Winter Carnival in White Bear Lake

This weekend our friends from Wisconsin Dells came into town. Friday night we ended up just eating at El Toro in Champlin, went to Mavricks and then headed back to our house and watched the X games and drank a little.

Saturday we got up and I made breakfast and then we all headed to White Bear Lake for the Winter Carnival. They had a huge ice fishing tournament. We got out there about 2pm and had a couple of drinks at Admiral D's before hitting the ice. We got out there around 3 and little did we know that is when the tourney ended. We hung out on the ice (as any normal Minnesotan would do) for a little while and then headed back to Admiral D's. From there we decided to go to Saks to get some food and drink some more.

We thought it would be fun to hit up north east Minneapolis, so we headed back to Champlin so we could all change out of our winter gear and then drove down to Mpls. We wanted to go to Stais's, but they were closed, so we went to Jimmy's for one and then to the Knight Cap where we stayed for the rest of the evening. You never know what you may see when you are in North East. We say a Billiy Idol look alike!!! See the picture of him from behind in his "Punk No Disorderly" Jacket. I wanted to get a pic of the front of him, but I didn't want to be too rude!!!! Molly, I and the others all had a good laugh. We hung out, talked, watched the Wild game and the X games, played darts and had a good time. We got home around 2 am! It was fun to have our friends from WI in town for the weekend!!!!

Bedroom/Office Remodel!

I'm back. Sorry for my time away. After my last post, my family, Brian and I headed up north for our Annual Superior Shores get away. After we got home, I got hit with the flu and was down and out for about a week (NO energy). Since then the past 3 weeks have flown by and now it is the last day of January. I have a number of posts to catch up on so hang tight!

So as my past post stated, Brian and I are currently working on a number of small house projects. We just finished our other spare bedroom, which serves as my office, craft room and additional guest bedroom and wedding planning corner! I am really excited how this room turned out. My friend Rosie did the art work for the walls.

On Saturday the 16th we stripped the wall paper and then worked on it the next couple of days. I had Martin Luther King Jr. Day off from work, so I was able to finish it all up! We still need to change the carpet, but for now it is good. We just had our first guests over this weekend from WI Dells so both rooms got used!

Here are some before and after photos! Enjoy.

how do I love thee???

let me count the ways....


1. flowers just because...that is good enough for me :)

Friday when Brian got home from work, he walked into my office (I was at home Friday) and much to my surprise had this large beautiful bouquet of fresh flowers. I was on the phone with a candidate, so I couldn't even as why or what. As I stumbled through the rest of the phone call with Brian standing there smiling at me, I could not help but smile and fell warm all over.

After my call, I said..."what are these for and his response was simple." "Because I love you and you deserve it. It has been a long winter with me coaching and I thought you would like these." Yes, my heart melted all over again. Only one more of the many reasons why I am so excited to marry Brian.

New Year's Resolution #2.....

HOUSE PROJECTS!!!!!

Brian and I had a very busy weekend planned of house projects. We are currently working on a new bathroom in the basement. This project is taking a bit longer than planned due to our busy schedules, but we are hoping the by January or early February our new bathroom will be done. I will post those updates once the project is complete.

This weekend it was all about getting the living room cleaned up well after taking Christmas decorations down as well as changing out SOME (more to come) of the OLD and very UGLY light fixtures from the 70's in our house! We also finally picked up the paint so I can redo our guest bedrooms and our office/craft room in the next few months. My dad came up to help Brian frame in the bathroom so I decided to start painting. I finished my second coat on new years day and then Brian and I finished everything on Saturday morning before having a busy afternoon and evening with friends!

I am VERY excited on how the guest bedroom turned out. We still need to replace the carpet and change out the closet from dark wood to light wood (but that will happen most likely after the wedding as we have 5 doors, 3 rooms of trim and 2 large closets to replace) but for now, I think it looks great. It is clean and organized and ready for more guests to stay! I will begin over the next few months look for the shelves I want to hang on the wall along with a piece or two of artwork for above the bed, but other than that it is good to go!!!

Happy New Year...2010 is here

New Year's Resolution #1 --- Blog much more!!!!!

New Year's Eve was fairly low key. We, along with 12 other friends, went to Azia (http://www.aziarestaurant.com/) in uptown for dinner. Azia is one of my favorite Chinese Fusion Restaurants. 10 of us met there at 7:00 to surprise our friend Melissa for her and Dan's 5 year wedding anniversary. She was definitely surprised! After eating way too much food, we headed back to Champlin, so no one had to drive, and decided to have people over to our house. We played Apples to Apples, Darts, and rang in the New Year together! It was a wonderful time. I am looking forward to the start of a new decade and am so grateful for the last couple years of the first of 2000...I am so excited to see all of what 2010 will bring!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!