Happy Halloween

This isn't only the first year we've had a pumpkin, it's also the first year we've both dressed up. Nathan's office had a costume party for which he was one of for to come dressed and my department decided independently to celebrate the holiday.




While it may look like Nathan dressed up as Nathan, he's really Indiana Jones...or a farmer. He decided to let everyone else pick which one he was.





I have wanted to dress as the Wicked Witch of the East for quite a while. I already had the outfit except for the socks and hat. The shirt is one of my favorites and the skirt is actually the lower half of my only good formal dress. After wearing it all day I remembered why I try not to for more than a couple hours, there is a layer of crenoline lining the bottom of the skirt, which makes it really itchy, and later really painful to sit on. I've had the shoes for a couple of months and everyone at work loved them with the socks.




Do you see two Hecates? Her little doppleganger was a present from Elizabeth, my youngest sister, and one of Hecate's biggest fans. It is roughly the same size as the real Hecate and I'm not sure how she feels about it. She knocks it over, but I don't know if she's playing or trying to destroy it.

I promised...

...So, here are a couple of Nathan's baby pictures.


This is my favorite of the pictures I borrowed from my mother-in-law and scanned. That's his older sister standing at the bottom of the stairs.


I love this one too, he looks so cute in his little snow suit.

The Pie Maker

It is very rare that Nathan and I find current TV shows we both like. He watches "Smallville" and "Supernatural" both of which I can't stand, and actually give me nightmares occasionally, and I watch "My Boys," which he dislikes.

Imagine our surprise then when we stumbled across "Pushing Daisies" and both really enjoyed it. It is clever and funny and very well done. The storylines can be a bit far-fetched...actually, usually are a bit far-fetched, but that's probably one of the things we love most about it.

We can actually sit down together and watch it. It makes Wednesday nights more fun.

Take it back!

I'm sure we all have those little things from our childhood that we wish we could keep the same forever. The way we remember our grandparents' laugh or the way the first day of school always felt.

Apart from wishing both my grandfathers were still around, the only thing I would really keep the same is not having to deal with my own medical care. It loomed in front of me for so long and now all of the sudden it's here (really it's been here for a while, but while I lived at home mom still more or less took care of it.) And, I truly hate it.

Seriously, I would pay my mother or almost anyone else for that matter, pretend to be me and call all the doctors' offices and make appointments and deal with the insurance companies.

This is the hardest part about my medical care right now. Technically, pulmonary atresia with tricuspid stenosis is a children's condition, which means I have to see a pediatric cardiologist. It is very hard to do this because when I call to get referals to see the ped cardiologist I have to do this every time,

"When is your birthday?"
"5/9/84"
"But, he's a pediatric cardiologist...and you're 24 years old."
"I realize that, but, if you look at my records...blah...blah...blah."

What is worse is when I go to the children's hospital where I have to see my cardiologist and I have to explain to the security guards...yes, security guards...why I'm there and what I will be doing. I end up feeling so persecuted.

Baby pictures

My poor mother-in-law...Nathan's family moved not long after we started dating and all the family pictures ended up on a shelf in an upstairs room. I actually hadn't seen any baby pictures of Nathan until we had been married nearly a year and a half, I think. Then, last weekend my mother in law broke her toe and I asked her if I could go back through the pictures and pick out my favorites to take home and scan.

She she and Nathan and I slowly climbed the stairs and pulled a lot of the boxes down and we all, including his dad, sat on the couch and went through old photographs all afternoon. I finally saw his very first pictures...like, when he was brand new, and the really little baby pictures. I also found my absolute favorite from the last time we had gone through them, so I'll put one or two out here later.

Food and "Little Traditionalists"

My father attests that that's what my siblings and I are, "The worst bunch of little traditionalists I've ever known." Just because we insist that every Christmas the stockings are hung on the mantle every year and on trips up to Ely, Minnesota we stop at the same Denny's and Hardee's doesn't make us that bad...does it?

Anyway, usually that extends to food, however, even we get tired of the same things the same ways eventually. To that end, I have adapted my favorite meal. Please to enjoy.

Tuna Casserole
3/4 bag egg noodles
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can tuna
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 cup mozzarella cheese
2 cups mushrooms, chopped
1 teaspoon minced garlic
vegetable oil

Set oven 350 degrees. Boil noodles until tender and in the meantime mix soup, tuna, and mayo. Heat oil in frying pan over medium heat, add mushrooms and garlic. Sautee mushrooms. Add half mushrooms to mayonnaise mixture. Add noodles and mix well. Top with remaining mushrooms and mozzarella. Bake until cheese golden brown and bubbly.

Usually it doesn't have the mushrooms and is topped with crumbled potato chips.

On an entirely unrelated note: I made scones from scratch last night, one batch plain and the second batch I stole a friend's suggestion of adding craisins and sprinkling with sugar. I don't usually bake, so the fact that these went over well at work was really cool.

Anniversary

Like most people, in my memory my wedding is just a few flashes of the day's highlights (or otherwise). Our wedding color was hunter green, which I chose because Nathan said at the moment his favorite color was green and my sister Anne had hunter green prom dress.

On the morning of the wedding, in the midst of my worries that the tuxes wouldn't be right, Anne came to the kitchen and asked me to help her get her dress strap over her hair, which had been put up. The only moment of panic I really felt all day was when we couldn't get the strap over her hair. We ended up cutting the strap off and keeping the dress up with packing tape.

My maid of honor was my good friend Alexandra and she was in charge of carrying Nathan's wedding ring around. While we were hanging out at the house, I kept picking the ring box up and handing it to her every time she put it down. She got pretty frustrated with me until we were outside the church. Allie had the ring on her thumb and made a motion with her hands and the ring went flying across the parking lot. I nearly lost it.

We stood around outside in front of the church until someone finally said it was one o'clock (the time of the wedding) and as far as I knew we were no closer to going into the church. It was then they had to tell me the priest was late. Father Hummel had been my pastor at college and had it been anyone else I would have been upset. As it was I laughed and we all laughed when he came speeding around the corner and into the parking lot.

Then of course at the wedding Nathan shoved cake in my face...All in all it was a pretty great day.