Why I got married

Yesterday, I helped Matt teach his Sunday School class.

He teaches the 14-17 year olds every other week.

(Actually, I forgot something at home, but I still don't know how to get to church.

So Matt had to run home for me.)

The topic for this month is "Marriage and Family" and

 yesterday's topic was "the importance of marriage."

I walked in and asked them,

"Why should you get married?"

They kind of looked and mumbled at me for a while.

Not really having an answer.

None of the ten kids sitting in front of me had a reason

 why they would get married.

I kind of feel many people my age are a bit like those kids.

A few weeks ago at the playgroup in my complex the mom's were talking about this topic.

One of the ladies said that she only got married, because her husband wouldn't let her have a kid unless they were.

She talked about how she was actually quite upset with him about it.

She didn't want a wedding and that was the only difference she saw between getting married and living together.

She said now though that she had been married for 4 years that she was glad he said that.

She said she didn't know why, but now she feels that marriage just makes it easier.

Another mom piped up and said she felt the same way.

She got married because her mom expected it and she thought a wedding would be fun.

I didn't say anything during this conversation.

I wasn't really sure what to say.

Marriage is the way my family does things.

It's part of my religion.

I never doubted that I would get married.

(And I definitely didn't get married for wedding)

But now a few weeks later I did have a response to those teenagers.

It might not be the best response, but it's why I wanted to get married.

I got married because it's a legal commitment and the more commitment the better.

I got married because I think God wants us too.

I got married because I feel that a marriage is the best way to raise kids.

I got married because I want to be like those old couples who have been married for over 60 years and still like each other.

I got married because I like having a piece of paper on the wall saying that Matt Nielsen is mine for all time and eternity. 

(It really is on our wall.)

I like how entwined our lives are.

I like watching Matt being a dad.

I like loving him and not feeling insecure when I get mad at him.

I like the way my life has been for the last 2 years,

and that's because I decided to get married.

Thanks for asking me to marry you honey.

Thanks for planning the wedding with me.

Thanks for showing up.

Happy Anniversary.

(Matt addendum:)

During the lesson, Michele made an interesting comment; "These days, marriage is only cool if you are gay." This isn't intended to insult or offend anyone, just an observation about society. I got married because I wanted to keep Michele forever. Kind of selfish I guess but it's true. I think marriage is important because it symbolizes deep and enduring commitment. The kind that rides out rapids and weathers storms and doesn't take off when things get uncomfortable. I think that the deepest fear of many people is loneliness. Being married, I know that there is always someone who has my back.

Blueberry Muffins

• Remember how we went blueberry picking last weekend?
• Well I have a confession.
• I'm not the biggest fan of blueberries...
• BUT I love blueberry muffins.
• They are my favorite way to eat blueberries.

I found this nifty little recipe and wanted to share it with you all.

Blueberry Muffins

• 2 cups of flour
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 cup milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of blueberries

Steps

1) Preheat oven to 400*

2) Stick 16 cupcake liners in cupcake pan

3) Completely melt the butter in microwave

4) Add sugar, eggs, and milk

5) Mix all of the dry ingredients in a separate bowl

6) Slowly add sugar mixture to the dry ingredients

Mix well.

7) Carefully FOLD in blueberries 

(If you mix them in, the poor blueberries become pulpified. Sad day.)

8) Fill cupcake liners 3/4 up

9) Cook for 18-22 minutes 

(Until muffins are slightly brown on top)

Then eat all of them without sharing.

The end.

Balloons

On Friday, we went to a baby shower.

The theme was "Good night moon."

How cute is that?

Madeleine was sweet and sat through the whole thing. 

At the end, she got the treat of bringing home the balloons.

Because of the Helium shortage, balloons are really expensive.

About $2 a balloon.

So since we had so many, 

we went to the front yard to take some pictures of this special event.

We love our silly little creature.

Arachnis deathicus

Roxanne Ritchi: The spider's new.

Megamind: Spider?

Megamind: Uh... Ah yes, the spyiiiiiider. Even the smallest bite from... "arachnis deathicus"... will instantly paralyze...

I'm not a big fan of spiders. I can tolerate them long enough to kill them. That's about it. (Michele likes to rescue them and return them to the wild.)

Anyways, late one night, I found myself taking out the trash. As I was walking down the path that connects our house to the street, I caught the faint shimmering of a spiderweb. Unfortunately, it was hanging under a tree branch smack in the middle of the sidewalk at head height. I moved in for a closer look and saw an enormous spider, the size of a ping pong ball suspended in the middle. Ughhh... Lucky for it, I didn't have anything that I felt comfortable killing it with, so I dodged around it, went to the dumpster, and hightailed out of there.

The next morning, no spider. But come 10 pm, there were THREE enormous spiders, spread underneath the branch, waiting for the unwary pedestrian. This continued for several weeks, and we made a point of keeping a wide berth. Apparently, these are some type of tree-dwelling spider that cast webs every night. (Any entomologists reading this?)

A few weeks later, I finally mustered the courage to take a photo. Even with Michele's super duper zoom lens, I had to get uncomfortably close...

The next morning, I had to go up to work early to quench some reaction that would probably take out half the floor if it warmed up to room temperature. I rushed out the door and was halfway to the street when all of a sudden I had the horrible feeling of spider silk all over my face and I felt something heavy and exoskeletal bounce off the back of my head. I freaked out, ran back home and asked Michele (while she was still asleep. I woke up to a screaming husband saying something about evil spiders. No joke. Weirdest way to get woken up.)  to conduct a thorough examination and reassure me that the spider wasn't about to sink it's proboscis into my neck.

Since then, we haven't seen any more spiders. In a way, I guess they aren't evil. We sure get a lot fewer mosquitos than one would expect, but still, I wish they would do their business somewhere I couldn't see them.

Welcome to our home! (Part 1)

I always feel like when I move that I'm some type of cowgirl that has to break in and tame my house.

Each room has its own challenges and getting the place to feel like home is even more frustrating.
And they each seem to fight me too!
Frustrating.

So far we have conquered 4 out of 5 rooms of our home.

Madeleine's room has been the most difficult,

But the rest of the home is starting to come together.

 So without further ado...

here is the kitchen and the bathroom.

 My kitchen is great.

I actually have a lot of extra room in it.

The only problem I have with it is the lack of a dishwasher,

but come on, I lived without a dishwasher for most of my college life.

I love the window and door to the outside in this kitchen.

It has the most beautiful light in the morning and late afternoon,

and at night I watch the fireflies.

A pretty romantic way to do dishes. 

Madeleine has her own little chair too to eat in. 

If I turned 180 from where I was standing in the kitchen,

you see my little bookshelf.

It  is my "command corner".

Everything in the house runs from the white board.

It has our menu, grocery list, needs, wants, budget, and to do list.

Important dates and documents go up on there too.

I love it and it is my favorite corner of our home.

The bathroom...is small,

so small that I couldn't get a picture of it.

So here are some of the features.

Shower curtain

Storage closet

I love Lucy + shelf.

The sink I couldn't get a good photo of.

Our bedroom and living room will come soon.

:)

French

One of my things on my bucket list for my 20's is learn French.

I started yesterday this program that our library offers for free.

Matt can't stop laughing at me.

Hopefully if I ever go to France they'll just think I'm a mute.

(Baby lost the memory card...hence the lack of cool posts)

Peach Festival

Saturday was awesome.

I had been looking forward to it all week and thankfully it was more awesome than I expected.

I was excited about Terhune Orchard's peach festival
and I was originally planning on leaving right at 9:30 so I could get there when it started at 10.
Everything seemed to be working against me.

It was raining.
The Tiny was crabby.
I kept forgetting things.
Finally at 10:30, we left the house.

I made a few wrong turns (very scenic wrong turns might I add)
when I saw a sign that said "FABRIC GARAGE SALE! 9-11."
I just had to go.
I flipped on my blinker and turned right into that place.

This lady had TONS of fabrics.
I kept thinking that she was Matt's nightmare.
A house full of fabric for projects that never got done.
But she was selling at an amazing price.
$1 per lb.
So I had to get some.

I only had $1, but probably got about 3 yards of fabric.
I chatted with the other lady that was browsing there.
Turns out she gives sewing lessons for adults!
I found her website when I got home.
http://ahappystitch.com/
I think I might try to take one of those.

After that delightful delay,
we finally went to the Peach Festival.
Only they didn't let you pick peaches.
Just blueberries for $2.75 a lb!

Other moms were turning back, but not me.
I didn't balk at the thought of off-road strollering in the rain.
(Poor Lance probably hates me for it)

And after the blueberries came the blackberries.

I know they don't look black, but there were plenty of black ones there too.

By then I had spent half of the cash I had brought with me,

so we explored the farm a bit.

This is a practice cow to milk.

You squeeze the utter and water squirts out.

Madeleine was not that interested.
But she sure looked adorable on the little milking stool.

Still rocking 2 feet.

The orchard also had a huge flower garden that they let you pick flowers from for 25 cents each.

I was pretty thrilled to get some.

So was Tiny.

She ate this one up.
A lady there was like, "Oh! How cute!!! She is such a girl. Look at her loving flowers. She's such a sweet girly girl."

No.
She just likes eating everything.

She was still munching and playing with that poor flower when we got home.

The survivors...for now.

I ended that day with going to the Cheesecake Factory with a big group of women at church.

Told you it was a perfect day,

but then again, any day that ends with chocolate cake is pretty perfect.

Spoons

We are employing the so-called "baby-led weaning" method. 

In short, you give your baby any food they want, be it what you happen to be eating or what they manage to grab, within reason of course. 

For example,

 Madeleine enjoys chewing on pizza crust, pepperoncini peppers, 

chipotle humus, basil, and ice-cream (although it always surprises her how cold it is.) 

Supposedly, it helps prevent baby from over- or under-eating, 

and it makes meals more of a family event.

It is also supposed to help her learn how to chew first, 

and then later figure out swallowing.

(Which at first meant a lot of gagging)

It's a European thing.

For this method, you don't usually give baby purees, 

unless they spoon it to themselves.

So we've been teaching Madeleine how to use a spoon.

It's surprisingly a lot less messy when she feeds herself than when I feed her.

It may require a lot of positive reinforcement,

but we're making progress!

10-versery

10 years ago...

I walked into the church building in Cupertino, California.

My heart sank as soon as I walked in.

It was so empty.

It seemed like maybe half the rows had a person or two in them.

The rest were empty.

It has a hard move, since we just moved from Florida less than 2 years before.

But a lot of good came from it.

I made a lot of great friends, 

and my junior and senior year of high school were two of the best years of my life.

The best thing was I met this guy.

(Matt would like to point out that he doesn't normally look this weird. In this ancient photo, the rest of which has been unfortunately omitted, Matt was actually skateboarding, doing a 50-50 on a bike rack to be precise.)

It wasn't love at first sight or second...or even third.

My journal November 2003
(Matt apparently only cracked his knuckles when he was nervous (around girls))

Maybe Matt is somewhere in this picture.

According to my journal he was there... he just didn't want to dance.

So we were supposed to dance together, we just talked instead.

(We didn't dance together until after we were married for a few months)

It actually took us running into each other again in college for us to fall in love.

(There isn't actually a picture of us together way back then.)

Lucky for me, Matt wrote nicer things about me in his journals...

He basically says that he missed me! Pretty sweet of him. 

And here...he called me cool. 

10 years later...

we are married.

With our tiny.

Across the country.

My half birthday

We celebrate half birthdays with half of a cookie sundae.

Matt was even sweet enough to bring me home some cake too. :)

(They do chocolate and orange "tiger" cake here at Princeton.)

Matt sent me a text message while I was at the store tonight.

It said, "I have cake."

Then my phone died.

I knew from those few words though that he needed me to pick him up.

That's our marriage in a nutshell.

Madeleine hung out in her bouncer with my keys, 

while we celebrated.

One Pot Pasta

Yesterday Madeleine and I went on an awesome adventure to Hopewell.

We both weren't feeling good.

When we got home, we both went to sleep.

(Oh and I forgot to bring my camera)

Today was grocery shopping day.

I love grocery shopping. 

It is even more fun now because Wegman's is so amazing.

**Warning: Flagrant grocery store bragging ahead**

This store is incredible.

It has "Pregnant lady parking"/"mothers with small minion parking".

Shopping carts are not squeaky and they have easy to use baby seat belt.

(We had a bit of an issue with that at Trader Joe's today.)

It also have more free samples than Costco,

and the selection is amazing.

For example, today I was looking for brie and cotija cheese.

They not only had both, but 12 different types of brie!

I didn't know what to buy, so their cheese expert came and educated me on brie.

How cool is that? 

The exceptional customer service doesn't end there.

Today it was raining all day.

When I was leaving, one of the workers grabbed an umbrella and offered to walk us to the car.

He not only escorted us, but he load the groceries and put away my cart, just so I wouldn't get wet.

How sweet is that?!

I could go on and on. I like it that much.

Madeleine updated Matt on her day while I cooked dinner

Anyway the reason I needed the brie was because I was trying a different variation of one pot pasta for dinner tonight.

It wasn't worth the money for this pasta, but our normal one pot pasta is awesome.

So here is the recipe!

Ingredients

2 1/2 c of water

1/2 bag of Linguini or some other type of pasta 

(this is brown rice pasta from Trader Joe's)

2 handfuls of cut up tomatoes of some sort 

(The little tomatoes work really well too)

1/4 c Basil 

1 onion (optional)

a few shakes of red pepper flakes 

(optional, but I really think it makes this dish)

1/2 T. of oil

1 clove of garlic

Throw everything in the pot turn it on medium.

Wait until the pasta is cooked.

Don't drain it. 

(If you wait a minute, the water will turn into sauce)

Top it with cheese.

Tada!

National Cheesecake day!

Today was AWESOME!!!!

1) I woke up to a clean kitchen

2) We went to play group, and Madeleine went on the swing (as seen above)

3) I have a functioning phone 

4) It's NATIONAL CHEESECAKE DAY!!!!!

I had no idea. 

Poor Harry Potter. 

His birthday was just one upped by this awesome day.

(Harry Potter's birthday is tomorrow if you were wondering)

So in honor of National cheesecake day, The Cheesecake Factory has their cheesecake half off!

And this year they even introduced a new flavor of cheesecake.

Toasted Marshmallow S'mores Galore

Oh yeah, it even looks tasty after Madeleine shook it around.

Cheesecake Factory cheesecake is one of the few desserts I can't finish by myself,

so we hopped on the bus to see Matt to share this deliciousness.

Hanging out at the Chemistry Building aka the Frick.

So if you have time, and you are blessed enough to have a Cheesecake Factory near by,

you should totally get some.

If not...well...there always is Sara Lee.