Happy Halloween!

Conner got his Halloween bandanna from his day care lady, Tory. So thoughtful!! He actually doesn't mind wearing it either. We gotta wish everyone an early Happy Halloween as Justin and I will be in New York City on Friday. We're heading out Thursday and returning on Monday. Not sure if there will be any time for blogging while I'm there so if not look for a long one when I return!

Help!

I'm really sick of all my music and want to download some new stuff. If anyone has any recommendations of artist/alubms they think I would like, let me know!! Email. post a comment, phone call, text...whichever you prefer. I'd take just about any genre besides Country. I have to draw the line there. :)

Rally

Yesterday my mom and I found out that Hilary Clinton was coming to the Al Franken rally which was being held in the building I work at. My mom's a pretty big Clinton fan and we both thought it'd be cool to see her in person. And really, when else is she going to be coming so close to us? I'm not into politics much so this was my first and probably last rally that I'll ever go to. It was fun to see how into it everyone got and to hear the different speakers. Unfortunately the secret service didn't want us to stand in the balconies so we were on the main floor midway back near the press people. I tried to get some pictures with my camera phone but it doesn't have a zoom and we were too far away. I think there was a secret service guy standing right by us. He was dressed as a civilian but either he had super good posture, was afraid of making eye contact, and had an itchy ear or he was checking everything out and had an ear device...We'll never know!!

PS. I do have to say that Mayor R.T. Rybak is pretty darn cute!!

Mom & I waiting for the rally to start.


That's Hilary way up there!

Weekend Update

It's been quite the busy weekend. Friday kicked it off right with the Light Rail Pub Crawl. We had a group of around 20 people all night. It was a lot of fun and I think I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Shots at Fort Snelling Club.


UMFers! Taken at stop #2 The Cardinal.


Part of the group waiting for the LRT


The Joint


Kierans


Didn't take any pics at the last bar but here we are on the way!


Yesterday we wanted to take Rick on a field trip and get him out of the house for a bit so we headed down to Jordan and went to MN Harvest Apple Orchard. It was such a gorgeous day out!! Perfect for an orchard.

Last night we went and watched Mary's debut in the Roller Girls. She did a great job and even knocked a few girls down. She was on the zombie team if you couldn't tell and they won!


Tonight Justin and I get to have a date and some alone time...kinda. Us and every other 14 year old girl in the Cities. We're going to the So You Think You Can Dance tour show. I CAN'T WAIT!!! Remember how obsessed I was with that show? Hopefully they'll allow my camera in and we'll get some good pics.

My latest crush

I fall in love with new technology. Is that weird? Maybe fitting considering my job. Last time it was the Samsung Instinct which I restrained myself from buying after hearing the problems other people were having. I was still determined that I was ready for a big girl smart phone but I couldn't find just the right one. About 2 weeks ago I finally picked one out: the Palm Centro. Best Buy had even sent a coupon in the mail for rewards members giving 20% off any smart phone. It was fate!! I marched in, coupon in hand all ready to buy. Talked to the sales guy for awhile to confirm everything and as he opened the locked door to get my phone, another guy tells him they are out and it's been discontinued. WHAT!?! He said he would call me when they found out more information. Disappointed I went home and tried to google it. Nothing came up but I persisted and googled it every day. Yesterday I finally got a hit. Turns out they are releasing a new and improved version of it for the holiday season. In new colors too. Woo hoo! check it out.



This will be mine!! And hopefully soon and hopefully pink but at this point I will take either color. It said coming to some stores Oct 19th (this sunday!!) and everywhere by Nov 2nd. My task for Sunday is to track this phone down. Wish me luck!

I need a life...

Work has been a little slow this week and I've found a fun new past time that I think everyone else needs to check out:

Whack a Molar

Can anyone beat 26??? I can't seem to get higher than that. Beware it's addicting! You know it's bad when I am playing around on the Health Partners Website for fun.

Wine Tasting

Sat night my parents had their annual Wine Tasting. They've been doing this for 18 years now with the same group of friends. It started more as an excuse to get together and sample different wines but over the years has evolved into making elaborate meals to go along with the wines. Cari and I have been involved with them for as long as I can remember. When we were little we would pretend we were spies by hiding under the table and write down what they would say. It always consisted of "They are laughing loudly. Now they are laughing harder." Very sleuth like. As we got older we become the paid help by washing dishes and serving food. Once we graduated from high school and moved away my mom turned to my younger cousin Cassie to take our place. This year we all decided to come help and sample the food and wine. I don't think my mom has gotten to enjoy herself this much ever! She pretty much told us what needed to be done, hand us a recipe, and we'd tell her to go sit and entertain her friends. She must've trained us well over the years.

Mom & I cooking


Cari making soup


Cassie setting the table

5 years ago today...

we got married!!! And what a fun day it was. I can't believe it's been 5 years already. The time goes so fast. It was fun to go back and look through all of the pictures. Here are couple for you to enjoy too:

The boys.


The girls.


Us!!


Heading to the reception


At the head table


High school girls.


Also a happy anniversary to Rocky & Lori!! You guys picked a great day to get married on. :) And Happy Birthday to Lucy. Can't ever forget your bday pup!

Look Whose 30!!

Birthday shout out to my hubby who is turning the big 3-0 today!!! Hope you get to enjoy your day some babes. Love you!!

Some memories of the past year...

Green Thumb!

I did an end of the year clean out of my garden last night. I hadn't been back there for a few weeks due to San Fran and being busy. I couldn't believe all the peppers I had and how big some of them were! If I had started the garden in May/June instead of July I probably would've had at least 200 more cherry tomatoes. no joke. I have never seen a tomato plant get so big and it was filled with green tomatoes. Can't wait to do it again next year!!

My First Feminst Moment?

I don't usually consider myself a feminist. My mom says that a feminist is someone who believes in the equal rights of women, so in that sense I do. But in my head I think of a feminist as some super liberal hippie. Probably shouldn't, but I do. Most people would say I'm pretty laid back and definitely not easily offended. So I surprised the other day when I was listening to the radio and found myself a bit annoyed. They were asking people to call in if you thought Sarah Palin would use other orifices when having sex. (this is satellite radio, they can talk about anything) Usually I would laugh at the djs dumb humor - I tend to have the mentally of a 13 year old boy when it comes to that stuff. But this time it got me thinking. You never hear of them making sexual remarks about any of the men presidential candidates so why do they only do it for Sarah? It is because the dj was a man so it'd be weird for him to talk about Obama in the same manner? Maybe it's because she's the hot thing to talk about right now. Or maybe it's because men like to make all women objects. ;P Either way, I was a little offended and thought I had my first feminist moment. Mom would be so proud!!

I finally uploaded all my San Fran pics. There are quite a few but check them out.

Rick continues to do well. I've returned home but Justin is still up there with him. Justin says he is sleeping most of the time which I guess is normal? We still don't know when he will be released and coming home (my home that is). Sounds like once he gets there he will still need a lot of care. It's going to be a long couple of weeks.