Catching Up

What can I say? Life's been busy. For anybody who didn't come, you were missed and if you were wondering, the wedding was wonderful. I am still enchanted when I think back to how well it went. I liked my wedding day way more than I thought I would. I thought of it previously as just kind of a necessary process to get to the end point, like high school graduation or something-- all ceremony. As it turns out, it was one of the best days ever! Who would have thought?

We went on a weeklong trip to Spain the morning after the wedding. Despite minor setbacks from getting sick, Ben and I had an awesome time in Spain too. We stayed in Sevilla and Granada and took a couple of day trips to Cordoba. Sevilla and Cordoba were my favorites. A couple of things we really liked about Spain:

1) they have lime trees everywhere like the east coast has regular trees and shrubs everywhere. They just line the sidewalks all over. It's awesome. And it smells wonderful. I'm not sure what they do with all the fruit, because the sidewalks weren't messy with it. Whatever they do, it works.

2) lots of people traveled around on bicycles. They were electrically powered bikes too. And they had docking/charging stations for them everywhere. And the people riding the bikes were NOT 1)homeless or 2) hardcore bikers wearing stretchy shorts with a seat cushion built in and a matching racing tee. They were just everyday people getting to the grocery store or school or wherever. Imagine that... Fascinating.

3) their pastry shops are so yummy. At least the ones we went to. We had ice cream and pastries every day we were there. Which brings me to my next topic..

4) their ice cream. They have the yummiest flavors over there. We went to one pastry shop in Sevilla where they had this delicious lemon sorbet that just had the right amount of tartness. In Cordoba, I had greek yogurt and honey ice cream. YUM! And in Granada I had orange chocolate and milk & cinnamon. And another fun thing is they decorate the ice cream mounds with fruit or whatever and drizzle them with toppings and stuff so they LOOK as delicious as they taste.

5) the cool craftsman shops we found. Ben and I brought back a picture made in a leather shop where they sit there and carve & paint the leather right in the shop. It's beautiful. They had items that we would have loved to bring home but would have never fit in our suitcase and/or were just a BIT out of our price range. But it was an incredibly cool shop. We also found a shop where they had four or five artists who kept studios right around it and they sold their art in the shop. I wanted to take the entire shop home. They DO have a website, which appeases me since we didn't get anything for ourselves there. Just beautiful. I like taking home souvenirs from shops like these much more than buying some crappy piece of whatever hokey stuff they have in the region from a cheap souvenir shop. I get so tired of that kind of stuff. If it was well-made, that would be one thing. But it almost never is.

Anyhow, we hav been back from Spain for about a week. I flew back to Utah and Ben flew back to Ohio, which was less fun. I have to stay in Utah to finish working on the dresses for the dress business and I think it will take two or three more weeks before they are done. However, I came out to Ohio for the week to keep Ben company and keep both of us happy. It kinda sucks to get married and then live in two different places. So, here I am for my first day in Fairfield, Ohio, taking my first look at "home." That's weird. But it's nice to be here. And I must sign off because Ben just called and said he wants to come home for lunch. Which means I have to pick him up. Later...