The Carey's

Baby Cruise's Shower!

2012-02-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

This past weekend Jeremy and I drove over to Merrill, WI for my cousin Alyssa's baby shower for her little boy that is due the end of March. She got a ton of really nice stuff and the food was soo good! My cousin Kailey did a great job planning the shower for Alyssa and it was a fun day.

All the gifts!

The dessert table! The chocolate chip cookie dough truffles are on the far right :)

Who doesn't love cake!?

I hope baby Cruise let's mommy sleep over the next couple months so she's not too exhausted before he's even born!

Cousins :)

Grandma Becky, Alyssa and Aunt Kailey

It was nice going home for the weekend and getting to see family! My dad travels all over for work and he's heading to North Caroline shortly so I'm glad we were able to see him before he headed out.

Baby Cruise is one lucky little fellow and we can't wait for him to make his entrance into the world!

I forgot to add this picture last night when I posted, but here are the shower invites that I made!

Hostess of the month!

2012-02-01T19:52:00.000-08:00

This past month I feel like I did a lot of hosting! On the 10th we threw a small baby shower for my friend Stacy who is due in less than two weeks now! So exciting :) She registered at diapers.com and we all pitched in to order her a variety of stuff from the registry! What a great website!

On the 24th I hosted our third book club! We read The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards and it was a good book to read for book club as there were lots of things to discuss!

Last night I hosted a Stampin' Up party and we made a super cute card and a fun butterfly magnet! I can't wait to put my order in because I have a million things I want to make when I get my new stuff.

My favorite part of hosting is all the yummy things I get to bake! For anyone else that enjoys baking, here were a few of the items I made for each one:

Baby Shower

Taco Stew from Crockin' Girls

Baby Blue Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookie Cups from Kevin & Amanda

Book Club

Jalapeno Popper Dip from Annie's Eats

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles from Love & Olive Oil

Homemade Bread from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book

Tastefully Simple Wheat Beer Bread

Tastefully Simple Spinach and Herb Dip w/veggie tray

Tastefully Simple Garlic Dip

Trader Joe's Bruschetta

Stampin' Up Party

Chili (recipe I got from Jeremy's cousin's fiance)

Homemade Bread from my Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day book

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles from Love & Olive Oil

This past weekend was also my cousin's baby shower and although I wasn't in charge, I did make some of the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles and after having them at book club, taking them into work, her shower and the stampin' up party, I'm pretty sure they are one of the BEST desserts I've ever had. I highly recommend trying them out :) And for anyone that's pregnant out there, there is no egg in them so they are perfectly fine for mom and baby!!

Spam Museum

2012-02-01T19:51:00.000-08:00

If anyone is looking for a fun field trip, the Spam Museum is only thirty minutes from our house! Lindsey came to visit in mid-January and we decided to head down to Austin to check it out. After living here for four years I had never made the trip so we thought it was about time!

The museum was actually very interesting and we had fun on our little field trip :)

Lindsey and I both have yet to try Spam but after seeing all the different ways you can use it, I might just have to try it!

Homemade artisan bread!

2012-01-23T19:18:00.001-08:00

Thanks to a couple of my girlfriends at work, I purchased a book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I just finished baking my first loaf tonight.

Can't wait to see how it tastes at book club tomorrow night!

Happy Holidays!

2012-01-01T10:28:00.000-08:00

We've had busy Christmas weekend traveling all over Wisconsin to visit our families and as usual, it went way too fast!

Our first stop was in Eau Claire and on Friday night we had Christmas dinner with Jeremy's parents, Jessica and Tony and both of his grandma's. Maple finally figured out how to open presents this year and she had fun opening all of hers as well as trying to help others!

Maple had to eat the treats that were tied onto her present before she could start opening it!

On Christmas Eve we went to Grandma Carey & Bob's house to celebrate with Jeremy's dad's side of the family. The whole family was there this year too!

The Carey Family.

After Christmas Eve at Jeremy's grandma's, we packed ourselves up and headed down to Cambridge to be with my mom's side for Christmas Day. This might have been the first Christmas Day that I remember being able to sleep in! Normally my little brother Matthew is up at the crack of dawn, looking through every one's stockings and itching to wake everyone up! After getting in late, it was nice to sleep in!

Christmas traditions at my mom's house consist of some sort of pajama that we get on Christmas Eve, cinnamon rolls for breakfast, spending the day in our PJ's, watching a Christmas Story all day, playing board games and grasshoppers! This year our PJ's consisted of Badgers gear and we all had Badger's t-shirts to sport on Christmas Day!

What a plump Christmas tree!

Matthew was Santa's little helper handing out all the gifts.

Everyone in their Badger's gear.

Santa brought Maple, Libby and Zoe these toys that then have treats stuffed inside. Libby wouldn't put hers down and she managed to eat her treat and Zoe's! Maple sure likes hers too!

Most people that know me know I'm a very competitive person and so is my little brother. A few years ago we started hiding the Christmas Pickle in our tree. On Christmas morning, the one to find the pickle on the tree gets a special gift and is to have a year of good fortune. All of us wait upstairs while Mom and/or Eric hides the pickle. This year I was messing around with Matt and trying to hold him back!

Perfect action shot of our fight for the pickle. I won this year and found the pickle first even though I wasted time holding Matt back first! I found it pretty quickly so we hid it again and Ryan found it the second time. I almost had it, it was hidden under the angel at the top of the tree, but I'm kind of short so when I jumped up to try to grab it I almost knocked the tree over...whoops! Looking forward to my year of good fortune :)

After opening our Christmas presents there was a slight emergency. Matthew was playing his own little version of Fruit Slice with his new paring knife and in addition to slicing his orange, he sliced open his middle finger and needed to get six stitches!

Disclaimer: Throwing fruit in the air and trying to slice it with a knife should not be attempted at home! Poor Matthew has to spend his Christmas break with an injured finger! At least he's smiling about it!

Maple turned three on the 28th so Jeremy felt the need to buy her some birthday presents.

What a spoiled little girl with all her treats!

We were planning on driving over to Merrill, WI this past weekend to celebrate Christmas with my dad but instead he decided to drive over and visit us! It was nice staying at home this past weekend :) We went out for lunch at the Sportsman Grill when my dad got to town and then we spent the afternoon watching movies and ordered pizza to bring in the New Year! I sadly only stayed awake long enough to watch the ball drop at 11 pm. This is the first year in a long time that we didn't go out on New Years and it was surprisingly nice to stay home and relax!

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season!!

Christmas Cookies

2011-12-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

Sunday I spent the majority of the day baking Christmas Cookies but we didn't get around to frosting them until last night. I seriously think I could eat sugar cookies all day long...not good for my health but they are so delicious! I tried out all new recipes this year and I have to say they all turned out pretty good.

So gingerbread cookies aren't my favorite but they are such a staple Christmas cookie that I found a recipe for them here. Jeremy got a little creative with his gingerbread men. Instead of my typical sugar cookie recipe I tried a new one from annie's eats and got the frosting here. So far, I have no complaints about the new sugar cookies :)

Next I tried out some Peanut Butter Blossoms. I've always really liked these but I've never made them myself. They turned out really good but since then I've found a couple of other recipes that I'm going to try out next time. I wasn't really paying attention when I grabbed the Hershey kisses and I got the air delight ones. They are actually pretty good but it's weird when you bite into them and see all the little air pockets!

The last item on the desert menu was Peanut Butter Balls! These were way more tedious than I thought they would be and I wish I had thought to use a toothpick to dip them in the chocolate because when I was done my hands were completely full of chocolate! I think my favorite part about these is the melted peanut butter drizzled on top :)

Hope everyone else made some yummy Christmas Cookies to enjoy over the holidays! Merry Christmas!!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

2011-12-12T18:48:00.000-08:00

Jeremy turned 27 yesterday so we celebrated all weekend! That's how it works in my book, you get a whole birthday weekend if it falls on a weekend or a birthday week if it falls during the week :)

Friday night we went out for sushi and it was delicious!! We hadn't been there since our anniversary so it was long overdue. I forgot how good it was and I feel like we should go back as soon as possible! After dinner we watched Pirates of the Caribbean 4.

Saturday morning we got off on a early start, picked up bagels from the bagel shop and headed up to the Albertville Outlet Mall to go shopping! Our intention was to do our Christmas shopping but we're having a hard time deciding what to buy people this year. We only got two gifts done while we were up there but we each found a few things for ourselves while we were shopping. I love that mall and had to restrain myself from buying another Coach purse while I was up there. If I would have been in love with one it would have been much harder to walk away!

After shopping for about five hours we started to head back home but we stopped at Mystic Lake Casino and Jeremy's parents met us there for dinner. Now we don't gamble much and when we do, we take $20 a piece. I lost mine pretty quick but Jeremy on the other hand won $17 within a couple of spins. He was going to cash out and instead I insisted he kept playing. Well I should have let him cash out because we both ended up loosing our $20 and we would have almost broke even had a let him cash out! Oh well, it's cheap entertainment and it will probably be another year before we go again.

We were both pretty tired after the day of shopping and stuffing our faces at the buffet so we both crashed when we got home. Sunday was Jeremy's actual birthday and we started it off by going to church and grocery shopping. When we got home from that Jeremy propped himself in front of the TV and proceeded to watch football all day. I, on the other hand, slaved away in the kitchen to make him this amazing cake - Devil's Food White Cake! Now this is the first cake I've ever made from scratch. I even had to buy cake flour. Let's just say I didn't even know there was such a thing! I didn't realize it called for a specific flour until I was home and just about to start baking the cake so I had to make another trip to the store. After two stops I found it and it was back to baking the cake.

The cake was three layers with frosting filling between the layers and around the cake. Then, there was a fourth layer of cake that I baked which was crumbled around the whole outer portion of the cake. It's pretty rich and goes best with some ice cream or a glass a milk, or both like I have with my piece I'm enjoying right now :) The cake turned out pretty good for my attempt at my first cake from scratch! I will definetly making more in the future. I found a recipe for a German Chocolate Cake that I'm going to have to make for Eric's birthday because it's his fav!

The finished product!

The birthday boy with his cake!

Tis the Season!

2011-12-06T18:00:00.001-08:00

We did all our Christmas decorating over the weekend and Jeremy spent a good majority of the afternoon on Saturday putting up lights and garland outside while it was snowing! I must say, the house looks pretty nice with all the lights up :)

This is the first time we put the tree downstairs and I like it down there much better. We spend a lot of time downstairs so it just made sense to put it down there instead. It just barely fit, but it did!

Look how pretty Maple can sit when we hold a treat next to the camera!

Here is a sneak peak of our Christmas card I designed. We should be getting them tomorrow so the next task will be addressing them and getting them out in the mail!

Oh how I love my KitchenAid mixer!

2011-12-05T18:36:00.001-08:00

So as you may have already read in my earlier Thanksgiving post, I bought a KitchenAid mixer on Black Friday. So far, it's pretty much amazing. It makes baking easier and more enjoyable! I just made another batch of Frosted Candy Bar Stuffed Cookie Cups from Kevin & Amanda tonight because they were such a hit at work today. They were the first thing I made in my mixer on Saturday and I used full size cupcake pans when I made the first batch so I had twelve that I took to work today and boy did those go quickly! I felt bad that more people couldn't try them since they are so good so I decided to make another batch tonight instead this time I did the minis. Now I'll be taking two pans full of them to work tomorrow! Hope all my co-workers are hungry :)

The other cookies I made of the weekend were Oatmeal Butterscotch Cookies from Annie's Eats. I'm not a huge oatmeal fan but Jeremy requested Oatmeal Raisin cookies and we found these instead and let me tell you, they are awesome! They have toffee bits, oatmeal, butterscotch chips and coconut in them, yum!

This doesn't really apply to my KitchenAid but it is food related, my mom introduced me to The Crockin' Girls and they have really good crock pot recipes! We tried their Taco Stew and it was really good. I love crock pot meals during the winter they are so easy! Yet another website I recommend you check out!

And lastly, this isn't food related but for all my friends out there that are mom's and haven't heard of Elf on the Shelf, I think you're kids would really enjoy it! Jeremy and I heard about this three years ago and bought our own elf that we will use someday when we have kids of our own. Quite a few of my friends have been talking about how their kids love their elf and look forward to finding it every morning! The stories I've heard related to this elf are priceless!

Here is a little background about the story if you've never heard of it:

The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition is a children’s picture book that comes with your own very elf! Every day from Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve, each family's elf watches over the children and then at night, once everyone goes to bed, the elf flies back to the North Pole to report back to Santa about what activities, good and bad, took place throughout the day. Before the family wakes up each morning, the elf flies back from the North Pole and hides. By hiding in a new spot each morning around the house, the elf and the family play an on going game of hide and seek. The Elf on the Shelf explains that elves get their magic by being named. In the back of each book, families have an opportunity to write their elf's name and the date that they adopted it. Once the elf is named, the elf receives its special Christmas magic which allows it to fly to and from the North Pole. However, the magic might go if touched, so the rule for The Elf on the Shelf states: "There's only one rule that you have to follow so I will come back and be here tomorrow: Please do not touch me. My magic might go, and Santa won't hear all I've seen or I know." Although families aren't supposed to touch their scout elf, they can talk to it and tell it all their Christmas wishes so it can report back to Santa accurately.

Hope your family can find some fun with The Elf on the Shelf if you aren't already :) You can buy them pretty much anyway nowadays and I know that Target sells them for sure!

Owatonna Book Club

2011-12-05T18:17:00.001-08:00

It amazes me how long it takes me to re-design our blog each time I get the itch to do so. I really like this one and I used a brand new kit from The Shabby Shoppe! I also got inspiration for my header from a page that someone had scrapbooked. It was so cute I just had to make my own version of it!

A group of my girlfriends and I started a book club last month and I've been pretty much hooked on reading since I finished my CPCU. Not that I didn't read before but now I have plenty of time to do leisurely reading instead of insurance reading :) Another thing that we found is this website called Good Reads. For anyone who reads, I suggest checking this website out! You can rate books you've already read, mark books you want to read and list the current books you're reading. The best part about it is you can add friends and then see what they've read, how they've rated the books and what is on there to-read list! If anyone is a reader and finds any interest in this site, please add me as I love seeing what books others have read and enjoyed!

The first book we read for our book club was The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. Who doesn't love a good Nicholas Sparks book? It was a good one to start with and now for the month of December we read the Chelsea Handler book, Are you there Vodka? We are rotating each month and having a different person host the club that month. The bonus of being the host is that you get to pick the book for that month! I'm hosting for the month of January and we're going to be reading The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I seem to be reading on average a book every week to week and a half and right now I've been reading The Hunger Games trilogy and I'm hooked! For anyone who hasn't read these books or hasn't heard of them, I highly recommend you check them out! In one word they are amazing! I haven't been able to put them down and they are a pretty easy read. If you're not much of a reader, check out the trailer and maybe it will make you want to read them! The first movie comes out in March of 2012 and I'm already counting down the days. I just hope the movies are half as good as the books! I started the third one today and I'm sure I'll have it done in another week :) I just can't help myself!

Our Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T16:28:00.001-08:00

I can't believe we're almost two weeks past Thanksgiving! I really need to improve upon my blog updating skills.

Anyway, we had a very nice Thanksgiving. We started it off in Eau Claire and we stayed with Jess and Tony on Wednesday night. Tony and I spent Wednesday night strategized for our Black Friday shopping and figuring out where the best deals were! Thursday morning Jeremy and his dad went hunting in Durand before we headed up to Jeremy's aunt and uncle's house in Birchwood. It was so nice to see almost everyone on Jeremy's mom's side of the family. We missed you Mike, Molly, Derek, Janye and Alvin! The food was fabulous, I just love Thanksgiving food!

Thursday night Jeremy, Tony, Drew and myself got in line at Target at 10:30 pm! We were on a mission to get our hands on a few things. Tony wanted to pick up a TV for their basement and I wanted to get a KitchenAid mixer as well as a TV for our bedroom. Those were the big wants for us! Tony's mom and sister were basically at the beginning of the line at Shopko and called us after getting in (we weren't even in Target yet) and they were able to grab the TV I wanted for our bedroom so that worked out perfectly (thanks Kari and Paulette)! Once in Target it didn't seem like there was that many people in there, probably since it's a huge store. I may have been the first one over by the mixers and I grabbed the first red one I saw. After that we spent some time checking out the other deals and we got in line with the mixer, a waffle maker, a new microwave (ours kicked the bucket a few weeks ago), some new pyrex bowls and an HDMI cable. The line took quite a while to get out of there but we were still out by 12:45 am.

After that Tony and Drew dropped us off at Kohl's and they went to Best Buy. Kohls was a ZOO! It didn't take use long to grab the few things we wanted which included pillows, sheets, a Christmas present and a couple odds and ends. The line was ridiculous. We got in it about in the middle of the store and it wrapped all the way around the store back up to the front. We waited in line for about fifteen minutes and after barely moving I decided the stuff we had was not worth the wait. We put the stuff back and headed home.

Friday morning Jeremy went hunting with his dad again and Tony and I headed back out shopping. We got to Mendards around 9am and I got an under the counter CD/Radio clock for the kitchen, some baking pans, batteries and headphones. Nothing fancy but they had some good deals! After that I decided to see if I could get the stuff I wanted at Kohls. Go figure, I got everything I was holding in line during the middle of the night and more...the sheets I wanted at 1 in the morning they didn't have but they had at 10...note to self, never go to Kohls at midnight for things like sheets and pillows because they obviously have truckloads of them that they keep stocking the shelves with!

I made a couple more stops which include Farm & Fleet were I picked up a pizza pal plus that Jeremy had his eye on. I hope it cooks our pizzas up well! After that I headed to the mall which was also a joke. So many people and by that time I had missed most of the deals. I for one do not like shopping for clothes or even gifts for that matter when there are a million people around. So I only walked away with one Christmas gift from all our Black Friday shopping. Good thing we live so close to the Albertville Outlet Mall because we'll be heading up there this weekend to hopefully finish the majority of our shopping!

After all my shopping I met up with Tanya and Jenny for lunch at TGI Fridays and Evan was our waiter! It was so good to catch up with my high school girlfriends and to hear how they are doing. I think we were there for almost three hours! I hope we can meet up again soon girls, especially since Tanya will be making her way back to the WI area, or IL :)

My weekend then continue with more travel while Jeremy stayed put in Neisville hunting. I headed over to Merrill to spend the weekend at my cousin Alyssa and her husband Bryson's new house. It was the first time I'd seen it and it is super cute :) Friday night we didn't do a ton since I didn't get in until after 6 but we had pizza and surfed baking blogs to decide what we were going to bake on Saturday as she had just gotten a KitchenAid mixer for her birthday the prior week.

Saturday morning was interesting to say the least. I was driving Jeremy's truck because we needed the space to get everything home, especially if he got a deer. Well, I guess it gets a little finicky when it rains and after being rained on all night it didn't want to start. The biggest bummer to this was that I parked in the driveway and Bryson had to go to work! After 15 minutes or so of trying to get it to start and attempting to jump it, no such luck. For whatever reason I didn't pull all the way up in the single stall driveway and Bryson was able to back out of the garage, drive between the garage and a tree, through the yard, around the electric post and into the alleyway so he could get to work! Alyssa and I did the same thing shortly after that when we went to the store.

My dad came into town to try to to help us with the truck but still no luck. Dad and I pushed the truck into the garage so it could dry off and hoped that would do the trick! Of course it wasn't an easy push into the garage because there was a slight lip at the edge of the garage...it rocked and rocked before we finally got enough momentum to push it up over the lip! That was the most physical exertion I've done since injuring my foot/ankle!

Marsha and Dad hosted a Thanksgiving that afternoon so I headed out to my dad's house after getting the truck in the garage. Again, the food was delicious! I thought I did a pretty good job of not stuffing myself too much on Thursday but that was definitely not the cast on Saturday! I couldn't get enough of the stuffing and potatoes, so good. The rest of the afternoon we sat around and relaxed before I went back to Alyssa and Bryson's. And for anyone that was wondering, the garage did the trick! The truck started right up but we left it in the garage overnight just for safe measure!

Then we did some baking! Alyssa introduced to me this amazing baking website and I've already found some great recipes on it. We made these cookies and they were quite good. :) Sunday we headed out to our family's hunting shack to visit our grandparents before they headed down to AZ for the winter and then I made the drive back to Eau Claire to pick up Jeremy and his deer that he shot on Saturday!

The one downfall of the weekend was that I did not take a single picture...how sad! But even without pictures, we had a nice long weekend and I really wish we got more of them!

How is it almost winter!?

2011-11-22T18:14:00.001-08:00

Well I've been a bit of a slacker minus my post a couple weeks ago when I got my CPCU so I'm going to play a little catch up on our fall!

A group of us from work participated in Feed My Starving Children at our church. Feed My Starving Children is a non-profit organization out of the Twin Cities that has a food formula which is designed to meet the needs of severely malnourished children. The packages we put together were made of four things: 1. Rice 2. Extruded soy nuggets 3. Vitamins, minerals and a vegetarian flavoring 4. Dehydrated vegetables.

We each had a step in the process of putting the packages of food together. Each ingredient was measured out and weighed before we sealed the bags tight and boxed them up. Being that I couldn't stand, thanks to the crutches, I propped myself on a stool and helped seal all the bags. We were down to our last bag and someone unplugged our sealor before we were done. Sam handed the bag to Mark and as he went to flatten it out, rice went everywhere!

Our kickball team rocked again this year as we went undefeated and won the championship for I believe the third year in a row! I was there to cheer the team on!

The weekend before Halloween we went to Cambridge and the boys went pheseant hunting. They got a total of six birds. Libby was such a good hunter!

Matthew with his birds.

The successful hunters!

Libby sure can jump for that frisbee!

The pups had fun running around outside. Maple chased birds the entire time from tree to tree and Libby never lets her frisbee out of site!

Maple jumping for birds in the tree.

Nice catch Libby!

That Saturday night mom and Eric had their annual Halloween party. We had a hard time deciding on a good costume, especially with my injury and all, but Jeremy and I came up with our awesome costume idea one night on the way home from kickball! Jeremy is definetly the creative one and he made both the customes. The only help I can claim was ordering my ears on Esty!

Wile E Coyote and the Road Runner!

On Halloween weekend Jeremy went hunting but I stayed home and went to Whitney and Mark's Halloween party. There were definitely some fun customes! After going all out the weekend before with out costumes I didn't do much this time around. I wore a Mauer jersey and some softball pants which was fitting since Mauer was pretty much hurt all season!

Peach, Mrs Captain America, Leslie Knope from Park & Rec and Joe Mauer.

I won tickets at work to the Gophers vs. Badgers football game on November 12th so we went to that! The weather was great but it got a little chilly towards the end of the game. We had awesome seats, row 19 right off the 45 yard line. Gotta love the Fed seats! The game was quite a blow out but it was still fun. We went out to dinner at Olive Garden afterwards, which was amazing! I wish we had more of a restaurant variety in Owatonna, but it's probably a good thing for my waistline that we don't!

Vikings vs. Packers MNF...poor ending but the whole fam dressed up!

This past weekend Jeremy and I both took a day off of work on Friday and headed up north! But before that, we went to a MN Wild Game thanks to Federated again! We had seats in row 13 this time and it was an awesome view of the rink for my first NHL game.

After the hockey game we went to Eau Claire and spent the night at Jeremy's parents house. Lindsey and I met up for breakfast on Friday morning (it was great to see you hun!) and then I spent the rest of the morning/early afternoon wrapping some work up while Jeremy and his dad spent the day hunting.

Friday afternoon I headed up to Drummond to mom and Eric's hunting cabin. We went out for a good ole fashioned fish fry! I love myself a Wisconsin fish fry - I wish we had them in Minnesota. Saturday Mom, Sarah and I went out for a delicious breakfast at a little school house in Cable and then we went shopping! After a little time shopping the snow started to fall and boy did it come down. I think we ended up getting around 10 inches of there and it was beautiful!

The snow extended my stay at the cabin until Sunday as we were planning to come home on Saturday night to attend new members day at church. Although we would have really liked to be there, it was nice to spend more time with my family and Jeremy got an extra day of hunting in! Jeremy hasn't gotten a deer during gun season, but he's still got another 3-4 days of hunting left. If he doesn't, it won't be the end of the world as he already shot two deer during bow season. I'm sure he'll do some late bow hunting or mussle loader if he doesn't get one this weekend.

Hope everyone has fun plans for Thanskgiving and has their wish lists for Black Friday! I can't wait :) I haven't gone the past two years and I really want to get a new TV for our bedroom and a KitchenAid mixer. If anyone knows where I can get the best deal on either of those in Eau Claire, let me know!

Happy Turkey Day everyone!!

I can finally say...

2011-11-10T17:31:00.001-08:00

that I am a Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter! That's right, after 2 years of studying and taking 8 tests, I obtained my CPCU designation yesterday. It feels surreal that after all this time I'm done! In total, I've studied for the past three years and obtained 3 different designations but this is the big one, the one that really counts! Two years of taking a test every quarter...what am I going to do with all my free time? Get another designation? Not yet...but eventually I will!

The other cool thing about earning my designation is that we get to go on a trip for The Institutes' National CPCU Conferment. Each year they choose a different location for the Conferment as people from all over the country attend. The trip we get to go on is next September and it's in Washington DC! We've never been there and I don't know that I would choose that as a place to go on vacation otherwise so it should be a good time.

On another note...the hard cast came off today and I lost the crutches! I still have a recovery period ahead of me, but at least I got rid of the two worst parts of this whole deal. Sorry if this is TMI but I can't wait to actually take a shower instead of a ridiculous bath with one leg hanging out the side! It's going to be great!

I had a feeling my foot/ankle would be pretty sore once I got the cast off but I was surprised at how sore. It actually hurts worse now that it did with the cast on! It's also pretty black and blue especially down by my toes. With this whole injury thing being new to me, I'm just amazed at how long it takes something like this to heal!

The next four weeks I'll be wearing an air cast because the fracture just isn't healing very well. Here is a picture of my original x-ray and you'll see that the fracture is in a weird spot! How I managed to fracture the bone there, I have no idea! You can also see the little bone fragments below my foot that I guess just get to hang out there forever!

Only the ER doctor was nice enough to give me the copy of the x-ray above, my current doctor didn't print off any of the new x-rays but I can say that don't look much different than the one above which stinks! I go back in four more weeks so I'm hopeful that the next ones look better. Wish me luck!

My first cast

2011-10-09T17:08:00.001-07:00

In my last post I talked about how I had sprained my ankle. I went back to the doctor on Tuesday because the swelling in my foot had goren worse instead of better. I left the doctor that day still under the impression that I had a severe spain. Wednesday I got a call after another radiologist and an orthopedic surgeon looked at my x-rays and they determined that I actually fractured my anterior calcaneous...in other words, I fractured my heel bone toward the middle of my foot. Apparently I slide into the base hard!

I get to wear my beautiful cast for six weeks accompanied by my crutches. Thank god for my loving husband who has been waiting on me hand and foot and of course my temporary handicap parking pass :)

Free time

2011-10-01T18:17:00.000-07:00

Since I've been pretty horrible at keeping up with our blog the past few months I think it's a safe statement that I haven't had a lot of free time. The last few weeks we've been busy with kickball on Mondays, co-ed softball on Tuesday and men's softball on Thursdays. Busy? I think so.

In addition to that, I took my 7th CPCU test a couple of weeks ago so I'd been studying for that a lot as well. I only have one left and I'll be taking that within the next couple of months! I remember thinking I'd be done with studying after graduating from college but that wasn't the case. The end is in sight and it's going to be an amazing thing after studying for the past 3 years of my career!

Since I didn't post at all during the month of September, I'll give a quick run down of what we did. Labor Day weekend we went to the cabin but the weather was a little bit to be desired. On a positive note, I went back to EC to watch the Ski Sprites and spend some time with Lindsey! We got poured on a little bit but the show still went on.

The second weekend in September Jeremy's cousin Meghan got married so we went back to Eau Claire for the weekend. That Sunday Jeremy and his dad went down to their hunting land to get ready for opening bow hunting the following weekend.

Jeremy went hunting and I had a little bit of a girls weekend! Rose and Lindsey came to visit and on Saturday I had a Tastefully Simple and Thirty One party. We had some some good food and looked at very cute bags. All of the Tastefully Simple stuff came this week and now our pantry is full of very yummy food! I made some pumpkin cookies tonight with the pumpkin mix and they are delicious! Rose and I had a movie marathon Saturday night watching three movies and a Grey's Anatomy marathon on Sunday before she headed home.

Last weekend we went to my mom's house and took my little brother Matthew to Six Flags. Mom and Eric have a foreign exchange student this year from Denmark and her name is Sarah. She was also going to join us on our trip but unfortunately she was sick and didn't get to join in on the fun. We got an awesome deal because Rose works for Kohl's and they do a friends and family day so we got discounted tickets, free parking and way shorter lines! We went on many many rides and I finally had to call it quits before I lost my lunch :) This girl can only handle so many rides in one day!

The title of my post is slightly ironic because the life I have become so accustomed to with no free time will now be full of free time. Tuesday night at softball I had a terrible slide into third base which resulted in a severely sprained left ankle and a trip to the ER. It happened so fast and I heard a horrible pop but I didn't really realize what happened until I tried to get up. No such luck. First time ever injuring myself playing a sport and the first time I've been carried of the field. The good news is I don't need surgery but the bad news is that the ligaments pulled off the bone causing pieces of my bone to break off. So although it's a severe sprain, there is technically a break as well. I've been keeping it elevated all day and night and icing it numerous times a day but it is continuously swelling...all the way to my toes. I think if it swells anymore it might explode!

The worst part of this whole thing is the crutches. For never being on them before I can honestly say they stink. Not to be a complainer but my hands are killing me! The doc said one to two weeks on the crutches but since I can't even stand on my foot I'm leaning towards it being more like two or more weeks. After that I guess we'll wait and see. I have an air cast that I'm supposed to wear for about 6 weeks so I guess I'll have to figure out how to make that work with a shoe unless they decide to have me wear a boot or something. Guess I'll have to wait and see!

Free time is going to become a normality for me over the next few weeks. No running, no zumba or kickboxing classes, no sports. Sad :( I'm going to try to be as patient with this recovery as I can so I can get back at it as soon as possible. Volleyball is starting this upcoming week and I'm so bummed about not being able to play! I'm hopeful that I'll be able to play yet this season but before I can play the doctor wants me to be able to hop on my leg without it causing pain in my ankle.

So here I am sitting on the couch with my ankle up on pillows watching old seasons of Grey's Anatomy...here's to hoping for a fast recovery so I can get back to all of the things that make it impossible for me to have free time :)

Road Trip to Bristol

2011-10-01T17:13:00.000-07:00

We finished up our summer with a road trip down to Bristol, TN for the Nascar race. We took off on a Wednesday night and met up with Jessica and Tony at my mom's house before the long drive that was ahead of us! It was shortly after 10pm when we left my mom's and we drove straight through the night! I'm a pretty good sleeper so I took full advantage of that and slept from pretty much 11pm-6am when I took over and drove the last leg of the way. I can't remember exactly but I think we got to the resort sometime around 11am and we didn't waste any time. We carried our stuff inside and took off for the Smokey Mountains!

View of the Smokey Mountains from the start of our hike.

The gang starting to hike up the mountain!

Jeremy and I at the top of Clingman's Dome.

The trail we took to the dome.

Hike number two...Grotto Falls!

Crazy roots along the trail.

Jeremy taking a short cut.

We made it to the falls!

Jeremy and I at the falls.

Picture break on our way back down the trail.

Jeremy jumping out of the tree!

Hanging out in the tree!

So we spent the whole first day hiking up the mountains and between that and the drive down, we were all pretty tired. The next two days of our trip were spent in Bristol at the Nascar races. Friday morning we got up bright and early to make the drive over to the track and we spent the day walking around the grounds, looking at the drivers trailers, playing games and getting free stuff! Friday night was the Nationwide race and it had a pretty exciting ending in which Jessica's favorite driver Kyle Busch won.

View of the track on Friday night during the Nationwide race.

Jeremy before the Cup race - way more people than the night before!

At my first Cup race!

For my first Nascar race, it was pretty fun! Surprisingly, I wasn't bored and actually paid pretty close attention. The couple days at the track also made for very good people watching :)

We started driving home on Sunday and made it back to my mom's sometime around midnight. Jess and Tony drove the rest of the way back to EC but with another four hours for us to get home from my mom's, we crashed there instead!

After many many hours in the car, it was nice to finally make it home, but we had a fun end of the summer vacation!

How we enjoyed our last days of the summer...

2011-09-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

The first weekend in August we spent at the cabin! Instead of having beautiful summer days we had a day of pontooning that consisted of enjoying the breaks in the clouds with rushing to the next bridge to keep us dry from the rain!!

Downpour!!! Keeping dry under the bridge.

The boys taking a dip.

The next weekend it felt like we were all over the place! We stayed home on Friday night so I could pack for my field trip and Saturday we headed to Eau Claire for the day for Kayla and Josh's wedding. The trip was short because I flew out to Pittsburgh Sunday morning at 7:00 am and had to hit the road by 4:00 am to catch my flight!!

The whole family at the wedding.

The whole next week I spent in Pittsburgh on a business trip while Jeremy enjoyed his time in Owatonna going to the Steele County Free Fair! I had a great few days riding with my marketers and saw some great sites from top of Mount Washington!

View of the Steelers stadium while a pre-season game was going on.

View of Pittsburgh from top of Mount Washington.

Another view...Steelers stadium is mostly cut off but then the Pirates stadium is straight ahead.

After getting back from my field trip, Jeremy and I spent the next couple of days hanging around Owatonna and hitting up the fair! It only comes once a year so we might as well act like townies while it's here :)

The last bit of our month was our road trip to TN, which I'll be posting about separately and then I'll be almost caught up with our blog...yay!! Maybe next time I won't let it get so far behind :)

How time flies...

2011-09-06T20:43:00.001-07:00

Today is our three year anniversary already! Three years! I can't believe how quickly the past few years have flown by. Altogether, we've been together nine years...that's almost a decade! Sometimes I don't feel like we are old enough to have been together that long but I guess we are. :)

We've done so many things over the years and I'm excited about all the memories we have yet to make!

We had a softball double header tonight so we are going to a new sushi restaurant in town tomorrow night to celebrate!

Our July in a nutshell...

2011-09-01T18:47:00.000-07:00

After the fourth of July our month went fast and so did August for that matter...in July we went to Merrill for a weekend to visit my dad, we spent a weekend at home relaxing and then we went to Country Jam!

Maple with her first turtle at my dad's house.

Maple and Jeremy at the gravel pit.

We had a group of eight of us at jam this year...Jeremy, myself, Tony, Jessica, Rose, Derek, Trevor and Jake! Tony and Jessica were nice enough to let all of us crash at their house for the weekend, which was much better than tenting it at the campgrounds!

Rose and I :)

My cowboy and I!

Derek riding the bull!

Jeremy's turn on the bull!

Our group!

My new love...

2011-07-05T19:41:00.001-07:00

My new love is my Kindle! What a great invention. I didn't get into reading until college and over the past three years I haven't been able to do a lot of leisurely reading due to the amount of insurance knowledge I've been cramming into my brain, but with the end of my CPCU exams on the horizon, I asked for a Kindle for my birthday.

As you can already tell, I LOVE it. I got it two weeks ago and I've already read three books! I first read Water for Elephants (amazing) followed by Emily Griffin's first two books that a related to each other, Something Borrowed and Something Blue. Book good books! I've purchased her third book, Baby Proof and I'm debating whether to start it and read it quick within the next week or start studying for my next test and hold off reading it until afterwards...it's a tough decision but I think Baby Proof is going to prevail over Insurance Operations. :)

If anyone has any good book suggestions, I would love to hear them! Like I said, I haven't done much reading in the past three years and before that I mostly read Nicholas Sparks books with a few others thrown in now and again, so any favorite authors or books would be great to hear!

Also, if anyone has been contemplating purchasing one of these e-readers, I would be in favor of it! You won't be sorry :)

Happy Fourth of July!

2011-07-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

We spent Fourth of July weekend in Chetek at the cabin. Other than a little rain and a thunderstorm on Friday night, the weather couldn't have been better! I feel like I'm finally starting to some color on my skin and summer seems to be half over already :(

Saturday I spent the day on the pontoon with Jeremy's cousin's, aunt's and uncle and grandma while he helped his dad work on the cabin. I did a poor job of taking pictures this weekend (probably because I was too busy reading on my kindle) but here are a couple from our tubing excursion!

Jayne was struggling to get up on the tube with Cole but she made it up there and afterwards I joined her for a ride.

Drea and I before going tubing.

Sunday we made the jaunt down to Eau Claire for Jenny and Storm's wedding. What a beautiful day for a wedding! Again...horrible at taking pictures this weekend. I didn't have my nice camera with me and I just couldn't get a good shot of them! Either way, Jenny was a gorgeous bride and I loved the color combination they had. Plus she had some amazing shoes on! :)

Sunday night we were able to watch some fire works over the lake and made smores over the campfire! We had some of those enormous marshmallows, but they were way to big for a smore, I stuck with the normal sized ones.

Our actual fourth of July wasn't kind of quiet. Jeremy and I went boating with Derek all afternoon and then we headed home. We got home and unpacked but treated ourselves to a little ice cream treat from the blast :) Sadly we didn't watch any fireworks...we were both a little tired from the weekend and we couldn't see them from our house.

Where does the time go?

2011-06-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks I've been hoping to get on here and post about the few things we've done over the past month and a half but I've struggled to find the time to write my own post! I catch up on other blogs that I follow and then something comes up and I don't have time to write my own, well...I'm playing catch up today!

So I haven't posted about anything since early May, which is crazy! The second weekend in May my good friend Katie whom I work with got married! She made a beautiful bride :)

Katie and Brandon Weir!

I can't remember when this is from, but Maple is apparently pouncing on something!! What a goof.

Memorial Day weekend we went up to the cabin and did some fishing!

A northern that I snagged...literally. I caught him with a fly towards his tail. Lucky I guess!

There was a fishing tournament in Chetek that our group entered and Derek's fish was a $50 fish! He won the smallest fish award :)

Maple can't get enough of swimming in the water! She kept me pretty busy over the weekend trying to swim after geese and running all over the place! Here she is swimming with Maya.

The weekend after Memorial Day Jeremy went up to the cabin to do some fishing and helped his dad do a little work up there. I stayed home studying the whole weekend, but it paid off as I passed my test! As I stated in my last post, two more to go. What a relief, except now I have my books for my next test in August and they are daunting...after having a couple of weeks of from studying, I'm really struggling to start back up. Maybe I'll read a little today...probably not though!

The second weekend in June we went back to Altoona for Jess & Tony's house warming party. Apparently I didn't take any pictures? Weird but I don't have any on either of my cameras! I had a nice lunch date with Lindsey while we were in town and had fun breaking in the Magur house! Thanks for the fun party guys :)

Beautiful flowers and card that Jeremy got me for my birthday. I'm now closer to 30 than 20 and it's a little depressing. I haven't really felt "old" per say until lately.My brother is going to be a freshman in high school and I've always thought, man I'm going to be 30 when he graduates from high school, now that's only four years away! It's amazing how once you get back 21 or 22 you don't really pay attention to how old you are until your birthday comes around. I'll just forget about my age again until next year :)

With my yummy Hyvee birthday cake :)

Thanks everyone for all the birthday wishes, cards and gifts! My new love is my kindle which I got as a birthday gift. I've finished my first book, Water For Elephants, which was amazing! Can't wait to watch the movie now :) I'm onto my second one and as soon as I finish it I'll probably have to take a break from reading fun books to reading my insurance books...soon enough I'll be able to read for pleasure more often!

Last weekend we went to Cambridge for Matthew's confirmation. On Saturday Jeremy and I took him to Noah's Ark and spent the day there enjoying all the rides! Jeremy had never been there before and it had probably been a good 12+ years since I'd been there so what a great reason to take my little bro. The weather wasn't the best but I feel like that's been our summer. It wasn't raining so that was a plus and the lines were a little shorter probably due to the cooler day. Overall we had a great time! If anyone hasn't been there recently, there is a new ride called the Scorpion Tail which is the scariest water ride I've ever done! Matthew and I were freaking out the whole time we waited in line, but we survived and went on it again before we left! It's a single person water slide ride but you start by standing in a capsule. They shut the door and the capsule counts down, three, two, one...the floor drops out from underneath you and off you go! The tube doesn't take you completely upside down, but very close! What an adrenaline rush!

The family after Matthew's confirmation. My mom put on a nice little party for Matthew after his confirmation with lots a good food!

This past weekend Jeremy and I stayed home but took a day trip up to Valley Fair yesterday. I guess it's been a couple of weeks of firsts for us because I'd never been there before. If you couldn't tell from our trip to Noah's Ark, I'm kind of a chicken when it comes to scary rides! I must say, I was proud of myself at Valley Fair. I was afraid to go on a couple of the rides but I did them all! And they were all fun :) Again, weather was a little bit to be desired, but it was fun nonetheless. A little sprinkles here and there never hurt anyone and the lines weren't long so we were able to go on a lot of rides!

We had a little surprise last night when my dad stopped to visit on his way home from working in the Nevada/Utah area for the past year. We went out to dinner and we all crashed!

Phew...that's our past month and a half in a nut shell! Other than the weekends, we've been busy with softball and I joined a new workout facility that just offers classes. I've recently become obsessed with kickboxing and zumba. Now I knew I liked kickboxing workouts from all of my Turbo Jan and Turbo Fire workouts, but I had no idea I would love kickboxing with the mitts and a partner so much! It's a great stress relief and very fun :) Zumba is such a fun/dancy workout that I really enjoying doing as it always seems to put me in a good mood when I'm done. If anyone has a chance to try a Zumba class, I suggest it! I know they are all different as the instructors do the choreography, but I'm sure they are all great!

I'm so looking forward to the three day weekend next weekend for the fourth of July which we'll be spending up in Chetek at the cabin. Hope everyone has fun things planned for their holiday weekend!

Hopefully I'm able to stay more up on my blog so it isn't such a mumbo-gumbo of things all in one next time I post!

Free time

2011-06-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

I passed my 6th CPCU test today! Whoo hoo. 6 down and 2 more to go. The plan is to take my next one in August and the LAST, that's right everyone, my last one in November. Assuming this is the case, that puts us on a trip to Washington DC next October.

With my free time the past two nights I decided to update our blog with a new background and header. As usual everything I used was from the Shabby Shoppe, love that place :) Now I just need to find time to blog about the past few weeks...

Professional Bull Riding

2011-05-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

Now for anyone reading this, if you were like me a few months ago, you didn't know much about Professional Bull Riding. Well, the story for me has changed! Jeremy and his cousin Derek and become almost ridiculously obsessed with PBR. It's amazing how quickly they got into this and at this point, all I can do is smile and laugh :) I'd rather Jeremy be obsessed with this than other things I guess...

So onto our trip to Iowa to watch the PBR! I get the joy of watching PBR two nights of the weekend and the weekend of May 7th and 8th we road tripped it to Des Moines with Derek to experience it for ourselves.

As much as I've been making fun of it, it was actually a pretty cool experience and fun to watch in person. It is such a dangerous sport and I can't believe how close to serious injury the riders can be when they fall off!

Jeremy and I before heading into the stadium. Only two pictures with the good camera as they wouldn't let me bring a "professional" camera inside :(

Jeremy and Derek.

Somebody riding a bull...wish I could tell who.

After the PBR, we went to a bar called Miss Kitty's were a handful of the bull riders showed up! Derek had the guts to walk up and ask for the first picture with one of them and then we followed :)

Me with Luke Synder - for anyone who knows anything about PBR, he was the last cowboy standing this year!

Jeremy with Luke Synder.

Me with J.B. Mauney - he's a stud rider.

Our first PRB experience was fun and the boys are already planning the next trip. It's too bad they didn't go to the cities so we wouldn't have to drive so far! At least it looks like the next closet one is in Milwaukee. If anyone is bored this weekend you can catch the PBR on Versus. :)

Let's Dish

2011-05-05T19:11:00.000-07:00

Last night I went up to the cities with two of my friends from work to go to a place called Let's Dish. Let's Dish is a meal preparation store. So what you do is pre-order the meals you want to make before you go and then when you get there, you prepare the meals you order and someone else cleans up the mess for you!

They have little stations set up throughout the store and they have all the ingredients lined out and the recipe right there for you to follow. You put all the meals together in either freezer zip lock bags or tin pans and then put them right in the freezer when you get home! There is little work to do once you are going to cook the meals and I can't wait to try one :)

I ordered 8 meals and got a free dessert!! The meals make 6 servings so being that it's just the two of us, I cut each one in half making 16 meals!!
Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Stuffed with Mexican Cream Cheese
Chicken Empanadas
Parmesan Chicken Fingers with Waffle Fries and Seasoned Sour Cream
Pecan Crusted Tilapia
Beef Lo Mein
Herbed Flank Steak with Blue Cheese Butter
Baked Ravioli Lasagna with Garlic Toast
Bourbon BBQ Pork Tenderloin with Spoonbread
Sopapilla Cheesecake

I think I might start with the Beef Lo Mein next week!! It was so fun putting all the meals together and if the food is as good as I think it's going to be, I'll be going back again!

Circus Juventas

2011-05-05T18:40:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we took a trip up to the cities to watch my cousin's Sammy and Mandy at Circus Juventas. Circus Juventas is a performing arts circus school for youth. It's kind of like Cirque du Soleil, which I would love to see someday!

My cousin Mandy is in two acts, Globes and Unicycle and Sammy is in Vault-Mini Tramp. The whole show was around 20 acts and I am still in awe of the things these people can do and how their bodies can bend!

Mandy on the globes.

Jump ropping on the globe.

Sammy on the mini-tramp.

Sammy again on the trampoline.

Mandyon her unicycle.

More unicycling.

One of my favorite acts - Triangle Trapeze.

Jeremy and I with the girls.

I can't wait to go see the girls perform again!

Easter Weekend

2011-05-05T17:57:00.001-07:00

We went back to Eau Claire for Easter weekend and spent the weekend with Jeremy's family. It had been about three months since we'd been in Eau Claire so Maple and Maya (Jessica & Tony's dog) finally got to meet! They spent the weekend playing together and getting to know each other. Maple was a little protective of her space but I think once they see each other a couple more times they should be best friends!

Saturday night we went out for pizza and took Maple, Maya and Cali to the dog park. They had a blast running around and playing with each other!

Walking at the dog park.

Maple and Maya running around!

Maple and Maya with toys on Easter.

Maya.

Cali.

Jeremy and I.

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

Who caught the shark?

2011-04-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

The day after the wedding we got up bright and early to do some deep sea fishing! We were to the marina by 8:00 am and again we had a beautiful day! We caught a ton of fish and a good variety too. Our captain started the four hour tour off with a little Gilligan's Island tune :)

Jeremy caught a lady fish, jacks and sea trout. Matthew caught a huge catfish and some trout. Eric caught the first fish, well it was a sting ray actually and he also caught sea trout and the only flounder! I caught four of our five keepers which included spanish mackerel, sea trout and in addition to the keepers I also caught a couple jacks and a catfish. Mom was the one to bring in the bonnet head shark!! Did I mention she caught a shark?

The marina.

Sun peeking through the clouds.

Eric pulling in the first catch of the day, a sting ray!

Jeremy's lady fish.

Matt's huge catfish!

Mom putting up a fight while reeling in her shark!

Mom with her bonnet head shark.

Matt holding her shark.

Me with one of my spanish mackerel's.

Mom and I.

The group after getting back to marina.

After fishing we took our five keepers into a restaurant right at the marina and they cooked them up for us! The fish was so yummy :) Glad I could help feed everyone lunch with my four keepers!! ;)

Jeremy and I at lunch.

Eric, Mom and Matt at lunch.

Jason & Kayla Ausman

2011-04-26T19:28:00.000-07:00

The main reason for our trip to Florida was for Jason & Kayla's wedding! The weather was amazing in Florida and it was perfect for the wedding. We flew in to Fort Meyers on Friday and landed around noon. Once we checked into the hotel it was straight to the pool for us! We went to the rehearsal dinner and had a little family gathering back in one of the hotel rooms afterwards for a few games of quarters!

My not so little brother Matthew and I!

The poor bride got a swirly from her soon to be brother-in-law's & Uncle Gary!

The beautiful bride being walked down the isle.

Husband and wife.

Mr & Mrs Ausman!

Sweet little Lexi :)

Jeremy and I.

Family picture.

Notice the extra piece of cake in Kayla's left hand??

Cake war!

The aftermath! Was Kayla the winner?? :)

We are so glad we were able to be part of your special day and we're so happy for you guys!

Sanibel Island

2011-04-26T19:02:00.000-07:00

We took a mini vacation to Florida for my cousin Jason's wedding. Our second day in FL we went to Sanibel Island and it was so beautiful! It was fun walking on the beach and Jeremy enjoyed picking up sea shells :)

One of many birds on the beach.

An awesome piece of driftwood on the beach. Wish I could have taken it home!

A school of sting rays.

Beautiful view of the beach.

A shark that a fisherman caught off the pier.

Diamond Jo's Casino

2011-04-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

Now we aren't huge casino go-er's but everyone once and I while we like to take our $20 and hit the slots! We were supposed to go to Diamond Jo's back in December for Jeremy's birthday but instead we got hit with a huge snow storm and had to stay in town. The first weekend in April Jeremy's parent's and his grandma came to visit and we decided to take a little trip over the Iowa border to the casino!

I stuck my $20 into a penny machine and hit the button. It started dinging like crazy and I won $25 off my first spin! I didn't play much longer than that. I lost $5 of what I had won and finished out my playing $20 ahead :) Jeremy played a couple of machines and walked away up $5.

What fun is a casino if you don't eat the buffet? So we walked around the casino and played until the dinner buffet opened up and we stuffed ourselves with delicious food!

Life in Owatonna

2011-04-04T17:28:00.000-07:00

I'll start off by saying I haven't had much to blog about lately and I guess that's because we haven't done much other than stay in Owatonna! As I said in our last post we had stayed in Owatonna for a few weekends and we haven't really traveled anywhere any of the past weekends either! We've made a couple of day trips here and there, but that's about it!

We've had a couple of visitors during our time at home, my mom and Matthew came to visit a couple of weekends ago and we spent the weekend hanging out and doing some shopping! This past weekend Jeremy's mom & dad and grandma came to visit. We took a little trip down to Diamond Jo's Casino in Iowa which amazingly is only about 45 minutes from our house. Yes, we live that close to Iowa! It's so nice to have people come and visit us :)

In other things life has been pretty uneventful. Volleyball has been over for a while so my weeks have been oddly open! I've been able to meet up with a couple of friends, see a couple of my friends with their new born babies, took another camera class with my friend Stacy and I've been able to watch my TV shows when they air instead of on DVR later on!

As for Jeremy, he's gotten into PBR (Professional Bull Riding) thanks to his cousin and that's been consuiming our lives lately. So much that we're going to a rodeo in Iowa in a little less than a month. Jeremy is missing opening fishing for it so for anyone that knows Jeremy, that means he must really like this PBR! I'll admit it's kind of fun to watch, but why do all the sports he like have to last 10 months out of the year. Give me a break! :)

One positive thing over the past few weeks is that I'm proud to say we've found a church! It was hard for us to try out churches because since we've lived in Owatonna we've been lucky if we actually stayed in town for more than one weekend a month. Not now! Now we were able to try out a couple of churches and we found the one we like! It's amazing how finding that one thing can make it feel like more of a home here in Owatonna. I'm loving it!

I think that's about it for now, other than it's back to studying for me. I started studying for my next test yesterday and I've got just under two months to prepare for it. I know the end of my studying is in site so that will help me get through it. Three more days in cold, rainy Owatonna before we head to Florida for my cousin's wedding! Then I will have something a little more exciting to post about. Yay :)

Spring Fever!

2011-03-13T19:18:00.000-07:00

Is winter over with yet? I am so ready for spring and with that I decided it was time our blog got an uplift with a more springy design! Everything I used was from The Shabby Shoppe and I love the two kits I used, so cute :)

After living in Owatonna for over three years now, I can honestly say we've stayed home more weekends in a row now than we have any other time and we're loving it! It's been 4 weekends in a row with both of us home and we've just been enjoying our new basement and each other.

Maple has enjoyed being home and playing in the snow!

Up until Wednesday I was extremely busy studying for my 5th CPCU test. I studied a ton and it paid off when I passed my test on Wednesday! 3 more to go. I've already signed up for the next one and I have a goal set to finish by the end of the year - it will be so nice to take a long break from studying at that time!

Friday night we had a few friends over to break in the basement and it was really fun! We love having the new space and it was great for hanging out in.

To pass the sad winter days I had a Stampin' Up party a couple of weeks ago and got some awesome stamps and papers. I spent the good majority of yesterday afternoon and evening making cards. I think I made 10 cards so I don't feel as bad about consuming my day with it!

Being home as often as we have has been great and we have finally had the time to find a church! We're really enjoying the church we found and it's been really good for us too.

Now that my post has jumped all over the place I'll end with bring on the 40 and 50 degree weather, we're ready for softball season!

Our newly remodeled basement!

2011-03-04T18:55:00.000-08:00

So I've been posting pictures on facebook as our basement remodel has taken place but I figured I'd wait until the end to make a post about it. Jeremy did an amazing job and completed the remodel from start to finish in about 5 1/2 weeks! Did I say amazing?

We'd nonchalantly talked about redoing the basement in the past but started to talk more about after Christmas and when we got hit with some really cold weather and Jeremy was going to be off of work for a couple days at a time we figured it was a perfect time to start on it!

We officially started the project on January 20th and finished it on February 27th. Let's just say Jeremy worked on the basement pretty much every waking minute over those 5 1/2 weeks!

What better way to describe the project than to show the progress through some pictures! I realized after we had already started that I didn't take any pictures immediately before we started so these before pictures are slightly out dated as they are from when we moved into the house 2 years ago but you'll get the picture!

This is the main living space when you walk down the stairs.

Living room space at the bottom of the stairs.

The back portion of the basement that we did the remodeling of!

Another shot of the space before hand. 1/20/11

After moving pretty much everything out of the room.

Framing up the walls.

Insulation! Hopefully we'll notice some more warmth!

Maple hanging out with a bone.

Drywall is up!

Framing up the soffet.

Drywalling the soffet.

Paint! Amazing how much a difference a little color can make :) 1/27/11

Pre-ceiling.

Ceiling while being put up - thanks for helping Derek!

Finished ceiling and antler light fixture. 2/5/11

Pine being put up.

Pine is all up and new carpet! 2/21/11

Completed basement! Here is what you see when you walk down the stairs. This is also my new workout area because the area we remodeled is where I used to workout.

Old living space is now open and more organized thanks to my cubes!

The new space!

The couch fit perfectly, we couldn't have lucked out more than that! Crazy how different the furniture looks when it's actually put together as one piece.

I love having the TV hung on the wall and the entertainment stand is actually a fireplace as well! Another source of heat for our chilly basement.

Just another view of how open it is with the wall knocked down.

We still have a few minor things left to do in the new space like hang things on the wall and things like that and we have some plans for the old living space as well! Eventually Jeremy is going to insulate the wall where the pine & hollow concrete block are now and then everything that's white will be painted to match the other room as well. No time frame on that, probably just whenever Jeremy feels like working on it again!

I am currently studying for another test that's next week and I can't wait to be done so I can enjoy the basement a little more and relax on the couch with my hubby! Jeremy did such a great job and he deserves to take a break from house projects for a while with how much time and effort he put into this one in such a short time frame! Gotta love having such a handy husband!

Template Challenge #9

2011-02-26T10:53:00.001-08:00

I just completed a couple of scrapbook pages for The Shabby Shoppe's Template Challenge 9. Here they are!

World's Largest Gummy Bear!

2011-02-15T19:42:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day! I hope everyone had a great Valentines Day like we did :) We've never been huge on Valentine's Day and don't really do much for presents or anything like that but when my friend Besty at work brought in a 5lb Gummy Bear that she won in a bet over the Packer/Bears game I knew I had to get Jeremy one for Valentine's Day. So that's what I got him!

We had a relaxing Valentine's and it was wonderful. I made fajitas for dinner, we exchanged out little gifts and we spent the rest of the night watching Dexter episodes!

My hubby knows me well, peanut butter M&M's are my favorite! :)

Isn't this the biggest gummy bear you've ever seen? I wonder how long it's going to take him to eat it!

Just had to throw a picture of cute little Maple in there!

Happy Birthday Mom!

2011-02-15T19:11:00.000-08:00

It was my mom's birthday on the 12th so I took another trip to WI to visit my mom and help celebrate her birthday! We had a great weekend but sadly we didn't take any pictures :(

On Saturday morning my mom, her friend Shawn and I went to a "hot" yoga class in Madison. Even though it wasn't a "Bikram" certified studio, it was still the 26 postures in a 105 degree room! I felt like I did so much better in my third class after getting my breathing under control and after time, you don't even realize how much you're sweating!

Saturday afternoon my brother and his girlfriend Brittany came over and we all went out for a nice lunch in Cambridge.

Saturday night was a blast. My mom had a Silpada Jewelry/Thirty One Gifts/Passions Party and it was so fun! My mom and Eric have so many great friends in their neighborhood and in Cambridge which made the party such a great time! My mom is amazing and is letting me get some of her free jewelry, thanks mom! I also got a couple of really cute bags from Thirty One and I can't wait to get all my cool stuff! :)

On Sunday my mom and I did a little shopping a target for some new shelving units for our basement remodel. I haven't posted any pictures of it on here yet, but once it's finished I'll have a whole post about it! We're getting the carpet installed on Monday so I'm hoping by the end of the month it's complete!

All in all, another great weekend and I hope my mom had a great Birthday with all her friends and family!

Bikram Yoga

2011-02-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

Let me start off by saying I don't think I've ever sweat as much in a workout as I have while doing Bikram Yoga. Has anyone every tried it? My good friend Rose got my mom and I hooked on it when I went to visit her in Milwaukee a couple of weekends ago.

Bikram Yoga is a series of 26 poses that are practiced in a room heated to 105 degrees and the class lasts 90 minutes! Can you tell why I said I've never sweat so much in my life?

For anyone looking for a great workout, this is amazing! There is only one Bikram certified studio in WI and that's the one we went to in Milwaukee however there are also yoga studios all over that off "hot" yoga which will sometimes be the same 26 postures as the Bikram Yoga. I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a good workout and to gain more flexibility.

Rose, my mom and I went to the class Saturday morning and then we went to a cute little bakery in Milwaukee for lunch. We had delicious sandwiches and got a few treats to take home!

Rose and I.

My mom and I.

On Sunday we went to class again before I headed home and I must say, I love this yoga class! The only disappointment for me is that the closest yoga studio I've found to me that offers the class are the Bikram certified studios up in the cities. I'm going to try to make it to a class a couple of times a month because it's that great of a workout! If anyone wants to go to a class in the cities, I'd be up for it anytime :)

Project Scrap 2011

2011-02-01T19:38:00.000-08:00

So for anyone who has been reading our blog they know I've gotten into digital scrapbooking and follow the Shabby Shoppe Blog and use their products! They've started something called Project Scrap 2011. The idea behind this was to make an attainable scrapbooking goal that would be fun to do! The basics include taking 2 pictures a week, per month and at the end of the month you'll have enough pictures to make a two page spread. They are providing templates for the pages so all you need to do are plug in your papers, embellishments and pictures and create your page!

Enough of my babbling, check it out here for yourself! If you've ever thought about getting into digital scrapbooking, you should check out their kits and tutorials! They even have a few free kits that you could play around with to make sure you like it :) I've really enjoyed it and think it's a fun hobby!! Anyway, here are my pages for January.

Christmas Party in January

2011-02-01T19:21:00.000-08:00

We had Jeremy's work Christmas Party on Friday night and we had a great time! We started off with dinner at The Hubble House in Mantorville, MN. It's a really neat restaurant that we've ate at a couple of times and every time we've had delicious food and our food was awesome again this time!

After dinner we went to a comedy show at the Kahler hotel in Rochester, MN. The headline comedian was Dave Mordel and he was pretty funny! I'm come to really enjoy going to comedy shows, they are so funny but I guess that's the point right? There is a comedy club in Rochester and I'm thinking that we need to try to make it there more often. A good dose of laughter is a necessity!

One Cold Night in the Cabin

2011-01-24T17:53:00.000-08:00

Last weekend we went up to the cabin in Chetek so Jeremy could take my little brother Matthew ice fishing and my mom and I could hang out! It hasn't been the warmest lately and last weekend was no exception. Jeremy's dad was nice enough to go start a heater up at the cabin for us before we got there but it was still a chilly 39 degrees when we arrived after our five hour drive due to the weather!

As soon as we got to the cabin, Jeremy started a fire and Maple and I curled up in a chair right in front of it!

Our beautiful Maple!

The magnificent fire was able to get the cabin up to a roaring 70 degrees, however, that only lasted until about 4 am when it went out. We were getting up in a couple of hours so Jeremy didn't see the need to start it again, I however did. We woke up to a balmy 50 degrees. I think we should have started the fire again!

We got up and met my mom and Matthew in town so Matthew could go with Jeremy and mom and I could go back to the cabin to hangout. Well, the cabin wasn't any warmer than we we left so we started another fire and curled up in front of it looking at magazines and whatnot for a couple of hours.

After freezing at the cabin, we brought the boys some Subway for lunch. Matthew ate his lunch with us while chilling in the ice house, which, I think was warmer than the cabin! I must also make a note that my mother was so brave and DROVE out to where the boys were ice fishing. I must add that she was quite freaked out about it, but as she said "I figured if we went down, Eric can't kill me for taking his new vehicle on the lake - I'll already be dead!" Oh my mother is so funny :)

Maple was Jeremy's little helper, she's looking for the fish!

Mom and I standing on the ICE!!

Family picture.

The fishermen - Matthew, Jeremy, Derek and Trevor.

After being out on the ice for a little while, we girls had enough and headed off the ice to Gilligan's for bloody mary's and nachos!! Next time we go to the cabin, we'll have to make sure we bring extra blankets to keep warm!

Template Challenge #8

2011-01-20T19:15:00.000-08:00

Here is my scrapbook page I made for the template challenge on the Shappy Shoppe Blog!

Jess & Tony tied the knot!

2011-01-16T19:46:00.000-08:00

I didn't think it would take me this long to post about Jess & Tony's wedding but I guess time has gotten away from me. Jeremy's sister Jessica got married on New Years Day and she made a beautiful bride! We were so happy to be part of their special day and we had a blast!

I was able to help with some of the wedding planning and helped design/make the save the dates, invitations and programs! I also put together a wedding slide show for the reception and I was glad it turned out because I'd never made one before! Everything turned out really nice and I'm so glad their had such a beautiful wedding!

The ceremony was at ICC in Eau Claire and the reception was at The Plaza. Jeremy and I did a speech/toast together and I am so glad I talked him into doing it with me because I think it was cute being from both of us. We had a great time bringing in the new year with the Magur's! Best of luck to you both, we love you!

Here are a bunch of pictures from the day/night.

Getting Jessica all dolled up!

The beautiful bride!

Jessica with the groomsmen.

Jessica & Grandma Carey.

Julie and I.

The newly married Magur's! Riding the trolley to Rolly's.

Jess & Tony at dinner.

First dance.

Father/Daughter dance.

With the Bride.

Jeremy and I.

Dave & Julie during the parents dance.

Jeremy and his cousins.

Hello 2011!

2011-01-02T19:01:00.001-08:00

Just wanted to say Happy New Years to everyone!! We hope everyone had a great time bringing in the new year!

We spent our New Years Eve preparing for Jessica and Tony's wedding and New Years day was their actual wedding! So far, 2011 is off to a great start and we can't wait to see what the year has in store for us.

I'm completely exhausted tonight so a post on their wedding will have to be done at a later date...stay tuned!

Our Christmas

2010-12-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

Christmas is such a fun time of year and we celebrated it over two weekends. The first weekend we traveled to Cambridge and had Christmas with my mom, Eric, Ryan and Matthew.

We did our Christmas traditions Saturday morning with stockings and cinnamon rolls! Oh how I love those cinnamon rolls :)

Later in the day we opened gifts, decorated sugar cookies and had a wonderful Christmas dinner.

On Sunday we went to church and Matthew was part of their Christmas service as one of the three wise men.

Now that we're in the real world, long weekends come far and in between so we thoroughly enjoyed the three and a half day weekend! We spent Christmas with my dad this year and had the Yorde family Christmas Eve at my dad's house this year!

The day after Christmas we started to make our way home but not before we had Christmas with the Carey's in Eau Claire. We had a nice lunch, opened gifts and then headed home from the long weekend.

We had an great Christmas this year and we hope everyone had a Merry Christmas as well!

Layout of the Week

2010-12-13T16:28:00.000-08:00

Ever since I started getting into the digital scrapbooking, I've been following The Shabby Shoppe Blog and all of the kits I've purchased thus far have been from their shop. One of my favorite things about this company/site is that there is an inspiration gallery were you can post your layouts and view layouts that other users have made, for inspiration! Well, the team contributors for the shoppe take turns posting on the blog and every Monday they do a post called Layout of the Week where the contributor who is doing the post picks their favorite layout from the previous week. Well, one of my layouts just happened to get picked as Layout of the Week today! Check it out on their blog here or take a look at my previous post Template Challenge 7.

For anyone looking to get into digital scrapbooking, this is an awesome site to use! They have great products and some awesome tutorials.

2011 Calendar

2010-12-12T19:13:00.000-08:00

I've created my first calendar using the calendar templates from The Shabby Shoppe. I haven't figured out where to print it yet...the slide show above only shows the top portion of the calendar, but the calendar also comes with digitally scrapped bottom pages in which you can add birthdays, anniversaries etc. Well that's the part I'm struggling with. Every site will let you use a picture of the top, but they all have their own pre-made bottoms...so if anyone knows a site where I can use my own picture for the top AND the bottom of a calendar, please let me know! For now, I will continue searching until I find somewhere to print it! :)

Here are the top pages from calendar.

Template Challenge #7

2010-12-10T20:32:00.001-08:00

The Shabby Shoppe Blog does a scrapbook challenges and you can win a $25 gift card by making a page and then there are a couple of extra ways to enter, such as blogging about it :) So here is my blog post for an extra entry and this is the scrapbook page I made. Enjoy!

Halfway Point

2010-12-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

I've officially made it to the halfway part of my CPCU journey! I passed test number four of eight on Wednesday and I couldn't be happier! Now that I don't have to study (for a little while) I can get back to my scrapbooking, learning how to use my new camera and whatever else I feel like!!

My free time won't be lasting long because I already signed up for my next test today which I'll have to take sometime between January 15th and March 15th. I'm thinking it's going to be more towards the March 15th part of the window so I can have a little extra free time :)

Personally Made Christmas Card

2010-12-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

Since I've gotten into the digital scrapbooking, I decided to use one of my scrapbooking kits to make our Christmas Card this year. Made from scratch and personally created by me. I sent them out in the mail today so I guess it's safe to post it on here now :)

O Christmas Tree

2010-12-03T19:19:00.000-08:00

This year we got our first real Christmas Tree! We've graduated from the artificial tree and ventured onto a real one. I really wanted to go to a tree farm and cut our own but we settled for a tree from the local Hyvee because there weren't any tree farms that close to Owatonna. Next year I'm going to do my research and find a tree farm around us so we can have the whole experience :)

We got the tree on Sunday but we didn't have time to decorate it until Tuesday night. It was funny to go through the ornaments and pick out the ones that Maple stole off the tree last year and used as a chew toy! We had to buy new lights because they were chewed through last year and a few of the ornaments went into the garbage instead of on the tree!

Hutch

2010-12-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

My mom and step-dad got a new hutch for their house, so what does that mean for us? We got the old one! I think I posted about this in an earlier post from when my mom visited, but we brought home the top portion of the hutch at Thanksgiving and I've got a couple of pics of it. I'm having a hard time to decide what to fill the top part with, but it's got a few things in it so far :)

Pheasant Hunting

2010-12-03T19:09:00.000-08:00

The day after Thanksgiving, Jeremy went pheasant hunting for the first time with my step-dad, little bro and Libby. They shot a total of four birds - Eric shot 1, Matthew shot 2 and Jeremy shot 1. All in all, a successful hunt!

Now Jeremy has a new hunting hobby to get into and will now be training to utilize her abilities as a bird hunting dog! Looks like we'll be purchasing a new shotgun in the near future thanks to my little bro and Eric ;) I am excited for Jeremy to start training Maple so we can see what she can do!

The boys before going hunting. Poor little Zoe didn't get to join in the fun!

Matthew with his black pheasant.

Jeremy with his first pheasant.

The boys with their birds.

Turkey Day

2010-12-03T18:44:00.000-08:00

This year for Thanksgiving we went to my mom's to celebrate. The weather wasn't the greatest so we decided to wait and leave Thanksgiving morning. This was the best idea! The roads were clear and there wasn't even close to as much traffic as we would have had to drive through the night before.

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We've got a great home, great jobs, and amazing families and friends!

Matthew was in charge of cutting Tom the Turkey!

We're still at the "kids" table ;)

Family picture! It was so nice to see everyone!

Jeremy's Buck!

2010-11-21T18:45:00.000-08:00

Jeremy went gun hunting in Wisconsin on Saturday and shot a nice 7 point buck! It would have been an 8 pointer except it was missing a brow tine from a fight it had been in. Either way, it's a nice buck! In comparison with all of this other racks, this is definetly the second largest. Not quit big enough to be mounted though. His biggest deer, which has been named "Blake," is on our basement wall and the agreement was that the next one to be mounted has to be bigger than Blake. Maybe next year babe :)

Maple didn't get hunting with him, she stayed home with me, but she did get the see the deer when he brought it home. It's always so funny to watch her react to different things and if either of us were to move the deer head around she wouldn't get close to it! Too funny.

Here are a few pictures of his deer and a scrapbook page I made with the pictures.

Here is his story of the hunt which I used for the scripting: It was around noon and two deer came into the swamp near Jeremy's stand. A doe came out of the swamp followed by a buck that was being blocked by a tree. As the doe began to walk away, the buck came closer allowing Jeremy to take a shot. He missed with the first two shots but the buck stopped in the brush allowing another him to take another shot. He knew he hit him them but he ran out and stopped in front of him. So he shot at him again but he took a few more steps so he shot one last time. Not knowing where or how good he had hit him, he watched him trot down and fall over in the water. He quickly climbed down and went over to where he watched it fall. When he got over there all he could see was horns and one hind quarter as the rest of the deer was submerged in water. After pulling the deer out, Jeremy was able to show off his 7 point buck!

maple's scrapbook

2010-11-16T19:24:00.000-08:00

Now that I've gotten into the digital scrapbooking world I decided to make a scrapbook of Maple :) Here are the first three pages I've made so far.

Script: Maple was born on December 28th, 2008. We picked you out of the bunch on January 4th, 2009. We picked the best one in the littler!

Script: This was the second time we went to see our little pup Maple before we brought you home for good. You were the smalled one in the bunch and were so cute! Your eyes weren't open yet and your tail had just been docked. We should have known you’d be a feisty one when you wouldn't hold still for either of us! Little did you know four weeks later you’d be coming home with us!

Script: Maple you’re three weeks old and you’ve opened your eyes! You’re starting to walk around and explore. You’ll be coming home in three weeks to a house of your very own!

first snowfall

2010-11-16T19:16:00.000-08:00

Although we had a few snowflakes a little while ago, I'm considering Saturday as the first official snowfall since it stuck! Maple had us up at like 7:00 in the morning so we took her out right away to play in the snow.

She's so funny when the grass is wet! She almost tip toes around until she's sure it's okay to run around in it. I was able to take a few pictures of her out there and made a scrapbook page of them too!

girls weekend

2010-11-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

My mom came to visit and we had a long overdue girls weekend! Just the two of us plus Maple :) Friday night when my mom got to town we went and got manicures and pedicures, a must for any girls weekend ;) After that we picked up a pizza from Papa Murphy's and enjoyed that while watching some What Not to Wear on TLC!

Saturday morning we got up early to get on the road for a fun filled day of shopping on Albertville, MN at the Premium Outlet up there! For anyone who hasn't been there, it's the ultimate outlet store. I'm talking 100 stores. Seriously, my new favorite place to shop, it's a good thing it's about an hour and a half from our place so I won't be tempted to go there too often ;)

Before leaving for the day.

We spent hours there. I think about five hours or so to be exact. Mom did mostly shopping for kitchen wear between the Corelle Store, Kitchen Store, Le Creuset and Le Gourmet Chef. I got a couple of kitchen items but I did a little more clothing shopping. Mostly shoes. I got four pairs! My first pair of chucks for less than $20 and three pairs of Nine West dress shoes for work averaging about $30 a pair. Did I mention its an outlet mall which means great deals! I picked up a couple scarves and a shirt as well.

After shopping for a couple of hours we took a break and got some ice cream parfaits from the TCBY/Mrs Fields. They were delicious! I got a peanut parfait with fudge, nuts and peanuts and my mom had one with fudge, strawberries and M & M's.

Once we had visited all the stores on our list, we started to head back to Owatonna. We made a quick pit stop in Edina to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins. Neither my mom or I had seen them in a while and although it was a quick stop, it was great to see them! It's amazing how fast my little cousins are growing up. Sammy is almost taller than my mom now!

Being that we had been gone for quite some time we were in a hurry to get home to let poor Maple out of her kennel! She was such a trooper and did great. She wasn't in there too much longer than she is on a normal work day but she was very sad when we left her for the day. We finished the night off work Chinese food from Hyvee and a little Sex & The City 2. We were both pretty wiped from the day and only made it about half way through the movie (I finished it today though).

It was a great weekend and I'm so glad my mom and I were able to spend some time together, just the two of us :) Thanks so much for visiting!

On a side note, my mom got a new hutch which means I got the old one. It was a huge surprise for me! She'd been hoping to get a new hutch for some time but last time I asked about it, it sounded like she wouldn't be getting a new one anytime soon. Change of plans! They decided to get a new one and she did a great job of keeping it quiet from me, I had no clue she was bringing it along! She was only able to fit half of it in her vehicle, so we'll be bringing the top half home at Thanksgiving. I'll post pictures of it all set up once we've got it all together. Thanks again mom!

new scrapbook pages

2010-11-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

So since this is like my 5th post with scrapbook pages out of my most recent posts, it's kinda of easy to see that I've really dived into this new hobby! I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it but at the same time, I know there are so many more things that Photoshop can do that I'm just not utilizing yet. Maybe at some point I'll know all the tricks and fun things the program can do! Anyway, in the meantime, here are the most recent pages I've created.

Script: "My mom came to visit for the weekend and it was just us girls so we took full advantage! Friday night we got manicures and pedicures followed by Papa Murphy’s pizza. Saturday morning we got up and enjoyed pumpkin bagels at the bagel shop before hitting the road to go shopping in Albertville all day! We took a break from shopping to get some ice cream at a TCBY’s and made it home to enjoy some Chinese food. All in all, we had a great time shopping and splurged on some good food!"

Script: "My sister in law is getting married in January, so in her honor, we through a Football Themed Bachelorette party! She is an extreme football fan and the party was on Halloween Eve, so it was perfect! Even better was that with the help of her soon to be sister in law, we got her finance’s high school football jersey for her to wear! We had a group of twenty ranging from friends and family and we had a great time!"

Script: "Dinner on the last night of our honeymoon in Riviera Maya. December 2008."

trick or treat scrapbook challenge

2010-11-02T20:38:00.000-07:00

I completed my second scrapbook page for a challenge on the Shabby Shoppe Blog and here it is! This challenge had a number of criteria you had to include in your page to entry the drawing for the winner. It's a random winner so I've got a chance! :)

our little devil

2010-11-01T19:48:00.000-07:00

This year for Halloween we dressed our pup Maple up as a devil! Jeremy's parent's picked the costume up last year after the holiday for her.

She isn't a huge fan of having anything on her head and she was quite funny to watch as she was trying to get her head piece off. The cape however, didn't really bother her one bit! Maple was so tired out from the weekend that she slept on the couch with her cape on all night until we went to bed, too cute!

Action shot! I love this picture for some reason.

Jeremy and Maple.

Playing outside in her costume.

Jessica's Shower and Bachelorette Party

2010-11-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Jessica's Bridal Shower & Bachelorette Party! I had a lot of fun planning it with the help of both families, thanks everyone!

I made all of the shower invitations, recipe cards, recipe card dividers and put together a photo album with Jess & Tony's newly taken engagement pictures. It was definitely the biggest shower I've hosted, there was just under 50 people there in total! Jessica got a ton of amazing gifts and I think everyone had a good time.

The food was great! A bunch of family members pitched in and we had open faced sandwiches, ham sandwiches, snicker salad, asian salad, pasta salad, a veggie tray, fruit bowl, buffalo chicken dip, deviled eggs and some other relishes and chips/dip. Jessie Schick (the in-law's neighbor) made two cakes and they were delicious!

One of the tables.

The room we used for the shower at The Plaza.

Balloons and recipe card box.

Recipe card box up close.

Jessica with her wad of gum - 9 pieces in total!

Jessica with her cake.

Aunt Jayne, Jessica, Julie and myself.

After the bridal shower we had the bachelorette party! It was a surprise theme to Jessica and since it was Halloween weekend, it was a football themed party! Jessica loves football so it was an easy choice. Thanks to Kari, we were able to get Tony's high school football jersey for Jessica to wear.

The party started out at the hotel again and we had an awesome group of 20 people! We went around and told our best memory with Jessica and had a bite to eat before we went out! I put together a scavenger hunt with ten different items so we split up into 4 teams of 5 people. Jessica's team won!

Scavenger hunt game.

We rode the Rightway Shuttle all night and we started off at no where other than good ole' Rolly's!

ere is a picture of the whole group before heading out!

Jessica and I at Rolly's.

Jessica, her aunt Shelly and mom at the 400 Club.

A few of the girls at Shenan's.

Rose, Jessica and I on the bus ride home!

Easy-As-Pie Template Challenge {SIX}

2010-10-29T21:19:00.000-07:00

I completed my first challenge on http://www.theshabbyshoppe.com/blog/. Here is the layout I made! I'm so glad I found this site, they have the cutest scrapbook sets and challenges! They just posted a new challenge and I can't wait to get started on my layout :)

new toy

2010-10-27T19:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jeremy and I made quite a big purchase. We bought our first Digital SLR camera! After doing a bunch of research, asking around to friends and family, we decided to go with the Nikno D3100. Best Buy had a really good package deal price that we ended up buying it sooner than we had expected to but I was afraid to pass up the deal!

Our intention was to purchase it over the weekend while we were back in Eau Claire because we don't have a Best Buy in Owatonna, but I did some checking on my break at work and found that the Eau Claire store didn't have it in stock! Boy am I glad I checked because the sale price is only through Saturday so I would have been really dissapointed if we would have waited til this weekend only to not get a camera after all. Needless to say, I ended up purchasing the camera over my break from the Rochester Best Buy and I ended up driving to Rochester last night to get it!

I was very good and didn't start monkeying around with the camera before reading the whole user guide. I've only taken a few pictures with it so far but the ones I've taken already look better! I can't wait to test it out this weekend and take some pictures at Jessica's bridal shower and halloween!

Here is a picture of what we all got:

Nikon D3100 Digital SLR Camera, Memory Card, Bag and Extra 55-200mm Lens

blog updates

2010-10-24T14:39:00.000-07:00

My friend Stacy and I spent the good majority of the day on Saturday working on our blogs. I am proud to say that I after quite some time and work I was able to design everything on my blog from the background to the header. Thank goodness for tutorials online! I am loving Photoshop and everything I can do with it and I'm excited to keep using it and getting better at it!

In the past couple of months I've become a little obsessed with digital scrap booking but I wish I was more creative. It takes me forever to decide what I want the page to look like, what pictures I want to use etc. So far the pages I've done are all random but eventually I'm hoping to do pages that go together so I can actually print them off and put them into a scrapbook. I'm going to design our own Christmas cards this year too, so wish me luck. I hope the creative juices are running when I find the time to start working a design!

dinner in uptown

2010-10-24T14:35:00.000-07:00

Friday night I went to the cities to visit Lindsey and it was long overdue! I got to see her new place and we had dinner at a really cool restaurant - Chino Latino. We both got recommendations from friends to check it out, so thanks for the recommendations because it was really good! Lindsey has the craziest drink which we think had dry ice in it because it was steaming and bubbling!

I can't wait to go up there and visit again so we can check out another cool place!

halloween festivities

2010-10-24T14:02:00.000-07:00

I'm not usually big into Halloween but this year I've gotten into the spirit a little bit. We've gotten a couple of really cute gifts from family so that helped!

This is a cute haunted house that holds a candle that we got from Jeremy's Grandma - thanks!

My mom sent us a little gift package from The Popcorn Factory. It's got lots of little yummy things like cookies, popcorn, candy corn etc. Thanks mom!

In addition to the cute little gifts we carved pumpkins for the first time in five years on Thursday night. Here are a few pictures from our pumpking carving night. I even made the pumpkin seeds.

Jeremy carving Maple's pumpkin - he's so creative!

Jeremy and Maple.

Maple and I.

Maple with the finished pumpkins.

The three of us after about 20 takes!

Last weekend we went to Eau Claire to help Jessica and Tony move into their first place together. I just had to post this picture of our goofy dog from the car ride to Eau Claire. Apparently Maple wanted to sleep up in the back window on the ride home, she didn't last long as you can see it's a tight squeeze!

newspaper article

2010-10-19T17:10:00.000-07:00

The following article was in the Owatonna People's Press Newspaper today. The article is about the company Jeremy works for and he was in the picture so I thought I would share the article.

Homeowners Cash in on Conserve and Save program
By: Ashley Peterson
Posted: Monday, October 18, 2010 10:14 pm

Kirchner Siding and Windows insulators Jeremy Carey, left, and Jake Rudningen work on attic bypasses and air sealing at the home of Bob and Pat Fischer in Owatonna.

By ASHLEY PETERSON
apeterson@owatonna.com

OWATONNA — As temperatures dip and frost threatens to make an appearance on grounds and windows, homeowners become especially aware of energy loss throughout their homes.

At a time when both federal and local rebates are available for many kinds of energy saving products and procedures, Owatonna Public Utilities is teaming up with energy auditors and qualified contractors to conduct “house calls” for any homeowners that are interested in conserving both energy and money.

Both OPU and Austin Utilities have implemented the Conserve and Save House Call program — a process of home energy audits that begins with an energy auditor coming to a home and assessing any points of energy loss. Common targets for poor energy usage are inadequate or old insulation, leaky windows and gaps in air ducts as well as outdated appliances.

Roger Warehime, Manager of External Relations and Energy Management at Owatonna Public Utilities, said the OPU-sponsored program has been up and running since the beginning of the year and as of mid-October, 106 house calls have been made in the Owatonna area.

“It’s part of our energy conservation requirement and goals,” Warehime said of the Conserve and Save program. “So it adds more value for our customers and helps us achieve a greater energy savings.”

A standard house call includes a consultation with a qualified energy auditor who studies the history of energy use throughout the home, assesses appliances and performs a blower door test which can determine the amount of energy that is wasted through heating vents, poor attic insulation and windows. From there, the auditor suggests procedures to fix those issues and the homeowner can call a quality contractor who will take care of those issues, as well as help the homeowner cash in on rebates available for attic air sealing, attic insulation and wall insulation — all of which can add up to more than $650.

In addition to the local energy audit program, there are larger state and federal rebates available for Owatonnans looking to start saving on their energy bill.
Though only 12 days remain in October’s National Energy Awareness Month, homeowners have until the end of the year to take advantage of a possible $1,500 worth of Federal Energy Tax Credits through the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and have ample time to reap the benefits of a local solar thermal system rebate.
In addition to the Conserve and Save program and federal tax credits, local power utilities in Owatonna, Rochester and Austin along with Minnesota Office of Energy Security are offering solar thermal system rebates — rebates that could pay for up to 30 percent of the total cost of a solar thermal system.

Warehime said though local rebates for solar thermal have been available since the beginning of the year, no business or resident in Owatonna has taken advantage of the energy saving system and the rebates available just yet.

“We haven’t really marketed it strongly yet,” Warehime said of the rebate.
Solar thermal systems are a specific form of solar technology that uses solar panels to utilize the sun’s rays to then heat water and air. Solar panels have been popular in conserving electric energy; so much that all of the state’s $2.5 million of solar electric rebates have been claimed. The solar thermal rebates, however, still have most of the $500,000 allocated for solar thermal reimbursement available through the state.

The Minnesota Office of Energy Security estimates the average cost of a residential solar thermal system for both water and space heating can range from $20,000 to $25,000 before rebates or incentives.

“The financial investment is pretty significant. It is still a fact that energy conservation is much more effective than renewable energy systems,” Warehime said.
In an effort to make solar thermal systems more affordable, a federal tax credit of 30 percent (with no cap) of the cost of a residential or business system installed between Jan. 1, 2009 and Dec. 16, 2016 is available. In addition to the federal tax break, OPU is offering up to an additional $1,200 rebate.

Warehime said OPU’s current primary focus is on conservation, which is encouraged through rebates for energy efficient windows, attic air sealing and insulation — energy savers that Warehime said are the “biggest bang for the buck.”

Also echoing the value of conservation is Dean Kirchner from Kirchner Siding and Windows. He said before he begins any insulation project or energy savings procedure, he recommends homeowners have the home energy audit completed through OPU’s Conserve and Save House Call program.

“If I come in and do insulation, the homeowner would get 10 cents per square foot for insulation rebates. Whereas when an auditor comes in and suggests the insulation, homeowners get 15 cents a square foot in addition to $200 for adding bypass ceiling and $150 for attic insulation,” Kirchner said. “That’s why homeowners need to have a home energy audit done, because there’s more rebates you can get through OPU if their auditor comes in and says the stuff needs to be done.”
Most of the local OPU rebates are offered only for work recommended by auditors contracted through the Conserve & Save House Call program. Upcoming Conserve & Save workshops are slated for Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. at the Owatonna Senior Center and Nov. 7 at 7 p.m. at the JC Hormel Nature Center in Austin. The workshop is a free educational workshop that educates homeowners on how to lower their energy use and save money. Childcare is available. By attending the workshop, owners can schedule a Conserve and Save House Call — a $300 value — at a reduced rate of $25. Anyone interested in scheduling a local house call can call OPU at 507-451-2480.

kickball champs

2010-10-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

Tonight was the end of the season kickball tournament and the Federated Rollers took 1st place! After finishing the season undefeated, we finished off the season as champs!

It was a really nice night for kickball after freezing last week! My feet were numb by the time we were done playing last week.

This was our third year playing kickball and we've won twice now! Hopefully we can keep the winning up for seasons to come. Go Fed!

recent scrapbook pages

2010-10-06T19:25:00.001-07:00

The Martin's

2010-10-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

This past weekend our friends Lee & Jana tied the knot in St. Cloud! I work with Lee and we went through training together, however, he took a territory in Indy about a year ago so we haven't been able to see them as often as we'd like to since the move. Our friends Nick & Sarah who live in MO surprised us and stayed with us on their way to St. Cloud Thursday night. I also work with Nick and we hadn't seen them in almost exactly a year so it was great to see them another day before the wedding.

Saturday morning we headed up to the wedding and it was such a gorgeous day for a wedding!

The church service was beautiful and the bride and groom went for a ride around the block in a horse drawn carriage - so cute!

The reception was at the Radisson Hotel in St. Cloud and everything was great! It was really nice to see our friends from my work that we hadn't seen in a while.

Sunday after the wedding we had a fun filled day of shopping at the Albertville Mall and Trader Joe's. I bought my very first Coach purse which I felt slightly guilty about but at the same time, it was a steal of a deal, and it was a reward for passing my test :) We got some Christmas presents bought and we also bought our very first set of Correlle dishes!

I've been wanting to get Correlle dishware forever. We always had them growing up and I've loved them but have never broken down and bought them, until now.

After about 4 hours at the outlet mall we headed to our last stop, Trader Joe's. A friend of mine at work has talked about how good the food is at Trader Joe's and after driving past one in the cities last weekend I decided we had to check one out! Surprisingly, it isn't all that expensive and from the food we've ate so far, it's delicious! I love pumpkin so when I saw a pumpkin butter, I had to get it. I had it on my mini bagel this morning for breakfast and it was amazing! So good :) We will definitely be going to a Trader Joe's again and I can't wait for the one to open up in Rochester so we don't have to drive up to the cities to go to one.

Step Up for Down Syndrome

2010-10-05T16:35:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we headed up to the cities and participated in the Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk with some of Jeremy's co-worker's for Miley Ahrens. It was a gorgeous day and it was great to spend time with some of the people that Jeremy works with and their families.

The cute banner that was on the tent.

The walk was right down the road from Como Zoo so we decided to visit the zoo after the walk.

Duck Hunter

2010-10-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

We need an ark!

2010-09-23T19:21:00.000-07:00

Let me just start by saying I have never seen so much rain in my life! I'm not exactly sure how much rain we've gotten but I've heard that we got around 10" since last night!

I realized it was storming hard last night but didn't realize how much. Last night Jeremy decided to do a load of laundry but this morning I remembered that it never got put into the dryer. So I was going to quick throw it in the dryer this morning but when I went into our laundry room I noticed that our rug was pretty wet. Looking around I realized that most of the laundry room floor was wet. Nothing was leaking and the sump pump was running so I had no clue where the water was coming from. After yelling for Jeremy to come look at our wet basement he determined that the sump pump must have overflowed due to all the rain we got over night. Luckily the water was just a thin layer across most of the laundry room floor and slightly under the stairs and into the carpeted living space.

We quickly moved everything out of the way and wiped up some of the water before we had to get to work. At this point I think we had already gotten like 6 inches of rain. It continued pouring all morning and after finding out that one of my co-worker's and another one of Jeremy's co-workers has water seeping into their basement through the walls, I got quite nervous!

Due to the weather, Jeremy was soaked and came home from work at the same time I was coming home to check on the house. Thank god we had no more water in the basement than we did before we left for work. We started moving stuff out of the way and when I went back to work Jeremy got the clean up the water with a shop vac and started drying out the carpet etc.

There are tons of schools around us that are either closed or starting late and both Jeremy and I had to take detours home from work because the normal roads we drive on were covered with water! A couple of the parks in town are flooded, people were evacuated out of their homes, and it just keeps raining!

Check out some pictures of all the water.

The road Jeremy normally takes home from work.

Our backyard.

One of the parks in town.

Opening Bow Hunting

2010-09-23T19:14:00.000-07:00

For anyone who doens't know my husband, he is obsessed with hunting. It was opening bow hunting last weekend and Jeremy was obviously excited.

He had a great opening weekend and shot a nice 8 point buck on Saturday night. Here some pictures of his nice buck! We're trying out a place down here to get our meat processed so I hope that it tastes just as great as the place we used to go to back in WI.

3 down and 5 to go

2010-09-19T08:19:00.000-07:00

Finally after studying for the past couple months I took my third CPCU test on Wednesday and I passed! It's always such a great feeling to know that my studying paid off! Now I only have 5 more to go!

I was pretty nervous about this last test because it was short answer. I hate short answer tests. I would prefer to take a multiple choice test any day of the week!

I found out I passed the test Friday morning, which was a great start to my Friday! Being that it has to get graded by someone instead of a computer, I figured I wouldn't get my score back that quick, but I did! And crazy me, I already signed up for my next one.

Since starting my career, I've now taken a total of 7 tests. Three for my Associate of Commercial Underwriting Designation, one for my Associate in Insurance Designation and now three towards by Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter designation. I'm hoping to get my CPCU done within the next couple of years so I'm taking as many as I can in a year.

I'll be taking my next one, which is thankfully a multiple choice test, probably in December sometime. In the meantime, I do have a couple of weeks off from studying because I have to wait for my books to come in.

Time for enjoy my time away from studying for the next couple of weeks and do some digital scrap booking or card making or anything BUT study!

How fast two years flies by...

2010-09-06T19:33:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that Jeremy and I celebrated our two year wedding annivesary today! It amazes me how fast time flies by. I am so blessed to have Jeremy in my life and couldn't imagine what life would be like without him! We've grown a lot together over the past two years. Jeremy moved to Owatonna to be with me a couple of weeks before our wedding, we bought our house and we got Maple! We are so happy with our life and can't wait for all the fun to come in the future!

After I got my scrapbook software, I made a digital scrapbook of our wedding but I've been waiting to post it until our anniversary because it seemed fitting to post it today. Enjoy!

Labor Day

2010-09-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

Now that Jeremy's parents own the cabin they've been doing some remodeling work to it! I should have taken before and after pictures of the living room/kitchen area because after Jeremy, Dave and Julie put the new flooring in, it looks like a whole new place!

Here is a picture of the previous carpet, but I don't have any of the new floor. The new floor is wood laminate flooring and like I said, it looks great! I can't believe I didn't take a picture, but I'll have to get one next time.

The weather wasn't the best at the cabin this weekend so we didn't get out on the water much. Maple went swimming numerous times, Jeremy and Dave worked on the floor, we went to the Alumni Ski Sprites water ski show on Sunday to celebrate 50 years and then today we went on a little pontoon ride before taking everything out of the water for the year.

Maple enjoying an empty peanut butter jar.

Maple swimming away!

Jeremy coaxing Maple in the water with his fishing pole.

Final pyramid at the Ski Sprites Show.

A scrapbook page I made of the three of us on the pontoon on Labor Day.

The Flats

2010-09-01T19:54:00.000-07:00

While spending the past weekend at my dad and Marsha's, we spent a lot of time out at "The Flats." My dad's girlfriend, Marsha, grew up on a farm and the land surround the farm is what they call "The Flats." There is a 40 of land that Marsha and my dad have and they recently built a cabin/garage on the land overlooking the field.

Let's just say, Maple absolutely LOVED it there. She was able to run run run run and swim in the pond. She even got to see her first horse! After spending all the time out there this weekend it made me realize how much I miss being in the county and being able to go for a 4-wheeler ride or sit and watch deer in the field. Hopefully someday Jeremy and I will be able to have a house out in the country! Although that may be a long way away, it's a dream! :)

The new cabin/garage. Not quite finished inside, but when it's done half of it will have 2 bedrooms and a large kitchen/living area and the other half is a garage area with storage above the living space.

The view from the front of the cabin.

The pond behind the cabin.

Maple swimming in the pond with the geese decoys.

Dad enjoying his favorite past-time, cutting firewood!

Maple meeting Mariah's horse, Scout. She was very curious but we never let her get too close! She would have definitely tried to play with Scout, which I'm afraid would not have been a good thing!

Relief!

2010-08-24T18:51:00.000-07:00

We were air conditionless for 17 days! 17 very long days considering we did not have air conditioning during one of the hottest weeks of the summer. The joys of owning a home!

Earlier this summer when we turned our air conditioner on it didn't take long for us to realize it wasn't working. We got it fixed immediately and found it that our air conditioner was over 30 years old! Apparently the lifetime of an air conditioner is about 25 years so why it didn't go out earlier so the previous owners would have had to replace it is beyond me, but it didn't, so we got the joys of replacing it. The air conditioner worked for about a month and a half and then it kicked the bucket for good.

We realized it was broke Sunday the 8th when we got back from the cabin. The next day I called a couple of different HVAC contractors to come out and get us estimates ASAP but of course the first one couldn't come out until Wednesday and the second one until Friday. After the first estimate I was a little discouraged that it was going to cost a fortune and we weren't going to get a tax credit. There are a lot of stipulations to get the tax credit for an air conditioner, the big one being that you more than likely have to replace your furnace as well so the system works together more efficiently. Well...our furnace had just been replaced in 2007 so obviously we weren't going to replace that as well. Makes me wonder even more why the previous owners didn't just replace the air conditioner at the same time! Anyway, at least the previous owners did purchase an energy efficient furance that was compatable with the air conditioner we purchased and in the end, we're able to get the tax credit. So instead of an enormous bill it's just a big bill!

Reasons why I am estatic about having air conditioning again:

--I can workout without being completely soaked in a pool of my own sweat.
--I can get ready in the morning without sweating the whole time.
--I can cook again.
--The dog isn't constantly panting.
--We won't have to run the dehumidifier 24/7.
--AND we can sleep in our bed instead of on the couch downstairs :)

Steele County Free Fair

2010-08-24T18:40:00.001-07:00

This past week was the Steele County Free Fair which is a HUGE deal in Owatonna! We enjoyed a couple of nights at the fair enjoying fair food, entertainment and friends! We saw a local band, Hairball, perform the night the fair started up (Tuesday night) and Derek and Trevor came down for the show! Thanks for making the trip down guys :) Thursday night we went to the fair and meet up with my women's softball team in the beer gardens and finally, Jeremy and I went and walked around the fair in the heat on Saturday.

We enjoyed a lot of good food including onion rings, cheese curds, coconut shrimp, french fries, gyros, torey's wraps, some nitro ice cream AND homemade cookies. Although this was over the 3 different times we were there, this was a TON of fair food. I must say that I did behave when it came to fair food. My office is directly across the street from the fairgrounds and I refrained from eating there for lunch during the week. As you can tell, we ate our fair share without having to go there for lunch as well!

Here are a couple of pictures from Saturday at the fair.

A couple of the biggest rabbits I've ever seen!

Pig races at the fair.

Maple Lately...

2010-08-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've realized that now that Maple's gotten a little older I haven't been taking as many pictures of her lately...I guess the excitement of having a puppy wore off a little bit. Here are a few pictures of Maple lately. Jeremy and Maple in the fishing boat up at the cabin. Maple and Cali got to go for a boat ride! She loves the pontoon as well! Maple all tuckered out at my mom's after playing hard all weekend. All snuggled up with the alligator pillow.

Weekend in Cambridge

2010-08-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

I haven't had much to post about lately, partially because I've been busy studying and we haven't really done anything overly exciting on the weekends. We've spent a couple of weekends at home and a couple up at the lake, but last weekend we went over to Cambridge, WI to visit my mom & Matthew.

The timing of our trip over to my mom's was perfect because my cousin Jason and his finance, Kayla, were on vacation from FL up in WI and happened to be there the same weekend!

The whole gang.

Jason, Kayla, Jeremy, Matthew and I.

Jason, Kayla, Jeremy and I.

Jason's enormous burger from a local joint just outside Cambridge. This was the biggest burger I've ever seen and he almost finished it off!!

Digital Scrap booking!

2010-07-25T20:50:00.000-07:00

About a year and a half ago I got into Stampin' Up and making cards. I've gotten pretty into it and have purchased a LOT of stuff over the past year and a half...I decided I wanted to get into scrapbooking but wasn't sure if I wanted to start buying all the paper and embellishments so I did some research online about digital scrapbooking.

Last weekend I ordered MemoryMixer digital scrapbooking software and received it in the mail today! Of course I couldn't wait to try it out so here is my first one! The pictures get a little blurry when I turn it into a movie so I'm going to have to figure out how to fix that...

Revamped...

2010-07-17T21:33:00.001-07:00

Due to the bad weather up at the cabin this evening, I spent seriously way, I mean WAY too much time revamping our blog! Sometimes I wish I knew exactly what I was doing with the whole blog design thing so it wouldn't take me so long to figure out how to make it work! Thank god for tutorials online! I guess it's always a work in progress but for now, I'm happy with it :)

Alexandra Fox Ausman

2010-07-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the family! My aunt Kerry and uncle Gary welcomed my cousin Alexandra Fox Ausman to the family on July 11th.

Alex/Lexi (I've heard both) was born on 7/11 and weighed 7 lbs 11 oz. Cool huh?

Congrats on the newest addition to the Ausman family!

4th of July

2010-07-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm a little behind on posts (like usual) but for the fourth of July we went to a Twins game at the new stadium and it was HOT! It was a 1:10 game and it was so hot and humid that we just sat and sweat in our seats. We had great seats thanks to Jeremy's cousin Mike who we bought the tickets from.

Minnie and Paul. It was bobble head day and this is what our bobble heads look like.

A view from center field. Our seats were on the left field side.

After the Twins game we headed back to Owatonna and watched our first fireworks show there! We attempted to sit outside in lawn chair and watch the show but the bugs were so horrible that we had to watch them from in the car. Oh well!

Maple enjoying the fire works from the front seat of the car!

Jeremy and Maple watching the fireworks.

Country Fest 2010

2010-07-03T21:03:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went to Country Fest in Cadott from Thursday through Monday. Let's just say it was a long but really fun weekend! This is the last year we planned on going to Fest so we wanted to have the best time ever!

Some of the best acts in my opinion were Neal McCoy, Tim McGraw and Lady A. There were other good ones, but those were my favorites!

Here are a couple of pictures from Fest...

Jeremy and I on the Leine's Lounger.

Incriminating Photo 2010.

The group at one of the shows.

Alyssa and Bryson's Wedding Day!

2010-06-23T18:45:00.000-07:00

CONGRATULATIONS ALYSSA AND BRYSON!!!

On Saturday, June 19th, my cousin Alyssa and her now husband, Bryson, said I do! If you've been following my blog, you've probably seen my posts about her showers and bachelorette party and now she's finally married!

Jeremy and I both stood up in the wedding and I was Matron of Honor (which means I had to give a speech)! I'll give you a run down of the details!

We left Owatonna on Thursday night after work just before the huge storms hit southern MN - don't worry, tornadoes missed Owatonna by a whopping 30 miles! We dropped off Maple at Dave & Julie's and got to my dad's house in Merrill, WI by about midnight.

Friday morning I got up early and worked out before heading to the wedding venue to set up the candy bar and other misc items.

Completed candy bar which consisted of an assortment of Alyssa and Bryson's favorite candies! It included Swedish fish, sweet mints, M & M's, laffy taffy, jordan almonds (my fav), chocolate pearls, suckers, sweet tarts, Hershey kisses, and jelly beans.

Alyssa and Bryson with the candy bar.

Jeremy and I on Friday.

After setting up I got my nails done and met everyone back at the hotel to get ready for rehearsal dinner. Rehearsal dinner was a good ole' fashion grill out with burgers, brats, hot dogs and all the fixins'. Friday night we stayed at the hotel in Wausau with the bridal party.

Alyssa and I at Rehearsal on Friday.

THE BIG DAY! We got up bright and early to head to Merrill to get our hair done. I've been desperately trying to grow my hair out so I could get a cute up-do and it just wasn't quite there. I wanted a "bump" and it took a couple of stylists to get it to work but in the end, it turned out great!!

All the bridesmaids with our hair done.

My hair!

Once all the girls were dolled up we head to the venue to finish getting ready and start pictures! The wedding was held at Willow Springs Garden in Wausau, WI. Willow Springs Garden is home to the 115 year old town hall for the town of Maine. The building was moved to it's current location in 2006 and made for a gorgeous place for a wedding! Here are a few pictures before the wedding.

The beautiful bride!

Jeremy and I.

The wedding ceremony was held outdoors and Alyssa & Bryson were married in a gazebo behind the town hall building. The weather could not have been better. It was partially cloudy and slightly windy while we were taking pictures and the sun came out just in time for the ceremony!

The ceremony set up. Note the pomanders hanging on the Sheppard's hooks were hand made by the bride!

The happy couple! The processional was to "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" by Stevie Wonder. They had the most original song selections I've seen at a wedding so far and I loved it!

Jeremy was lucky enough to walk Kelly and I down the isle!

Dinner was held in a large tent outdoors and finally the reception/dance was held in the actual town hall building.

Dinner tent and old town hall building.

The dinner table and cake at the far end.

Jeremy and I after dinner.

For the grand march we had to improvise a little bit since we had a group of 3! The only thing I could think of doing what "leap frog," so that's what we did!

Action shot!

The night was a blast and we had so much fun! Here are some more pictures from the night. As you can already tell if you've read this far, I couldn't pick just a few pictures!

Alyssa and her dad.

Alyssa dancing with my brother Ryan.

Alyssa and Jeremy.

Bryson and I during the dollar dance.

Alyssa and I.

My dad and I :)

My brother Ryan and I.

Me and my wine glass from Alyssa. Let's just say I drank a LOT of wine!

The wedding was perfect! I couldn't have hoped for a better day for my cousin and best friend! I mentioned earlier that I gave a speech and from that, I'd just like to say, I couldn't be more happy for Alyssa and Bryson. They truely complement one another and I am so excited to see the many adventures that they will have during their lives together! Love you both =)

TurboFire

2010-06-23T17:49:00.000-07:00

So for anyone that doesn't know, I love doing intense, at home workouts, and I've become addicted to all of Chalene Johnson's workouts.

I did TurboJam for about a year and now I've been doing ChaLean Extreme for the past 9 months. I may not look it (because I like to eat) but I am currently doing ChaLean Extreme 5 days a week and I'm just finishing the 90 day program for the 3rd time!

Chalene just released her next workout which is called TurboFire on June 18th and I am ordering it tonight from www.beachbody.com! Beachbody is also the creator of workouts that you've heard of such as P90X, Insanity or Hip Hop Abs.

I am really excited to order it and I'm hoping to have it on my doorstep by the end of next week so I can get right back on track after Country Fest this weekend. For anyone that's interested, check out beachbody.com for the other workouts I've done and check out the infomercial below for TurboFire!

Just thought I'd add the other infomercials for ChaLean Extreme and TurboJam!

Where has June gone?

2010-06-21T20:23:00.000-07:00

We've been quite busy during the month of June and I can't believe it's almost over! Here is a little re-cap of our month thus far.

The first weekend in June was my friend Nicole's bridal shower and bachelorette party! We got a party bus and hit up a ton of different places in Southern MN - it was a blast!

Nicole, Jill and I.

The second weekend in June my mom and little brother came to Owatonna to visit for my birthday. Mom got me a bike for my birthday and we have a great weekend grilling out and playing with all the dogs!

Mom and I.

Jeremy and I.

Matthew and I.

Jeremy and I with our new bikes! (We bought a bike for Jeremy as well because what fun would it be to go bike riding by myself??)

My birthday was on the 15th and I turned the big 25. Quarter of a century...crazy how 25 doesn't seem as old now that I'm 25! We didn't do much for my birthday being that it was on a week day. I worked, we played softball (and lost) and then a few friends went out for dinner with us at a Mexican restaurant in town after the game. I even got sang to and wore the sombrero :)

My birthday dessert.

Jeremy and I.

Flowers from Jeremy for my birthday :)

Last weekend was my cousin's wedding and father's day. (I'll be posting a separate post about the wedding) We spent most of father's day at my dad's after the wedding but stopped in EC and had dinner with Jeremy's family at Boston's.

There was our June so far! We've got a few more busy weekends coming up and then maybe our summer will slow down a little bit, but I doubt it!

Maple’s first time rollerblading

2010-06-05T07:24:00.000-07:00

We took Maple out rollerblading on Wednesday for the first time! I made Jeremy go with me so I didn't get taken down with her if it didn’t go smoothly. We rollerbladed for almost a half hour and Maple did pretty good – the little bit I held her leash was basically a break! She just runs and pulls you along with her – not much of a workout when she’s pulling you though! I’m glad we got our rollerblades out finally but I’m not sure we’ll be bringing Maple along all the time, it makes it a little difficult and makes hills scarier than they already are! The last thing I need is to get pulled down a hill faster than I’d already be going. Next we’re going to check out some of the trails in town to see where we can rollerblade to! Man I love summer :)

I’ve never been 21 before!

2010-06-05T07:18:00.000-07:00

This was Trevor’s statement of the night on Sunday/Monday when he turned 21! It was his birthday at midnight and being that we were at the cabin we went out in Chetek! We only made it to two bars being that we couldn't go out until midnight. We started at Gilligan’s and ended at Stringer’s. Here are a few pictures from the night. Happy birthday Trevor!

Jeremy and I before going out.

Trevor checking his blood alcohol level when we got to the first bar.

Trevor and Jessica.

The bartender cleaning up the beer Trevor knocked off the table while trying to open his free Gilligan's mug!

Trevor and I before taking our cherry bombs!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-06-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

As usual, we spent the weekend up at the cabin in Chetek. This weekend Jeremy was the fishing guide for my little bro Matthew! We met my mom in Eau Claire on Friday and picked up my brother on our way to Chetek. Friday night we got up there late so we didn't do much of anything except go to bed so the fisherman could get up bright and early to hit the lake!

The boys (Jeremy, Tony and Matthew) were up around 5:30 and got on the lake as early as possible but unfortunately they didn’t have much luck with the fish. I believe Jeremy caught a walleye Saturday morning and that was it. Bonding time though right?

The rest of us went for a walk (Maple and I ran a bit) around the loop before the boys came in for lunch. After lunch they went out again and if I recall they didn't have much more luck in the afternoon. The rest of us got sun and took a pontoon ride around the lakes with Jeremy’s uncle and Grandma. My mom and her friend Jane came with Matthew’s friend Matt and Jeremy took them both out night fishing. Success!

Here is the only picture we have because the fishing guide (Jeremy) flung his phone in the lake while taking a picture of the other Matt's fish (whoops!). No worries, his new phone came in the mail on Wednesday after having to pay our deductible…lucky thing we have insurance on the phones!

Saturday night my mom, Jane, Matthew and Matt hung around for a bit before they headed back to Eau Claire. Sunday everyone slept in before getting up to fish/pontoon. The boys went fishing and we did as well…I can’t say I did much fishing, the sun sure felt nice though :) Sunday night was Trevor's birthday so we went out for that (he turned 21 at midnight).

Memorial Day Jessica started her new job in Chetek so she had to get up for work while everyone else slept in again! The boys went fishing again and we went on another pontoon ride and enjoyed the wonderful weather!

What a nice 3 day weekend away from home and work! We couldn’t have asked for better weather – let's hope the rest of the summer treats us so well!

Geraldine "Gerry" Baehr

2010-05-23T17:54:00.000-07:00

October 27, 1926 - May 16th, 2010.

Jeremy's Great Grandma Baehr passed away last Sunday night right after we landed in MN from our trip to Daytona Beach.

"Gerry was a very active person over the years and had many hobbies and things she enjoyed doing. She loved doing crosswords, Sudoku, and bingo. She bowled for many years. The best thing in her life was spending time with family and friends, and fishing at her cottage in Chetek, Wis. Her time spent with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren was priceless. Gerry had a great sense of humor and quick wit."

Grandma Baehr was a wonderful lady and she will be greatly missed by her family and friends.

Fun in the sun!

2010-05-23T17:21:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Jeremy and I took a long weekend and went to Daytona Beach, FL with his parents. It was such a nice break from work and everything else - it was a much needed vacation!!

We had a late flight out on Wednesday night and after sitting on the runway for about an hour we finally took off getting into Orlando around 12:30 am. We got up early on Thursday morning and headed to Daytona Beach for our vacation! We stayed at the Ocean Walk Resort right on the ocean and it was amazing! Thursday night we had a nice dinner at the resort and walked around the shops by the resort.

Friday we spent almost all day at Daytona International Speedway. We had a VIP tour where we got to go to Gatorade Victory Lane, Daytona 500 Champions Club, Press Box above the main grandstand and the Fox Sports booth above the main grandstand. Not only did we have a VIP tour, but we participated in the Richard Petty Driving Experience. The four of us rode in a race car for 3 laps at 170 mph! Not gonna lie, I was a little freaked out about riding at 170 mph in a race car, but what a rush! It was an amazing experience and I would do it all over again!

Saurday we spent the day relaixing by the pool and by the ocean. The lazy river was great and it was fun swimming in the ocean! Saturday night we went to dinner at Hooters and walked around the boardwalk when we got back to the hotel. We even went for a ride on the ferris wheel right by our hotel.

Sunday we flew back home so we had a little bit of time to lay by the pool in the morning and then we headed back to Orlando to catch our flight Sunday night.

Our trip was great and we had so much fun! We all got a little bit of a sun tan to start out the summer as well!

Here are a few pictures from our trip --

The view from our hotel room!

On the VIP tour bus at Daytona International Speedway.

In front of Mark Martin's car.

Dave, Julie, Jeremy and I at Gatorade Victory Lane.

All dressed up and ready to ride in a race car!

Just before we rode.

Jeremy climbing into the car.

The ferris wheel next to our resort.

Jeremy and I on the ferris wheel.

Dave and Julie on the ferris wheel.

Opening Fishing

2010-05-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was opening fishing in WI so we made the drive up to the cabin in Chetek for the opener! Saturday was a little bit of a bummer due to the cold/windy weather, so Jeremy didn't get a ton of fishing in. As for me, I didn't fish once. I spent the weekend in the cabin catching up on work and my reports and studying for my next CPCU test which is on the 24th of this month!

Sunday was a little better for fishing and Jeremy got up early to go fishing with his cousins Derek and Trevor and his uncle Jeff. Sounds like they had some decent fishing, but hopefully the weather is nicer this upcoming weekend so it's a little more enjoyable for them!

Maple didn't mind the cold and the wind - she jumped right off the dock, not sure what she went after, but she got a little swimming in!

Texas

2010-05-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

As you can may be able to tell from how belated my last post was, I am extremely busy right now! As soon I was done planning Alyssa's shower/bachelorette party I had to prepare for my work field trip to Texas that I was going on the next weekend. I flew into Houston, TX on Sunday, April 18th and was there until Friday, April, 23rd.

I stayed in The Woodlands on Sunday and Monday night, was in Beaumont on Tuesday night and then went back to The Woodlands on Wednesday and Thursday night.

The reason I've been so busy is because I wanted to get ahead on as much work as I could so it didn't pile up during the week I was gone. Although I did get ahead a little bit, I still came home to a ton of work and last week was just crazy! This week I still have finish my reports from my field trip, I gave a presentation this morning, and I'm giving the presentation again next Monday! Work is busy but good. I love my job so I don't mind being busy.

As timing would have it, by the time I get caught back up on my work this week, I have training for a 1/2 day next week and we're going to FL so I'll be off on Thursday and Friday. I guess that's what happens when you take vacation, so it's worth it!

This will probably be my only trip to Texas for work as I will be getting a new territory sometime in the next 6-8 months due to some realignment at work. Guess I'll get to go somewhere else next time, hopefully it's somewhere warm :)

Alyssa's Bridal Shower & Bachelorette Party

2010-05-03T16:35:00.000-07:00

Three weeks ago I threw my cousin Alyssa's Bridal Shower & Bachelorette Party with the help of my aunt Becky, cousin Kailey and Kelly, Alyssa's other bridesmaid. I really enjoyed planning this day for my cousin and found myself being very creative with the different things I decided to do for the shower.

Here are the invitations I made and sent out to about 50 guests. In each invitation was a recipe card for everyone to bring for Alyssa out of a really cute recipe box I bought from Stampin' Up!

My cousin registered for 10 packs of toilet paper at Target so I thought it would be funny to buy her a pack of the registry but wanted to do something fun with it. Here is what I came up with!

Not only did I make 50+ invitations, but I thought it would be really neat if Alyssa had handmade thank-you cards in her wedding colors to send to everyone from the shower! Here are a couple of my favorite cards that I made. I think I made 35 cards total and of course I had to make them all different which created way more work, but I love making the cards so I didn't mind!

At this point, it was the weekend before and I was pretty much done planning and preparing stuff for the shower, other than a few cards I had left to make. While shopping in Eau Claire for bachelorette party supplies I thought wouldn't it be cool to make little favors for everyone coming to the shower? So that's what I did. I made cookies shaped as a wedding dress, hearts, bells and a cake and frosted them in her wedding colors. Thank god for my wonderful husband who helped me frost them :)

I was very ambitious and I loved doing all of it but I'm glad I don't have to throw them all the time because it takes a lot out of you! Her shower was Saturday morning at 11:00. We played a couple of games, one of with was of a bubble gum game where Alyssa had to eat a piece of bubbilicious gum for every question about Bryson she got wrong (see picture below). For food we had Subway sandwiches, veggies and dip, cheese dip, other chips etc. Here are a few pictures from the shower.

Alyssa and all of her bridesmaids!

After the shower we started the bachelorette party and went to the Beauty School in Wausau and got pedicures! There were 9 girls all together which was a great turn out! I don't have any pictures from this part, but I've put quite a few pictures up so that's probably ok!

As soon as we were done at the Beauty School I went back to the hotel to set up the hotel room for the rest of the bachelorette party. I didn't do a lot, but I did put up a couple of banners and balloons and set up some food and drinks! Being that Alyssa isn't 21 yet, we didn't do the bar scene, but we had a blast hanging out at the hotel and playing games! I did make cosmo slush, which was quite a hit!

We played a game with a pin-up guy poster that I had bought and everyone put lipstick on, was blind-folded, spun about 10 times and then had to kiss the pin-up as close to his manhood as possible. It was quite hilarious!

All in all, everything went as planned and I think everyone had a good time! Next is the wedding on June 19th - I can't wait!!

A little behind...

2010-04-13T18:16:00.000-07:00

So I am a little behind on my posts (like usual). For Easter we went to Eau Claire and spent the weekend with Jeremy's family.

I helped Jessica and Julie with a little wedding planning by checking out a couple of florists while the guys worked on Jeremy's truck. No, it's not broken, my husband feels the need to have a truck that sits higher off the ground so they were putting a lift kit in. I thought it would be harder to get into, but surprisingly, I haven't had any troubles yet - knock on wood - my luck I'll blow a pair of jeans out trying to get into it next time now!

Easter day we went to church at Victory Baptist Church in Eau Claire. Our friend, Greg, is the pastor at this church. His little boy stood up in our wedding as our ring bearer and we haven't seen their family in a long time! It was great being able to see the Robotti's and I am amazed with how big the little kids are getting! So cute :)

After church we went back to Dave & Julie's house for an Easter lunch with family. It was nice being able to see family and the food was really good! Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures all weekend - weird for me!

This past weekend was my cousin Alyssa's Bridal Shower and Bachelorette Party in WI. I did a lot of planning for this day and I will have a post all about it, but I'm just waiting on getting some pictures from another girl that was at the shower :)

This week I am preparing for my work field trip to Houston, TX. I leave on Sunday and come back on Friday. During my field trip I'll be riding with different people who I work with in TX and I'll also be giving a presentation at a district meeting. So over the next few days, I'll be getting ahead on my work since I'll be out of the office next week, reviewing different accounts that I'll be visiting on my trip and I'll be working on my presentation! I'm really excited to go to TX as I've never been there! More to come when I get back!