This post is long overdue, I know. Thanks friends and family who noticed I wasn’t posting – it makes me feel loved to get the occasional “what’s up?” email.  =)

In the last few weeks, I have:

• bought a house
• bought plane tickets to Hawaii for Christmas
• moved
• bought a couch
• started doing laundry again (the laundry is no longer in the freaky, spider-infested, silence-of-the-lambs-style basement)
• hosted a bachelorette get-together
• been a matron of honor (married off a good friend)
• become a Cleveland Indians Super Fan (finally bought that hat!)
• started and finished an art project (husband and I desperately needed to feel like we’d accomplished something)
• started to digitize old home videos (finally, mom – and I’m getting teary and nostalgic, especially about Leah)

Life is starting to be a little less hectic.  I don’t know if I’d call it settled down, but at least I’m not worrying about moving and putting a wedding together at the same time anymore…  Now I’m just concerned with unpacking and working full time and holding down the equivalent of two part-time jobs in my “spare time” and being out every weekend and having plans with friends every week night…

But hey.  At least I’ll have things to talk about, right?

Here’s something funny.  I’m recording a vhs onto my hd as I type here (fast processors are SO nice), and this particular section, going on 15 minutes now, is my mother taping traffic through a tunnel.  =)  I know why she let the video record like that – we thought she was taping the road (and that she wasn’t very good at recording home videos), but she was really capturing the audio of us on a long drive.  She’s a smart woman – none of us would let her tape us if we saw the camera pointed at us.  I’m glad she did it this way.  =)

Oops… didn’t post again.

Our anniversary was wonderful. Of course. This entire year has been wonderful.

Dave gave me these. =) First flowers he’s ever bought for me, even though I’ve been teasing him about giving me flowers for 2 or 3 years. Know what he said? He told me he’d give me flowers once a year for the rest of our marriage – a red one for every year we’ve been married, and one white one for the year to come. How sweet is he?!

I miss my family. Half of them are in Hawaii and the other half are in Pennsylvania – I get to see them all in PA in a couple of weeks!

Mom, Dad and Leah just spent the last couple of days touring the Big Island, and are now back in O’ahu. Mom sent me some photos, which is what set me missing them today…

Look at these (isn’t my mother beautiful!?). Click to see bigger photos.

Tonight, we’re being bums. I begged Melissa to bring me our old Super Nintendo (we saved up and bought it together when they first came out, about 15 years ago now), so we’ve had it for more than a month. Problem was, she didn’t bring a power adapter. So… we went on a hunt and found one in a used game shop in Anderson (the guy just happened to have one in his “junk box”), and have been playing a lot of Zelda this past week. Dave’s playing tonight.

I’m posting Grandpa’s stories like I said I might – turns out he reads my blog (!) and that he says it’s okay (hi, Grandpa!!) – on the Aukerblog. Check it out.

My Grandpa rocks. =)

First of all, he got himself an email account so now I get to keep in touch with him. (Email’s the only way to guarantee I’ll keep in touch – it’s easy and you don’t have to wait for a convenient time, unlike writing, cards or phone calls.)

AND – and this is the cool thing – he’s started writing down stories. Stories about his childhood. This is the greatest thing – now his grandkids can get to know him as he was then and can get a better picture of who he is now. =)

Sometimes I look at David and am sad. Someday, we’ll have kids. They’ll have kids. Our grandkids won’t know the David I know and love now – and he’s so wonderful! I know that we all change and that most of the time that’s a good thing, but as often as I can (as often as he’ll let me), I take pictures and videos of him – I want our kids to know him as he is now. I wonder a lot about what my parents and grandparents were like when they were my age, just starting out in marriage, in careers…

So, I’m so excited that Grandpa’s started writing things down! It’s a window into the past, into who my grandfather is. =)

I’m thinking of putting those stories online. Anyone (*cough* Mom *cough*) want me to?

My sister came to visit!

It was a surprise… She’d mentioned coming at some point, but I figured she meant in a few months, once she’d gone home and gotten settled in Pennsylvania and got tired of being out there.

Instead, she came this weekend. She’d planned to come earlier in the week, but crazy car troubles (including a tow truck dropping her car from the truck bed into traffic and almost into a brick wall!) delayed her. I was glad she made it at all with all the drama…

She met us at Dave’s parents’ house on Thursday, just in time for our weekly dinner with the family (usually just us, Dave’s parents, Dave’s brother and his fiancee) and left early this morning. We got to spend time lounging about together on Friday while David worked. (I guess there’s one plus to being out of a job! I took some time off of the job search and trying to figure out unemployment to hang out with Melissa. If I’d had a job, I wouldn’t have had Friday to spend with her.)

When Dave got home, we made dinner, played some Cities and Knights (I won!!), then watched some Monty Python (yes, Melissa, I think it’s a little funny) and a little Scrubs. We had some good chances to chat – it was nice for me to get to catch up with her… I’ve been getting most of my info second-hand through Mom. It’s not that Mom does a bad job of relaying things, it’s just that I like hearing how my sister’s doing from my sister herself.

Anyway, it was a wonderful couple of days, and already I’m looking forward to the next time she comes around. She’s promised to stay for more than a day and a night next time. =)