Cool Cucumber

Last week Rob surprised me with a trip to Denver to see a 3D Imax movie that he knew I would enjoy. U23D! I had never even heard of it, which made it even more exciting. Having been to three U2 concerts before, it felt as if I had a front-row seat the whole time. The only odd part was the quiet of the theater; several spots in the film were so moving and the on-screen crowd was so excited that it felt only natural to cheer or sing along. We had a fun time at the theater with our groovy 3D glasses on, too. I have such a fun husband!

Then today, for a late Valentine’s treat, I made my first apple pie ever for my sweetie! I think I made a pumpkin pie once last year, but it was from a store-bought crust and pumpkin from a can. I made the entire pie today from scratch, including the crust, which was very scary when it started to tear as I put on the top crust. In fact, I had never done a top crust before and had to look up what “vent slits” looked like in my Joy of Cooking.

Here’s the pie just before I put slits in it:

(I just noticed that this photo includes the box of “Live Crickets!” for our class toads at school… and no, that wasn’t what I filled the pie with!)

Here’s the pie just out of the oven (the house smelled heavenly by this point and the apple juices were bubbling out of the vent slits):

It’s pretty on the inside too! This photo was taken to showcase the pie plate that it was baked in. My mom bought this for me as a gift for Christmas, knowing that I loved some of the Polish pottery she has. She has an identical pie plate, making me even more proud to make a pie in this one!

I had a lot of fun making my first pie from scratch and I would recommend it to anyone who has President’s Day off.

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Yes, Rob and I did tie the knot August 11th! Some of you are waiting anxiously for blog posts and I want you to know that I sympathize. I know the feeling of obsessively clicking the refresh button to see updates on Bloglines. I hope this post gives you at least some relief.

This is the cheater’s way out, but we’ve been absolutely consumed with house stuff-merging and my beginning of the school year and ALSO my girls’ weekend in Vegas one week after our honeymoon. I really want to retell my favorite memories from the wedding and honeymoon soon, but it might be another few weeks. Right now we’re having fun vacuuming the house over and over with the new Dyson and trying to get started on thank-you notes.

In the meantime, however, I will give you the link to at least see some of my favorite friends and family photos.

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Our wedding is almost here! Will time please please please hurry up? I can’t believe how slowly this week is going. I suppose it’s helpful that I’m distracted somewhat with school.

While I’m sort of inundated with school things, I realized I haven’t blogged in a while so I should post some photos of what I’ve been up to lately. Here are a few…

Mom visited after I returned from Europe and we spent the day riding around Garden of the Gods. It was AWESOME, and I realized how much I missed cycling. I went for a bike ride the next week with my friend Liz and she took me 20 miles total. Yep, I was sore, but we had a great time.

Rob and I celebrated his upcoming birthday (coming Saturday!), which will be celebrated by our traveling to Argentina. It’s too bad we can’t request a birthday cake… er, pie, on the airplane!

Here’s a photo of us that we took this weekend. I call it Almost Married… probably one of my favorites. We’ve made big progress on the house, and it’s to the point where it doesn’t seem like it’s just mine anymore. We’ve moved in so many of Rob’s belongings that it now seems as if he’s missing from my whole home equation. And he is… for a few days more.

I finished the wedding favors, finally! Sorry to everyone who’s going to be there and whose surprise has been ruined now. I kept marveling at how pretty 90 boxes of chocolate covered espresso beans were. I mean, think about it… all that chocolate… all that caffeine… it’s just beautiful.

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I’ve been mentally composing this e-mail since the first date I had with Rob.

No, listen- seriously- I have! I had a feeling about this one. On our first date, when two blog-geeks went out to eat at No-No’s, he said, “You know we can’t blog about this date, right?”. I nodded, “Of course!”. I was thinking that someday I just might get an occasion to blog extensively about us, just from how well the date was going. He tried to teach me chess that night, and we couldn’t stop talking long enough to play an entire game. I knew that was a good sign.

If you ask Rob, he’ll tell you I hunted him down- and he’s right. We both had left comments on Sexless In the City, which we both discovered reading Rolling Stone magazine (coincidentally, both of our roommates subscribed). I clicked on his blog one night while aimlessly blog-surfing and left a comment immediately. I knew he was something special. In fact, I felt all tingley inside when I read some of his archives and learned more about his beliefs. This led to many long e-mails exchanged, much thinking about who this Internet Rob was, more e-mails, lots of blog comments from both sides, and finally, a face-to-face meeting. Rob’s friends James and Jules, their 4 girls, and my brother Mark were there the first time we met. The five of us ordered Chinese food and laughed until all of our cheeks ached from too much grinning. Here’s a photo from that night (I was so excited when Julie suggested we take a bloggers’ photo!). We look pretty darned happy!

We’ve been occupying each other’s weekends ever since. We run, we hike, we walk the dog and see plays together. We eat and laugh and watch LOST together and always are left wanting more time together. So, to the blogging world that introduced us:

I LOVE the ring… I’m never taking it off.

Rob proposed on Friday, taking me back to N0-No’s for another lovely Cajun meal. He created a CD of special music for us (there’s been a lot of music swapping with this boy!) and told me all about what it meant to have met me. When he pulled out the ring I was too nervous to even touch it, so he had to! He asked me if I would marry him, I accepted, and I even got a little teary. The ring is beautiful and unique; more lovely than I could have picked out myself.

I am so incredibly happy to be marrying this man. I keep smiling when I realize I will be Mrs. Lund in 96 days. The downside? It’s going to go by too slowly!

Today I told the kids in my class that I’m getting married. They all clapped for me and asked, “Is it to the guy who came on our field trip?”. “Yes,” I assured them. I might have annoyed my kids and co-workers at school today when I kept gazing at my ring. Must remember to not be the obnoxious bride-to-be…

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Last week, Rob and I drove to Arizona for my former roommate’s wedding. One result of the 12-hour drive, each way, was a sort of deliriously loopy mood that developed in both of us. Rob became very excited at the idea of taking a photo alongside these dinosaur statues near Holbrook, Arizona. (I will say here that he is a very nice traveling partner and excellent tourist.) Frugal that we are, we chose not to pay the stinking overpriced admission fee to enter the park and take photos legally. Instead, we pulled off the interstate and squeezed under the barbed wire barricade, braving the thorns and burrs that would later lodge into the soles of our feet, in order to capture this lovely photo.

I’m quite proud of it.

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It seems that in Rob’s Lenten blogging-leave-of-absence, I have not been posting much. Oops. I’ll try to do better at updating.

My schedule is full and my mind racing these days, but I’m happy and determined to have fun and not feel overwhelmed. The CSAPs (Colorado big-ol’ standardized tests) start tomorrow. It’s a nerve-wracking experience every year because of its formality, and I will breath a sigh of relief after our 9 days of testing are over. I’m hosting my friend’s bridal shower on Saturday, and after 3 years since buying my townhouse, I realized that this will be my first party. Oh, I want to do it right! The good news (for the bride) is that everyone I invited is attending. Therein is also the bad news. 23 women in my townhome… I hope they’re ready to get close to each other.

For your viewing enjoyment, here are a few photos to illustrate the fun we had last weekend.

Made sushi later… yum. Of course, cukes were left out of my maki zushi.

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