terrible quality bird video.

Driving home from Newburgh after Thanksgiving break we saw a swarm of crazy birds.  Tim made me try to capture the eerie moment with my camera.  In addition to having a low quality camera, we are driving and I am and a pretty terrible videographer.  Anyways, thought I'd experiment with youtubes and post these somewhere....like my blogs.  Sorry this post is so lame.

my wedding resume.

Yo my bloggaz.

One of my favorite things to do is go to weddings.  I love wearing dresses, reuniting with friends, eating good food, drinking good drink, partying down and dancing 'til my feet are so sore I can't walk...

There is something really special about weddings.  Although I really loathe the commercial wedding industry that has capitalized on and exploited the sacred ritual, I still love how weddings can bring together all the people you love.  How friends and family will travel long distances to be present on the day that someone they love pledges their love to someone they love...forever.  And after these loyal travelers witness the couple's promises to each other, everyone gets to enjoy a HUGE party!  Tim and I liked to think of our wedding and reception as a big "Thank You" to all the people we love, for being a part of our lives up until that moment, and for supporting us in that moment and beyond.

At our rehearsal dinner, Will Rose said that he likes to think weddings are a little piece of heaven on earth.  In our case, I definitely agreed.

In the past half decade, I have been invited to 29 weddings (according to my best recollection). Of those 29 weddings, I was able to attend 72% and had to regretfully decline 28%.  At about half the weddings I attended, I had a specific role of some sort.  I thought I would share my wedding resume with you, you know, in case you were thinking of including me in a future nuptial event.

I have been...
...a Bridesmaid (thrice)
...an Honorary Bridesmaid (once)
...a Maid of Honor (once)
...a Scripture Reader (four times)
...an Emcee at a reception (once)
...a Bride (once)

Perhaps someday I may have the pleasure of being...

...a Flower Girl
...a Matron of Honor
...a Groomsmaid (Jimmy?  Josh?  Brett-it's not too late)
...the Officiant (I can be ordained in just a few minutes online)
...a Musician (I am great at the tambourine)

Think about it dudes.

Here's a few pics from some weddings.  Wish I had a pic from all of them!

one man's trash...

...is another man's treasure.  Check out the sweet groceries we picked up last week:

5 apples
7 potatoes
2 lbs of green beans
2 Honeydew melons
1/2 lb of mushrooms
5 bunches of green onions
2 bunchs of bok choy
2 heads of broccoli
1 onion
1 large piece of ginger root
1 starfruit                           

PRICE= $0.00

How did we get all that food for free?  The restaurant that had originally bought it was just throwing it away.  Our good friends at the Bloomington Catholic Worker, discovered this restaurant and called to share the wealth!  The above produce was just a small fraction of the goods they had recovered from the discarded waste pile behind the restaurant.  The BCW regularly gathers food that has been thrown away by others, particularly grocery stores and restaurants.  These food vendors often throw out edible and usable food due to superficial imperfections, expiration dates, or overstocking.  Last week, they found 18 crates full of broccoli!

I was a freshman in college the first time anyone offered me something that had been literally pulled from a dumpster.  My friend, Alex Mysliwicz (aka "Alex the Kid") gave me several six packs of Pepsi Blue that he got from the dumpster behind the Pepsi-Cola bottling facility in Bloomington.  After inspection, I found that the seals around the lids were all still intact, and decided that the only thing wrong with them (aside from the obvious flaw of creating a blue Pepsi product) was that they had lost some fizz.  Alex also gave Tim and his housemates a huge garbage bag full of day old bagels from the Bakehouse.

This practice of salvaging the treasures that others trash is commonly referred to as "dumpster diving."  It is a bit of a misnomer considering that one can usually find usable goods without actually entering a dumpster.  Though I have been a beneficiary of other people's diving excursions, I have not personally taken the plunge.  Not that I would refuse, I have just never been motivated enough to pursue the practice.  Mostly because I wouldn't know where to look, but also because I am lazy.  If someone invited me, I think I would go along.

Our most recent house guest, David, is also quite resourceful.  In the last month that he has been living with us, he's brought home pizza from Papa John's, hot pockets, frozen popcorn shrimp, rotisserie chickens, onions, chocolate milk, oatmeal, spices, and much more.  Some of it he bought, but a lot of it he retrieved from grocery stores that had thrown it out.

With the groceries we got from the Catholic Workers we made a bok choy broccoli stir fry- delicious and free.  We sliced up the honeydew and served it at our friends' New Year's Eve party (a tasty and healthy addition to the spread).  Last night, I baked the apples with frozen blueberries and blackberries for a sweet treat. 

If the idea of eating something that others have thrown out doesn't appeal to you, at least let the spirit of dumpster diving encourage you to use everything that you buy. 

In an effort not to waste food (purchased or not), Tim and I spent all day on New Year's Eve making a Turkey Gumbo from the turkey carcass leftover from our Christmas potluck.  It doesn't look too appetizing in the picture, but it tastes pretty good.

And we still have plenty of turkey stock to make a soup!

Hopefully, this does not make you any less likely to come eat with us!

the big two.

Tim and I celebrated our two year anniversary last Tuesday, Dec. 29th.  I sort of forgot it was our anniversary, but Tim bought me these sweet flowers and we went out on the town for a nice dinner and some desserts.

In a lot of ways I feel like we have been married for a lot longer than two years.  Maybe because we dated for a few years before we got married, or maybe just because so much has happened and developed in our lives since then that it seems like a long time.  Yet, it also seems like just yesterday Tim was flipping on the Christmas lights that read "Will you marry me?"

The first two years of marriage have been full of joy, stress, heartache, disappointment, frustration, growth, increased trust, increased doubt... During year two, we both experienced acute heartaches and stresses, yet I think we really grew together through them all.

Tim's parents leave tomorrow for Harlaxton College in England, where Tim's father will be teaching for the semester.  In talking with them about their trip, we started reminiscing about when Tim spent a semester at Harlaxton in 2005.  We remembered what our relationship was like back then, full of infatuation and wonder and intrigue.  It was a very exciting time in our relationship, the falling in love time.  But as we talked we both agreed that it's so much better now.  We know each other so much more than we did back then, and we are so much closer and love each other more.  I hope it never stops getting better.

Happy Anniversary, huband!