So stinkin’ cute

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I got to spend the day with my beautiful niece today. As her mmm-ma (grandma) would say, “She is SO STINKIN’ CUTE.” Seriously. She just stole my heart over and over today.

We played, read, danced and talked. She held my hand as she fell asleep for her nap. She cried and made the “I love you” sign when I left. Auntie Rah-rah loves you too!

Now it’s Iowa game watch time with my sis and future bro-in-law. Hawk got all ready to cheer on his team.

My #1 cutie doesn’t watch much football – or tackle ball, as he calls it – so Hawk watched the game next to him while he did other things.

I am so thankful for all my cuties.

Being an adult

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When I was younger, there were two things I thought I defined a grown-up woman – the ability to carry a purse (without misplacing it) and the ability to wear heels all day (and not take them off after an hour to run around barefoot like we did at prom). I am happy to report that I can do both of these things with ease, but I must admit that I feel no more like a grown-up then I did when i was in high school.

I don’t know why – I do grown-up things all the time. I vote, my husband and I pay our mortgage, I talk to my friends about how their child-rearing efforts are working out. I have been financially independent from my family for more than a decade now. I watch the news and I almost always go to bed at a reasonable hour (pre-Leno).

Back to purses. The whole reason I started thinking about this is because I am admiring the new purse my love just gave me. He is excellent at picking out fashionable purses that fit my needs, then working the purchase into the budget because I stopped buying them because it felt too self-indulgent.

I was admiring the purse and I realized I haven’t lost a purse in…well, I can’t remember. I have one fuzzy memory of leaving a purse in a movie theater but I’m nearly certain I realized it by the parking lot and got it back. My purse is a part of me now – I perpetually lean my body to the left to counter balance the weight I carry on my right shoulder (which bears an impressive muscle knot, according to my massage therapist friend). I have gum, an umbrella and a hard drive with me at all times; let me know if you ever need them.

So. I have come to the realization that having a purse does not equal feeling like an adult. I wonder when I will look in the mirror and think, “My my, Sarah, you are really looking like quite an adult.” Maybe it will come the day I get my hair tamed and somehow style it everyday. Maybe it will come when (if?) my acne goes away and my wrinkles set. Maybe it will come when I am a mother. Or a grandmother. I’ll let you know.

Fall Food Files

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I love the cooler weather that fall brings. I also love to pull out recipes for the delish food that I avoided cooking during the hot summer months. I made some of my favorite fall favorites this weekend. Taco soup is the perfect meal to eat while watching the Hawks dominate and mandarin orange cake is the perfect sweet finish for the meal. These are two of my favorites – and even better, both recipes are from Weight Watchers, so they’re in the neighborhood of healthy.

Taco soup

1 pound ground turkey

1 chopped onion

3 cans (16 oz) chopped tomatoes (I prefer Ro-tel brand)

3 cans (16 oz) beans, undrained (I like two cans black beans, one can pinto beans)

1 can (16 oz) whole kernel corn, undrained

1 can (4 1/2 oz) chopped/diced green chilies

1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce

1 1/2 cups water

1 package low sodium taco seasoning

1 envelope dry ranch dressing mix

Directions: Cook turkey and onion together until browned. Mix with other ingredients in a pot. (Add a teaspoon of baking soda to reduce acidity.) Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes or longer.

Top with sour cream, tortilla chips, shredded cheese, or serve the soup on top of a baked potato. Soup freezes well.

Mandarin Orange Cake

1 package pudding-type yellow cake mix

11 oz canned mandarin oranges in juice

1 oz ff/sf vanilla pudding mix

8 oz canned crushed pineapple in juice

4 large eggs

1/2 c. unsweetened applesauce

12 oz ff cool whip

Directions: Blend cake mix, eggs, mandarin oranges  with juice and applesauce. Pour into pan and bake at 375 degrees according to timing on cake mix package. Cool on rack.

For topping, mix pineapple with juice, pudding mix and whipped topping together. Frost cake and refrigerate.

Our church family

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I know I’ve talked about it before, but I have to talk about it again – we have the best family. Our blood relations are great, but we get the privilege of sharing life with an amazing group of people from The Rock.

Today, we spent some time with some of the cutest kids ever. Rafa and Z practiced their Lego building and sword fighting,

then Row did her Chippettes songs,

Little O practiced being cute the whole time,

then Sy showed us how advanced he is by standing up before he can even crawl!

I love these guys and I consider us very lucky that we get to be in their family. As much fun as we had with these guys, we were sad because we would be losing some members of our family. They have a great opportunity to attend a Rock location closer to their house. It will be great for them…but sad for us.

God gives us so many opportunities to honor him in our circumstances, despite how we feel. The most important thing is that we honor him by living our life for Him. My girl is honoring God by going to the opportunity God has provided for her. I love her. I will miss her.

I said yes

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I have the best husband. I love the little traditions we have:

  • He always gives me a kiss when he meets me after work.
  • He always walks on the street side of the sidewalk in order to protect me.
  • He always opens and shuts my car door for me.
  • He always says yes when I ask him to rub my back or play with my hair.
  • He always tells me he loves me as he turns off the light before we go to bed.

But sometimes, I am surprised when he shakes it up. Like this morning, when I was waking him up.

Me: “Good morning, honey. Time to wake up.”

Him: “Thank you.”

Me: Surprised because he usually says good morning back to me. “Thank you?”

Him: “Thank you for saying ‘yes’ a year ago.”

Before Rafa even opened his eyes, he remembered that one year ago today, he proposed to me. I am pretty amazed that was his first thought of the day, but I am not surprised. I love you!

Technology-free weekend

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We are at the end of a wonderful long weekend. I should have taken a million photos, but I didn’t. I didn’t take any. I had a self-imposed technology-free weekend.

Occasional technology-free weekends should be mandatory for everyone, especially if you have a data phone. I usually use my phone to take photos, but since I wasn’t looking at my phone, I didn’t take any photos.

We experienced The Fair (aka “The Great Minnesota Get Together”) together. We slept in, drove to the park and ride, and took the bus to the fairgrounds. Along with 234,384 people (Saturday’s State Fair attendance set single-day record), we played Fair Bingo (femmullet – check) and wandered. We ate, of course – cheese curds, pineapple shake, chicken kabobs and a deep fried Snickers on a stick. And we talked and watched and walked. Perfect.

On Sunday, the Wolf family came to see us! It was so fun to have them come and stay at our new house. Cadie and Nathan tested out the swingset while we got to talk to Beth and Jeremy. Their third, Jason, is scheduled to arrive in just three weeks. Beth is looking fantastic and I can’t wait to visit the soon-to-be family of five again soon.

Today, we went to visit a winery. Getting to sample the goods was a perk, but we were there on business. We are working on growing our side business (I’ll write more about that on another day). We experienced his operation and got a good idea of what owner/master winemaker needs to more effectively create a brand. But now, it’s time to get ready to get back to work and the real world, data phone and all.

Goodbye to MPLS

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We moved this weekend, which means we had to say goodbye to South Minneapolis, my home for the past three years.

We said goodbye to our first house together – the duplex. We had to leave the beautiful plastic chandelier behind.

We said goodbye to…whatever that guy is (look closely for the reptile head sticking out of the lake). Dinosaur or loch ness monster, it seems to suddenly appear at the various lakes in our area.

And we said goodbye to our neighbors, the friendly murdering vans. Oh how we enjoyed making up stories about these guys.

You will be missed, South MPLS.

Thank you, world!

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The number is 2,000. Is it:

A: The number of treats Hawk ate for his 7th birthday on Tuesday

B. The number of miles we are putting on our car driving between our rental and our new house

C. The number of hits on our blog, www.rssoriano.com

The first two are almost true, but the correct answer is C! We have received more than 2,000 hits on our blog. This makes me smile. We started this blog as a way to journal our preparation for marriage and the things we were learning. We figured that since we were writing it down, we could share it with the people we love.

I don’t hear from many of you via comments, but I know you are faithfully following us. Thank you for joining us on our journey of love and faith in our marriage.

Melting Pot Marriage

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I’ve been mulling over an article I read recently on Focus on the Family called “Marriage in the Melting Pot.” The author shares that while all marriages require commitment and dedication to becoming everything God has for them, an inter-ethinc marriage has unique challenges and opportunities to glorify God in the process. I didn’t give that much thought as Rafa and I were falling in love and getting married, but now I see some merit to the ideas the author presents.

Language has been an area of difficulty lately. I love to listen to the soft, smooth way words come out of Rafa’s mouth when he is speaking in Spanish (“Te quiero” is so much more beautiful than “Love ya”), but sometimes I feel left out when he is engaged in an all Spanish conversation that I can’t participate in. I don’t like feeling helpless, waiting for him to translate the parts that might pertain to me or that he thinks I might be interested in. Worse yet, if I let my mind wander, I worry that he is saying something about me or our marriage (“Ugh – dinner was terrible tonight!”) that he hasn’t talked about to me directly.

Rafa learned English quickly when he came to the US almost 10 years ago and he knows it so well that when he talks to himself in his mind, that internal monologue is in English. However he is able to express himself differently in his native tongue. He can’t go “home” anymore, but he can speak the language of his childhood. He can’t get that familiarity anywhere else, and I certainly wouldn’t want to take that away from him.

I need to follow the articles tip of using G.R.A.C.E. (I love acronyms) even more so in our inter-ethnic marriage. The G stands for “Give your spouse the benefit of the doubt.” What that measure of grace, I can free myself from thinking that Rafa is talking about things I need to know. Rather than trying to interpret with my broken vocabulary, I can trust that Rafa has my best interests in mind and that he will talk to me (in English, of course) about the things that are important to us. Giving each other grace is just the first step in making our marriage strong – regardless of race, language, background or any other difference we have.

Three years ago

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It’s hard for me to believe that three years ago yesterday, I packed up and moved to Minneapolis. If someone would have told me then what my life would look the way it does today, I would have laughed. Really, really hard.

I’m so glad I didn’t know anything.

God picked me up and moved me out of the situation I was in. He took care of me. He took care of everything. He gave me a job, enough money and a way out. He was patient with me even when it hurt so bad. He grew me through it.

God went before me and prepared a way for me. He provided a job that was more than I imagined. He led me to a church where I would find Him. He gave me family there. He allowed me to be content in Him alone.

The God really outdid himself. He brought me a best friend. Then he cleared my vision and allowed me to see that my friend was my husband, my better half, my leader and my soulmate. He gave me more than I possibly deserved.