Casa Jerle

I hate to revisit the whole it's-winter-and-I'm-depressed-and-have-no-ambition thing, but it's so true.  I am experiencing serious deficiencies in my creative writing skills, and so you, my four blog followers, are suffering, I'm sure.  And poor Lauren.  She too needs inspiration.

Since I was dumped as the Phat wedding planner, I am moving on to bigger and better things.  I hereby formally announce that I am Lo and Jesse's new designer specialist.  Together, Lo and I will be planning, thrifting, and re-doing Casa Jerle.  (Or Chateau Jerle, for any of you Centerites who recall the pretentious naming of a small rambler on Old Highway 14, clearly signed Chateau (insert surname here, deliberately left out to protect their identities) on their garage door.)  And we will be doing it on a dime.

I came up with this grand scheme plan after Lauren turned me on to a house remodeling blog.  I have spent an inexplicable amount of time on it this past week, and I admit, it has inspired me to move re-do some things around here.  But since I always do things to the nth degree, we will start with the Minnetonka hideaway first.

Bonnie

Bonnie

Kylee

Still hanging out with Toy Story 3.  And my sensitive baby always gets sentimental at the end, when Andy is giving his toys away to Bonnie.  Scot says it's because Kylee looks like Bonnie and therefore personalizes it and really feels the moment.  Doubtful, but I love my sweet baby.  (All of you doubters out there are most likely asking yourself right now, oh yeah, how do you know she is getting sentimental?  Well, I'll tell you.  Kylee leans against the wall, and makes little ohhh's and ahhh's and says, "Woody" and "Mommy" during the entire scene.)

So, Lo has turned me onto some other blogs lately, and I have been wasting spending a lot of time on them.  They have inspired me to either a) get a bigger and better house, b) fix up this one or c) go back to bed.  Not sure.

MBFCW has arrived

I awoke to learn I had been bestowed with the honor of my very own tab at the top of the Phat Farm Wedding blog.  Holy schnikes!  This is beyond monumental.

You see, this blog currently has a mere four followers.  It plateaued sometime last fall, about one blog entry in.  I like to tell myself it has an underground following--people who read it but won't commit to following it.  So last night I was telling Lauren, "I guess I really only write it for you, if you think about it."  She said I needed to "promote" this blog.  I don't know what that means.  I figure those who want to read it will know about it and follow it.  I assume its contents are of interest to a very limited audience, ie., Lauren and Jesse's families and friends.  Still...I also always assumed they had more than a combined four friends.  Who knows.

So, in my always magnanimous spirit, I say to all you little blogs currently residing on the left side, not the top, of the Phat Farm blog--in yer face! keep aiming for bigger and better positioning!

The Farm

Lauren's last couple of blog posts have been about the Farm, and what, (or rather, who), brought her to the Farm, and her feelings about the Farm today.

I have never been to the Farm, but I know that my best friend's son enjoyed the Farm a lot with his grandfather when he was little, and my other best friend's daughter's day care visited the Farm once...I remember taking car seats over to the day care.

Anyway, for all of you city folks who have never traveled south of the Minnesota River, when you arrive in Dodge, you are seriously in a country abyss.  There are cornfields, soybean fields, running rabid dogs, two lane highways, an old memorial dedicated to a plowing contest http://www.historicmarkers.com/mn/84210-Plowville/, and wait for it...the Farm is located on a gravel road.  So leave that fancy BMW at home!

The local paper also regularly runs a gossip column dedicated to the goings on about town, stuff like, "Mary went and played Whist with Luverne on Sunday afternoon," "the Congregational church held its annual cookie sale which generated enough money to allow them to now install a new lightpost outside the front door," and "Meals-on-Wheels are getting complaints about excess oleo usage in their baked goods." This same paper also prints the weekly 911 calls and court reports, which are always ripe with little gems like, "a woman called and reported three eggs missing from her refrigerator" and "a man reported someone stole his cat for an hour but it has now returned." 

Also, just recently someone was critically injured when their car collided with a cow.  http://www.postbulletin.com/news/stories/display.php?id=1441283  Now, granted, this didn't happen in Dodge County, but the point is, it happened and was in the local paper, and it definitely could have happened near the Farm.

Additionally, Dodge Center was the epicenter of a good ol' cow rustling incident a couple of years back.  What?  You didn't know the word "rustling" was still part of the English lexicon?

I Used to Be Single

Today is my first official day alone with the kid since before last Christmas.  Avery returned to college and Scot and Hadley are back to work and school.  In testament to my mothering, Kylee has not asked for any of them yet today.  In fact, when she woke up, she yelled from her crib, MMMMMOOOOMMMMMMMMMYYYY."  Of course she did.

So we are on to Toy Story 3.  I really hate that Lotso and Big Baby.  And to top this merry morning off, the dog was stalking me and shivering.  I thought, poor puppy.  It is unusually cold this morning and I tend to forget you are only a mere five inches off the floor at any given time.  Then I discovered the real problem was he had thrown up.  In my bed.  I'm sure Scot fed him some Chinese food from last night.  And you know, he's a shih tzu so you'd think he could handle Asian food.

Today also marks 221 days until the wedding.  I know this because I read Jesse's blog.  Apparently Lauren is counting down the days for him.  Which may or may not be a good idea.  It kind of reminds me of that MTV show, "I Used to Be Fat".  The personal trainer always presents the overweight person a huge calendar marking the days off they have left to become skinny.  Maybe Jesse and Lauren have one of these in their kitchen?

Six degrees of separation--Lukas Haas and Jessie the Cowgirl

so incredibly awesome

For anyone out there who might be wondering...Toy Story and Toy Story 2 can easily be watched twice each, in the course of a morning.  And the best line is when Jessie, from Toy Story 2 says, about the Prospector, "he's never been opened--he's mint in the box."  Right on.

So, over on Phat Farm wedding, Lo has posted pics of the barn at the farm, and I must say, it looks fabulous in all its red glory.  I really love the fact that is an actual old barn, and not like a pole shed or something.  It also has an attached silo.  How cool is that?  Allow me to give you some perspective:  my husband used to work in the retaining wall business.  You know, pavers and blocks; stuff for patios and fancy driveways.  His second job in the industry was for a company that used to make silos, but due to the lack of silos being put up, the company transitioned the business to retaining walls.  According to my husband, who was the Marketing Manager and did all the advertising, the company now only builds one silo in the entire year.  This means the Cooper Farm is so retro, and so legit.  Word.

not so much

Anyway, has anyone seen the movie "Witness"?  The one with the little Amish boy with the huge ears and creepy eyes?  Well, in that movie there is a scene where the Amish community gather together and construct a barn, in its entirety, in a day.  The women serve food and merrily quilt along, and the men do the building.  Even though a barn isn't being built, I think this is what the farm may look like sometime this spring.  But without Harrison Ford.  And a madman with a gun.  Right?  Fingers crossed.

PS--the answer to this blog title, in two degrees, not six, is--Joan Cusack (Jessie the Cowgirl's voice)--to John Cusack (Joan's brother)--to Jeremy Piven (Mark in Say Anything)--to Lukas Haas (both Jeremy Piven and Lukas Haas are in Entourage)

sweatin' the dress

I've been pretty lazy these past few weeks.  Winter just seems to be dragging on.  But the Margarita mix from Williams-Sonoma that I received as a Christmas gift has made my days with the kid much more manageable.  I'm sorry, what?

Anyway, Lauren has been quite busy lately, with her new nanny baby and also with...sweatin' the wedding.

see how quickly things can go awry?  It's a slippery slope, man

You see, Lauren really cares about her friends, more than I care about mine, and she is having second thoughts about her bridesmaid dress choice.  She wants a dress that everyone is comfortable in, that everyone feels glorious and sexy in, and she wants it to be economical.

So, let's discuss, in my favorite format ever--bullet points!

• comfort--oh please.  I sent Lauren a link last night for an alternative bridesmaid dress.  She instantly rejected it, noting it was silk, and silk was "hot and uncomfortable."  I never knew this.  You know what's uncomfortable?  Polyester and poly-blends.  And itchy lace.  And sequins.  And the Phat wedding is taking place in August.  So anything Lo chooses outside these man-made assortments would be dandy, in my opinion.  Linen would be a lovely choice, but linen wrinkles.  Really bad.

• loving it--I have discussed this in a previous blog rant.  No one will ever wear it again so it doesn't matter.  Oh wait, I was on a wedding site last night and they advertised "bridesmaid separates".  You read that right!  You can wear the top to the office the next day, and with just the right sweater, you can tweak that shiny taffeta skirt into an outfit for church.

• price--the price of Lauren's current bridesmaid dress choice is really quite low, I think.  I suppose she could find six identical dresses in the same color cheaper at...well, um....well, I don't know.  But let's talk facts here.  Lauren just wants to be known as shrewdly thrifty, and since it's not her dime in this instance, I think she can succumb to allowing the friends that love her to buy the bridesmaid dress she really wants them to wear :)

Hair today

Jesse is growing a mustache.

I saw it over on Phat Farm Wedding.

Maybe it's because we live in Minnesota, and middle-aged Minnesotan men almost always grow facial hair in the winter.  I know because my pastor used to do it, as did my two high school science teachers...Hi Denny and Ed.  But those science teachers were also like real life Grizzly Adams types, and so maybe the call of the wild had more to do with it than the winter season...

Anyway, my own personal guess, (and since Jesse is really not middle-aged), is Jesse is doing it as his one last act of independence.  Kind of his one last acting out before he gets married to Lauren.  And if there was ever a time to act out, it would be now.

Also, I can't believe the Phat wedding is only eight months away!  That's less time than it takes to bake a baby!  It is coming up so fast.  I really hope Kylee is ready for her public debut by then.

I was just reading on Phat Farm Wedding how, before the proposal, Lauren sensed there was something in the air, and she was half way expecting Jesse to ask for her hand.  I never knew this!  I am intrigued beyond imagination because I just can't see Lauren knowing something this monumental and not beating it out of Jesse beforehand.

e-no

Ok, wow, I am behind on my blogging.  I think Lauren and Jesse have blogged like three or four times since I last did.

But now, you know, I have material to work with.

Lauren posed an interesting question on facebook yesterday.  I can't believe she even thought it, to say the least, typed it out, but she was casually wondering if an e-vite might be appropriate for her wedding.  And I use the word casually in the most literal sense.

Now, I'm going to assume she was super tired from her new nanny baby, or was simply overwhelmed with the process of selecting and ordering her invitations.  Or maybe she indulged in some ganja before she sat down to her computer.  I don't know...I just don't know.  I tossed and turned all night, and not just because I just saw Black Swan.