Ending the madness.

I think we found a place to get married! After several months of visiting various potential venues and dealing with such issues as extremely expensive chair rentals, reception halls filled with cheesy knick-knacks, and venue-operators who seemed more interested in expressing their personal opinions versus actually listening to what we wanted for our own wedding....this is a big deal. The place is called "Deer Park Country Inn" and it's awesome. Absolutely perfect. You can check it out here: http://www.deerparkcountryinn.com/. It's beautiful, it's remote without being a million miles out of the way, it's quiet, the planner/chef is very nice and accomodating, they have their own cat, Marmalade, who follows you around the place like a dog, they can do things within our budget. If this place was a person, I would kiss him/her.

An open statement to my creepy future cousins-in-law: I love that you look at my blog! I don't think you are really creepy at all! You have cool lives and wonderful families and I enjoy looking at your blogs as well. I hear about you all the time and I hear nothing but wonderful things! My only regret is that I've yet had a chance to actually meet you. But, this gives me the advantage of seeming very mysterious and sketchy, when in fact I am really very average and boring. If there were anything creepy about you at all it's that many of you look uncannily exactly like my future mother-in-law. However, being that my future mother-in-law is extremely young, attractive, intelligent, engaging, radiant, and a wonderful cook, this makes the whole "doppelganger" thing decidely less creepy. I already feel like one of the family. I feel like an honorary Arkansian...kind of like Hillary.

Several excellent, positive things occurred this past week: we got to spend the weekend in Deep Creek at the Lakehouse and while it was a skeleton crew this year (Zach and Cass are in Europe, Becky, Peter, Hannah, and Rachel have moved to New England..you all are missed!!) I got to spend some really good time with my future brother-in-law, James. I had never had that much of an opportunity to hang out with James, especially one-on-one, as he's spent most of my and Megan's relationship dodging bullets and eating spam in Afghanistan. And although I did not wake up at 5:30 every morning to run 5 miles with him, I was delighted to get to know him better. He's a very calm, intelligent, insightful person with a great understanding of world politics and affairs (I have a bachelor's in International Studies, so these are topics of great interest to me) and I am excited that he's home safe with Tiffany and is starting what is essentially a "new" life as he will be departing the Army at some point and starting school. Maybe I can even talk him into being an International Studies major? Or sleeping in until 9:30 on weekends?

Kole has pretty much been in a good mood this week and has been in precious little trouble at school. This is a big deal and makes for an excellent week. Save for one episode where he was throwing rocks and accidentally nailed his teacher in the head, he's been pretty good. Kole also had fun at the Lake House with boat rides, bike-riding, and lots of time with Dandaddy, Nana, and the crew. That boy can't get enough of his Dandaddy and Nana and being around them always puts him in a good mood.

Tomorrow I get to toss myself into a throng of dancing pseudo-hippies at the Dave Matthews Band show in Pittsburgh. It's supposed to storm a lot tomorrow. I suppose the one good thing that might come out of it all is that the hippies will get their once-a-week bath. And Megan will be happy, unless she gets soaked. P.S.-I am not a hippie. I like guns and trucks.

My Mom has been in a great deal of pain lately. She is slated for back surgery in late July to get some discs fixed that have been giving her a great deal of physical hardship over the past several months. She's been on a lot of pain meds, pain patches, and has even received several epidural shots to keep her pain at bay until the surgery can take place. At any rate, I can hear the pain in her voice when I talk to her, see it in her face when I'm home, and I would appreciate it if you would throw a prayer or two her way. I am anxious for her to get this surgery under her belt and hopefully start feeling better and more mobile by the end of summer.

Kole has developed quite the rap with the ladies. I wish I could say that his approach ranges from the sort of subtle to the extremely smooth, but the range is more from the not-so-subtle (to the scantily-clad high school girls walking down the street in front of my house: "Hey, girls, wait for me...I want to kiss you!!!") to the downright awkward (to the babysitter: "Does your pee-pee stick out?"). Anyway, he's begun to show interest in girls who are not his mom. I don't remember being at all interested in girls when I was 4, but then again, I don't remember much at all from when I was 4. As long as he doesn't accost or attack anyone, I'm going to chalk it up to normal development. He does tickle this girl Emily in his class quite a bit, however. I am dreading the day, however, when I actually have to explain to him "how things work".

I started P90X, my new workout tapes, and I feel like someone beat me with a lead pipe and then ran over me with a truck. Tons of pull-ups, pushups, and an ab exercise routine that is like something straight from the inquisition. Everything hurts, but I feel good for having start it. Only 89 days to go to a slimmer, more ripped Zach Brown. I am hoping, however, that my 34-year old hips can hack it.

Alrighty. I hope all is well with everyone. More later...