Ok....I acquiesced!

Al has been talking about "needing" a new truck for a while. I heard all about how well it would pull the camper and blah blah blah blah! I HATE talking about new cars at all. When we were first married we had a new (ok very very old, but new to us) car every 6 months or so until I finally told him to stop.  He loves to drive through car lots and just "look". I HATE it. Didn't I already say that?

He has been looking and looking for the last 6 weeks and was constantly telling me to come look at the new one he found on the internet. I just finally said ENOUGH and Al has his new (almost) truck. He better enjoy it, because it's going to be around for a looooong time!

It even has an old man's step so he doesn't hurt himself getting out of the back of it.

 

The dogs seem to like it, too. I do have to say that it is very comfortable and we went camping last weekend and it did pull the camper nice.

It's payback time....

I have a friend, Joel, that I have known for 10+ years. I play volleyball with him weekly, and I worked with him forever. He's the biggest prankster you have ever met.

He's also the guy that I know I could call and he would do anything for me (or anyone)......BUT he's also the biggest prankster ever!

When I was in the office, he put scotch tape over the phone receiver so that whoever I was talking to couldn't hear me. One time I came back to the office and he had used at least 3 full rolls of scotch tape around EVERYTHING in my office. It took me an hour to clean it up! When Katie had a first time date with a guy, he googled him and printed out everything he could find about the guy (like 30 pages) and taped it all over the office,  (although he did have help on that one).  Those are just a couple of the crazy things he has done to us that I can think of tonight.

So......tonight it's payback time. He's on his way back from Mexico, so we made a visit to his house tonight. One word of warning for anyone in the future....DO NOT leave a window air conditioner in a ground floor window.....it's not secure! Even if you lock your doors, someone can get in.

We were careful to not hurt or damage anything, but he's not going to be happy when he comes home tonight. I'm just really glad that I don't work in the office anymore (he can't mess with MY stuff) and I think I will make sure my house doors are locked in the near future!

 

(Vaseline is GREAT for door knobs and toilet seats!)

We didn't bring this baby doll....it was actually in his garage? It was very scary. Kind of like "Chucky". We just added the knife and beads.

Again....we did not bring the mannequin....it was in his house! We just fixed her up a bit.

Mariachi's in the window (he's just back from Mexico, we wanted him to feel at home!), freezer paper on the couch. Streamers everywhere, and furniture moved into the other room.

We missed you Joel! :)

How to catch frogs.....

With a broom of course! You didn't know that?

Matt's new hobby....

Matt isn't one to sit around much. Ok, he doesn't mind sitting around, but he has to be doing something while he's sitting around. Usually that means playing X-Box Live with Joe or being on the computer. He's always sending me quick links he found about some craft or cool gadget that he found.

His latest gadget? Cutting bottles. With the help of his Grandpa Art, they made a bottle cutting jig and he's been cutting every bottle he can find.

Basically you just score the bottle with a glass cutter, then pour boiling water in it so that the water is above the score line. Then you pour ice cold water over the outside and it (ideally) breaks along the scored line. He says that his success rate now is up to 75% that break correctly.

He's been sending picture messages of his latest creations and progress.

We have been saving bottles for him, so he brought the jig with him yesterday when we grilled. This is the result of yesterday afternoon:

 

These Absolut glasses are going to be our new "Bloody Mary Glasses" when we go camping. They are the perfect size!

I have plans for the tops as well.

Last spring I found this wind chime in a store. It wasn't very expensive, but I didn't buy it because it would be too easy to make.  The bottle tops would be perfect for it.

Now we need to scrounge for more cool shaped bottles for him to cut (hint hint: if you have any different shaped wine/beer/liquor bottles he would love for you to save them for him!)

Ideally they would have a screen printed label on them like the Sol or Absolut. We are trying to figure out how to seal the label on this Cabo bottle. It would make a nice bowl to put something in.

Now I just need Al to make more shelves to put the new glasses on. I'm running out of room with my beer glasses anyway.

On a side note, we had the BEST beer can chicken last night.

 

And Ava got to show off her new shades.

The Wedding

Joe and Lauren have been dating for over 7 years. We knew we would having a wedding eventually and Joe finally popped the question this spring. Since then Lauren has been planning the perfect wedding, and she accomplished just that.

Everything, including the weather, was beautiful. Before and after the rehearsal dinner and wedding nights the heat index was crazy hot, but for those two days we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather.

We had the rehearsal dinner at our house and it turned out wonderful. (Thank you Mary & Mandy.....I could NOT have done it without you!)

Lauren wanted a very simple, but elegant wedding and it was just that. A mix between Martha Steward and Shabby Chic, it was beautiful.  I normally always have my camera with me, but it was so busy, I didn't take many pictures which is upsetting. I will have to rely on everyone else to send them to me!

The wedding party:

First kiss (okay, first kiss as Mr. & Mrs.):

 

Ava was a ball of the reception, she can't walk yet, so she just was handed around. She was still up until 11:00 or so, then she just crashed and there was nothing that would even make her move she was so sound asleep.

Joe & Ava:

Matt and Ava:

  Sarah & Craig: (Sarah was a bridesmaid and the first one down the isle. She didn't make it half way up when she started crying. Her twin brother was getting married!)

This one was taken right before an unfortunate fall:

 

Congratulations guys! We love you and are so very happy for you and for Lauren to officially be Mrs. Finke!

For the photographer's pictures you can look at them here in 2 weeks or so: http://www.catchlightimaging.net then click on proof. The password is: finke.

Iowa State Fair

I know, I know, I can't believe I haven't written a wedding post yet, I'm waiting for some more pictures. It will be soon.

My first job at 14 was an usher in my hometown for the Wyoming State Fair. We wore lovely little red vests and escorted  people to their seats in the grand stands for concerts. We always went to State Fair. Al and I have lived in Iowa for 20 years now, but last year was the first year we went to the Iowa State Fair.  To say it's different than the State Fair I remember would be an understatement!

Wyoming has a total population of around 550,000 people, while Iowa has 3 million, so naturally the State Fair is going to be a bit larger.  I couldn't find anything from 2009 for attendance, but 2008 had over a million people that attended. It's crazy and it's crowded, but there is so much to see! I wish we had had more time.

On Friday we went to one of the free concerts and watched The Nadas. The heat index was well over 100, even after dark and it was miserable and the beer cost $8.00 each, but we had fun. Here is Matt and Matty being weird:

 

We went back on Saturday and just walked around and looked with Matt. The heat index was terrible again, but it was packed anyway.  We had a few beers, but the prices were terrible.

One of the things the fair is know for is their varied food vendors. There are over 50 things you can buy "on a stick".

We saw "macaroni and cheese on a stick" but I ran out of battery in my camera. We were trying to figure that one out, how do they do that one?

We were going to stop back at this vendor, but just didn't feel like it when we left. They had every manner of desert deep fried. I know they aren't good for you at all, but I bet they tasted great.

 

They have a big animal contest with pigs, horses, cows and sheep. It was so hot that these big guys just panted and didn't move. I'm not sure that they could move much anyway because they were so huge, but I'm sure the heat made it worse. This is Big D, he weighed in at 1,212 pounds:

 

They had every farm animal you can imagine on display: smallest horse, smallest cow, largest everything, elk, ostrich, llama, and of course a catfish.  We had to run through the chickens. I found a few breeds I will look at next spring when we buy new ones.

It was a good weekend, will have to make reservations for next year!