The One Where I Participate In 10 On Tuesday (#7)

I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.


Well, at least to Ten on Tuesday. 


Well, at least for this week.


I hope.


1. What television character do you identify with?
Wow. That's a really hard question. I mean, I can think of several I want to be, but actually identify with? Hmm. I will ponder this and come back later.


Well, it's later and I still got nothing. Maybe it'll come to be tonight in a dream? If so, I'll let ya know!

2. Describe your morning routine.
That depends on whether it is a day I work right away (monday/friday) or stay home in the morning (tues/thurs) or stay home all day (weds). The first two normally involves me getting out of bed somewhere between 8:15 and 8:30, showering, wolfing down a bowl of cereal and going to work. The other days I take it a little bit easier ... get up around the same time, but then I try to work out (day #7 of The Shred today!), have my 'quiet time', read blogs, shower, etc.

3. How do you do lunch? Bring from home or dine out? Same thing every day or mix it up?
We eat lunch at home everyday. It's 5 1/2 miles to camp, so it's a bit of a time killer, but it's nice to be in our house and to just get away for a little bit. We like to eat leftovers for lunch or sandwiches or mac'n'cheese. Sometimes we go really crazy and get Wagon Wheel (best $3.00 bacon cheeseburger and fries around!)

4. What is one moment that, although seemingly trivial at the time, changed your life?
I checked the phone messages at camp one day and heard a message from this guy who wanted to come work at camp that summer. I ended up marrying that guy 7 months later.

5. Name your top three beauty products.
Mary Kay super duper moisturizer
Eyeliner
Mousse

6. What do you do when you’re alone in the car?
I sing and dance to the music. I shift in my seat while making funny noises. I move my hands all over the steering wheel. I take pictures of myself. I make faces at myself. I talk to myself. I eat copious amounts of junk food. I drink lots of water and then do the "i really really really gotta pee" shift. Listen to books on tape. Call people. Play with the temperature gauge.


I drove across NoDak by myself a lot. It got long. Really long.

7. What is the ideal city for you to live in? If you can, take this survey ( that’s a link) and tell us the results. Do you agree with them?
According to this survey I am suppose to live in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Interestingly enough hubby and I had thrown out NM as a potential place to live because it's warm there. We'll see. Its far away from family and life as we know it. 

8. Are you waiting for something?
Aren't we always? I feel like as humans we are in a potential state of 'hurry up and wait'. I'm waiting for us to move, I'm waiting for us to have kids (hopefully not for a couple of years!), I'm waiting to graduate from college, etc, etc , etc. 


However, I'm fighting to be in the now. God has been really impressing on me that He gives us the grace/courage/strength/etc that we need for TODAY. One day at a time baby!


It's baby steps that add up to the monstrous leaps.


'baby steps around the office ... baby steps out the door ... baby steps onto the elevator"


(name that movie) 


9. What was the last shocking news you heard?
Shocking = bad. I try to hold onto the good and let go of the bad. However, there is more bad than good.


But I'm drawing a blank on all of it.

10. What are three things you wouldn’t do for a million dollars? 
Sleep/stand/sit/be in a pit/den/bucket/etc of snakes
Leave my husband (or any of my family)
Renounce my faith

The One Where I Spout 7 Random Things (#7)

Click on the pretty yellow picture to visit Jennifer and more Quick-Takers!

1.

My left shift key is broken and it's driving me nuts! Do you know what letter you capitalize using that key? The I. Yeah, no big thing, just my favorite word ever! 

(ok, ok, maybe "I" isn't my most favorite word ever, but it's close! Do you know how many time you use that?? A lot. And I never know if the shift key is going to work or not until I type.)

2.

Ever since I got married I have had woman after woman tell me horror stories about problems getting their passport changed after one year, so I thought I'd be on the ball and get it now. Especially since I need it to drive through Canada to get to Alaska! So I went to our little courthouse and the lady was really nice and mailed me the forms I needed (because she didn't know off hand, so she had to check) and so I go through and fill them out and they still want to charge me $75. GRR! Mine isn't expired (or even close ... 2014 is when my old one runs out) and I am changing it within a couple months of getting married. Apparently that's not good enough. Boo!

3.

I am in the process of figuring out my fall schedule for 2010. We decided that I need to just go for it and finish up college, so I'm pushing through and will hopefully graduate Fall of 2011. Yay! Anyways, I have been putting this off and I need to just get it done! So I have that window open while writing this. And my taxes window. Cause I definitely need those done too - hello FAFSA!

4. 

Alece twittered about Grey's Anatomy on Thursday, which led me to go to YouTube and start watching clips, which reminded me how much I like that show! SUCH a guilty pleasure and one I haven't indulged in for awhile, but 3 clips and I'm hooked again! I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to fit it in. No problem right? Considering I am a season and a half behind, plus a season and a half of Private Practice (because I LOVE Addison. I used to hate her, because, well, really who didn't at first? Now she's my favorite!)

5.

I started this on Thursday night, could not get past number 4, walked away and just now came back to it on Sunday  night. I am still going to post it, because, after all, I put a lot of work into #s 1-4 (a lot of work ... pahahahah. that makes me laugh, but that's my theory and I'm sticking to it!).

6.

Speaking of theories, this semester I am taking a media theories class and it is kicking my butt. Probably because my textbook is long and boring. So, this half of the sem I'm going to be smart - I will take notes, so when it comes time for my final exam, I will have everything organized. Of course it adds hours of work, but oh well. All for organization!

7.

On a nicer note, I finished my taxes and I'm excited! Hooray for education credits, you know what I'm saying??

Cheers!

The One Where I Spout 7 Random Things (#6)

{ Just imagine the pretty yellow logo here and then go visit Jennifer for more Quick Takes!}

1.
I had mentioned in a brief snippet before that my husband is looking for seasonal work in Alaska, which means, yes, we are leaving camp.

It's been a great, wonderful, amazing and awesome (throw in a little bit of frustrating, hair-pulling, exasperating), place for me to be for the past 3 1/2 years. I have grown a lot in who God is, who I am and how those two mix. Hopefully I will have some time to write more about this in the coming months because I have a feeling I will have some processing to do!

2.
That means that "Montana Missionary" is no longer going to be applicable. I have been toying for awhile with updating my blog anyways and renaming it (I do have the name in mind) but right now I am thinking about where I want to host it. I am currently on Blogger, which is fine, but I am intrigued by WordPress. Any input? Please??

3.
I have been out of blogging for so long I am drawing a blank on what to write about. Sad. I have read over and over again that if you want to write you should just sit down and write everyday, no matter how profound or awful. I agree. However, I don't make that kind of time.

4.
I only have my passport left to change fully over to my new name. This past week I changed both my drivers license and social security card. Today I introduced myself to someone using my new last name and while in my head I was frantically trying to make sure I said the right thing, when it came out of my mouth it just flowed. I like that.

5.
My old name is a rather typical Lutheran, Norwegian Minnesotan name: Nelson. My new name is Dutch and 2 words and my hubby has never met anyone else with the same last name. How exciting that is!

6.
Hubby and I spent the night going over finances. Combing bank accounts is hard and time consuming!

7.
Taxes are calling our names too. However, we're just pretending we can't hear them. It's more fun this way.

The One Where I Peek

Hello loves!

Well, it appears I took a bit of a blogging hiatus. Whoops! I didn't really mean to ... it just happened that way. Work is starting to pick up, school has been busy (even though last week was spring break .... what happened to sitting on the beaches of Florida??), and life has just been.

So, I will be back soon. After, you know, my mind catches up with my body and my time zone. Or something like that!

The One Where I Say I Do (pt 2)

Hello Loves!


If you missed part one, you can go here to get caught up! If not, well, here's part two!


The 10 days leading up to the wedding are now a blur.

However, when I was living them, I thought they were dragging on and on and on. I would spend all day doing stuff, fall into bed at night and then wake up in the morning and still be DAYS away from getting married. No matter how much I got accomplished and how many errands I ran, I still wasn't married.

And getting things accomplished and running errands were pretty much my life leading up to the wedding. I may not remember day to day details, but I remember that. Target runs, WalMart runs, Fargo runs, Fergus runs. Always running, always spending more money.

I did take a couple of days off before Christmas, just to enjoy some down time. I enjoyed just hanging out with Luke and resting. My classes had just finished the week before and it was a bit dicey at the end, so it was nice to just not do anything. We went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at my home church, which is always a highlight for me, and then spent a relaxed Christmas Eve/Day with my family, just chilling.

Then the day after Christmas hit and it was time. Time to start running here and there and everywhere!

I started off with a trip to the bakery to decide on designs for the cakes (we put little wedding cakes/cheesecakes on each table - GREAT idea by my mom!) and then met up with Bethy to hit up the after Christmas sales on Christmas trees. I had decided a couple of weeks before that I wanted to put trees lit with white lights all over. It ended up not being all over all over, but it looked great at the front of the church!

The next couple of days are a blur but I know they included several trips to Fargo (one with Luke, one with my mom, another one with Luke to pick up my sister-in-law and niece and nephew) to find Luke's wedding ring (we were able to walk out of the store with it - YAY!!), look for gifts for our attendants (did you know that it's impossible to find 4 gold necklaces that are the same style the week after Christmas?), to look for a dress for mom to wear, to buy me yet more stuff (earrings, necklace, brown boots for the rehearsal supper, etc etc etc), to drop my ring off to get soldered (boy is THAT another story for another time), get mints for the wedding (Sam's Club, WalMart, Target, Kmart all let me down. we had to get our mints from the candy store in the mall.), to just buy and buy and buy and buy.

Then of course there were all the trips to Fergus. I had to pay for the flowers and drop off the ribbons, I had to scour all the stores for this and that and this and that.

We had been planning on printing the programs ourselves but mom's printer was having some serious issues, so I ended up stopping by a print shop owned by the parents of one of my high school classmates and they gave me a great deal on printing, which meant I had to get the program designed and emailed to them by that night so they could print it before shutting down for New Years.

I had my church wedding shower, which was a lot of fun! I had to buy make-up (I have ridiculously sensitive skin so I normally don't wear anything, but I had to have SOMETHING for my wedding!). I got my nails done. I went to the doctor for that fun little pre-wedding check-up. I went and went and did and did.

Probably the hardest part about that week was not getting to spend time with Luke. The poor guy was dragged along to his future-in-laws and then told he had to just 'hang out' for a week and a half. Luckily he is a farm boy and I grew up on a farm, so my dad was in heaven! He used Luke to help feed and help with this and help with that, but it was still hard for him to fill his days, especially when I was off spending our money all the time! I told him that his job was to keep my sane, but I don't think it helped his sanity when I would pull him along on my shopping trips and make him help me decide between white or off-white.

We finally hit the last couple of days before the wedding. On Wednesday I ran errands all day and then met up with my girls for my personal shower/bachelorette party. It was a small group - 3 of my bridesmaids (Luke's sister wasn't in town yet - sadly!) and my sister-in-law - and it was really nice to just have a chill evening. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant and then went back to Rondi's for an evening of snacks and talking. I had asked Karla to do my make-up so she spent time practicing that - putting it on, making me wash my face and then putting it on again. In fact, the only pictures I have of that night are of my face - so we could compare/contrast different styles.

When I went to open my gifts, things got a little wild. Fergus is a decent sized town - about 12-13,000 and has a WalMart, KMart, Target, Herbergers and Pamida. All that and my 3 girls all still got me the exact same thing. Apparently the selection in town is POOR! So, while Kar and I practiced make-up, the other 3 went out to return what they got me and picked up a couple more options. A girl has to have options you know!

The next day was New Years Eve, a day I look forward too all year long. I have the best extended family and every year we have a huge shindig on NYE. There is copious amounts of food (including yummy Norwegian treats like lefse, rosettes and krumkake), lots of story telling, laughing and game playing. The game playing starts as soon as supper is over and goes until about 5 AM. In my day I was a definite partaker in the all night games - rolling home around 6 or so. When we were little, my parents would go home and trust that someone from the family would get us home (the party is at my dad's cousin's house, which is only 2 miles away from our house), and they always did!

I was really excited to introduce Luke to the craziness that is the Bothun's and they didn't disappoint! However, because it was the day before the day before our wedding, we didn't stay out too late. I had a church to decorate in the morning! So we hung out there until 10 or 11, played one game and then headed home. We did some last minute stuff (put gifts in bags, wrote thank-you cards, etc) and then went to bed shortly after midnight.

The past 10 days had dragged and flown by at the same time. Yet, the clock kept ticking and the days kept passing and soon enough we were at the day before the wedding. Of course that had it's own drama ... but I'll save that for next time!

Now for the gratuitous wedding picture: