Growing up

Yesterday as I was helping my best friend with finishing touches in her 3rd grade classroom, it finally hit me. We are grown-ups. She taught kindergarten last year which was not far from what she had been doing teaching preschool for several years, and she started after the school year started last fall so it didn't have the same affect on me. But this year it's all the meetings, all the classroom set-up, and getting ready to teach 3rd grade children things like long division and cursive writing. It feels like we were just in that school, how is she teaching in it? And I am married, she is engaged. I know our other friends have been getting the feeling that we really are adults now, but for some reason that didn't seem that weird to me until just recently.

Today is my last day of freedom because tomorrow I am a working woman again. I had a nice 2 month vacation, although it didn't feel nearly that long. Thankfully I got to spend most of it with Will - which was the longest chunk of time we have ever been in the same place together. It was nice that we could appreciate the 6 weeks we had together even in anxious anticipation of the upcoming year apart. We actually had a little bit of time to feel like a married couple, living in the same house and doing everyday things together.

In other news, I'm going to see Lady Gaga tonight and I am excited to see what crazy shenanigans she has planned. This will be my third concert this week! Yikes

Another Fair Day

Today, well yesterday, was a looong day at the State Fair. And it was a hot sticky one. I felt like I was eating all day, but really I didn't eat that much. However it did include not one but two cheese(s?) on a stick (below), some big fat bacon on a stick (which was not so great), hot apple dumpling with ice cream, and the one I somehow forgot to try last year - Pot Roast Sundae :) Potatoes, corn, pot roast, gravy and a cherry tomato on top

The meat was great, but the potatoes were a little runny and it needed thicker gravy. But overall it was tasty. Glad I shared it with my brother though because that's a lot of potatoes to fill up your stomach.

This is my beloved cheese on a stick. Think corn bread filled with melty american cheese, which gave me the idea of making grilled cheese with corn bread...mmm must try it.

Anyways, we also went to the Brandi Carlile and Amos Lee concert tonight at the fair. I adore both of these artists and despite the too long intermissions, I really enjoyed the concert. Amos Lee should have sung more songs. That man has an amazingly soothing and sexy voice. Brandi and her band were amazing, they are so talented and put on a good show. I saw them two years ago at the fair playing on a free stage, and this year they were headlining the Grand Stand with what sounded like the largest crowd they had ever played for (at least in MN). They said they love playing in the cities and will always come back here, which I am very happy about. There is something about Brandi's music that just draws me into it. I feel such an emotional connection to the songs and some of the lyrics just totally describe the way I feel or have felt at times in my life. I actually got teary during some of the songs hearing them live. Part of one song that I had never really felt that emotional about before, but is exactly how I feel now that my love is so far away, is this:

Look to the clock on the wall,
Hands hardly moving at all.
Can't stand the state that I'm in
Sometimes it feels like the walls closing in

 O lord what can I say
I'm so sad since you went away
time time ticking on me
Alone is the last place I wanted to be
Lord what can I say

Try to bury my toubles away
drown my sorrow the same way
seems no matter how hard I try
It feels like there's something just missing inside

Have you ever just connected to someone's music like this before? I hope so. It's a comforting feeling. If you have not listened to Brandi's music, it's kind of folk/rock. I was going to post a video from the concert, but it's taking forever and a year to upload. So here's a link to her YouTube page instead: Brandi Carlile

Book Review: Hidden Wives - Claire Avery

This book was intense, I could not put it down. It's about two sisters from a polygamist cult who are just at the age to be married away to older men. (side note - I thought it was weird that I read this immediately after Moloka'i and in both books the sisters are named Rachel and Sarah) Rachel and Sarah begin to realize the skewed ideology and practices of their community. They experience scandal, abuse, and illegal marital arrangements all in the name of their "religion." They have been brainwashed to the point where they don't even know it's a problem, and others that know about it look the other way. It takes a newcomer, handsome and charming Luke, to come to the community and stir it up a little. These girls' lives are about to change big time. I can't imagine growing up in that environment and struggling to overcome such incredible obstacles. The plot is exciting and somewhat disturbing, but it's also a heartwarming story of the bonds of family and friendship. Highly recommended.

Is that corn dog pizza?

It's been three weeks since Will left, and now 4 days that I have not heard a word from him. Not liking that part. I feel so much better at least getting an email knowing where he is and what he's doing. And there's so much I want to tell him, but it will have to wait. Time seems to be going pretty fast though. I try to think of it in a matter of weeks instead of days, 52 weeks sounds so much shorter than 365 days. Already 3 weeks done, so now I just have to repeat that about 16 more times, ugh.

In other news, it's MN State Fair time! I went with my brother on the first day and it was perfect weather. I started with my two must-have artery clogging delicacies - cheese on a stick, and cheese curds. Yum yum. The only new crazy thing that I tried was this:

Yes, that is half of a corn dog on a slice of pizza. If the hot dog inside was better, or better yet if it had been sausage, it would have been amazing, but it was just ok. I did get a ton of strange looks from people walking by asking, "is that corn dog pizza??" I will be returning to the fair two more times so there are still a lot of things I want to eat, good thing I have several days to spread them out into. Cheese on a stick will be consumed every time though, that's my favorite. It's basically a corn dog, but the "dog" is a stick of cheese that melts into gooey deliciousness.

Book Review: Moloka'i - Alan Brennert

One of the things I decided to do this year is read as many books as I can. I love reading and getting lost in a book, it makes you forget about your own troubles.

This book I actually read while I was in Texas before my husband left, so it doesn't count in my total of books read, but I wanted to share it. You know how so many books and movies leave you wondering at the end, "so what happened then?" They just end abruptly and leave you feeling unsatisfied. This is not one of those stories, which is why I enjoyed it so much. The story begins with Hawaiian native Rachel at age 7, when she discovers she has contracted Leprosy. She is separated from her family and sent away to live in a Leprosy colony on another island called Moloka'i. The people she meets become her new family, and the characters and relationships are well-developed as they struggle with discrimination, love and loss. It made me smile, it made me cry, and made me appreciate life and family more. I also enjoyed the historical and geographical setting because I have spent a good amount of time in Hawai'i and could picture the landscapes and cities and imagine how they must have been even more breathtaking at that time. This is a must-read.

A tale of true love and true disappointment

Once upon a time, while on opposite ends of the earth, I met Will through an online dating site. Immediately we knew we had a great connection and began "dating" before we had even met. When he came back stateside to our shared hometown in MN, he was more amazing than I even expected and there started our whirlwind of a love story. We were crazy about each other so we decided that we would make a long-distance relationship work as he was to be stationed in Texas. After only 7 months of dating and trips to and from the Lone Star state, he proposed to me on a mountain-top on a beautiful sunny day. We began planning the perfect wedding in September, planning my move to Texas, found a house to rent so I would have a home to come down to, and decided to get married at the courthouse before our big wedding ceremony to make the move easier. Everything was going according to plan.

Less than a month after our courthouse wedding, Uncle Sam knocked on our door and turned our lives upside down. I had never felt so much emotion at once. All of our excitement turned to disappointment and worry. All of our plans were canceled or postponed. All of our thoughts were of trying to live in the moment while preparing for our first year of  marriage separated by continents and war. I am so proud of my husband and all of the other men and women that serve our country everyday, but how I wish we lived in a world where this was not necessary. I pray for his safety daily and anxiously await the day he comes home to me so we can finally start our lives together in the same country, the same state, in a place we can call home together.

So here I am, still in MN, trying to enjoy the time I have here in this state that I love, with people that I love, trying to distract myself from the disappointment and worry. The fact that basically our whole relationship has been long-distance helps, but I still miss him every second. Time to find things to occupy my time, so far so good. The busier I am, the faster time goes.