My Surprise Weekend

A few weeks ago, Paul asked me if I had plans on the weekend of October 21-23. I immediately got curious and asked him why. He got all mischievous and said it was a surprise. So I kept my weekend free. Paul also made me promise not to "cheat" and look up things on the internet in order to figure out what he was planning. He said "I will know if you cheat" and I believed him, because he is a genius with computers and could probably tell what I was searching for on them, and also, Paul could probably know just by looking at me if I cheated. It drove me crazy though! I was SO tempted to try to figure out what was going on because I am not really keen on surprises. However, Paul LOVES to surprise me and he is always good at it. He did not fail this time either.

The first thing we did early in the afternoon on friday was drive to Madison. Even though I have lived in Milwaukee (only 1.5 hours away from Madison) for a few years now, we have never been to Madison. How Crazy. It turns out that that city is WAY cooler than Milwaukee and I was envious that we couldn't have lived there instead for the last 4-ish years. Anyway, we went to our hotel and unpacked. We turned on the TV in our room and it just so happened that a commercial came on almost right away about an "Electronic Liquidation Sale" at the Madison Aliant Energy Center. I turned to Paul and asked jokingly: "Is this what we are doing this weekend?!" Paul laughed and said: "Oh yeah, you figured it out! Bummer." I assumed he was joking (or rather hoped) and then we got ready to leave. I was going crazy trying to figure out the surprise. I also had no idea what to wear for such a surprise occasion, so Paul caved and told me to wear "nice clothes but jeans are okay" and that it was indoors. So off we went to our mystery place.

Paul gave me the GPS and I navigated. Soon, the GPS told us that our destination was on our right, and guess what it was? That's right, the Madison Aliant Energy Center! I freaked out. "Paul," I said as calmly as I could, "are we REALLY here for the liquidation sale??!" I was trying not to sound disappointed, but really, if that was the surprise, I was pretty bummed. Paul just chuckled. The sign at the front of the building flashed different events going on in the same building, so I started reading closely as we waited in a long line of cars to enter the parking lot. The first sign was about the liquidation sale. The second sign flashed about a Clydesdale Horse show. I looked up at Paul and again asked as nicely as I could if this was the surprise. Again, I was trying not to sound disappointed because really, Paul should know by now that I don't really care about horses. Paul just chuckled again. I was really starting to go crazy. Then the next, blessed sign came up: "Food and Wine show" and I shrieked in delight. I KNEW that it was the surprise. Paul knows how much I love food and wine. :) Paul grinned then and I was actually wonderfully surprised and excited.

On Friday night and Saturday and Sunday afternoon, we spent all of our time in this gigantic room tasting tons of different wines and spirits as well as lots and lots and lots of cheese, sausage, crackers, pastas, etc. It was mainly cheese, though. It's crazy, I always told Paul that my version of heaven was one where I could drink all the wine I wanted and eat cheese nonstop. This was heaven on earth! Except it will be better in heaven: I am lactose intolerant and since Paul didn't warn me, I did not have my pills along. Every night was a bit of agony on my stomach, but it was still worth it. There was this cool demonstration kitchen where chefs showed us how to make fancy meals and then let us sample them. We got to try a cool bruschetta with figs on it (weird combo but tasted great!), some fancy chicken dish whose name I have already forgotten, some fancy meatballs with fennel sauce, some delicious Pakistani food, and some shrimp and pork dumplings. Yum! We also watched a bit of "dueling chefs" which was a competition. It was fun to watch but it kept making us hungry and we weren't allowed to sample the foods they made, which was a bummer. 

All in all, the weekend went by way too quickly, and we ate WAY too much food. It was the best romantic surprise weekend ever! I am so happy that Paul decided to plan this for us to do. We bought a few things but for the most part, we ate so much of the foods at the 3 day food show that we did not see the need to buy more, even though it was all so delicious. Like I said earlier: It was heaven on earth...I just could have done with the lactose intolerance problem! :)

Seasonal Fall Fun

We have been having such amazing golden fall weather, so Paul and I have made sure to take full advantage of such a rare event. Normally, fall seasons seem to be only 1 week of prettiness followed by weeks and weeks of rain and frost. This year, we have had about 3 whole weeks of pretty weather! I finally got to see nature full of perfect fall-colored leaves. Ah, God's beauty is so amazing. :) Anyway, here are a few things we have done so far this fall season:

1) Me, Paul, and Rick went to an apple orchard.

*First thing we did was go in the corn maze. Before stepping inside the maze, we noticed that the entry and the exit were about 5 feet apart. We immediately assumed that this corn maze would be as easy as others we have done in the past. And sure enough, the "true path" was wide while the fake paths were unkept and tiny. We started joking about the "difficulty" of the maze, when suddenly, we realized that we had been walking the maze for a long time. The corn was so high that we could not tell directions, which is odd for me since I have a compass in my head. I hesitantly told the guys that I was pretty sure we were heading in the wrong direction of the exit. But we kept on trudging. A long while later, we found an alternate exit which was on the opposite side of the apple orchard. Our cart for the apples was by the entrance, so we had to walk all the way through the apple orchard to get our cart and then turn around and go through the orchard again. I still don't know how we were supposed to get out that shorter-distance exit...

*Anyway, we got plenty of apples. However, I was disappointed that the orchard did not have my new favorite apple, the honeycrisp apple. But they did have my second favorite, the Empire apple. So I made do with empires. I went home and made apple crisp, which was fantastic. Then, a few days later, I made apple cheesecake, and it was so, so good. We still have another large bag of apples and I can't decide whether to make apple crisp again or the cheesecake. Decisions, decisions...

2) My parents came for a visit and we went for a long hike in the kettle moraine forest.

*This pretty forest is located on the hilly indents left over from the glaciers of past times. I don't know how it all works, but I DO know that the forests are really pretty. You can climb towers located throughout the park to see far, far off into the distance. It was so pretty. The sun was shining and you could see different colored trees everywhere! It was a lot of hard work on my poor knees to go up and down such steep hills, but it was still my favorite way to do exercise. I could walk in the woods every day for the rest of my life and be incredibly happy. :)

3) We also went canoeing while my parents were in town.

*It was a bit disappointing because we WANTED to go upriver to the pretty nature areas. However, we couldn't fit the kayak (for my parents) and the canoe (for us) on the top of our vehicle. So we had to stick in Milwaukee. That was kind of a bummer because the part of the river we were on was sandwiched between two rapids that we couldn't navigate around. So we went upriver, turned around, went down river, turned around, went back up river, etc. Oh well, at least we were spending time outdoors in the golden sunshine! It was fun to see the salmon running as well.

4) Paul and I found a paved path through nature somewhat near our house!

*We have always been frustrated in the past because I want to go on plenty of walks, but if we want to walk somewhere pretty, we need to drive at least 30 minutes to get to pretty areas. UGH. But I accidentally found a new path closer to our house and now we go on walks on the path at least 2 times a week. I wish people told you about those kind of things. But as far as I can tell, there is no way to know about this particular path unless you get curious about it, look it up on the google satellite map, and then decide to risk it and just go. How lame. But anyway, it's nice enough. It has woods all around it, so I get to enjoy some nature and feel safe while walking with my dog and my hubby. We have spent way more time outdoors this fall than in the past!

I hope the good weather continues to last. If it does, perhaps I can write another post on the awesomeness of fall... :)

~Raven

Different Expressions of Faith

While procrastinating from my chores, I ended up somehow or another reading an article from Focus on the Family's website. Here: When Your Faith Expression Differs From Your Spouse  I found this article fascinating. I suppose, in one way, it's just common sense to say that everyone worships God differently. However, at the same time, it made me realize that Paul and I are probably different when it comes to worshiping God. Not only that, but other people in general worship God differently from me. I need to be okay with that. As Paul and I struggle trying to find a church that "fits" for us, I need to remember that even if a certain church does not "fit" for us, it might "fit" for plenty of others. I should try not to criticize them as much...not an easy thing to do for someone as opinionated as me. :)

Anyway, I am eager to bring up this question to my beloved hubby tonight: "How do you express your faith?" It's odd, I mean, I have some ideas of how he worships God, but I am still curious to how he will answer. For me, it's easy. I worship God through song and nature. I sing all the time. Random, odd things that I make up on the spot, but singing nonetheless. Singing is how I express my emotions. I have always felt closer to God if I am singing or listening to a majestically beautiful song. Granted, I am picky about my songs. Perhaps that is because that is how I express my adoration for God. If we sing a song in church, it has to be perfect, and sadly, I don't find modern Christian songs to be perfect enough. So my way of praising and worshiping God has dwindled lately. I told Paul once that I feel like my soul is like a gas tank. When I hear and sing even one beautiful song in church, my "gas tank soul" goes from empty to overflowing. I often cry while singing in church. I get tingles. It is beautiful. However, when I go through service after service with weak-lyric modern songs, I feel like my "gas tank soul" is on empty. I feel as distant as can be from God. It's a struggle for me, but now that I have a piano and old hymnals in my house, I can make up for it at least a little.

I also worship God through nature. When Paul and I go on nature hikes or go fishing, I feel close to God. We just went on a walk the other day. It was on a trail in Milwaukee, but with trees surrounding us, I could at least pretend that we were far from the city. There was a tree along the path that was full of golden leaves and the sun was hitting it just right so it shined and shimmered like golden beauty at its' best. I couldn't stop telling Paul how wonderful God is and how amazing He was because he made such a gloriously golden tree. Paul humored me and listened, but this simple natural site was clearly helping me worship God more than Paul. And that's okay. Just because I cannot help but marvel at God whenever I see anything amazing in nature does not mean that Paul has to be the same way. And like the article mentioned above says, having different ways of worshiping God is a good thing. How cool is that?

At the end of the article was this: Spiritual Temperament Quiz. I took that as well. In a nutshell, it seems that my spiritual temperament is: naturalist, enthusiast, and contemplative. What about you? What is your spiritual temperament? How do you express your faith? I am deeply curious about this. So please, if you feel comfortable, comment below and let me know!