Venues and Piggies!

I live in a strange relationship with my husband-to-be.

We've been together for a little over 5 years now and things have changed a lot since we first met in German class. For starters, we're not so embarrassed to kiss in public anymore... (although grabbing of asses is still frowned upon.) and the special visits to the "couples store" down south, would have left us both speechless and nervous a couple years ago.

However, the only thing that hasn't really changed, is our visiting schedule... I get to see him maybe once to twice a month... and while this has grown from dates to the movie theatre and Wendy's for lunch -- to spending the night at one's house for a couple of nights, it still becomes a little emotionally tiring when you haven't seen your man in almost a month, and the only times you can "talk", is when he's not too exhausted to sneak onto Yahoo after working from 11 at night to seven in the morning.

This last "weekend" (it's not really a weekend, it's just what i refer our 'visits' to...) was definitely emotional in a lot of different ways, but for the most part, it was worth it. Though we have yet to iron out our sleeping schedules, it was nice to be able to have the house to ourselves while his dad was away for some Navy-stuff. It was like living together -- a goal we've been working on for the past few months.

After three nights of knitting, reading my new books (1, 2, & 3), watching several movies (okay, probably like 100...) and countless chicken meals (mmmm... cheeeekin! -- and yes, that's the hubb's blog!) we managed to have a day to ourselves and get out of the house, letting him spoil me all to hell at our local hobby store (and guilty pleasure...), leaving with 4 new colors of yarn for socks (one looks like pumpkin pie, and one's made of wool so i can do some kool-aid dying! booyah!!!) a new loom, some piping tips, and a sigh of relief.

Ah, but our day was not yet done!


Meet Kaya, the newest addition to our clan... er... family.
She is -- by far -- the cutest 30 dollars he's ever spent. lol. A long-haired calico guinea pig who's only a month or so old, she's the younger sister (or possible mate o.O) to our older piggy Kurumi. (he's a short-haired brown hamster with pepper-like flecks. He totally looks like a groundhog... lol) She's super tiny compared to Kuri, and she's the calmest little thing i've ever seen! she'll snuggle and cuddle and even purr! (i've never seen a guinea pig purr, but she does!)


So we needed a name that would fit... right? Well... all of Jim's pets have Japanese (or Asian) names... "Kurumi, Ichigo, Renji" (yes the last two are from Bleach, but that's besides the point.. lol) so we didn't feel right naming her "Isabelle" or "Julia"... so after some internet-time, we came up with the name "Kaya" meaning "Restful Place" (because, you know... naming your guinea pig after a grave is totally awesome.. haha) but it's her. She's the calmest and most chill pig we've ever seen!

Okay okay... enough squealing over fluffy new babes... on to the wedding bits....

After taking Kaya home and getting her situated in the air-conditioning, we grabbed some Pizza (Papa Johns, thou art truly a god!) and breadsticks, and made our way to our possible venue to take some pictures and enlighten friends and family as to our Celticy, pumpkiny plans.

(Unfortunately, we couldn't get pictures of the shelter yet, since there was a family using it to have a rather-large picnic... so we'll come back next week maybe and grab some then...) But in the meantime...

Park porn!

Firstly, one of our main concerns is where to have the ceremony... the walking down the aisle, the vows, all that good stuff that's kind of the whole reason you're having the wedding... So since we wanted this outside, we had to find somewhere out of the sun, and yet not in a shelter...

[underneath that tree over there, is where
we'd set up the arch and the chairs...]

It's close to the shelter with a stone fireplace, for the reception (left, but not pictured) and a playground for the kiddies.... (below)

There's a huge field separating the two... but not too huge so that the older family members wouldn't be able to make the trek. Those family members who are used to our covered bridge festivals and pioneer days, should be used to parking and should know how to get to the wedding without wearing out their feet.

"Covered bridge?"
Yes. Covered bridge. Indiana has a ton of them... this one in particular has been moved from Riley Indiana over here to Fowler Park to bridge the gap between a creek, and the lake.


Around October and November (The amazing autumn months when this park glows with fiery goodness and geese, and indian corn, and all that amazing stuff that makes autumn my favorite season...), our little city -- which for the most part is boring as hell...-- holds two festivals. (often they overlap eachother, which is fine by me!)

[Some of the bricks on the bottom of this picture are
actually stamped with names. Some of them are
"in memory" of, some of them are company names]

The "Covered Bridge Festival" where we celebrate the history of covered bridges, (since there aren't that many left). This usually involves a lot of kitschy items (think those country yard ornaments with the woman bent over, or the cowboy sihlouette) for sale, along with homemade fudges, brownies, candies, and etc. with lemonade stands, kettle corn, and other yummy things crowd the streets. Lots of live music, lots of things for sale. it's a lot of fun, and something we actually look forward to every year. (i'm going to be looking this year for some yarn or fibers! maybe actually learn to spin... mmm... homemade goodies!)

[Blurry pioneer village is blurry...]

"Pioneer Days" is a Terre Haute tradition, where our locals dress up like Indians and Pioneers, hang out in pioneer villages and tee-pees, craft homemade candles the old fashioned way, tan hides the old fashioned way, play games the old fashioned way, and generally do stuff they would have done back then... with totally modern stalls set up everywhere selling goods of every shape and kind, usually related to Pioneers, Indians, country kitsch, and food. (kebabs, lemon shake-ups, and elephant ears? count me in!) It's often held at the same time as the covered bridge festival at Fowler, and honestly? half the people there couldn't tell the difference anyhow.

[Working church and schoolhouse! The little white
paper by the door is actually advertisting a
church sermon happening last Sunday]

We had fun taking pictures and goofing around at the park, and it was definately something we needed... to take a breath and re-evaluate the day and make me remember why i fell in love with him in the first place.


The pictures he kept taking of me every time i turned around though made me want to tackle him and tie him to a witch-burnin' pole though. ;-) (love you Liebe!)

But despite my personal paparazzi, the insane heat, and the inconvenient family picnic going on at the shelter, the park did provide one really neat feature...

Now if i could just figure out how to fit one of those into the bedroom... ;-)

-Cake42