We (as in me, Andy, my mom & dad, Brad & Christy) will be heading to the Seattle area of Washington next week. We leave early on Thursday and come home the following Monday afternoon. It will be a crazy busy trip since the main reason that we are going out there is that one of my cousins is getting married and another is graduating from high school.

I’m really looking forward to the trip and will try to find to relax and take in the beautiful scenery. On Thursday when we get there, we have to drive up to Everett (about an hour’s drive). We’ll make a quick stop at a winery and brewery on the way. Last time I was there, I wasn’t old enough to drink. I don’t want to miss going to Cht. St. Michelle again. We also have the rehearsal & dinner on Thursday evening for my cousin Laura’s wedding.

On Friday, my cousin Jennifer (not the one graduating or getting married) is going to take the family downtown Seattle for some sight-seeing. That evening, we will go to my cousin Sarah’s graduation.

Saturday will consist of wedding stuff, at least for me as I am a bridesmaid. Not sure what everyone else will do in the morning.

Sunday, we are going to have a little celebration for my cousin’s graduation and open wedding gifts. If the weather cooperates, my uncle is going to take us hiking in the mountains. That should be really fun.

Then we come home fairly early on Monday morning. It will be interesting trying to get through traffic there on our way to the airport.

Not having traveled with my parents while we both had dogs, I am not sure what to expect. Luckily, one of our friends is going to house/dog sit for us. He’ll stay at our house, water the flowers and take care of Honey & Lizzy. My mom is stressing because she is so worried about how Lizzy is going to do since she is scared of strangers. I’m sure it will be fine.

I’ll have to post about our trip when we get back!

With today being April 1st, can one really believe that Minnesota would sell off Ely to Canada? The “breaking news” story about Canada offering to buy Ely to boost their own tourism has been in local papers. The mayor of Ely and other business leaders are quoted in the Mesabi Daily News on their reactions to this news. They are all in on the joke!

The city of Ely website (http://www.ely.org) even has a petition that you can sign to keep Ely in Minnesota. When you read the fine print, it says that you are also willing to receive newsletters from their chamber of Commerce. I signed the “petition” because I am curious as to what they will send me.

Is this a brilliant marketing campaign to drive tourists to Ely and the beautiful boundary waters? Or is it a lame attempt at an April Fool’s hox? I’d love to hear your ideas!!

To read the article from the Mesabi Daily News.

It’s my favorite time of year again- Christmas. I just love the lights, decorations and holiday cheer that fill our world this time of year. Now that we have some snow, it makes it seem that much closer to the holidays. Even though it is only December 4, Christmas doesn’t seem that far away.

My decorations and lights went up on Thanksgiving. All my gifts have been purchased. The Christmas cookies have been made (had a great time making them with my girls!!) But Andy and I still have not gotten a tree. Growing up, my family always had to cut down a tree for Christmas. No going to the lot and picking one up. Everyone had to bundle up and trudge through 3 feet of snow looking for the perfect tree. Of course it always looked better in the woods than it did in our living room. That tradition has stayed with me in sorts because I can’t imagine a Christmas without a real tree. We don’t exactly have the opportunity to go into the woods and cut our own tree down, but we do go to the local tree lot and pick one out. The nice thing is that they tie it to your car for you- so there is no worry about the tree falling off on the highway like so many times in my childhood. It did make for some great memories though. Despite the Twin Cities getting more snow, I think we are going to finally pick one up tonight. It’s a family affair- Honey has to come every year too since she’s part of our family.

We have a dinner party and a cocktail party at our house the next two weekends. All the meanwhile, I have a final next Monday. My house is a disaster and I feel like there is no way that I could possibly get everything done for those parties on time. I’m sure it will be fine but I am on auto pilot right now. Just making the motions and trying to accomplish everything that needs to be done. The Christmas tree will make me stop and think about what this season is really about - family, friends and of course the birth of baby Jesus (what do you expect…I do work at a church ). It is the light among the chaos that is the Christmas holiday season.

If you like a great deal…check out www.woot.com. They usually have one deal each day, but the last two days they have been having a woot off. Once an item is gone, they put up another one- it is a great deal!! Woot! Woot! And it’s so much fun to say

Despite printing screw-ups, emergency oral surgery three days before the wedding, power outages, extreme heat, and many, many little issues- Kristine & Bill got married on Saturday. It was a beautiful wedding and a fun reception. I’ll have all my pictures up soon. Yes, I was the matron of honor. Here’s to Mr. & Mrs. Olmschenk! Congrats!

I’ve added pictures from our wine night on a pontoon boat on Medicine Lake. Lots of fun— way too much wine for me!!

I always look forward to the Land of the Loon weekend up in Virginia. Not only is there a ton of good food to eat but also fun stuff to buy. Made the first trip up to the park early on Saturday morning. It was so hot out that we left at noon and came back at 3:00 once the crowds thinned out. Saturday night was the street dance- and I drank to much- big surprise. It was still fun though. Sunday we went back to the park in the rain. Nothing can deter a serious shopper Had a great weekend over all. I’ve uploaded some pictures so check it out!

I walk out the door and close my eyes taking in the smells and sounds of spring. I love this time of year. The little birds flutter around the bird feeder and wash themselves in the bird bath. The trees begin to bud and now many have large blossoms of flowers. It all makes my heart smile after a long winter.

Spring also brings about the many projects that have to get done: spraying the lawn and rocks for weeds, cleaning the windows, planting the bulbs or watching them come up (this year meant pulling them all up and planting them some place else as well as mulching), and planting the vegetable garden - we love fresh vegetables at our house. It is a lot of work to get everything ready in the spring- but I wouldn’t pass it up for anything.

I also get a chance to buy my flowers for the year. Oh how I love to have flowers. Some say that I have too many- but I think it is just right. This year I took a trip to Virginia to buy flowers. GREAT IDEA!! I had bought all my flowers in the Cities last year and spent a fortune only to have them ruined by hail in late spring. Well I priced everything I wanted and ended up spending about half of what I did last year- all because of a little 3 hour car ride. There was not a place in my car that didn’t have flowers- in the truck, the backseat, the floor of the backseat, the back window, between the front seats, on the passenger floor in front. I would have had more but there wasn’t room. I had a chance to plant them this week and I must say that they look great. They haven’t had much chance to grow yet but I am very much anticipating the day when I look around and all my flower boxes and containers and gardens are full of new growth and beauty. I could spend all day sitting in the swing just looking at my flowers. It definitely calms me down after a long day- especially if there is a glass of wine in hand. Now that Andy has begun to try more wines, I think that we will spend a few evenings sitting outside enjoying our yard. Being a homeowner is great!!!

This last weekend was girls weekend. Laura, Barb, Kristine and I set off on Saturday morning for a weekend to ourselves in St. Paul. We had lunch at Cafe Latte (which I highly recommend) and did a little shopping.

We also tried out our creativity at Paint Your Plate on Grand Ave in St. Paul. It is a ceramic shop that you can paint different types of things and then the owers fire them in the kiln. The prodcuts are ready to pick up in about a week. One of the funnest things was that we were able to enjoy a bottle of wine while we painted our items. Kristine was the only one that didn’t make a two part serving dish- she made a watering can and it was adorable. It was a blast and I can’t wait to see what the finished products look like. I think we’ll have to go back there again sometime.

By the time we had finished up painting our stuff it was time to check into the hotel. We played with the settings on the sleep number beds and got all gussied up for dinner and an evening out on the town. Of course we had to swap clothes and help do makeup and hair. It is always so much fun to do that!

We ate at Axel’s Bonfire- which was great. By the time dinner was done- the dueling pianos had started so we stayed for awhile and watched it. I even got to be the cowbell girl and Barb was the tamborine girl. We had a few drinks in us- so I’m not sure how well we were keeping the beat when we were up on stage. So fun!

Barb had gone to college around that area, so she wanted to take us to the bar that she usually went to. It was definately a college bar- and boy are college guys dumb. I’m not sure if we paid for any drinks all night. Guys would come up to us (as we were standing around a table) and want to buy us drinks- which normally would be fine but we are all married or engaged. Not once did the guys look at our left hand to see if we were “taken.” Kristine lectured most of them to be sure they look for rings. I had a great time and lots to drink for free! College guys….you gotta love them!

Back at the hotel-we got silly. Kristine decided she was going to have a rice krispy bar that I had made- but one bite into it she changed her mind. She then proceeded to try to make everyone else eat it. She even knocked me over trying to shove it into my mouth. We finally settled down and “slept”- all except poor Barb that had too many Mountain Dews to sleep. On Sunday morning we were all moving a little slower. It was a great weekend and I can’t wait to do it next year!

I have put pictures here

On Saturday, Andy & I hosted a murder mystery. The invitations were sent out with the characters each person would be playing. Almost everyone came in costume- which made the evening even more fun. The killer is at the party and they don’t know that they did it until the end. It was a ton of fun and I’d do it again in a minute. Check out the pictures from the evening in the photo gallery.

We also went through 12 bottles of wine plus beer and some liquor (for the 7 of us that were drinking)…what a night!!