Busy Month

You'd think, with not working any more, that I would have more time to update this blog!

Ray and I celebrated our 3-year wedding anniversary on July 1st. Ray had to work, but after work we went up to High Cliff to the spot where Ray "officially" proposed.

Over the 4th of July weekend, we went with my family to do some boating and stayed at a cabin in Beaver Dam.

The week following the 4th, Ray had vacation and worked on the baby's room. I'll do a post with pictures on that soon!

Then, we had our baby shower with Ray's family.

Our delicious cakes, made by Ray's aunt Nancy.

Berd and Malia - don't you love her smile?

Little Prince Bennett - already a month old!

And now our baby is due in exactly one month - yikes! My body is definitely ready (I get new aches every day), but I'm not sure my mind has been wrapped around this whole parenthood thing!

Breaking News: Wedding Scrapbook Completed!

It finally happened! I finished my wedding scrapbook! It's about time, considering that Ray and I have been married for over a year and a half now :)

It was a really fun book to put together, actually. Many times, I found myself smiling, remembering.

Now it's time to get started on the honeymoon scrapbook. A scrapbooker's work is never done!

Five-Year-Old Cheesecake

I made a box of no-bake cheesecake for Ray today that expired in 2003. Yep, you read that right! I inherited the cheesecake when I married Ray, along with a lot of other expired foodstuffs. Most of it was tossed shortly after I moved in, but the cheesecake stayed. You see, Ray is not afraid of expired goods - not even if they've been expired for five years.

Yes, Ray got fair warning of how long the cheesecake has been expired. He happily ate it anyway. So far, he is not dead or sick.

Anyway, it was my birthday last week, and I wanted to show off my awesome birthday present:

Don't know what it is? Well, let's take a look inside:

A sewing machine! Ray's mom loves old sewing machines, so when I asked Ray for one, I knew I'd end up with a classic. It's really heavy, but it works great! Definitely quality. Isn't the carrying case awesome?!? Thanks, Gimpy :)

The Schommagel's

Last weekend, I attended my last wedding of 2008. This year has been a busy wedding year for Ray and I. We were invited to at least ten weddings and attended seven, one of which was in Arizona. I stood up in two weddings, and Ray was an usher in one.

Last weekend's wedding was one of the ones that I stood up in. There are three of us girls that went to high school together, Julie, Leah, and I. Julie got married in 2005 and Leah and I stood up in her wedding. Then, I got married last July and had Julie and Leah standing up in my wedding. This past weekend was Leah's wedding, and (of course) Julie and I stood up. Pretty cool!

I don't have a picture of the bride and groom (yet), but I do have one of the beautiful bride before the ceremony:

Me, Leah, Julie

Also, Leah was hoping that her thank-you gift to me would make it into my blog. I'm very happy to oblige since my gift was pretty awesome:


The slippers and socks are from The North Face, where Leah works. The slippers are made of down, and I have been wearing them constantly since I got them. They are really warm and comfy, I didn't even want to take them off long enough to take the picture of them! I don't think I'll ever be able to wear $5 Walmart slippers again :) The bag is also from The North Face and all of the little goodies were inside, a kind of "emergency" bag for the wedding day. Very fun!

By the way, the title of this post is something that Leah made up. Her husband, Craig's last name is Schommer and Leah's last name was Pagel, so before they were married, Leah smooshed their last names together and they called themselves the Schommagels. Pretty cute, huh? Now, of course, they are Craig and Leah Schommer! Congrats, guys :)

A New Jochman

Welcome to the family, Liz!

My little brother, Neil, got married on Saturday, August 23rd. I don't have any of the professional photos yet, so the candid above will have to do! It was taken in the limo, which the wedding party took to the photo shoot and then to the reception hall.

It was a fun, busy weekend! I took a half-day on Friday and got a pedicure with Liz, my mom, Liz's mom, and the bridesmaids. There was a quick rehearsal at 5:30 and then we all spent the evening out at my parents' place. Very fun. :)

The ceremony wasn't until 3:30 on Saturday, so I didn't need to get my hair done until 11am and then I got to go home until 2! That was pretty sweet. The ceremony was really neat - Neil and Liz wrote their own vows. Then, they did their signature "high five" before kissing when the pastor said, "You may kiss the bride". Those two are hilarious!

Ray and I had to do a dance for the grand march that we were pretty nervous about. We practiced a cha-cha on Friday night and it went over pretty well on Saturday. We also did some swing dancing and decided that we need to take more ballroom dancing lessons!

And now we have a new Jochman, and a cute, funny one at that! :)

ps- Here's something interesting I realized recently. Three Jochman kids are now married. All three of us have married a middle child that has one older sibling and one younger sibling. Weird, huh?!?

We Made It!

On Tuesday, Ray and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been a whole year; the time has just flown by. It's been an awesome year :)

Ray and I both took the day off of work to celebrate our anniversary (Ray had the whole week off, actually). We slept in, and then spent the morning doing yard work. We took a bike ride to a local park for a picnic lunch. Our picnic spot was under a couple of willow trees on the edge of the river. Very romantic :)

We took a nap in the afternoon and went for a nice, relaxing walk after dinner. It was a very enjoyable day!

Oh, yeah, can't forget the cake. It was actually pretty good! The outside was a little dry, but the inside was moist and delicious. Nummy!

Another highlight of the day was the adorable card Ray made for me. He spent a couple of hours on Monday taking pictures of the cats (the cats were less than thrilled!), photo-shopping them, and working on the poem. Don't I have the most amazing husband?!