Insert Catchy Title Here

So I am just going to do this as a general update since lots has happened and lots is coming up. But it is all good! No bad news, yeah!!!

Lets start with things that have happened...

This past weekend was Alex's birthday and also Mother's Day. Being the romantic that I am I sent flowers to Alex's work on Friday, even though his birthday was Saturday I still like the concept of getting flowers at work. This company that delivered was awesome, they had the flowers there before Alex even got to work so it was a great surprise for him. Friday night we had dinner at mom's for Alex's birthday and we all gave him his presents. He already knew what he was getting from me because, well...he picked it out. :) It is a beautiful stained glass framing, very abstract and vibrant. The surprise that I had for him was in the card. Now I am not very good at writing poems and being artistic in that manner and I always find myself searching for the words to describe how Alex makes me feel and I always come up short, words can not tell how much he means to me. So I decided that I wanted to try and write a poem, below is the result...

We have not been together long
But you will find I have no doubt
You are the one that completes me
The one I cannot live without

Together everything makes sense
I do not even need to try
We love each other for the things we are
And for that alone I could cry

I find forever in your arms
And love in your touch
I have truly never felt this way
I love you oh so much

I hate it when we say goodbye
I know it hurts you too
When the time comes next year
It will be so easy to say “I Do”

Words fail to do my feelings justice
I can promise you this however
With a kiss and all my love I vow to you
My heart is yours now and forever

I hope the readers like :) It took a chunk of a day for me to get it right and I think it turned out well. Saturday was more birthday events consisting of lunch with mom, shopping at Specially Yours, dinner at Saji Ya, the best truffles ever for dessert and a nice quiet evening together.

For the past few years since my mom has died Mother's Day has been indifferent to me, sometimes hard and sometimes easy. I always like to do something to remember her by on special events like Mother's Day, her birthday and the anniversary of her death. This year I did not know what to do so Alex helped come up with the idea to go to a garden. My mom always loved the outdoors and gardening, it is what she did to relax and have fun. We ended up going to a Japanese garden not too far from where Alex lives and just spent some time there soaking in the quiet beauty of it and remembering mom. It was very special and I am constantly touched by how sweet and devoted Alex is to my happiness...yes I just shed a tear.

Now on to some new and upcoming things...

I just started a new class that will go through the summer, still plugging away at the degree. I am not happy to be going to class in the summer but it needs to be done and it is only one night a week plus some homework, if it was any more than that I might not be able to since things have just been so crazy busy. It is a Stats class and despite the bad stigma I think it will go fine. There are a lot of things to learn but it is analytical and that is how my mind works anyway, time will tell.

I have a Realtor coming to look at my house tonight so I can get it on the market. I know I have not been there long but the area does not work for me anymore. Not just because it is not ideal for Alex but because I now have no close friends. The closest person to me is Alex and that is 25 minutes away. All my friends are 45 minutes to an hour away and that just does not work, it makes me feel too isolated. But this is also needed because Alex and I want a place together to call our own and move forward with our lives together. So for that I am most excited. Alex's Aunt Barb has been wonderful in helping figure things out and getting me in touch with the right people. She is a Realtor herself and will be helping with the process but we are getting another person involved that knows the Cottage Grove area. As long as I like the guy tonight it should be listed soon. Pray for the right person to come along and like it!

Tomorrow I meet with the Rabbi about my conversion, so far everything is going well. I have been attending services weekly and doing reading and research on my own. I just bought a new book called Jewish Literacy, which is a absolutely wonderful book. It has just about everything in it that I could ask a question about and want to know. Because of that it is over 700 pages but I have a year to get learned :) I will be bringing that and the other books I have read with me tomorrow so he can see what I have been doing. It has all been very exciting for me and I am more interested as I keep learning. Alex and his family have been great tools as I get to live the life right now and get more involved than many converts get to. I will post more as things progress.

Coming up in June there are two plays that we will be attending, Phantom of the Opera and Chorus Line. Phantom I am super excited for and have wanted to see for a long time. We also purchased season tickets for the Saint Paul theater lineup and are getting half of the season shows for the Minneapolis theater. Many of the shows will be all new to me. I cant remember them all but so I will have to write another post as we get the tickets. I also signed us up for a yearly membership to the Science Museum which is, strange enough, a great deal. It is $70 for two people and we get unlimited access to all permanent exhibits and a free Omni theater show each time we come! So for $70 we can go all we want for a year...score! On top of that we get discounted rates for special exhibits, priority over non members and discounted parking. The exhibit we are going to see in June is Titanic and it is accompanied by a Omni show as well. Alex loves Titanic so it will be great and I love the history and exploration of it all. At the end of June we are going to be doing the Locke version of The Amazing Race! I do not know many details but we are going to have teams of two and we will be going around the city looking for clues and performing little stunts to continue. It should be a blast!

In July we are heading to Door County in Wisconsin for a long 4th of July weekend. We rented a townhouse that will be shared with us and some of Alex's family. It will be perfect and it was much cheaper to do it this way. Door County is a set of cute little towns on the northeastern most tip of Wisconsin. It looks like it will be a great weekend of shopping, eating, events and relaxing. Alex has been there before and talks worlds of the experience. I will let everyone know how it goes.

In August we are going to Herzl Alumni camp. Herzl is a Jewish camp and the Alumni comes from Alex as this is the camp that he grew up going to. He heard about the Alumni gathering and immediately wanted to take me. I am very excited as it will be great to be involved the Jewish camp experience since it is such a large part of growing up Jewish. Also I only ever got to go to 6th grade camp so it will be fun to be a kid again. :) As a bonus we also get an air conditioned private room. That is key for me, it will be August and muggy. As much as sleeping in bunks is part of the experience...come on, I can only go so far lol. Call me prissy.

In the realm of cruises we have our big 10 night cruise coming up in February and we just made the reservation and down payment on our honeymoon cruise! We are big planners since that cruise is not until January of 2011 lol. We are not wanting to go right after the ceremony so we are holding out a few months for when the weather is really crappy here and we want to get away. It will be a Hawaiian cruise that has some overnight stays. The best thing about it is that we get to see all the islands in our visit without having to worry about how we are going to be getting there because our room is a boat. :)

That is a snapshot into my updates. Check back later for more updates!