Miscellany Monday

I'm linking up to Carissa, check out her blog http://www.carissagraham.com/

1. I can't get my home town (Minot, ND) off my mind. So many people dealing with disaster it makes my heart ache. Many of my high school classmates live in Minot or the surrounding area and have lost so much in this flood.
2. I'm kind of stressed about the bake sale I'm having on Wednesday and Thursday this week to raise money for this flood. I want to make as much money as possible to donate so I'm constantly thinking of the best recipes, the set-up and what more I can do to raise sales. The office manager told me today that she was willing to front the bill to rent a popcorn machine and charge people 50 cents a bag that would all go towards my fundraiser. I was in shock of her generosity!
3. On a happier note...I'm so excited for this weekend! We're going to the cabin with Chris's family (mom, bf, sister and her family and bf's kids and grand kids). It will be a busy place, but it will be lots of fun. Also excited to meet a family friend's new baby. He's just over a month old and will be joining us up there.
4. Speaking of the cabin...all the kids are taking on a meal to make so Chris's mom doesn't have to foot the bill for food, worry about getting groceries, preparing it and washing dishes. We're bringing chicken sliders, coleslaw, baked beans, pasta salad and desert (which could be a wide variety of things). I'm so glad that we can contribute!
5. I'm so happy for this beautiful weather we've gotten the past couple of days! Finally some sunshine is in the forecast. It's hard to believe that summer is almost half over and the very few sunny days we've had so far!
6. I'm so happy and proud of my friend Sarah. She just graduated with her masters this past weekend! Her grad party was yesterday and it was great to see her (hardly seen her the past year since she's been buried in books and school work). What an accomplishment and now she gets to finish planning her wedding (getting married in Sept) and looking for a new job. Oh, and she might enjoy some of this summer before all that job stuff has to take place :)

This week is going to fly by and that's just fine with me. I have a ton of stuff to accomplish by the weekend, but I will have a great time doing it all! I hope everyone has a great week!

Praying for Minot, ND

Today I'm praying and thinking of all my friends and family in Minot, ND and surrounding areas. They have spent the last month dealing with flooding. It is unimaginable to think about what families are going through right now. There were mandatory evacuations a few weeks ago and now again as more water is let out into the river that runs through the small town. Looking at pictures and reading posts on Facebook just breaks my heart. The community is awesome and are working together and helping each other out to fight this flood. This is record breaking water heights and so many families and businesses will lose so much. These pictures were posted on Facebook by the local news station that has been covering the story (KX News Minot).

Bridges flooding

Basements Flooding

Trucks hauling sand through the town

This picture scares me - I can't imagine that much water around my house unless I'm on an exotic island

Some grocery stores have had to shut down if they are in the evacuation zones

Business doing their best to protect what they have

Sandbags and plastic to protect everything you can

They have built up dikes time and time again to stop the water

I am fortunate enough that my brother's family is not in the evacuation zones (they moved to a house on top of a hill last summer) and most likely will not lose anything. My aunt and uncle are not so lucky. They have livestock and household items to get out before this weekend when the water is supposed to rise drastically. I also have many friends that are evacuating and trying to get through this. I can't imagine evacuating and trying to focus on your everyday activities (work, kids, etc). My high school 10 year reunion has been cancelled (possibly rescheduled) due to the flooding.

I just ask that you think and pray for this community! The worst is still to come and when it's over, you have to go back to your house and start over.

I survived...

Well, I'm happy to announce that I survived the Great Father's Day BBQ weekend. It was a lot of work, but was a lot of fun (and my house is still pretty clean)

Saturday morning, I slept in a little bit and then woke up to hit up the grocery stores.

• Target
• Cub
• Aldi
• Target

Once I finished my shopping, it was time to unload everything and start preparing the food for dinner. I had to cut veggies, bake 2 cakes, make coleslaw, make baked beans (recipe can be found here, and trust me - it's worth clicking on), make hamburgers and make all the food look pretty and delish :)

Then comes the fun part - painting, cleaning, vacuuming, running around like a crazed woman!

We had my parents, Chris's mom, aunt and grandpa over for dinner. It was delicious and a fun evening. It would've been nice if it hadn't rained all day so we could sit outside, but inside was nice too.

Sunday - Chris, his dad, grandpa and brother-in-law went golfing in the morning. I tackled refinishing our coffee table. I think the hardest part was getting the cap off the refinishing stuff. Seriously spent about 30 minutes working on that. My hands are sore and I ended up taking a wrench to it in frustration...but I did get the liquid out to get my table done.

That evening we went over to my sister-in-law's house for a BBQ. It was so delicious. I need that chicken recipe - so flavorful and tender, yum! We had dinner outside in the nice sunny weather. Perfect way to end our weekend with family and relaxation. We had to say goodbye to Chris's aunt and grandpa. So sad to see them go, but grandpa should be back up here in September! We can't wait!

I hope you had a great weekend! I hope this week flies by!

Happy Friday

It's finally here! 4 day weeks always seem to go by the slowest!


I'm pretty excited/dreading this weekend.


I'm excited because:

• We are having family over (my mom and dad, Chris's mom, aunt and grandpa) for a BBQ on Saturday night for Father's Day and to hang out with Chris's Family
• We are going to a BBQ for Father's Day at Chris's sister's house on Sunday (most of the same company + Chris's dad and sister's family)
• I will finish a lot of unfinished projects around the house
• My house will be spotless
• Chris has both Saturday and Sunday night off from work :)

I'm dreading because:

• I will be going crazy getting everything clean and perfect before we have company over
• I have a huge list of stuff to get done before company on Saturday
• Preparing the food will take some time and effort (although I do enjoy this part)
• After this weekend, I have to go back to work for a full 5 days :(

I hope everyone has a great weekend and a Happy Father's Day!

What I'm Loving Wednesday

1. The new tank tops that I got at Old Navy this past weekend. They're so comfy and soft - great for lounging around at the cabin!

2. Archer Farms Hot and Spicy Crunchy Peanuts - OMG, so good! Very spicy, but I like spicy. I tried them at a friend's house this past weekend and you better believe I picked them up on my next shopping trip to Target.

3. The HOT weather we are having here - hit over 100 yesterday! I'm loving the feeling of summer finally being here, I've missed you! The nice weather has allowed me to get my tan on and I have the horrible tan lines to prove it!

4. My husband's grandpa and aunt are flying from Florida to MN tomorrow. I can't wait to spend this weekend at the cabin with them - fishing, having fun and laughing!

5. My Kindle! I got my Kindle a few months ago (my reward for dropping 20 lbs earlier this year) but I haven't had much time to read on it. I have definitely made my way through a couple of books in the past 2 weeks. It's great to sit in the sun and read and the clarity is amazing in the sun.

What are you loving? Link up with Jamie and tell us!

Oh Happy Day...

So this week has been a really good week for a few reasons:

1. I painted our kitchen and our master bedroom (pics to come). This is something that I've been wanting to do for a while now and we got a $100 Home Depot gift card in the mail last week (from our credit card rewards) and it was my -almost- free make-over! We LOVE the new kitchen color, crisp autumn leaves.

2. My husband, Chris, was on a local radio station Tuesday to promote his landscaping business. I can't believe how well it went for him. He was so nervous, but he did AWESOME!

3. The UPS guy delivered our Ipad 2 on Tuesday night. We missed it Friday since we left for the cabin early and the next delivery was Tuesday morning. Chris was at the radio station and I was at work, so we missed it that morning. Luckily the nice guy came back that night and delivered it. Yay, time to play!

4. I got our mail on Tuesday night and opened up a check for our Existing Home Buyer Tax Credit. I thought it was one of the fake checks you get in the mail when I saw the envelope and then I was praying that when I opened it would be what I wanted it to be. It was! I don't think Chris and I have been that happy in a LONG time. We didn't expect to get that money until August at the earliest.

5. It was a 4 day work week for me. This is the 3rd week in a row that I have only worked 4 days! Next week is going to be a rough one, but Rudy and Marcia are coming up from Florida next week so I have that to look forward to!

6. Last night, I was browsing through one of the coupon flyers we get in the mail and discovered something so incredible (at least to me and my husband). There was a coupon for Qdoba Mexican restaurant in there and it showed a new location in Shakopee (right by where we live). This was BIG news people. I told my husband it was almost as exciting as getting the check in the mail on Tuesday night - he agreed! We went there for dinner tonight and plan to go as many times as possible until we're sick of it, which will be pretty much never!

I wish all of my weeks were this exciting!