Contributors

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Workouts Urg

I had reasons yesterday to not workout, and I had reasons to workout.

Yes: scale creeped up about 3 lbs, big eating over Thanksgiving, big eating over lunch Wednesday, another point for the Jazzercise contest...

No: my evening plans meant I have to go to the 4:15 class, and then work from home later to make up for leaving early.

So Yea for me I went to Jazzercise

Sunday, November 27, 2005

To Chicago and back to ND!

I went to Chicago last weekend, and just returned from ND today. All over the place we have been!

Chicago was just a trip for fun sort of. It started out because a friend was going there for an audition and she didn't want to stay alone in the big bad city. She only planned on staying one night but I figured while I am going I should see if Brandon would come along and make a weekend trip out of it.

We spent Saturday at the John G. Shedd Aquarium, and then on to Magnificent Mile for some window shopping. After cleaning up at the Hotel we headed to Joe's Crab Shack (after getting an hour wait at the swanky steak place a block away) for dinner.

Sunday we hit a nearby shopping mall (Woodfield if you know the area) and actually managed to find 2 things for other people on our Christmas list.

This last weekend was Thanksgiving. That day we spent in Stephen and the rest of the weekend was all about hanging out with the Family. Friday we did some morning shopping and Saturday we went to Harry Potter IV: The Goblet of Fire. Pretty good flick!

Today was a pretty crappy day, a long stressful drive back in some bad weather that took most of the day, some serious anger at my computer when getting back when we couldn’t figure out how to get my scanner to work with our Macintosh computer, and the bitter realization that the work week is starting again and I feel painfully behind. I am in the middle of what has become a HUGE project that I started about 3 years ago.

While visiting my grandmother I was looking through some old photos and asked if I could take some home to scan. That started an avalanche of photos I have agreed to scan and I have yet to get through that first group that I brought home.

Don't get me wrong I really WANT to scan these pictures, photos are not much use to me unless they are digital. I like to adjust and crop things and hope to create a digital archive of as many pictures of my family as I can. I just haven’t been spending much time doing it. I hope this winter I will find a few empty weekends to really get into this project... AND I apologize in advance for any pictures I have taken saying I would scan them, and not yet brought them back!

Hope you love me anyway (Linda I am working on the ones from Mary right now!)

On with the project!

Saturday, November 05, 2005

Tired of ND? I think not!

Ive been in ND for the last two weekends in a row. I couldnt blog much about last weekends activities because it was a suprise party for my Dad's 50th.

Last weekend was SO fun. My friends attended my dads party so I got to mix my frineds and my family. My dad was SO floored, he had no idea we were throwing a party.

1) it was the day after his birthday
2) We hid all the cars out back at the farm
3) there was already a few people planning on coming over that night just a small gathering
4) his parents were supposed to be visiting on Sunday

We rocked! Way to go Linda on all the planning!

This weekend I'm in New Salem (30 miles west of Bismarck) as Brandon hunts. I rode along today but as anyone who knows me will certify, I don't actually hunt. No serious moral objections or anything, just the trapsing around outside in the hopes of seeing somthing you might get close enough to shoot, and then you have to have good enough aim to actually hit the moving target and then track it down to the spot where it eventually dies. Phew, that just doesnt sound like a ball of fun to me!

I'm glad to be here with the family though, Brandons grandma and his mother both have Birthdays this weekend and we have spent some time with Issack, his nephew as well.

So we are heading out tomorrow and I'm bummed. I like coming here and I'm sorry it was only for 3 days this time.

Till next time ND!

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Workout Fiend.

After a skipped workout Wednesday I had to really work to fit it in to my Thursday from hell!

It was not so bad a day, but I had a Girl Scout meeting tonight and had to prepare for it. There were all kinds of things at work that had to get done as well so I had to make my time there as effective as possible.

Everything went off really well at the meeting tonight though. My frined Kelly who has a 18 month old daughter offered to host our meeting at her house so we could work on activites all from a childcare badge. She figured her daughter would be most comfortable in her own home and she was right. Another friend brought her 2 month old son over as well so we had a couple of different age ranges to observe and interact with.

Happy Scouting all !

Monday, October 17, 2005

Abandon

Ever notice that the phrase "Pursue with abandon" means to relentlessly pursue without giving up... while the word abandon, means to give up?

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Every Day

Every Day

I know there are 7 days in a week, and I am only trying to make a 6 day a week commitment, but it sure seems close enough to call it every day.

On October 17th, 2005 Brandon and I are starting a workout program that alternates every day between a cardio routine and a weights routine. We have a weight bench and free-weights in our basement already, so it is just a matter of using them!

The videos came in the mail yesterday so tonight we are going to do one of them, just to start getting familiar with the moves etc. It’s a 90 day program so we will be at this for quite a while.

On the Nutrition side of things I don’t think we are going to do anything drastic. The current goal is  that however good/horrible we eat in a day we must include one salad every day.

Monday, October 10, 2005

Hello Friends

Finally a bit of a break!

I've just had a friend visiting this weekend and we had a great time! Between ladies night out at the bar, and friends over for a night of socializing, it has been fun. The only downer is that Brandon has had a HUGE homework and program due today, so he has not been able to fully party. I guess that made Friday night more fun though cuz it was just the girls out!

Just relaxing the next few weekends coming up and I'm excited! If I remember correctly Ive got nothing planned! YEA!

Thursday, October 06, 2005

For all those Blogreaders out there..

I started using this a while back and I LOVE it! You can see updates to all your friends and family's blogs all in one place.

A friend asked me a while back "But can you see new posts from all your friends on one page?" and I said no, but I was wrong! You can, I have my blogs organized into friends, family and other, and when I click on the main heading I get all new ones from all blogs in that folder.

The one drawback is you don't see comments to blogposts, just new posts by the author.

Check it out http://www.bloglines.com/

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Serenity Now!

Anyone fans of Firefly?
 
I just got out of an early screening of "Serenity" the movie based on that series and it ROCKED!
 
I can’t speak to those who dont know anything about Firefly, but for those of you who, like me, have seen all firefly episodes at least once, it really delivers.
 
So what do I say to not spoil it?
 
The characters you know from Firefly are all there, the humor that we know and love from Joss is there... Everything I hoped!
 
There is a lot of action and as usual just as much violence as the situation warrents.
 
On a personal note, I won a set of 3 Serenity comic books by singing a line from the Buffy episode "Once more with feeling". A woman tried to sing the opening song by Buffy but sang quite a few wrong words. SO I stood up and said "Those words are not right!" and proceeded to sing out loud and proud!
 
Yea ME!

Monday, September 26, 2005

Been a long time, shouldn't have left you...

Without a blogpost!

Hey guys, I have been having a fun/busy time the last couple of weeks. This last weekend I spent camping nearby here. Even though it rained SO much we had a great time. It was all made possible by a huge picnic shelter at our group site that we "camped out" under when it rained. Gave us a place to dry off during the Saturday morning rainstorm, and a place to play cards in during the Saturday afternoon rainstorm. After stopping just long enough for our Saturday night guests to set up their tents and us to cook out over the fire, we went back into the pavillion for more cards.

That night it was Crazy lound and wet. It rained ALL night as far as I knew, and when the thunderstoms passed by I managed to catch a few good hours of sleep. We had water in our tent of course but nothing I could feel from inside our sleeping bag.

Thanks to Chris and Karen for inviting us to camp.

Thursday, September 15, 2005


Then send everyone home and relax in front of the TV. Ahhh. (that is a computer on the left). Posted by Picasa

Play in the backyard. Posted by Picasa

Give a tour. Posted by Picasa

And build it BIGGER! Posted by Picasa

Invite some Friends over... Posted by Picasa

Fun Times I tell ya! Posted by Picasa

Step One, Build a small Lego house. Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Reward Time

Ohh, I’m excited. Just one more pound to lose and I am at my lowest weight in YEARS! Now what was my reward again?

  1. Dresser

  2. Krispy Kreme Doughnut (just one)

  3. Bit of Jewelry     

My next goal is to stay under 150 lbs till next summer, and the reward for that will be a Power MAC for my video editing pleasure.





Thursday, September 08, 2005

Labor Day Holiday

Evening folks!

I am “supposed” to be getting ready to leave town so of course I am killing time doing anything but.

I am heading to ND tomorrow morning and will be there for nearly 3 full days. I have a sibling’s birthday party to go to, friends to visit in Fargo and hopefully some quality time with my family in Grand Forks.

This last weekend was really great. We had a 30th Birthday party for a friend which brought us up to a water park/hotel in Minneapolis and then some gardening that took up much of the rest of the weekend. We did a bit of lying around and lots of harvesting, canning and pickling. There is not a lot of the growing season left so we have to make time to harvest when it needs it.

Hope you all had a good holiday weekend!

Monday, September 05, 2005

Some Traditional Dancers


Some dancers. Posted by Picasa

The DoDrop jugglers... this is actually them and a volunteer just doing the Happy Dance after a successful trick. Very entertaining! Posted by Picasa

Being entertained with the court. This young lady on the left was playing quite the youngster of the court with her beads and stuffed bunny. Posted by Picasa

The stoic Royal Guard. Posted by Picasa

Jugglers in the parade. Posted by Picasa

Ren Fest!

Ren Fest was very fun! We saw jugglers, jousting, costumes and were even entertained with the King and Queen.

I took a slew of pictures so I will find a couple of the best to post here. My favorite parts were the big turkey drumstick, the Juggling and the costumes. Might even find something to wear myself for next year, anyone take bets on if I can get Brandon into tights? Can't get something made by Halloween at this pint, but I can shoot for Ren Fest next year!

Huzzah!

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Friday Night

Happy Hour before the movie was definitely a good idea! Not only did I have fun chatting with folks, the ones we invited and the ones that were there for the New Hire event, but the Dukes of Hazzard was more enjoyable after a couple of drinks!

It was an OK movie, lots of car chases of course. Jessica Simpson was NOT the Diasy Duke that I envisioned. She seemed to get the intelligence of the character but not the sublety. Her manipulations were too overtly sexual. I liked the Duke boys ok, and was suprised that Burt Renoyds as Boss Hog kind of worked. I loved the parts with Willy Nelson and Linda Carter, I dont remember that character from the origional dukes of hazard but thought she did a great job.

Friday, August 26, 2005

The weekend ahead.

Exciting weekend planned!

Friday: Happy Hour at a fairly new bar in town, then a movie ( I want to see Dukes of Hazard but am up for suggestions)!
Saturday: Renaissance Festival followed by dinner in the cities somewhere!

Sunday: Day of rest…. More realistically a day of catching up on housework, yard work and some TV shows I hope.

Post weekend update should be forthcoming.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Another one bites the dust...

WoHoo! Another pound lost. It’s not really that exciting to lose just 1 pound, but for me I was at a plateau of about 150 for so long its great to break out of that.

The excitement of being solid in the Healthy range on the weight charts AND of having a thinner body now is far from wearing off. I was actually accused of being vain for being so excited the other day, but I really don’t think I am going to become some diva girly girl or snobby jock type person. Also there is $ savings with all my bringing lunch and eating from our garden which has been essential to this weeks success. As an added bonus I have had a refreshing cleansing of my closet, getting rid of things that are too big, worn out, or just plain not looking good on me anymore.

This weekend I had a serious exercise Saturday… about 6 hours of volleyball, one game after another, with one 30 min break, and about 3 min in between games (unless we won/lost right away).

We were visiting friends in Iowa and they were wonderful hosts! We had company for Saturday night with a great effort by Tom to get together enough food for part of the volleyball crew. Sunday a Thai food fest was planned for mid-afternoon so Brandon and I could take part. He and Tom made regular egg rolls and spring rolls, and about 3 others brought dishes to share. One was a tad too spicy for me, but I tried everything else and the flavors were wonderful!

Thanks for the wonderful weekend guys!

Friday, August 19, 2005

Word Up!

I’m publishing from word, aren’t I cool! I’m not an uber Microsoft fanatic or anything but I’m a hotmail user, as well as MSN Groups for sometime now and I prefer to use Word when editing text. Call me crazy.

Here is an article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1849777,00.asp
Here is the link to blogger to get the program: http://buzz.blogger.com/bloggerforword.html
Wonder what it is going to do with these different fonts?

  • Or some more complicated formatting?

  • Like bullets.

  • And stuff.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005


Chilling at the Lynx game, so close I had the camera guy in most of my pictures! Posted by Picasa

Monday, August 15, 2005

I tried so hard...

Bedtime: 11:45
Snoozing: 30 min

Stop the insanity! Back to my 10:30 bedtime target for tonight I guess.

Yesterday was a nice slow day. We got another harvest in including beans, cucumbers (big bucket), lettuce and a few hot peppers of some sort. I mulched the lawn today as we were serioulsy behind our neighbors in the "keep the lawn trim" game. Brandon built a new pantry shelf in our basement to hold some of his newly canned goods and a bit of our pantry overflow. Also I got a birthday gift from Brandon (he was waiting for me to come pick it out) a new watch!

I am stil LOVING the fact that I eat a healthy salad for lunch and cucumbers for a snack and its from our garden instead of the store. Brandon is more into the pickling of cucumbers and peppers and looking forward to canning tomatoes every which way. Once those tomatoes start to ripen we will have some serious work to do!

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Push the boundry..

That is what I do. Bedtime 11:15, snoozing 21 minutes (three snoozes). I keep pushing how late I stay up... sigh.

Wednesday, August 10, 2005


Commence pickling! Posted by Picasa

Crop on a good day. Posted by Picasa

More fruits of our labor. Posted by Picasa

Ive been told this photo is to make Brandons mom jealous, I just hope we dont get the hail that she did! Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

In bed at 11 PM.. not too shabby!

I had to rush quite a bit when I realized it was 10:45 and I was still not getting ready for bed, but I made it!

Fast change and got though my nightly routine in 10 min flat! Didn't quite get up with the alarm *like I ever do*

Anyone else a snoozer? This morning it was 30 min of snoozing, I am pretty sure it was only 15 min Monday morning. Must be a sign of how rested I was?

For all those who know my typical up past midnight schedule, it is no more so dont call past 10 !!

Monday, August 08, 2005

I love Comedy! (and Sleep)

So I was browsing the channels and ended up on some night of comedy, Ev. Lvs. Raymond then Two and a half Men.

I like laughing. I'm quite enjoying a night of comedy on tv tonight, nothing like laughing your head off to shake off the blahs.

Sleep is good, sleep is good. Repeat that 50 times. 12:30 am had become my new bedtime lately and I am sick of it, it doesn't feel so good at 7 in the morning. After a weekend of good sleep I feel GREAT... now have to get to bed on time a few more nights in a row to make a habit out of it.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005


Old Faithful just past the peak of its eruption. Didnt think to take a picture of me with it in the background till I had been watching it for a bit! Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, August 02, 2005


Actually leaving the park here, didn't get a chance to stop by the park sign till the last day. Posted by Picasa

Brandon and the Nephew. Posted by Picasa

The Nephew! Posted by Picasa

I'm back!

Everyone,

Had a wonderful vacation! Between ND and Yellowstone there was lots to do, see and take pictures of.

10 Year High School runion is over now. Had a great time there and caught up with a few ole frineds. There were a lot of people not able to make it though so I hope to keep catching up through my website with those that could not be there.

I had never been to Yellowstone before and there are so many beautiful views there. No way I can show them all but I will try to pick out a few of my favorite pictures to post here later.

On the way back home we had a 2 day stop at Brandons family's house for his new nephews babtism. He was the sponsor so he is now responisble for the religious eduation of this little boy.

Thanks to everyone I got to hang out with this last week, it was a great vacation with exciting and relaxing portions.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

I need a vacation from my vacation!

You ever feel like your vacation doesn't give you any rest? We have spent so much time cramming in visits with everyone and doing my 10 year reunion stuff that I have had almost NO sleep.

Had a BLAST so far though. Friday night was a Mixer for my class, Saturday had a lunch in the park and played some frisbee. Then swimming and later a snack at the Urban Stampeede (old High School haunt) and finally on to the main event itself. Dinner and dance for the reunion was OK, not a lot of crazy dances like myself and Jenny in my class I guess. As usual I managed to have a good time. Wandered around to visit with lots of different tables and was happy to make a connection again with a few great people.

I tried to harvest as many email addresses as possible while I was there so I can invite everyone to my website. We can share pictures and pass notes there. Also that gave me an excuse to walk all around the room and introduce myself to all kinds of people.. some I didnt remember till talking to them.

Today I got a special Birthday breakfast at my parents. Complete with bacon, eggs, toast, juice and an ice cream cake. I LOVE DQ ice cream cakes! Moved on to fargo around noon and visited with a friend and my little brother as well. Played a killer game of Speed Scrabble... killer because my friend Jenny beat the pants off us!

Now we are into the West... western ND anywyas. Using Brandons parents house as a wayside rest we are going to head out in the AM to Yellowstone.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005


Had to post this one because the other one of the 2 of us Brandon had his eyes closed! Posted by Picasa

Here is me climbing at Prarie Walls! It was for Brandons Birthday but I had just as good a time. Good thing I am all fit now Posted by Picasa

Our pretty tree out front has some friends! Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Current Goal

Current Weight
Your weight is 154 lb as of 07/12/2005.

Weight Goal
Your goal is to weigh 145 lb by 09/01/2005

Goal Progress
You are currently 9 lb above the target weight.

The deadline for your goal is 51 days (7 weeks, 2 days) away.

To meet your goal you need to lose about 1.24 lb per week.

All the above info comes from my Fitday Journal. So this is my new goal.

Reward Options:
1) buy myself a Dresser (needed/wanted one for a long time)
2) buy myself some Nice Jewlery
3) Weekend away with the Girls (Fargo, Madison, Milwauke)
4) A new computer
5) Day at the spa.. Massage, Facials, Mannicure, Pedicure

Ohh either 4 or 5 would be awesome!

Monday, July 11, 2005


Rose Garden up in Duluth, we timed it just right to see most of the bushes in full bloom! This one is from a rose bush that was trained to look like a tree. The colors and scents were beautiful! Posted by Picasa