Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Caution - mushy ahead

Happy anniversary, mom and dad!

I just thought I would take this opportunity to say thanks for everything you've done and for the amazing influence you've been! When I was younger, I used to always say I would never get married and a large part of this was due to my observations of my parents' marriage. I know kids say that kind of thing all the time, but the difference is most people say it because they come from broken or unhappy homes. I said it because my parents have always had such a solid and loving relationship. Up until a few years ago I had never experienced anything that would compare, and as a result and I wasn't going to settle, hence the "never get married." I did finally meet the perfect person for me, as we all know, but this post isn't about me - it's about my family.

I can only remember one fight my parents had during my childhood and I feel so very very fortunate to be able to say that (I should add that by dinner time everyone was reconciled and laughing about it). Instead of arguments, my memory is full of images of my parents holding hands, laughing and joking, and being visibly in love. Growing up, I remember after dinner, after first taking care of my sister and I, mom and dad would go into the living room to watch the news and have "grownup time." They would sit together on the couch, mom's feet in dad's lap. As a kid, I had a vague notion that this time as important to them even though I couldn't understand why, but until I got married, I never understood how important or how special.

Thank you for always finding the time for Katie and I, but thank you also for always finding the time for each other. I couldn't ask for better parents or for better examples of what a happy marriage can be!

Saturday, February 2, 2008

Do they have cats there?


Loots!
Originally uploaded by hellomizk
That was the most entertaining question I was asked while we were visiting friends and family back in the US last week. "Do they have cats there?"

It will probably take a couple entries to get through all the fun things about our trip and I need Mr K to upload his photos for some things, so I'll start with what I have photographic evidence of - our shoppings! This is mainly my loots - Mr K also got several DVDs and Wii games and things of that nature.

The day after we arrived, we hit Best Buy - Mr K was beyond thrilled. Among the gems from that trip are Veronica Mars Season 3 and Ren and Stimpy on DVD! I also got Cooking Mama 2 for my little Nintendo DS and it is the funniest little game. A few days after the initial Best Buy trip, we had to return after Miz J showed us two episodes of Flight of the Conchords and we were completely hooked.

Another important stop - the grocery store. I got the giggles, standing in an aisle of canned goods bigger than my whole grocery here. I picked up random dry goods like taco seasoning that isn't all "weird and Swiss" (no offense to our local buddies) and onion soup mix for onion soup dip - trashy comfort snack. I found bizarre flavors of Jello and I stocked up on a few spices I was missing - namely Old Bay and Chipotle Chili as well as a big emergency back-up chili powder.

Next up - Borders! I was good and only got 3 new books but now I'm wondering if I shouldn't have grabbed a few more. I also picked up, of course, a ton of new cooking magazines.

Last stop of interest: art supply shopping! I got plenty of watercolor paper, since I've been running through it pretty quickly recently. Also got some crazy new paper called "Yupo" that I have never heard of - it says it is good for watercolor, but has the texture of a really smooth bristol - I'm interested to try it out. I also got a box of cakes of my favorite brand of watercolor - opaque instead of the transparent I use now.

In upcoming entries I'll babble about:
  • Seeing friends and family again (including my lil bitty niece)
  • Food, of course (I'm looking at you, FT in Bern...)
  • Western Sizzlin' (now I'm looking at Mr K)
  • Visiting my old college
  • Visiting my old place-of-employment-during-college
Post-link-including note: When I added the links of the pictures of Best Buy and Borders I was blown away again by how huge they are. To any non-US types reading this, Best Buy is all electronics, dvds, and cds. Borders is a massive bookstore.