Lake Michigan Trip

When we were planning for mom's 50th party we had originally planned it for her actual birthday July 18th, but Nick and Christy had planned to leave for their vacation on the 18th. We had here party on the 11th, but I was bummed because I wanted to be with the Birthday girl on her actual birthday. They decided to come up to visit us in West Lafayette for the weekend. Then we also decided that we should do something fun so we drove up to Michigan City, IN to visit lake Michigan.

Friday mom and dad got to our apartment around noon, and we hit the road. The lake is really only about an hour and a half away but we encountered construction and detours making it about 3hrs away. Not to mention my parent's GPS told us that our hotel was at a church... but we finally made it. We checked into the hotel and rested a few minutes before heading to the Indiana Dunes State Park. After some beach walking we all went to a restaurant called Gelsosomos Pizzeria it was fabulous. After dinner we headed to the outlet mall in Michigan City.

Sarturday, Mom's birthday, we went back to the Outlet mall and bought virtually NOTHING, and then went to a different park where there was a lighthouse. We headed home shortely after that.

This weekend trip was also our 1st Anniversary gift from Mom and Dad. I can't believe that we will have been married almost a year!

Funny story about this picture. As Dad was taking it
a lady passed by and saw my hand signs and said is that 50?
I said that it was her birthday and the lady said, "You sure don't look it,
maybe more like 25!''

Pictures from our visit home!

Before we left Michael and I went for a walk and found some horses by Purdue!

Sunday we had lunch at Rocky's with Mom, Dad, Nick, Christy, Luke, Deb, Mike and Jordan!

Saturday Mom, Christy, Luke and I went on an all day shopping excursion! We had so much fun!

Cameos

I love Cameos. Necklaces, earrings, lapel pins, bracelets, basically anything with a cameo on it. But I am increasingly surprised that no one my own age seems to know what a cameo is. So, I thought I would educate anyone my own age who reads this and isn't aware of what a cameo is.

I guess I love them because 1. They are vintage looking, 2. They are somewhat hard to find, and finding a new one is quite a feat.

Which brings me to this weekend. I called Grandma to see if she was home from her radiation treatment yet, and when I got to her house she showed me the pink cameo candle holders that she had gotten for me!

Friday I went to Target with Michael's mom. She bought me the cutest t-shirt complete with you guessed it...cameo!

Saturday I went shopping with Mom, Christy, and Luke. While I was in one of the stores I found a black belt with a cameo on the buckle!

Michael's parent's visit...Nick and Christy's visit, and my job!

It's nice to be back...at work that is! I am doing another temp job here at Purdue. I am in the same hall I was in last time, just a few floors up. The lady I worked for the first time recommended me. This is a relatively short job. I started Tuesday of this week and it ends Wed. of next week. But Michael and I are glad for the money, and I am happy to be bored somewhere other than my apartment!

I have had a sort of rough week. I hadn't been feeling well for about a week so yesterday I finally went to the doctor. The doctor confirmed what I thought was wrong with me, uti. I got my medicine and now I hopefully am on the road to recovery.

Last weekend Michael's parents came up for a visit. It was nice, a little cramped because they stayed with us, but overall enjoyable. We went hiking, and to a Mexican bakery and groceria. Michael's mom is fluent in spanish and likes to try the food too. We got several dessert items. They also bought fresh steaks from the Purdue butcher, I didn't eat any, but they got rave reviews. I did however, make the sauce for the pasta we had with the steaks. I make this really amazing (if I do say so myself) sauce. It is basically an alfredo sauce with less than 1 tablespoon of flour. I can't eat alfredo sauce at restaurants because they thicken their sauce with WAYY too much flour. I prefer to thicken mine with cheese! Anyway, Debbie and Joe have made that before, but they never like theirs. They loved mine! Joe even complimented me on getting it perfecto. YAY! I also made homemade biscotti for the weekend. It is a family recipe that Joe's mother used to make. They were a hit.

Sunday night after the Caruso's left my brother called to tell me that he was going to come up to visit if we were going to be in town. I was so thrilled! They are in fact bringing my favorite baby in the world...Mr. Luke Hammond himself! Yay! Tonight we are making bragiolle (i can't spell it) it is pronounced bra and like Angelina Jolee's last name. If I haven't explained this before this meal is thinly sliced pork loin rubbed in olive oil rolled with bread crumbs inside (another family recipe of bread crumbs) placed on a skewer and broiled. We will also be making a repeat of the same fettuccine alfredo from last weekend.

I cannot wait to see Nick, Christy, and Luke! Although I am looking forward to a weekend with just Michael and me soon!

Oh, and Go McCain Palin!

Settling in

Moving in and getting settled has been a huge job for us! It is amazing to me how many things that you don't realize that you need. I feel like the entire first week that we lived here we spent the majority of our time at Target and Walmart. Now things are settling down and I am in hardcore job finding mode.

Over the weekend Michael and I came home to visit, as well as to get some legal stuff done, ie. name changed. I went to the courthouse on Friday and got a legal copy of our marriage license. I had a great lunch with Megan Birke! Then I went to the Social Security office and got part 1 of the name change done. I had a great weekend with my mom and dad. Mom and I went shopping on Saturday, and she bought me the most awesome pair of gray pants! We also got to spend lots of time with Nick, Christy, Luke, as well as Debbie and Joe.

Today I got part 2 of my name change completed, so now legally you may call me Laura Caruso!

My weekend

I had a nice weekend with Michael. Went we to the charlestown pizza company for dinner and then played on the playground at Jonathan Jennings for awhile. We came back and watched some tv together. Saturday afternoon I went to Michael's house and instead of getting ready for dinner with his parents, (his parents were going out to dinner after a friend's baby was baptized), we made Brinner or breakfast for dinner. It is always fun to make dinner together, which with our parents it is rare that we have the opportunity. We took his dog, Bellinda aka Bee, for a walk and spent a fantastic evening together playing mariokart and watching house hunters!

Today Michael went to CIC with me. We had lunch with my whole family, and got to spend some quality time with Luke. Michael stayed until I had to leave for work. What a fantastic weekend!

Tomorrow I have my wisdom teeth taken out...ouch! I'm sure I will make an interesting looking chipmunk.

Other than that the only thing of note is that I have yet again found a purse that I love, and shoes too...so if you don't have any interest in either of those things I suggest that you forgo this last paragraph, and accept my condolences from for the girly topic.

Most people know that I am a purseaholic. Recently however, shoes have been capturing my attention more than ever. I will always love flip flops more than anything else. I saw a pair of flip flips the other day on the LL Bean website. There is this one pair of flip flops on their site that have lobsters on them! I don't know what it is, but at this point anything that has a girly looking lobster on it I am finding to be strangely attractive.