Love Don’t Cost A Think…My Ass!

 

Happy Friday! Is September over yet? It’s been really dragging on! I am super excited about Fall though. Yesterday while on the road there were pumpkins everything! I love fall decorations!

Last week, while my good bloggy friends Mrs. K from Down At Fraggle Rock was on her honeymoon, I guest posted! It was my very first guest post and it was super fun to be apart of it!

Today, I thought I’d share with all of you what I wrote!

Enjoy!

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For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Lindsay and I blog over at Small Town Kind Of Life. I’m a small town girl (title, duh!) and l got married on May 12th, 2012. So, I guess that makes me a newlywed but it sure feel like it’s been longer then that.

Seriously though, marriage is no joke! So, any of you ladies that are thinking about getting married sit down as I tell you the cold hard truth.

1. Being in love is expensive! First there is the dating period where you go out of your way to make that person feel special….$Cha-ching$!

Then, you get engaged and that perfect ring is sitting lovingly on your finger…$Cha-ching$!

Then comes marriage and we all know that that isn’t free! The dress, the caterer, the photographer, the flowers…$Cha-ching$!

All of the sudden your married and now you need a house. There’s bills to pay and people to feed…$CHA-CHING$!!!!

So, get out of la-la land and realize that not only is love NOT free, it’s pretty damn expensive!

2. The honeymoon bubble doesn’t just pop. It EXPLODES!

There’s a stage shortly after you get married when everything is still puppies and rainbows. You are reminiscing about the wedding while holding hands gazing into each other's eyes. 

All of the sudden that honeymoon stage goes all exorcist on your ass. Green vomit and everything!

It’s horrible. It’s when reality strikes and you can’t help but look at that person sitting across from you and think, “Oh geez, I’m stuck with this person, forever!” You have a fight. A big fight probably because everything is so peachy keen at first and you’ve been holding it in.

3. Boy stuff sucks!

If you are as fortunate as I am to not live with your husband before the wedding they will begin moving their stuff in.

After the 4th deer head and 18th souvenir beer glass you crack! How can one man have so much junk?

Between trying to put away new beautiful wedding presents and throwing out carefully camouflaging your husbands junk possessions, it’s enough to make a girl drink, heavily.

4. Ohh….you thought that they smelt bad before hand? HA!

After the wedding either your sense of smell gets heightened or the cork comes popping off of your husbands smelly pipe!

They take being smelly to a whole new level.

The socks and shoes…*cring*

5. The most important reality check….

You realize that through all the junk, the smell and over mountains of bills, you can’t help still being completely and madly in love with this person.

You realize that no matter what you are going through this person is always going to be there for you, no matter what.

That this person, who’s head you occasionally want to rip off, is your everything. Though thick and thin. The good and the bad. You are completely and inexplicably in love!

***You may now stop gagging***

I’d like to thank you Down at Fraggle Rock for having me!

I can’t wait to hear from the newest member of the Mrs. club and all about her nuptials! In the meantime, feel free to stop by my blog and say hi!

xo

Bride & Groom – Part 2

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week is going by fairly slowly but I am starting to get a glimpse of October! See you later September!

Last week, I showed you part 1 of the wedding pictures of just Ry and I! Here is part 2 of my favorite pictures with my groom!

We moved inside and I knew from our engagement pictures that these pictures would be awesome! I love that we have wedding pictures inside our home!

Ryan helping me across the road to my brother’s house! This was not a posed shot at all! But, I love it!

 

Behind my parent’s house is one of our sod fields!

Behind the nice turf field was a patch of yellow weeds! Which ended up being perfect for pictures!

Happy Wednesday!

xo

Army Run 2012 Weekend!

 

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had an amazing weekend!! On my weekend, I anticipated my upcoming 5 Km race for the Army Run.

I set a goal for myself in the spring, run a 5 Km race. A great friend of mine, Ryan, agreed to run with me in the Army Race in the fall. I had trained using the couch to 5k app all summer and finally race weekend was here!

On Friday afternoon, Ry and I drove downtown to pick up the race kits! It was neat seeing all the military equipment set up. Our race kits contained a running shirt and race bib with chip.

While downtown we decided to grab some supper at The Heart & Crown.

Saturday morning it was up with the birds because my internal clock won’t let me sleep in. Boo! I puttered around the house and did laundry.

In the early afternoon I hit the road and picked up Jilly for an impromptu dinner and movie! I had remembered I had a two for one pass that was about to expire and Jill agreed to come with me!  

We went to see The Campaign. Although there were some funny parts I wouldn’t give it an A+ rating.

We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed back across the ferry to home!

That evening I got all of my stuff set out for the next morning, race day! I had to try to calm my nerves. I was so nervous. It’s not that I was worried about running. I had been training for this all summer. What worried me the most? The crowd.

I’m not a very fearful person. One thing that causes me anxiety? Crowds. Specifically, crowds all going in one direction. I learnt of this fear many years ago on a weekend trip to Ikea. While the crowd was all heading in one direction around the store my breaths became short, my eyes blurry and my chest tight. I immediately ran away and bolted out of the store and haven’t been back since. Hockey games and concerts, while leaving, bothers me as well.

When my running buddy and I arrived at the race site early Sunday morning, I knew I was in trouble.

The race began at a pretty slow pace as the crowds tried to spread out. I tried to keep my head down to avoid looking at the crowd in front of me.

Ryan said that 2 minutes in he could see my breaths become very short and shallow which seemed odd being how much I had trained.

I kept running, barely breathing from the anxiety but knowing the only way to get away from the crowd was to keep moving.

Right around the 4 Km mark a lady came out of the blue to try to pass me. I guess she miss stepped and then bumped into me. I completely lost it! Anxiety took over me full force and caused me to slow down. I was no longer breathing and shaking like a leaf. Trying my hardest not to make a scene. I kept moving but it was hard as I couldn’t calm my breathing. We kept moving and finally made it to the finish line where I just moved out of the crowds way to regain my composure.

I was very pleased to get my metal at last. I wasn’t too happy with my chip time of 34.32 minutes but I was happy that I didn’t stop and I did run the whole race.

Also, a BIG thank you to my running buddy, Ryan for joining me. The poor guy didn’t know ahead of time about my anxiety and I might have scared him a little!

Thanks Schreiber for not leaving my side during the panic attack!

How was your weekend?

xo

Canning Tomatoes

 

Happy Friday everyone! I don’t know why but this week has really dragged on. In fact, it feels like the whole month of September has dragged on! It feels like Shawville Fair was months ago rather then weeks ago. I guess that’s just preparing me for the long winter months ahead.

I think one of my favorite things about Fall is getting ready to hibernate for the winter. Getting the pool shut down, patio furniture put away and harvesting the garden.

This years garden was pretty meek. The drought really kicked the butt of most of my plants. My tomato plants on the other hand? Thrived!

This year I planted 8 tomato plants and yielded many tomatoes. Of course, I don’t like raw tomatoes so I have to process them all. I figured today I would share with you all how I do that.

1. Grab a canning pot and fill it full of water. Put it on high and begin to get it to boil. This is one big pot of water and takes a long time so go ahead and get that started!

2. Fill a LARGE bowl with cold water and ice and place it in your sink. Some people just place the tomatoes right in the sink but did you know your kitchen sink is one the ‘germiest” places? Yuck!

3. Take a smaller pot of water and allow it to boil. Grab a tomato and at the bottom of the cut it with a “X”. This just helps with the peeling process.

4. Place as many tomatoes as you can in your pot of boiling water. Cook for 30 seconds.

5. Immediately, remove from boiling water and place in ice water to stop the cooking process. Allow tomatoes to cool completely! 

6. Begin removing the skins from your cooled tomatoes. They should literally fall off.

7. Cut away any marks or bruises and remove core. Now, you can either keep the tomato whole or dice them like I do. I just like doing the extra step so that when I use my tomatoes they are already diced for me.

8. At my “prep” station I always keep two bowls/pots. One is for the good pieces of tomatoes that I will be putting in mason jars like this:

And the other is a scrap bowl. You accumulate alot of scraps fairly quickly so it’s nice having a scrap bowl right on hand.

9. In CLEAN and STERALIZED jars you will need to put the following;

Pint Jars: 1 tbsp Lemon juice and 1/2 tsp of sea(or canning) salt

Quart Jars: 2 tbsp Lemon juice and 1 tsp of sea(or canning) salt

10. Using a canning funnel. Scoop pieces of diced tomatoes into jars. Using the end of a wooden spoon (or something like that) smash down any air to make room for as many tomatoes as possible. Leave a 1/2 inch of head space between where your tomatoes and where you would put on the lid.

11. Place CLEAN and STERILIZED canning lids on jars and screw tightly. GENTLY, place jars in canning pot of boiling water. Cover with canning pot lid.

Allow to cook 35 minutes for Pint jars and 45 minutes for Quarts.

When are the time goes off, remove from canning pot with specialized canning thongs. Very hot!

12. Allow jars to sit. You will begin hearing some popping sounds of the seals. Very normal! By the time the jars cooled completely you would be able to test that the top of the lid does not move up and down when pressed on.

Store your canned tomatoes until you are ready to use them in your favorite recipe! After opening a jar and eating your fresh tomatoes in the dead of winter you can’t help but taste summer!

Out of 8 tomato plants I got 20 quarts and 5 pints of diced tomatoes.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

xo

Bride & Groom – Part 1

 

Happy Wednesday everyone! I sure hope you all are having a great week! It’s getting chillier around these parts lately. It really feels like fall! I’m still holding on to not breaking out the socks just yet. I am going to wear ballerina flats for as long as possible.  I hate wearing socks.

Today, I’d like to show you some of the wedding pictures of just Ryan and I. To be honest, I never thought there would be so many only because our photographer was very good at having the two of us pose in between other sets.

The pictures of my groom and myself are very special to me and I have yet to pick a few to frame for the house. Too hard to choose! Enjoy.

Happy Wednesday!

xo