Holiday shmoliday

The holiday season has been kicked into high gear in our household. We've already attended 2 holiday parties and have 3 more to go! We have officially finished our Christmas gift shopping! Thank God! I think this is by far the earliest we have ever finished and I am so glad to not have to fight the holiday rush with the last minute shoppers. I usually am one of the people out at 10:00 pm the night before! It must be that as I get older the more I plan ahead. Sorry Wade! I know you like to take things as they come. That could cause us problems in the future if I continue on this trend! I'll try to remember to keep things spontaneous as well. :)

Looking back at the past year, as 2008 quickly approaches, I know that Wade and I have a TON to be thankful for. Here's to having as many blessings in 2008 as we have had in 2007. Our health, our families and friends, a roof over our heads, food to eat and plenty to drink (haha). We have truly been blessed. We'd like to wish you all a happy holiday season and a happy new year too!

Here's a look back at some of the many fun things we've done this past year.

CHEERS!

Ringing in 2007!

Good times at the Cabooze

Preggo Lindsey (such a cute Mama)

Girls Night Out

Fish Fry Night

Guster Concert

Lesli & Tim's wedding

Hawaii!

Starkey Hearing Foundation Cocktail Party

40 Hands at Buzzards & Beer

Chicago Trip

1997 Valley High 10-year Reunion

Liar's Club

Horsey Time

Sturgis Week

Family Reunion

Tailgating (GO CLONES!)

Halloween

What Wade & I have been doing for the past year...

So some of you know that Wade and I have been in the process of major upgrading on the house we bought just over a year ago. I thought I would show some of the things we've completed this past year in our attempt to get our home updated. When I look back at these pictures it really opens my eyes to all we've done. But our to-do list seems just as long as ever for some reason!

We just moved our bed upstairs about 2 weeks ago finally. The new carpet is in! (And Kobe graciously threw up all over it about a week after it was installed. A whole other story in itself. Thank you for breaking it in Kobe. Sense the sarcasm?) Anyway, the only things we need to do upstairs now are to install the trim, put in the closet rail/shelves and refinish the built in's. Then our upstairs master bedroom will be complete! To see just how far we've come with it here are the before and after pictures.

Wasn't it pretty before? I really dig the wood paneling and linoleum floors. :)

Brad helped out a lot! Thanks Brad!Paint is done but carpet isn't in yet.

Finally, carpet is in and the railing is up and painted. That thing was a pain in the ass to paint.

Our backyard was a complete mess when we moved in. Hardly any grass, a huge ugly dying tree, a long line of tree/shrub/bush things, and wood chips substituted for landscaping. Yes, very nice indeed. We completely tore apart the back yard. And this will show you why (and it doesn't even do it justice as to how bad it truly was)...

We'd already taken down the 4 1/2 foot high chain link fence. Ugly!

After the tree was removed and we'd yanked all the tree/shrub/bush things. Wade had a lot of fun w/ that Bobcat!
Grass! (And an outrageous water bill!) Yay!

The front wasn't in as bad of shape, but we pulled 3 crappy bushes and put in some new ones and we put some pavers for the border as well. Don't miss our Cyclone rock. Go Clones! :)

We also tackled putting in a new patio door. That made me really nervous when we had a giant hole in the side of our house. But as always, Wade impressed me and pulled through with a great job done. Our new door really makes the small kitchen feel more open. I don't really have any good before pictures, but you can see the process.

Wade pulled a Chuck Norris on the old door.

Wade cutting through the side of our house! No mistakes allowed!

It's in! Now I just have to figure out what color of paint I want to do in the kitchen and we can finish it up.

Well, those were some of the larger items we tackled throughout the year. Now you can see how we were always busy working on the house. This doesn't even count all the painting I've done (which was pretty much the entire house). Up next will be to insulate the garage, build a deck off our new patio door, add a 3/4 bath downstairs, upgrade our current bathroom and put in new carpet in the basement. After we get all that done then we'll probably move. Go figure. :)

Cheers everyone!

Gobble it up!

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving day already! I can't believe how fast this year has flown by. It seems the older I get the faster time passes me by. We will be traveling for the holiday like usual. Our first stop will be in Galesburg with Wade's family and then onto Des Moines on Saturday for some good eats with my family. It will be a full and busy weekend guaranteed. It's always an interesting challenge to try to get all the family stuff organized for the holidays.

In any case, I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving! Don't worry about eating too much, you can exercise later. :)

Our first anniversary

This coming Sunday is Wade and my first anniversary. I can't believe it has already been a year since we were living the high life down in Key West and getting married. I wish we could have gone back to the Keys for our anniversary, but we've had so much going on lately with the house remodeling and upcoming trips that it wasn't able to happen this year. Hopefully next year we will be able to trek back down there along with friends and family and make it a big fun celebration!

We have a trip to Des Moines scheduled instead for this year. Wow, Des Moines, Key West, Des Moines, Key West... I dunno, they both sound like a blast! :) Haha, okay, but really today is my Dad's birthday so we will celebrate w/ family tonight and have a nice Mexican fiesta at Los Tres Amigos. Aye aye Margarita! Can't wait to taste your icy delicious tequila! :)

Then tomorrow we are going to get pampered with a suite stay at the Suites at 800 Grand. We got a great wedding gift for a free stay there from our friends, the Knapps. We have a couples massage planned and we will be having dinner at Centro. I've always wanted to try this place and have heard great things about it, so I can't wait. We'll eat our year old cake (I'm sure it will be delicious) and have some tasty beverages and get to enjoy each others company. It should be a great anniversary.

And... Wade got me exactly what I wanted for our anniversary. The top diamond band to finish off my wedding band. So I brought it into the jewelers to have it soldered together and will pick it up this afternoon. I can't wait to get it back. Diamonds are a girls best friend! So true! :) Wade certainly knows how to make me happy. He's a wonderful husband. I can't believe it's already been a year... Time flies when you're having fun! CHEERS!

Kicking MS in the butt!

I just heard from my good friend, Katie Bryant, this morning. She was diagnosed a year ago with MS. She is only a year older than me, so she is way too young to have such a debilitating disease if you ask me. But sickness shows no boundaries; young, old, big, small, it doesn't matter.

Anyway, Katie shared with me some terrific news. The MRI last week showed that the new meds she has been on have actually made her lesions shrink! This is wonderful! She is feeling so much better and so upbeat! I am so happy to hear this. Although this is not a cure, it is one step closer and she is now able to get back to living her life!

As some of you may know, last June I participated in the MS 150 Bike Ride in honor of Katie. It goes from Duluth to the Twin Cities over 2 days. Let me just tell you it was by far the most challenging physical activity I have ever done (and ever want to do again!) I felt great after it was done knowing all I had done to try to help fight MS (and knowing I was done!), and between Wade and I we raised over $2,000 to go towards finding the cure for MS. It was a great accomplishment. I am trying to build myself up to do it again this coming June. I told myself last year that I would not let myself forget how hard it was for me and I would not let anyone talk me into doing that crazy ride again. Not only am I not in good shape, but the first day we had head winds between 20-30 mph! Let me tell you, I was in rough shape. Then the 2nd day, the winds subsided a bit, but the heat was intense. It soared to over 90 degrees, which in the first week of June in Minnesota is out of the ordinary to say the least. And the heat kicked my ass. So we had 2 horrible riding days. I've been told that last year's ride was by far the most challenging and that this next year can only be better. Well, I sure the hell would hope so. I almost died on that damn ride. At one point I was wishing I would crash and burn and get picked up by the sag wagon to cross the finish line. But that would be a let down to my sponsors and I wanted to feel good that I did this to help Katie. (Damn self pride!) Since I am helpless to assist her in any other way (being 200 miles away from her and not being a doctor) at least I could do this to show her my support and let her know I'm there for her. Time will tell if I will participate in this ride again. If only I could fit in one of those cart things for kids and Wade could attach me behind his bike and pull me along. Now that I could handle! Do I feel like having my ass burn for two weeks after? Hmmm.... Let me get back to you on that.

First blog EVER!

So now that I've become accustomed to reading several of my friends blogs I thought maybe I should try out my own. Granted, I'm not having any life changing event take place in my life at this moment like a baby or moving or anything else for that matter. But I thought it would be a fun and easy way to let my friends know what's happening in my life. Especially since I don't get to see so many of my friends that live far away. (I miss you guys!) However, I am definitely not a good writer so don't expect much and don't even bother picking my grammar or writing apart b/c I know it sucks! :)

Anyway, today's blog will be short (and boring) b/c it is my first and I really don't have too much to say at this time.

I'm going to dinner w/ my friend Becca Prasnicki tonight. She is preggo w/ twins which is very exciting. We're going to Cheesecake Factory which is delicious! I already know I'm going to get the crusted chicken romano. So tasty! Probably like 10,000 calories in it, but I had a healthy lunch so that evens out right? :) That is what I will continue to tell myself.

Then when I get home, being that it is Thirsty Thursday, I will probably enjoy a tasty beverage or 2 with Wade, kick back and watch 'The Office' and 'It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia'. If you have never seen these shows before you have got to give them a chance. Both are hilarious and we laugh our asses off at them. Wait, what's that? My ass is still there. Damn it. Anyway, you get my point. So it will be a fairly uneventful evening, but those are good sometimes. Gotta love Thursdays, only one more day until the weekend.

Well, I'd better get back to work. Like I said, today's post is boring. Sorry if I disappointed any of my readers (if I even have any!) :) But hopefully later this week I'll post some pictures of our updated remodeling project. Yes, we finally got carpeting in! Our house is coming along! :)

As Maury would say, Until next time America! (You are not the father!)