Waahhhhhh!

Well that didn't work. I was searching the Net for a different template, other than those in/on Blogger. Found one. Loved it. Couldn't figure out how to use it. Oh well...I'll save that project for another day when I have time to study up on this HTML BMX PG USA computer stuff.

A Little Bit of Everything

-Does anyone have any advice for getting my tub clean? It's really bothering me, especially since we're not really dirty people. I've tried my "regular" cleaning supplies (Sprinkles, the foamy stuff, spray stuff) and nothing works. I even bought a new scrubber thinking that might help. Nope. It's not a nice, new fiberglass tub. It's old. Not sure the material, maybe ceramic, steel, iron? All I know is it's cold in the a.m. and it's not fiberglass. Anyways, I can't get the darn thing clean for the life of me. And I don't like a dirty bathtub (I tend to refrain from taking a bath, which I love to do). Someone must have a magic solution for me...?

-I have the day off tomorrow. The other day I was standing at my kitchen sink looking out at the yard and thought to myself how, since we moved, I haven't had a day at home to myself. We're almost always home on weekends, but that doesn't count because there's cleaning and laundry and this and that. I mean a weekday where I can just relax and lounge around and be by myself. So, since work is a little slow this week, I asked my 2 bosses and they said go for it! YAY! (Not to mention that the atty. I work for was on vacation the last TWO weeks and I worked my tail off!) I'm really looking forward to it.

-The Schwan's man stopped by on Monday since we were "new" in the neighborhood (how does he know?). Anyways, he gave us a catalog and said he'd be back on Wednesday. After looking through the catalog I decided we'd try a few things. Some items were reasonable. Some were not. At all. We ended up getting some French baguettes (We love bread!), some pancakes, and popsicles. I'm all about the pancakes! My dream one day is to run an IHOP. Even though I've never been to IHOP I still want to own one. Huh.

-Jason has/had 4 interviews this week. Hopefully something will work in his favor. He's been trying and trying to get into the prison system as a social worker. He had an interview at Jackson Correctional on Tuesday and another at Stanley Correctional tomorrow. This will be his 2nd trip to Stanley. The first time he interviewed there they called him and offered him the job, then called back 15 mins. later and said they called the wrong guy. He was 2ND on the list. Nice, huh? We're really praying that 2nd becomes 1st and they'll just offer him the job at the interview on Thursday. :-)

-Cait is doing well in middle school so far. She really likes it and seems to like her teachers (that's always key). She's made lots of new friends and is having fun. We have 2 more weeks of fall softball and then basketball starts up in November so we're still running, running, running.

-I'm going to work on my blog a little bit. See if I can jazz it up.

Mr. Rene

I'd like to give a shout out to Mr. Rene, who is now looking down on us from Heaven. Mr. Rene was our neighbor, and although we didn't know him very well, we already miss him! He passed away last Wednesday and I saw his obituary in the online version of our local newspaper today. We knew something was up because Mr. Rene had a lady friend that went to his house every single day, like clockwork. The lady friend's car wasn't there one day and I knew something was wrong. Then we saw another vehicle and a woman there along with a contractor changing the locks. Mr. Rene was a very nice man. He was quiet and kept to himself. He kept a nice lawn and he let us borrow his phonebook when we first moved in and didn't quite know where ours was. I couldn't believe when I saw in his obituary that he was 91 years old. He rode his bike around the neighborhood quite often and still drove his car to the grocery store every Saturday morning. It wasn't too long ago that I saw him on his bike. He was the kind of guy that everyone would want as a neighbor. I think he secretly watched out for us, even though we didn't know him that well. And we watched out for him, even though he didn't know we were. :o)

Whoops!

That's a big squirrel, eh? LOL...oh well. I'm still learning about posting pictures. I chose the "small" option! Good thing I didn't choose large. Must be the original size of the picture I stole from Photobucket.

Squirrels Squirrels EVERYWHERE!

And they're so cute. At least I think so. Some might see them as an annoyance, but I think they're fun to watch. For the past few weeks they've been harvesting chestnuts from our lovely chestnut tree. We have one and our neighbor across the street has two, so they run back and forth across the street and up and down the trees. They go waaaaay out on the very end of the limbs to the point that the little branches bend and the squirrel is left hanging there. Just after work today I was sitting on the couch looking out the window and I could see 5 little squirrels all at the same time. It looks like they get the chestnuts and peel the outside (leaving a mess in my yard), take the nut on the inside and then bury it to save for a later date. It's fun to watch them in all of their scurriedness (? made up word ?). Must be a sure sign fall is here...yay!

Junior High!?!?!?!

Today was BACK TO SCHOOL! YAY!!! I don't know if I've ever been so excited for another school year to start. Part of my excitement was because of Cait's growing boredom towards the end of summer...the other part is because I am 100% certain that she is ready for this. And some because I really like her new school and I think she'll fit in well. She started today as 1 of 175 sixth graders at Northstar Middle School here in Eau Claire. Sounds like a lot of kids, doesn't it? Well the other 2 middle schools in town have even more of the little buggers! We were fortunate enough to find our little house on the "north side" of town, which enabled Cait to attend Northstar. She was apprehensive about the move and the whole bit until we got here, and until she visited Northstar back in May. Then 2 weeks ago she had Camp Middle School--a program for incoming 6th graders to go to school and hang out with the other students, practice lockers and bell schedules, and get to know each other and the school. Last week we had orientation, and of course she knew everything because she spent 3 days there the previous week, but it was my first time to learn about the school (other than our brief visit in May), so I insisted that we stay for the presentations. Anyways, here's a picture of her from this a.m. Not sure why the attitude, other than it was early. Exxxtrreeeemmely early for her! The bus comes at 7:10 a.m. and school starts at 7:40. She had her alarm set, and I set mine too just to make sure she got up. I didn't know she was up, so I hit snooze TWICE thinking to myself "she'll still have plenty of time". Well when I finally did roll out of bed she was already up and dressed and eating her breakfast. What a good kid! :o) We're looking forward to a fun year...

Fun Summertime Treat

Here's a recipe for a great summertime cool-down beverage...we got the recipe from our friends, Kurt and Jackie. They got it from a strawberry patch where they went and picked fresh strawberries. We went to their house for dinner that same evening and everything we had had strawberries as an ingredient. What a fun idea! My favorite was these smoothies though!

1 1/2 cans of 7-Up/Sierra Mist/Sprite
1/2 C. sugar
14-16 strawberries (hulled and rinsed...do you hull strawberries?)
About 14 ice cubes

Put ice cubes in blender. Add strawberries and sugar. Add soda. Blend until smooth. You may need to tweak it just a bit because I'm guessing on the amount of ice cubes!! :o) But once you get it just right these smoothies are the best! They're fruity with a little zip, I'd say.

New DOOR!!

I'm so excited!! Yesterday my brother and his family came down. Crit "helped" us put in a new door. Well, he put in a new door for us. We weren't much help! You know how the box that the door comes in has "easy installation instructions" on the side? Yeah, not so much. I really liked our old door; I believe it was the original door for this house. It was neat, even though it was old and beat up. We had two concerns with the old door: 1) efficiency for when we start up the furnace and 2) security. The deadbolt on the door did work, but really wasn't much use when the knob on the thing was pretty much pasted together. We're happy with the way the new door turned out--Crit did an excellent job!

Our Anniversary

Sunday, August 19, was our one year wedding anniversary. The past year sure flew by! I'm looking forward to many, many more anniversaries. We had planned on going to dinner, just the two of us, Sunday evening. By late afternoon I just didn't feel like getting all dolled up to go out to eat and come home miserable because I ate too much. (We were going to go to Texas Roadhouse--it's easy to eat too much there!) So instead we ordered in--we had Famous Dave's. We still ate too much, but at least we could flop on the couch immediately after. After dinner Cait said she was riding her bike to get "something" at the store. After she got home she decided to make brownies. No big surprise--she likes to bake. Soon after the brownies were done she called me into the kitchen (I heard a little commotion with her and Jason in there). Here she had made the brownies, put candles in them, and wrote "Happy Anniversary" on them. She had gone to the store to get the candles and the gel to write on the brownies. What a sweet kid!! :o) Well I didn't think to take a picture, so I pulled the candles out and started cutting away. Then I remembered the camera...so I put the candles back in and lit them again for the full effect. All in all we had a nice, quiet 1st anniversary.

It's Raining...It's Pouring...Well, Not Really.

It's raining! YAY! I love a good soaking rain, and it's been a while since we've had one. It's a perfect day for it too--we didn't have any outdoor plans (we usually don't). I planned on staying in all day to clean, do laundry, and sort.

I'm going to begin sorting for my first ever thrift sale, which I'll be having Labor Day weekend. I've heard holiday weekends are good weekends for thrifters...we shall see! I'm really excited about it. I think we're in a good location, and, of course, we can use the extra cash. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Other than that not a whole lot going on. Jason is still recovering from his kidney stone episode. Poor thing...hasn't felt decent in weeks. He's on the downhill side of it though, so things are looking up.

Cait got home Monday morning. She's glad to be home and we're glad she's home. She got us back into busy bee mode. Going here and there and everywhere. We have to get it all in before school starts, you know. She's looking forward to school starting (and so am I!). So far she hasn't shown any apprehension about starting junior high. That may change, but maybe not. She's definitely an extrovert and I'm sure she'll be fine.

I think the mail is here! My favorite time of day...it's like Christmas!

Old friends...fun times!

Saturday was my 10-year high school reunion. We had a blast! It was so nice to see some of "the girls". A few of them I had lost contact with, but it sure didn't seem like it--after we gave the 10 minute updates on life we were the best of friends again. We all have good intentions of keeping in touch this time--hopefully this is the case and we don't have to waste our 10 minutes catching up next time we see each other. My friend Lori and I planned the event, and it turned out extremely well...even better than anticipated. We had a good showing, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves. We all left looking forward to the next one...

I'd like to say something about each of the girls pictured here...

Me, of course, in the purple. I don't need to say anything about myself. In front of me is my friend Sarah. She was my maid of honor in our wedding and has been one of my closest friends since 6th grade. Next to her is Margo...Margo and I lost touch, but she's an all around great person and I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with her. Behind Margo is Jamie. Jamie didn't technically "graduate" with us. She left our sophomore year, but remained in contact and wanted to come and celebrate with us. Next to Jamie is Lori. She and I have been friends since 1st grade. She also went to college with me...we're very close! Next to her is Kylah...Kylah married one of my close guy friends, Zac, a couple of years ago. Funny how those things work out. They just had their first baby in February. Next to Kylah is Rani. My mom used to work with Rani's mom at the Shoe Revue...that's when we became good friends. I also worked at the motel that her mom and dad managed when I was in high school. And then again, there I am. :o)

All for now. Oh, and in case you're wondering...our school colors were black and gold (GO CANES!)

YUM!

Thought I'd share this recipe while I wait for it to finish baking!

Cheesy Pizza Casserole

3 C. uncooked rigatoni pasta (9 oz.)
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/4 C. sliced ripe olives
1 can (4 oz.) mushroom pieces and stems, drained
1 jar (26 to 28 oz.) vegetable primavera pasta sauce
1 C. shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz.)

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cook and drain pasta as directed on package.

2. While pasta is cooking, cook beef in 10-inch skillet over medium-high heat 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally until beef is brown; drain. Mix pasta, beef and remaining ingredients except cheese in ungreased 2 1/2 qt. casserole.

3. Cover and bake about 30 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake uncovered about 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted.

Enjoy!

*Try your own variations--we use black olives instead of green. This time I put some chopped up pepperoni in too. And you don't have to use "vegetable primavera" sauce. Use any kind! We like to have this with french bread or garlic toast. Also makes great leftovers for lunch at work or tomorrow night!

This comes from Betty Crocker's One-Dish Family Favorites--I highly recommend this cookbook. I got it as a wedding gift from my friend Sarah's mom, Kaye. Thanks Kaye!

LOOK!

Look what I have! Isn't it pretty? I'm so excited about this lil' lily! Jason's mom bought us a few perennials a while back. She, Caitlin, and Jason's niece, Nadja, planted them. These lilies are around the brick patio, then we have some other lilies in our raised garden (no flowers yet). They also planted some hostas (I love hostas!) which, we hope, will really take root and be beautiful next year. I'm new to this gardening thing--hopefully I'll learn a lot and be able to name these things other than saying "that one bush" or "those flowers". We have a couple of nice bushes too...not sure what they are, but as soon as we seem some color on them I'll do some research. I also found this evening that we have a robin's nest in one of our "bushes". This particular bush has green leaves and bunches of small, white flowers. :o)

Whew!

A long weekend almost comes to an end...

Friday night I saw Cait off to California. Her flight left at 10:15 p.m., and I had to wait until the plane was in the air before I could leave. I guess that's policy-they want someone there in the event the plane doesn't take off. But it did, and it landed safely on the other side of the country. We've talked 3 times on the phone, and will probably speak daily while she's gone. I kind of miss her already. :)

Being that I didn't get home until almost 1:00 a.m., and then waited up until shortly after 2 for Cait to call, I slept in on Saturday morning. I think I got up around 10. After we got up and got moving we went to the apartment to wrap things up there. I thought it'd take a few hours...but not 7! Our "few things" left to move turned into 4 carloads. Ugh. And of course I wanted everything shiny bright because we have several hundred dollars coming back in a security deposit, and we could certainly use every penny. Our vacuum croaked on us at the apartment, so last night after we got home we went to buy a new one at Wal-Mart. After our little shopping trip we made pork chops on the grill and had a nice late dinner. And because I slept in, I wasn't really tired so we stayed up again until almost 1:00 a.m.

The vicious cycle continued this a.m. and I slept until almost 10 again. I got up and cleaned here and did a little laundry. Jason made lunch (steak!) on the grill and then I was off-back to the apt. for a final checkover, and then to turn our keys in. DONE! Yippee! It felt nice to shut the door there once and for all. After I dropped the keys off I went in to work for 3 hours...working on a project for my boss that I just can't seem to find the time for during regular business hours. After that I watered my plants and flowers outside, and when I'm done here I'm headed to Cait's room for a little work. But not too much, I'm beat!

Have a Happy Monday!

This evening Caitlin leaves for her annual visit with her Grandma and Grandpa in California. She's very excited--this will be the first time she is flying by herself. Grandma's got her all set up in a cushy seat in first class, with a guardian from the airline, of course. I'm definitely more nervous than she is. Cait has more experience traveling the airways that I do though. I believe the last time I flew I was about her age, and I went to CA. If my memory serves me correctly, that is the only time I flew; she's been there and back twice now. I'm sure she'll have a ton of fun. I'll start to miss her chatter after a few days or so. :o) After she gets back it will be 3 weeks then back to school already.

Have fun Cait!

SUCCESS!!

Jason passed his national board exam this morning...he is now an official social worker! Way to go, Jase! Well, he was an official social worker, but only had a temporary state license until he took this test, and passed. Woo hoo! What a relief...

Chippewa Valley Fastpitch All Stars

Here are some pics of Cait during the Allstar game. What a fun time! She was honored to be chosen for the team and she and the others did a great job! The "Golds" won the game 2-0. It was a close one though...we're very proud of how far she's come in just a couple of years on the field. She's unleashed one of her talents, that's for sure! Way to go, Cait!

Heeeeere's Toby!

Toby joined our family on June 24 as Cait's 11th b-day present. He's a pretty good dog, but definitely took some adjusting on all of our parts. He's still young, so very active and still isn't quite sure if we're going to come home to get him out of his kennel so gets a little anxious. (We got him from the Humane Association where he lived in a teenie tiny kennel.)

Also, our Maggie got very sick and had to be put to sleep last Friday (7/6). She was a great cat-we miss her a lot!! :)

And more updates...

House Updates...

Just checking in with a life update...

1. We moved into the house last Sunday and we're sure glad we did! We had originally planned to move this past weekend, July 7/8, but thankful we moved it up because it was HOT (in the high 90s) and humid. It would have been miserable! We had 9 people in total helping, and we had the truck loaded at the apartment and unloaded at the house two times in 3 hours. It was fantastic...definitely the smoothest move I've had in a long time!

2. Caitlin got a pooch for her birthday. His name is Toby and he's an almost-2-year-old beagle/spaniel mix. He sure is cute! We got him from the Humane Association and he's had his ups and downs, but all in all seems to be a pretty good dog and has adjusted well.

3. Since we moved early our Internet service hasn't been switched over and won't be until this coming weekend so I'm not able to post pictures because I'm doing this from work. As soon as we're up and running I'll post more pics of the house (after our lovely paint job) and Toby. :)

4. Cait's softball season ended a couple of weeks ago. Her team didn't do so hot, they only won 3 games all season and lost the 1st game of the year-end tournament. On a positive note, Cait was selected from her team to play on an Allstar team. That was a lot of fun for her, and her team won the Allstar Game. Since softball ended she's just been hanging out at home or the pool for summer fun. She spends a lot of time with friends and she is also taking band lessons to get ready for next fall. On the 27th she'll be leaving for California for 3 weeks to visit her Grandpa and Grandma Carlson. It will sure be quiet around the house! :)

That's all for now. Check back soon for pictures!!!

Woo hoo!!

Well, here's our house! I tried to do a cute little slideshow, but it's pretty big so it messes up the page. Oh well.

We've done some cleaning and yardwork so far...we have a lot more cleaning to do, and we'll paint most every room before we move it, so it's going to look different. I'll post again after we're in. :)

Bloggity Blog Blog

Wowsa. Long time no blog! Time flies...!

Let's see. We've been busy, I guess. :)

1. We found a house to buy. YAY! We're suppose to close on June 8. I say "suppose to" because we hadn't locked our interest rate yet, and they took a pretty big leap on Thursday of last week. We're really really really hoping they come back down, even a little bit. Where they're at now the payment is just out of reach. We desperately need a little dip to make it work. This week will be key...

2. Caitlin's back at the bat. She's doing really well this year and is one of the team's main pitchers. Her team, however, is not doing too well. Of the 12 girls, 7 of them had never played before this year. The other 5 were Cait's teammates last year when they won the league, so they've been a little disappointed, but their spirits are still up there. Cait does a great job-she's a good leader and role model for the young'ns. And we just bought her a new bat on E-Bay a few weeks ago. We got a steal of a deal-a $180 bat for $50! Brand new-sweet! :)

3. Jason is starting a new job on June 11. It's closer to home (he is currently driving 25 mi. one way) and the pay is more. This should work out good. When (if) we move, he'll be about 7 miles away on the new super-highway.

4. The MN Twins beat the Chi White Sox today...woo hoo! Oh how I wish we were at that game! We thought about going and getting cheap seats, but even the "cheap" seats add up with this fee and that fee, and with the price of gas we thought it best to stay home. Luckily WGN carried the game today.

5. Last night we went to our friends' house for dinner. Kurt was Jason's best man, and Emma was our flower girl. Kurt and Jackie are great people, and she's a superb cook! They have 3 super cute kids, too. :) After dinner we visited outside on their patio (the weather was beautiful) and then played a Friends trivia game. They were huge Friends fans when the series was still on T.V., and we have since purchased the first seven seasons, so we were pretty tough competitors. It was fun-Kurt won though. :(

6. That's it for the more recent past. We're hoping for a pretty exciting next couple of weeks...I'd like to come back here soon with pics of the new house. :)

Take care all!

Current Happenings...

Happy spring! Well, almost. Sure feels like it today.

Long time no blog huh? We've been pretty busy, as usual.

Just last week we started house hunting again. Last Sunday Jason and I drove around and scoped out 16 houses! Of the 16 we found 4 that we will be looking at with a Realtor. Thursday evening we looked at a house that some of the guys I work with own. It was nice, but we don't have anything to compare it to. Monday afternoon we're looking at 3 more. It's pretty exciting!

Cait's basketball season wrapped up a couple of weeks ago. Their team didn't do so well overall, but the girls were great and had super spirits. I was a little disappointed because the one time I did bring my camera I forgot to use it. They were suppose to have a tournament where I would have taken pics but that was cancelled because of snow. :( Basketball took up 2 evenings a week and every Saturday afternoon, so a little of our running has been temporarily relieved. Softball starts in a month or so, so we'll be right back at it. But that's okay-I'm glad Cait is involved. Last week we went to a meeting at her new school. I can't believe she's starting junior high already!! The meeting was for band...and she has decided that she is going to play the trombone. A girl after my own heart. :) Even better, we have a trombone...just have to retrieve it from my dad's house and get it all shined up. She was also busy with her Girl Scout cookie sale. She managed to sell 184 boxes this year. That's the least amount she's sold in all of her years of scouting. We weren't too aggressive this year. Unfortunately she's losing interest in scouts and probably won't join next year. I think she'll have enough to do with starting middle school, basketball, softball and band. Other than that she's doing well...she's spending more and more time at friend's houses (or friends here). She's a well-rounded girl, that's for sure.

Jason found out Friday that his temporary position will become permanent. What a relief! He's been job hunting and there's not much out there right now. He likes the job he's at, but he's not paid as a social worker. We'll manage for now. At least it's permanent and will be full-time with benefits. Benefits are key! I have benefits at my job but when we got married we couldn't afford to add him for health insurance--it'd be an extra $200+ per month! The only other downfall besides the pay is that it's 20 miles from home. We're taking that into consideration in our search for a house too. I'm thrilled that he'll only have 2 0r 3 more Saturdays to work at his other part-time job. Monday through Friday...finally! :)

This morning I did some work in the garage-cleaning. My cousin Karen introduced me to Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) on her blog (www.karens2cents.blogspot.com). Yesterday afternoon I posted a message and within hours I had several replies. This morning someone took 2 of Cait's old bikes and someone else took our non-working gas grill. That's a lot of bulk from our garage that left nice open space! Freecycle is great...I've been running through other things in my mind that I'd like to get rid of. We have a couple of old T.V.s in the basement...hopefully they'll be the next to go! It would be nice if we didn't have to move that kind of stuff.

All for now. I've got to get some laundry going and such. Cait will be home soon so I'll have to fix lunch. Today is Nikki's birthday-she's a friend that was in our wedding. Later on we're meeting at Cancun-a fabulous Mexican restaurant-she and I and some other friends/family of hers. Will be fun.

Rumplestiltskin

Here are a couple of pictures from Cait's play...finally! I wish I had more/better pictures. We didn't get tickets in advance (the "green slip" never came home from school...uh hmmm...), so we had to buy tix at the door. By time we got there they only had 11 tickets left so we were stuck pretty close to the back. One of these pictures is Cait in action as the Peddler...she's pushing "magic beans". The other is of her and her good friend Mackayla. Mackayla played Rumplestiltskin and did a fine job! It was such a cute play...a musical even! Not your ordinary "Rumplestiltskin" story, either. It mixed in many many other fairytale characters, from the Three Little Pigs to Mother Goose to Jack and Jill. A great production to say the least! :)

Week 4: -2.0

I'm so very excited today...I've lost another 2 lbs. during this past week! YAY for me! Total to date is -6.8 lbs. A little less than 2 lbs./week average. I've got a long ways to go, but it's pretty encouraging to see the fat falling off. Jason even said my legs look smoother...now THAT'S a compliment! (Thanks, Jas!)

Other than that not much going on around her. It's FREEZING cold. Not sure how much more of this I can take.

I still have to sit down at the computer at home and get some pics on here from Cait's play a couple of weeks ago...

All for now...I'm at work so I should work, but I just had to share my success for the week!

Cheese? I'm not so sure...

Cheese Pizza

Traditional and comforting. You focus on living a quality life. You're not easily impressed with novelty. Yet, you easily impress others.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

Jason works every Saturday from noon until midnight. And almost every Saturday I make a run there with some food or whatever. I went tonight...rang him and said "The ice cream truck is here". He came out to grab his Ben & Jerry's and I asked him a question. I said "Do you know what today is?" And without skipping a beat he said "Our 5 month anniversary?" I laughed and told him I hadn't even thought of that, even though technically it is our 5 mo. anniversary, going by the day and not the date. I was just surprised he had even known that! Anyways, today is actually the SIXTH anniversary of our first date! I had thought of having our wedding on this day, but decided that January weather is so unpredictable that I'd be taking a chance and wouldn't want out-of-towners stuck in a blizzard. And it is COLD today. And I like being married, so I'm glad it was in August. On our first date we met at the mall (woo hoo), went bowling, and back to the mall to eat at Garfield's, and then to my apt. to watch a movie. I totally remember everything about it. He was wearing khaki pants and a wool-type shirt (which has since been sent to Goodwill). I was wearing blue jeans and a brown zip up sweater. I called my friend Lori from the payphone at the mall because I was soooo nervous! I ate chicken noodle soup (that's all...how typical for a girl on a first date to not eat) and he had fish...and they didn't have any tartar sauce! He won the bowling game. We watched "The Green Mile"....ahhhhhh...the memories. :)

Week 2: -2.4 Yippee!

I'm off to a good start so far with Weight Watchers...5 lbs. in two weeks. This is encouraging...hopefully I can keep it up. I'm on a different "plan" than my past attempts. This time I'm doing the Core plan, which means that there are only certain foods that I can eat, but I don't have to count the points for each little thing. I just eat until I am satisfied, but not stuffed. So far so good. I think in the past 2+ weeks I've eaten more apples and applesauce (unsweetened, of course) than I have in years! Funny how certain foods are much more appealing when it's all you can eat. In the past if there were an apple or a chocolate covered granola bar I'd always go for the chocolate. Now I don't even look to the cupboard for a granola bar, of any kind! What do they say? That it takes 3 weeks to form a habit...well I'm almost there. Yay for me!!

Happy Birthday To....

ME! :) Yep, it's my birthday today...28. Yikes...I'm feeling a little older this year for some reason. Maybe because I'm really out of shape and such...BUT, we're going to solve that problem! I told Jason that I didn't want anything for my birthday for "me", but I wanted for all of us to get a membership to the YMCA. And so we did. Cait plays basketball there on Saturdays, but that's the extent of our experience with the Y. This evening after I got home from work we went and took the tour and signed up for four months for now. I'm excited to get in there and use the facilities! After we spent an hour at the Y we went to dinner to one of the best places I've ever been. It's nothing fancy--it's called Altoona Family Restaurant. And that's exactly what it is. It's a Perkins type of restaurant, but not as commercialized. We've been there twice. Once on a Friday night during their fish fry when they were swamped and then tonight. Both timew we had fantastic service and the food is delicious and very reasonably priced. I had their grilled chicken breast (it was 2 huge butterfly type pieces) and it came with a salad, a veggie, and a potato (I had rice pilaf)...all of that for $7.19! Jason had a huge plate of ribs with the veggie and potato for $7.59 and Cait had a kids meal for $3.50! With tax and our drinks our bill was $22. Can't beat it. I have the Golden Globes recording on DVR so I'm going to go catch up with all of the action... :)

Wow!

Has is really been almost 2 weeks since my last post? Sheesh...where does the time go?

Here's a quick update:

Cait's been busy at play rehearsal 2-3 nights per week, basketball practice 2 nights a week and games on Saturdays. Add that to homework and being a kid and she's filled to the rim with things to do. The play is this week, so after one more week she'll have a little more spare time, which is needed. She's barely had a chance to dive into all of the scrapbooking goodies she got for Christmas!

Jason has been working somewhat normal hours for the first time in years (literally). On the last day of his internship the county offered him a "temporary" position in their Community Support division. He works there Tues.-Fri. and at Triniteam (halfway house) on Saturdays. He has 2 full days off per week (in a row even!), and he's not working any crazy overnight shifts, so his days and nights are finally in order. Last week he sent out a couple of resumes for permanent positions--hopefully we'll hear from someone soon.

I'm back on the weight loss track...almost 2 weeks now! (See June 2006 post--I didn't make it very far). This is my 3rd or 4th time on Weight Watchers and I really feel good about it this time. (For real.) My head is in it, and a couple of times it just wasn't, which lead to failed attempts. I'm setting "mini-goals" for myself rather than always thinking of the end (which is 90 lbs.). Ten pound increments seem much more attainable--and I get a reward for every 10 lbs. My first 10 will be a trip to JC Penney Salon for a new do. The 1st week I lost 2.6 lbs. I'm anxious to go back Tuesday and see how I did this week. IAnd I feel a million times better, which is a bonus!

Yesterday we lost our sweet little Sparkle. A few weeks ago I had written a post about her. It was really a battle for the last week or so. We called a couple of vets to see if they'd give us any advice, but they of course wanted us to come in and pay for an office visit. I don't want to say that she wasn't worth it, but knowing that she had lived a long life and knowing that by how sick she was she wouldn't suffer long, we decided to let nature run its course, and it did. We were sad to see her go, but relieved for her because she was in Hamster Heaven.

Brrrrr!! It's cold! We've been so spoiled with the warm winter weather that the teens just don't feel too good. It's been mainly in the 40s so far all winter, and there's no snow to insulate from the bitterness, so it's rough. :)

That's all for now...I told Cait I'd watch "Best Gameshow Moments" with her, or whatever it is on GSN.

Have a splendid evening!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! (Cue the bells and whistles)

January 1, 2007. Whew! Crazy.

Cait and I hung out last night--we never usually do too much on New Year's Eve. Jason had to work (hopefully his last 8:00 p.m.-8:00 a.m. shift) so we just ate cheese and crackers and watched GSN. GSN has become one of my favorites--I love Chain Reaction and Lingo. Cait likes the old game shows like Match Game and Password. Silly! We also watched part of the Packers/Bears game...

Cait said she'd pay me $50.00 if I stayed up until midnight with her. I said okay, so she brought me $50 in Monopoly money! At about 11:00 p.m. I went to bed and read for a bit. After a few minutes Caitlin came in and said she lost a tooth. I didn't even know she had any loose! Anyways, she left and came back and said sarcastically "You know Mom, I still believe in the Tooth Fairy." She proceeded to put her tooth under her pillow and when I woke up at 4:00 a.m. I snuck in and took her tooth and left her a dollar...and her $50 Monopoly money. She thought that was a ripoff! :)

That pretty much sums up the excitement of our New Year's Eve. I'd prefer low-key, so it was nice.

I hope your New Year is a prosperous one.

Sparkle Harple

Meet Sparkle. Sparkle is our little hamster...isn't she cute? She doesn't come out of her igloo much anymore so when I saw her out filling up her cheeks tonight I thought I'd snap a few pictures. Caitlin got Sparkle in Oct. 2004 from Grandma Nut (Jason's mom). She is such a sweet little thing. Never once thought to bite what's not meant to be bitten. Never escaped (except once, when I left the cage open--oops!). She doesn't know any tricks--it's enough for her to be cute as a button.

Merry Merry Christmas...

The hustle and bustle of Christmas has come and gone and this is one of the few pictures we captured. This is the three of us at Jason's mom's house on Christmas day. I don't realize how tall Caitlin is until I see her standing next to me in a picture. Sheesh! Not sure why we all look cross-eyed in the pic. :) Cait is wearing her new sweatshirt from Grandpa and Grandma Metcalf. She cherishes that shirt! Her Grandpa has worked on or near the LSU campus several times and he couldn't just pick up any old LSU shirt--it had to be the real deal, straight from the LSU store. She loves it.

Merry Christmas!

Well, much to my dismay, no snow for Christmas. :( With just the little sprinkling on Friday and 45 degree temps today, it's not looking good for my white Christmas. Oh well...we can still spread holiday cheer without snow.

It's been kind of a quiet weekend. We did a little shopping Friday evening and yesterday morning, but not Christmas shopping. I was actually done with that last week! Amazing! It's crazy out there, so I've stayed home most of the weekend. I did some cleaning yesterday and a little baking today. Caitlin is in Hayward at her Grandpa and Grandma Carlson's until tomorrow morning. We usually head up north on Christmas Eve, but my parents are in Louisiana so no visit with them and Jason has to work 8:00 p.m. tonight until 8:00 a.m. tomorrow (BOOOOOO!!!). As soon as he gets home we'll hit the road to pick up Cait and then go to my brother's house for breakfast with his family. After that we'll move on to Hayward to go to Jason's mom's house and then his Grandma's for Christmas dinner. We haven't decided yet if we're going to spend tomorrow night or just come back home tomorrow evening. It's nice to spend the night, but it's also nice to be home in your own bed. I have to work Tuesday some time too. I don't need to be there until after noon, but I should probably go in earlier.

I hope all is well with you and yours and that you have a very merry Christmas!

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

It's snowing! YAY! I was dreading another brown Christmas...we have had very little snow this year so far, and what we did get didn't last for more than a couple of days because it's been so warm. I'm not one who plays in the snow (snowmobiling, skiing, etc.) so I can certainly do without, but when it comes to Christmas it just doesn't seem like Christmas without the white stuff. This would have only been the 3rd Christmas that I can remember that we didn't have snow. When I was a kid there were always piles of snow everywhere at Christmastime. It's been raining here for the past 36 hrs. so I was a little worried. Now we have some heavy, wet snow falling. Hopefully it will get cold enough tonight and snow some more and stay cold so that we have a white Christmas.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

HALLELUJAH!

At 1:00 p.m. today Jason stepped into the classroom at UWEC for the last time! YAAAHOOOOO!!!! I am extremely excited about this (just in case you were wondering). It has been an unbelievably long journey and I am so proud of him for sticking it out and getting to this day. The graduation ceremony will be on Saturday morning, and next week is finals week. SO...there won't be a diploma in the diploma cover, but it will follow shortly by mail. He has one paper to finish up and then he's DONE. No finals...this semester was his internship. All of the hard work, long hours, and patience (on my part) has finally paid off. Way to go Jas!

p.s. BLINKING AGAIN!

Still not blinking... :)

Update

LOL...

I plugged the lights on the tree in this afternoon and they're not blinking anymore! What a fun game this will be...or not! :)

Every Year!

It happened again! I don't know why I think it won't happen each year. I guess I just HOPE that it won't. Here's what happened...

Wednesday afternoon Jason and Caitlin went to get a Christmas tree. Cait didn't have school and Jason was home early. I couldn't get away from work so they just went. It was fine with me--it was COLD! :)

Wednesday night I hauled all of the Christmas lights and decorations and ornaments up from the basement and pulled out everything I wanted to use this year. I plugged all of the lights in to make sure they worked. We got as far as putting the lights on the tree and then it was bed time.

Thursday evening Cait and I decorated the tree. I love having a real tree! For the past few years we've had an artificial tree, but nothing beats a real Christmas pine.

Okay, so that was Thursday. We had the lights on Thursday. We had the lights on Friday morning before work and school. We had the lights on all of Friday afternoon/evening. We had the lights on this morning. The lights came on this evening and one string started BLINKING. UGH. It never fails. I plug those stupid lights in every year before putting them on the tree JUST TO MAKE SURE. And every year a couple of days after the lights have been on the tree at least one string starts blinking. This year it's the string on the bottom. Last year it was the string on the top. But really, it doesn't matter where it is. It's still frustrating and look silly! I don't know why I think "maybe they'll all work right this year". This year I think I will throw out the lights and buy all new next year.

Happy decorating!

Kinda Fun...

I used my name, Vicki Jean Lynn, female, of course, and put friendly as a main trait. It gave me Scout Lee Lynn as my new name...hmmm...it's okay, kind of boyish though. And no...there's no specific reason for being on babynames.com... ;)

Weekend Update

I guess it's not the weekend anymore, is it? It sure was nice to have 4 days off from work last week (Wed.-Sun.). And it was hard to get back in to the swing of things Monday morning!

Last Wednesday evening we went to Waupaca to visit with my mom's family. It's always nice to see them. We don't get over there too often, even though it's only 2.5 hours away. We had a delicious dinner Thursday evening and then drove home with our bellies busting out from all of the good food.

Friday morning Critter and Brandy did the "crazy shopping" while Cait and I (mostly Cait) watched their kids. I would rather watch 10 kids than shop on Black Friday! (No, they don't have 10 kids...I'm just saying.)They left Saturday afternoon just as I was getting a migraine. :( That kept me down all of Saturday and most of Sunday morning. Saturday night Jason and Cait went to the Blugold women's basketball game while I rested. It was quite peaceful.

Sunday we just hung out at home...did laundry and a little house work. Caitlin went to see Deck the Halls with a friend Sunday evening. Late Sunday night, actually it was early Monday a.m. Cait woke up ill. She puked a lot then went back to sleep. :) She felt okay Monday morning and wanted to go to school so she went on her merry way.

Yesterday Cait had rehearsal for the school play after school but after I picked her up from that we were home and after dinner we planted our butts on the couch. I was so tired!! I don't think I moved in my sleep last night, not a once.

This week at work I'm filling in for a girl who is on vacation in Hilton Head, SC. I'd rather be there...but I'm here, and it's been pretty busy at work being that it's the last week of the month. The last week of any month is busy, even November.

Tonight Cait had rehearsal after school, then basketball practice. After b-ball we went to the grocery store...and now I'm tired again. :)

Off to bed!

The "New Version"

I think I need to try the new version of Blogger. I'm really unhappy with this blog. The template, the layout, etc. It was okay before, and then last week I was messing around and changed the template but now I've decided I don't like it. I'm getting a little picky about my blog's appearnce and this just isn't doing it for me. :) I looked into MySpace, but it looks like those pages have a bunch of ads and such on them. I don't like that either. So anyways, if my blog and templates and everything changes every other day, you'll know why. I'm just going to keep playing with it until I find what I like. :)

Good (or not so) Morning!

This is what we woke up to yesterday morning!! At least it was Friday...and not Monday. Unfortunately there were many many accidents and the highways and interstate were backed up for hours. I took this picture at around 7:30 a.m. and it continued snowing until about 2:00 p.m., so this was just the beginning! Funny thing is that it was 70 degrees on Wednesday afternoon. I guess that's what we get here in WI. I'm not ready for winter, that's for sure.

Notice anything?

When Caitlin and I are together we always get the "You look so much like each other", or "She looks just like you". The latest I heard from someone was "She's a spittin' image of you". I was on this website that Jason found on his friend's MySpace page which does face recognition and matches you to your celebrity "look-alikes", and the results of our face scans are below. In some of the pictures I see a similarity or two, but most of them are pretty far fetched. Funny that both of us have Daveigh Chase as a look-alike. I guess Cait and I might look alike after all. :)

Check it Out!

Fun Times

Hip Chick

Here's Cait on Halloween. We just couldn't find a costume for her this year. She is kind of inbetween sizes and such. The children's costumes were either too small or too kiddy, and the adult costumes were either too big or too trashy. After searching the Halloween Boutique in the mall, we decided to ditch that joint and go to Saver's, which is a second-hand store. At first we didn't think we were going to find anything there, and then Cait pulled out this hideous shirt and we were off! Next we found the cords...aren't they pretty? And then it was to the accessory aisle for the headband, belt and purse (which doubled as a candy bag). We stopped at Shopko and found the earrings and flip flops on clearance. Cait added the bright pink toe socks after school since it was a tad chilly. Not bad for $20!

Thief!

Today at lunch time I organized a "baby shower" for one of the ladies in our office. She had a beautiful baby girl on October 6. And since many of the employees here are from a few towns away we decided that rather than hold the shower on an evening or weekend we'd just do it during work since everyone was here and available. It was a pot luck type lunch, so everybody brought something to share. Everything was delish! One of the ladies here lives in Bloomer, WI and there is a place called Bohemian Ovens. They have the best cake you've ever tasted. It's similar to a jell-o poke cake, but there's something different. Anyways, she had picked up a cake this a.m. and left it here in the breakroom refrigerator. Our office is in a building with 4 or 5 other small businesses and the breakroom is shared. When the time came for our gathering she went to get the cake and it was gone. Yes, GONE. At first she thought that someone in the office had played a joke on her, but no joke. The cake was gone. We checked with the other offices (pretty much knowing they had nothing to do with it), and no one had seen anything. It was so obvious that the cake was for a baby shower. It had the baby's name on it! Man! Our office is next to a high school and on occasion the little buggers roam our office during their off campus lunches. We can't point any fingers because we have absolutely no idea where the cake went. We searched the entire building, outside, parking lot, even the dumpster. Not a sign. What a shame! Does anyone know where our cake went?

Picture pages...

Here we are getting ready to hop into the limo after our ceremony...I was tired! I'm trying to get more pictures uploaded here, but I'm having a hard time. I think they may be too big. I'll work on it this afternoon and hopefully I'm able to share more later. I'm off to lunch with some friends.

Busy Bees

Long time no blog. We've been busy lately. What have we been up to, you ask? Well I'll tell you...

Jason started his internship in early September. He works there 35-40 hrs. per week. He also works at his "real job" 16-24 hrs. per week. He also has one class at the University. Tuesday nights are his "guy night", which is generally at his friend Kurt's. That's about it for him; once you squeeze in family time, sleeping and eating, his time is gone.

Caitlin has me running already this school year. She has Girl Scouts every other Sunday evening, and once and a while during the week. Recently she tried out for a part in Annie Warbucks, a production that the Eau Claire Children's Theatre is putting on, but she didn't get a role. Forty two girls tried out for 8 parts. She was a little bummed, but she got over it quickly. She did however get a part in the school play. As I understand it, it is a modern twist on Rumplestiltskin. Cait is the Village Peddler...fun! She will have rehearsals 2-3 days per week after school. This past Tuesday evening was the Eau Claire Elementary Fall Jogathon. Kids from all of the elem. schools in the city gather for a 1 mile run/jog/walk at a local park. Caitlin improved her time from last spring by 2 mins. and 58 seconds. Good job, Cait! She has also been doing Safety Patrol before school for the past three weeks, which meant that she had to be there early, which meant that I had to drive her to school every day. That's okay though. I'm proud of her for wanting to help.

And me? I've been working...next Monday will be my 6 year "anniversary" at American Title! Wowie! I have also been working in our basement. We have a lot of junk stored that I have been going through. So far I have taken three huge lawn bags and 4 boxes full of stuff out to the dumpster. For some reason it doesn't seem like there is any less...? Next I will be putting it all back, except I am going to reorganize, etc. so it's neat and tidy. We'll see how long that project takes. Another reason I haven't blogged is because I'm addicted to reality television. Namely Dancing with the Stars, The Amazing Race, and Survivor. :( If I watch the first show in a series, for some reason I just can't pull my eyes from the television. Oh well.

That's about all for now. This week coming up Jason has a conference in Rice Lake for two days and Cait's rehearsals start. Oh! We also looked at a house that we're interested in buying. Three of the men that I work with bought it a few months ago and have been remodeling it. It's not quite ready for the market, and we have some number crunching to do, but we're really hoping it all works out. It's a great house!

Okay. That's all.

Nikki's Wedding

Here are some pictures from the wedding that Cait and are were in on Saturday. The first one is me and Caitlin hanging out in the secret hiding place before the ceremony. We both had our hair done at JC Penney Salon--it was fun! I certainly could have done without the strapless dress, but it wasn't my choice and I did survive, so it's all good. The Bride's the boss!
This one is the blushing bride herself. Again, hiding out before the ceremony. This was right after she had her hair done.
Next is me, Nikki (bride) and Peggy, who was the Maid of Honor. We all met each other while working at American Title. Aren't we pretty?
Here's Caitlin before the ceremony...
And here's Cait letting loose doing the Cha Cha Slide. (Demonstrating the Cha Cha part in this pic) I'd never heard of that song or dance before, but it's just this guy giving orders, like "stomp your right foot", "clap your hands", "spin in a circle", "do the cha cha", "do the Charlie Brown". Kind of like a modern day square dance. It was pretty cute...fun to watch.

Overall the wedding went really well. It was a lot of fun and everything turned out just as planned (I think). The weather was beautiful for early October. It could have easily been 40 degrees and rainy, but it was 70 and sunny with a wonderful breeze. The best part is that the bride and groom are meant to be and are now happily married. Congrats, Nikki & Ryan!

401K

I diversified my portfolio today...LOL. What? Yeah, that's what I did, I guess. I made an appointment with the investment advisor who oversees our 401K accounts at work to change my name on my account. I don't know ANYTHING about investing or the likes. So anyways, I get there and he greets me and we sit down and do the paperwork for the name change and then he asks if I'd like to take a look at my "portfolio". To me a portfolio is a folder. I knew what he was getting at though. I thought, "why not?" I had time and was interested to see what he had for me. Well he pulled out my current plan and showed me the growth (which was slow but steady) and said this is okay, blah blah blah. THEN, he pulled out the big guns. He showed me 5 different options for investing my money (please note that these are not huge investments...it's 5% of each paycheck). My jaw dropped to the floor when he showed me where I COULD have been had I chosen any one of these other 5 options in the beginning. Well why didn't he tell me that IN THE BEGINNING? I know why. Because in the beginning I didn't have a clue about any of this stuff and the thought of losing a penny one year to gain 5 over the next two just didn't sink in. I didn't want to take any chances, so I guess I must have told him to stick my money in the "conservative" places. Well that was dumb. He assured me that it was okay since I still have almost 40 years until I can even use the money. HA! Thanks for the assurance. BUT, we did get the funds moved around into a tad more risky options and we'll see how that goes. It appeared that even when the riskies (is that a word?) had losses, they were temporary (2-3 years in a row) and more than recovered in following years to produce bigger and better gains. Even still, I won't be able to retire when I'm 35. Shoot. But I can say I diversified my portfolio, and that sounds impressive.

Blog Help?!

I'm pretty good with computers, meaning I know how to use them. However, I don't understand the language of computers. The formulas and such. I'm trying to put a cute little clock on my blog (like Karen's at www.karens2cents.blogspot.com) and I'm having a terrible time. I tried to look in Blogger help, but it didn't. I think I have the general idea of what has to happen...somehow I have to post a link to the clock in the sidebar, but that's all I know. When I try to do that and go into the innards of my blog, I find a bunch of gobbledy goop like this ^:al fjw @ bb`` } / ahbbe lp've ~ and it makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyone know where I can find good instructions? Preferably in plain old English?

Here's my new "word cloud". It's kind of fun to update this once in a while to see what new words pop in. You should try it...go to www.snapshirts.com and click on "custom". It's pretty simple. Just fill in the little bits of information and it'll create your word cloud. Once complete snapshirts will e-mail it to you so you can save it, etc. Pretty neat!

Subway

I had Subway for lunch today. Big deal right? Well today I did something that I have never done before. No, I didn't order something different. I ordered the same old thing (turkey wrap, american cheese, lettuce, extra pickles, salt/pepper, mayo). Wondering what I did? I ate at Subway all alone. I have never eaten at a place by myself! I'm almost embarssed to say that, but usually if I don't pack a lunch to take to work I go somewhere and pick something up and either take it back to work and eat there or I sit in my car and eat. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one that wouldn't sit down at a "restaurant" and eat by themselves. What is wrong with us? It was so nice sitting there, really. I needed a break from work so I didn't want to go back to the office and it was kind of a yucky day so I didn't want to sit in my car. So I took the plunge. I ordered my sandwich and plopped down in a booth all by myself! It really helped that there were 3 other people in the place that were alone. It was actually kind of relaxing. I was able to just sit there and clear my head and eat my lunch. I made a to-do list for the weekend and stared off into nowhere land for a bit. It was nice not to have to ward off phone calls when eating at the office or even having to try and hold a conversation with someone had there been someone eating with me. Fast food type restaurants are one thing...I'm not sure if I could go to the Olive Garden and order up a table for 1. Maybe that'll be a personal challenge of mine. So what do you think? Do you eat in alone at restaurants?

Back to School

Today was "Signing Day" at Putnam Heights Elementary School. Signing Day is the 1st day of classes for junior high and high school students, but elementary students go to school to spend about 45 mins. or so checking in, filling out paperwork, dropping off supplies, chatting with the teacher, and getting pictures taken. I don't remember this day when I was in elementary school. I remember getting to school on the first day and going to the classrooms for whichever grade and searching for my name on a list to see which class I was in. How terrifying! Not knowing who was in my class? How could they? ;)

Two things I like about Signing Day: 1. I get to be there when Cait gets her picture taken to make sure her hair isn't sticking up and that she doesn't have gum in her mouth. I also get to see the picture right then and there, and if it's not acceptable they'll retake it immediately. Cool huh? 2. I get to go with to scope out her teacher and her new classroom and to make sure everything is neatly organzied in her desk and she's ready to roll the next day.

This year was easy with 2. above. She has the same teacher as last year! A different classroom though. Two years ago Mrs. Johnson was a 5th grade teacher, and last year she moved to 4th grade and was Cait's teacher. This year she moved back to 5th grade and took her entire class with her! Kind of neat, but I think Cait would have liked some variety. She likes Mrs. Johnson though so it will be okay.

5th grade already? Smokes! I was doing Caitlin's hair (had to be purty for pictures) and I could barely brush it with her standing in front of me--she's too tall. :(

My nephew started kindergarten today--wow! I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm pretty sure he did okay. This a.m. his mom sent an e-mail and said he was upset because he didn't get to ride the bus home! Crazy kid. Who wants to ride the bus?

Anyways...good luck to all of the back to schoolers out there, young and old alike.

Pictures!

Oops! Well I didn't do a very good job posting these pictures...I guess I should have posted each as an individual post. I'll describe them the best I can. You should be able to figure out which is which. There is a picture of the two of us at Gooseberry Falls in Two Harbors, MN. This was on the way back from our honeymoon. And there is a picture of Splitrock Lighthouse, somewhere North of Two Harbors, MN. We stopped here on our way to our destination. It's a neat part of history. Next is a picture of where we spent our short but sweet honeymoon at Caribou Highlands Resort in Lutsen, MN. No, we didn't have the whole house to ourselves, just a small portion of it, but it was nice and peaceful. AND!! We have a "Mr. and Mrs. Jason Lynn" picture!! YAY! This is one of the only pictures I have of the wedding so far. More to come as I receive them...And lastly is another picture from Splitrock. I like pictures of the landscape, and so, here we have a couple of Lake Superior cliffs.

We Made It!

Well the wedding is over and we all survived. I shouldn't even say it like that...makes it sound like it was hard. It wasn't. It was PERFECT! People always told me "something will go wrong, but you just have to let it go." Nothing went wrong! What are they talking about? Anyways, it was a beautiful day and everything went just as planned. I have not been sent any pictures yet so I don't have any to share, but I guarantee that as soon as I get some I'll get them up here!

On Sunday we left for our very short honeymoon to Lutsen, MN. It was a nice time and again, we had beautiful weather. I wish it were longer, but on the other hand, I was ready to come home yesterday. We drove from Lutsen to Hayward, about 3.5 hrs. yesterday afternoon. I dropped Jason off at his mom's. He ended up spending another night there. I picked up Caitlin from my parents house and drove the rest of the 2 hrs. home. I just wanted to be HOME. :)

Well I though I'd give a quick report. I'll post more details as the pictures come in. I'm off to get my hair cut...I grew it out for too long and it's time to get some style back. :)

Take care!

Here we GO!

5 days until the wedding! I'm all ready to go. I have all of my things packed neatly into a few totes, separated by category and where they need to go (church, reception, etc.) I have one more day of work left, and then I am off until next Thursday. Hallelujah! I'm almost more excited for the week off work than the wedding itself! It's been a busy couple of weeks. A lot of running and catching up. Why is there so much catching up when all you're doing is running? I always have been a slow runner... :) The weather is looking okay. It may rain on Saturday. I'm not so much concerned about the rain as I am the heat. Looks to be around 80, so not too bad. My parents rolled into town today from Louisiana. I'm glad they made it back safely and we are looking forward to seeing them. They've been gone since Easter! We're anxious to see everyone else that will be at the wedding too. A lot of family and friends that we haven't seen for some time. As the day draws nearer I get more and more anxious and excited. I've been waiting for this day for a looonnngggg time! I don't feel nervous--yet. We'll see how that goes as the next couple of days progress. Anyway, just thought I'd check in before the big event. I don't know if I'll be able to blog between now and then, but I'll certainly be back next week with pictures to share!

The Leader

That's the Leader Telegram. Eau Claire's fine newspaper. We subscribe to the weekend editions, 2 papers, Saturday and Sunday. The weekday papers are kind of boring and who has time to read the paper during the week? And really, we (I) only subscribe to the weekend papers for a couple of reasons...Moments in Life (weddings and engagements), Court Report (because I'm nosey) and COUPONS. What else is the paper good for, right? ;) And more specifically, Michael's Arts & Crafts has a 40% off coupon in every other week's Sunday paper. That's a good deal, considering I've purchased a lot of wedding items at Michael's.

A couple of weekends ago I didn't get a Saturday or Sunday paper. I was out of town and Jason worked weird hours, but he didn't see the paper when he left or when he returned. So I called the customer service. They apologized, gave me a credit, etc., etc. Okay, I'm happy now. WELL...this a.m. I was up pretty early. I was doing dishes and sweeping and vacuuming. I took out the trash and the recycling. I saw my neighbor outside with her little boy and their dog. I came back in. I heard the newspaper carrier's dad's truck (it must be a diesel). Putzed around inside for a little bit longer. I peeked out my blinds to see if my paper was there and the neighbor lady was sitting on the step reading my paper. No big deal, I thought. I'll go about my business inside...she'll put it back when she's done, right? NOPE. She took my paper!! (But left the rubberband that was around it.)I was flabbergasted!

I don't know the neighbors very well. They moved in earlier this summer and keep pretty much to themselves. We do too. So I didn't have the nerve to go ask her for my paper back. Should I? Shouldn't I? Really, it's not a big deal, I could walk to the gas station 5 blocks away and get a paper. But it is a big deal! It's a matter of principle more than anything. I'd like to go over there and ask her for my paper and I would hope that she would feel ashamed and embarassed.

So I called customer service again today to ask them to hold our papers next weekend because we'll be out of town. I told her what happened and then I felt awful because she said that anytime a customer reports that they didn't get their paper the carrier is penalized. That means when I called 2 weeks ago and told them I didn't get my paper the carrier's check was docked for those papers when all along (I assume) it was my neighbor that had taken it. I'll have to leave him a tip tomorrow. I'll have to stand there and wait for him so the neighbor doesn't take the tip too! No, that's not very nice of me to say, but it just irks me.

Well I feel better now after letting this all out. Maybe I'll go ask for my paper back...

Have a nice weekend!

Just Stuff

Where does the time go? It's been a while since I've blogged, mainly because we've been pretty busy, and partly because I haven't come across anything interesting to write about.

We're counting down the days...13 days, 19 hrs. and 22 minutes until the ceremony and I'm getting very excited. (I don't usually count down to the minute, just sometimes!)

Last weekend was my bridal shower in Hayward with my friends there. It was a nice time. We had a nice brunch and played some games and opened presents. The shower was at a park with a creek running through it. It was really pretty, and a nice day. After that we hopped on a pontoon boat on Round Lake and cruised around for the afternoon/evening. We docked at Famous Dave's (the original) for dinner-YUM!

On Wednesday a couple of girls at work threw me a shower over the lunch hour. That was a nice time too, and everyone was invited. I got a lot of nice gifts off of my registry, but several people went together and got me a wonderful gift--they got me a gift certificate for the shop that was doing the alterations on my dress. THAT was awesome! What a relief to not have to worry about that expense.

Today Cait and I are going to a bridal shower for a dear friend, Nikki. She is one of my bridesmaids. Caitlin and I are both in her wedding on October 7. Last night I got a steal of a deal on her gift at Target. She wanted these pillows that were $24.99 EACH. Fancy throw pillows, huh? Anyways, we printed off her registry and they were listed at $6.24 each. They were on clearance. I was determined to find those pillows!! We finally did, and there were two of them, just like she wanted.

And so, I'm off to get laundry going and run to the store. I'm making snickers salad for the shower today. Deeeelish! :)

Have a super Saturday!!