Becoming boring like our parents by Kelly

I'm reading Cosmo.  There's an article called "For Keeps" with a quote that says "Whoa, we sound like our parents." They spend the article discussing how boring they are. They talk about cleaning gutters. Buying vacuums. Making meatloaf, mowing the lawn. All this can "trigger a fear that being so connected as a couple can make you lose the spark for have for each other."

What a lovely article, Cosmo.  Thanks for making me wonder why on earth I've wasted my money on you. 

One time to be a good wife, I shoveled the snow while Jake was at work so he wouldn't have to.  When he got home he yelled at me. He apparently loves freezing outside and shoveling.  Trust me, I'm happy to never do that again.  He loved mowing the lawn.  Luckily I have a huge fear of getting my feet chopped off by a lawnmower (which my bro calls bs. Says I just never wanted to mow. True story is irrelevant.), so he always gets to mow.

He's afraid of meatloaf and our Roomba (named Robot Downey Jr) which is the best thing we've ever purchased. I needed to clean the house today and have. By sitting on the couch while Robot Downey Jr. cleans for me!

And oh no. We are turning into our parents? How horrible!!! Both sets of our parents have been married for over 30 years each. They are probably the four happiest people I've ever seen. Instead of calling (just kidding. Who uses the phone to call?? I meant text) my friends to hang out I text my mom. I text my mother in law to tell her the insanely amazing things that her son is doing. And also the amazingly insane things her son does. Just so I'm not the only one worrying about him! I  play darts with my father in law and still try to impress my dad with my less than impressive basketball skills ( but I sure was good when I was 14). I try to explain that there is a difference between uploading and downloading to my dad but I am pretty sure he will never get it.

Normally I think I am a horribly boring person but this time I think Cosmo has it so so so so wrong.

Kelly's parents being boring

If we turn into our parents....we will be the luckiest couple ever. And will most likely have more fun than anyone else.   Kelly

No Time For Blogging by Kathleen

Not much time for bloggin, with a new job as a teacher, a new apartment, a wedding to plan, and a dog to train...but time for pictures!

My-90%-of-the-time-Good-Dog

Last February, I had the brilliant idea to go “just look” at the Humane Society. (Chris, of course, was at work, so he couldn’t stop me). Naturally, I found the puppy of my dreams. I texted Chris at work to see what he thought- we weren’t engaged at this point, but we both pretty well knew that if I got a dog, eventually it would be half his. His response was “No.” Then, “Please don’t get a dog.” I convinced him to meet me at the Humane Society after work, just to SEE. (By this point I had been holding the dog for almost 3 hours, because if I put him down, he was up for grabs, and I wasn’t about to let that happen) So he came, and of course he fell in love with him because he was the most adorable puppy I have ever seen. Finally, he told me to get the dog. Luckily, I had bought him about an hour ago, so we didn’t have to waste any time waiting in line.

10 months and 40 pounds later, Apollo’s a really good dog (90% of the time), but he’s also the strangest dog I’ve ever seen. I don’t know if anyone else has a dog that does this, but whenever he gets fed, he barks once, takes one mouthful of food, runs under the dining room table and throws it all around. Then he runs around sucking up food like a little vacuum cleaner. After he’s finished with that, he eats the rest normally. He also steals my left shoes- only my left ones- and hides them inside the couch. He also jumped out of the car window last week. Luckily we weren’t moving, but now the car window will be raised high enough so no loony dogs can exit whenever they please.

Above are a picture of Apollo as a puppy, and recently, after playing in the mud at the park. Kathleen

The FOCCUS Experience by Kathleen

Since Chris and I both have extremely busy schedules during the school year, we wanted to get as much PreCana stuff done before the end of the summer. Naturally, the only FOCCUS test site that would fit into Chris' schedule was in Norfolk Nebraska. For those of you unfamiliar with Nebraska geography, Norfolk (pronounced Nor-fork solely so that the natives can mock the tourists) is about 3 hours from Omaha. I made Chris leave four hours early to combat that central Nebraska traffic, so we got there close to an hour before the class started. Our plan was to find the room, and then go get something to eat. I had been so adament about leaving early that we didn't get lunch, and it was approaching 2 p.m. Unfortunately, we were met at the door by the lady in charge of the program, and she was super excited to see us.

 

She was a very nice person, don't get me wrong. However, her fashion sense left a lot to be desired. She had the mom jean look going on- you know, the ones that are very high waisted, and make your butt look huge no matter what size it is normally. She highlighted it by over tucking in her hand made, neon lettered I <3 my husband t-shirt.  I finished signing in and she introduced us to her  beloved husband. (yep, that's how she introduced him.) She put her arm around his waist, and they stood there, grinning at us for a minute. To our credit, neither one of us laughed. Her beloved husband was wearing the exact same thing- mom jeans and all. Except his shirt said I <3 my wife. I don't know about anyone else, but somehow I was not able to take anything they said seriously the entire day. The shirts and tucked in jeans were just too distracting.

 

Needless to say, that pretty much set the tone for the day. We got started a good 20 minutes behind schedule, and the first thing they told us was that, becuase of all the paperwork, the class would probably go later than scheduled. We proceded to spend an hour (AN HOUR) filling out one piece of paper, which I had already printed off the internet and filled out.

 

For the record, it was also freezing in there. And the chairs were uncomfortable. Having not eaten lunch, we were starving. They had a little plate of cookies and water on a back table, so we kept sneaking back and eating stale Chips Ahoy cookies. By the time we got to the actual FOCCUS test we were miserable.

 

The test itself wasn't that bad though- we had talked about most of the issues in it, so I thought we would have the same answers on most of the questions. However, as we were driving the 3 hours back to Omaha afterward, we started comparing answers. We found that even though we agreed on all the issues, somehow we managed to interpret the individual questions differently and every question we talked about we had put different answers down. We haven't gotten the results yet, so hopefully Fr. Jim will still marry us after seeing it.

 

Looking back, I don't know if we got quite what the church intended us to get out of the FOCCUS test experience, but we did have fun together experiencing the craziness. I think the test results will be good talking points for our sessions with Fr. Jim too.

 

By the way, we did do the actual PreCana retreat too. I won't write about it now, but I will say it was a much more normal experience. Even-dare I say it- useful! Kathleen

Meet our new blogger: Kathleen of Kathleen and Chris!

 Kathleen filled out her info sheet. We're waiting for Chris to fill out his. While we wait, meet Kathleen.

Name: Kathleen

Age: 22

Employed By: Assumption Guadalupe Catholic School- I'm the 7th grade homeroom teacher, as well as 5-8 science and 5/6 religion.

Ethnic Background: Irish

Place in family: 2nd of 4

School: Graduated from Creighton University (in Omaha) in Jan. 2010

Religion: Catholic

Wedding Date: July 16, 2011

How did you meet? We actually met through my sister Mary Beth, who was a year ahead of me at Creighton, and Chris' friend Jordan. I was at Jordan's apartment with MB, and Chris and his roommates came over (they hadn't been able to find a way home from a party they went to, so they got the brillant idea to run 2 miles back. In December. In a snowstorm.) Chris was being shy and hanging out in the kitchen- I took pity on him and went over to talk. (He tells this part of the story differently but my version is true)

How did he propose? We went to a lake that we like to go walking around, and he popped the question there. I was SUPER shocked (so shocked, in fact, that I forgot to answer for awhile- oops) because there was no place for him to hide a ring- I had already checked. He was wearing shorts without pockets, so I assumed he wasn't doing it then because there was no place for him to hide the ring. Turns out he had wrapped it in plastic and duct taped it to his side so I wouldn't find it. Somehow, while we were talking he managed to rip off the duct tape and pull out the ring.

What are you afraid of? I'm not really sure yet. Just standing up there in front of all those people sounds very daunting. I'm pretty sure we're going to end up inviting the entire state of both Nebraska and Illinois, so that'll be a lot of people to potentially trip in front of.

Other: I grew up in Naperville, IL, and then went to college in Omaha- Chris is a Papillion (a suburb of Omaha) native. Right now we're both living and working in Omaha. We're going to get married here in Omaha, at Assumption- the church connected to where I teach at.   Kathleen