Doofy's visit

On Friday my friends Monica (aka Doofy) and Jason were in MN for Jason's 6 week post operation check up at TRIA. They live in Appleton, WI so this was not a quick little jaunt for an appointment. The last time they were here (for Jason's surgery) we tried to get together but it just didn't work out.

Doofy and I have been friends for over 10 years. We met while working together at my first job at Bay Title & Abstract in Appleton. For a few years we worked as side-kicks in the closing department, which I remember to be a total blast. In addition to that we would hang out on the weekends and since both Monica & Jason are a little older than I am, they were able to show me the country bar scene pre-21. Then through the years her and I have done the bridal shows in Appleton, Green Bay, and Ireland together. She was the one who got me into doing the bridal shows. It has been awhile since Jon and I have seen them since I am no longer doing the bridal show thing. I think the last time we were really able to hang out was when the 4 of us traveled in Ireland for the bridal show in Oct. 06. So it was a great evening to catch up.

We did not end up going out for Halloween at all but stayed at our house, ordered pizza, and played some games. I was able to hand out candy to all the cute kids in costume as well. :)

Happy Halloween (part 2)

I could not resist....I put Bailey's Halloween costume on her again this year. What a good dog!

Happy Halloween

This past weekend we carved some of our "garden grown" pumpkins.....

Its hard to tell but the little pumpkin with the "W" is a white one. :)

And they are making snow...

When I came into work this morning I looked out the window and noticed that winter must be coming soon.....Hyland ski area has started to make snow.

Doggie Play Date

Two nights this week Bailey had a doggie play date with her friend Nattie. Nattie's mom (Amanda) is in London and her dad (Jerad) has season tickets for the Timberwolves, so instead of her staying home alone all night, Nattie came over to our house to play.

Since Jerad works downtown it made the most sense for Jon and I to run over to their house to pick up Nattie after work. I have never seen this dog so excited. She was jumping and running around all hyper and almost knocked me over a few times since she wanted to cuddle up on me. When we got back to our house we let the dogs run around in the yard while we ate dinner and then after dinner I sat down with them to play. Actually I sat down on Bailey's bed on the floor to watch TV and figured that the 2 knuckle heads would hangout with me. Instead....they fought over who got to sit on my lap on Baileys bed. Bailey sure did not like it when there was no room for her on the bed, since it is only about 3 feet wide. Then when Nattie would get up, Bailey would find her spot on the bed and then Nattie would walk up to me and sit with her nose in my grill and lick me non-stop. But I didn't mind since they kept me laughing.

On a side note - BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our friends Jerad and Amanda who got engaged last week in London!!! Amanda is in London for work and Jerad surprised her with a visit to London her 1st weekend there. During the visit he surprised her with a ring! YEAH!

NKOTB

So last spring I heard wonderful news about the New Kids on the Block re-uniting and putting out a new CD. I was so excited.....I was a HUGE fan from the ages of 7-12 (prime teen heart throb days). I remember having NKOTB tee shirts, pajamas, posters, snap bracelets, hair scrunchies, earrings, I mean the works! But I was never able to go to their concerts, so when I heard that they were expanding their tour dates and now included a stop in St. Paul at the Xcel Energy Center, I was all over it!

So Tuesday night was a BIG night for women around the age of 30 in St. Paul....I mean there were chicks everywhere (with an occasional guy mixed in). We started out getting drinks & dinner at McGoverns and were pleasantly surprised that they were playing all New Kids songs throughout the bar. Yeeesss! This was a great way to get into the concert mood. Plus it was great people watching...some people came in old school NKOTB tee-shirts and others went all out with the 80's style (crimped hair and all). If I would have had any of my old NKOTB apparel I would have totally been sporting that look as well. :)

The concert was AWESOME - Natasha Bedingfield opened for the New Kids and I think she has such a great & unique voice. Then the anticipation grew, as well as the volume. I did not think that I was going to but I did end up screaming like a heart throbbed 10 year old. It was crazy. I think it was just the ambiance of the crowd and we totally got into it, plus it made it that much more fun! The New Kids put on a great show and played for almost 2 hours. It was great....they played a lot of the old favorites as well as some songs from their new CD. I was totally up on the new songs, since I received the CD as a gift for my birthday (Thanks Megan)! Here are some pictures from the night.

Two more things...yes our seats were in the back all the way at the top, but that picture makes it look so much farther than it actually was, and two I have to give huge props to the Xcel Center since for the night they converted 80% of the mens bathrooms into Womens bathrooms, since they knew what type of crowd would be attending. :)

Fall Colors

Well according to the news the fall colors a now past their peak, however last week I was able to get a few pictures of Hyland park out my window in the office. Not as bright colors as I thought it would be.

Then on Sunday when Jon and I were driving to church we passed this tree that was unbelievably beautiful. I love the blazing maples that look like they are on "fire".

Changed my mind on 28......

Still being in my 20's I have not ever really put much thought to birthdays and getting older....we are as young as we feel, right?!?

Well today I had a new experience. I knew this would happen some day, but I guess I thought I would be older, more mature, maybe have some kids, or grand kids maybe.

No one told me that turning 28 meant also that my hair would start changing colors as well.

This morning while washing my hands in the bathroom I looked up a realized I had this peculiar light colored hair coming from the top of my head in the middle of my darker colored hair. Upon further inspection…..IT IS GRAY! OMG!

I am still not completely sure what I think of this outlier hair but it’s definitely a shock!
The funny part about this is, while out to lunch last week with a few of my "more mature" girl friends, we had a conversation about gray hair. Of course silently to myself as we were having this discussion the thought went through my head of "wow, its a good thing I am still young and do not have to worry about gray hairs yet". I think I jinxed myself.
I know I might be over reacting slightly as it is only one hair (that I found) but I don't think this is something you can ever really be prepared for. Yikes!

Weekend in Denver

This past weekend we flew out to Denver for a Worldwide Dream Builders quarterly function. This one was called Free Enterprise Days (FED) and was in celebration of America's free enterprise system and honoring our veterans. We had a great & fulfilling weekend spending time with some wonderful people.

We had purchased plane tickets back in July through a travel agent as did a lot of other people within our group and people we know through the business, so it was a hoot to know about 30-40 people on the airplane. We flew on Frontier airlines (first time for Jon and I) and you could tell that the flight attendants really were enjoying their job. Not sure if it was also do to the amount of upbeat and happy people on the plane, but the lady who did the safety instructions really hammed it up and had everyone roaring with laughter. Here are a few of her comments (that I remembered):

~ This is a seat belt, duh, we all know how to use this, but in the rare fact that you don't....
~ If we should loose cabin pressure, a mask will fall out above your head. Step 1 - Quit screaming and put on your mask.
~ In the instance that our plane becomes a cruise ship, your seat cushions can be used as a flotation device.
~ The flotation devices are complimentary and you will not need to return them.
~If you leave something behind while exiting the plane, don't worry you can find this at my garage sale tomorrow for a small fee.
~ Anything you need while on this flight, don't ask me. Ask Matt up there since he is the grunt on this flight.
~ And lastly....thank you for NOT flying Northwest! :)

The function started on Friday night with a tribute to our veterans. They had 4 WWII veterans up on the stage and went through their whole story as they went through the war and after. It was very emotional and inspirational. It's amazing how these men almost feel silly being thanked for their service as they "just did what they had to do". After that Rick Green, from Wall Builders, presented on American history emphasizing on morals, religion, and our constitutional heritage. He is such a great speaker and really brings things back to the reason why our country was founded on certain principles & moral truths. If only he could talk to every person in America, I think it would take care of a lot of issues.

The rest of the weekend is focused more on our business with teachings, stories, and celebration of both people and the right to free enterprise. Also, the Goads were around for the weekend too, which I was excited about since we were able to listen, sing, & dance to some great music. Sunday morning Tim Goad lead the service and I love to listen to how he gives the message. He really knows how to relate to people.

Sorry I don't have any pictures, I know me not taking pictures, who would have guessed? Maybe next time.

I was told that while we were in Denver it was beautiful in Minneapolis, which I was okay with since while we were in Denver and it was only 40 degrees and rainy all weekend. A good weekend to spend most of the time inside. :)

Badger Game

Back in August we planned a weekend with Holly & Jason to head down to Sun Prairie to celebrate both my birthday and our friend Gary's birthday the first weekend in October. Gary turned 40 on Oct. 3 and of course my b-day was on the 2nd. Plus there was a home Badger game on Saturday, so what better way to spend a fall afternoon than tailgating in WI. :)

Saturday was an awesome day, somewhat cool, but when the sun was out it was time to shed some layers. We met up with friends around 1:00 in the afternoon and headed down to the tailgating lots right outside the hospital where Holly works. I have been tailgating many times, but I thought it was amazing and totally fun that we only purchased and brought in 2 cars for tailgating....but I bet we had like 30 people within our group. It was crazy. I guess it works best for 2 cars to claim the spots and then everyone else drops their stuff off and parks somewhere cheaper. When we were getting ready earlier in the day, Jon had on a brown shirt & his cameo pants...he wanted to be totally neutral. I told him since he was going to the game, so he should probably wear some red and plus Ohio State was red too, so wearing red that day was technically neutral. Well, handy Holly found this red shirt for him to wear that was not a WI shirt and it said "I'm with Chris". Then if it came up why a MN fan was coming to a Badger game, he would point to his shirt and say I'm with Kris!
The game was not until 7:00 so we had a full afternoon of chatting, playing games, and of course enjoying refreshments. Jason was able to get 2 tickets to the game from his work, so him and Jon ended up going to the game while Holly and I had a girls night and went down to the bars. Badger games are much different than the MN games because they do not sell alcohol at the game. So after drinking all afternoon to go to the game for 3 hours and stop drinking cold turkey...I probably would have gotten really tired. Holly said the same thing, so it was best for us to head down to the bars with friends and hang out for a few hours.


Prior to the game we headed down to this one bar on the corner right outside Camp Randall, where Holly & Jason knew the bouncer at this private party on the roof (2nd story) where their was FREE beer (yes free). It was sponsored by Budweiser. This was great for people watching and of course a little heckling too. Plus, we had our own spot to hang out and were not mixed in a crowd being pushed around. Wow, I just sounded old.



Anyway, once the boys left for the game Holly & I headed to a bar to "watch" the game. I would have to say I did watch some of it, but we were also busy talking to people & having A LOT of fun. Here are some great pictures from the day/night....

Happy Birthday to Me

So today I turned another year older....yup 28 here I am. I would have to say it was a great day that started with Jon getting up and going to Starbucks for coffee while I was in the shower. Yummy! Then to go along with that he made his famous sausage egg muffins. Double Yummy!

Work on the other hand was another story....things just got away from me. This past week or so I have just felt like I have been sliding further and further down that slippery slope. It's hard to be a "Yes" person because at first everything seems great, but then all of a sudden there is too much to do in just 24 hours. But by the end of the day I came closer the realization that I needed to cut back on a few things and even had to cancel a training I was going to do on Friday morning. But, I have an awesome manager who was A-Okay with me working from home on Friday morning to get some stuff done that I just can't seem to get done in the office. :)

Also, being that we had plans tonight I knew I could not stay late....so 4:30 I was out. I needed to leave any stressors there and prepare for a nice evening with my hubby. By the time I got home, Bailey's favorite doggie sitter, Amanda was there to pick her up for her evening play date. Yes, while mom & dad have a date...Bailey gets a play date as well. Then Jon and I left for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was the first time either one of us was there and dinner was delicious. We ordered a bottle of wine with dinner and sometimes I just feel so bad for those waiters and those silly little corkscrews they make them use. Our waitress attempted to open the bottle at the table, but had the screw too close to the side of the bottle and the cork broke off in the bottle. Needless to say as she was struggling to open the bottle, the surrounding tables saw her struggle and then proceeded to stare. She apologized over & over but I told her it was no big deal.....I think she just went back and got a different bottle. :)

The highlight of the night was attending Little House on the Prairie (the musical) at the Guthrie Theatre. I have always loved watching the TV series and to this day anytime I pass an episode while channel surfing, I stop to watch. I know, I know....geek, but I don't care. I was excited to see the musical because Melissa Gilbert, who played Laura on the TV series, played Ma Ingalls in the musical. The musical was good....not great...just good. I think this was due to the fact that LHOTP is simple in itself. The set was simple, costumes were simple, songs were simple, etc. Its not like we went to see Phantom of the Opera on Broadway. I do have to say that the girl who played Laura did extremely well and had a great voice. Melissa Gilbert on the other hand is a great actress, but I was not totally impressed by her singing voice....again good, not great.
I think I enjoyed the experience more than Jon since he had a hard time following through all the songs and what was going on and did not really know the story of the Ingalls family.

Overall, it was a nice night to get out for a date night. :)