Hanging out at Paul and Lisa's

On Friday and Saturday and Sunday we spent all the free time hanging out at the Berkas house in Grand Rapids.  One thing we accomplished was picking out the appitizers and menu for the wedding!  It was a group decision...

I also tortured Duke for awhile.  What a sweet dog.

Paul made a cake for Andrea's birthday on Wednesday and we all sang.  Here is GG with the Birthday girl.

Here we are looking like a big mormon family.

And here is GG with their original family!

It was a great weekend overall, and State won twice in there!  Go State!

Bridal Shower at Sheryl's

On Saturday my Aunt Sheryl, Diana and Jill hosted a Bridal Shower for me at their house.  It was great!  Matt's Mom, Aunt and cousins came over, Carol and Laura came from Minnesota, Nancy from Wisconsin, Elizabeth from Baltimore, my Mom and Andrea from Colorado, Grandma from Dearborn and Lisa and Allison from Grand Rapids!

They had trivia about me and Matt, which everyone lost on the question about who had the biggest closet.  Nancy ended up winning.  We also played "Bride-o" and my mom went 15 pieces without getting a single mark on her board, it was funny.  Lisa ended up winning that one.

Everyone was very generous and Matt and I came away with lots of goodies!  Here is Sheryl's painting she had made, of my "lovely" head on top of the theme dress.

The Haverkates.
Kayla and Lindsay.
Goodie bags!!
Laura really liked the rose cupcakes.

Evan's Play

On Friday night a whole slew of us went to Evan's play Beauty and the Beast at his middle school.  Evan played Lefou, Gaston's sidekick.  The play included dinner before hand.h

Ann Arbor

Thursday I flew to Detroit for the start of a very busy weekend.  I stole GG's car and drove to Ann Arbor to meet up with Nick and Dan.  We went to Dominicks and had some sangria and just talked, it was a good night.

Me in front of Angell Hall, where most of my classes were.

The new ugly art in front of the Museum.

Softball

I just need to brag on Matt for a second.

Last night at softball Matt hit his first double, triple and home run!  It was very exciting.

Active Weekend

Thursday night Matt caught an early flight home (because he has Continental Status he made the cut) so that we could go to the bar and watch Michigan play Clemson.  It was an exciting game and I am glad we went out to cheer on our team.  Go Blue!

Friday we went out to Bob's to go skiing...all day.  It was a very nice day out, and Matt ended up taking two slalom sets and a trick set.

Friday was also our one year engagment - 4 months to go!  

Saturday we went to the rodeo again, this time it was Brooks and Dunn as the concert.  The rodeo itself was very good, it was the finals so they had the normal 10 people in each event then the top 4 went into a shootout.  Top prize for each event was $50,000.  They interviewed the winners, and while they were all very excited, a lot were missing teeth.

On Sunday, Matt woke up and asked me if a train hit last night.  Poor kid couldn't move.  Nevertheless, he got up and started working on his trick boot, which the wrap ripped last year sometime and has been sitting on the floor since (he has been using mine).  Except the screws are bent and the wrap is ripped because flipping does wonders for the ski, so he really needs to get his fixed so mine stays nice and pretty.  But replacing a wrap on a boot is no fun.

We went skiing again on Sunday, which was great.  I skiied awful, but oh well, thats par for the course for me.  Since we also fixed the trick rope this weekend, we both did some toe tricks.  Well, technically I am not doing any tricks because I fall when I try to do them and just riding with your foot in doesn't count...  Matt however returned from back 3 times in a row, which he was very excited about.  Skiing actually does wonders for really sore muscles, except today they are even more sore.

We got back in time to shower and leave again for church.  Class was good and there was a guest pastor, but I enjoyed him as well.  It was titled "Rejoice always, pray constantly, be thankful in all situations" (1st Thess 5:16-18).  Then I got in the car and saw that I have UConn in our Sweet 16 pool and said "oh I hate UConn" to which Matt asked me if I listened at all.  I guess I will have to practice that a little/lot more.

We worked on Matt's boot for a few hours last night and got the old wrap off, and the new one on in the back.  We failed at the sides and needed to clean up so the cats didn't eat the metal shavings.  I guess I know what we will be doing tonight!

Cat Eats Fish

Such a fatty.

Go Jeep Go!

I know that 140k miles isn't as cool as 150k, but I like to get excited about things.  And to tell you how great of a guy Matt is, he drove my car to work and brought it back with 139,999 and then he drove me around the apartment complex until it turned 140k.

With Matt's car, which just passed 70k, we have 200k miles.  We are shooting for 300k!

Michigan Is In!

Watch these, they are short and worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJ50aVi2c54

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeV8ecADKG8

Go Blue!

B-ball at Indigo Joe's

Yesterday Matt and I went to the bar down the road so we could watch the Michigan basketball game against Illinois.  The game was on Big Ten Network.  We ordered HUGE beers and had a little private speaker on our table so we could listen to the game.  It was a nice place and good set up to watch it, but Michigan decided not to play.  It was sad and depressing.  Matt still has hope for Sunday, but my hope is pretty much gone.

I'm changing my allegiance to MSU :)  Go Green!

USS Texas

Friday, Matt and I drove to Hobby to pick up Andy from the airport for a little visit.

Saturday we went to tour the battleship Texas which is docked in southeast Houston.  We drove through traffic (typical) and through all the oil refineries to the Port of Houston.  Texas served in both WW1 and WW2, and was one of the battleships that stormed Normandy.  It originally served in the Atlantic and was painted grey to "hide" from German subs, but when it got comissioned to serve in the Atlantic, they painted it blue to "hide" from Jap kamakazi pilots (from the air they couldn't tell what type of ship it was).  

I had never been on any ship, less alone a battleship.  We took the tour and the guide was very knowledable about the ship, and all the many guns on board. 

These guns in the picture below are huge, and are the purpose of the ship.  They are pointing forward, but when they were shot (once every 45 seconds) they needed to be pointing off the ship, so that the backfire would go out over the side and not into the ship.  They fire 12 miles, and one of the stories I remember:  The captain brought the ship as close as he could to land, but land was still 13.5 miles away (where the enemy was), so the captain flooded the starboard side of the ship so that the angle of the guns pointed upwards to get the extra mile and a half distance.  His "thinking out of the box" earned him a silver star.

Here is a picture of Matt on the "top" of the ship (we could climb to below the "T").  In the background is the San Jacinto Monument, which is a monument to the battle for Texas.  We didn't go look any closer, because after touring the ship we were hungry.

We went inside the ship as well, which was really cool.  I would never in my life go to the "dentist" or the "doctor" on board, but you wouldn't catch me having to use the bathrooms on there either.  The Texas originally held 800 sailors, but after WW1 when no more battleships were being built, the US "remodled" the Texas and added another 1000 sailors aboard.  To compensate, they put bunks everywhere.  And I mean everywhere.  Hallways, storage closets, eating areas...wherever there was a spare inch, there was a bunk.  If you are a group (boy scouts, youth groups, schools, etc) you can sleep on board the Texas, which would be really cool, but I think the steel floor would be more comfortable then the "mattresses" shown below.

Right now the Texas (who drove to Houston under her own power) is sitting in the Port of Houston, but they are apparently taxing Houstonians in order to bring her out of the water, because her underneath is failing.  I guess being underwater for 100 years will do that to ya.

We had a good time touring the Texas and then we went to Hickory Hallow, a good non-chain BBQ place.  I had a pulled pork potato, and it was very delish.  Then we came back and watched the taped Michigan vs Minnesota game.  I guess they came back to win, but Andy and I fell asleep.  I am a pathetic fan.  

Matt beat us in Scrabble soundly, and for that matter, in Fluxx.  But I am the best oodler of doodler!  It was a good visit.

Coal

Coal, you were very loved, and will be very missed.

Houston Rodeo

Yesterday, Matt and I went to the Houston Rodeo. We had a good time last year, and I was excited to go again.

The first thing we did was get a funnel cake. I LOVE funnel cakes. Then we went and looked at all the Ford trucks on display, I picked out a few options from each of them to comprise the truck I want. I did think the Cabellas edition was pretty intense. I refused to let Matt go in any truck that didn't have power seats.

After that, we went to the pig races! Yes, its the same races everywhere, with the same names, but they are oh so cute. There were 3 races, Matt guessed the correct one twice, and I didn't get any right (in fact, mine came in last).

Then we went and got a turkey leg for dinner.

After a minor adventure of getting carnival tickets (which are expensive!) we played one game of skiball, we were 1 point shy of a prize, but didn't really want one anyway. Then we went on the largest transportable ferris wheel.

We went into Reliant to see the rodeo. We got in about half way though, and saw calf catching (forget what thats called), saddleback bucking, barrel racing and bull riding. None of the 10 bull riders made it to 8 seconds. They also had mutton bustin (where 4-6 year olds try to ride a sheep for 8 seconds) which was Matt's favorite.

They set up the stage while Matt and I got a BBQ stuffed baked potato, it was really good.

Then Alan Jackson came on and played for about an hour. He was good, sang mostly old songs. The stage rotates around and lights up different colors.

It was a fun date, and Matt has been quite the sport this week on staying out late (Monday - church then 2 hours of 24, Tuesday late softball, yesterday rodeo), I am sure he is going to go to bed the second he gets home tonight.

Tomorrow we plan to go waterskiing - wooo! and then pick my cousin Andrew up at the airport.

We are also going back to the Rodeo to see Brooks and Dunn later in the month as well.