2011 by the Numbers

States Visited: 8 (CA, KS, MO, TX, FL, IL, PA, IA)

Countries Visited: technically 0, but went to a few US territories on our cruise

Weddings Attended: 0 (BOO! I LOVE weddings....can't believe I didn't go to a single one this year!)

Trips to the Cabin: 5 (pretty slim number, here. Gotta change that in 2012)

Triathlons: 0

5Ks: 1

Trips to Green Bay: 2

Football Games (in person): 3 professional, 1 college

Blog Posts: 9 (lame!)

Half Marathons: 1 (Chicago)

Funerals: 2 (dear family friends lost both Grandma and Grandpa this year)

Books Read: 20 (some of them were listened to)

Times Pulled Over: 1 (boo!)

Dates: 4

Resolutions Kept: 0

.....and a lot more babies born to friends, plus one big move to WI!

Grocery Shopping I'll Actually Do

I absolutely hate grocery shopping. I think I lack “grocery intuition” – I am never able to find the exact product I need and I usually spend countless minutes roaming up and down the rows looking for what I need (or tracking down employees to point me in the right direction). I also have to call my mother at least two times every time I go grocery shopping to ask her exactly where I might find something, never mind the fact she lives five hours away and has never set foot into the store where I am standing.

My deficiency in grocery skills does nothing but encourage my poor eating habits. For instance, when I bought my house, my mom and aunt stocked my cupboards with some staples…..and I proceeded to not set foot in a grocery store for the next four months (my poor eating habits have been well documented on this blog….). I end up eating way too many overly-processed or frozen foods.

This summer I started a new grocery shopping habit. It almost happened by accident: I had an especially busy week and I needed to get food for a weekend at the cabin with friends. My only chance to get to the store was also the night my roommate called to see if I wanted to enjoy the beautiful night and play tennis. Of course, I chose tennis. Later that night, I went online and signed up for Coborn’s Delivers. In a matter of 20 minutes (about the amount of time it takes me to drive to the store and back) I had bought all of my groceries for the weekend! I knew I was onto something….something I would just love! I’ve been using Coborn’s Delivers ever since. Here is what I love:

• There is NO charge for pick up, and the charge for delivery is only $5.00. At the pick up, you drive over a sensor to alert them you are there, and all of your groceries are loaded into your car for you - never having to leave your car.
• You can save your shopping lists, so if there are items you get frequently, they will be ready for you to click and buy.
• One page has a list of all of the special sale items (for example: I would normally have gotten Diet Coke, but I saw that Pepsi products had a great sale, so I got those instead).
• You can type in any coupons at the checkout screen, so you still are saving if you are a coupon clipper.
• Many nights after work I am just too tired to make myself walk around the grocery store and stand in line at the checkout. I can go online and shop while I'm in my pajamas watching TV - in about the same amount of time it takes me to drive to the store anyway.
• You can find specific items SO much faster - just type them into the search box. I wasted at least ten minutes walking around the grocery store last week looking for Rotella (for a delicious dip recipe my sister gave me) and the whole time I was thinking "if I was shopping online I would already be done with this!!"...but I hadn't planned ahead enough to do that.
• Also, when you search an item (like "pickles"), you get an entire page of results with all of the prices and specials listed as well. More than a few times I've gone with a different brand because of specials that I wouldn't have noticed in the grocery store (though more seasoned grocery shoppers may have noticed them).

All that to say....Coborn's Delivers is my new best friend!

Time Flies...

...when you're busy!

Can't believe I haven't posted for basically all of September! Well, I can believe it, because things have been busy. With what?....

• Cabin: had an AWESOME Labor Day Weekend at the cabin. LOTS of friends and family (I think there were 26 people there throughout the weekend...), lots of food and games. Dad did tons of work on the house for me, mom made tons of food, and I felt very thankful and blessed to have such a nice weekend at my home! The boat, dock, and lift are out, so summer is officially over! I've also been searching high and low to find a renter for the winter at the cabin, so that has meant lots of trips to Brainerd and back (mostly after work, which makes for some late nights) to show the house, but nothing has materialized yet.
• Work: just got back from a week in California for sales meetings. I usually enjoy the change of pace, but I got really sick this last week, which was absolutely NO fun (especially the flight home). I'm glad to say I made it through a rough summer with work and have been excited about a busy September with a new set of doctors to call on and preparations for last week's meeting. It's been a good busy at work, which is nice.
• Church: I've taken on some additional responsibilities with the Welcome Team at church, which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! September was busy with the start of the new ministry year (meetings, schedules, emails, more meetings, changing schedules, etc, etc, etc). I'm so thankful to have been plugged into a ministry I really love! Again, busy...but a good busy.
• Fun with Friends: fill in the cracks of the month with [EACH OF THESE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A SEPARATE POST....OOPS] seeing Wicked again (AMAZING), GreekFest (best gyro EVER), going to Wheel of Fortune auditions (unbelievable people watching), my best friend from high school had a baby (TOO cute with SO much hair!), going to the Twins game (where we sat in the SECOND ROW BY THIRD BASE on a gorgeous night!!), small group meetings, girls' night in Uptown (I had the BEST sandwich ever...I was totally craving it the next day...and a blog I follow just happened to do a review on it recently) babysitting for cuties, birthday parties for college friends, kickball started again, basketball started again, dog sitting.....OH MY GOODNESS IT HAS BEEN SO BUSY AND SO FUN!

A friend of mine mentioned on her blog that she isn't blessed with the best memory, so her blog helps her to document her memories. I also do not have a great memory, so I need to be better about blogging! So, thanks to my sickness, I've had a nice lazy day at home (which hasn't happened in quite some time) and I'm catching up on cleaning, blogging, etc. Hope y'all are having a nice weekend!

90 Day Challenge

I have been MORE than lazy this summer. I haven't worked out since May, and I've been eating everything in sight. This is not a good combination. I've been trying to think of some ways to have better accountability in these areas, but I always came up with a reason to not follow through. The timing seemed right, then, when I got an email from my gym a few weeks ago about the 90 Day Challenge. I'm not really sure exactly what this all entails (since my official weigh in isn't until later today), but I do know that it is a fitness challenge to see who can trim the most weight/inches in the next 90 days. You are assisted by a trainer and you also get some nutrition guidance. There are some prizes on the line, too. A few friends of mine have also signed up, so between the trainer and my friends, I should have some good accountability.

A few months ago I took a nutrition course (which I failed to blog about). Of course people were there to learn how to eat better to lose and control weight, but the instructor also encouraged us to set two goals in changing our diet that didn't have to do with weight. My goals were to have more sustained energy throughout the day and to sleep better at night. I was really pleased with how I could see the results: when, what, and how much I ate was effecting my energy and sleeplessness. I have totally fallen away from any good habits I acquired in that class, but I hope to implement a few during the 90 Day Challenge.

When I do New Year's Resolutions or little personal challenges like this, I am tempted to try and change EVERYTHING in my life that I would like to be different: eating habits, sleeping habits, exercise habits, devotional habits, etc, etc, etc. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew this time because then I get discouraged and I don't change anything. So I wanted to have a small list to work off of for the next 90 days:

• only one cup of black coffee a day
• no soda
• work out in the morning as much as possible
• run a half marathon (Oct 17 Des Moines) - this will be the work out plan I will be following
• not cutting out snacks completely, but making better choices with the snacks I do choose
• drink more water (which should be easy since I drink about zero right now)
• have a more consistent bedtime (hard to do in the summer, so we'll see about this one...)
• have salad for lunch at least twice a week (I eat horrible at lunch everyday since I am bringing in all kinds of good (bad for you) food to clinics - like pizza, Boston Market chicken-meatloaf-sweet potatoes, pasta, LeAnn Chin, etc, etc, etc.....)

So....we'll see how it goes! I have to remind myself to take baby steps and not get discouraged. I feel a little crazy for signing up for a race that is only 10 weeks away, but if I'm not ready for it, I don't feel like I absolutely have to do it - it is just a nice goal for me to have.

In My Purse

My purse needs to be cleaned out. In addition to the normal pursey things (money, chapstick, kleenex, camera, gum, advil), I've collected some random items over the summer in my purse - including:

• earrings
• cortisone cream (OH, I forgot to mention the horsefly bite that nearly caused me to lose my leg....)
• a phone charger
• socks (?)
• mosquito spray
• playing cards
• a toothbrush

My goodness. I'm not even a mom - why in the world to I have so many random things in my purse?! I can only chalk it up to the fact that it's been a fun, random summer so far!

Even More Suggestions

In response to my last post, my sister sent me a link to an awesome source for even more fun suggestions of things to do in the cities. Enjoy!

An Eventful Weekend

Sorry to bore some (most) of you with lists of what I've been up to lately (which is what much of my recent blogging has been), but that is somewhat the purpose of this blog - for me, anyway. I hope to get into some more reflections/thoughts soon, but I've simply been too BUSY to do it! Here's what the last week looked like:

• A nice, low-key Fourth at the cabin with my parents and family friends.
• Quick three-day work week (LOVE short work weeks)
• Took Friday off to judge Miss Northwest. It was the 75th Annual Water Carnival, so they did a nice job of getting many former queens to come back for the evening. All of the judges were past Miss Northwests, and we had fun reminiscing about our favorite parts of our reigns. (Side note: judging is a VERY interesting endeavour. I feel much more at peace with the pageants I didn't win having now served on the other side of things. Judges all are opinionated in their own ways, and even judges can be curious as to who the winner will actually be! When you have evenly matched contestants and a panel that doesn't speak at all about their leanings, it makes for an interesting outcome - which I think is how it should be)
• Went to a cabin on Saturday with friends from high school and their wives. I love, love, love those people. So fun to ride on the boat and attempt to wake board (unsuccessfully - still mad about that....) and laugh, laugh, laugh.
• Went to my cabin Saturday night with my mom and sister. Had a good time chatting, eating, and watching (sleeping through) a movie. Sunday was spent cleaning and I ran a few errands to spruce up the cabin in preparation for many, many weeks straight of guests. So fun!

So, it was an eventful weekend. It was also eventful on the home front - I came home to find the boy had gotten stitches after a run-in with a Mastiff! His five-pound frame looked like a yummy snack to the hundred pound dog! His bad haircut now looks even worse where they shaved his head and neck to do the stitching. He's lucky to be alive, and I'm beginning to think he actually is a cat - with nine lives and all!

Hope you all are getting every single ounce out of summer that you can! It's going to be gone before we know it!!

Listbean

If you've been around me for more than two seconds, you know that I am obsessed with lists! I inherited this from my dad. I mostly operate from my To Do list, but I also have lists of movies I want to see, places I want to eat at, books I've read, etc....I even have a tag on this blog for "lists". You get the point. So imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon Listbean today! Pre-populated checklists for things I didn't even know I needed a checklist for!!!!!! Never forget something when you pack again! Become annoyingly organized! Thought I'd pass it along for any other OCD organizers out there....enjoy!

So Long, Favorite Month

I can't let all of March go by without mentioning how it is my favorite month (although June could give it a run for it's money). I know I've mentioned it before, but I must pay proper respect to March, especially since this March has been pretty wonderful. My FB status a few weeks ago read: "Dear month of March: I love you for your snow melting powers and sunlight in the evening hours, but most of all I love you for your amazing basketball tournament!!"

• MARCH MADNESS did NOT disappoint. It is the best sporting event of the year, and this year was very dramatic. I was up late a few too many nights, but it was worth it (hello, double overtime K State/Xavier game!!!!!!!!!).
• The SUN! I. love. daylight. savings. spring. forward.
• The WARM-UP! This is the first year in history (or since records were kept) that we did not get any snow in March. It is 70 degrees out right now!! Most of the snow has been gone for weeks. I really love it.
• I didn't travel this March, but that was one of my favorite things, since I did SO much traveling at the start of this year. I really needed to do some "nesting" and "grounding", which I feel that I did, so I'm pleased.

Real Simple 10th Anniversary Issue

I totally LOVED reading the Real Simple 10th Anniversary Issue. (I also love that I'm the roommate who always gets the mail so I can read through my roommates magazines before she gets home....)

I especially liked the feature where they compiled the best of new uses for old things. Some of my favorites:

• a tissue box as a plastic bag dispenser
• a dryer sheet as a pan cleaner (put it in the bottom of an especially hard-to-clean pan, fill it with warm water, let it sit overnight)
• a tea strainer as a sugar duster for bars, etc.
• a toothbrush as a corn on the cob cleaner
• a ketchup bottle as a pancake-batter dispenser
• a toothpick as a sewing aid (put it between the button and your clothing to create the right space - not too tight, not too loose)

That's all. I just wanted to write those down somewhere because I figured I'd forget about them unless I have them somewhere I can refer to. The whole issue seemed especially beautiful and informative to me. Loved it.

Brain Unload

I have many very random things on my mind after a weekend where I spent much of my time in bed sick. I went through my Reader this weekend and realized that I had over 60 "starred items" that I had wanted to get back to at some point: either to read through again, comment about on my blog, etc. Don't worry, I won't share all 60 items in this post, but I will play a little catch-up with a post that has a little to do with everything on mind (from "starred items" to "Life in General").

So here, in no particular order, is my brain unload:

• Last Sunday a friend and I decided to hold each other accountable to losing 20 pounds by my birthday (we decided on that because it was 19 weeks away, so one pound/week). This Sunday I had lunch with her and I had already completely forgotten about our decision. So...apparently I wasn't thinking about it much over the last week. Oops. I needed to write it down somewhere to make it more real for myself - so there it is. Now I have to actually do it. Ugh.
• Why do I have 14 socks that have no matches? I FINALLY did laundry today (hadn't done it since I got back from my trip....) and I ended up putting ANOTHER sock in my basket of no-matches. Annoying.
• I went to the grocery store today for the first time in 2010. Not kidding. I'm also not kidding when I say that I only went because I was tagging-along to spend some time with a friend. I keep thinking that it's useless to buy groceries when I'm about to go on a trip, so I just don't buy any. Needless to say, my eating habits have been less-than-healthy. Need to change that when I get back from Lithuania.
• The Olympics started. I mentioned the last time the Olympics came around how I don't seem to get as excited about them as other people do (especially the Winter Olympics). But again, I was in bed a lot this weekend, and I happened to be watching when a Canadian won the mogul race (Canada's first ever gold medal won in an Olympics held in Canada) and then talked about his handicapped brother who motivates him to do his best. I cried (of course). I was hooked.
• I signed up for a free program at my gym where you wore a pedometer for a week, turned it in, and would receive a gift. After I sent in the pedometer, I forgot about the mystery gift that was on it's way, so imagine my surprise when I opened a box a few weeks later and found this:
A shirt, a towel, a bag, a water bottle, etc. The water bottle is AWESOME and probably worth at least $15, so I was pretty pumped I got it all for free. Too bad I already lost the water bottle. I used it at least once for both tennis and basketball, but I have no idea where it is now. Scatterbrain.

• I meant to put a picture on here of a cake I made for a friend's birthday, so here it is:
I got the idea online somewhere. It turned out pretty good!

• I mentioned that I was having a funky attitude last week, mostly having to do with being single, etc. I was reminded how unpredictable and hard relationships can be when I read this article about a couple I've been "blog stalking" for....maybe two years? I'm always encouraged by the grace, wisdom, honesty, and humility I see displayed in their lives. They have an incredible story, and an incredibly hard story. Their faith is so encouraging to me.
• There was a little Super Bowl Ad that generated a lot of publicity even before it was shown. I was reminded of a moment when I was watching ESPN from a treadmill at the gym and I almost started crying. Here's a news clip about the moment that I was reminded of during all the hype over that ad:
  
  
• So. The Vikings lost. I was really bummed, but it's not the end of the world. Sports have been a big part of my life and I'm extremely thankful for that, but I always want to make sure that I don't have the wrong priorities when it comes to sports. I liked a lot of the points about sports and faith in this article, so I wanted to link to it. That's all.
• Time. I think I need to rethink how I spend my time. Two quotes that have me thinking about time: "The grass is not greener on the other side of the fence, the grass is greener where you water it." (Anonymous?) and "The primary reason we do too much is that we have never taken the time to discover the portion of what we do that makes the biggest difference." (Andy Stanley). Hmmmmm.
• This video made me cry
  

Okay. That's PLENTY. Brain unloaded. Time to focus on work for the week and get going to LITHUANIA!

Countdowns

I currently have the best countdowns!

ONE DAY until my first ski of the season, and my first viewing of a Christmas movie for the season (Elf or Christmas Vacation, Christmas Vacation or Elf?!?!?! Decisions, decisions, decisions.......). I have been patiently (OR IMPATIENTLY) waiting for this weekend of fun-with-sister-skiing-movie-slumber-party-tickle-fight-secrets-and-giggles.

ONE WEEK until we celebrate Christmas! ASD;FLKJA SD;FLKJAS DF;LKAJSD F;ALSKDJF A;SLDFKJ

ONE MONTH later, I will be on a PLANE TO HAWAII with the crew from last year. Oh, I CAN'T WAIT!!

ONE MONTH after that, I will be on a PLANE TO LITHUANIA! Woo hoo! Baltic states!! Kidding, I'm much more excited about seeing some Favorites than I am about being in a Baltic state, though I think it will be neat-o to say I've been to a Baltic state.

Okay, I had to get that out of my system. But seriously. Favorite countdowns ever. **excited fists**

Reading List

I'm busy making and narrowing down lists of books I'd like to read on vacation in less than two weeks (!). Then I saw this note on Facebook (called "The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books here. How do your reading habits stack up?"), and I normally wouldn’t post something that I saw on the FB, but this caught my attention for a few reasons:

• The person who posted this list had read 46 of the books!
• I just had a conversation with a friend who said he wanted to read more classics. He had just finished The Count of Monte Cristo and LOVED it, so it moved to the top of my list (as soon as I’m in the mood to read a 1500 pager, that is) and it is on this list as well.
• In this same conversation about reading classics, I admitted to this friend that I’ve tried and tried to read Austen and I’ve never been able to get interested enough to finish a book of her’s (::gasp::). Four of her novels are on this list. :/
• The best book I’ve read in 2009 is The Life of Pi (based on LH’s recommendation) and it is on this list.
• The main character of the series I am currently reading makes a few references to Wuthering Heights, so it sparked my interest in reading that book, and it is on this list.
• I think I’m correctly remembering that the title of my sister’s blog comes from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night. It’s always been on my list of books to read, and it is on this list, too.
• I JUST asked my sister to try and get The Time Traveler's Wife for our vacation. I've been on my library's waiting list for three weeks and it doesn't look like I'll get it in time. And it's on this list.

So, anyway, I think this list is rather random, and by no means comprehensive, but since it seemed like I had a lot of recent encounters with books on this list, I posted it here. That way I can refer to it as time goes on.

I've only read 23 of them, FYI.

Here's the list with my Yes or No behind each book.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen - No
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien - No
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte - No
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling – No
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - Yes
6 The Bible – Most of it, obviously, but sadly, I think I have never read every word of it.
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte - No
8 1984 - George Orwell - Yes
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman – No
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Yes
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott - No
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy - No
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller - No
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare - No
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier - No
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien – No
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk - No
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger - No
19 The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger - No
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot - No
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell - No
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald - Yes
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens - No
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy - No
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - Yes
26 Wicked - Gregory Maguire - No
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky - No
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck - Yes
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll - No
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame - No
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy - No
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens - No
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis – Yes
34 Emma - Jane Austen - No
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen - No
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis - Yes
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hossein - Yes
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres - No
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden - Yes
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne – No
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell - Yes
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown - Yes
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez – Yes
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving – No
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins - No
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery - No
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy - No
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood - No
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding – Yes
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan - No
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel – Yes
52 Dune - Frank Herbert - No
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons - No
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen - No
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth - No
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon - No
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens - No
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley - Yes
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night - Mark Haddon - No
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - No
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck - Yes
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov - No
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt - No
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold – Yes
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas – No
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac - No
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy - No
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding - No
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie - No
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville - No
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens - No
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker - No
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett – Yes
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson - No
75 Ulysses - James Joyce - No
76 The Inferno - Dante – Yes
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome - No
78 Germinal - Emile Zola - No
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray - No
80 Possession - AS Byatt - No
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens - No
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell - No
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker - No
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro - No
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert - No
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry - No
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White - Yes
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom - Yes
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – No
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton - No
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad - No
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery - No
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks - No
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams - No
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole - No
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute - No
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas - No
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare – No
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl - No
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo - Yes

Me Likey

Today was a really great day:

• I FINALLY closed on my refinancing. Now I will save money, which makes me happy.
• I had to go to Brainerd for the closing, so I took the day off work and read on the dock ALL DAY. It was sunny and mild. PERFECT.
• Went over to the neighbors' and sat in their new hot tub with the girls for awhile.
• I came up with plans and dreams for the cabin. Most likely none of them will ever happen, but it is fun to dream.
• Went running for the first time since the 5K in May. I barely ran 2 miles (and I am in a 5K next week....ugh...) but I didn't have a problem with my foot, so that is good news.
• I love having friends at the cabin, but I also like a day there by myself. It is such a retreat for me.
• Great time in the car on the way there and back listening to interviews, music, and chatting on the phone.

Today was much needed after a crazy-busy weekend including a wedding, watching a triathlon, playing at the cabin, going to church, a picnic with friends, and only six-seven hours of sleep. Now I feel rested, refreshed, and ready for the week. Now if I only could never work another Monday in my life....

Yard Work and Quilting

While I was mowing tonight (yes, I'm one of the few people in the nation who believe it is a perfect time to mow when the heat index is 98! Don't worry, I hydrated all day in anticipation of my evening activity) I was struck with the similarities between yard work and quilting.

Stick with me, readers. Both of you.

I was surprised tonight by how much I like to mow. I mean, I remember that I like to mow, but it had just been so long since I've done any mowing that I forgot how much I like it. Which for some reason made me think of quilting (one of the reasons I like mowing: my random mind gets even more random and has time to just wander...) because I was surprised at how much I liked quilting when I started that a few years ago. So that got me to thinking about the similarities between the two.

Here is what I came up with:

• Results: Both quilting and yard work have nice results, and the results are pretty immediate. You can do your projects in chunks, but you can always see the instant results of what you have just done.
• Detail: Yard work and quilting both have various levels of detail. You don't necessarily have to be uber-meticulous to do either, but the more meticulous you are, the better your results are.
• Cost/Time: Quilting and yard work can both get pretty expensive, depending on how much you want to put into it. It can also take a lot of time, depending on how much you want to put into it.
• Socializing: I realized tonight that I probably only quilt because it is a social activity for me. Which is funny, because quilting most likely did not start as a social activity (I'm assuming it was just much more practical and necessary than that in the beginning). I rarely break out my quilting supplies to do it by myself; I just wait until the retreat and quilt for an entire weekend while I talk, eat, and laugh. It is AWESOME. And while I don't mind mowing by myself, I realized that I would probably do a lot more yard work if it became a social activity. I could imagine taking up gardening if I had a friend doing it with me (not that I need another hobby....and not that gardening runs in my family at all.....). So while quilting and yard work probably seem like solo endeavors, I really prefer them as social activities.

Some men probably don't understand why some women love to quilt so much. And some women probably don't understand why some men love their yards so much. But maybe they're actually very similar at the core: detailed, results-oriented, and they provide a great sense of accomplishment. No wonder I like them. So, if you ever want to rake some leaves or whip up some baby quilts, I'm your gal!

Birthday Week 2009

Oh, it was a very fun week! Here is a list of some EXCELLENT things from the week:

• Went to LaCrosse last Friday for my sister's graduation from Residency. We ate at Fridays where they have AMAZING Jack Daniels menu items. YUM!
• We "celebrated" Father's Day there and Dad is pretty EXCITED about our gift to him (motorcycle rental for a day).
• We also celebrated my birthday where my sisters announced their gift to me: tickets to the SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE TOUR!
• The next day there was a picnic for my sister's graduation where we learned to play croquet. New favorite yard game!
• That night we went to a banquet for my sister's graduation. SUCH an accomplishment!
• I then ate Chicken McNuggets at midnight on the way home......to stay awake. And because I wanted too. And because they are delicious and I hadn't had any in SO LONG.
• I was on Welcome Team for church, which I totally love!
• Four people got baptized after church
• Then we had a picnic on that very hot day, where we played sand volleyball until I wanted to pass out, and it was SO FUN
• Monday night was spent helping some best good friends move back just a few blocks away! YAY! The night was gorgeous and a bunch of us stuck around to eat and laugh and it was good times had by all.
• Tuesday was the Twins game: DOME DOG, fun friends, Mauer went 4 for 4, and we won!
• Wednesday was kickball: my team surprised me with a cake and a gorgeous card!
• We also happened to beat the only other undefeated team in the league that night, so now we are in first place!
• Thursday (my actual birthday) started with leftover cake for breakfast!
• Had a very productive day at work, for good measure
• PANCHO VILLA for my birthday dinner! Thoughtful friends, great food!
• Received beautiful flowers from my aunt
• Lazy day off on Friday (finishing up work from the week and getting ready to head to the cabin)
• Basketball friends at the cabin - they also surprised me with a cake (complete with sparkler-candles)!
• S'mores, bonfires, late night board games, yard games, grilling, and ABSOLUTELY PERFECT WEATHER...
• Learned to knee board (my friends brought knee boards instead of wake boards, so that is what I learned, and I liked it!)
• We also had JET SKIS for the weekend!! MY FAVORITE!!!

Can't think of much else. Needless to say it was a FANTASTIC Birthday Week!! My thanks to everyone who went the extra mile with surprises and kind words and coming out to celebrate with me! I feel BLESSED. I also feel older, because all this activity has left me EXHAUSTED!!

My Friends' Husbands

They are great.

I am so glad that so many of my friends have married well. I have great examples of what I am looking for in a future husband.

Even though some of the husbands tease me a bit too much from time to time, I know they do it because they know I can take it, and because we have a lot of fun together. I’m so glad that I don’t feel disappointed when hanging out with my friends turns into also hanging out with the husbands.

Here are some reasons I enjoy my friends' husbands (each item isn't something every husband does, rather, it’s a compiled list of things many of the different husbands do):

• They offer to hang up my coat, pull out my seat, and get me punch when we are at a wedding/event.
• They insist on carrying my bags in from the car.
• They call me to play cards when they need a fourth.
• They fix things for me at the cabin.
• They offer thoughtful compliments.
• They call me on my birthday.
• They take an interest in how my job is going.
• They play Ultimate/catch/other sporty things with me.
• They enjoy strange music and force me to listen to it until I also enjoy it.
• They are REALLY good at grilling.
• They are good dads.
• They buy my dinner now and again.
• They put up with my loud laugh, incessant talking, and many visits to their homes.
• They are smart and funny and nice.
• They love the Lord (this applies to all of them).

I got to thinking about these husband-people today because one of them was featured at C.J. Mahaney's blog. Matthew is attending the Pastors College in Maryland and recently talked about his experience there. I was very excited when I saw this post in my Reader! Matthew is an incredibly gifted speaker, preacher, and teacher. I have missed hearing him preach these last months and it was nice to have a small glimpse into what he has been doing and what brought them there. I have MISSED them this year (OH, HOW I HAVE MISSED THEM), but their trust in God's plan is encouraging and they both have amazing faith.

Baseball Season, Football Fever

I’ve been very excited about football season lately. I know, baseball has just started and it is months and months until football starts, but there are many reasons for me to be more excited about football than baseball right now.

1. The Twins have been kinda disappointing so far this season. They were projected by many to be the best team in the division (and they might still end up as the best), but they currently are third (out of four). I understand everything about how long the season is and it has barely started, and how our best player (Mauer) hasn’t played yet, but still. It just hasn’t been good. I feel like we’ve already missed a lot of opportunities, and thanks to last year’s tie-breaking game vs. the Sox, we all know how important every game can be. I’d rather not be in that position again.

2. The NFL draft was this weekend. I always like to see who we acquire and speculate on how they will fit into the team.

3. The NFL schedule came out last week. I already know that I will be going to the Vikings/Packers game both at the Dome and at Lambeau. The game in the Dome is a Monday night game. Should be good. I also might be going to the game in Cleveland (or possibly St. Louis). Details aren’t set for that yet, but it would be fun to see if one of those might work out.

4. I’m already hopeful for the Vikings season. Coming off a season where we won the division, I have high hopes that we can do it again – especially after seeing our schedule. I do think our division will be pretty competitive, though. None of the schedules are very tough, especially considering the Vikings, Packers, and Bears all get to play the Lions twice (basically two guaranteed wins there). We start out our schedule with the Browns, the Lions, and the 49ers, so we should be able to go into the Packers game 3-0. One game that could set up to be very interesting is the Bears game on Dec 28th (Monday night). It’s the second to last game of the season and we will have just played them four games earlier. Depending on how things shake out, we both could have very good records at that point and it’s possible we would be playing to clinch the division. At least that’s how things would go in my purple-and-gold-colored world. I guess I’ll have this blog to refer back to in seven months to see if I’m right….or more likely (especially now that I’ve documented my optimism) not right.

Even though I already have football fever, I am anxious to get to a Twins game sooner rather than later. Especially when Mauer gets back in the line up. And especially to have a DOME DOG.

Did You Know....

Warning: this post has the potential to be EXTREMELY random. So, you can just pretend we were chatting in person, since chatting with me is about as random as it gets.

Sometimes I think, "They (whoever 'they' is) should create [fill in the blank]. Then life would be more convenient". Well, I have discovered that a few of these convenient "things" have indeed already been created. Maybe you've already been aware of them, but if not, here is some info.

• Have you ever been driving a car you aren't familiar with and you need to fill it with gas? You start craning your neck to see which side the gas tank is on, correct? Worst case scenario, you pull up to the pump, get out, and realize the tank is on the other side of the car. WELL, did you know that there is an arrow on the gas gauge in the car to indicate which side the tank is on?! All you have to do is look at the gauge and see which way the arrow is pointing! GENIUS! I had never noticed that before.
• Did you know that tin foil dispensers (and plastic wrap, et al.) have tabs on the end of the boxes that will keep the roll in the box as you pull out and tear off what you need? I have always thought that pulling out tin foil is so CLUMSY and then someone pointed out that little ingenious invention to me. Sweet.
• A friend of mine has a new favorite drink at Starbucks and I had a sip of it the last time we were together. I can't remember the exact name of it, but it was an apple-chai-tea-hot-drink-thing. It is delicious. I went ahead and figured out how to make it at home: heat up apple juice in a mug and then steep a packet of chai tea in the apple juice (I bought decaffeinated tea so I can have a glass at night). I think the Starbucks version might have something creamy in it, which you could easily add, but I have really enjoyed this yummy drink every night for the last week or so!
• And while we're on the topic of figuring out restaurant versions of stuff, I will tell you about my favorite cornbread muffins (from a great fast food place). All you do is get the Jiffy brand Cornbread Mix and the Jiffy brand Yellow Cake Mix. Combine both mixes and all their ingredients in a bowl, pour the batter into a 8X8 pan, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. YUM! Tastes just like the restaurant.
• Did you know that April is National Poetry Month? My sister has been posting a poem each day. We had a College Prep teacher in high school who was a writer and had a great love of poetry. We started each class with a poem of the day and I'm thankful that he made me slow down enough to appreciate and start to love poetry. You should check out her blog for some great poems.
• Also, that same sister has A BIRTHDAY TODAY!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday, Eva Joy. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!

Now you know something new, I hope. You're welcome. If you already knew all of these things, then you should post a comment of some other helpful little inventions, or something else that you know about. I like to learn about these kinds of things.

First Trip Observations

Made my first trip to the CABIN today!! Here are some observations I made:

• Gas is $.13 cheaper in the cities than near Brainerd. Good to know. I will need to keep an eye on this as the summer goes on.
• The colors on the drive are currently brown and grey. Soon (I hope) they will be GREEN and GREENER.
• There is still ice on the lake.
• I also saw a loon on the lake. I LOVE hearing their call. They must like COLD water.
• The gas tank on my new car is significantly smaller than the tank on the car I was driving last summer.
• There is a small (or possibly large) community of MICE living in the cabin. Oy vey. I need to remedy that over the next month. I didn't SEE any mice, but there was PLENTY OF EVIDENCE. Grr.

Overall the trip to the cabin was great! There is so much cleaning to be done, though....