Get down w/ your bad self...it's your b-day!

Happy 29th birthday to my hubby, Wade! We'll make sure to celebrate this weekend with some cocktails, golfing, boating and racing! Some of your favorite things!

I love you!

XOXO

Deck Party USA!

We had an impromptu deck "christening" Thursday night after we had gotten the boards up along the side of the house. Small area of the deck but we were able to fit 8 people and 3 dogs on it no prob! :)

Wade put the final board on about 15 minutes before my parents and Kara arrived. Just in time. We promptly put it to use. Margaritas and beers served on the deck all night. Great time w/ family, friends and neighbors.

Saturday we woke up early for some tee times. I don't normally even wake up this early during the week! Played the absolute shittiest game I've ever played but had a lot of fun doing it. It was the Wessels vs. the Allen's and I'm sorry to say that I helped the Allen team lose. Oops. But considering I hadn't played since last summer it wasn't too awfully bad. :) We then went to Dick's Sporting Goods to look at their golf gear and I got myself a new glove. This will definitely help my game. (Yeah, right...)

After that we were all starving for lunch so we headed downtown for a little sight seeing and some lunch outdoors in the gorgeous weather. We walked past the Mill City Ruins and across the pedestrian bridge crossing the Mississippi River to eat at Tuggs on their awesome patio. The view is great of the river and downtown and the food was delish! Got some state fair cheese curds (they are my weakness) and a great burger. They also have a great rum runner (Tuggs Tornado). Wade got a burger w/ cheese, hash browns and bacon on top of it. I about died of heart failure just looking at the thing. He couldn't finish it which is probably a very good thing.

Close up of Wade's heart attack burger

Wade contemplating how much he can eat
Kara & Dad
Me & Mom

Say "cheese" Kara!

The crew heading back to the cars after lunch

We thought this tree looked like a butt crack. We are so super duper mature. :)

We then headed home to clean up and enjoy the weather some more out on our deck. Some friends and neighbors stopped by and the grilling began. Not sure how many pigs had to perish for us to have all this food, but boy was it tasty.

We started a fire and played some corn hole. What a great night.

Liv is "this big" :)

Eating the tasty food

Enjoying some frosty beverages
Our new deck rules!

This week we have Wade's 29th b-day to celebrate on Thursday. Brad and Erika are going to grill out with us tomorrow night to celebrate since we have volleyball on Wed and are heading to G-burg on Thurs. Wade is anxious to get to Illinois for some quality racing this Fri and Sat and Kara and I are anxious to hit the lake!

Check ya later!

Dear Bret: We’ll be your Rock of Love!!!

So I thought I'd post the few pics I got from the Poison concert on here, although I only have a couple b/c I didn't bring my camera out of fear of it being confiscated. It clearly stated on our tickets that cameras were not going to be allowed in the concert. So fearing that they'd take my camera and I wouldn't have a car to bring it out to I left it at home. Since when do I start following all the rules? Damn it. We get into the concert and people had cameras EVERYWHERE. I think we were the only ones who didn't! Unfortunately we were stuck using my camera phone and here is what we ended up with. (By the time Bret came on stage it was dark outside and my camera phone would only pick up the lights from the stage and it just looked like a big fireball, so none of him unfortunately). :(

Memories of a past long ago...

So I've got a weird story that I'm going to share today that I know I've told some of you before, but this is just a reminder of what a small, small world we live in.

A few months back a co-worker of mine (Mary Ellen) mentioned that she and her fiance (Tom)were driving to Iowa for the weekend to visit his mother and family. Out of curiosity (being that I am from Iowa) I asked her where they were going. When she says Waverly, I think no way! That is where my mom is from, she grew up there and we still have a ton of family that lives there. As we keep talking we somehow come to realize that Tom's aunt (Dot) was my grandma's best friend. And he knew my grandma very well. He spent a lot of time growing up at his aunt's house and my grandma was over there a lot. Both my grandma and Dot have since passed away, my grandma over 17 years ago. But this brought up such old memories of my grandma. It makes me miss her like crazy and feel like it was just yesterday that I was cramming all of her chocolate chip cookies into my mouth that I could fit! (It's really amazing I'm not fat, I was blessed w/ a high metabolism, phew!)

A few days later Tom searches through some old photos he has and scans and sends them to Mary Ellen to share with me. These are what he sent:


Immediately when I see these photos my eyes tear up and I get chills up and down my body. This is truly amazing for him to have these pictures of my grandma having a good time w/ her best friend. What a blessing he has given me by bringing these memories of mine to the front of my mind. Holidays with the family at grandma's house were something so long ago, yet so great and can never be duplicated. I am so thankful for the short amount of time I had to share with her on this earth. She showed me (and all her grandchilden) an endless amount of love.

Lord do I miss her.

Road (A)Head

Too funny not to share this pic. :)

This weekend was a very busy and good one. Kara made it up here Thursday night for the Bret Michael's concert on Friday. I ended up taking off Friday to help Wade a bit with the deck and spend w/ Kara . Helped Wade first by shoveling what appeared to be a small amount of rock, but what felt like a very large amount of rock. My back is KILLING me now. After sweating profusely, I showered up and did some damage shopping with Kara at Southdale. We finished up just in time to get home and get ready to head out to catch the bus to Jackpot Junction for the concert. Met Pam and Paula, mixed up our bus drinks up and hopped aboard. We got to Jackpot with plenty of time to get great seats in the Gen Admin area and we were set. Sebastian Bach opened for Bret and I must say he was really good. Brings me back to junior high mixers dancing with my first boyfriend. Too funny. When Bret came on stage the crowd went crazy. This concert sold out in a week and was the fastest sell out ever at Jackpot. And I don't care what anyone says but Bret is hot. Rockstars just have something extremely attractive about them, and he is no exception. I thought the same thing when I saw Kid Rock in concert. Wouldn't give him the time of day if he were just some random at the bar, but seeing him work his shit on stage, there is something very sexy about it. Can't help it, won't deny it, leave it be. :)

Saturday was a pretty uneventful day since we didn't get home until 3 am from the concert. Kara and I slept in while Wade got working on the deck some more. When we finally got out of bed we saw this:

The post holes were dug and concrete was in and set. Wade was ready to start framing. After a quick run to Home Depot for some more screws and to DQ to get Wade and Bob a cold treat (total time approx. 30 min) we came home to this:

I think Wade and Bob were trying for a record in the fastest deck building time ever. They sure weren't fuckin around! By the time the rain started and they called it a day they had gotten most of the framing up and we could visualize just how big the deck was going to be. I can't wait!
Bob working hard for the money (or DQ) :)
Bob and Wade discuss what to do next
The side of the house
Most of the outer frame is up!

After cleaning up we headed to Eagan to help Amanda and Tony celebrate their upcoming 30th birthdays. Had some drinks, played some games and enjoyed the company and the much calmer night with friends. A welcome night in comparison to the concert the night before. We headed home around 1am to play a little Mario Kart and then crashed.

Today Kara and I decided we'd go back to Southdale real quick to take a look in one store we didn't make it to on Friday. Did a little more damage this time and then headed to Figlio's for their happy hour. As I've said before, they have a GREAT happy hour. We treated ourselves to the gorgonzola cheese fries, a sausage pizza for me and a pepperoni pizza for Kara and a beer each. Our total bill = $13. How awesome is that!?! When we headed home from happy hour we saw this:

Wade never ceases to amaze me. We were gone for only about 3 hours and he's got all of the middle boards in! It's crazy how handy he is.

Kara got packed up and said goodbye and headed home and Wade put me to work helping him with the deck. We purchased the handiest little tool ever made for nailing. The palm nailer.
Totally worth the $75. It saved us an unimaginable amount of time with this deck. Wade handed me the palm nailer and set me to work. I nailed like I've never nailed before. I felt like She-ra, the Princess of Power. I was totally kicking this decks ass. And suddenly I was done. And we had the framing complete.
Ta-da!

Now we have to wait to get it inspected before we can put the boards on. I can't believe how fast this deck is coming together. Wade is the best deck builder ever. And tons of thanks also to Bob, Keith and Mitch. They have lent a helping hand a time or two. :)

Now it is time for me to jump in the shower. I feel like I'm covered in dried boob sweat. Nasty.

Smell ya later.

Wind in my Hair, Beer in my Mouth

This last 4 day long weekend was wonderful. We started it off with a bang by hosting the 2nd annual 4th of July kegger. As predicted it was much calmer than last year, but still a good time was had with good company. We had a first time keg attendee, Livia, who seemed to enjoy herself quite a bit!
Travis gets fitted w/ all the proper safety gear to ensure no legal bills :)
After beer pong, bags and unicycling we ended up with only a little of the keg left. Thank goodness (and thanks to Tony & Steve who helped out a lot!).
And Birch (he really liked the keg)
Too funny to leave out... :)

Thursday Wade and I trekked to Home Depot and made a large purchase of decking material and new basement windows. Wade promptly discovered that with old houses remodeling never quite goes as easily as hoped and ended up having to grind down concrete in the basement to get the 1st window in! Luckily he’s gotten the 2 in that we needed to in order to move forward with the deck. The other 3 can wait for a bit.
The side of our house currently looks like a shit hole.
Kobe's keeping an eye on Wade to make sure he builds this deck to code. :)

Thursday night we spent out at Richfield’s Street Dance. Some good cover music played by Jonah & the Whales and we played some always fun “fair” games. I won a stuffed pink dog that I happily handed over to Jessica to give to her pooch, Stella. Stella has a weakness for fair animals. Haha… Then we headed home where we met Lance and Wendy, played some more bags and polished off the remainder of the keg. I crashed at 3 am, but Wade and Lance stayed up until the sun was coming up playing Mario Kart!

Two goofy guys

The 4th was a fairly uneventful day (since we didn’t go to bed until the wee hours). We slept in, got some late lunch and got ready to hit the 4 pm happy hour at Figlio’s. Their happy hour NEVER disappoints! $2 pints and $2 appetizers from 4-7 pm! And we’re talking AWESOME appetizers: Gorgonzola cheese fries, mini burgers, mini pizzas, mini sloppy joes, meatballs, etc. After the happy hour was over and Brad & Erika met us out we headed across the street to Drink. We thought their rooftop patio would be a good place to be able to catch at least a few fireworks. (That didn’t work out as planned) Not too many could be seen very well, but we still had a good time and then headed home for some more drinks, a bonfire and bags. The ride home was interesting and windy (and a lot of fun)!
Wendy & I enjoy the nice weather on our ride home (out the windows!)
Lance gets in on the fun too out the top of the sunroof


Saturday afternoon was spent doing my favorite hobby: shopping. We headed up to Bob’s Cycle Supply to look at motorcycle stuff. Wade got a new Troy Lee Designs hat and Lance and Wendy picked up some stuff as well. Then we headed to the Mall of America for Wendy and Lance’s first trip there. It was a successful shopping trip with everyone getting a few new items of clothing (and as always, I had a blast). I LOVE MOA! After all that we headed out to meet Bob and Amy at Uptown Bar for some dinner on their patio and then onto Champp’s to catch the UFC Championship fight. The fights were extremely bloody, but the main event was great! Forrest won! Yay, Forrest!

Sunday was a hot mutha out. Extremely humid and muggy. It was miserable really. So what do we do? We work on the deck and landscaping out in the heat. Ick. I spent my time taking back a hydrangea that didn’t make it through the winter (and was guaranteed for 1 year luckily) and exchanging it for another boxwood. Very exciting. Wade installed basement window #2 and got another piece of the decking wood up on the back of the house. Our neighbor, "Muscles" aka Mitch, came over to help Wade out for a bit (lucky for me since I was already dripping w/ boob sweat = gross). And we called it a day. Spent the evening watching “Ocean’s Twelve” and relaxing w/ my 2 main men.
There's my newest bush (on the right) Isn't it beautiful? :)
This is what our house looked like when we bought it!
A drastic improvement!
Wade and "Muscles" putting the 2nd board on the house
It's on!
One of the 2 new basement windows that is in
What a GREAT long weekend. Is it Friday yet? Haha…

Did you say KEG???

Tonight is our 2nd annual Wessels' 4th of July kegger. Wade has been in California all this week so I've gotten the house ready and he just has to pick up the keg and ice and we'll be set. This year probably won't be as out of control as last year (unfortunately). Being on a Wednesday, a lot of people have to work tomorrow and a lot of our friends now have babies or are preggo, so I'm guessing it won't last until 4 am again! But our volleyball team will be in attendance and we are hopeful that we will have a good turn out and drink the keg dry. Luckily Wade and I both have tomorrow off work to recuperate, clean up and get working on the deck again. And then off to the Richfield Street Dance Thursday night to celebrate the upcoming holiday with Paula and John. I've been promised that it is a good time.

We are expecting Wade's friend from high school, Lance, and his girlfriend, Wendy, to visit us this long weekend and are excited to have some out of town company. We'll have plenty to do to stay busy and the weather is promising to be nothing short of spectacular.

I'll get some pics posted of the keg, deck building and our long weekend sometime next week. Until then, stay safe and have a HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!