My OTHER favorite Golden Girl

I have spent the weekend in mourning for one of the wittiest and wonderful actresses I've ever had the pleasure of watching. The iconic Bea Arthur has died.




Every single night and most mornings at Creighton, Liz and I would watch The Golden Girls and laugh until our guts ached. And when I lived with Rah in our apartment after Creighton, we watched this every night too. Lifetime was reliable like that. I've seen every single episode and LOVED them. Every one. Seriously, I feel like I've lost one of my very best friends! I could always count on Dorothy and company to lull me to sleep with their brilliant and touching way with comedy. She was the funniest one. My favorite.

Thank you for being a friend, Bea. You will be missed and your genius will live on forever! Rest in peace.

April showers bring wedding presents :D

This past Saturday was Sara's bridal shower. We're in the wedding home-stretch with 38 days to go!

The shower was held in the bright and airy upper level of Sara and Dustin's home. It rained that morning, but cleared up nicely by early afternoon--a perfect spring day, really. I should have taken more pictures, but I kept getting blurry ones and they made me mad so I kind of gave up. I did take some pictures the day before though, of these hysterically cute cupcake pops Eric and I made for the shower:



To learn how to make these, visit Bakerella!

If I remember correctly, there were 15 women present at the shower. Sue, Kath and Beth put the whole thing together, and so nicely that Sara thought they should open a wedding shower business. The place was already perfectly set up and immaculate by the time I got there, thinking an hour-early arrival should give me time to help out with anything. It was all already done! There was the prettiest flower arrangement in the middle of the table in perfect spring colors. Kath had made these super cool chocolate-dipped strawberries that looked like little tuxedos. There were cupcakes from the place Sara's getting her wedding cupcake tower done, and the lunch provided was a scrumptious chicken salad and warm, yeasty rolls from Sgt. Peffer's. Here's a poorly lit picture, one of my few decent ones:

We of COURSE played some fun bridal shower games (Julie was crazy good at famous couples, I could hardly believe how many she got right). We ate that delicious Sgt. Peffer's chicken salad and bread until we could've burst, then relaxed as we watched Sara open generous piles of beautiful gifts. Look at this sweet thing!



I think it was a perfect shower and I hope Sara had a wonderful time! Next up....the Bachelorette next month! OH BOY, that'll be a fun post! :D

My favorite Golden Girl

On Wednesday evening, my old roommate from Creighton came over for dinner! Liz was in nursing school with me (but finished), and in Army ROTC with me (but again persevered), and has had her share of adventures accordingly. Her family lives just south of Omaha, so whenever she comes to visit, we try to coordinate an evening or few hours together.

Liz used to poke me when I dozed in anatomy and every other class, and tried to help me figure out exactly how to study (futile). In return, I tried to help her perform a proper push-up (again futile--sorry Liz), proofread her papers and kept her entertained. We once walked all the way from Creighton to the middle of the Old Market, in the middle of the night, singing 90s songs at the top of our lungs. Not the smartest, in retrospect, but no other friend was as up for anything as Liz! We had adventures in the car, trying to find haunted places in Omaha, and endless nights up talking and watching our favorite sitcom, The Golden Girls. (It's awesome and I will defend it to my death.) She has the goofiest sense of humor and I've rarely been so comfortable with another person. Liz was my best friend during that time, and I've really missed hanging out with her.

Her husband Robert has been in Afghanistan for a year, due home this summer. And they have a beautiful baby girl! Behold the darling Heidi Rose:







This is sad, but generally, I don't do very well with children. I just have no idea what to do to entertain them. Heidi was shy and I was despairing of ever making her smile aside from tickling her feet...but I needn't have worried, because Eric is apparently a total natural with kids! In a minute flat, he had her shrieking with laughter and tossing balls for Inga to chase. He pushed her on the tire swing in the backyard and chased HER around the grass. It was absolutely adorable.










Liz's visit didn't last as long as I would've liked--we need a Villisca House weekend, she and I--but I'll take what I can get. I'm glad I got a whole evening this time; much better than a couple hours at Village Inn!



Unless next time, Liz, I'll miss you.

The first spring baby!

Last weekend, it freaking snowed. IT'S APRIL!



That's my little house. It looks kind of like a Thomas Kincaid painting...except with no joyful colors because it's night. Anyway, during that same weekend, I got one of these little guys on my weekly wildlife pickup at the Humane Society. He was left all alone in the snow!



It's a squirrel pup! This one was three weeks old. You can tell by sticking your finger in the mouth and feeling for the teeth. Bottom teeth come in at three weeks, top teeth come in at four, and the eyes open at five. They won't bite--baby squirrels are so sweet. They make the cutest squeaks when they know they're going to be fed, and they grab onto the syringe with their bitty paws and suck so hard their tongues look like tiny funnels. I should've taken a picture of that.

This little guy just wanted to snuggle into my hands and stay warm forever. Here he is trying to figure out how to burrow more deeply and being thwarted.



I am not the caretaker for juvenile squirrels--they have to be fed too frequently and there's no way I could swing that on my schedule--so I just overnighted this guy with some warm Pedialyte until I could transport him to another rehabilitator. The squirrel lady is someone I really enjoy, and she lives down in Beaver Lake. To save me a drive, I always sneak the squirrels to work in my bag and we do the hand-off in my parking lot! It's a mighty fine arrangement, I say.

Here's one more with a good view of his tail. They don't fur out until...gosh, at least a couple of months.



"It's cold out here! Feed me or put me back, woman!"