Knutson Wedding

I'm sure a lot of you remember Ben's friend from church and school, Alex Knutson. He got married 2 weekends ago to a beautiful girl, Whitney- they've been together for a few years now, I believe, and we've had fun getting to hang out with them from time to time. Just thought I'd share some cute pics.

Pre-wedding sushi (we had an hour to kill downtown after work before the wedding, so we figured sushi was the perfect solution) and Ben all handsome in his tux :)

Wedding and reception both in the same event room at Mellwood Arts Center- very nice!

The Cake

The Grooms Cake- literally a picture of Alex's iPhone!! LOL!

The Happy Couple- who, right after they were announced as being husband and wife, were then asked to "change their Facebook status"- so a bridesmaid handed Whitney her phone and she changed it right then before walking down the aisle! Hilarious!

CSA

Ben and I signed up for CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) this year. Once a week for 6 months, we will pick up from a drop of point fresh produce and a half gallon of milk from local farms. Every other week we will pick up 2 blocks of cheese and a 3 pound chicken. I'm also picking up some mushrooms, cheese, and lamb for my sister, and we are splitting the produce. There were other things to choose from as well (beef, eggs, etc.), but this is all we signed up for. I have been so excited for this!! Today was the first day, and just look at all this stuff!

Like I said, half of the produce is my sister's. Apparently greens are in season right now because that's what most of it is. We got arugula, mesculine, spinach, red and green head lettuce, bok choy, radishes, and strawberries. So, along with our burgers tonight I made- what else?- a salad!

It was full of all these different greens (and hard boiled egg and cheese), and tasted great! I made that yummy homemade caesar dressing again, too (that I mentioned in the last post). I also cooked down some spinach as another side.

It's so exciting not knowing what's to come each week, but my goal is to cook it all every week and hopefully learn some new recipes along the way. What a great way to make sure we're eating our veggies!

Can't wait to try the milk in the morning!

Meal Highlights

I've snapped a few pictures of some yummy meals I've made the past couple of weeks...aren't you just so interested?? I'm sure you are. *ahem* Anyway, here they are.

A chicken cooked in our rotisserie oven...

...served with a spinach salad with strawberries, blackberries, feta, and pecans.

Pasta with homemade alfredo sauce, spinach, and peppers.

Spaghetti and meatballs from scratch...

...served with a salad with homemade croutons and homemade caesar dressing that was so easy and so delicious!

That's all, for now. :)

Love at First Sight

...see, don't you already love her?

I got to meet my new baby niece Vera last weekend. She is one month old- and just look at all that hair! She lives in over five hours away, but luckily Emma and Shanon decided to make a trip up. Vera is so beautiful, so good-natured, so perfect in every way...we couldn't get enough of her!

Ben is a natural. This has given Ben "baby fever" pretty badly...but don't worry, I'm standing my ground! Ha...for a while at least :)

Vera got to meet her great Grannie and great Grandad for the first time as well. Grannie and Grandad didn't know they were in town, so the visit was a great surprise for them.

We went to dinner afterward, and Vera waited very patiently for our table.

Vera, you are so loved! Emma and Shanon, you are wonderful parents and Vera is so blessed to have you! Can't wait to see you all again in a few weeks!

Picture-Worthy

My best friend Ashley made this cake for her sister Kayla's graduation party. She is so talented, just had to post a picture.

She also made my wedding cake, so needless to say, she's an expert!

By the way, congratulations Kayla! I can't believe how fast you've grown up...I must be getting old!

Work Baby Shower

A friend of mine at work was thrown a baby shower last week, so of course I had to take a few pictures. :) It turned out perfect, complete with a great spread of food, an adorable cake and fabulous gifts!

Congratulations, Kathi! Can't wait to meet the little guy.

Patio Furniture

Just enjoying a game of Rummikub and a glass of iced tea one evening on our new patio furniture, a gift from my in-laws...

...thanks, Carl and Deena!! We LOVE it!

Mother's Day

Well, clearly I'm behind in my blogging since I'm just now posting about Mother's Day, a week and a half later! We celebrated by going to Churchill Downs with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my brother-in-law's family. Naturally, I lost all $15 I spent. Ben, however, spent about the same and came out about $3 ahead. Yippee. Moral of the story: not worth gambling! Ha.

I'm trying to think of a poetic or graceful way to write something about my mother, but nothing is coming to mind other than a flood of adjectives, laughter, good memories...things that make her like a lot of moms, and things that really set her apart. My mother is loving, caring, always willing to go to the ends of the world and back for me and my brother and sister- or anybody, for that matter- as so many wonderful mothers would. But she is also beautiful, talented, creative, artistic- how did I get so lucky to have a mother like this? She is the Proverbs 31 woman- she is a godly woman. She has a tender heart, a heart of gold, unlike anyone I have ever known. She has made my life so joyful, so much fun- always willing to play with me when I was little, still eager to have fun anytime I am ready! She makes me laugh until I cry. Her words of grief over a lost loved one can make me cry in a second, can pierce right through me. I certainly don't tell her enough how wonderful she is. She is my best friend. How lucky I am to be able to say that! How blessed I am to have been raised in such a way!

I love you, Mom!

About Time for a Hair Cut!

So, last April before we went to Germany, I got my hair all chopped off:

I didn't get my hair cut again until TODAY, over a year later! I'd say my hair has grown quite a bit!

Before:

After:

Ahh...much better :)

BOGO

Gotta love Payless's BOGO (buy one get one free) sale! I got 4 pairs of shoes for a total of $43! They had a bunch of their winter shoes on clearance.

Sometimes a girl just needs to shop!

Meeting Eli

You might recall my blog post awhile back about the shower I helped throw for my cousin Amanda. She and her husband Shelby were adopting a little boy from South Korea, and they were expecting the call any day. Well, the call finally came, they went to Korea, and now Elijah Patrick May is home!

I met little Eli last week for the first time. He is 9 months old and 19 pounds- he is a big boy! HE IS SO ADORABLE!! I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Needless to say, the adjustment will be hard for awhile. Their first big hurdle was getting him on Kentucky time instead of Korea time! He seems to really be bonding with Amanda, which is perfect! He doesn't know any English, but Amanda is reading to him a lot and being very visual with her words, so I'm sure he will catch on soon enough. Thank God for bringing Eli to them safely!

Landscaping

As promised, here are some pictures of Ben's first attempts at our landscaping. He has been doing a great job, and sadly, all by himself because I haven't had a lot of time to help! I love when he sets his mind to something because he always does great!

Here is a picture of the house from April last year- as you can see, the area between the house and the sidewalk, and also to the left of the stairs, is nothing but weeds! And the yard was just about the same way!

Here's a picture from April this year. I know you can't see much of the landscaping, but you can see how nice the lawn looks since Ben has been trying to keep the weeds down! If you notice the gap in the bushes on the left side, that is where we plan to put another tree of some sort to grow up between those windows.

This is a little area at the bottom of the front steps. Love the cute little flowers Ben picked out!

This is the other side- again, love how Ben picked out all these flowers!

He also planted this tree- an ornamental pear tree, I believe it was- so that it will grow and provide some shade to the front of the house.

So, it's still sort of a work in progress, and we probably need some more stuff since this area is so big, but stuff=money! Hopefully some of the flowers in there will spread out a little and make it thicker. Maybe I can talk Ben into planting some flock since that is a good ground cover. Either way, it already looks 100 times better than it did before though, and I love my husband for doing it!! In return, I am going to do some weeding this weekend, which I know he will be thrilled about! :)

Why did I go to Germany again?

As any of you local people probably know, E.ON, the German parent company of our utilities here, was rumored to be selling the company. For a lot of us at work, we were scared this meant downsizing. Everyone thought we were being sold to Duke Energy, which has business in Indiana, I believe, but is based in North Carolina. E.ON the whole time could neither confirm nor deny any rumors. Finally, it was announced last week that we are indeed being sold, but instead to PPL, a Pennsylvania-based power company. Part of the contract was that the utilities were to keep their headquarters in Louisville for 15 years. We have been told that there won't be any downsizing, which apparently would have been the case had Duke bought us. Thank God!

I found it interesting that almost exactly a year later after we left for Germany for me to work at E.ON in Germany, we find out that we are being sold! Guess all those connections in Germany aren't very useful now- ha!