the groomsmen's gifts to be embroidered, assemble the out of town guest bags, and print out directions on 'how to get the couple to kiss' for each of the tables. What am I missing???? I'm sure there is more!!!
Tomorrow some of my girlfriends are coming over to work on table favors. I have gotten enough done that all we'll have to do is assemble. So hopefully we should be done pretty quickly.
No big plans for the weekend. Just looking forward to having an extra day off! And actuall I have two long weekends in a row!!! I took the following Monday off. I wanted an extra day to recover from my bachelorette party!!! (Which is next week Saturday!) I am very excited. We are going out to dinner at Good Company, going to the 8 o'clock show at the Skyline comedy club and then out wherever the night takes us!!! I cannot wait to hang out with all my girls!

creepy...

Want to see something creepy... go to http://www.postcrescent.com/ic/assets/SpecialMoments.pdf
and look at the bottom way over to the right!

I mean who announces this in the paper? Strange.

I think they are trying to give the Duggars a run for their money! And if you don't know who the Duggars are... go to www.duggarfamily.com! I am actually quite enthralled by this family. They have like 18 kids and don't plan on stopping anytime soon. I mean, good for this family because they have this huge nice house, their children are smart & well adjusted, and they live debt free. Weird, yes!

Nothing new to report... just thought I'd share the highlight of my day with you all!!!

Another one bites the dust...

There is no turning back now... The wedding invites were mailed this morning! I dropped Maysun off at Dana's, got myself a Mint Mocha Latte from Generations, and went to the Menasha Post office. If I had been smart, I would have separated them into the correct piles; Local delivery, Menasha Only, and Out of town. So I stood there in front of the slots for quite some time separating them correctly.

And I'm sure most of you are wondering why the Menasha Post office, cause that is NOT on my way to work. Unknown to everyone else, I decided to mail them from there, so that they would have the Menasha post mark on them. I thought my grandma Louise would have appreciated it, she lived 1/2 a block down from there on Broad Street.

So, keep an eye out for them this week. Don't they look nice? Amy and I designed, printed, trimmed them. And with a lot of help from my wonderful bridesmaids, some close friends, and the mom's... We embossed, rounded corners, inked edges, fed the ribbon, wrote out addresses, stuffed, sealed and stamped them!!! It was a lot of work and I greatly appreciate every ounce of help I received from them!

So an extra awesome thank you to Amy, Michelle, Stephanie, Bobbie, Sarah, Krista, Joan, Julie, and last but not least, Angie!

THE FLOOD...my bad!

Uh, yeah! I had a rough day, yesterday. I just wasn't having an 'A-game' day. Not that I was having a bad day...I just had a day long series of dumb-ness. I won't even get into the stupid ones during the day. It was the one at the end of the night that was the killer! I was tired, lets just start off with that. Kurt, Maysun and I had gone out for dinner, came home and were working on settling down for the night. Kurt was outside shooting his bow and I was trying to get Maysun into the bathroom for a bath. One of my girlfriends called and needed a friend to lean on. So I started a very serious conversation with her. I started a bath for Maysun and sent her outside to 'count' for Kurt. Which should have only lasted like two minutes. I sat down on the couch and got lost in conversation.
A little while later, Maysun comes running through the house crying. I FORGOT ABOUT THE RUNNING WATER!!!! I'm such a bad mom, wife, and homeowner! The tub ran over and water was everywhere in the bathroom and leaked into the basement. (Onto my wedding stuff, mind you!!! Thank god I am anal and have everything in Rubbermaid totes!!!) So we soaked up the mess with towels and turned on some fans. I don't think there is much damage, but I feel like the worlds biggest idiot! DUH... I could hear the water running in the background. Obviously, I wasn't paying attention. Well, at least no one drowned :)!!!

Home again, Home again...Jiggity Jig!!!

We're baaaaaaaaaack!!! Vacation is the greatest thing ever!
I LOVE having time off!!! I will give a brief overview and
some pictures!!! (It's hard to compress a busy week!)

We "rent" a cottage in Lakewood Wisconsin for a week every summer. We are very fortunate that the Pedersen/Keesler family lets us "rent" their awesome lakefront get-a-way!
(Here is the skinny on our trip)

We left home on Saturday the 12th and made it to Lakewood around noon. Sarah and Marc were still there, but packing things up to go home. We swam the dogs for a while and then they headed out around three-ish. Amy, Scott and the kids came up that night around six-ish. They stayed until lunch time on Tuesday. We swam, the guys fished, took the kids four wheeling, went to the Lakewood Zoo, ate lots of good food, tubbed behind the boat, Amy worked on some scrapbooking, and so much more. I will have to wait for Amy to get me the pictures because my batteries were dead in my camera. (I'll share those later)

Tuesday afternoon, Kurt, Maysun, and I went on a tubbing trip down the Wolf River. We were dropped off about three-four miles up river and floated back down to where we were parked. The trip took a little over three hours. Maysun had enough after about an hour. We will wait to do that again when she's a little older. (Wildlife report; we saw a huge snapping turtle and a beaver!!!)

Wednesday morning, Kurt's parents came up to Lakewood and stayed until Friday around lunch. They rode the quads Wednesday, Joan and I shopped on Thursday, Kurt took Phil fishing, Kurt water skiied, played Uno, we ate more food... all in all, it was nice to visit with them away from 'home'.

Friday, I layed around, cleaned, got sunburned

(on my buns too!) not much of anything. It was

a great day!!!

Saturday morning Kurt's brother Bob and his wife

Leanne came up and brought their Quads. We ate

some breakfast and then hit the trails. Maysun rode with Kurt for a while and then with me. We got to Chute Pond and I had to turn back. Maysun's tolorance was low and I had a house to clean. So they continued on to put on 102 miles!!! They came home around dinner. Maysun and I cleaned and layed around in the sun.

Sunday, we came home. (Boo!)

As busy as we were, we had a great vacation.

My favorite parts were; all the sweet corn,

Boozer learning how to swim (btw, she LOVES

it!!!), and not working!!!

Hope you enjoy the pics!!!

Weight Watchers Vacation Update... I gained like

three/four pounds. Whoops! (worth every calorie!) Back to the "WW" grind!!!

I'm getting excited!!!

Oh my dear lord almighty... I need a vacation! We leave for Lakewood this Saturday morning!!! I cannot wait! A whole week to be with my family!!! We dropped the Quads off last Saturday and spent the night. Sarah and Marc were up there, and it was fun just to relax. (it was like getting a small taste of what's to come) We got to the cottage around noon, changed into our suits and spent the day in the lake. Sarah and I laid out on the boat, while the guys stood in the water and drank beer out of the 'big bobber' cooler. Sarah and Marc's dogs (Cooper and Molly) swam along side us and got us full of dirt!!! Later in the after noon, Sarah and I took the four wheeler into town and did some wine tasting at the Woodland Trail Winery. We made dinner, took a walk to the neighbors (there are some people up Archibald Lake Road that are actually our real neighbors at home on Denhardt Ave.) so we went and visited with them, went back to the cottage, the guys lit off some fireworks, and then we played Apples to Apples.
We got up on Sunday, lounged a bit and then Kurt and I took a little ride on the Quads. We ran up to Townsend and back. Then stopped at the Northern Perk for some coffee. Rode a little while and then went back. BUT...on our little adventure we saw wild life. Not just your average chippies either. We saw a HORSE!!! It was on the side of the ATV trail. It had on a bridal and a lead, so it couldn't have been wild, but there it stood. It was stuck in some branches but Kurt wouldn't allow me to go near it. (what a meanie) I got off my Quad and started walking towards it and he stopped me. Poor horse. Hopefully it's owners got to it quickly. Anyway, a ways later, we saw a mumma doe and her twin fawns crossing the street and going into the thick brush.
Sunday afternoon we went tubing. Mark drove the boat and pulled us around Chain Lake. I went around a few times before I took a spill. Kurt says I got some good air! I also got soar muscles and nylon burn to boot! Kurt flew off too and took a nice tumble! Good times!!!
Traffic was HOOOOOOORABLE on the way home. It does not normally take three hours to get home. (usually it's 1 hour and 45 minutes) NUTS I tell you!!! We went 15 mph for a VERY long time.
I will hopefully get lots of good pictures this next week and will give you the run down of our much needed vacation! Have a great week!

Weekend Plans and other garble

Not a whole lot new here...Just your average everyday stuff.

For those of you who are counting (or not) the wedding is 86 days away OR 2 months and 24 days!!! (I have a countdown on Facebook, that's the only reason I know the exact number of days! hehe) The invites will be going in the mail in about three weeks. CRAZY!!! I cannot believe it is July already.

The countdown to "Lakewood" is on... we leave for vacation in 9 days! I am so excited to get away for the week. We are heading up this Saturday for the night. We are going to bring the Quads up with us and leave them, so they are up there the following weekend. (That way Sarah and Marc can use them too this next week!) So when we go up for our week, next Saturday, we will bring the boat with us. That way we have more toys to play with!!! Lets hope for NO boat problems this year! The 'Leaky Lund' sure earned her name last year up there. Not cool. You shouldn't be allowed to stress when you are on vacation!

We have a busy weekend planned. Tonight we are going to dinner w/ Linsey Behling. She is an old friend of mine. She bought a house in Little Chute, so we are going to go and see it and then walk down to Jacks or Better for dinner. I am excited to see her and hang out. It's a treat for me. She works 11-8, so our schedules don't really allow us to see much of each other.
Tomorrow is the fourth of July! We are planning on going over Krahn's for a cookout and then walk down to Riverside Park to watch the fireworks.
And tomorrow is Boozer's birthday!!! I cannot believe my baby is almost one! Thank god she's small and won't get any bigger!!! HEHE!!
Saturday we head up to Lakewood for the night. I cannot wait to ride the Quads, go tubing behind the boat, and just hang out in the sunshine!!!
Sunday we will head home, collect our children, and restart the whole weekly grind again! Laundry, here I come! WOO!

This Saturday mark's the one month point for round II of Weight Watchers. I am teetering between having lost 9 or 10 lbs, and the last time I checked with Kurt, he had lost 14!!! This morning in the mirror I noticed that my thighs aren't as chunky and my face has gotten a little thinner. I won't complain. You can definately notice the loss in Kurt's face and around his middle too! (god he's so hansome!)
When I ordered my wedding dress in January it fit me perfectly! All I needed was a hem. NOW... I might need it taken in a little at the top. Which is an awesome problem! Thank god for alterations! I think I'm going to have a moch/trial run next week. My dress is being stored at Joan and Phil's, so I think I'm going to go over there w/ my backless strapless bra, put on my pretty jewery, and throw my hair up in a clip. Check out the look. See what's going on in that department! I'll have to get ahold of Sandy Joch (my aunt Nola's friend) and see when I can get over there to see what she thinks.

Other than that... It's almost five and I cannot wait to leave work!!! HOORAY for long weekends!!! Peace out!

Random Updates

Not a whole lot new...just everyday stuff. But I thought I'd give you a few random updates on us. I'm two and a half weeks in and I've lost 7 lbs on my 'How to cheat at Weight Watchers' diet. (I'm not cheating on my diet, I'm cheating the WW company and doing the points system w/o paying to go to meetings or online) I forgot to ask Kurt where he is at....I'll update that later I guess.

This past Friday night, my niece and nephew, Jacob (8) and Morgan (5 1/2) slept over. We watched movies, the kids played outside, and we baked chocolate chip and white choc. chip w/ macadamia nut cookies for my dad for Fathers day. Then at noon on Sunday, we had my family over for Fathers day brunch. Amy brought the bacon and extra griddles, my mom brought carmel nut rolls, and I made thick cut french toast and stuffed strawberries. Delisious!!!!

This past Tuesday (the 17th) Kurt and I celebrated 3 years together. It's hard to believe that it's been three years. It feels like we've been together forever, yet it has gone by so quickly. We didn't do anything special. Just your average Tuesday night at home. He is on thrid shift this week, so that puts a damper on doing much. We were supposed to go out to dinner Sunday night to celebrate, but we were still stuffed from father's day brunch. (6 hours earlier) We think we are going to try again this Sunday.

And for those of you who are counting... 100 days until the wedding!!! OR- 3 months and 8 days! It's coming up quickly!

(not so) Little Lake Winne-Mayer

Every spring our backyard has standing water at the back of our property line. You know, where the lovely Bergstrom body shop is. We call it 'Little Lake Winne-Mayer'! A few weeks into spring, it dries right up and we don't think much about it again! Well, due to the substantial amount of rain we have received over the last few days...it's back!!! Here are some pictures of the 'lake' last night durring the storm. And then a few more from this morning. Amazing how it receided durring the night. See for yourself.

At this point, I'm at the fence line. Almost knee deep in water!!! Kurt thought I was nuts for taking pictures .

Ooo...and you can see our new fence in these pictures!!! Kurt did such a nice job. But don't get me started on the fact that the panels don't match) We will have to wait until next spring to stain it.

This is the back of the garage.

I am so computer illiterate, that I cannot get these pictures to layout nicely on this. So please forgive the fact that I don't really know what I am doing. :) !!!

Happy Friday!

Weight Watchers...

As you may or may not know, at this time last year, Kurt and I did weight watchers. We don't go to any silly meetings, we didn't sign up online...NOPE, we cheated the system and bought the books and calculator off of Ebay. (I love being frugal!) So, I lost 20 lbs as of last July. I hadn't thought much about it since... and kept all but two pounds off. Kurt lost like 10 lbs and then gained it all back.
So since we've got the wedding coming up, Kurt wanted to start back up. So I said I'd start it with him again. Because it truly works so much better when you've got a support team. I don't need silly meetings and weigh-ins, I've got my loving fiance!!!! We keep each other in check.
So we started back up again last week Monday. He's lost 8 lbs!!!!! and I've lost 5 lbs!!!!! We are truly excited. How cool! GO TEAM MAYER!

So much in such a short amount of time!

Oh, I don't even know where to begin. I have so much to say today. I will have to use subcategories and try to summarize the best that I can!!!

Another silly shower gift:
Today's contestant is my mom. For my Silly shower, she got us the Fisher Price 'Little People' wedding set. It comes w/ three connecting backdrop pieces, bride, groom, cat, dog, a set dinner table w/ wedding cake, and four chairs! How fun! Maysun whipped out her other sets and is having lots of fun playing 'little people'!!!

Sharon's Party:
One of my super fantastic friends since kindergarten, Sharon (Stowe) Cook, was ordained this weekend! I am so proud of her! What an awesome accomplishment! So her parents had a little get together for her on Saturday. Kurt, Maysun and I snuck over there before the shower. It was so great to see her and her family. I wish we could have stayed longer.

My bridal shower:
Saturday was my bridal shower. It was held at my Church in their fellowship hall. (huge room!!!) It connects to the kitchen, so it's perfect for this type of occasion. We had a build your own taco buffet (which rocks by the way!!! what a refreshing summer meal!), fruit and veggie salads, and a veggie tray. There were mini taco dip platters at each table, along w/ chips, salsa and cheese & salsa dip. We had a yummy cake from festival too!!! (my favorite)
We played some really fun games... 'how well do you know the couple' trivia, the purse game, the price is right, and bridal bingo! What a hoot!
The kids really behaved very well! I think it was because we had so much room that they could run and play and we didn't get too distracted by them!
I received some really neat gifts too. To many to list right now. (maybe i'll post that later)
It was great to get to spend some time with my friends and family. We had people even come in from way out of town! (Minneapolis, Racine, Milwaukee, Chicago and NEW JERSEY!!!) How neat it was that they were able to make the trip and come celebrate with us. I tried my hardest to make it around to all of the tables and visit with everyone. by the time I got to the last table, it was time for me to open gifts. So I felt kind of bad about that. But I was able to talk to everyone at some point or another.
My bridesmaids sure did such a great job planning and pulling off this shower! Everything was perfect. So an extra super special thank you to the girls!!! (Angie, Amy, Sarah, Krista & last but not least, Tiffany!)

Cook out:
Saturday night, we all went over to Amy & Scott's house and had a cook out. We figured we'd continue the celebration w/ my aunts being in town! So we had brats and burgers and all the cook out fixings! I gave my dad his chocolate drop cookies, which I hope he shared with his sisters. (I got the bowl back this morning, so I'm guessing that he liked them!) It was nice to be able to spend some more time with my aunts. It was low key and relaxing. Just the kind of night I needed!!!

Prepare-enrich:
Well, we got our 'test results' in! (remember a few weeks ago, Kurt and I went to church and had our little scan-tron compatibility test?) OK, so we met again yesterday afternoon with Pastor Holte. And he starts telling us about the four tiers of compatibility and how this test maps out our strength areas and our growth areas. The first tier is 'conflicted'- basically couples who have a lot of conflict. The second tier is 'traditional'- most couples fall into this category...you've got your ups and your downs, but for the most pretty level. The third tier is 'harmonious'- couples who get along good, but still have their issues. And the fourth tier is 'vitalized'- couples who are very in tune with each other and have very few issues.
Can you guess which one Kurt and i fell into??? I'll let you think a few seconds............................
Yup!!! We are "VITALIZED"!!!!!!! When pastor Holte told us this, we both started laughing. And then had to ask if he was serious. He said that he doesn't get the privilege of telling many couples that they scored so highly. The few things that he did go over with us as our 'potential growth areas' was everything we already knew he was going to say. We already know what we need to work on. So that's it. We don't have to go back unless we want to. We are still in disbelief. I cannot believe that we had these results. What a shock, yet confirmation. Strange how that stuff works.

The Boop:
Boozer weighs 28.5 lbs.

Another Silly Gift!

Alright, here's the latest on the silly shower surprises! Our latest entry was submitted by my Aunt Elizabeth in Chicago. She sent me a super fun set of nesting food prep bowls, a new set of measuring spoons, and a copy of 'The American Woman's Cook Book'. This cook book was published in 1939 and is a copy of the exact same one that my grandma Louise had. (My aunt Elizabeth has grandma's copy that is held together with some funky green duct tape!) I cannot wait to make my dad his favorite 'chocolate drop cookies' from this cook book. I'm going to make them and surprise him with them this weekend!

Silly Shower

Alright, I got another silly shower gift!!!! This one came from my cousins out in Salt Lake City, Clarissa Weiss, Mark, Harold and Louise Colloton!!! Clarissa is the one that threw me this super fun shower. (I'll update those of you that don't know what I'm talking about) Clarissa sent out invites to family members on my dad's side of the family, asking them to send me cleaver, funny or just plain silly shower gifts. (she wanted to do something fun for me because she lives so far away and cannot be involved in my bridal shower) So, I've been getting fun stuff via the mail.

So, here's what I got from the Colloton-Weiss family! Each of us at the Rosenthal-Mayer household, got their own fun gift! Kurt got a cutting board and knife set! Katie got an awesome wedding photo album (which i'm super excited about because I've been meaning to look for one!) Maysun got a Disney sing-a-long DVD, sponge bob mac&cheese and m&m minis! Boozer got a black big-girl collar with rainbow Smitty smiley faces all over it! And the future 'baby Mayer' got a blue onesie that says, 'good looks run in the family'!!!!! How frick'n awesome is that??? Super funny because it came from family! So hopefully the next one is a boy OR I can find a cute skirt to go with it :)!!!!!

My aunt Elizabeth emailed me a few days ago and said that she was putting my silly shower gift in the mail! So I'll have more updates on the silly shower gifts soon!!!

OH, by the way... I forgot to mention that this past Saturday a bunch of us gals got together (Me, Amy, my mom-Julie, Kurt's mom-Joan, Angie, Stephanie and Sarah) sat down at Amy's house and addressed, stuffed and stamped all the wedding invites. THEY ARE DONE!!!! (well, with the exception of like a dozen odd ball ones that I need updated address's for) WOO HOO!!! another step closer to the wedding. Next big project is the flowers. Which by the way, two weekends ago, my aunt Pam and I went to Steins and Hobby Lobby and picked up everything that we need to work on them. I've even picked up some Rubbermaid containers to put them in once they are done so they don't get dusty or banged up. So, I think after my bridal shower next weekend... we can start working on them. Things are starting to come together!!! EEK, I'm a dork :)

PREPARE-ENRICH MC

Yesterday I took a half day!!! I left work at one, went home, and Kurt and I ran some errands before our appointment at three. (more on that later) We ran to Harbor Freight, the Fox Cities Visitor Center, Steins, and Menard's. We were walking through Menard's when my cell phone rings. It's Mrs. Swanson at Taft Elementary. 'Maysun fell at recess and has a cut in her chin, I think she might need stitches!' (my dear lord...those are some powerful words when you're not expecting them) So not only are we running late for our appointment with PASTOR HOLTE, but now I have to make like 16 thousand phone calls; grandma Joan-can you pick her up?, Janelle-you don't need to pick her up!, Amy-Maysun fell at school does Theda care have a immediate care?, Theda care pediatrics-can you get her in today? no! can anybody? no! what? emergency room? is there a cheaper option? what do you mean no one can sew at the Dr. office? aren't they doctors? (idiots), Mrs. Swanson- grandma Joan is coming to get her now. please pull her out of class!, grandma Joan calls me back- she doesn't need stitches! that lady at the school office is an idiot!, Pastor Holte- we are running late. we'll be there shortly!

WHEW!!! So we arrived at church at 3:07. We had to meet with Pastor Holte to start our pre-marital stuff. So we sat down and talked with him for a little while. Then he placed us in the church library to do our 'scan tron' style compatibility test. Only, we get to take the 'special' version. The test that they give to people who are divorced or already have children. Interesting stuff. We had to be as honest as we could on these tests. It's kind of difficult when your only reactions to these statements in this booklet are; strongly disagree, disagree, undecided, agree or strongly agree. Leaves some grey areas. But I guess that's what the test is designed to do. So we are sitting in the library and we are not allowed to talk to each other. And I'm giggling because I find humor in just about everything. So Kurt starts asking me which questions I'm giggling at. (well, it's not like we were cheating) The last ten questions were all about your feelings toward your family during your teenage years. Strange. My family is messed up. We didn't do squat together. How did I end up semi-normal?
So when all is said and done and we leave, Kurt and I have decided on our own which areas that we need work on. Our biggest ones seem to be combining our budgets and becoming more spiritual as a couple. Which we already knew these things. This is nothing new to us. We've been talking about working on these things since forever... But with the help of Pastor Holte, we can find a way to fit this into our every day living. What an interesting process. I'm interested to see what else the test has to say!!!

Boopers new found freedom!

The Boop has found her freedom. Kurt is replacing the fence in our backyard...yes with his broken foot! Oh did I fail to mention that he broke a bone in the ball of his foot. He was getting out of the boat on Saturday and felt a slight twinge. Turns out he snapped a bone. (He's like an old lady... last fall it was his pinkie toe when he accidentally kicked the frame of a door instead of stepping on the puppy) Anyway, back to the fence. It was falling apart and needed some TLC. So he decided since he's off of work for two weeks, to take on this project. So a few days ago the fence came down. We have to take extra caution to make sure that Boozer gets put on her cable because she's found this new freedom, now that there is no fence. She likes to wander around and smell every thing in the neighbors yard. (two houses down too) She thinks it's the greatest thing ever. I am constantly reminding her where her yard ends. I'm thinking the grass must be much softer over there because every chance she gets... she's relieving herself in their yard. Or maybe she just can sense that they are weird neighbors and wants to 'make' in their yard to get back at them. 'Way to kill their grass Boozer!!! Good girl!'
They really are strange people. You can walk past them and say hello and wave. NOTHING. They look at you with this far off gaze. Totally emotionless. Weird people.
And then there are the people on the other side of us... the ones that we consider to be the good neighbors. This is the Zillisch family. (Jim Zillisch, in case I reference them again.) Strange that we consider people who throw cigarette butts and garbage onto our lawn, to be good neighbors. It's not Jim that's the problem. It's his teenage children and their weirdo friends that are the problem. We've asked them to be more considerate many times. But they don't care. Darn kids! But whenever, whatever we need... Jim is there to help. Hand him a cold beer and he'll do just about anything. Plus Boozer is in love with their dog, Jake. He may belong to hillbillies, but she doesn't care. That's her boy!!!

BRIDAL... SHOWERS GALORE!!!!!!! (exciting and not so exciting :)

I love weddings!!!
Getting married is all kinds of exciting to me for many different reasons. Not only am I excited to solidify my family and relationship to the man I love in front of god, friends and family. Not only am I excited to start the next chapter in our lives; selling and buying a new house, adding to our family, etc... Not only am I excited because am loving planning this wedding; picking out flowers, making invites, creating funky ideas for table favors, making strange titles for my nephews for in the programs at the church (Eli Randall, Katie's nephew... official wedding supervisor), punching out orange velum leaves to mix into the rocks at the bottom of the centerpieces. I think I'm good at planning my wedding :) !!! Not only am I excited to get all glam'd up and to see all of my wedding party and family dressed up all so very nicely.

BRIDAL SHOWER:
I am also super excited for my showers. I love wedding showers!!! My BRIDAL SHOWER that is being thrown by my bridesmaids is June 7th at my church. I cannot wait to see the resaults of all of their hard work.

SILLY SHOWER:
My cousin Clarissa has thrown me a SILLY SHOWER. (Clarissa is married to my cousin Mark who is the son of my Aunt Liz, my dad's sister) She sent invites to family members on my dads side, to send me a creative gift and fun gift. Clarissa threw me this shower because she's awesome and wanted to do something for me because she lives so far away. (They live in Salt Lake City.)
So... so far I have received the following; a silver and rhinestone dog collar for Boozer to wear the day of the wedding, from my Aunt Carolyn. The game of LIFE, doggie toys for Booper, and 3D sidewalk chalk, from my sister Amy. What fun I am having getting all sorts of fun stuff in the mail. I cannot wait to see what other creative things my family comes up with. I'll update my blog as I receive more.

OTHER SHOWERS:
There have been two. These are the two that are not so fun. The first one was given to me by my kitchen this past Sunday evening. Little did I know, the pitch was wrong in the pipes under the sink and things weren't draining properly. So, I go to turn on my garbage disposal. And what do you think would come out the other side??? If you're thinking nothing, you're sadly mistaken. That's right...I had saurkraut shooting up about two feet into the air. Landing on me. Good times! ('yuck' isn't even close to discribing this situation)

The second not so fantastic shower was given to me this morning by my babysitters puppy, Butterscotch. That's right... she peed on my foot as I'm walking out the door to work. Thanks Butterscotch! Thank the lord I was wearing flipflops and had my work shoes in the van.

So, that's the update on me for today... being showered with all sorts of goodies :)

Trivial Tuesday

Oh, for like two seconds I was thinking today was Monday. Dear lord, I need a nap... or caffeine. The second one is more likely to happen than the first. For some insanely stupid reason, I woke up at one am this morning and didn't fall back asleep until after three. uhg! So Boozer and I snuggled and watched some of season 6 of 'Friends'. (I have a sick obsession with this show... it's my favorite :) So needless to say, I'm draggin' today. Did I mention that once Kurt realized that I was awake, it was on... he was in the bedroom talking to me like every ten minutes. Which kept my mind going and made it harder to fall back asleep. I love the man, but sometimes opposite shifts rub me the wrong way. He's on 2-10 this week. He worked 4p-2a last week and I've had enough of not seeing him. It's annoying. This past weekend was soooo busy with housework, cooking, birthday party, clean up, laundry, and yard work... that the most time I spent with him was while watching movies. I genuinely miss him. He might be going up north to Troy's this weekend for a work weekend, that I think by Sunday I'll be going crazy. We'll see what happens.
This week is nutso for me at work. My company is hosting our annual A/C Seminar this Thursday night. Which means I've been prepping for this for weeks. I've got 50 people coming. I've ordered food, rented a grill, rented a hall, put together goodie bags & seminar information packs, blah blah blah.... I'm ready for it to be over. I'll start work at 7:45a on Thursday and won't get home until after 11p. I need a day off.
We are thinking about taking a long weekend on the 9th of May. There is a fun motel in Cecil, WI that has an indoor pool w/ pool side rooms. We were supposed to be going out of town that weekend anyway for a family wedding... but since we're not, we might as well go and do something fun as a family. Hopefully that will work out for us.
Back to the grind...
Kate

Well... she did it!

She went ahead and turned seven yesterday. I cannot believe how fast it all has zipped past me.
Kurt is on 4p-2a this week. So we woke him up around 7am so Maysun could open her gifts. She's the only 7 year old I know that is genuinely excited to get clothes. (she's a very vein little princess with a touch of tomboy) Anywhozlebees...she liked all of her gifts. Kurt took her to school and I was able to get out of work early and pick her up. Which was a nice treat for Maysun because she usually has a sitter for drop off and pick up. We got home and Kurt hadn't left for work yet, so we got to see him which was a nice treat for the both of us :)!!! Kurt and I gave her, her last present. We got her a desk for her bedroom. (Kurt worked all day assembling this stupid thing... over 100 pieces. Not cool. He got most of it done before we got home. All that is left, is the drawers and the cabinet door.) She has already started putting all of her arts and crafts stuff all over the top. She is thrilled!
Later, we went and picked up a slew of McDonald's food (I let her pick out what she wanted for her birthday dinner!) And we went over to my sister Amy's house and we all had dinner together, had a birthday treat, and the kids played outside. All around, it was a nice day.
God gave her the best present of all, it was 70 degrees yesterday!!! What a beautiful day!!!

Boozer says I'm a mean mommy!

(For those of you that don't know, I keep a running commentary for my dog...since she can't talk, I say what I think she's thinking. Oh yeah, and I'm crazy!)

Boozer has a crush on the neighbor boy. He's a 11 year old black lab named Jake.

This morning, as I was getting ready for work, Boozer was trying to entice me into a game of 'push the doggie'. (This is were she stands on the bed and we push her backwards and she lunges back at us and we push her again....she's a very simple dog!) Anyway, I opened up the curtains and she struck her usual pose at the end of the bed. Which is staring intently at the neighbor's backdoor waiting for them to open it, then she gets really excited. So, they let Jake out within minutes. She jumps off of the bed and puts her paws up on the window sill and starts whining non-stop for like five minutes.

I say, "No Boozer, you're not going out to play with Jake right now." And I walk into the bathroom to put lotion on my hands. She follows me, heads strait for the window, moves the curtains with her little nose, sees Jake and starts wiggling her little butt! All the while, she's whining!

I say, "No Boozer, you're not going out to play with Jake right now, I have to leave for work." She dips her head down and slowly turns her head over her shoulder and looks at me with those puppy eyes. I repeat myself once more. She lets out a sigh, walks over to me and trys to climb into my lap. She was sooo disappointed.

The teacher in our obedience class (which she passed, by the way!!! Then again so did all the other dogs, so that doesn't mean crap.) said that dogs don't understand you when you talk to them, they only understand basic commands that we teach them. I think she's wrong. Boozer totally gets me.

Oh yeah, did I mention that I'm crazy?

WELCOME TO OUR CRAZY FAMILY

Hello everyone,

For those who don't know us well, we are a slow growing family of four. I am Katie, age 29. I have three kids; Kurt (age 33), Maysun (will be 7 on the 16th), and Booze Hound (9 months). Well, technically Maysun is my only child. Kurt is my loving fiance, we are getting married on September 27th of this year. We could not be happier and are very excited for our big day.

Maysun is in the first grade at Taft Elementary. We are all eagerly awaiting summer vacation, No more early bedtime!!!! Boozer is in puppy classes at Winnegamie Kennel Club. She can be stubborn (that's the pit bull in her) and she's more interested in kissing the other doggies. Not to mention that I don't have enough time to work with her. So I doubt that she will pass the coarse. Our last class is tomorrow night. Good luck Katie :)!!!

We all live cramped together in our little house in Neenah. We all LOVE our house, but sadly it is busting at the seams and cannot hold us in much longer. Kurt and I hope to list it about this time next year.