Last night was fun! We had a good dinner and watched DWTS....I'm so excited Melissa joined the group, she did so good! Now we get to see her every week :)

Here are some updated pictures of a part of our room.

We loved how detailed our photographer was. She captured moments in pictures I never even knew existed! Jenny was amazing. We picked out two pictures to be our "centerpiece" of this arrangement. We highlighted a few of our favorite moments. One of my absolute favorite pictures from our wedding day is the one of Jay touching his ring.

I don't know why but that image touched my heart, it was the first time he'd ever worn a ring on that finger-he was just putting it on. Since we had a picture of Jay's hand/ring, we thought it would be cool to also frame one of mine. So he picked out the picture of my hands. It may seem weird that we choose to blow up detailed pictures, but we love that they are so beautiful and they are personal wall art, instead of framing a random piece of art that has no personal connection. This was the runner-up for my picture:

Inside the large shadow box is my favorite picture of my Grandparents taken inside a photo booth. In the bottom of the box is Bunny's pearl and diamond bracelet that she gave me to wear in our wedding. The other earrings are mine. The smaller shadow box holds a few important and meaningful keys from our past--My favorite childhood home where we first started dating, the key to Justin’s old chevy truck...the trusty rusty that would drive us on all of our high school dates, and the key to our first home together. The picture on the top left is my Grandma on her wedding day. Beneath that is a chinese proverb quote that we liked. We choose white frames, although it may seem stark-it stands out great and looks very clean. It also matches the tones and shades of white and cream in the rest of our room. It took me awhile to come up with the arrangement on the wall...and I'm glad I decided to stagger the pictures at uneven heights. I like that they aren't even and I think it gives the arrangement a little flair.

We finally received Jay's family pictures taken by a photographer in Missouri over Thanksgiving this weekend. I've been begging for him to get a hold of them because he's really bad at getting/finding/taking family photos. So we literally have no pictures of the Feldkamp family in our house and I've really been wanting some! So we got a few of the proofs and need to get copies of them to put up...so I'm hoping this weekend while he's gone I will be able to make some progress on that. We have made so many changes and done a lot of work but I need to sort through and find pictures so I can post them. Look for more posts this weekend when I have more time (Jay leaves Thursday for Salt Lake City!)

Daylight savings time is making me tired :) we had so much fun planned this weekend that I kept waking up early too, so I am really behind on my sleep! Friday night dinner at Forepaugh's was excellent. We had Grape Leaf Wrapped Goat Cheese for an appetizer (yum!), a classic Waldorf salad, and then our main entree. I had seared scallops in garlic cream sauce. Jay had Pork tenderloin. After dinner we went home and hung out at the house. We were going to open a bottle of wine but we were so stuffed from dinner! Saturday morning we went to the gym and then I headed to Amy's shower. After the shower I went out to dinner with my girlfriends and we had fun visiting and catching up....we are all so busy now!

Sunday morning we had plans to try the new Mexican restaraunt at the Mall of America called Cantina. It was sooooo good! Everything was flavorful and fresh. Jay got steak tacos and I got Swiss Enchiladas. They were Chicken enchiladas, served over a bed of homemade tomatillo sauce. Topped with Monterey Jack, Oaxaca cheese, onions, & sour cream...they were amazing! They are probably the best enchiladas I've ever had. The restauraunt itself was pretty authentic-I know the enchiladas were. We've tryed many, many Mexican places before too because it's one of our favorites. We highly recommend it!! The rest of the afternoon was a blast-we just bummed around together, doing nothing really. We shopped at the mall a little, and then we stopped at ikea on the way home to get the finishing touches for our room makeover. When we got home we took a nap and watched tv. It was sooo nice to be lazy and have nothing going on for once!

Tonight Jenni invited me over to make me dinner and have some wine. I'm so excited! The premiere of Dancing With The Stars is on so we are going to watch that too. It was just the invite I needed on a Monday morning....ick I did not want to get out of bed!!!

Finally Friday. I'm about to head to lunch with my cousin in a few minutes, but wanted to get in a quick update on Bunny. She's healthy and back at home with a steady blood sugar level !! The medicine seems to be mostly out of her system and things are back to normal. Thanks for all the prayers and support everyone! We are so blessed.

I am really excited for this weekend because we will have some time to spend together, doing nothing much at all. Our dinner party tonight is at Forepaugh's (yum!!) so that will be fun and afterwards we plan on seeing a movie. Saturday afternoon is Amy's shower and we don't have any plans for tomorrow night, so we'll see what the day holds for us. Sunday we are planning a fun little date day :) I hope this weekend goes by slow so we can enjoy every second!

Wow I can't believe it's already Thursday...this week has been a whirlwind! I am really looking forward to the weekend and for everything to slow down. Tomorrow night we have a dinner party with my work so that will be really fun, and Saturday is Amy's bridal shower :) I'm excited for her to come home so I can see her in between moments of wedding-planning madness. I'll finally get back to finishing up our bedroom too. Next week Justin leaves on Thursday for Salt Lake City, and the weekend after that I leave for Amy's bachelorette party in Kansas City, MO...so we are hoping to spend some quality time together this weekend. We have a very busy month ahead of us!

The Bachelor

Who was totally shocked by the Bachelor? We were!! We totally loved Melissa and were so happy that they ended up together...or so we thought. In the end, I think it was a good decision for Jason to break it off with her, but I thought that doing it publicly was a little inappropriate. Poor Melissa! What an awful way to break up an engagement...on national television. Throughout the show Jason was portrayed as this great, honest guy, but I didn't think the way he handled the situation was anything like him. He says that the producers forced him to wait to break it off with Melissa until they were on air, but that's absurd. Decisions like that are life-changing, and if he really was such a great guy he should have lived up to his character and done it privately. I think he owed her that. Who cares if he got in "trouble"-the show was over!

They released private e-mails between Melissa and Jason today on yahoo, and being nosey as I am (and bored at work) I read them. It seemed like Melissa was pretty blindsided and completely didn't see that coming...and that Jason had lied to her about Molly. To propose to someone when you are in love with two people (and know it) is just ridiculous. He should have chosen whomever he wanted without proposing and taken it from there to see where it would go. I personally think shows like these are ridiculous, but of course I get sucked in by all the drama and then I have to watch it every week :) But seriously, who can fall in love and get engaged all within a few months time? Isn't the season only 6 weeks long or something? That's crazy....but just my opinion. Obviously, this is just my two cents!! I hope they end up happy.

His strength was perfect in my weakness.

So the past two days have been really emotional for our family. Before I tell the story, I am unbelievably happy to report that everyone is ok and as always, God is unwavering in His grace and mercy upon us. On Monday morning my Grandpa heard my Grandma say "I'm really scared" and when he rolled over to talk to her she was unresponsive. He immediatly called 911 and they rushed her to the hospital. She had a severly low blood sugar level of 28, lower than they had ever dealt with before. When Papa told them she is not diabetic, and we have no family history of diabetes, the concern grew.

They hooked her up to IV's with insane amounts of sugar pumping into her body. When she was on the IV drip, her blood sugar stabled out to a low but healthier number. Monday afternoon they tried to take her off the IV twice and both times she slipped back into a coma. They ruled out a stroke, heart attack, and tumor, but were still puzzled. It was a hard day to get through-being so far away from her when I had just spent the weekend with them. Prayers were all we had to lean on. Finally, around 3 p.m. they had a break-through.

One of her doctor's asked Papa if she had started taking any new medications recently. We had just been to the Pharmacy on Sunday to pick them up. It turns out that the Pharmacy had given her the wrong prescription. She was given an extremely dangeous medicine made for diabetics. It's only used in emergency situations when they need their blood sugar level lowered immediatly. In those situations they are supposed to take one pill. She took two. As soon as they discovered that, they hiked up the IV sugar content so it would counter-act the drug...because as soon as her blood sugar started to rise, the medicine continually tried to kick it back down. Not a good combination. We were so relieved to hear this (well, relieved and extremely angry) but it was still a scary situation. The doctors at the Mayo Clinic had never seen a case like this. They woke her up every half hour through the night to make her eat and to prick her finger and check her blood sugar level.

Tuesday morning my Mom and Al and I drove down to see her. She was awake and alert and back to her old self, but extremely tired. I was so happy to see her because I was an absolute wreck the day and night before. It was so good to spend the day with my Grandparents and Mom and Sister. I spent the afternoon sitting with her in her hospital bed and learning all about how my Grandparents met, what their dating days were like, and their early years in marriage. I swear they have the funniest stories I've ever heard! They get into the craziest situations (this one is proof!). I jotted down notes so I will always remember. We were laughing so hard we were crying! It was so comforting. Even in her worst moments my Grandma is the strongest and sassiest woman I know :) By that time, her blood sugar level was continually rising and stabling out. We were so lucky-so lucky that she had happened to tell my Papa that she was really scared Monday morning. No one knows how she was able to speak those words because with a blood sugar level of 28, her entire body was shut down and not functioning-not able to function! If she hadn't said that, he wouldn't have checked on her before getting up for work (he usually lets her sleep in) she would have died. I was so paralyzed with fear when I found out, and yet, in my moments of weakness God always carries me through-his strength is perfect in my weakness. "My grace is sufficient for you: for My strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9.

I just got off the phone with Bunny and they have successfully taken her off the IV and she is stable enough to go home this afternoon! I am overjoyed with happiness that this serious situation did not take another course. It really hit home that your life can immediatly change in a matter of seconds. Totally and completely. I hope this story encourages everyone to do today what you are going to put off for tomorrow, and don't take any blessing for granted!!

the new me :)

I guess it's time to debut the new me. Yes, I'm a brunette!! A few weeks ago (probably after one too many glasses of wine) I decided it was time for a change... so Jay and I went to search for the perfect color. After a mild panic attack, and a few smacks to Jay's stomach (he told me it turned purple mid-dye)...I emerged a brunette! I've never had brown hair before, so it took some time to fully get used to but I loved it right away, and I love that I finally had the courage to do it. Give me some time and I'll let you know if blondes or brunettes really have more fun ;)