Sick and confined

I am sick, bleh. Which is why I haven't blogged much this week, but I can tell you about being sick. I know this will excite you oh so much!
So it turned out I started feeling crummy on Saturday and then got worse until Monday when I went to the doctor. She said just a virus you should be better by Wednesday call back if something changes. oh go i though so went home took come cough syrup and conked out. I woke up freezing and sweating humm not good. John came home took my temp and it was 103 degrees. So we called the dr's office and left a message for her for the next day. Tuesday she calls can you come back in I want to run a few tests. It turns out I have the flu. How I got it I don't know and how it is the flu is strange because its more like one of the worst colds you've ever had combined with a light non-puking flu. Anyways enough details on that. Because of our company's policies I have to know if its the H1N1 flu which my Dr was pretty sure it is.

So now John can't go to work because of me being sick and I can't go anywhere at all so I don't get anyone else sick. I'm starting to feel a bit better not but better and I'm really ready to be done w/ this and get back to life. I am having to miss the county fair because of this and its really nice outside and i want to be doing things!

Darn pigs, how does a vegietarian get the 'swine flu' anyways? :)

4th of July flash back

The 4th of July has come and gone but I have yet to post about it!
For the 4th weekend we went to the Jazz fest in Iowa City. A traditon for us as this is one of the events we did on the day we got engaged.

looking back towards the festival


Masala how I love your Indian food!


Thanks to Lynne for our Roxie Red White and Blue 4th of July wine!


Creepy!

Montgomery's mustache

You'll probably need to click on the picture to blow it up to see Montgomery's Mustache

i'll take 90lbs to go please

warren dunes state park

warren dunes state park

playing around in the water

taking a swim in the water (that is Kristel)

A picnic super on the beach reminds me our honeymoon in Mexico

Loving the sun and sand!


sunset on the beach is delightful

The campground


Our camping area


St Joseph river, view from our campsite


We went to pick up the blueberries Monday morning. All the blueberries fit into the car. We were a bit nervous about that as we had all our camping gear in the car.
90 lbs of blueberries. Tasty.


I loved the SW part of Michigan great fresh fruit, great nature things to do (beach, camping, hiking, etc), loves of winery, interesting and fun restaurants. John and I will defiantly need to make a trip back again soon.

Blueberry note: I just have just a few fresh berries left as I have frozen the rest of the 20 lbs we got for ourselves. I can't wait to enjoy them all winter long. Yummy!!

learning about Michigan

We stayed in Berrien Springs, MI at Shamrock Park campground. I would highly recommend the campground as its clean, well taken care of, and has nice bathrooms.
In town they have a university- Andrew's University.

This is what a field of blueberries look like! Wow!


Sunday we took a trip to the blueberry 'place' to skope it out and place our order for 90 lbs of blueberries!


On the way back to our campground. We went to St Julian Winery in Paw Paw, MI


At the winery they offer tours and tastings. After we tasted some very nice wine we got to see the operation and learn a lot about grapes and wine making. A lot of fun!

The wine 'curing' in the barrels


checking out the wine


this is where the grape juice is stored before its made into wine


Another stop on the way back to get groceries turned out to be a wonderful surprise for me. We wanted to get ice, cheese, and turkey (this would be for john not for me). We looked and looked all over the store for turkey with non to be found. It turns out this is an all VEGETARIAN grocery store. Yup no meat at all and its the size of a normal sized hy-vee. I was in heaven looking at all the veggie products. How cool is that!


As we were camping on the St. Joseph river we had some geese that likes to hang out at our camp ground.

More to come stay tuned...

Mission: Blueberry

On July 11th John and I set off to Michigan for a camping trip. This would not be any ordinary trip as it was a mission... (flash back to Decorah camping trip) Janet and I where discussing blueberries and how she wasn't going to able to get anyone to go this year. I said to John we've never been to Michigan. Do you want to drive to Michigan to get blueberries? Yes was the anwser so we started planning our trip... (back to now time). So the blogs today and to follow we'll share our trip to get blueberries and the wonders we discovered in Michigan.

Leaveing our house Saturday morning we had an easy drive as we got to Illinois.


Chicago traffic was not that bad and we were in Indiana!


Getting close to blueberries I could smell them (ok not really!)


After setting up our tent and orienting ourselves with the area we drove down to see Lake Michigan.

Me and large bodies of water, it was ment to be!


Loving our trip so far!

Saturday night we had gotten a small amount of blueberries so john made blueberry pancakes. Oh my were they tasty!

Blueberries blueberries oh how I love you!
More to come tommorrow...stay tuned!

Sunset on lake Michigan

Sorry I've been so MIA the last week. I've been very stressed and busy (any comments of encouragement welcome!). I'll leave you with something new today as I hope to blog about this last weekends trip in the next few days. Also coming up: jazz fest video/photos, fireworks pics (thanks to Lynne for our Red White and blue wine!), and our garden updates. Stay tuned!


We went to Michigan this weekend here is a video of sunset on lake Michigan.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The reason for the event:
Tonight I took John on a date to see Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. John really likes Shakespeare when we've watched it in movies and such and I love supporting local theater so it seemed like a good match. I have never been one for Shakespeare, I always seem lost and confused and didn't previosuly find it entertaining so I was worried (just a tiny bit) what I might be in for.

Evening events:
The evening started off after work looking like server weather was heading our way. On the way to the show we packed up towels, rainproof blankets, umbrellas, and jackets. The theater, Riverside Theatre, is located outdoors in in City Park in Iowa City. It did rain for part of the show then we had a rain delay after about 30 minutes. It was worth the wait for the rain to stop and the show to start again as the show was spectaular.

Review:
This show was AMAZING! I have rarely laughed so hard at a play or enjoyed one so much! The acting, directing, dancing (yes dancing), costuming was top notch. On a scale of 5 I would give it a very solid and high 5. If you get a chance to see this at Riverside Theater or any other theater I would recommend it as its a very accessible piece of shakerspare that will make you laugh till you cry.

Notable quotes from the show:

The course of true love never did run smooth.

—Lysander tells Hermia that they are not the only true lovers who have had troubles.

Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
That is, hot ice and wondrous strange snow.

—Theseus' wonderment at the description of the play that Bottom and his friends are to perform.

O, when she's angry, she is keen and shrewd!
She was a vixen when she went to school;
And though she be but little, she is fierce.

—Helena describes Hermia as she pleads with the men to defend her from Hermia's jealous rage.

To see more productions by Riverside Theater click here.

Doglemma

Puppy love!

We want to get a dog as we now own our own house (even with a yard), and we love dogs. However we keep going back and forth about cost and type of dog. What I need help with is advice about dog sizes. The two ways we go are a chocolate lab (big dog harder to take places, sheds a lot more, melt kristel's heart when she sees them, loves to exerice) or a little dog (like a yorkie) (can go lots of places, can get low/non shed breed, to small to run while biking).
Please give us some advice to help with our doglemma!


This is the girl who made me fall in love with chocolate labs, Chloe. She is John's Aunt Mary Ann's dog. She lives in CA and loves to go on walks, snuggle, and go to the beach. She even plays soccer.
Chloe loves going on walks with John and me (isn't she a cutie!)


Chloe loves the dog beach (and so do I!). We played for hours in the surf!

DUCK!

I was driving to hyvee the other day and I see this on the road before me.


This is why I always carry a camera with me.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July!

We are enjoying our first weekend at home since we moved in. Being lazy, working on projects at our house, and going to jazz fest. These are some pictures I took last year at Coralville's, fireworks show. Have a great holiday!

More drag show viedo!

Such great starts at the drag show that I have to share more video from that great night!
Enjoy!!

Garden growing update

All the rain and wonderful temps have really helped our garden grow quickly. As you can see below...


"potatoes" garden; i saw the first bloosom on one of the plants. These will be purple potatoes.

Other side of the potaotoe garden.

You can now see the baby green beans :)


My baby peppers, i'm watching you and waiting to eat you!


"grape" garden
Our grapes are growing quickly. I don't know what kind they are so if you know how to figure this out I could really use the help!
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The fence garden.

Fence garden is growing well. The mulch is really working as I haven't spend more then 20 minutes since we planted pulling weeds.

I have 3 roma tomatoes that are getting pretty big

Cherry tomatoes are almost ready!

The cucumbers have blossoms that opened for the first time today (soon we'll be over run with cucumbers and I can't wait! If you like cucumbers and would like some aka you live close let me know and i'll put you on my list if we have to many veggies)

Lillys in full bloom

One of the the clematises
The first harvest this year from the garden (other then herbs) to heirloom radishes.

I'm so ready to start eating out of the garden!!