Birthday Boy

Somehow, all my pictures got deleted. I'm totally new to this whole Google+ thing - I use it solely for photo editing, and I've obviously screwed something up! I'll try not to make that mistake again!

My handsome man turned 36! We had a smashing good time over it, too :) The celebrations started on Memorial Day when we went over to spend some time with his mom and brother.

 

After Mark opened his presents from them (he got mine the next day) we popped some popcorn using Mark's new Whirley Pop - courtesy of his brother - and the four of us went and saw The Lorax at The Dollar Show. It was a pretty cute movie. I totally want to grow truffula trees now. When we came back, Mark's brother started up the grill while Mark and I made homemade ice cream. 

 

Our first attempt at homemade ice cream turned out pretty good. That little wet spot on his shirt is from the ice that was in the ice cream machine. Mark wanted ice cream verses cake, which was cool with me because I love chocolate sauce - especially the calorie free, guilt free stuff I found at Schnuck's that tastes like a million bucks!

The next day was Mark's actual birthday. Yep. He was 36 for real now!  We began our celebration with a super, I mean really super, yummy dinner at Hendel's - one of our local favs. The meal started with a pretty salad - lemon poppy for me, raspberry vinegarette from him - and then the most amazing dill encrusted Tilapia I have ever had (and Mark said it was just as good, if not better, than the fish he had in Hawaii) drizzled with Chinese mustard over a bed of orzo with a side of steamed peppers, squash, and cucumber. Oh. My. Gosh. It was while we were at Hendel's that I gave Mark his birthday card. He was pretty floored, folks. See, RUSH is coming to town. That's Mark's favorite band, or one of them at least. We were going to go, then we decided to take an early vacation this summer, so we weren't going to go. I said screw with that, we're going, and I got us tickets to RUSH for his birthday. Who is the most awesome girlfriend ever? Yeah, I thought so. After, we went on to phase 2 of the evening so he could get his second gift.

Forest Park is definitely "our park", but we are rather fond of a large park near our home as well. Not only was this park closer and therefore more convenient for our evening celebration, it also served the purpose for Mark's next gift. We drove all the way to the back of the park where it looks over the Missouri River - our favorite spot. (Just so happens to be where we took our photos for last year's Christmas card, too.)You know us. We take pictures of everything, so here's a few more...

 

Mark snapped this nice one of the sunset over the river.

So after a bit of a visit and just a general enjoyment of the cool evening at the park, I presented Mark with his final birthday gift.

He thought I was ridiculous, but I wanted to capture the "phases of the gift opening". He's no fool, though. He knows he wouldn't win once a camera is in my hand...See how happy he is!

 

 BAM! I scored more points for the greatest girlfriend award! He has been talking about getting a set of discs for Disc Golf (or Frisbee Golf) since, oh, forever. He loves to play, but has never owned a set, and hasn't played since his days as YMCA director... so about ten years. 

Better-than-Hawaii fish, RUSH concert tickets, and something he's been wanting for ten whole years... did I do good, or did I do good? I thought so. ;) After he opened the discs it all became very clear as to why we were at this particular park... it has a Disc Golf course. Of course! We didn't necessarily have time to play the entire course, but we did goof off a little. He taught me how to play, because I never had, and as usual we tied it in with a bit of camera fun.

 

I love being outdoors. I love when we go to parks. But as soon as those summertime mosquitoes hit, my outdoorsy little self is headed straight for the indoors. We went home and I put all of Mark's birthday cards up on the mantel - a little tradition.

Can you guess which one is from Ellie? I'll give you a hint, it goes "rawwwrrrrrr!" :)

After all that, there was only one more thing to do. We had some left over homemade ice cream from the day before. So....

Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday to You,

Happy Birthday Dear Captain,

Happy Birthday to You!

 

Saturday

Like I said in my last post, we went to a wedding this weekend. Mark's cousin Katie got married and it was Such. A. Sweet. Wedding. I'll talk more about the details in a minute. In between the ceremony and the reception, both of which were held downtown, we needed something to entertain us. The church just so happened to be right next door to Anheuser Busch, so we took ourselves on a little tour to pass the time.

 

The Mash Room was may favorite of the brewery. It's designed in white and gold with accents of navy. The architecture is all "scrolly" and fancy. 

Mark's favorite part was the assembly line and canning room. I admit, it was rather interesting. While I was the typical "girl", whose interests veer towards "the pretty things", Mark was mostly interested in how the factory functioned. 

 

You can see the "Lazy River of Beer" in this picture. It takes the bottles to their crates before they are shipped out. 

 The cans go into this huge clear cylinder thing. It was really loud in there, so I have no idea what happens once the cans are in there. I know they are filled and capped, but for the life of me I do not know how.

 

Neither Mark or I drink alcohol, but it was fun and interesting just the same. It's one of those "Saint Louis" things to do... kind of like those people who have lived here forever and yet never been up the Arch. I did not particularly enjoy the smells... but the building was fun. After the 7-block long tour, the diet pepsi and pretzels in the hospitality room was much appreciated! Then, it was on to the wedding reception!

Katie and Dan found this sweet little loft downtown to host their reception. I never thought I would be into the whole loft reception thing, but... IT WAS FABULOUS! The room itself was very raw - exposed brick walls, old cement floor, exposed ceiling, huge old windows that looked out into the city. 

Everything was decorated very simple, which just so happens to also be very "Katie". Everything just looked very sweet and Spring-like. They had sweet little metal signs that they propped up against the windows all along the room. Here's my favorite:

Isn't that sweet?!

Mark thought it would be fun if we used the little shot glasses he bought for us at the brewery for when it came time to toast the bride and groom. (Those shot glasses probably will never get used, but they'll look fun in our bar and it's just a little sweet reminder of our tour.) Mark went and got us some diet coke and we poured it into our glasses. His brother kindly took a photo of us:

It really was the simplicity of the decor that made this reception so cute. It wasn't simple in the I-don't-want-to-spend-a-lot-of-money kind of way. Katie and Dan obviously put tons of thought into what they wanted. Each centerpiece was uniquely created by a friend of Katie's, and their guest book was The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein - which just so happens to be the absolute most perfect wedding guest book I have ever seen. 

After the toasts (I totally cried when Mark's cousin Marla gave the maid-of-honor toast, it was the sweetest ever.) and the meal (Italian! strange for a Polish-Irish wedding, but Yummy!) came the dancing. As we discovered at my brother's wedding a few months back, we really really really enjoy dancing. However, we do not know the Polka, though we gave it a good go. Marla's daughter Lizzie is 18 months old and was the absolute highlight of the dance floor. All eyes seemed to be on her, and for good reason... she's quite the dancer!

By the end of the evening we were completely exhausted and ready to fall into bed, which I did... literally.

Decorating Decisions Are Hard

I feel like a chicken with my head cut off. Really. I'm running around like crazy and I have little idea of where I'm going to end up. There. Is. So. Much. To. Do. So, obviously, instead of doing it... I'll blog about it. lol

Mark and I always have the best of intentions. When we said "We'll get the house ready by the birthday party" we were probably in all reality kidding ourselves. I don't just want to rush through things to "have the house ready" by June 30. I want to do this right. Doing it right means making all sorts of decorating decisions and since I love pretty much everything I see this has been difficult. We've landed down the overall "feel" for the house, now we've just got to tackle the job of actually finding all the right pieces to make it all work.

At any rate, we've finally come up with what we want to hang over the mantle...

 

Isn't that mirror lovely? My mom found it for me a few years back for my bedroom. Since I'm rarely over there anymore I decided it would be of better use if it was hanging in my living room. I think it will look really gorgeous up against the new creamy white wall... until then, it's just going to sit there looking pretty, there is no use of hanging it before we paint. Now that I've got the large piece picked out, it's on to deciding what smaller pieces we'll hang to accent the mirror. Candelabras? Gilded picture frames to match the mirror, or should they be cherry wood to match the fireplace? I know for sure I'm getting two white and blue porcelain flower vases for the mantel on each side of the mirror, I just haven't found them yet... antique mall, here I come!

As long as the new paint is on the walls and the new tiles are on the floor, I can live with still getting the house "pieced together" when party-time arrives. I know for darn sure that the furniture won't be reupholstered by then! I really didn't think I'd be this picky obsessive when we started this project of ours. Ah well, we're taking tomorrow off from the house chores because Mark's cousin is getting married. I LOVE WEDDINGS, so I'm very excited :)

Dia de le Madre

This year, Mark really wanted to get our families together for Mother's Day. So, we picked a restaurant, made a reservation, and informed everyone about the where and the when. The why was a given :) Here we all are:

 

(minus Gena because she had to work)

When we were going through the camera last night looking at the pictures, Mark goes "I'm the tallest one in the family!" That is a very sad fact. We are a bunch of really short folks! All had a really great time, and I can account for Mark and I especially. 

Afterwards, I went back to the Compound where I spent the rest of the day visiting with everyone. My brother John Michael brought Mom home a uber yummy Reeses peanut butter cup ice cream cake.

Mom's Loot: 

flowers, cards, candy, candle, cd, cake... and can you guess what Mander and Jerm got her? 

Us Butler's are crazy fun people and we get into the most wonderful debates where we are all talking at the same time and can miraculously understand and retain what everyone is saying. I do not know how we do this... it must be some sort of genetic chromosome. All I know is that everyone was getting into it and eventually I had to put down my book, exclaiming "It's impossible to read here!" and couldn't resist sinking my teeth into the entertaining points that were being made. It's quite possible that a few fist bumps were shared between Mama, Uncle Mike, and myself. It was decided that my brother David would be the new Raintree Gate Keeper. He seemed quite thrilled and said he's even set his sites really low and asks for only minimum wage verses the $10 and hour that Uncle Mike had calculated. Also, watch out for Family Reunion 2013 when all 22 of us Most Important People gather in celebration of 50 years of marriage between the two most amazing people and the "founders of our family". In between all the friendly debate and enthusiastic conversation, I got out my famous Canon and took a few more snappies to commemorate this year's Dia de la Madre...

...the two most amazing people I was just talking about. So happy.

 

Ese, Nana, Mama, and Uncle Mike

 Nana & I... I made her The Nana, that makes me the secret favorite ;)

Mama & I... and I made her The Mama before anyone else did, so yeah...

Ellie & I. The oldest & the youngest. :)

After some yummy steaks, and an entire day's worth of laughter (I swear I really needed that), I made my farewells and retired home to my handsome man who had been over at his mom's helping her with some yard work, such a good son he is :) Earlier in the day Mark had given our mom's roses from the Pro-Life committee at church that had been handed out to all of the moms after each Mass. When I got home he presented me with a white rose, which he brought home as a surprise for me from Mass as well, for Mother's Day because I am the future mother of his children. AWWWWW! It's silly, I know, but you can not deny that it is also immensely romantic and sweet :)

We enjoyed the cool evening out on our patio until twilight. Once those mosquitoes arrived it was time to head in where we finished conversation on the sofa (always cute, because that's how we used to always end our date nights way back when... talking about everything and anything on that sofa in the family room) and then read another chapter of our book before lights out. 

Hopefully, everyone else enjoyed Mother's Day as much as we did :)

Mom's are just the best.

Last Night Was Fun: Part II

So, obviously, the last night I'm referring to was more than a few last nights ago. It seems that I am only slightly more talented at keeping up with this blog than I am at updating days on our relationship calendar.

Titanic. Yep. It was every tween and teens favorite movie back in the late 90s. Wow. Was it really released in 1997? You know you're getting old when you go to google the release date of the movie and you say to your mom "Was it really released way back then?" Shoot darnit.

Regardless of how ridiculously old I'm getting (26 next month, folks!) I was just as giddy about seeing Titanic this time as I was when I was 11. Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" still gets me and I belt it out like a really bad opera singer every time I'm fortunate enough to find it on the radio. Mark scored some major points when he pointed out several weeks ago that they were re-releasing it in 3D to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking. When he agreed to go see it with me I just about fell in love with him all over again.

After the film was over, of course typical me could not remember where the car was parked, so I'm looking around for it and Mark says "Well, just give me the keys." So I hand them over and he walks straight up to what I think is our car, but at the moment am not 100% sure, puts the key in the lock and lifts up the trunk.

The trunk is filled with recyclables. Yep. It's our car alright. We both laugh and Mark reaches into the back of the trunk. He pulls out a wine glass. Then another wine glass. Then a bottle of my favorite grape water. He pours us each a glass, making a very sweet and romantic toast to our relationship, and we sit on the trunk of the car for several minutes before leaving the theater and heading home.

When we do decide to head home, Mark gets out the iPod and begins to scroll around to find us some musical entertainment. I'm thinking Rush or Nickelback or Van Halen. Nope. "I downloaded this for you today," he said as Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" starts belting out through the speakers, followed by one of our favorites - Sam "Dooley" Wilson's  "As Time Goes By" from the motion picture Casablanca... a special memory we made together a few years back. 

You can bet I was singing the entire drive home.

Last Night Was Fun: Part I

Last night was fun. It was our Titanic night! I don't have my SD reader with me, though, and we took a few cute pictures, so that part of the night will have to wait for a future post. 

Other fun things happened last night...

I got a few surprises. 

Surprise Numero Un: Mark was at the Goodwill (big surprise) and guess what he found?! A punch bowl that matches exactly to the gorgeous punch bowl he got me for Valentine's Day. So now we have two punch bowls and twenty punch glasses. Just enough for when we get our immediate family together, AND now I can have some punch fun and make two varieties... watch out y'all, it's getting fancy up in here!

Surprise Numero Deux: Two books... the first, a guide to Catholicism. I never grow tired of reading about my religion. I learn new things about it all the time. The second, a guide to wedding planning - the most frequently asked questions on what to do and how to handle those tricky wedding planning situations. (I am absolutely determined that our engagement will be stress-free... people think I'm crazy for this and that it is inevitable... but I'm still going to give it a good go! I've threatened elopement if things start to get all junior-high.)

After Mark presents me with said wedding planning book, I smile and start to do this cute little dance around our bedroom... "Does this mean the ring is coming soon?!"... *Mark smiles and laughs a bit*... "It does! It does! The ring is coming soon! I'm soooooo exxxccccciiiiiitttttteeeeeeed!"... He neither confirmed nor denied me, he merely stood there with a huge grin on his face and watched me do my little dance. I'm pretty sure he sticks around because I'm so stinkin' cute ;) Then I put the book down and said "Okay, it's Titanic time!!!" 

I swear I have A.D.H.D. sometimes... 

Looking forward to sharing our Titanic story with you!

My Courageous Man

Backtracking it to this past Friday. At least, I think it was Friday. Time's a-slippin' away fast lately.

My last post was all about surprises (Big surprise, right? I know.) and I left y'all wonderin' what my next surprise was going to be; the one I was getting that night.

Okay, well. Here it goes:

I burnt my pizza crust that night. Totally bummed! So, Mark got pizza and I had chicken and dumpling soup. (Thank you Campbell's, you genius soup-makers!) Mark brought home some movies from the library, remember, I had told y'all he got all chick flicks. So he asks me which one I want to watch and I'm thinking Where is my surprise? I want that first! but instead I pick out the one with Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams where Harrison Ford plays the cranky news caster. Sounds like my kinda movie. I send him down to the big screen to set it all up while I finish gathering a few things for dinner. When I come down he isn't playing the movie. The television isn't even on. What the???? One of my favorite bands, Casting Crowns, is playing on the iPod dock. Forgetting something, I turn around and run back up to the kitchen, only to come back down to the song Courageous once again. Where's the movie? What is my man doing? So weird.

I sit down on the couch and set my nice hot bowl of soup in my lap. Mark is still standing there, the music is still playing. "Are you ready," he asked. "Well. Yeahhh." I'm thinking: What is this man of mine doing? Where is my movie? My soup is getting cold! Then Mark turns off the iPod dock, turns on the tv, and sits down next to me. I'm just thinking so weird over and over again. Then I see it! Four police officers take focus on the tv screen!!! I knew it right away! I look at Mark, huge smile on my face, and with his arms high in the air he goes "I SURPRISED YOU!!!" Courageous. We've had it on request at the library since, oh, you know, Forever!! I could not have been more excited to see this movie!

Half way through the movie I turn to Mark and ask him if he is My Courageous Man. He says to me, without missing a darn beat, "I want to be the best father to your children." I mean, people, if that doesn't melt your heart what will!!?

Ah, Love. It's a grand thing. Go watch Courageous; and if you don't already have what this movie is talking about, go out there and find it!!!