SURPRISES

People are usually surprised to know that I'm mostly Italian.

Maybe it's the REALLY pastey white skin, blonde hair, and green eyes that throw people off!

My mom is 100% Italian...making me 50%. My dad is 50% Swedish, 25% German, and 25% Norwegian. It's obvious that I inherited the Scandinavian traits.

However, I only get excited about celebrating my Swedish heritage when shopping at IKEA...sad but true.

(source)

One of our most recent IKEA purchases is this

Of course I was by myself when picking it up. I didn't get a cart and had to somehow lug it around the store. A little difficult seeing as it was as wide as my arm span.
And then when I finally got it out to the parking lot, it tuned out that it didn't even fit in our tiny car AND it started down pouring. I called my brother who doesn't live too far away and he came to my rescue in the IKEA parking lot with his suv.

The reason this picture was super exciting was because we had been on the hunt for a great skyline pic for 2 years now.

Our dining room is filled with Chicago pics on our walls...all taken by my wonderful husband who has a great eye for photography.

One other reason buying this picture was such a success was because I could finally remove the stuffed moose head that had been hanging in its place...wonderfully placed there by my funny husband.

I don't know where he got this moose head or why it's been his goal to place it in different areas of our apartment since we got married, including over our bed...but he's thoroughly enjoyed this.

Once the picture was put up, I very excitedly threw the moose head in the office/Chicago Bears Room/Derek's Man Cave...hoping that it would not make a return visit anywhere.

Of course, I should've known better.

I came home to this the other day.

At least he was considerate to leave our flower wreath up on the door too.

So we've compromised...as ridiculous as it is and as much as it caught our landlord by surprise the other day and made her stand at our front door laughing...we're keeping the stuffed moose/lovely flower wreath up on our door to greet all of our guests.

Some days no matter how much I "go by the book", Diabetes surprises me and throws me for loops...but most of the time it's Derek who lovingly surprises me...and I really don't mind!!!

Happy Monday!