Cookies

Mike told me he did not know how to read a recipe.  Perfect opportunity to bake cookies!  yay! He did pretty good too. 

Learning how to make movies.

I just figured out how to put a movie together on iMovie.  How fun is that?  Love my mac!! Now, let's see if it works.

Busy Busy Busy

Things have been going non-stop around here.  The holidays are so much fun, but it seems like the closer you get to them, the faster your time goes. 

This was our first Christmas together as a married couple....eek.  CRAZY! This picture is one we took on our first Christmas together after we met.  Mike as a good sport.  Merry Christmas!

Our first Christmas ever :)

Halloween Fun

Murphy really enjoyed Halloween.  He doesn't get upset when I dress him up in clothes, so I figured he needed a costume.  The crazy thing was the fact that our niece, Ellie has almost the same costume.  They couldn't have been cuter!

Honeymoon

We traveled to see Jenny and Shawn in Kenmare.  Here we are just starting out on our trip.

Murphy even made the picture.  Can you find him?

They have some funny things in Kenmare, ND.

Jenny in front of something "Kenmare"

We traveled 10 hours to Duluth, MN.  So pretty there!

Outside the Glensheen Mansion in Duluth.

Riding in style.

The train museum.  I'm driving. 

We then traveled to Grand Marais, MN.  Once we got there, we did saw a lot of pretty things.

Gooseberry Falls

Pincushion Mountain

Two Harbors, MN

Us at the top of Honeymoon Bluff

Murphy swimming in Lake Superior....brrrrrrr

Beautiful fall colors at Enger park in Duluth.  These colors pretty much sum up the trip.

Murphy's first trip to Meet Paul.

On our way home.

 We had an amazing time.  It was such a fun vacation and so relaxing.  We can't wait to go back.

Wedding!!!!

 

Finally!  September 17th was the big day!  It was so much fun and actually not as stressful on the big day as I thought it was going to be.  I can't wait to see the actual professional pictures.  Hopefully in the next week or so.  

Ocho and Wilbur

This is Ocho.  He is the best little car.  Since we moved out of town, he has made me worry about winter driving more than ever before.  Cute little thing though, isn't he?  Well, after much thought and shopping, we decided to trade Ocho in and get something with a little more umph in the snow.  We decided on a 2007 Kia Sorento.

I don't have a picture of Wilbur yet, but this is what he looked like when I googled him. 

Now, Wilbur can really get moving on the road.  I've never had a truck before, so this could be interesting.  We seem to be getting along really well.  Murphy likes him too :)

Oh I'll throw in a new picture of Murphy too.

5 days to go!

So yesterday, when we had 6 days to go until the wedding, Mike and I decided to go on a little roadtrip.  We started by going to Starbucks.  Every good roadtrip starts at a Starbucks somewhere. 

Well, after I had my sanity perked up a little, we went north.  As we drove to our destination, we went through Mayville.  I've never been to Mayville before, so we drove around a bit.  We then saw a car show.  Mike was way more excited than me.  There were about one hundred million cars there.  I know this because I counted. 

This is what a car show looks like......rows and rows of cars.  Mike knows all of them.  Since I am such a good fiance I followed along listening to him tell me what was so great about that '52 ford and why he wanted a whatchamacallit.  I made comments about the pretty colors and which ones were shaped the nicest.  After we saw ALL of them in the 90 degree ND heat, we moved on with our trip.

Now for the exciting part.  We went to Oscar-Zero in Cooperstown.  It's an old missle site.  It's more like the control center for 10 missle sites.  It's the only one open to the public in the entire country.  Cool.  It reminded me of touring the boats in Duluth.

launch control 60 feet underground

Crazy how much fun we had there. 

Mike at the missle site

After Cooperstown, we headed home from our Sunday roadtrip.  Home Sweet Home.

Showers galore!

Jameson was the only male at either shower  :)  

What a stud

 CRAZY!  Only 31 days until the wedding.  I can't believe it's so close!  I think having the showers has really made it more real.  

First, my aunts threw me a shower.  We went for mani/pedi's, then back to my place for food and presents.

Love the gifts!  Everyone was so generous.

Having lunch in between activities.

3 generatons

I also had a shower in Bismarck, thrown by Catherine and Megan.  I met a lot of new people, AKA: Mike's family.  Everyone was so nice!  After we finished with the shower, we celebrated :)

 

Thanks everyone!!!

The Letter M

Only 37 days until the wedding.  I was talking with the girls from work and realized, I will have a new signature soon.  I've spent the last 20 years or so mastering the giant swirly "F" that starts my last name.  Now, how do I make that "F" change to an "M"?  

Swirly M

One suggestion was to change my middle name to "F."  Sounds weird to me....Jessica Ann F Martel?  Oh dear.  

If anyone has any suggestions for me or would like to work on penmanship, let me know.  I'm ready to break out the paper with the dotted center line.  Wish me luck!!!

 

Small Town Livin'

A funny thing happened, while I had Murphy out for a walk.............

any excuse for a Murphy pic

We ran into the schwan man.

How fun is that?  You are out for a nice little walk with your cute little puppy and a man with a truck full of food is parked one house down from yours.  Nice.......


So, now a nice man named, Leo, will be stopping at my house every other Wednesday evening.  He told me he has been, "Serving the community for 14 years."  Good for you, Leo!  I'm glad to have met you.

Not an actual picture of Leo.  I thought he would think I was weird to take a picture of him after 1st meeting him.

yummy!

To me, this is a pretty nice perk to owning a home and living in a small town.   I'm pretty sure there aren't Schwan trucks driving around NYC, delivering ice cream sandwiches.......but I could be wrong.

Rookie

Well, this is my first post as an official blogger.  My friend, Megan, will be so proud.  My thoughts are not genius, but they are pretty random.......maybe a little entertaining at times. 

Life has been busy.  I'm getting married in September.  Crazy, I know.  I met Mike a few years ago and he seems to tolerate my randomness pretty well. 

Duluth - Not long after he proposed!

 This wedding planning business is ridiculous.  More to come later. 

Last April, Murphy entered the family.  He's a big help with wedding planning.  He sits next to me at the table when I am putting stuff together and provides me with entertainment when I need a break. 

Murphy - 8 weeks old

This is Murphy.  Isn't he just the cutest thing you've ever seen?  He's a Pembroke Welsch Corgi.  This is the day we brought him home.  He was way smaller than we thought he would be.  He's a crazy little thing  and I'm sure he will pop up in the blog every once in awhile.

I better not forget my first born, Tipsy.  She's 7 this year.  We met as 2 single girls back when I lived alone in Bismarck.  She doesn't care for many people, noise, or any disruption to her environment.  I can't believe how much we've been through together. 


OK, I think that is random enough for all of us.  Now you have met my family.  Stick around for more to come at a later date.