Freshman Year at Purdue - Photo

Check out this photo that I just found of Lena and me during our freshman year at Purdue.


Man . . . I don't look like that anymore. Look at us. We're so . . . what's the word? Innocent-looking. Wow.

And where the crap did I get my schnoz?

Lena's Wedding, Official Photos

Lena sent me some photos from her wedding! These are way better than my photos—as they were taken by a photographer with a stinking sweet camera and a more keen eye. Check 'em out:


The bridesmaids with Lena.


The wedding party.


Brett and Lena.


We got caught peekin' at the crowd.


This doesn't even look real, does it?


It was still pretty even though it was raining and wet and ucky.


This was taken right after Lena and Brett had dedicated our wedding song to us for our anniversary. Note that Willis is laughing at me while I'm trying to choke back the tears. That punk.

Oh yeah . . . good stuff. Happy times.

Tonight: we're headed to Cellular Field for some Burnham thing. It should be interesting as there's not actually going to be any real baseball happening. I'm okay with that, though. I'm not much of a "watcher" of baseball. Heck . . . it's boring even playing it, usually.

I'm nearly done with book three of Harry Potter! *pat myself on the back*

Lena and Brett's Wedding

Wow . . . that went fast. Wow . . .

Lena's wedding was absolutely beautiful. She looked amazing (as if there was any doubt that she would). I was totally nervous when I did all the readings involved with the ceremony, but only she and Willis could tell ('cause they know me best). I got lots of compliments from Catholics. One lady stopped me in the bathroom at the reception and said, "You must read at masses all the time! Where do you go to church?"

She was a little surprised when I was like, "Whooooooo!"

I had no idea how well I'd done because . . . well . . . I've never seen it done before (nor heard it). So . . . I was pretty afraid that I was terrible.

I saw a lot of people at the reception that I'd not seen in a long time. It was good to see those familiar faces.

Willis and I ended up not staying very long at the reception. I was feeling bad that he didn't know anybody there. Plus, the DJ wasn't suitin' my fancy a whole lot with his choices (until Melissa got in there and made some requests, and then I think the guy turned around a bit). I ended up dancing to one song with Melissa, Dessa, and the Craig mini-me (Craig is Lena's brother--married to Melissa, Dessa is Lena's sister, and Craig's mini-me is his son, Ethan). Then, I decided I should be nice to Willi and get him back to where he knew people, so we took off. I felt pretty guilty about leaving (as I was a bridesmaid and everything), but . . . it's also our anniversary weekend. So, we kind-of wanted to start thinking about that, too.

Anyway, I have some really horrible photos (quality-wise, not content-wise) that I took during the weekend (and some Willi took for me):


Lena's gettin' her hair did in this one.


Craig's mini-me. He is soooo cute . . .


This is quite possibly the best photo of me of the day, and it still looks pretty bad.


That's my hair.


Me and Lena.


That's the best shot I've got of her dress, unfortunately. I didn't get much time to be a real photographer . . .


Me dancin' with Craig's mini-me to "Don't Cha." He liked it.

One thing I forgot to mention: after Lena and Brett danced together and then with their respective parents, the DJ asked, "Are Willis and Jenny Brown here?"

We were like, "Right here."

Then, he said that Lena and Brett had dedicated our wedding song to us for our anniversary.

I then became irreconcilable for about ten minutes or so while we were dancing to our song. I'm such an emotional mess now! When did this happen to me!? I remember pointing and laughing at my mom when we were watching movies and she'd cry. Now, I might actually be worse than she is. What the crap?

We woke up at the Brown house on our anniversary, and after Mary Brown made us some scrumptrilescent food for breakfast (a warm, rice pudding and biscuits and gravy), we headed back North (in two separate cars). My hair was still up from the day before (it barely moved). We got back to the house, hung out for a few minutes, and then, we decided to head to New Buffalo to see what it's like over there.

While we were there (it's an amazing-looking resort town, really), we found a neat restaurant near the lake called The Stray Dog. So, we stopped in to eat, and it was awesome. Nobody will believe this, but while we were sitting there, someone I knew came up to our table to get my attention. It was Lyndi Haverstock--one of my old U. Choir friends. Man . . . it was good to see her. She looks great--especially with her hair long like she has it now. I'm hoping she and I will be able to hang out and catch up before she has to move to Indy in August.

Then, Willi and I came home, we sat and watched TV for awhile, he helped me take my hair down (which took awhile), ate some of our wedding cake (still good), drank the bottle of wine Nic and Jason bought for us (and told us which to drink and when--thanks, guys!), watched Old School (still funny), and that was basically all she wrote!

It's amazing how an unplanned anniversary still turned out to be pretty stinkin' great. I've been trying to think of something for us to do that day for months, and I couldn't think of anything (especially based on the amount of time we'd have).
Well . . . one wedding down, one to go for the summer. For now, it's back to work. Oy . . .

Funny thing about the previous statement: we were sitting in our living room, and I said to Willis, "Well . . . one down, and one to go."

He nervously goes, "Do you mean anniversaries?"

Hilarious.

Liam is 5

I can't believe it, man . . . this kid is five today.


Is this not the most hilarious picture you've ever seen?

Lena's Bachelorette Party

I'm sorry to all of those who may view me as a well-behaved woman, but I have to show this photo . . . because it's really funny. It's from Lena's Bachelorette party.


Okay . . . I know that this picture needs some explanation. Well, here you go:

In the background, you see a guy who's staring at us. That's Kelly. He was in our wedding, he's a great guy (Willi and I like him lots), and he's the one responsible for this poor soul (mostly hidden by us) being handcuffed to the blow-up doll that Melissa and I are dancing on.

I think the white blur you see in the lower left corner is probably Lena who was standing there laughing at us.

I also made that doll do the robot and many other premium dance moves because I am a premium dancer.

That's probably one of the best times I've ever had at the Cactus . . . (I generally don't really like the place . . . not unless there's lots of fun and crazy, premium dancing.)

Hahahahaha! 'Nuff said. Gotta run.

The House

Okay! I said that photos of the house would be coming, and here they are! This oughtta get everybody up-to-date.


Here's the blue room (formerly known as the school bus, truck, stop sign, etc. room). This is just a small sample of the crack repair we did in there.


This is the painting of the blue room in action. Yes . . . the room will no longer be blue.


This is the blue room . . . and it is done.


This is the blue room after Willi ripped up the carpet in there. The floors are beautiful, but we'll obviously have to work on them at some point.


Here's a view of the green room (formerly known as the Pooh room) with the cracks dug out. This is obviously prior to repairing.


Here are the repairs done with plaster on that same area. The rest of the room was just as bad as this corner if not worse. As of now, this room looks basically just like the blue room. The trim still needs painted . . . but you'll have that.

The next few pictures involve what our house looks like after the move. Check 'em out:


This is our bedroom after the move. So far.




These two shots are of our living room that is in our basement. Willis, Scott, and Jarsh had to remove a door and the banister to get that couch downstairs. So . . . I guess that couch isn't coming back out. Oy.


So, this is the bedroom set (well, part of it) that we got from a house that our realtor was selling. I think we scored on that one.


This is what our living room looks like right now. It's pretty serious.


This is the den area. It's full. The chairs you see in the background go to the dining set we just got. It's solid cherry, and pretty sweet.


This is the table that goes with that set.


Did I mention that Hank helped?


I open a box for five minutes, and here's what I get.


This is our new patio set. For the full story on that, read the previous Xanga entry.


More patio furniture along with our new grill. Our old grill from our apartment disintegrated when Willis picked it up to move it. It's a sad story, but this new grill is pretty sweet.


A view of our porch from the front.


This is a view of our porch from the swing. I got my plants set up outside. I only lost one due to the fact that I moved it three times. Anyone know where I can get a Watermelon Pepperomia? I want another one . . .

And that concludes the house photos for today. There will be more to come as the rest of the house comes together. I think it's going to be a long process, though.

We still have a few things at our apartment that we need to get, and we've still gotta clean it. That's not going to be much fun (and it never has been). One thing that brings me comfort, though, is the fact that we'll never have to do it for ourselves again!

Tonight, it's back to the apartment to grab things and watch the last episodes of Prison Break and 24 that we'll ever see in our apartment. Heck yeah.

Have a good night everybody!

Hank and House

Oh man . . . our cat was so weird on Sunday night. I have a feeling it's because we keep leaving him. He's more needy now. Check out what he did while I was getting ready to brush my teeth before bed:


Look at 'im trying to drink any drips that come out of the faucet.


Here's a closer look at that faucet action.


I think he found a new place to hang.


This is now my wallpaper at work.


"What do you want?"

He's stinkin' hilarious . . . for serious.

That's about all I've got for now. I know . . . it's not hugely exciting, but . . . I'm pretty screwed up from daylight savings time right now. I will never get used to this.

Tonight: it's off to the house!

Christopher: we need to get Couch up here for an old fashioned hang out. Oh yeah.

Oh! I almost forgot! Check out what's going on behind our house! (I hope it's all still there since it frosted last night.)


That's a view from the lower back yard.


That's behind the garage, and it's a Pussy Willow. I hate the name of it . . . but . . . it sure is neat.


Man . . . that's a big, nasty weed. Maybe the frost got that one . . .