So Christmas and my birthday are over. They went by in what seems like a rush, but the good thing was that I didn't feel rushed during them (minus the last minute wrapping bout leaving me without a shower on christmas day).

It was great to be around all my family, even though I live very close to most of them its rare that we all get together. Christmas day was spent with three different families. My immediate family (ended with McKenna telling my mom she wished she would tell her that she didn't want her to leave, heartbreaking right??), Mikes family for some awesome turkey (why didn't we steal leftovers??), and out to my aunts and uncles for another awesome dinner with a bonfire and fireworks (so pretty on christmas night!) and then back to my grandmas for a lot of laughing (my grandma asking Tola, "remember that preview we were watching, like a second "Night at the Museum" what was that again I can't remember the name?" And tola innocently answering, "Night at the museum...part 2") It was a great day.

The day after christmas was nice too, I kind of ditched out on work with permission from the boss (innventory begins) and spent the day hanging out at home and cashing in some gift certificates (a new bathroom dispenser set, a recipe box-the same one I gave holly for christmas last year :) and a peeler...all things I needed). I then had the brilliant idea that I wanted a wii...so yeah, I got one. I talked myself right into it and nervously purchased it.

Oh, I didn't mention I bought a wii b/c I got two, yes TWO stand mixers for christmas! One from my momma and one from Mike. Mike stayed up all night to go shopping at 4.30 am to get me a kitchenaid mixer! He almost had to punch a lady to get one of the ten of them. What a guy, huh?

So, Christmas was good here indeed. It's sad to see its over so in protest I might leave my tree up until February and decorate it for valentines day. Think the needles will last that long?

I realize the picture here is awful, but let me just tell you, this is a catalog from fredericks of hollywood that I randomly got in the mail yesterday. The mailman wrote on it so the girl would say, "I need a mailman." Not the first time he's done this either.

So the remodel continues (and continues) we almost finished the spare bedroom, gave it some new paint and mike put in a laminate floor that looks really nice. He's almost finished with the trim and then we can move stuff in. Tomorrow night someone's going to come help replace the entire breaker box. He was supposed to come over two weeks ago but never showed up or called so please keep your fingers crossed. I guess that's what you have to deal with when you aren't hiring out contractors (saves lots of money though). Once the breaker box is changed we can move forward with everything else. We (mike) can wire the bathroom and kitchen and then the drywall can go up too. So this is a big step! Yay!

While Mike's taking care of that tomorrow and we are without power I'm going to my aunts to help out with my part: making cookies! Someone's gotta feed the hungry workers. Actually we're just going to make up a bunch of batters to bake up at a later time (seeing as I don't have a mixer or a functioning kitchen) this works out perfectly for me :)

I was starting to make my cookie baking list and got all excited when I remembered this one.
I made this recipe a couple years ago and they are AWESOME. Do yourself a favor and use some kind of food processor (magic bullet!) or something to chop the cranberries. Something I wish I would have thought of before I spent so much time trying to cut up rolling cranberries.
http://allrecipes.com/Cooks-Profile/Photo.aspx?PhotoID=7571 (there's a picture, seeing as I don't have one)

Ingredients:
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon grated orange zest
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups chopped cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 teaspoon grated orange zest
3 tablespoons orange juice
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar



DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg until well blended. Mix in 1 teaspoon orange zest and 2 tablespoons orange juice.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; stir into the orange mixture. Mix in cranberries and if using, walnuts, until evenly distributed. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Cookies should be spaced at least 2 inches apart.

Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges are golden. Remove from cookie sheets to cool on wire racks.

In a small bowl, mix together 1/2 teaspoon orange zest, 3 tablespoons orange juice and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Spread over the tops of cooled cookies. Let stand until set.

This is from a show on TLC: Take Home Chef. I've never made the cookies, so I don't have an actual picture but you can sort of tell what they looked like on the show from the picture above; they looked A-mazing, and super easy! So this is a recipe I want to try, anybody have any they want to share?

• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 stick of butter
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of peanut butter (he used chunky, but creamy would be fine)
• 1/4 cup of honey
• 1 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 bar of chocolate (He used a Lindt Dark Chocolate bar; about 2 cups of broken different sized chocolate pieces)

Mix the baking soda, brown sugar, and butter together. Add the egg. Then add peanut butter and honey. Then add flour and chocolate and fold the wet and dry ingredients together.

Roll into small/medium sized dough balls, 6 to a tray. Then bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes.

Yield: About 28 cookies

Me likey this:

I just got these:

They are really nice calphalon bakeware pans (that have a freaking 10 year warranty) and I don't have a mixer. No pressure or anything. Oh, you don't have the $300 either? Come on, I would guarantee that you had christmas goodies coming to you for the rest of your life...just think about it.


I'm going to go read this just in case:

So I was really bored at work one day so I looked through a supply catalog. I was horrified by something I found:


What store is going to tell their customers, "hey you have to put this face mask on before you can try on that sweater!" or better yet, you better wear this "paper panty for thong." Even scarier, who's going to willingly agree to wear those things??? And also, who's trying on thongs?!?!

So for as much as I complain about going to this job there's one thing I can't complain about and it's the spectacular view (even better on a non-cloudy day). Here's some I took with my phone:

This is where I park...next to a giant fish with a bunch of geese ahead of me (and the power plant of course).
This is standing inside work along the wall of windows not zoomed in at all. Just before I took this literally hundreds of geese landed. I took a few pictures through the spotting scope of them. Who knew that would work. And thus concludes my shady photographic journey of one of my places of employment.

So I realize it's been awhile since I've posted. Some exciting news: We have a shower!! I guess I didn't really tell anyone but we've been without a shower for over a week and a half. Not cool man. Mike worked his butt off this weekend staying up to three in the morning both nights (after work that is) to get it in there. This was all after they tried putting in the one that we bought and found out that they wouldn't be able to use it. So we made a trip to duluth on Wednesday and exchanged it for one with a drain on the opposite side. It worked. Shwoo! Also big news...we picked out a shower curtain! Ha! I realize it doesn't sound like much but we really don't have the same taste so agreeing on things can take awhile :) Tonight they are putting in drywall on the ceiling and walls of the bathroom. Things are starting to come together in there. And I realize this may only be exciting to mike (I'll spare you what mike calls bathroom fans) and I, but did you have any idea they make such nice bathroom fans? This looks kinda like the one we got, only it's brushed nickel I guess.



Oh and on another note, I'm missing my friends a lot these days. I want to see all of you! :(

I'm taking the day off! On account of I haven't had a day off in quite some time, and we just had a record applefest weekend, I'm not going to the office today. Oh, did I mention the real reason is that I have a nasty cold? So today I plan to spend the majority of the day in bed watching TLC and the Food Network. What a day it will be.

I heart mike:


Found this picture saved to his desktop.

I was going through Halloween costumes online and this is the only costume I could see myself actually wearing:


I think I need help.

So after getting a bathroom wall (and door!) this past weekend it's allowing me to think of all the things I have to look forward to in (hopefully) the not too distant future:

• being able to cook and bake in a brand new kitchen with a brand new range and microhood.
• washing dishes! in our brand new dishwasher and our freaking sink with two basins instead of one!
• taking a shower (and most importantly, being able to shave) in a full size bathtub.
• using our brand new dishes and silverware.
• doing my makeup in the bathroom.
• not having to wear flip flops in the bathroom and kitchen at all times.
• having the house be clean.
• entertaining friends (aaron!).
• being able to actually unpack my stuff.
• decorating for the holidays.
  
• sitting back and looking at how awesome everything is.

Look what I did:

I made the simplest curtains anyone has ever made! Awesome. We no longer have a t-shirt on the door thanks to the new magnetic curtain rod and my fancy shmancy curtains. You have no idea how much this excites me.

Happy Bday to Holly Ann the little farmer girl! I hope your day was wonderful (and your presents that I just called and interrupted you from opening, the same)! So glad we got put in the same dorm and had the awesome class where we learned the story of "what's this, my balls for ya dinna?"

Yes that's the shower that it's attached to and of course we have the exposed wires :) We're liking it so much we're thinking we're going to leave it this way for the next couple of weeks. Notice how I'm cooking right next to the shower?

So yesterday Mike's sister, Jen said her and my cousin were going to the movies. I asked which one, and she said "Step Brothers" My response was, "THAT'S THERE?!?!" Really, I yelled. I had totally forgotten that that movie existed. That kind of response made her ask me if I wanted to go with, which I responded to with, "yup."

As we walked out of the theater I left saying, "I actually just saw a movie I liked." We've seen some movies that I didn't like so much lately (Tropic Thunder, You don't mess with the zohan) so it was a relief to actually enjoy something I paid money to see. It's just a totally silly movie that makes you laugh. Smile.

In other news, I just got a text from Mike that apparently the cabinets and counter tops just arrived! Now things are really going to get underway. Hip hip hooray. I can't wait to see them. Seeing as I had to work when Mike picked them out, I'm pretty excited. Pretty soon all my spare time will go to staining those suckers. I think it will be time well spent.

So last night I got to hang out with a girl(weird, but I rarely get to do that), my friend Sarah. I haven't seen her in months and months so it was really nice. I never get to hang out with friends seeing as none of them are around. We went our favorite restaurant/bar in town and I got a giant mojito. Delish. It was so nice to catch up and here new stories and tell stories. Anyone else coming up here anytime soon? I could really get used to this.

Also, look what we just got. Now if only we had a kitchen to put them in...I can't wait! :)


Oh, we got the blue and brown ones

Is it wrong that I find myself longing for fall?

Does anyone have any tips for living in a construction area? Demo is about to start on Saturday on the kitchen and bathroom. Last night I already got a little overwhelmed b/c of the mess of all the stuff to prepare for it. Not to mention, I'm moving in at the same time. Today I'm going to get the majority of my stuff from my house to add to the clutter. Anyone have any tips on how to save my sanity? Angie told me to make lists, something I'm fond of, so I'm totally prepared to make those "to do" sanity savers. Any other suggestions would be much appreciated.

My seven year old cousin is completely terrified of ticks and always thinks they are around. He said to my cousin megan the other day, "I think I digested a tick" He said one must have gotten into his yogurt. Megan asked how a tick got in his yogurt and his response was "It must have lost its balance."

I found this while I was doing some packing. I made this in 8th grade or something like that. We could make any cereal box cover we wanted and I made....Favre-ritz. Nice right? The Favre loves goes way back. Try not to judge me too much on how much of a nerd I was. I guess things haven't changed too much though have they? Also, don't judge too much on how it looks like a second-grader made it.

Brett Favre, how could you?

So today before I left for work I was standing outside putting some washer fluid in my car when I hear a door slam across the street and here yelling. I look up and see the lady across the street (who has a constant garage sale in the yard) cursing every word there is and immediately leans back and does the I'm going to break down the door kick several times all while saying f this, j.c. that and so on.

After that doesn't work, she goes down off the steps and picks up a log that was holding down the tarp for her ever present garage sale items and walks up the steps (all the while swearing) and bashes it into the door window and then swears some more. I see her picking up some glass and throwing it in the yard, swearing and maybe holding her arm cause she cut it, I don' t know. Then she went in the house. All of this happened in probably the span of a minute and a half. She did not even consider another option of getting in. It was kick down the door, or break out the window within 30 seconds of closing and locking the door behind herself.

Oh yeah, this is another neighbor across the street, not the cowboy. It's very possible he moved. I haven't seen him out lassoing something in quite sometime. Can't wait to see who my other new neighbors are.

It's official, I love the thing. Most people who know me, know I'm not the neatest person around and don't really like to do dishes (I know, who does). Well that often stopped me from using the blender to make smoothies. Way too messy for me.

After countless viewings of the infomercial ("Broccoli...yuck!", anyone?) and years of wanting it its finally mine. I went and bought a bunch of frozen fruit and oj and carrots and it began. So deelish. They're really filling too. All I have to do is rinse off the blade, drink out of the cup i mixed it in and wash that. Amazing. I think this is the one time i've gotten something off of an infomercial and had it live up to what I was expecting (wait, strike that, I did buy my bare escentuals from an infomercial....claire, you know what I'm talking about).

And now my very own testimony is over. Do with it what you will.

It actually happened. I got the weekend off (except for my little carney stint) and it was great.
This is what I got to do:

Sit around a campfire and cook hot dogs.
Watch my niece go down a giant inflatable slide.
Visit with both my brother and sister.
Play bean bag toss.
Get some sun! (haven't been able to do it at all yet this summer)
Go to the new driving range.
Celebrate my 1 year anniversary with Mike.
See the Dark Knight (finally!).
Take a four wheeler ride to the park and watch the waterbarrel races.
Visit with my uncle who I haven't seen for quite awhile.
Go downtown and have a little too much fun doing the running man(yes there was drinking involved).
See Aaron and arianna (however briefly).
Got the Magic Bullet (the blender!).
Spend time with mike that wasn't saying hi in the morning and goodnight at nighttime.
DO WHATEVER I WANTED!!

It was amazing. I can't believe people get to do this kind of stuff every weekend. I was totally spoiled and I want more!

You heard it right, from 11-2 on Saturday I will be selling tickets at the carnival in town. It is only an inflatable carnival with a climbing wall and slide and a couple other things but as Aaron pointed out to me-there is no degree of carney. You either are or you aren't, and for this one day...I am.

So me and my car seem to be in a love-hate relationship. It gets me to work and back and I love it, then it makes an awful crunching noise when I put it in reverse and I hate it. More like it scares me.

I had this awful rattle that would happen every little bump I went over and it was driving me nuts but I was of course too poor to bring it anywhere for them to check it out. Well then the reverse thing happened and I was terrified it was the transmission. Luckily for me, my cuz happens to be a mechanic and he took a look at it last night. Turns out it was the rattle gone bad. The thing (technical terms need not needed) came loose and he (put it back?) did something. So now, no rattle and no awful crunching noise! Thank you Brandon! It was great news all around.

In other news, he thought that maybe I need new wheel bearings. Crap.

Join me in saying happy birthday to my big brother! Thanks for always giving me brotherly advice when I call asking for it. Thanks for being someone to look up to. And thanks for bringing that adorable little girl of yours into this world. Love you!

Did anyone else's grandma sing this to them as a child?

"There once was a farmer who met a young miss,
in back of a farm where he gave her.....
a lecture on chickens and horses and eggs,
and told her that she had such beautiful....
manners, that suited a girl of his charms,
a girl that he wanted to take in his....
washing and ironing and then when she did...
they could get married and raise lots of sweet.....
Violets!"

So, yesterday I posted, begging for someone to give me material to write about. Aaron, being so clever suggested maybe writing about the mass quantity of sleeveless t-shirt men running around this place. I will have you know the first person I saw crossing the street today. Sleeveless t-shirt.

On another note I may try and mow the lawn again today. I'm having a neverending battle with our lawn mowers lately. So the rider wasn't working for forever and then miraculously it was fixed. I didn't realize it was fixed and proceeded to mow the kind of large lawn with the push mower and put it away right in front of the rider which had been fixed and was back in the garage without me realizing it.

The next time I go and get the rider. I'm circling around this rather large snowball bush that we have when, unknowingly to me, a bolt comes off the steering wheel thingy (i'm rather mechanical) and i'm driving further and further into the bush wondering why it won't turn away from it. Don't worry. I managed to shut it off before I drove completely into it.

So then that bit got fixed. Next time I use it I get almost the entire lawn done when I see my cell phone laying in the grass in very close proximity to the blades. So I get off the thing to pick it up and when I try to restart it...it won't. I pushed it to the garage and there it sits. We're on a break.

Oh did I mention one time last month I ran out of gas using my uncles mower (which I was unfamiliar with) when the lady neighbor yells across the street "Check the gas!" Thank you lady.

I'm starting to have quite the stigma with lawnmowers.

What can I write about to get over my Bloggity blogging slump?

Anyone willing to try this and tell me how it went?

So I know it's a little voyeuristic of me, but I just had to! This is Mike's neighbor, the urban cowboy himself. Long blond hair, cowboy hat, wranglers, GIANT belt buckle, and of course the cowboy shirt and a...LASSO (to rope a TRICYCLE [read animal]).

As I sit outside this is what I hear through the pounding bass (alicia keys, no less) coming from their little neon car that has the doors open:

COWBOY: Let the dog out.
Wife?: Oh, I'm not letting him out.
COWBOY: Why?
Wife?: I know what you want to do.
COWBOY: I want to play fetch.
Wife?: More like you want to play CATCH.
COWBOY: CAtch, FEtch, it's only one letter difference.

So that glorified muppet scared the bejeezus out of me. Mike and I were wandering around canal park wasting time b/c we were so excited to go to the omnimax we got there before they even opened. He starting singing and playing the piano out of nowhere right as we we're next to it. Can you tell how much mike loved it?

So we saw the deep sea at the omnimax and i had no idea how scary shrimp could be!

We did a lot of just wandering around this weekend doing a lot of shopping (without a lot of buying) and dreaming about what Mike's kitchen could someday be while we wandered around Home Depot. It was great. Absolutely no timetable! Well except for the movie time, which we were clearly ahead of schedule for. We went to Famous Dave's to eat and yum, I forgot how much I love their cornbread muffins (or fish-tasting muffins to mike). He thinks a lot of things taste like fish.

Anyways, it was great to get away, even just to Duluth and have a weekend where I could do whatever I wanted. I could really get used to that, too bad I won't have the chance to yet. Someday though...I swear someday I'll have a job where I don't work every single weekend.

So this weekend Mike and I are going to go to Duluth and just hang out, go shopping, watch some shows at the Omnimax, and do whatever the heck we want. I'm pretty excited. We were originally going to go camping but it's supposed to be icky out so we nixed that idea. Thankfully, we we're able to priceline a decent hotel for a pretty decent price, so yay :D Anyone need anything in Duluth???

Oh and girls, I just ordered this from QVC (insert laugh here but it was the today's special value!) and I love it!! It's a kit and I just thought I needed to share that maybe someone else should try it too. It's Bare Escentuals (Bare Minerals)

I came about these while looking for Reel Big Fish videos.





You can go to youtube and search for manualist and beatboxing flute to see more awesomeness.

And because it's so cute...A PIG IN BOOTS! He was afraid of mud. Aww!

Well it was and it is again (in my car). After a multiple year hiatus reel big fish has entered my cd player to critical acclaim (from myself). I really needed some upbeat music as of lately and even if the lyrics aren't the cheeriest, the music sure is.

It reminds me of what I like to call the "funnest summer ever". The days and nights were spent outside not doing much and sometimes inside not doing much. It's when I really got to know that little Aaron character and when thoughts of, "hey lets drive to boston for a couple days" we're entertained seriously and later shot down by parents. It's when I allowed myself to get sooo incredibly sunburnt just to see some fun bands and even meet those RBF characters. Let me relive that for a little while.

We've decided on a name...Toivo. We're taking a hint from our Finnish ancestors and giving him a proper Gnomey name. Thanks for the suggestions.

On another note, today is my day off and I don't know what to do with myself. It's crazy windy out right now and starting to sprinkle so that kinda cuts out doing any gardening like I had wanted to do or doing anything else outside really. Mike tells me it's okay to relax and do absolutely nothing because well, it's my day off. Why do i have to have a guilty conscience? I really do want to do nothing but then I spend the time thinking I should be doing something. What a tortured soul I have. I'm a tish bit dramatic too.

And just because here are some sillyish pictures from the last awesome brett favre game that I'm feeling a little bit sentimental about.

Alright, I had a name all picked out for my new gnome but to my dismay, Mike said no to Larry. Some bad feelings associated with the name I guess. Boo. So now I'm looking for suggestions. Got any? Again, thank you aaron and arianna for going out of your way to get me this handsome fella.

Does Lucy sound like a fitting name for a Hedgehog? Maybe not.

Just some pretty flowers.

Has anyone ever had the person interviewing them for a job eat an apple as they were asking you questions?

A seinfeld wordfind! I love wordfinds...and seinfeld (obviously).


you can go to here for the puzzle and words to find if you're bored like I am.

oh and a little update, I did get quite a few of the things that I wanted to to do done yesterday. I just need to talk to Holly and finish my planting and find lawn ornaments. but other than that I got everything done. I got to see missy and it was really wonderful to see her.

Tomorrow's Jen's high school grad party so congrats to her!!

I just want to write a quick post about a refreshing and girly drink. If anyone out there loved grape koolaid...like I did, these things are just like it, I suppose with a little added alcohol though. They are perfect for a grilling out drink, so perfect I think I have to buy some tonight. Yum. After my high school graduation party I didn't think I'd ever have another smirnoff drink again, but the day has come and it tastes good.

~See Missy!
~Get a ton of planting done at mikes.
~Find some fun lawn ornaments.
~Go to thrift stores.
~Uproot Lilly of the Valley.
~Plant Lilly of the Valley at Mikes.
~Find out if I have to work tomorrow.
~Go to the dreaded Walmart for planters and plants.
~Grill some food and eat said food.
~Hit some golf balls.
~Do laundry.
~Talk to Holly.
~Go to the bank.
~Wash my car.


I wonder just how many of these I'll get done. I don't have too high of hopes.

I'm going to write a few updates.

~I'm still trying to get used to my hair. So silly, I know. The positive comments really did help though, so thank you.

~Tourist season officially started this weekend. Sigh. This means that I now work every single day. Spew. I did however ask off for the weekend of June 14-15 and am going to go camping up here, I believe, so if anyone wants to join in.....please do!

~Oh, someone fell down the stairs at work again on Saturday (great beginning to the season). Luckily I was in the other store when it happened so I didn't have to endure that painful situation and the flashbacks. She did something to her ankle. It's only three steps, with a railing, people!!!!

~My little seedlings that I planted all died thanks to them being unprotected in this ridiculous cold weather that we've been having. So I'm going to start all over again with the leftover seeds. Wish me luck....again. Do you think that if I paint my thumb green that will help in any way?

~I'm going to do some yard work at mike's today and then have to cover everything up b/c there's another frost advisory tonight. I just have to get these plants in the ground b/c they are going to die in their containers. When will this end??

~I get to see Missy tomorrow! YAY.

So I'm still kind of upset at the moment b/c I just got my hair cut at 11 and well...the lady cut off quite a bit more than I requested. I told her I still want to be able to put it in a ponytail and it should be still at least touching my shoulders...well it's not the case. Grr. I swear, my hair hasn't been this short since it grew out as a child, anyone that knows me knows I've had long hair my ENTIRE life. And yes, I'll admit it...I cried! Outside the salon at least. haha. So I guess this is just going to take some getting used to. At least it goes to a good cause, and yes, I know. It grows back. Here's a little photo from my phone b/c I still can't find the cord to my camera.

So my hair has gotten really long lately and I'm going to do it. I'm going to chop it off. So dramatic, I know...but I'm nervous about it! I'm going to donate it to locks of love so it will be a pretty big change. I'm writing about it here so I don't back out of doing it, b/c I just might want to. I know its only hair and it'll grow, but what if I don't like it? Ok, so when I inevitably post a picture of it, tell me you like it, NO MATTER WHAT.

I've really had a hankering lately for a game of Bean-bag toss. Anyone know someone that can build me one? I am woodworking handicapped. What other lawn games, besides bocce of course, can anyone recommend? I want to play in the grass.

While I was doing a search for lawn games check out the thing I came across! It's the Score Station Backyard Scoring System with Cup Holders.
How necessary is this item!? Here's its description.
"Did you forget what the score was again? Are you thirsty with no spot to place your beverage? Now that will not be a problem anymore. Keep the score current and accurate with the Score Station, and keep your drinks available with the two cup holders."

I love that they know that's what people are doing as they play lawn games and cater to it.

So last night I couldn't take it anymore. I need some grilled food. Everyone's posts about it keep making it worse. So I bought some hotdogs and some turkey for turkey burgers and it was my plan to force mike into grilling. Well after closer inspection, Mike's grill has seen better days. So we were off to buy a new grill. We were totally optimistic at the store, even after seeing that a sizable grill came in a not so sizable box. We even walked around the store to get other things for grilling.

Well we get the box home and unpack it (read we as mike) and it didn't look so good. Lots of pieces and it was already about 7:30. So...we had grilled cheese and tomato soup last night (I just couldn't give up on the "grilled" portion of the menu.

Mike however was very diligent and he finished putting it together even though it had become dark out. So tonight, we are going to try take 2 at having a completely grilled meal.

If I could find my cord for my camera I would post the pictures.

Apparently, all I had to do to make my check from GW arrive was state on the interweb just how much I needed it. My bill collectors thank you :)



Does anyone else find this picture of Chili, a 6'6" cow, both awesome and terrifying at the same time? Holly, you know what I'm talking about. Here's more pictures and the story of Chili.

or has everyone else got their economic stimulus packages but me? I's gots some bills to pay, yo! Don't get me wrong, I know I normally wouldn't have this, but with everyone else already having theirs it makes me wonder if the awful luck I tend to have is going to continue into this arena as well.

So tomorrow, friday, begins the weekend of four-wheeling. After work tomorrow we'll go out to the cabin we have rented for the weekend and then go to a bonfire at mike's friends cabin.

Saturday is an all day ride (which I don't know that i'm prepared for) in what is supposed to be loads of rain. Luckily Mike has some spare raingear for me. I'm going to try and bring my camera but I don't know how often i'll be able to take pictures. There's supposed to be about 50 of us so it should definitely be fun and probably really muddy. I've never been on anything like this, so be thinking about me :) I'm hoping I won't be too big of a baby.

Sunday is another ride day on what is supposed to be sunny at least. Yay for that.

Anywho, Hope you all have a great weekend!

I had another good night, my friends. So I told you it was Mikes 30th, but it was also his sisters 18th! So we had Jen and my cousin Brandon (his sister is dating my cousin, crazy huh) over to Mikes house for his first ever dinner party in his own house. It was a success. Oh and in case you were wondering we had bbq ribs that were in the crockpot for hours and hours and Mikes family's infamous cheesy potatoes. Delish.

I finally got to tell mike what he was getting for his birthday. Unfortunately it didn't get here in time b/c it is backordered for another half a month still but he was still pretty excited about it. Here it is:We're going to be a pretty rocking couple on those four-wheelers aren't we? :)

Join me in saying Happy 30th Birthday to my bf, Mike! I heard thirty isn't so bad.

I had a really good weekend, when I wasn't at work anyways. I finally got to hang out with Aaron and a couple other cool people. We had some awesome drinks at home, thanks to Adminstrative professionals day, and then headed to the bar where I got 4 *yes 4, bullseye's in a row and got to dance to rod stewart. Good times. Also, Mike and I have now been together for nine months :)

Now I'm sitting here at Mikes house while he's at work and he has all kinds of new photos on his desktop. I'm going to share a few with you:



Okay, I'll stop now....but there's a lot more :)