Packing, packing, packing!

For a two week trip, you would think that a bomb went off in our house! There are clothes everywhere, cameras and film, and other stuff strung around here like no body's business. Since we leave tomorrow (YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), we thought we should start yesterday morning.
Every minute of yesterday seemed to be involved in packing, talking about packing, or adding more to my To-do list. However, I was happily surprised by the bride calling me yesterday! It meant so much that she would call me to talk about plans once we are there. She will be very busy the week before the wedding (I know, I was crazy busy before my own!), so she is worried that she can't care for us. I keep telling her not to worry about us, we are low maintenance. Hubby and I are very happy and content to find our own fun! Trains being his favorite thing, we will enjoy riding around on them looking for some crazy thing that I think would be fun. That's kind of how all our vacations together go. We don't plan so much, we have an idea of things we want to see and do, and then we find random things along the way! Should be a good time!
I am so excited about this wedding! I'm nervous about the toast that I have to give, but other than that it will be great!!!!!!
We even bought a bigger memory card for our camera so that we can take a ridiculous amount of pictures while we are there!!!! I hope that I can post some of them while we are there, but if not, I'll try and blog from there!
Since we fly out tomorrow morning, this is my last post from the states for a while! Enjoy! ^_^

Batman

Tonight we went out to dinner with a couple that we know. It was a great dinner and then we were off to the Imax theater to see the new batman movie The Dark Knight. It was so good!!! The people were like 12 feet tall, but it was just awesome! My hubby confessed to me afterwords that he has never really seen a batman movie. I think I've seen all of them except Batman Begins. Other than that, I've seen them all. I think this really was the best of all of them. I give it two thumbs up!

Getting Ready

I finished my knitting tank top the other day, so now I'm trying to restrain myself from starting something new in the next few days. I'm trying to work on stuff that I haven't finished yet, so that's probably the best thing that I could work on.
I've done most of the stuff that I have to finish before our trip. I've got all our flights and trains tickets printed out ready to go! I'll start pulling clothes out that are going, and bug Hubby to think about what he is taking with us. I had my friend come over to get instructions on bunny care and feeding them.
Only a few more days and we are on our way! I'm so excited now!!!! ^_^

Fun Times and Odd Stuff

Last night I went out with my friend from school to hear some Celtic music. I not sure that the music part was so good, but our conversation was great. I had a lot of fun and I don't remember the last time I sat around talking about life and nothing at all for such a long time. It was great to just hang out and chat.
My friend picked me up at the house and since it was her first time here, I gave her the grand tour of our ENORMOUS house... ha ha! That tour took all of 30 seconds. ^_^ However, we discovered that our kitchen layout is almost identical and that our kitchen cabinets are the same. Ours are painted white while hers are still the natural wood color. However, she has a dishwasher (what I wouldn't give for one!!!) and I obviously do not. I swear my next house will have one, a hot tub, an in ground pool, a 4 car garage, a fully furnished basement and maybe a barn for horses and sheep (wow, I dream big!).
So this morning I called my Nana as I do everyday and she says to me "Honey, do you know what a Wii is?"
"Yes, Nana. Why?"-Me
"Do know this thing that the put on it called a fit?"-Nana
"hum, yeah....why, did play one or something?"- At this point, I think she has seen one on TV and wants to know about it.
"Yeah, I did! I went skiing this morning!!"-Nana
"WHAT???? They have Wiis at your work out class?????"-Me
"Yeah, I was training on it today. I got to number 14. The girl next to me did a hula hoop one, but she only got two hoops."
My Nana is sooooooooooooooooo high tech for her age. When Nintendo came out and my brother and I had saved enough $$ to get one my grandfather totally fell in love with Mario brothers. So, when they got home to Florida, he bought them a Nintendo. My Nana is a video game junkie... hummmm, I wonder where I get it from! She's 83 and is playing Wii. I seriously wonder what the other people in her complex think about all this high tech toys to help them work out. I'm glad that she's found a way to work out and is happy playing Wii.
I'm so jealous, I want a Wii.... it will be in my next house!

10 More Days!!!!

10 days and we will be boarding our flight!!! I have thought about what we will pack, but that is as far as I went (I swear!). I did pull out our suitcases from the basement the other day when Hubby started this H2O project of his.
Yesterday I have this great brainstorm to make a funky new skirt... I found the pattern here. I ran off the to the second hand shops in town to find my supplies. I pulled them apart like the directions said to and started to iron them flat. I finish ironing the rest this morning. I have ore prep work to do before I can sew the skirt together. I hope it comes out cute! Some of the ties I picked out are really ugly and some were cool. It should make a nice combo. I also got some ties that were Ralph Lauren and one Christian Dior. I'm excited about that! I plan to finish all the prep work this a.m. and then start to sew them later today. That would be cool.
Tomorrow my parents are coming up to finish painting the basement floor. That will be nice to have them come up. We just had Hubby's 'rents come last weekend to take us out to dinner for our anniversary.
10 more days!!!!!!!

My New Dress

I did it! I made a dress that really fits me!! I'm so happy with it and I think it will go on our trip with us. I'd like to make a skirt that will match my knitted tank that I'm making. Here's the dress:Here's the tank top that I've been working on:

No H2O For Us!

When my husband got home form work yesterday he started in on one of the projects that is on his list of house projects. This project was brought up a while ago when I started to plant a garden and had no backyard water spigot. All in all this hasn't been a problem until I expanded the garden and now we are going on vacation with no one to water the plants.
Hubby put in a wonderful sprinkler system that weaves though all the plants and will eventually have a timer on it while we are gone. However, there is still no backyard spigot or enough water pressure to run the whole thing the way he wants it.
So, when he got home he came with a bunch of copper piping... hummm.... and told me to fill a bucket with water since he had to shut off the main water supple. That meant NO water in my house!
He ripped out the old piping and started to "dry fit" the new pipes. He got most of it fit together and sweat a few of the pipes before he crashed for the day.
Once he had a nap he was back at it! He fit and sweat all the pipes to the main line so we have water again! We are still working on getting a new spigot for the backyard and reconnecting the front yard spigot to the main line.
At this point in our home ownership I think he has replaced 75-80% of the pipes, 90-95% of the electrical wires, and we have redone 3 rooms worth of hard wood floors. I'd say that more than the average home owner does... and we're not done yet!
We still have a bathroom to finish!

I'm A Sewing Machine!

I have now made 1.) one quillow, 2.)a striped bag with pockets, 3.) a long skirt with a zipper and 4.) a short skirt with a zipper on my free sewing machine. Yes, I'm very proud of them and the fact that the skirts are wearable in public makes it even cooler! I thought I would try something new....a dress!

I went off to the store yesterday to get a simple pattern and some material. That was an adventure in it's self! However at the end of the day I picked out this:

Sorry the picture is so dark... I didn't use the flash since that was too bright and it's gloomy and dark here this morning. I think we are in for some rain. That means it's a good day to stay in and sew!

Happy 5th Anniversery!

Five years ago today I was sooooooooo nervous as I got ready for my wedding. I've never been a girly-girl, so needless to say I got up had breakfast and DID NOT go to get my hair/makeup professionally done. I got dressed in my ratty old jeans, yellow Hawaiian shirt and a grey sweater jacket. Yeah, I looked stunning that a.m. We loaded into the car and start to head off to the place of the wedding... only I forgot my shoes. Too bad, my mom mad us go back and get the white wedding shoes instead of letting me wear my green high tops (don't worry, I wore them to my reception, much to my mom's horror!)

Once there, my coworker from Japan did my hair for me. I did my makeup and we had a dance party in the bride's room. My mom yelled at me that I was supposed to be in my dress for pictures and getting ready.

All the girls were ready and we had our pictures taken, and then it was the boys turn (we didn't get to see them... I saw the photos after the fact.) And then it was time...

It was such a nice day (lucky thing, as our wedding was outside...) and a bit chilly (for a strapless dress!) The ceremony was great and then we whisked off to take MORE pictures. Finally, we got to eat and then more importantly, DANCE! It was so much fun.

Today I awoke to find this waiting for me in the kitchen:

Five years later and we are still so happy together! Here's to many more!

Busy Busy

This past week has flown by for me! I went to my hometown on Wednesday to visit with my grandmother and family. My Mom and Nana helped me with my sewing machine and I finished the bag that I was trying to make. They even helped me get an easy skirt pattern to try. We found fabric in the $1 bin and so I got two different kinds for two different skirts. I made a long skirt and shorter skirt with them. Today I have to sew on the top snap for both of them and the one still needs to be hemmed before I am allowed to even think about buying another pattern and fabric!

My hubby had a brain storm the other day that while we are on vacation my friend is going to feed the rabbits, but watering my garden is a little much. So, he thought that putting in a sprinkler system was a great idea. I misunderstood the first time he explained it to me.... he wanted to put in the kind of system that is underground and on a timer and then the heads pop up to water the lawn and flowers. Once I got that, I vetoed it. NO DIGGING UP THE YARD ( well, not until that bathroom project is done.....) So he went ahead and put one in anyway. He was smart about it though, he used hoses so that it is only in the garden and watering only my flowers. This idea I like!

Now we are thinking about our trip. We now have all our flights and hotels. There are many things that we want to see, the problem is time. We never have enough time. However, this trip we will have a few days in Tokyo on our own. I asked Hubby what he wants to see, but he is letting me think about what is good. When I was a junior in college I did a home stay in Tokyo to go to Japanese school and to learn about the culture from this family I stayed with. They did take me a few cool places but staying with them was hard. My host sister came to visit me after I went home and I did everything I could to make her happy. Then she came to be an exchange student at my college. After that I haven't talked with her. It was very hard and I don't think we will see them when we are in Tokyo. However, I learned a lot of the trains there and the cool places that I went are where I am thinking to take my husband now. We will be meeting some friends of mine for dinner and lunch. Then we get to fly to Hokkaido!!!!

I am most excited about the stay in Hokkaido! We get to see my friends, have fun, EAT, and go to her wedding!!!

Speaking of weddings, tomorrow is our 5 year anniversary. Yeah! Everyone keeps asking us how we are going to celebrate.... we are going to Japan! ^_^ Here's us five years ago:

It Failed Correctly

Yesterday I went out with a teacher friend, who also is the one responsible for getting me into gardening for some shopping and lunch. It was so nice! She didn't get much but I did!!! Everything I found was either on sale or clearance! It was amazing! Before I left Hubby was sitting here programing something for his job. He kept getting fail messages, but it wasn't what he wanted. When it finally did what he wanted he exclaimed "It failed correctly!" Hence the title of my blog today... plus I thought this was the funniest thing in the world as I had just woken up.
Today I'm off to my hometown because my grandmother is in town! I am so excited to see her and it will be nice to spend time with my family. Nana taught me how to knit and now SHE needs my help with knitting... we have come full circle now!
Also, I am taking home my new sewing machine so my mom can help me get going on that! I'm thrilled that they are helping me learn a new craft! I seem to have a small addiction to hobbies and crafts in general.
It's a beautiful day out and for now I need to get my house in order before I go home. Nana is coming back here with me on Monday to see our house (the inspection of my house, more like) and to see how much gardening I really have done. She last saw it when there was no gardening and just weeds everywhere in the backyard. I'm happy to have her come and it should be a fun visit! ^_^