[this side of the gravel road]: Our Little Road Trip

Well let me first say, I have never in my life thought I would be hassled so much by one person (not mentioning any names) to blog more - so my "new weeks" resolution is to get back to sharing more about life here on Russell Hill Road (a short distance from a gravel road).

Back on topic, as you know I bought my dress on Family Day weekend in Madison Heights, Michigan (if not, I blogged about it a few blogs back). The estimated date of arrival was April 4th. That was more then a month away, and sounded like a good amount of time before I'd be ready to make the 4.5 hour trek back to the land of Natalie & Erik, Target's and Miyako Japanese Steak House!

However, much to my surprise, a whopping 2 weeks early - David's Bridal called and said "your dress is in, you have 14 days to pick it up - see you soon!" Which left me thinking, snowstorm of the century, once again, over my wedding gown!

Neil said he would go with me this time, and it was simply just to pick up the gown, give it a quick try on, buy the undergarments and off to the races! So we left Friday after Neil was done work. This is the first spring we're home-owners, and my first spring actually living in Grand Valley. However, I have dated Neil for 3 previous springs and the 4th one is no different, the rivers comes up, the river goes down, the river goes up, the river goes down.. It normal times, this river you could easily walk from side to side without ever going above your knees during the summer. When the banks are full, as you can see here, they are three meters deep.Let's just say we're happy to live up on a hill. However, Neil's parents basically look out onto this picture below, so before heading out, Neil helped his mom get the pumps hooked up and made sure they were working for her before we left.

So we hit the road about 12:30pm and headed for the Sarnia border. We made great time, and arrived to Madison Heights, at David's Bridal about 4:20pm, in excellent time for my 4:30pm appointment. I felt so bad for my consultant, who had helped me the last time when I bought the dress, she was handling a crazy Mother-of-the-Bride and her Zilla daughter (the bride), another bride who was looking for her "dinner dress", 2 girls looks at bridesmaids dresses and me. Natalie was unable to make it to my appointment with me, so it was me and the dress. Poor Lynn was not able to offer me much help, but it was nice to just go at my leisure, have a real good look at myself and then it hit me, I'm really getting married! I have not cried through this whole process, but as I took the dress off I realized, holy crap - I have my dress, this is really happening!!

I may had shed a few, joyous tears.

I had noticed while trying the dress on, there was a small piece of "tack" from the rooching that had come untacked, so I had the alterations lady fix it - bagged the dress and headed out to the car. Neil had wondered to a few other stores in the plaza, so I stood beside the car, holding the dress way above my head and waiting for my prince to come back to me! I almost had a meltdown, this is when having a cell phone that didn't charge me an arm and a leg to use in the USA (or needless to say an extra set of keys!) would have really come in handy!! He helped me get it into the car, and we headed to Erik & Natalie's.

We arrived there, just in time as they got out of their car from work. We headed inside, and Natalie popped dinner in the oven (she'd made home-made lasagne's!) for dinner. We chatted and settled in, had an awesome dinner and then headed over to Max & Irma's (a restaurant in their condo complex) that serves hot out of the oven chocolate chip cookies! Mmmm perfect dessert!! We headed back home, chilled out for a bit and called it a night.

The next morning, we headed up to Frankenmuth, Michigan's Little Bavaria for a touristy day with Erik & Natalie! This eclectic little town was a lot of fun to walk around. We took in a few little shops (like a sausage shop, Neil really enjoyed that one!), Frankenmuth Cheese Haus and quite a few others then I could have spent a lot of money in - we REALLY enjoyed our day there! We had lunch the - I am sure it would be great to visit on a week day in the summer, when the gardens and went to the Frankenmuth Brewery for lunch!

I should likely mention here that Friday morning I woke up with a full-on head cold, and was feeling like total crap so yay Erik, Natalie & Neil for putting up with my poutyness, sneezing and nose-blowing and yay me for not being a baby! Woohoo!

After leaving Frankenmuth, we headed to to a huge outlet mall - but we were (well I was) pretty tired of walking around, didn't really have much to shop for and so we decided after hitting the Nike & Corelle outlets, to hit the road and head back to Auburn Hills to Natalie & Erik's place.

So the mall trip didn't last long, and the trip home was pretty quiet - I think we all were pretty tired! Once we arrived back "home" again we all cuddled up on Erik & Natalie's amazing couch/chaise/bed that looks like this ... can I tell you how amazing this thing is. We all put the couch cushions along the back part, four of us sat across it, the boys on the outside, Natalie & I in the middle, just old old times, bum2bum. I better explain the bum2bum thing. We were college roomates and after knowing me approximately 3 days she came home to Grey County and went to a buck & doe with me. That night, we shared my "double-wide" 3/4 bed and both slept facing out "bum2bum" - get it? But anyways, back to their awesome couch, how cool is it!?! I love it!! Hope you guys don't mind me sharing it!! (not that I took pictures actually of it!)

Last night we went to Joe's Crab Shack for dinner - it was awesome and well worth the wait! I love crab, and Neil prefers shrimps! We both really enjoyed our meals, and our amazing company, Erik & Natalie! What a great night out! We then went to Meijer for Thomas Bagels (Neil and I are addicted) and to pick up a movie! Well Natalie & I are tried and true "not movie pickers" - the movie we all picked, totally sucked. I think I fell asleep twice and when it was over well all did a sigh together, as to say "thank god it's over"!! Off to bed.

This morning was bittersweet, we knew we wanted to stay, and relax more, and spend another day with our friends, but we also knew we had a mound of laundry, a puppy who missed us terribly and jobs to return to on Monday. We had a really nice breakfast with them, and packed the car. We made a quick stop at Joann Fabrics, and Target and hit the highway.

As a side note, I'm really into making Lennox fleece dog braids for her to play with. They are quite indestructible, affordable to make and let me tell you, Lennox LOVES them. Today we tried a new pattern, and she loves it just the same as all the rest! I think I might start selling them! A new business venture for when I find time. I don't have time to do be making the baby quilts I bought fabric for months ago, let along making dog toys! Problem is, the dog toys are quicker, cheaper and take up less time.

Anyways, we got onto the road, got through the border without a problem and honestly told the guy I bought my wedding dress and the cost and he still told us to have a nice day, "you have a nice day too!" - so much relief!!

We stopped in to have a quick visit with Neil's sister Mandi in Waterloo, stopped at Neil's parents to visit with them and collect our very exhausted Lennox, and headed home to unpack the car.

Needless to say, we're exhausted tonight. I made panzerotti's for dinner, they were SO good and I will definatley be making those again!!

Tomorrow night, at 6:00pm I start my new job! I am very excited and a little nervous, but I met my training partner on Thursday night, and I know we're going to have a lot fun together! Please keep you fingers crossed for me, and I'll be sitting here studying my phonetic alphabet!