Woo hoo it's Wednesday!

It's Weekly Update Time!  And today's feature is....our getaway this last weekend to the lovely city of Duluth, MN!  We had a fabulous time - it was a super nice B and B we stayed in.  It's called Cotton Mansion.  It's tucked away in a neighborhood up on the hill and away from the less tourist-y area of Canal Park, I liked that it was a little more secluded.  The food was fantastic, our room was nice, I would totally do it again!  Below are some pictures that highlight our stay.

The bed was comfy, it takes up most of the room and it smelled like lavender

We had a fireplace!  Wish we had one in our own home!

Took a side trip to Gooseberry Falls State Park, aka, one of my favorite places in MN!

Nice self portrait of the two of us!

We visited Gooseberry Falls and we also tried some delicious smoked trout and cheese and ate at Fitgers too.  Couldn't have planned a better getaway.  Seriously awesome.  I would like to try some other B and B's now too.

Now we're into Holy Week which isn't nearly as packed as me as it used to be when we were at IC.  I'm going to the Good Friday service by choice, but that's about it for Holy Week this year.  Sunday we are doing Easter Mass with Praise Project at St. Tim's and then having dinner with my parents and celebrating my mom's birthday.  We'll do Easter with Nate's family the following Sunday on Russian Easter.  I'm glad we're continuing that tradition in his grandpa's honor.

That's the latest and greatest.  Things are kind of quiet besides Easter coming up here and you know what, that is ok with me!!

Music Monday - Life's A Happy Song

I think most people know we've had some up and down times so far in 2012, and I know my last few Music Mondays certainly have been downers. But right now, things are good. We had a fantastic getway to Duluth this past weekend that I'll share more about later. In general, I'm just feeling good, so I'm sharing a fun happy song today - Life's A Happy Song from The Muppets. This particular video is from their appearance on Dancing with the Stars this past November. Enjoy.

The news from here

It's time for your weekly update! And hey, let's get some happiness up in here! Sound good? All right!

So even with the events of last week, we managed to have a really nice weekend actually. Nate and I did something kind of out of the box for us - went to a late night movie after our Praise Project rehearsal on Friday. I was just itching to see The Hunger Games and I knew if we didn't go this last weekend it would likely be several weeks before we had the chance. I'm a huge fan of the books and I just had to see this movie in the theatre on a big screen.

Surprisingly Nate agreed to my crazy idea of hitting up the later showing on Friday down at St. Anthony Main. We figured, added perk, grab a happy hour beer over at Pracna and then see the movie. We got down there in plenty of time, it was probably ten to 9 (movie time was 9:50), so we bought our tickets right away. The guy behind the counter said "they'll probably start lining up over there in a little bit" pointing to a hallway right when you come in the main entrance. We kind of scoffed and are like, we're not going to stand here for the next hour when we could be drinking beer. So we grabbed a beer at Pracna and probably sat there all of 15 minutes. We stopped at the restroom and came back - the line was rather long. Probably should have listened to the ticket guy. In the end, it wasn't so bad though, we got nice seats on an aisle.

I loved the movie. I won't say anything else for fear of spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen it. I'll just say this if you haven't seen it - Get thee to a movie theatre ASAP. You won't be sorry. It was very well done. We were quite possibly the oldest people in attendance too, but I don't care!

The rest of the weekend was very family oriented, got in some quality time with my mom as we both kind of needed it, we visited my Auntie Mary and Nate and I got in some quality time with members of his family too. It was really the best kind of weekend that way! I also received some new clothes thanks to the lovely Ali and my awesome cousin Kelly - so in a way I'm like, shopping ban? What shopping ban?

I had my one year follow up to LASIK yesterday. My eyes are fantastic. I'm not bragging, they actually said that to me. My vision is exactly how it should be and they said my eyeballs themselves do not show any signs of surgery any longer! You couldn't ask for more.

Now Nate and I are gearing up for our bed and breakfast getaway in Duluth, I could not be more excited to be in one of my most favorite cities for a couple of days. Hoping for good weather since last time we were up there we didn't make it to Gooseberry Falls and I really want to go walk around there a bit.

That's about all that's new here. Back to you Reader. (Weak attempt at a news joke)

Farewell sweet queen

I've been trying to find the words to write this post and I still don't think I have them. I'm going to give it a try though since it's part of the healing/grieving process.

Thursday I went over to my parents for my usual lunch hour. My mom came out of the bathroom when I came in the door and she was crying. My heart sank. "I think Cleo had a stroke," she said. I started to cry a little too, though somehow, those words weren't terribly shocking to hear. I have a weird, almost creepy sixth sense about this kind of stuff and I had been having a feeling for a couple of weeks that this was coming.

We sat down and started talking and I told my mom it was time to let her go. The vet had always said we'd know when it was time, and based on the symptoms my mom was describing, it was clearly time. Cleo was sleeping, rather unresponsive, not able to walk. We agreed that neither of us wanted her to be suffering. My dad needed convincing though, he was sort of thinking she might snap out of it, as she has with several other issues over the last couple of years, but it was pretty clear this time that it wasn't going to happen. So, I finished lunch and I left mom when she said she'd be ok and she said she'd talk to my dad about it and hopefully do what was necessary, maybe even that afternoon.

Unfortunately, it drug out to Friday morning. But, my dad came around and agreed that it was time and they got her in on Friday around 10:00 am. She was more or less sleeping and out of it, and thankfully did not appear to be in any pain. The vet said they were making the right decision, difficult as it was. With my parents by her side, she went very peacefully. The vet staff were extremely kind during the entire process. They even took back some of her unused special diet kidney food and took all of her medications to be destroyed.

I came for lunch on Friday and painful as it was, was hoping it was over. I made my peace with it on Thursday and said my goodbyes, not really feeling I wanted to be there at the very end. I just hoped that she was suffering no longer. And I came in the door and found my poor mom packing up all her old stuff and I knew it was done. And we cried some more, but we again agreed this was the right thing to do and she's in a better place.

Again, I'm sad about it, but I'm not overcome with grief. I'm sure it's because, as my mom said, she really was more her cat for the last ten or so years as I was busy with college and getting married and then moving out. Or maybe I'm just numb right now, but I think that it would be different if I was still there every day. I think it'll hit me more when my parents go out of town in a couple of weeks and I go get the mail for them and she won't be there.

My mom was having a hard time over the first couple of days and I think she will be sad for awhile to come, but she is getting better each day. Getting used to the new normal. We went out for some retail therapy on Saturday (well she did, I just drove since I'm still on shopping ban for Lent) and just spent some much needed time together and I think it helped a bit.

They will not get another pet. At least not in the foreseeable future. They are also finding the positives in the situation, such as now they can be a bit more spontaneous, if they want to drive up north for the day and stay the night, they don't have to worry about having someone come care for the cat. Little things like that. And they said that they have their "grand-kitties" (my cats) to come love on whenever they need a kitty fix.

Still, it is strange right now. I sat over there for lunch yesterday and kept seeing shadows and thinking she'd be coming around the corner. My mom said she's used to looking out for her when she's doing stuff in the kitchen, because she'd always be underfoot, so that feels weird right now too.

The only thing that helps is time. I know that it will get easier each day and I can already see my mom getting better with each day.

We have wonderful memories. She was a sweet and very special cat. And she will be missed and loved forever. She'll always be our queen of the house.

Side note - go here for a post I wrote reflecting on Cleo a bit a couple of years ago around the anniversary of when we adopted her.

Time flies in the best of ways

Even 14 years in I can't forget this day. No we don't celebrate it anymore but I can still never forget what happened 14 years ago today. I've spent almost half my life loving this man.

Senior Prom - 2000

Winery trip Fall 2011

Could I possibly love him more?

Yep. Every single day for the last 14 years I've loved him more than the last.

And I always will.

Foodies

Weekly update time! It's very "foodie" today.

Over the weekend Nate tried his hand at using a meat smoker to smoke some meats for us. He did a slab of bacon and a pork shoulder, that we then turned into pulled pork for sandwiches. And OH-EM-GEE it is FANTASTIC!!! I know I brag about his cooking all the time, probably too much, but you guys, this pork? Best pulled pork I've ever had. It puts the Fun Fest pork guys from IC to shame. It puts Famous Daves and other BBQ places to shame. You don't need BBQ sauce, just eat it as is. Eat heaping amounts of it. The bacon turned out rather amazing as well - it's not like it is when it comes right off the stove. You can fry it on a stove if you want, but you can eat it more or less as is right when it comes out of the smoker. So it's a bit fattier/less crispy, which takes some getting used to, but again, the taste is out of this world. I think this new hobby will be a fun one. I just hope we don't gain 70 pounds or something.

While Nate worked on the meat I baked cupcakes again. I made Irish "Carbomb" type cupcakes - there was Irish stout in the batter and Baileys in the frosting. To date, they are the best cupcakes I've made. The cupcake itself was moist and delicious and the frosting? Oh man the frosting. I could sit and eat that by the spoonful. I don't know how many more cupcake recipes I'll make before it gets really warm out, I don't know that I'll make a lot them over the summer, but it's been a fun winter hobby.

Nate enjoyed his time off, looking forward to a little more soon, it's almost our little weekend getaway to Duluth. I am so excited, it'll be nice to get away, even if it is just over a weekend!

That's about it. Rather food heavy update, but that's what we're into right now!

Three times the Muppety goodness

I would be amiss as a Muppet fan if I didn't inform you all of three very awesome Muppety things for today, March 20th, 2012.

1. The Muppets movie comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray today. I'll be buying my copy from Best Buy thanks to a leftover Christmas gift card - so I won't even be breaking my shopping ban too much at all!

2. The Muppets received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame today. Very exciting and awesome for them!! About darn time!

3. Big Bird from Sesame Street is celebrating a birthday today. He is six years old. For about the 43rd year in a row. Happy birthday Big Guy!