Struggling to Contain my Excitement!

Well, we leave tomorrow at 6:35 pm for our East Coast trip! I've been really excited about this trip for quite some time, but an email from my hubby just made my day! We've been really struggling to find a hotel in DC that we want to stay at. Most of the hotels are about $200 a night - even for sub-par ones, so I've been pretty down about it, thinking we wanted to stay less than $150. I figured we'd end up with a dump. Well, we prayed about it last night, and I posted on a forum about it, and got some great suggestions. Mark went on Hotwire and found us a 4-star hotel (The Hyatt in Crystal City) for only $129/night!! It is normally $225/night! I am STOKED! This finishes up all our hotel reservations for the trip, which leaves me all night tonight to just get excited about all we have on our itinerary :) Here's what we're tentatively planning:

Saturday and Sunday: hanging out at Daniel's place / tour of the naval base / seeing the beach (although weather forecast says rain and storms...junk...may have to shop instead...) :)

Monday: King's Dominion all day long (they have 14 roller coasters and they all look awesome!)
Tuesday: Charlottesville (touring Monticello, Ash Lawn Highland, Michie's Tavern, and up north a bit to Montpelier)
Wednesday through Friday: Washington, DC - staying in the stinkin awesome hotel I alluded to earlier

Saturday: NASCAR's Chevy Rock 'n Roll race in Richmond

I'm so excited I don't know what to do with myself!!!! :)

On a sad note, though, I just found out that one of my co-workers' wives passed away on Tuesday of a brain aneurysm at 47 years old. Please keep this family in your prayers. Cal has 3 young children, and while he just lost his wife, he is also, I'm sure, struggling with how to raise these kids on his own. :( Having lost my dad just a little over a year ago, I know it's such a gut-wrenching time. At least I had Mark to lean on - I don't know how I could go through what he's going through.

I'll have to definitely post lots of pics from the trip, though :) I've cleared my memory card and brought my battery charger. I think this may end up setting a record for most pictures taken during a vacation :)

God Bless!!

Amy

Drained

Well, it's Monday morning again, and I am feeling completely wiped out today. This morning I woke up and went for an hour-long walk, which is probably partly to blame. Generally when I exercise in the morning, I feel better, but today I just feel completely drained. Hopefully I'll be able to take a nap over my lunch break, 'cause I need one!

The weekend was a lot of fun - we had everyone who could come over for grilling out Saturday afternoon. Mark and I got to the farm around 10:30am, had a bit of lunch, and then Mom, Amanda and I took off for Dodge to find a patio set for the new deck. We found a really great one, and went home to set it up. Sunday after lunch, we went back to Dodge with the truck to pick up the porch swing we'd been eying the day before, and also a new TV, since Mom's old one bit the dust the other day. After we got things set up at home, Mark and I headed back to Windom. Mark had a very restful weekend, as he had a nice nap during both of our trips to Dodge. Perhaps that's part of the reason I'm so tired and he's so wide awake today? :)

We're looking forward to the weekend! Mark's uncle emailed this morning to invite us up for the weekend Friday night and all day Saturday to Mankato. He has some landscaping to get done, and they also have a pool to take a nice dip in :) Sunday Mark and I are headed to Valley Fair for the day, which will be a nice chance to relax before another week.

Well, I'd better get something more accomplished today :)

Amy

Thoughts on a Friday morning

Well, it's finally Friday again, and I'm excited for a nice, relaxing weekend in Humboldt with the family. Mark's birthday was back on August 1, and my little brother, Jason's birthday is this Sunday, the 17th. One of the things I love the most about where we are right now is that we're only a short 2 hour drive home to the farm. It's so nice to have our own space, and yet be home for a weekend often enough. Granted, I get sick of the drive - it's pretty boring, and I have gotten lost twice now on the trek back home.

I was home back on July 26 and had coffee with my Mom in the morning, then went out to the farm and relaxed a bit before lunch at Sadie's Tea Room with Mom. We shopped a bit afterwards, and then Josh, Michelle, the girls, Michael, Amanda and da Buddy were all over to grill out that evening. It's really so much fun to have family so close - I just wish Dave, Elicia, Dan, Sarah and the kids were closer too :(

We're not sure what's going on tonight, though. We've been so busy this summer that suddenly these weekends just pop up on us and we forget to think ahead anymore. Next weekend, we're going to use up some Valley Fair tickets Mark bought off a lady from work, so we're excited about that! We're both adrenaline junkies, so we're excited for a fun day on all the rides - and this year we may even get to the water park - it was closed last year!

Speaking of theme parks, we just settled on one of the 3 parks we'd been looking at during our trip to the east coast! I think we're gonna head to King's Dominion while we're there - the day or two after we get in to Norfolk. I've heard it's a great park with lots of great coasters, so we're getting excited about that! It'll be so nice this year to have a whole entire week off! Last year, if you recall, we went to Vegas for a week, but while I was there, I had to work 3 days, which made the trip less fun than it could've been. Working on vacation is not fun - especially when everyone else is hanging out and having a good time at the pool. I believe the last time I used so much vacation time in a row was for our honeymoon!

So on another note, I think I've officially lost it! I got up this morning, went for a nice run to the Wellness Center to lift a bit, ran back, showered up, and now I'm going crazy thinking about how badly I want to put up our Christmas tree! You don't know me well if you don't know about my crazy obsession with Christmas. I generally feel the need to celebrate Christmas by mid-July each year, and I'm currently listening to "Jingle Bells" by The Brian Setzer Orchestra with a spiced cider candle burning and drinking my spiced coffee. I love Christmas and everything it stands for - the birth of our Lord! Not to mention how exciting it is to see my two favorite little people - Jacob and Hannah :) Everything surrounding Christmas just makes me glow. I love the decorations, Christmas Eve service, helping others, cozying up by a fire (wait...we don't have a fireplace...), family, friends, baking cookies, the smells, the colors...such a fun time of year :) This year, the Ropte Family Christmas is at our house up in Windom, and we're excited to host - if I could start baking cookies and other goodies right now, you know I would! (Don't I need to test the recipes out first?) :)

*sigh* Soon enough :) But for now, I'll just settle for my VERY favorite time of year, which is, as I mentioned in my last blog post, Autumn :) I'm excited this year to make it up to some of the orchards around the area - something I didn't get much opportunity to last year - and make lots of yummy apple desserts and treats :) Pumpkin ones too! I think I may need to start decorating soon... :)

Well, I suppose that's about all my thoughts for the day.

March / April / May / June / July Update

August 11, 2008

Okay, this is pretty sad - its been since February since I did any sort of an update - an indication of how insanely busy Mark and I have been in the past six months! Time for some highlights!

March
March began with a return trip from my Grandma's funeral in Holland, Michigan, and some much-needed rest! While on the trip, however, there were MAJOR developments with the Eleanor house - we accepted an offer and closed on March 12 - a HUGE relief for us after sitting on the house almost 9 months! That weekend, we drove up to the cities for Ben and Mary Stoner's wedding at Northwestern. Mark's cousin, Greg, was an usher, and it was fun to visit with him a bit at the wedding, and also to see some old HHS alumni! We spent Easter Sunday down in Worthington with the gang, and were lucky to have the Mankato Johnsons join us!


April

April was a very busy month for me, gearing up for Amanda and Michael's wedding in June. On the 5th, I went home to Humboldt for Amanda's first bridal shower and spent some fun time visiting with the family. On the 19th, I went to Waterloo for Amanda's bachelorette party and had a great time painting pottery, eating at the Brown Bottle, and seeing my lil sis get embarassed by all the crazy stuff.

Unfortunately, the night before the party, one of our friends' brothers from back home took his life, so I made a very early morning trip back to Worthington to support Mark and get things ready for Daniel's trip home to be pallbearer. It was a sober reminder of how precious life is, and how we need to be watching out for our friends and let them know they are loved :(

With Daniel being in town, we enjoyed spending time together, and were able to spend a day up in Wisconsin celebrating Grandma Edith's birthday, which was nice. We made it back Sunday in the early afternoon after dropping Daniel off at the airport, and barely made it to Curt's surprise 30th birthday party that Nancy threw for him.


May

In May, we had a bunch of Worthingtonians up to our house in Windom for the evening where we played games and visiteduntil pretty late that night. Everyone got really into Guitar Hero, and we also celebrated Nancy, Curt, and Kristina's birthdays with a fabulous cake!

The second weekend in May, Mark and I went home to Humboldt for the day, and went to Amanda and Jason's ICCC graduation, and then went to Applebee's for lunch, and did alittle shopping.

The weekend after, we finally got a break and were able to have a couple of our our favorite movie and pizza nights in :) Sunday afternoon, we went down to Nancy's place and hung out with Nancy and Curt at the park for a while, and then headed back to their place for popcorn and a movie.

The weekend after, Mark and I had a fun date day in Sioux Falls, completewith shopping, HuHot for lunch, and mini-golf at Thunder Road. Jamie and Heather met up with us there, and we did batting cages before heading to Huset's for a race.

For Memorial Day, we joined the Johnson clan - Dean and Barb even made it out from Arizona! - in Worthington to celebrate. We had a wonderful lunch, and then took a walk down to the Veteran's Memorial park down by Lake Okabena.

June

June started out with a bang with Amanda and Michael's wedding on June 7! This was the culmination of seven years of dating, and now they're finally husband and wife :) Mark and I drove down early to help get all the painting done at the farm so that the house could begin to get put back together before Dan, Sarah and the kids arrived. I stayed through Tuesday and helped clean up, and then visit with the family - especially those Indiana Roptes :)

The next Saturday was Nancy's bridal shower down in Worthington, so I went down to that in the morning and gave the devotional, after which Rachel followed me up to Windom for lunch, but then had to head back down to Nancy's in Brewster. Mark and I spent the rest of the day Saturday out at Clear Lake on the waverunners, and grilled out with friends.

The weekend after, the Buchholz's invited us out for a FBC Worthington get together/grill-out, so we spent the day playing catch-up, and the evening there.

The month ended with Gretchen's bachelorette party down in Kansas City. I rode down with Gretchen's mom Friday evening, and the big day was all day Saturday. We had a lot of fun, even with it being a long day :) Started with a bridal shower brunch, and then a spa party that afternoon. We had dinner at Jack Stack BBQ, and then went to a comedy club to finish off the evening. It was a really fun weekend!

July

July started off with a softball game after which we met up with Karen and Del at Ground Round to visit before our trip to Duluth. They just so happened to be in town, and we were headed out of town, so we thought we'd play catch up for a bit :)

We took another trip up to Duluth, which was a great relaxing trip, although we truly wished we'd planned to stay elsewhere for our camping experience the last 2 days. We enjoyed supper at Bellicio's, Little Angie's, and Pizza Luce, but also toured Glensheen Mansion and went for a bike ride on a double surrey. It was so nice to have a break from all the wedding preparations from the summer.

The second weekend in July was Gretchen and Ryan's wedding in Primghar. We had a really great time down there getting to know her family better, and Mark had fun playing video games with Brittany's boyfriend :)

The third weekend in July I had Nancy and Heather up for a fun girls' night in - complete with homemade pizzas, chocolate dipped goodies and a couple of good chick-flicks :) It was nice to get a chance to relax at home for a change :)

With Mark gone to the second Bachelor party for Curt, I took a day trip down to Humboldt to visit and shop with Mom, and then grilled out with the rest of the family later on that night. It was a nice escape, although getting turned around late at night on the way back wasn't so great.

Well, I'd better get going - God bless you all!

Amy

Autumn / East Coast Trip

I've found myself steadily looking forward to Autumn already - I have been since mid-July, and it makes me wonder what my deal is :) For those of you who don't know already, Autumn is by far my favorite time of year. Hot apple cider, apple butter, apple pie, pumpkin pie spices, the colors, the leaves, the cool, crisp air, bonfires - how could it get any better? :) The only thing I have come to loathe about Autumn is that it's the time of year when I'm alone a lot - especially those days I work from home. Mark works from 7am-3:30pm at Toro, is home for a short turn-around, and then helps his Dad on the farm all night. On those days, I truly crave interaction with human beings. I generally sit at home alone all day working from home, and then sit alone all evening, excepting for a sometimes lengthy walk, or a shopping trip.

On another note, before Autumn rolls around, Mark and I will be off on our trip to visit Mark's brother, Daniel, in Virginia Beach! It'll be out first trip to the east coast, and we're really excited! We plan to spend a couple days in DC, a couple days on the beach, a day at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, and taking in a NASCAR race in Richmond. After the insanely busy summer we've had, we're looking forward to a lot of down time and a chance to catch up on some reading and sleeping :) I'm really excited for the rest of this year :)